"Sigh No More" - Mumford and Sons (2009)

I felt a lot of initial internal resistance when I decided I was going to listen to this album. Mumford and Sons have been heavily hyped by everyone lately - including local pop radio.

That's right. I'm driving along in my car one day and the deejay comes over the air (I think it was Kurt Copeland?) and says - "I'm not supposed to play this but I don't care, I love it." - or something like that... anyway, that caught my attention. Then he played "Little Lion Man."

I felt a connection there. Bonnaroo and Z107.7 don't really crossover too much, except for those artists Bonnaroo announces that surprise me (Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Eminem) - its usually not Z107.7 doing the surprising. It felt kind of good.

So anyway - Mumford and Sons were at Bonnaroo last year - but they played the slot that The Avett Brothers played. Even now I wouldn't go back and change my decision to see the Avetts. To this day, I think Mumford and Sons is kind of a cheap Avett Brothers. But as they grow on me, I relax that "cheap" label a little more.

This year is going to be a second chance to see the band live, and I'm really into three songs on the album at the moment - "The Cave," "Winter Winds" and "Little Lion Man." They've got that country feel going and they seem to love the banjo (all three songs are super banjo heavy, which is awesome) - but their sound, while different from the Avetts, seems to transcend their genre in the same kind of way. Something's going on because the Z doesn't play bluegrass/alt-country, whatever you want to call this. But I like where it's going.

Mumford and Sons were also recognized this past year by the Grammys. I know the Grammys are really a big joke, but it's interesting to at least see them branching out a little bit (who is Arcade Fire? ;))

Anyway, if you get a chance, give at least those tracks a listen. They do something for me - maybe they will for you too.