A round up of stuff I've seen in the last few months.

Let's start with my friend JD Love's album launch supported by 49 Goodbyes in November at the Rose, Erskineville. JD is a bona fide rock star mix of Mose Allison meets Hank Williams. He has a new record out now called Two Days, the LP version of which was pressed at Abbey Road.

Here is JD with up and comer out of Melbourne Georgia Fields (also happens to be his daughter) in a particularly twang moment:

Opening for JD were 49 Goodbyes, and they are just great. They describe themselves as Gram and Emmylou except with two girls (and a guy on guitar). One of the leads is Emma Swift who has the excellent "In the Pines" Americana show on FBI Radio in Sydney every Tuesday night (you can listen online nationally.)

More of them later.

The next thing I went to see was Joe Pug and the Wagons at the Vanguard. I don't mind the Wagons or anything but I also wouldn't go far out of my way, but for Joe Pug I would ... willingly experience some inconvenience. He was only opening so it was a short set but divine as he always is. He came out in the encore of the Wagons (they have quite a following it was pretty packed for them) to do "Long Black Veil" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money", both of which I got videos of. I also got a photo. ;-)

Then, I went to see the mysterious Frank Fairfield at the Basement. But first, to my surprise 49 Goodbyes was the support act. Win. This is them doing "Wrecking Ball" (Emmylou Harris via Neil Young). 49 Goodbyes has an EP out, all the tracks are listenable to here. (I believe that is Emma's own YouTube page so it's artist-approved streaming.)

I went to Frank Fairfield with a friend who didn't know him (I have his albums -- which are on the great, eclectic Tompkins Square label -- but never seen him live) and we ended up having a deep not really sober conversation about Authenticity. We both basically hate the concept, so that helped. For Frank Fairfield is a creation of another age (turn of century - 20s folk tunes) and for sure "acts" the part, the clothes, the stage manner and such. I have mixed feelings about performers who attempt to "faithfully recreate" another era, the revivalists. There are some well known ones that leave me cold. I admit a lot of that comes down in the grey area of the Very Subjective. I love old time music, as should be obvious if you read this blog, but I also don't listen to music to get a high school play type presentation of The Cartoonish Past. (And I also feel uncomfortable with lifting cultural forms out of their context when that act is a form of white privilege blithely appropriating the culture of black or other colonised people. That's a much bigger issue .... ) I don't know, as I say a lot is very subjective but too much affectation is not conducive to good music, in my experience.

However, I really like Frank Fairfield. I think there is something just so resolutely anti-commercial about every thing he does that it can't be a marketing ploy (not that I object to artists using marketing, but you don't get to have it both ways). It is so studied, intense and internalised it kind of transcends the trend of revivalist retro. I think he's just basically weird, in the good sense, in the old weird America sense. I didn't even bother trying to get a video since he sits so far back from the microphone even to sing, there would be no point. I like that he makes the audience WORK to get their quota of hipster approved depression-era jollies, dammit.

Here is a short (1:22) video about him

He did consent to allowing the new fangled iPhoto-O-Matic 2000 to imprint his and his Civil War Moustache's visage on its devilishy digital mercury.

Then I guess the next thing was Hanggai, who are a Mongolian/Chinese band who play traditional Mongolian music with a distinct punk edge. They were also at the Basement and they were super amazing. The Basement was rocking and sweaty that night (and, vastly less Anglo than usual). I can't find anything on YouTube to really recreate that, most of the videos are from polite world music festivals. This one from Woodford last month is OK. Woodford has always had good music but the overall vibe of it always made me fear I'd have to smother a hippy within 20 minutes of being there and inviting the really quite evil anti-vaccination loon Meryl Dorey to speak this year really just turned me off it forever.

Anyway, Hanggai:

Hanggai get two videos because they are awesome. This is "Xiger, Xiger" (pronounced "Shigga Shigga") which is more traditional that the above but it gets stuck in my brain for days. I dare you not to get enthralled. I mean, check out Batubagen who is throat singing and playing the morin-khuur (Mongolian horse-headed "cello" type instrument). He'd sing, then another person would sing and I'd look around the band to see who the new singer was but ... it was Batubagen and that whole throat singing thing. And of course Ilchi , the bare-chested front man who IMHO joins a very select group of genuine, charismatic top tier front men. Amazing and ROCKING.

