Root Down in the Shadow

Thanks to the fine folks at David Wax Museum, a year ago I found the most wonderful trio, Pearl And The Beard last November.   It was a great start to my fan-hood of these Brooklynites.  I saw them open for David Wax at the end of November , during an incredible show.  I loved them, the wife loved them, and most importantly Molly loved them.  Not to mention videos galore on the internets of these fantastically and artistically talented musicians.  Jeremy Styles : photo by Jeff Coon Although I had my new Killing the Darlings vinyl and the most awesome Daytrotter session to listen to, my desire was to see them live again.  This quest to see them again was frustratingly fruitless for the next year.  I missed them in Wilmington, DE due to lovely back spasms (mine, not theirs).  I had a conflict with a Brown Bird/Devil Makes Three show.  There was another show in NJ that was cancelled.  Then, I missed a free show in Harrisburg, Pa while I attended a closer Pokey LaFarge show at the

Although I planned this post out a few weeks ago, having 'Heartbreak Even' as the song of the week is most fitting as my wife is out of town this weekend.  This was a song that we adopted early on in our relationship as one of our favorites.  She was out of the country that semester of college so this was always a sort of a "miss you" kind of a song.  'Heartbreak Even' was the lead single off of the 2001 double disc Revelling: Reckoning The song is a hit from its opening riff. The simplicity of the song is charming, while the vocals, guitar, bass, flute, clarinets, trumpet, and drums give it a wonderful complexity. The lyrics are fantastic, describing love as an all encompassing, all enveloping reality, rather than a layer or feeling. Excerpt from 'Heartbreak Even' by Ani DiFranco from Revelling: Reckoning by Ani DiFranco . "there is pressure from within this and pressure from above there is pressure on our tenuous, strenuous love and

Please don't judge my blog based on the quality of my first cover artist.  The Queen of Pop,  Madonna, is my first cover artist that I have decided to write about.  It's not because am a big Madonna fan, although she is awesome, but I'm really not a mega fan.  I was listening to my "Pilfer Era Best Of" play list, which is top rated songs from 1999 to 2002 today while out doing my real world pursuit of writing estimates on cars.  I came across ' Don't Tell Me ' by Madonna and immediately started thinking of a potential music blog.  The Madonna version is lighter than many of her songs from the last 10 years and almost soulful.  It certainly would not be heard in the clubs with other songs of hers such as , ' Four Minutes ' or ' Music '.  The songs features a cool beat with some light tweaking over the beat. The original artist is Joe Henry.  I qualify this, because the Madonna version actually came out first on an album, but Joe H