Category: Bark

Featured Friday Morning Music Shuffle – Every Dollar in the US Mint Mix

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Heritage Blues Orchestra with Special Guest Keb Mo
 
 
Took in a great show last night at the historic Franklin Theatre in Downtown Franklin, TN.  The show marked the first ever Nashville area appearance of the Heritage Blues Orchestra from New York City. Their music incorporated traditional Blues tunes with some jazz-inspired arrangements to create a very diverse and fun night of music.  The guitar work of Junior Mack was outstanding, the vocals were out of this world.  Special Guest Keb Mo was incredible.
 
 
To close out the week, we have pretty cool Featured Friday shuffle that is a good mix that includes songs sent to me by some of the most consistently awesome publicists from whom I get music along with some awesome songs from of the immensely talented friends I’ve made on this journey of music and life.

“Kohly” by Angeline

Angeline (with an accent mark, I am too lazy to figure out how to type) is a French born singer-songwriter now living in London.  Her new EP is called, Back to Pike, and this is actually the short instrumental prelude included as the first track.  I personally love having introductions and instrumental preludes etc. included in the shuffle… makes for some fun transitions.  Looking forward to featuring the rest of the EP soon. 

“Master Drone” by The Unravelling

Speaking of interesting transitions.  The previously mentioned prelude served as a precursor to this Heavy Rocking track from Calgary based The Unravelling. The song is loud and pounding and crunching… a great way to get me geared up for my Friday work day… 

“Wired for Fun” by Bark

What do you do when you are a badass bass player? You take up the drums! At least that is what Susan Bauer Lee did last year, and out of that her and husband Tim Lee formed a side project to their band, Tim Lee 3 – called Bark.  Bark released their debut EP earlier this year, and Wired for Fun is on that record.  I dig it.

“Two Heads” by The Jackals

We have another track from Scottish band, The Jackals from their new record, People.  Awesome Cosmic Rock and Roll from across the pond.

“The River” by Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen

Remember when I reviewed Love and Life?  In case you missed it, or need a refresher… here it is.  It is very refreshing to hear artists like Scissormen and the Heritage Blues Orchestra upholding traditional roots music while simultaneously pushing into forward and keeping the music not just remembered but alive.

“Better Walk Right” by James Tomberlin

Still Life with Orange is both a great record (produced by E2TG fave/friend Josh Morris) and a consolation to the fact that James no longer lives in Nashville.  He is off preparing to set the world ablaze with his legal brilliance. I met James a little over a year ago, when Darrin Bradbury introduced him as a great songwriter. Darrin was neither lying or overstating.  James voice and guitar playing create a rich and unique soundscape for his brilliant songs.

“For What That’s Worth” by Patrick Kinsley and a Fistful of Dollars

Remember when I reviewed For a Thousand Miles?  Here is where to find that review. Patrick Kinsley is another of those brilliant songwriters that I have met in Nashville over the past year or so. He is well read, insightful, has a unique voice, and is backed by a great sounding band.

VIDEO PLAYLIST


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Thursday Morning Music Shuffle – We’re Going Downtown Mix

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Had a great night of music last night.  Saw legendary songwriter Don Schlitz again at The 5 Spot (he has just one more week in his residency – if you are in Nashville and have not seen this show yet, I highly recommend it).  Then, I headed over to the City Winery – Nashville.  It was my first time in the big room, and I was impressed.  Saw Brian Wright and Liz Longley – a pair of very different, but both amazing songwriters/singers.  My review of their show is posted to No Depression.


“Hold on to Your Hats (We’re Going Downtown)” by Science!

From the Seattle band’s latest, Alcoves and Alleyways.  A great song for the beginning of my drive downtown for work.

“My Caravan” by Hoodoo Gurus

A deeper cut from Blow Your Cool!

“Love Won’t Burn” by Young America

From their EP Pain, Rain, and the Mundane which you can still get from Noisetrade.  The always amazing Lindsay Ellyn provides the background vocals on this track.  For the record, this song covers pain and rain – not sure about the mundane. I am highly anticipating their full-length Good Old Fashioned Pain.  I added a video bonus of a Gram Parson’s cover from Young America.

