[Learn more about Pieta Brown's music and pedigree.]

Maia Sharp is no exception. Her music is a wonderful companion to Pieta Brown's because of the warmth of her voice and the energy of her songs. But where she veers off from Brown is through her social commentary. In the opening lines of Crimes of the Witness, she sings -- "You pray a prayer and pledge allegiance / read your USA Today / you skim the wars and hungry faces / and decide the world has lost its way" -- clearly taking issue with those who would turn inward and pass judgement rather that strive to make a difference. Conversely, on Sinners, she questions whether the song's subject is right in spending more time focusing on global issues that working to strengthen their own family. Her cynicism may be founded, but it's not the only perspective she offers. There's powerful compassion in her world view, not to mention poetry. You Can't Lose Them All, her best- known song and a minor hit for singer Kim Richey, closes out a soild album with optimism, resolve, and more than a few lovely turns of phrase.

Buy your own copy of Pieta Brown from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

Buy your own copy of Maia Sharp from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
Claire Holley (Yep Roc, 2001)
Essence Lucinda Williams (Lost Highway, 2001)

What are you listening to?



When I Go
Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer (Signature, 2002)

We're sad to announce that one of our favorite musicians here at GoodThings died unexpectedly last week while touring in Massachusetts. Dave Carter was one half of an extraordinary performing duo of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, Portland, Oregon-based musicians who have been critically acclaimed throughout the US. Last year, they released their third record Drum Hat Buddha, and we at GoodThings were among the reviewers who considered it an extraordinary recording, brimming over with powerful songs and phenomenonal harmonies. Suffice it say, we are among the many who will miss the talents of Dave Carter. To watch Dave Carter play guitar and listen to him ramble through vivid stories during a live show was really an uncommon joy.

Just this past May, Carter and Grammer's record label -- Signature Sounds -- reissued their previously self-released first album, When I Go. The album is only a cursory glimpse at what the two were able to accomplish in their other two albums, Tanglewood Tree and Drum Hat Buddha. It is spare, uplifting music defined by Carter's guitar, Grammer's fiddle, and the magic their voices made together. Their lyrics have always explored life's wonderful subtleties and mysteries, distinguishing their songs in profound ways from less literate folk music. When I Go will stand as a tribute to Dave Carter's gifts as a songwriter and a performer. If his music is unknown to you, When I Go would be a fitting way to discover it.

Read Dave Carter's obituary, including a moving open letter from his partner, Tracy Grammer.

Buy your own copy of When I Go from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
Drum Hat Buddha Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer (Signature, 2001)
Tanglewood Tree Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer (Signature, 2000)

What are you listening to?



This Land Is Your Land: Songs of Freedom
Various Artists (Vanguard, 2002)

Legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie did far more than leave behind a vast body of inspiring and penetrating music about the diversity of the American experience. He left a legacy in the legions of singer-songwriters who followed him who were drawn to the way he made people more aware of the world around them through song. Many of his musical progeny have names that are now almost as familiar as his own -- Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Odetta and the Weavers, Judy Collins, the Kingston Trio, Buffy Sainte-Marie. And as a fitting tribute to all that Woody Guthrie contributed to the socio-cultural landscape, they all appear on a new collection of songs that are unique in the way they express both pride for country and criticism for many of its policies.

This Land Is Your Land: Songs of Freedom is, on the surface, a compilation of some of America's best protest songs. But a deeper look reveals the real beauty in this music and how it captures the true meaning of democracy of freedom. Many of the songs on this CD are classic songs of peace. In With God On Our Side, Dylan and Baez ponder the utter paradox of religious conflict. In The Universal Soldier, Sainte-Marie sings mournfully of the human history of war and the cycle that never seems to cease. Other songs included here are more spiritual: Judy Collins' versions of Get Together and Turn! Turn! Turn! are wonderful, as is the Weavers' surprising take on the campfire classic Kumbaya. The Chambers Brothers' gospel version of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready is outstanding, and Ian & Sylvia's version of Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game reinvigorates the original. Of course, Cisco Houston's performance of Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land serves as a powerful and appropriate anchor for this great collection of songs.

Learn more about this collection from Vanguard Records.

Buy your own copy of Songs of Freedom from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child Woody Guthrie (Smithsonian, 1992)
Blue Horse Be Good Tanyas (Nettwerk, 2001)

What are you listening to?



Dave's True Story
Dave's True Story (Bebop Records, 2002)

Fans of the recent romantic comedy Kissing Jessica Stein likely walked out of the movie theater whistling or humming one of the catchy jazz tunes that were scattered throughout the film. And chances are, one of those songs was one by a relatively unknown jazz outfit called Dave's True Story. Seriously, who wouldn't like a song called Sequined Mermaid Dress? It's a great image, and it's an even better song.

This self-titled and re-issued album is filled with the kind of jazz sounds you just hope you'll hear when you head out for a slightly sophisticated night on the town with good friends. It's got silky-slow tunes like Another Hit and Nadine, cleverly playful songs like Flexible Man, bonafide bossa nova-tinged hits like Crazy Eyes, and old favorites like Fever and Blue Moon. The "Dave" of Dave's True Story may very well be guitar player David Cantor, but the real shining star in this group is vocalist Kelly Flint, whose soothing, pitch-perfect voice could make this collection of mostly original sounds the new summer standards.

Get the true story of Dave's True Story on the group's Web site.

Buy your own copy of Dave's True Story from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
Open Wide Jen Chapin/Stephan Crump (Purple Chair, 2002)
Come Away With Me Norah Jones (Bluenote, 2002)
Kissing Jessica Stein Various Artists (Universal, 2002)

What are you listening to?



Another Happy Ending
The Clarks (Razor & Tie, 2002)

Summer is here for many of us, and it's time once again to claim that favorite pop CD to get you through the hot days. Here's a plug for Another Happy Ending, the new album by the Pittsburgh-based band, the Clarks. The four guys who make up the Clarks (none of whom has the last name "Clark," by the way) have put together a collection of twelve songs based on a simple philosophy that being alive is worth celebrating. The tune So You Can Sleep At Night has this reviewer's vote for the summer's "Favorite Pop Song Sentiment": "If I had someone to love / I would not push I would not shove / I'd never know what lonely was / Because I'd never be alone / And if I had a hand to hold / I'd hold it tight until I grew old..." And there's more to make you feel hopeful on songs like Hey You ("If you got a phone / Hey you, call home / If you got a voice / Hey you, rejoice...") and Love Is What You Need. They aren't sugar-coated songs, but the kinds of songs that get into that vulnerable place in all of us and remind us that what we're all trying to do is connect with things that really matter. It doesn't hurt the Clarks that they know great pop hooks when they hear (or create) them.

The Clarks remain a band perched on the verge of breaking out of their hometown, but one of the best parts about their story is how their enthusiastic fans take care of all of their PR. Call it organized word of mouth; the Clarks fans are some of the best in independent music. In their songs, the Clarks unapologetically take the world view that life is really just a series of happy endings. With their fans help, their own story is looking great.

Buy your own copy of Another Happy Ending from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
The World Won't End Pernice Brothers (Ashmont, 2001)
New American Language Dan Bern (Messenger, 2001)
Out There Live Dar Williams (Razor & Tie, 2001)

What are you listening to?



Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music
Various Artists (Vanguard, 2002)

In North America, the history of Nova Scotia, at Canada's eastern edge, is forever culturally conjoined to that of Louisiana, in the Deep South of the United States. In the mid-18th century, the Acadians were booted out of Nova Scotia and eventually wound up in the lowlands around New Orleans and became what people around the world now refer to as Cajuns. And perhaps nowhere in the United States is there a small group of people with a more vibrant culture that seems to have ever-broader appeal. Of course, there's the characteristically spicy Cajun food. Then, there's their famously joyous outlook on life. But there's also a style of music unlike any other. Accordions and fiddles combine to create a wholly original sound. Sung wistfully in Cajun French, the songs evoke a sense of being both exotic and powerfully familiar.

Evangeline Made is a new collection of Cajun favorites, featuring renditions by the likes of English troubadour Richard Thompson, fiery singers Patty Griffin and Maria McKee, British punk-pop pioneer Nick Lowe, 1970s rock icon John Fogerty, blue-eyed soul chameleon David Johansen, and eclectic chanteuse Linda Ronstadt. This is a wonderful compilation of songs that have meaning no matter what your ability to speak or understand the French language is. Over the course of reviewing this CD, this particular writer has been caught singing along unintelligibly because the songs are both so rhythmic and so melodic. In particular, Thompson's Les Flammes d'Enfer and Ronstadt's O, Ma Chere 'Tite Fille (with collection producer Ann Savoy) are versions that are among both artists' huge collections of personal classics. Evangeline Made is spirited collection to dance and, er, sing along with through the hot summer months. Cajun music has a way of making it easy to do both, carefree.

Buy your own copy of Evangeline Made from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
Music from the Coffee Lands Various Artists (Putumayo, 2001)
Samba Bossa Nova Various Artists (Putumayo, 2002)

What are you listening to?



Shekinah: 13 Artists
Various Artists (Heavy Rotation, 2002)
Open Wide
Jen Chapin & Stephan Crump (Purple Chair, 2002)

Wish you could get a leg up on the most refreshing popular music, six months, a year, even two years before it splashes onto the scene? Many of the most talented emerging artists are honing their talents at this very moment at Boston's Berklee School of Music, alma mater to such famous alumni as Quincy Jones, Melissa Etheridge, Branford Marsalis, Gillian Welch, Paula Cole, Patty Larkin, Bill Frisell, Susan Tedeschi, and Diana Krall, to name a few. And with the release of a new CD called Shekinah, 13 recent Berklee graduates -- all women -- have compiled some of their best work, representing sounds from all over the musical map and from all over the world. According to the album's liner notes, the name Shekinah symbolizes "the creative power and vision" of the women musicians the album showcases. The album has a bundle of pop-folk gems, including Clare Muldaur's Bus to You, Anne Chandler's Last Day in May, and Kristin Cifelli's Martyr. It features notable ear candy from Polina, Kyler, Antje Zumbansen, and Valerie Brinker, as well. There are certainly a handful of less appealing sounds here, but if you consider Shekinah an intriguing insider's sampler of tomorrow's chart toppers, you won't be disappointed.

Jen Chapin is another Berklee School of Music grad and a singer-songwriter who's just released a new CD of jazz-inflected music with her husband and bass player Stephan Crump. You might recognize Jen's last name; she shares it with her famous father, the late Harry Chapin, best known for his folk anthem Cat's In the Cradle. Or if you're active in the ongoing effort to end global hunger, you might recognize Jen's name from her work as a member of the board of directors of the non-profit, World Hunger Year (she's currently the board's chair). But it's clear from Open Wide that Chapin's soul is in the music. The record is quiet and spare by design, using only Crump's acoustic bass to accompany Chapin's confident and expressive voice. What's amazing is the musical depth of music the two sounds create together. Chapin's funky cadence gives the songs on Open Wide a relentless groove; Crump's hip bass playing makes the music unique. The title track, Hurry Up Sky, Gold, and Slow Tide are tracks that will have immediate appeal for those who find the fusion between urban folk and downtown jazz irresistible.

Buy your own copy of Shekinah: 13 Artists from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

Buy your own copy of Open Wide from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
Come Away With Me Norah Jones (Bluenote, 2002)
Rain & Mud & Wild & Green Christine Kane (Big Fat Music, 2002)

What are you listening to?



Mother: Queen of My Heart
Various Artists (Sugar Hill, 2002)
Milk of the Moon
Greg Brown (Redhouse, 2002)

One of the earliest sounds many of us likely remember is the sound of our mother singing to us. Nothing was more soothing than her gentle voice and a familiar lullaby. Clearly, one of the most important ways the bond between mother and child is sealed is through music. And now, with a new, affectionately compiled collection of songs inspired by Mom, that bond has come full circle. Mother: Queen of My Heart is the perfect mix of music for Mother's Day. Don't expect a new take on lullabies, though. Most of the songs here are bent on whimsy and humor: Kathy Kallick's Use a Napkin (Not Your Mom), the Austin Lounge Lizards' Forty Years Old and I'm Livin' in My Mom's Garage, and Walter Hyatt's Are We There Yet Momma will strike a familiar chord with the child in all of us. While all the songs on Mother are from artists in the folk, bluegrass, or alt-country veins, it's not a collection specifically for fans of those musical styles. Each tune has a way of evoking a particular, universal emotion related to the unique relationship between mothers and their children, no matter what age. The Seldom Scene's The Sweetest Gift, with vocals by Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, Tim and Mollie O'Brien's version of John Prine's Unwed Fathers, and Darrell Scott's She Sews the World With Love are powerful songs that round out this already wonderful treasure of an album.

