THURSDAY MORNING MIX
March 25, 2010
Scott Foley

A couple Best Things Ever this week: I was reminded of the three minutes and forty-one seconds of awesome that is Elliott BROOD's "The Valley Town" from last year's Mountain Meadows release. If I'm not mistaken, that's the mandolin (uke?) and a trombone we're hearing; not your typical americana pairing. Only a couple lines of lyric, but it stays with me for days ("there's a house by the hill / how I long for her still / my home sweet home ..."). Indeed.

Second Best Thing Ever this week is being able to hear an advanced copy of Nathaniel Rateliff's forthcoming In Memory of Loss. Formerly performing as The Wheel, Rateliff's new collection of uncompromising, bare-bones songs will be released on Rounder (of all things).

Almost made up for the fact that the disc of 12 new songs I had planned to use to create the Best Show Ever set the station's CD player to smoking, unable to play a single one of them ...

* Nathaniel Rateliff, "You Should've Seen the Other Guy" In Memory of Loss (Rounder, 10)
* Ken Will Morton, "True Grit" True Grit (Sojourn, 10)
* Slim Cessna's Auto Club, "Angel" Buried Behind the Barn (Alt Tentacles, 10)
* Will Quinlan & the Diviners, "Remember the Beatitudes" Navasota (Ironweed, 08)
* Black Prairie, "Crooked Little Heart" Feast of the Hunters' Moon (Sugar Hill, 10)
* Anais Mitchell, "Wedding Song" Hadestown (Righteous Babe, 09)
* John Hiatt, "Wonder of Love" The Open Road (New West, 10)
* Kimmie Rhodes, "Sex & Gasoline" Walls Fall Down (Sunbird, 08)
* Rocky Votolato, "Sun Devil" True Devotion (Barsuk, 10)
* Sean Hayes, "When We Fall In" Run Wolves Run (Self, 10)
* Carrie Rodriguez, "Wide River to Cross" Love & Circumstance (9th St Opus, 10)
* Jim White, "Borrowed Wings" Drill a Hole in That Substrate ... (Luaka Bop, 04)
* Slimfit, "Stumble Along" The Path (Don't You Hate Pants, 10)
* Deadstring Brothers, "Smile" Sao Paulo (Bloodshot, 10)
* Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem, "If You Want To Sing Out" Ranky Tanky (Mayhem, 10)
* AJ Downing, "River in the Rain" Way Back Home (Charkansas, 10)
* Holly Golightly, "I Can't Lose" Medicine County (Transdreamer, 10)
* Austin Collins & the Rainbirds, "Worn" Wrong Control (8 dollar, 09)
* Townes Van Zandt, "High Low and In Between" High Low and In Between (Tomato, 72)
* Steel Wheels, "Red Wing" Red Wing (Self, 09)
* Ravenna Colt, "South of Ohio" Slight Spell (Removador, 10)
* Elliott BROOD, "Valley Town" Mountain Meadows (6 Shooter, 09)
* Michael Perry & the Long Beds, "Somewhere South of Sunday" Tiny Pilot (Amble Down, 10)
* Gordie Tentrees, "No Integrity Man" Mercy or Sin (Self, 10)
* April Smith & the Great Picture Show, "Terrible Things" Songs For a Sinking Ship (Self, 09)
* Guy Clark, "Fool On the Roof" Guy Clark (American Beat, 78)