Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo OT: Music Recommendations please

I'm in the mood for some new music and am asking for recommendations. Lately I have been listening mostly to Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, John Mayer, and Fiona Apple. Oh, and Stevie Wonder. So with that in mind, are there any artists (new or old) that anyone would recommend?

thanks

jr

Diana Krall is the latest addition to my DVD/CD collection, thanks to Ajax for bringing her to my attention.

well, i am gonna push 'THE LOS LONELY BOYS'. not only cause it is a great cd, but also cause they are from my hometown. they are kindofa rock/tejano/jazz fusion. they like to refer to it as a 'texican' sound..? its hard to lump them in any other category, other than good.. try 'em out.

bigjohn

Did you get Jack's new album just released Yesterday? It's a worthwhile pickup.

I'd also recommend the following:

Mason Jennings- Use Your voice, Self-titled, Century Spring, other one

Ben Kweller- Sha Sha, On my Way

Jason Mraz- Waiting for my rocket to come

Kings of Leon- I think its called "California"

Gavin Degraw- Chariot

Josh Ritter- Hello Starling

David Gray- White Ladder, and there's another one but the name escapes me

Donavan Frankenreiter- Self-titled

G.Love- Greatest Hits

I like your taste in music (except for Fionna). Way overrated in my opinion, but what do I know? I'm just a kid.

2 thumbs WAY up for the jason mraz. great guitarist, and phenonminal lyrics.

bigjohn

Jason Mraz is very talented. From the list, I'd say Mason Jennings is the best lyricist. The man is a modern day Bob Dylan "Ankles crossed, hands behind my head, singing songs and telling stories about the weeeessssst." John Mayer is probably the best pure guitarist. The dude can flat out play guitar. I think overall Jack Johnson presents the best combination of songwriting skills, instrument playing skills as well as being a great producer (Donavan Frankenreiter) and being an award winning movie director (September Sessions). Not to mention the guy spends most of his free time playing guitar on the beach in Hawaii and surfing. What a life

But, all the aforementioned artists are very talented and very unique especially when compared to most popular music today.

there is also a guy named monte montgomery who is often comapred to jack johnson. monte is not known much out of texas, but he is a great player also. he has cd's avail, but since he is still an up and comer, their quality is not the best it could be. still worth a mention!!

bigjohn

Thanks. Seeing that Jack has a new album is what started this. I'm grabbing it on my way home from work I have Ben Kweller and Gavin Degraw both good. I have GLove's first and 2nd albums, but really only listen to the first one. Baby's got Sauce was my theme song for a while.

I've also got the Los Lonely Boys CD and enjoy it (good call john). I picked up a D Krall SACD, but it's just not my thing. I don't really care for it. Thanks for the ideas though.

jr

James
I like all those you listed, so I think you may also like Mazzy Star.
One of my favorite Mazzy Star cds is "So Tonight That I Might See"
Go here http://www.mazzystar.nu/ and give it a listen.
You'll have to go to "sound files" under music on the right hand side of the page.

Which Diana Krall did you get? I have "The Girl in the Other Room" and love it. The "Live in Paris" that everyone raves about isn't my cup of tea. So I don't like ALL of her music. You're almost there with the college kid stuff. My dad really isn't a fan of my music but he likes it alot better than my brother's rap stuff. I agree

John, thanks for the tip. How would I go about finding this guy's album? Tower records maybe? You've piqued my interest.

I'm going to steer you toward some acoustic stuff I've been digging lately, plus one rock band that I think is excellent.

Colin Hay (former singer from Men At Work, great acoustic stuff. Get "Going Somewhere")

Iron & Wine (simply beautiful. Get "Our Endless Numbered Days" -- and I hear the latest "Woman King" is also great)

Terence Martin (mellow, good songwriting. Get "Sleeper")

The Damnwells (really good "rock is not dead yet" stuff)

I've been really enjoying listening to Nick Drake lately. Everything on the album "Pink Moon" is great even if he did get way overplayed when they started putting his songs in VW adds.

Peter
Thanks. I really liked what I heard of the Collin Hay stuff.
Do you also have the "Topanger" cd, and do you like it?
Of all the clips I listened too, I enjoyed the ones off that album the most, but I dont want to buy it based on just those 2 clips.

Take a look at Clair Marlo's CDs (Let It Go and Behaviour Self). Beautiful voice. Kind of an upbeat, animated Norah Jones.

