Unless you're living totally off the grid, it's hard to ignore the signs. Church Christmas bazaars and crafts fairs pepper the New England landscape, their wreaths and wraps and wooden ornaments a constant temptation. Television relationships get warmer by the fire; the commercials all begin to come in red velvet and white fur trim. Even the older family down the street has gotten into the act, draping the gutters with fauxcicles, topping the old stump with a glittering wire angel, trimming the lawn with white plastic snowmen and skeletal reindeer that blink furiously into [...]
Double the Rose = Double the Lovely. Halifax's Rose (Cousins) joined Boston's Rose (Polenzani) for a few songs on her new album The Rabbit . Here's a sample of the double loveliness the record has on offer - Living In A Country. MP3:: Rose Polenzani - Living In A Country WEB:: www.rosepolenzani.com
Rose Polenzani has been floating around the interwebs for awhile now, producing two previous LPs from 2004 through 2008. Her forthcoming LP, The Rabbit, will hit the shelves on August 23, and you can pre-order it by going to her bandcamp page . All of the business aside, this track is absolutely gorgeous. Polenzani's sultry crooning is mesmerizing as she wraps listeners into her world of dark Americana. The first comparisons are obviously Alela Diane or Akron's own [...]
Originally posted, with slight modifications, in August 2009. Because it's one of my favorite sets...and because bloggers need vacations, too. We're in Truro for a short weekend, just like in 2009, in the same rented beachhouse high on the dunes above the Cape Cod sound. Wakeless trawlers and shore fishermen, beach wanderers and bathers are few and far between, mere specks on an otherwise natural landscape that fills the sense with color: green grasses, faded yellow sand, the variable [...]
Emmet & Alice Otter: When The River Meets The Sea [ purchase on DVD] Rose Polenzani w/ Session Americana: When The River Meets The Sea [ purchase ] As I wrote on my "other" blog two years ago as part of a feature on this week's topic, "if this Paul Williams-penned tune wasn't familiar from two of Jim Henson's most magical Christmas specials ever*, it would fit perfectly in the gospelfolk canon." And [...]
Though the basic tenets of the movement include finding truth in a diversity of sources, thanks to the large number of post-Christian seekers in their membership, Unitarian Universalist congregations can be a bit oversensitive about "the Jesus thing". This makes seasonal celebration a bit tense. For example, in our own UU Society, though no one balked at last weekend's celebration of Hanukkah, and though we expect solid support for similar services on both Kwanza and Solstice in the coming weeks, past practice suggests we'd do well to avoid mention of the trinity, angels, miracles and the [...]
For those late to the party, a recap: A couple months ago, I decided to post some of the various Magnetic Fields covers I had in my music collection. Along the way, I went a little overboard and ended up posting pretty-much every Magnetic Fields cover known to man. The result was a six part series titled, "Let's Listen To Some Magnetic Fields Covers", which featured 35 songs in total. The links for all of them can be found below. Since it was the most popular thing we've done around here, I solicited [...]
We've featured singer-songwriter Rose Polenzani several times here on Cover Lay Down, but to my regret, our ongoing celebration does not seem to be causing the artistic renaissance I had been hoping. Today, then, as a last-minute holiday present to both artist and readers, I'd like to ask each of you to take a moment to consider the primary purpose of Cover Lay Down - to wit, the support of great and oft-undersung artists - and, in the spirit of the season, consider purchasing Polenzani's most recent work, the utterly lovely 2008 release [...]
yesterday marked the end of my 4th year using last.fm. i've been capturing my complete artist and song charts on december 12th each year to track how my listening habits change over time. in addition to tracking the progression of my overall charts , i also note the top songs and artists of each 12 month period. so here are the 5 artists and songs that i listened to the most from 12/12/08 to 12/12/09… Top 5 artists of 2009 1) Destroyer (723 plays) 2) Guided by voices (400) [...]
We're in Truro for a short week, in a rented beachhouse high on the dunes above the Cape Cod sound. Wakeless trawlers and shore fishermen, beach wanderers and bathers are few and far between, mere specks on an otherwise natural landscape that fills the sense with color: green grasses, faded yellow sand, the variable blues of sky and water. At night the lights of Provincetown shine brightly just on the edge of the vista, a line of stars marking the difference between pitch-black sea and an invisible sky. Last [...]
Someone's doing something right at the Berklee College of Music . As a gathering place for talented musicians steeped in a variety of traditions, it has long held a reputation both a natural source for emerging artists and a hotbed of hybridization. You may not have realized it, but the odds are excellent that at least some of your own favorite artists attended the prestigious school, from Patty Larkin, Gillian Welch, Bruce Cockburn and Susan Tedeschi to Melissa Etheridge, Bill Frisell, Donald Fagin, Juliana Hatfield, Aimee Mann and John Mayer. [...]
To suggest that all true Christmas music is kidsong is only a slight oversimplification. Put aside the tales of holiday romance and heartbreak, allow for the minor exception of a few overly religious holiday hymns, and a surprisingly large percentage of the melodies in the frosty air this time of year is kidmusic. And why not? We are, after all, products of a culture which weans its adults on a steady diet of commodification fetish through childhood tv. Religious or secular, Christian or otherwise, the way we come to Christmas springs - at least [...]
Well I did it. I waited `til after Thanksgiving to post my Christmas mix. So far a lot of these songs are from last year (or years past), hell I even recycled the photo from last year's post. I'll do my best to update this mix as new songs appear. I love these songs. They are some of the best Christmas songs you're likely to hear and for a large part they are ones I've dug up first. So Enjoy and Merry Christmas (three weeks early). P.S. I'm so low tech it's not even funny [...]
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 [...]
I love Rose Polenzani . I love her goofy YouTube video's . I love her songs. I love the fact that she's got so many friends in the folk community. I love the fact that she's from Boston (my hometown). This new record has barely had time to be a "Lost Disc of 20083 as it was just released nationally on Oct. 1. But even from the start it's an under-the-radar record from and under-the-radar artist. This record has not appeared on any of the various release lists I peruse, yet it [...]
Rose Polenzani will compete as a finalist tomorrow night in Mountain Stage 's NewSong Festival , so I sought out her album When The River Meets The Sea and fell for her beautiful voice. Rose recorded this unusual and lovely album with Session Americana, and it features guest vocals by Jennifer Kimball and Ana Egge. If I could hit you as hard as I wanted, I'd have kissed you softer when you died. One star falls on the gravesite, someone loves [...]
Death Cab for Cutie used to be an indie band. in fact, Ben Gibbard was the mother of all emoindierockers, being half of the genius behind Postal Service, the first project to prove that indie rock could sell better than label rock. Sadly, they got a major label deal. They've maintained their indie sensibilities, and they've stayed humble, but for me, the band will never be the same. Although I have to admit that I thought "Plans" was as good as any of their pre-major projects. Narrow Stairs, not so much. It's okay, and [...]
I know you probably thought that there couldn't be any more new Christmas music out there; let alone from a quality group like The Silos, a band as eclectic as Spottiswoode and His Enemies, or a singer-songwriter as acclaimed, yet as humble as Rose Polenzani. But with a little sleuthing on Christmas eve, while I digested the chicken pot pie, I turned up these three gems. The Silos is just what I like from that band. Walter Salas Humara plus a little Walter Salas Humara plus a little Walter [...]
Cover Lay Down
Herohill
Citizen Dick
Star Maker Machine
Womenfolk
The Opening Acts
the bat and the bird
songsillinois
Muruch
Berkeley Place
The Killers Reveal Details Of Fourth Album
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[Listen] Azealia Banks - '1991' (EP Stream)
