Believe it.

"She" is lovely and talented actress Zooey Deschanel, who has long been one of my favorite celebrity crushes.  The "Him" here is M. Ward, a singer, songwriter, and wildly gifted guitarist and producer whose solo work has rightfully earned him a loyal and eager following. Together, they're a special kind of magic that combines the best of modern pop sensibilities with the warmth of old-school AM radio intimacy.

Ward's production here is every bit as big, as expressive, and as inviting as Deschanel's giant baby blues, enveloping her clear, earnest voice in one delightful arrangement after another. Ward's fans will be happy to hear more of his harmonies on this volume than on the last, and he even steps all the way up to sing a co-lead vocal on their whiz-bang cover of NRBQ's "Ridin' in My Car."

Deschanel's delivery on these tracks is most often very matter-of-fact, but she's constantly, instinctively doing a million little things to give her vocals variety and an earnest sense of knowing far beyond her years. That's far too rare a talent these days, but she just knows exactly where to go with every moment and word. This isn't an acting gig where rehearsals are involved, either; the things she does here with her voice come from the kind of instinctual connection to music that you either have or you don't. We're lucky that she's got it so good.

Before I talk about some of the other songs, let's take a minute to watch the video for the album's first single, "In the Sun," which immediately became one of my all-time favorite videos. And make sure you crank it up to 720p or 1080p to see it in higher quality:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK3-zQYO7TM

Gaaaaaaaah. How brilliant and fun was that? (I love how Zooey is obviously having a difficult time not smiling every single second.)

I think this album has a better lyrical variety than Volume 1 did; if I wrote down every line that made me smile, I'd damn nearly have to transcribe the entire album. Piano-driven bopper "Don't Look Back" begins with more of that old-soul vibe that defines so much of the album: "Orpheus melted the heart of Persephone, but I never had yours. I followed you back to the end of the path, but I never found the door," heading to the chorus of, "Don't look back, all you'll ever get is the dust from the steps before. I don't have to see you every day, but I just want to know you're there."

The more mellow "Lingering Still" is another of my lyrical favorites: "I like to learn things slow. I like learning a lot. I like to get it all again and in the end you know you get what you got," and then the chorus is, "And the world's like a science and I'm like a secret, but I saw you lingering still." Some of the album's best backing vocals and guitar work can be found on this one, too.

Lots of great string arrangements can be found across the album, and I hear a lot more electric guitar here than on the first one. That extra jig-a-jig-a-jangle goes a long way to making everything so sonically pleasing.

"Me and You" is another laid-back track highlighted by M. and Zooey lazily trading "ba-da-da-dum" and "ba-da-da" over a refrain of "You've got to be kind to yourself."

Mandolin accents bolster the poppy piano on "Home" as Zooey builds to one of the album's sweeter ideals: "I could be your state and I could be your nation. It doesn't get better than home, now does it? I could be your welcome and I could be your greeter, I could be sweet and I could be sweeter. I want to be where your heart is home. I want to see you with the light in the morning. There's never been such a beautiful warning to me, to me. Why don't we just sit and stare and do nothing? Nothing at all for a while." And like an afterthought, she effectively punctuates it with, "I like the way you smile." Just like that, my heart is hers.

"I'm Gonna Make It Better" is just as charming, and "Over It Over Again" comes in late in the game to become one of the album's most memorable tracks. "Why do I always want to sock it to you hard?" Zooey asks. "Let you know what love is like, when I'm keeping all my cards up on the shelf," right before a tough, delightfully nonchalant girl-group harmony (that's all Zooey) adds "where you can't see them." The "just like" and "and I'm" in "Running away from is just like running a business, and I'm keeping up with the games you play every day" are all Zooey, too, segueing into one of the smartest lyrical moments on the record: "I've gotten over it over and over again. I've gotten sick of it, but a lick of it will suck me back in."

After a wonderfully varied mix of faster and mid-tempo tracks, the album ends on two slower notes. "Brand New Shoes" begins with, "I had some brand new shoes. They were all red, but they gave me the blues." Second verse: "We are all made of air. There's stars in my eyes and there's sun in my hair. And I'm running away, it makes me feel better." Makes me feel pretty good, too.

