Great Big Sea, Indie Music, And You

[filkertom]

It occurs to me that I've never linked up to the remarkable group Great Big Sea. If you checked out the thread below, you heard their song "Ordinary Day". They have a lot of great songs, not to mention doing one of the better covers of R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)".

Matter of fact, given my new album, cadhla's new album, and so many other projects out there, it's just a great day for independent music.

What are your favorite small-press or indie acts, and your favorite resources? I'd start with:

• Joe Giacoio
• Carla Ulbrich
• Heather Alexander
• Christine Lavin
• Uncle Bonsai
• Folk Alley
• Creative Commons
• Downhill Battle

And, if you decide to start making some independent music yourself, here's your (free) starter software hookup:

• Reaper PC recording/sequencing software
• Ardour Mac/Linux recording/sequencing software
• Rosegarden Linux recording/sequencing software
• Audacity sound processing software
• Kjaerhus VST effects
• Acid Planet (Acid Xpress, and don't forget about loops)
• sfz VST Soundfont player
• Free Soundfonts
• Making Music's free software list (don't let yourself get overwhelmed, but, wow)
• Wikipedia: Audio Engineering

Go wild. :)

Comments

[ericthemage.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about writing up a tutorial on how to record an album in your living room/basement/whatever? I think that'd be neat.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Heh. I hadn't really -- I haven't even had the time to update http://www.musicmachines.net for a long time -- but perhaps, perhaps.

[greenmansgrove.livejournal.com]

One of the best I've heard out of the Chicago music scene in the last few years has been Kat Eggleston, a singer/songwriter with amazing vocal power and range, and guitar skills that Alyse would kill for. Her writing is evocative and powerful, or silly and light, and either way, she's great.

And one that I've only recently discovered is Cheryl Wheeler. Amusingly enough, she and Tom Paxton came touring through town last year, and played at Fermilab (which actually has quite an eclectic range of shows for a theater on the grounds of a particle accelerator). When I mentioned to Kat that they were coming through town, rather than talking about Tom Paxton, she started raving about Cheryl Wheeler. I'd only vaguely heard of Cheryl before, but by the time the show was over, I was wishing that Cheryl would play more, and that Tom would give her more time. (They were playing 50/50).

I would highly recommend either Kat Eggleston or Cheryl Wheeler to anyone who likes folk/rock stuff. Especially if you like strong women with strong voices. 8)

www.kateggleston.com (http://www.kateggleston.com)
http://www.cherylwheeler.com/ (http://www.cherylwheeler.com/)

[batyatoon]

I don't think I knew you were a GBS fan.

:D!

[alymid.livejournal.com]

Boiled in Lead
Kat Eggleston
Jenny Armstrong
Moxy Fruvous
Kirsty MacColl

[lothie.livejournal.com]

You are a golden god!

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

Stuart Davis.

[annathepiper]

Speaking as a raving Great Big Sea fan, I am delighted to see you mention them. :D And I missed your previous thread, but "Ordinary Day" is definitely a classic GBS song! I have this post over on my journal to which I'd like to point anyone who'd like to check out GBS for the first time. I've got a few appropriate links and some recommendations. :)

Along similar lines to them, I must also plug several groups who have toured with them, including Carbon Leaf, The Young Dubliners, and Seven Nations.

[shaharazad.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely recommend Atwater-Donnelly (http://www.atwater-donnelly.com). Great mix of traditional celtic ballads and American folk music.

-Rick

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Hey, I used to run their website! :-)

http://www.nyx.net/~gfitzger/ADHome.html

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

Well, not to toot my own horn, but I would add to the list Minstrosity (http://www.minstrosity.com). *horn="TOOT"*

In addition to Kat Eggleston, mentioned by greenmansgrove and alymid. Not only does she totally rock, she's the one who gave me what I call "*the* Clue" on how to play hammered dulcimer.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

But, my dear! This is precisely the place to toot your own horn. :)

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but I'm ever so 'umble, I am, yes, 'umble, 'umble, 'umble...

From "Upswept Hare" (1953):

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Be it ever so crumbly, there's no place like Rome,
The emperor was Nero, the palace was his home.
But he liked to play with matches, and for a fire yearned --
(Yearned! La! Yearned!)
So he burned Rome to ashes, and fiddled while it burned.

I am not crumbly!

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

Hmph!

No, I was basing that on the Uriah Heep character in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield.

I've never heard of "Upswept Hare" before. I like that, that's amusing. :-)

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

I definitely have to second Moxy Fruvous. I wish I'd become aware of them sooner than three years after they disbanded.

I also have to recommend Jonathan Coulton (http://www.jonathancoulton.com). He writes incredibly geeky, fun music and releases it all under a certain Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, I think) as an experiment to see if he can succeed under that model. He gained some notoriety online a few months back with a cover of "Baby Got Back" and his evil-villain love song "Skullcrusher Mountain".

I'm afraid I can't recommend much otherwise, but on the other hand I'm going to have to spend some time acquainting myself with the other recommendations on this thread...

[annathepiper]

For an amusing circular subject tie-in, Great Big Sea's current bassist, Murray Foster, used to be in Moxy Fruvous!

(Which means I probably need to check them out myself!)

Jonathan Coulton, however, I highly, highly, HIGHLY second as a recommendation. The man is Tom Lehrer's spiritual heir, I think. :D

[the-dark-snack.livejournal.com]

Some of my favorites that are local acts worth checking out are: The Fuglees (http://www.thefuglees.com/) Jessica Benge (http://www.myspace.com/jessicabenge) and Otis Gibbs (http://www.otisgibbs.com/).

