Musically, I go through cycles. For years, I’ll listen to the same music. And then in a day or a week, I’ll discover a plethora of new amazing songs, by exciting new (to me) artists. I thought I’d share some of the tunes I came across today and yesterday.
1. MyHope (A myspace song)
MyHope is a fabulous like ukelele jingle about a time in the future when this generation’s kids find their parents old myspace profiles and amuse themselves with their parents old comments and haircuts. Nothing specific about this song is terribly new, it’s just terribly darling! The performer is Molly Lewis, and I came across her while searching for covers of “Still Alive“, the song from the end of Portal, the video game. Her cover was the best, but her own songs are even better. She seems to be a bit of a hero on the comic-con scene. Her thing seems to be uke covers of pop songs. She’ll even play freebird.
I first heard this song (last night) while riding in a car with Dave – Sonny played it on my 1960s Sears Silvertone guitar, the one I bought at an antique store in Bellingham for 40$ and had to re-enforce to keep from collapsing when I put strings on it. It might have been the first time I’ve heard Sonny sing – certainly the first time he’s invoked the Gods of early New Country with his heartfelt voice.
3. Arthur Macbride (Paul Brady’s 1977 version)
I’ve known about this song a little longer – I was introduced to it at TAPSS. It’s a great anti-war song, a story of two Irish lads standing up to an English Seargent ,”who would have no scruples but to send [them] to France, where they would get shot without warning. ” I’m not sure how I feel about their subsequent beating of the Sergeant and the military drummer – but on the whole, I feel very positively about this number. It’s a fun one to play, also, since it’s in open G and has many irish stylistic embellishments.
Only a Northern Song 