Music: What are you listening to today?
In the spirit of the books and movies threads, here's one to talk about what you're listening to lately and what you have discovered. Tell us if you like it, what it reminds you of, anything you like, short or not, simple or not.
Like the books thread, I'd ask that we keep it mostly to stuff we are listening to or going to listen to soon, or have just finished listening to (that is, like a log more than a resume).
Below is my first entry.
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Bonnie Raitt, by Bonnie Raitt.
My understanding is that this was her first record, which she made when she was 21. Nine out of the eleven songs are covers; the two she wrote are "Thank You" and "Finest Loving Man," and both are good.
I really liked this album. Bonnie's voice is much sweeter here than I've heard her before, and very warm, traveling between notes more fluently, and not yet as raspy sounding as it became. (Which I also like in its own way.) Despite the sweetness of her voice she manages to put some heart into the bluesy material, and sings with what sounds like a real love for the lyrics. It's great to hear someone who doesn't just walk through lyrics. She sounds like she really thought and felt her way through the songs. Many of the most gifted and popular singers out there don't, winding up leaving a lot of a song's power still on the table, so to speak.*
From an Amazon.com review:
Bonnie wrote two of the songs here (Thank you, Finest loving man) but relied mainly on covers, beginning with a cover of Bluebird (written by Stephen Stills, famous as a member first of Buffalo Springfield then of Crosby Stills and Nash). One of Bonnie's major influences, Sippie Wallace, is represented by two songs (Mighty tight woman, Women be wise) while Bonnie also covers Any day woman (Paul Siebel), Walking blues (Robert Johnson) and Since I fell for you (Bud Johnson) among others.
I really enjoyed Walking Blues a lot and wanted to hear it immediately again, but decided to let the rest of the album play out instead of interrupting its flow. The album is good enough that I think I'm going to listen to it again.
By the way, it's in the Rhapsody's catalogue, if you have that service. It's also at Amazon, and the MP3 256kbps download is on sale there for $2.99. You can listen to samples there too.
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*This reminds me of a biography of John Denver that I saw on PBS the other day. I'm not a big Denver fan, but the biography was so good that this is the second time I felt compelled to watch it. Anyway, in it his manager said that at a particular concert Denver sounded exceptionally good, and it seemed like the audience noticed it. His manager recalls saying something like, "Your voice was incredible today. How did you do it?" Denver replied that he was trying to do what he learned from Placido Domingo when they worked together. He said he was amazed by how deep Domingo's art was; he didn't just sing a line, but put the right emotion into it word by word. If he was going to sing about a piece of steel, his voice would sound like steel. Every line was emotionally full, clear, and precise.
I got a bit of a feeling of that in this Raitt album. Raitt very much inhabited those songs when she sang. Unlike some spoiled divas, the newly emergent Raitt got across the feeling that she was glad to be there.
the sole purpose of the stonecutter is to determine your name is properly spelled
everything else after that is a fleur de lis
only to be dustbinned by the gravedigger
a neverending confession of suppressing organic matter after sorting by color
dear random sir or madame parents of recently passed military soldiers
while you are in this deepest moment of grief
do you willfully elect to choose the coffin for your recently deceased loved one to be lined with either ebony or ivory
either one likely comes with a five hundred dollar surcharge just to turn on the brain and even start thinking about it
I don't know what you did to make Phil Oakey mad enough to block your country, but he must have his reasons.
It was only a matter of time.
Broken YouTube Linkif it was really that hard, everybody wouldn't be doing it.
If I were to make a top list of my favourite Taylors, Momsen would definitely make the top 2.
Tell 'em it's good
Tell 'em okay
Don't do a goddamn thing they say
If I were to make a list of my favourite Shapplins, Emma would definitely make top 1.
loved it the first time watching and the volume wasn't even on.
apparently that was Kaval Sviri, The Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir
this is Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares with a much larger group on KEXP from 2017
(i knew nothing of this music before MSchu's post)
thank you for the reminder
probably havent seen this video since the original airing
afro the fact that candy gulp levies low brow genius comedic timing
also believe this to be where bob mckenzie landed after that whole strange thing brewing with brother doug blew up in his touque
and did ya know it's a cover of a 'real' song?
Spoiler
drove through chilliwack bc years ago while reverse traversing the fraser river west to east via car camp
the two of us agreed no compelling reason to stop for anything
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