Diana Jones Has New Music Coming Out

Let the people rejoice.

A link to the announcement.

A treat for you to enjoy while you’re here.

New Music From Eddi Reader

Scottish singer/songwriter has a new album coming out and has posted a free song to celebrate, based on a poem by John Masefield.

John Wesley Harding

John Wesley Harding has a new CD coming out.

Here’s a video from his last album to get you ready.

And, you can download a couple songs from his upcoming CD at Noisetrade,

Some Videos

Here are some artists I’ve been digging on lately.

Pharis and Jason Romero

The Milk Carton Kids

Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer

Paul Kelly

As the Credits Roll

We are blessed here at FolkBlog with occasional posts from Australian music journalist Sue Barrett. As always, the content of this article is entirely that of Sue Barrett and she retains all rights and copyrights, etc.

By Sue Barrett

I’m Teacher’s Pet on Ship of Fools
The movies were my special school
I’m The Graduate of Twelve O’Clock High
The movies are great medicine
I thank you Tommy Edison
For giving us the best years of our lives

(Lew DeWitt/The Statler Brothers – ‘The Movies’)

A short time ago, in the mail, came the 1984 vinyl album by Meat Joy (a performance art troupe/punk band from Texas). The album is housed in one of 1,500 unique album covers, hand-decorated, all those years ago, by the members of Meat Joy (including Gretchen Phillips) and other people from the Austin community at a series of decorating parties.

A few days later, also in the mail, came The Heist, the 2012 debut album from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (rapper and producer, respectively). The deluxe CD version of The Heist, is housed in a ’gator box and accompanied by, behind a piece of gold foil, eighteen individual pieces of art on custom cards (one card for each song):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=htfwq7EK2-A
Another 2012 release is Australian singer-songwriter Catherine Britt’s Always Never Enough, with the limited edition CD digi pack coming signed by Britt and including an acoustic version of her song, ‘Sweet Emmylou’.

On the internet, you can find a series of discussions about interesting, unusual and bizarre album covers, lyric sheets, vinyl pressings and other such objects (some actual, some rumoured) – including The Sweet (Tip Me a Wink), Laura Nyro (Eli and the 13th Confession), Alice Cooper (School’s Out).

Bookcases can also be a source of things interesting, unusual and bizarre. It’s no surprise to find Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity in a bookcase filled with music books. More puzzling, perhaps, is a bookcase of music books that contains Joe Meno’s Hairstyles of the Damned; When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Masson and Susan McCarthy; and Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire. The answers lie in: Meghan Galbraith/8 Inch Betsy; Lori Twersky/Bitch; and James Keelaghan/Cry Cry Cry.

In California, with February partly gone, the Santa Ana winds might also be nearly gone. Next year, it will be thirty years since the release of Steve Goodman’s 1984 album, Santa Ana Winds; it will also be thirty years since his death, aged 36. Goodman’s album takes its title from the song, ‘Santa Ana Winds’ (“written from roasted memory with friends Mary Gaffney and Mike Jordan in Chicago, where wind is understood”). Also on the album is Goodman’s ‘Fourteen Days’ and ‘Face on the Cutting Room Floor’ (written with Jimmy Ibbotsen and Jeff Hanna from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). ‘Fourteen Days’ includes vocals from Emmylou Harris. And ‘Face on the Cutting Room Floor’ tells the story of the women, from around the world, who came (and probably still come) to the Los Angeles area to become famous.

Now Australians MARIE WILSON and JEN ANDERSON and American LAURA KARPMAN take us deep into the world of music in film and television.

Continue reading As the Credits Roll

Some New Add Videos

Some videos from some recent new adds:

The totally adorable Rebecca Loebe

Black Prairie

Coty Hogue

David Wax Museum

Honky-tonkin’ chanteuse Eilen Jewell

Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott

One More Video

Caroline Herring has finally posted a video featuring a song from her fantastic new album, Camilla, one of the best records I’ve heard this year.

Video Roundup

Some videos from artists I’ve been digging on lately:

First up, Canadian singer/songwriter Corb Lund.  The song is excellent, but the scenery in this video is fantastic.

Trampled by Turtles – “Widower’s Heart”

Terri Burns and Ron Kristy’s cover of Julie Miller’s requiem for Mark Heard. As a side note, August 16 will mark the 20th anniversary of the death of one of the best singer/songwriters of the 20th century, Mark Heard.

Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys

Great Lake Swimmers

Late Nights, Long Distances and Roadside Toilets – Musicians on Tour

Note: Sue Barrett is a music journalist from Australia who is an occasional contributor to FolkBlog.  This piece appears by her gracious permission and she retains all rights to this article.

By Sue Barrett

But could we discuss this later please/

I’ve been driving for 6 hours/

And I’ve been drinking too much tea/

(Julie Schurr – ‘Boi in the Girls’ Room’)

On a late night train in Sydney, Australia, a group of young women were discussing an upcoming party. Apparently the party included a dress requirement, which brought on a discussion of Pantaloons and espadrilles. Not exactly sure what these fashion items looked liked, but with good spelling skills and perhaps a sense of dread, one of the young women pulled out her smartphone to look for images on the internet.

Nearly twenty years before, when the internet was still developing and smartphones were an information superhighway fantasy, American singer-songwriter Dar Williams published The Tofu Tollbooth, a directory of natural-food stores for travellers.

Many songwriters, including Dar Williams, write about travelling – songs of trips by bus, train, car and plane; songs of emotional and spiritual journeys. Songwriters like Enda Kenny (‘The Streets of Joyce’), Kate Campbell and Walt Aldridge (‘Miles of Blues’), Cheryl Wheeler (‘Rainy Road into Atlanta’), Iain ‘Fred’ Smith (‘American Guitar’), Victoria Williams (‘Holy Spirit’) and Humble Tripe’s Shawn Luby (‘Traveled’).

Now Rebecca Wright (Australia) and Julie Schurr (USA) tell of lives spent travelling, as musicians on tour…

Continue reading Late Nights, Long Distances and Roadside Toilets – Musicians on Tour

Listening to Levon

Levon Helm died this week. He had a compelling voice, a voice grounded in the land that demanded attention. I thought about posting a Levon Helm video,  but there are so many places doing that. Insead, here is a video from Marc Cohn that absolutely nails the effect that listening to Levon Helm had on so many. It’s the best tribute that I can come up with.

Festival Radio