It is Wednesday already! A rainy day in Nashville. The news of the day is depressing and disheartening. It is one of those moments where I cannot believe we have gotten to the place we are. I try to be positive and hopeful, but today I am not feeling it.
I do know that music has ALWAYS been there for me, and I expect that nothing will change that. So, let's get to what we do here!
And now our Featured Friday review continues with songs 13-17
13. "World on Fire" by Blue Eyed Christ, En Esch, Mea Fisher
A state of the world statement from this Chicago based industrial electronic rock band. Hard and pretty cool.
14. "Bed of Sun" by Cap'n Marble
Indie pop duo from California who met in Boston at Berklee School of Music. Breezy and catchy.
15. "Truth Be Told" by The Attic Movement
UK based alternative rock band with a beautiful song.
16. "Conipher's Song" by Lazaris Pit
Hardcore psychedelic post punk from Raleigh, North Carolina. Digging it.
17. "Can't See the Light" by The Wolfhounds
The Wolfhounds formed in 1984 and were included on the C86 compilation. The broke up around 1990 but reunited in 2006 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of C86. This is their latest release.
Well, here we are day whatever of this quarantine. It is amazing to me how something so strange and unexpected has come to feel almost normal. There seems to be some disagreement about what will happen next and when. I think many of our torn - ready to get on with things but not wanting matters to be worse or to extend the recovery process.
As I have previously concluded, I do not think the world after the quarantine will be the same as the world before. For one thing, we've lost John Prine and Hal Wilner and so many more. Unfortunately, I am not sure that all businesses that closed will be able to reopen. I think big crowds will make some people uneasy for some time to come.
On the plus side, many of us are learning new skills or practicing old skills that had become rusty. I know I am learning to appreciate things that I may have previously taken for granted - simple things. There seems to still be so much we don't know and it is unclear what the future looks like until a vaccine is developed. Even if this quarantine ends, do we face another in the fall?
Music has been my solace for as long as I can remember, and that is still the case. I updated some releases last night, and I downloaded a ton of new music. I don't think any of new songs came up in today's shuffle, but many of them are added to the release list below and others will be in the next Featured Friday Playlist.
Let's get to today's shuffle!
Featured Friday Playlist
Tuesday Morning Shuffle
An interesting and very excellent shuffle today...
"Diggin' A Stigmata" by Benjamin Jason Douglas (from First World Blues)
Perhaps a little taste of Slump Test in this song from Ben Douglas's album First World Blues which came out a couple of years ago. Slump Test was one of the two last bands I saw live before this began. I hope there is a Decline of Southern Civilization in all of our futures.
"Promised Land" by Beth McKee (from Sugarcane Revival)
Florida singer-songwriter Beth McKee was referred to me by Tim and Susan Bauer Lee of Bark, and I am so glad to have been made aware of her music and her work. Beth was a member of the country music band Evangeline in the late 80s and early 90s.
"Let's Get Happy" by The Buddies (from The Buddies)
Always good when a song by The Buddies comes up in the shuffle. And some good advice for any time but now in particular. Maybe not really advice, but more an exhortation. The Buddies started in Nashville - where half the members still live (The Collins Family). The rest live in Michigan, Chicago, and Missouri (Coley Kennedy, Pete Javier, and Jeremy Barrett).
"No Recover" by Eric Bachmann (from No Recover)
Next up, we have the title track from the 2018 album by Eric Bachmann (Crooked Fingers and Archers of Loaf). He was born in North Carolina, currently lives in Athens, Georgia and has lived many places including Nashville, Tennessee.
"Cane River Blues" by Adam Carroll
We close with a track from the 1998 debut album South of Town by the singer-songwriter from Texas. A great finish to the shuffle.
