Ryan Adams Week (7 days of music genius)

When The Stars Go Blue By Ryan Adams

         Gold is the second studio album by Ryan Adams, released September 25, 2001. The album remains Adams' best-selling album, certifying gold in the UK and going on to sell 364,000 copies in the U.S. and 812,000 worldwide.  Adams noted that "with Gold, I was trying to prove something to myself. I wanted to invent a modern classic."

        Adams intended for the album to be a double album, but his record label, Lost Highway, condensed the album into a single disc to avoid paying Adams more money.   According to Adams, the label "took the last five songs, made it a bonus disc and put it on the first hundred and fifty thousand copies. Fucking my fans over and making them pay extra for a record I wanted to be a double album. They counted that as one record."  This bonus disc is known as Side Four; the disc's title reflects the fact that the bonus material makes up the fourth side of the double LP edition of the album.

         The album includes "When the Stars Go Blue", which has been covered by artists such as The Corrs and Bono, Tyler Hilton, Bethany Joy Galeotti, and Tim McGraw.   "The Rescue Blues" was featured in the end credits of the 2001 film Behind Enemy Lines.

Adams' friend and former roommate Adam Duritz (lead singer of Counting Crows) lends background vocals to several tracks.

         Adams received three Grammy Award nominations in 2002: Best Rock Album, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "New York, New York", and Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "Lovesick Blues".

 

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Ryan Adams Week (7 days of music genius)

 Come Pick Me Up By Ryan Adams
Solo Career (2000-2004)

Ryan Adams made his solo debut in 2000, with Heart breaker  (produced by Ethan Johns).  Emmylou Harris, who was originally Gram Parsons' singing partner, sang backup on "Oh My Sweet Carolina." Other backing vocals and instruments were provided by Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and Kim Richey as Adams embraced a style more reminiscent of folk music. It was met with considerable critical success, but sales were slow.

Adams released Gold, the follow up to Heartbreaker, in 2001. It was well received; however, Adams voted against making videos or doing a radio station meet-and-greet type tour for more recording and some live dates. A video was eventually made for album's first single, "New York, New York". The music video featured Adams performing in front of the city's skyline four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks. The video was played often on MTV and VH1 after the attacks and became Adams's breakthrough to mainstream music consumers.

 

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Ryan Adams Week (7 days of music genius)

Don't Wanna Know Why By Ryan Adams (Whiskeytown)

       Faithless Street era (1995-1996) Faithless Street, released on Mood Food Records in 1996, established the band as one of the genre's leaders, thanks to glowing reviews in publications such as No Depression, and helped the band score a major-label record deal with the Geffen Records imprint Outpost.   Faithless was re-released on the imprint in 1998 with nearly a dozen bonus tracks from the era, some of which are new, and others of which showed up on Strangers Almanac, Rural Free Delivery, and other early EPs in different versions. One track, "Oklahoma," was removed. Adams claimed that the reason for the re-release was the muddy sound of the original version and his distaste for "Oklahoma," which was added to the album despite his objections.  

        Stranger's Almanac era (1997-1998) Whiskeytown's 1997 major-label debut, Strangers Almanac, helped to establish Adams' reputation as a songwriter. In the midst of the album's recording, Gilmore and Grothman left, and Wandscher left soon after the album's release. The band cycled through numerous members throughout the next year, including Brad Rice and Steven Terry, both of whom were involved in the recording of Almanac but left later that year.
       The band's reputation preceded it in the live setting. In a 1997 Detroit Free Press article titled Whiskeytown: half band, half soap opera, a June 1997 show at Mac's Bar in Lansing, Michigan was described by fans as a half-baked performance.
        Despite the band's internal strife, Almanac was a successful album with critics. The positive reviews came from increasingly mainstream publications such as Rolling Stone, who claimed at the time, "If there's to be a nirvana among the bands that are imprecisely dubbed alternative country, look to Whiskeytown."
             During the tour for Stranger's Almanac, the entire band was fired at a concert in Kansas City. The only people who started and finished the tour were Adams, Caitlin Cary, Mike Daly and tour manager Thomas O'Keefe.

