Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

Check out a recent NPR feature (article and audio stream) on Feist. I’ve yet to listen to it, but your standard life sums up the topics discussed: “indie crowd vs Starbucks crowd, starting out in a punkrock band, damaged vocal chords, the birds in downtownToronto, learning guitar.”

I’ve been listening to Blair (via herspace), “the musical meeting of Dolly Parton and Radiohead,” non-stop since I heard about her and just ordered her EP. She’s got one of those voices that draws you in and doesn’t let go. Plus, she’s a fantastic song writer.

I wanted to do this post as the resident ryanadamsaholic here at CSV to prove that (1) I’m not disillusioned and am still fit to make discerning musical judgments, and (2) Ryan Adams, or let’s just say The Label, has made a few bad musical decisions.

5. “Tennessee Sucks” - Tennessee may suck “in the summer,” but this tune off Demolition sucks any season. I know a lot of people like this song–at the last RA show I went to the guy behind me kept saying, “Boy, I sure hope he plays ‘Tennessee Sucks’”! Good for me, bad for that guy, the song was not played. I will say, however, that this live version aint too bad. .

4. “Enemy Fire” - Despite a great guitar solo at the end of this song, the first three minutes are so bad you can never get to it without skipping ahead. This song has drunken mistake written all over it and could probably be used as enemy fire by playing it over and over.

3. “The Sadness” - This song is just too long–it would certainly work as background music in a Clint Eastwood western movie, but I almost always skip over it when I listen to 29.

2. “Nuclear” - This song is plagued by unoriginal writing, both musically and lyrically. Perhaps the lyrics are just too deep for me to understand–all I pick up on is something about buring Porches and the Yankees losing to the Braves. It is nice the Yankees lost, though.

1. “1974″ - This is hands down my least favorite Adams song, complete with a dreadfully uncreative chorus. On the bright side, we will never forget the “[year] he was born.”

I had a hard time writing this post, mostly because any less than stellar RA songs are easily overshadowed by his exhaustive library of alt-country classics. On that note, keep checking back this week for more RA features leading up to the June 26th release of Easy Tiger.

A self-professed “front porch soul” music collective, Jacksonville-product JJ Grey & Mofro is sure to strike a chord in that funky space in your heart. They write sincere, socially conscious tunes that are of the folk-blues-funk fusion type that seems to be real popular these days (see Ollabelle, Greyboy Allstars, and even The Duhks). The band’s debut album Country Ghetto features the stylings of JJ Grey’s unique raspy version of Tony Joe White (compare Polk Salad Annie to “Country Ghetto). “On Palastine” is a fantastic slow soul number that blends perfectly into well-strung “Footsteps”. Be sure to check out the Ray LaMontagne-like “Tragic” as well.

Check out Country Ghetto.
Listen to “Tragic” (4.8/5)
Listen to “On Palastine” (4.85/5)

We were trying to think of how one would spell the sound that plays when you start up a mac. We’re thinking it’s “zwhoon”? Anyone have a different idea?