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Not the best video quality, but a great song nonetheless. Here is Rhett Miller playing solo "Nashiville" a song off the Old 97s 2014 album Most Messed Up. 

There's no indication of where the song is filmed except you can tell it's an intimate setting as this amateur filming found it's way online and the sound quality isn't the worst for an iPhone jobs. Is there any of other setting you would like to see an acoustic performance? You can hear every lyric sung, every chord played and every word uttered by the performer. Still "Nashville" is a fiery song and the acoustic performance without a backing band doesn't reduce it's ferocity by any means.

Opening up, Rhett Miller gives background to some of the inspiration to the album Most Messed Up. Apparently, he somewhere out in the country (probably Texas because that's where is from) with chickens and shotguns and this guy told him his fans would like it if they said the word fuck. And according to Miller "this song opened up the floodgates" for Most Messed Up.

No shame exists in "Nashville" - its song about screwing up your life and Miller doesn't care who hears it. "I turned left turns into right I turned sunshine into night/I got my ass kicked every fight no I couldn't get it right." Everyone hits a dark spot, maybe not leave a marriage (refer to the first verse), but Miller vocalizes it and wants people to hear it. If he cared more, maybe it would've been a folk ballad with more nuanced lyrics. It's not though. The high energy song lays it all out there and that's why it's great.

If you're a fan of alt-country with a fierce bend, definitely give the Old 97s Most Messed Up a thorough listen. You won't regret it. You can catch them on tour this spring at multiple festivals: Ticketstock-Dallas/St Patrick's Day Festival - Wichita Falls/ Shakey Knees Festival - Atlanta/ Homegrown Music & Arts Festival - Dallas/Wakarusa-Ozark.

Not sure if I'm making to any of these ones yet, but the Old 97s make it compelling. Plus some of those festivals have excellent line ups.

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Though Cold War Kids have released two albums and one EP, since this song came out,   Mine Is Yours is my favorte and  "Royal Blue" is the best track on it. (If you ask me). Sit back and enjoy the song filmed in San Francisco back in 2013 by the YouTube channel Moshcam.

Initially, the opening is dark. The blue lights only allow you to see the figures of the LA quintet, then as the lyrically same fist two verses open up into the third the lightening changes with the mood of the song.  As the song progresses from doubt to taking a stance and fade outs to the audience appears in view, the crowd is embracing the  anthem. Listening to to this song on a computer is powerful, I couldn't imagine how much better it is to hear live. Only two more months to find out.

The first time I heard "Royal Blue." I stopped everything I did and listened to it on repeat several times. The lyrics  in the 5th and 6th verses are redemptive. A call to action to live. A break from the mold. Hearing Nathan Willet sing "From now on with the sky as my roof/From now on let the risk lead me to/From now on somewhere I never knew/From now on call me royal blue."  Inspiration wells up from the vocals to the lyrics. You can't help but wonder what's the back-story that led to the writing. 

 Soon, I'll be posting some of their new stuff to, but had to start with the past. Because you need to look back to know where you are. 

Also it's the perfecting time to catch them on tour. They are doing an extensive round of US shows this winter followed by a handful of festivals. Can't wait for them to come to Terminal 5. 

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Another gem from the ever-expansive KEXP video vault - Hamilton Leithauser playing "Alexandra" from his first solo album Black Hours. Listen to this song to start your day as a replacement for your morning coffee or the adrenalin rush from almost being hit by a taxi walking down 7th Ave.

Emerging from the indefinite hiatus of The Walkmen, Black Hours is the solo debut from Leithauser. And if his entire KEXP performance or NPR Tiny Desk is a barometer for future success, it's obvious he'll do just fine. 

"Alexandra" is the first single off the album released back in June 2014, which is a bit of an outlier compared to his more traditional softer sounding tracks. It's a stimulating song about a girl Liethhauser can't get out of his head.He wants her, she doesn't. An old adage. Never will this story disappear from our cultural collective memory. Different people give it new shapes and meanings as Leithauser does in this song. In the opening verse, he sings "I don't think back/I don't need to/When I'm always thinking of you..../Alexandra."  

Later on he confesses, "Will you whitewash/Your memory/When I call you/From a crazy sleep?" Lyrically, you sense a fear all people experience - will they still speak to me or pretend I never existed? 

The jolting opening drum beats translate his emotions into the music the listener hears - a pounding banging around in your head. Then the frantic guitars come in, capturing the anxiety of the song. All the pieces come together to bring Leithauser's thoughts to life. 

Right now, only one show is on the books for Leithauser. So on April 19th, if you find yourself at the Phuzz Phest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, you can see him play. Otherwise, you'll have to wait. 

