Eamon McGrath — 13 Songs Of Whiskey And Light

If McGrath drinks — as a title like 13 Songs Of Whiskey And Light seems to imply — to deal with his sorrows, his voice is so tortured that it makes him seem like the type of person who can't drown them, no matter how hard he tries.

But McGrath's music doesn't glamorize sadness — it tries to deal with it. Check out "Desperation, Alberta," on which McGrath sings "All my friends have drinking problems now/Just like they lived in bars," on which he rails against blaming it on living in a town where there's nothing to do. Despite the Chan Marshall-ism, there's no wallowing.

McGrath's voice actually enhances the music on 13 Songs Of Whiskey And Light. His music is the kind of beautifully unrefined, dirty stuff that resembles The Replacements, early grunge (without the sludge) and — vaguely — folk and roots rock. It wouldn't work to have a "pretty" voice on this stuff. It needs edge.

McGrath is the type of singer who can utter a line like "I'm going up to heaven soon" (on "Machine Gun Cowboy") and make it sound exactly like it should, which is what a tortured soul drinking far too much whiskey on a late evening would think after realizing they've been drinking far too much whiskey and then ponder the reasons why they've been doing it. And it's done in a voice that's filled with so much emotion that it'll cut you and leave a lump in your throat.

McGrath is only 20 years old, but has already made 18 home records. There's a lot of potential here, and it'll be interesting to see what he does next.

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