Hanukkah CD swap, a great tradition

Last year, my sister came up with a fun idea for our family Hanukkah celebration, which usually includes a large group of people coming together for Latkes and boisterous, prop-enhanced renditions of traditional holiday songs (The non-Hanukkah sing-along of "Mule Train" is an added bonus!). My sister's idea was to include a CD swap where everyone has to bring a homemade CD of tunes. Numbers are randomly picked and matched to a CD, one for each person. Everyone leaves with a CD of new music. It's a great way to bring everyone together talking about the really interesting compilations people come up with. I, of course, can't resist coming up with a theme or a reason for my songs. Last year was unusual cover music -- Gillian Welch singing Neil Young's "Pocahontus"; Dar Williams doing Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb," etc.
This year my theme is the "Voice Crush." As I explain on the CD cover, "A voice crush is when you fall in love with someone solely based on the tone of his or her vocals. For them, I’d put a poster of their voices on my wall ... if that were even remotely possible." Actually, I copped this from a blogger out of Cincinnati talking about singer-songwriter Kim Taylor. I find it explains how I fall for certain artists, especially women singer-songwriters.

Anyway here is my song list for this year's CD:
1. "Standing," Patty Griffin
2. "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson," Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
3. "The Air Is Thin," Jesse Sykes
4. "Old Simon Stimson," Peter Mulvey
5. "Hard to Know," Mindy Smith
6. "That’s So Amazing," Michelle Shocked
7. "Under My Skin," Bob Schneider
8. "Rise Up With Fists!!," Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins
9. "Wrecking Ball," Gillian Welch
10. "Jezebel," Iron and Wine
11. "High Shelf Booze," Eilen Jewell
12. "Water Water," Kris Delmhorst
13. "Los Angeles, I’m Yours," The Decemberists
14. "Modern Love," The Last Town Chorus
15. "People," Kim Taylor
16. "It Makes No Difference," The Band
17. "Ecstasy," Crooked Still

Issue No. 18, December 2007

THAT'S THE TICKET - Modern Acoustic proudly presents our faves of 2007

Since its inception, Modern Acoustic has always prided itself on keeping readers informed about great music. Our goal is that you would read something here and then whatever way suits you best – artists’ web sites, iTunes or your local store – give the music a listen for yourself.
That of course takes commitment in keeping track of that essential music as well as time.
So in our continuing effort to make sampling new music more accessible, we have gone interactive (Wild applause here!)
What does going interactive, actually mean?
It means that as you read in upcoming issues about bands that spark your curiosity or interest, you can click on an accompanying link right in the magazine’s pdf and it will take you directly to a website or MySpace site, a place where you can hear music on the spot.
It also means that if we review a concert or post a photo from a show, you can click on the accompanying link to more photos of the show or even to video clips we shot.
You can also instantly visit our blog, our MySpace site or our online merchandise store (Did we mention our Very Cool T-shirts?) right from the comfort of your very own copy of Modern Acoustic.
And to start all of this off with a bang, we decided to launch the premiere of our interactive efforts with our super-duper end of year issue. You will see in its pages that we’ve become linking maniacs.
We saw some great shows this year – from stalwarts Gillian Welch to Crooked Still (twice!), caught some up-and-comers like Antje Duvekot and Anais Mitchell, and survived and thrived at a couple of awesome summer festivals.
We also spent much of our driving time to and from work listening to the likes of Jesse Sykes and Alejandro Escovedo.
It’s hard to believe another year is ending, but the good thing is we’ve filled it with the sounds of artists who are out there giving their all for our listening pleasure... and that deserves our wild applause.
To download the new issue, click HERE.
ALSO, we review the new Alison Krauss-Robert Plant album "Raising Sand." To read the review, click HERE.

MA5 - ALBUMS THAT HELPED US SURVIVE THIS ISSUE:
1. “A Man Under the Influence,’’ Alejandro Escovedo. We’re definitely late to the party on this guy. A great sound.
2. “Raising Sand,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Really great sound from these two. Read review.
3. “Strange Conversation,” Kris Delmhorst. Still enjoying Kris’s wonderful voice, and looking forward to a new album soon.
4. “Live at Massey Hall, 1971” Neil Young. I love hearing Neil start to play now-classic tunes, with no recognition from audience.
5. “Shaken By a Low Sound,” Crooked Still. Last year’s fave of the year is still high on the listening list.

Back online

Modernacoustic.com is back up and running. A new issue will be posted shortly.

Down, down, down

Hi everyone.
My website, modernacoustic.com, is down. I did something very bad while trying to post my latest magazine and am in the process of trying to get it back up. Hopefully I'll be back up and running shortly, so stay tuned.

Gill, if you are out there...

This is an open-letter to Gillian Welch.
Dear Gill,
If you just happen to be trolling around the Internet, maybe wondering what your fans are up to, and you come across this post -- here's my message: Please, please put out a new album soon! You have some diehard fans who anxiously await something new. Four years is a long time to wait. As for your touring, it has been spare. I mean opening for Bright Eyes? The guy is fine, but, come on, you and David are NOT opening acts. And since your website has no message board to allow fans to discuss and commiserate, we are out there scouring the Web for any clue to what you guys are doing. Have you been recording a new album, having a baby, decided to quit the music biz all together? Please throw us a bone. And that reminds me, recently, I've been searching out any information about your new song "Throw Me a Rope," which has not been released yet. There are a couple of poor quality videos on YouTube (see below) and that's about it. Oh, there's a cool blog, Boney Earnest's Suburban Hilltop Tent Revue, that has passionately devoted a lot of its content to discussing you guys and The Song.
Please, Gill, throw us a rope...

Better late...

I realize I'm a little late jumping on this bandwagon, but if you haven't heard the music of Alejandro Escovedo, I would say please make your way to his Myspace site, his website or iTunes to have a listen. I picked up a copy of his 2001 "A Man Under the Influence" CD recently -- I've actually had it for a while now, but just listened to it recently -- and it blew me away. His songs vary in style from a Tex-Mex-y kind of sound to more rocking numbers. I then immediately bought his most recent album, "The Boxing Mirror," which is less varied and more rocking, and filled with crazy, wacky sounds. Give it a try, I think you'll like it.

It never gets old

Forgive my small diversion from music topics to celebrate the Sox as 2007 World Champs! What a fun year it was. I truly never believed that I would see a World Series victory in my lifetime, and now I've seen two! It is amazing. I was thinking last night as I was trying to fall asleep following the celebration about how many years it was between World Series appearances when I was a kid -- '67 to '75, '75 to '86, '86 to 2004 (me pictured with the 2004 trophy) -- and how the Sox could never win it. And now my 11-year-old son, between the Sox and the Patriots, thinks this is just a regular occurrence that our team wins it all. Anyway, we'll get back to music, right after I get some sleep.