The last few days, I just can’t seem to get enough of these two guys: Hozier and Keaton Henson. Hozier I’ve been a fan of for quite some time now, whereas Keaton Henson is a very new discovery.

Hozier is soulful, bluesy Irish singer-songwriter Andrew Hozier-Byrne, who released his first EP, Take Me To Church, just last year.

The title track exploded, thanks to the likes of YouTube–which is how I first came across him–and he has been gaining more & more footing.

He released his second EP, From Eden, a few months ago. And it contains the one song in particular that I simply cannot hear enough.

Now for the new discovery: English folk singer-songwriter Keaton Henson. I came upon his music Monday, he was a related artist to someone else – I can’t even remember who now. I was creating a new playlist–centered around Hozier–and I don’t usually add artists I’m not familiar with, not without listening to at least one song first. But, for whatever reason, I went ahead and added all of Keaton’s songs. Just a few tracks in to my new playlist, I heard my first song by Keaton Henson…I was at work, and I can’t put into words how difficult it was, how much effort it took, to keep myself from bursting into tears right there at my desk. It is just so haunting, and beautiful, and poetic…

Last night, I found myself just sitting on my couch, in awe of what I was hearing.

I (obviously) love music, more than words could ever express. The best things in life can’t really be described, they have to be felt, right? Music is as important to me, as essential to my continued existence, as oxygen. Or food. Or water. Every day–and I mean that literally–every, single day, I come across more & more music that I simply fall in love with. Music is how I spend the majority of my time. It’s what get’s from one day to the next, what has accompanied me through the best and worst moments of my life. Music is the one thing I am most passionate about (believe you me, that’s saying something…I obsess…a lot). Music, in some way, is my purpose in life.

As often as I find new music that I utterly love, it is an extremely rare occasion that I come across a song or an artist that affects me in such a way as these two artists have. It’s so difficult to describe the feeling, the pure emotion, the almost otherworldly connection that it evokes. Several years ago, soon after I heard my very first song by Bobby Long (“Crooked Sky,” with Marcus Foster), I started to catalog (just in my own head) these rare artists/songs as my “musical soulmates.” It was the only way I could come up with to describe them, to separate them from all the other music that I love so much. They are the extra special ones, the elite, you could say, and because of that, I felt like they needed their own realm. Hozier became part of this group when I first heard him, and now, Keaton Henson has joined the ranks.

Coming upon artists like Keaton & Hozier, especially when it happens in seemingly random ways, revitalizes me in a way nothing else can. It renews my spirit, exactly when I need it most.