Daniel Ahearn, “That Was the Day”

As part of L.A. group Ill Lit, Daniel Ahearn’s folk tendencies were offset by electronic touches, but, upon setting off on his own in 2008, the songsmith shed the techy embellishments in favor of his rootsy material. “That Was the Day” -- from his first full-length outing, Long Way Home -- opens with amiable, mid-tempo acoustic strumming, and Ahearn’s the kind of writer who takes terms like “song poet” literally. If Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy lost his library card for a couple of months and soaked up some of Loudon Wainwright III’s deadpan emotional savagery, he might sound a bit like this, with verses full of nightmarish interpersonal scenarios punctuated by the casual irony of the chorus, “That was the day I knew my love was you.” Unwitting folk fans, be apprised: Ahearn’s rose bears one mother of a thorn. -- Jim Allen

"That Was The Day" Daniel Ahearn