Category: Nick Drake

Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Gonna Get You All Mix

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Introducing the Ear to the Ground Events Page! Visit Our Events Page Ear to the Ground Events!

So, consider this events page to be a work-in-progress.  It is meant to highlight live music of interest to Ear to the Ground Readers.  The focus will be on the Nashville area, but I will also include shows featuring Ear to the Ground favorites in places across the U.S. and around the world.  My primary source will be Facebook Events for which I’ve received an invite, but if you have an event you want considered, drop me a line.

Very grateful for a full weekend spent hearing music and also just hanging out with great friends.  Music-wise: Friday night: Tim Carroll and his power trio sounded awesome (Cameron Carrus and Toby Caldwell).  Saturday: Jon Byrd opened for Tiffany Huggins Grant’s CD Release Show.  Byrd was amazing as always and Huggins Grant backed by a fantastic band lead by Mark Robinson brought the house down!  Sunday: Got to hang out and listen to Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray play a very sweaty but fun outdoor show.

As for the friends, I won’t name them all here, but some new and old friends – good conversations, Bob Seger and Tumbling Blocks, Vietnamese food, and more… not a bad weekend.

It’s another Monday, so let’s see what we can do this week!
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“The Truth” by James Roquemore

James Roquemore opened up Patrick Kinsley’s Album Release show last Wednesday at the Basement, and I was impressed by his songwriting.  This song comes from his 2009 debut EP called, The First, which was recorded while he was a student at University of Central Florida (I think). 

“Rooster Still Crows” by Barna Howard

Barna Howard is from Missouri.  His latest album is called Quite A Feelin’.  The album cover looks like it comes from an earlier era, and the music is timeless and wonderful.  Grabbed this off the May Feel Bad for You Mixtape, and it has successfully whetted my appetite!  I want to hear more!

“Coal Mining March” by Jeremiah Tall

The lead track from Jeremiah Tall’s Waking album which was released back in March.  It’s only 0:26 seconds long, but it sets the tone perfectly.

“Human Cannonball” by Webb Wilder

Another from Hybrid Vigor.  Perhaps one of Webb Wilder’s most well known songs, and it’s a good one. 

“She Died on Easter Sunday” by Batkhi Dahn

We will be posting much and soon about the new album from The Foresters – called Sun Songs.  In the meantime, Hayden from the Foresters is back with another track from his side project called Batkhi Dahn and their album Plays 15 which already has a deluxe edition and a follow up of a sort.  The teens of the Dord Music Group are smashing all stereotypes of youth today being lazy.

“Maps of the West” (Live) by Leland Sundries

Leland Sundries are an Indie/Americana band based in Brooklyn and lead by Nick Loss-Eaton. They are working toward a 2016 release of a new album, but in the meantime, we have the lead track from their 2013 Live at the Creamery album.  Good stuff!

“Pink Moon” by Nick Drake

The title track from Nick Drake’s final album which was released in 1972.  I freely admit to having a deep affinity to Drake’s music.  I really love Damien Jurado’s cover of this song.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – Colorful Character Mix

Since today is World Suicide Prevention Day, it seems like a perfect opportunity to remind you that the supremely awesome Country Fried Rock is about to release Volume 2 of For Nuci’s Space. 
 
About

All proceeds from this album go to preventing musicians’ suicide, via the model program for community support, Nuci’s Space, in Georgia. By removing barriers to mental health care, substance abuse services, and primary care, Nuci’s Space works with other existing providers and networks to help musicians.

Please be generous. Keep music alive. Nuci.org

If you need support, please contact www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org for online chat support or 800-273-8255.



The line-up this time around is stellar and includes the likes of Drivin N Cryin, Michelle Malone, Centro-matic, American Aquarium and many, many more. Trust me, it’s all great music for a great cause.   You can Pre-Order the album Here!

Today’s Shuffle is after the jump…

We jump back into our Current Playlist for today’s Morning Shuffle….

“Lonely Avenue” by Mark Robinson (one of just a few covers on Have Axe, Will Groove. Lonely Avenue is a Doc Pomus tune which has been covered by Ray Charles and Van Morrison. Robinson makes this song his own with this cool version.)

“Posse in Effect” by Beastie Boys (Yeah! “Well I’m M.C.A. – I got nothing to prove” No… but, damn he proved it. – R.I.P. MCA)

“From the Morning” by Mike Dumovich (A Nick Drake cover)

“St. James Infirmary” by Louis Armstrong (Yeah!)

“How Still My Love” by Stevie Nicks (From Bella Donna)

“Ghost Stories” by Monks of Mellonwah (The Monks are a pretty damn awesome Australian band.  “Ghost Stories” is the title track of their EP released earlier this year.  Check it out!)

 

 
Today’s YouTube Playlist
 
 


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History Lesson (Songs) #1 – Driver 8 – R.E.M.

A good while back, I created a playlist on my MP3 player called ‘100’.  It was kind of my 100 favorite songs of all time – except I’m fickle – so it was really just 100 songs I really, really like. Over time, I would get another songs I really, really liked and just added to this list.  Eventually, the ‘100’ playlist had grown to about 113.  Occasionally, I would look at the list and make edits add or delete to suit my current fancy.  Just the other day, I whittled down the list back to 100.  Rest assured this is still not a definitive list – it will change, but it’s a good survey of some cool songs that have helped to shape my musical tastes. I would like to begin here in presenting this songs for your infotainment. Many of you will probably at least be aware of most of these songs, but you never know, and I know I sure need a memory jolt every once in awhile.  Shall we begin…

Fables of the Reconstruction (or Reconstruction of the Fables – which I always preferred)  (1985) was R.E.M.’s third album and marked a new era for the band.  They recorded in England with veteran producer Joe Boyd after recording their first two albums with Mitch Easter and Don Dixon. Boyd had produced Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda Thompson, Nick Drake and Jimi Hendrix among others. In 1985, he also produced The Wishing Chair by 10,000 Maniacs. Maybe not coincidentally, I saw R.E.M. and 10,000 Maniacs together in November of 1985.

For some reason, I’ve always connected with Fables more than other R.E.M. album.  Their unique brand of Southern mysticism and Gothic charm somehow coalesced on this release. Songs like Green Grow the Rushes and Wendell Gee and especially Driver 8 felt true and relevant to me. I’ve always believed it was due to my having grown up in the South and yet always having felt like a stranger in my own land.

“And the train conductor said…” Trains have always been powerful symbols for me. At the same time, they are symbols of progress and relics of an earlier time. Train tracks were symbols of the possibility of escape and a tie to the bigger world beyond what I know.

“Fields of wheat are looking thin…”  The imagery of a train passing through fields of wheat… I grew up in a smaller town, but I usually think of myself as a city boy, but and so there is a romantic notion of farms and rural America.

“The power lines have rotors so the airplanes don’t get smashed…”  Despite all of the talk about the negative health impact of those tall, high-tension power lines, I’ve also been drawn to these towers. Like the railroad tracks, the power lines were a connection.  Growing up without the internet, and feeling the need for their to be more to the world than the little piece I knew, I needed reminders of the world outside my window. Books and music and less railroad tracks served that purpose and helped me through my young life (which in retrospect wasn’t so bad after all, but trying telling that to my younger self).

It’s been over 25 years now, and I still haven’t grown tired of this song, and now it takes me back to a world which no longer exists and to a time which is long gone.  As the Gunslinger said, “The world has moved on.”

(The song) 

 (The album)

Next up, Travelin’ Light by Peter Case