Thought of the day: Sean Spicer's comments about Hitler and chemical weapons, might be justifiably dismissed as "poor word choice" (albeit of epic proportions) if it were not for the fact that there are Neo-Nazis working in the White House. Context is important....
**************************************************************************** Just announced! Week 3 (out of 5) of the E2TG Sixth Anniversary - residency at The 5 Spot will be: David Olney with special guest Sergio Webb!!! Both will be playing full band sets on Wednesday May 17. These are early shows that will have you home (or off to another show) early. I am super excited to have both of these legends on the same stage on the same night.
Previously announced: Week 1 (May 3) - The Mark Robinson Band and Week 2 (May 10) - Jon Latham (Full Band) with special guests.
And we still have two more weeks to announce! Soon!
Things get wild on Wednesdays... here is a random shuffle taken from a list that includes every single song in my phone's memory. This one takes us around the world and back again.
Okay - it's Wednesday. It's been a very busy week, and things do not seem to be slowing down any time soon. But, it's all good.
Wednesday, we shuffle up every single song in my phone's memory and see what happens. So, these may be newer songs, random songs that don't fit another classification, "stragglers" from prior featured albums, things I don't remember adding to my phone, classics, favorites, and assorted goodness. We call it "Wild Wednesday". For one, the results can be pretty wild, but mainly, "wild" as in "wildcard".
Last night, Sue and I recorded what will be our fourth Double Shot with Joe and Sue show with the capable help of Mr. Mark Robinson. I managed to the only commit one FCC violation (no I didn't fucking swear!) which can thankfully be edited out. Remember we go LIVE on June 11 at 11a.m. (Central Time)... without a net! Tune in to 101.5 FM or wxnafm.org via the web or via the Tunein app on your favorite phone or tablet device type thing.
Don't forget, the station goes live this weekend and they will be previewing all of the awesome shows. Our preview will be from 2 to 2:15 Sunday afternoon (all times Central).
Tonight is one of those Nashville nights with so much live music going on... (even with the postponing of the Margo Price Album Release Show at Third Man Records due to her impending appearance on SNL (Go Margo!). Suffice it to say, if you go out to see live music anywhere in East Nashville, you are probably making the right call. The 5 Spot, The Basement East, Mad Donnas, and The American Legion all have awesome folks playing. (plus there are probably others that are not coming to my mind right now).
Meanwhile, it is Thursday and thus time for Throwback Thursday here at the ole E2TG. Most people don't know that the term "Throwback Thursday" originated in the mid 1980s in Chicago. It was a day set aside to remind Chicago Cub fans that they were not to keep homerun balls hit by opposing ball players. "Throwback Thursday" as in throwback those homerun balls hit by the Mets or whoever. Now you know!
Okay - two quick announcements.... 1. I am going to put the Events Page on hiatus until I am able to make some changes. It was an experiment, and to be honest the effort/effectiveness ratio of the current format wasn't really working for me. I am going to look into some alternative formats etc., and look to re-launch hopefully sooner than later.
Last nights, Traveler show was amazing. Traveler is Cory Chisel, Robert Ellis, and Jonny Fritz. They brought out Dave Rawlings for one song. The whole show was fabulous. The always awesome Aaron Lee Tasjan opened.
In case you missed it over the weekend, we crowned Skeletons in the Piano as our Band of the Month for June 2012 after a tooth and nail fight with Killing Kuddles. I tell you the Band of the Year poll is gonna be a good one! Stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, we also unveiled our Featured Artists for July . We will have more on these great artists as the month progresses, but for now, check out the Featured Artist page to find out who the bands are and more about them.
As if that were not enough, we have a heck of a good shuffle to start the month off. Once again, we reached into our archives and come up with a cool mix of songs.
John Prine released his self-titled debut album in 1971. It's an incredible selection of songs, which I highly recommend if you haven't heard it or haven't heard it in awhile. Prine has continued to make great music and write great songs. One of his all time best, and one of my all time favorites is the lovely, Angel from Montgomery. The song has been covered numerous times both live and on record by artists as diverse as Bonnie Raitt, Carly Simon, John Denver and Dave Matthews Band.
Here's Prine and Emmylou Harris doing Angel from Montgomery live from Red Rocks.
Next up, we have the title-track from another debut album. Guitar Town the album was released in 1986, and established Steve Earle as part of the new breed of outsider country artists shaking up the establishment. Since this debut, Steve Earle has come through a battle with drug and alcohol addiction and made some records which have far transcended his country roots. Guitar Town for me remains a powerful record, and one I return to again and again.
Next, we have another title track. This one from power-pop master Matthew Sweet's third album - the break-through Girlfriend.
And finally, we have a song that appeared on the debut EP and in a different version on the debut album by Welsh rockers, The Alarm. The Stand is influenced by the Stephen King novel of the same name. I was a huge Stephen King fan as a teenager, and The Stand was probably my favorite novel of his at that time. So, hearing this song for the first time on MTV made a huge impact on me.
Today is the first day of Hanukkah, tomorrow is the Winter Solstice and Sunday is Christmas. Shout out to everyone no matter which you celebrate or which you do not. Peace on Earth and Goodwill to men seems like a pretty good thing, so does celebrate miraculous lights and the beginning of days getting longer.
My Winter Holiday playlist contains Christmas songs, songs that mention winter-time themes (or seem to) and even a couple of songs that have been associated with the holiday season (albeit incorrectly):
1. The Wilderness of Manitoba released an three song of EP of Christmas Carols non-ironically called Three Carols. O Come, O Come Emmanuel is on the album which you can purchase and download by clicking the picture below.
2. Angels We Have Heard on High is another traditional Christmas Carol by The Walla Recovery. Get a whole set of Christmas music from the band by using the widget below.
3. I'm posting a link to a compilation called Alternative Rock X-mas which includes songs from everyone from The Decemberists to The Smithereens. It also includes the Alarm's version of the John Lennon classic, Happy XMas (War is Over).
4. Finally, today we look ahead to the turning of the western Calendar from 2011 to 2012. New Years Day is from U2's War Album. If you don't have War in your collection rectify that right now by purchasing and downloading the album for $4.99 from Amazon - click the album cover below.
