Willy Porter Will Make Your Jaw Drop

Every once in a while there comes a Bob Dylan, John Mayer or Dave Matthews that can wow you with both their guitar playing and songwriting ability. But flying under the radar lies another man that deserves to be on this list, folk guitarist Willy Porter. But folk is not exactly the right term for his style because of the blues roots strewn throughout his albums. But that isn’t quite right either, because his music is driven from pop elements. He is impossible to tie down to one genre and one influence; he is a musical mélange of everything we like to listen to. And he just released a new album this June, called How to Rob a Bank.

If you have never heard of this guy before, you are in for the musical discovery for a lifetime, just like I was this winter. Willy’s song “Angry Words” came up on my Pandora, and I was instantly blown away with his dexterity on the guitar. On many of his tracks, it is only him playing guitar, even though you would bet your life savings there was more than one. And his falsetto is stirring enough to make you feel whatever his lyrics want you feel, and that is often introspective. His deceivingly simple melodies are easy to listen to, and every once in a while he will cause your jaw to drop.

The new album is classic Porter material. But for this album, which he produced himself under his own new label, he decided to go for a new sound and include the all-female group Raining Jane for background vocals. They really help bring another layer of sound and harmony to the carefree track entitled “The Lemon Tree” and reflective “Too Big to Sell.” And all throughout the album you can hear Porter’s blues influence, especially in “Hard Place,” an ode to the troops, and “Wide Open Mind” which you can almost hear being played in a vintage blues bar. The title song “How to Rob a Bank” reminds me very much of Bob Dylan, in both the style of the music and the meaning of the lyrics. Using the metaphor of a bank heist, he works through his thoughts about the economic situation our country is going through in an anthemic fashion. But songs like “Colored Lights” and “Fear Only Fear” remind us that he can still play guitar perhaps greater than anyone else on the planet.

Unlike in sports, it is never too late to jump on someone’s bandwagon. I jumped on Willy’s last winter after hearing “Angry Words” and this album is everything I could have hoped for. There really is no bad track. Give the album a listen; maybe I’ll see you on the bandwagon next.