Dream Team Number TWO!

GOOD SONG #2: End of the Line by the Traveling Wilburys

Jeff Lynne (the fourth greatest record producer of all time)? Check.
Tom Petty? Check.

Roy Orbison? Check.

George Harrison? Check. 

BOB DYLAN? CHECK. 

AAAH! So much talent in one photo! My blog might explode!

DUDE.
THAT is a sick line-up of all-stars. You can't get a whole lot more talent packed into a group of four.

Sadly, they only recorded two albums, and the second one hadn't even come out before Roy Orbison died. Each band member took on a pseudonym, pretending to be one of four Wilbury brothers. George was Nelson Wilbury, Jeff was Otis, Roy was Lefty, Tom was Charlie T., and Bob was Lucky. They also had a drummer, Jim Keltner, who went by the name Buster Sidebury. Clearly, they were all so famous at this point, they were just enjoying being goofy and having a fun time and making great music at the same time. It was born out of friendship and collaboration and just pure love for music and fun times. Their songs are generally pretty lighthearted and upbeat and pretty awesome classic rock.
I absolutely love the combination of all these famous voices together. They work together surprisingly well.
I think they might take the cake as the msot ridiculously talented musical all-star supergroup.
Enjoy.
And remember:
"Well it's alllll right,  even if you're old and grey
Well it's alllll right, you still got something to say
Well it's allllll right, remember to live and let live
Well it's allllll right, the best you can do is forgive."


If you liked this song, you might also check out:
Obviously Petty, Dylan, Orbison, Harrison, etc.
Also:
Electric Light Orchestra
The Eagles
The Hollies
Neil Young
John "Cougar" Mellencamp
John Fogerty


Over and out,
Anna

International Month Post #2: West Africa (Cape Verde, Ghana, & Nigeria)

Sorry this post took me so long. Life got busy on me. The school year is almost over!

Anyway, across the Atlantic we go! Off to Africa! Cape Verde, Ghana, and Nigeria specifically.

Although not too far from the influences of Portugal, it seems. I just had to post something by Cesaria Evora. Her music makes me happy. My mom would always play it when she was cooking, especially at big family events like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cesaria Evora is from Cape Verde, which is a group of islands off the coast of West Africa. It was colonized by the Portugese in the 15th century, and its official language is still Portugese, even though they gained independence a while back. Cesaria Evora is freaking amazing. They call her "the barefoot diva" since she so often performs in bare feet. She started her career in 1988 at the age of 47(!!). She is still alive and touring around, being an awesome old lady, basically. Her music is jazzy and fun and sounds similar to Brazilian music, but with a distinct Cape Verdean twist to it. She is famous for singing "morna" which is the national music of Cape Verde (like the tango for Argentina).

What a freaking amazing lady. Honestly.

Here is a GOOD SONG #1 of hers:  Carnaval De Sao Vicente (Jazzy Carnaval Mix) by Cesaria Evora.
This one is much more upbeat and fun and danceable than her others.

This second one is a more standard one of hers that I love. It's more sultry, let's say. I think it's a "morna." DEFINITELY worth a listen.
GOOD SONG #2:Mar Azul

Next up, Ghana!

He's pointing at YOU.

GOOD SONG #3: Borga by Sarkodie
So I was just searching online for good African hip-hop, and turns out Ghana's pretty big on the map. I don't pretend to know much about this guy, or African rap, but I liked this song. Check it out! Rapping in umm... whatever language it is... sounds really cool! Sorry, I can't tell the difference between the different Ghanaian dialects/languages. The video is surprisingly well done, too. He looks like a baller, I gotta admit.
Definitely worth checking out if you like hip-hop in any way, shape, or form.

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but...

GOOD SONG #4: Sorry Sorry by Femi Kuti
And last but not least, Nigeria!
So Femi Kuti is the son of Fela Kuti, the "legendary"Afrobeat musician from Nigeria. Femi played in his father's band (the Nigeria '70 and then later the Egypt '80) and Afrobeat certainly played a big role in his musical upbringing.  Femi's own son is part of his band, so he's keeping the tradition alive and all in the family, it seems. Which probably isn't too hard, since the family is large.... that's what happens when your father has had 20+ wives! Anyway, this song in particular is funky and cool, with a great beat. I love it when the horns join in. I wanna dance to this song so badly. Whooooooo

If you liked these songs, you might also check out:
Ana Moura
Lura
Seun Kuti
Youssou N'Dour
Samini

Over and out,
Anna

I guess now I'm a Bond(y) Girl

Ok, so Palenville, NY is this tiny and quite random town in upstate NY near my house in the Catskills.  There is almost nothing going on there. And yet, it produced the fantastic Felice Brothers, who I posted about earlier. 
Turns out Palenville is also where A. A. Bondy (originally from Birmingham, Alabama) went to record his second album entitled When The Devil's Loose.

At first, I just thought to myself, "Oh, that's odd. I wonder what the connection is." I figured it was just a random coincidence. BUT...

I noticed that a bunch of photographs of A. A. Bondy on Last. fm were taken by a certain "Clare Felice." Hmmm.... Felice. Sounds familiar.

Yup, looks like Palenville. 

Turns out it's his wife. And I'm betting you a billion dollars that she is related to the infamous brothers of the same name.

So there's your connection. I feel like a veritable SLEUTH. (Although brooklynvegan knew all this way before I did. Oh well.)

