The Open Road

Let's go on a road trip! Let's get outta the city!
Fortunately, I know a really tasty Midwestern band by the name of Jayber Crow.
For those lit freaks out there, the name might sound a bit familiar. Jayber Crow may be a random indie-folk band from Minnesota, but it is also the name of a character from the writings of Wendell Berry.

Not in the band. 

I have yet to read his stuff (kinda like how I also have yet to read Flannery O'Connor... you may be noticing a pattern here), but his poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, focusing largely on life in middle America, have gained him a huge following. That following apparently includes Zach and Pete from the Jayber Crow. Which makes sense, since their music revolves mostly around life in the midwest. And it's fabulous. 

You can tell they're from the Midwest 'cuz they wear plaid...
and they're near plants.

The GOOD SONG for today is "The Farmer and the Nomad" from their short EP entitled "The Farmer and the Nomad" from 2008.
You can listen to it by going to the Jayber Crow website, and listening to it on their music player at the top of their homepage. It's the 3rd song. Here is their site: Jayber Crow


This is a pretty mellow song of theirs, although plenty of their songs are more energetic, guitar-and-banjo-driven songs. They sing of the gradual shifting from nomad to farmer. The farmer's deep roots and ties to the land combined with the nomad's longing to wander. You can definitely see why they might like the writing of Wendall Berry if you listen to their lyrics.


"But until then,
it's just the shifting grass
and the open road."

They released a full-length EP entitled "Two Short Stories" in 2009, which is awesome. On that album, I highly recommend listening to "Devil and the Desert" (about Jesus's 40 days of temptation in the Desert) and "Drinking Song of a Germinating Seed."

Their stuff in general is awesome-- you can find their two CD's ( "The Farmer and the Nomad" and "Two Short Stories") on iTunes. Check 'em out.  I'm a sucker for their harmonica. 

If you like this song by Jayber Crow, you might also check out:

Josh Ritter

Old Canes

Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst

Papercuts

Forest Sun

The Rural Alberta Advantage

Let me know what you think! Comments are good! It's nice to know if people are actually reading. And more importantly, listening. 

Over and out,
Anna

"Drifting, Through the Capitals of Tin..."

Ok, so I have been a huge U2 fan since I was about 12. I have also been a huge Johnny Cash fan for about the same length of time.
Bono once quipped that Johnny Cash had "the most male voice in Christendom."
Which is true, and everyone knows it.

My gosh! He's almost smiling!

What you might not know is that on the U2 album Zooropa (1993!), U2 recorded a song with JC himself (Johnny, not Jesus). Entitled "The Wanderer" it's pretty much the only Cash song I know of that has no guitar, no harmonica, no traditional country stylins. It has pretty much only a beat and a synthesized bass. It's awesome. Bono lends only a croony-sort-of-yowl towards the end (around 4:15 or so).

"Your hair is a bird, your yowl is invalid."

Anyhoo, so here is the link to today's GOOD SONG: The Wanderer.

The lyrics are interesting, sort of the Apocalyptic journeyings of a man carrying "a Bible and a gun," searching for something, someone. Lots of people I know hear parallels between the setting of this song and the world today. I think it depends on how pessimistic you are. My favorite bits:  

"I went out there
In search of experience
To taste and to touch
And to feel as much
As a man can
Before he repents."

and


"I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they don't want God in it."


The combination of his uber-distinctive voice with the chorus in the background at the end is nothing short of genius.


If you like this song, you might also like the rest of Zooropa ("Numb" is a great one-- also sans Bono vocals). I'm not even gonna bother trying to tell you what you should check out if you like Johnny Cash and U2. Their legacy is too huge.


And I'm hungry!


Over and out,
Anna


P.S. Download the song here!

Ferraby, Houdini, and Me

So lately I've been listening a lot to a dude with a great name: Ferraby Lionheart. There is no way that is his real name, but I couldn't care less.

The Lionheart himself. I don't think he went
on any Crusades, though.

He's a California native, who lived in Nashville for a while, picked up some alt-country-folk-pop-whatever vibes, and then moved back to Cali.
His music is pretty catchy and it makes me wish I had bothered to look him up while the summer was still young.
The GOOD SONG of his that I am posting here is called "Harry and Bess."
Instead of just an audio file, I'm giving you the link to the video. Why? H'okay, so Ferraby IS his real first name. He's named after John Ferraby, a famous Baha'i leader. So, whatever, right? BUT his new music video for this song has guess who in it? A fellow member of the Baha'i faith that you probably HAVE heard of.

You guessed it!

Rainn Wilson from The Office!

