In no particular order, they’re all my favorites, and I’ve not got through most of anything past [...]]]> Whew, just made it in before midnight! Here’s my list of favorites of 2010. It’s been a helluva year, I’m very much looking forward to 2011 and what it might bring. It’s all up from here, baby!

In no particular order, they’re all my favorites, and I’ve not got through most of anything past September. So apologies to all you wonderful musical folk who have sent me stuff. I’ll slowly crawling out from under my rock. These few albums are very near and very dear to my heart. I couldn’t have got through the year without them.

Crank Resolutions mp3
All Creatures Will Make Merry – Meursault …. buy it!
This hit me at the beginning of the year and knocked me away with it’s ability to just reach in and grab the right phrase, the right note. When people talk about musicians “crafting” a song or an album, All Creatures Will Make Merry is what they mean. Meursault are coming into their own on this record, taking a seat on a rising ferris wheel and you’d best get to know All Creatures Will Make Merry before their next one hits the public.

You (Understood) - Samantha Crain …. buy it!
Yes, I was waiting by the inbox for this one. Samantha Crain is maybe one of the first artists I went to see and fell in love with as I was first beginning to write about music for this blog. I’ll let you in on a little secret. It was sorta difficult to get out there and go to shows and talk to musicians. More than difficult. I was terrified. But I loved her EP “The Confiscation” so much that nothing was going to stop me. So I just closed my eyes and threw myself outside and onto the bus and did it. And as she played to a very polite crowd at the Old Town School of Folk Music, I sat up in the balcony and just fell for it, for her music. This album had the same effect on me. And seeing her a few more times over the years has done nothing to turn me from her. She gets under your skin with these songs, these words and the way she puts them out there in the ether to chords and notes for you. Go listen. Fall for it, like I did. This album takes her in some new directions, well… a couple blocks down some roads not far from where she’s been before. And I like that.

islands mp3 Circles
Circles – Fisherking …. buy it!
I’ve been a fan of Fisherking for awhile now. They sent me their new, debut LP record, Circles, straight from Sydney. I had high hopes. I was more than relieved when it began to play. Sometimes I wish I could really have that teleporter now please. The songwriting is first-class, the instrumentation is simply beautiful and current and lovely. But it’s the delivery that dragged me in and kept me listening through the 15th and 30th repetitions. You might not get to hear Fisherking this year, I’m not sure when they’ll be touring, (gosh, make it soon guys!) but you really ought to get to hear this album.

Crystal Castles – s/t …. buy it!
What? You didn’t think I listened to quiet, tinkly, indie folk all day long did you? This Crystal Castles record is awesome! I highly recommend “Celestia” or “Baptism” and if those aren’t somebody’s songs for 2010 then there’s something seriously wrong with the world. Electronica is a genre that will never, ever die for one simple reason: you can fuck to it.

A Thousand Voices - My Gold Mask …. buy it!
This is it, darlings. Gretta and Jack have made it with this one and if you’ve not heard it yet, well then… you’re simply nobody. I put my hand over my mouth every time they play because I’m constantly astounded that I could possibly know anyone as talented as these two wonderful people. Full of bravado and teeming with absolute sincerity, My Gold Mask is a phenomenon that only Chicago could produce and the world is a better place for it. Get a copy of this now if you can. It’s gorgeous.

Deadmalls and Nightfalls – Frontier Ruckus …. buy it!
Probably one of my favorite lyricists of the year is Matthew Milia. Frontier Ruckus came through Chicago and sang most of the songs off Deadmalls and Nightfalls and just took my breath away. This album is Americana and nostalgia and longing and heartache. Spend a rainy night, wrapped in a blanket by the warm glow of the TV static with this on.

Elephee and Moth in the Motor – Rachel Dadd …. buy Moth in the Motor and buy Elephee

I wish I had spent more time with Elephee, but I’ve spent more than enough to know that it will feature highly in 2011′s listening pile. Moth in the Motor got plenty of rotation. Rachael Dadd has that ethereal quality in her voice that makes her a Joni Mitchell and a Tori Amos too. And her lyrics are poetry and her guitar is a magical harp. Listening to Elephee makes you believe in something again, something that you believed in back in the 70s when it was cool and you know it’s going to be cool again, thankfully. Moth in the Motor is eerie and intriguing. I’m just so glad people are making music like this again/still – that people are producing music like this (Thank you Broken Sound!!!). Go buy it, go to their gigs. This woman is beautiful, I can’t say much more.

