Pedigo's Magic Pilsner [LP]

Don't let the sadness and down-on-their-luck characters on Pedigo's Magic Pilsner fool you. The release from Dallas singer/songwriter John Pedigo, one half of folk-rock duo The O's, also radiates plenty of hope, joy and exuberant defiance in the face of loss. Pedigo's father was diagnosed with cancer in 2016, and Pedigo set out to make and record some songs that would, in their own way, honor and entertain his dad. Pedigo's destiny was making music. He got his first guitar in 5th grade, got ahold of cassettes of Guns N' Roses and Metallica and went from there, listening to hard rock and then getting turned on to The Smiths and college rock of the era. Hearing the Pixies' Bossa Nova album reoriented Pedigo's songwriting efforts. With Pedigo's Magic Pilsner - which is named after an infamously bad batch of homebrew that his dad concocted in the kitchen sink one year - the scope is a little wider. For Pedigo, this album was a way to explore what-does-it-all-mean questions, to process the confounding feeling of a deep loss and a constitutional sense of optimism about life and the possibilities that come our way.