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Perhaps one of my favorite songs from the past several years is "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" by The Avett Brothers. And this particular performance is electrifying. It's live at Red Rocks, a place that holds nostalgia for me from going to shows there during my college days. 

So this song plus the venue hold a lot of value to me as they should for anyone - universality is what makes a song great. And this song is universal. Anyone can find a connection in this folk rock anthem about being forced to subscribe to certain rules, breaking away from the status quo, doubting your gut, but ultimately going for it. Whatever it may be. 

Hearing this song as a conflicted-about-the next-step-of-life, mildly depressed, 22 year old, gave me a new release. The Avett Brother's entire album I and Love and You saved me. The lyrics spoke to my current feelings, yet led me down a new road. It helped me pick up the pieces and start over again even though at the time I didn't realize it. Good music does that to you. Lyrics run around in your head. Music swell up in your veins. Then a couple months later, you listen to the album again and it dawns on you how much it meant. I and Love and You did it for me. I'll never forget it. 

Anytime I now listen to I and Love and You, I'll be brought back to snowy evenings in Boulder with the album blaring through my headphones trying to extract some sense from life. 

And this particular performance of "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" is one the best I've seen yet. The opening couple notes from the piano linger in the air, then boom all the members come and suck the audience into the song. It's the opening song of the night and you couldn't ask for a better one. 

The Avett Brothers are currently touring the United States. Guess what? They're even coming back to Red Rocks for three nights in July. As expected, they put on a great show and it'll be worth the money. 

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Coming from Cologne, Germany is Lord Huron plays a stripped down version of "I Will Be Back One Day" where it's three acoustic guitars, a plugged in bass and a single drum. This song comes from the first full-length LP Lonesome Dream, released in 2012 so we are actively waiting on another. 

This back to basic set from the Cardinal Sessions fits well with the Americana folk Lord Huron is so well known for. Each instruments finds it's place into the performance from the finger picking to the bells on the drummers foot. No element is wasted or washed away by an overbearing sound. A true tribute to folk.

Appearing to play on a desolate street, the lyrics of escape coupled with sense of doubt of leaving somebody behind fit so well into the setting. The inspiration for the song clearly stems from Ben Schneider's own departure from Michigan to Los Angeles. as he sings in the second verse, "But I'm way out west/And the years keep slipping away," then in the fourth verse croons, "You made me swear I'd never forget/I made a vow I'd see you again/I will be back one day." 

It's song about giving up something to achieve your dreams. When you listen to the song, it's not clear if he keeps the vow. 

There's nothing on the radar for upcoming albums, but the next show Lord Huron is playing is at FloydFest 

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The two-piece duo Shovels & Rope playing "The Devil is All Around" in studio at WFUV - the radio station run by Fordham University.

No audience, no fancy lighting or over-the-top videography. A  straight performance from the South Carolina bluesy, folky, roots rockers - Michael Trent & Cary Ann Hearst - laying it flat out there with no frills. And it fits them well. Shovels & Rope is the type of  band better suited to intimate venue not Madison Square Garden.

This soulful ballad recounts a story of loss, but not  of a friend, a lover or a family member. It's song about losing yourself and attempting to find your way back. Internal darkness seeps in the lyrics, but the optimism reminds the listener that redemption is a possibility. You know it when Trent and Hearst sing in the final verse, "So I'm gonna be a good man, gomna do the best I can/ Though I'm shell of the man that I once was."

If you haven't listened to either of their albums, Swimmin' Time and O' Be Joyful, do it soon, especially for fans of Southern folky rock with lyrics that leave you wondering how do Trent & Hearst know your thoughts. 

Also check out "Coping Mechanism"  - the other song from their WFUV in studio set where they switch instruments. And if you like them that much, Shovels & Rope are touring the Southern States. 

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Father John Misty playing "I'm Writing a Novel" at the Ace Hotel- New York in their 5 for 5 series.

The video projects a relaxed atmosphere of people hanging in the hotel lobby, casually drinking, some buried in their laptops, whiles other blindly walk into a prolific songwriter's performance. I could imagine this setting would be the ideal space to hear J. Tillman play a solo acoustic performance - a laid back atmosphere with no expectations. 

The song brings you into a surrealistic journey in Los Angeles where each verse provides a snapshot into Tillman's reality where at least one line shows his perspective is altered. There's talking dogs, dogs turning into monkeys, people drinking poppy tea.  

Tillman blends  psychedelic lyrics with folk guitar playing to take the listener into his own world. In ways' it reminds me of  Thomas Pychon's dreamlike Crying of Lot 49, also set in Southern California just in the 60s, as a clear line between reality and perception never becomes evident. 

