Matthew Dear - Preacher's Sigh & Potion: Lost Album (2021) [Hi-Res]

The album finds Dear unknowingly at an intersection in his young run, a burgeoning songwriter at his most freewheeling and unaffected. In hindsight, there were hints of Preacher's sound on Asa Breed, but the set still registers endearingly out of step with his eventual direction. This was the first time Dear tapped so directly into his late father's influence as a fingerpicking guitar player in the 1960s and '70s and a gateway to the music of John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, and Emmylou Harris.