VIDEO PLAYLIST
Recent and Upcoming Releases:
Recent:
2/29 - Jimmy Who and the Night Creatures - Tinker's Blues (EP)
3/04 - Zoe Schwarz Blue Commotion - Chameleon (LP)
3/04 - Iron Mike Norton - "Help Me Make It Through the Night" (single)
3/06 - Surrija - "Sylvette" (single)
3/06 - Dean Fields - While the Baby Was Sleeping (LP) 3/06 - Broads and Milly Hirst - Ollust (LP) 3/06 - The Mastersons - No Time for Love Songs (LP) 3/06 - Ghostwood Development Project (Feat. Kool Keith) - "Gulley" (single)
3/06 - The Mystery Plan - Ballad of JC Quinn (LP)
3/06 - Brian Wright and the Sneakups - "Patrick's Crossing" (single)
3/06 - Jonny Polonsky - Kingdom of Sleep (LP)
3/06 - Tiny Fighter - "Perfect Game" (single)
3/06 - African Head Charge - Drumming is a Language (LP)
3/06 - African Head Charge - Songs of Praise - reissue (LP)
3/06 - African Head Charge - Churchical Chant Of The Iyabinghi (LP)
3/06 - Baby Chaos- Ape Confronts Cosmos (LP) 3/09 - Marco Bonvicini - "Colors" (single)
3/09 - Terry Presume - I Got Nothing to Lose (EP)
3/13 - The Flatmates - The Flatmates (LP)
3/13 - Kleenex Girl Wonder - Ponyoak (20th Anniversary Edition) + BLP (demos and out-takes) (LP) 3/13 - Sandwick - Reconstruct (LP) 3/13 - Foley and the Fire - "Springsteen on the Radio" (single) 3/13 - Kalee Smyth - The Ceiling (EP)
3/13 - Sha Davis - Songs I Wrote When You Left (EP)
3/13 - The Losing Touch - "Through the Night" (single)
3/13 - Gerry Gareau - Feet Off The Brakes (EP)
3/13 - Ayla Brook and the Sound Men - Desolation Sounds (LP)
3/13 - The Academy of Sun - "The Parts That Need Replacing" (single)
3/13 - Sunday Morning - Consequences of Love (EP) 3/13 - Rosemary Fossee - "Tu me manques" (single)
3/13 - BYSTS - "Spread Out" (single)
3/18 - Marco Bonvicini - Colors (EP)
3/19 - Victor DeLorenzo - Tranceaphone (EP)
3/20 - Matt Wilson and His Orchestra - When I Was a Writer (LP) 3/20 - Chris Moyse - Bitter Ballads and Cynical Prayers (LP)
3/20 - Samuel Boller - Kingdom of the Sun (LP) 3/20 - The Blam Blams - "Isabella" (single) 3/20 - Jon Hassell - Vernal Equinox (reissue) (LP)
3/20 - Kid Be Kid - Lovely Genders (EP)
3/20 - Toni Sauna - Dead Flour (single)
3/20 - Ender Bender - "Star Killer" (single)
3/20 - Strange Majik - 20/20 (LP)
3/20 - I YA TOYAH - Code Blue: Reloaded (LP)
3/23 - Sofia Talvik - "Meanwhile in Winnsboro" (single)
3/23 - Horace Green - Live from the Algoma Club (EP)
3/24 - Mighty Brother - "Naked Winter" (single)
3/24 - Eye Said So - "Blue Sunday" (single)
3/27 - Mayflower Madame - Prepared for a Nightmare (LP)
3/27 - The 81s - 2 Things and 118 Others (LP)
3/27 - Mayflower Madame - "Swallow" (single)
3/27 - Alienbaby Collective - F I S H B O W L / T E R R E S T R I A L (Double EP) 3/27 - Mairena - "Weird All the Time" (single) 3/27 - Lucille - Come on,Fly (LP)
3/27 - Nicole Boggs and the Reel - "Money" (single)
3/27 - Ben Reel - The Nashville Calling (LP)
3/27 - 100 Mile House - Love and Leave You (LP)
3/27 - Watermelon Slim - Traveling Man (Double Live LP)
3/27 - Lilly Hiatt - Walking Proof (LP)
3/27 - Porcelain Pink - "Sideways" (single)
3/27 - The Ocelots - Started to Wonder (LP)
3/27 - Harry Stafford - Gothic Urban Blues (LP)
4/01 - HMS Morris - "Poetry" (single)
4/02 - I Am A Rocketship - "My Nature" (single)
4/02 - Steve Forbert - "Rand" (Pandemic song) (single)
4/03 - Chip and the Charge Ups - Lightning in Our Veins (LP)
4/03 - Surrija - Surrija (LP)
4/03 - Stumbleine - Sink Into the Ether (LP)
4/03 - Neutrals - Rent Your House (EP)
4/03 - Clwb Fuzz - "No Heaven" (single)
4/03 - Weeks Island - Droste (EP)
4/03 - The Mystery Plan - Zsa Zsa (LP)
4/03 - Tiny Fighter - Going Home (LP)
4/03 - Hallows - Subtle (EP)
4/03 - Ferdous - "Counting Stars" (single)
4/03 - Stick Crickets - "Eternal Suck" (single)
4/08 - Zilverbacks - The Dark Horse; At A Time When Time Was Irrelevant (LP)
4/06 - Sean Alan - "The Day That Brought the Whole World to Its Knees (single)
4/08 - ex-mothers - arrhythmia (EP)
4/09 - Ellison - "Sing" (single)
4/10 - Eliza Gilkyson - 2020 (LP) 4/10 - Dan Montgomery - Smoke and Mirrors (a phonographic memory) (LP) 4/10 - Pokey LaFarge - Rock Bottom Rhapsody (LP)
4/10 - The Dream Syndicate - The Universal Inside (LP)
I was out of the office yesterday, so let's jump back into our Earie Awards and our Recap of 2018. We are now up to May 2018. E2TG began its eighth year during the month of May, and we had some cool artists and tunes to feature that month. Let's go!
