under the covers, chapter thirty-one: but you don't really care for music, do you?

Before I finish up the 2010 best albums of the year post, I offer up another chapter of under the covers. This time, a three song set, inspired by the recent holiday and as well as my recent re-discovering of my love for Jeff Buckley. Buckley is unfortunately perhaps most known for his cover of the featured song of this post, the mighty Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," but believe me his music is worth much more than just the one beautiful cover song. Regardless, below is Cohen's original, followed by Buckley's cover, and then Damien Rice takes a stab at it. Seems to me this song backs up the fact that music saves.

Cohen


Buckley


Rice


sing loud cause you're still alive.

Be Set Free: Langhorne Slim takes Fargo

There's something about a terrific live show that sends you out into the night feeling invincible, and on Sunday night Langhorne Slim and his opening acts did that for a small but dedicated crowd at the Aquarium in Fargo, North Dakota. Local boy Michael Pink started the evening off quietly but sharply, providing a handful of original tracks blended in with a couple solid covers, one of which was Neil Young's "Long May You Run." Dazzlingly dressed Scottish singer-songwriter Ryan Lauder followed and was met, after his first tune, with genuine excitement from the crowd. Lauder's banter with the audience, fun facts about North Dakota and Fargo speech, and his honest, full of effort performance was worth getting excited about. You can catch Lauder with Slim for the next couple tour dates before he crossed back over the pond. He made promises of a soon to be released album so we're certainly looking forward to that. Below is a track he played with a little help from Slim's band members. Lauder's myspace page offers a handful of tracks, and if I could suggest one, it would be "I Need Sleep," which he played at the show. It should also be known that Lauder is extremely kind and a blast to talk to.

Langhorne Slim has been on my musical mind for about a year now. I've heard from several people that his live shows are fabulous, and I can tell you all now that they're more than that. His energy level is high and his stage presence is brilliant. About half-way through the show he came down in the middle of the crowd and sang amongst his fans...and a couple of ladies I know where among the fortunate who got to hold his hand for a minute as he wailed away. He later came down and scooted through the crowd to the bar, taking advantage of it's lack of a line and ordering himself another drink. His setlist covered about half of his most recent release, Be Set Free, mixed in with tracks off his other releases, a self-titled album from 2008 and When The Sun's Gone Down from 2005. Slim was very gracious after the show as he stuck around to give autographs, take pictures, shake hands, and talk to his fans. We walked out of that bar knowing there was nothing that could have happened that night that would have made it any better. Below are three videos from that night: 1) Slim's failed attempt at a new song followed by some banter to the crowd followed by a crowd requested "I Love You, But Goodbye" 2) A chunk of Slim's "Be Set Free" and 3) An unknown Ryan Lauder track in which he's accompanied by Slim's two bandmates.

New Song/Banter/I Love You, But Goodbye


Be Set Free


Ryan Lauder


music saves. especially live music.

i told all the lies i could tell and now i'm coming home again

I had trouble working for more than two minutes at a time the other day because the Iron & Wine station on Pandora kept providing me with ear-catching music I'd not heard before. One of those artists was Gregory Alan Isakov, a South African born singer-songwriter whose lyrics I enjoy more and more as I dive deeper into his four album collection. Below are three songs, the second of which is from a house show (that's the thing to do these days, eh?) and I really, really dig what he's putting out. It's not hard to see his connection to Iron & Wine and to me, he's a bit of Jason Isbell fused with Ryan Adams and Pete Yorn...

Drank All the Wine


The Stable Song


That Moon Song


it saves.

under the covers, chapter thirty: where is my mind?

I was perusing one of my favorite blogs the other day, Stolen Lyric, and came across a post/photo I hadn't seen/noticed before...

...and it reminded me of how much I love the lyric featured in that photo. And so, chapter thirty was born. Up first are the Pixies with a live version of the original and then the previously annoying James Blunt covering it. He actually does it quite well...there's a video of Yoav doing a loop cover of it that's okay, but I think Blunt's version stacked up against the original much better. Never thought I'd be posting a James Blunt video...

The Pixies - Where Is My Mind?


James Blunt - Where Is My Mind?


it saves.