Then I went and saw Cambodian Space Project at the Vanguard. They are a Cambodian/"Western" fusion in the manner of the much better known Dengue Fever ie dudes with guitars backing a Khmer female singer. CSP are based in Phonm Pehn, though. I enjoyed it although I thought that the guitars were mixed up WAY too high, drowning out the singer Srey Thy who is quite great. (I also thought some of the between song banter was a bit condescending towards her.) Her voice is more than worthy of singing those classic Ros Sereysothea songs.

I mean, what's the point? If this band was just the indie rock dudes, no one (no offence) would care, it is the Cambodian aspect that is the reason they have the gig. I can listen to dude guitars anywhere. Still, they had cute t-shirts for sale. Here is how they are meant to sound:

And that is that!

Following a link on Twiiter from @crikey_earworm, Crikey's music blog, I came across Australian-only streaming service Songl. Lis the new r in the hipster net app naming stakes apparently. Not sure about the name, several times when I've plugged it into Google I've automatically typed "Songr." I must grow accustomed to our new L overlords.

Songl used to be called Anubis.fm which used to be bandit.fm, got that? I used bandit.fm a few times, and I would've continued using it except they dumped their subscription plan which is the only thing that made it useful for me compared to iTunes. It's probably wise to shelve trying to compete against Cupertino there and move to the currently unoccupied space of music streaming in Australia.

Earworm also mentioned JB Hi Fi has a streaming service now too but I haven't checked that one out yet (the colour scheme of the website is not the same as the shops thankfully.) Both have free trials on right now.

As the Spotify, Pandora etc rage has swept the world (where "world" means Europe and the USA), we have mostly been left out by geographical restrictions, although there undoubtably ways around those. Always eager to feed my music consumption compulsions, I checked out Songlr. Here are the answers I found to my most burning questions about the service.

Is it a hot mess to use?

Songlr is in some kind of pre-launch beta phase so to get a code to join you like their Facebook page, it was a painless process and only took a minute or so til I was in. The interface moves around smoothly and is basically easy to navigate right off the bat. I know some folks hate the white onblack style, but I didn't find it hard to read (red on black, now that's a killer. Yes, eMusic, I refer to you.)

The layout seems oriented more to individual tracks than albums. Adding stuff to my queue was simple, playback was flawless (I'm on ADSL2 in a metro area) and wasn't interrupted when I continued to surf around different pages.

There is also an iPhone (and Android) app, which I've downloaded but haven't used yet.

Is there anything you actually want to listen to?

I signed up for a 30 day free trial but from then, you pay. Which I would consider doing as long as it has enough that I want, which is not so obvious since Top 40 is not what I want. And yes the Top 40 type stuff is right up front (geez those Glee kiddies have certainly pumped out some product, eh?) which is fine, I can click past that as long as there's something for me to click to. I see 3 basic uses for a streaming service for me. To try before you buy, to investigate artists and genres I'm curious about or are gaps in my music mind map but I don't want to buy (and sampling on YouTube doesn't suffice) and because I want to hear something but it's easier to stream than actually go get the damn CD out of the rack in the other room. Less damning of my laziness, this last one also applies to streaming on a portable device. Have anything you want just there is appealing.

SO ANYWAY. It's owned by Sony and has the other majors and, it says, a "strong representation of independent labels." Still very little of what I normally buy - no Screaming Gospel Holy Rollers for Songl! I plugged in the last dozen or so things I've bought and it had none, except for The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams. Based on some quick searches they have Lost Highway (which is a subsidiary of one of the majors anyway) but no Bloodshot, Yep Roc, Rounder, New West or Signature Sounds - which cuts down on the new country/roots releases I seek out.

They did however have the first Frank Fairfield album, who coincidentally I'm seeing tonight at the Basement. That's pretty subterranean stuff.

But it may be unfair to judge it by niche tastes, the catalogue of mainstream acts both classic and contemporary is undoubtably impressive. They have Columbia so a search for "Johnny Cash" brings up 80 separate albums (even if I did count four different repackaging of San Quentin ...) They have everything Dylan has released officially. Ditto Leonard Cohen and Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Marvin Gaye. I queued up The Essential Jefferson Airplane as I explored, then the last album by recently deceased soul singer Howard Tate. They have Blue Note and Prestige so the jazz is outstanding (136 albums for Miles Davis!)

I found I couldn't get much of what I wanted from the "Genre Playlists" but search turned up the massive catalogue below the surface. The cost will be $9 and $12, both offering unlimited streaming but you pay for 320kpb over 128, to be able to stream on your phone and to cache songs.

It doesn't look like there's a way to buy a track you like, which is quite odd.