“Country Comforts” by Rod Stewart

Sometimes the ol’ shuffle pulls a nice transition like this… moving from the awesome neo-traditional country of Young America to this classic Brit-country track from Rod Stewart’s 1970 album Gasoline Alley.  The song was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and appears on John’s classic album Tumbleweed Connection.  As someone who grew up only knowing Rod Stewart from “Do You Think I’m Sexy” and “Hot Legs”, discovering his earlier music was a major revelation for me. 

“My Mama’s Dead” by Dream Police

Dream Police is a side project of members of the band, The Men.  This song is from the album Hypnotized which was released in November 2014.

“Half-Assed Blues” by Bark

Another side project – Bark. is made up of two thirds of the Tim Lee 3.  Susan Bauer Lee on Drums and Vocals and Tim Lee on bass, vocals, and others instruments. The debut EP by Bark. is also called Bark.

“Mulberry Street” by Matt King

This is the lead track from Matt King’s 2010 album Matt King and the Cutters.

“Black Friday Holiday” by Dead in 5

From the album, Schizophrenic Razor Project.  This Detroit band had a song in the cult film Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies (which I totally didn’t know was a thing, but which I now must see).

“Corners” by The Storm Chronicles

Directly from my inbox comes some very good music which I would describe (upon first listen) as keyboard driven, progressive, pop music.  I will update and revise that assessment as I listen more.  The Storm Chronicles are from the Pacific Northwest.

“Molting” by Shaprece

Adding some Electronic R&B variety to the shuffle…  this comes from an EP of the same name (Molting) by this Seattle artist.  We grabbed the song from the Noisetrade SXSW mixtape.

“Traffic Jam” by A Color Engine

Fortunately, I wasn’t in one when I was listening to this :21 second track from the album Voyage Underwater 56 Knots by this now defunct band comprised of Ear to the Ground favorite Don Ryan and Eric Burchfield (Elephant Goes West) another E2TG featured band.   The video we included is a song from the film Eraserhead by David Lynch. 

VIDEO PLAYLIST


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Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – This is Definitely Not Offensive Mix

Some pretty remarkable things have been happening in regards to me music writing.  I can honestly say that I see completely overwhelmed sometimes (in the best possible way), and that I truly feel humbled. In the last day or so, I have seen words that I wrote showing up on Facebook posts and websites and other places, posted by people I respect a whole bunch. I am continuing to find my place in the crazy mixed up circus that is the Nashville/East Nashville music world.  I just recently got invited down to Safety Harbor Songfest this weekend in Florida to hang out with awesome people and hopefully write some words.  Gratitude is a overused, underappreciated emotion, but one that I am feeling in abundance today.  I am not going to name names simply because I will leave people out, but I know for a fact that none of this would be possible but for some of the people who read this blog in the early days and connected with me so that I knew I was not writing into an abyss (or to the disproportionate number of site visitors from Russia in those early days). Nor, would I have continued with the encouragement and concern expressed by some when I had to take an unexpected break from blogging. Nor would any of these good things be happening with the friendship and support of those who helped me through one of the roughest patches of my life. 

To think this whole vast empire (sarcasm intended) was built on the foundation of a random shuffling of songs…   Let’s shuffle, shall we…

“Gator Lake Road” by Bark.

Another from the Tim and Susan Bauer Lee side project, Bark. The new EP is called Bark.  This song was their submission to Couch by Couchwest, and we have that video in our Playlist.

“Orchid Girl” by Aztec Camera

This song was included on the 12″ single of Oblivious and later added to the 1991 CD reissue of High Land Hard Rain.  It’s a lovely mellow tune from Roddy Frame and co.

“Psycho Street” by Richard Thompson

You ever get the feeling your neighbors are a little strange?  An odd and wonderful little ditty from Rumor and Sigh.

“American Tune” by Paul Simon

Originally from Simon’s second solo album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, based on a melody from Bach which in turn was based upon an earlier work by Hans Leo Hassler.  A lovely addition to the morning shuffle.

“This Light is For the World” by The Waterboys

This spiritual song from The Waterboys’ 2003 album Universal Hall.   The Waterboys latest album, Modern Blues was recorded here in Nashville.  It is out in the UK and due for release in the U.S. April 7. The Waterboys will be playing 3rd and Lindsley on April 18, and I am looking forward to seeing them live for the first time.

