Folks who know my taste in music might figure I only go for the loud and messy stuff. Not so. Here’s a sweet tune called “California,” and what earned it a spot here is simple: a man holding his own in a room full of other voices, telling the truth about a thing that happened to him, no rush to it.
That man is Kelly Winrich, guesting on guitar with Matt Vasquez and the rest of Middle Brother. Kelly’s usually the multi-instrumentalist for Delta Spirit, and he wrote this song after a breakup with his East Coast girlfriend while he was living in California. The album version (Delta Spirit, 2012) speeds it up, and for me that strips it of its strength. This version doesn’t rush anywhere. It just wants to be honest.