Little Bear

A five song EP with hand-drawn cover/notes arrived on my doorstep a few weeks ago from the Nashville band, Little Bear, and I, with my long training at Splendid (Motto: It'll probably suck, but how do you know until you listen to it?), gave it a spin. Turns out the EP was excellent, with haunting little songs edging sometimes into country and sometimes into soul, but never really settling into either. Of particular note is lead singer's voice, which has some of Dolly Parton's warm vibrato but also a bit of very post-modern reserve and restraint.

"Parachute," perhaps the loveliest of these five tracks (really six if you count that annoying end track, which is blank except for the last few seconds), is up for listening at the band's MySpace.



The record, which can be had from Plastic350 records, is called Bridges.