Lunch of Champions

Kristi Michele’s “Bric-a-Brac”

I met Kristi Michele in person for the first time over the Christmas holiday.  I could tell by her handshake that there was something brewing beneath the surface of her skin.  A fire.

I had heard her music years ago when my sister introduced me to her mySpace page, and I was entranced.  But this was something different.  An electricity flowed from her fingernails that had nothing to do with me.  If I was Cookie Monster, my soft blue fur would have been scorched around the knuckles.  There is something brewing beneath the surface of Kristi Michele.

The planet Earth is little bit better with a Kristi Michele making music on it than it is without a Kristi Michele.  I believe that this girl is making some of the most sincere and original music in all of America right now.  I have listened to “Bric-a-Brac”, probably, 10 times so far, and each time I hear it I have one of those “ah ha” moments where my musical universe gains a little bit of clarity.

“Bric-a-Brac” is good.  It is soooo good.  It is mesmerizing and a little bit unkept – like a carefully-manicured lint roller.  It is fresh.  It is nice.  It is magic 1′s and 0′s flying out of my tiny Macbook’s computer speakers.   It is a bit lost like a fish seeking out a warm current in the Pacific Ocean.  That is, it is ambitious and directed, and when we finally get to our destination, it is every bit as magical as we had hoped it would be.