Portland, Oregon‘s Michael Dean Damron and his band I Can Like Any Sonofabitch In The House are members of a select group of songwriters and bands who are keeping the art of storytelling alive.  Take me to a clearing in the woods, a campfire, a rucksack, a case of beer, a few guitars and Michael, Ben Nichols, Jason Isbell, Mike Cooley, Jon Snodgrass, Chad Price, Timothy Showalter, the Kneiser’s and Micah Schnabel and I’ll show you something Coachella and Bonnaroo can’t touch.  These are the working musicians.  If you really want to know what is happening in this country of ours, don’t turn to CNN.  Don’t look to Kerouac to find out what’s happening on the road, dude died 42 years ago!  If you really want to know what is going on beyond those dual pane windows, beyond the buildings, the city limits and county lines, up and over those mountains, you need look no further than these modern day raconteurs.

I really wanted to recommend this album based on my experience with the vinyl and a glass of whiskey, but my favorite local label, Suburban Home Records, has informed me it might be a couple weeks until I have the physical product in my hand and I am enjoying these tales of lost souls, goddamn devils and the dark of the night too much to wait.  If you like ICLASOBITH, you will like this album.  It’s striped down to the bare essentials, as you’d expect from a solo album, but I dare you to test it’s strength.  My money is on Michael single-handedly licking any son of a bitch in the house who steps to him!
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Damron continually succeeds, however, in enveloping his inner turmoils and outspoken observations in compelling, important music. Raw, haunting, drunkenly wild, innocently gentle; a Damron creation can possess any of these tags, or all of them.
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Mike the new cd is awesome..by far one of your best...you and the acoustic are blood brothers...that is for sure...hope to see the songs live soon...
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It’s a rare thing when a songwriter can writes something that conveys its emotions so clearly that not only can it make you feel something, it can convey with perfect clarity the feelings that songwriter was feeling when he/she wrote it. A song is a rarity, an album is almost unheard of and a songbook, which Damron seems to be amassing, requires a self-awareness and willingness to expose oneself that I simply can not relate to. When you listen to Plea From A Ghost, it’s no wonder Micah Schnabel (Two Cow Garage) and Michael Dean Damron are such good friends. They’re essentially the same artist, separated by a few decades worth of life experience, breakups, breakdowns, whiskey and pain.
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