All We Need

Personnel: Lucine Zirekyants (violin); Thomas Lea (viola); John Krovoza (cello); Ron Blake (trumpet, flugelhorn).
Recording information: Larrabee Studios, Los Angeles, CA.
Photographers: Jimmy Nguyen; Hannah Sider.
Stone Mountain, Georgia native Raury Tullis was only 19 -- a singing and rapping free spirit who cited the dissimilar likes of Andre 3000 and Bon Iver among his inspirations -- when he released All We Need, his first album for major-label Columbia. An EP that preceded this full-length offered a crazy quilt of slightly left-of-center folk, rap, and rock. Raury seemed like an artist in need of a merciless editor, or maybe just a label patient enough to allow for natural development. Columbia seems to be taking the latter path with All We Need. Like the EP, it frustrates almost as much as it charms, but Raury's energy is ceaselessly positive, and his potential is abundant. ~ Andy Kellman