Elf Power – s/t … buy it!
I was giddy to hear that Elf Power had a new album coming out in 2010. I was also not disappointed. It was the best I’ve heard them sound, the best of the sound of their old material put to new form, to my ears. This tenth (!) LP, simply self-titled Elf Power is something I turn to again and again, kinda my comfort album. I hope it becomes yours too. Elf Power were equally awesome when they came here and played much of it live for us. What. A. Band.

Fossils and Other Phantoms - Peggy Sue … buy it
Peggy Sue came to Schubas last summer and I was lucky to be there and hear them. This trio from Brighton won me over for good the moment I heard them play live. Harmonies that chill you coupled with a kind of dramatic (but not over the top) instrumentation that is coming out of the UK at the moment is just perfected in this band. Other groups try to do this, Peggy Sue excel at it and push it beyond the cliche back again to what is meaningful about folk music. This was a breath of fresh air, go get the album and see what I mean.

Peggy Sue – Watchman from Brittney Bean on Vimeo.

Hammer and Anvil - Pure Reason Revolution … buy it!
Perhaps one of my most anticipated albums of 2010, Pure Reason Revolution’s Hammer and Anvil was a complete and total smash! I adored it at first listen and it seems so did so many others. It was a real joy to share this with you and to follow along as the excitement built around the album. If you’ve not gotten to know this band, you’d best start now. So absolutely on point with what’s going on in a number of genres, PRR have captured fans from Europe, the US and around the world with incredible stage shows and most importantly, intricately, talented instrumentation and vocal talent. Hammer and Anvil show how much they continue to evolve. And yet, for as huge a band as they have become, they continue to be involved on a very personal level with their fans. This is what rock and roll should really be.

Solid Ground mp3
Perch Patchwork – Maps & Atlases …. buy it!
Well I can’t say enough about this Chicago band. I’ve loved them for awhile now and this was another really highly anticipated album for me for the year. It verged slightly to the right of the rest of their body of work and that was just fine with me. I love, love, love Perch Patchwork and couldn’t be more pleased for Maps & Atlases’ success. Watching these guys play, feeling their enthusiasm for their work, you can’t help but be sucked into it all. Their positivity comes across in the songwriting but the performance is really where it’s at, darlins. Go get this. Go see them.

Narrow With The Hall mp3
Public Strain – Women … buy it!
Women are a band (were a band?) that I’m not sure everyone “got.” And that’s a shame because there is so much going on in this music that I find to be incredibly interesting and stimulating. You don’t have to overthink it. I still listen to this album, it’s really cool how the repetitive, unexpectedness of it lets you think. Give this a try and if you didn’t get to see them live, I’m so sorry. They were incredible. Whatever they move on to next, go catch it!

Good Morning mp3
Shouting at Wildlife – buy it!
This Edinburgh band just has me wrapped around their little finger. Catchy, quirky, and at the same time, so accomplished and so just plain GOOD. I am smitten. One listen and you might be too. Kid Canaveral are a favorite of BBC radio’s Vic Galloway and for good reason. This is the new Britpop, kids. And coming from someone like me, that’s no insult.

Sugar – Dead Confederate … buy it!
While my friend Steve, of the great blog Baby You Got A Stew Goin’! might really like their older stuff, I think Dead Confederate’s new album, Sugar, just fine. And even if they didn’t play the title track at their show here in Chicago last winter, I forgive them. Honest, I do. Seriously, Dead Confederate are an amazing band to see live. Turn this up, put the headphones and let the noise just soak in. The emo-ish lyrics and sawing guitars will completely offer you an escape. Go there.

Suspicious Package – Earl Greyhound …. buy it!
I ran into Earl Greyhound as they opened for OK Go! this summer. They astounded me on a couple of levels: the combination of musical talent was boggling; the sex appeal was palatable, and I’ve not heard a drummer like that since… since, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a drummer like that live, to be honest. Their self-released debut LP, Suspicious Package is full of bluesy, rocking, hard-hitting songs that feature hard guitar solos and beautiful vocals. Did I mention the drummer? Wow. You gotta hear this shit. Seriously.

And a few more that I didn’t have time to write more about but wish I did (might add more later, but alas, have to be at work in a few short hours!)

Turning On – Cloud Nothings
The Fool – Warpaint
Epic – Sharon Van Etten
Before Lately - Cheyenne Marie Mize

Suddenly last night I couldn’t find you. You ran beneath a plume of smoke. And all your sisters, they ran after you. When did you know… that you were chosen?

