I recently stumbled across a clip of Steve Martin and Earl Scruggs performing Foggy Mountain Breakdown on Letterman. This performance is incredible.
Monthly Archives: April 2011
Brandi Carlile
Everyone has heard Brandi Carlile’s The Story but I’ve always liked her song Josephine. I think the harmonizing is great and love the soft and quiet sound of it all.
Townes Van Zandt
I began to listen to Townes Van Zandt a few summers ago. I consider him to be a mix of folk and country and to that end he is one of the few country singers that I will ever listen to. Talking Thunderbird Blues reminds me a lot of Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant and Two Hands has been covered by The Felice Brothers. She Came And She Touched Me has the most beautiful chord progression and strumming I’ve heard in a long time. A few of these links are to live recordings of his songs and I love hearing the commentary and the sounds of the audience.
Townes Van Zandt – She Came And She Touched Me
Townes Van Zandt – I’ll Be Here In The Morning
Townes Van Zandt – Pancho And Lefty
If I had a hammer
If I Had A Hammer is a fantastic song. I had always listened to the Peter, Paul, and Mary version but yesterday I stumbled across a live version with Pete Singer (the writer of the song) and a chorus. It is just amazing. Here are the two versions.
Nick Urata/DeVotchKa
I just rediscovered Nick Urata last night, but I should say that I never really knew that I had found him before. I used to listen to a song by DeVotchKa that was on the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack (see below) and didn’t know that he was a part of DeVotchKa. Then I heard another of his songs on the The Joneses soundtrack and started exploring his other solo stuff. Check it out, Faking Death has this great 1960′s suburban kitschy sound that I adore.
Bowerbirds
Bowerbirds is a great band that played with Elvis Perkins in Dearland for a few shows that I saw in the fall of 2009. I love their folksy, rambling songs. Northern Lights will always remind me of Stockholm because of the mural of the northern lights on one of the walls in the hostel. The broken down, out-out-of-tune sound of the piano in Human Hands is also pretty wonderful.
Those Darlins
I first heard Those Darlins at a show with Deer Tick and the Diamond Doves at Firehouse XIII in Providence. I believe it was also the first or second show ever for the newly formed Diamond Doves (who I’ll put up here soon). Those Darlins are a wonderful and raucous mix of rock, folk, and rockabilly. Their song The Whole Damn Thing is a personal favorite.
An achingly beautiful song
This is one of my favorite pieces of music. There isn’t much more to say about it than that.
