I keep missing Kasey Chambers when she comes through town, but it's not for lack of trying. The Australian singer-songwriter with the airy twang in her voice does heartache so well, it's a dream of mine to sit on the grass at some summery festival, eyes closed, letting the bittersweet music burn through me like the sunshine. Kasey's talent springs from growing up with music in her veins: the daughter of steel guitar player Bill Chambers , she picked up her first strings early, and spent an adolescent decade on the road [...]
Not familiar with singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer extraordinaire Gurf Morlix ? Here are just a few bits of his resume: Plays the guitar, bass, mandolin, mandocello, dobro, pedal steel,lap steel, Weissenborn, banjo, harmonica, organ, and drums. Produced albums for Lucinda Williams, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Tom Russell, Butch Hancock, Ian "Mac" McLagan, Slaid Cleaves, The Pinedogs, The Setters, Robert Earle Keen, Mary Gauthier, Hot Club of Cowtown, and BettySoo among many, many others. Played on various recordings by Julie and Buddy Miller, Slaid Cleves, BettySoo, The Band of Heathens, Sam Baker, [...]
Ray Wylie Hubbard: Name Droppin' [ purchase ] Here's a good old fashioned country-blues stomp courtesy of Ray Wylie Hubbard . In this song Hubbard introduces us to some Austin music luminaries... namely Jon Dee Graham , Darcy Deaville , Scrappy Jud Newcomb , Mary Gauthier , and Mambo John Treanor . Jon Dee Graham and Mary Gauthier are two of my favorites, but I'll admit to not being overly familiar with the others. I've been doing [...]
A graduate of the school of hard knocks Mary Gauthier has come a long away from the Dixie Kitchen, the name of her restaurant in Boston and title of her first album released back in 1997, not sure if this is still in print as there was a release last year, Genesis - The Early Years the gathers together some of the best tracks from Mary's earlier album releases, Dixie Kitchen, Filth & Fire and Drag Queens in Limousines, you can get it here ( buy [...]
Vampire Weekend Are Coming To Town in November Largo 10/22/09: Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar (call club) The Fonda 11/8/09: Imogen Heap (Saturday at 10 AM) El Rey 11/27/09: Rooney / Tally Hall (Saturday at 10 AM) Club Nokia 12/4/09: The Cranberries (Friday at 10 AM) 1/27/10: The Pee Wee Herman Show (now) Orpheum Theatre 12/16/09: Zero 7 (Saturday at 10 AM) Empire Polo Club 4/24/10: Stagecoach Festival - Keith Urban / Sugarland / Billy Currington / Phil Vassar / Merle Haggard / Ray Price / [...]
I was introduced to Austin-by-way-of-Maine singer-songwriter and unmatched musical storyteller Slaid Cleaves at the turn of the century through local radioplay, and the subsequent purchase of then-new release Broke Down. But I was grateful to be reminded of Slaid's genius last week through a thorough and appropriately celebratory look back at Broke Down over at This Mornin' I Am Born Again , where fellow folkblogger and Star Maker Machine co-contributor Payton uses Slaid's setting of Woody Guthrie's lyrics as a namesake song. To the extent that anyone [...]
I've been decompressing with Mary Gauthier after returning from Austin today. I can hardly wait until her next album comes out.
Today's mix: 1) Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women: "Downey Girl" 2) Kathleen Edwards: "Asking for Flowers" 3) Patty Griffin: "Burgundy Shoes" 4) Bob Dylan: "Sign on the Window" 5) Mary Gauthier: "Mercy Now" 6) Guy Clark: "One Way Ticket Down" 7) A.A. Bondy: "American Hearts" 8) Mark Eitzel: "Western Sky" 9) The Cave Singers: "I Don't Mind" 10) Houston Marchman: "Damn This Road"
Great news in the world of singer-songwriter folk in the past few weeks, as four of our favorite folk artists have emerged from the studio with smashing new albums. As each has been featured previously here on Cover Lay Down, we're styling the features as part of our ongoing (Re)covered feature, which looks back at older posts in order to help keep familiar names and perennial faves on the radar where they deserve. Enjoy the sneak peeks, and don't forget to follow links to purchase what you love... [...]
Here's my modus operandi: find something I like that no one else has written about and share it with you. It's a pretty hard and fast rule for the site. With exceptions. Malcolm Holcombe is one such exception. See the new record has already been mentioned by The Velvet Rut , 9B , and on Hero Hill but that's not going to stop me. I chose the title track to share since it clearly struck a chord with Holcolmbe and it's also got more of an old timey sound than [...]
I happened to mention Malcolm Holcombe's name here on The Rut last week purely because I was in the midst of conversation with myself. A conversation, that for whatever reason, I just happened to share with you. It was one of those listening conversations I have with music which begins because the inspiration moves me to do so. A conversation on that particular day that found me sitting alone on a Thursday morning, talking with the words of songwriters coming out of my stereo's speakers. Well that conversation led [...]
