I did this the other year and it went over pretty well I have to say.

One thing about putting up a list of music that you are saying is your “best”, “favourite” or “Top 12 of the year” is that your actual opinion is involved.  What?!?  Who needs opinion as it is rarely not swayed by what you think is good or what you might think fits your persona or what your readers want you to like.  Well let’s get rid of that elephant in the room and go with our iTunes play counts for tracks released in 2011 with the most plays in my music library.  This is my top 25 with 2 missing tracks that I dis-qualified as they are 2012 releases and still “unreleased” at this point, so there.

Slowcoustic’s 25 23 most played songs of 2011 up till the morning of December 11th, 2011

1. “Mary’s Gone” – The Deep Dark Woods
2. “All Things Past Serve To Guide You On Your Way” – Frederick Squire
3. “Holocene” – Bon Iver
4. “Lotus Flower” – Radiohead
5. “Big City Nights” – The Deep Dark Woods
6. “Goners Most” – Jeffrey Foucault
7. “Circle Drive” – Conrad Plymouth
   
8. “Anti-Pioneer” – Feist
9. “Passerines” – Jeffrey Foucault
10. “Everything to Me (Budapest Session) – John Statz
11. “The Woods” – Small Sur
    
12. “Never Prove False” – The Deep Dark Woods
13. “Barghest” – Tyler Butler
14. “December 25″ – South of Lincoln (now Great American Desert)
    
15. “Wore It Deep” – The Tree Ring
16. “Man, Part 1″ – South of Lincoln (now Great American Desert)
17. “White Clay” – South of Lincoln
18. “Poor Eliza (Bridgehouse Session)” – Chris Bathgate (Free D/L via Mostly Midwest)
19. “Little Raider” – Will Johnson
20. “Corsicana” – The Antlers
21. “Caught a Long Wind” – Feist
22. “True Faith (New Order Cover)” – Lotte Kestner
23. “Albuquerque (Neil Young Cover)” – Jeffrey Foucault

There you have it, my most listened to tracks!  They pretty accurately measure my listening I believe…you will find that my top album of 2011 does not have any tracks on this list, but that is due to the Josh T. Pearson album tracks being soo long that each play is worth 3-4 regular song plays…yeah, that is the reason.

~Smansmith

The numbering (as most year end list makers will indicate) is pretty accurate but each album had definitely fluctuated over the course of the year but overall they can easily settle at a +/- 3 spots.  So let’s get started!

~Slowcoustic’s Favourite Albums of 2011~

12.  Mount Moriah – Mount Moriah

~~

11.  South of Lincoln (now Great American Desert) – Homes

Man, Pt. I by South of Lincoln

~~

10.  Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Wolfroy Goes To Town

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9.  Bon Iver, Bon Iver

“Calgary”

~~

8.  William Elliott Whitmore – Field Songs

William Elliott Whitmore – Field Song by antirecords

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7.  Chris Bathgate – Salt Year

“Salt Year”

~~

6.  Frederick Squire – Sings Shenandoah and Other Popular Hits

“All Things Past Serve To Guide You On Your Way”

~~

5.  Tyler Butler – Winter King

“Morana”

~~

4.  Dolorean – The Unfazed

Dolorean – Country Clutter by Fargo Records

~~

3.  The Deep Dark Woods – The Place I Left Behind

West Side Street by The Deep Dark Woods

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2.  Jeffrey Foucault – Horse Latitudes

“Goners Most”

~~

1.  Josh T. Pearson – Last of the Country Gentlemen

Josh T. Pearson – Woman, When I’ve Raised Hell (Alternative Version) by Mute UK

~~

There you have it.  Now…discuss!

~Smansmith

Just listening once again to this album this morning.  A stark, acoustic morning.  It’s quiet, understated and meant to curl around you, clutch onto you and become part of you.

I know there is a new album out from Brown Bird (Salt for Salt – see here) – but this previous album, along with earlier albums such as Tautology, Such Unrest and even the Split EP with Annie Palmer always bring a certain sound out of this artist for me.  The sound that I adore, the sound that calms and brings the performer and listener close.  This is my Brown Bird.

