They ran the last trucks through Paradise Lake Road last night, their claws clutching desperately at the piles of brush and branches which have covered the curbsides and yards since the month began. The high school seniors who worked so tirelessly to bring hope and helping hands to shellshocked neighborhoods the morning after their graduation did not happen begin to move on, visiting colleges, taking off for the summer. The church with the fallen clocktower posts daily on our facebook page, its requests sounding evermore desperate as it struggles to find enough volunteers to keep the momentum going. [...]
Though recorded by a man who spent his early years as a Brill Building songwriter, Everybody's Talkin' was a folk song first and foremost. Apocryphally, it was a throw-away track, laid down in a single take by an anxious artist eager to get out of the studio and back to his Miami home, but there's a seasoned depth in the lyric, a universal sentiment of alienation, escapism and desire for the hermitage which rings true in everyman. Fred Neil 's original may touch upon cowboy country and pop, but that only helps [...]
There's little a humble folkblogger could add to the cultural conversation about the Rolling Stones . Heck, without a quick glance at Wikipedia, I can't even name all the players, though after three and a half decades of modern radio culture, I can certainly hum along with their radio hits. There's certainly no dearth of Stones covers out there, either. Yet interestingly, though the songs of Jagger and Richards seem to lend themselves to soul, heavy metal, and both mainstream and alt-country wonderfully, I find few covers from the folkworld in my [...]
Larkin revisits the past with the help of (lots) of friends …
Patty Larkin never does things quite as one might expect. Over the course of a dozen acclaimed albums, the Boston-based self-described "guitar driven songwriter" has put her own unique stamp on modern folk pop, fuzzying the genre borders with jazz, ambient improvisation and international music. There's always a distinctive new perspective to her songs as melodies twist and turn, lyrics stagger and strut with a poet's ear for wordplay and notes from her guitar blur and bend into impressionistic works of breathtaking virtuosity. All, of course, simultaneously. To label Larkin's music as "singer/songwriter" [...]
Shelby Lynne will follow up her superb 2007 Dusty Springfield tribute disc Just A Little Lovin' with a self-produced new project Tears, Lies, And Alibis due April 20 on her own newly founded independent label. "I've made records for 20 years and never been more excited," says Lynne. "I finally have the creative control I've needed to get my vision out there." The new project is said to have relatively stripped down sound and some old school elements from a studio band that includes members of the famed Muscle Shoals Swampers: David Hood and Spooner [...]
For the past few years, my father and I have taken a week or so at the end of the summer to travel together, just the two of us. This year, we've gone to Germany to visit my brother and his wife, artists who recently moved here to take a stab at the European art scene; I'm writing this, in fact, from outside a Frankfurt Starbucks in the midst of morning rush hour, the only place I could find a decent Internet connection, though the price is pretty dear. It's precious time lost, for a [...]
We take a break from the artists playing the 2009 Philly Folk Fest and feature a song I saw live many years ago. Patty Larkin is a wonderful guitarists and a stupendous lyricist. What I really like about this song is the vocal harmonies on the "falling away frontier" lines. Plus, in some ways, the theme of the song (dancing to the beat of a different drummer) gels well with Coconut and The Duke's album In The Bamboo Forests Of Pennsylvania. Which will be for sale next Tuesday. Listen: [...]
This is from her newest album, Watch the Sky. While listening to it, I was taken, as I always am, by Patty Larkin's talent. She is an amazing singer, certainly, but I also find her to be an even more amazing musician. It astonishes me that Patty Larkin hasn't caught on everywhere and anywhere that music is revered. MP3 File
This is from Watch the Sky, her most recent album. MP3 File
Patty Larkin. (Jana Leon) Last year, I got the pleasure of interviewing singer/songwriter/guitarist Patty Larkin . Besides being friendly and funny, Larkin was also unafraid of claiming equal status with some of the best (predominately male) guitar players. And her 11th CD, Watch the Sky , which was released earlier this year, goes a long way in proving her chutzpah. Dense soundscapes, some with a multi-cultural flavor, set the scene for Larkin to demonstrate her six- and twelve-string prowess. Catch her this Friday in the quiet confines of [...]
Gas isn't getting any cheaper, so now that you're back from the confusingly-named fields and stages of Bonnaroo , where Ben Folds retired his lush, hushed cover of Bitches Ain't Shit (see Fong Songs for a great live-from-Bonnaroo recording), it's time to start looking at a few festivals closer to home. For us, this means our own stomping grounds, here in the American Northeast. And for my money, there's no better festival around than the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival , a four-day, four-stage extravaganza of music, dancing, and live [...]
I remember the night we drove everywhere just to find a place to commit ourselves to a future together. It was cold, like tonight is cold. It wasn't Valentine's Day. But it was love. Looking back, I can't believe it took me so long to accept that the feelings I had for you were real, and worth risking everything. All that time I thought I was too broken, too battered. All that time, I thought a fool like me didn't deserve a woman like [...]
Christine Lavin used to (and maybe still does, The Duke doesn't know) put on a little singer-songwriting retreat on that famous island off the coast of MA: Martha's Vineyard. These are coffeehouse party tunes. Sipping lattes or iced chai kind of songs. Kicking back and playing some checkers with the cute girl in the plaid skirt kind of background music. Ms. Lavin has released some of the highlights from the retreat. A 17-song compilation sure to please. Listen: Pierce Pettis and Co. ~ Nod Over Coffee (the obligatory coffee cong) [...]
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