Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – Toy Balloon Mix

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Reason I love Nashville #(somemadeupnumber…prettybigI’dguess):

To be able to say that I saw Brock Zeman, Blair Hogan, Darrin Bradbury, Megan Palmer, Lilly Hiatt, Jesse Lafser, John Jackson, Brian Wright, Aaron Lee Tasjan and more….  and for that to be in one night not over the course of a week or a month.  You know – Monday night!

Brock and Blair will be playing as part of $2 Tuesday at The 5 Spot tonight.  Aaron Lee will be part of a line-up at ACME Feed and Seed sponsored by No Country for New Nashville.  You probably won’t be able to do both, but you should definitely done one or the other if you around. 

Probably the highlight of the night was Brian Wright and his incredible band that included Aaron Lee Tasjan on guitar ripping through an mind-blowing version of Big Wilson River’s “Astronaut”.  Long time and careful readers of this blog will remember that Big Wilson River was a Featured Artist/Band way back in 2012.  They were probably in the process of breaking up when I was featuring them, and I kind of lost touch until head BWR dude, Darrin Bradbury showed up in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Nashville in late 2013.  Anyway, it was a really amazing version of the song, and I was trying to record it when my stupid phone ran out of memory and then didn’t save the part I did record.  Fortunately there is a video someone made floating around. 

Here is the original:

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2081995898/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=2390123110/transparent=true/

On to the shuffle:

“Pigeon River Flood” by Richie Owens and the Farm Bureau

Tennessee – the latest album by Richie Owens and the Farm Bureau is roots rocking history lesson – filled with stories about the state in which I live. Richie Owens and the two other members of the Farm Bureau – John Reed and Brian O’Hanlon –  have been on the front lines of the Nashville independent music scene since the 1980s.  The double historical perspective of this record combined to make this a remarkable achievement and a really fun record, too.   See them live if you ever get the opportunity.

“Into My Arms” by Jesse and Noah

The latest Jesse and Noah release Brethen: Acoustic Covers Ep features the duo covering a diverse collection of songs – including this Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds song.  Check it out.  Jesse and Noah also have a pretty unique historical perspective being the sons and nephews of the legendary Bellamy Brothers.  They are working on a new record, and we have a track cued up and waiting for the shuffle gods to release it. 

“Quietly and Slow” by Man Named Pearl

I am really digging the sound of this new record – Quietus Make – which really pushes the envelope wonderfully in terms of what “folk” music can be.  This track features trippy and haunting a cappella vocals singing words that sound pretty until you really listen to them… with claps and stomps and some back-masking at the very end. 

“The Battlefields” by Liberty’s Exiles

Liberty’s Exiles are a progressive rock band from London.  Their new album, The Price of Immortality is a 79 minute long concept album about a small planet where dying is not allowed. 

“Waiting on June” by Holly Williams

This incredibly powerful and moving song is the closing track from William’s 2013 album, The Highway.  The song is written for and about Holly Williams’ maternal grandparents.  Her other set of grandparents were Hank and Audrey Williams.

“Your Children’s Children” by Carolina Story

We next have another lovely song from the recently release Noisetrade compilation from this Nashville duo.  This on is from their EP Chapter One.

“Broken Down Morals” by The Killing Condition

Because this is E2TG, it only makes sense that we would transition to some extreme brutal death metal from upstate New York. If someone tries to tell me that extreme brutal death metal and Americana music have no connecting threads… I will just refer them to Todd Farrell Jr.

“No Easy Way Down” (Carole King cover) by Matthew E. White

And we close out the shuffle with this track – which we got via Aquarium Drunkard which finds modern soul visionary Matthew E. White taking on a song by songwriting legend Carole King.  I could not find a video of this song, so I included a Matthew E. White song and Carole King’s original and I will leave it to you to work that all out for yourself.  Unless you can still find it at Aquarium Drunkard.

VIDEO PLAYLIST


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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – One More Time Mix

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So… much happening.  I was in a car for about half of yesterday.  I have just been catching up with the news out of South Carolina. Sending out good thoughts to all those who lost loved ones.  And sending out as much love as I can muster for this country in hopes that we can finally begin address some of the many issues which lead to this terrible event.  I am not optimistic about things, but I remain hopeful.  If that makes sense.

Switching gears… If you are in Nashville tonight, I recommend heading down to the Basement East for a benefit for Allen Thompson.  Even if the music wasn’t going to be good, you should support this because Allen is a great guy.  But this is East Nashville and the music is going to be spectacular.  Even if Allen wasn’t a great guy, you should go because the music is going to spectacular.  But Allen is a great guy.

On to the Friday Shuffle!

“Auto Pilot” by Rich Robbins (prod. Bitoy Beatz)

You know some people who dig the kind of roots rock and roll that I dig, often will make blanket statements about how much they don’t like “hip hop”.  That is okay I guess – I mean all music is subjective and all, but it seems rather short-sighted to dismiss an entire genre/an entire culture so easily. I mean, I get that some people like three chords played on a real electric guitar, with a bass and drums and whatever… Heck, I like those things.  The things that most often attracts me to good hip hop are the beats and the words. I’m a sucker for words that hit the truth hard.  Rich Robbins’ words hit the truth hard, and his music always has great beats.

“Devil’s Rope” by Tim Lee 3

A live recording of the title track from TL3’s 2013 album.  Consider this a warm up because Tim Lee 3 are going to be in Nashville one week from tonight with R.B. Morris at the Basement (the original one).  Should be cool and a start to the great weekend of music.

“Dig a Little Deeper” by The McCrary Sisters

Here at E2TG we always like point/counter-point kind of moments.  So… in that spirit, we offer up the Gospel Group The McCrary Sisters (the four daughters of one of the founding members of The Fairfield Four) with this song.  The version I heard was from a World Café Session.  The accompanying video is from the Gospel Brunch at the 2013 Americana Music Fest – video shot at the legendary Station Inn.

“Only Son” by Shakey Graves

From Shakey Graves’ 2014 album, And the War Came.  Yep, I kind of like that Shakey Graves…

“Lost Highway” by Jason and the Scorchers

Lost Highway is perhaps best known as a Hank Williams song, but it was actually written by Leon Payne – a blind Country Music singer-songwriter in 1948.  Jason and the Scorchers released their cover version on their 1985 album, Lost and Found.  It is one of my favorite songs.

“One More Time” by Joe Jackson

The opening track from Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp! album.

“Rock and Roll is Cold” by Matthew E. White

Matthew E. White released his second solo album Fresh Blood back in March.  This is a song from that album.  Just catching up with his music now.  So far so good.

“I Feel So Good” by Richard Thompson

Whenever I feel really good, and I am going out for the night, I always find myself singing this song…  It could have been cool if RT would have played this song last Saturday night, but you know what he was such a great show, I can’t even complain about the fact that he didn’t play this song.  From Rumor and Sigh.

“Honey (I Miss You)” by Tammy Wynette

We close things out with Tammy Wynette’s cover of a song made famous by Bobby Goldsboro. The song was written by Bobby Russell and originally recorded by Bob Shane of the Kingston Trio.  Wynette included the song on her 1969 album D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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