And while we're talking about mothers, the immensely talented and prolific singer-songwriter Greg Brown continues to sustain his fans -- not unlike mother's milk -- with Milk of the Moon, yet another fine album of spare classics that reveal life at its essence. Brown himself is a father whose three daughters have inspired his songwriting many times throughout his career. No doubt, they were on his mind when he wrote the beautiful song, Telling Stories, about his vivid memories of time spent learning the art of spinning yarns with his own father: "Our hands are very small, our eyes are very big / As we sit around the fire telling stories." Greg Brown is at his best when he is recounting simple images of the basic things that add richness to our lives, as on Smell of Coffee, The Moon Is Nearly Full, and the title track. His peaceful baritone has a way of turning all of his songs into lullabies. And his commitment to community issues makes his music sound that much better. Just last year, he staged a benefit concert (and released an accompanying CD) to save an historic Wisconsin farm, not to mention his ongoing work to fight breast cancer and child poverty.

Buy your own copy of Mother: Queen of My Heart from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

Buy your own copy of Milk of the Moon from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
Pieces of Me Lori McKenna (Signature, 2001)
Last Man on Earth Loudon Wainwright III (Redhouse, 2001)

What are you listening to?



Rain & Mud & Wild & Green
Christine Kane (Big Fat Music, 2002)

Thanks to Amy Jurskis of Atlanta, Georgia, for this Good Gravy recommendation! Says Amy: "I would love to see you do a review of singer-songwriter Christine Kane. She is one of the most talented women artists out there, and her songs are all full of that 'goodthings' spirit."

The voice of Fairfax, Virginia-born Christine Kane will feel like home to music fans who think women like Nanci Griffith, Patty Larkin, and Jonatha Brooke hung the moon. Kane's new album -- the wonderfully, vividly titled Rain & Mud & Wild & Green -- is rich with the kinds of spirited songs Griffith, Larkin, and Brooke could have written themselves, celebrating strong women like those in the pages of Kane's literary heroes, Anne Lamott and Barbara Kingsolver.

But Kane's perspective is her very own. On the dreamy Times Three, she imagines being "the one who hung the moon" and waking "up all the love inside of me / times three." The album's title comes from the song Everything Green (inspired, writes Kane, by environmental activist Julia "Butterfly" Hill) on which she ponders a time "Back before hopelessness, long before greed / When everything must have been green." Kane is clearly passionate about independence and individuality, as on All the Relatives, where she revels in what some of her family members must think of her "crazy...radical ways." Still, like all good singer-songwriters, she struggles with her own nagging sense of nostalgia on The Way Clouds Do or the album's most moving song, Or Just Heading Home ("Where are all your children? Do you miss your mom and dad? What was the best dog you had?"). Fear not, though -- Kane also does comedy: (No Such Thing As) Girls Like That is a life-affirming laugh riot.

Like Griffith, Larkin, Brooke, and singer-songwriters like them, Christine Kane deserves a huge fan base as wild and passionate as she is. Here's hoping that's just on the horizon.

Buy your own copy of Rain and Mud and Wild and Green from our affiliate [amazon] or directly from ChristineKane.com

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
Claire Holley Claire Holley (Yep Roc, 2001)
While You Weren't Looking Caitlin Cary (Yep Roc, 2002)
Drum Hat Buddha Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer (Signature, 2001)

What are you listening to?



Carry Me Across the Mountain
Dan Tyminski (Doobie Shea, 2001)
Grateful Dawg
Jerry Garcia and David Grisman (Acoustic Disc, 2001)

This week, our Good Gravy music recommendations feature someone you may have only heard in the movies, and a couple of guys that if you're a documentary film buff, you may have actually seen in the movies.

Dan Tyminski is perhaps best known as the singing voice behind George Clooney's character in the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and more recently as the winner of a Grammy Award for that film's signature -- and imminently hummable -- hit, Man of Constant Sorrow. Fans of contemporary bluegrass music have been acquainted with Tyminski for his standout work as a high-profile member of Alison Krauss' award-winning band Union Station. With the release of his own solo album, Carry Me Across the Mountain, Tyminski stakes his own claim to the realm of the elites of traditional and roots music. Although he hails from Vermont and the upper reaches of New England, his voice sounds perfect singing songs from the Southern old-time tradition. It's the same voice, along with voices like Krauss', that have recently given that music tremendous crossover appeal. Spirited tunes like the album's title track, Sunny Side of the Mountain, and Stuck in the Middle of Nowhere, as well as the wistful love song I Dreamed of an Old Love Affair and the heartbreaking Please Dear Mommy will make you want to put a name and face with the voice that made Hollywood pretty-boy George Clooney "sing" like a bird.

On the Clooney side of the camera, the late rock music luminary Jerry Garcia and his long-time collaborator David Grisman recently appeared in the astonishing documentary film, Grateful Dawg. The critically acclaimed film by Grisman's daughter Gillian charted the simple sweetness of a lifelong friendship anchored in a shared passion for American roots music. The film's soundtrack is a fitting historical record of the beautiful music those friends made together. A gifted guitarist and banjo player, Garcia became transcendently famous for his decades' long work with the Grateful Dead. But throughout his entire career with the Dead, he jammed, wrote, recorded, and experimented with old-time music with Grisman, a mandolin-playing virtuoso known as "Dawg" by Garcia and others. Spanning their work together in the 1970s as the bluegrass band Old and In the Way to their recordings in the early 1990s of English and Celtic folk music, the Grateful Dawg soundtrack is a short but remarkable compilation and an example of the incredible things friends can do together.

Buy your own copy of Carry Me Across the Mountain from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

Buy your own copy of Grateful Dawg from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If this Good Gravy appeals to you, you might also like:
New Favorite Alison Krauss & Union Station (Rounder, 2001)
Blue Horse Be Good Tanyas (Nettwerk, 2001)
Down from the Mountain Various Artists (Lost Highway, 2001)
What are you listening to?



Sea of No Cares
Great Big Sea (Zoe/Rounder, 2002)

If eternal optimism is a crime, Great Big Sea is very, very guilty. The perkiest Canadians this side of the Barenaked Ladies, these four guys are known for their infectious vocal arrangements, their ready-made singalong tunes, and for ushering the danceable Cape Breton-style of Celtic music into the new century and tailoring it to contemporary audiences. Their latest album, Sea of No Cares, may very well be the most positive, upbeat release of 2002. Considering how early it is in the year, that's saying something.

Great Big Sea is nothing if not passionate about the place they call home and the music they love. In addition to being thankful for "all things good," as they write in the album's liner notes, they dedicate Sea of No Cares "to all those Atlantic Canadians who believe in the power and dignity of their own communities, we say sing about it, and let the rest of the world know we are here." In the meantime, though, Great Big Sea is handling the harmonies. On the title track, a catchy tune about the "perma-grins" common on the faces of people newly in love, the band begins its apologetic musical jaunt through the simple joys of life. On Penelope, they sing of a young woman who makes her way from the Caribbean to the US in search of a better life, only to find herself pining for the support of her friends and family back home. They're at their very best on fresh renditions of classic sea shanties like Scolding Wife and Yarmouth Town. And with the uplifting Own True Way, they put an exclamation point on their ability both to craft tunes that are fun to listen to and to write lyrics that shine in their outlook on life. So what if these guys are guilty of optimism: Great Big Sea's Sea of No Cares is a guilty pleasure.

Buy your own copy of Sea of No Cares from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If Sea of No Cares appeals to you, you might also like:
The Edge of Silence Solas (Shanachie, 2002)
Little Lights Kate Rusby (Compass, 2001)

What are you listening to?



Barricades and Brickwalls
Kasey Chambers (Warner, 2002)
While You Weren't Looking
Caitlin Cary (Yep Roc, 2002)

A year ago, we were thrilled to help spread the word about a fresh new Australian singer-songwriter with a penchant for American country music. And now Kasey Chambers is back with Barricades and Brickwalls, a collection of new songs that make it clear that there may literally be no one more Southern than she is. She hails from a rural part of Australia called the Nullarbor Plain and professes her love for Australian troubadour Slim Dusty. But she owes more to the Williamses -- country hero Hank and her alternative-country contemporary Lucinda -- and sings with a spirited twang. All of the songs on her first album, The Captain, were gems, and on her new album, she shows how much she's matured after touring extensively and charming audiences around the world. She does the lonesome love song as well as anyone, as on Falling Into You, This Mountain, On A Bad Day, and Not Pretty Enough (click to listen to a sample). She's known for her great covers of classics, as on her version of Gram Parsons' Still Feeling Blue. And she sings passionately about social issues, as on Ignorance, a song about paying attention to world issues (royalties from the single support the Christina Noble Children's Foundation, an international organization working to meet the comprehensive needs of oppressed children worldwide).

Singer-songwriter Caitlin Cary may have better country music credentials than Kasey Chambers, but she's definitely not as well known. With her new release While You Weren't Looking, though, that could all change. She previously played fiddle and shared vocals with Ryan Adams in the North Carolina-based alt-country band Whiskeytown, and now she's crafted an album proving she's got songwriting skills to rival those of her former bandmate. These are songs that grow on you more and more with each listen. The gently poetic Sorry ("You are a gnarled pear tree..."), the bluesy Too Many Keys ("I thought New Orleans would save me..."), and the pace-changing Hold On To Me are excellent examples of Cary's range for writing striking pop music and, better yet, for singing it. Fans of Neko Case and Kelly Hogan will be drawn to Cary's voice. It's as if it was made to sing emotive roots music. And the best thing is how much it surprises you, like the title of Cary's record, just when you least expect it.

Buy your own copy of Kasey Chambers' Barricades and Brickwalls from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

Buy your own copy of Caitlin Cary's When You Weren't Looking from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If Kasey Chambers or Caitlin Cary appeal to you, you might also like:
Claire Holley Claire Holley (Yep Roc, 2001)
New Favorite Alison Krauss & Union Station (Rounder, 2001)
Essence Lucinda Williams (Lost Highway, 2001)

Did you buy it? Do you like it (or not)? Let us know!

What are you listening to and why is it good?



Samba Bossa Nova
Various Artists (Putumayo, 2002)
Lotus Lounge Volume 2
Various Artists (Bar/None, 2001)

Does fear of the unknown ever prevent you from venturing into the realm of world music? It's a common worry that keeps many from exploring a whole new universe through music. Thanks to Putumayo World Music (one of our Favorite GoodThings 2001 honorees), there's only good to be gained from giving the world's diverse musical heritage a try. Putumayo has been broadening horizons for years with carefully crafted compilations of music from all over the world, including Cape Verde, Colombia, Cuba, Mali, Kenya, and Jamaica. Now, with Samba Bossa Nova, a fourth collection showcasing the rich musical traditions of Brazil, Putumayo continues its quest to foster peace and understanding through music. In the 1950s, traditional Brazilian music morphed into bossa nova, a soothing danceable sound that became popular throughout the world with the help of luminaries like Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz. Who doesn't know Antonio Carlos Jobim's infectious The Girl from Ipanema? Samba Bossa Nova features 11 songs from some of the biggest names in current Brazilian bossa nova. Gentle vocals and glorious beats make this collection irresistible to even the most apprehensive listener.

Another new collection of world music is significantly more adventurous but no less satisfying. Bar/None's Lotus Lounge Volume 2 is a stirring set of ambient music from around the world. Anchoring these electronic "global grooves" are traditional elements of music from China, India, Spain, Morocco, and beyond. This is the ideal collection for the experienced world music listener eager to move to the next level. Indeed, techno is not for everyone, and it doesn't always have the best associations. But this is an album full of mostly quiet songs that exploit all the possibilities that electronic music affords -- particularly where tempo is concerned -- to create an ideal musical background for any mood. With its world full of influences, Lotus Lounge is a journey worth experiencing.

Buy your own copy of Samba Bossa Nova from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

Buy your own copy of Lotus Lounge Volume 2 from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If Samba Bossa Nova or Lotus Lounge Volume 2 appeal to you, you might also like:
Five Stories Kris Delmhorst (Signature, 2001)
Every Single Day Lucy Kaplansky (Redhouse, 2001)
Little Lights Kate Rusby (Pure/Compass, 2001)

Did you buy it? Do you like it (or not)? Let us know!

What are you listening to and why is it good?



Live in Philadelphia
Voices on the Verge (Rykodisc, 2001)
Pieces of Me
Lori McKenna (Signature Sounds, 2001)

Making it as an independent singer-songwriter in an entertainment industry defined by bloated, multi-million dollar contracts and the equally bloated egos of high-profile performers (can we really call them artists?) can be excruciating. Prior to 1998, New England-based singer-songwriters Beth Amsel, Jess Klein, Erin McKeown, and Rose Polenzani were each going it alone, but that year decided to join forces for a single live show, believing that the whole might very well be greater than the sum of its parts. For the purposes of the show, they called themselves Voices on the Verge. Now, over three years later, their informal collaboration has yielded a new album -- Live in Philadelphia -- and a a full-fledged concert tour. Recorded in early 2000, the album features an appealing mix of songs written (or usually performed) by each of the women individually. In this "in-the-round" format, they share lead vocal duties, giving the album -- and their live show -- a refreshing diversity. McKeown's quirky originals (Blackbirds) follow a gospel-tinged tune from Amsel (Hunger, Louise) or set the stage for gently introspective, personal songs from Klein (House You're Living In, Little White Dove) and Polenzani (Thom II, You Don't Know). It's a wonderful combination. But the best thing about Voices on the Verge? The beautiful harmonies these women create together are spell-binding.

