
A tribute to the king of the cool nerds . . . Everyday-Rogue Wave Not Fade Away-Tom Petty Not Fade Away-Bruce Springsteen Every Day-Elin Palmer And check out this zip file for these: Not Fade Away-Fat Cats Not Fade Away-Fastball NFA-Gomez Oh Boy-Go Kart Mozart (acoustic) NFA-The Mantras Brown Eyed Handsome Man-Waylon Jennings Everyday-Tea Leaf Green [...]

2009 is a tough year to judge. I've checked out more albums this year than any year in the past. Well over 1,000. And there have been quite a few great ones as well. When this list began, it had 110 albums. I abandoned my top 33 and 1/3 for 45, and then said "screw it" and upped the number to an even 50. These are the top notch albums of the year, all worthy of praise. Despite trouble all around, 2009 wasn't all that bad. [...]

Elin Palmer is a Swedish singer songwriter who's previous work includes playing time with the Lee Lewis Harlots. She's played with Busia Bulat, M. Ward and The Fray in the past. She's a seasoned musician who's been around the block so to speak. I was interested in her work after hearing a handful of tracks on her album, Postcards. Elin Palmer has a nice voice siding with great classical influenced folk. It's nice to here all these instruments including the Nyckelharpa. It gives the music as interesting taste. With two tracks sung in her native [...]

It's the buzz of the blogs: brand spankin' new Federal Trade Commission guidelines for bloggers now require full disclosure of any personal benefit received gratis . With bloggers on both sides of the fence, it's not yet clear whether that would include those gifts garnered purely as part of the review process, such as passes to shows, and promotional and review materials both digital and tangible of any value whatsoever. Like many culture vultures and blogwatchers, though I recognize the need to create some sort of oversight which would [...]
![Elin Palmer: Postcard [Album Review]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2066784_lg.jpg)
Swedish folk musician turned Denver resident, Elin Palmer varies her song-craft between orchestration and experimentation. Her songs mesh the two arenas of folk, often dabbling in a fairly sizable amount of pop as well. Palmer's brilliance is partly due to her mystic voice - the Swedish accent is truly what does it. But wherever the unique instrumentation dominates, sheer brilliance ensues. Title track "Postcard", and epic closer "Whaleboat" find Palmer developing that interesting balance between the two sounds (orchestral and experimental). The former, as the opening song on [...]

Every January, the sitting American president comes before the American people and their duly elected legislative representatives and gives a report about the State of the Union . A combination of constitutional requirement, national tradition, and political posturing, these moments also provide us with a reliable annual marker for how things are going. Say what you will about the institution itself or the various men who have held it, but the regular meeting of the chief executive with the mass public's representatives (and, through technology, indirectly with the people themselves) closes the democratic loop in an important and laudable [...]

Here's the first of many captures from yesterday's Westword Music Showcase , a performance by Elin Palmer in the spectacular Curious Theatre . Delays in stage setup resulted in a late start, but a nice sized crowd streamed into the theatre as soon as doors opened. While short, the overall mood and attentive crowd made this my favorite Elin show to-date. Elin Palmer 6.13.2009 Westword Music Showcase Curious Theatre, Denver, CO Source: Microtech Gefell M300's > Lunatec V3 (opti-mod) > Toslink > Nomad JB3 > [...]