Greg Brown: You Might As Well Go To Sleep [ purchase ] Eliza Gilkyson: Sleeper (orig. Greg Brown) [ purchase ] As a chronicler of the human condition, Greg Brown is well-known for a particular emotional depth and wonder-at-the-world attitude which rests heavily on concrete, often wry imagery. He's strong in every life-stage, too, from death to parenthood, from hormone-crazed lust to love's end - and his deep signature growl only frames the journey [...]
As a defining event at the heart of the Western world's most dominant religion, the Christmas story is perhaps the most sung-about narrative in history. But it's not just its religious importance which makes Christ's birth so present in the air and the airwaves. The prophecy foretold; the kings, the star, the road; Bethlehem and the manger; Mary and Joseph - as a text, the multifaceted story breaks down into a dozen moments, stretching far enough for a myriad of narrative approaches, from a multiplicity of perspectives. And whether we grow [...]
by teepoo When I asked for a topic for this week's playlist the first person to answer was @dysonsound and he said "Disney". I'll take a more interesting route and not give you the originals (as much as I love the original Disney tracks) and give you some music inspired by Disney movies. Make your listening experience more enjoyable with ExtensionFM 1. Pogo- Toyz Noize [...]
As predicted, it's been a strong year for tributes and cover compilations; here we are only halfway into summer, and already we're looking at our third feature post on the topic. Cover albums can go either way, of course - as can any cover - but there's plenty of cream in this particular crop: the coverlover's bread and butter is a fattening bounty, and we're thrilled once again to bring you the newest and most noteworthy from all corners of the folkworld. New folk supergroup [...]
The July 13 Red Horse project comes to us from three major voices in contemporary American acoustic songwriting: Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky, artists who record for the noted folk and roots label Red House and who have worked together in the past (both Gilkyson and Kaplansky made guest appearances on Gorka's 2009 album So Dark You See ). During plans for a tour together earlier this year they saw an opportunity to expand their creative synergy in the studio as well and Red Horse was born. "If I had to use only one word [...]
Not sure what I was thinking when I planned to write and post this week's feature from the midst of a Disney World vacation. Though we're spending the week a wonderful house in a gated community just off site, instead of quiet nights by the pool, we've been dropping early, utterly exhausted after nine-hour days in the parks and dinner in one or another of Downtown Disney's famous upscale restaurants. To be fair, we've made the most of our time in the Mouse House. Having an event planner for a [...]
Austin's Eliza Gilkyson was the focus of our second post here at a fledgling Cover Lay Down, and the very first artist to get the full treatment; I had recently discovered the long-standing singer-songwriter, and was eager to get things off on the right foot by tapping into my own excitement with the folk world as I experience it. Of course, back then, the vast majority of you weren't here - a truth that justifies the occasional repost, I think, especially for those artists who really do form the core of modern [...]
Quick but heartfelt kudos to indie label Grinding Tapes for posting this timely in-house take on this classic year's end carol from The Points North . The flutes, guitar, and ragged vocal harmonies combine exquisitely, revealing a delicious old-school minimalist pubfolk perfect for a snowed-in New Year's Eve. The Points North: Auld Lang Syne Just as potent, in it's own way, is Sam Billen 's achingly fragile banjo-tinged [...]
Eliza Gilkyson: Prayer 2000 [ purchase ] Today's offering is a tip of the proverbial hat to Vesta_66, who chimed in last week with how much she (guessing on the gender) appreciates the "wisdom, maturity and respect" of the SMM contributors and commenters (as well as specifically likes the music of Eliza Gilkyson) - thanks for reading, enjoying and sticking around... I've previously described my circuitous route of discovering female contemporary folk artists, from Joan Baez to Dar and beyond - a seminal influence in my growth process was The [...]
Weaving his experiences, stemming from his somewhat bohemian lifestyle, into song, Matt Epp offers up his newest effort "Safe or Free" to the masses on November 3rd. This newest album represents Epp's wide vocal range and his talent for producing beautiful lyrics. In his former life, Matt Epp was a professional skateboard film maker and actor, and is known for his preference to hitchhiking and homelessness over staying still and having a fixed address. He has collaborated musically with Eliza Gilkyson, Jesse DeNatale and Matt Mays, and the like. Epps' "Safe or Free" was [...]
