That puts me at 32 down, 18 to go.

If you took a look at the music on my iPod you would probably notice two things. First, its a bit on the eclectic side, second, it has a lot more blues on it than you’d expect. One of my co-workers lent me an album a couple of years ago by Fat Possum Records called “Not the Same Old Blues Crap,” and in addition to popular acts (or relatively so) like Iggy Pop and The Black Keys was an artist that really didn’t get discovered until late in life. RL Burnside started life in rural Mississippi before moving to Chicago and ultimately back down south. He was at one point incarcerated for murder, about which he was later quoted as saying, “I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord.”

As for music, we’ll start with my favorite tune of his, Goin’ Down South.

Burnside died in 2005, just after I started hearing him a couple of years ago. His style was much more in the line of country blues than delta blues. I’d say he was influenced by Dylan because he doesn’t adhere to a strict 12 or 16 bar blues pattern…except he started out a touch before Dylan’s time. Here is his tune, “Shake ‘Em On Down.”

One of the thing I like about Burnside is that he never really confined himself to acoustic or electric guitar based blues. One thing that I think the blues genre is really missing today in the mainstream is acoustic based blues songs. The majority of what people are familiar with are the works of folks like BB King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, and while great musicians I’ve never seen them with an acoustic. In this tune, Jumper Hanging On A Line, RL is playing solo acoustic in an what appears to be an older recording.

I hope you’ve enjoyed a little bit of the Blues with RL Burnside on this Friday, the start of Lollapalooza here in Chicago.  Now for the third installation of name that tune.

Six and three is nine
Nine and nine is eighteen
Look there brother baby and see what I’ve seen

Happy Friday!

So:

29, 30, and 31 down, 19 to go.

What is fun is Music Fest Friday. Today’s featured artist is Glen Phillips formerly of the 1980’s alt. rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket. I think Glen is one of the best song writers of his generation, with heartfelt, poignant lyrics that just about anyone can connect with. Couple that with a pretty powerful voice and good acoustic guitar work, and you have a combination that I could listen to all day long.

We’re going to start out the journey talking about Courage.

This version of the tune is a bit quicker than some, but its still a song I really enjoy. I’ve only had the pleasure of seeing Glen live once, and that was when he and Nickel Creek (another favorite I’ll use on MFF one day) toured as the Mutual Admiration Society. We’ll go to a bit of a funnier song now, which, in one recording I’ve got he prefaces saying, “This is a true story, but its, uh, not my true.” So please, enjoy yourself listening to Drive By.

You didn’t really think the dog’d get it did you? First time I heard this song I nearly spit beer out of my nose I laughed so hard the first time he sung the refrain. The final song I’ll give you today is called Darkest Hour.

If you are interested in listening to Glen with Nickel Creek, you can search archive.org for Mutual Admiration Society, or you can just check out this show.  Its going to have a lot of bluegrass influence, but really, thats not bad.  The cool think about Archive, if you’ve not been there, is that you can sometimes listen to an entire show right online, or download the audio files.  The show I linked to above is a show at Largo and the show, in order is available to listen to in your browser.

Ok, last part of the post, name that tune.  I’ve decided I’ll wrap up this round of “name that tune” at the end of August, then we’ll go on a monthly schedule.  Remember try to do this without google, and I’ll edit the answers so that the name you submit is in white…still there, you just have to highlight it to see it.

I drew that glass across his neck as fine as any blade.  And I felt his blood flow fast and hot around me where I lay!

Thats it.  Enjoy your Friday, and try not to spill your coffee.

Now, lets begin with Kate Nash.

This is “The Nicest Thing.” I first heard of / saw her on Sundance Channel’s Live At Abbey Road. Nash is a 21 year old Brit. I really dig the way she is so conversational in the way she does her lyrics. Plus, this is just kind of a pretty, and sweet, and sad song. Now I sound all emo. Anyway, here is one more from her, that is a lot of fun called “Mouthwash.”

