Remember - Misty Miller

Misty Miller

Whether your making a statement or asking a question one is just as relevant as the other. " Do you remember me?  I was the girl about 5' 3. Do you remember my eyes blue, blue as the skies.." Misty Miller sweetly sings about the evolution of young love and its highs and lows.

 Check out Remember.  The debut EP by 16 year old ukulele player from South West London certainly will not disappoint.  It's such a refreshing surprise to hear her fresh voice serenading along with  her plucky companion.  Misty, a self taught musician, recounts on her Myspace page how she received her uke as a gift and only picked it up one afternoon when she was bored. Once she picked it up she was hooked and has been writing music on it ever sense.

Misty sings like an angel in Evergreen Love- a heart felt ballad  sung for someone special no doubt, and Vampire, a song about a girl in love with - well a vampire - should be a popular song for her since it's every teenage girls fantasy at the moment! Still, while Vampires may be overexposed in the media- Misty puts a new spin on the usual hard rock soaked tunes that are commonly associated with Vampires- instead the song musically saunters about the vampire/human component with delicious detail.

      "Tell me about your thousands of lives, I want to learn about your other side.

 'cause I can't get you off of my mind.  And touch me with your freezing finger tips

 and kiss me with your blood red lips- I want to gaze into your ever-changing eyes.."

The final track on her EP, Home, has a soft country vibe, and I find it inspiring she can use a small instrument to take on various influences and it really works for her.  Misty Miller is a name you definitely will remember. She uses her talent to write relevant songs and her ability with this unique instrument leaves you  excitingly anticipating the next song.

Blackbird Blackbird/ Summer Heart LP

Ahh Fridays.. the end of a weekdays, promoter of good things to come. I was looking for some music to put me in a good place and be something out of the ordinary for me and hot damn whats this?  I stumbled upon the floaty electric synths and moody beats of Blackbird Blackbird.  Mikey Sander  is the name behind the musical dreamscapes that is Blackbird Blackbird and I challenge you to find a song that you dont like! He has released two projects just this month alone on his website: Summer Heart  LP and Modern Disbelief EP and announced on his blog this morning that Fade to White 7 is available for pre-order through Firetalk Records. Mikey, no one can say your a man without a vision!
So the other night in my sleepless search for anything to coax me into sweet slumber I come across the video for Pure- the video was enigmatic and entrancing all at the same time, and yes there are blackbirds in the video as well- very nice touch. Now I knew I HAD to hear more. Hawaii- another mind altering song that puts you somewhere along Waikiki at night at a luau complete with hula dancers and roasty pig crackling in a pit. I also enjoyed the title track Summer Heart  and Aura to name a couple more . It should also be noted that Blackbird Blackbird covered Float On made famous by Modest Mouse in  2004 and it sounds sick and aptly gave the song a fresh new vibe. So go download Summer Heart and get a FREE download of his digital album Modern Disbelief featuring Fade to White ( feat. Emily Reo). 




Pure

Blackbird Blackbird – Pure (official music video) from Isaac Bauman on Vimeo.


Float On

Review :Rocky Votolato -True Devotion

Singer songwriter Rocky Votolato has gift- he makes the morose sound beautiful.  In True Devotion he has a clean yet emotional sound and often Ill find myself mindlessly singing tracks like  Red River - my personal favorite, it has a strong indie rock flavor all throughout the track.
 One thing anyone will notice about  Rocky Votolato is that he isn't musically boring or predictable. Maybe it comes from his background being raised in the Pacific Northwest indie scene of Seattle that he pulls his inspiration from, but if you compare Red River to another track on the album, Lucky Clover Coin, its stripped to an acoustic guitar, some violin in parts and his harmonic voice and heart felt lyrics- YEAH this is a damn good track and I like that it's first on the album because you'll want to hear it over and over again.

Rocky is currently on tour and maybe in a living room near you.  He's taking a grass root- ish  approach with this tour that is absolutely amazing- basically you go to his website and can actually request him in your very own living room to do a show in your town- if your chosen- you get 5 tickets for yourself then he sells the rest to fans in your area at $20 a head and you get a very intimate performance with a very cool dude in your own basement or wherever you can comfortably hold about 50 people. All he needs is a chair and the man is set- how awesome is that?! You dont even have to have a big house, here's a vid of said concert he recently put on in someones APARTMENT!