           Pneumonia and the band's demise (1999-2001) Even with the personnel changes, the band managed to add a new core member in multi-instrumentalist Mike Daly, who contributed significantly to the band's sound on their third album, Pneumonia.    The album's recording was a much different affair from the first two likely because of the band's constantly changing dynamic. The traditional country of the first two albums, especially Faithless, was largely replaced with a more sophisticated country-rooted pop sound, very similar to Wilco's 1999 album Summerteeth. Also adding to the different flavor of the album was a cast of guest stars, including The Replacements' Tommy Stinson and The Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha.   Despite the album's completion and Whiskeytown's sizable fanbase, Outpost Records closed during the merger between Polygram and Universal, and as a result the album stayed in limbo for nearly two years, effectively ending the band.   

          Post-Whiskeytown and talk of reunion.  Since the band dissolved, most core members have chosen to remain active in music. Cary, who married original drummer Eric "Skillet" Gilmore, has released three solo albums and created a female folk trio named Tres Chicas.   Adams has remained in the spotlight since the band's breakup, releasing numerous solo albums, including three in 2005. He has drawn considerable praise from such legends as Elton John and Phil Lesh for his songwriting.   Adams and Cary have claimed to be reuniting Whiskeytown on multiple occasions, as recently as 2005, but as of yet, nothing new has been released. The band did reunite for a one-off, impromptu gig after one of Adams' shows in Raleigh, NC, in 2005. Gilmore, Cary, and Adams were joined on-stage by Adams' current pedal steel player, Jon Graboff, and then-bassist Catherine Popper

 

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Ryan Adams Week (7 days of music genius)

Anyone But Me By Ryan Adams (Whiskeytown)  
(Rare Bootleg) Listen for Ben Folds on Piano.

           Ryan Adams was born on November 5, 1974, in Jacksonville, North Carolina. When he was eight years old, Adams began writing short stories and poetry on his grandmother's typewriter. He is quoted as saying, "I started writing short stories when I was really into Edgar Allan Poe. Then later, when I was a teenager, I got really hard into cult fiction: Hubert Selby, Jr., Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac." At the age of 14 Adams began learning to play the electric guitar that his Mother and Stepfather had bought him, and shortly afterward joined a local band named Blank Label. Although Blank Label did not stay together long, a three-track 7" record exists, dated 1991 and lasting less than seven minutes in total.

          Adams dropped out of high school in his first week of tenth grade, moving into bandmate Jere McIlwean's rental house just outside Jacksonville. Around this time he performed briefly with two local bands, Ass and The Lazy Stars. Following this, Adams joined The Patty Duke Syndrome and once played in a bar in Jacksonville. After obtaining his GED, Adams left Jacksonville for Raleigh, shortly followed by McIlwean. The Patty Duke Syndrome split in 1994 after releasing a 7" single containing two songs (The Patty Duke Syndrome was on one side, while the other side was a band called GlamourPuss).

           Following the break up of The Patty Duke Syndrome, Adams went on to found Whiskeytown with Caitlin Cary, Eric "Skillet" Gilmore, Steve Grothmann and Phil Wandscher. The founding of Whiskeytown saw Adams move to alt-country, describing punk rock as "too hard to sing" in the title track of Whiskeytown's debut album Faithless Street. Whiskeytown was heavily influenced by the country-rock pioneers, most notably Gram Parsons (with whom Adams shares a birthday).   Whiskeytown quickly gained critical acclaim with the release of their second full-length album, Strangers Almanac, their first major label release.

        The band is considered one of the genre's most influential and successful, along with Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks and The Old 97's. Like these acts, Whiskeytown gradually expanded its sound outside the confines of alt-country, while still keeping roots in acts like singer/songwriter Gram Parsons and alternative rock band The Replacements.    Despite the fact that the band only released three albums, none of the albums feature a consistent lineup, with only Adams and Cary remaining constants.