So if you want to stream Top 40 releases or have a healthy taste for the major labels' back catalogue (and don't already have it all), that could be OK. Overall it was an easy and useful experience and will probably stump up for it, at least intermittently when the need strikes.

I went to see Joe Pug at the Vanguard the other night. Technically it was a Wagons show with Joe Pug opening but ... I went to see Joe Pug. He was only out here to do this opening gig so it was a bit disappointing to only get a short set but a short set is better than no set I guess. Below are videos of the encores. Opening for the opener was Faith Lee who I thought was very promising.

Long Black Veil

Lawyers, Guns & Money

OK so don't miss this one. Not only perennial FEM hearththrob Andy Baylor but a bunch of other great acts covering yer roots spectrum. Blues with Continental Robert (of Dynamic Heptonics fame), singer-singwriter soul with Tracey Miller and Pia Andersen bringing the vintage heat. So, hello? See you there.

PS get the new Baylor Brothers disc here.

I forgot to mention... the opening act for Justin was Lanie Lane who was really very good. She didn't have anything for sale though which I thought odd. Far be it from me to tell independent musos how to do their jobs but if you have an opening slot like that burn a few EPs at home and at least get email addresses, mmkay? Anyway I bought her single (below, the "b side" is a doof doof remix I don't really dig) off iTunes and apparently she has an album coming.

She played solo acoustic which gave an interesting lofi twist to songs I assume are otherwise probably going to have a rockabilly backing. She's certainly got that rockabilly chick look going for her but writes catchy originals and can pull off a show so its not just all image.

What Do I Do from Leslie Marsh on Vimeo.

Despite all the consternation changes at eMusic have caused over the past year, I can't quit. At least not while I keep finding treasure troves there like a bunch of CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) releases. I got The Best of Coloured Stone, Playing with Fire by Frank Yamma and Piranpa and the four volumes of CAAMA 25th Anniversary Collection.I'll certainly be back to get more, particularly want a Deadheart album or two. A treasure trove, as I say, in a wide variety of styles. Some big names like the above, the Warumpi Band, Warren H Williams and Roger Knox etc but far more these downloads have allowed me to hear for the first time. So here's an 8tracks of 10 songs, appropriately for Survival Day perhaps but I've been meaning to do it more months so its more slackness than symbolism.

The wonders of The Johnny Cash Show to be had on YouTube never cease to amaze and delight. I think Col Joye was pulling his leg with that definition of jumbuck tho ...

FINALLY updated the Sydney Dylan Society page with 2011 dates. As there is a tour shortly I'll update later on where we will be meeting before the show. It's usually the Crystal Palace but as we now meet at the Market Tavern maybe it will be there. Will consult and get back to you.

It's almost January which means minds are turning north, to Tamworth. In an enduring personal failure, I won't be there again this year but, there's always next year, is what I keep telling myself. Because really what could be better than getting to see Andy Baylor every day for a freakin' week?

And when you see him, request "Who Were You Thinkin' Of" for me, which I love but there's no Andy doing it on YouTube so we'll have to slum it with Sir Doug and the boys:

A short (16 songs, just over an hour) selection of tracks:

And in no order the final list of the records covered in the previous six posts, which are all here.

Marshall Chapman, Big Lonesome
Buddy Guy, Living Proof
The Fabulous Ginn Sisters, You Can't Take a Bad Girl Home
Phosphorescent, Here's To Taking it Easy
Sharon Jones & the DapKings - I Learned the Hard Way
Aloe Blacc, Good Things
The Secret Sisters, The Secret Sisters
American Graveyard, Hallelujahland
Whitey Morgan and the 78s, Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels
Hellbound Glory, Scumbag Country
Joe Pug, Messenger
Chris Altmann, Que Paso
Mary Gauthier, The Foundling
Tom Jones, Praise & Blame
Marty Stuart, Ghost Train
Justin Townes Earle, Harlem River Blue
Shelby Lynne, Tears, Lies & Alibis
Cotton Jones, Tall Hours in the Glowstream
Ray Wiley Hubbard, A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment Hint There is no C
Lil Band O Gold, The Promised Land
Raul Malo, Saints & Sinners
Los Lobos, Tin Can Trust
The Tallest Man on Earth, the Wild Hunt
Chelsea Crowell, self-titled (honorary 2009 ring-in)
Huun-Huur-Tur, Ancestor's Call
Gregory Porter, Water
Lucky Peterson, You Can Always Turn Around
The Carter Family III, Past & Present
Elizabeth Cook, Welder
Mike Stinson, The Jukebox in Your Heart
Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole, Creole Moon: Live at the Blue Moon Saloon

This is the second instalment in my 2010 retrospective. They are in no order, I just made a list then took the first five for the first post, next five or six for the next and so on. I might comment on some that they are a cut above the pack but otherwise there is no ranking at all.