Wow!
Lots of new names to me! I've been in a bit of a new music slump of late, and am looking forward to digging into some of the names here I have not heard.
Ditto Bigjohn on the Los Lonely Boys. The new live disc is great! And if you dig the TexMex kind of thing, check out The Blazers. East L.A. Sort of like a younger Los Lobos.
Some oldies but goodies that were not mentioned;
David Bromberg - can be hard to find, many are out of print. Helluva blues guitarist (and bluegrass picker for that matter) for an old fat jewish guy from NY! (and that is HIS description of himself!)And he puts together incredible bands.
Uncle Tupelo- new remasters are magnificent. They helped create Alt-Country, and nobody has yet to do it better.
David Grisman- incredible range of music, and a fanatic in the studio. Everything on his Acoustic Disc lable sounds beautiful. Incredible on the Axioms.
Bill Frisell- again, wildly ranging styles, but the recordings on Nonesuch are sonicly (sp?) remarkable.
Ben Vaughn- a laugh a minute, and not a bad player. How can you not like a guy who once recorded an entire album inside a '59 Rambler?
The new Elvis Costello is very much worth hearing.
Same for the new Neil Finn stuff.
Dave Alvin - get the live stuff! An American Treasure.
Chris Gaffney - bet Bigjohn knows this guy.
Rick Shea- a player in Dave Alvin's band- great songwriter.
Steve Earle- this guy just slits his wrists and bleeds onto the recording boards.
Ryan Adams- gotten pretty popular, but his Whiskeytown stuff is even better than the solo stuff.
Kelly Joe Phelps- GREAT Acoustic guitar player.
And a couple of years ago I started a search for some new young kids that were playing jazz on the same level as some of the old masters, and I came up with a some guys that can really smoke it;
Joshua Redman (sax)
Christian McBride (bass)
Rodney Jones (guitar)
Brad Mehldau (acoustic piano)
Robert Jospe' (drums)
Soul & Funk & Blues Kind of stuff
Soulive
James Taylor Quartet (no, not THAT James Taylor!)Message from the Godfather is amazing.
North Mississippi Allstars
Robert Randolph Family Band - This kid is frightening! If you believe in reincarnation, then Jimi is definitly BACK!
The Word- Robert Randolph & a couple of the guys from Martin Medeski & Wood
Derek Trucks- This guy may be Butch Trucks' nephew, but he has Duane's Blood coursing through his veins!
Rick Holstrom
Mike Henderson & The Bluebloods
And, if you have any interest in the Jam Band kind of thing, (admittidly not for everyone!) for my money SCI is the cream of the crop. Their playing is astounding, range is ridiculous (they can go from hard core bluegrass to super-sized electric Funk to Beatles to Paul Simon's Graceland kind of stuff faster than you can say Boo!) I spent 10 years hanging with the tapers in the 10th row of Dead shows, and for my money, these guys have it all over the Dead as far as musicianship and professionalism. You could see the Dead 10 straight nights and in those 10 nights they might have never gotten as tight as these kids are 3 minutes into their first song of the night. (But, oh when the Dead were on, they were ON! I've been playing some of the old Pig Pen driven stuff of late and getting a pretty big grin out of that! Wish I had been around THEN!)And, as with the Dead, only bother with the live SCI stuff...
Anyway, that is my take on some new/old music. Kind of long, sorry...
I was wondering when a thread like this was going to get started.
Now I can't wait to go out and start looking up some of the stuff above that I've not heard of.

there is also a guy named monte montgomery
S**T! I had a couple of this guy's CD's and they were damn good! I think an old girlfriend took off with them.
Oh Yeah, now I remember exactly where they went.
Godd Riddance to her, gotta replace those discs.
Caught him up in NYC a couple of times 4 or 5 years ago. Blew the roof off of the place!

Seabear
These are some of my favorite type posts also.
Stick around and you'll see one about every 3 months or so.
I say every 3 months or so because that is about how often I see my music budget for the month totally blown.

