Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Not Punk Mix

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So... even by Nashville standards, the middle part of this week has been an embarrassment of musical riches. I already recapped Tuesday night.  Last night for me, began at The 5 Spot - the preeminent East Nashville dive bar for week one of Kevn Kinney's July Residency.  Kinney in and of himself would have made the show noteworthy, but we was joined by Gibb Droll on guitar and E2TG favorite Shelly Colvin jumped in a couple of songs for background vocals, and Todd Snider was there to add some awesome harmonica to a couple of songs.  The last song of the show included all of the above covering The Replacements' classic "Here Comes a Regular" which Kinney managed to morph into the refrain from Nirvana's "All Apologies".  It was a truly magical moment which would have been more than enough to make the night complete... and that was all before 8:00....

After that show ended, I hoofed it over to The Basement East in time to see Tiffany Huggins Grant perform a short solo set of songs from her brand new album (which I'm sure you already own since I've been telling you about it...right?)  Her incredible voice was in evidence.

By this point, rumors were circulating about the happenings back at The 5 Spot.  Thanks for Mark Robinson and Sue Havlish for the lift back over there.  It was the 2nd Anniversary of Jerry Pentecost's Country and Western Wednesday - on the 2nd Wednesday of every month features classic Country and Western covers performed by an awesome house band with stellar guest stars.  For the anniversary show, they pulled out all the stops...  I'll leave some awesome people off, but the guest included Derek Hoke, Cory Chisel, Elizabeth Cook, Amanda Shires, Bobby Bare Jr., Chance McCoy, Wayne Moss (of Barefoot Jerry), Jim Lauderdale, and incredibly the one and only Lucinda Williams.  The club was packed out, but I had a good time connecting with friends and experiencing the moments...

Needless to say (or maybe needed to be said), I think I'm going to stay in tonight and recover... but the shuffle goes on and we have a good one today.... so....

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Misery Loves Company Mix

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Back at the shuffle game after an extended weekend....  Let's do this thing!

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Lost Cause Mix

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A great week of live music continued last night: the count: Darrin Bradbury with Aaron Lee Tasjan and Cameron Carrus backing him up, Carl Anderson, and Holy Sheboygan (an awesome band from Wisconsin) all at Foobar.  Then, Tim Carroll and Luella Wood  and a solo Darrin Bradbury set at Fran's Eastside.

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Bouncing in to Graceland Mix

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Last night, I took in a fine show at 3rd and Lindsley with East Nashville songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan opening for the legendary Ray Wylie Hubbard.  And, yes this was as badass awesome as it sounds like it would be... but don't take my word for it... okay, take my word for it... read my review at No Depression...

Tonight I am seeing some up and comer named Bob Dylan. Heard some good things about him...

Shuffle-wise, we start off the week with some good stuff.

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - The Pause That Refreshes Mix

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Had a good time hanging out at The Basement and watching Darrin Bradbury with Tim Carroll and Cameron Carrus wow the crowd...

To the shuffle...

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - No, All! Mix

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Back in the shuffle business after an absolutely incredible weekend at the 2nd Annual Safety Harbor SongFest.  Expect more detailed and official reports once I have fully recovered, but for now, let me just say I had a blast at this well-organized, artistically uplifting event and enjoyed some gorgeous weather.  Despite my peeling nose and flight delay coming home, I can strongly recommend fans and musicians alike check out this still relatively new festival.

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - This is Definitely Not Offensive Mix

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Some pretty remarkable things have been happening in regards to me music writing.  I can honestly say that I see completely overwhelmed sometimes (in the best possible way), and that I truly feel humbled. In the last day or so, I have seen words that I wrote showing up on Facebook posts and websites and other places, posted by people I respect a whole bunch. I am continuing to find my place in the crazy mixed up circus that is the Nashville/East Nashville music world.  I just recently got invited down to Safety Harbor Songfest this weekend in Florida to hang out with awesome people and hopefully write some words.  Gratitude is a overused, underappreciated emotion, but one that I am feeling in abundance today.  I am not going to name names simply because I will leave people out, but I know for a fact that none of this would be possible but for some of the people who read this blog in the early days and connected with me so that I knew I was not writing into an abyss (or to the disproportionate number of site visitors from Russia in those early days). Nor, would I have continued with the encouragement and concern expressed by some when I had to take an unexpected break from blogging. Nor would any of these good things be happening with the friendship and support of those who helped me through one of the roughest patches of my life. 

To think this whole vast empire (sarcasm intended) was built on the foundation of a random shuffling of songs...   Let's shuffle, shall we...

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle - Gypsy Now Mix

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Lot's to cover...

Couch by Couchwest 2015 rolls on, and I am getting further behind on all the great music, but it's a marathon not a sprint... or something like that... actually, I think it is against the rule to use a running analogy when talking about CXCW...  Day 2 included appearances by #E2TG favorites Batkhi Dahn and Matt Prater, and the day ending video featured East Nashville's own Tim Easton playing Ray Wylie Hubbard's guitar from the Netherlands or something like that.  I hope I didn't miss anyone, but I feel like I did.  If so, I will make it up - as I plan to do a mid-week recap as well as a end of festival summary... UPDATE: I remember who I forgot - Tipi Valley - how could I?

Went out last night to see some friends play music...  Kiely Schlesinger was stunning as always, Lindsay Ellyn sounded fantastic, and Taylor Alexander from Young America (who released an EP yesterday and who was joined by Lindsay Ellyn) was awesome and the imagining of a Cher as a traditional country singer was brilliant.