Last night was the first ever WXNA Holiday Party - it was a swell affair and affirmed how lucky I am to be a part of this amazing group of people.
After that, I headed to The Basement for The Big Dumb CD Release Party. It is hard for me to relate how much I love this amazingly talented group of musicians. In addition, not one, not two, but three past E2TG Artists of the Year were special guests for the show. Rayvon Pettis, Darrin Bradbury, and Jon Latham. I would put good money that this will not be the last you've heard about The Big Dumb this "Earie" season.
It's the end of the first full-week of December, and it is Day 3 of the 2018 Earie Awards. The Earies are kind of like the Grammys - except they are nothing like the Grammys.
Today for our shuffle, we journal back to a more innocent time - March 2018......
All of this happened a long time ago when the world was a very different place. Of course, none of us knew that at the time. (From The Drift - A Novel by Joe Wolfe-Mazeres) Available at Amazon.com (Kindle edition also available)
I am continuing to work on my Spotify playlists for E2TG. So far, I have completed seven - January - July2018. These are meant to be a cross-section of music I featured during those months - not necessarily music released in those months. If you are interested, you can check out the playlists (links below) and follow my personal profile to find out when new playlists are created.
First off, you may or may not have noticed, but I made an adjustment to the name of this blog and our associated Facebook page. Basically, I officially added E2TG as a part of the blog name. The reason being, I am finally dealing with a problem I've been aware of for some time. Namely, that there is another music site called Ear to the Ground. I'm not even going to get into the which one came first game. Ear to the Ground is a fairly common saying, and it is not surprising that I am not the only person to think to call a music site Ear to the Ground. I have been aware of this for a long time. It was the impetus for my beginning to use the E2TG designation more and more. If that other site was covering completely different music, it would not be a problem, however, there does seem to be some overlap in the music we cover. As a result, there have been moments of confusion - like my Facebook being tagged for their posts. Basically, I have been procrastinating about dealing with this. What prompted me to act, is that the other site seems to have a very formalized submission process, and it appears that some people have been submitting music there thinking it was coming to me.
I don't know if this change will help with either of these issues, but it is a first attempt. For the record, E2TG is all about sharing music I have discovered through a variety of means. Most of my music comes from publicists (most often from those I've come to trust), artists themselves, or recommendations from other artists and/or other music lovers.
The bottom line is that I have nothing but positive thoughts for anyone who makes a effort to spread the word about new and emerging music. What the other site does seems to be different than what I do. My goal is to just prevent as much confusion as possible.
Enough, sorry for getting off track, I've just put off dealing with this for too long.
Last night, I added over 100 tracks to my new music playlist. I don't think any of them came up today, but they will soon.
All of this happened a long time ago when the world was a very different place. Of course, none of us knew that at the time. (From The Drift - A Novel by Joe Wolfe-Mazeres) Available at Amazon.com (Kindle edition also available)
I am continuing to work on my Spotify playlists for E2TG. So far, I have completed seven - January - July2018. These are meant to be a cross-section of music I featured during those months - not necessarily music released in those months. If you are interested, you can check out the playlists (links below) and follow my personal profile to find out when new playlists are created.
I am grateful to have been asked to emcee this awesome event TONIGHT at the Radio Cafe in East Nashville. Amelia White, Mark Huff - both backed by great bands, plus a couple of red hot UK singer-songwriters. All that and you get to hear my witty repartee. The Radio Cafe is a casual, laid back, comfortable room. Doors open at 7:00 and the cover is just $5.00.
My Americana week got off to a great start. First Sue and I recorded a future Double Shot - with the incredible Mark Robinson behind the boards. Next, I headed to Dee's for Madison Guild Monday hosted by Nick Nace. Jaimee Harris opened the night - with great songs and a great voice, Mercy Bell was next, followed by Nace, Chris Moyse, VOLK, and special surprise guest Darrin Bradbury. It was a wonderful night of great music and hanging with great friends. Jaimee Harris and Mercy Bell were "new to me" (I am pretty sure), and a got to see a couple of out of town friends - so my plan for Americana is going peachy so far...
Today is also the 17th Anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington. My over -riding memory of that day was the feeling of fear and uncertainty. Waiting for/dreading what was going to happen next. I'm convinced that this nation has been suffering from PTSD since 9/11/2001.
It is Tuesday - and we have a sweet shuffle from our "New Music" playlist. Let's go!
A little over a year ago - maybe more (who knows?), I started hearing about Benjamin Jason Douglas from some of local (Nashville) songwriters whose own songs I admire. The exchanges usually went something like this:
E2TG: I really love your songs.