Check out the great song/goof-tastic video here: Harry and Bess Video

By the way, that's Harry and Bess as in Harry and Bess Houdini. The song is about how during an almost-failed-escape-attempt, Bess Houdini came and slipped a key to Harry... in her kiss!
Pretty romantic and awesome.

Nice underpantaloons, Bess. 

"Kiss me, one, two, three, pass the magic key, and get me outta here!"


I have to admit, though, I had a hard time deciding between three songs of his to post: Harry and Bess, My Name, and Holdin' Me Back. Do yourself a favor and check em out as well.


You can buy his music here: Mr. Lionheart

If you like this song of his, you might also, perchance, like:

Andrew Bird

Elvis Perkins

Luke Temple

Dr. Dog

Paul Burch

(Note: this was supposed to be my fourth post, not my third. But I'm having some technical issues, so I had to post this one. If anyone has any advice about how to deal with quicktime audio files simply showing up as a question mark, let me know.)

Ready for a little Soul?

Hello again, friends and neighbors.


So I thought for my second installment, I would mix things up a bit. I loves me some Sufie (Stevens, that is), but sometimes you just get a hankerin for some SOUL.


Today's GOOD SONG is "Better Things" by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.


Here ya go:
Better Things

Sing it, Mama Jones!

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are a fascinating little group. And by little I mean big. It consists of Sharon Jones on vocals and eight dudes on varying instruments. They record all their songs without modern technical equipment to give their music a really retro feel. And MAN, do they get it right. Really, I don't think I've heard of anyone listening to them for the first time and guessing correctly that they were contemporary. They get 1960's/70's soul/funk better than some of the 1960's/70's soul/funk bands did back then!
They have performed/collaborated with Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse (surprise, surprise), Michael Buble, heck, even Phish!


This song is off their most recent album "I Learned The Hard Way" which was released in April this year. This is a great song (especially if you have just gotten out of a relationship, by the way).


If you like this song, you might also like:
Etta James
Otis Redding
Mark Ronson
Amy Winehouse
Janelle Monae
Al Green
Marvin Gaye
and, apparently, anything else on the Daptone Record label.


And you will also like this song, Inspiration Information, which is my personal fave, from a compilation CD from 2009 called "Dark Was The Night."


Spooooooky connection to the last post: Sufjan Stevens lives in Brooklyn. The Dap-Kings hail from Brooklyn. Coincidence? I think not.


DOWNLOAD HER MUSIC HERE: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings


Over and out,
Anna


P.S. The posts are going to be pretty frequent this week, since school hasn't started yet. Unfortunately, I will probably have to slow it down a bit when I begin working again. But no fear! Not TOO slow.

A Long Time Coming

Greetings, friends and neighbors!
I've joined the blogging bandwagon.
Well, let me explain.
I love music. A lot. More than some, less than others, but a LOT. So I have decided to create a blog where I try to bring people to good music. As the URL says, a good song is hard to find. Well, sometimes. If you're not constantly tapping into the inner workings of the music world, it can get frustrating, or boring, or whatever. My friends complain a lot about how they are tired of all their music, but they don't know how to find new stuff.
That is where I come in.
At least once a week, I will post a GOOD SONG. They will vary a lot in style, genre, age, etc. This is not a hipster-music blog. There are plenty of those. Besides, I am not quite hip enough. This is a GOOD MUSIC blog. Music from all over the world, past and present (future is a bit harder), famous, infamous, and barely-heard.


So, without further ado, here is my first GOOD SONG:


A Good Man Is Hard To Find


This blog gets its name from this song by Sufjan Stevens entitled "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" (harder than a good song? really!). Tom Waits also has a song by the same name. Very different sounds though. Apparently Sufjan's song is based on the story of the same name by the writer Flannery O'Connor, which I have never read. I'll get on that.

Mr. Stevens himself, looking quite the ARTEEST

Sufjan is an interesting character. Born in Michigan, he is a very practicing Christian who plays just about every instrument imaginable. He has a really lovely voice, kind of ethereal-sounding in this song, very soft. However, he can really rock out, too. His albums vary widely from each other, especially his early stuff. For a while he promised us that he would make an album for every one of the 50 states! Yes! So he wrote albums for Illinois and Michigan. Unfortunately, I don't think that he is really going to follow through on that promise.
Good news, though: he did just release a new EP entitled All Delighted People. You can buy it online for only $5! Here is the link:


http://sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com/




If you like this song by Sufjan, here are some other artists you might like:
Elliott Smith
Nick Drake
Iron & Wine
Horse Feathers
Bon Iver




Look 'em up on http://www.last.fm/> if you're curious. It's a great site. Similar to Pandora in that you can create your own little radio station tailored to your music taste.




Anyhoo, comments are appreciated.
Let me know what you think!


Over & Out
Anna