MATT HARLAN-Tips & Compliments

Tips & Compliments is one of those simple, midwestern albums that makes you want to be quiet and smile. It’s a record that at first wanted to dismiss as being typical–I hear dozens of new albums every month, and they’ve got to grab me quick–but something about “Elizabethtown” made me want to stay. Maybe it was the shades of Bruce Hornsby, a guy who I don’t think has ever gotten his due. Songs like “Skinny Trees Of Mississippi” and “Everybody Else” made me glad I did. Matt Harlan’s debut is a fine record–one he should be proud of. The lyrics are excellent, and the must seems country until you get to the folkier parts, and then, at once, classification and genre doesn’t seem to matter. Suddenly, the listener is filled with the urge to see this Houston man play live.