Dan Nick Sean Mark Sam Tom

So last week we heard a version of this performed as a soprano/bass duet by Three Notch'd Road with a guitarist and some percussion. It was fantastic but, alas, unrecorded. I've been searching for a version as good on YouTube. It does not appear to exist, though the above is maybe the best.

(Actually I think the thing that put the TNR version over the top was just how phenomenal the guitarist was.)

I wholeheartedly recommend this entire channel. And who runs it? (I'm guessing some type of Russo-Alan Lomax.) The throat singing is terrific, these ladies are something else.

It's not anachronistic quite like American folk performance.

My in-laws had a flier for this U.P. music festival on their fridge. I couldn't quite figure out why I knew Charlie Parr. It's probably this song, which I recognize and is his most famous (with good reason), but I feel like there's something else?

Anyway, my search brought me around to his most recent album, which has a great title. The above is the title track.

-Mark

Gotta stick around for the second half.

What a take.

I haven’t kept up with the Mountain Goats discography in recent years, but I am just now listening to 2021′s Dark in Here and man is it good! Thematically and lyrically, this one fits perfectly in with The Life of the World to Come. It is a biblical story (Jonah) being told with a touch of artistic license, applied to a contemporary story, in this case the narrator watching an incoming hurricane (at least that’s how this pseudo-Floridian is reading it, after having experienced his second hurricane in a six-week span). The final call -- “Why do you hold back your fury? Don’t hold back your fury” -- links the two beautifully if ambiguously (in classic Darnielle fashion).

Musically, it fits in the Mountain Goats corpus so well that it takes a moment to realize that the (fantastic) electric guitar riff is (so far as I know) totally unprecedented.

The first five tracks of the album are all absolutely fantastic. The short opening track has that same familiar-but-with-a-twist feel. The title track is a fantastic example of Darnielle’s ability to convey controlled and sinister fury -- think “Lion’s Teeth” or “Lovecraft in Brooklyn” or “Psalm 40:2.” The fifth track, “Lizard Suit,” has a superb and also unprecedented piano-and-drums jazz outro.

The second half of the album is very good too.

Hi all,

a few pre-emptive notes:

1) Any of my upcoming posts from Warren Zevon do not reflect my current state of life in any way, shape, or form

2) I read this article: https://www.theringer.com/music/2018/9/7/17830460/warren-zevon-career-music-albums . This man was a wreck, and that is a gentle way to put it. But he’s simultaneously brutal and tender song-writer.

I’m excited to see what you guys think.

Miss y’all.

“I don’t like country” yeah well I like this

Enjoy, 

Dan and I still keeping this thing more or less alive...

Also, check out their cover of Alvvays’ Marry Me Archie. Merry Christmas!

Those lilting vocal riffs

This thing is full of surprises (the song and the album). It starts with solid Leonard Cohen impression and then Hamilton gets struck by lightning. It’s the kind of song that should be played more often at wedding receptions.