03.30.09
Song of the Week #14: John Butler Trio – Daniella
Australian band The John Butler Trio released their first album in 1998. Since then their lineup has been changing a lot, and as far as I know, John Butler considers this a good thing as it keeps the music fresh, giving him different kind of influences over time. The band has toured the States and Europe as well, and it looks like they’re coming back here in July.
John Butler’s guitar style is really something to watch – there’s a little bit of everything there. First off, the guitar he plays is a Maton 12-string, but only with 11 strings since it’s missing the high G string. He has long acrylic nails on his right hand, suitable for fingerpicking, and can be used like a pick. Add to that the slide he holds in his pinky, leaving the other three fingers to fret the strings normally. Here’s an interview with more explanation.
Daniella is a song from their latest album, a 2007 release Grand National. It’s presumably about his wife Danielle, who is also a musician.
03.29.09
Golden Train by Justin Nozuka
Justin Nozuka at Bowery Ballroom in New York (Photo by Lillian Zepeda)
Here’s a new video of Justin Nozuka’s latest single Golden Train. It’s not a new song but a single off of his debut album Holly. It’s nice to see other songs from that album getting play besides the obvious hit After Tonight.
Currently, Justin is playing on Mayercraft Carrier 2 – a four-day cruise hosted by John Mayer along with artists like O.A.R. and Guster. In April he has some shows in France, so go see him if you’re nearby!
03.26.09
Jack Johnson’s Green Studio
Environmental awareness was a big topic on Jack Johnson’s world tour last year. It’s truly great how much effort he’s putting into educating people about these topics. Some new videos about what his Kokua Foundation does were just posted on Sundance Channel website.
This year there won’t be a Kokua Festival, and it looks like Jack won’t be performing live much at all this year. That’s completely understandable given the time he spent on the road last year. I hope they’ll release a DVD of the material shot during last year’s tour. I really like his 2005 DVD release A Weekend At The Greek & Live In Japan, which was what finally got me into his music.
One cool thing is Brushfire Record’s solar powered studio in Los Angeles. That’s where Jack’s latest studio album Sleep Through the Static was recorded. This is G. Love giving a tour around the house.
03.23.09
Jason Mraz in France
I’m back from my vacation in France. I got the inspiration to go when Jason Mraz published his European tour dates with many shows in France where a friend of mine is spending the year as an exchange student. We first bought tickets to the Toulouse show, but when I noticed that Jason had a show in Paris when I was going to be there, I bought a ticket to that as well. Which was a good, because it was such a great show at the Olympia.
All the French people I talked to at the show were wondering if I really came all the way to France just to see the show. Well, I had never been to Paris, so this trip was about so much more than the shows. I love to travel and see live music. Usually, I first book tickets to some shows I want to see, and then plan the trip around them. There’s so much to see in Paris that I didn’t have time to see nearly all the things I wanted to, so I’m glad I’m going back there in the summer to see Dave Matthews Band. For one thing, the weather was so nice all the time that I didn’t go to museums much at all.
Back to music, Marit Larsen opened the Olympia show with a solid set. She was so energetic, so it was funny when Jason’s entrance was like this:
That song is called The Longest Day of the Year. I liked the slow start to the show. With the horn section present and getting lots of space, this show reminded me of Jason’s DVD release Tonight, Not Again: Live at the Eagles Ballroom. They played two of my favorite songs from that release, Common Pleasure and Unfold. This time Jason had no lead guitarist on the stage, so he played the guitar solo in Unfold by himself on the acoustic guitar. He played it quite some time before the sax player took over (it’s all in the YouTube video linked above).
Jason and his super band at the Paris Olympia (Photo by Olivier Colas)
With a saxophone, trumpet and trombone there was no shortage of solo instruments. Even the bass player took a couple of solos. It’s just the kind of music I want to see live with lots of jams and many funny things going on. The audience didn’t know the old songs very well, besides The Remedy. But other than that, the French audience was fantastic at the Olympia!
I thought it was funny when Jason dedicated Love for a Child to his mother. And that day it was his father’s birthday, so we sang happy birthday to him. Really the best part of the show was hit songs like I’m Yours and Dynamo of Volition because the audience was so into them. The biggest highlight was Song for a Friend that closed the show:
Song of the Week #13: Joshua Radin – Today
Joshua Radin’s music falls into the acoustic singer-songwriter category that I’ve been listening to a lot this winter, and written about many times here. His first album was released in 2004, an EP called First between 3rd and 4th. Since then he has released two full-length studio albums.
