Chuck Pyle

Someone once dubbed Chuck Pyle "the Zen cowboy," and that's a pretty accurate description of the Colorado singer-songwriter, whose songs are filled with metaphysical musings straight out of a Buddhist text. "The waves they ebb and they flow/The perfect moment's gone before you know," he observes in the dreamlike "If Not Now." The same philosophy infuses the ballad "Romancing the Moment" ("Let's you and I go chase a rainbow together/Let's be devil-may-care, let's be now-or-never"). Pyle's seventh album has the uncluttered feel of a demo recording, which isn't a bad thing, given the singer's gentle but engaging voice. Despite a few missteps, Affected by the Moon is a satisfying excursion into Pyle's unique brand of country-and-Eastern music.