"I'm Writing a Novel" comes from Tillman's first album, Fear Fun, under the pseudonym of Farther John Misty. He's on tour now stretching from New York to Glasgow to Iowa City. 

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Here's a quality performance from, who appears on all accounts the down-to-earth and personable, Shakey Graves aka Alejendro Rose-Garcia. This song, "Dearly Departed," comes from his album And the War Came and features Esme Patterson co-leading vocals with him. 

His folksy brand of music melds into this intimate setting from the Spotify Sessions at SXSW. Shakey Graves and Patterson go line for line during the verses, then come together during the chorus - creating a haunting account of a crumbling relationship from both sides of the story. This craftsmanship  makes the album version excellent and the live track even better as you can watch the vocal come out in real time.

Over the past year, the Austin born and bred Shakey Graves has been blowing up on the national scene. I'm certainly not the first to this  party. His first EP came out self-released in 2011.   

If you enjoy folk-rock with inspired lyrics, you will without a doubt enjoy the live version of "Dearly Departed," his album. And if you constantly crave live music like me even when you are stuck somewhere else, the full performance is available on Spotify.

Shake Graves is starting his tour at the end of the month. Check him out if he's playing a city near you.

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This 12-minute video is a solo performance of  Mac DeMarco playing a well-crafted set at the 2014 Pickathon, while  standing on a bail of hay in the  serene setting of the woods in Happy Valley, Oregon. 

The intimate setting creates the ideal playing space for an acoustic set and the overt lyrics about confronting some of life's realities. The set is filmed mostly from the perspective of the audience along with some close ups of DeMarco,so  you can hear all his interactions with the audience. After the second song, he asks the crowd, "If anyone wants to do mushrooms with me, I have a whole bag full."

When the set is supposed to close after the third set, he solicits requests from crowd. In the final song, he welcomes people to come closer. It's all very friendly and nonchalant - what I could imagine life in Oregon is always like. 

The four track set includes:

Salad Days

Let her Go

Blue Boy

Cooking Up Something Good

Also if you notice the red Vans he's playing in, DeMarco recently sold them for $21,000 on eBay. Yes, you read that right. $21k. 

Mac is currently on tour from Australia to Texas, but no East Coast dates except at the Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, one in DC on March 10th and another in Baltimore on March 26th. 

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I may be a bit behind in posting this video, but I stumbled across it today and it's a great performance. 

Here is Nirvana performing "Lithium" with St. Vincent at the 2014 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Induction. 

While watching this video there's a moment in the second chorus when Dave Grohl is pounding on the drums like it's the last time he's ever going to play and Annie Clark's singing sounds just right, you are reminded why Nirvana matters so much. Michael Stripe said it best in his induction speech of Nirvana: "When an artist offers an idea, a perspective, it helps all us see who we are. And it wakes up, and it pushes us forward towards our collective and individual potential." 

There are also two other videos you can check out from Nirvana's induction of Joan Jett playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Lorde singing "All Apologies". 

When Nirvana emerged in the late 80s, it offered a new mode of thinking, a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt disaffected and it still resonates with people today. Hell, I was only 4 years old when Kurt Cobain passed away and I became huge fan when I was 13.  Once you listen to Nirvana it's band that stays with you, which makes them so great. 

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A lively full set from Chvches live at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Paris on Halloween, which sucks you in from the droning opening beats of "We Sink" and despite not being there you crave more as  Lauren Mayberry thanks the crowd after the "Mother We Share" and you hear the shoes scampering out the door. 

The quality of sound copulated with the professional film makes this an excellent listen and watch. Like any good film of a performance, it leaves the viewer wishing they were there. It captures the moment from all angles - close ups to the band where you see the Halloween-festive facepaint of Mayberry, the contortions of Cook & Doherty as they jam on the keyboards and the fade outs to the crowd make it all come alive. It's as if you are standing on stage and in the crowd. 

Here is the set list:

We Sink

Lies

Gun

Night Sky

Get Away

Science/Visions

Recover 

By the Throat

Tether

Under the Tide

The Mother We  Share

Many thanks to Pitchfork for capturing this moment and sharing it with the world. 

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Here is the folky Jamestown Revival performing one of their more energetic songs, "Fur Coat Blues." This live rendition strays from the album version at right about 2:30 mark for a belting sidestep about freeing your soul - the very ethos of this song. 

At the heart of "Fur Coat Blues," it's a track about the tension between internal anxiety and ambition. Not letting the voice  inside your head prevent you from moving forward. The mostly uplifting lyrics radiate an honesty about how the singer felt at this point in time. 

When Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance wrote these lyrics, they were recent LA transplants from Austin, Texas - the source of this evident tension. If you've been to the two cities, you know they're miles about and not just geographically. 

Be sure to give their album, Utah, a listen. You can sense their longing for Texas throughout the songs. And it fulfills the purpose of any folk-influenced album, which reminds the listener we're all humans with struggles, hopes and desires. 

Right now, Jamestown Revival isn't on tour, but if you find yourself at Coachella or Wakarusa catch them there. 

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Britt Daniel of Spoon performing a solo acoustic version of "Anything You Want" at the Hole in the Wall club in Austin circa 2002. 

This song is a hidden gem from the band's third album Girls Can Tell. The solo mellow performance is fitting for this wear-my-heart-on-my-sleeve track where Daniels hollows a relationship gone awry. Likely one of his first ones as he croons "Cause you know you're the one/ And that that hasn't change since you were nineteen / And still in school waiting on light / on the corner by sound exchange." 

It's a track about losing someone, wanting them back, but knowing it could never work out. We've all been there before and in this performance you can see Daniels feels just as much as anyone else. 

On another note of Spoon if you have watched or listened to to their Austin City Limits performance, do it now. 

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Ryan Adams singing one of his most noted songs "Come Pick Me Up" with Jenny Lewis. Coming from a show on 12/7 at the Brady Theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the two performed 2 of Adams' songs and 3 of Lewis' songs. 

Earlier this year, Ryan Adams helped to produce Lewis' most recent album The Voyager. 

These performances are blowing up online. You can find 4 of them on Pitchfork

I saw Adams play a couple weeks ago at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York and he's even better in person than watching his videos online. He knows how to rile the audience with tracks like "Let It Ride" and can bring you down into introspection with tracks such as "Come Pick Me Up."

Here you can find Ryan Adams Tour Dates and Jenny Lewis Tour Dates 

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The Spotify Debate

Taylor Swift takes her music down from Spotify. God help us all. It’s the end of the noble streaming experiment. Spotify it’s time to close down shop, pat yourself on the back and recognize at least you gave it your best shot...Hold on a minute.  

The debate centers on one topic - Spotify does not pay musicians enough. 

But with album sales declining each year, is there another alternative? As of now, nothing else has been proposed. Finding a brand-new model where the artist is paid at the peak of CD sales rates and the service makes enough money to be profitable sounds like a fairytale. It’s almost as likely as Republicans and Democrats sitting down for a cup tea, shaking hands, apologizing for all the mean stuff they said about one another in the mid-term elections and promising to never do it again sealed by the act of exchanging friendship bracelets. In the words of Mr. Steven Tyler, “Dream On.”

Expecting the mass market to return to buying CDs and downloading albums, well it’s in the same vein as above - a lofty dream. Artists deserve to make money from their work - there’s no question about it. But we cannot expect the world to turn back the clocks of time and pretend the internet never happened. Purchasing CDs is a lost cause for most people. Do all new cars even have CD players?

I can’t say I agree with these words of Taylor.

Because if you do love a particular musician or band, you will make the effort to see them in concert or buy their merchandise. And if you decide to stream music through a legal service, you don’t deserve to be vilified. When you choose to use Spotify or YouTube you make a conscientious choose not steal from the artist, so in words of Miss Smith “you are saying you believe in the same thing I believe in that music is valuable.”

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Cage the Elephant  Matthew Shultz breaking out an acoustic version of "Cigarette Daydreams" on Fordham University's public radio WFUV. 

First, I'm shocked by WFUV's collection of great performances - definitely worth checking out. 

Mellower than the usual thrashing sound from Bowling Green's Cage the Elephant, this track rips to the chord of what must have been a harrowing heartbreak and search for conclusion after. "You can drive all night in the pouring rain/Looking for the answers in the pouring rain" 

"Cigarette Daydreams" closes their third album, Melophobia. After being brought through a whirlwind of a high intensity songs, this one will buckles you into reality. 

Right now, Cage the Elephant is touring the Western United States. See them if you can! 

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St. Vincent performing "Digital Witness" a track that resonates too closely in these times. She howls, "If I can't show it, if you can't see me/ What's the point of doing anything?" This lyric rips into the artery of  our likes-based personal economy, while the musical backdrop provides a carefree aura elevating her words. 

I only heard St. Vincent for the first time a few weeks ago as a solo artist, little did I know she toured with Sufjan Stevens back in the early 2000s. And now I regret missing her at Austin City Limits back in October. Though she'll be opening for The Black Keys when I see them this week in Richmond.

Sit down and listen to her most recent album the self-titled St. Vincent - I can say it will be a good one. Just go visit AnyDecentMusic where it ranks number one or Paste where it rests at number 2.