JR, I can't help you with any "new music", but here's some stuff that's been gorgeous for about a 100 years and always will be: Brahms ; Gershwin ; Holst ; Rachmaninoff ; Respighi ; Rimsky-Korsakov ; more Rimsky .

seabear- yea, monte is much better live than in recordings.. you just cant capture his energy on a recording, but his live sets are some of the best i have ever seen. that guy can make a 6-string acoustic sound like a 12-string electric. just amazing fret work.

i noticed a lot of the guys on your list are story tellers.. if you are a big fan of that 'genre', then i got 2 names for you.

todd snider- this guy is from seattle, but now resides in texas. he is a master story teller, and has the ability to incorporate humor in his songs, without it being too 'gitchy'. i highly recommend him.

adam carroll- he is mainly a texas artist, but this guy is like 2nd coming of bob dylan. he plays solo, just him, the guitsr, and his harmonica. very talented guy, and writes songs that just make you think of home. you can buy his music here. i suggest the 'screen door' cd.. its my favorite.

that site is dedicated to mainly texas music artists.. another great band is 'cross canadian ragweed'. i didnt like their most recent album very much, but the 'purple' album is great.

bigjohn

John:
You always know the local artists!

I'm crashing at YOUR place when I'm in Texas!

Some stuff that I have heard lately and liked:

Jimmy Chamberlain Complex
Rachael Yamagata
Charlotte Martin
Ray LaMontagne
Citizen Cope

come on down mark.. i got plenty of room!!

i am sure whatfurrer can hook you up with some great local bands in austin also.

there is a small uprising of texas music artists that have been getting some recognition here in the last few years. a lot of these artists exclusively tour the texas/new mexico/oklahoma/louisiana region. the rest of the US hasent really heard of these guys much, but they are HUGE here in texas. come summer, there will be a music festival just about every weekend in some part of the state, featuring all texas music artists. these festivals often pull over 10,000 people. its like a big weekend jam session and campout. they are lots of fun.

but if you head this way, i will surely take you to see a great band.

bigjohn

I almost forgot to recommend this album:

In reply to:

---

todd snider- this guy is from seattle, but now resides in texas

---

Unless he moved very recently, he lives across town here in Nashville. I second the recommendation, though.

We had a Gillian Welch conversation a few months back, and if you've not heard her (and David Rawlings), they're incredible. I've caught her twice in the past two weeks here in town at the Station Inn, and both shows were jaw-dropping. They're doing a total of 7 or 8 nights here to record a live album, so be on the lookout (maybe later this summer?). In addition to their own stuff, I saw them do an amazing cover of Radiohead's "Black Star" and Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy" - if either of those make the final cut you'll be knocked out. There are two more shows to go, and I plan to attend both of them.

Other favs: Richard Thompson. I'm like a Jehovah's Witness for RT (knock, knock, knock..."Hi...have you heard the good news?). Mock Tudor or Shoot Out The Lights are excellent places to start. And someone mentioned Nick Drake -- if that's your speed, I highly recommend Damien Rice.

Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama (There will be light) is a pretty good recent purchase. Don't know if anybody likes Sonia Dada or not but not long ago I bought 'Test Pattern' and I like it.

Put me as another Dianna Krall fan, that woman is sexy.

My last purchase was Collective Soul's 'Youth', it was good but not what I expected.

Being an old SRV fan, the Los Lonely Boys fills a void I've been seeking for a long while. Good music.

In reply to:

---

North Mississippi Allstars
Robert Randolph Family Band - This kid is frightening! If you believe in reincarnation, then Jimi is definitly BACK!
The Word- Robert Randolph & a couple of the guys from Martin Medeski & Wood
Derek Trucks- This guy may be Butch Trucks' nephew, but he has Duane's Blood coursing through his veins![quote/]

Robert Randolph...amazing!

North Mississippi Allstars...I just got the live cd, my kind of music.

Derek Trucks, smooth!

In reply to:

---

Being an old SRV fan, the Los Lonely Boys fills a void I've been seeking for a long while. Good music.

---

I'm a Los Lonely Boys fan, but there still hasn't been another SRV.

I was a fan since seeing clips of him at Montreux, saw him five times in concert and still have two posters up, one right outside my office where customers see it and it serves as a conversation piece.

I thought Jonny Lang or Kenny Wayne Shepherd might be "next", but they've both kinda went off in different directions. I'm still looking, though, most recently with Jimmy D. Lane with Double Trouble.

In reply to:

---

Unless he moved very recently, he lives across town here in Nashville

---

you could be right. last i had heard, i thought he was living just north of austin. but that was a couple of years ago, so i could be talkin out my a$$.

bigjohn

I found this. I don't know how long he's been here, though.