Singer-songwriter Lori McKenna emerges from the same New England urban folk tradition as the Voices on the Verge crew, but she's still doing it all by herself. With a strong, gritty voice that recalls Patty Griffin or Natalie Maines, McKenna is best when's she's singing her heart out. On her new album, Pieces of Me, McKenna moves between spare acoustic-based tunes like Instead ("What does love mean to you / when I'm miles away..."), the quiet You Are Loved ("I'll find you on a better day..."), and the moving ode to her mother, Never Die Young, to upbeat tunes like Mars, Fireflies, and Girl Like Me. Her powerful Pink Sweater is dedicated to James Byrd, the African-American man dragged to death in Texas in 1998. Her passion burns through on that song, as it does on the album's standout, This Fire. Lori McKenna may sound familiar, but it's clear that her voice is all her own.

Buy your own copy of Voices on the Verge from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

Buy your own copy of Lori McKenna's Pieces of Me from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If Voices on the Verge or Lori McKenna appeal to you, you might also like:
Five Stories Kris Delmhorst (Signature, 2001)
Every Single Day Lucy Kaplansky (Redhouse, 2001)
Little Lights Kate Rusby (Pure/Compass, 2001)

Did you buy it? Do you like it (or not)? Let us know!

What are you listening to and why is it good?



Painting Signs
Eric Bibb (EarthBeat!, 2001)

There's something incredibly soothing about Eric Bibb's voice; it seems almost impossible not to be comforted by it. His latest release, Painting Signs, features songs like Hope in a Hopeless World (sales of which benefit September 11 relief efforts), Got to Do Better, The Light Was Worth the Candle, and Don't Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down. Clearly, comfort and solace are what Eric Bibb does best. Originally from New York, Bibb makes his home in Sweden and has found his greatest success internationally. His uplifting mix of blues, gospel, and folk comes together in a gentle, accessible sound that bears more resemblance to Keb' Mo' than Howlin' Wolf.

That's Bibb's appeal. His own songs are rich with peace, love, and understanding. He also offers rousing cover versions of classics. On the Gary Davis gospel tune I Heard the Angels Singing, Jimmy Reed's Honest I Do, and the blues standard Delia's Gone, Bibb is at his best, freeing his voice to wail passionately. His sweet, quiet take on Jimi Hendrix's Angel fits this album perfectly, as do the vocals of soul great Wilson Pickett on Don't Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down. On the single Hope in a Hopeless World, Bibb shares his world view and shows that despite being born to sing the blues, he's looking forward to the future.

Buy your own copy of Painting Signs from our affiliate [amazon] or from your favorite local record store (tell them we sent you!)

If Painting Signs appeals to you, you might also like:
Spirit of the Century Blind Boys of Alabama (Real World, 2001)
Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt Various Artists (Vanguard, 2001)

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Because It Feel Good
Kelly Hogan (Bloodshot, 2001)

In her work with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts and the Corn Sisters, Kelly Hogan convinced audiences she could sing good old-fashioned country music with the best of them. And now on her first solo album, she shows that she's got the sensibilities to out-Dusty the late blue-eyed soul great Dusty Springfield. On her colloquially titled Because It Feel Good, Hogan sets her Georgia twang aside and proves her mettle as a Chicago crooner with a collection of ten blue love songs. She's backed with subtlety and simplicity by a band of gifted musicians, allowing her voice to do most of the hard work. She sings her groovy heart out on the infectious No, Bobby Don't and Sugarbowl ("Hey, there, Sugarbowl / My little Miss Solid Gold..."). The album is made up mostly of ballads, some of the best being the mournful opener I'll Go to My Grave Loving You, the pleading In Time with its gentle pedal steel guitar, and the spare (You Don't Know) The First Thing about Blue. The hardest part about listening to Because It Feel Good is that it's surprisingly short. The best part about it is Kelly Hogan's voice, a discovery that will leave you longing for more.

:: Buy Kelly Hogan's Because It Feel Good from our affiliate [amazon].

If Because It Feel Good appeals to you, you might also like:
Buddy and Julie Miller (Hightone, 2001)
Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt Various Artists (Freefalls, 2001)
Jukebox Sparrows Shannon McNally (Capitol, 2002)

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World Playground 2
Various Artists (Putumayo, 2001)

Think an appreciation for a wide range of world music requires the kind of refined musical taste reserved only for snobs and graduate students? Guess again. This glorious compilation is a playful cross-section of songs from places like Trinidad, Spain, Algeria, India, Colombia, and South Africa about things that capture children's imaginations. It is melodic multiculturalism for your favorite kid to hum along to (the album's accompanying booklet is filled with beautiful pictures and stories to help you teach children about what they're hearing). What makes this collection even more significant is that record label Putumayo has provided 12,000 families directly touched by the September terrorist attacks with copies of the CD and has developed an accompanying diversity activity kit now being used in 5,000 elementary schools. Putumayo continues to set the standard for helping music lovers access a world's worth of both amazing sounds and rich cultures.

World Playground 2 was one of our Favorite GoodThings 2001 honorees. Learn more about the Favorite GoodThings 2001 campaign!

Get Putumayo's World Playground 2 from our affiliate [amazon].

If World Playground 2 appeals to you, you might also like:
Baro Habib Koite & Bamada (Putumayo, 2001)
Music from the Coffee Lands II Various Artists (Putumayo, 2001)
Further in Time Afro Celt Sound System (Real World, 2001)

What are you listening to?



:: Good Holiday Music Recommendations
Your holiday music collection needs a fresh burst of energy, but you have no idea what's fresh or where to start? Here's where to start (Don't forget our great gift ideas a little further down the page!):

Christmas Music
Something old, different, and extraordinary:
-- The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Solo Christmas Album
New, jazzy renditions of beautiful standards:
-- A Nancy Wilson Christmas
New takes on the classics for twang lovers:
-- Suzy Bogguss' Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
The "Grinch" meets Texas folk music:
-- Slaid Cleaves' Holiday Sampler
Something you can dance to:
-- Toni Braxton's Snowflakes
Our old favorite, guaranteed to please:
-- Bruce Cockburn's Christmas

Hanukkah Music
For the little person:
-- A Child's Hanukkah
For inspiring variety:
-- Happy Hanukkah, My Friend

Kwanzaa Music
Upbeat reminders of what's important:
-- Kwanzaa for Young People (and Everyone Else!)
Stunning gospel and African music:
-- The Kwanzaa Album


:: Good Holiday Gift Ideas
For the old-timer who's still got soul:
-- Blind Boys of Alabama's Spirit of the Century
For the non-stop dancer:
-- Rick Trevino's Mi Son
For the friend who just adores sweet singing:
-- Claire Holley
For the bluegrass lover:
-- Alison Krauss' New Favorite
For the world-music-fan sister:
-- Habib Koite's Baro
For the friend who only listens to women vocalists:
-- Kate Rusby's Little Lights
For the would-be songwriter:
-- John Gorka's The Company You Keep
For the mix-tape maven:
-- Sounds Eclectic




MORE IDEAS:

New American Language
Dan Bern (Messenger, 2001)

Quite honestly, the simple, yearning lyrics to the title track of Dan Bern's new album make it worth every penny. When I first heard him sing -- "I have a dream of a new American language / One with a little bit more Spanish / I have a dream of a new pop music / That tells the truth, with a good beat / and some nice harmonies" -- I was staggered by his vision of a marvelously diverse society where fundamental things like art and people really matter. As the song went on and he sang about his dreams of love and new beginnings, it hit me that he had crafted the very pop music he had imagined, the truthful kind with the harmonies and good beat. New American Language is a great song, indeed, a new kind of American urban folk song, and it's the centerpiece of a gorgeous album.

I would love to have the space to wind through every song on New American Language since there's not a mediocre tune here. But you should listen to it yourself and make up your own mind about Dan Bern's talent for extraordinary songwriting, for weaving great melodies, and for lending his Dylan-like voice to the mix. Every one of these songs has an impossibly lovely hook. There's Albuquerque Lullaby ("Don't let your heart get broken by this world"), Turning Over ("I can't find one new leaf worth turning over"), and Toledo ("Maybe all the promises you thought were broken were never really made"). There's also hard proof that Bern isn't always taking himself seriously, with cuts like Tape, Rice, and Alaska Highway. God Said No is a moving song about the terrible truth about hindsight. And Bern's ten-minute opus Thanksgiving Day Parade means that Arlo Guthrie's classic Alice's Restaurant is no longer the best sprawling Thanksgiving-themed ode to American life ever written.

On the amazing Black Tornado, Bern wails: "If you judge me tonight / Judge me by the songs I write / That's who I am to you." Seriously, judge whether or not you speak Dan Bern's New American Language. I'll bet I can predict the verdict. - wt

Get Dan Bern's New American Language from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

If New American Language appeals to you, you might also like:
Gold Ryan Adams (Lost Highway Records, 2001)
Gravitational Forces Robert Earl Keen (Lost Highway Records, 2001)
Would It Be Beautiful? Various Artists (Messenger, 1999)

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Poet
A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt (Freefalls, 2001)
Labour of Love
The Music of Nick Lowe (Telarc, 2001)

Sometimes, the most influential people in the music world have the least name recognition. But with the release of two new tribute albums, a group of artists most indebted to two such virtually anonymous music mavens have come together to give them their due.

In the case of Poet, a new tribute to the Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, that recognition is posthumous. Van Zandt died young on New Year's Day 1997, but not before leaving his mark -- both directly and indirectly -- on scores of artists who have built careers on the basis of strong, unique songwriting. To many, Van Zandt was one of the ultimate masters of that craft, having written many well-known standards, such as Pancho and Lefty, If I Needed You, and To Live's To Fly, that became hits for others. He also created a body of work of lesser-known gems that get equal time on this solid tribute.

Nanci Griffith sings Van Zandt's gentle Tower Song as beautifully as anything she ever has. Emmylou Harris lends her powerful voice to the country blues of Snake Song, while Lucinda Williams offers a heartbreaking rendition of Nothin'. John Prine, Willie Nelson, and the Cowboy Junkies are all here, as are Van Zandt's friends and frequent collaborators, Steve Earle (his version of Two Girls is among the album's best) and Guy Clark. (Incidentally, the release of Poet coincides with that of Together at the Bluebird Cafe, an astonishing recording of a 1995 live acoustic show featuring Van Zandt, Earle, and Clark.) Townes Van Zandt's life revolved around songwriting, and Poet is a profoundly fitting and aptly named tribute.

Unlike Van Zandt, Nick Lowe is still recording new music of his own, having just released The Convincer. Lowe's songwriting was to the British new wave invasion of the 1970s and 80s what Van Zandt's has been to contemporary American roots music. When Elvis Costello asked the seminal pop question (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding, he certainly gave it his voice, but he was using Nick Lowe's words. And when Lowe himself told us in 1979 we had to be Cruel to Be Kind, he enjoyed his own bona fide moment in the pop-fame sun.

And while he has steadily recorded his own records for years, Lowe's richly beautiful odes, clever, biting satire have been coveted -- and recorded -- by performers who only wish they had his songwriting gift. The new Lowe tribute, Labour of Love, is a free-spirited romp through his impressive career by a wonderfully eclectic group of performers. In addition to versions of Peace, Love, and Understanding and Cruel to Be Kind (performed here by a soulful Joe Louis Walker and a jangling Marshall Crenshaw), a rousing version of the hilarious All Men Are Liars, performed by folkie Dar Williams, appears here, as does a spare rendition of Where's My Everything, courtesy of Greg Brown. Graham Parker's take on The Rose of England is a gem; Tom Petty's spin on Cracking Up is less so. But Labour of Love is almost perfect, culminating with Costello's marvelous recording of Egypt. What's truly amazing is how well Lowe's wonderful creations translate into diverse musical genres. This tribute proves there's simply nothing quite like a good song. - wt

Get Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

Get Labour of Love: The Music of Nick Lowe from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

If Poet or Labour of Love appeal to you, you might also like:
Together at the Bluebird Cafe Steve Earle, T. Van Zandt, Guy Clark (American Originals, 2001)
Timeless Tribute to Hank Williams (Lost Highway Records, 2001)
The Convincer Nick Lowe (Yep Roc Records, 2001)

Did you buy it? Do you like it (or not)? Let us know!

