Hope you had a spectacular holiday. Me, I am sitting in the airport in NOLA, wondering if I will make it all the way back to NYC because of the storms and the attendant airport delays. I feel so sorry for the folks impacted by the tornado breakout in the South, tragic, especially on Christmas Day.
Today, we have something filmed at the Americana Music Fest 2011, from the amazing Elephant Revival. BTW, they have a brand new EP out. The song we bring you is the Music Fog recording of "Ancient Sea." Timeless music, perfect for the days after, and the days to come.
We have an early Christmas present for you today from a band of two that recently announced a hiatus from each other (they called it irreconcilable differences, but they are not married – at least to each other.) Joy Williams and John Paul White, better known as The Civil Wars, catapulted into the Americana world with meteoric trajectory. They won our hearts at the Americana Honors and Awards, and are nominated for a Grammy this year with Taylor Swift, who has been a fan of theirs since almost the beginning of their union. The Civil Wars: VH1 Unplugged will come out on January 15, 2013, and you will only find it on iTunes.
Here's hoping they reunite to tour behind it, as they create a communication on stage that is utterly captivating. Here is a taste, from 2011, when they played for the Music Fog cameras at Threadgill's WHQ during SXSW. The song is “From This Valley,” which can be found on the Mercyland, Hymns For The Rest Of Us album, which came out earlier this year.
From here on my perch in New Jersey, the destruction that Sandy left behind is surreal. We still have no power at the house, so I sleep with many layers on, plus with my hooded jacket. I am thankful that it wasn't worse in my neighborhood. Some fared better, and tragically, some lost everything. I do have power at work, so it is possible to get some things done. It is remarkable how important having a charge for your phone is. The power strip has become king. Last night I waited on a gas line for an hour, only to have them run out before I got there. I can't wait til I can do the laundry again!
So I have the blues, along with all the other folks in the huge swath that Sandy cut. As life slowly returns to normal, I figured it would be soothing to hear a bluesy number today from Lake Street Dive doing the ultimate cold shoulder tune, “Got Me Fooled.” The band entered the studio mid-month in Maine to record their next album. They are as off the grid as you can get while they explore the creative process, and we can’t wait to hear what they lay down. We bring you a track from their self-titled album, done up Music Fog style from our Fall Marathon last year during Americana Fest in Nashville at Marathon Recorders.
