Song of the Day

Archive for the ‘Folk’ Category

I don’t pay much attention to the Grammy’s so I didn’t really find out about Bon Iver until a few months ago. But have since set my alarm clock to play Calgary and Holocene. Really beautiful stuff. And I have a respect for their thoughts and vocalization of the music industry and Grammy’s as well. Justin Vernon, the founding singersongwriter behind Bon Iver, spoke at the Grammy’s and spoke truth to the masses about the massive volume of music, artistic talent, and culture that never gains any attention or recognition from the pop culture and mega entertainment run music industry speakerphones. See the clips here.
– Justin Vernon
– Backstage at Grammy’s

Also here’s my other favorite song by Bon Iver, Calgary.

Lourdes Hernández is the heart and soul of Russian Red. I heard this beautiful song of hers while watching the film Room in Rome. Her simple but touching acoustic love songs contain a genuine sweetness and innocence made unforgettable by her talented and ranged voice. Although from Spain Lourdes sings in English to allow wider reception and understanding of her music. Listen to more of her songs on the Russian Red’s MySpace page and learn more at the Eureka Records music page for Russian Red.

Singer Songwriter Jo Hamilton’s music is light, playful, intimate, captivating, and fully featured. Her songs are anything but standard, each one introduces a variety of styles, intros, creative harmonies, instruments, and melodies. Her voice is reminiscent of Annie Lennox and Feist but with the creativity and playfulness of Bjork. One can only appreciate the artfulness of her music video and use of non-traditional instruments.

Jo Hamilton’s debut album “Gown” features this song along with several other journeys in sound and harmony that are sure to pleasantly surprise. Perhaps Jo’s eclectic style can be attributed to her multi-cultural and always traveling up-bringing which took her around the world to places that most people would never imagine could be combined together into one lifetime.

Take a look at this short film which covers the making of her album Gown to get a better feel for who Jo is and get a deeper glimpse into her enchanting world.

Jo’s album was released under the creative audiophile record label Poseidon Records out Birminham UK.

Also find Jo on Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.

Brooke Fraser is already very popular and has hit #1 and #3 in music charts consistently in Australia and New Zealand. Now after signing with Sony she’s running around the world to share her new intimate soul sharing album Flags which was released in October 2010.

This song of hers continues to rise up from small beginnings into something great and powerful. It inspires, instills wonder in our minds, and stirs passion in our hearts. A love song asking, what makes me love you like I do? It must be something in the water she says, pointing to that deep mysterious and unexplainable feeling we have when we become deeply moved and impassioned by someone who has taken our heart. I can keep listening to this song again and again, and the music video artfully jumping from one life-style to another paints stories that we can relate to of love found and beauty that it brings.

Read a huge bio on Brooke on Last.fm and check out the Brooke Fraser official website for more music, pics, and tour dates.

OH that folky indie heart-felt sound!

Not much info on this band, but they are touring right now! Listen to more of their music, check tour dates, see their videos, and buy their albums at The Cave Singers official website.

Alexander Ebert, lead singer of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, released his solo artist work under the band name “Alexander”. His first single was title “Truth“. The music video for this track “A Million Years” is a creative blend of imaginative settings in which the timeless monuments of our world narrate the song of love found. And although it may feel like the sadness we’ve seen has existed for millions of years, the strength and beauty of love can blow it all away. The words of the song tell us how valuable and precious love is and the power it has to make all of existence and all its sadness worth enduring just for this one love.

Crashing into the folk music scene out of Milwaukee Winsconsin The Vitrolum Republic instantly comes across with the depth and tone of a group well worn with the experience of decades of music making. Perhaps the two and half years they took to produce the album allowed them to polish their sound, but even then the tracks stand on their own as timeless additions to folk music tradition.

For Highbrow Sideshows and Rowboat Serenades is their first full length album and well worth the wait (in case you already knew about them and were waiting). You can listen to the entire album and learn more about the band at the Vitrolum Republic official website.

Lissie’s from Rock Island Illinois, which is part of the Quad Cities, four cities that all straddle the Mississippi consisting of Bettendorf and Davenport Iowa along with Moline Illinois. It’s sort of the like the Kansas City of Iowa and Illinois, but that has nothing to do with music I guess. Although I’m proud to say I grew up just a 30 minute drive from there in Muscatine Iowa, so it’s interesting to see another person from the heartland getting the music out.

Lissie’s made big waves recently ever since the release of her debut EP “Why You Running” in 2009. Her real name is Elisabeth Maurus and she’s already got her name published in a lot of places. But I thought it’d be right to feature her here on my Song of the Day blog.

Her music has an extremely genuine, it’s all about the music vibe. She her voice, although perhaps seemingly rough at first listen becomes powerful and dexterous the more you listen. Her vocal chords are like a mix of Sia and Janis Joplin. I believe she’s about to make a dent in the alternative rock scene like a baseball bat to a birthday cake, but perhaps less messy and without hurting anyone’s feelings. Ok that’s a horrible analogy.

But Lissie has a softer side, one that shines bright with that good ‘ole midwestern folk feel backed by superior songwriting and complex vocal harmonies. Take a look below at another one of her songs that I really enjoy, “Little Lov’n”.

To hear more songs like this on my Song of the Day blog, click on the related links in the link cloud on the right side of the page.

I’ve got a thing for indie bands, San Francisco, music that’s uplifting, songs that you can dance to, music videos that are original, anything funny, quick drum riffs, black & white videos, and songs with choruses with non-verbal vocal sounds. This music video for Black Night by The Dodos off their latest album No Color hits a lot of chords for me. All that’s missing is a plane ticket to San Fran and a big group of friends causing a raucous.

The Dodos have released 4 albums since their first in 2006, so there’s plenty of this stuff to go around.

Very cool music video and excellent song. I wonder if the whales listened to music if this would be their anthem for their relationships with humans.