For my local Los Angeles people, Tom Schraeder is coming to town this Sunday, November 2nd at The Hotel Cafe. YCD wrote about him at the start of the year and if you haven’t had a chance to catch him live or buy his album now is the time to do so. Please come out and support him. Start learning the words to “When You’re Not Around” so you can sing along. Loved the EP Tom, can’t wait for the second half 
A review courtesy of smansmith:
Lying Through Dinner by Tom Schraeder
Well this 5 track EP from Tom Schraeder definitely has a lot in it for only being 13 minutes long! We run the gambit of the full band twang of Alt Country (Don’t Look Back) to late night crooning (Sorry My Dear) to a bar closing sing along (When You’re Not Around). This release has it all and I mean it – this in fact could be the “Coles Notes” of Tom Schraeder. While I tend to shy from raukin’ in the local tavern, I believe Schraeder is no stranger to this, but can shy away and keep the attention of the indie-melancholy in the very next breath.
While I don’t want to compare Schraeder to early Ryan Adams, I can’t shake the feeling that Adams may have tainted me for the sound. I believe there is huge talent here and I also feel Adams and his ilk may have stolen the gaze of the crowds from some real artists like Schraeder, engulfed it all, then left a landscape of not quite country road kill. Don’t take this as negative towards Schraeder’s performance on “Lying Through Dinner” in the least (or even RA as he has his moments), but I feel the EP needs its other half and I ask that you forward it immediately.
He is not that great. His cheap lyrics lack what really is needed to feel an emotional connection with a musician. He is the typical “woe is me” folk musician, that needs to find himself before he should sing another song.