Dustin Kensrue (pronounced kenz-roo) has a pretty cool day job as the lead singer of Thrice. I love his work in that band so when I heard last year that he would be releasing a solo record I was interested to see what he would turn out. On Please Come Home, Kensrue took a departure from the experimental rock that Thrice play and released an album of excellent alt country tunes. Kensrue has always had kind of a gravelly voice and it fits well with this type of music where he is mostly only accompanied by acoustic guitar and sometimes harmonica. The eight songs here have obvious inspiration from artists like Johnny Cash and Ryan Adams, but none of them sound like rip offs. Kensrue has always written about his faith. In fact, Thrice’s last record Vheissu had more Christian themes than a lot of so called Christian rock. On today’s song Kensrue is quite open about his Christian faith, hence the title. I think it’s refreshing to see an artist who doesn’t try to play off his or her faith so they can appeal to a wider audience or not alienate anyone. Kensrue simply puts it out there, saying here’s what I think and believe. Thrice have just completed a new record entitled The Alchemy Index, which is actually a collection of four EPs named for the basic elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air. Volume 1 which includes Fire and Water will be released in October, with Volume 2 to follow next spring. You can check out information about that album here, but for now enjoy Kensrue going solo and doing it well.
Dustin Kensrue - "I Believe"
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