I just recently discovered The White Buffalo while trolling Last.fm of fellow friends and neighbors and I must say it has been a pretty good find. I listened to a couple of tracks from his website and then immediately zipped over to eMusic and picked up his Hogtied Revisited album that was released in March of this year.
The video included below is for “Love Song #1″ which is from “The White Buffalo EP” which I believe is from 2005. 2005!?! Yes, this guy has slipped past this Americana/Alt-Country fiend…but no longer. This “White Buffalo” or Jake Smith as he is known to his friends is now on my radar. This song is also streaming on his website homepage along with 2 others – so get a listen on and then zip over for an album if you enjoy it as much as me.
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I don’t remember who sent me this “blast from the past” album from FatCat Recording artist Curtis Harvey. It might have been one of these You Crazy Dreamers bloggers, so I thought I would put a bit of finger to keyboard for it.
The album “Box of Stones” is a new release (Nov. 3rd here in North America, rest of planet still pending I think) and is choke full of acoustic country folk that is just a bit more country than folk. Almost like the album cover, I believe it speaks to another time of sephia toned whiskey joints and live roots music. The sound created seems both personal and full of energy (even if it is a bit down tempo at times) with Harvey’s blood and guts built right in. It is said that he recorded the entire album in his basement with few takes – just took it as it was. I think that is why it seems full of that energy – it is really him, not his recording mixed and reproduced 50 times till it’s a fraction of the sound it once was. A song like “Borrowed Time” has a straight forward structure but seems like was put together like it was happening all at once. It might be the collection of sounds in the background, but I don’t know – it just sounds that way. You can also have a songs like “Joking” or “Words” which are more in the vein of a back porch tribute to a previous time while at the same time being quite beautiful.
Another great track I found on the album is the sing a long “Oldertoo” which is a bit up tempo and brings a bit of kick to the step of this sad bastard. It brings in banjo and an easy sound…I think it could just be the leg slapping (or what is reminiscent of a lite version of “foot stompin’ honky tonk”) – that track is included below, see for yourself!
Sidenote and recommendation: I do know I have kind of beat the vibe of “Americana past” into the ground for this post. I have noticed with today’s indie music landscape where there is a country folk artist on every indie label’s roster (and maybe Harvey is FatCat’s resident guy with a guitar), Harvey brings a country worth considering. With that, Curtis Harvey’s album is definitely worth a few spins, especially while sitting back with a favourite beverage of choice.
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I know I know, it came out in September and yes I am aware other blogs may have written about it, am I bothered? Not in the least, this blog has never been about being the first to post about someone although many times we have been but in the case of Mr Bondy I feel his new album, When the devil’s loose, deserves to be blogged about by as many people as possible as it’s an amazing piece of work. Recorded mostly in Mississippi by Bruce Watson of Fat possum records who has produced for the likes of Andrew Bird and the Black Keys as well as others and partly in New York by Jeremy ‘searcher’ Backofen (The Felice Brothers). In fact the brilliant Felice Brothers make an appearance on two tracks, namely When the devil’s loose and the final track of the album The coal hits the fire and you could argue they are the two stand out tracks on the album but that wouldn’t be fair to the rest of it as it’s full of acoustic gems. From the gentle opening track The mightiest of guns where his slightly croaked voice telling you to see the stars falling down like burning rain that were fired by the mightiest of guns, to the above mentioned final track bringing this fine album to a brilliant end. Of course with the Felice brothers connection there is some of their trademark sound to be heard here but I also hear in his voice similarities to Justin Rutledge and also just hear a later Josh Ritter singing I can see the pines are dancing. This is a must have album in my opinion by a singer/songwriter on the up who I think can only get better and better.
I saw Mr Bondy support the Felice brothers recently here in the UK and I urge you to go and see him on his current U.S tour as he’s a must see live act that will leave you astounded. Also, his new album is available on vinyl and it comes with a free mp3 download so please, without going into how right now, you are supporting these smaller artists by buying their vinyl so do it.
He has also done another session for hearya which is going to be up soon but you can still grab his previous one here. Enjoy.
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