 

“Rainshowers” by Jeremy Gluck and Robert Coyne

Another track from the Memory Deluxe: I Knew Buffalo Bill 2 album by The Barracudas bandmates Jeremy Gluck and Robert Coyne.  This song is a cover of a 1972 single by Canadian Rock singer Michel Pagliaro.

“Omnivore” by Black Iron Prison

Black Iron Prison are a metal band from Albany, New York.  This song is from a 2012 EP called Fear is Every Man’s Portion.  The current lineup of Black Iron Prison includes Elijah Hargrave who was in the E2TG 2012 Band of the Year Skeletons in the Piano (has it really been that long ago?).  I don’t think he is singing on this track, but a new rehearsal recording of this song is up on Bandcamp.  In any event, it was nice to have some aggression in the mix as I made my way to the daily grind….  Black Iron Prison is a reference from a Phillip K. Dick novel called VALIS.

“Who Writes Off Who” by Forebear!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);

Forebear are an Alternative Cinematic Progressive Folk Indie Rock band from L.A.  This song is one of the more metal-like songs on their self-titled record, and it was a nice segue out of the Black Iron Prison song into my work day.

VIDEO PLAYLIST


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Thursday Morning Music Shuffle – Save a Few for Left, Too Mix

When you are having a stressful day, sometimes a Townes Van Zandt song is all you need to turn things around.  Other days, you need two Townes songs…  well today, for me, it is definitely a 3 TVZ kind of day… Fortunately, the shuffle obliged….

For the same reason I needed three Townes Van Zandt songs, I cannot add any commentary.  I apologize for that, but enjoy the music and if you are interested in any of the artists, look them up and support what they do…

BTW, Day 4 of Couch by Couchwest included some Nashville heavy weights like David Olney, Tommy Womack, Amy Speace, Wild Ponies, and #E2TG favorite Mark Robinson channeling the Possum on his lawn mower….

“It’s Your Grave” by Bark.

“Pretty Persuasion” by R.E.M.

“Tecumseh Valley” by Townes Van Zandt

“Carry On” by Humming House

“Right Wing Pigeons” by The Dead Milkmen

“Pancho and Lefty” by Townes Van Zandt

“Hobo Bill” by Townes Van Zandt

“Stolen the Moon” by Bob Walkenhorst

Bob Walkenhorst was the leader of a vastly underknown band called The Rainmakers…

“Long Story Short” by Boy Named Banjo

“Popskull” by Meat Puppets

VIDEO PLAYLIST


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Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle – Swallowing the Ocean Mix

#CXCW15 rolls on… Day 3 brought tons more videos including some of E2TG’s all-time favorites… Among the many great clips were some from old friends like Sci-Fi Romance, MAKAR, and Imperial Rooster.  Plus an explosive clip from relatively new friends Two Mule Blues.  Head to the couch and visit couchbycouchwest.com  to get in on the fun.  By the way, they are still accepting submissions so get to videoing and get it done!

“Lost and Found” by The Naddiks

 

From my inbox via Australia (or vice-versa) come The Naddiks with a track from their latest release, a mini album called 21CB.  I haven’t had a lot of time to dig into the full release yet, but I dig this track. So good high energy punk, pop, and roll!

“(I Have) Everything I Need” by Beat Rodeo

Some time in the 80s, a bunch of punk rockers discovered or rediscovered country and/or roots music.  A lot of the music that came out of that influenced not only my budding musical tastes, but also played a large part in the development of what is called Alt-Country, Americana, and one of several other names.  Living in a kind of small town in the days before the internet, I was a child of MTV and college radio. I first came across Beat Rodeo on an episode of IRS Records Presents: The Cutting Edge.  Steve Almaas had previously been in the Minneapolis punk band Suicide Commandos.  He then worked with The Bongos and shortly after that worked with lead Bongo Richard Barone and producer Mitch Easter on a solo EP called Beat Rodeo before forming a band of the same name.  Home in the Heart of the Beat was their second album.

