Last weekend I was going through a bunch of local MySpace pages and came across an artist that I’d heard a lot about but had never checked out before. In a sea of stuff that ranged from not-great to pretty-good, the songs of one performer in particular really stood out. So now we’ve come around to Sunday again and, after a considerable number of listens, Oh, Tonight by Ryan Walter Wagner is our pick for Song of the Week.

Maybe it’s because I’m on a big fat alt-country kick right now, but it’s awfully hard to not like such a prolific writer, photographer and singer/songwriter. CBC Radio 3 has lauded his collection of “plain old-fashioned good songs, completely void of any pretense” and listening to Oh Tonight I can see why. Similar in sound to some of Tom Petty’s better efforts, Wagner has produced a slow-burner filled with simple but outstanding instrumentation and back-up singing. In fact, “finding out sings the backup” has officially made my to-do list. It’s a great track and if I can find out any more information about it, I’ll be sure to update the post.

Until next week!