Austin based musician Adam Ostrar (formerly known as Adam Busch of Manishevitz) released four albums via Jagjaguwar with his old band from 1999-2007. However, it wasn’t until 2017 that he released his solo debut, Brawls in the Briar, which is now followed by the excellent sophomore effort, The Worried Coat. His latest blends 70’s AM style rock influences with traditional finger-picked folk sensibilities for a sound that is emotional, intimate, and playful. Ostrar covers a lot of ground thematically with songs about capitalism fatigue, gaslighting, nationalism and nativism, demagoguery, and inherited wealth vs. inherited debt. For The Worried Coat, Ostrar worked with Michael Krassner (Boxhead Ensemble, Lofty Pillars), Wil Hendricks (Califone, Simon Joyner), and Stephen Patterson (Hamilton Leithauser, White Rabbits) to help polish his clever, experimental folk-rock hybrid. Album highlights include: the song about a sketchy evangelical snake-oil salesman on “Alex the Cretin”; the chronicling of a displaced refugee on “Bloody Waves”; the gentle tale of false nostalgia in “Kansas City”; and a song about forgotten good intentions in “Morning Said.” All-in-all, Adam Ostrar’s The Worried Coat is a pleasing listen that addresses the times we live in head-on. – Written by JFelton
SIMILAR | Matt Dorrien, Manishevitz, Harry Nilsson, Izaak Opatz, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings