Deep within the shady annals of Hipsterdom one can find a single, shabby, college-ruled sheet of paper. It’s scribbled on with blue & red ink, the tome is exclusively devoted to the resurrection of cassette-tapes for the purpose of media distribution and tucked into the vinyl front pocket of the “Formatting” trapper-keeper. In addition, look for the […]
Category: Folk
Message To Bears: Folding Leaves
Every time I happen across a band with “Bear” or “Bears” in the name I feel obligated to write about it… just ’cause I know my audience loves bears. So: Today I want to tell you about Jerome Alexander and his one-man-band Message To Bears (For some reason I can’t help but to think this […]
Andrew Bird: Break It Yourself
Of course: It’s in reference to your heart. And you shouldn’t even have to ask anymore. Andrew Bird again fills an album with transcendent guitar & violin and a little whistling. Bird has absolutely mastered making this type of album. It will be interesting to someday see a box set with all his music lined […]
Tom Waits: Frank’s Wild Years
See, this is the kind of weirdo music I could get behind. I think Tom Waits is actually insane. He is the musical manifestation of the instant when deliciously aged bourbon is spilled from a crystal tumbler, is soaked up by a vomit stained bar-rag, and is transformed into the smoking wick of molotov cocktail […]
Wilco: The Whole Love
I don’t have much time, but I want to post something about this album. Towards the end of last year (Sept. 2011), Wilco released The Whole Love and it is stunningly pure. Normally I would debate the merit of industry based awards – however this album, and Wilco in general, manage to tame my raging […]
Bill Tapia: 1908-2011
I just heard the sad news that ukulele legend, Bill Tapia, passed away in December of 2011. Tapia played ukulele from the age of 7 until his death, in Westminster, CA, at 103 years old. As described by the San Francisco Chronicle: “Born in Hawaii to Portuguese parents, Tapia could recall playing “Stars and Stripes […]
Classic Railroad Songs – The Album
In 2006 my good buddy and I investigated the mystery of the American rails. We studied maps, made phone calls, and explored the rail yards of Tucson. Ultimately our adventure ended in a bar a quarter mile from the tracks, but it never snuffed out the intrigue of the cars, tracks, and the sound of […]
The Carrière Brothers
Even a newborn, exiting the hospital via the elevator, is exposed to sounds piped through speakers.. unless of course you grew up in-between Houston and New Orleans, in towns like Jasper, and Eunice. While the new pavement of the divided highway 10 keeps most traffic at bay these days, only an age ago the 190 was […]
Phil Ochs: Tape From California
Half the World is crazy and the other half is scared, Madonnas do the minuet for the naked millionaires. The anarchists are rising while we’re racing for the moon, it doesn’t take a seer to see that the scene is coming soon… To the victor go the ashes of the spoils, seeds in the soil. Sorry, […]
Tinariwen: Tassili
Time to visit a desert oasis deep in the Malian Sahara. This group was founded by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, a man who, as a child, witnessed the murder of his father in a Mali uprising and built his first guitar from local garbage. He was trained to fight in wars and revolutions in the 1980s, first […]
Elizabeth Cotten: Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes
Jamesville, North Carolina is home to, well only 500 beautiful people, but hop on the 64 and head West about 130 miles and you’ll arrive in South Durham at the junction of Fayetteville and Riddle Roads, the historical location of Keene. Here you can take a stroll along the American Tobacco Trail, a historical tobacco transportation […]
Bears: Greater Lakes
Bears is a band that could have easily come from Palo Alto rather than Cleveland. They are a nerdy looking bunch and a few of the songs sound as if they were recorded in the back room of a party, similar to The Boston Tea Party’s Cold Weather, 40 Minutes and Beer sessions. But, nowadays, who doesn’t […]