The Secret Sisters, The Secret Sisters
The Secret Sisters are championed by Jack White and their debut is produced by T-Bone Burnett, so that's some serious clout out of the gate. Twitter description: Out of Alabama, Laura and Lydia Roger are a female Everly Brothers at their countriest (and then some), backed up with 50s/60s classic country sounds.

Just so:

My favourite one is "Tennessee Me"

American Graveyard, Hallelujahland
Hellbound Glory, Scumbag Country
Whitey Morgan and the 78s, Honky Tonk and Cheap Guitars

I'll group these together since they represent some solid hard core honky tonk and if you like that why keep you in suspense by dragging them out? I didn't get Hank III's record yet which explains its non-inclusion.

Joe Pug, Messenger
Chris Altmann, Que Paso

If I were ranking these two would be at the very top. Well I guess I raved enough about both of them here. But still I don't think you can listen to "Bury Me far From My Uniform" too often:

Tremendous night, that was. The Red Rattler which in addition to having admirable social and artistic aims is a cute little space in the inner west rust belt. The bar service was super friendly and the drinks reasonably priced (one schooner and two reds for $12.50). I had something from the tap they were calling Rat's Piss and it was tasty. The attendance only numbered about 30 which is a disgrace Sydney although there was a show at the Raval the night before which might have split the ticket. But still. Those that were there were into it though and the performers were gracious and didn't pull back.

Chris's album Que Paso (also the name of his band) has got a lot of play round my place since I checked it out a month or so ago when I saw he was opening for Joe Pug. The name in Spanish means "what happened" which is a reference to (I gather) this country rekkid being a departure from his usual rock sound so it may be a oncer but I really hope not, he has the voice and lyrics to really do a lot of interesting things in the genre. The band on Que Paso provides a very full sounds including banjos, fiddlers steel guitar etc so I wasn't sure how it would translate to solo acoustic but it did, excellently. Apart from the lyrics, the songs have such strong melodies inside them you can strip out all the instruments and still have a cohesive thing. So, that was great.

Here's Hume Highway Blues, and I've also got a vid of Love Like This.

Joe Pug apart from being one of the best songwriters going around has done some innovative and cool things to engage with fans and not-yet-fans in the modern era, from giving away as many sampler CDs as you ask for to give to your friends and doing a tour of North America this year where tickets were $10 with no extra fees, of the handling kind you usually get slugged, Joe seems like a exceptional stand up guy and while that's not necessary to want to back his music, it doesn't hurt.

Here's a performance/interview he did with ABC Dig the other day.

So at the gig he ran through a lot of the songs from his LP Messenger, including lots of my faves. Here's "I Do My Father's Drugs". I requested and got my favourite song of his "Bury Me Far (From My Uniform)" in the encore- thanks Joe!

In addition to this, Chris Altmann also came back out and they did three country classics : "Hickory Wind", "Close Up the Honky Tonks" and "Lost Highway" The first and the third are below. How excitement! Burgo who reviewed Brisbane didn't mention this collaboration so I assume it's a new addition, on a back stage discovery they both grew up listening to the same old country stuff.

So that's that - great night! I'm sure he'll come back so then, Australia, you will have no excuse not to get out in droves. I also hope Chris Altmann comes back to Sydney soon with the full band and I'll definitely be harrassing y'all to get along to both when it happens.

An honours thesis on country music, now why didn't I think of that?* Upstart mag has a interview with Melbournite Julia Hughan who is doing just that. She blogs at Theoretical Country.

*Actually my own was so long ago I barely remember anything about it so I might as well just pretend I did.

You know what to do.

In the hope they use "Macleay Street in Sydney" by Tom T. Hall on the soundtrack.

22 Macleay Street In Sydney.mp3

Warren from Three Chords & The Truth has a new project, documenting the history of the music scene of Wollongong.

Do check it out and contribute if you can.

Good news for our friends west of the Blue Mountains, when she tours in March Mary Gauthier will be doing a gig in Bathurst. I'll be getting along to the show at Notes Alive in Newtown, a newish joint I've not been to before.

Marianne Faithfull at the Opera House the other night was a very satisfying affair in front of an engaged and appreciative audience. She went through most of Easy Come, Easy Go plus the old stand-bys "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", "Broken English", "As Tears Go By" and "Why'd You Do It."