(me holding the Steve Almaas solo EP Beat Rodeo on vinyl) 

“Friends” by Whiskey Shivers

Whiskey Shivers are from Austin and from their Facebook Page they seem to be staying busying down there with whatever is going on this week.  They will be in my hometown come September for the Muddy Roots Festival.  This great song is from their self-titled third album which is available currently on Noisetrade (as a free download (tips and shares encouraged)…

“Standing on the Moon” by Lera Lynn

Lera Lynn is a Nashville singer/songwriter.  I got turned on to her music when my New York friend Ben Arthur co-wrote a song with her on a drive from Nashville to Memphis for the Premier episode of Songcraft Presents: Songs from the Road which was hosted by Rob Reinhart from Acoustic Café and videographed by Matthew Hendershot of The End Men and Matt King’s Killing Streets.  This song is from Lera Lynn’s most recent album called The Avenues.

“7 Chinese Bros.” by R.E.M.

A favorite track of mine from Reckoning (but aren’t they all..).  If you haven’t check out Voice of Harold on Dead Letter Office and then try to listen to the opening of this song without expecting to hear Michael Stipe reading the liners notes of a gospel recording called The Joy of Knowing Jesus…

“Richland Woman” by Megan Palmer

East Nashville’s own Megan Palmer from her 2007 album Take You Away.  I dig this song.   I always love when I get to hear Megan play whether it is her own stuff or with Tim Easton or even one of her rare performances with E2TG Artist of the Year Darrin Bradbury…

(Megan Palmer with Darrin Bradbury at Foobar 3/15/2015) 

“Twin Hometowns” by Beat Rodeo

A second and more rocking track from Home in the Heart of the Beat….

“Last Man Standing” by Bark

I remember a Facebook post when Susan Bauer Lee said she was taking Drum lessons.  Next thing I know, her and husband Tim Lee of Tim Lee 3 are forming a side project duo called Bark and releasing an EP under that name (along with a full-length TL3 album).   This is from the Bark EP and it rocks.

“Wind” by Artur U and the New City Limits

From Finland and off their debut EP, Turn Off the Light which was recorded at Bill Laswell’s studio in New Jersey.  I’ve been digging on this album since I got hold of it.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – Sixty Two at Twenty Three Mix



Welcome to Tuesday….   so, at some point in the past (for reasons which may have made since at the time), I signed up to get e-mail updates from one of the local television channels. I don’t always read them, but today, I did… and there was a story about a music video addressing East Nashville gentrification.  I had heard about this, so I actually clicked on the link and watch the video, and there was Ear to the Ground Artist of the Year and my friend, Darrin Bradbury lip-synching and acting like a champ… Here is a link to the article.


“Rhode Island Summer” by The Danbury Lie

I am pretty sure this song has been in a shuffle before.  The Danbury Lie released this as a download single some time ago, and it has reappeared as part of their latest album Scattered Moments of Connection.  Interesting trivia, when a song I download does not have a picture associated with it, my music player uses some existing picture, and it often repeated uses the same image over an extended period of time.  For awhile, the image it used was the image that came with the single version of this song.  Now, you know…



“True Love” by Darrin Bradbury

Coincidental to the anecdote shared above, last night I realized that I had never featured Darrin Bradbury’s Tur-Lyfe: A Live Recording of Unfortunate Events on Ear to the Ground.  I was appalled with myself, and set about to make it right.  First up off that release is what has been come one of Bradbury’s most popular and best loved songs.  A little known fact is that originally the song was not going to compare true love to a meth lab, but instead was going to compare true love to an indie rock band.  The original opening line was, “Our love is like the death cab in your cuties basement.”   As always remember the jokes are free of charge and worth every penny…. 


“Recipe for Disaster” by Bark

Tim and Susan Lee are cooking up something special for their recently released side project Bark which features Susan on drums.


“And the Blind Man Lead the Way” by The Great Game

From the inbox, comes this band whose members and influences comes from across Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America.   A very interesting sound which I will look forward to checking out more in depth.  The album is also called The Great Game.


“Wicked Mind” by Fancytramp

From a Jeffery Drag Sampler comes this song by the late, great Nashville band Fancytramp.  When Fancytramp ended, a couple of the members went on to form a band called Idle Bloom which I recently saw open for Turbo Fruits at 3rd and Lindsley.