Another thought: I saw Jamie Cullum on Austin City Limits last week and was knocked out. The kid's got it. After some digging, it looks like Curtis and Bray feel the same way.

In reply to:

---

I'm a Los Lonely Boys fan, but there still hasn't been another SRV.
I was a fan since seeing clips of him at Montreux, saw him five times in concert and still have two posters up, one right outside my office where customers see it and it serves as a conversation piece.

I thought Jonny Lang or Kenny Wayne Shepherd might be "next", but they've both kinda went off in different directions. I'm still looking, though, most recently with Jimmy D. Lane with Double Trouble.

---

Mark, nope, no way, no how can anybody ever replace Stevie Ray Vaughn...in my estimation. I visit Tommy Shannon's website often and have never seen anything about Jimmy D. Lane, I'll have to check him out.

Can't believe I've never seen Stevie in concert, I believe he only made it to Florida maybe once or twice but I do have his 'Live in Montreux', 'Live at the el Mocambo' and 'Live from Austin, Texas' DVDs along with just about every song ever recorded. I have always been so impressed with his recovery and his willingness to help whomever along the way, awesome.

'Riviera Paradise' was one of several songs that turned my wife into an Axiom-holic...how cool is that!

"'Riviera Paradise' was one of several songs that turned my wife into an Axiom-holic...how cool is that!"


That is probably my favorite by him.
I've had the privilege of seeing him on many occasions, and I've never seen anyone coming close to him live.
Here in Dallas in the early 80s you could usually catch him live every other weekend in small to very small venues, free sometimes.
Some of my best music memorys.

BB,I have to agree with ya on that one.I too had never seen SRV in concert,but I do have every cd and dvd I could find by him.I have seen Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne live and IMO Kenny was much much better than Jonny Lang.I did see KWS with Double Trouble once and it was a very good performace.

In reply to:

---

BB,I have to agree with ya on that one.I too had never seen SRV in concert,but I do have every cd and dvd I could find by him.

---

Rick, typically I have Stevie Ray and 'Number 1' as my avatar on message boards but whenever I first came here I noticed yours and left well enough alone...respect!

Like you, I've watched and seen some good ones, but nobody compares to Stevie's love of the music and compassion.

Heck use your SRV avatar.Don't let me using mine stop ya.I even have a pic of him on my desk top for wallpaper.

Unfortunately, the only time I ever got a chance to see SRV was waaaaay back in the 80's when he was touring with David Bowie. SRV was playing in Bowie's band at the time, not solo. If I remember correctly, Bowie kind of jump-started SRV's career. Maybe someone else can elaborate on this for authenticity? Has anyone seen the performance John Mayer did with Double Trouble last year? I believe it was on Austin City Limits. I have a vhs recording of it and it is smokin! You can really see the influence of SRV in John Mayer's style.

Bowie saw SRV at Montreaux and asked him to play on the "Let's Dance" album. I think it was also Bowie that introduced SRV to John Hammond. That's when things kind of took off a bit.

I saw SRV with Jeff Beck in Birmingham, Alabama in early 1990 or late '89. I was vaguely familiar with Stevie -- just the stuff I'd heard on the radio. I considered myself very hip at the time because I wanted to see Jeff Beck and I really didn't care who was opening.

Talk about humbled and put in my place. Holy schnikeyes...

Stevie came out and started playing, and my jaw was on the ground before the end of the first song. And of course Jeff Beck was a mutha, too. Easily on my all-time top ten list of best shows. And then just months later he was gone. I count myself very lucky to have seen him play.

In reply to:

---

If I remember correctly, Bowie kind of jump-started SRV's career. Maybe someone else can elaborate on this for authenticity?

---

Kinda, sorta...Stevie was invited to Montreux by Lou Ann Barton's (former band member) manager for the 1983 show. Stevie was an unknown so he was scheduled to play on an acustic night, which he did, with the amps blasting. He was booed by several in the crowd but played his gut out anyway. So happened that David Bowie and Jackson Browne were both in attendance and were both floored by the performance, they ended up jamming all night long in the players lounge and Stevie was invited to play and tour with Bowie on the Last Dance album and tour, he did the album but backed out of the tour at the very last minute to stay with Double Trouble on the local Texas circuit.
During Montreux Browne offered the use of his L.A. studio, several months after turning down the Bowie tour Stevie and Double Trouble recorded free of charge, 'Texas Flood'...and the rest was history!