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 In These Arms By The Swell Season

The Swell Season was formed as a result of a collaboration between Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová, Bertrand Galen and Marja Tuhkanen when they recorded the album The Swell Season (released in April 2006).

in April/May 2006, the quartet played six shows in Ireland to support the release of The Swell Season. Later in the year (October & December) they also played a number of shows in the US to support the release of the album there. The huge success of the film Once resulted in Glen and Markéta touring the US constantly during 2007 and the line-up morphed over time (Glen and Markéta being the core members). The current Swell Season line-up also includes three members of The Frames: guitarist Rob Bochnik, violinist Colm Mac Con Iomaire, and bassist Joe Doyle. Graham Hopkins joined the tour on drums in spring of 2008.

Hansard and Markéta starred in the film ‘Once’ by writer/director John Carney (a former bass player of The Frames). Many songs of The Swell Season are used in this film, which won the World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance 2007. Hansard and Irglová won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song “Falling Slowly” in February 2008.

   

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Flash-Back Friday (No school like the old school)

The Ghost In You By The Psychedelic Furs

The Psychedelic Furs are an English rock band founded in London in the late 1970s. They came together in England’s burgeoning punk scene of 1977, and initially consisted of Richard Butler (vocals), Tim Butler (bass guitar), Duncan Kilburn (saxophone), Paul Wilson (drums), and Roger Morris (guitars). By 1979, this line up had expanded to a sextet with the addition of John Ashton on guitar and Vince Ely replacing Wilson on drums.

        The Furs found success in the U.S. market with the 1981 release Talk Talk Talk, which made its impact on the US album charts. In the UK, the album was a solid hit which spun off two charting singles, “Dumb Waiters” and the original version of “Pretty in Pink”. The latter song served as inspiration for the 1986 John Hughes film of the same name, and was re-recorded for the platinum-selling soundtrack.

         In 1982, the band was reduced to a four-piece with the departures of Morris and Kilburn. (Ex-Birthday Party drummer Phill Calvert would briefly join the group around this time.) The band’s remaining members moved permanently to New York, where they recorded the album Forever Now with producer Todd Rundgren. This album contained “Love My Way”, a breakthrough Top 40 hit in both the US and the UK. Ely left the band after this release, though he would return for the 1988 single “All That Money Wants” and the 1989 album Book of Days.

         The Furs’ 1984 release Mirror Moves was produced by Keith Forsey, and featured the songs “The Ghost in You” and “Heaven”. Both charted in the UK, and “Heaven” became the band’s highest charting UK hit at the time — but inexplicably, “Heaven” was never released as a single in America. Instead, Columbia Records opted for “Here Come Cowboys”, despite both international success and heavy MTV airplay on “Heaven.” “Here Come Cowboys” failed to chart, but “The Ghost In You” was a hit on the US pop charts.

          By this time, the band had become somewhat of a staple on US college and modern rock radio stations. As well, they were building mainstream success, fairly consistently placing singles in the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic, though they would “have more impact on future musicians than they ever did in the marketplace.” In 1986, the band re-recorded a version of “Pretty in Pink”, which was their biggest hit to that time in the US, and their biggest-ever UK hit.

            Richard Butler later claimed that the success of “Pretty in Pink” caused the band to be pressured into entering the studio to record a follow-up release before they were ready. The result was Midnight to Midnight, an album which Butler characterized as “hollow, vapid and weak”. A more overtly commercial effort than the Furs had ever recorded before, the album also featured the single “Heartbreak Beat”, which was their highest charting top 40 US hit.

           However, the Furs were dissatisfied with their new commercial direction, and subsequently returned to a rawer sound with “All That Money Wants”, a 1988 track especially recorded for a ‘best-of’ collection. 1989’s Book of Days saw a return to the old-school style and the temporary return of Vince Ely. 1991’s World Outside was similarly more of a “back to basics” approach.