Diles cuál es tu nombre, parece decirle el mundo de la música a este nueva estrella con nombre de boxeador negro y que noquea de entrada junto a su banda de siete músicos. ¡Y vaya cómo se da a conocer con este disco debut!, que es un revival de aquellos, donde se mezclan con efervescencia el blues, el rock, el soul y la vena funky que no para de irrigar sangre de la mejor escuela oldie de James Brown ("Sugarfoot", ¡por favor!) u Otis Redding en la voz de Joe Lewis. Basta con escuchar [...]
Diles cuál es tu nombre, parece decirle el mundo de la música a este nueva estrella con nombre de boxeador negro y que noquea de entrada junto a su banda de siete músicos. Y vaya cómo se da a conocer con este disco debut, que es un revival de aquellos, donde se mezclan con efervescencia el blues, el rock, el soul y la vena funky que no para de irrigar sangre de la mejor escuela oldie de James Brown ("Sugarfoot", ¡por favor!) u Otis Redding en la voz de Joe Lewis. Basta con escuchar [...]
Here's our picks for this week! Monday Stars of Sunday League, Broadcast 2000, Jeremy Warmsley and more @ The Luminaire, London This lovely, intimate north London venue offers up some homegrown tunes to make you feel like you're right in your very own living room. Headliner, Stars of Sunday League, composed of Euan Robinson and Sarah Triggs are joined by Max Jones on accordion this evening for their wee Scottish EP launch. It is stripped down folk at its best, sparce [...]
Joe Henry: "The Man I Keep Hid" Joe Henry doesn't get enough love on this site. That stops now. Not only are we huge fans of his music, we've had the pleasure to work with him in a professional capacity, and there really isn't a nicer more humble musician out there these days. This post could easily be feature length, touching on his early highlights ( Short Man's Room ) mid-career gems ( Scar ), recent highlights ( Civilians ) and now his new record [...]
Boston folk/pop veteran Catie Curtis has answered the wishes of many of her loyal fans with Hello, Stranger, a stripped, organic collection of songs from her fifteen years at the forefront of the modern acoustic music movement. From mid-90's Lilith Fair, folk clubs and festival tours to work with artists such as Mary Chapin Carpenter and fellow New Englander Dar Williams, Curtis has quietly released nine consistently exceptional albums of intelligent, wry and witty songs, including 2007's warm, lush Sweet Life . Now it was time to revisit some of her best and best-loved songs and render [...]
Okay, as the story goes around here, it's not too often that I gravitate toward female singers - but I do have my favorites: the Patty Griffins and the Lucindas, and some good finds the last few years with artists like Mary Gauthier and Girl in a Coma (badass ladies)... and God bless her, despite all her troubles, Amy Winehouse is such an amazing talent. We can tack another one to the list - another female singer-songwriter who will receive a permanent spot in my iTunes library: her name is Gina Villalobos . A [...]
I was beat when I got home tonight after giving seminars for several hours and I had a hankerin' to hear Randy Newman's version of "Gone Dead Train," a tune that always perks me up. It's the rockingest song he ever recorded, at least as far as I know. Foolishly, I plugged the word "train" instead of "Randy Newman" into the search bar of my iTunes player. More than 300 songs popped up. Yowza. I started looking through the list and decided that almost all of them were good; many were great. Moreover, the songs cut [...]
The daily mix: 1) Bruce Cockburn: "How I Spent My Fall Vacation" 2) Slaid Cleaves: "Cold and Lonely" 3) Audrey Auld and Mary Gauthier: "Ain't No Joy" 4) John Hiatt: "Walk On" 5) Jackson Browne: "Song for Adam" 6) Dear Janes: "Drunk on Hallelujahs"" 7) Great Lakes Swimmers: "Hands in Dirty Ground" 8) Magnolia Electric Company: "Don't Fade on Me" 9) Chris Hillman and Steve Earle: "High Fashion Queen" 10) Damian Jurado: "Gillian Was a Horse"
The songs of Australian musician Bill Chambers, the father of alt-country star Kasey Chambers, a frequent collaborator with the folksy Audrey Auld, creep into your ears and explode your heart Take the title track of his 2003 debut, "Sleeping With the Blues." His voice, craggy and soft, and his Spanish-tinged guitar licks, pretty and soothing, are easy on the ears. But after a couple of minutes, the melancholy lyrics and the wistful tone of his voice will tear you up. The same is true even when Chambers covers other folks' tunes. Listening to him sing Mary Gauthier's "I [...]
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
Bobby B's Top 50 Albums Of The Decade (#25-21)
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
