There’s a video on the Amazon site with a little more information.  Check it out.

UPDATE - of course the video is on YouTube.  Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Even if you’re not a subscriber, Rhapsody will allow 25 free plays per month.  So do me a favor and play the tracks below a couple of times and we’ll see if I recoup my setup costs.  Thanks!

The Nicest Guy She’d Meet
I Can’t Feel Love
I Don’t Know
Micheline
Grumble
Come Again
The Bitter Guy
Cryin’ Dyin’ Blues
Magic
Marie’s Song
New York’s Just a Dream
Not Anymore
November
Micheline Reprise

BTW - Just got back from a week in Joshua Tree.  Like last year, Christopher and I got some great recording done.  I’ll post some stuff as soon as I’m done mixing and mastering.  But first I’ve got a couple of days to spend at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival!

So last night I went to see her at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. And while this wasn’t the absolute best Patty Griffin performance I’ve seen, it was in full effect. Of note, she opened with the cover Hang on St. Christopher which is off one of my favorite Tom Waits albums. Happily she played a few older songs from Flaming Red – an album that is jarring compared to her folkier work but brilliant and under appreciated. She did play my current favorite Up to the Mountain, but sadly without the lead guitar of Doug Lancio this time.

My favorite albums, not surprisingly, are the ones where she really lets he voice shine.  She said in concert last year that she’d been advised to sing quietly on previous albums.  Thankfully she ignored that and really belted out on her latest masterpiece, Children Running Through.  It shows. If you don’t have this album, go buy it now. Sadly, it looks like Rhapsody doesn’t have it available, so I can’t link to samples here.

Her debut album Living With Ghosts will always hold a special place in my heart. It reminds me of contented Sunday mornings and cardamom flavored coffee. That has nothing to do with the album – all acoustic guitar and vocals filled with loud, bitter tunes – but more because I’ve got my own things going on.  Anyway, here’s the album on Rhapsody:

Moses
Let Him Fly
Every Little Bit
Time Will Do The Talking (Mariah moment and all)
Mad Mission
Poor Man’s House
Forgiveness
You Never Get What You Want
Sweet Lorraine
Not Alone

And here are a few gems from Flaming Red:

One Big Love
Tony
Change

Also check out Chief, Tomorrow Night and Mil Besos from 1,000 Kisses.

Finally, I’ve made my sister record some Patty Griffin tunes over the years.  I Write the Book (clip here) is off some bootleg I found and probably my all time favorite Patty song (really, really bitter):

I Write the Book
Time Will Do the Talking
One Big Love

Take a listen. If you figure out what it is, please let me know.

It’s an easy bet that I have listened to Neko’s latest, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, more times than she has (that’s the nature of art).  It is a gorgeous piece of work that I find hard to describe, but can’t put down.  It’s filled with quirky little songs that defy conventional songwriting structure - lacking choruses and repeated hooks - but I find myself singing along to.  I’m a fan of big, strong voices, and Neko’s is the biggest and the strongest.  I also love a lot of reverb and the production of all of Neko’s solo work revolves on big, beautiful, echo’y sound.  She surrounds herself with some great musicians, including Kelly Hogan who I’ve followed since her Atlanta, Jody Grind days.  “Country noir”?  “Alt-country”? “Southern Gothic”?  I don’t really know what adjective applies other than “beautiful”.

I love her other albums as well.  I can listen to Look for Me, I’ll Be Around, the Sarah Vaughan cover from Neko’s Blacklisted, over and over and over again.  My sister and I did the best we could to cover:

Kim Meador - Look For Me, I’ll Be Around (Faster, Acoustic take here)

I think there’s a new Neko album on the way.  I can’t wait.

But as an adult, that doesn’t happen to me that much any more.  I have a lot of theories for it:

• Too many albums at my disposal
• More discriminating
• Not enough time to absorb new material

Daniel J. Levitin has a better theory in This Is Your Brain on Music (great book!).  I’m paraphrasing, but one of the points he makes is that teenagers’  brains are better wired to be overcome by the effect of music - to really feel the sound in a way that adults can’t.

I would buy into that theory except for the fact that occasionally an album comes along that I play all day, every single day, for months on end.  Firecracker - So Long Someday is one of those albums.

I picked up So Long Someday after finding out that a Rhett Miller song was on the album.  The music is right up my alley - pop/rock songs above love lost with a little grit thrown in on the side and some great lead guitar work.  Scout, the lead singer and songwriter, has an appealing voice, his lyrics are heartfelt, and the sound crafted on this recording is soothing.

The sad thing about all this is that these guys are local and were playing gigs right down the block at the Hotel Utah.  By the time I became transfixed by this album, I only caught a few acoustic gigs before they seemed to disappear.  I still hold out hope that Scout or the band will resurface in some form somewhere in the City.

Note to self - go see more local, live music so that I don’t make this mistake again.