ALL THINGS MUSIC
PAGE 4 • GO! MAGAZINE
Thursday, april 15, 2021 • ThE BullETiN
BANDCAMPIN’:
Good stuff for your ears
BY BEN SALMON • For The Bulletin
B
andcamp is an online music platform used largely by independent artists and record labels to stream songs and sell merchandise. It’s also a
vibrant virtual community teeming with interesting sounds just waiting to be discovered. Each week, I’ll highlight three releases available
on the site that are well worth your time and attention. If you find something you dig, please consider supporting the artist with a purchase.
FREEWAY AND JAKE ONE
“The Stimulus Package”
This 2010 release is the first — and
only, so far — collaboration between
one of Seattle’s best hip-hop produc-
ers, Jake One, and Philadelphia rap-
per Freeway. Built around the latter’s
gritty, no-nonsense flow and the for-
mer’s efficient and melodic beats, “The
Stimulus Package” isn’t necessarily a
classic of the form, but it is a consis-
tently enjoyable collection of songs
that feel like a throwback to a time
when beats were hard and rappers ac-
tually rapped. This album gets bonus
points for some of the best CD pack-
aging ever; it’s designed as a working
wallet wrapped in oversized dollar
bills featuring the faces of Freeway and
Jake One. Dope!
6 STRING DRAG
“High Hat”
One of the first albums I ever re-
viewed (for my college newspaper) was
“High Hat,” the second album from
scruffy North Carolina roots-rock band
6 String Drag. It was initially released
in 1997, and a few years ago, it was re-
issued to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Twenty-four years after I first heard it,
“High Hat” holds up. Front and center is
the distinctive singing and songwriting
of frontman Kenny Roby, whose imper-
fect voice and Southern timbre are as
charming ever. He’s backed by a band
that ably brings together blues, rock,
country, soul and even a little Dixieland
jazz into a whole that’s perfectly dishev-
eled. The song “Ghost” still rules!
CASSANDRA JENKINS
“An Overview on Phenomenal Nature ”
There are songwriters and then there
are storytellers. I’m not saying one is
better than the other, and the line be-
tween the two is variable and blurry, but
you know a storyteller when you hear
one, don’t you? On her sophomore al-
bum, Cassandra Jenkins tells evocative
tales about Warren the fisherman and
traveling to Norway and Perry with the
gemstone eyes and the curative powers
of the ocean, and she does it all against
a sonic backdrop of feather-light, deeply
chilled jazz-folk-pop that’s easy to get
lost in but never threatens to overpower
the song. Her secret weapon, surely, is
producer/multi-instrumentalist Josh
Kaufman, who has worked with The
National, Josh Ritter and Bob Weir
(among others) and is popping up on
more good records that just about any-
one these days.
e e
Ben Salmon is a Bend-based music journalist
and host of Left Of The Dial, which airs 8-10 p.m.
Thursdays on KPOV, 88.9 FM and streams at kpov.
org. You can find him on Bandcamp and Twitter at
@bcsalmon.
On her sophomore album, Cassandra Jenkins tells evocative tales about Warren
the fisherman and traveling to Norway and Perry with the gemstone eyes and
the curative powers of the ocean, and she does it all against a sonic backdrop of
feather-light, deeply chilled jazz-folk-pop that’s easy to get lost in but never
threatens to overpower the song.