Last year I set up digital distribution for downtime via CDBaby.net.  Now the album is available on iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon and other fine digital music retailers.  Yesterday I got my first check – for $12.67.  At this rate, in two more years I’ll pay off the setup fee and watch the profits pour in!

If you have the time, play the songs on Rhapsody and send a few extra pennies my way.  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

A quick, unusual recommendation for this blog.  On Saturday I walked downtown.  A little overwhelmed by the Union Square crowds and needing a break, I jumped into the Borders Books, grabbed a cup of coffee and found a quiet chair to sit in.  At that moment they started playing Edgar Meyer’s Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites – Performed on Double Bass.  I own this one and recognized it straight away.  For whatever reason, it was exactly the right music at exactly the right time to soothe whatever was ailing me and I sat and listened to the whole thing.  This recording particularly appeals to me because there are so few good bass recordings out there:

Suite for Solo Cello No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 – Suite for Solo Cello No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008/I. Prélude (Instrumental)
Suite for Solo Cello No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 – Suite for Solo Cello No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008/II. Allemande (Instrumental)
Suite for Solo Cello No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 – Suite for Solo Cello No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008/III. Courante (Instrumental)

Net net, I’ve been listening all week. 

I first heard about Meyer when the Rice string bass majors were talking about his work on a Lyle Lovett album and I had the pleasure of seeing him a couple of years ago at the Herbst.  Genius.

And yes, this inspired me to dust off the bass and see how badly my skills have deteriorated (not too bad, thankfully!).  Maybe some bass work will make it on the next album…

For all the complaining I do about the local SF music scene, there are a ton of road shows I’m going to see in the next few months.  Here’s the run down so far:

• Rupa and the April Fishes – Wednesday, April 1 @ The Independent
• Cory Branan – Friday, April 3 @ The Freight and Salvage
• Clem Snide – Thursday, April 9 @ The Bottom of the Hill
• Junior Brown – Monday, April 13 @ The Independent
• Fleet Foxes – Tuesday, April 21 @ The Fabulous Fox Theater in Oakland
• M. Ward – Saturday, May 16 @ The Fabulous Fox Theater in Oakland
• Neko Case – Tuesday, June 9 and Wednesday June 10 @ The Warfield
• Patty Griffin – Thursday, June 25 @ The Mountain Winery

Let me know if you’re interested in going to any of these shows.  Plus there’s always open mic night Thursday nights at the Bazaar Cafe.  The music just gets better and better!

I’ve haven’t posted any WIP in quite a while.  The truth is songwriting is a very difficult process for me and it takes a lot of time that I haven’t had so far in 2009.  That said, I have been playing when I can.  Generally my songs start off as little sketches that may or may not turn into something real.  Yesterday I recorded a bunch of new sketches so that I can carry them around on the phone and see if lyrics and melody present themselves in my spare time.

So, for the few hard core friends who are interested in this sort of thing, here’s what I’ve got:

• Sketch #1 Acoustic (Here’s an electric version for grins.  Can you tell I was recording late at night?)
• Sketch #2 Acoustic
• Sketch #3 Acoustic
• Sketch #4 Acoustic (I think this sounds like a european folk song, but don’t ask me why…)
• Sketch #5: 6-String, 12-String, Gibson Electric, Telecaster

The last one presents the most imagery to me when I play it.  I picture dancing in cobblestone streets into the wee hours of a humid night and rum-soaked kisses.  But that’s just me.  I tried the different guitars because I think they all lend a different flavor to the music – from some sort of Spanish\Latin thing through to 60s surf music.  I think there’s a chance that it might stay an instrumental after I work on it a bit.

Will any of these become full on songs?  That remains to be seen, but I’ve been known to carry sketches around for a decade before they turn into anything more tangible.

Thanks for indulging me…

I went to see Eleni Mandell at Cafe du Nord last night.  I was turned on to her stuff from the songs:Illinois blog, a place where I seem to be finding more and more great music.  I have been loving her albums enough to give them as gifts to my family, so I was really looking forward to the show.

She opened with My Twin, which is one of my favorites.  The band was incredibly good and it was particularly fascinating to see how she translated her studio work to a live performance.  All in all a good time, though I was disappointed with the length of the show – less than an hour overall.  Maybe this had to do with the fact that attendance was pretty light, but that’s not all that good of an excuse IMO.

Eleni just released Artificial Fire, which I like more and more, but if you’re going to buy one Eleni Mandell album, I’d buy Miracle of Five or Afternoon first.  Here are some samples:

 Miracle of Five

Moonglow, Lamp Low
Girls

Afternoon

American Boy
Afternoon

Country for True Lovers is great as well.  Give her a listen and we’ll all go to the show next time she’s in town.

I’m a little embarrassed to write how much I love Neko Case’s new album.  I mean, I was obviously pre-destined to like it.  So I realize that my credibility is strained here.

But Middle Cyclone is really really good.

It feels like a natural extension of Fox Confessor, but she returns to some more traditional song forms (Chorus!  Hooks!) and adds a couple of covers to boot.  And then there’s that voice.  *swoon*

But what I really like about it is the humor in the whole thing.  I generally focus on music and melody long before lyrics (and MC has a glorious helping of both).  But after several dozen listens, I can’t help but chuckle at a lovesick Tornado that “carved your name across three counties” or prison girls that have “traded more for cigarettes than I’ve managed to express.”  And the single People Got a Lotta Nerve about misguided surprise when wild animals turn deadly is either eerily prophetic or in pretty poor taste depending on your opinion of current events.

