One of my favorite vocalists of all time makes an appearance on this special Saint Patrick’s day edition of Shake The Monday Blues. He is another name in the long list of musicians that have gone long before their time. Luke Kelly could sing like no other, and on this St. Patrick’s Day morning he is in my headphones. I hope you enjoy it. Happy Saint Patrick’s day Lúc Ó Ceallaigh, I’m sure he’s celebrating somewhere.
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One of my favorite things about playing shows is meeting the other bands on the bill. The day I met John Petty from All Good Things was a great day. He played a phenomenal set late into the night (early into the next morning). As I loaded my equipment out the bar door into my car the snow was falling and I found myself humming a tune. Mexico.
Read More...Promoting last week’s East Side Music tour in Milwaukee, local hip-hop artist, Juiceboxxx, made an appearance on the local news. The interview was awkward, the quality of the performance was terrible, and the internet blew up. While the popularity of the video will actually probably help Juiceboxxx in the end, it’s a bit of a shame to see the knee-jerk reaction so many people had to a situation pretty well beyond his control. The incident demonstrated the ugliness that sometimes happens when artists get out of their niche and into the general public. After watching the video several times, looking at Juiceboxxx’s other performances and material, I compiled the top 5 lessons we can learn from the Juiceboxxx incident.
Read More...It’s been awhile since we’ve had a Weekly Roundup. This one is different than installments past since I’m working through a huge backlog, but the spirit remains the same: it’s a set of songs and videos I like that I want to share with you. Let’s do it.
Read More...I woke up this morning with Bad Self Portraits stuck in my head. Upon arriving at work the first things I saw when I turned on my computer was a Rolling Stone article with a new Lake Street Dive video of Bad Self Portraits. I’m pretty easy to please so I called this a Valentine’s Day miracle, and thought I’d share it with Dig Nation.
Read More...The Goat Rodeo Sessions is a quartet album featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. This ensemble is my new definition of professional. These musicians do not get to perform together everyday, they have not built their careers learning and performing together, and yet they have the uncanny ability to read each other's non-verbal gestures and move fluently and artistically through severally complicated music. Furthermore, they perform with beautiful blend and intonation; I do not remember the last time I marveled at an artist for being in tune, but I did here. This performance is brought to us by way of the fantastic NPR program Tiny Desk Concerts who offer style at a premium and have found the perfect balance of formal and informal.
For the most part, the quartet lets their music speak for them in this performance but the set list contains the songs, Quarter Chicken Dark, Attaboy, and Here and Heaven – which also features the lovely vocalist Aoife O'Donavan. Check out the video, Attaboy showcases some rippin' scale technique across the quartet and each piece also has a really cool way of tossing the melodic theme across each instrument for compositional cohesion as well as listener intrigue. I completely admire everyone involved in this project and cannot recommend highly enough that you keep your ears open anytime anyone from this group has music to play.
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