The band mostly stayed out of the way and were good without being dazzling; they were a little heavy handed at times but I was in a box on the side so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that that was a function of the always loose acoustics in that room. There was a low musical point (for me) during "Sing Me Back Home" featuring a musical saw. We can finally answer the question, most robustly in the negative, whether a musical saw is any replacement for a pedal or lap steel. It's a party piece, comrades, not a musical instrument.

There's a fragment of "Broken English" here, questionable phone recording quality but evidence the old trooper is still in fine, passionate voice.

As any Australian music fan (our kind of music, anyhoo) knows late March and April is always a busy time as we enjoy the spillover of acts brought out for Byron Bay. Sometimes you have to make the choice of two rarely seen (on our shores) highly regarded acts whose only local shows clash with each other.

Not Byron-related but kicking off the season in style is Marianne Faithfull only the week after next. Playing the Concert Hall at the Opera House -- ugh, I have a prejudice against it for popular music -- and I only have a seat at the back of one of the mezzanine boxes but still I can't wait.

"Solitude"

Then, Dan Sultan at the Factory on February 27th -- for a measly $20. For realsm his recent album of late 2009 -- Get Out While You Can -- is a gem of soul, rock and country. For twenty bucks you can't afford not to go.

The above dodgy but illustrative video of Dan was taken by me at the Blue Mountains Music Fest the year before last and that will be my next port of call, in March. As well as seeing two of the Bluesfest drawcards for me Chris Smither and Nanci Griffith, the rest of the line-up is superb. My posts from my previous visit. I'm sure there will be a number of new discoveries but I'm also looking forward to revisiting with the boys from Genticorum, who do fabulous traditional Quebec music.

As for the rest of the Byron folk, well The Flatlanders top the list but they haven't announced any sideshows yet. I'll be there when they do (they have to, right?) I've lined up to see Dr John and the Lower 911 at the Basement; seen him a few times before (but not for yonks) and I might have wavered but the opportunity for a show at a joint that size (real small) cannot be passed up. And ... that might be me tapped out for another year ...

Best Dylan Album -- Equal winners: Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart (I'm with Tom Russell on this gem)

Best Non-Dylan Albums:
I think if you looked at my most played album released in 2009 it would be Leonard Cohen: Live in London but I'm gonna exclude live recordings, reissues and compilations from this ...

1. Easy Come Easy Go - Marianne Faithfull. I got this back in January and here it still is, top of the list.
2. Blood and Candle Smoke - Tom Russell. Typically full-bore TR effort of weaving biography and myth, now with mariachi horns
3. The Bright Mississippi - Allen Toussaint. Refreshing, transfixing, dreamy masterclass
4. Midnight at the Movies - Justin Townes Earle. No sophomore nerves here, proving the first album was not a fluke.
5. Hills and Valleys - The Flatlanders. Slipped a little in list over time but still an album of a grade Americana song to song
6. Traditions in Transition - Quantic and his Combo Barbaro. Genre tinkering with respect and passion, Latin on the wild side
7. One to the Head, One to the Heart - Gretchen Peters. What I said at the time
8. A Friend of a Friend - David Rawlings Machine. Should be higher really, but couldn't drop anything.
9. Mountain Soul II - Patty Loveless. Infectious bluegrassy country, highly polished but full of affection
10. Get Out While You Can - Dan Sultan. Well now, I only got this yesterday so given a few more days it could have really shot up the charts. Brilliant collection of soul, country and blues and heaps more soul. Dan is a star, no doubt.
11. Potato Hole - Booker T From the show in April
12. What Have You Done My Brother? - Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. Preach it, sister
13. Dirt Town City Limits - Mat d and the Profane Saints. See Jim's great review.
14 Today, Tomorrow and Forever - Pete Molinari feat. The Jordanaires. Only an EP, but a perfectly formed one.
15. For the Mission Baby -- Malcolm Holcombe.
16. Ready for the Flood - Gary Louris and Mark Olsen. Was rather "meh" on it for eight of the last nine months but sort of started to grow on me ....
17. Animals in the Dark - William Elliott Whitmore. Should be higher also, what can you do? Lists are stupid. Hat tip Phineas, some very cathartic tracks on here believe me.
18. Cotton - Sam Baker. Also needs more time but exceptional story songs and that kind of creaky Texas voice I love.
19. Lucky One - Raul Malo A little bit country, a little bit croony, very pleasant listening.
20. The Soul of Black John - John Black