Root Down in the Shadow

Next Saturday night, at the Newport Folk Festival, after Pokey Lafarge & the South City Three wrap up @ 4:15, there are three outstanding choices for the next to last slot of the night. The question of who to see is the toughest of the whole festival. I have some other decisions to make before next weekend, but I think this solitary decision may take until we arrive at Fort Adams State Park. Feel free to comment, but here's my list of contributing factors for each act: Gillian Welch: + Gillian is on the Main Stage.. no need to move before the Decemberists + 4:45 start gives 30 minutes to find a spot after Pokey Lafarge + Gillian Welch: Newport Folk Festival 2009 + The Fresh Air Interview: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings + Oh Brother Where Art Thou  fame!!! + Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings do awesome covers, such as 'Black Star' + I don't have much of her  material, but it's so easy to like +Clear veteran = better/experienced live show +...

In the previous post, I linked the Amazon..com $5 albums & free music banner. To give you a head start on the free music, I wanted to give you some suggestions for dowloading. Enjoy! 23 This Year: The Sub Pop Amazon Sampler 1. Helplessness Blues by the Fleet Foxes .  Great track from one 2011's best albums 2. Lost in My Mind by th e Head and the Heart .  If you didn't get this album for $5 at minimum get this song for free, so you can remind yourself in August, how dumb you are for not getting this album for so cheap. Kill Rock Stars 20 Year Anniversary Sampler 3. Eleven by Thao & Mirah .  I don't know much about this duo, but I L-O-V-E this song! 4. 16 Military Wives by the Decemberist s 5. Between the Bars by Elliott Smith.  One of the evocative tracks from Good Will Hunting Merge Records 2011 Sampler 6. Civilian by Wye Oak .  I am strongly considering this $5 album.  Meanwhile, I have this as one of my 2011 best of songs 7...

As always Newport Folk Festival has been a constant on the summer music scene since 1959!  As 19 years my senior, I've always been aware of it, but never knew of it.  When I was much younger, I had a vision of rich folk in fancy hats and dresses, and something to do with cigarettes.  As I got older, I really forgot about the festival entirely, as my music tastes were mainly in alternative, but more in a Lollapalooza or even an Ozzfest vein.  However, it came back into focus for me two years ago within one of my favorite podcasts: NPR: Live Concerts from All Songs Considered Podcast .    From the 2009 version, there were available podcasts of full concerts for Iron & Wine , Neko Case & the Low Anthem . Whether looking for quieter music to listen to without disturbing my young child, or just looking for more quality in my music, I had fallen deep for the Folk Festival sound.  It's not that Folk hasn't been cool as "it" was when Newport w...

10. Bonnaroo Turns 10! What a line up! I'm not going, but my next favorite activity after thinking about what to do with lottery winnings that I haven't won, is thinking of bands I would see at festival that I can't afford to go to. THURSDAY: Hayes Carll, Freelance Whales, Best Coast, Sleigh Bells & Deerhunter FRIDAY: Jessica Lea Mayfield, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones (the original lineup), Freelance Whales, the Decemberists, (and I would be in two places at once to also see Ray Lamontange), Florence + the Machine, Primus, Arcade Fire, and to cap off the night Big Boi! SATUDAY : the Low Anthem, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Portugal the Man, Mumford & Sons, the Black Keys, Buffalo Springfield, Eminem, Scissor Sisters **EDITOR NOTE** how effing cool is it that A. Eminem is playing Bonnaroo, but that the Scissor Sisters go on after? What a party!!!!!!!!! ******** SUNDAY: The Head and the Heart, G Love & Special Sauce, Nicole Atkins & the ...

*** Part of an ongoing series of TOOLS TO ENJOY MORE MUSIC ***** I will attempt to profile great avenues of finding, listening to, and downloading new music, to help you , the music fan, get more out of your listening experience. The interface  was probably my first podcast.   Back in 2006 I spent many weekends working in my new house, and I needed some new music to get into while I was demolishing, rebuilding and painting.   I think I had been looking up bands for the upcoming Virgin Festival in Baltimore, MD ., but somehow I had stumbled onto four awesome new bands.   Pigeon John, the Raconteurs, KT Tunstall, and Lady Sovereign . During these early podcasts, the podcast was referred to as AOL Interface @ Spinner.com .  It was also mainly an interview with some performance added at the beinning or end.  Somehow they embedded chapters into the podcasts, so you could skip through and listen to the songs.  That was nice as, after the 10th time...

In a continuing series, I have been exploring music that I love, that is also fitting for my young daughter.  I have looked at adult songs that she also loves , kids songs that I don't want to slit my wrist listening to , and as was the case with 'Boy with a Coin' , a track that can calm the child down. Today's selection is an adult track that can calm a child down, and is an excellent lullaby.  However, it has a short shelf life.  I wouldn't recommend playing this beyond three years of age, as it has some dark and possibly nightmare inducing lyrics.   If you ever tried to locate some lullabies in your music collection, good luck!  Try searching the word lullaby in your collection.  Counting Crow's 'Mrs. Potter's Lullaby' is much too loud, as is the jazz ' Lullaby of Birdland' .  Coltrane 's ' Russian Lullaby ' will do one better than caffeine.  ' Disenchanted Lullaby ' from the Foo Fighters might work for Dave Groh...

On the blog, I have featured my top music of 2010 & 2011.  This isn't meant to be a billboard top 40 by any means.  But instead the best of music, that I'm listening to, and of course what you should check out.  Looking deeper, about fifty percent of it has roots in a track I first found via a free podcast.  In fact many of the songs themselves were free.  A few years back, after finding the AOL interface podcast (now just the interface) where I found recordings of the Raconteurs, Lady Soveriegn, Decemberist, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ted Leo , and KT Tunstall , I branched out to find more song podcasts, rather than just performances.  KEXP & KCRW , two excellent NPR type radio stations each have a daily song with KCRW's 'Today's Top Tune" and KCRW's "song of the day". Today I'll feature the KEXP 'Song of the Day.' Some gems found include, a favorite of my brother in law with Passion Pit 'The Reeling' and radio mainstays, M...