I'm not terribly vocal about it, but I'm definitely a fan of Willie Nelson. He doesn't have the greatest voice in the world, but he knows how to use what he has to his best advantage. He writes good songs and he covers good song. He is probably my favorite C&W performer (Johnny Cash being his only rival for the #1 spot in my heart). So, today I was listening to KXT on the way to work and they played a song off his upcoming album for New Music Monday. I nearly squeed when I realized what he was covering:
Why, yes, that is a Pearl Jam Song. Bit of a mind-bender, no? Want an even bigger mind-bender? I went to his website and read up on the new album. Among the artists he recorded with is Snoop Dogg. Yeah, that one was hard to digest. Other artists on the album are Merle Haggard, Cheryl Crow, Kris Kristoferson and his sons Lukas and Micah. It's not going to be out until May 15. Guess what I'm going to be purchasing on May 15.
So, here's some of my other favorite Willie songs. I suspect you've heard most of them, but I still want to share.
(Oh, and I can play this on ukulele now. Hee!)
Two great musicians who sound great together.
Okay, I'll stop there, or I'll be linking to a bajillion songs. Although, there is still "Pancho and Lefty" and "Crazy" and....
I have been aware of Lyle Lovett for a while, mainly because he married Julia Roberts, but I until quite recently have never heard his music. That changed a couple of years ago when KXT came into being and became my only radio station. They play him on a semi-regular basis. I have discovered that I like his brand of rocky country (or perhaps countrified rock) quite a bit. So, I keep saying I need to get some of his music. I'm thinking the first album I pick up needs to be Pontiac which came out in 1987. Specifically for the following song. Because every time I hear it, I HAVE to crank up the radio and sing along. I suppose I'm very fortunate that KXT plays it so often, considering it's age.
Seriously. How can you not smile listening to that song?
Last night I met a ukulele god. Well, I didn't actually meet him, because my hubby wanted to go to the club after the show, but I did see him on stage and have been totally blown away. His name is Jake Shimabukuro and he is my master now. In the course of his performance, he managed to make the ukulele sound like a blues guitar, a banjo, a frickin' snare drum, a flamenco guitar and a koto (Japanese 13 string harp). And also a ukulele. But, well....an AMAZING ukulele.
Enough blather! Here, I'll show you. Some Rock 'n' Roll:
And the flamenco guitar?
And the banjo?
And the koto?
I could go on, but I'll allow you the pleasure of looking it up for yourself. Here's his home page. He's got albums. Go buy. Support this man so he will keep doing what he does!!
So, I recently got onto Stumble Upon and loaded it with every music love I could find. Today it gave me an encyclopedia of plucked instruments. And as I was perusing the lute section I complained to my Dear Husband that the picture of the chitarrone was too small for me to see all the wonderfulness that they described in the article. So, he did a Google Image Search. Wow! For an instrument I'd never heard of, there was a butt load* of pictures on the web. This is the instrument in question:
Pretty cool, huh? But wait. That doesn't really give you a perspective on the instrument. Allow me to try again.
Yeah. That instrument is wider than my torso. I could in no way have ever played it. Not to mention that my fingers couldn't reach all the way across that fretboard. But it does have a pretty sound.
Didja notice that there is a tail that he had to sit on to make sure that the instrument would stay in place while he played it? Pretty damn cool.
And for those who want the details, a chitarrone is a bass lute that was developed in the Renaissance. Mozart was known to include a chitarrone part for some of his orchestral pieces. So, now you have a wonderfully useless bit of trivia to spout at people when you want to ensure blank looks.
