This just in: A partial lineup for 2011 XPoNential Music Festival—WXPN and Camden County Board Of Freeholders' annual three-day festival (running from Friday, July 22, to Sunday, July 24, at Wiggins Park on the Camden Waterfront)—has been announced. So far, the confirmed list of performing acts includes Ben Folds, Booker T., Shemekia Copeland, North Mississippi Allstars Duo, Ted Leo And The Pharmacists, Hayes Carll, Ra Ra Riot, Carbon Leaf, and Jukebox The Ghost; local acts include Susan Werner, Sun Airway, Johnny Miles And The Waywards, David Uosikkinen's In The Pocket, Nicos Gun, Hezekiah Jones, Andrew Lipke, Matt Duke, Kuf [...]
Hailed by The Chicago Tribune as "the most innovative songwriter working today" (and certainly one of our favorites), Susan Werner has proven she can pretty much do it all. From her early coffeehouse folk days in the early 90's to her groundbreaking 2004 album I Can't Be New -- where she wrote in the style of classic tunesmiths like Cole Porter -- to her 2007 album of "agnostic gospel" ( The Gospel Truth ), Werner has quietly risen to the elite of American songwriters. Werner's wide breadth [...]
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 [...]
Billy Jonas: Late [ purchase ] Susan Werner: Born a Little Late [ purchase ] Todd Snider: Age Like Wine [ purchase ] As soon as this week's theme was announced, I knew I wanted to [...]
Susan Werner: Sorry About Jesus [ purchase ] Ani DiFranco: Superhero [ purchase ] Dory Previn: Left Hand Lost [ purchase ] Where does sorry end and regret begin... or vice versa? - there's a fine line between apologizing to someone else and apologizing to yourself for things you wish you'd done/said/thought differently... things which are unalterably life-changing, and [...]
Running a music festival in this economy is a real challenge, but after a weekend with friends and co-coordinators of the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival , I'm proud to announce that once again we're rarin' to go for yet another wild weekend of singer-songwriter, folk rock, world music, and folk-pop. Add in the proverbial mix of friends, vendors, kid-friendly fare, hilltop up-and-comers in the label and coffeehouse-sponsored tents all night long, and dancing 'til the wee hours, and as always, Falcon Ridge 2010 is shaping up to be the best time I'm planning on having all [...]
Our previous contests this week - one to win Grey Fox Bluegrass day passes and some sweet bluegrass and cajun CDs, the other to win the Before the Goldrush tribute CD - have been successful, but there's still plenty of chances left. The Grey Fox contest includes over $250 worth of prizes alone, and there's FOUR chances to win, so don't forget to enter before contests close on Monday at midnight! But wait! Today, Cover Lay Down CONTEST WEEK comes to a head with an amazing chance to win [...]
There's no better time to take the pulse of a country than on the anniversary of its birth. My hopes were sky-high when Barack Obama was elected the forty-fourth President of the United States. The country had just endured eight years of a wartime President that took more vacation time than any other to date. The American people apparently were upset as I was - for the first time in years, there was a majority of Democrats voted into the House and Senate, which meant smooth sailing for our newly elected Democratic President. Americans were well aware of [...]
On Saturday, I put on my shorts and sandals and made my way to the final year degree show at the Limerick School of Art and Design on Clare St. The show is the culmination of four year's work by the art students who attend the college and features a wide range of disciplines including painting, photography, graphic design, ceramics, sculpture and fashion. I arrived in the afternoon, so I didn't get to see everything. In fact, I was taken aback by the quantity of work on offer, but also pleasantly delighted by the quality of work. I went to [...]
When you hear the word "classics" you tend to either think of one of two things: a "classic" standard - a song that has stood the test of time - or, on the other hand, the "Classics" (note: capital C) - the mostly orchestrated works of the great composers For acclaimed singer/songwriter Susan Werner , her new album "Classics" refers to both meanings simultaneously. Working with players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Werner has taken well known pop and R+B songs and turned [...]
Pianist, guitarist, and singer-songwriter Susan Werner has built a career on performing a particularly potent form of contemporary folk - one which balances a fluid and nuanced sense of delivery with an unusually loose, almost jazzy sense of time in which every moment counts, and can be stretched out to maximum effect. I've seen Werner several times throughout her career, in large venues and small, and I've always been impressed by her ability to connect with the audience through song, and connect the song to our hearts. But though the [...]
Pianist, guitarist, and singer-songwriter Susan Werner has built a career on performing a particularly potent form of contemporary folk - one which balances a fluid and nuanced sense of delivery with an unusually loose, almost jazzy sense of time in which every moment counts, and can be stretched out to maximum effect. I've seen Werner several times throughout her career, in large venues and small, and I've always been impressed by her ability to connect with the audience through song, and connect the song to our hearts. But though the [...]
Katy Moffatt: This Heart Stops for Railway Crosses [ purchase ] Salamander Crossing: Passion Train [ purchase ] Susan Werner: Time Between Trains [ purchase ] Ah, so many train songs, so little time - please allow me to share three more favorites before the last whistle blows. This week has been quite a journey... segueing from melancholy to rollicking and everything [...]
Susan Werner : Together [ purchase ] On her album The Gospel Truth, Susan Werner wrestles with the question of religion. Much of the album is angry or bitter. The songs detail the hypocrisy of those preach hatred in the name of God, politicians who use religion to justify their wrong-headed policies, and also tell of Werner's struggles with her own religious upbringing. But these struggles, and this venting, are not the last word. Werner concludes the album the song "Together". Although the lyrics include the words, "if there is a [...]
I was planning to use this weekend's entry to celebrate the impending one year anniversary of Cover Lay Down. But last night the cat turned up yowling pitifully under the shrubbery along the front porch, and he wouldn't come out. We couldn't find a flashlight; in the end, my wife lit a tiny candle in the rain, I heaved aside the overgrowth, and she reached into the darkness to reel him in, his body limp. That he didn't tear us to shreds as we extricated him from the shrubbery was tellingly [...]
I always thought that The Beatles would have had more of an edge if they'd written about lust , rather than love. Think of the title possibilities: "Lust Me Do" "She Lusts After You" "All You Need Is Lust" Lust is a tough nut to crack in my music collection, mainly because I never really got into the stuff where a lot of lust plays out: misogynist metal and rap. But that made the challenge even more complex, so I dove in head-first and here's [...]
(Editor's note: I was going to post this sometime this week but then the irony of putting this up on Sunday morning was too great to resist. I've got some of the best music I've ever put up set for tomorrow so come back and check out Songs:Illinois Monday morning.) Susan Werner's out to upset folks with her new, at times, anti-religious gospel record. The questions she asks on The Gospel Truth are ones that any enlightened person must have about the church, god, and [...]
A Town Full of Losers
The Key
Direct Current
Cover Lay Down
Star Maker Machine
snuhthing/anything
Selective Service
songsillinois
Video: Chromatics – “These Streets Will Never Look The Same”
Video: 2:54 - "Creeping"
Mumford and Sons anuncia novo álbum e toca música nova em rádio holandesa