Anyway, A. A. Bondy is great. I stumbled across him while on Last.fm, and haven't regretted it. He's originally from 'bama (like I said), and became mildly famous for singing in the band Verbena, although he was known as Scott back then. I have no idea why, when his real name is Auguste Arthur Bondy, which is a great name. Verbena sounded much more like Nirvana than anything that A. A. Bondy makes now, which is cool by me. His first album entitled American Hearts came out in '07, and his sophomore album came out in '09. Let's hope he keeps them coming.

With no further ado, here is today's GOOD SONG:
When The Devil's Loose by A. A. Bondy.

Enjoy!

BUY HIS MUSIC HERE: A. A. Bondy!

If you liked this song, you might also check out:
a lot of stuff I've already told you to check out, like:
Deer Tick
The Avett Brothers
The Felice Brothers
Bob Dylan (ha!)
Ryan Adams (& the Cardinals)/ Whiskeytown
Justin Townes Earle
Adam Haworth Stevens
Forest Sun
and also:
Benjamin Fitton
Cass McCombs

Over and out,
Anna

Bang Bang Bang!

So Recommendation month continues on the AGSIHTF... This week, though, I'm kinda cheating. I know Last.fm isn't really a friend of mine, but I just had to give this website credit for introducing me to so much good music.

The GOOD SONG for this week is FRANKIE'S GUN by the Felice Brothers (I know, I know I just posted about another brothers group, but this one is different I swear).
I don't remember exactly how I came across them on Last.fm, to be honest, but at this point it doesn't matter. They are FANTASTIC!
And what's weirder is that they are from Palenville, New York, which is about 20 minutes from my own house in upstate NY. Palenville is pretty much a nothing little town, so I give it kudos for producing these badasses.

Ok boys I know you're from the sticks, but
it's not THAT hard to find a shower.

How are they badasses, you might ask? Ok, example of their badassery: in 2008 they played at the Newport Folk Festival (of Bobby D infamy) and a huge rainstorm cut off their power. Instead of wussing out and waiting for the power to come back or just cancel, they played a totally acoustic show, jumping off the stage, and mud-puddling it out to the soaking wet and happy crowd.

The band consists of David Turbeville on drums/vocals, Christmas (that is his real name... he used to be a traveling dice player) on bass, and the two brothers Ian (vocals/guitar/piano) and James Felice (accordion/piano/organ), with occasional additions of washboard, horn section, and fiddle. Another brother, Simone Felice, used to be part of the band as well, but left amicably to start his own thang called The Duke and the King (characters from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn). Although they hail from the Catskills, they moved to NY a few years ago and started playing their ramshackle music in the subway stations. Since then, they've made it big(ger).

Frankie's Gun in particular is a great song. Sounds like the story of a guy in an old-school Mafia drug or booze run, who is taking money off the top to buy his mom and sweetheart nice things. I like the line:

"I saw a man hit my mom one time, really
I hurt him so damn bad
I had to hide in Jersey."


Here is a link to a great live version as well: Frankie's Gun Live. Yay for accordions! I am going to go see them play live at the Rock n Roll Hotel here in DC this coming Friday (the 22nd), along with Adam Haworth Stephens. Nice! Anyone in the area is welcome to join me.

BUY THEIR MUSIC HERE: Felice Bros

If you like them you might also like:

Bob Dylan
Pete Molinari
Avett Brothers
The Duke & The King
Old Crow Medicine Show (they toured with them!)
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (they also toured with them!)

Over and out,
Anna

Good Advice

So I've decided this month is recommendation month. Meaning GOOD SONGS that were recommended to yours truly by some of the cool cats I know.


So the GOOD SONG  for today is Spanish Pipedream, originally by John Prine, but covered here by The Avett Brothers (one of my favorite groups EVER). It's from a John Prine tribute album called Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows. Here's the link to the song: Spanish Pipedream
Kudos to Dan C. for recommending this whole album to me.

John Prine: the other "Man in black."

It includes some of the best advice I've seen in a long time:


"Blow up your T.V., throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home,
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches,
Try an' find Jesus on your own."

The Avett Brothers: Man in black. And man in Mickey Mouse.

John Prine was a pretty cool dude, a fantastic country/folk singer-songwriter in the best way. He was almost (but not quite) a contemporary of Bob Dylan's. He co-wrote "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," which is truly one the best and funniest country songs ever written and includes what is quite possibly my favorite country verse ever:


"Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta prison.
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But, before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned old train."


Ok, not good advice. But still funny. 
Anyhoo, Prine is great. And the Avett Brothers are, too. They have a *huge* cult following, especially down south. Their blend of country-folk-rock-bluegrass-amazingness gets me every time.
Listen to the song. It's a lot of fun. And check out the rest of the tribute album, too. All the songs are covers of Prine songs, by various different bands, so there are a lot of musical styles and genres on there (although there is a definite focus on country/folk, especially the Nashville type), so even if you don't love Prine's style, you might like it anyway.


BUY THE ALBUM HERE: Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows



If you like this song, you might also like:


Neil Young
David Allan Coe
Bob Dylan
The Felice Brothers
Justin Townes Earle
Old Crow Medicine Show
Deer Tick


Over and out,
Anna


P.S. This quote from an Avett Bros. interview will give you an idea why I love them:
" 'I hope truth exists,” says Scott.
Seth looks over with a hard, no-bullshit firmness.
“Music without honesty or hope will leave you empty. We try to avoid that emptiness.' "