Catch & Release @ the River of Music Streams July-October, 2019

UPDATE 10/28/19 - I have added songs to the playlist from new albums released by:
Neil Young, The Milk Carton Kids, Illiterate Light, Lana Del Rey, Green Day, No Vacation, Allison Moorer, Boy & Bear, The Cowsills and more, so check it out.

I have been so preoccupied with music from 1969 that I thought I'd better get back in tune with music happening now. After playing a little listening catch up since July (with a few albums released earlier this year), I now have a list of 80 songs from some great new albums.

In making a 'New Releases Playlist', I hit the music streaming services to cast and catch songs with the confidence of the Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of our lives ear for Rock 'n' Roll and Americana.

This trip, my recent catch includes-

Jeremy Ivey's debut solo album, The Dream and the Dreamer (on Amazon) is my big fish catch for this playlist. The album produced by wife and collaborator Margo Price is a wonderful delight of songs. To learn more about Jeremy read the Rolling Stone article by Joseph Hudak, At 41, Jeremy Ivey Scoffs at Age on His Debut Album.

My metaphor of fishing for songs is a joke with myself as I hated fishing from an early age with the boredom and lack of movement involved for a fidget spinner like me. But when you listen to a song that gives you that back neck goosebump tingle excitement it's like the feeling of a fish striking your line, bending the ol' fishing pole and reelin' em in. To top all this off, Jeremy's got a great song on the album and included in my playlist (#59) called Story of a Fish. Sometimes the blog just writes itself...

Bailen, a sibling band that includes twin brothers, Daniel on bass, David on drums, and younger sister Julia on guitars. Julia is probably identified as the lead singer, but what sets them apart from many young groups today is their detail for harmony.

Their debut album, Thrilled to be here (on Amazon) has so many wonderful songs carefully crafted with harmony that I was just began adding most to this playlist. I can't tell you how many albums I listen to that have so little spark from one song to the next. I was thrilled and look forward to more of their songs in the future.

Liam Gallagher's second solo album Why Me? Why Not. (on Amazon) answers his own question with his usual growl look and parka to go against some of the catchiest pop songs since well, Oasis. I can't help but like this guy and hope he and brother Noel can some day bury the hatchet together and just get along.

And speaking of siblings, The Avett Brothers new album Closer than Tomorrow (on Amazon) plays to a strength of the brothers commitment and moral center as humans, family, and bandmates. You can't help but feel along with producer Rick Rubin that these guys care are about what's going on in their community and country. Their unique style is why the genre of Americana came to be in the last couple of decades because bands like the Avett Brothers were not exactly folk, rock, country or bluegrass, but a mix of everything. Like the albums above, I just kept adding their new songs to the playlist.

There's also a lot of new single or double songs from a number of artists in the YouTube Playlist this week. Over time, I hope you can listen to the whole thing including new albums to come in the weeks ahead from The Milk Carton Kids, and The Who (who as for the later, I'll be seeing on October 16th at San Diego State).

Enjoy my friends, and sorry Paul, I didn't have time to make a Spotify Playlist (so far) this week.

My Favorite Songs of 2017

Happy New Year!

Now with that said, let's go back to take a listen to some of the best songs from last year. In putting this post and playlist together, I looked at several top lists from the "Best songs of 2017" on the Internet. Current stars such as Kendrick Lamar, Chris Stapleton, Harry Styles, and St. Vincent came up, as well as many other artists who I have never heard of before. I'm thinking, with rap, pop and country pop as the main music plays on the airwaves, who's going to dive into my 2017 list of 100 songs? I'm the guy who likes acoustic music, or as some might say, "the old white guy who listens to banjos and mandolins." 

So from the pick of the names above, you'd probably peg me as a Chris Stapleton guy, well no. I know he's a gifted singer-songwriter but he just doesn't have that "it" factor for me– maybe a little too much stereotypical male country voice. Then why do I like Meryl Haggard? Again, maybe it's as simple as just having the magical "it" that draws you to an artist that you can't always explain. Then for things that I can explain, like the sound of the female singing voice as in the perfect harmony of The Secret Sisters that is simply one of the most beautiful things in the world.

