If you frequent the same kind of used-to-be-smoky clubs that I do, you're surely familiar with the very specific elation one feels when an unknown performer quietly takes the stage, acoustic guitar in hand, and his first notes cut clean and true through the din of conversation and clinking glasses. Your ears perk right up. This kid can play, you think to yourself, and he can SING. I wonder what his name is...

Matthew Gair's record

is the closest approximation to that feeling you can get without actually being in a tiny club. It sounds so live that I found myself straining to hear the audience in the background. It's as if you could reach out and touch the guy. It was only when, a few songs in, an echo effect is applied to a vocal line in Assisi (), that I was convinced that I wasn't just hearing a live recording.

You really get a little bit of everything with this one. From the man-do-I-wanna-compare-this-to-Raffi album opener Friday (

), to Blue Side Down (), which sounds like it's a not-quite-joking tribute to Tenacious D's "Tribute," Matther Gair covers a lot of ground and still manages to maintain a consistent, inviting sound. Check out these highlights:

Halo (

)
Assisi ()
3 Little Birds ()