“Lover’s Rock” by The Clash

So… seriously do you not agree that London Calling is just a flat out rad album?


“Vitamins” by Manilow

Another fine modern British punk song from the Cease and Desist album.


“Had it !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”); with You” by The Satisfactors

Some awesome old school American Rock and Roll music from the Jersey Shore…. The final track on their self-titled debut.


“Easy to Love” by Ivan and Alyosha

A track from the 2009 album The Verse, The Chorus from this Seattle based indie-folk/pop band.  Grabbed this from a recent Noisetrade release.


“Fingertips 1: Everything is Catching on Fire” by They Might Be Giants

From Apollo 18, the first of 21 short Fingertips tracks on the 1992 album.


“I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight” by Richard and Linda Thompson

We close out the day with one of my all-time favorite songs…  the title track from the classic 1974 album that does not sound at all like it is over 40 years old.


TODAY’S VIDEO PLAYLIST

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – Barefoot on the Dancefloor Mix

Traversed snow and ice and cold to witness the birth of a new East Nashville musical happening at the Mad Donna’s Loft… a super-serious, super-cool songwriting thing (the name is still being bandied about), but who needs a name when you have Joe Fletcher, Brian Wright, and Darrin Bradbury playing their awesome songs to a small but dedicated audience of super-serious music fans (including some other great musicians).  Here’s to many more of these happenings and much better weather for them.  Hats off to the awesome Terry Rickards for making this thing happen…

Since I traversed the snow last night, I kind of had to do it this morning… guilty conscience if I said I couldn’t make it to work… but I had an awesome sound track for this slippery and frigid journey…

“Back on the Wagon” by Matt Prater

Another excellent song from Matt Prater’s latest album Tables and Chairs recorded in Mussel Shoals, Alabama.

“Made to be Broken” by Soul Asylum

The title track from Soul Asylum’s second album released in 1986 one of three releases for the band in that year… 

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A brief instrumental partial title track from Scattered Moments of Connection.  In lieu of this song, I included a video of  the epic The Great Jester.  Thirty seconds for like eleven minutes seemed like a fair trade off.

“Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down” by Bark

Tim and Susan Lee could have named their side project Tim Lee 2, but they went with Bark.  This is from the debut Bark EP which is having it’s release celebrated (along with the new TL3 album 33 1/3 and the new album by Kevin Abernathy) with a triple release show at Scruffy City Hall in Knoxville this very night.  This song is an R.L. Burnside cover. 

“Revolution On the Rocks” by Gumball

A bit of 90s alternative rock from NYC, two of the members of Gumball were previously (and briefly) part of Dinosaur Jr. This was the lead track on the band’s 1994 third and final studio album called Revolution on Ice.

“Brand New Cadillac” by The Clash

From London Calling.  This was a cover of a 1950s British Rock and Roll song by Vince Taylor.

“Crazy American” by Syd Straw

From Syd Straw’s 1989 solo debut, Surprise.  Surprise is one of my favorite albums of all time.

“Train in Vain”  by The Clash

Originally a hidden bonus track on London Calling (subtitled Stand By Me in the US because we Yanks were too dumb to handle a song whose name wasn’t the most repeated phrase). Also not called “Stand by Me” because everyone is too dumb to figure out it is not the Ben E. King song.  Man I love this song!

“This…” by fIREHOSE

A mellow side of Watt, Hurley, and Crawford… from Ragin’ Full On.

“Blue Sky Mine” by Midnight Oil

The “sort of” title track to the 1990 album Blue Sky Mining.

“The Eye” by Brandi Carlile

An absolutely gorgeous song from Brandi Carlile’s album The Firewatcher’s Daughter which was released this past Tuesday.

“The Bedlam Express” by The Lucky Jukebox Brigade

An awesome rave-up and one of my favorite songs on Familiar Fevers.  The source of today’s Shuffle subtitle.

“White Gardenias” by Justin Townes Earle

Finally, we close out the shuffle with  a song from the 2014 album Single Mothers which was the predecessor to Justin Townes Earle’s latest album Absent Fathers.

VIDEO PLAYLIST


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