To end off the year, we’ve put together a free digital album that includes some of our favorite HearYa Live Session tracks from 2009. It’s called Earwood, named for the intense feeling of pleasure our ears get when listening to these great bands.‚ Download Volume 1 from 2008 here and download our phenomenal 2009 Volume 2 here.
Thanks to all of the bands that took the time to visit us, to all the labels, publicists and other industry types that have supported us, to Shirk Music + Sound (Steve Shirk) for the studio time, and of course all of y’all for reading. We’ll kick off 2010 with sessions with AA Bondy and The Mother Hips. Cheers to a very Happy New Year!
In case you weren’t aware, Vic Chesnutt died of an apparent prescription drug overdose on Christmas Day. The Athens, GA songwriter was paralyzed from the waist down from an accident in his younger days and battled depression for most of his life. In an interview with the LA Times, he had this to say about his medical situation:
I’m not too eloquent talking about these things,” Chesnutt said. “I was making payments, but I can’t anymore and I really have no idea what I’m going to do. It seems absurd they can charge this much. When I think about all this, it gets me so furious. I could die tomorrow because of other operations I need that I can’t afford. I could die any day now, but I don’t want to pay them another nickel.
Apparently Vic Chesnutt owed more than $70,000 in medical bills. If his music touched your life, please visit this page where Vic’s family and friends have set up a fund to help pay for the medical and funeral bills left behind. It’s a sad story and tragic loss.
Thanks to a reader (Henry) for pointing us to the video.
We heard two new songs in our live session with The Deep Dark Woods, “The Banks of The Leopold Canal” and “Ballad of Frank Dupree.” They recently sent us this new track called “Charlie’s (Is Coming Down) and again knocked it out of the park.‚ DDW’s Winter Hours was actually tied with AA Bondy as my favorite album of 2009 and if the new material is any indication, their next album may be their finest.
Let The Lead Fly is one of those albums that deserves to be on our Best Albums of 2009 list, but we grabbed it a bit too late. While the Wrinkle Neck Mules seem to go to a more a traditional country sound, this album is far from uninspired or unoriginal. As long as Andy Stepanian and Chase Heard are leading the charge, we needn’t worry about the quality of work from this underrated bande. In an interview on American Songwriter, Heard had this to say:
Let the Lead Fly was created in the same vein as our previous record The Wicks Have Met, but it skews towards the rootsier end of the Mules spectrum.
The band continues to remind me of Drive-By Truckers, although their sounds are quite different. Both fall into alt-country territory, but DBT is more rock and WNM is more country. The similarities lie in songwriting that paints a vivid picture and allows a scene to play out right in front of you. Stepanian and Heard rival Hood and Cooley in the storytelling category, especially on songs like “Catfish and Color TVs” and “Howard Johnson.”
From the opening salvo, “Don’t just stand there. Raise your gun and let the lead fly,” you get a 47 minute statement of everything that is good about country music. Don’t sleep on these guys. They are the cream of the alt-country crop.
A great list of mp3′s from last week. These come from our best albums of 2009. See picks 1-25 | See Picks 26-50 AA Bondy – I Can See The Pines Are Dancing AA Bondy – When The Devil’s Loose The Deep Dark Woods – All The Money I Had Is Gone The Love Language [...]
And here are HearYa’s top albums of 2009. In our opinion 2009 was a better year for music than ’08, but there was no single album that jumped out at us like Blitzen Trapper last year. Each HearYa contributor had a different favorite, but there was one album that kept emerging as the most listened [...]
26.‚ ‚ ‚ The Devil Makes Three – Do Wrong Right The Devil Makes Three – All Hail 27.‚ ‚ ‚ The Decemberists – Hazards of Love 28.‚ ‚ ‚ Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man 29.‚ ‚ ‚ The Builders and The Butchers – Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well The Builders and The [...]
Here are the songs we discussed this past week. First, from our live session with Lissie: Introduction by Lissie Exclusive: Lissie – Wedding Bells Exclusive: Lissie – Little Lovin Exclusive: Lissie – Watch Over Me Download the live session with Lissie as a zip file. Here are the rest: The Henry Clay People – For [...]
In case you weren’t paying attention, Lissie (her last name is Maurus) just ended up at #2 on our best EP’s of 2009 list yesterday. To say that she has that “something” would be an understatement. She started‚ shopping her EP to labels last August and by November, the album was released on Fat Possum [...]
Cold War Kids are releasing their new Behave Yourself EP on 1/19 (12/21 digitally as an iTunes exclusive) and have scheduled a few shows this winter in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and NYC. The first single, “Audience,” is groovy. Cold War Kids – Audience Dates: January 22nd‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ Los Angeles , CA‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ The Wiltern January [...]
