She Walks These Hills

So was having dinner with a bunch of good friends last night and my buddy Steve's iPod is programmed with an absolutely great, widely varying playlist. The wives express profound annoyance about how much time we men put into preparing such a playlist, and in particular, doing it right before guests arrive.

While the timing of playlist preparation is perhaps indefensible, there's no question that making a playlist for a party or gathering is an intensely personal statement, very similar to the mixtape phenomenon documented so perfectly in High Fidelity.

Anyway, one of the fine selections on Steve's playlist was the classic Long Black Veil by The Band. I mentioned to Rob, (a huge Band fan - I just love watching his face strain as he sings along :-) that Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett of Little Feat do a great job on this tune at their live acoustic duo shows. Here's a nice version:

Long Back Veil mp3
whole show (Bridgeton Folk Fest 2006)

42,000 on tap at the wayback machine

So last week was an awesome week for music here in the swamps of Jersey but for various reasons I didn't see a single show. I did do some playing, reconnecting with old friends, and that was great.

Looking at the calendar, this could be a great week to get into NYC for some jazz. Joe Lovano is simply a monster: emotion, chops, stage presence, tone, stylistic range/facility. A truly inspiring musician's musician.

Then the weekend offers way too many choices, with Marah, Radiators, Bob Mould all playing Friday and/or Saturday. Posts of each of these coming up soon...perhaps :-)

But I leave you this morning with several links to one of the true marvels of the net, that being the Live Music Archive. Over 42,000(!) live concerts archived and available for free download, often in multiple formats. It's just astonishing.

Anyway, there are of course many old favorites on LMA (2000+ Dead shows, hundreds of Feat, Rads, Ryan Adams) but here are a few more contemporary artists you might be getting into, that have a few shows up on LMA.



Spoon (I'm listening to http://www.archive.org/details/spoon2005-06-09.flac16 at this very moment in fact), Mp3 Sample Sister Jack


Josh Ritter (I have this
show on tap for later, still acoustic I think.)






Grace Potter and the Nocturnals who are just fantastic, as Brian H and many others have written so eloquently about in the past few months...




Marc Broussard who sounds way too soulful, world-weary and wise to be in his 20s. (I saw him at SXSW this year, and stood next to his best friend from high school -- a talkative fun Louisiana kid that I suspect had not yet started shaving! :-)

mp3 sample: Hard Times from 10/12/2006

Walt Whitman Bridge

How can you help but to root for these guys? They love the early, 100-words-per-line Bruce, they've had some great acoustic alt-country change-ups, they rock their asses off live, and their hometown apparently could not care less.

Sorry, Philly people, but how else can one explain why a band this good, ten years or so down the road, is playing a 300-capacity room in glorious Fishtown on a Saturday night, back in their hometown to celebrate the release of their 8th record? Indie cred? Right. Sure.

I caught Marah last time they played at Johnny Brenda's and I liked the room a lot, but have to admit to suffering visions of sitting in a gritty police station at 2am after discovering my car gone... (It was fine, of course...and yes, thanks, I am well aware that I've been living in the suburbs way too long.)

Anyway, Dave & Serge have kindly shared some new & improved tunes from the forthcoming record, check 'em out:

east
feather boa
the rough streets below
goin' through the motions

See youse guys at JB's on the 8th. I'll drive :-)