Music Monday - Madeleine Peyroux

I figured it was getting a little repetitive to have a bunch of posts entitled "Music Monday", so I thought that adding the artist name in the title would be a good idea...

Today's Music Monday CD is Careless Love, the 2nd release from jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux. 11 of the 12 tracks are remakes of jazz or pop standards, with the exception of the 2nd track, "Don't Wait Too Long."

I love Madeleine's voice, and the tracks all sound like the type of music you'd hear in a small jazz club somewhere in the middle of Paris. Small wonder, as she spent her formative years living and singing in Paris. It's somewhat minimalist--not a lot of over-production, and not a lot of instruments. Just a basic jazz quartet with vocals.

My favorite track on the whole CD is her cover of Josephine Baker's classic "J'ai Deux Amours" ('I Have Two Loves'), a song about her deep love for Paris. It's a great song about a great city, and it's a great rendition on this disc.

If you like jazz, even a little, give this CD a spin.

More later...

Music Monday

Today's Music Monday, boys and girls, is a dive into a more obscure genre...electronica/big beat music. The featured record today is Legion of Boom from The Crystal Method.

I became familiar with TCM through their work in films and TV, and also from some of PC games I play. I was shopping for other music about a year ago, saw this on the store shelf, and thought "Hm, let's give it a spin." It was one of those CDs that grabbed me instantly--from the opening measures of the first track, I knew I was hooked.

I've since gotten all TCMs works (except for their newest CD Drive, which I just found out about--YIPPEE, more TCM music!) and listen to them regularly. They make good music for driving, running, working out, etc. I like them all, but Legion of Boom is still my favorite.

Give them a listen--they're awesome.

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New Music Monday

Whoops, I plum forgot today was new music Monday. Good thing it's still Monday...

Being as how yesterday was Easter--and I hope you all had a great one!--I thought something relating to the Easter story might be good. So this week's record is a bit old but fits in quite well. It's Passion, by Peter Gabriel.



This project is the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's excellent film, The Last Temptation of Christ. I read the book when I was in college and absolutely fell in love with it. The movie was true to the story, and the music really helped it come alive.

There's no mistaking the fact that this is a modern soundtrack--traditional beats and rhythms, etc. But what makes it interesting is that Gabriel used musicians who were little known in the US, but who were well-known in the Middle East and Africa. Gabriel helped pioneer bringing "world music" to the US, and this album was a seminal contribution to this effort. Gabriel also won his first Grammy Award for this album.

Wikipedia.org has a great article about the album here. Although it was originally released almost 20 years ago, it was remastered (along with the rest of Gabriel's catalog) in 2002 and is easily found on Amazon.com and other sites.

If you're not a world music devotee, give it a listen and see what you think. It's good mood music and, in fact, is on in the background as I write this post now.

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Music Monday

Yes, I'm still alive. (C: A combination of travelling and the flu has gotten me down, but I'm back to normal--er, back to what qualifies as normal in my life. I'm digging out of task hell right now but hadn't posted in like forever, so at least wanted to get a "Music Monday" post up...




Today's album goes back a bit, but not quite as far as I did with my last MM post. The choice for this week is George Strait's live album "For The Last Time: Live From The Houston Astrodome."

It was recorded during Strait's set at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 2002--the last year it was held in the Astrodome before it was torn down. Strait has a long history with the HLSR, and even talks about it in a monologue on the record.

Before I bought this record I knew who Strait was but wasn't very familiar with his work. It caught me right from the beginning--the crowd goes wild when his band starts an instrumental Texas swing version of "Deep In The Heart of Texas".

Strait is one of those artists that does a quality recording whether it's live or in studio. His voice never varies, and he doesn't lose it on any of the high or low notes. He does some new stuff and some old stuff, and you can tell he's really having a blast with the concert.

If country music doesn't completely turn you off (and it does some people, I know), this disc is definitely worth a listen. It's one of my all-time favorite CDs.

Anyway, that's it for today boys and girls. Good to be back in the posting mode.

More later...

Music Monday...on Tuesday

As I was drifting off to sleep last night it occurred to me that I hadn't yet posted for New Music Monday. So here it is, just...er, on Tuesday...instead...

I'm going back a ways for today's record...all the way back to 1986. The album of choice today is Miles Davis Tutu.

A bit of back story--I grew up in a very small town in a rural part of Illinois, where all there was to listen to was gospel music, Top 40, and country. I had little to no exposure to other types of music, including jazz.