           The band splintered in the early 1990s, with the Butler brothers going on to found Love Spit Love. After spending most of the decade apart, Butler, Butler and Ashton re-formed The Psychedelic Furs in 2000, and released a live album Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live, which also featured a new studio recording, “Alive (For Once In My Lifetime).”

           Since then the Furs continue to tour the world along with former Love Spit Love drummer Frank Ferrer, ex-Information Society and World Party keyboardist Amanda Kramer and saxophonist Mars Williams who returned to the band after a stint in the late 1980s.

 

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 Derby Day By Cheeseburger

     Cheeseburger is a rock band from Brooklyn, New York. The band consists of Joe Bradley, Luke Crotty, Eric Dufresne and Christy Karacas. Karacas is also the creator of the Adult Swim show Superjail!, for which Cheeseburger provides the opening theme.

      "In the grand tradition of party records such as License To Ill by Beastie Boys and Another Wasted Night by Gang Green comes the Self-Titled debut full length by Cheeseburger. Essentially, the record is an ode to New York City and the love and drinking that comes with it. Singer Joe says, 'For better or worse- we are a drinking band and this is a record 'about' boozing it up and all the jive that goes down with it...'" - "Gay Beach" show on East Village Radio

      "Audience members who aren't interested in meeting the lead singer should stay back, or else be ready to run." - The New York Times

      "Rather than copy some Motley Crue cliche and wind up sounding like Jet or Louis XIV, Cheeseburger toy with rock archetypes the way a big cat teases its prey." - Pitchfork Media

     "This threesome pulls off crunk-punk with humor and attitude, and for all their duct-taped-instrument formalism, Cheeseburger do have chops." - Village Voice

      "This Brooklyn trio's debut updates the ragtag punk rock of the Stooges with plenty of irony. Guitarist Christy Karacas and drummer Luke Crotty play sloppily on purpose, and frontman Joe Bradley howls about cocaine and easy girls so ferociously you want to give him a glass of water. Crass, foul and politically incorrect? That's the point." - Rolling Stone

  

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Daughter By Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) is an American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright , children of his marriage to the late Kate McGarrigle.

A graduate of St. Andrew’s School, Wainwright is best known for a 1972 novelty song hit Dead Skunk (In The Middle Of The Road), with pianist Teddy Wender and for playing Captain Spalding (the “singing surgeon”) on three episodes of the American television show M*A*S*H in its third season (1974-1975), but his musical reputation is much deeper. Using a witty, self-mocking style, Wainwright has recorded over twenty albums on eleven different labels. Two of his albums have been nominated for Grammy awards.

He is also a regular actor in Judd Apatow movies. His biggest role was playing the father on Judd’s show, Undeclared.

  

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Eyes Wider Than Before By Scott Matthews

         From the confinements of four bedroom walls in the West Midlands, Scott Matthews produced the music that made him the first artist to be signed to record label San Remo Records in 2004. As a Wolverhampton-born singer/songwriter Scott has captivated audiences across the Midlands and beyond. On the 2nd of October 2006 he released his debut album Passing Stranger.
            At seven years old Matthews aquired his first guitar, a junior-sized ‘Kapok’ acoustic (which he still has), although things didn’t quite go to plan. It became neglected very early on as the box it came in was shaped like a coffin and therefore scared the hell out of him every time he went near it! For a brief period he moved on to drums, but soon hit his last snare due to the noise factor in the house becoming increasingly unbearable. It all changed when on his eleventh birthday he asked for an electric guitar. His dad duly obliged and brought him a £25 ‘Kay’ guitar complete with a bunch of old records acquired from a relative. Amongst those records was Smash Hits by Jimi Hendrix. This rekindled Matthew’s interest in music and he has been playing ever since.
           Matthews’ inspiration has been drawn from iconic musicians such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Marc Bolan, and Joe Satriani. His first real venture into writing music was with his brother Darren, who plays piano and keyboards, delving into the world of instrumental rock. His colourful musical past led him into prior experimentations with funk, indie/rock and soul. His later band Positive Firefly was his first foray into the role of singer/guitarist. With the determination to no longer be pigeonholed as such he left his role of a band member behind and emerged as a solo artist. However, these past experiences laid the foundations for his own unique fusion of folk, and blues rock to materialise.
           Passing Stranger, Matthews’ first album as a solo artist, reveals the sound he was striving for from the beginning. Intermingled with the bluesy and gentle tones are the traditional sounds of world music, with a guest appearance from world renowned tabla player Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari. Namdhari has performed alongside one of Scott’s own figures of inspiration, Ry Cooder, and also the legendary Ravi Shankar. The merging of these different musical cultures was a personal highlight for Matthews during the production of the album. The scope of the album is extensive - for instance, the track City Headache incorporates the warmth and vivacity of the accordion with a taste of French tradition. 