To wrap up my thoughts on this week's theme, I wanted to span the various ways women (and song) have dealt with domestic violence: confusing abuse with love... getting revenge on the abuser... walking away from the situation to make a better life - as Maya Angelou says, "when we know better, we do better"... and there is much emphasis these days, with the current generation, to Break the Cycle and do things differently... FIVE THINGS TO SAY TO SOMEONE IN A VIOLENT RELATIONSHIP: 1) It will only get worse. 2) I'm afraid for [...]
every 6 months or so i get addicted to this song, and right now my addiction is in full swing. the song in question is eliza gilkyson's "beauty way" but not the version that can be found on her hardtimes in babylon , but a demo that was given to me on a mix cd a few years back - thanks tallulah! the album version pales in comparison to the raw emotion that is found on this version. the released track is much too slick and produced and takes away from overall sense and feeling of desperation. [...]
World Party: Is It Like Today? [ purchase ] Eliza Gilkyson: Is It Like Today? [ purchase ] As someone who worked in the service industries through much of the ubiquitous Top 40 radio nineties, I must have had this song buried in my brain somewhere, but it was Eliza Gilkyson's 2005 pensive folkcover that sent me to the stacks to rediscover it, and finally listen to the lyrics. Turns out the [...]
I was dreaming, but I should have been with you instead... Here at Cover Lay Down, we pride ourselves on our diligent publishing schedule - twice a week every week, Wednesdays and Sundays without fail. Which makes it all the more embarrassing to have passed out on the couch just after supper last night, never to return to full-bore consciousness until the morning light hit the window, warning me of impending tardiness. To be fair, it's been a long week already: parent meetings and a full-period [...]
Eliza Gilkyson: Mama's Got A Boyfriend [ purchase ] Austinite Eliza Gilkyson -- daughter of folksinger and Disney songwriter Terry, who wrote both Memories Are Made Of This and The Bare Necessities , and sister of X guitarist Tony -- was a hardened performer of fifty when she finally hit the big time on folk radio with Hard Times in Babylon , an album which she has aptly described as "a diary of a season of loss." [...]
Greg Brown: The Poet Game [ purchase ] Eliza Gilkyson: Hard Times in Babylon [ purchase ] Like so many of our favorites, acoustic roots label Red House was started by a musician looking to release his own records outside the mainstream corporate model. The move was a such a success, in fact, that after two albums in 1981 and 1982, Greg Brown soon had no time to make both the music and the records, so Red [...]
I had planned to post a huge survey of new and upcoming tribute albums from the folkworld here in this space today, but after a week of bedside Zen , Sunday's late-night sociopolitical rant , and a full-bore reentry into teaching and town business meetings, exhaustion seems to have caught up with me. I'll be working on that tribute post throughout the week, and hope to have it up on Sunday at the latest. But in the interest of deadlines, and because the ol' brain is really not up to much [...]
I've always been nocturnal by nature, treating the darkest hours as my own private playspace. It's in the genes: growing up in the summer vacations of my childhood, my siblings, my father and I wandered the house like ghosts until three. Until I joined the public schoolteacher's union, I'd seen the sunrise more times at the tail end of my day than the beginning. But teaching is an early riser's profession. Fight as I may, after five hours of sleep and a full day in the hallways of urban adolescent [...]
My younger daughter turns three tomorrow, and we've spent the weekend celebrating with extended family: a trip to the circus yesterday, brunch and a slightly damp walkaround at 19th century "living museum" Old Sturbridge Village today. It's been exhausting, to be honest -- putting the girls in their spring dresses, driving back and forth the length of Massachusetts, and advocating for the kids sanity among the best intentions of so many family members is a lot of work. But I'm grateful for the distraction. Because if I had a chance to really sit and [...]
Thanks to email submissions, new releases and discoveries, and a newly-purchased CD repair kit, it's time for yet another edition of (Re)Covered , a monthly feature here on Cover Lay Down in which we recover a few songs that dropped through the cracks just a little too late to make it into the posts where they belonged. I saw Lucy Kaplansky last month at the UnCommon Coffeehouse with my father; as always, she turned in a wonderful, intimate set, including great covers [...]
Star Maker Machine
Cover Lay Down
Ride The Tempo
Direct Current
Raised on Indie
Captain's Dead
Get Cryphy: Soundset 2012 Mix
Rihanna Gets Nude For Nude
Garbage – “Not Your Kind of People” Concert @ Webster Hall, NYC (May 22, 2012)
Helmut: “Sepi”