I first started the Monday Monday Music blog two years ago on January 5, 2015 as a writing exercise that I designed for myself, to improve my writing in my educational consultant business. Writing this blog has been fun and given me a confidence to keep writing in other areas.  Last summer, I began to research and write most everyday towards the completion of my first book called, Transformation by Design: The Integration of Learning Design, Physical Space Design and Digital Space Design. I believe all my current writings have changed my life from what I was doing just a couple years ago. And in the spirit of a 62 year old upstart, to paraphrase what many accomplished writers have said in one way or another, "I've only written to myself for myself." My music playlists, like my writings here are an extension of my passion for music that I have curated for me, but are also equally fueled with a motivation and great hope that you're reading and listening to both.

The first song on the playlist is Prisoner, by Ryan Adams. I rarely record video at concerts because they look and sound like crap, but I like this one. I was sitting in the fourth row at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara on June 1, 2017. The video does look like crap, but my phone magically picked up the sound better than usual. Here's me, becoming a new big fan of Ryan Adams in the moment, not to mention one of the best albums of 2017, Prisoner. The next song from the same album is, To Be Without You and is my favorite song of 2017. I love this album!

Speaking of albums, you can see from the 24 album covers collage that I put together at the top of the post, I'm an album guy. I think it is very important that you at least "skim and scan" an album, and one thing Youtube is very useful for before you purchase. Liam Gallagher's solo debut, As You Were, is a good example. I started skimming it on YouTube, but quickly settled in for a deeper listen and really enjoyed most of the tracks on the album.

The concept of a record album is such a wonderful thing. You may buy an album for a hit song but yet, have a mini collection of the musicians' work at that moment during their time in a recording studio together. If you make the time to listen, there's magic in the deeper cuts as many albums are unique unto themselves from an artist's or band's total catalog. Billy Joel's The Nylon Curtain comes to mind for example. In fact from my list of 100 here, many of the songs represent those cuts so often overlooked in the media.

Here's my Top 10 songs released in 2017 (and hard to cut that down from 100), but these are the songs that give me a special rush (just add Christmas headphones) and get better the more you hear them.

1. To Be Without You - Ryan Adams, Prisoner
2. If We Were Vampires - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, The Nashville Sound
3. King of a One Horse Town - Dan Auerbach, Waiting on a Song
4. Helpless - John Mayer, The Search for Everything
5. Mississippi - The Secret Sisters, You Don't Own Me Anymore
6. Beach Boys - Weezer, Pacific Daydream
7. The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness - The National, Sleep Well Beast
8. Hollywood - Lee Ann Womack, The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone 
9. Paper Crown - Liam Gallagher, Liam Gallagher
10. Carry Me - The Secret Sisters, You Don't Own Me Anymore

So I'm hoping you at least you skim and scan this playlist as I've purposely scattered each artist or band's songs around as a linear shuffle (my basic technique for most of my YouTube playlists). Enjoy my friends and here's to listening to new and old music in 2018!

New Album Releases - October, 2017

After last week's blog on new album releases from July-September, 2017, I decided to look ahead and see what is coming this month on the Wikipedia 2017 album release list. Minus several groups getting the jump on the Christmas season and Marilyn Manson, I found so many good songs on new albums released in October, and had a list of 35 after a couple of days of search and listen on YouTube. Topping the list are Liam Gallagher's As Your Were and, Weezer's Pacific Daydream.

Liam Gallagher, the lead singer of Oasis has his first solo album out after his breakup with lead songwriter and brother, Noel. Check out the Rolling Stone article, Liam Gallagher's Sweet Revenge. Liam's got a fantastic voice and I just love the songs on this album. You also got to love his working class scowl not to mention his f bomb in almost every spoken sentence in the article.

The song on Pacific Daydream that is playing through my brain this past week is Beach Boys as Rivers Cuomo's affinity for naming artists in his songs continues. I love that "Weezer" is the nickname Rivers' dad gave him as a toddler. In reading his bio, I enjoyed that he worked at Tower Records, as that could simply be anyone's musical education right there. I wish I had worked at the Sports Arena Blvd. store in San Diego when I was in college, miss Tower.  Anyway, Beach Boys has now moved to the top on my playlist for this week.

For an Americana flavor, check out Margo Price's new album All American Made and Lee Ann Womack's The Lonely, the Lonesome & the Gone. 

Also featured in the playlist are new albums from Pink (with a good range of songs on Beautiful Trauma) Beck, Boyz II Men, Kelly Clarkson, Niall Horan, Robert Plant, and Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile.

I end the playlist with Jason Isbell live with his six night October performances at the Ryman. Here's his tribute to Tom Petty with American Girl.