 

 

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Cities of Texas By Paul Kelly

Paul Maurice Kelly (born 13 January 1955) is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player from Adelaide. He has performed solo and led numerous groups including the Dots, the Coloured Girls and the Messengers. He has been a member of associated projects Professor Ratbaggy and Stardust Five and worked with other artists and groups. Kelly's music style has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output straddles folk, rock, and country. He is acknowledged as one of Australia's best singer-songwriters and described as its poet laureate. His lyrics capture the vastness of culture and landscape by chronicling life about him for over 30 years. David Fricke from Rolling Stone calls Kelly "one of the finest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise." However, Kelly has said, "Song writing is mysterious to me. I don’t feel like I have got it nailed yet."

                In 2001, the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) listed the Top 30 Australian songs of all time, including "To Her Door", solely written by Kelly, and "Treaty", written by Kelly and members of Indigenous Australian band Yothu Yindi. Aside from "Treaty", Kelly has written or co-written several songs on indigenous peoples' social issues and historical events, including "Maralinga (Rainy Day)" on British nuclear testing, "From Little Things Big Things Grow" (with Kev Carmody) on the Gurindji strike for land rights and on reconciliation, and "Rally Around the Drum" (with Archie Roach) about a tent boxing man. Kelly has provided songs for many other artists, tailoring them to their particular vocal range. Women at the Well from 2002 had 14 female artists record his songs in tribute.

             After growing up in Adelaide, Kelly travelled around Australia before settling in Melbourne in 1976. He became involved in the pub rock scene and drug culture, and recorded two albums with Paul Kelly and the Dots. Kelly moved to Sydney by 1985 where he formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, which was renamed Paul Kelly and the Messengers, initially for international releases only, to avoid possible racist interpretations. At the end of the 1980s, Kelly returned to Melbourne, and in 1991 he disbanded the Messengers. Kelly has been married and divorced twice; he has three children and resides in St. Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, with his girlfriend, Sian Prior. Dan Kelly, his nephew, is a singer and guitarist in his own right. Dan has performed with Kelly on Ways and Means and Stolen Apples. Both were members of Stardust Five, which released a self-titled album in 2006.

 

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Sweet Disposition By The Temper Trap

       The Temper Trap is an indie rock band which formed in 2005 in Melbourne, Australia. The band consists of Dougy Mandagi (vocals, guitar), Lorenzo Sillitto (guitar, keyboards), Jonathon Aherne (bass) and Toby Dundas (drums).