Favorite regional act is Here Come the Mummies (http://www.herecomethemummies.com/) but they really need to be seen live to really be appreciated.

I have others but these are the cream of the crop.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Kevin Roth (http://www.kevinrothmusic.com/) - I love his folk music. He also has a bunch of kids stuff, that's supposedly really good, but which I've never gotten a chance to hear. This is one where I stumbled across a cheap copy of one of his CDs (American Folksongs and Ballads - half traditional, half his own music) and I'm so glad that I bought it.

Kami Lyle (http://www.kamilyle.com/) - I was temping at the company where her mother works, and they had her first CD on sale in the gift shop with some portion of the profits going to charity, so I bought it. Again, so, so glad that I did. Her music is like really good classic vocal Jazz only slightly more contemporary. And pretty much everyone to whom I have gone 'no, no listen to this' has fallen in love with her voice.

Jonathan Coulton (http://www.jonathancoulton.com.nyud.net:8080/) - Mmmm... Skullcrusher Mountain. And Mandlebrot Set. And and and... just He's a filker. I have been informed that he's even been told this. He just hasn't been dragged to any Cons yet. But he will be. He's ours.

Tracy Grammer (http://www.tracygrammer.com/) - Folk.. mostly. Most of her music was written by Dave Carter before he died, so you may be more familiar with her as half of Dave and Tracy. But I just love her. And her new touring partner Jim Henry is also a really good musician, though his music is a little more country than my personal tastes a lot of the time. But if you like the folk-leaning side of country (or the country-leaning side of folk) he's worth checking out, too.

Joe LoPiccolo (http://www.joelopiccolo.com/) - Jazz/Classical/World guitar. He's the only instrumentalist on this list. Warning, there's a sound file that plays when you first open his site, but it goes away if you click on anything. His music is... this gorgeous wash of sound. It's rare that I hear instrumentals and think 'I need to own that'. His music makes me think that way. Soooo pretty.

Well, and most of the people you linked are also personal favorites.

[poltr1]

Second the votes for Movy Fruvous and Christine Lavin. Sad to hear that the Fruvous gang broke up. Ah well.

Other indie/small-label artists I like listening to: Garnet Rogers (Stan's brother), Margo Hennebach, Dar Williams, and Wild Mercy. Most of them have played the Canal Street Tavern here in Dayton.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Much as I love Moxy Fruvous, I have to quibble with calling them indie musicians -- they recorded for Warner.

Everybody I know seems to love Great Big Sea. I've heard some of their songs on The Midnight Special and liked them enough to buy an album. But the album totally underwhelmed me.

To mention an artist that others haven't plugged here: Magpie. Mostly environmental/social justice themed material, folk style, with some of the best vocal harmony I've heard from anyone anywhere.

[ldwheeler.livejournal.com]

The Asylum Street Spankers -- what you get when you cross a big, burly, beery country-punker raconteur named Wammo with a jazz torch singer, a clarinetist with a voice almost exactly like current Dylan, and a band of ridiculously proficient musicians, and turn them loose on Willie Dixon, Taj Mahal, Ivory Joe Hunter, the B-52s and the Beastie Boys (a swing take on "Paul Revere") as well as many an off-kilter original ("Beer," "D.R.I.N.K.,: "Hick Hop" -- that's a redneck rap). Must be experienced live.

Joe Giacoio -- his singing is evocative; his guitar acumen is mind-blowing ... and his songwriting is even better. But you know that.

The Handsome Family -- gothic Americana, with a very dark humor. I've brought a couple of their songs into filk circles.

DA/Da/Daniel Amos/Swirling Eddies -- The worldview of this band (whatever they call themselves on a given day) is Christian, but they have pretty much zero else in common with the calcified whitened sepulchre that is the Christian-music "industry." They concentrate on literate and witty songs about life (Swirling Eddies projects are more a repositoty for their novelty tracks, like "Hide the Beer, The Pastor's Here" or "Outdoor Elvis," in which Elvis is purported to be alive but living a reclusive wilderness existence, leaving only tracks as a sign of his presence ("you can pretty much tell that he's lost weight by the depth of his footprint"); the song melds Presley, Bigfoot and messianic tropes.)

Jack Erdle -- discovered this Pittsburgh songwriter's work when Randy Hoffman invited him to Confluence last year. Incredible, and winsomely off-kilter, songwriting, especially on the dark tale "Pumpkin With a Face." And "Let the Heads Roll" channels political rage in the most focused statement I've heard in some time.

Many a local and regional performer in the greater Rochester, N.Y. area: Celtic groups Wild Geese and the Dady Brothers; bluesman Bill Brown; folksinger Lisa Bigwood; Christian band Wales Road; etc. etc. etc ...

Pretty much the entire filk continuum.

[thealien.livejournal.com]

The Dust Rhinos (http://www.dustrhinos.com/). In addition to the traditional Celtic stuff, they have such modern wonders as Sailing With The Captain and the Jedi Drinking Song. I don't drink, but I still think those are great songs. I also really like their renditions of Black Velvet Band and Mary Mac. Energetic and fun stuff.

[scott644.livejournal.com]

Filkers count as indies right? Well, then you know my general answer - if it's filk, I like and recommend it. Especially somebody with the initials T.S.