photo by Dominque Attaway
DC is hardly a hotbed for emerging Americana artists, but Lissy Rosemont, an Atlanta girl that went to grad school at Georgetown and got carried away jamming with a few folks, now calls it home. As frontwoman of Junior League Band with another self-titled project on the side and far from using her degree, Lissy grew up playing with her dad’s bluegrass band in Georgia and is now building a DC following. She recently opened for Rosanne Cash at The Birchmere.
In a feature on JLB in 2008, The Washington Post called the band’s third album, Mitchell Williams Fo Govena, “down-home folk” and “back porch,” which seems about right. Check out a new video story on Lissy from ABC News below and a raw little jam to the old Gospel tune, “Canaan’s Land (Where The Soul of Man Never Dies)” with Jim Avett, the Gospel singing father of The Avett Brothers.
Mitchell Williams Fo Govena on iTunes
The favorite fun fact on Porland folk band Blind Pilot is that its front man, Israel Nebeker, and drummer, Ryan Dobrowski, have used two different bike tours to spread their music down the Pacific coast (hear their bike stories at the link below, including an unfortunate premature ending to one tour where their bikes were stolen, from an NPR interview early last year). BUT a somewhat recent fun fact is that the band released a delicious five-song live EP on iTunes a few weeks ago including a jaw-dropping cover of Gillian Welch’s “Look at Miss Ohio.”
As you’ll see from the EP, these guys have an amazing live presence and are known for playing intimate venues that sell out quickly. For example, you’re already out of luck for getting tickets to their show at the Mercury Lounge on March 31st. Sorry to tease.
Here’s a different live cover of the Welch’s Miss Ohio to whet your appetite.
Blind Pilot – iTunes Session EP – Only $4.95
Blind Pilot on NPR’s Morning Edition (complete with bike tour anecdotes)
Photo by Amber Meairs
In his senior year at UNC Chapel Hill, Maryland-native Joe Pug dropped out of school and moved to Chicago to focus more on his music. He played around town, then toured the country like a champ for a few years, giving away his music all along the way. Now, two amazing free EPs later, he’s about to embark on a national tour with Justin Townes Earle and begin selling his 9-song new album Messenger (releases Feb 16).
As I mentioned earlier this week, I was tipped on Joe from JTE himself. This guy’s on to something. Pug’s In The Meantime EP (get it for free on his Web site below) is truly stunning. Both his writing and sound will not be overlooked by even the biggest music snobs. Get it now!
Dawes, a young four-man Americana and soul band out of North Hills, CA that’s currently on tour with Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons, appeared on NPR’s World Café this week. The band has this Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 70s rock vinyl sound, but they’re kids.
Dawes’ debut album, North Hills, is easy to like with lots of Sunday driving tunes and passion filled vocals. However, I was most impressed with the live cover of “With a Little Help From My Friends” in the video below featuring the backup vocals of Chisel and his band. NYC can catch Dawes and Chisel at the Bowery Ballroom on February 19th.
Saturday night, the Mrs. and I got to see Justin Townes Earle play in Port Washington at the Landmark on Main St, a small intimate venue that hosts a few big ticket shows every year due to some serious cash droppers and a sponsorship from the good folks at WFUV.
We saw JTE play on The Big Surprise Tour from the balcony of The Beacon Theater, which seemed like it was in a different time zone than the stage, but were on the second row this time. Amazing. He played by himself for about an hour for a crowd of mostly WFUV-lovin-Baby-Boomers. We were blown away at how polished he was and how engaging stage presence was throughout the show. Most of his set list was pulled from his two albums, but gave us a great sample of his upcoming album. Stay tuned for that. We also got to chat with him after the show about his upcoming event at the Bowery Ballroom on March 5. He’ll be playing there with Chicago-based singer-songwriter Joe Pug who he says “rocks like a mother f*cker.” Look for a post on Joe soon.
In other JTE news, he was among GQ’s 25 Most Stylish Men of 2010 and the editors of Esquire also listed “Mama’s Eyes” on its list of 50 Songs Every Man Should be Listening To.
Opening for Justin was Carrie Rodriguez, an Austin-based fiddler and songwriter who also happens to have a killer voice. Carrie emerged at SXSW in 2001 and gave an impressive performance. Much of her set was filled with dark, ominous Americana songs, but we were most impressed with her fiddle tunes and her closing song, which was in Spanish and written by her aunt – an old WW1 Voice of America legend. Check out her album, She Ain’t Me at the link below.
photo by paxtonnx.com
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have long been performing together under Gillian’s name, but switched places (at least for now) late last year at the release of A Friend of a Friend under the name David Rawlings Machine. The album, which was put together by Rawlings and got its name from a suggestion by Conor Oberst, made many top “albums of the year” lists last month and for good reason. It’s filled with tracks that you can listen to over and over again.