Cause it’s a wicked world for you to grow up in. And it’s a thickened skin, the skin you walk around with. [...]]]>

Suddenly last night I couldn’t find you.
You ran beneath a plume of smoke.
And all your sisters, they ran after you.
When did you know… that you were chosen?

Cause it’s a wicked world for you to grow up in.
And it’s a thickened skin, the skin you walk around with.
Just don’t get cold.
Cause soon your own…

fatalistic dreams follow you.
And it’s a hapless place that time will tell.
I know you don’t need another mother.
So I’m giving …you …something … else.

Cause it’s a wicked world for you to grow up in.
And it’s a thickened skin, the skin you walk around in.
Just don’t get cold.
Cause soon your own…

You can take it slow, you don’t have to know it all…(I’m sorry I went too far.)
You can take it slow, you don’t have to know it all… (Im sorry I went too far.)
You can take it slow, you don’t have to know it all (I’m sorry I went too far.)
You can take it slow, you don’t have to know it all (I’m sorry I went too far.)

Cause it’s a wicked world for you to grow up in.
Yeah there’s wrong, there’s right.
There’s not a list to memorize.
Can we see your heart?
But I’m blind in that part… in… you.
I’m sorry I went too far.
“Wichitalright”

Samantha Crain knows the advantages to taking it slow, she’s seemingly always known this. From her first EP, The Confiscation, this young woman with her syrupy, quavering voice, has poured out her heart to us in more than a few ways. She’s done traditional folk melodies, alt-country ballads, kick-up-your-boots rock songs and on this new album she stretches even further. What remains constant is that gorgeous contrast between her voice sung low and quiet when it’s soft and velvety and as it is when it’s loud and full throated and lush. This contrast, used again and again (and I never grow weary of it), is woven throughout You (Understood) but doesn’t define this new and beautiful album. I’m having a difficult time defining it at all.

Lions mp3 Samantha Crain You (Understood) ….. pre-order here!

“Lions” is the winning track for any Samantha Crain fan; it’s a perfect meld of her EP and previous album, Songs In The Night,. What a fitting first track! Other songs like “We Are The Same” are a natural extension of her work, to my ear. Slow and sweet, it takes the advantages of expert production to capture the intimacy of vocals and guitar with simple, pared down harmonies to elaborate equally intimate lyrics. “Santa Fe,” track eight, jumps right off her last album as well, with a very comfortable duet and hint of banjo in the undertones. DC, of The Waiting Room, and I have been drooling over discussing this album for days; we’ve been so excited to get our hands on it. He’s eager for me to tell you just how much ”the basslines are gorgeous, bulbous. The guitars are ragged and sharp. The production is crystal sharp; you can hear the individual layers of instrumentation and the stereo mix is giddyingly spot on. This feels like it has been laboured upon, analysed, poured over, perfected. but you just know this has been perfectly stress-free, with no fuss or needless fiddling.” Yes, I stole those words from him, unabashedly. I also love what I hear on “Blueprints;” a sinewy melody that winds itself around such beautiful and heartfelt lyrics. Here’s what she wrote about the song and posted just yesterday on her MySpace page:

I would like to think that we all are pre-drawn, mapped-out entities. For that to be true, it would treat understanding people and knowing yourself like studying for a history test. You congregate your inventory of facts from all the research and reading you’ve done on the subject and, the more you examine, the better you retain the information and the more you know. But people are not blueprints, they are relentlessly in flux, changing their minds, their preferences, their haircuts, their accents, and this makes it unfeasible to ever know someone. I used to be discouraged by that but I think that is how we can show that we love each other, by showing that you’re ready to pay enough attention and time to find out who that person is today and the next day and the day after that.

This album is full of insight and soul searching but without all the hand-wringing that is so often found on those kind of things. No, You (Understood) is positive, full of light, encouraging, with interesting instrumental changes. It just moves from one song to the next in a perfectly wonderful way. It’s shameful of me to not review it track by track, for that is certainly one of its strengths. I thought numerous times that I had settled in and could begin writing this review. And then another song would hit me and I had no idea how to describe that! “Equinox” is that song, par excellence! It’s quirky and fresh and like nothing I’ve ever heard her sing. These songs flow one to the next in precision if one could imagine a flowing precision. In fact, Samantha Crain herself embodies just such an oxymoron, “flowing precision.”

