good news, i’ve found more free christmas music for you. it is northplatte records again. this time it is joshua james who has decided to give us his music for free. it is a 7-track ep with christmas songs. check it out at:
http://joshuajames.tv/holiday.html
free music anyone? that’s what i thought. and what would be better than some free christmas music this time of the year. luckily, the kind people over at northplatte records have decided to put together a little present for us. it looks like this:
you will find tracks from joshua james, desert noices and a couple others. go check it out at:
northplatte records
i figured i would make a list of the best songs of 2009. so i did. here it is:
1. ryan star – last train home
2. tim brantley – damage
3. robert francis – nightfall
4. peter bradley adams – for you
5. joshua james – coal war
6. jack savoretti – wonder
7. 16 frames – coming home
8. lucero – can’t feel a thing
9. joshua james – weeds
10. anton björkenvall – my side of the town
11. jr richards – person for you
12. great lake swimmers – pulling on a line
13. pete yorn – long time nothing new
14. fibes, oh fibes! – lovechild
15. the damnwells – dandelion
16. miike snow – a horse is not a home
17. bruce springsteen – my lucky day
18. will hoge – even if it breaks your heart
19. mayer hawthorne – just ain’t gonna work out
20. andrew hoover – roses & joy
enjoy! and merry christmas!
i’m not a huge fan of christmas music. i grow tired of them quickly. worst is when contemporary artists make their own “catchy” christmas songs that in 99% of the cases end up sounding like crap. but anyways, thanks to daniel over at la cienega there might be hope this christmas. he started an “alternative christmas songs” list on spotify. if you’re into folk christmas songs, be sure to check it out. you are even invited to add songs to the list. all you need is spotify.
anyways, here’s the list:
alternative x-mas songs
i think we all can agree that 2009 has been a great year for music.
ok. here it is. my list over the best albums of 2009:
01. joshua james – build me this
02. tim brantley – goldtop heights
03. joe purdy – last clock on the wall
04. robert francis – before nightfall
05. lucero – 1372 overton park
06. anton björkenvall – travel
07. jr richards – a beautiful end
08. 16 frames – where it ends
09. the danmwells – one last century
10. peter bradley adams – traces
11. sister hazel – release
12. will hoge – the wreckage
13. pearl jam – backspacer
14. andrew hoover – chances, stances and romances
15. miike snow – miike snow
16. pete yorn – back and forth
17. kris kristofferson – closer to the bone
18. ingrid michaelson – everybody
19. ari hest – twelve mondays
20. kate walsh – light and dark
song of the year:
ryan star – last train home
and just for the fun of it, here’s a bonus: the best album you did not hear this year:
jack savoretti – harder than easy.
i have no idea why i haven’t written anything about the swedish music that we have. check the videos below for a showcase of some of my favorite swedish artists:
we’ll start with christian kjellvander. he’s probably my favorite. mr kjellvander has been in bands such as loosegoats and songs of soil as well as released amazing solo albums. his song “two souls” is the one i’ve been listening to the most lately, check it out.
and just to show how talented he is, here’s the same song stripped down.
moving on to a guy that i discovered recently, thanks to my friend over at la cienega; anton björkenvall. out of nowhere (kiruna) comes this guy and blows me away:
pretty amazing.
someone that you might have heard of outside of sweden is kristofer åström. singer in the band fireside. i, however, prefer his solo albums. here are a couple of songs:
all lovers hell
the wild (with britta persson)
poor young man’s heart
another kristoffer (although with two “f”s) is kristoffer hedberg. another amazing artist from my country:
nyanser av grått
an artist that i listened a lot to a couple of years ago is tomas andersson wij. he’s probably the one who writes the best lyrics in sweden.
tommy och hans mamma
well, i think that’s it for now. it’s past midnight here in sweden and i’m off to bed. i’ll continue with more swedish artists in the future.
later
so. the day was finally here. the day that i have been waiting for since i first discovered william fitzsimmons. he was going to play a show in stockholm, sweden. i had the tickets booked since the day they were released. i took the bus to stockholm along with a friend. the venue was the beautiful södra teatern which proved to be the perfect location for this show.
the showed kicked off with the opening act, adam heldring. he proved to be an exciting artist with good songs and a strong voice. but for me personally i could not wait for william to enter the stage.
a short time after adam left the stage william finally entered. equipped with only a guitar and a beard he sat down and started playing. it was magic. true magic. i had such high expectations on this concert, and he even surpassed them. i don’t know exactly how long he played, but however long it was it was too short for me, i would have listened all night long. not only did he perform some of my favorites such as “it’s not true”, “find me to forgive” and “just not each other” but he was also really funny on stage. maybe the comical relief was a way of dealing with the dark topics of many of his songs, but it worked. nothing like listening to sad music and laugh at the same time, right?
after the show i got the chance to talk to him a bit as well, and he turned out to be a really nice guy as well. he was genuinely surprised that i had taken a 4 hour bus ride just to see him, and he seem worried that it was too late to go home that same evening. such a nice guy. he said that he would be back. when he comes i will be there.
here’s a picture of the two of us:
as a bonus, here is a video of william playing one of my favorite tunes, “it’s not true”. recorded with my digital camera.
this is simply brilliant. two of my favorite artists together. i wish i could have seen this live. i get goosebumps each time i hear the song. just breathtaking. the art of doing a cover: take a song. make it your own. like gordon ramsey would have said; done!
i’m happy. i got the chance to interview one of my all-time favorite music artists, ari hest. as always, the interview was done for melodic.net and can be found at:
will hoge has a new album out. it’s called the wreckage. it’s pretty damn good. here’s the first single of the album, “even if it breaks your heart”. good to see that will has recovered from his accident and that he still can write good songs.
as bonus i’ll give you two videos. first one is an acoustic version of “even if it breaks your heart” and the second one is an acoustic version of “this highway’s home”.