Earlier this month, Rawlings appeared on Boston’s WBUR (NPR) where he discussed the hesitations he had about doing his own album, his surprise at Rolling Stone’s four-star review and a 10-minute track that pairs Bright Eyes’ song “Method Acting” with Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer.”
In the 9-minute interview, he also discusses the story behind the final and most gripping song on the album entitled “Bells of Harlem.”
There was felling that I had one time of being in a crowd in Manhattan. That informed the verse about seeing the flocks and pastures and seeing a crowd gathered together for one purpose. That memory worked its way into the song.
I saw Rawlings, Gillian Welch and Old Crow Medicine Show perform the song at The Beacon Theater in Manhattan last year on The Big Surprise Tour and you could hear a pin drop. They also stopped by Grimey’s in Nashville in December. See below.
A Friend of A Friend on Amazon
David Rawings Machine – “Bells of Harlem” at Sounds Country – Jeff Giddens at Sounds Country wrote an eloquent interpretation of this song that I thought summed it up well.
In October, brilliant storyteller Lyle Lovett released Natural Forces, an album much like his others – filled with amazing talent from his band (and guests), an unmatched country voice and a couple crazy ass backwoods stories (see “Pantry” co-written with Lyle’s girlfriend April Kimble).
Forces is a mix of songs by Lyle and covers from other legendary Texans including the late Townes Van Zant and Robert Earl Keen, Lyle’s roommate at Texas A&M. On top of the great writing, the album features Victor Krauss (brother of Alison) on bass, Sam Bush on mandolin and Stuart Duncan on the fiddle.
Check out “Loretta,” “Don’t You Think I Feel It Too” and “Bayou Song” and you’ll no longer first think of Lovett as that guy that married Julia Roberts for a couple years.
Natural Forces on Amazon (Only $5.00 at the time of posting. I paid $9.99 on iTunes. LAME!)
P.S. As I’ve mentioned, my favorite bluegrass song of all time is” Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree.” Here’s my favorite rendition of it from Lyle and Alison Krauss. Not sure when or where it was recorded, but it’s live and damn good.
Another group of fresh faces on the Telluride lineup this summer will bring the sounds of the Piedmont Plateau (that’s the Carolina foothills of the Appalachian Mountains) out West. Durham’s Carolina Chocolate Drops is bringing back 1920s black string band and jug music. With their new album, Genuine Negro Jig, set to release from Nonesuch Records in the UK next week and worldwide in the next few weeks, the band is currently touring the Northeast before jumping across the pond for a few shows.
Their sound is unexpected to say the least. Jug music tends to all sound the same and their self-titled album (though still brilliant) has that feel, but there’s great variety with Genuine. There’s plenty of old-time, a jug rendition of Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘em Up Style” and then a little acapella from opera-trained Rhiannon Giddens, who plays the five-string banjo and fiddle on other tracks.
See below for a great video introduction to the band below that I found on the Nonesuch site, a review from the BBC and link to their MySpace page. NYC can see them at the Bowery Ballroom on Sunday, March 14th.
Carolina Chocolate Drops on MySpace
BBC Review of Genuine Negro Jig
Today I checked out the Telluride lineup. It’s mostly filled with the usual suspects (not that I don’t want that), but one of the most unfamiliar names is likely to gain a significant American following in 2010.
Mumford & Sons, a group of four twenty-somethings out of West London that’s gaining mainstream attention in the UK, will release its album in the US on January 19. Sigh No More is sure to be a favorite in the States with its Coldplay-like crescendos and Fleet-Foxes-like choruses, but with folk instruments and solos. The first single from the album, “Little Lion Man,” is already available on iTunes in the US, as are a few live tracks from an iTunes UK Live Session. All are worth a buy. Unless you have a UK billing address, you’ll have to wait until the 19th to download the full Sigh No More. BUT, there’s always YouTube…
Here are three great tracks from Sigh, that will give you a good taste. You can hear more album samples on the Mumford & Sons Web site. The band will also be on NPR’s World Café on the 19th.
UPDATE: I grew tired of these guys pretty quickly.
I am not an indie rock fan, but there are a few exceptions. Vampire Weekend is one of them. They are hard to hate. I listen to their self-titled album every Friday after work to get ready for the weekend.
The band’s new album, Contra, comes out Tuesday, but they put the entire album on MySpace. Haven’t finished it yet, but it sounds just as kick ass as the first one. Also, they’re on the Tonight Show on Monday night.
Contra on Myspace