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Claire Holley
Claire Holley (Yep Roc, 2001)

There's so much genuine, palpable affection for life's simplest, most elemental things -- namely home, family, stories, sleep, rain, being outside -- on singer-songwriter Claire Holley's new self-titled release that it's impossible not to be moved. The only things stronger than Holley's girl-next-door sensibility are her gentle but astonishing singing voice and her confident way with words. The album begins with the opening lyrics to Oh My: "Mama tell me stories how the lady used to sing to you / oh, the sweetest out of tune you'll ever hear." On Sleep, Sleep, she sings "There's a time and a place from the sun / but the streetlamp tonight has finally won." On the jaunty In My Garden, she paints an appealing picture: "I live where the bread is cheap / ... / and at the end of the day I go to my garden." Holley hails from Jackson, Mississippi, where the way of life is really as quaint as the tales she tells and the yarns she spins on her record. Her songwriting reflects small-town life at its core, as well as a combined innocence and rootedness that situates it firmly in the American South. And while her voice is regional, no doubt a voice of place, it holds broad appeal. On one of her album's brightest moments Looking for Signs, Holley sings: "I keep on singing / I can't stop looking for signs." In this case, the signs seem clear as day: Claire Holley is an extraordinary new talent. Keep playing your guitar, Claire, and absolutely, positively keep on singing. - wt

Buy Claire Holley from our affiliates [Djangos] or [Amazon], or from [PasteMusic].

If Claire Holley appeals to you, you might also like:
Nanahally River by Chelle Rose (Bloodred Records)
Wandering Strange by Kate Campbell (Eminent Records)
Birdman by Sarah Pierce (Little Bear Records)

Did you buy it? Do you like it (or not)? Let us know!

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Suzanne Vega
Songs in Red and Gray (IGA, 2001)
Kris Delmhorst
Five Stories (Signature, 2001)

Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega became a superstar in the late 1980s with her ubiquitous hit song Luka, told from the perspective of an abused child, as well as the modern-rock favorites Left of Center and Marlene on the Wall. With Songs in Red and Gray, her first album in five years, she continues to hone her ability to craft deeply affecting pop music. Her familiar voice -- once a serious fixture on pop radio -- lends a glorious simplicity to this album. The chillingly lovely tunes (I'll Never Be Your) Maggie May and Soap and Water, where in both she decides on proactive approaches in failing relationships, present Vega at her best. The fast-paced, infectious Last Year's Troubles seems oddly appropriate, given current events: "Trouble is still trouble / and evil still evil / sometimes we wonder / is there more now or less?" Many of these songs -- such as Harbor Song, St. Clare, and Penitent -- are lyrically visual, poetic even. And Songs in Red and Gray is full of stories, perhaps none more narrative than the album's first single -- the seaside Widow's Walk -- and proves Suzanne Vega can still draw us to her figurative fireside and hold our rapt attention.

Kris Delmhorst appears to set the stage on her own new album, Five Stories, with Cluck Old Hen, what she might describe -- in the language of her own Web site -- as a "junkyard rocker." But Delmhorst's range is broad; "diversity" is where she thrives. The Brooklyn-NY singer-songwriter represents the latest generation of East Coast troubadours. And like those who came before her, Delmhorst is not afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve, as on the simple Damn Love Song, the road lament Broken White Line (with its gentle refrain "You and me and love made three..."), or the universal sentiment of Words Fail You. Delmhorst's voice -- which seems to mix all of the best things of the voices of Vega, Jonatha Brooke, and Kelly Willis -- is positively mesmerizing in song after song on Five Stories. Garden Rose is one of the album's most splendid moments, as she sings convincingly from the perspective of a flower eager to escape the confines of its small world. The banjo tune Mean Old Wind and the soulful Honeyed Out infuse the introspective record with spirited lightness. Delmhorst calls Five Stories "one big barn-raising," the result of a joyful gathering of friends intent on crafting a wonderful collection of music. As I listen to the album yet again, not because I have to but because I can't stop myself, I know Delmhorst and her friends have built a barn sure to hold up under the elements. - wt

Get Suzanne Vega's Songs in Red and Gray from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

Get Kris Delmhorst's Five Stories from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

Did you buy it? Do you like it (or not)? Let us know!

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Loudon Wainwright III
Last Man on Earth (Redhouse, 2001)
Tom Freund
Sympatico (Surf Road Records, 2001)

Loudon Wainwright III has been writing and performing socially insightful songs for as long as much of his audience has been alive. He emerged onto the popular music scene in the early 1970s with a few simple guitar chords and wickedly wry wit and, for three decades, has had a sometimes uneven, often brilliant recording career. Now at 55, the occasional actor (he once had a recurring role on M*A*S*H* and currently appears on the new Fox show Undeclared) has released his most passionate, inspired album in years. What makes Last Man on Earth so extraordinary? While it still includes Wainwright's ironic perspective on world affairs, it stands out as a clever but, more importantly, tender tribute to his late mother, whom he describes -- on the album's most moving song Homeless -- as his "best friend" and "something called home."

The album opens with the gentle lament Missing You, where he alternately ponders his own advancing age and his mother's passing. On superbly crafted White Winos, he remembers the mother-son ritual of sharing bottles of wine and discussing the meaning of life. He trades his guitar for a banjo on I'm Not Gonna Cry and seems to be talking himself out of an inevitable emotional downpour. On the raucous Surviving Twin, Wainwright -- himself the father of a successful and musical son Rufus Wainwright -- imagines his mother through the tense bond he had with his late and famous father. These are cathartic and often mournful songs from Wainwright who, despite always having had a way with words, has never been this sharp. Add to the mix the driving title track -- a trademark Wainwright where he envisions a world where he's the only one left -- and you have a richly balanced, beautifully satisfying album.

If Loudon Wainwright III seems obsessed with being in his mid-fifties, a much younger (25 years younger) Tom Freund has his thoughts on the transition between carefree youth and thoughtful maturity. Freund's great new album Sympatico is comprised of ten songs about emerging from that transition with principles, dreams, and dignity intact. On Old and in the Way, he sings "I wanna know what was your motto / Is it love thy neighbor as thyself?" On Do You Do, he wonders "Do you do what you like to / Or do you just do what you're good at." He gives himself a Wake Up Call: "You don't have to go to sleep / To dream all you want to be." These songs are about one person's critical thinking on how to live well and struggle to do the right thing, both personally and professionally. The Mexican-tinged title tune, the acoustic Know What You're Thinking, and Francie further round out Tom Freund's self-discovery and self-awareness. Sympatico is clearly Freund's musical coming of age, and it's impossible not to enjoy where he's heading. - wt

Get Loudon Wainwright III's Last Man on Earth from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

Get Tom Freund's Sympatico from TomFreund.com or from our affiliate [djangos].

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Alison Krauss & Union Station
New Favorite (Rounder, 2001)
Clem Snide
Your Favorite Music (Sire, 2000)

There's more than just one way that Alison Krauss makes astounding music. Her award-winning bluegrass fiddle-playing helped to land her a recording contract before she turned fifteen. But to overlook her gentle singing voice would provide only part of the picture. She's added a new flavor to not only traditional and contemporary American roots music, but also pop songs by the likes of the Beatles (I Will) and Little Feat (Oh, Atlanta). And that winning combination -- her virtuoso fiddle-playing and sweet singing, along with a gifted backup band in Union Station that essentially shares her spotlight -- is back with a new album that, true to its name, is an inevitable New Favorite.

Krauss has been one of the main beneficiaries of the resurgence of interest in traditional acoustic music. Her standout performances on the soundtrack to the film O Brother, Where Art Thou made it one of the past year's unexpected musical successes. Fans of her work on that record will be drawn to songs that feature Krauss' bandmate Dan Tyminski (and the voice of George Clooney in the film) on lead vocals, such as Bright Sunny South and Momma Cried. But Krauss' own voice is the real treasure on this album. It works wonders on her moving version of the Dan Fogelberg song Stars, on the gentle, wistful Let Me Touch You For Awhile (she sings, "I know a way to make you smile..."), and on the uplifting, harmonic Daylight ("...never try to be someone I am not..."). Her spin on the Gillian Welch song New Favorite gives Krauss the name and the spirit for a new album with such a varied energy that it flies by effortlessly with every listen.

And on the topic of favorites, the New York band Clem Snide has quietly released two of the most underappreciated albums of the year. 2000's Your Favorite Music is full of impossibly beautiful pop songs. The title track has a simple, even heartwarming beat and considers the emotive capabilities of one's favorite songs. The cello that haunts the tune African Friend -- an ode to diversity and the confusion of romance? -- makes one almost overlook its clever, understated lyrics. The Dairy Queen begins with the rhythmic pulsing of a car alarm and winds through a poetic vignette featuring mundane elements of the American landscape. Clem Snide front man Eef Barzelay offers a glimpse of his songwriting skills on the knowing Exercise ("Find a way to brace yourself / your heart's a muscle and that's all") and on the subdued 1989 ("Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1989"). These songs affect the heart (merely a muscle, of course) and the head equally and demonstrate how good the music you listen to -- Your Favorite Music even -- can be.

Your Favorite Music is almost incomplete, though, without Clem Snide's more recent release The Ghost of Fashion (spinART Records, 2001). Its songs have titles as intriguing as the songs they describe, among them No One's More Happy Than You, Don't Be Afraid of Your Anger, Joan Jett of Arc, and Long Lost Twin. To get a taste of Clem Snide for yourself, you can hear them perform this album's standout Moment in the Sun every week; it's the theme song for the new season of the NBC television show Ed. - wt

Get Alison Krauss & Union Station's New Favorite from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

If New Favorite appeals to you, you'll also like:
O Sister! The Women's Bluegrass Collection Various Artists (Rounder, 2001)
Claire Holley Claire Holley (Yep Roc, 2001)
Buddy and Julie Miller (Hightone, 2001)

Get Clem Snide's Your Favorite Music from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

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Habib Koite & Bamada
Baro (Putumayo World Music, 2001)
Various Artists
Music from the Coffee Lands II (Putumayo World Music, 2001)

African music has a bright new talent in Habib Koite. The singer and guitarist hails from the 90%-Muslim, mostly desert, central African country of Mali. He fronts a group of traditional musicians known collectively as Bamada (it roughly translates to "in the mouth of the crocodile") and follows the storied careers of artists like Toumani Diabate, whose instrumental skill and melodic voice helped bring the rich music of one of the world's five poorest nations to audiences around the globe. Music historians have long pointed to the similarities between the sounds of Mali and the African-American blues music that emerged out of the Mississippi delta.

Those similarities are perhaps what makes Habib Koite's music cross over so easily to mainstream Western audiences. Baro is Koite's third album full of songs that seem to demand they be danced to. They're songs that stream through tales of unrequited and lost love, the ability of love to transcend sadness and strife in Mali's troubled history, and the beautiful ability of Mali's poor to anticipate better days. And while they have the effect of making non-Bambara speakers long to understand Koite's beautiful language, they also demonstrate the guitarist's absolute affection for home. Baro deserves a place in the collection anyone seeking to expand their world view through music.

Another new release should get similar consideration. Music from the Coffee Lands II is the second of its kind from Putumayo World Music, the small world music label that, for eight years, has created wonderful compilations as a way of helping mainstream Western audiences sample our international musical heritage that they may have otherwise missed. This collection takes listeners to places like Brazil, Angola, Haiti, Congo, Mexico, and Indonesia -- all major coffee-producing nations -- through the music of some of their most gifted artists. In using music to increase awareness of issues facing coffee farmers in many of these places, Putumayo is committed to making a positive mark on the planet. Putumayo supports organizations working on AIDS relief, women and children's issues, hunger, and emergency relief in the developing world. - wt

Get Habib Koite & Bamada's Baro from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

Get Music from the Coffee Lands II from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

Did you buy it? Do you like it (or not)? Let us know!

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Lucy Kaplansky
Every Single Day (Redhouse Records, 2001)
Dar Williams
Out There Live (Razor & Tie Records, 2001)

Two-thirds of the erstwhile pop-folk dream trio Cry Cry Cry have released excellent new albums. New York psychologist-turned-extraordinary-singer Lucy Kaplansky's Every Single Day is a collection of deeply affecting musical poems. New England storyteller, guitar player, and environmentalist Dar Williams has pulled together Out There Live, a powerful compilation of some of her best songs performed in front of adoring fans (which, as it turns out, is where she sounds best).

Kaplansky is, doubtless, one of the brightest voices among contemporary singer-songwriters. She began her career singing backup for Shawn Colvin and has since recorded four spirited albums, including 1999's award-winning Ten Year Night. On Every Single Day, she offers her gentle, confident voice to seven new songs of her own and four covers. Her version of Julie Miller's vulnerable love song Broken Things is a beautiful tribute to the original. Kaplansky romps through high-energy takes on Paul Brady's Crazy Dreams and Steve Earle's You're Still Standing There. Of her own songs, standouts include Written on the Back of His Hand (where she sings in the refrain "One true word's gonna beat a pack of lies") and Song for Molly, a child's moving ode to her aging grandmother ("It's a dirty trick this growing old"). On Nowhere and No More Excuses, Kaplansky's keen knack for observing and understanding human behavior shines through.