True Devotion is an understated  mellow album with mostly  simplistic acoustic songs proving once again that  at least as far as he is concerned less is more and we the fans are forced to reckon with the lyrics of his melodies and the messages it  softly speaks.
Track listing:
1. Lucky Clover Coin
2. Fragments
3. Red River
4. Eyes Like Static
5. Sparklers
6. Instrument
7. What Waited For Me
8. Sun Devil
9. Don’t Be Angry
10. Where We Started

Its Great to be GREEN!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  I hope this festive day finds ya tippin' your green derby hat to yur  closest chum, as you eat me lucky charms....  or  if you wanna go  more authentic perhaps your  eating limerick ham, shepherds pie or coddle stew? Irish food honestly inst my favorite , but I do enjoy shepherds pie usually annually round this time of year :) Personally, I do enjoy the good nature spirit that is associated with this  day of celebration. Irish or not , you can for at least a day feel like everyones  brother/sister and its like one big family reunion. ( *insert warm fuzzies )The Irish are good people, it's evident in their music- sure you have the folk lore of leprechauns and magic that comes to mind( what other nationality can you say that about?) but even their music stirs the soul . What famous Irish musicians do we know here in the States? First thing that comes to my mind is Enya, U2 and Riverdance.  So I got to researching and remember the 90's rock band The Cranberries - their Irish, along with Van Morrison, The Corrs and Damien Rice. Remember season 7 Irish -American Idol finalist Carly  Smithson?  She has teamed up with a few of the original members of the extremely successful  rock band Evanescence  heading up hew own band called We Are The Fallen.  What if you go to Dublin, Ireland though, what would you hear on their air waves? Check out Live Ireland-

Find more videos like this on liveIreland
which is live Irish internet radio and they offer live talk, music,  pics from the Irish country side and webcams all promising to thoroughly douse you in Irish culture and leave you wistfully wishing you were there! Im serious, GO THERE NOW!! Im watching a live web show there now as we speak, you can also interact with  them with your Twitter, Facebook accounts- Its your source for all things Irish and St. Patrick's celebration!
There will be parades in every small town  and major cities  that boast Irish roots. The pubs will be packed around the globe today and pints of Guinness will be consumed in honor  of ol' St. Patrick, for me though Ill forgo the parades and I cant stomach the bitter bite of a stout Guinness( maybe I'll have some  Bailey's Irish cream instead?!) but these Irish eyes will be smiling regardless as I reflect of the culture the day reminds us - I pass this blessing on to you!
Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers—
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!

Artist Review : The Civil Wars

What happens when California pop collides with folk rock Alabama? Hauntingly beautiful and mesmerizing harmonies of The Civil Wars. They are musical detox for the over synthesized ears that today's over saturated market currently brings. Singer/ Songwriter Joy Williams and artist songwriter John Paul White make up the remarkably talented duo that is The Civil Wars. Officially the two teamed up in February of 2009 and have been playing intimate settings across the U.S. California native Joy Williams has been in the music industry since 2000. She and her husband, Nate Yetton, started their own label/ management firm in 2008- Sensibility Music ( where Joy and The Civil Wars are both signed) -Joy has released three records  and has a new record due April 2010. She also has received 11 Dove Award nominations. Her songs “Charmed Life”, “Speaking a Dead Language” and “Sunny Day” have been in episodes of the hit ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy which is where I originally heard “Poison and Wine” the Civil Wars' debut single . See that video HERE
Alabama boy, and Johnny Depp look-a-like, John Paul White the other half of this amazing act released his solo album “ The Long Goodbye” ( featuring, “Alien”, “Over My Head”) in August 2008. John Paul White also has co-written songs for Rascal Flatts, LeAnn Rimes, Jason Aldean among others. Joy and John Paul met at a music writing camp in TN a little over a year and a half ago and immediately found their niche with each other. The chemistry between the two is undeniable and comes through in their music. The Civil Wars released their first EP in November 2009 “Poison and Wine” and I along with so many countless others were captivated. Perhaps it's because so many of us can identify with the song, or maybe they saw the video and was moved by it's simplistic beauty, one thing is certain- The Civil Wars had tapped into something and left us wanting more!

Interview: Halie Loren

Whitney:  "They Oughta Write A Song" is an excellent well rounded vocal jazz album, How Did you go about choosing the collection of standards that are on there?

Halie: Thank you!  I'm so glad you enjoy it... and thanks for asking me to participate in your blog!  It's a pleasure.

The standards that are featured on "They Oughta Write a Song" were chosen for a variety of reasons... some of the songs are ones that I have been performing for many years, and felt like natural fits for me vocally and for the musicians that are featured on the album.  "Summertime", for example, is a song that I've been performing since I was 12 years old, and is one that I've loved singing from that first performance of the song (which was at the Spring Recital assembly at my middle school in Sitka, Alaska).  For me, it was included for its nostalgic value as much as anything... and I thought it fit well in the context of the rest of the album. 

Music is...

"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."

“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”

“So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning

"Music is what feelings sound like"

“To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.”

"If Music be the food of love - play on "

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony. "