Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Into the Mandolin Wind Mix

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Welcome to the working week... since we last gather here, I've had the great good fortune to see some incredibly great music.  Friday night, I got to hang out with awesome people and witness the Tim Lee 3 rocking the house in a rare Nashville appearance followed by the amazing R.B. Morris with his crack band bringing words and music together in the most spellbinding way.

Saturday night, I saw Ted Drozdowki's Scissormen rock the stage at City Winery opening for The Baseball Project. The Baseball Project haven taken a concept and through a love of the subject and the creative geniuses behind The Dream Syndicate, Young Fresh Fellows, The Minus 5, and R.E.M. among others rode that concept for 8 years and 3 albums to date with no sign of slowing down.  My review of that show is on No Depression.

After the Baseball Project show, I got to hang out with more cool people (after climbing a circular staircase) and see an incredible round of music that makes me proud to live in this city.  Kevin Gordon, Sarah Potenza (accompanied by her husband Ian), and Jeff Black sat and delivered to a packed out lounge at City Winery.

As if that was not enough, Sunday night, I got to hang out with the immensely talented Russell Thompson and watch Mary Gauthier and Allison Moorer swap songs for almost two hours accompanied for much of the time by the incredible guitarist Kenny Greenberg.  My review of that show should be posted on No Depression very soon.

Whew!  Now back to the workday grind (but only a four day work week this week), and a brand new never before heard shuffle of music to melt your mind and expand you face... or something like that...

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Why Do You Care? Mix

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I'm back after a day off.  Still tons going on.  Check out my review of the re-release of the self-titled only album by Haynes Boys.

Also - at press time, my review of Friday night's Matthew Sweet show at City Winery Nashville is on the front page of NoDepression.com.

On to the mid-week shuffle:

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Masks That Pass for Faces Mix

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Well... I'm back.  After feeling less than 100% all week, the percentages dropped dramatically Wednesday night into Thursday... but I'm back to feeling less than 100%.  Actually, (knock on wood), I am feeling pretty darn close to 100%. 

So it's time for our weekending shuffle and I think we have a good one...

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Rivers of Suggestion Mix

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Just a heads up... there will not be a Morning Music Shuffle tomorrow.  Plan accordingly...  So this will be the last shuffle of the week, and we have a good one...

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Obligated to Follow Mix

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Well... It's just Tuesday, and this is shaping up to be an incredible week for great music in intimate settings...  more on that later... we have a shuffle to put on...

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Eats Like a Horse Mix

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It was kind of a cool morning here in Nashville, but it felt great.  The certainty that Spring is in full effect, and that Summer is barreling down the turnpike hot on Spring's tail. Spring seems as good a time as any (maybe better?) to step back and reassess and think about what comes next.  Ear to the Ground has exceeded my wildest expectations (mainly because I didn't have many), and I am happy that nearly four years on, I am not feeling any real desire to stop.  Still, from the beginning, Ear to the Ground had frequently (or infrequently) evolved (usually due to some external pressure).  The Shuffle was originally about 3-5 songs, then for a while I had the "pre-shuffle" which kind of expanded the shuffle to upwards of 20 or more songs. We've settled into a groove of 8-12 songs per day, and it is good, but I feel an itching to do something more, something different.  I don't know what that is yet, but I have some ideas.... until then... let's hit the shuffle....

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Get up and Do Something Mix

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So... I'm having trouble thinking of  a profound intro to this shuffle...  So... it is Friday! The weekend is upon us.  Get up and Do Something!  I snatched that song from the Soul Asylum song in today's shuffle.  Good advise, that I need to take myself sometimes...

