Return to Folk Alley

A "Folk Alley" playlist. Many names I recognize here in this place along with new names and music to get familiar with….. 

• Lori McKenna - You Won't Even Know I'm Gone
• Tobias The Owl - All The Way Home
• Amos Lee - Crooked
• Rosanne Cash - The Walking Wounded
• Hush Kids - Goodbye Rain ….. One of those songs where you're not sure which is the song title and which is the groups name.
• The Jayhawks - Bird Never Flies ….. I hear so many reminders of The Beatles in their music.
• Lori McKenna - Young and Angry Again
• John Prine - Caravan of Fools
• Mary Gauthier - Brothers
• Birdtalker - Looking For Love
• We Banjo 3 - Light In the Sky *****
• Tobias The Owl - The Open Sea
• Amos Lee - No More Darkness, No More Light
• Ana Egge - Dance Around the Room With Me
• Eric Bibb - We Don't Care
• Caitlin Canty - Onto You
• The Brother Brothers - Frankie
• Ray Lamontagne - Such a Simple Thing

Cello Sounds

I don't listen to much Classical music but I do love the sounds that come from a cello. So when it's the featured instrument .....

If for no other reason I likely would have purchased this for the artwork alone. Not just the pretty face but the visual design and use of varying shades of gray and black and the feel of the albums artwork. Frame worthy if found on vinyl or in a poster!!

Jazz Playlist

• John Coltrane Quartet - Central Park West ….. I came across the album, "Coltrane's Sound" one Saturday at a local flea market. I didn't realize at the time, the beauty I was about to hear. 
• Chet Baker - Every Time We Say Goodbye
• Bill Evans - Remembering the Rain ….. I recall hearing a few seconds of this song at the conclusion of an episode of the television sitcom, WKRP In Cincinnati. Had to get the recording after that.
• Miles Davis - Concierto de Aranjuez ….. From the "Sketches of Spain" album.
• Chick Corea - The Hilltop ….. I discovered this song via a video on VH-1 back in the days when MTV and VH-1 actually played music videos. Turned out that I already had the album. I love it when that happens.
• Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan - Small Town
• Django Reinhardt - I'll See You In My Dreams
• Oregon - Witchi-Tai-To ….. I first heard the Rachel Faro version of this song in the 1970's. (I think it was written by Jim Pepper.) Years later I discovered the Oregon cover version.
• Oliver Nelson - Stolen Moments ….. Feels like the theme song to every movie from the 1960's that I've loved.
• Billy Childs - One Fleeting Instant

Sunday Night Radio Playlist

• Frank Turner - I Am Disappeared 
• Gold Connections - Bad Intentions
• Alex Lahey - I Love You Like a Brother
• Haley Heynderickx - No Face
• Craig Finn - I Was Doing Fine (Then a Few People Died)
• Reptaliens - If You Want
• Hurry Up - You Just Wait ….. Portland band.
• Gaz Coombes - Walk the Walk …… There's a guitar riff (or maybe it's a bass) running through this song that reminds me of "Digging In the Dirt" by Peter Gabriel.
• Kim Baxter - Intelligent Lovers
• Sharon Van Etten - Comeback Kid
• Strange Ranger - New Hair ….. How long did I wish for some new hair? Now it's way down on the wish list.
• Eyelids - I Can't Be Told
• Great Grandpa - Teen Challenge
• Kurt Vile - One Trick Ponies
• Yowler- Angel
• Whiskeytown - Houses On the Hill ….. Ryan Adams group before going solo. Assuming that everyone knows Ryan Adams. Probably a wrong assumption. Great songwriter!!
• Editors - Ocean of Night ….. I was kicking myself just yesterday while thinking of another song and being unable to remember this bands name.  

This OPB Music Stream ….. I don't think it's aimed at the sixty-two year old listener. But I find much of it to my liking. But then I think most people my age stopped paying much attention to current sounds after they turned thirty. Most forty, fifty and sixty-somethings are still stuck on the music of their youth. And it's like for them, all music stopped there. 

Or maybe it's just that in the last five years, I've developed an appreciation for genre's and sounds that I never would have given a chance previously. 

After Midnight Radio Playlist

• Shadowgraphs - Sun Is Rising …. A late 60's era sounding organ.
• Cool American - Focus
• Portugal The Man -  So American
• M. Ward - I'm a Fool To Want You
• The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You *****
• Vince Staples - Big Fish
• Steady Holiday - Nobody's Watching
• The Black Keys - The Only One
• The Velvet Underground - White Light White Heat
• Spoon - Everything Hits At Once
• Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Little Blu House

Playlist

I had this folded up sheet of paper lying around with this playlist from August 23rd …..

• Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces ….. I have an issue differentiating between Buffalo Tom, Grant Lee Buffalo and Grant Lee Phillips. I guess though, all that matters is I enjoy the music.
• Buffalo Tom - You'll Never Catch Him
• Neil Young - Tell Me Why ….. I've been listening to this song since 1970. I've never tired of it. It's always been my 'go-to' Neil Young song. I doubt that I've ever gone more than a month or two without playing it. Qualifying it for Desert Island Disc status.
• Neil Young - Southern Man ….. Of course I can rarely listen to "tell Me Why" without listening to "Southern Man." Being that they are on the same album and all. I play air piano during the instrumental part in the middle of the song and again as the song fades away.
• Richard Buckner - Town ….. "It's how it is when everybody knows more than everything. The dying ring. the passing line, the missing wing." I don't know what it means but it does paint an abstract visual for me.
• Willard Grant Conspiracy - How To Get To Heaven
• The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday
• Son Volt - 6 String Belief

The Proposition

Music soundtrack for the film, "The Proposition" by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis. Picked up at the Salem Public Library used book sale. Has me wanting to see the film now. It won the Best Original Music Score at the 2005 AFI Awards.

