Tunesday 10: Twang
February 18th, 2009 at 1.35pm (Tunesday)
Whoa guys, I’m going to promise that next week’s stuff will be on time. Relying on the internet is becoming increasingly difficult these days. I’ll write a bunch in advance so you actually see them when they’re supposed to be posted!
Anyway, here we are at the double Tunesday post. In case you haven’t noticed yet, I love country and country-laced music, but we’re not talking Keith Urban or Garth Brooks here. I’m talking real country, that folky stuff with banjos and good bass lines and a little twang. In other words, the good stuff. It goes by any name: alt-country, Americana, bluegrass, folk, nu-grass, country-rock, or perhaps even psychedelic cow-punk (sorry).
The first track I want to share is by a fairly legendary Canadian outfit by the name of Blue Rodeo. I’m sure the name itself gives you some hints about its country leanings, but they are by and large a rock band (with a healthy amount of hoedown). Blue Rodeo have been around for 25 years and 11 studio albums, and they’re still doing pretty much the same thing they’ve always been doing. I mean this in the best possible way: they’ve found a working formula and made an incredible amount of great music using it. It’s bands like these that Canada should always be known for.
This song is from their incredibly popular 1993 record Five Days in July, which went 6x platinum … not bad for a bunch of guys from the Great White North. Here y’are.
The other track is by “nu-grass” favourites of mine, The Be Good Tanyas. I keep recommending this song to everybody I know, and then they’re always disappointed when their other songs aren’t quite like this one. Regardless, it was responsible for me collecting all of their albums and seeing them live, and it is still among my favourites. There’s something about it that just feels like sunshine — or as my friend Alex so eloquently said, “It makes me want to cook breakfast for someone in my underwear”.
Tunesday 10-2: The Littlest Birds
Enjoy! Sorry again about the incredible delays. Technology … not always a solution.
Also, I recently found out that Phoenix’s new album is going to be called Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I love it already.
Tags: blue rodeo, the be good tanyas
toomuchcountry said,
February 18, 2009 at 10.50pm
Yep. BR is it. I guess “fairly legendary” is a compromise description when balanced across 2 countries. Very popular in the Great White North. Barely known in the US. Fairly legendary is the average I suppose. As someone who lives in the South of south of the border, I’m in the minority of folks down here who have listened to them fervently since their debut Outskirts. They write songs that stand the test of time. I just wish more folks listened to them IN their time.
barbara said,
February 20, 2009 at 12.34pm
The Be Good Tanyas are always worth listening to. I would be rather disappointed if all their songs DID sound like the Littlest Birds, actually.
Ruhee said,
February 25, 2009 at 9.51am
toomuchcountry: Me too. Blue Rodeo is certainly a band worth paying attention to! It’s too bad the US never really caught on, but then there’s also the small thrill of being able to cross the border and see a band like that play a little club, which is also fun. At least they got well recognized in their native country, which seems to not happen enough these days.
Barbara: I guess I would too! Although, it’s probably still my favourite tune of theirs, so maybe another one like it wouldn’t hurt.
They really are terrific.