If you haven’t heard the band Girlyman yet, you’re in for a treat. I heard they were touring with the Indigo Girls for a while. I haven’t seen the Indigo Girls since, well, the last century, so I was glad to hear Amy and Emily were still doing their thing. Girlyman seems a really good choice of a warm-up band for them.
Girlyman consists of two women–Doris Muramatsu and Ty Greenstein–and a man Nate Borofsky (hence the name). I’m not going to go with the “part so-and-so, part whosewhatsit” paradigm here. I’m just going to tell you that they’re folky and good and young and cute and you should listen to them if you like the Indigo Girls or The Roches. (”Huh?” you say, if you’re under a certain age. OK, I’ll blog about them next) or any number of really good folky and original bands who are also cute.
When my friend first brought over a Girlyman song for me to listen to I was quite impressed. I’m saving up for a CD, but what I heard so far incorporates electric and acoustic guitar, drums and mandolin. Their three-part harmonies are refreshingly juicy and their lyrics are heartfelt. I especially like the song “Viola”. I really dig lyrics that are about someone’s specific life experience yet somehow convey a universal thought or feeling, and they manage to do this. Overproduced they are not. Their sound is great. I expect they’ll gain in popularity and start touring heavily. (Currently they play at smaller venues, such as The Iron Horse in Northampton, Mass.an old haunt of mine. Try and hear them in one of these intimate places before they get all big.) Oh, sorry, but I haven’t seen any evidence that they have anything on actual vinyl.
The summer I discovered drugs, hitch-hiking and a few other things, I also bought my very first record, Jackson Browne’s road album, “Running on Empty.” I still have that record, and it has a lot of scratches. I’m surprised I didn’t wear it out. I went out and bought the CD years later just so I’d have a clean copy. Jackson has always been one of my favorite songwriters.
When I first heard “Running on Empty” as a mere whippersnapper I was fascinated by the instrumentation, Jackson’s soulful voice and by the energy of a live record. And of course there were the pictures. Open up the album and you get a big booklet with all the road photos and when you’re a kid you think, wow, I want to be just like them. I want to rehearse with my band in a messy studio and play outside for thousands of people, just me and my guitar.
Now I look at it and go, wow, those guys were young. But Jackson is still putting out great music. His recent volumes of live acoustic songs are called Solo Acoustic Volume 1 and 2. I haven’t heard the second yet, but the first is a gem. He plays a lot of his really old songs. Among my favorites are “These Days,” just himself on acoustic guitar, and “For a Dancer,” which he plays on the piano. He’s really an amazing all-around musician.
He’s transposed many of his songs down a few half-steps to match his ever-deepening voice, but he still sounds great and tells a couple of really funny stories and makes some good cracks on the album. If you’re a fan of Jackson Browne from the old days and you haven’t caught onto this album yet, my advice is to run out and get it.
One day while procrastinating and idly flipping through my iTunes I noticed I’d downloaded this band called The Weepies. I pressed the spacebar on my computer and was instantly intrigued.
I’m always looking for bands or singer-songwriters who utilize acoustic instruments, sing well–or at least interestingly–and write good lyrics.
The Weepies are refreshing. Their guitar work combines acoustic fingerpicking with tasteful, clear electric licks. I am enchanted by Deb Talan’s voice. When I first heard her sing “Painting by Chagall,” I was hooked. She’s got a different thing going on.
If you go to their Web site, you can listen to a bunch of songs for free - they come on automatically. Deb and the other member of the Weepies, Steve Tannen, are married (or as Wikipedia says, “currently married”) and have a new baby boy named Theo. From what I can gather from listening to the albums, “Happiness” and “Say I am You” (I admit I have no liner notes), it seems like they each write most of their own lyrics.
Most of Talan’s songs are upbeat; Tannen is more brooding. But they make a good match, and his songs are as alluring as hers, although in a different way. He brings a bit of a mainstream pop sound to the band, while Deb is more out there on her own.
I await the arrival of their forthcoming album, which I hear will be released any day.
I was recently listening to Lucy Kaplansky, a singer-songwriter I had never heard of. I ran across her name while perusing the site for the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival, a music festival in Northern California that I’m planning to attend this summer.
She’s another good one if you want to hear a good singer/songwriter, and I’m excited I’m going to get to see her. The minute she started playing I thought of Suzanne Vega, who I just heard on the radio show Mountain Stage. Suzanne is a poet who just happens to be a really great singer and musician. She has a new album out, which I have not heard yet but I look forward to it.
My favorites by her are the two produced by ex-hubby Mitchell Froom - check out “99.9″ and “Nine Objects of Desire” if you haven’t already. But her earlier albums are really great too: “Solitude Standing” is one of my all-time favorite records. Getting back to Lucy Kaplansky, I don’t know if she would count Suzanne Vega as one of her influences, but her voice definitely has similar attributes.
