:-)  Cass McCombs is a 32-year-old musician who was born in California and has lived in Baltimore, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. He has released one EP and four LPs.

:-)  Cass McCombs was raised primarily by women, which is probably a large part of why he is so successfully expressive. Fathers, out of jealousy and shame, tend to inhibit artistic leanings in their sons.

:-)  Cass McCombs is a man of few words, but they are carefully chosen words.

:-)  To learn what Cass McCombs thinks about, read his lyrics. They are 100 percent autobiographical. He really did go the hospital. He really did get a job cleaning toilets in Baltimore. She really is his dreams-come-true girl.

:-)  Cass McCombs is a lyricist in an age of lyrical illiteracy. His words, out of song context, are poem-like.

:-)  You can try to interview Cass McCombs if you want, but you’d be well advised to not call him a singer-songwriter to his face.

:-)  Cass McCombs is a trained vocalist. He has sung in choirs, hence his ability to leap to a falsetto from a growl, easily. His voice has rightfully been described as angelic.

:-)  Cass McCombs is a nimble, sensitive and skilled guitarist. For instance, he’ll drop into early rock-and-country picking idioms and you’ll think to yourself, “Nobody does that stuff nowadays, but it sounds so good. I’m glad Cass is doing it.”

:-)  Sometimes Cass McCombs sounds like [REDACTED]. Sometimes, on the subway and listening on headphones, some Cass McCombs songs sound like [REDACTED] or mid-80s-era [REDACTED]. Somebody once told me they thought Cass McCombs sounds like [REDACTED], at which I scoffed. He doesn’t sound like that at all.

:-)  Comparisons, as in “X sounds like Y,” bug Cass McCombs. In fact, it’s possible that he or his manager will excise the previous item because it contains comparisons.

:-)  I once heard Cass McCombs say that he really likes the Lou Reed album New York. I also saw a copy of On the Road on the bedside table where he was staying this past autumn.

:-)  Cass McCombs is one of the best writers and players of songs and words living in the world today, and many people would back that up with oaths and fists.

- jesse pearson