And so concludes another week of tantalizingly live Songs Of The Day. I don’t know if it’s possible to fall in love with the articulate body language and facial expressions of a singer as much as I can fall in love with the song that singer is playing, but “You Never Need Nobody” is as close as it gets to that bizarre phenomenon of musical performance. Lead singer Zach Williams puts so much raw emotion into every note in a effort that is palpably inspired by significantly scarring life events. The Lone Bellow started as Williams’ songwriting project to release his inner doubts, demons, and feelings after his wife suffered temporary paralysis following a horse-riding accident. You can see that pain, love, and persistence associated with his wife’s accident in every beat of sweat running down his grayscale forehead and in every wide mouthed, close eyed note he hits. Its nearly impossible to keep from smiling hearing their concluding satisfaction with this flawless take as Williams lets out grin, whistles and says “we got it that time.”

Maybe it was just my personal mood this week, but extensively staffed folk groups with banjos, slide guitars, and the works dominated the past 5 days worth of published tunes. I feel like this style of music not only resonates with me during this time of year, but it also resonates with a large majority of the population who keep their slightly more abnormal musical extensions to themselves. Sure, the peak of summer often screams repetitive country ballads for most people. Yet, in the quietness of one’s own head within the solidarity of noise-cancelling earbuds, a lot of folks branch out into more interesting genres that they do not publicly boast high praises about given that they are not commonly supported genres like country. Folk is such a great natural extension of country however, utilizing the same instuments but in a vastly different fashion. Take the Lone Bellow’s performance in “You Never Need Nobody” for example. Without lazily repeating outplayed lyrical topics with typical chord progressions, they form rare harmonization and embody a unique musical brand that is tough to replicate. I’m not necessarily intending to bash country, as despite that it isn’t my preferred genre of choice I can still understand why it’s a major part of popular culture (unlike trap, dubstep, etc.). Simply put, artists like The Lone Bellow, William Wild, and other folk-based groups that I’ve posted about recently represent such a underappreciated niche that deserves so much more recognition for their creativity, originality, and sheer talent.