There's too much belting and yelling, scratchy vocal fries, mumbling diction and pseudo-earthiness being foisted as "folk" these days. The CW can really sing without having to knock someone over the head. People today have been bludgeoned by rock, blasting PA's, and the view that unless you are "blowing someone away" it can't be any good.

What about music that's soothing, contemplative, vocally pleasing to listen to, musical in the sense that it's not shouting, screeching or sounding like a fingernail on the blackboard?

Has the artistic pallette been so deadened that unless you scream it out, or push it across, it can't be successfully heard?

The phony burbling of white kids trying to sound black, the whining and hoarse croaking of today's Country (rock influenced) Nashville or some bluegrass gymnastics, and the monotones of the neo-protest singers with their "profundity" make a artistically distasteful stew.

CW are pleasing to hear, melodic, well-produced and musically arranged and have filled-in the empty space that lacks musicality in today's popular music world.

I'm so glad that they don't resort to belting and shouting.

Frank Hamilton