We received the sad, sad news over the weekend that the great singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester passed away last Friday after a valiant fight against esophageal cancer.  Winchester was a songwriter’s songwriter (lauded by Bob Dylan, Janis Ian and the who’s-who of songwriting) wrote some of the best songs of our day (Yankee Lady, The Brand New Tennessee Waltz, Mississippi, You’re on My Mind, A Showman’s Life, and Biloxi, amongst them, each covered by many an artist).  But Winchester could also deliver those seminal songs with understated grace and nuance.  He will be sorely missed.  One of the earliest vignettes we put up on these pages (in April 2010) was an homage to Winchester’s beautiful, dehydrating delivery of his love song Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding on Elvis Costello’s much-lamented Spectacle show.  Check it out below.  And now pardon us while we join Neko Case in honoring Jesse Winchester.  We’ll see you on the other side Jesse.

Photo:  Mac McAnally

Long-time favorite Tom Brosseau has purposefully slow-burned a superb songbook and musical legacy, and yet has managed to save his best songwriting for his new, career-capping album Grass Punks.  Throughout his career, Brosseau has collaborated with the talented likes of Angela Correa (Correatown), Sara Watkins, Hilary Hahn, Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond), Shelby Earl and John C. Reilly, amongst others.  On Grass Punks, Brosseau has continued his collaborative ways and brought in Sean Watkins (Nickelcreek) to produce and to tour in support, and Watkins has proved to be the perfect musical confrere for Brosseau.   To get a feel for this well-wrought album and the Brosseau/Watkins confab, check out their new Tiny Desk Concert on NPR below.  The set features three of the finest songs from Grass Punks (though the album is riddled with many more).  First up is Cradle Your Device, with its hilarous send-up of we humans’ device-driven dramaturgy.  Next up (as Brosseau explains during the set) is the homage to his fellow-native North Dakotan food critic/author Marilyn Hagerty.  And finally, the duo perform the melancholy, but ultimately hopeful, Today Is A Bright New Day.  With appearances in recent years on Prairie Home Companion and NPR, Brosseau continues to build on his brilliant career.  Never has a singer-songwriter been more deserving of the spotlight.  Do yourselves a huge favor, and go buy Grass Punks HERE.  And make sure to not miss his act and tour when it comes near to you.

Hate ’em or hate ’em, the folks at Coachella are at least streaming the musical acts that they’ve monopolized (but only for the entire year) in California.  Watch the largesse unfold via the stream that you can watch HERE.

Of the available viewings today on the stream are of Wye Oak, Afghan Wigs, Neko Case, Bonobo, Bryan Ferry (coming to the Santa Barbara Bowl next week), and Outkast.

On Saturday we suggest Foxygen, Temples, The Head and the Heart, Cage The Elephant, Warpaint, and The Pixies.

And on Sunday check out Superchunk, Blood Orange, Darkside, Daughter, Arcade Fire and Disclosure.

Again, these are our suggestions based upon the available streams.  Happy viewing!

Yesterday (appropriately on throw-back-Thursday) Mavis Staples appeared at the Civil Rights Summit in observance of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act.  Watch below as Ms. Staples, as usual, nails the Civil Rights Movement’s adopted anthem We Shall Overcome.  She could make a believer out of Richard Dawkins.

The fog’s in and there are heavier lamentations at Chez Lefort.  This morning when we watched jazz violinist Regina Carter and her fine band perform the gospel hymn I’m Coming Home on WNYC we were taken home.  To a better place.  Carter’s new album, Southern Comfort, is part exploration of her Alabama family history and part Appalachian hegemony.  She chose the album’s songs from the seminal field recordings by John Wesley Work III and Alan Lomax.  One of those songs is the great gospel hymn I’m Going Home, which you can watch/listen-to below courtesy of WNYC.  You can listen to the whole WNYC session HERE.

On Tuesday we passed along the first of five phenomenally-captured performances by Brit-band Daughter at the hallowed Air Studios with chamber orchestra.  Two more vignettes have appeared since.  Today’s video is of the band performing Still, our favorite thus far (in part because of the best chamber orchestra use).  After, watch yesterday’s Tomorrow.  All beauty.