And you read the interviews and Neko says that no, there’s no hidden meaning.  The song really is about what would happen if a tornado fell in love with a person and smashed everything standing for 65 miles wide. And the chorus “I’m a man man man, man man man eater” really is just about a killer whale.  If you close your eyes, you can almost see the smirk…

So good.

She’s playing on June 9th at the Warfield.  This one’s sure to sell out, so buy your tickets soon.  See you there.

A quick reminder, I’ve got a gig this Saturday, February 28th with Erston Pearcy:

Saturday, February 28 from 7:00 – 9:30 PM
Bazaar Café
http://www.bazaarcafe.com/
5927 California Street, between 21st & 22nd Avenues
San Francisco, CA 94121

I haven’t played the Bazaar in a while and I’m really looking forward to Saturday.  Erston is an fantastic songwriter and always puts on a good show.  Check out some of his tunes:

Someone
More of You
’56 Chevrolet

Good stuff.  Pick up his excellent EP at Saturday’s performance for a “very reasonable price.” 

See you guys there!

I am swamped, but there are several new albums from indescribably talented artists that are helping me get through it…

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

I saw Andrew Bird last night at the Fillmore.  Like last time, GREAT show.  The stuff he does with looping and pitch modulation is cool.  In the past, I’ve been so impressed with his whistling and playing that I failed to notice what a great singer he is.  His new album, Noble Beast, is really starting to grow on me.  A couple of my favorites:

Not a Robot, But a Ghost
Effigy

New to Andrew Bird?  I’d probably still start with Armchair Apocrypha, but ask me again in a couple of weeks.

M. Ward – Hold Time

Another singer-songwriter that defies explanation, M. Ward, just put out a new album.  I thought his last, Post-War was excellent and I’m digging Hold Time more and more.  Here are a couple of highlights:

One Hundred Million Years
Oh Lonesome Me

Lucinda Williams makes an appearance on the last one.  I really dig his slow take on the Don Gibson classic.  Also give his side project with Zooey Deschanel a listen, She & Him.

Eleni Mandell – Artificial Fire

I read about Eleni Mandell on Songs:Illinois (a music blog right in my wheelhouse) and immediately took a liking to her stuff.  I gave Miracle of Five to my sister for Christmas and Afternoon to my mom for Valentine’s Day and I love her take on the classic country sound in Country for True Lovers.  As you can imagine, I took Artificial Fire for a spin as soon as it came out.  In reviews of Eleni’s first albums, folks compared her quirky, rocking sound to Tom Waits.  After a few listens, I think that the latest is a move back in that direction.  Very enjoyable and it reminds me a little bit of Shivaree.  Two examples:

Needle and Thread
Don’t Let It Happen

Which album would I but first?  Probably Miracle of Five or Afternoon, but it’s all good.

NPR and Neko

A final note – I have been listening to music online at NPR.org a LOT.  There are great interviews and performance from tons of artists.  They streamed the first two albums above in their entirety prior to release.  Neko Case’s new album, Middle Cyclone, will get the same treatment at midnight EST on the 23rd.  Guess what I’ll be doing Monday night?

Robin has asked me to share a gig with them this Sunday at Cafe La Flore (THANKS!).   Here are the details:

Sunday, February 1 at 5pm.
Cafe La Flore
1032 Clement St, San Francisco (map and directions)

This should be a fun, casual gig – more like sitting around a living room and trading songs than a formal performance.  Stop by if you’re looking for a break on Sunday.

Also, mark your calendars for my February 28th gig with Erston Pearcy.  See you soon!

Mark Olson & Gary Louris, the original founders of the Jayhawks, released their first joint album in 13 years today.  I have been excited about Ready for the Flood since seeing these guys at last year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival – the highlight of the weekend.  I’ve been listening all morning and it just brings a smile to my face.

I’ve been a Jayhawks fan basically forever.  I can remember hearing Blue in a hotel lobby in Baltimore about 13 years ago and telling my co-worker that it was my favorite song EVER.  (A time in my life where I still felt the need to talk in absolutes…).  Mark left the Jayhawks around that time and Gary put out some great albums after, but I sorely missed the soaring harmonies and songwriting of the original duo.

Ready for the Flood is what you would expect from these guys – mostly acoustic music with poetic lyrics and beautiful two part harmonies.  The AllMusic guide says the songs are “faded and familiar.”  That just about sums it up.  Listening to these guys feels like going home and hanging out with old friends.

Here are some songs from Ready for the Flood to whet your appetite:

The Rose Society
Bicycle
Turn Your Pretty Name Around
Saturday Morning On Sunday Street

If you want to explore The Jayhawks post-Olson, Rainy Day Music is a spectacular album.  Panned by critics for reasons that I can’t fathom and a precursor to the demise of the band, this is yet another record that I couldn’t put down for a long, long time.  Some tracks:

Stumbling Through The Dark
Angeline
Tampa To Tulsa

Enjoy.  I’m off to see Neko tomorrow night.  Sweet.  She’s my favorite EVER.