Dawes TV Debut

Sam's Gig

Went to my nephew Sam's gig in North Royalton tonight. He's played with this band for a while. As I understand they are mostly fellow students of his guitar teacher. They sounded great.

We were late and my SLR camera was in the car, so all I had was the point and shoot which wasn't doing so well. Bad recoil, the autofocus wasn't doing so hot and I couldn't get close enough. Sometimes you just have to make do. I made the full-screen photos pretty big, so please be sure view in that mode.

Dawes

I heard this band called Dawes on the World Cafe Words and Music podcast that I listen to. That was more than a month ago and the music has been stuck in my head ever since. If the music had that much staying power, I though I'd share it with you here.

North Hills is the debut album of the band from Los Angeles. I marveled at how a group so young could produce music so powerful and transcendent, and have so much to say lyrically. "I took what I wanted and put it out of my reach. I wanted to pay for my success with all of my defeats." I hear at once laid-back California and the urgent yearning for a deeper truth.

Go here and click "Listen Now" to launch the NPR stand-alone player and hear the entire podcast with a great interview and three great songs recorded in studio.

Inspiration is all around

From General blog images

I found this image this morning in the CD materials for the Ray La Montagne album Gossip In The Grain. Track nine, A Falling Through is melancholy steel guitar at it's best.

This makes me think of painting layers of a sandable paint -- maybe gouche -- on a small board and then sanding them back to reveal the base glow underneath. I think it's worth a try anyway.