Fast forward to my college days. I discovered jazz in abouat 1985, and instantly fell in love with it. Miles Davis became one of my favorite artists, and this is my favorite of all of his albums. In earlier years he was very much a purist--he'd do small ensembles consisting of bass, drums, guitar, etc. This record is a departure, in that he uses a lot more synthesizers and electronic sounds to enhance the clean, brassy sound of his horn.

I had the privilege of seeing Miles in concert twice, and both times were exceptionally good shows. He continued recording and releasing quality records up until his death, but to me this is the pinnacle of his later years. In an odd coincidence--he died the same day that Mrs. jtj3 and I got married.

Anyway, if you're into jazz, or even if you're looking to experiment, this is a great record to start with.

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Music Mondays - Lenny Kravitz

Now that I'm past the post #100 celebration, it's time for Music Mondays to return to its usual timeslot.




Today's Music Monday record is the new Lenny Kravitz project "It Is Time For A Love Revolution."

I've been a big fan of Lenny Kravitz for a few years now--I like the hard rocking guitar, and how most of his songs are without a lot of embellishment: lead and bass guitar, vocals, drums.

He typically doesn't break a lot of new musical ground from album to album, and this one is no exception. That doesn't take anything away from the artistry or from this work. It's not like one record is hard rock, the next is Latino salsa rhythms.

Now having said that, this record has more of a 70's funk feel to it than some of his previous projects. He brings in some good keyboard action, a fat sax solo or two, etc.

Also, in listening to the words, there seems to be a Christian (or at least 'religious') theme to some of the songs, like this opening lyric from "Bring It On":

I'm gonna walk by faith
Gonna raise my sword
I'm gonna fight my
battle
I'm gonna praise my Lord

Pretty up front about what he believes, if you ask me. Not that it's a bad thing. There are other themes like this through the songs if you listen to the words at all.

All in all, a darned good project and quite enjoyable. Give it a listen.

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Music Monday

Interesting, my last post was "Super Tuesday", now today it's "Music Monday". Hm, let's come up with an alliterative title for each day of the week... (C;

I'll have to admit up front that I'm the king of lame-o's, because today's featured record is new to me, but I'm betting everyone else in the world is SO over it by now. You have to understand, folks--I've been almost totally country music for going on 8 years now. So for me to branch out and discover (and talk about!) non-country music is a big step. Plus...my blog, my rules...

OK, so with that admission, today's Music Monday record is The White Stripes--their eponymous debut album. I started listening to it just a few days ago, and I absolutely love it. I told a friend that they remind me of what The Doors might sound like if they'd formed in the 90s instead of the 60s. The grungy sound is raw and energetic, and I love the vocals. The record has so much passion and energy, it makes you want to get up and shake your body.

Now that I've discovered the White Stripes, I'll probably go back and get more of their works. But this is what I'm listening to for this week!

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Music Mondays - what sounds good?

So I decided over the weekend that Mondays would now, and henceforth, become Music Mondays on this blog. Why? Uh, well, because "Music Tuesday" just doesn't have the same ring, and because I like having set topics associated with specific days. I've got Music Mondays, and Flash Fiction Fridays. Hm, now to come up with something for every other day of the week...

My iPod holds about 30GB of music--not as large of a collection as some of you, but more than a lot of people I know. I've been doing this country music thing for about 7 years, so easily 1/3rd of my collection is country. Having said that, I've got a lot of obscure stuff, too. So Music Mondays are my chance to write about a song, or an album, or a snippet of something or other, that's either really moving me, is on my mind, etc.

So for this week, I've really been digging on the new Robert Plant/Allison Krauss project called Raising Sand. A friend bought it for me for Christmas. It's one of those records that, from the time you first put it in, it grabs you.

I've always loved Plant's voice, as well as Allison Krauss'. He's got the quintessential rock 'n' roll voice, and her voice is so delicate and ephemeral. It's a great mixing of vocal styles. The other thing that's interesting about this record is the music. Usually, you have a lead guitar or some other instrument playing the melody. On this project, though, their voices are the melody and a base guitar and drums are the backup (beat, harmony, etc), along with a couple other instruments here and there.

It's great mood music--good for driving, good for thinking, and good for creative work. I have a friend who likes to have it on when he's doing photography shoots.

It's produced by T-Bone Burnett and, as the Wikipedia.org article on the record notes, he is credited with giving the album it's "skeletal, and somewhat haunting, musical style." There are also several great songwriting legends whose work appears on this record--the Everly Brothers, Jimmy Page, Tom Waits, and Mel Tillis to name a few.

It's a fantastic record, and I highly recommend you go out and get it. I know what I'm listening to on my drive home tonight...

More later...