Dar Williams is somewhat more well-known than Kaplansky, and the sounds of cheering audiences lend a vibrancy to Out There Live. Her fans clearly wait with anticipation to hear her perform some of her trademarks, including the driving As Cool As I Am, the liberated I Won't Be Your Yoko Ono, the longing Iowa, the dreamy When I Was a Boy, the hopeful Better Things, and the tolerant The Christians and the Pagans. Williams is not constrained by what might be considered a mainstream view of the world, as she sings on Iowa: "How I long to fall just a little bit, to dance out of the lines and stray from the light." Her songs embrace diversity, inclusiveness, creativity, and honesty, but don't obscure those issues behind experimental sounds. She crafts beautiful, universal, almost always sing-along melodies that thrive with the help of her distinctive voice and gifted guitar-playing. Out There Live is a perfect starting point for new Dar Williams fans and a necessary addition for anyone who's known her music for years. - wt

Get Lucy Kaplansky's Every Single Day from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

Get Dar Williams' Out There Live from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

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Pernice Brothers
The World Won't End (Ashmont Records, 2001)

Can I admit that the Pernice Brothers' new album The World Won't End makes me feel good?

Serious fans might say it's an unpopular position, given that the album is chock-full of what might be considered mopey, unapologetically bitter songs by a defiantly independent, alternative pop band. Sure, alternative pop music wears its discontent as a badge of honor, defining itself by iconic singer-songwriters publicly struggling with failed relationships, political strife, failed relationships, career confusion, failed relationships -- you know, general malaise. But need it always elicit the same emotion from listeners?

With Boston's Pernice Brothers, those disappointed love songs are all there, but what stands out is just how good it is to listen to them. Perhaps it's just that the band's leader and former Scud Mountain Boy Joe Pernice simply knows how to craft a pop song (dare I blaspheme and compare him to a Beatle or two?). Whatever it is, they've recorded an eminently appealing album of songs that have a way of buoying the spirits in spite of themselves.

On 7:30, Joe Pernice sings longingly: "Send a letter where the grass is greener." Lyrically, the song broods, but its "ba-da-da" melody could belong to the Beach Boys. (In case you're wondering, I'm saying that's a positive thing.) On the upbeat She Heightened Everything, the message -- never mind the circumstances -- is that "I can't believe in love / and I want to believe." Bryte Side, Let That Show, The Ballad of Bjorn Borg, Endless Supply, and Cronulla Breakdown continue a string of tunes -- some in which it seems like the whole band plays guitar, others that are much more toned down -- sticking to that formula: the pain and misery of the lyrics is continually tempered by a satisfying melody that won't quit. Life's tough, people change, love hurts. But as the Pernice Brothers' album title no doubt suggests, when the music's good, The World Won't End. - wt

Get the Pernice Brothers' The World Won't End from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

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Ron Sexsmith
Blue Boy (spinART Records, 2001)
M. Ward
End of Amnesia (Future Farmer Records, 2001)

Remarkable songwriters and musicians everywhere are toiling in relative obscurity while the popular music charts swell with cookie-cutter performers lacking staying power. Here are two unique artists -- with shiny new releases -- worth knowing about.

At least among his fellow musicians, Ron Sexsmith is a legend. The Canadian-born songwriter has worked with the likes of Steve Earle, Elvis Costello, and Lucinda Williams, and has performers, whose songs lack the nuance and depth of his, clamoring to re-record his work. Still, except perhaps in his native Canada, Sexsmith remains underappreciated by most audiences (and certainly by those who seem to have granted Britney Spears a permanent place on the charts). His latest album Blue Boy is a stirring collection of new Sexsmith classics. Like Costello or Neil Finn (formerly of Crowded House), Sexsmith has an uncanny ability to craft perceptive, varied pop songs, which he delivers with a soothing, understated sweetness. Blue Boy is full of songs about being human and experiencing wonder and love in an often trying world. On This Song, he sings: "I can't help wondering how it is / How someone like you exists / When all around you bullets fly / ... / How can this song survive?" On Miracle in Itself: "As the sun goes solemnly down / ... / It holds me in its spell / It's a miracle in itself." Never Been Done and Keep It in Mind are more of Blue Boy's best moments. An added bonus: Ron Sexsmith is also committed to making a difference, lending his support to such causes as War Child, a group helping children affected by war, and Camp Trillium, a camp for children with cancer.

M. Ward is a Portland, Oregon-based songwriter who, a bit like Ron Sexsmith, relies on the lyrical depth of his songs and their normally gentle melodies to tell his stories on the new End of Amnesia. On Color of Water, his soft singing style almost seems to accompany his guitar-playing in a sound reminiscent of Neil Young's hymns to the Western landscape. Water recurs figuratively throughout; on So Much Water, he sings over a wonderful thundering timpani: "Water, so much water / Is under the bridge." Many of the songs on End of Amnesia feel like unusual, even mystical folk poems, as on Archangel Tale: "Come with me and you'll never be the same / ... / Across the bridge that keeps you from your home." And on Carolina: "I'm walking backwards to the place where I came from / Oh, but...you want me to run." Like Sexsmith, Ward seems to be looking forward to a world that makes more sense, as he sings on From a Pirate Radio Sermon, 1989, when "the weak will not be weak anymore." And like Blue Boy, End of Amnesia is a challenging but compelling album by an artist who plays guitar beautifully and sees the world just a little differently.

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Afro Celt Sound System
Volume 3: Further in Time (Real World, 2001)
Jeffrey Gaines
Always Be (Artemis Records, 2001)

Human rights activist Peter Gabriel hasn't released an album in five years, but his appearances on two recent releases are ensuring he remains conspicuous in current music.

Since 1996, when they released their first album Sound Magic, Afro Celt Sound System has been creating a remarkably unique fusion of sounds. With their new album Volume 3: Further in Time and as their name suggests, the Afro Celts continue to transcend the genre known as "world music" and make music truly global in scope. Obviously, it has a clear foundation in Celtic music. It also features the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as some of the vocal styles of northern Africa. At the same time, there's no denying the influence here of music from the Indian subcontinent and from Latin America. Again, as their name suggests, the Afro Celts offer up a "system" of music that demonstrates just how interconnected the varied music from multiple cultures really is -- in a way that's increasingly accessible to less adventurous fans of mainstream popular music. Peter Gabriel adds his signature vocals to the Afro Celts' emerging radio hit When You're Falling. Even former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant joins the band on Life Begin Again. These tracks will be starting points for new listeners, but fast-paced songs like Colossus and North, as well as the beautiful ballads, Go On Through and Persistence of Memory, will be what keep this excellent album in heavy rotation.

Jeffrey Gaines' new album Always Be is an appealing collection of soulful love songs from a songwriter whose greatest asset is his powerful voice. And it's his voice that does justice here to two captivating cover versions of extremely popular songs. The first (and the Peter Gabriel connection!) is his take on In Your Eyes, which first appeared on Gabriel's smash 1986 album So and in a famous scene in the John Cusack film Say Anything. Gaines' voice gives new life to the original, a song he performed live for years before finally recording (he also includes a live version of the song on this album). The song contains some of Gabriel's finest lyrics, and it provides Gaines an amazing opportunity to shine. He also does a moving version of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, made famous in the 1970s by Roberta Flack. There's a quiet passion in his version that recalls Flack's own style. And while Gaines' own songs lack some of the lyrical complexity of these two classics, his rich voice practically dares you to stop listening, particularly on ballads like Always Be and Back to You, the uplifting Happy That (he sings: "Live life today and look toward tomorrow"), and the forward-thinking Hero in Me.

A note: fans of Peter Gabriel will want to stay tuned for his upcoming release OVO: The Millennium Show and can continue to follow his inspiring work in the global human rights arena at the powerful Witness.org Web site. - wt

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Blind Boys of Alabama
Spirit of the Century (Real World, 2001)
John Medeski, North Mississippi Allstars, Robert Randolph
The Word (Ropeadope Records, 2001)

With the help of some of the biggest names in popular music, two soulful new contemporary gospel albums are guaranteed to make you clap your hands and stomp your feet whether you've got religion or not.

The Blind Boys of Alabama have been a fixture in gospel music since the late 1930s, when they formed their group out of the male chorus at the Talladega Institute for the Blind (now the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind). Their unique vocal harmonics and bluesy style have delighted fans in night clubs and houses of worship all over the world. With their latest album, Spirit of the Century, they've broken entirely new ground, lending their interpretations to the songs of popular music icons Tom Waits (Way Down in the Hole, Jesus Gonna Be Here) and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (Just Wanna See His Face), as well as newer stars like Ben Harper (Give a Man a Home). These more familiar songs will certainly help to broaden the Blind Boys' audience, but it's their own arrangements of traditional songs that will make their music an obsession for listeners. Their versions of No More and Run on for a Long Time rely on amazingly satisfying rhythms and soothingly understated guitar. On the anthem Amazing Grace, they convincingly deliver the song's familiar lines atop the melody of House of the Rising Sun, and bring a slow groove to the mournful Motherless Child. As with the music of Sweet Honey in the Rock, your own religious beliefs (or lack thereof) are of no importance when listening to the Blind Boys' inspired singing. All that's required is an ability to relate to the spirituality of good music and a capacity for enjoying real talent.

The new album The Word is a perfect companion to the music of the Blind Boys of Alabama. The Word is a project of keyboard virtuoso John Medeski (best known for his work with the jazz fusion trio Medeski, Martin, and Wood), the North Mississippi Allstars (Grammy-nominated for last year's Shake Hands with Shorty), and the steel guitar prodigy Robert Randolph (who got his start in the gospel tradition known as Sacred Steel). Medeski, the Allstars, and Randolph do with instrumental music what the Blind Boys accomplish with vocals. From the opening bars of the album's first song Joyful Sounds, listeners will understand The Word. Again a display of remarkable talent, this album takes eight traditional gospel songs (plus two originals by Medeski and Allstar Luther Dickinson) and redefines each of them with an infectious, danceable hook. Steel guitarist Robert Randolph is this project's real discovery. Until recently, he used his work as a legal clerk to pay the bills, but used his phenomenal guitar playing to pack them in at his Maplewood, New Jersey church. Now bringing his music to amazed secular audiences far and wide, he's the one ultimately making this extraordinary album a very good Word. - wt

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Various Artists
Down from the Mountain
(Lost Highway Records, 2001)

The O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack from last year's allegorical film by Joel and Ethan Coen has already established itself as one of the most influential bluegrass and old-time music albums in recent years. O Brother's music made star George Clooney look like a singer, and it turned the voice behind the film's most familiar song -- Dan Tyminski in Man of Constant Sorrow -- into an emerging luminary in the music world. (Tyminski's just been nominated for 10 international bluegrass awards.)

The most important thing about the O Brother soundtrack is that it's brought bluegrass into the mainstream, and the brand-new release Down from the Mountain promises to keep alive the newfound energy for the music with its roots in the Appalachian Mountains during a much simpler time. On May 24, 2000, for one time, many of the artists whose voices defined the film's soundtrack converged upon Nashville, Tennessee's legendary Ryman Auditorium -- a one-time home of the Grande Olde Opry -- to perform the film's signature music. The wonderful, if too brief Down from the Mountain captures some of the highlights of that evening and -- complete with the cheers of an adoring live crowd -- is an ideal complement to the original soundtrack.

Down from the Mountain includes stunning performances from the legendary gospel harmony group Fairfield Four (Po' Lazarus), the late fiddler John Hartford (Big Rock Candy Mountain), the amazingly talented Cox Family (I Am Weary [Let Me Rest]), and the emerging icons Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss (I'll Fly Away). But what makes this album so extraordinary is the inclusion of songs that weren't in the movie, especially two cuts that appear on Welch's newest album Time (The Revelator), a chilling country blues tune by Chris Thomas King and Colin Linden (John Law Burned Down the Liquor Sto'), Emmylou Harris' glorious Greener Pastures, and Krauss and Tyminski's harmonies on Blue and Lonesome. - wt

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Kate Rusby
Little Lights
(Pure/Compass Records, 2001)

I put British singer-songwriter Kate Rusby's new CD Little Lights in the CD player with the usual questions. Would her brand of folk music be of the self-righteous variety? Would it burst with originality or would it offer up the same tired sound making her impossible to distinguish from others like her? Would it fall into the predictable pattern capitalizing on the steadily rising popularity of singer-songwriters or would it take risks and break new ground?

I must admit to having a good feeling about Little Lights from the start. I read the liner notes first and saw the likes of accomplished musicians like Tim O'Brien and Alison Brown lurking in the background of a few of the songs. I saw she covered an old Richard Thompson tune on the record. I had heard that her signature brogue and marvelously moving songwriting on the politics of virtue and romance and justice had caused a sensation in the United Kingdom (her previous album Sleepless was named one the 12 Best British Albums of the Year in 1999).

