We featured the second volume of this a few months ago, and judging by the response that album received, it seemed prudent to offer you guys volume one......A beautifully compiled selection of songs and performances, this was the Chicago-based Waterbug label's early announcement that something special was going on. Here were ice cream salesmen, janitors, bar tenders, carpenters and mechanics, all with one thing in common - the ability to pen truly uplifting musical short stories. Remarkable, really. Waterbug has since gone on to champion many of the talents featured on its American Impressionist Songwriters release, and numerous others, establishing a reputation for the sheer quality and class of those gravitating towards its welcoming door. There are so many good things on the album Doyle Carver's coming-of-age song, 'The Deerhunter', so vivid it might almost have been your own experience; equally luminous tales from Diane Ziegler, Steve Fisher and Michael McNevin, and the wonderful melancholia of Tom Payne's 'Rocko's Smile', a simple celebration of humanity. An excellent accompanying booklet provides lyrics and pen portraits of the songwriters, but it's the music itself which will resonate, lingering long in the heart and mind, leaving the listener genuinely touched. Impressionist Songwriters was later followed by the equally satisfying Memorial Day collection (also available at £11.99), but this is definitely the one to start with!

£11.99