The Christmas canon falls easily into several clusters of songtype: the wassail and traditional Euro-melody, the hymn and the poetic setting, the early 20th century crooner, the TV special soundtrack. Each, in its way, is a marker of a historical era; string them together, and you've got a cultural timeline of sorts, representing the common threads of the tree and the snow, family and friends, Jesus and Santa, exposing – along the way – the ways in which our perspective has changed over time. But genre and soungsource have blurred and expanded over the [...]
Here's another genial, generic album of singer-songwriter stuff that wouldn't sound out of place on your local public radio station. Over the past fifteen years, chances are you've heard Catie Curtis and never even known it. Her music has appeared on a slew of TV shows -- Dawson's Creek, Grey's Anatomy, and the like. She also performed at President Obama's inauguration in 2009, although her performance didn't quite generate the same kind of buzz as Bruce Springsteen's. Curtis's music is appropriately unassuming for the type of career she's had: pleasant, pretty, a little gritty, a...
From a commercial perspective, dropping a newly-recorded holiday album three days before Christmas seems risky enough. But this afternoon's newest release from Compass Records, a digital EP from Catie Curtis aptly entitled 'Twas the Night Before the White House , captures a moment in time too precious not to share. And though I've only had time to play it through twice, it may well turn out to be my favorite holiday release of the year. Catie's sweet, warm voice and delicate delivery carry an authenticity [...]
By the time you read this, we'll have been in the fields for two days already, camping out just a short hop from the Falcon Ridge Folk Fest mainstage while we help build the place from the ground up - and I'll have spent Saturday at Grey Fox Bluegrass Fest , too, so it's a reasonable bet that I've got a starter burn across my neck and nose, and a camera full of close-up press-access shots and shaky video of the best cover sets I could find. I'll have a lovely guest post [...]
This is from 1995 and Truth from Lies. I think this is the strongest song on a wonderful album. MP3 File yousendit
This is the title song from her 2008 album. Its about finding what was missing in life. I like its sentiments. MP3 File yousendit
Great news in the world of singer-songwriter folk in the past few weeks, as four of our favorite folk artists have emerged from the studio with smashing new albums. As each has been featured previously here on Cover Lay Down, we're styling the features as part of our ongoing (Re)covered feature, which looks back at older posts in order to help keep familiar names and perennial faves on the radar where they deserve. Enjoy the sneak peeks, and don't forget to follow links to purchase what you love... [...]
Like most folks, I first got familiar with Greg Laswell through his cover of Cyndi Lauper 's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun." Recognizing how much this one song has done for his career, Laswell has announced that he will release an entire EP of covers with the provocative title, "Covers EP," in October. It'll be on his own label, Vanguard Records , which scores him big points on this street corner. D.I.Y. is what the best music should be about. The EP is five covers of song by Echo & The Bunnymen [...]
Boston folk/pop veteran Catie Curtis has answered the wishes of many of her loyal fans with Hello, Stranger, a stripped, organic collection of songs from her fifteen years at the forefront of the modern acoustic music movement. From mid-90's Lilith Fair, folk clubs and festival tours to work with artists such as Mary Chapin Carpenter and fellow New Englander Dar Williams, Curtis has quietly released nine consistently exceptional albums of intelligent, wry and witty songs, including 2007's warm, lush Sweet Life . Now it was time to revisit some of her best and best-loved songs and render [...]
Michael Smith: I Brought My Father with Me [ purchase ] on the Time CD Catie Curtis: Dad's Yard [ purchase ] Todd Snider: Missing You [ purchase ] I am still in the small town of Flowery Branch, Georgia - what was to be a two-week visit (from my home in Florida) with my mom has turned indefinite. We have begun [...]
To my immense surprise, as of this morning, our statcounter is already showing searches for Christmas tunes, and the trend appears to be accelerating quickly. I'm saving one particularly popular holiday re-post for an upcoming stint as guest-blogger on BreakThru Radio , but far be it from us to hold back on what the people want. To kick of the upcoming holiday season, then, and in honor of the snow that is due to fall any minute now, I've re-upped the mp3s on this full set of Folkcovers for a Winter's Night [...]
(design by Joe) So the big news around these parts: Coconut Joe is taking early retirement from his 9-5, packing up his Weber mando and moving from Princeton to Minnesota. In honor of that, I have compiled a punch of songs with "over" in the title – as his job, as this chapter in his life is over. As for Coconut & The Duke , we will continue to work on our debut album " In The Bamboo Forests Of Pennsylvania " in a Postal Service type way. Instead of mailing tapes back [...]
This is the title song from Catie's most recent album, released a couple of days ago on Compass Records. I played every song when I got the album, and I played a few of them again this morning trying to decide which to play today. Finally, I decided on the title song, just as I had with the Joan Baez. After I first played this album, I needed to think about what I'd heard. Because I'm not as familiar with Catie's music as I am with Joan's, I had less of a frame of reference. What I found [...]
Filed under: Clash of the Cover Songs Spinner.com : The Rules for Battle: Each week, we pit versions of the same song by two different artists in a head-to-head death match for musical supremacy. (Sometimes it will be the original recording vs. a cover version; other times it will be two different... Read more
That's us on the treeline, there. See? What with weather and whatnot, the New England folk festival season only runs from June to September; it's a pretty compressed time, rich with opportunity, and invariably, there are tough choices to be made. But over the years, the luckiest of us have found found a few sacred places that feel like home, and we wouldn't miss them for the world. Which is to say: I'm off tomorrow for the farms and fields [...]
Long Night MoonCatie CurtisGenre: Folk, Country | Release: 29/08/06Â Score: Het is alweer een tijdje geleden dat ik weer eens zon typische folk, bijnacountry-eske plaat heb gehoord. Catie Curtis volgt de voetsporen vanandere folk singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams en gaat de strijd aan methaar nieuwe album Long Night Moon. Catie Curtis is een Amerikaanse folk singer-songwriter uit Boston. Hoewelze...
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