In recent years, Echo Park all ages space, Echo Country Outpost has homespun a kind of urban folksy scene, evolving from a moccasin selling general store with installations by local artists, into a larger events and performance clubhouse.
One of the bands to regularly play there is Tommy Santee Klaws. Their album Of Light, is the first on the weeks old Outpost Records, and it is an honest stunner with expansive harmonies and tuneful arrangements. The most arresting detail is singer and guitarist Tommy Santee's plaintive tenor which winds around the accompanying cello, drums and guitars like a lonely and beautiful country road.
Santee is no stranger to sadness, as his first record was inspired in 2001 by the death of his mother. However, on Of Light instrumentation from children's toys, and lilting backing vocals transpire the melancholy into something rapturous. The album and a decade worth of his music is now available online here.