            The Temper Trap’s story begins with Dougy. Born in Indonesia and immersed in an artistic and musical family, with some  rich influences from singing in church choirs with his aunt and uncle and listening to his dad, a country music fan, play guitar. These influences evolved around Dougy, as he moved consistently from different islands in Indonesia to Hawaii and then eventually to Australia. After moving to Australia, Dougy started working as a portrait drawer at $25 a pop; he also sang for loose change in downtown Melbourne.
          Dougy eventually ended up working at the same retail store as Toby.  Dougy had thought of starting a band for years and after a few months of boring work hours and finding out Toby was a drummer and a walking musical dictionary, the first band practice began, minus a bass player.  In one of the coincidences that the band have come to rely on, Jonny worked a couple of stores down and was called in.  He had known Dougy for years, back in the busking days when Dougy first arrived in Melbourne. Jonny, the 13 year old dreamer and son of a missionary, wanted to learn some guitar and Dougy helped him out.  A brotherly friendship was formed with some sense of common ground, both drawing life from music and their spiritual upbringings, and unaware of the musical union which would be formed 6 years later.

 
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Flash-Back Friday (No school like the old school)

Down on the Street By The Stooges

The Stooges are an American rock band which formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States in 1967. They released three studio albums before breaking up in 1974. Despite having little, if no chart or radio success, the band has proved to be one of the most influential rock groups of the past 40 years. The band reunited in 2003, released another record in 2007 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Their best known lineup consisted of Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton (guitar), Dave Alexander (bass) and Scott Asheton (drums).
        Singer Iggy Pop and his wild onstage antics were often the focus of attention. The band sold very few records in their original incarnation and often performed to indifferent or hostile audiences. Nevertheless, the Stooges are often regarded as hugely influential both on then-nascent heavy metal and later on punk rock.
        As has been said about The Velvet Underground, the handful of people who did actually buy the Stooges’ early records at the time ended up forming bands of their own. Velvet Underground member John Cale produced the original incarnation of their self-titled album).
         The Stooges drew their sound from a variety of influences: The Who, James Brown, Bitches Brew, Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Booker T and The MGs, The Troggs, The Rolling Stones, The Doors and The MC5.
         In 2003, Iggy, Scott, and Ron reformed The Stooges with Minutemen and fIREHOSE bassist Mike Watt filling in. The current lineup has played festivals around the world since, and in 2006 recorded a new album with Steve Albini.

 

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 About Today By The National

The National is a Brooklyn-based alternative rock band formed in 1999, by friends from Cincinnati, Ohio. The band’s lyrics are written and sung by Matt Berninger in a distinctive, deep baritone. The rest of the band is composed of two pairs of brothers: Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Scott and Bryan Devendorf. Aaron plays guitar, bass and piano, Bryce plays guitar, Scott plays bass and guitar, and Bryan is the drummer.

Their self-titled debut album “The National” (Brassland 2001) was recorded and released before they had played even a single show. They cut the album with engineer Nick Lloyd and formed a label with writer Alec Bemis, so those recordings could be released. Kerrang! magazine gave it four Ks, calling it “the stuff underground legends are made of.”

The National made a second album, “Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers” (Brassland/Talitres 2003). The staff was the same, though Peter Katis, who produced both Interpol records, helped produce and mix, and Australian composer Padma Newsome from Clogs collaborated on arrangements and strings.

Following the first session of several for Bernard Lenoir on France’s Radio Inter, an in-between EP was released, Cherry Tree, containing what would become the blueprint for the sound on their next record and the session of Sad Song’s standout Murder Me Rachael. After these accolades and being impressed by their live show, Roger Trust signed them to Beggars Banquet.

 

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Melt By Nicole Simone

Is to give your heart or have it taken all of life? Nothing else seems relevant in Nicole Simone’s music, and that’s something  one can relate to. She loves me, she loves me not - a field of daisies ravaged by uncertainty. Her sultry persuasion can caress or carve out a heart with paralyzing euphoria and inflict stoic men with boyish war. A silky smooth trumpet coats one’s will, the gentle bass thump removes your armor, as marxophone, guitar and piano fastens temptation. Dark, moody, passionate desire, eerie and erotic - provocative songs that linger like an eternal flame, reducing your soul to brimstone ash.

