Two great new albums, some links, and a gentle reminder

Hello, all.  I felt like I needed to just quickly tell you about two new releases worth buying, by two artists working at the top of their games:  Aimee Mann's "Charmer" and Bettye LaVette's "Thankful N' Thoughtful".

Aimee Mann's new album is a real return-to-form, easily her best album since 2002's "Lost In Space".  Ten years I've been waiting for this, geez!  Superb songwriting and superb production, the album just sounds great.  She's also touring and will be in York, PA at the beginning of November, I'm thinking of going.  Anyone with me?

And Bettye LaVette continues to amaze.  I've written about her here before, when her last album ("Interpretations") came out.  Definitely the new Queen of Soul.  This time she's covering an absolutely eclectic mix: Bob Dylan, The Black Keys, Neil Young, Sly Stone, Tom Waits, Gnarls Barkley, Savoy Brown, Ewan (Kirsty's dad) MacColl's "Dirty Old Town"  ...  once again with new arrangements and vocal choices that are top notch, fascinating ... I don't really have the right words here.  Just buy it, download it, whatever it takes.

In the personal music department, just want to say that Matt Douglass and I had a blast at the Woody Guthrie Tributes, with all of the other terrific performers, many of whom I had never heard before but am really glad I have now.  I've uploaded videos of the songs Matt and I did (two with the Stone Hill All Stars behind us -- or should I say around us?) to YouTube, along with a little sound check video showing a bit of everybody involved - here are the links:

Sound Check - http://youtu.be/lWwnj6fphqc

1st Show
Jackhammer John - http://youtu.be/GnOhHMi_OKQ
Oklahoma Hills - http://youtu.be/nYvosUGYYuM
Pastures of Plenty - http://youtu.be/um26SgSepiM

2nd Show
Jackhammer John - http://youtu.be/Bg1e2t3HCvk
Oklahoma Hills (speed-demon version) - http://youtu.be/uT4mNSuaX3M
Pastures of Plenty - http://youtu.be/00EFzHjeAb4

And finally, a couple of little reminders:  Matt and I will again be appearing at the Roots Cafe Singer-Songwriter Series at An Die Music on November 11th at 5pm.  We've both got some new material to go along with some of our older songs, so I really hope you can make it.  And, again, we've just released a 4-song EP which can be downloaded at CDBaby.com, or the individual songs can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Rhapsody, etc., just by searching for "Grayest Hits" or our names.  We're really very proud of what we put together -- it's not just two guys and their guitars!

OK, that's it for now ... 'til next time,
Sam

New Recordings and Some LIve Performances

Hello again, sports fans!  Been a while.  Let me just start off by saying The Orioles are in first place and it's September.  Very strange, not sure really how to deal with it.

OK, back to music, and a few other Fall items (a bit of self-promotion, I'm afraid):

#1 - Matt and I have been busy working on some recorded material, and I'm very proud to say that we've now made it available via download on the CDBaby.com site.  It's a mini-album, with a reworking of "Mabelline" that includes Bill Beachler on drums, along with three other new songs we wrote. Yes, we're selling it, but it's only $3.50!  Eventually we may have it available in disc form, but for now it's a download-only release. Here's the link:

or just copy this: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/samnitzberg  into your browser to hear samples or to purchase. Or you can find the songs on iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, etc., too.  And if you like it, tell your friends!  Or tell me!  If you don't, don't.

#2 - As mentioned in these ramblings before, Matt and I are also going to be appearing in three weeks, on Saturday, September 29th as part of the Woody Guthrie 100th Birthday Celebration at the Creative Alliance.  It's bound to be a great night, there are some terrific acts who will also be appearing: The Stone Hill All Stars (who will be backing us up on a couple of tunes), Arty Hill, The Honey Dewdrops, Caleb Stine, The Hello Strangers, and Michael Patrick Flanagan Smith.  Here's the link to the Creative Alliance page for tickets, a promotional video, and info: http://www.creativealliance.org/events/2012/woody-guthrie-happy-100th-tribute . Please come if you can, should be great -- I'm really looking forward to hearing all the other performers, actually.

And #3 - We're also slated to appear at the Roots Cafe Singer-Songwriter Series at An Die Musik on Sunday, November 11th at 5pm.  I'll bother you about that again as it gets closer, more than likely, but just in case I don't, consider yourself notified.

OK, enough for now.  Hope to see you somewhere sometime.
Sam

Elvis Costello and Woody Guthrie

Me again -- mind if I come in?
Couple of things:  First, a new recording I've just completed of Elvis Costello's "The Long Honeymoon" (a song from my favorite album of his, Imperial Bedroom).  I had it just about all done, but it was missing something so I asked Matt Douglass to come over and play some slide on his resonator guitar.  I think it did the trick, I'm quite happy with it.

DOWNLOAD                    PLAY

(WINDOWS USERS WHO ARE USING FIREFOX AND WHO ARE ALSO USING THE VLC MULTIMEDIA PLUG-IN MAY HAVE TO DISABLE THAT PLUG-IN IN ORDER TO PLAY THE STREAMING CHOICE.)