A similar artist that has been around about 10 years longer than Kate Nash is KT Tunstall, also from the British Isles…though as opposed to Nash’s London, Tunstall is from Edinburgh, Scotland. Tunstall has seen some mainstream success, namely with her single Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, which was performed on American Idol by one of the contestants…this helped her gain a stronger American audience. Here is Black Horse and the Cherry Tree….

Another pretty popular song of hers is Suddenly I See, was used as Hilary Clinton’s campaign theme song…we see how well that worked out. And since EVERYBODY’s heard that (and if not, you can find it on youtube.com pretty easily)…I’m going to give you the final video for her tune Hold On.

Made it this far?  Awesome.  No remember, no googling if you can avoid it, and that is something I’ll have to trust you on.  Here is the lyric….

Strut on a line, its discord and rhyme
I howl and I whine I’m after you

There you have it.  Leave you guesses in the comments.  I’ll give you a hint, you can thank VH1’s Top 100 Songs of the 1980s for this one.

Pretty interesting book, written in the 1930s with a lot of information.  I know far more of New Orleans history now than I could have imagined.  So, now I’m on to the most recent book in the L.E. Modesitt’s Recluce series Natural Ordermage which I plan to start sometime today.

In other news we went down to my parents house for the 4th and now we can tell the world at large, we’ve chosen Nashville as our future area.  We head down in the middle of August to check out some properties and hopefully figure out where our homesite is going to be.  Very very exciting.  Also, while at my parents I was totally able to man-out with manly tasks.  In the span of 3 hours I used a chainsaw, built a bonfire, used an arc-welder, climbed on a rough, and rode a motorcycle.  In a word, I was AWESOME.

Of course I must fess up to my general suckitude in terms of posting.  Really, I just end up forgetting about it and not making time.  Not sure if that will change or not, we’ll see.  But here’s to good summer livin’!

The book, authored by the same man who did The Last Convertible, was well written and did an admirable job of capturing what I’d imagine it would feel like to be on the battlefield. Don’t take my word for it, a retired General wrote the foreword and said nearly the same thing. I enjoyed reading it, but it did take me a week and a half or two weeks to get through. It was long. But good. I’m loaning it to my father-in-law, Scar, the next time I see him as a result, since I think he’ll enjoy it.

Now I’m on to The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld, written by the same guy that did Gangs of New York.  Its starting out interesting, lot of new info I didn’t know.  I was also surprised to learn the guy wrote his books back in the 30s, and that gives some interesting historical perspective.

28 down, 22 to go.

Anyway, I was unpacking my desk today….I packed up for a potential desk move almost a year ago…yeah, I’m on top of shit over here…and I found a song I wrote at some point…not sure when. But I thought I’d share it with you. Its called, “I Can’t Wait.”

I Can’t Wait

When I saw you walking there
It took me some time
To recognize what you mean to me
Then your face came through
And I walked across the room
To see what your eyes had to say

I can’t wait any longer
To stand by your side
I can’t take any more of these lies

It had been too long since I felt your touch
I never realized I missed it so much
But now your standing there
With the wind in your hair
And your eyes, they’re looking at me

I can’t wait any long
To stand by your side
I can’t take, any more, of these lies

I know that one day we’ll see it through
And we’ll walk hand in hand
Angel your breath I will breath
And together we’ll lead
Each other to the end of days

I can’t wait any longer
To stand by your side
I can’t take any more of these lies

27 down, 23 to go.

Now I’m reading Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil, which I started last night. I loved the movie and I’m definitely enjoying the book so far, though I’m only about 80 pages in. Hopefully I’ll finish it before the weekend is over….then it will probably be time to get a library card, which will make my wife quite happy. Why now for the card? I’m running out of books at home I’m interested in reading right now and the list of book recommendations people have given me is starting to steadily grow (and remain tracked) on my GoodReads list.

21 down, 29 to go.