In the opening mic that followed, I enjoyed seeing Fendrick and Peck, Eddie Crummer, Darrin Bradbury, and Zachariah Red.

Now, we have a shuffle to put on....

Friday Morning Music Shuffle - Alone in a Crowd Mix

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The end of a long strange week... we have a pretty nifty mix of old and new music of various styles and moods and subjects... all making a cohesive morning shuffle...

Thursday Morning Music Shuffle - Baboon Heart Mix

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Well, here we go. Another short shuffle that covers a ton of ground. For the literary minded among you, we have a song inspired by Upton Sinclair and another inspired by a Tennessee Williams' play.  Plus, we have some Piedmont Blues for North Carolina, one of Paul Revere's Raiders doing a Ray Charles song and so much more... let's get to it...

Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle - Pretty as a Prayer Book Mix

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In the midst of a busy week of music.  Had the opportunity to hang out with some friends, watch some talented friends make music, and be introduced to some music I haven't heard before. Tonight, it is Darrin Bradbury playing at the Stone Fox on the west side of Nashville.

Friday Morning Music Shuffle -

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I wanted to share some news with all of my Ear to the Ground readers.  I am going to begin covering live shows at awesome Nashville venue 3rd and Lindsley for No Depression. Don't worry, #E2TG will continue to be the same hot mess that it always is, and you will also be able to read my reviews over at NoDepression.com and see that I can actually clean up when it is required (I hope).  Seriously, I am excited about this opportunity and I know that all of you have helped me to reach this place. So, thanks!  Hot Mess of Cool Tunes follows....

Monday Morning Music Shuffle - Big, Bad Wolfe Mix

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 "Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good!" Run D.M.C.

 Wow.  April is almost toast.  It's been a helluva month for music.  We hope to have a recap up soon.  In the meantime, we're packed with our usual quirky mix of old and new music to enlighten, entertain and excite your senses.

PRE-SHUFFLE

"Did You Lie" by Taco Land
"Being John McEnroe" by The Pistolwhips
"Brick x Brick"by Christopher Paul Stelling
"Soulard" by Taco Land 
"Mary Magdalene" by Game Theory

The two Taco Land tracks are from the band's latest Pancakes and Pizza.  The Pistolwhips song (great title and a great song) is off The Appetizer Sampler put out by the good folks and Built 4 BBQ.  The song by Christopher Paul Stelling is the first track released from his brand new album False Cities which is tearing it up right now! The pre-shuffle ends with the Game Theory song - as we continue to feature the great music of this 80s era San Francisco band in memory and homage to the late Scott Miller.

SHUFFLE commences after the jump...

TFIF (Thank Frigg It's Friday) Morning Music Shuffle - Underage in This Funky Bar Mix

It's always fun to look at my blog stats* and see what kind of searches bring people to my site. Recently, a search for Appalachian culture brought people to yesterday's post.  I've had several searches for former Band of Week - Sealight's Dead Letters EP which I reviewed here. I also had a recent search for Elvis Costello telling Whitney Houston to let him write some songs for her. :-)

*Not that I obsessively and compulsively check my stats, because that would be lame.

Got some diverse and fun tracks in today's shuffle, so let us get to it:

Tons of Johnny Cash news lately - the previously mentioned museum set to open in Nashville this summer, plans for an 80th Anniversary of his birth celebration and probably more...

Today we have one of Johnny Cash's classic songs.  A few years ago, at a church talent show, the young son of some friends' of mine did an amazing and funny as hell version of this song.  A Boy Named Sue was written by Shel Silverstein and was inspired by the humorist Jean Shepherd (A Christmas Story) who was taunted as a child for his feminine sounding name.

<-----check out Johnny Cash At San Quentin (1969) at Amazon.com

We shift gears entirely now - In 1991, P.M. Dawn released their debut album, and this song helped unleash an entirely different kind of hip-hop on an unsuspecting world.  Spandau Ballet is sampled heavily.  Today I heard a live version of Set Adrift on Memory Bliss - sublime!

<----check out the debut album from P.M. Dawn at Amazon

Deer Tick who hail from Rhode Island make stunning and wonderful alt-country music. Twenty Miles which comes off of the Black Dirt Sessions album is one of my favorite songs not only by the band, but of all time - not faint praise for a song less than two years old.

<---check out The Black Dirt Sessions at Amazon.com

And finally - a song that goes way back to 1980 - when I was a wee lad of 14, and a song I know I heard quite a bit on the radio back then (it reached #6 on the charts in the US).  Paul Simon released his fifth album which served as a Soundtrack of sorts (different songs and versions of songs) to the movie which share its name, One Trick Pony.  The song is Late in the Evening - great lines like my mother laughed the way some ladies do, I turned the amp up loud and I began to play and the line borrowed for the subtitle of this post.


<---check out the 2011 Remaster of One Trick Pony at Amazon.


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One Trick Pony Jonah Levin knows what it's like to sit atop the world of pop music. But chart-topping hits (as well as enduring marriages) are harder to come by - and nothing he ever knew could prepare him for the skid to the bottom. Playing Jonah, the enduringly talent

Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison/ At San Quentin (The Complete 1969 Concert)/ America (3 Pak Cube) - MP3 Download This Johnny Cash download is available in DRM-free, MP3 256kbps format. Johnny Cash MP3's will play on iPod(r) and all MP3 players. Individual tracks and samples of the songs from this album are available by clicking on the product image on the left. Need help? Click here and search for "downloads" to learn more.