The affecting Brit-band Daughter recently recorded five song’s in London’s Air Studios (founded by George Martin) with composer Joe Duddell and a 10-piece chamber orchestra.  We were early fans of the band, which continues to grow in sound and notoriety.  To hear the band and get a feel for these classically-arranged performances, check out below Daughter’s superb song Shallows as arranged by Duddell and augmented by the chamber orchestra.  The full five-track session will be released as an EP on April 15th and as a limited-edition 12″ on May 26th and you can pre-order it HERE.

Last Friday Los Angeles waged The War On Drugs.  TWOD first appeared on KCRW in the morning and let fly with a scintillating and superbly captured set of songs (you can listen to the whole set HERE).  Watch the band’s performances of An Ocean In Between The Waves and Disappearing on KCRW below.

Later that night the band played the hallowed, sold-out Troubadour.  The band came out blazing with their wall-of-jangle hypno-taze and took their songs to a higher plane beyond their superb Lost In The Dream studio representations, but especially on Under Pressure, An Ocean In Between The Waves and Eyes to the Wind.  Adam Granduciel was gracious and giving the entire night, whipping up the crowd repeatedly with his Les Paul and Firebird fingerings, feelings and ferocity, the likes of which haven’t been seen or heard outside of the legendary Neil Young and his Old Black throttlings.  While his songwriting and locomotive delivery shine, Granduciel has also grown into a gifted vocalist, with his Dylan-esque mien and variable phrasings.  Granduciel is backed by a crew of gifted musicians (and especially drummer Charlie Hall), who fantastically fill the sound-train’s seats and set it to chugging full steam down the tracks.

One minor complaint about the set would be that with up to seven members and instruments on stage fighting for ear-space, the band members seemed at times to unconsciously be fighting for decibels and to be heard (we could have done with less dominant bass in the mix, as good as it was, and more sound separation to show off all the players–ferheavensake if you’re going to bring a horn player, let’s hear what you’re paying for).  It was not surprising, then, that some of the best moments of the evening for us were when the band down-throttled for the balladry and comparatively-spare sounds and dynamics heard live on Disappearing and Suffering.   The band also seemed to lose the thread towards the end of their main set which belied the wearying effects of incessant touring.  But they came back strong to close out with a powerful reading of Lennon’s Mind Games and Arms Like Boulders before closing with a rousing encore.

The War On Drugs provided some of the most mesmerizing and propulsive ensemble sounds that we have heard in quite some time on Friday at the Troubadour.  If you get a chance to see them, don’t ya miss it (and especially you guitar- and rig-geeks).

The full Troubadour setlist is at bottom.  Photo at top by Debi Del Grande via L.A. Record.

Setlist:

Under the Pressure
Baby Missiles
I Was There
An Ocean In Between The Waves
Disappearing
Eyes to the Wind
Red Eyes
Suffering
Brothers
I Hear You Calling
(Bill Fay cover)
Burning
Lost In The Dream
Come to the City
In Reverse
Mind Games
(John Lennon cover)
Arms Like Boulders

Encore:
Black Water Falls
Comin’ Through

We’ve been entirely enamored with new duo Sylvan Esso since we first heard their addicting jam, Coffee.  Their debut album is out on Partisan/Trekky and is amongst the Best Albums of 2104 thus far.  Check out below a comparatively decaffeinated, (syl)van-emboweled take on their song Coming Down for La Blogothèque.  Even without dancing and at mere frontage-road speed, Sylvan Esso enthralls.  Here, singer Amealia Meath reminds a bit of the much-missed Mary Margaret O’Hara.  There can be no higher compliment in our book.  Get Sylvan Esso’s debut album HERE.

We’ve now heard, watched the video and, after last night, seen the live performance by Joseph Arthur of Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side.   The cover will appear on Arthur’s imminent album-homage to his friend, Lou (featuring only Reed’s songs).  Check out Arthur’s performance last night on the Letterman Show below with the assist of Mike Mills, Peter Buck and an appropriately elegiac string quartet.  Beauty right there.

Turns out it was also a fitting tribute of sorts to Letterman, who announced his retirement “by 2015” on the show.  Time for Dave to walk on the wilder side.