Joshua has shows in Germany this week and one in Stockholm. You can check out his Myspace page for tour dates and listen to some more of his music. This is a song called Today from his album We Were Here. The performance is from 2007 at the Recher Theatre in Towson, MD.
03.16.09
Song of the Week #12: Marit Larsen – The Chase
Hello from sunny Paris! Just quickly posting a song for this week from an Internet cafe. I really have no way to hear the YouTube video this time, so I hope it’s good. But I heard the song Saturday night at Paris Olympia when the lovely Norwegian Marit Larsen was opening for Jason Mraz.
It was a unbelievable show. I was sitting on the balcony in the very last row, so I got a good look at the French audience. And it wasn’t too far away to see and enjoy the show. The French audience gets excited really easily, even the unknown opener had an extremely warm welcome to Paris. Usually I’m not so crazy about the hit songs of my favorite artists, but this time, I have to say I’m Yours and The Remedy were among the best because of the amazing audience.
Jason and his super band also played some of his old songs that I really like. Great performances of Common Pleasure and Unfold. Only the audience didn’t know the songs, but that’s really the only bad thing I can say about them. I love to go to other countries to see shows because the audiences are often a little different.
Seeing the show from the last row was also a good teaser to get to see the same thing again in Toulouse on Tuesday, then hopefully near the stage. This is Marit Larsen with her song The Chase.
03.13.09
Jason Mraz. Rocket Man.
I’m just doing some late night packing before heading out to Paris tomorrow. That means this blog is going to be pretty quiet for the following week, but things will get back to normal when I get back. Looking forward to seeing Paris, and of course, Jason Mraz!
This is Jason performing his song Rocket Man at a small show in Germany in 2007. There’s something about Jason playing in small rooms filled with fans.
03.09.09
Song of the Week #11: Pete Murray – Ten Ft Tall
Pete Murray at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco, Perth (Photo by Michael Spencer)
Australian singer-songwriter Pete Murray has been successful in his own country with all his three major label albums. He’s music is a nice blend of acoustic and more electric rock. Ten Ft Tall is a song is from his major label debut Feeler, released in 2003.
This is an acoustic live performance of Ten Ft Tall from 2006 at Melkweg in Amsterdam.
03.04.09
Musicians on Twitter
I’m just starting to get the hang of Twitter myself. Following my tweets is one way to stay tuned with this blog. More and more musicians are also using Twitter, some just for announcements, others for more casual chitchat. Here’s a few that I enjoy following a lot.
And a short list of those who I’ve featured (or might feature, more of those actually) on this blog.
- Sara Bareilles
- Cardinals
- Ani DiFranco
- Matisyahu
- Jason Mraz
- Pearl Jam
- Taylor Swift
- Matt Wertz
- Pete Yorn
For a much longer list, see 406 Bands Who Twitter by COED Magazine. There are also other music bloggers on Twitter, here’s some:
And if you are a musician looking to get started with Twitter, here’s “Musician’s Twitter roadmap.”
03.02.09
Song of the Week #10: Iron & Wine – Flightless Bird, American Mouth
Sam Beam of Iron & Wine (Photo by Raquel Rincon)
I remember people talking about Iron & Wine already years ago, but I’ve only started listening to them more recently. Or him, because Iron & Wine is really a stage name of Sam Beam. It started as his solo project, but later a touring band has emerged around him.
Flightless Bird, American Mouth is a song from Iron & Wine’s third studio album, The Shepherd’s Dog. The song was also used in the 2008 movie Twilight. Last night I saw the local band Hormonés for the second time this year. They played a fun show, consisting of some Iron & Wine songs, some of their own, and covers of KT Tunstall, John Mayer, Foo Fighters, and others. For a fun song performed by them, you can check out their live recording of the Presidents of the USA song Back Porch on their MySpace page.
That show inspired me to pick the song of the week from Iron & Wine. This is Sam Beam’s solo performance of the beautiful and simple Flightless Bird, American Mouth.