 

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She Caught the Katy By Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal (b. 1942) is a U.S. blues musician.   Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks on 17th May 1942 in New York City, after college he moved to Los Angeles and formed the group Rising Sons with Ry Cooder in 1964. The group signed with Columbia Records and released one single and recorded another album which was not released by Columbia until 1992. Taj, frustrated with the mixed reaction to his music quit the group and went solo. Still with Columbia, he released a well received, self titled album in 1968, and based on its success released a second album, Natch’l Blues that same year. Two very different records - Giant Step, with his electric band, and solo De Ole Folks At Home - were released in 1969 together as a double album. This firmly established Taj as an American blues original. The double album The Real Thing, captured him live at this time, with a horn section.

He has received two Grammy awards in the category “Best Contemporary Blues Album”, the first in 1997 for Señor Blues, and again in 2000 for Shoutin’ In Key. He has performed on various film soundtracks including Sounder and Blues Brothers 2000, in which he also appeared.

 

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Kiss By Scout Niblett

Emma Louise Niblett (born 29 September 1973) is a British singer-songwriter, known by the pseudonym Scout Niblett. Her music is frequently minimalist in style, many of her songs consisting merely of vocals accompanied by either drums or guitar, which she mostly plays herself. She is known for her intimate live shows and her blond wig while performing. She is currently living in the United States, where she has worked with the influential producer Steve Albini.
  
Niblett grew up in Nottingham, England and chose her stage name in honour of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the protagonist in Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. She studied music and performance art at college, and also expresses an interest in astrology—explaining the title of her 2005 LP Kidnapped by Neptune, she says, “Neptune is this planet that everyone has in their chart. But for me, where Neptune is right now and has been for the past two years has been affecting my chart in a huge way. Neptune is kind of the musicians’ planet, it rules music.”

Niblett has released three LPs, through the Secretly Canadian record company in North America and through Too Pure in the United Kingdom. Her first release was a split 7” single with Songs: Ohia.  Shortly after this she released her first LP Sweet Heart Fever, recorded in Glasgow with drummer Kristian Goddard.

 

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Two of the Lucky Ones By The Droge & Summers Blend

 Pete Droge and Elaine Summers were married by Judge Judith Hightower at the Municipal Court of Seattle in 2008. Being the musical couple they are, it was only natural that they write a song about it. The resulting light hearted “Tie The Knot” is the closing track on their new EP THE DROGE & SUMMERS BLEND- Volume One.

 

Though this is the first record they have made where both of their names appear on the front cover, the couple are long-time collaborators. The bride has lent backing vocals, guitars and percussion to all of Pete’s albums and tours since his 1994 debut, Necktie Second. (That’s her banging on the cowbell on the hit single “If You Don’t Love Me…”) The groom has served as producer on two of Elaine’s albums, and the two have collaborated on film scores, music for advertising, and producing other artists at their home studio, located on an island near Seattle.

 

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Blue By The Jayhawks

Led by the gifted songwriting, impeccable playing, and honeyed harmonies of vocalists/guitarists Gary Louris and Mark Olson, the Jayhawks’ shimmering blend of country, folk, and bar band rock made them one of the most widely acclaimed artists to emerge from the alternative country scene. The group sprung up in 1985 out of the fertile Minneapolis, Minnesota, musical community, where Olson had been playing standup bass in a rockabilly band called Stagger Lee until his desire to write and perform his own country-folk material prompted him to begin a solo career. He enlisted Marc Perlman, the guitarist for a local band called the Neglecters, whom Olson then convinced to take up the bass; after the addition of drummer Norm Rogers, the group first played in front of a crowd of less than a dozen people. One of those patrons, however, was Gary Louris, a veteran of the local bands Safety Last and Schnauzer; after the show, he and Olson began talking, and by the end of the evening Louris, a guitarist famed locally for his innovative, pedal steel-like sound, had become a member of the group, eventually named the Jayhawks.

