Something a little different tonight, an amateur musician instead of a big name artist.
Once you've played a certain style of music for a while, youtube generates playlists for you containing songs from your favorite genres and artists. My typical evening is spent with a book and one of the playlists or an occasional concert playing in the background.
I'm a huge fan of Townes Van Zandt and have been since I first heard of him way back in the '80s. The guy was a brilliant and prolific songwriter, and only a decent singer if I'm going to be honest, but I like my country music kinda raw and rough anyway. Luckily for me, over the past couple years his family and/or label have been releasing a bunch of his music as singles on youtube.
Okay, once youtube creates a playlist for you, they'll slip in other songs from your favorite artists that other people have covered. A lot of them are just awful, but every once in a while, something catches my ear like this girl did when she covered two of my many favorite Townes tunes.
She's obviously not a professional given the view count on the only two videos she's put out and the fact that her videos are recorded without fancy audio/video equipment instead of in a studio, but it really does my heart good to see youngsters going back to our roots and playing older music.
And as much as I hate to say it because it makes me sound old as fuck, she brings to mind our 17 year old granddaughter entertaining me with my own granddad's guitar when she comes to Tennessee to visit.
Waiting Around to Die (2:33 minutes)
I’ll Be Here In The Morning (2:57 minutes)
Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI don't know a damn thing about guitar playing so I don't consider myself an authority on who is good or bad. All I know is what I like. And I really like this.
ReplyDelete"she brings to mind our 17 year old granddaughter entertaining me with my granddad's guitar when she comes to Tennessee to visit.
ReplyDeleteThat's as good as it gets.
It's the simple things in life, isn't it?
DeleteStrong agreement on an evening with a book and a playlist.
ReplyDeleteBeing a fan of live and local, the small venue performances are, for me, the best. And your find of Kristen Funk is a gold one; the sort of thing I am so glad to witness up close. Excellent.
She has a Jessi Colter sound to me, very nice!
ReplyDeleteYes. Plain, simple and well done.
ReplyDeleteTold you you'd enjoy it, didn't I?
DeleteMusic like this is why I enjoy local music festivals in the South. There's so much untapped talent out there that deserves exposure. Thank you for posting this.
ReplyDeleteNow if only we can somehow convince her to cover Townes Van Zandt's Tecumseh Valley.
DeleteTVS & Leon Russell share a commonality: both write great songs; both should let someone else sing them.
ReplyDeleteCC
Eh, for the most part but there's a few songs that I can't imagine anybody but Townes singing them.
DeleteLeon Russell shouldn't be allowed by law to sing any of his own songs.
Thank you for telling us about her.
ReplyDeleteI like her singing.
Alex Lund
My pleasure. She deserves the exposure. If I was still on social media, I'd have posted it there too.
DeleteThanks for posting this, Wirecutter. She has a beautiful voice. And as you said, she definitely deserves the exposure.
DeleteHere is another great country picker. It's a husband and wife team, and they're both winderfully talented. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahF1FUDIK8M
ReplyDelete