Released in mid 2008 and including 14 tracks sequenced on the album in the order they were written, it comes in as one of my favourite albums of 2008 and the last decade.  This is something that should be in your collection at a minimum.  Check out that aforementioned track listing and a little sample.

1. my daddy’s a preacher
2. lioness
3. coward
4. david and bethsheba
5. colfax
6. the brokedown palace of my head
7. a ghost of myself
8. mama made a man out of daddy
9. i knew you were evil
10. black rivers
11. amelia earhart
12. the ice and snow haunt me still (mp3)
13. black sea
14. i was blind

Feature tracks are #s 2, 9, 12, 13 but overall it is a complete album listen for full effect.  Purchase it today via Peapod Recordings HERE.

~Smansmith

p.s.  Bonus track from a live session back in early 2007 with Folk The System! – “Such Unrest (Live on Folk the System!)”  <—THIS IS AWESOME

I picked up this album yesterday on limited white vinyl for $15.00 with shipping to Canada.  This is something to give thanks for on this Canadian Thanksgiving…or as I know it, Thanksgiving.

Everything about this album is easy; its beauty, how you immediately find yourself a bit more comfortable when it is playing and then how you will keep it playing over and over.  The only hard parts about it is learning the spelling of Frank’s last name and knowing the fact that it came out a couple years ago and you are just purchasing it now.

Listen:

Something else you might want to look into is his contribution to the LEM series (Laminar Excursion Monthly) that I subscribed to last year – it was a 3″ CD monthly subscription from the folks at Flannelgraph Records – it was good stuff (despite the fact that I can’t actually play 3″ CDs in my iMac….).  It is a little darker and lo-fi, but still great – you can stream or purchase it digitally now on Bandcamp.  Listen to the track ‘Best Man’ below:

Find more on Frank Schweikhardt on his Bandcamp page, website, Facebook and the Crossroads of America site.

~Smansmith

I am kind of having a Gregory Alan Isakov moment.  Okay, I am fully having a moment.  Always been a fan of this guy (why isn’t he famous anyway) and after receiving my vinyl copy of “That Empty Northern Hemisphere”, I just can’t get enough.  God damn…the combination of his voice and perfect harmonies is almost overwhelming at times.  He has pitch perfect delivery to go alongside his ever pining acoustic ballads – even if they aren’t all really ballads per se.  I thought you all needed to be immersed in Isakov today as well, so to be sure you are aware, he did a great FRUK session a couple of months back during is UK tour.  Every track recorded below proves the weight he carries as a top tier singer songwriter.

Gregory Alan Isakov – The Stable Song (Folk Radio UK Session) by Folk Radio UK
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Gregory Alan Isakov – Virginia May (Folk Radio UK Session) by Folk Radio UK
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Gregory Alan Isakov – evelyn (Folk Radio UK Session) by Folk Radio UK
~
Gregory Alan Isakov – that moon song (Folk Radio UK Session) by Folk Radio UK

~ and a new track ~
Gregory Alan Isakov – second chances (Folk Radio UK Session) by Folk Radio UK
~

Also, you have to hear his track performed at Miss Peapods in Cornwall during the aforementioned tour (love the vocals in this one).

Gregory Alan Isakov, The Universe from before the winter fires on Vimeo.

Visit Gregory Alan Isakov: Website | Facebook | Twitter
Purchase albums/shirts at his online store

~Smansmith

Ever since one of my mates (I can say mate as he is from the UK, so there) turned me onto Stripmall Ballads I have been wanting to post something over here on Slowcoustic. There is a great interview post over on You Crazy Dreamers HERE with Phillips Saylor who is the man they call Stripmall Ballads.

Not unlike his moniker, I find the music Saylor creates can have a bit of everything in an unassuming package – there is country, folk, noise, rock all mixed into a lo-fi package that really works. The one “piece of work” that I have really enjoyed is “Since Jimmy Died” which was released last year and is 10 tracks of a man singing his very heart out. Not in the sense that he can sing no longer, but in a sense that he leaves everything out there for you to ingest. Let yourself take it all in and you will realize that this tragic sounding album is one of the most beautiful things you will hear. I swear that this album breaks my heart just a little each time I listen to it and it isn’t entirely due to subject matter but the overall atmosphere the album creates. If I was more aware of the album, it would have been placed quite predominantly in my best of 2008 collection. Why he isn’t more well known is beyond me.

