November 2008
28 posts
Isidore Soucy and Romuald Soucy, “Reel des...
Henry Burr, “In the Land of Love with the...
A.J. Boulay, “Valse clog de Champagne =...
The Virtual Gramophone →
The Virtual Gramaphone is an enormous database of early recorded music from Canada. It has particular stregnths in fiddle music. I will post a few favorites.
Laura Palmer's Theme (Twin Peaks): More Martin...
That reverb gives me chills.
Martin Tallstrom - Cool Music Hot Guitar →
Go to Google and enter “country guitar licks” and one of the first things you’ll get is Martin Tallstrom’s site. From Stockholm, Sweden, Tallstrom seems to have immersed himself in American roots music and to have become an incredible picker in the process.
His site contains great lessons, licks, tips, and videos, such as this of his version of “Jesse...
Wilco and the Nudie Suits
I’ve been thinking a lot about Nudie suits lately. I’m sure it has something to do with the Gram Parsons phase I am in.
G.P.’s was incredible—marijuana leaves, poppies, etc., etc. You’ll have to read about all the iconography for yourself.
It begs the question, why is Jeff Tweedy, all of Wilco, in Nudie suits of late.
I don’t know. But Rolling Stone got...
Count Me Out: Grizzly Bear Update →
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Fleet Foxes -- A Take Away Show
The Fleet Foxes perform at Grand Palais:
Fleet Foxes - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
New DVDs - Hold on to Your Beanies - ‘The Little... →
I was completely obsessed with the Little Rascals when I was a kid. Most kids in the 70s and 80s were watching the Electric Company, Three’s Company, The Facts of Life, Different Strokes, What’s Happenin’, and sure, I liked them. But to me, the Little Rascals defined the world.
A child watching children from another era was revelatory to me. Seeing their lives against the...
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The Byrds: Hickory Wind
The Byrds, “Hickory Wind,” Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
This is one of Gram Parsons’s classics, penned for The Byrd’s own classic shift into country that Parsons initiated. He knew how to use his voice so well, to show the breaking of his world as he looked back on his childhood. You have to read David N. Meyer’s book on Parsons: Twenty Thousand Roads. I’m...
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Davy Graham: She Moved Through the Fair
Davy Graham, “She Moved Through the Fair” (sometimes “She Moved Through the Bizarre”), Folk, Blues & Beyond, 1964.
Kleptomaniac Jimmy Page lifted this song from Graham nearly completely, renamed it “White Summer” and laid it on the Yardbirds 1967 album Little Games. Don’t believe me? Here is a live version:
Unable to let it go, Page later...
Syd Barrett: Love You. Going to the U.K.
Syd Barrett, “Love You,” The Madcap Laughs (1970)
I am heading over to London tomorrow and so am looking for a little British inspiration. This song came to mind, an off-beat classic. Since it is Sunday, it seems appropriate too since whatever is happening here refers to Sunday morning. R.I.P Mr. Barrett.
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Other Music News » Live at Other Music: Toumani... →
While we are with Other Music… This is a wonderful video of Toumani Diabate and his kora. His explanation of the history of the instrument is very moving.
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The Louvin Brothers, “Gonna Lay Down My Old...
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R.I.P. Jimmy Carl Black, drummer for the Mothers...
The AP reports of Jimmy Carl Black’s death.
CLOSED
Vote.
I Love Baroque ‘n Roll « Plain Or Pan?: Fleet... →
Head here and find the six-track self-titled Fleet Foxes EP from 2006. Not much info on the provenance of this, on when or how it was released, but it sure sounds like an early form of the band we know today, though they did some serious work in the woodshed. This version of the band sounds at time like The Cure, The Smiths, and other quintessential British guitar bands. Sometime between...
The Elephant 6 Orchestra In Concert : NPR Music →
“The Elephant 6 Collective ‘is definitely back,’ tour organizer Julian Koster (Neutral Milk Hotel, The Music Tapes) said after the show. ‘Somehow, everything’s happening for us now. I don’t know why we were ever interrupted, and why all this is happening now. But we’re all just so happy. It just seems like a fact now. [Elephant 6] is back.’”
...
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Two examples of what can be done with one of those...
1978, Hamburg, Germany, John Fahey and a Martin dreadnought. (Check out the first tag on the YouTube page for the first video.)
Preoccupations - Building Tools That Can Make a... →
This is a fasctinating first-person narrative from Susan Cummings, neck-fitter at Martin. Ponder if you will: “I just started guitar lessons. I own four Martin guitars, and it finally drove me crazy that I couldn’t play them. It’s like owning a Mercedes and not being able to drive. I’m finding it difficult to learn at this stage of my life, though. There’s no parent standing over me,...
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Kelly Harrell, “Charlie, He’s a Good...
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Drum Buddy - Boing Boing →
Greenleaf Music, in the announcement about the Nels Cline record, mentioned that he was playing a Quintronics Drum Buddy. Boing Boing wrote about it earlier in the year here. It looks like a device straight out of Lost in Space.