So at the Third Man London opening back in September, a gentleman stopped me on the street, introduced himself and asked if he could give me a copy of his album. He said it was recorded live to tape with no overdubs, that the cover photo was legit tintype portrait and he self-released it on vinyl in quite a small quantity.

I mean, that's really all I need to know to get me intrigued.

And sure enough, the record is worth the time. The opener "You Wouldn't Believe Me" is a wonderfully strong Dylan-esque exercise in the construct of "I wish I could tell you/show you" teasing on a "Big Fish" level sort of tall tale. Had me hooked from the start.

Properly performed, sonically solid, the Tootawl album is a prime example of acoustic folk-leaning toward the melodic. Jimmy Rogers "Highwayman" and Blind Wille Johnson "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was The Ground" covers sit appropriately with the songs penned by Tootawl (the performing alias of one Richard Gorman).

Also, I don't know if there's a psychological explanation for the phenomenon, but someone out there has to be able to tell me why folk music sounds 28% better when sung with even the slightest detection of an Irish accent. Is it truth? That no one would fake it? I can't be the only one who feels this way, right?

I don't know whether to ever believe or not when Bandcamp says "only 2 copies remaining" but that's what Tootawl's page says and I don't think it would behoove anyone to sleep on this one. Do your part and be one of the two.