Saylor’s voice has just a little bit of the south peaking through, just enough cracking (or actually the straddling of a natural break between his higher and lower singing voice) to draw you in. It isn’t polished and it isn’t supposed to be. Polish wouldn’t work on Stripmall Ballads as this is one of those stripmalls in the industrial area of town that doesn’t have the flash and glitz but has everything you will ever need. I know bad analogy but this acoustic folk album is just too good for you to let slip by. Do yourself a favour and swing by and pick up a copy – to entice you, here are two stand out tracks below to get you moving.

“So Romantic”
“Freeloader”
~from 2008′s “Since Jimmy Died”

Visit & Purchase Stripmall Ballads

~Smansmith

p.s. You can pick up another track from Stripmall Ballads alongside another interview over on Microphone Memory Emotion Blog.

Re-post from way back in January 2009 with the final track to the President’s project from Christian Kiefer/Jefferson Pitcher/J. Matthew Gerken and released from Standard Recording Co.  The package came to be via the FAWM (February Album Writing Month) and included many contributions…including Will Johnson below.  Enjoy.

Update to the post below and the Songs for Presidents and the “Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies” project. NPR debuted the 44th track, that isn’t included on the original 3 disc set as it was released prior to the US Presidential election last November.

Well here it is – Barack Obama (Someone To Wake) as performed by Will Johnson. Check the original post here and take a listen below.

Will Johnson’s “Barack Obama (Someone to Wake)” – from the “Of Great and Mortal Men” album.

~Smansmith

This is a re-posting because it is such a great album that I simply have to.  A side note to the original post is that I did in fact go to the show I mention below and it was fantastic and had Brian sign my vinyl copy of the album!  Please enjoy the experience of this album at some point in your life, it is a Slowcoustic all time best album.  Original post from October 2008 and the album ended up being my #1 pick for best/favourite album of 2008…obviously.

So I don’t know why I have been waiting on this release for this long. I have been telling everyone I can about how much I love the new album from Brian Borcherdt. I tell you people, this album is probably my #1 album this year (go ahead start judging me!) – but I don’t care – I said it. Best of 2008??

So Coyotes…released October 7th, and has been almost overplayed around the Slowcoustic Headquarters. This album is bleak, intimate, stark. Yes all those classic blogger descriptions of the “unhurried” sound – but it is true. I don’t think that I have all the correct words as sometimes you have a hard time describing music that you just immediately love. Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of music (hey, I am a music blogger), but you know some music that you love immediately will soon be the next week’s forgotten songs. This is not the case with “Coyotes” – it is quiet and oddly charismatic with Borcherdt’s whispering and at times cracking vocals making this a soon to be classic in my books.

Some of you may be familiar with Borcherdt’s work with his day job with Holy Fuck (let us not get the two confused though) – which is astonishing to me. While I can enjoy a HF track, Borcherdt’s performance is light (or dark in this case) years away from his group efforts. The story behind this album is while on a break from Holy Fuck – Brian recorded these songs in a friend’s living room and basically left them as is – just Brian and a guitar (maybe a bit of echo and background harmony added afterwords). While this style of indie/lo-fi recording is becoming increasingly popular, it doesn’t always work as well as it does here. While keeping it “real” with the recording of this album, it is still crisp, professionally packaged and even sounds like you were sitting right there in the two seater love-seat during the process. This is why this approach works with “Coyotes” – just the right amount of lo-fi, but still remarkably well finished with what little they had to do in the studio. I have yet to see Brian Borcherdt live – but plan on seeing him here in Calgary on Nov. 30th as he swings through on tour with Martha Wainwright.

So, class, what album do I currently recommend purchasing? Buuuuut, seriously, listen to the two tracks below and pick up a copy either at Brian Borcherdt’s MySpace Page or get the full track-list and a link to purchase on iTunes – More On This Album.

