A Holy Recommendation - John Chenesky's Ascend EP

The following is an article guest-written by the newly elected Pope Francis, whom I play pickup basketball with every Tuesday. Please treat him with the same respect you've all so graciously shown me. Thanks, Nate.

Greetings my children,

What a blessed day it is to be His Holiness, the Pope! As you can probably imagine, the past week has been a whirlwind for me, what with the papal conclave and all. I've endured ups and downs, highs and lows, screaming Cardinals and soothing prayer, and yet through it all one thing remained constant: my NEED for FEED (which is what I call my subconscious desire to constantly check my Twitter feed, lol). So anyway, Wednesday comes, I'm elected and whatnot, and I notice my boy @NateCalvanese blowing up my Twitter feed about some Ascend EP one of his friends dropped the very same day. Weird, right? An EP with the title Ascend is released the same day I ascend to the pinnacle of Holiness? That can't be coincidence, so I go to check it out.

Mind. Blown.

Have you people heard this thing yet? Because if you haven't, you seriously need to get on it. No lie, I only made it through like three tracks before I was out on the streets of Rome singing its praises. It's that good.

Everyone knows when the Pope smiles he means business.

Take it from someone who knows music. Back when I was a young man of only 65 or so, me and a couple of the other Cardinals used to play in heavy metal garage band called The Cardinal Rule. You may have heard our hit single "Do Unto Others." It's the one where we sing about smashing mailboxes and spray painting penises on people's cars--but only if they do it to you first! Anyway, I played bass and did a lot of the backing vocals in the band, so I know what I'm talking about here.

John Chernesky has talent, plain and simple. All you have to do is listen to one of his songs to see that. He uses a beautiful blend of melodies to create a rich ambience for every song on the album, with layers and layers of musical depth. Listen closely and you'll pick up on some of the more intricate details, like the addition of synthesized strings or the subtle use of his voice as an instrument in addition to the lead vocal track. The level of detail is amazing, and it doesn't take much for that to come across. It almost makes me wish we'd kept The Cardinal Rule going. I was almost ready to start writing for an acoustic album called "Whispers from the Confessional," but alas, it wasn't meant to be. I doubt it would've stood up next to John's work anyway.

I still think my album art was pretty badass though.

Moral of the story, you all need to go out and buy this dude's EP. It's available for a measly $5.94 at https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ascend-ep/id619994464 and is guaranteed to leave you satisfied. What else are you going to do with those six dollars anyway? Buy a foot-long Subway sub that's not even really a foot long? I don't think so. If you're looking for a great deal that is honest and actually great (unlike a five dollar foot-long), check out John Chernesky's Ascend EP. You won't be disappointed. Trust me, I'm the pope.

Oh, and thanks for checking out my boy's blog.

PEACE!

Sincerely,
His Holiness, Pope Francis