Radical Transparency

(in case the other blogs need a friend)

I Miss Jimmy Like I Miss My Wine

Here's hoping Phillies fans aren't singing this next season:

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Facts about Jimmy is track 3 on A Few Small Repairs. I learned about it from the same mix that introduced Morphine to this blog.

She's Mixing One For Me I Think

This song arrived by email on Saturday night. Blew me away on first listen. Blown me away dozens of times since.

I've never met the sender. Word is he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Phish.

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Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer is track 4 on The Night.

When the Sky Can't Offer None to Me

I used to say I didn't like country music. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band forced me to reconsider. And, as of about a week ago, Ryan Adams has convinced me to learn to play a little. Convinced me by singing a song about rain.

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Thanks to my cousin Zach for the intro. In My Time of Need is track 12 on The Anniversary, Zach's mix club mix about loves won and lost. It's also track 14 on Heartbreaker.

Voyage of the Third-Rate Stiltsmen

Stiltsman_album_art

This post is for the people that just received an email that included this link. And for the people that want to click that link and download a mix that Lauren and I made for our mix of the month club. Since we didn't burn CDs this time, we figured we'd offer liner notes instead:

1. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) - Frank Wilson: Big thanks to Turkey Bowl for this one. Best end credits I've heard in a long time.

2. Sweet Louise - The Belle Brigade: Happy unrequited love. Rare.

3. It's Close, I'm Come Undone - Hoots & Hellmouth: How we hooked Axel on H&H. Or, rather, how H&H hooked Axel on H&H.

4. No Time for Dreaming - Charles Bradley: From the debut album of a 62 year old former James Brown cover singer.

5. Just Fine - G. Love: We heard him say that his new album is a return to his Delta Blues roots. Sounds like a return to the same old G. Love, which doesn't bother us.

6. Drunken Cowgirl - The Vaudeville Smash: Stealing Jon's thunder with this one. We should have left it for his next mix, but we couldn't resist.

7. Give It All Back - Noah and the Whale: "The performance was nervous and awkward, but the passion was real and profound." Love it.

8. Just One Kiss - Raphael Saadiq (and Joss Stone): A pop soul love duet, for snuggling.

9. Something in the Water - Brooke Fraser: Christian rocker from New Zealand goes secular, momentarily at least.

10. Down in the Valley - The Head and the Heart: I, too, often "wish I was a slave to an age old trade."

11. Settler - Balmorhea: Sledgehammered me the first time I heard it.

12. Truth - Alexander: We fell in love with Alex Ebert when he took his shirt off, asked us to sit down, and sang us a lullaby.

13. 928 Horn Jam - Trombone Shorty: We didn't predict that the PBS party would be the sweatiest of SXSW 2011. But we didn't know Trombone Shorty was going to be there.

14. Loud Love - Good Old War: The only completely non-SXSW-connected song on here. We saw them open for Guster in LA a couple of months ago. If listening doesn't move you, watch.

15. Beekeeper - David Wax Museum: We brought these guys out to see Hoots & Hellmouth in Austin, but they ran away during the last song. I'm convinced that Suz, the fiddle player, fell in love with someone on stage, and David, the lead singer, got jealous.

16. Keys to the Kingdom - Abigail Washburn: Imagine this song with a trumpet instead of a banjo. That's how she's performing it now.

17. EZ Pass - Har Mar Superstar: How can you not love a guy that looks like this?

18. L.O.V. - Fitz and the Tantrums: For all you baseball fans, this is the Rule 5 Draft Pick of this mix. Not gonna get much playing time right away, but something tells me Fitz and the Tantrums are a good long term investment.

19. Down the Burning Ropes - James Vincent McMorrow: No backstory. No special reason. No comment. Just sounds good.

20. Knockin' - Carolina Chocolate Drops (and Luminescent Orchestrii): Last minute addition to the mix. Threw it in for attitude. And non-traditional percussion.

21. Listen to the Darkside - Charlie Mars: "If you wanna come over, come over and MAKE PIE, we can listen to the Dark Side of the Moon." Just in case anyone needs G-rated alternate lyrics.

Not That Sad, Honey

Amazing how much fun stuff I've come across while making our latest mix of the month. Bummer how much of it I've had to cut from the mix. And sad to think how much I'll forget about and never listen to again.

This song will not fall into that "sad" group. Because blog posts are forever (or for-a-while, anyway).

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World's Smallest Violin is track 2 on A View of the Sky.

Unknown

Got the latest mix of the month in the mail yesterday. With it came a track list.

1. Caledonia Men's Group - Wishes of Welcome
2. The Walkmen - In The New Year
3. unknown
4. Ted Lucas - Baby Where You Are
...

This is track three. Probably from a faraway place. Maybe from a faraway time. Still fits.

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Six Times Rehearsed, At Least

Lauren's car got in a fight and lost, so, since Zeke's off wandering in Wyoming, we've been driving his car for the past two weeks.

And listening to his CDs.

Including a nameless mix he made in May.

Good to know he's still listening to the important stuff.

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Pretty sure there were multiple nights in college when Zeke and I insisted that everyone listen to nothing but that song, over and over and over.

Don't let a win get to your head or a loss to your heart.

No such thing as too much of that line.

He Got Game is track 2 on the soundtrack to He Got Game.

Help Me, Girl, As Soon As You Can

Jon just asked me to put together a dance mix featuring Bruce Springsteen and The Grateful Dead.

Half the people at the party are going to be screaming for R Kelly the whole time.

Maybe I start with Al Green and see where he takes me?

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When We Used To Sit

This doesn't work. FYI.

Do_do_do_do_do_do_do_do_do_do_

But maybe a blog post will...

I'm looking for a song. With lots of do do do dos.

A woman sings it, a singer to whom I remember my mother listening sometimes. Not as much as she listened to Tracy Chapman or Cat Stevens or Sam Cooke. But sometimes, which is kind of a lot.

The song doesn't have many rhymes. Maybe no rhymes at all, actually. That might be its thing: no rhymes. Which, if you happen to be writing a song for me, is probably a thing to avoid. I like rhymes.

Another one of the song's things is that the singer kinda talks it as much as she sings it. Which is an ok thing by me. Much better, in general, than the no rhymes thing.

The song also connects in my mind to In Liverpool. Maybe because Suzanne Vega sings them both. But maybe not.

Also, through In Liverpool, the song lives in a box in my memory with Fee and No Woman, No Cry. All three were on the first mixtape anyone ever gave me.  The do do do do song was not on that mixtape. Nor is this information relevant. I'm taking notes at this point. Notes about that first mixtape...

Fee, I liked immediately and still adore.

No Woman, No Cry I did not like, and that fact STILL blows my mind. It's still embarrassing. And it makes me sad. For myself at age 10 or however old I was. And for everyone else in the world that doesn't love No Woman, No Cry. I was missing out; so are those people.

The mixtape had two sides, each with different labels. One was called Like It's My Job. The other was called Like There's No Tomorrow. Both of those titles referred to peeing. I have to pee like it's my job. I have to pee like there's no tomorrow. Sanna, the babysitter that made me the mix, said those things, and I thought they were hilarious.

I think 10 is embarrassingly old to be answering to a babysitter. I'm pretty sure I thought that at the time too. But I also don't think I was the reason Sanna was around. My sister and cousins are all younger, and she was certainly in more charge of them than me. I think.

Anyway, it's time to wrap this up and post No Woman, No Cry. It's track 5 on Live! And it led off one of the two sides of that mixtape.

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