Consumer Guide Album

Joe Fahey: Andrea's Exile [Rough Fish, 2024]
Did he fix the coffee wrong? Forget to feed the fish? What sparked the domestic crisis that left this mild, melodic, politically conscious Twin Cities singer-songwriter mourning the departed Andrea, whose calico and Birkenstocks he can't get off his mind? "There's just nothing to prepare you to take the stand at a lover's trial/No sadness greater than the crash then the silence of Andrea's exile," he knows now. Can they still achieve "a life of love and laughter" or has that horse has left the stable? His tenderness and regret are so palpable that the softy in me hereby urges him not to give up yet. B+