Interesting newcomer: Michael Howard

Michard Howard has an intriguing music background coming from the punk rock genre. His songs are oblique with plenty or reading-between-the-lines spaciousness.

Here are a pair of reviews of his 2016 release:

Album Review: Michael Howard - Gasoline Dream

Punk Do-It-Yourself Ethic Morphs Into Americana Brilliance

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"She’s okay with wet cigarettes and roses in her hair
She is the finest thing
She’s alright with Brooklyn, and she’s alright by me
Oh darling, you were meant for me

Her mother was a mystic, she is a magical child
Her love is the sweetest thing
We both agreed the Boomers sucked and we wondered why the 60’s died
Well some things, they just aren’t meant to be

Meet me at the front lines, I hear there is something going on
I ain’t sure what it looks like, but I’m sure that you and me can carry on
And we’ll carry on
And all the king’s army came along

She took her body back in time, and she came back as a subway line
Beneath those New York streets
I came back as the Y.P.G. all bleeding out in the infantry
But what’s that got to do with you and me

Meet me at the front lines, I hear there is something going on
I ain’t sure what it looks like, but I’m sure that you and me can carry on
And we’ll carry on
And all the king’s army came along

Then one by one we occupied where the brokers guard the money lines
And there we made our stand
They mocked what we were fighting for “Poor boy, give up your father’s war”
But my darling she’s too good to me

Now halfway through her cigarette with asphalt in her hair
She is the finest thing
We sank into each others’ eyes under billy clubs and flashing lights
Oh darling, you were meant for me

Meet me at the front lines, I hear there is something going on
I ain’t sure what it looks like, but I’m sure that you and me can carry on
And we’ll carry on
And all the king’s army came along"

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"Writhing and wringing in gasoline dreams 
Together accepting some damned destiny 
We let out the string so recklessly 
Not daring to reckon the risk it would be 
To be gone in a gasoline dream 

Remember the miracles that burst in your veins 
Undressing for centuries, face first through the green 
In pitch perfect shadows, hot hallowing scenes 
Then I stole out the exit so purposefully 
Gone in a gasoline dream 

I mirrored the moon across tangerine sands 
Bound by some circumstance I will never understand 
As the raven went ransacking sycamore trees 
Eyes pine to peel back the past back to the start 
Gone in a gasoline dream 

My lover your weeping could not set us free 
This quake will end quickly, it will end in defeat 
Awake from your wondering, from this gasoline dream 
I am gone I am gone wherever that be 
I am gone I am gone wherever that be 
When you call out my name, when you reach out for me 
I'll be gone in a gasoline dream"

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"I came in hot to a Northwest city where Timmy pounds the steel 

He has the words To Hell With The Government flung out in a trash tattoo 
I was feeling like whole bunch of wild dogs. I was feeling like a speeding train 
I was thinking about a girl from Gainesville, how I gotta get back there soon 

I hate turning back like the east hates west, and I really hate your town 
I made a bet and put my money down on a horse named “California” 
I missed the race and I’m low on sleep and I’ll probably lose my mind 
But I’m pushing hard until I hit New York, where I gotta pick up a typewriter 

I was moving fast leaving burning tracks. Lord knows I’m a misguided fool 
I fought my way from town to town, but I don’t think the West was won 
I held my fist and I burned my list and I drank like I had nothing to lose 
‘Til god and you and me made sense and I finally came undone, unglued 

I went up on a mountain, but I came back down again 
I sold the rifle on my shoulder to pay for my last meal 
I took my dagger from its holder, and I turned it back on me 
I opened up my chest. And in the emptiness, all I wanted was to feel 

I sold my heart to the Butcher, he fed it to the hipsters and the wannabes 
I gave the rest to the witches, to the brokers and the thieves 
They said “There ain’t no revolution, no there’s nothing on TV” 
Hog Butcher, Hog Butcher what’d you do to me? Can you help me get to heaven?"