He's the Ted Kooser of the hip hop and rap world

Robert and I are going out of town in just a few short days!  I have found only one audiobook for us to listen to together on the plane - NPR Kitchen Moments, so I have a feeling we will be spending some time listening to our own stuff.  Thankfully I've got a handful of artists I love who have new albums I haven't listened to or am in the middle of - Enya, Anthony Hamilton, Birdy and The Lumineers.

But the artist I'm most excited about right now is someone I didn't even know of until a few days ago when I randomly picked up one of his albums at the library.

Why have I never heard of Mat Kearney?  His music encompasses so much of what I love: he raps and sings.  He's very mellow and folksy and the rhythm is everything from eerie to hip hop to melodic and soft to happy.  And his lyrics are really poetic and relatable, every once in awhile throwing out a line that knocks me over.  When he sings "one last time through the woods in my old
neighborhood," I am no longer at work listening to music.  I'm standing in the middle of the woods of my childhood.  He's the Ted Kooser of the hip hop and rap world, and I am eagerly absorbing his music, one song at a time.

There's a very good possibility I'll have his Just Kids album completely memorized after one short plane ride.

Here's one of his slower pieces, Shasta