Then, I listened. I found myself reveling in the most melodic, beautiful collection of music I'd heard in ages. Kate Rusby is a folk singer's folk singer, clearly indebted to the voices who came before her. On six of the songs on Little Lights, she takes traditional lyrics and adds her own cherubic voice to all-new arrangements. Those familiar with the Celtic sounds of Solas, Altan, and Karan Casey will immediately find Rusby mesmerizing. I Courted a Sailor is a glorious love song, while Canaan's Land is an elegy "where all is joy and peace and love"; both ring with contagious beauty. Let The Cold Wind Blow is a simple, mournful tune that is no less a pleasure to listen to. On Who Will Sing Me Lullabies, Rusby gently ponders a lost love as she wonders "Who will sing me to sleep?" On Playing of Ball, she demonstrates her keen skill at crafting and delivering narrative songs of youth and childhood. Despite the fact that Rusby is in her twenties, these are old songs that seem to recall bygone generations. That they succeed in sounding completely fresh, not nostalgic, is what makes Little Lights emerge from the fog. - wt

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Big Spoon
The Crazy Truth (2001)
Josh Joplin Group
Useful Music (2000)

Sometimes, all you need is some new music to sing along with. The first thing the songs need is a few good hooks. It helps if they have lyrics you can understand and relate to. And if you're lucky, they're the kinds of songs that make you feel good while you listen. Only you know whether or not you can afford to have people within earshot while you belt out the songs with everything you've got.

The Crazy Truth, the second album from Seattle's Big Spoon, is loaded with songs that will appeal to the would-be singer. The band offers up a fresh range of tunes that deserve a secure spot amidst the modern roots-rock sounds that have enjoyed wide popularity. There's enough wailing harmonica on The Crazy Truth to make any Blues Traveler fan blissfully happy. There are enough tortured love songs and odes to existential crises of one form or another to satisfy anyone who favors the Counting Crows, Vertical Horizon, or Train. But ultimately, Big Spoon's refreshing songs about seizing the day and grabbing hold of clarity and certainty after resisting it are all their own. Standouts are the upbeat We Shook Hands about a failed romance ("You tell me I'm too mainstream…"), the driving A Dream, and Festival ("A perfect day is like a festival…"), plus an all-too-short hidden acoustic track. And I'm Fine and Rail Line are certain to give your vocal chords a workout. The Crazy Truth is that the members of Big Spoon still hang onto their day jobs. One listen to their new album and you'll wonder for how long.

If the album Useful Music is any evidence, it's clear that Atlanta's Josh Joplin Group crafts tunes in the same vein. Their Camera One has been one of the most hummable from this year's pop radio ("It's funny how life turns out /…/ you're playing you now") and the rest of the album is no exception. It's truly "useful music," rich with perspectives on life that are slightly edgier but no less hopeful than Big Spoon's. On the catchy Gravity, he sings "I will not be here forever / So I will not waste any time." He takes a long hard look at his challenges on I've Changed: "I wanted perfection / From every song I've ever sung / But that was wrong." On Trailways, he looks forward: "I feel fine for the first time in a long time." And on Dutch Wonderland, he sings the most beautiful song you won't hear on the radio this year. If you sense that you've heard lead singer Josh Joplin's voice before, you may have mistaken it for that of Peter Gabriel or R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe. His voice gives the band a "known quantity" kind of feel that has the effect of making this album sound better and better with each listen. - wt

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Kelly Joe Phelps
Sky Like a Broken Clock
(Rykodisc, 2001)

The first time I saw Kelly Joe Phelps play his powerful music live, I was positively awestruck. Without question, it was no artist-audience love fest. He sat alone in the center of the stage, so apparently shy that he almost seemed surly. He muttered terse, though often clever, comments between the songs he played, rarely if ever making eye contact with the audience.

But the music! To watch Kelly Joe Phelps play his unique style of country blues for two-plus hours is to come as close to experiencing virtuosity as those of us who aren't symphony-goers will ever experience. First of all, his guitar skill is undeniable. He moves effortlessly between typical playing and his signature approach, a lap-steel technique where he lays the guitar down on his lap and makes precise tones by picking the strings with one hand and using a metal slide along the neck of the guitar with the other. There is often so much sound coming out of his guitar that it almost feels like someone must be backing him from the wings. As Phelps plays, the audience becomes aware of a pulsing beat, almost like a bass drum, and soon discovers it is his foot keeping an impossible rhythm while his fingers work magic. His lack of eye contact with the crowd is more a function of how deeply he immerses himself into the music than anything else. He throws his head back as his gravelly voice sings as if he is enraptured. It's enthralling, even moving to watch. The cheers from the crowd at the end of that first show brought a grin to Phelps' face, his shell broken by the joy his music had created.

And that's just his live show. He has just released his fourth album Sky Like a Broken Clock, continuing where he left off on his previous three albums. The important difference is that this time, he has the support of a band, including refugees from Tom Waits' band and Morphine. But even with the richer, more complex sound of this album, Phelps' own immense talent resonates. As with his previous recordings, many of the songs on Sky Like a Broken Clock seem moody (they are blues songs, after all), but with a sense of celebration. Truly, Kelly Joe Phelps plays music -- and crafts songs -- like no one else.

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Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek
(Sugar Hill Records, 2000)

With Nickel Creek, the music is a family affair. And they're doing more with music than most people their age. But they're no Osmonds, no Partridges. These family members play mandolins and guitars and bouzoukis and banjos and fiddles and get their inspiration from the biggest names in bluegrass music, not the pop chart flavors of the week. How a group of bluegrass virtuosos could hail from somewhere like San Diego is almost as remarkable as the fact that Chris Thile, Sara Watkins, and Sean Watkins are all in their late teens or early twenties and have been playing together since they were as young as eleven years old. Listeners unaccustomed to -- or unimpressed by -- bluegrass will find that Nickel Creek's brand of the "high lonesome" sound is cut from a slightly different cloth. The signature harmonies are there, as is the bluegrass tendency toward instrumental improvisation, but Nickel Creek freshens and updates the music. They are as indebted to bands like Counting Crows as they are to Alison Krauss (the bluegrass luminary and former child prodigy who also happens to have produced Nickel Creek's record). Many of the songs on Nickel Creek serve to acknowledge the connection between bluegrass and the Celtic tradition, including the Robert Burns poem Sweet Afton, Robin and Marian, and a cover of Sinead Lohan's Out of the Woods, suggesting that the band's talent is not the only thing that puts them beyond their years. Traditional acoustic music is far from a dying art, and the spirit and youth that Nickel Creek bring to the sound make its future seem awfully bright.

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Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer
Drum Hat Buddha
(Signature Records, 2001)

Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer make beautiful music. Sometimes a good thing is as simple as that. Dave plays guitar, Tracy plays fiddle, and they both like to sing a little. Their music is characterized by the beauty of their poetry, the gentle simplicity of their musical arrangements, and their willingness to change the pace from songs of upbeat whimsy to soothing ballads. And with their new release Drum Hat Buddha, this Portland, Oregon-based duo has added a new feather to their musical cap, which also includes When I Go (1998) and Tanglewood Tree (2000).

From the first lyric on Drum Hat Buddha, Carter and Grammer seem to want audiences to know - this will be a fun album to listen to: "Common cool he was a proud young fool in a kick-ass Walmart tie." Through the "proud young fool" at the center of Ordinary Town, one of the album's catchiest tunes, Carter and Grammer give new life to the age-old prodigal son story. Returning - or leaving - home is a theme that endures throughout this album. On Gentle Arms of Eden, they sing: "This is my home, this is my only home / this is the only sacred ground that I have ever known." But they don't sing odes to home as a sort of unexamined ideal. Theirs are nostalgic songs that don't shy away from asking why we all remain so nostalgic in the first place, infusing their music with a certain unsettled, authentic spirit.

Songs like 236-6132 (Carter and Grammer's own spin on a rollicking phone number song), Highway 80 (a road song that immediately brought to mind Johnny Cash's version of the classic I've Been Everywhere), and 41 Thunderer (with its stunning harmonies and powerful story) made me yearn for Carter and Grammer's live show. I can only imagine how these songs must translate in a cozy and dark music club with exposed brick walls. In fact, I think the music of Drum Hat Buddha -- and Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer's music, in general -- is what those kinds of places were made for.

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Lucinda Williams
Essence (Lost Highway Records, 2001)
Continental Drifters
Better Day (Razor & Tie Records, 2001)

The summer more than any other time of year seems like a quest for seasonal favorites. The favorite summer movie. Favorite summer reading. And perhaps more than anything, favorite summer music. We're always looking for the kind of music that sounds best when the car windows are down. The kind that goes best with a view. The kind that's most perfect as background to the sound of friends talking. The kind that go with the things that make up the essence of the better days of summer.

This summer, Lucinda Williams' latest album -- appropriately title Essence -- may very well become your favorite. A disciple of the Delta blues masters, Williams -- who won a Grammy Award for 1998's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road -- is best known for her impassioned singing voice and literate lyrics. And in addition to the heartbreaking delivery and achingly beautiful songs on Car Wheels, it was also just plain fun. Everything summer's supposed to be. Now, with Essence, the familiar Lucinda sound is there, but she's slowed the pace a bit. Nobody does longing like Lucinda, and tunes like Lonely Girls, Blue, and Reason to Cry are as good as it gets. Rocking songs like Get Right with God and the addictive title track keep things spiced up. But the lazy songs -- and their vivid summer lyrics -- are what will make this album irresistible. On Bus to Baton Rouge, she ponders a summer homecoming: "I had to go back to that house one more time / To see if the camellias were in bloom." And on I Envy the Wind, she sees summer, appropriately, for its essence: "I envy the sun / That brightens your summer / That makes your days longer." Exactly.

On the other hand, if Lucinda Williams is too much of a known quantity to meet your summer standards from something altogether fresh and new, Better Day, the new album from the New Orleans-based Continental Drifters, may be the perfect discovery. Better Day celebrates summer and the hope for new beginnings and adventures. Its rootsy sound feels better and better and its message more and more joyful with every listen. Whether it's the quasi-title track Tomorrow's Gonna Be about confronting unintended solitude with your chin up, or the uplifting groove of Live on Love, the Drifters have crafted an album that will scare the dour faces away from your next barbecue. From its title, the tune Snow may not seem to be able to warm the heart about the enduring power of love, but it's full of dreamy beauty: "I had joy / And I was strong / And I was good at holding on / And I had heart / And I had soul / And if I wanted to, I could even make it snow." And the upbeat Someday ("Someday it'll all come back to me") is about the drive to live a full and meaningful life. Better Day is an album that is built on the power of possibility.

So look to Essence and Better Day to make strong runs for your favorite album of the summer. And don't blame us if one of them becomes your favorite of the year.

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Various Artists
Avalon Blues (2001)

Avalon Blues, an astonishing new collection of the music of late legendary bluesman Mississippi John Hurt, does justice to the amazing warmth and joy of Hurt's music, which emerged despite the trials and tribulations of his life as a black man in the Deep South. Producer and musician Peter Case has gathered some of the biggest names in modern roots music -- including Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, Ben Harper, John Hiatt, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Beck -- to record 15 of Hurt's signature blues, jazz, and gospel songs, all more about "rising above it all" than feeling down and out. Avalon Blues almost feels as if the artists gathered around a campfire, each putting their own distinct mark on a favorite Hurt tune. (Vanguard Records)

Listen to a story about it on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. You will need RealPlayer to listen.

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Rick Trevino
Mi Son (2001)

Some time in the future, Los Super Seven -- the Tejano super-group of which singer Rick Trevino is a part -- might be called the next Buena Vista Social Club. In the same way, that now-legendary ensemble brings together the best of Afro-Cuban music, Los Super Seven melds the biggest names in the Tejano (Tex-Mex) or Huasteca sound (including -- among others -- members of east Los Angeles' favorite sons Los Lobos). They're the purveyors of border music -- a marriage of traditional roots sounds from both Mexico and the United States -- and their sound is infectious.

While Mi Son is officially a Rick Trevino album, at times it feels like another outing from the award-winning Los Super Seven. Mi Son mixes the most energetic Mexican guitar tunes -- such as El Gustito (or The Likening, The Joy, The Muse) and Cupido ("Cupid") -- with piano-based songs invoking the rhythmic dance sounds of Cuba, such as El Tira y Jala (The Push and the Grind) and the title track Mi Son (My Song). Formerly a country singer whose more recent work marks his own cultural rebirth, Trevino is a crooner in the classic sense, and his voice peals out beautifully throughout this album. The album's continual change of pace on Mi Son is invigorating. Listeners are coaxed into a sort of reverie on torch songs like Vuelvo Al Sur (Returning to the South) and the English-language Long Goodbye, only to find themselves dancing like no one's watching on the album's faster-paced tunes. Fans of the Gipsy Kings (despite that group's European roots) should rush to add Rick Trevino (and Los Super Seven) to their collections. (Vanguard Records)

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Paul Burch
Last of My Kind (2001)

Few would argue that the Songcatcher soundtrack (Did you miss our review? Read it now.) has a critical and formal relationship with the new film of the same name. But Paul Burch's Last of My Kind shares a relationship with Tony Earley's novel Jim the Boy (Did you miss our review? You can read that one, too.) that is a bit more difficult to understand. While it's not yet what one would call an official soundtrack (although a television screenplay is currently in development), it's difficult to imagine a more perfect companion to the book. Singer-songwriter Paul Burch -- by chance, author Earley's Nashville, Tennessee, neighbor -- had been profoundly affected by Jim the Boy's simple but enduring message, so when Earley invited him to perform some old-time standards to accompany a public reading of the book, Burch surprised him by writing a set of remarkable originals. Those songs formed the foundation for a project that has become Burch's third album Last of My Kind.