Respected songwriter friend (RSF): Thanks, but who you really need to hear is Ben Douglas.
E2TG: *something awkward*
RSF: No, really, Ben's songs will blow you away.
It was shortly after one of these exchanges, that I got to see Douglas play - solo at a songwriters event. It turns out that RSF was right. I was blown away and I have been a huge fan and supporter of his music ever since.
A couple of side-notes. Benjamin Douglas in addition to be an incredible songwriter is a talented visual artist. His sketches of other local musicians are wonderful. Another thing I've noticed, while the local songwriting community is very mutually supportive in general - good-natured ribbing is fairly common and can be pretty brutal in some cases (all in fun - I think). The thing I have noticed is that I cannot recall having heard one person speak ill of Benjamin Jason Douglas - even in jest. That speaks volumes about how respected he is as an artist and as a person.
You can imagine how happy I was to get the opportunity to preview Ben's album First World Blues a while back. I have been sharing some of that music with you, loyal reader, over the last couple of months. The album will have it's official release a week from today (August 10).
Today, I am ecstatic to be able to officially premiere a song from the album, "Gloria". Song premiere after the jump.
Time is marching on... we've reached the end of another week of E2TG.
By the way, tomorrow, on WXNA (101.5fm in Nashville or wxnafm.org everywhere), my radio show that I do with my dear friend Sue - Double Shot with Joe and Sue will be celebrating our 100th show! I hope you can tune in! Double Shot kicks off at 11:00am (Central Time).
Today, we have our Featured Friday shuffle - shuffling songs from our "new music" playlist of albums/artists/songs we are featuring here on E2TG.
Well, I finally ventured out of the house last night - to Dee's in Madison. Caught most of the last hour of The One and Only Bill Davis doing his always fun weekly set.
Later, one of my favorite local songwriters Joanna Barbera took the stage playing with a new violin player. Then, she was joined by Dee's co-owner Daniel Walker for a wonderful version of Tom Petty's "Breakdown". Walker did a short set of his own songs. Daniel Walker was followed by E2TG's #1 Most Tagged Artist Ever - Darrin Bradbury. Bradbury's set included some songs from his forthcoming new album - including one that is being covered by Joe Pug!, a brand new song, and some older songs - like "Denim-clad Acid Wash Man" "Swordfish", and even a version of the Big Wilson River song "80 Dead Armadillos". Big Wilson River was Bradbury's band back in New Jersey - and also my (and E2TG's) first exposure to his music. In fact, our crack research department found that "80 Dead Armadillos" was the first Darrin Bradbury/Big Wilson River song featured here - back in July of 2012.
In addition to the great music, I had a cool front porch hang - met some new people, met an on-line friend for the first time, and talked music and life, and I got to hang with a cool, cute dog that belongs to Brad of This Frontier Needs Heroes.
Not bad for a Wednesday night in Madison.
I added a bunch of new music - including some really cool stuff by some legendary UK rockers - one of the new songs showed up today - more will follow soon!
Let's shuffle up our "New Music" playlist and see what is "Trending" on E2TG.
My spirits were lifted a bit by a fun evening. Recorded a future Double Shot show with Sue and Mark. Then, headed to Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge for another awesome Madison Guild Monday. This time hosted by E2TG favorite Andrew Adkins. In addition to Adkins, the night saw a great performance by Daryl Dasher - who I had seen before, and a few folks I had a not seen Ariana Hodes, Mike Wheeler, and Bri Murphy. A couple of performers were unable to be there, so in typical Nashville/Madison fashion, some special guests helped fill the bill. Bryant Carter (who I saw for the first time) and three E2TG favorites (including two past E2TG Artists of the Year (Nick Nace, Jon Latham, and Darrin Bradbury). All that and I great hang with some awesome folks.
I have a ton of music that I need to get added to my new music playlist, I will hopefully get to that tonight. In the meantime, let's clear some space.
Welcome to early spring in Nashville. Yesterday, we had warm temperatures and the threat of severe weather. Tonight, sub-freezing temperatures and a threat of light snow.
Anyway, the news of the day is depressing, the weather is a bit dreary, so how 'bout we just dive in to some music... Music helps. It always helps....
In my job, I am expected to know what I am talking about, and to ask questions to find out what I do not know. If I routinely made up answers, I would likely lose my job. I assume this is true of other people I know who have jobs. So, my honest question is, why should the "leader of the free world" be held to a lower standard?
That's all I have for now... I could say a bunch more, but let's get to the music....
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I headed to Dee's last night and caught great sets from Adrian + Meredith and Adrew Adkins and his great band. They are two of my favorites. Dee's is such a cozy and friendly spot to hang.
It is Thursday - finally - and we jump back into a couple of days of shuffles from the "New Music" playlist to round out the week. We have a few first listens today - including some new and forthcoming releases that I am super excited about...
