I’ll be honest: when I review my personal best-of list for albums I’ve gotten in 2006, Matthew Perryman Jones’s Throwing Punches in the Dark is almost assuredly going to be #1. I have listened to this one so much that it’s really not even funny. Just last night, as I was driving in from Nashville, it was singing along with MPJ that kept me awake. I remember Andrew Osenga mentioning once that TPitD was best listened to late at night, in a car, really loud … and well, that’s where I was. And so I cherished it yet again.

I think the emotional center of the album, for me anyway, starts with “Refuge”, moving through “One Thing More” and “Hard Times”. So, I bring you “Refuge”, which you can also hear on Jones’s MySpace as the track that loads up with the page:

If you’re interested in more of Jones from this show, it was the 20 Jun 2006 release show for Osenga’s The Morning where Jones opened. Also, please remember to buy Throwing Punches in the Dark if this appealed to you: support good art.