As we noted over the weekend in The Year's Best Coverfolk, Part 1: Tribute Albums and Cover Collections , it's been a good year for full-album coverage. Overall, though, despite the fact that, in terms of sheer mass, covers from tributes overwhelm singletons in my collection, what I've found this year is that a significant majority of the songs that lingered, and demanded overplay, came from a mixed bag of borderline genre albums and single shot coverfolk tracks, via the usual sources, from YouTube, Soundcloud, studio appearances, website and bandcamp singles, and more. [...]
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 [...]
Indie singers honeyhoney and Joshua James are hitting the road for the Ten Buck Tour, a multi-city tour where every show is $10. They're also bringing along friend Levi Lowrey to play with them. Next stop on the Ten Buck Tour: The Camel. Saturday, Oct. 8. If you can't make that, the next stop will be in Charlottesville at the Southern on Monday, Oct. 10. Go check it out. honeyhoney - Ohio [...]
The blogs are buzzing with yesterday's announcement, via a terse yet sincere statement on their website , that Athens, GA hometown heroes R.E.M. are calling it quits after three decades on the road, the radio, and the cultural consciousness. We first covered the genre-defining band back in 2009, so rather than rehash their path from college radio to iconic mainstream success, we're taking the opportunity to revisit that older post today in memoriam - with a couple of bonus covers of Losing My Religion , from more recent CLD faves Amber Rubarth [...]
The larger, more prestigious Midwest-based music festivals have now come and gone, but there are still four upcoming indie rock-centric festivals within 5 hours of Indianapolis remaining this month. WHAT: ORANJE...Indiana's Premier Art & Music Exposition WHEN: September 17 WHERE: Indianapolis, IN WHO: Over 40 local artists & over 30 regional/local bands + MOKB Presents Stage Buy Tickets! WHAT: NBN presents SOUNDLAND [...]
M83 at Webster Hall (11/14/08) Photo : Tim Griffin ( more ) Sep 11 Sun Don Fleming & The Folding Men, Brute Force Mercury Lounge New York, NY 07:00 PM Buy Tickets [...]
Download Natural Child - Yer Birthday mp3 (from 1971) Download The Middle East – Jesus Came To My Birthday Party mp3 (from I Want That You Are Always Happy) Download Joshua James - Black July mp3 (from Build Me This) Download Small Houses - Late July mp3 (from Mixtape #1) Follow @madmackerel
KOCE, SoCal PBS, airs Sun Studio Sessions Sunday night May 29 at 9pm on their "OC" Channel, right after Soundstage. This episode features singer-songwriter Joshua James and his band.In addition to playing the Earvolution SXSW party at EMO's in 2007, Joshua James has been featured on NPR's "Live from the World Cafe" and was listed on iTunes' Best of 2009 in the Singer/Songwriter category. Paste
It's shaping up to be a strong Spring in the world of tributes and cover albums, and good thing, too - though the single-shot covers continue to pour in daily, other than Reid Jamieson's recent tribute to 1969 , the Cowboy Junkies' too-heavy-to-be-folk tribute to Vic Chesnutt, and a mid-February Sara Lov popfolk covers compilation , it's been pretty dry at the album-length intersection of folk and coverage. But apparently, in the world of cover albums, when it rains, it pours. Over the weekend, we featuredThea Gilmore's stunning take on Dylan's seminal [...]
Seven Swans Reimagined is a whole album of excellent Sufjan covers from indie artists including Joshua James, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and a band called Unwed Sailor that I once saw in Nashville (and bought their tshirt for an unwed sailor I know, as marketing). All profits benefit breast cancer research, also a worthy cause we can support. Go check it out and donate $10 for some beautiful tunes. That doleful cello is so rich on Joshua's version: To Be Alone With You by On Joyful Wings [...]
A couple weeks ago I posted a review of "Seven Swans Reimagined." My favorite song on the album was "To Be Alone With You." Unfortunately it was not quite finished when I posted. Here, now, is that version. Joshua James - To Be Alone With You As I mentioned before there are a bunch of gems on this record. Go pick up a few tracks (or the whole album) at bandcamp .
On Joyful Wings presents a tribute to Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens to benefit the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Seven Swans , the legendary debut album from Sufjan Stevens is being "reimagined" by a collection of indie artists for charity. All profits from the album will go to benefit the Susan G. Komen For The Cure breast cancer foundation. The project was organized and put together by an independent compilation company, On Joyful Wings . They got 15 different and unique artists, ranging from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy to Joshua James to The David Crowder Band, to deliver their own re-working of one of the Swans songs. I think the song I am most looking forward to [...]
Joshua James writes passionate songs about tragedy, religion, and substance abuse. He is said to be "a young Midwestern singer-songwriter who writes hard-bitten songs of family tragedies and sings them in a voice that's as sun-bleached and wind-battered as a Nebraska cornfield." One of my all time favorite songs... Lovers Without Love-Joshua James Colby's Song-Joshua James Coal War-Joshua James [...]
"Seven Swans Reimagined" is released by On Joyful Wings , a project that benefits the Susan G. Komen foundation . This is the label's second project. The album Seven Swans is organized around a series of bible verses. Seven is Christan special number, referring to completeness, and referenced in the Book of Revelation. FWIW, the seven swans from "The 12 Days of Christmas" are said to refer to the the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading and compassion. [...]
It doesn't feel that long ago when hardly a week went by on this blog that we didn't mention folk-rocker Joshua James . We love him here. And by my count its been a few months since last we saw Joshua grace our blog with his bittersweet voice. So he's due. Well the best I can offer you (and its actually pretty good) is a cover of Herman's Hermits "No Milk Today." The song is from a TV show called Sons of Anarchy ...a show I've never actually seen...but its rated TV-MA, so my delicate disposition [...]
Joshua James sent out an email a few days ago with a link to download his version of John Prine's song, "Christmas in Prison". I've never been to prison and don't plan on going EVER, so although I can't relate to the title of the song, I can relate to the message. And what is the message? The message is DON'T GO TO PRISON. Download: Christmas in Prison (John Prine) Download: Christmas in Prison (Joshua James)
One of my favorite Christmas themes is homecoming. The concentrated call for togetherness, whether wistful or wanton, is tied tightly to the seasonal trend towards family and friends, the desire for closeness around hearth and heart, a ward against the chill and the commercialism. The intimacy that results - just us and the tree, or perhaps the crowd brought into the home - frames a set of a songs that celebrate being home, or express a longing for it, depending on the narrative stance. But in all cases, the motif [...]
To get ready for the All Hallow's weekend here's a playlist of what we think are genuinely creepy songs. With only a few exceptions, they're mostly low-key acoustic songs, the kind you might hear around a campfire, somewhere far out in the woods. Only a couple deal with "monsters" per say (one mummy and one vampire, respectively), the rest are centered around the real-life kind of monsters - bloodthirsty sociopaths on hellish road-trips, spurned-lovers who become violently unhinged, and nightmarish butchers who come for your children in the night. A lot of the tunes are pretty, but if you listen [...]
Choice of coverage says so much about a folksinger's generational outlook. Okay, every once in a while, someone like Peter Gabriel comes along with a Bon Iver cover, or Richard Shindell takes on Josh Ritter, and the world turns topsy turvy for a week or two. And though she's not really my cup of tea, Joan Baez has made a point in her middle age of promoting and celebrating the works of others younger than herself, from Ritter to Dave Carter. But generally, such things are the exception, not the rule. [...]
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