With the release of the single "Play Me A Christmas Song", Stephen Dowd manages to bottle the very specific, blue-hued silence that falls over a living room once the wrapping paper has been cleared away. It is a curious thing, really, how a melody can act less like a sound wave and more like the smell of a candle that was blown out five...

Folk music and indie folk have become more mainstream in recent years, to my surprise. The uplifting and soothing vibrations of this clean and global form of music are something we should all have more of in our lives. Two years ago, Lee Leffler (guitars, keyboards, vocals and lyrics), along with Michael Frackleton (drumming and bass), formed the Boston-based band, Dream of a Man...