Mostly recorded live, Albertine is the soaring declaration of a young woman’s passion and life experiences that are magically told in songs like “C.S. Lewis Song” and the beautiful “Hymn,” which closes the album. It’s about time the world – outside of New Zealand and Australia – opens its ears to enjoy the promising real talents of Brooke Fraser
Quirky like Regina Spektor and intoxicating like Tori Amos, Rachael Sage successfully uses her songwriting and piano skills to win you over on tunes like the opening “Vertigo” and the beautiful title track, where she sings, “Silence is sweeter than doubt.” There’s no doubting Rachael Sage on Chandelier, only the beauty of discovery and feeling content.
Playing to a sold out room that remained attentive and fun from the opening “Via Chicago” to the closing “The Late Greats,” Tweedy and his band mates were firing shots and killing moving targets all night long.
Last week I read in an interview where singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards said she used to listen to music on the bus to school and wonder what others were thinking. Feeling so moved by what she was listening to, she “couldn’t understand how people weren’t as affected as [she] was.” Edwards went on to talk about the real music bug you eventually get when “you start discovering music on your own and not music that friends are telling you about.”
This one’s for her, whatever the hell her name was,” Steve Earle said with a laugh, before he broke into “Now She’s Gone,” off 1996’s I Feel Alright. It was that kind of night for Earle—a chance to look back, but not dwell on any kind of regret.
Everything Margo Timmins does is with pure elegance. The way she glides on stage, after the rest of her band has taken their places. The way she tells stories in between songs. The way she finds a pair of eyes in the audience and sings to them. They way she sips her tea and admires her flowers. The way she smiles while singing words her brother wrote.
Catching up with Glen Phillips, ex-member of Toad the Wet Sprocket, might surprise you with what he has to offer on his new EP, The Secrets of the New Explorers. He and friend John Askew decided to record six songs about a random subject that actually meant something to both of them: space travel. The result is a nice collection of songs, all with a “back to the future” feel to them. I can’t tell if it’s a sound that Phillips will continue to pursue, but the EP’s standout, “Solar Flare,” was worth the effort. Travel on.
You might not know it, but you probably already love The Weepies. It might have been that commercial for Old Navy, or that episode of Grey’s Anatomy, but you’ve probably mouthed the words, “That’s a good song” after hearing one of their simple, catchy tunes.
Somehow, every word that David Ford sings feels so personal that it hurts me to listen. I need 30-second breaks in between tracks. Lucinda Williams does this to me. So does Matthew Ryan. I try to relate, but I end up going numb, only because I have no idea of the pain they speak of in their songs. Somehow, every word that David Ford sings feels so personal that it hurts me to listen. I need 30-second breaks in between tracks. Lucinda Williams does this to me. So does Matthew Ryan. I try to relate, but I end up going numb, only because I have no idea of the pain they speak of in their songs. Somehow, every word that David Ford sings feels so personal that it hurts me to listen. I need 30-second breaks in between tracks. Lucinda Williams does this to me. So does Matthew Ryan. I try to relate, but I end up going numb, only because I have no idea of the pain they speak of in their songs.
The price is steep, for the secrets we don’t keep,” sings Matthew Ryan on “Meet Me By the River,” just one of the stellar tracks off his new album, Matthew Ryan Vs. The Silver State (MRVSS). Ryan doesn’t keep many secrets on the 11 tracks that make up the brilliant piece of work—he lays it out for the listener, warts and all. And it’s quite a journey.