"If You Can't Sleep" glides along like a gospel lullaby, with the huge, sweet swell of a soothing "mmmm" behind beautiful sentiments like these: "If you can't sleep, I'll be there in your dreams. If you can't sleep at all, and in your dreams I'll touch your cheek, and lay my head on your shoulder." After a delivery of "Goodbye, shadows" that could wash away the sadness from anything, Zooey sings, "If you're far away, if you can't see my face, if the world is cold, but the sun shines the same, shut your eyes, there are bluer skies, for you're embraced in my heart."

All throughout the album, M. and Zooey make all of it seem so effortless, even though this one really is a lot more lyrically, vocally, and musically complex in every possible way than its predecessor. And yet it never sounds busy or forced.

I can't stop listening to it — it's a perfect spring/summer album with a heart that will be beating along with mine all year long.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZibTwvsWPKw

The Old 97's have one of the healthiest band relationships I've ever heard of — they work on solo projects in between recording (and touring in support of) their own albums. This arrangement results in a lot of really great material at a relatively frequent rate of release — along with lots of fun concerts to go see.

(In fact, the guys are playing Headliners Music Hall in Louisville on Friday, July 24. I'll be there, and so should you.)

Last year's Old 97's album, Blame It on Gravity, came along right when I needed it. I've been lied to by girls before, and thrown away by girls before, but in the early months of 2008 I ended up on the receiving end of the most heinous and disgustingly vile scheme of gross manipulation and utter dishonesty I've ever seen.

(I should have known better, but sometimes we choose to believe, and believe in, people we shouldn't.)

About two weeks after the jig bellied all the way up, I found myself staring at my ceiling one night, lost and in shock, wondering if I'd ever make sense of it all — and deciding on probably not.

To try to coax my heart-battered brain in a different direction, I powered up Sweet Lorelai (my iPod) and gave Blame It on Gravity its first spin.

It didn't take long before I was smiling, laughing, and vigorously nodding my head to its snappy rhythms and jaunty, jangling widsom.

(Or its occasional — and hilarious — lack of wisdom. Songs like "I Will Remain" evoke Roger Miller meets the Beatles.)

It's such a fun album.

Barely over a year later, here comes Rhett Miller with Rhett Miller … and holy cow, it's good.

Effortlessly good.

Too good.

The perfect solo sequel to one of my absolute favorite albums of 2008.

I'm a huge fan of Rhett's previous albums — The Instigator and The Believer. As a whole, I think The Believer is probably better, but The Instigator is probably a little easier to listen to all the way through while you're driving.

Rhett Miller pretty much hits the perfect balance between the two.

(His first solo record, 1989's Mythologies, remains a sought-after rarity.)

And I love that the front and back cover photos look like they were taken by Deb from Napoleon Dynamite.

This is truly the kind of music that makes everything better.

So please hop on down to your favorite local record store, and let Rhett's latest batch of songs bop you all the way home.

At the end of October, I told you about Plover, which was Glen Phillips's collaboration with Garrison Starr and Neilson Hubbard.

In January, Glen released an EP called Secrets of the New Explorers that he co-produced with a fellow named John Askew. It was a quirky, odd, but entirely lovely exploration of life and love in the great beyond.

Now Glen and John are back with another new project called Veteran of the Loudness Wars, under the banner of Remote Tree Children.

I have never heard anything like it.

Fans of Toad the Wet Sprocket's more rock-oriented songs will love the return of Glen's angry rock-god voice on the chorus of "Chimera." (John sings the verse.)

"Copper Mining" finds Glen's voice going all over the place, fusing space-age rock with old-school funk. Amazing.

My favorite, by far, is "Blood Pressure Rise." It's got a bass part that's been processed to sound super wicked — thanks for the sonic assist, Bob — and the lyrics are really, really hot. Favorite line: "Push ourselves together, lock and key. You make my heart beat harder. Loud as a symphony."

Listen to the song right here:

[bandcamp track=4280260254]

And "Copper Mining" here:

[bandcamp track=1938061550]

And buy the album here.

