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Beaver Nelson
Though he's frequently compared to the late Townes Van Zandt, Beaver Nelson's weedy tenor and decidedly roots-rock songwriting is much closer in spirit to the Eagles and Jackson Browne. He does, however, share TVZ's inimitable gift for a world-weary lyric. When Nelson's debut album, The Last Hurrah, was released in 1998, the 26-year-old Texas native had been a victim of the "label shuffle" for over half a decade, having been signed and dropped by both Columbia and Epic (while his recordings sat in limbo). If the process embittered Nelson, it doesn't show in his music, which remains relentlessly upbeat, tuneful and rockin' -- though his album's haunted, hollow-eyed cover photo seems to tell another story. |