Does anyone know? At present, is a wave of new young singer/songwriter fire sweeping the USA too? Having GOD (the Nan0, duh) in my posession since wednesday has gotten me all in a frenzy of mp3s, it's great because you can get music willy-nilly without having to spend heaps of money, rip other people's cds, burn your own cd's whatever. Now I don't have to! I plug GOD in and I-tunes does all the work. I think sheer laziness has made my music collection go all stagnant for like the last 3 years or so-- I just really hate shopping for cd's or burning cd's. I'm listening to the same cd's I bought in 1994 when I bought my first stereo.
Anyway about the singer/songwriters, maybe it's just Ireland at the moment but I'm finding really great stuff by nice young boys who are actually writing decent music and singing/playing guitar with a bare minimum of bells and whistles... my kind of stuff. Well, one small component of my various stuff, at least. I only find out about these guys now because I'm seeking mp3s out, and I just stumble on to them, link by link.
Jack Johnson - why has no one told me about this guy? Do people not like him back home or something? I really like him. You can really tell he's from Hawaii, he even makes boring solo guitar work sound interesting and a bit "tropical", if you listen for it. I heard a really nice song on the background to a british tv program about a week before xmas, and so I quickly memorized the chorus, ran upstairs, Googled the lyrics, and found out it was a song called "Gone" by Johnson. Listened to it non-stop over xmas (I actually took the time to download the mp3), even the version with the Black Eyed Peas (go figure!) and now with GOD in my hand, I could get the whole album (on & on), which is brilliant, plus another one. It's really nice. OK really subdude and it doesn't exactly get the blood pumping or anything, but it's good music to work to, since I don't know it well enough yet for it to distract me. And I see talent in him that I haven't really seen in contemporary "rock" music since, like, before I was born. He's not some pretentious James Blunt-type whiney prick, he's just laid-back and interesting, with minimal gimmicks in his guitar playing/backing music. Very spartan tracks, with great lyrics and great voice. Apparently he did some "Curious George" movie soundtrack. I didnt even know George brought out a movie....!
Josh Ritter - he's amazing. He's out here touring Ireland right now, but he's actually from Idaho. Apparently he's big in the states?? Well if so, again, why dont people I know talk about him? Just curious. Maybe he's really crap and I've only just managed to hear a couple really great tunes, but, man, when I heard "Good Man" for the first time on the radio the other night, I had to quickly pull over and grab a pen and write it down on the back of a pack of gum, I was so impressed.
Josh Rouse isn't so bad either, (actually he might be the first one to get the axe off of GOD, as he can be a tad boring) I wouldn't rave about him. But I would go to see him live, if the tickets weren't out of control expensive. I just think it's weird that this genere of young male songwriters is hitting the mainstream (well ok, it's definitely NOT the mainstream), but it's just ... available...!?? And true, I have been living in the WRONG COUNTRIES altogether for roots rock/alt.country incluenced singers, but they just seem to be coming at me from all directions at the moment. And I am quite enjoying it. (No offense intended but just for the record, the Aussies, South Africans, Brits, and Irish are indeed musically challanged as far as my tastes go - of course not including my small niches of non-conventional friends from such countries!) :-D
Again, these guys don't like, make me wanna rush out and dump all my Flying Burrito Brothers, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan albums for Jack and Josh and Josh and whoever else, but man, I haven't had "new" music in my stash since the 90's when I was buying anything the Jayhawks would put out!! (Hip Hop excluded).
Are any of those guys actually famous overseas or is it just me living in a place where random people get famous for no reason? Because, well that does happen here, that's for sure... but I'm just curious. Or has my musical taste changed SO much that now I just like really wussy stuff? I don't know, I just remember bithcing for the last 10 years that "there's no good music that comes out these days... now here, pass me that stack of Allman Brothers vinal".
Refreshing.
Anyway about the singer/songwriters, maybe it's just Ireland at the moment but I'm finding really great stuff by nice young boys who are actually writing decent music and singing/playing guitar with a bare minimum of bells and whistles... my kind of stuff. Well, one small component of my various stuff, at least. I only find out about these guys now because I'm seeking mp3s out, and I just stumble on to them, link by link.
Jack Johnson - why has no one told me about this guy? Do people not like him back home or something? I really like him. You can really tell he's from Hawaii, he even makes boring solo guitar work sound interesting and a bit "tropical", if you listen for it. I heard a really nice song on the background to a british tv program about a week before xmas, and so I quickly memorized the chorus, ran upstairs, Googled the lyrics, and found out it was a song called "Gone" by Johnson. Listened to it non-stop over xmas (I actually took the time to download the mp3), even the version with the Black Eyed Peas (go figure!) and now with GOD in my hand, I could get the whole album (on & on), which is brilliant, plus another one. It's really nice. OK really subdude and it doesn't exactly get the blood pumping or anything, but it's good music to work to, since I don't know it well enough yet for it to distract me. And I see talent in him that I haven't really seen in contemporary "rock" music since, like, before I was born. He's not some pretentious James Blunt-type whiney prick, he's just laid-back and interesting, with minimal gimmicks in his guitar playing/backing music. Very spartan tracks, with great lyrics and great voice. Apparently he did some "Curious George" movie soundtrack. I didnt even know George brought out a movie....!
Josh Ritter - he's amazing. He's out here touring Ireland right now, but he's actually from Idaho. Apparently he's big in the states?? Well if so, again, why dont people I know talk about him? Just curious. Maybe he's really crap and I've only just managed to hear a couple really great tunes, but, man, when I heard "Good Man" for the first time on the radio the other night, I had to quickly pull over and grab a pen and write it down on the back of a pack of gum, I was so impressed.
Josh Rouse isn't so bad either, (actually he might be the first one to get the axe off of GOD, as he can be a tad boring) I wouldn't rave about him. But I would go to see him live, if the tickets weren't out of control expensive. I just think it's weird that this genere of young male songwriters is hitting the mainstream (well ok, it's definitely NOT the mainstream), but it's just ... available...!?? And true, I have been living in the WRONG COUNTRIES altogether for roots rock/alt.country incluenced singers, but they just seem to be coming at me from all directions at the moment. And I am quite enjoying it. (No offense intended but just for the record, the Aussies, South Africans, Brits, and Irish are indeed musically challanged as far as my tastes go - of course not including my small niches of non-conventional friends from such countries!) :-D
Again, these guys don't like, make me wanna rush out and dump all my Flying Burrito Brothers, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan albums for Jack and Josh and Josh and whoever else, but man, I haven't had "new" music in my stash since the 90's when I was buying anything the Jayhawks would put out!! (Hip Hop excluded).
Are any of those guys actually famous overseas or is it just me living in a place where random people get famous for no reason? Because, well that does happen here, that's for sure... but I'm just curious. Or has my musical taste changed SO much that now I just like really wussy stuff? I don't know, I just remember bithcing for the last 10 years that "there's no good music that comes out these days... now here, pass me that stack of Allman Brothers vinal".
Refreshing.
um yeah, Jack Johnson is amazing!
Oh, and BTW, I sent you an email re: the exe file. READ IT and hook me up, sister.
Rock on with GOD, btw. I'm thinking I'm gonna name mine "Sweet Georgia Brown" and call her Georgie for short.