Secondly, a little story:  A couple of months ago at a Roots Cafe show that I attended I was talking with Geoff Himes, who runs it as well as the Night of 1000 Dylans events, and Paul Margolis and John Shock of The Stone Hill All-Stars, who were also there, and I mentioned half-kiddingly that someone should do an event in honor of Woody Guthrie's 100th Birthday this year, and call it Night of 1000 Woodies.  Geoff said it's also Robert Johnson's 100th this year, so I said what the hell, let's call it Night of 1000 Woodies and Johnsons.

So I was surely not going to organize anything, hoping Geoff might since he does that sort of thing, but he didn't seem to really want to.  The conversation drifted off to other topics.  But a few days later, Paul emailed me asking if I was serious, and could he and John promote it with me?  I told him go ahead, run with it, and I'll do whatever I can to help.  Well, it's an event now (at least the Woody part).  Paul and John got in touch with the folks at the Creative Alliance, and I'm not sure about how everything actually transpired, but on September 29th there'll be an evening of performances by Matt and I, Paul and John and the rest of the Stone Hill boys, and other regional acts Arty Hill, Caleb Stein, Michael Patrick Flanagan Smith, and the Honey Dewdrops.  Somehow I don't think my choice of the name for the event will stand, but whatever ... I'm looking forward to it ... the song choosing process has begun.  I'll keep you posted.

"Mabelline" - The Deluxe Edition

OK, I've gone completely over the edge with my desktop recording studio -- so here's what I guess is the definitive version of "Mabelline", with multiple instruments, vocal harmonies, everything but the kitchen sink. Actually pretty proud of this one, and I had a blast putting it together. I hope you like it.

DOWNLOAD                    PLAY

(WINDOWS USERS WHO ARE USING FIREFOX AND WHO ARE ALSO USING THE VLC MULTIMEDIA PLUG-IN MAY HAVE TO DISABLE THAT PLUG-IN IN ORDER TO PLAY THE STREAMING CHOICE.)

Also please visit the Recordings tab above, where about half-way down is the Passover Song -- it's that time of year! And, to be fair and balanced, here's another timely tune that you Baltimorons will recognize.

Yet another new recording - "Maya"

Here's another one put together with my little desktop setup at home. The lyrics were written about 30 years ago, so don't read anything into them...

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Two song experiments

Greetings again from the Music Department. Lately I've been experimenting with some recording software on my home computer, so I thought I'd share the first results. Two songs: one, an adaptation of the recording of "True Lover's Time" from when Matt Douglass and I played at the Roots Cafe back in the fall, now augmented with harmonies, additional instrumentation, and some other ambiance, and the other's an idea I've had rolling around in my brain for a month or so for a different approach to Bob Dylan's "Drifter's Escape".

Click on either of the links below to download the MP3 files, or just click on the two little audio streaming thingamajigs. Let me know what you think!
Keep warm,
Sam

(WINDOWS USERS WHO ARE USING FIREFOX AND WHO ARE ALSO USING THE VLC MULTIMEDIA PLUG-IN MAY HAVE TO DISABLE THAT PLUG-IN IN ORDER TO USE THE STREAMING CHOICE.)

TLT Special Mix                 

Drifter's Escape                 

Woody Guthrie's New Years Resolutions and more

Greetings, all.  Thought I'd wish everyone a Happy New Year with a couple of music-related tidbits that have come my way, a recommendation, and some songs.

First this, from Woody Guthrie's notebook in 1942: His list of New Year's resolutions, some of which I'm sure we could all resolve to do as well -- and some, maybe not... (click on it to enlarge)

OK, tidbit #2, a link sent to me by a friend, of an audio clip of Randy Bachman relating discovering the true structure of the opening chord of the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night":
http://web.me.com/mlutthans/Site_68/Welcome.html
Quite entertaining in a music-nerd sort of way.

In the recommendations department, I just thought I'd put here what I thought was the best new album that I got this year, one which actually is appearing on some other Best-of-2011 lists that I've seen as well: Gillian Welch's "The Harrow and The Harvest".  Very melancholy, no more than two acoustic instruments and two voices on any track, all new songs that sound as if they might have been recorded by the Carter Family or even Woody Guthrie, sort of like Norman Blake's albums from the 70's.  I can't not listen to it.

And finally, some new personal recordings:  I got together with some friends a few weeks ago, musicians with whom, mostly, I've played before but never all together: Howard Markman, Glenn Workman, Steve Raskin and Mark Young.  And I think I can also correctly say that they hadn't all played together before either.  We gathered at Steve's house, put a little recorder in the middle of us, and played songs which at least one of us knew, and the others figured it out as we went along.  Just one shot at each song, then move along to the next one, some of them sort of standard-ish in the acoustic music world, some originals. It was a lot of fun.  All of them can be heard in the last post of 2011, but here's links to a couple: My song Mabelline, and Howard singing Looking At The World Through A Windshield..

Alrighty, then, Happy New Year...  'til next time...
Sam