Song du Jour

David Brusie, "Understood" (demo). This town is lousy with good young songwriters at the moment, and after only one introductory listen, this guy is one of the best. It was difficult to hear him last night over the wine-and-dessert crowd at the Wilde Roast, but talent floats. And it occured to me as I sat in front of a cozy autumn fire -- alone on the couch and alone in my listening -- that good songs also make good background music.

With the hub-hub of wi-fiers and first dates and chatter (and, from what I could see, not a single friend/fan of the singer's), it was not unlike the Ani DiFranco song, "Asking Too Much," where she snaps to attention to the hum of her potential lover and says, "What did you just say?," as if she can't believe another soul just reiterated a part of her she didn't even know was alive.

That is: A song can be anything you want it to be, and never more so than when you're half-hearing it.

This coming from the Good Listening Scold. This coming from a guy who has spent his entire life believing that singers and songs should be paid their due reverence, and here I was last night, accepting of the loudmouths and music-impaired and digging the missed lyrics, faint melodies, and a Mountain-Sufjan-Goats voice that harmonized so naturally with the clanks and whirrs of the bustling kitchen and espresso machines.

Brusie never flinched. A Boston transplant, he's the real deal: Brimming with heart and heartache and the kind of musical chops and quiet confidence that gets unearthed alone in the woodshed, and honed in joints that serve up indifference with the Chai Tea. The fact that Brusie's songs are still unreleased will change, and soon, because his days when the rest of us only half-listen are numbered.