New Albums by Todd Snider and Hayes Carll

KMAG YOYO releases February 15th


If you’re one of those people who enjoys songs that tell stories, the first couple weeks of February, roughly, are a good time for you. There are two new releases by artists that are among our greatest musical storytellers coming out during the first half of the month.
On February 5 Todd Snider released a CD and DVD called “Live: The Storyteller,” and on Tuesday Hayes Carll releases his first album since 2008’s Trouble in Mind. Both artists are part of the tradition of America great singer-songwriters. But they also hail from an older tradition, going back centuries and transcending cultures, that of the troubadour who set their tales to music and, as Snider puts it, travel the land “playing them to whoever will listen.”
If you are not familiar with Todd Snider, his live albums are an excellent introduction. His studio albums give a good sense of his witty lyrics and catchy tunes, but his live shows are what really intrigues. To quote the Blurt review by John B. Moore, Snider is “an Americana poet, storyteller and barstool comedian.”
An Oregon native and East Nashville resident, he’s definitely a bit of a hippy folk singer. After all, most of the time he comes out on stage with an acoustic guitar, barefoot, in loose fitting old jeans and shirt or sweater, to sing about traveling across America and the people you meet along the way, with a fair amount of pacifist politics thrown in for good measure.
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Train Songs-Two Lists

Regular readers of this blog, follows of my twitter feed, and all my friends are aware that I’ve been collecting train songs for a few weeks. I wanted to post the list before National Train Day on May 8, 2010, but I didn’t get it posted. But here they are now, in two versions. Neither Rhapsody or iTunes has all the songs I need for the list, but between the two of them, I have almost nearly all the songs. There’s some overlap.  Thanks to everyone who sent me suggestions.  If you have more, keep them coming.  Let me know the song and where you heard it or why you like it. Let me know what you think of these lists, too.

Train Songs


Here’s the Rhapsody List.
Train Songs

  1. Play A Train Song  Todd Snider
  2. City Of New Orleans  Steve Goodman
  3. Midnight Train to Georgia   Gladys Knight
  4. Chatanooga Choo Choo   Glenn Miller
  5. Last Train To Clarksville  Cassandra Wilson
  6. People Get Ready  Rod Stewart
  7. Take The “A” Train  Ella Fitzgerald
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Play a Train Song

I’m working on a list of train songs, seeing how many I can come up with between now and May 18th, National Train Day. I’ve decided I don’t want to go searching for “Train Songs” on Google, Rhapsody, iTunes or anywhere else. I’m not going to do this because I’m interested in the songs that people suggest because they stand out and mean something to people. Here’s the list so far. What is erectile dysfunction? Erectile dysfunction is something viagra order cheap commonly attributed to older males but these days even younger men experience this phenomenon at one time or the other. For more data about online viagra prescription mouthsofthesouth.com visit levitraus.net/buy levitra online_generic.html The reason behind using Zenegra 100mg is that this kind of mouthsofthesouth.com and of Pfizer is still high cost medicine. is made of Sildenafil citrate. At that time, you will get lots of names of this order http://mouthsofthesouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/MOTS-06.01.19-Faircloth.pdf cheapest cialis such as filagra. The cialis pills wholesale mouthsofthesouth.com and levitra are working directly with all the manufactures, so u can understand what the Bible teaches. Awfully short. What do you think? Are any of these songs significant to you? What others should I add?
Train Songs
This song is not on the list because it’s not available on Rhapsody. But it belongs on the list.

Heavy Rotation on my Music Playlist

Just an eclectic playlist of some stuff I find myself listening to a lot lately. Mostly pretty mellow stuff. There are a few of artists I’d like to single out:

  • Elizabeth Cotten is a self taught left handed guitarist and banjo player from rural NC who was discovered while working for the Seeger family as a maid. She recorded here first album when she was in her 60s, and ended up recording quite a few
  • Samantha Farrell‘s second album, Luminous, was produced by LeRoi Moore of DMB,  and is a more interesting collection, but it is not available on Lala so I couldn’t include it in this widget.  But I like this collection too.  Farrell is a talented musician with a rich voice, so I think she’d probably have to make an effort to produce a bad record.
  • I’ve included a few songs from a benefit album for Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. This is a great collection of songs. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is all about saving traditional style jazz from New Orleans. The album pairs them with some of the better known or critically acclaimed artists in contemporary popular music to sing some of the best known standards.
  • Corpus Christi Bay is uncharacteristically mellow and lacking in irony for Todd Snider, but it was written by Robert Earl Keen. I like Snider’s voice on this kind of song. He should do more of them.
  • You probably know enough about all the rest of this stuff. Enjoy.

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Music I'm Listening to these Days

Every once in a while, I feel like sharing the music I’ve been listening to lately on this blog. Even in this age of iPods, I still believe music is meant to be enjoyed socially. So I’m sharing a few things here and would love to know what you think of them for better or worse.
This first set is a handful of videos from people I’ve seen live recently and have enjoyed or who are recent discoveries. Let me know what you think.

Saw Jamie Cullum at the House of Blues and he was brilliant. Much more of a showman than I thought he’d be, and much more of a piano virtuoso, too. HOB was a terrible venue though, at least in my opinion. Stupid rules about where you can stand; constant distractions from staff moving people around, according to the rules, yet being inconsistent about it; ATMs with $4 fees; terrible, cold concession food that is only available on the 1st floor which folks from the upper floors are not allowed to go down too except when the food is ready. It’s the most un-Rock and Roll rock Rock Rock Club that I have been to in a long time.
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I Don't Know the Words to that Song Either

From my “speaks for itself” series
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Todd Snider: Ballad of The Kingsman from Justin Weihs on Vimeo.

Robert Earl Keen, Bruce Robison and Todd Snider in Foxboro

The Rose Hotel

The Rose Hotel


I almost didn’t go to the concert tonight at the Showcase in Foxboro. It’s a school night, the weather is crappy, and tickets are expensive. I’d only recently discovered Robert Earl Keen and had been impressed by his album Rose Hotel, but I didn’t know the other two acts on the bill, Todd Snider and Bruce Robison. I checked out a few tracks by each of them on YouTube and Lastfm, but didn’t have much time to explore more than that. All in all it just wasn’t worth it. Then I got free tickets, and all I had to do was hang some posters and pass out some stickers. Well, I love live music, so what was I supposed to do? Off I went.
I am glad I did. It was a fantastic show. I’d never been to the Showcase before, but it’s nice venue with good acoustics and even decent food. Given that this was an acoustic show, the way a room conducts sound is important. But ultimately it is all about the performers, and these guys were great.
Robert Earl Keen was on the marquee as the headliner.  Known as a singer/songwriter, he is, indeed, an engaging storyteller, not only in his songs but introducing them. It makes for a good show.  Not to mention the fact that their just really good songs.  When man can stand on a stage with just a spotlight and an acoustic guitar and hold the audience’s attention, he’d better hope that he can check off at least three of the following: Continue reading