If Jim, the fatherless only child at the center of the Depression-era novel, is the last of his kind, he and Paul Burch may have a lot in common. As he writes in the album's liner notes: "In my family, there are mothers, sisters, and fathers who died young leaving all who knew them with a sense of missingness.... Imagination and memory come into our conversations in a spirit of civil disobedience, stepping out unpredictably, sometimes haunting us, and other times reaffirming ancient wisdom." All of the songs on Last of My Kind reveal both the "missingness" that Burch shares with Jim and the wisdom that a life connected to family and community can offer. And although Burch may be just part of a nostalgic -- and burgeoning -- new movement in American roots music, it's impossible to listen to his music without imagining him as the only person of his generation to understand the spirit of old-time music and to be able to create original examples of it with depth and authenticity.

Simply put, each of the songs on Last of My Kind takes a character or a situation or an idea presented in Jim the Boy and puts it to music. It also puts those characters and situations into an historical context. There is a song called Polio, a very real threat to life in the 1920s, as well as one called Electricity about one of the most exciting curiosities of the day. Melodies like Livin' Up to the Man You See in Me and Going to the Carnival capture a young boy's sense of wonder and hope. There's Amos' Blues, about Jim's enigmatic grandfather who sings (through Burch's expressive voice): "Nobody knows my mind / nobody knows my soul." It rings so true that it's almost as if Burch and Earley had collaborated. Early remembers in the liner notes "the unexpected pleasure of hearing characters that I had created saying things I hadn't written. These people...never seemed to me more alive that they did as I listened to Paul's songs." (Merge Records)

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Various Artists
Kids, Fires, & Campfires (2001)

What can possibly be better than a summertime full of music? Whether it's outdoor concerts, just the right sounds for a backyard barbecue, or a perfect mix tape for a long vacation road trip with the windows down, music is what summers are made of.

Unless you're a parent with young children or someone -- an aunt, uncle, or friend -- with many kids in your life. In that case, you know summer is all about the little ones. But what if you could combine some of the best things about summer -- music and kids -- in the same place? A new CD called Kids, Cars, & Campfires may be just the thing for you. This CD is a treasure. It includes charming recordings of children's music -- some of it familiar, some of it fresh and new -- by a group of singer-songwriters. These songs are perfect for summer vacation sing-alongs, many of them already featuring the background voices of children. There's fun on Kids, Cars, & Campfires for kids of all ages. Spider John Koerner's versions of The Fox (you know the chorus: "…before he reached the town-o, town-o…") and Froggie Went A-Courtin' are delights, as is Suzzy Roche's Yankee Doodle. Great American troubadour Bill Staines seems to get his warmth and inspiration from Peter, Paul, & Mary's classic Puff the Magic Dragon on The Happy Wanderer and Little Brown Dog. Guy Davis' hand-clapping blues harmonica ditty New Shoes will add rhythm to any car ride.

But there are two songs that make this CD a must-have. John Gorka's Branching Out is a wonderful song about a child growing up and becoming a tree that's "gonna reach for the sky." The song's joyful whimsy is captured best in the lines: "Please don't turn me into lumber / I'd rather be a Louisville Slugger / Swinging for the sea." And Greg Brown's Bathtub Blues is a hoot. Each line he sings is repeated by a youthful band of backyard singers. The lyrics are so much fun, and when the kids mimic Brown's bluesy delivery, it's impossible not to laugh. Kids, Cars, & Campfires will make memories for you this summer. (Redhouse Records)

Buy Kids, Cars, & Campfires from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

What are you listening to and why is it good?



Joe Henry
Scar (2001)

With Joe Henry, it's the music that matters. Throughout a 16-year career that's taken him from North Carolina to Michigan to New York to Los Angeles, he's been quietly setting the pace with no fewer than nine groundbreaking, category-defying releases of original music. Call him rock-n-roll, call him whatever you want -- he's covered all the bases. His guitar-oriented early work led eventually, after a dabble in jazz, to two releases with a distinct country flavor ("Short Man's Room" and "Kindness of the World"). Along the way, he landed the world's most famous sister-in-law -- Madonna -- and made a name for himself as a songwriter. His most recent efforts -- Trampoline, Fuse, and his work on the Jesus' Son soundtrack -- have established him as one of the most inventive, critically lauded performers in popular music. So inventive and so eclectic, in fact, that he's often struggled to find his audience.

Scar, his brand-new release, is pop fusion at its best. From the album's first cut "Richard Pryor Addresses a Tearful Nation," Henry starts his audience on a characteristically exhilarating ride, enlisting inspired help from jazz saxophone legend Ornette Coleman. Henry follows with "Stop," his own infectious take on a song he wrote for Madonna (she made it a hit recently under another title "Don't Tell Me"). Scar is not an album to spin only once, and when it gets the multiple listens it deserves, "Stop" becomes one of its most eagerly awaited tunes. You can also count on adding "Mean Flower," "Lock and Key," and "Cold Enough to Cross" to that list. All are gentle melodies that ring with the stirring sound of piano and have a way of steadying the pace of an album that's a wall of sound.

Ornette Coleman isn't Henry's only noteworthy guest on Scar. A groovy bassline on "Rough and Tumble" comes courtesy of Me'shell Ndegeocello. They've joined with Joe Henry to give Scar a uniquely rich musical identity and have helped him create an immensely satisfying album that, no matter where his audience falls on the musical spectrum, demands to be heard. (Mammoth Records)

Buy Scar from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

What are you listening to and why is it good?



Various Artists
A Nod to Bob (2001)
An Artists' Tribute to Bob Dylan on His 60th Birthday

There's just something about a tribute album. It's especially true if you're particularly fond of the artist being toasted. Often, you're so familiar with the artist's songs that they're like old friends. The prospect of fresh reinventions of those old tunes is tantalizing. Will it be true to the original? Will it take the song in a new direction? Will the artist covering the original be a new voice to discover? Regardless, the tribute album is both an historic record of an extraordinary career and an opportunity to breathe new life into classic music.

A Nod to Bob, a brand-new tribute to pop music icon Bob Dylan, does justice to the form. Minnesota-based Redhouse Records corralled a group of artists that have helped to make a modest name for the independent label and asked them to dig deep into their passions for Dylan's music and record a favorite song. The motivation? To honor Minnesota's favorite son on his 60th birthday. It doesn't hurt that Dylan is fresh from winning an Academy Award for his performance of "Things Have Changed" in the 2000 film Wonder Boys. This is no charity tribute, no lifetime achievement award. Indeed, some would argue that Dylan has never been better.

The artists on A Nod to Bob enjoy nothing of the name recognition of Dylan himself. And that's one of the things that makes this collection so interesting. These voices will be new discoveries for many people. Regular Good Gravy readers will recognize the names of Greg Brown, John Gorka, and Lucy Kaplansky on Nod -- they've all had recent projects of their own reviewed here. Brown's bluesy baritone rambles through "Pledging My Time" from Dylan's Blonde on Blonde like he's sung it a million times. Gorka's take on "Girl of the North Country" carries the wistful melody to new heights. And Kaplansky's "It Ain't Me Babe" may be the stand-out of the entire album. Her remarkable voice gives this beautiful classic refreshing new perspective.

Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Rosalie Sorrels emerged from the same folk tradition that spawned Dylan, and they're here to wish him happy birthday on "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Tomorrow is a Long Time." A handful of Dylan's best-known songs win a place on Nod, but it makes sure to acknowledge a range of music from four decades of his career. The inclusion of "I Want You," "All Along the Watchtower," and "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" will delight Dylan fans, but like any good tribute album, it's the emerging artists performing these tunes (Cliff Eberhardt, the Paperboys, and Eliza Gilkyson) that make them special. (Redhouse Records)

Buy A Nod to Bob from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].



Mona Golabek
The Romantic Hours (1998)
Reader Recommended

Does classical music lull you to sleep? Does it bore you? Does it make you feel inadequate, like you should be able to recognize the sound of the masters after a note or two but can't? Do you keep a couple of classical CDs in your collection for nothing more than pretentious ambience on special occasions (Vivaldi's Four Seasons comes to mind)?

If so, you're probably not alone. And if you feel the same way about poetry, fear not. It's natural. But you're open-minded -- give The Romantic Hours a chance. Concert pianist Mona Golabek began hosting this wildly popular, nationally syndicated radio show after a successful, Grammy-winning career performing in front of international audiences. Golabek is, in effect, the show's DJ, broadcasting her picks from the world of classical music. But she adds a unique element to the show. At key intervals in the music, never predictable but always appropriate, you hear Golabek's resonant voice. It's as if she has an instinct for when the music needs words. The writings of Rainer Maria Rilke, Pablo Neruda, Oscar Wilde, Dora Carrington, William Butler Yeats, and many others add meaning and, as the show's name suggests, a profound sense of romance to the music. This CD is a compilation of some of the show's finest moments.

Until listening myself, I had serious doubts. How could someone else's taste in poetry make a difference in the way I listened to classical music? But I quickly understood: The Romantic Hours -- both the show and the CD -- is mesmerizing. Golabek's musical selections are inspired, and the complementary words she chooses to read with them are perfect. Whether music or literary appreciation is your motivation or if it's the romance of it all, there's room for The Romantic Hours in your collection.

Thanks to Alice Nichter of Harrisonburg, Virginia, for recommending this goodthing!

Buy The Romantic Hours from our affiliate [amazon].

Listen to The Romantic Hours radio show at Classicaliscool.com or Romantichours.com.



John Gorka
The Company You Keep (2001)

Singer-songwriter John Gorka is nothing if not hopeful. He seems to be the epitome of a lonely guitarist who's spent too much time on the road over the years with not enough to show for it. But throughout his nearly 25-year career, he's shown a knack for writing songs that feel remarkably joyful despite the mishaps and misadventures they recount. The Company You Keep is no different. He writes in the album's liner notes: "Someone once wrote that the definition of an adventure is a mistake that you survive." There's a sense in these songs, that somehow that's the way Gorka has come to view his own career. Still, the songs are filled with an appealing brand of self-deprecation only possible from a person who refuses to take himself too seriously.

Don't get me wrong. When I Lost My Faith and Let Them In (a recording of a poem written by a World War II nurse) are as poignant and moving as songs can be. But Gorka's no sad-sack folkie. His humor defines his live show and gives balance to The Company You Keep. In Hank Senior Moment, he affectionately mocks the woe-is-me stylings of country giant Hank Williams. In People My Age, he jokingly warns that his peers "Are looking overripe / Some are getting operations / To tighten up what ain't tight."

But insight on life and how to live it is what Gorka's really all about. On the song Morningside, he sings "Don't want to waste what I have to give / In any of the time that I've got left / I can do more than I thought I could / Work brings more luck than knocking on wood." Each time I hear him sing those lines, I'm not sad that he seems to have stopped thinking the big break is coming that will turn him into a major star. I'm happy that he seems to have resolved to keep on trying. (Redhouse Records)

Buy The Company You Keep from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].



Various Artists
Sounds Eclectic (2001)

The more I listen to this CD, the fresher it seems. I stumbled upon Sounds Eclectic, a weekly adventure on KCRW 89.9 FM, Santa Monica, California's public radio station, and I can't imagine more satisfying serendipity. I just wish it hadn't taken so long for me to find it. A labor of love for host Nic Harcourt, the show brings the freshest new sounds in popular music and the freshest new directions of pop's pioneers to the cultural forefront. This brand-new CD takes the very best of the gutsy radio show, puts it in one place, and almost demands to be played over and over again. It's got category-defying Beck's take on the Hank Williams classic Lonesome Whistle and the British band Travis' eerie, melodic Driftwood. It features this year's radio darling David Gray doing a live recording of his hit Babylon. Willie Nelson's signature twang sound is here, as is Yo-Yo Ma's classical virtuosity. Transcendent rock icon Patti Smith does a memorable turn on Wing and Bebel Gilberto's August Day Song single-handedly revives Brazilian bossa nova. And with 14 tracks on the CD, there's plenty more where that comes from. The biggest treat, though, is especially for Crowded House/Split Enz fans: Neil Finn's haunting acoustic version of the enigmatic love song Throw Your Arms Around Me. Beautiful but relatively non-commercial, Finn's music -- and that of many of these artists -- is practically made for this CD.

Buy Sounds Eclectic from our affiliates [djangos] or [amazon].

