I turned on the radio recently and found myself transported to the 50s, to an era when auto tune and electric guitars had yet to overrun mainstream American music.  But to my surprise the song they were playing was not by a contemporary of James Brown or Chuck Berry but rather by an artist who only just released his debut album, Signs and Signifiers, last year.  JD McPherson captures the simplicity of music from the 50s but that is not to say that his songs sound simple, they are full of soul, joy and energy.  There is a video, another from the Mahogany Sessions, of him playing his song "North Side Gal" on a street somewhere.  It is just him playing his hollow body guitar and singing and someone playing the stand-up bass; the bass gets in to your core while the joy that comes through in McPherson's voice is infectious.  It is simply impossible for you to sit still when you hear it and honestly, I don't understand why there isn't a crowd dancing in the street!