Drawing on influences like Gram Parsons, the Louvin Brothers, Tim Hardin, and Nashville Skyline-era Bob Dylan, the Jayhawks quickly became a local favorite, honing their sound in Twin Cities clubs before releasing their eponymous debut in 1986. Issued in a pressing of just a few thousand copies, the album was well received by those who heard it; a major recording deal did not follow, however, so the band continued to polish their craft live, with more and more of their songs bearing writing credits belonging to both Olson and Louris.

 

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Flash-Back Friday (No school like the old school)

Fly By Nick Drake

Nick Drake (Nicholas Rodney Drake, Rangoon, Burma, June 19, 1948 - Tanworth-in-Arden, England, November 25, 1974) was an English folk singer-songwriter known for his gentle, autumnal songs and his virtuoso right-hand finger picking technique.

           Although he recorded only three albums, critics and fellow musicians hold his work in very high esteem. Drake failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, and had a strong aversion to performing. Since his death, however, Drake’s music has gained a significant cult following.
          Drake was a fan of British and the emerging American folk music scene, including artists Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. While a university student, Drake began performing in local clubs and coffee houses.  Many accounts of Drake focus on his mythology, but a large part of his enduring popularity is due to his meticulous songwriting, prosody, odd guitar tunings and lyricism.

         Drake was pathologically shy and resented touring. The few concerts he did play were usually in support of other British folk acts of the time, such as Fairport Convention or John Martyn and were often brief and awkward. Partially because of this, his work received little attention and sold poorly. Whilst in the recording studio, he was so shy that he’d always play into the wall so as to avoid people’s gazes.

        Severely depressed and doubting his abilities as a musician, Drake recorded his final album Pink Moon (1972) in two two-hour sessions, both starting at midnight. The songs of Pink Moon were short (the album consists of eleven of them and lasts only 28 minutes) and emotionally bleak. Drake recorded them unaccompanied, in the presence of only a sound engineer (a piano was later overdubbed on the title track). Naked and sincere, it is widely thought to be his best work.

         Drake grew severely depressed and maintained relationships only with close friends such as John Martyn, who wrote the title song of his 1973 album Solid Air for and about Drake and French singer Françoise Hardy. He was hospitalized several times and lived with Hardy for a few months. 

         In 1974, Drake felt well enough to write and record a few new songs. However, on November 25, he died of an overdose of antidepressants. The coroner concluded that the cause of Drake’s death was suicide, although this was disputed by friends and relatives. Antidepressants of that time were quite lethal if ingested in any higher dosage than the one prescribed.  It’s unclear whether he took more pills to help him sleep or to take his own life. 

 

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 Sideways By Citizen Cope

         Citizen Cope is a pseudonym of Clarence Greenwood, keyboardist, guitarist, singer, DJ, and record producer. Citizen Cope now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

          Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Greenwood started his musical career as a DJ for the hip hop act Basehead, a group that would have a significant impact on his style as a solo-musician. Citizen Cope blends many genres of music, such as folk, blues, hip hop, rock, and R & B.

            Greenwood first released a demo tape under the name Cope Citizen in the late ’90s. He would follow up the release of the demo by donating songs to several independently issued compilations, movie soundtracks, as well as appearing on several fellow artist’s albums.

          In 2000 Greenwood signed with the DreamWorks Records label, which released his first album in September 2002, Citizen Cope. Greenwood toured to promote the record as an opener for Nelly Furtado. He performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, in 2002.

          After the release of Citizen Cope, Greenwood felt the label “mishandled” the record, creating tension between the two. The tension prompted Greenwood to buy out his contract with the label, using the advance he received from his next label, Arista Records and RCA Records, to do so.

          In September of 2004, Citizen Cope released his second record, The Clarence Greenwood Recordings, which earned him much critical success as well as minor touring success as an opening act for a popular touring band, Robert Randolph & The Family Band.

         On September 12, 2006, Citizen Cope released the new album, Every Waking Moment. He is also featured on the track “Bullet” on rapper Rhymefest’s album Blue Collar, and is included on the compilation Radiodread with his cover of Radiohead’s “Karma Police.”

 

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