Slow news day yesterday...I actually took the time to work on an online class that I'm taking (and thoroughly enjoying, please note the sarcasm) instead of dropping some knowledge to you folks. Well, that and the fact that I didn't get a whole lot of mental stimulation 'cause I was reading ed psych and working on a projcet for the class all day...But today, back in the saddle...
I was rolling through my bookmarks and checking to see if anything merited a bit of a mention here in good ol' casa de Dusch (nice, butchering multiple languages at once, it's a skill, admit it), and thought I'd drop a mention for some of my favorite bands, pointing out their various websites of varrying quality.
Leading the pack for me has to be Wilco a band with a seemingly rolling membership under the banner of Jeff Tweedy - lead singer, songwriter, and apparently pain in the tuckus to work with 'cause not a lot of these guys stay around more than a couple of albums. Apparently it's a rough gig being a Tweedy bandmate. Honestly though, I could care less, 'cause that albums they put out keep getting better and better. Their music is a little hard to describe because each album has been pretty different. From the alt-county of AM which sounded like what it was, a first album from a half of Uncle Tupelo split off on its own to the Stones-inspired Being There through a Beach Boys riff on Summerteeth to a radically different masterwork Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - put out on their website for free download after their label dropped them for making non-commerical albums, check I am Trying to Break Your Heart, a great documentary on the band's experiences for one tumultuous year, for more info on that one - and on to A Ghost is Born which has some of the most beautiful, quiet music they've made. It's new every album, but the quality is consistently high - well, A.M. was a weak effort, but it lead things off, so there's slack to be given.
Next up is the Yonder Mountain String Band, a bluegrass/jam band that tends to come through the Cincy area a couple of times a year - something about the mandolin player having gone to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. They've put out three studio albums and three live recordings (a bunch of others available for download from either the bonnaroo downloads site or from livedownloads.com. The Band has been on the forefront of the movement to post live performances for download. In the Band's case, it's a great thing because they haven't been able to capture the fun and energy of their live performances on any of their studio recordings yet. Instead, their albums have been pretty standard modern bluegress fare, but their live performances are absolute knockouts - typically three-hours of high energy with unexpected covers and great musical breakdowns. See 'em live if they come your way. It's a hell of a show.
I've already pointed out Richard Thompson's website in a previous posting, so I won't dwell there other than to point out that he's got a new album coming out next week - Front Porch Ballads. I heard two or three of the tracks when he came through and performed in Newport this spring, and it looks to be a great album, his first solo album in a decade or two, should be a real treat.
I'll close with a link to John Prine's site on Oh Boy records. Prine has been making music and writing wonderful songs for more than twenty years now and has gone from being the next Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson to a wonderful artist in his own right. His songs tend to tell stories of people just a little off center - see "Donald and Lydia" and "Illegal Smile", "Jesus - the Missing Years" or "Sam Stone" - or of his recollections of youth - "Paradise" and "Angel from Montgomery". His singing is casual and relaxed, and his songs are absolutely wonderful. My favorite is "Lake Marie". He's a hell of a writer and an absolute joy.
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