I love this record. Barna Howard is my new favorite artist. His previous, acoustic self-titled debut, which I played some last year, only hinted at this Missouri native, now Portland based artist's easy songwriting skills. His latest, Quite A Feelin', is already in the running for my album of the year for so many reasons: the cover art is like 1973, there's lots of songs about bars and drinking, and the minimal backing is perfect in the mix allowing Barna's guitar and vocal to shine. The songs have that timeless, trusted feeling of a old pro just tellin' ya a story about the way it was back home. I'll spare you the "heartland" cliches, but Barna has the rooted sound of a seasoned troubadour and this song, the title track to Quite A Feelin', is about the hard travelin' of touring when you're missing someone back home.
Most will be writing and talking about how Barna is from some other time, or comparing him to old songwriter's, but this is a contemporary album about these times. He just sounds like a classic (that voice!) with songs that relate to any era, because good folk songs do that. This is a mighty impressive second album and it signals the arrival of a major talent. You'll be hearing this one all summer long in The Roadhouse. It's quite a feelin'!
You can listen to the entire album, Quite a Feelin', when it comes out on May 18th via Mama Bird Recording Co. in the U.S. and Loose Music in Europe. (Pre-order it here!) For now, we have the exclusive premiere of the title song:
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