Learn more about the Sounds Eclectic radio show.



Various Artists
Concerts for a Landmine Free World (2001)

Before her death, Princess Diana seemed to be leading a one-woman public-relations campaign for the banning and removal of landmines from the world's killing fields. She brought attention to an issue that it seemed few were aware of, and, in doing so, spawned a movement.

Now, led by American singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris, the movement's icons are some of the brightest stars of the musical stage, all troubadours in the tradition of Woody Guthrie. During December 1999 and 2000, a group of artists committed to the cause joined together in a sold-out series of live shows, using their original music and stories to invigorate the campaign. A global program of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF), the campaign is seeking to ban the continued production of 340 different types of landmines in 48 countries and to spearhead the removal of the 60-80 million landmines that are still tragically injuring and killing innocent civilians worldwide.

This new CD is a dream for lovers of acoustic music. Its bookends are Harris' live version of The Pearl (a standout from her Red Dirt Girl album) and Steve Earle's ode to fallen heroes Christmas in Washington. Comic relief comes courtesy of Kris Kristofferson and John Prine (with his Big Ol' Goofy World). Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gillian Welch, and Nanci Griffith (with her moving anthem It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go) take care of the ballads. Harris' trademark harmonies seem to haunt the background of every song. Concerts for a Landmine Free World is stunning both for the musical passion it highlights and for the important campaign it represents.

Buy Concerts for a Landmine Free World from [djangos] or [amazon].

Learn more about it from the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.



Dan Zanes and Friends (incl. Sheryl Crow and Suzanne Vega)
Rocket Ship Beach (2000)

A reader recommends music for kids of all ages:

Dan Zanes, former lead singer for the Del Fuegos, has brought together an amazing ensemble to produce Rocket Ship Beach, a collection of kids songs that parents will enjoy as much as their children.

With guests Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, and G.E. Smith, Zanes offers both old favorites (Erie Canal, Bushel and a Peck) and new classics (Hello) in a really catchy, fun, pleasing mix. There are plenty of opportunities for kids to sing along, and the variety on the CD ensures that you won't get tired of hearing it, no matter how many times you listen! Plus, Zanes has taken care to bring in a range of influences into the CD, such as the West-Indian spirited Mother Goose.

A lot of entertainment that is geared toward kids is grating to adults -- this CD is a notable exception! Parents will enjoy it as much as their kids.

Jim Sailer
Brooklyn, New York

Buy Rocket Ship Beach from [amazon]. Learn more about it from Festival Five Records.



Cry Cry Cry
Cry Cry Cry (1998)

Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky, and Richard Shindell -- each notable solo singer-songwriters -- had an idea, got together, named themselves after a Johnny Cash song (although there's no twang on this record), and followed their musical bliss to record (as Williams writes in the liner notes) "an album of songs we love." This is a labor of love, an album full of fresh versions of the songs of megastars and obscure artists alike, including R.E.M.'s environmental anthem "Fall On Me" and Ron Sexsmith's beautiful ode to the birth of his son, "Speaking with the Angel." Other stand-outs include Julie Miller's hymn to the destiny of love ("By Way of Sorrow"), James Keelaghan's stirring ballad about the Mann Gulch forest fire in Montana ("Cold Missouri Waters"), and Buddy Mondlock's song on dreams ("The Kid"). Williams, Kaplansky, and Shindell all play guitar skillfully on these twelve songs, but they harmonize together as if they were born to.

Buy Cry Cry Cry from [djangos] or [amazon].

Dar Williams supports the Vermont-based Snowden Environmental Trust.

Lucy Kaplansky is featured -- along with Sheryl Crow, Cassandra Wilson, Sarah McLachlan, Shawn Colvin, Joan Osborne, Lucinda Williams, and others -- in the book Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words. Buy it from [powell's] or [amazon].



Hothouse Flowers
Songs from the Rain (1993)

With songs like "Thing of Beauty," "This Is It (Your Soul)," "Be Good," "Gypsy Fair," and "Isn't It Amazing," this may the perfect springtime record. True to its name, "Songs from the Rain" is built on themes of rejuvenation and rebirth. Whether lead singer Liam O'Maonlai is wailing an ode to the wonder of music or the simple magic of a winter's morning or the image of a boat gliding through water or the joy of dancing, "Songs from the Rain" is one celebration after another. And a Hothouse Flowers live show is not to be missed. To experience firsthand the sincerity of this spirited band's appreciation for the marvel that is the world is to understand the gift of being alive.

Buy Songs from the Rain from [djangos] or [amazon].




Paul Brady
Oh, What a World (2001)

Paul Brady is more than just one of the legends of traditional Irish music. He also writes celebrated pop songs, including tunes for Tina Turner, Carlos Santana, and Cher, as well as Bonnie Raitt's "Luck of the Draw." And now, well into his career, he's becoming a pop star in his own right with the release of "Oh, What a World." Sometimes compared to Van Morrison and Bruce Cockburn, Brady's fans are forever moved by his voice and the simple sincerity of his songs.

Buy Oh, What a World from [djangos] or [amazon].



Sult: Spirit of the Music
Original TV Soundtrack (1997)

In 1996, Irish television featured a well-received series called "Sult: Spirit of the Music." The series was not only a tribute to traditional Irish music and what Hummingbird Records called its "rising fortunes" in the world in recent years, but it was also broadcast in the Irish language, a Gaelic tongue nearly lost when the English ruled Ireland but since has been experiencing an upsurge. Compiled and produced by legendary Planxty frontman Donal Lunny, the series' soundtrack includes music by some of the biggest names in traditional Irish music, as well as lovers of it. That means there's room for Mark Knopfler's stirring version of "On Raglan Road," Brian Kennedy's take on "Crazy Love," as well as beautiful cuts from Maire Brennan and Sharon Shannon and Van Morrison's extraordinary acoustic spin on his classic "St. Dominic's Preview."

Buy Sult: Spirit of the Music from [djangos] or [Irish Records International].



Kasey Chambers
The Captain (1999)

Kasey Chambers and her family, the Dead Ringer Band, were traveling around Australia performing in local pubs and on street corners long before they even knew there was a record business. Having grown up on the remote Nullarbor Plain (what many consider one of the most isolated places on Earth), Kasey learned what is was like to live life from day to day, being home-schooled and surviving on whatever food she and her family could scare up. But her family's music was always there, and when she emerged on the scene in 1999 with "The Captain," her Australian brand of edgy country-tinged songwriting and her astonishing voice wowed audiences in her homeland. Now, with an appearance on Letterman under her belt and every Australian music award under the sun, she's mesmerizing folks stateside. Hers are the kinds of songs that make you smile and cry at the same time, and the harmonies on "The Captain" are the kinds that spawn goosebumps. And, wow, is her live show remarkable.

Kasey also supports the Christina Noble Children's Foundation, an international organization working to meet the comprehensive needs of oppressed children worldwide.

Buy The Captain from [djangos] or [amazon].



Rhapsodies in Black
A Collection from the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance -- which lasted from around 1915 until 1937 -- is still alive in music and poetry. A period of unprecedented prosperity and creativity, the Harlem Renaissance spawned some of the most important African-American voices of the 20th century. Shawn Amos' new collection of songs and sounds from the Renaissance is rich with "philosophying." As Amos says, if Ken Burns' documentary "Jazz" is the master shot, "Rhapsodies in Black" is the "close-up."

Listen to a story about it on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday. You will need RealPlayer to listen.

Fill your home with the sounds of Harlem. Buy a copy of the 4-CD set "Rhapsodies in Black" from [djangos] or [amazon].



Sara Hickman
Spiritual Appliances

A reader Good Gravy:

Sara Hickman's music is a "good thing"! I like Sara Hickman (and her music) not just for her style and humor, but if you ever get to see her live, she'll pull you right into her heartwarming stories. Fun one moment and tear-jerking the next, she gives you the feeling that there's a lot to sing about and that progressive ideals are not a waste of time. Sara's just a great person!

Angela Sevin
Concord, CA

When this Texas-based singer-songwriter was dropped from her major label after her second album, she was able to stage a fund drive (call it a glorified bake sale!) among her dedicated, committed fanbase that was successful enough to enable her to release her third album independently.

Buy Spiritual Appliances or any of Sara's other music from [djangos] or [amazon].



The Elephant Orchestra
Thai Elephant Conservation Center

Elephants once used in Thailand for logging (which is now banned there) are learning new tricks. They've become musicians, creating sounds with instruments that work a lot like guitars, drums, and harmonicas. The new CD "The Elephant Orchestra" shows off their oddly mesmerizing rhythms and melodies.

Listen to a story about it on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. You will need RealPlayer to listen.

Sales of "The Elephant Orchestra" CD support the work of the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. Buy a copy.



Phil Coulter/Roma Downey
Healing Angel

A reader Good Gravy:

Good morning, goodthings.

This is my first response to your invitation to share. We lost a daughter two years ago. She was 43, with two boys. Her heart and kidneys are sustaining and giving life to several recipients.

May I recommend a wonderful CD to any and all who respond to thoughtful, beautiful words and music. My wife and I were deeply touched as we listened to Roma Downey narrate the poetry and words to Phil Coulter's music. The CD is "Healing Angel" by Roma Downey and Phil Coulter. All of Phil Coulter's music is special for those who have never heard him.

Thank you for this opportunity to share.
Bob
Puyallup, WA

You haven't heard Celtic music until you've heard Phil Coulter's flute-playing. Buy it from [djangos] or [amazon].



David Gray
White Ladder

If you haven't heard the familiar strains of David Gray's single “Babylon” on the radio lately, you haven't been listening. Long the darling of acoustic-based pop music fans all over the UK and Ireland, David Gray's attempts to connect with listeners in the United States have been more tribulation than triumph.

Until now. His latest album – “White Ladder” – is a high-profile leap in a long career of baby steps. Years of struggle with record labels yielded three stirring albums (“A Century Ends,” “Flesh,” and “Sell, Sell, Sell”) but increasing bitterness from Gray. Then, he drew the attention of live-music-legend Dave Matthews, and clearly, the tide turned. Produced on Matthews' new label According To Our Records, “White Ladder” is an international sensation. With electrifying live shows and a magnetic onstage personality, Gray's rising star in North America carried him to an appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

Read an article on David Gray on CNN's Web site.


Buy it from [djangos] or [amazon].



Oxford American magazine
Southern Music Issue

This "Southern Magazine of Good Writing," with a voice like your favorite storytelling friend, publishes a special Southern Music Issue, which comes with a CD that will be the mixed tape you've always wanted. And because the editors are passionate about music and musicians, 10 percent of the proceeds of this issue are donated to Music Maker Relief Foundation, a charity based in Pinnacle, North Carolina, that gives money to indigent, and generally older, folk and blues musicians.

Visit Oxford American.



Emmylou Harris
Red Dirt Girl

Having grown up in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, Emmylou Harris holds legitimate claim to the moniker "Red Dirt Girl" and every right to use it as the name of her first solo studio album since 1995's Grammy-award winning "Wrecking Ball." As if her alarmingly stunning voice weren't reason enough to add it to your collection, "Red Dirt Girl" features a supporting cast that reads like a who's who. Dave Matthews, Bruce Springsteen, and Luscious Jackson's Jill Cunniff layer Harris' latest CD with richness. Her star shines even brighter through her support of the Second Harvest Food Bank's anti-hunger crusades and her ongoing commitment to the Campaign for a Landmine Free World.

Buy it from [djangos] or [amazon].



Greg Brown
Covenant

Greg Brown is an old-time troubadour, plain and simple. With storytelling as much a part of his live show as his distinctive warble, he's the kind of artist you'd imagine hearing in a coffeehouse or at an open mic. (Carlos Santana and Shawn Colvin are just two of the artists who have recorded Brown’s unusual songs.) His new album, "Covenant," has been described as "dark, full of pain and sorrow, sweet, wise and occasionally even a touch optimistic" – just enough nuance to make it tower over the other stuff in the record bins.

Brown is also dedicated to using his music to make a difference and has contributed songs to many benefit albums over his two-decade career, including non-profit In Harmony's CD to support foster children with special needs.

Buy it from [djangos] or [amazon].

Look for the upcoming breast cancer benefit album featuring Greg Brown songs sung by such women artists as Lucinda Williams, Iris Dement, Ani DiFranco, Gillian Welch, and Lucy Kaplansky.
Think acoustic music is a goodthing? Check out WUMB-FM Public Radio Boston's List of the Top 100 Folk CDs. It features four Greg Brown CDs. It's also an incredible radio station to listen to online.



Bruce Cockburn
Christmas

This CD is, hands down, the best-kept secret of the season. Acoustic, creative, joyful. What more do you need? No matter how you personally celebrate these December holidays, you'll wonder where this phenomenal music has been all your life. Cockburn's versions of "Go Tell It On The Mountain" and "I Saw Three Ships" make this one worth the price of admission.

Read a review.

Buy it from [djangos] or [amazon].



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