Tag: mp3

Justin Townes Earle gets it. Sure, his music isn’t always revolutionary but he puts new breath into old styles as if he were the one who created the genre in the first place. “Maria” which is the fifth song on his upcoming album Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now  is a fine example, a shimmering number that’s a little bit Memphis soul mixed with Springsteen and Van Morrison. While the golden warmth of the arrangement is a plus here, it’s truly his voice, the light in the gloaming, that wins you over, he doesn’t as much sing as he inhabits his songs and he’s a true talent in Americana. Check out the beautiful “Down on the Lower East Side" below as well.

Maria- Justin Townes Earle

Down on the Lower East Side- Justin Townes Earle

Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now will be released on  Bloodshot Records on March 27th, 2012

“Let Me Do It To You” is a gem off of J.J. Cales unheralded1976 album Troubadour. While the lyrics are simple and to the point, it’s the music and catchy melody that really shine here and though Eric Clapton would make a hit out of another track off this album, “Cocaine” you can see the foundation of the groove for Clapton’s own “Lay Down Sally” in this fun track. Clapton might have got the rhythm of Cale’s guitar-work down, but his covers are nowhere near as funky as these originals, check out the bouncing lead on “Cocaine” that I’ve included as a bonus below.

Let Me Do It To You- J.J. Cale
Cocaine- J.J. Cale

Classic Albums: The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle (1973)

I saw rock ‘n’ roll’s future—and its name is Bruce Springsteen

On August 25th, 1975, Bruce Springsteen’s musical career changed forever. Born to Run was a triumph of encapsulating the motifs of the American Dream, the hope of the future versus the world weary reality, the desire to make something out of nothing and never look back, audiences took to it immediately and a star was born.  Many thought that this Jersey boy had come out of nowhere (he had) and that this was a stunning debut (it wasn’t).  The genius of Born to Run lay in its absolute desperation, it’s all or nothing grandeur that was indeed the result of an artist taking his last shot at stardom, doomed to fade to obscurity if he failed.  The tales that came out of this recording were legendary, it took two years to make the album, with a good 6 months spent on the title track, complete with 12 guitar overdubs and a change in production and management halfway through.  The guitar slinger from Jersey had finally found critical and popular success, yet Springsteen had already touched upon the themes so heralded in Born to Run, and it was The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle that had brought him there.

Continue reading Classic Albums: The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle (1973)

“You could mess up my life in a poem
Have me divorced by the time of the chorus
Theres no need to change any sentence
When you always decide where I go next

Many nights you would hide from the audience
When they were not in tune with your progress
In the end you are like the journalist
Who turns what you sing into business”

“Working Titles” off of the new Damien Jurado album, Maraqopa, is a beautiful song, self-referential lyrics with clever wordplay boost an already gorgeous arrangement. Jurado’s voice itself is perfect for the tune; confessional but not completely mournful, sparse but not completely haunting.

Working Titles- Damien Jurado 

Maraqopa was released on Secretly Canadian on February 21st.