Brian Borcherdt
“While I Was Asleep” (mp3)
“The Drugs” (mp3)
from “Coyotes”
(Hand Drawn Dracula)

Buy at Rhapsody
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

~Smansmith

So I finally received my Bon Iver vinyl package from Jagjaguwar yesterday after an almost painful 5 week wait.  You see, we had a postal issue in Canada for a month or so and my 4 pack of LPs essentially sat around waiting to be delivered in some warehouse – but alas, it is safe and sound in my home (proof)!

I wanted to have a huge post this morning, almost a stream of consciousness type post as I tend to not plan out too many posts and just write ‘in the moment’.  But alas (again) I don’t know if my thoughts will make it to keyboard quite as eloquently as I might hoped when I planned it last night after a few beers and a new vinyl glow.  You see, what happened is I listened to two tracks from the “For Emma…” album and I was practically taken aback.  What?  The songs, Flume and Re:Stacks felt almost new to me and the songs hit me all over again.  Maybe I hadn’t listened to the album in a while, maybe I had been listening to covers and live versions too many times and the original fell off the radar.  I have to attribute it to that, right?  I mean I didn’t have a life experience during the discovery of the album, so it isn’t tied to a personal experience – but it felt like it did…it was both odd and exciting.

So, you can go back!  You can re-discover an album.

The album “For Emma, Forever Ago” is a modern day classic in my opinion and it was a game changer for the indie scene.  The album itself hit me pretty hard and I was very enamored with it when it first came out (I remember when nobody really knew this guy with his self released album…then Jagjaguwar released it and the legend began).  It took me a few listens to really grasp onto the album with this new guy singing in some other worldly voice…but when it did take hold, it pretty much didn’t let go for at least a year.  But that year slipped into the past and like everything it wasn’t at the forefront of my music listening…I had moved on.  I had even discussed the album without re-listening to it (always a bad decision) and indicated that maybe it wasn’t as good as I remember or that it hadn’t aged that well (as it should have).  Again, it may have been the 4 Indian Pale Ales listening and having the epiphany on my behalf, but even the Mrs. said that she really liked it – and she was 50/50 at best on Mr. Vernon.  I guess this means you can go back.  Really it does.

So what I am rambling on about is the fact that your original gut instinct can be right and the album is (not was) really that good.  You just might need to embrace it and hear it all over again…with a few beers.  For me last night it was the Bon Iver debut, for you it might be something else – but do yourself a favour and grab an original recording of an album you loved at one time or another.  You don’t even have to bring beer…I guess.

As I wanted to play one of the two tracks I listened to last night that inspired me to post a rambling praise piece for Bon Iver, they are not officially approved for posting and only the track “Skinny Love” is – not my favourite on the album if I was to be honest.  So, I thought I would post the new track ‘Calgary’ because was enjoying the 12″ LP last night as well (in fact my copy of the vinyl has both labels saying “Side A”, so I don’t know which is actually side A when I go to listen to it!).  So listen:

“Calgary” – Bon Iver, from 2011′s album “Bon Iver”

Think about Bon Iver all over again, not as the hype magnet he is at the moment – just as a musician, you won’t be disappointed.  Find more from Jagjaguwar here.

~Smansmith

p.s.  I think I might have also been remembering watching a video of Justin Vernon talking about his house on I Guess I’m Floating the other day – Vernon just seemed so personable and normal.  Like a guy you would want to actually hang out with.  I think I am staring head on to a man crush…

REPOST:  I thought I would ease my way back into posting after vacation by doing a re-post of an artist that I found myself ‘re-discovering’ while on said vacation.  Sarah Winchester’s EP, Northeast Kingdom Demos is a beautiful selection of songs from the A. Weather front woman and is highly recommended for fans of stark acoustic folk artists like J. Tillman, Lotte Kestner, et al.  FYI, I think you have to sign up for the Team Love Library to get to this EP, it is was a free membership and download if I remember correctly.

Enjoy.

