Dan Abraham should give up his day job and write more music

Dan Abraham – Dan Abraham      7/10

The mid-life-crisis wanderlust on Dan Abraham‘s debut will come as no surprise to his friends; he spent last year planning to sell off non-essentials and use a leave from his gardening job to go winter walkabout. And in January he did just that, leaving Annapolis, Maryland for two months of tents, couches and gigs as they come.

The 6-song EP, about what he expected from his journey, is sharply written and played, earwormy, earnest and astute. This man should only garden by choice.

#CXCW (Couch by Couchwest): A #tincanland YouTube playlist

The#tincanland YouTube playlist of noteworthy #CXCW performances evolves and grows as I listen – which could take weeks at this rate

The third annual online music festival Couch by Couchwest (CXCW, a take on SXSW) is music the way it is meant to be played and listened to; no airs, just for the love of it. You’ll see informal, original video performances from pros (well established and emerging) and a few gifted amateurs, and most importantly, we all get to come together on posts at the CXCW site and social media.

Join in at CXCW (Couch by Couchwest)

Otis Gibbs: No romanticizing; life is hard sometimes, dammit

Otis Gibbs – Harder Than Hammered Hell     6/10

HARDER THAN hammered hell soil is almost impossible to plant through… and Gibbs’ metaphor for these hard times on a periodically meandering album. While Springsteen rouses us to raise fists in protest at what is (Wrecking Ball), which feels good at the time, that isn’t as practical as a good hard look at what could be.

Just because life can be harsh doesn’t mean we have to give up, says Gibbs, using the language of recovery to warn against the easy solace of booze, drugs and anger. [He declined an interview to talk about this.]

Gibbs has proudly planted trees in tough conditions and prefers to speak directly to his fans to bypass critics’ “filters” and the inevitable comparisons to the likes of Steve Earle, Billy Bragg and Woody Guthrie. So here is the link to his website.  (Check out where he goes back to see what happened to the 5,000th tree he planted).

#tincanland 2012 in review: 7,500 views from 72 countries. Thanks all – Happy New Year

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,500 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 13 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Hear thee this: Old sounds and words begeteth a reprise

Doublemono – Sonnets 8 /10

Did Shakespeare really wear an earring?

IN THE MP3 AGE, when sounds are compressed and limited, hearing something sonically wonderful is unusual. Enter Cara Dillon and Doublemono, who decided to put Shakespeare’s sonnets to music using period instruments.

She borrowed priceless harpsichords, virginals, lutes, harps and theorbos from museums and found hand-made replicas for those too fragile to use. The result is a surprisingly modern-sounding folk album with sounds you have never heard before.

You’d probably have to play with the Watson Twins to feel where they can take a song

TRIV QUESTION for you: What musical act was on late night US TV – Letterman, Leno, etc – the most times last year? Whatever you answered you were wrong. The right answer is a pair of sisters called the Watson Twins.

Leigh and Chandra have never been on TV as headliners and their albums haven’t sold real well, hence their unsigned status. But they’ll take a song places no one knew it could go, so people ask them to sing along. It’s unheard of for backup singers to lead a song, but they get a soulful, somewhat sultry thing going and have a knack for finding a quite magical dialogue between instruments. People, famous or not, find themselves nodding their heads in appreciation and getting carried along.

Oh, and they are also very good songwriters. *sighs*

If you see Megan Huddleston, run as fast as you can if you are guilty of anything

I don’t date, but if I did the last person on my list would be the unsigned, Virginian, murderous singer-songwriter Megan Huddleston.

Yes, murderous. She has this thing about boyfriends who cheat, dump her or otherwise don’t do as she pleases. So she stabs them, buries them or otherwise rids herself of the problem.

Hard to find fault with that because men are cochons and get what they deserve. But why is she unsigned?