Mastodawn

Usually when the word "progressive" is used in a genre, it means I'm not going to enjoy it as much like with prog rock or prog metal, but "progressive country" is absolutely my biggest jam, I love it.

#country #countrymusic #countryfolk #americana

GetMusic - Free Bandcamp Codes 2d ago

Free download codes:

Silas J. Dirge - Tales of Woe

"gothic country"

https://getmusic.fm/l/4UqBmt

#bandcampcodes #americana #country #altcountry #outlaw #western #countryfolk #music

The Delete Bin Sep 1

First Aid Kit Sing “Emmylou”

Listen to this track by honey-voiced Swedish sisterly country-folk duo First Aid Kit. It’s “Emmylou”, a cut from their 2011 record The Lion’s Roar, their second. This song was a single from that album, released in January of 2012 where it scored a top 30 showing in their home country. It would eventually wind its way to North America and to other regions, helping to build the duo’s already growing reputation for sounding like a couple of sisters from Appalachia rather than from Stockholm.

Both Klara and Johanna Söderberg were avid music fans from early childhood and precocious musical talents. They wrote this song between them by the age of 14 and 16 respectively after listening to and learning more about the subjects they namecheck in it. Gram Parsons famously served as a mentor to Emmylou Harris by the early 1970s before his untimely death in 1973. Harris would go on to become a shining light for the rest of that decade and into new eras for country music in her own right. She remains rightly venerated today as an American roots music pioneer. Yet the bond the two musicians formed in that earlier period when she was learning her craft would endure.

That’s what this song is primarily in tribute to; the power of song and how music can be a binding force between singers of like mind and spirit. The examples of Parsons and Harris, and Johnny Cash and June Carter, too, illustrate this very well. These legendary figures take on mythical proportions here on this track and in the imaginations of listeners, too. As for the sisters themselves, coming from Sweden and not the American South turns out to be a pretty ineffectual barrier to how well they interpret those celebrated musical traditions here. The powerful bond between them as similarly likeminded musicians evident on this track makes the impact of what they’re singing about all the stronger.

First Aid Kit accompanied by Stockholm Strings at Royal Albert Hall, London on 24 September 2014.

As much as “Emmylou” is in tribute to a singer the two sisters admire, it’s more about what came out of that bond between them as they listened, growing strong enough for the two sisters to start writing and playing music together professionally. It became more than enough for those same sisters to eventually become exemplars of traditions originating from much further away from where they were born.

“Emmylou” demonstrates something else besides; a keen understanding of how country music works on emotional levels to tell relatable stories. This song is a look inside of a human drama, suggesting the common human experience of missed opportunities clinging hopes. Couched in wintry melancholy, the lines seem to hint at the sorrow that comes out of what it is to be two ships passing in the night on their way to different destinations with only present moments to capture before going in different directions forever. “Emmylou” evokes the human realities of lies, truths, undeniable affinities, bad timing, deep longing, and the passage of moments that the best of country music makes its stock and trade.

“Emmylou” is a study in songcraft in this way. This is even before one factors in how well the two writers sing it together, embodying the narrator as a single musical entity in a story that suggests the emotional space between sadness and gratitude. But beyond songcraft and the suggestion of an unfolding drama between two characters, “Emmylou” operates on another level besides.

Outside of the drama it suggests, this is a song about the appreciation one musician has for another. It’s not just about the magic that happens when two musical soulmates collaborate, although it does touch on that on multiple musical levels. It comes off as a song between the two sisters themselves in tribute to their admiration of each other and what they each bring to the unique sound they’re able to create together. It is the outward expression of that which Emmylou and Gram, and June and Johnny too, also felt between them in their day.

I’ll be your Emmylou and I’ll be your June
If you’ll be my Gram and my Johnny too
No, I’m not asking much of you
Just sing little darling, sing with me

~ “Emmylou” by First Aid Kit

In this context, the chorus has a life of its own within the story told in the verses. In a very meta sort of way, the song seems to reserve its most powerful sentiments here between the writers, even if the verses are open for listeners to imprint their own stories onto it. Just sing little darling sing with me is a profoundly realized tribute to their sisterly bond, held together by mutual passion for making music, and passing on what inspires them to their audience.

And speaking of an audience, amazingly, First Aid Kit found themselves in the position of singing this very song while its namesake was in attendance. This happened in June of 2015 at the Polar Music Prize banquet held in the band’s hometown of Stockholm at the Grand Hôtel. Harris was in the audience as a Laureate. Before they sing, they tell the story of their own musical journey together, discovering powerful music made before they were born and expressing their wonder of it and for those who made it. The performance that followed showed Harris’ own wonder at what her music inspired in a new generation of musicians. Needless to say, it got emotional.

You can view First Aid Kit’s performance of “Emmylou” as played in front of Emmylou Harris herself right here. It is a rare and wonderful thing when artists of great worth and amazing influence give and receive their flowers like this.

First Aid Kit is an active musical entity today. You can learn more about them at firstaidkitband.com

For more gorgeous and otherworldly harmonies, catch the 11-minute First Aid Kit Tiny Desk Concert from 2012 in which this very song serves as their closing number.

Enjoy!

#2010sMusic #countryFolk #CountryMusic #familyBands #FirstAidKit #folkMusic

Sharing bits of Canada 'eh🇨🇦Aug 29

Stompin' Tom Connors: Canada's Musical Patriot 🎸

Stompin' Tom Connors, a Canadian country and folk singer-songwriter, was known for his fiercely patriotic songs about Canada. From 'The Hockey Song' to 'Sudbury Saturday Night,' his music celebrated Canadian culture. He alwasy wore a cowboy hat! 🇨🇦 #Canada #StompinTomConnors #CanadianMusic #CountryFolk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stompin%27_Tom_Connors

GetMusic - Free Bandcamp Codes Aug 20

Free download codes:

Silas J. Dirge - Swan Songs

"Swan Songs expresses the human need to find meaning in the shadows and the dirt of the everyday."

https://getmusic.fm/l/gqDPVf

#bandcampcodes #acoustic #americana #altcountry #neofolk #roots #western #outlaw #darkfolk #countryfolk #gothiccountry #southerngothic #gothicamericana #deathcountry #postfolk #darkcountry #music

MidsouthMouth.OctaviaKeats Aug 12

"The Big Rock Candy Mountains" covered by The Mountain Goats

#Southern
#folk
#hobo
#MountainSongsOrPoems
#HashTagGames
#CountryFolk
#music
#IndieFolk
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Rock_Candy_Mountains

The Big Rock Candy Mountains - Wikipedia

MIss Squeaky Brew Jun 27

✨🦻 New song drop!
“Selective Hearing (Rose-Colored Ears)” now comes in two flavors:
🌌 Celestial Lullaby — for drifting above the noise
🤠 Country Toe-Tapper — for stomping past the nonsense

🎧 Inspired by The Eardrum Lyricizer™—the (imaginary) device that turns everyday chaos into verse.

Turn down the world. Turn up the poetry.
🎶 #NewMusic #SelectiveHearing #PoetryInYourEar #SongDrop #AIArtPop #CountryFolk #LullabyDreams #MusicMagic #TheEardrumLyricizer