Not Forest and Sun. Forest Sun. Based in San Francisco, he travels all around the US.
Heard God's Breath this afternoon from his CD Plenty. Awesome lyrics. Deep strong, soul-full voice and guitar.
Do you know why your here?
Do you know from where you've come?
Do you know what you came to do?
And leave behind you when your gone?
Life's song is a skeleton
Rhythm skull and bones
It's your voice that fills the flesh in
It's God's breath that gives it soul
Don't want to cry for what might have been
Don't want to hope for what might be
Just want to wake in my own skin
And feel you here right next to me
Life's song is a skeleton
Rhythm skull and bones
It's your voice that fills the flesh in
It's God's breath that gives it soul
Yeah it's God's breath that gives it soul
Reminds me of a Psalm (Note: any Psalm - not the one linked. I linked to one of my favorite Psalms) Reminds me of William Heyen or Donald Hall.
Some of his songs, like Sing Me to Sleep from For the Story are more jazzy, soulful, and bluesy (if that is a possible combination. Reminiscent of Van Morrison but not quite. But others are rooted in acoustic guitar. Hard to pin down.
He also has his own label, Painted Sun.
Yes, another female singer/songwriter, but this one a 2003 winner of the New Folk award at Kerrville. I heard a song from her latest CD, Hymns for the Exiled.
the new Ani DiFranco Knuckledown. I listened to a couple of tracks online and read lyrics. Pretty powerful, as usual, but these songs are weathered by loss, grief, sadness and new life...
Sunday Morning is especially poignant:
sunday morning
you're doing your thing
and i am doing mine
speaking words
more a formality
cuz we can feel we
are of one mind
sunday morning
sheets still warm
kitties swarming
around our feet
life comes easy
your sweet company
making it so complete
of all the monday through fridays
we joined the crusade
of all the saturday nights
in which we were made
of all the exorcisms
i've done with your ghosts
still it's sunday morning
i miss you the most
Heard a cut off her latest The Last New York Horn don't remember the cut but remember I liked it. It's her 5th cd! She's not touring right because she's in grad school. A back up plan is always good. Not everyone gets a career like Dar's.
I have not chronicled the many Native American singer/songwriters -- of which there are many. Joanne Shenandoah comes to mind, of course, but also John Trudell. But I did hear one tonight, a nice antidote to the debates, that reminded me of the power of politics in song: Annie Humphrey. Her voice, guitar, and lyrics strong and clear - unlike one of the debaters and and more like the other. How's that for enigmatic? Humphrey is not. Humphrey is a member of the Leech Lake Ojibwe, based in Minnesota
Annie Humphrey's music is on the
(Makoché (makochay) Music which looks like a great resource for Native music)
Her recordings: The Heron Smiled, Edge of America
The Whispering Tree (with others such as John Trudell)
At first I wasn't impressed. Her voice sounded off-key, like she didn't know how to sing. But her guitar kept me listening to those a bit off-center lyrics. Viers is based in Seattle and her latest CD Carbon Glacier is on Nonesuch, but her first recordings were on her own label Raven Marching Band. Gotta keep my ears on this one - she's coming to Iota in mid-October.
Is she Suzanne Vega or Jane Siberry or Dar Williams? I dunno, but her website is a bit odd. Olivia 101 reminds me of Siberry's Writers are a Funny Breed or Marco Polo
Add Jesse Sykes to that list.
Yes, her phrasing and guitar sounds a little like Dar Williams, but Edie Carey's her song "Compromise: Be a Poet About It" is beautiful, evocative. She's already got 4 CDs, the newest is When I was Made
Not a big po boy fan, but I sat up and listened to this relatively new Canadian trio's serving of acoustic blues they write themselves. Sound is authentic and radical at the same time.
Their first cd was released last year and they plan another one for this summer.
What is in that Northern water, I want to know?
More fresh singer/songwriters from Canada: Amy Campbell
I hear influences of Joni Mitchell and Ani DiFranco -- but like so many new singers I've heard lately, very much her own woman, her own songs, singing new melodies and lyrics for the new century in the same old world.
Listen to songs at New Music Canada.
Buy her CD Architecture: Live at the Opera House on CD Baby.
Read a resounding review at the Estrogen Zone of her music and CD.
it pours new music......thanks to AOL radio folk channel......
British folk up tonight......Kate Rusby singing Caanan's Land from A Little Light (on Compass Records label). She has a new cd coming out at the end of June Live From Leeds.
Judith Edelman Sailor Boy from her cd Drama Queen. Apparently she's now touring with a band and has a past life in bluegrass. Here's a review on Pop Matters of her cd Only Sun
What rock have I been under?
I unearthed two treasures, Canadian treasures:
New Canadian Music posts full length songs. Both new and old Canadian singer/songwriters.
and
RootsMusicCanada does the same for folk, Celtic, Latin American, African, and just about every genre of roots music (except blues! I wonder what my friend Johnny V thinks about that!).
Aren't you curious what Canadians do with bluegrass and "Latin American" music? Doesn't a singer named A Girl Named Sue singing A Homicidal Love Song intrigue you?
3hive has turned out to be a revelation for me. Today, I heard City Girl, a song by The Owls . Airy, profound yet unencumbered by legacy. Kinda reminds me of early Suzanne Vega or Jane Siberry -- but new -- I haven't heard them before. Know what I mean? They don't remind me of how great Joni Mitchell is. How original Ani is. Surprised, not bored. I wanted to tell someone.
Read an MPR interview with them that captures them:
Owls' music is spare and quiet. The singing, always prominent in the mix, features ethereal and occasionally dissonant harmonies. The melodies are often deceptively bright, given the dark emotions the lyrics sometimes convey. Because of the occasionally sober tone of the songs, and the group's tentative stage presence, the Owls have been described as a band of librarians. For Allison Labonne, making music with The Owls is about stripping away any persona, and getting to the essence of things.
Listen to Air, City Girl, and Black Hands of Tyme