Autobiographical Music Blogging

On the 2nd anniversary of Shakey Graves Day (there’s a fucking proclamation, man), we have been graced with a little album of perfect perfection from the man himself in honor of the occasion. You have three days to snag it. DO NOT LIE IN WAIT.

Last year and this, lovers of jams of the Shakey type were asked to upload (somewhere in the vastness of the internet) a photo of what they were doing to commemorate that day. I have no fucking clue what I did last year but this year, I am at home.

My child is away. I have beer and I am in my work space, a 50 square foot home office that occupies a small corner in the living room of our tiny, 850 square foot house. My desk is an old sewing machine table (from which the mechanical bits have been removed) and my chair was stolen from an abandoned house and repainted. Above me are concert photos I’ve taken and a bulletin board of my favorite things (my best friend’s wedding, my child, my friends, vintage trucker patches, and concert wristbands). There are hand-lettered song quotes. And up there to the left is a set of photos taken by Jarred (of Show Me Shows) from the night Shakey Graves played on my neighbor’s old porch. This is what I’m doing on Shakey Graves Day this year. I am writing for you. I am writing for me…

I was sad earlier. Life is tough sometimes and love is tougher. I did not get and have not gotten what I wanted, things I never realized I wanted and things that I have, at times, actively turned down. I am full of regret and dejected. I fucked it up again, love, because that is what I do and I cannot fix it because that is not what I do.

I was feeling all these feels and it’s been a week long battle set off by family outings and talk of the past. It’s been a seven day fight with what could have been.

And then. THEN. Then there was “Willow Garden”, with its rolling banjo and its stomp and I was in my seat and there was love. Who gives a shit about love that isn’t musically grounded for really, there is nothing more powerful and perfect than that. Who cares for that foolhardy enterprise that sets one to their bed with tears over what cannot be changed when there is a singalong waiting for you, if you’ll just dare venture to your old “office” chair to hear it?

Music is and always has been my love. I forget it sometimes. Leave it to Shakey Graves, on his very own day, to remind me.

For three days, in honor of the day that gifted me the song that currently has me pumping fists in the air and yelling “Holy shit, YESSSSSSSSSSS!”, Shakey’s albums are available for whatever you can give via Bandcamp.

The banjo is back, y’all. All is right with the world and now, nothing hurts.

BANDCAMP :: FACEBOOK

musical things you need in your life :: the gospel whiskey runners // ‘hold on’

January 29, 2013

Autobiographical Music Blogging, Musical Things Your Life Needs

1 Comment

Y’all need to get some friends more like mine. Case in point, my best bud directed me to this Gospel Whiskey Runners album, Hold On, apparently released in September 2011 (HOLY SHIT, WHA?!) and let me tell you, it’s a sort of perfection that’s hard to articulate.

The fact that this album was originally released years ago (from what I can tell) lets me know that this band is one that operates ahead of its time. To compare it to one of our favorites, Hoots and Hellmouth’s Salt, would be fair, I suppose, given that lead singer Jerrod Turner’s voice is so incredibly similar to Hoots’ singer, but to do that would imply that this album had not come first. It would imply that the same stompability and sing along spree present in Salt was a pre-cursor to this beauty here and that’s just not the case.

“Hold On” takes standout honors here (there is some seriously fucking righteous lyricism in that jam) but the rest of the album possesses the same beauty and is just as deserving of your time. “The Wound” is a breathtaking and sadly reminiscent take on what happens when relationships fall apart and “The Ticket” takes on both folk and Americana superbly and in a way that is rarely heard.

I spent my weekend with friends that I love so hard and when I was home alone, thinking of my luck regarding the lot I’ve been gifted as my pals, this album soundtracked those thoughts and those videos of us acting like teenagers, making dirty jokes around a kitchen table, letting out all that grown up shit we can’t when we’re with our kids nearly every day. But we’re still fun and we’re still awesome! Coming home (and coming down) Sunday, this album played all day in the background and life felt grand.

You can’t ask much more from an album than that: To soundtrack your best and worst times perfectly on both fronts. It’s a fine line and a tough road to hoe but Hold On manages it swimmingly and seemingly without effort.

Amazingly, Hold On is available over at NoiseTrade. It is ever so highly suggested that you get this album in your life.

Gospel Whiskey Runners :: Hold On [mp3]