Maybe it’s because they’re both from New York. On her Web site you can listen to parts of her songs. Her latest album features mandolin and pedal steel. I don’t know that much about her other than what I’ve heard on her Web site, so if anyone has anything to say, feel free to comment on this blog.
I was listening to the album “Blue” by Joni Mitchell recently and re-appreciating it, wondering where she got that unusual, mysterious kick. The album escapes the folk trap of guitars guitars guitars, as the songs alternate between piano and guitar/dulcimer.
As a teenager growing up in Alberta, Joni couldn’t afford a guitar, so she bought a baritone ukulele. She learned about writing poetry from a teacher in grade school. She played her ukulele at parties and get-togethers. Her early embracing of this instrument could be the reason she is such an inventive musician.
During college she began performing at a local club called The Depression. After going to art college for a year she dropped out and went to Toronto to become a folk singer. Thus began her journey.
I remember hearing Joni for the first time as a teenager, and I was instantly intrigued. Joni used many alternate tunings in her earlier, acoustic albums, and I copied her style. I really learned a lot about playing the guitar from listening to her.
More on Joni’s life and how her sound has evolved here. Also: The Joni Undercover Project is dedicated to locating all covers of Joni Mitchell songs ever recorded. So far they have found 2,512 covers of 138 of Joni’s songs done by 1,960 different artists!
You can search for the songs that have been covered here.
I started to write this blog post on Rickie Lee Jones‘ career (or a snippet thereof) and of course got all caught up in YouTube. It seems I can’t do anything musically these days without heading straight to the site to get my fix. You see, even though I saw Rickie Lee about 15 years ago, I wasn’t close enough to get the full effect. She is an amazing songwriter and performer (if you don’t already know this, check out this link for a video of a 1985 concert in Paris).
I’ve watched a few of these videos and have come to feel that she has a likeness to Bruce Springsteen. The similarity is partly in her epic, storytelling songs, and partly something else that’s simply un-nameable. It’s just a feeling; something to do with combining youthful angst and passion with intense imagery. If the above link didn’t have you cruising around YouTube like a kid in bumper cars, check out this link.
Like Springsteen, her voice is not flawless, but it’s still beautiful and the passion she emits draws you in. She’s also very proficient on her instruments, and uses a lot of jazz chords, both on piano and guitar. She keeps you guessing about who she really is and what she might really be thinking. One more, check out this concert appearance and watch the interview at the end.
As I was cruising around my record collection I ran into some Pat Metheny records. Now, I’ve always really liked Metheny. Especially his older albums, like American Garage.
I can’t always relate to every single thing he’s done, but I truly respect him and I like his different sounds. Some people don’t like the whole guitar synth thing; I really do. I get tired of hearing jazz guitar players, even the really great ones, using the same sound. I think that their playing deserves more than that, and I like the boundaries that Metheny has pushed in this area.
Recently Metheny’s played a bass/lute/harp invention called a “Picasso guitar.” If you’re unaware of what I’m talking about, check out the video below. This is a good example of doing something a bit different, then going into his older style of just plain ol’ fast fingers. Also, check out this concert footage with extreme closeup of his fingers. It’s not an example of his super-fast playing, but for you guitarists it shows how he gets around on the neck with “thumbovers” a great technique, one that I’ve had to try to get used to since I didn’t really do it while I was first starting out (Jimi Hendrix employed this technique a lot instead of barre chords which makes it worth mentioning that it’s easier if you have bigger hands).
As Pat Metheny fans will know, he’s added a “world” sound to his jazz albums, which suits his style of playing quite well. You can just go to a certain unnamed video Web site and search for his name to get great footage of this.
While I’m on the subject of jazz guitarists, it’s worth mentioning Mimi Fox here. I think she’s still based in San Francisco that’s where I’ve heard her play. I’ve also played a little bit with her at a music festival years ago when she taught a workshop there. Anyway, here’s some Mimi playing for you. I really like her whimsical style, and the fact that she always looks so happy when she’s playing! Always great to hear those female guitarists.
Keep your eyes peeled here for next time when I’ll be mentioning more of them!
If you haven’t heard the band Girlyman yet, you’re in for a treat. I heard they were touring with the Indigo Girls for a while. I haven’t seen the Indigo Girls since, well, the last century, so I was glad to hear Amy and Emily were still doing their thing. Girlyman seems a really good choice of a warm-up band for them.
The summer I discovered drugs, hitch-hiking and a few other things, I also bought my very first record, 
One day while procrastinating and idly flipping through my iTunes I noticed I’d downloaded this band called 
I was recently listening to 
As I was cruising around my record collection I ran into some 
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