“Wichitalright” is where it hit me, just how this all hangs together – how I think she’s able to transverse genres and excel at every step. Beginning like a slow waltz it lulls and soothes, and yet as she sings such comforting words her voice cries so sadly. Of all the Samantha Crain songs I know, this one has most artfully captured what she desired, in my opinion. Re-read the lyrics I’ve copied at the beginning of this review. I listen to this song over and over and, I realize, this is not folk music any more. Samantha Crain has crossed over into some smoky room with a big white piano and amber-colored drinks on ice. And I quite like this side of her. But not for long! The very next track, “Two-Sidedness” jars me awake and out of that lull; instrumentally it’s mature and harsh against her voice which flows through it in great watery ribbons. At this point in the album, I’m utterly convinced she can do anything. And “Toothpicks,” track eleven is where she proves just that with a completely avant garde, lopsided, gutsy experiment that ends so abruptly that I had to listen to it four times to decipher it. It’s the kind of ending that had me shaking my head and laughing to myself. On a good day I can’t tell enough people about Samantha Crain. After hearing this album, I can’t tell enough people about Samantha Crain on even the worst of days. She’s come into a fine inheritance with You (Understood) and it’s about time you all take note of it. Check my post here for tour dates.

Samantha Crain – We Are the Same from Joel Oliphint on Vimeo.

thank you, to the folks at the blog done waiting for finding this!

Oh you KNOW I adore Samantha Crain and am so excited to get my ears on her new album!! This sweet video of “Santa Fe” gives us a peek at one of the tracks off You (Understood) due out June 8, on Ramseur Records…. pre-order it here!

Her last record Songs In the [...]]]>

Oh you KNOW I adore Samantha Crain and am so excited to get my ears on her new album!! This sweet video of “Santa Fe” gives us a peek at one of the tracks off You (Understood) due out June 8, on Ramseur Records…. pre-order it here!

Her last record Songs In the Night was beautiful and well-received. Don’t miss her on tour as she promotes this new one. This young artist has a voice you won’t soon forget, and a manner of creating a melody that melds words and music to such emotional depths you cannot remain not be unmoved.
Songs In The Night mp3 Samantha Crain Songs In The Night … buy it here!
Get The Fever Out mp3 Songs In The Night

TOUR DATES:
*w/ First Aid Kit
5.28.10 – Cain’s Ballroom – Album Release Show! – Tulsa, OK
5.29.10 – 51st Street Speakeasy – Album Release Show! – Oklahoma City, OK
6.1.10 – Bootleg – Los Angeles, CA *
6.1.10 – Bootleg – Los Angeles, CA *
6.2.10 – Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA *
6.4.10 – Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR *
6.5.10 – the Vera Project – Seattle, WA *
6.6.10 – Media Club – Vancouver, BC *
6.9.10 – Cedar Cultural Center – Minneapolis, MN *
6.10.10 – Schubas Tavern – Chicago, IL *
6.11.10 – Bonnaroo Café Stage – time TBA
6.13.10 – Green Room – Montreal, PQ *
6.14.10 – Middle East Upstairs – Cambridge, MA *
6.15.10 – The Bell House – Brooklyn, NY *
6.16.10 – Mercury Lounge – New York, NY *

Chicago! Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers are playing tonight at the Empty Bottle and you really should come out. I’ve seen her four times now and each is completely wonderful and different each time. If you’ve not heard her sing, you’ve truly missed out on one of our greatest treasures in folk/rock [...]]]>

Chicago! Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers are playing tonight at the Empty Bottle and you really should come out. I’ve seen her four times now and each is completely wonderful and different each time. If you’ve not heard her sing, you’ve truly missed out on one of our greatest treasures in folk/rock music today. Her voice has been described as so many things from “gorgeously odd” to “haunting.” I just think it’s beautiful. This young woman has found a way to sing in a nuanced and folkish manner that is both charming and a bit unnerving and when backed by her band she raises a ruckus you just don’t expect by looking at her! “Rising Sun” is  a track from a Hear Ya session last year. It really shows the depth of her voice, how soulful it is. There’s more music over there and you should really get to know my friends at Hear Ya, they’re good people.

So come out tonight, and see Samantha Crain at the Empty Bottle. The show starts at 9:30 and tix are $8

If you’ve never been to O.K., well… that’s the best introduction I can think of for it. And Samantha Crain might become the best [...]]]>
[Edit: Just confirmed, Samatha and The Midnight Shivers will be at the Double Door here in Chicago on Oct. 17 with Will Hodge, the everybody fields, and McCarthy Trenching]

If you’ve never been to O.K., well… that’s the best introduction I can think of for it. And Samantha Crain might become the best singer to come out of it since Woody Guthrie. I say become because this tiny person with this great big voice that echoed all the way up to my seat in the balcony tonight is only 21. Now to you who’ve seen the YouTube vid above that’s not so shocking, but if you’ve only heard the songs, well, you’d be as shocked as I was.

