David Dondero w/Shoot Down the Moon & Ian Olvera (Daydream Retrievers)

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A musician whose reach far exceeded his sales, David Dondero has inspired plenty of political songwriters over the last 15 years, first as a member of the political folk-punk band This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, then as a solo folk songwriter. Among those who were moved by Dondero’s shambolic, lo-fi folk was Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, who signed Dondero to his Team Love label in 2005. Since leaving Team Love, Dondero has scaled back the relative bells and whistles of his three records for that label, returning to the all-acoustic, live-from-a-cardboard-box sound of his early recordings. In 2013, he released the career retrospective Golden Hits Vol. 1 and an album of elegant new material, This Guitar, which he funded through Kickstarter. He released his latest album Inside the Cat’s Eye in 2017.