After listening, "brooding" is the word that comes to mind.

Pitchfork Review

Griffin House

The album, "So On and So Forth" by Griffin House. From 2016. Singer/Songwriter type that a friend turned me onto. (Thanks Suzie!!)

"Little by little they try to keep testing me
Little by little you try to get the best of me" ..... From the song, "Yesterday Lies"

Speaking In Tongues

I've been reading the book, "Hoop" by Brian Doyle. Short essays on just about every angle and aspect of basketball. In one he writes about using the song, "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" by The Talking Heads as pregame warm up music. Of course I had to go and check it out. All leading to seeking out their "Speaking In Tongues" album. A little embarrassed that I didn't have this record in my collection. Anyway, I do now. From 1983. My vinyl record collection just became a whole lot cooler.

Jazz Without Boundaries

Listening to KMHD-fm Jazz radio overnight. "Jazz Without Boundaries" program. From 10/7.

• Sly5thAve - Let Me Ride
• Donald Byrd - The Dude
• Eddie Harris - Listen Here
• The SoulJazz Orchestra - Mamaya
• Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes - Sais (Egypt)
• Quantic - Bicycle Ride
• Alfa Mist - Keep On
• Dennis Coffey - The Look of Love …. The popular 1967 Dusty Springfield tune with a lot of improvising between the recognizable moments.
• Blazo - Natural Green
• The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble - Passing Clouds 

Then again last late night, early morning.

• Christian Scott - The Eraser
• Kamaloka - Gogo Penguin …. Beautiful waves of piano.
• Norman Connors - The Creator Has a Master Plan
• Jeff Herr Corporation - The Man Who Sold the World
• Herbie Hancock - Butterfly
• Brad Mehldau - Blackbird …. Yes that Blackbird. Once made famous by The Beatles.
• Eri Yamamoto - Wonder Land …. Had to purchase this one on iTunes.
• The Awakening - Awakening - Prologue Spring Thing
• Alfa Mist - Keep On …. Repeat performance from the previous evening!

And a few from the OPB Music overnight stream that I want to mention because I get a chuckle from the name of the bands.

• Boy Eats Drum Machine - Hoop + Wire
• Dirty Projectors - Break Thru
• Ex Hex - Don't Wanna Lose

Short List

• Bootes Void - Gravity
• Laura Veirs - Seven Falls
• Noah Gunderson - The Sound
• Holiday Friends - Never Enough …. From Astoria. About as northwest in Oregon as you can get. (Lewis & Clark ended up there.) Proving that you don't have to be from a big city to put together a band and record music that gets played on something other than a small community radio station.
• Alela Diane - Moves Us Blind …. From Portland.
• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Talking Straight …. I'd like to hear the stories behind the decisions on some of these band names.

Return To List Making

Mourning the end of the weekend and tomorrows (im)pending doctor visit and return to work. Trying to heighten my attitude with the knowledge of five weeks of vacation still needing use this year and as of midnight, three months to use them.

• Portishead - Machine Gun
• Carl Broemel - Rain Check …. From the group, My Morning Jacket.
• Cat Power - Woman …. Lana Del Rey contributing backing vocals.
• Howard - Your Honor …. Bringing to mind several Howards that I know, knew or watched on television. Jake, Frank, Moe and Morrison.
• The Helio Sequence - Stoic Resemblance …. A Portland band. Always interested in what's getting produced locally.
• Your Smith - The Spot …. Singers voice bringing Sheryl Crow to mind.
• Kevin Morby - Aboard My Train
• Esme Patterson - Feel Right
• Isabol Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Get Behind Me
• Wreckless Eric - Gateway to Europe
• Say Hi - I Just Want to Go Home - Seattle band. I have a song or two of theirs in my digital files collection. …. If that qualifies as a collectable item?
• Hatchie - Sleep …. Reminding of a current need. It's 2:00am after all. Only crazy obsessed people listen to music on the radio and form playlists at this hour.
• Death Songs - Ophelia …. Another Portland band. The song has a hint of Chile or Peru to my ears. 
• Phantogram - Make a Fist
• Neighbor Lady - Fine …. They say that when a woman says "fine" you should take it as things are actually not so fine.
• Big Red Machine - Lyla
• The Bell - On and On …. "All in all it breaks my heart, the way that you sound."
• Mendoza Line - Aspect of An Old Maid

Benedictine Monks

Proving that I listen to more than Rock, Jazz and The Blues. I grew up going to Catholic school and attending mass every morning before classes. Never knew though that I would grow up to enjoy Gregorian Chant. Especially after not going to mass for the past thirty or so years.

Voices, minimal organ and a few background church bells. Vocals in Latin I assume. The ultimate harmonizing!! I could listen for hours. Even sit (or kneel) through multiple high masses.