Screaming Lord Such – “Jack The Ripper” / Bob Dylan – “Mama, You Been On My Mind” / Felice Brothers – “Marlboro Man” / David Bazan – “Lost My Shape” / Yellow Ostrich – “WHALE” / Delta Spirit – ” Ballad Of Vitaly” / Screaming Females – “I Don’t Mind It” / Nirvana – “Drain You” / First Aid Kit – “Ghost Town” / The Weepies – “Please Speak Well Of Me” / Future Islands – Long Flight” / The Off Key – “Untitled” / Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues Reprise”
Giveaway: We have five (5) pairs of 3-day passes to giveaway for the festival. [Note: 3-Day Passes are only available to customers ages 21+, as the Friday and Sunday events are NOT open to all ages.] To enter, leave a comment telling us your favorite music festival. Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when commenting to ensure we’re able to contact you if you’re chosen. Winners will be selected and notified next week.
It takes some getting used to not seeing the mustachioed Franz Nicolay behind the keys with the Hold Steady anymore. Striking out out his own, Nicolay released Love and Courage earlier this year and from which we’re happy to offer downloads of “This Is Not A Pipe” and “Have Mercy” below. You can catch Franz on the road the remainder of the year including dates with Stornoway and Two Cow Garage.
Gregory Isaacs passed away yesterday. Since being introduced to his music almost a decade ago by a now famous musician, Isaacs became my favorite reggae artist. In August, my wife and I flew to Negril, Jamacia for our honeymoon. It’s impossible to ignore Bob Marley on such trips. His face, music and merchandise is everywhere. Rightfully so. However, you can’t move through the city without finding his music is piped in everywhere lending fabricated legitimacy as “No Woman No Cry” come around every 30 minutes. As a music fan I wanted to hear more, get a locals perspective on who they grew up listening to. It couldn’t have been only Bob Marley. Thankfully, two instances stand out from that trip, both centering around Gregory Isaacs.
We boarded a deep sea fishing boat early one morning and I struck up a two-hour conversation with our guide. The fish weren’t biting that day, and I was the only one of our group that hadn’t succumbed to sea sicknesses (not complaining). So we talked about music, life, and sports. Typical guy conversation I suppose. We shared a mutual love of the Chicago Bulls and then I brought up Gregory Isaacs. He spoke for 30 minutes on the man. He was a fan, he told me more about Issacs in those thirty minutes than I’d learned the previous decade. Despite what the rest of our crew thought (and felt), I got off that boat feeling pretty good and ready for a couple more Red Stripe’s.
On our last night’s in town we ate at a Japanese restaurant. Our cook was a prankster who fancied himself as both a ladies man and a singer. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he could actually sing and, as you can probably expect, serenaded the table with plenty of Bob Marley covers during his preparation of the meal. At one point he asked if anyone had any requests. I’m usually the one to stay silent during such interactions, but nobody else spoke up, so I threw out Gregory Isaacs name, mostly because after 7 days the last thing I wanted to hear was another Bob Marley song but also because I wanted to see if the guy knew anything else. He sang a spot-on version of “Night Nurse.” I’m not sure if anyone else at the table gave a shit, but I enjoyed it.
I spend a lot of time listening to music just on the left side of what might be called bluegrass. In fact, as I’ve thought about this series and music that I might want to include, I’ve often hit a bit of a brick wall because, while I enjoy what might be considered “traditional” bluegrass, very rarely am I blown over by it. Instead, my tastes have an affinity with the progressives (as I’ve explored in the past), but perhaps are even more grounded in the singer-songwriter crowd where focus moves from the instrumentation to the melody and ethos of songs. Genre-wise, music journalists have a tough time categorizing both of these kinds of groups. They’re all a little bit grassy, a little bit country-folk, a little bit something else.
Last year I told whoever would listen how much I loved Sarah Jarosz’s debut, Song Up In Her Head. I’ll spend what’s left of this year (and likely long into next) proclaiming my penchant for Mandolin Orange and their debut, full-length Quiet Little Room. It is a gem of a record mixing folky male/female duets and (mostly) acoustic guitar, mandolin, and fiddle instrumentation. The music doesn’t shy away from using a drumkit when its appropriate, but leans mostly on hauntingly sweet slow tunes with Gillian Welsh/Dave Rawlins-style close harmonies and stringed instrument solos. Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz can be added to the growing list of great acts who employ this formula: Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore come to mind immediately, but, for some reason (and I suspect it’s a good one), Nathaniel Rateliff‘s record this year, which is full of amazing songwriting with really lovely vocal harmonies, hangs nicely in this crowd too.
In any case, I highly recommend your checking out Mandolin Orange’s record and seeing them if and when they swing through your town. I hope they make some midwestern touring plans soon!
Check out “Train Song,” a non-album track, below, but also click here and listen through to a bunch of great YouTube performances (many off the record) from the band. (And thanks to Anson for the heads up on this and so many other great bands!)
