This week's edition highlights some free music I've picked up along the way.
I apologize for not writing anything for in weeks, I figured December should be the time of year when the music industry slows down. Yeah right. There might not be as much touring and shows, but there is a huge push of publicity. End of the year lists, sales, holiday songs galore, more sales, setting up tours for next year, holiday shows, and even more sales! Besides sitting back and enjoying the family, I found my self in a music induced tizzy listening to oodles of new music obtained over the holiday and reading list after year end list.
With all that said, I have been on complete overload lately. I finally finished a review from early December's show with Jocie Adams & Co, opening for the Barr Brothers. I've started plotting out shows to see for next year. I've been laying the ground work for some interviews.
HOLIDAY MUSIC? WHAT ABOUT ANTI-HOLIDAY?
One of my all time favorite Singer/Songwriters is a the short on height, tall on talent Ms. Erin McKeown. In November she released a witty true to life Anti-Holiday album. Although it caught many on the net off guard, how could she hate the Christmas holiday? I totally get it, although she is not the first to point out this holiday angst
For Me, South Park's Mr. Garrison pointed out my anti-holiday feelings the best. The in your face, my beliefs are better than yours, philosophy that many are oblivious to. I'll hold the word ignorant, as many do not intend it to be. But it is just as offensive to some to see "keep christ in christmas" propaganda everywhere as it is to the many who rue losing it.
Erin McKeown shows her side of the season off in clever lyrics and songs. My favorite being, 'It's a Very Queer Christmas' The lyric "What do you mean you don't eat meat? You're vegetarian and you're gay'', hits the nail on the head. Why would you want to spend your time off with people that clearly don't understand main tenants of your life?
Other gems point out that other people including Rickey Henderson, were born on 12-25 'Go Tell It On the Mountain(That Karl Rove Was Born)'; Public displays of holiday are not supposed to show off your patriotism 'Christmas (Love It Or Leave It); and beautiful songs called 'Toyland' don't have to be about children's toys, but could be about "adult" toys!
FREE MUSIC
The American Songwriter October Music includes awesome free tracks include Lisa Hannigan, 'Knots', Deer Tick, 'Main Street', Shovels & Rope, 'Gasoline', and Pujos' 'Mayday'. For more Lisa Hannigan, sign up for her mailing list to get 'A Sail', however I would recommend getting her album for $7.99 via iTunes,
http://www.lisahannigan.ie/mailinglist/
MORE FREE MUSIC
I started listening to the the Head & the Heart in the spring, and came to love two tracks the most on their album. When I had browsed their site recently for tour dates, I found that these two are giveaways for signing up for their mailing list.
They just did an episode on ACL, if that tells you what kind of acclaim they are starting to get!
To wrap up, I wanted to put a track from my often ignored genre of rap. I came across Mexicans with Guns via Spinner.com's MP3 of the day podcast. Do your self a favor and check it out.
Wooo Hooooo It's XPoNential Fest Time!!!! Every year WXPN brings a ton of great bands and artists to the Wiggins Park shore in Camden, NJ. With so many bands on the line-up it's daunting to figure out which bands to see. Fortunately, the way WXPN does the line-ups you CAN make it to every band should you choose. However, we all know it's going to be hot as hell. Not quite as hot as 2011 with the 100 degree days, but still super hot. Luckily for us, some of the festival performers have put in their two cents for which bands they are excited about. Rosemary Fiki starts the fest at 4pm today on the JerseyArts.Com Marina Stage. Let's see what she's recommending: Band Most Excited to Share the Festival Stage with : This is our first time time performing at XPoNential so to be completely honest, I'm super stoked to share the Festival stage with everyone! If I absolutely had to choose, I would say The Districts. We actually shared the stage wit
The buzz has been all about Sonja Sofya and her new album The Patterns We Know . Tonight Sonja Sofya and band take to the stage at Boot & Saddle in South Philly along with a great line-up featuring Arc Divers and the dove and the wolf. Right off the top we have some great reasons to expect great things from this album, such as produced by Ross Bellenoit at Turtle Studios and excellent musicianship by guitarist/producer Ross Bellenoit, bassist Jonathan Colman , and drummers Matt Scarano and Jonas Oesterle . But we at Root Down In The Shadow wanted to dig further and see what Sonja had to say about the album. Here's 3 questions we had for the songstress Sonja Sofya: RDITS: What was the impetus to make a full length record and why did you pick the people you worked with? At a certain point, playing and writing as much as I was, it felt like the logical next step, but I waited for a while, trying to find the "perfect" time to go into the stud
From the desk of Root Down: Greetings Friends! It's been a bit, how've ya been? What's new? I've been gone for some time and I feel that I owe everyone an explanation of where I've been. Honestly, I haven't gone anywhere. Since I've last posted, I've still been frequenting my favorite record store, been hitting up local shows, hosted a few house shows, traveling for special shows, and making music a large part of my life. What I haven't been doing is losing countless hours fretting over knowing every new artist, tweeting, and losing sleep editing articles that spend less time getting read than I spent writing. I can definitively tell you that I'm DONE attempting to make Root Down In The Shadow "a thing" in the music world. I don't need Twitter followers, a lively blog, or anyone else's validation to share my love for music. It doesn't help my enjoyment of music to follow a shit-ton of bands on eve
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