Not all of it's my particular cup of tea, but it's a masterpiece of experimentation, and Glen's voice has rarely sounded better. Check it out and support good music!

It'll be a few days before I can write up the weekend's adventure to see Jonatha Brooke and Glen Phillips in Pittsburgh, but Jonatha has told her side of the story right here, complete with photos.

And if you happen to buy all of her albums while you're at her website, well, that would be pretty spectacular, considering that they'd make excellent stocking stuffers, and it's Christmas, and she's awesome.

(One of the deadlines is particularly exciting. And I can't tell you about it yet.)

But!

In the meantime, you can see Bob's pictures here.

And be sure to read his captions! They are HILARIOUS.

And true.

Every word of every one.

Thanks again to Courtney and Bob and Kate and Melissa for making the journey with me, and to Bob for driving through conditions both perilous and frustrating, and to Jonatha and Glen for being our sweetest angels upon our arrival. This concert meant a lot to me, and I'll tell you more about why when I get time to write it all out.

No one's life should be this blessed. I'm glad mine is. More to come.

We left at 8 a.m.

It should have been a six-hour drive.

Instead, we walked into the 8 p.m. concert at 8:07 and were lucky we got there at all thanks to weather and numerous stops to sit in stalled traffic for crazy amounts of time.

Stories coming soon. Including my splits-inducing head wound from when I "almost almost" got scalped by the door.

And big thanks to Bob for navigating us through the most ridiculous driving conditions I think I'll ever see.

Here's one quick picture in the meantime:

With Jonatha Brooke and Glen Phillips

More to come soon — I'll tell the tale as soon as I can stop laughing about it all.

Photo by Justine Ungaro

Her new album, Weaponize, features plenty of guitar and production by USA Mike, her husband and fellow Letters to Cleo graduate. Believe me when I tell you that you need it.

The band is playing some reunion shows this fall (press and dates and posters) and releasing a b-sides and rarities record called When Did We Do That? for which you can see the cover art here. (It will include, among other gems, their covers of "Cruel to Be Kind" and "I Want You To Want Me" from the 10 Things I Hate About You soundtrack.) I can't make it to any of the shows, which is a shame because I've never seen Kay sing live and it's on my list of things I need to do before I'm dead.

Anyway, Kay rocked the vote with her 9-year-old daughter yesterday …

… and you can read all about it right here on her snap-crackle-popper of a blog, which also features lots of well-told tales of her adventures as a backup singer and dancer for Miley Cyrus.

Check out Kay's music. She rocks. A lot. Possibly the most.

Previous Kay coverage here.

It's here!

Glen Phillips, who wrote and sang the songs for Toad the Wet Sprocket and still makes amazing solo records oozing wisdom and warmth!

My good friend Garrison Starr, who has a voice and a style like NO ONE ELSE and writes songs that will leave you suspecting she knows you better than you know yourself!

Neilson Hubbard, who has produced albums for both of them, and is an amazing singer/songwriter in his own right!

Put those three people together and you've got the power trio PLOVER …

… and their debut album is available NOW!

Right HERE!

Go listen to it! And then BUY IT!

You can even NAME YOUR OWN PRICE!

You'll be supporting good music.

I promise.

I promise.

And then go check out Garrison's other new project, Among the Oak & Ash.

(Isn't she gorgeous as a brunette?)

Music is life.

Glen recently had an accident with a glass coffee table and did some major damage to the ulnar nerve below the elbow on his left arm.

(This is particularly bad because Glen's a left-handed guitarist.)

Glen filed this new report yesterday saying that he's out of surgery; his doctor is confident, and Glen's in good spirits and ready to get back in the studio and on the road.

I'll be seeing Glen and my good friend Jonatha Brooke performing together in Pittsburgh on December 6; it's going to be an epic meeting of two voices I've been loving since 1994 and 1995, respectively.

And you should check out their duet, "Sweetest Angel," on Jonatha's latest album, The Works.

Get well, Mr. Phillips! Your music has been a source of goodness and light in my life for a long time.

_______________

Previous Glen coverage here.

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