Disclaimer: I’m a lover of folk music, but bad folk music is worse than even bad punk music and I’ve no qualms about walking out on a bad gig. No worries here, however with Samantha Crain. Tonight she gave a great solo performance, no… I take that back, tonight she gave a fan-fucking-tastic performance! She sauntered out on stage in her red cowgirl boots and blew us away with “Devils In Boston” featuring her wailing vocals and a damn fine harmonica.

I soon snuck an envelope outta my pocket and a pen and wrote down all the songs she sang, for being in the balcony I knew I’d never make it to the stage in time to swipe the setlist if she even had one. Sure enough, I never even saw it. I did get to speak to her after the show and hastily grabbed my crumpled and scrawled upon little paper, “oh and here’s my attempt to keep track of what you sang!” I squealed a bit too loudly into her angelic face. “But of course, that’s a bit crazy, isn’t it?!” and I trailed off the end of that sentence with a laugh, to which she replied, “well a bit, but you can email me and I’ll try and remember it for you.” Sweet kid, this Samantha Crain, and I say that with no sarcasm in the least.

So, I’m embarrassed to email the girl from O.K. and here is what I can make out of what she sang for a captive and attentive audience tonight, who all applauded and some of us cheered and whistled, and one older woman in the balcony even sang along on the one’s she knew and got an autographed poster, for she already had the EP, thanks “Campfires and Battlefields” and Matthew over on Song, by Toad:

• Devils In Boston – a foot stamping, rowdy opener, she shone righteously doing this for us.
• something with the chorus of “What will I do?”
• Get The Fever Out – go find this song and listen to it, it’s beautiful.
• Calm Down – unknown to me, a slow and almost melodramatic tune, really lovely and yes, I can’t help myself but say it, …haunting.
• The River – with an introduction instructing us that indeed it is a comedic song, at least in O.K. where a preacher drowning children while baptizing them in the river really does hit the funny bone, from The Confiscation EP
• Traipsing Through The Aisles - from The Confiscation EP
• Where Will You Go? – this was a real and rare treat, a debut of a new song, never before played before an audience and she confessed to being quite nervous about it. I asked her after the show what the name was, this was the working title she gave me, but agreed that it was in flux still. The song was brilliant, full of passion, and I know that’s kind of a cliche with her work, but honest to goddess, this song was so real, so full of force, you could see in her body how close to the surface it was for her, how new and raw it was. I think it gave us both chills, her to perform it (she kind of shook it off afterward, like when you get out of a cold pool of water and your flesh is all tingly) and us to receive it, we felt the electricity in the air this evening then.
• I Wish The Dam Would Break – introduced as a real “Oklahoma kind of sad song” and it truly was.
• the last song she played was the second song she ever wrote. I didn’t get the title, I wish I had, for it reminded me of some of the early Indigo Girls songs, before they became known and when they just wrote folk music like their heroines did. The chorus went, “It ain’t over yet… What you say, we hold each other up?” And it was gorgeous and simple and young and honest.

Go and buy Samantha’s EP, it’s only got five songs, it’s all she could afford to do at the time, but there’s more to come and it’s going to be brilliant. She’s heading back into the recording studio as we speak, with her band.

But more importantly go see her and The Midnight Shivers, she’s wonderful to hear in person, her voice has incredible range, a tone and shape that is unique and interesting and just jarring enough to be so interesting that you want to keep listening to it for another hour or so to try to see what she’ll do with it next, and she’s gracious and unassuming on stage, a rare treat in so many ways! Lyrically, her songs travel to all those places of heartache, sadness, melancholy, bittersweet and remembrances long past due. You want to go there with her. You need to go there with her. Go see her. You have received your orders. xoxoxo

The River mp3 The Confiscation EP, Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers 2007
Change Your Mind mp3 Demos, Samantha Crain 2007
I Don’t Wanna Know mp3 Strange Fire, Indigo Girls 1987

buy The Confiscation EP
her MySpace
(Yes, two very different kinds of folk music for you today, but something about them goes together in my mind, … the early rawness of an emerging woman artist perhaps)