On Wednesday of this past week as was promised I attended a live performance of Amos Lee. A few background details. The venue was the Madison Theater in downtown Covington, Kentucky. It is a older theater with a huge well lit marquee. The interior includes a huge bar on both sides as you enter, which was nice for such shows as Amos Lee. The setup was tables that set four and six in tiers to the floor level, which was nicely open in front of the stage. I have heard from a friend in the area that it is normally a smoke filled venue - however I heard enough of a conversation with the door keepers to realize that Amos had somehow arranged for the venue to be smoke free during his performance. Read more…
Anne MacFie, who I know as half of Dick and Anne Albin. She was just Lexington doing music for some cause that was supporting books that have been banned. She, along with Dick (and my ex-wife who actually introduced me to them), probably opened my eyes to music more then anyone before or after - and for that I give a heart felt thanks. I am sad, that I was reminded of thme by seeing a flier for the event the week after it had occurred. Read more…
I have to say, this group is amongst the tops of the musical discoveries I have made this summer. Beyond that is the touching story that can be found below with the link. You may not be able to tell by the name of the group, but they are what started as a local party band with an unusual twist for party bands, they all like bluegrass music. Yes, there are obviously some influences there from Celtic music, which saying that seems odd, as I am sure Jean Ritchie and others have said that bluegrass and mountain music can clearly trace back to Celtic origins. There is also the occasional smattering of blues, especially when Beth, whom I affectionately tell everyone is Mama Cass, is doing vocals. Read more…
Okay, I admit that it sounds like it could be bad spin-off movie title. Or even better, that Amos Lee could be a Jerry Clower or Mayberry character from the past. The fact is though that Amos Lee is an awesome musician that I have recently been introduced to, aside from being singer-songwriter by nature, Amos has inspired a few things for me and my hats go of to the person that introduced me to him. Some additional information about his music, specifically the Supply and Demand Cd can be found by clicking.
The biggest thing I was realizing yesterday morning (or is that still today?) Read more…
Amos Lee is musician that I have recently been introduced to by a wonderful friend of mine. While I have only known the music of Amos for a few short weeks all I can say is wow. The musical talents of the man goes so far beyond just being to perform the music though. He is the singer, but the songs he sings are almost all words that he himself has written. To the best of my knowledge he has has three albums out, all in the last fives years or so. I am really only familiar with the last two, Supply and Demand and Last Days at the Lodge, which was released this summer - but I have mostly been focused on the 2006 Supply and Demand for most of my listening so I stick with that. Read more…
I had been thinking about writing this blog for some time now, but had just not really gotten around to it. Last night though, a friend shared a few songs that are special to her with me for various reasons. One of those songs was Johnny Cash covering the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt. By the way, I do like the NIN version, but I think the pain and the hurt just come out in such a much deeper way, perhaps because of his deeper life experiences with such things, in the Cash version. Anyway, this has in turn put me in the mind to go ahead and write this very blog that I had been thinking about for sometime.
When I first started thinking about writing this I debated between the title as given and a title of Read more…
Way back when I really started this blog in the fall, and again when it really started to get on a roll in the spring, I really intended to use it not only as an expression of all those things in which I had an active interest, but to also express my opinions about things that I passively enjoyed as well. One of those things that I have a very passionate passive (is that possible, well, yes it has to be, I can only appreciate it, as I have zero talent in this direction) is music. This summer thus far I have probably attended more musical events of one nature or another then I have since my days when I was running around on campus in and around Transy. Yet, short of a blog or two about Willie and some swing dancing, I have probably failed to mention music in this blog much at all. It is not with intent that I have been so lax and I have a few notes here and there about various artist. Anyway, starting this eve I intend to work back through the highlights of the artists that I have heard this summer and have enjoyed the most.
Most of my music listening this summer has been in the same general tier that most of my jousting Read more…
This is the greatest thing in a long time that I have accidentally stumbled upon in while. Matter of fact I would call this even better then sliced bread. So, as I was noting in another blog thread here (at least in the comments), I needed to find some big band era swing type of music and that while I do enjoy the sound of the music, I am really not familiar enough with it to be able to out and just by a CD - if I had found such anyway. On top of that, I am horrible with remember song names and performers. So I did a search for just just things when I had a few minutes between things this morning thinking that I would see what I could find in such a genre and go from there.
In my search list, and the only one that seemed to point to something I could stream to get an example of the sound and make sure it was I was wanting to pursue was this link to Pandora. So, I clicked the link, Read more…
Currently I am sitting in front of a tavern in downtown Lexington, historic old court house across the street, blues music riffing through the outside speaking, enjoying a bourbon, dog at my feet. Life is good if not for being so hot. Of course, I might not be so hot if I had not just come from a swing dance. I had no idea how hard that would be for me nor how much energy it would use over the a couple of hours.
This was something that had been planned for a bit as it is something that I want to do and it is also something I know that some other people I know enjoy on a regular basis. Actually they are apparently a bit of regular with it at this place up around D.C. that is pretty much a historic site straight out of the 30’s or 40’s itself. How awesomely cool would that be? Read more…
A new group on me as of today, actually within the last couple of hours - they are pretty unique - called the Ditty Bops. They are a musical group, consisting of two ladies named Abby DeWald and Amanda Barrett. Their music is to be treasured, but probably only the odd few here and there will appreciate it, as the sound is about as unique as it gets. Imagine if you will a good bit of rag time, a healthy dose of swing, all rolled in with some good old fashion blue grass/traditional folk music, and blend with some lovely vocal harmonies. Add to that a quick witty set of vocals that are sometimes nonsensical and others just so right on (and maybe those that nonsensical my wit is not quick enough to catch up with yet) and you have the wonderful duet. Check out their website or do some searching on YouTube to get a feel for the music.
However, in the meantime while I am listing them as a couple of heroines? Simply put I am impressed by their wherewithal of putting their actions where their mouths are. Case in point, during there 2nd album release and tour that was to support that. They were big on a kick at the time that we need to help the world with a little less pollution. So, they did their tour from CA to NY via bicycle. It was, as you can imagine with a smaller lesser known group like this, not all completely planned. However, they did 40 performances along the route and it was measured a success. Their comments on the endeavor ran something like if we can do a tour this way across the country then everyone can make a small effort to reduce the usage of the automobile just a little bit.
They followed this up by being instrumental in the ban of plastic bags in the city of San Francisco. Now, I am personally not sure where I stand on this, but come to think of it paper bags are not nearly as apt to be found blowing around as the urban version of a tumble weed that I see a lot of plastic bags become. Further, while both are recyclable, I feel that the renewable aspect of paper over plastic (oil based) has a plus to it. Further, with such a ban maybe everyone would be more apt to lead to a much wider adoption of re-usable bags, such as canvas. This reminds me of something that I need to get in a better habit of doing myself.
Lastly, the one most near and dear to my own heart. They toured in America’s heartland in 2007, promoting the plight of the American farmer and the ideas of sustainable agriculture. I especially like the sustainable aspect of what they were doing with this and need to find some additional information on just what all that involved. That mini tour ended with a performance at, you guessed it, Farm Aid with Willie.