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Stupid Boy Mix

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There is a phenomenon that I like to call the Nashville Dilemma or the Nashville Conundrum depending on my mood... It is basically this, a friend or hero or hero/friend or friend/hero announces a show.  You readily and enthusiastically indicate on Facebook that you are either Going or Interested... meanwhile, others of the same category(ies) also announce shows and you again readily and enthusiastically Join the event.  Then, the day or week of the event arrives and you check your calendar and realize that two or more of the aforementioned events coincide with one another, and you have to use some complex algorithm of friendship, location, cost, in-town show frequency, etc. to decide which show you are going to see.  And so, you decide and you have a blast and it's a great show - like you knew it would be and then you see pictures from the show(s) you elected not to attend, and there are surprise special guests and puppies and stuff, and you rework you algorithm for next time and the process repeats.  It's really a nice problem to have....

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Swallowing the Ocean Mix

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#CXCW15 rolls on... Day 3 brought tons more videos including some of E2TG's all-time favorites... Among the many great clips were some from old friends like Sci-Fi Romance, MAKAR, and Imperial Rooster.  Plus an explosive clip from relatively new friends Two Mule Blues.  Head to the couch and visit couchbycouchwest.com  to get in on the fun.  By the way, they are still accepting submissions so get to videoing and get it done!

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Two Pack Habit and a Motel Tan Mix

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Let's jump right into today's shuffle - shall we...

Steve Almaas - Trailer Songs

Trailer Songs is the brand, spanking new album by Steve Almaas.  It was almost a year ago to the day that we first told you about this album, and it is finally here.

This will not be a review, because I have only had time to preview some of the songs, but it sounds like vintage Steve Almaas.  For the uninitiated, Steve Almaas is a veteran musician who is originally from Minneapolis where he was a founding member of the legendary punk band Suicide Commandos.  Later he released a solo EP called Beat Rodeo which he made with Richard Barone of the Bongos and Mitch Easter of Let's Active.  

He then formed a band named after his EP.  Beat Rodeo were signed to IRS Records. They put out a couple of great records: Staying Out Late With Beat Rodeo which was produced by Don Dixon and Home in the Heart of the Beat which was produced by Scott Litt.

Trailer Songs was recorded in two Airstream trailers in the Catskill Mountains of New York.  This time around he worked with a variety of musicians such as The Elegant Too (guitarist Chris Maxwell and drummer Phil Hernandez), Mark Sidgwick, Ambrosia Parsley, Mitch Easter, Marcellus Hall and Peter Holsapple (the Dbs).

The album cover above will take you to Amazon.com where you can download the album for just $8.99.  Great music from a great guy.  Give a listen and show some love!

Wednesday Music (oh the places we will go...)

Miss me yet?  How can you when I keep showing up...

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Rebel Child in a Gilded Cage Mix

Here go again - promise of change (for the better) on the horizon. Refreshed and revitalized (at least for the moment). And, I'm ready to get into the music shuffle for another week...




Chronic Town - the first EP from Athens, Georgia own R.E.M. - is going to be 30 years old this year. We start out with the song featured in the live performance video above called 1,000,000. You can grab the whole Chronic Town EP plus a slew of early rarities from the Dead Lead Letter Office album - by clicking on the album cover below.  It'll cost you less than $10 from Amazon.

 

Beat Rodeo were a massively underrated band from the 80s.  They released a couple of albums on I.R.S. Records.  I first caught up with them on an episode of the classic show I.R.S. Records Presents The Cutting Edge hosted by Peter Zaremba of the Fleshtones. 

Our song today comes from the  band's Home in the Heart of the Beat LP.  Song for an Angry Young Man. Purchase and download the album by clicking the album cover below (Amazon.com):

 

Richard Thompson has been making great music for over 40 years now.  Today's song comes from his 2007 release, Sweet Warrior.

It's a track called Dad's Gonna Kill Me.  Purchase and download Sweet Warrior by clicking the album cover below (Amazon.com)

Finally, we jump into the near present with a track from the wildly popular and critically acclaimed album 21 by Adele.

