If that style isn’t classical enough for you, stick around until the album closes with “Well-Tempered Clavier”, a number by Bach. The opening track sets this tone of comfortable unpredicability as Ward does an instrumental version of the Beach Boys’ “You Still Believe in Me” with an almost classical technique on his acoustic guitar. Ward ventures across the dial, creating music uniquely his but in no way unfamiliar. So, naturally, Ward’s fourth album, Transistor Radio pays tribute to old-timey American radio, and the freedom of broadcasting before these days of playlists and greased palms (he dedicates the album to “the last of the independent and open format” DJs). His recent cover of Pete Townshend’s “Let My Love Open the Door” demonstrates how powerful a voice he has, losing all the electronics of the original and pulling all the focus on that baritone. ![]() Frequently using his higher registers, Ward can sound almost ghostly, but when he reaches down to the bottom of his range, he becomes more chilling. You can’t deny his fretboard skills, but it’s his voice that haunts. He puts out the sense that he’s a guitarist first, and he only sings to finish off the songs. Forget finding that genre for his music that sounds too traditional to be innovative (yet too unique to be redundant) just figure out what he is. Maybe he’s more easily lumped under the Americana banner, but that one unfurls just a little too widely to really be useful. He cites John Fahey as a key influence, but he’s also spent plenty of time listening to the blues, Brian Wilson, Sonic Youth, and Louis Armstrong. With the recent success of Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and the like, Ward should be set for broader critical and commercial recognition. His fingerpicking guitar and raspy vocals have a connection to the folk tradition. Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director Donate AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCESM. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start. Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. ![]() There's more about our finances in " News Never Pays," or " It's Not a Crisis. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. But it's not all doom and gloom!īecause over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for-that is so very much needed right now.Īnd it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now. Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth-particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now. We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.īecause it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. ![]() AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES ![]() By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners.
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