A Nice surprise was discovering Sarah Winchester’s 5 track demo release over on the Team-Love website. You might know Winchester as the same ethereal voice that keep the band “A Weather” on the Slowcoustic radar (also highly recommended). Her recent EP is so incredibly delicate and gorgeous that it is heartbreaking and warming at the same time. Even with 30 minute length for an EP, I still want more of this music.

The EP is indicated as “demos” but I am not sure if the sound and feel could not have that used as a descriptor. She recorded solo in her bedroom over this past winter – and that my friend is another reason why I like the music – it is just so personal. I also just had a short “demo vs. final version” twitter conversation with a few people yesterday and put up the question on why I can often enjoy a “demo version” much more than a fully finalized copy of that very same song. There is something about the way I listen to music that I enjoy a more raw, lo-fi experience. I don’t know if I feel it more authentic or simply more acoustic (usually)…who knows.

Well to get back to the EP, a quick clip from the label page:

“…the 5 song collection derives it’s name from the northeastern corner of Sarah’s home state – Vermont. Now living in Portland Oregon, Sarah’s songs are bound by this divergent geography, as well as by themes of family, death and wilderness.”

So take a journey to Sarah’s “kingdom” where things tend to be just a little bit slower and give you the chance to breathe in it’s beauty.

“Raft” – Sarah Winchester

~Smansmith

Evening Chorus have been on the site before, but in my recent UK/Scottish thing I had going, I also immediately thought about this up and coming Wales unit.  While I am not up to date on the UK/Scotland/Wales/Ireland thing as we (sorry to group anyone with me) aren’t quite as familiar with what seems to be a very distinctly separate musical area of the world.  I don’t really know what that means, but there you have it; I essentially group them all together foolishly out of my ignorance…but the music is top notch!!

So to make what started out to be a rambling post possibly more on topic, Evening Chorus came to mind when I was thinking about the UK folkies and this particular “single” for No Wreath, No Crown.  While the songs have been around prior to this specific release, this version of the two tracks slowed things down and it made all the difference (re: blew me away).  While often folk songs work with having the boisterous sing along, sometimes they really shine when making it a heartbreaking lament (whether it is a “lament” at all).  It is just a nice couple of tracks that show the glimmer of future success for these young musicians.   Can’t wait to see what is next for ‘em.

~

Check out their website for a load of upcoming performances around the Cardiff/Wales area.

~Smansmith

Don’t forget about the past and things you once loved or enjoyed immensely.  In this fast paced world, we can move past things too quickly and honestly not always give everyone/everything all the time it deserves.  I have decided to start a post series that I will go back and do a “where are they now?” or “Whats new with that guy/girl/group?” sort of post.  I will tag it as “Artists Revisited” if you are interested.

I think as a music blogger, I tend to cover soo much music that I end up liking too much stuff and then simply end up finding the next artist too quickly.  I also sort my iTunes library by “date added” so the newer I find you, the closer you are to the top.  So by this method of sorting my music alone, every time somebody else makes it to my ears, the previous album gets pushed down that same list.  Let’s also get serious, I can’t possibly listen to as much music as I have available to me.  This alone makes me think of previous posts and I often revisit and spin the album a few more times or look for something new by that person or group because I just might not have spent enough time on them.  Below is what I figured out the other day.

1. I posted on Del Barber from Winnipeg (I just say “from Winnipeg” as I lived there for 10 years) had his album “Where The City Ends” released this past April!  When I posted there was nothing really for “sale” – so awesome.  Pick it up on iTunes HERE.  Visit him on MySpace for more info.
2. I posted on Nathan Xander who had a new album out as I was typing the review of his previous album for that very blog post!  So I was a little behind.  The new album is called “The Fear” and you can pick it up on iTunes HERE or get an actual CD via Paypal HERE.  Visit his website for more info.
3. I posted on His Name Shall Breathe who has a few more tracks available on his Virb Page that I either missed or is new.  Tim is still unsigned – People get on this!!

Now go and take a look at the archives of this blog, go and “shuffle” your music library; there is a lot of good stuff in there that just may need another listen.

~Smansmith