The track is called I'll Be Waiting.  You can get 21 by clicking the album cover below and purchasing and downloading the album.(via Amazon.com)

   

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 Affiliated Links:

Adele: 19 British songstress Adele stormed onto the music scene in 2008, and was named Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards in 2009. All the songs from her debut album - titled 19 to reflect her age at the time the album was released - are included in our folio. Includes her hit "Chasing Pavements" plus 11 others: Best for Last * Crazy for You * Daydreamer * Hometown Glory * Melt My Heart to Stone * Right As Rain * Tired * and more. Includes black-and-white photos.

Richard Thompson Albums (Music Guide): Richard Thompson Compilation Albums, Richard Thompson Live Albums, Richard Thompson Soundtr Chapters: Rt: the Life and Music of Richard Thompson, (Guitar, Vocal), Sweet Warrior, 1000 Years of Popular Music, Mirror Blue, Mock Tudor, the Old Kit Bag, You? Me? Us?, Watching the Dark, the Bones of All Men, Rumor and Sigh, Amnesia, Live From Austin, Tx, Grizzly Man, Sweet Talker, Across a Crowded Room, Celtschmerz, Live at Crawley, Hand of Kindness, Semi-Detached Mock Tudor, Daring Adventures, More Guitar, Two Letter Words, Small Town Romance, Walking on a Wire, Industry, Front Parlour Ballads, Strict Tempo , Ducknapped , Henry the Human Fly, the Chrono Show, Faithless, Live Warrior, Live , Action Packed. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 113. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: RT: The Life and Music of Richard Thompson is a box set by Richard Thompson, released in February 2006. This box set gives an extensive overview of Thompson's long career without including content from any of his mainstream albums. While many of the songs included will be familiar to Thompson fans, the actual tracks are mostly live and nearly all previously unreleased, and the arrangements are often different from those of the original recording. Thompson himself granted the compilers access to his personal archives of recordings and photos, and other collectors of Thompsonia (most notably American record producer Edward Haber) also contributed to the set. Thompson retained (and exercised) the right of veto over any aspect of the set. Of particular interest are live tracks by Richard and Linda Thompson (including a few from the 1982 "tour from hell"), songs demoed for his first solo album Henry The Human Fly as well as several of Thompson's comic songs ("Madonna's Wedding" and his lampooning of Janet Jackson's infamous breast baring moment at the Super Bowl) and several songs that Thompson himself has nev...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=402567

Steve Almaas - Ear to the Ground's 7 Questions

Steve Almaas is cool.  He is in the Minneapolis band Suicide Commandos.  Worked with Richard Barone with The Bongos - made a killer solo EP - Beat Rodeo which was produced by Barone, Almaas and Mitch Easter at Easter Chapel Hill studio - visual vinyl evidence above.  Then he formed a band which was named for the EP.  Beat Rodeo produced two albums for IRS Records.


Below is a new track called Your Life to Live via Soundcloud.


Your Life To Live by Steve Almaas



Recently Steve Almaas sat down with Ear to the Ground* to help us launch a new feature called Ear to Ground's 7 Questions.  

1. What is the first music you can consciously remember hearing?

Jud is dead from the movie Oklahoma. Scared the piss out of me...

2. What was the first music that really caught your attention (if different than 1.)?

Beatles on Ed Sullivan

3. When did you first begin playing music?

Piano lessons from my mom in 2nd grade.

4. Biggest thrill as a musician?

Many thrills, but one big one was playing a show with Townes Van Zandt in Berlin and then hanging out with him for the next few days.

5. What music is currently at the top of your play list?

The new Nick Lowe album. He's no dinky do....

6. Any music you like which might be a surprise to the casual observer? 

I have an inexplicable fondness for Lambada... 

7. If you could see any band or artist live at any point in their career, who and at what point would you want to see?

I would love to have been a fly on the wall when Louis Armstrong cut Blue Yodel #9 with Jimmie Rodgers

*Disclaimer: Although technically speaking Mr. Almaas did not sit down WITH Ear to the Ground, we were in fact sitting when we typed the questions and one can assume that there is a reasonable chance he was sitting down when he answered the questions. So there.