
I first came across Lake Clear, New York artist JBM (Jesse Marchant) via his Daytrotter session , where the acoustic finger-picking of "Years/Cleo's Song" immediately sounded to me like something that should be artfully placed in a Woodshed Films /Malloy brothers surfing film, replete with dappled sunlight and crystalline water. As I dug into his catalog, I discovered not only a heartbreakingly earnest voice (which on the "From Me To You" track sounds like my favorite eras of sad-bastard Ryan Adams) but a muted melancholy that permeates his music, [...]