Every now and again I discover a song I haven’t heard before that stops me in my tracks, and makes me wonder how on earth I’ve lived this long without being aware that the song existed!
This is one such song…
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I saw Carbon Leaf, who I’ve posted about several times before, this weekend. Here’s a video of them from a month or so ago covering “Radio Free Europe”, which they’ve been doing at some of their shows this fall/winter. (Unfortunately didn’t play it at the show I was at.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IWaQxciZhg
When they started as a college cover band back in the early 90s they used to do R.E.M. regularly. I didn’t start following them until 2005-6, and while they still occasionally bring out a cover of something, I had never seen/heard of them still doing R.E.M. covers until now. Fun to bring it back.
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Jake’s Good and Green Again is one of my favorite albums of 2022. Here he is performing on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center back at the beginning of the month. A must see if ever you have the opportunity to do so.
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Remember when we used to get fan club singles around Christmas? This one, the 1999 Christmas single, Country Feedback from the 12th Annual Bridge School Benefit concert performed in 1998 is probably my fav. The single is backed with Neil Young - Ambulance Blues.
https://youtu.be/lAnASkDb-5k
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I remember the fan club singles but in the latter years they started to get away from including the type of material that made them so unique in the beginning. Still, can’t really complain as over all that time they never raised the price of membership of $10 (at least in the U.S.).
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'Tis the season.
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I joined the fan club after Up was released. True story, the week I received the 1999 Christmas single, a friend phoned, she needed to vent about her relationship bust up. I was on the phone to her for almost two hours and I’m not exaggerating. I felt bad cutting her off short because she was upset, but it was so draining, so I started to drink after an hour to get me through to the end. It didn’t end soon enough as I was getting drunk so I interrupted , “I was listening to this Cd today, I’ll put it on for you, listen” I played it over the phone, but she cut me short with “Oh okay I’ll talk to you again next time.” That Christmas single saved me that day.
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From their rehearsal studio in Athens GA. This performance was part of the 2001 Fan Club Holiday single. 
https://youtu.be/LPvgPaxdk0U
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Happy Birthday to Patti Smith born on this day in 1946. 
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I haven’t been to The Gambia yet, but I want to go!!
I used to work with someone who painstakingly put together a Christmas mix cd for anyone on staff who wanted one. He did this for the 10 years we worked together, and he never repeated a cut, so he was always on the lookout for rare Christmas songs he hadn’t used before. I broke out my collection of Christmas package cd’s for him, and there was an R.E.M. song on the mix cd from then on!
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One for new year’s eve.
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This band opened some dates for Alvvays on their most recent tour. I’ve been meaning to check them out but am just now getting around to them. I’m liking what I’ve heard so far.
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R.I.P., David Crosby who has passed away at the age of 81. For those of us of a certain vintage (I’m 60) this song was a staple on album radio. My favorite was WQDR out of Raleigh, NC, same station where I heard R.E.M. for the first time in 1983.
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New live performance of “Too In Love To Die” from Julia Jacklin’s Pre Pleasure filmed in Paris by A Take Away Show last November.
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Maybe my favorite from August and Everything After and definitely an all time favorite in general. At the time the album was released in 1993 I’d just moved to the coast of NC where I was helping to remodel our cottage. It was also when I started what would become my last job in radio working at WSFL, an AOR (Album Oriented Rock) station in nearby New Bern. I soon learned you didn’t turn down the free promo CD’s that were handed out following our staff meetings. If you weren’t a fan of them they could be used as currency at local pawn shops to trade in on CD’s you did want. This was a keeper and remained in my CD player on repeat for weeks on end.
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One of my favorites from Brighter Than Creation’s Dark which turns 15 today.
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I like the Drive-By Truckers vids you post here, I don’t have any of their albums, I know they have quite a few, which of their records would you recommend?
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Tough question for me as what I consider my favorites don’t tend to be the albums other fans recommend as entry points for new fans. Those albums would be from the Jason Isbell era such as Decoration Day and The Dirty South. I love those albums as well and consider them high water marks but my favorites are from their early era: Gangstabilly, Pizza Deliverance, Southern Rock Opera, and the live one, Alabama Ass Whuppin’. Gangstabilly is my overall favorite from them. You could dive in by checking out either of the Isbell era albums or start from the beginning and listen to how they arrived at the albums with him. BTW, none of this is to discount the post-Isbell albums. Their newest, Welcome 2 Club XIII is among my favorite things they’ve ever done. For a band that’s been around for over a quarter century at this point I find their catalog to be remarkably consistent which is rarely the case with other artists that have enjoyed the same sort of longevity.
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