Up to 1983, Stevie was the only unsigned artist ever to be invited to play Montreux. In 1985, Stevie headlined the show and blew the house down, as he did everywhere.

RIP Stvie!

"Stevie was invited to play and tour with Bowie on the Last Dance album and tour, he did the album but backed out of the tour at the very last minute to stay with Double Trouble on the local Texas circuit."


Talk about a gamble that payed off.

Thanks for straightening me out on the SRV/Bowie saga. I should have remembered that guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick were touring with Bowie on the Let's Dance Tour. That was a great show. The new Reality Tour DVD by Bowie is very good. The backing band is outstanding. My wife and I were watching it the other day and are wishing that we had gone to see the show last year!

Riviera Paradise, Lenny and the live recording of SRV and Jeff Beck doing Going Down are my favorites off the top of my head.
Anybody else have Jeff Beck's You Had it Coming disc? I listen to that one ALOT. Wife hates it, but WTF.

If I were only allowed to listen to music my wife like, I'd go insane.

Luckily, we have a large overlap in our musical tastes, so there's very few times where I feel I'm subjecting her to crap or vice versa.

"Up to 1983, Stevie was the only unsigned artist ever to be invited to play Montreux. In 1985, Stevie headlined the show and blew the house down, as he did everywhere"

I'm betting that big SRV fans already know this, but there is a great 2 disc CD set out there that has both of these shows on it. Pretty good stuff.
Lots of fun to hear both shows back to back.
As an aside, are any of the SRV DVDs that are out there worth buying? How is the audio on them? I think I've seen several, is one better than another?
Tom

I have the Live at the Mocambo DVD. Awesome performance, pretty good recording. I also like the Austin City Limits show that I've seen on PBS, but the Live at the Mocambo show seems to have a lot more sweat and energy somehow.

I'm sure wid can provide you with a more educated opinion.

The only commercially availabe SRV DVDs that are out right now are Live from Austin,Texas,Live at elMocambo,Live at Montreux 1982&1985 and a DVD that is in the box set One night in Texas.IMO they are all worth getting.The sound on all of them is pretty good.It's been a while since I have watched them so to give a review of them on an individual basis would be difficult at this time.

If you are a SRV fan, all of the DVDs that Rick mentioned are a 'must have' item. I don't have the boxed set yet, but I can rest assure you that it will be played on the new Axioms in a matter of no time.

'Third Stone From The Sun' and 'Lenny' on the el Mocambo DVD is worth the price of the DVD.

Rick, is 'Couldn't Stand The Weather' one of the songs recorded in Austin (City Limits) that is on the One Night in Texas DVD?

In reply to:

---

Rick, is 'Couldn't Stand The Weather' one of the Live songs recorded in Austin (City Limits) that is on the One Night in Texas DVD?

---

Hey Rick,

It is on the One Night in Texas DVD.It's is also on the 1985 Live at Montreux DVD.As you have said a must have if your a SRV fan.

Yes I've got the Montreux DVDs and the Live from Austin DVD, the reason I asked was it sounded as though SRV and DT were about to start into Couldn't Stand the Weather on the Live in Austin DVD but it broke into another song...which I can't remember right now.
I thought maybe Couldn't Stand the Weather was dropped from the Live in Austin DVD and was guessing it was one of the songs from that session on the boxed set DVD.
Thanks!

I forgot about that Third Stone from the Sun track on the Mocambo DVD - add that to my list of favorites.

I have a CD by a guy named Melvin Taylor (called Dirty Pool) that is very nice. He obviously is fond of SRV as well, the title track and a couple others are SRV covers. Really an excellent recording though - controlled bass, no unpleasant high frequency noises or room resonances, very clean-sounding disc. I would recommend that one pretty highly.

Just got done checking out a few samples from the Dirty Pool cd.It's pretty good,I think I'll have to get it.Talking about Lenny,when I saw KWS with DT he closed with that song............it was awsome,it's one of my favorites.The last time I saw him he closed with Voodoo Chile once again it was great.

Few I would recomend...
Damien Rice
Patty Griffin
Pete Yorn
Mary Fahl
Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star)
Dave Matthews Band
And many already posted! Good luck!