Known as Amazon’s most frequently published Kindle Singles author, Miksha Shubaly can boast four bestsellers: a first-hand account of a disaster at sea, “Shipwrecked;” a mini-memoir detailing Shubaly’s transition from “drunk-and-drugged gutter dweller to sober ultra-marathoner “ called “The Long Run;” a true tale of online love gone wrong, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and “Bachelor Number One” about reality TV.

The third full-length album Coward’s Path [In Music We Trust] from Shubaly features dark, bittersweet songs and a wondrously layered journey through the depths of Shubaly’s psyche. It’s the perfect antidote to the forced fuzzy warmth and overindulgence of Valentine’s Day. He’s a superb wordsmith writing dark, bittersweet, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes brooding songs. The music and vox sound like The Pogues, Pavement and Lou Reed mixed together.

“Frankenstein Heart” is a bold and super-charged biting song about the devastation from years of drug abuse. “Taxes and Jail” is a detached, amusing anti-love song –“you won’t hear from me you’re beautiful/ because it’s your insecurity that keeps you around/ because baby you can always depend on me when you need someone to let you down.” Propelled by a grooving beat, “I Can’t Remember When You Were Mine” includes lines like “boxes and boxes of unlabeled crap/ if I die now they will never get unpacked” sung with deep dissonance. Dramatic, expansive string arrangements make “Ohio” a gloomy treasure. This might be another go-to for me on moody days.

“The title refers to a time in my life where I took the path of least resistance to the end of the line,” explains Shubaly. “In one of the first copyrighted blues songs from 1912, Lee Roy White says ‘the blues ain’t nothing but a good man feeling bad.’ Coward’s Path is the sound of a bad man feeling bad.”

Coward’s Path
In Music We Trust
out now

RECOMMENDATION: BUY

purchase at Amazon: The Long Run & Other True Stories: foreword by Jeff Bezos

purchase at Amazon: Bachelor Number One (Kindle Single)

purchase at Amazon: Thanks for Letting Me Crash