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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Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle – Circular Mix

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Well…well…well… we’ve reached the mid-point of this work week. 

Last night’s Kevn Kinney/Peter Case show at The Basement East was every bit as awesome as I expected.  Case opened with “Walk in the Woods” – the song that first introduced me to his classic self-titled debut solo album and Kinney followed that with the title track from his equally classic solo debut, MacDougal Blues. For the next couple of hours, they traded songs and stories…

“Losing the Feel” by Kansas Bible Company

The Nashville based 12-piece gets the shuffle off to a rousing start this this track from their recent Dad’s Day EP. 

“Circular Fever” by The Tourists

Another great song from the aptly titled Should Have Been Greatest Hits.  The Tourist – in case you missed my previous posts – were an awesome late 70s/early 80s Power Pop band which featured Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart before they were The Eurhythmics.

“Evelyn” by Jeremy Gluck/Robert Coyne

For a while there, we seemed to be posting a different song from Jeremy Gluck’s Memory Deluxe: I Knew Buffalo Bill 2 just about every day.  As hard as it is to believe, we still have a couple of songs from that album which have not been posted.  This is one.  It’s really good to hear more of this great album.

“Loving Down” by Hugh Trimble

Another song that has been hanging around the shuffle for a while.  I first heard Hugh Trimble on a Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen compilation. This song is from his album, neighborpoem, and is a good reminder of why I dig his music so much.

“Don’t Stop Trying” by Carl Anderson

Back in March, ahead of the release of his album Risk of Loss (which we have been featuring), Carl Anderson released a Noisetrade sampler that includes some tracks for that then forthcoming album alongside some older tracks like this one from his 2012 Wolftown.

“Behind the Mouth” by Broken Guru

Another track from Bent Up Halo – the high-energy debut from this New York Alt-Rock band.

“Bloodsoaked” by The Killing Condition

So far this week, we have explored traditional bluegrass, ambient art pop, pure country, contemporary classic, various styles of indie and alternative rock, folksy stuff and even some Americanaesque music. Up until this point, we have not had any death metal in the shuffle this week.  Happily, we rectify this oversight and up the ante with some Extreme Brutal Death Metal from Saratoga Springs , New York.  The band just began recording their new album, Broken Down Morals.  

“A Little God in My Hands” by Swans

We close out the day’s shuffle with a seven minute song from the reunited experimental/noise rock band. The track was on the band’s 2014 album To Be Kind.  We got if off that Big Ears Festival Sampler which we featured a song off of yesterday.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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