THURSDAY MORNING MIX

March 31, 2011

Scott Foley

TV tells me that it is spring, watching the same old faces making the same old predictions that those same old teams will come out on top for the 2011 baseball season. It's like the folks who walk into their morning dressed for yesterday's weather. Or the golf commercials that continue to count on Tiger to draw viewers.

Anyhow, there's a difference between predictable and reliable. Americana stalwarts Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris are predictably reliable on this Episode of TMM. But just like the Seattle Mariners ending atop the AL West (alright, even I can't buy that one ... ), I live for the underdog like Israel Nash Gripka's outstanding Barn Doors and Concrete Floors, and our first glimpse into one of the year's best songs in "Drown". Recorded in an old barn in the Catskills, Gripka and co. uphold my theory that the best albums are recorded in churches and chicken coops.

And speaking of chicken coops, sounds like the Felice Brothers have abandoned theirs for a legit studio with all the requisite fancy buttons and knobs. Time will tell if the rest of Celebration Florida sounds as much like a rootsy Pet Shop Boys ...

Play ball!

* Dave Alvin, "Harlan County Line" internet single (Yep Roc, 11)
* Lance Mills, "If I Fall" Wore Out Shoes (Greasy Bean, 09)
* Caitlin Rose, "That's Alright" Own Side Now (Theory 8, 11)
* Kasey Anderson, "Exit Ghost" Heart of a Dog (Red River, 10)
* Drag the River, "Here's To the Losers" 2010 Demons (DtR, 10)
^ Israel Nash Gripka, "Drown" Barn Doors and Concrete Floors (Self, 11)
* Buddy Miller w/Emmylou Harris, "Why I'm Walkin" Majestic Silver Strings (New West, 11)
* Steve Earle, "God Is God" I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (New West, 11)
* Bobby Long, "Penance Fire Blues" Winter Tale (ATO, 11)
* JD McPherson, "Signs and Signifiers" Signs and Signifiers (Self, 11)
* Lizzie Huffman, "Tumblers and Tea" Lizzie Huffman & Her Brother Band (Suburban Home, 10)
* Slim Cessna's Auto Club, "Smashing Indictment of Character" Unentitled (Alt. Tentacles, 11)
* Scott Miller & the Commonwealth, "Raised By the Graves" Upside Downside (Sugar Hill, 03)
* Secret Sisters, "Big River" Big River single (Universal, 11)
* Jason Isbell & 400 Unit, "Tour of Duty" Here We Rest (Lightning Rod, 11)
* Jayhawks, "Crowded in the Wings" Hollywood Town Hall (remastered) (American, 11)
* Blind Boys of Alabama, "Can You Give Me a Drink" Take the High Road (Saguaro Road, 11)
* Coal Porters, "Moonlight Midnight" Durango (Prima, 10)
* Mumford & Sons, "To Darkness" Dharohar Project (Self, 10)
* Felice Brothers, "Ponzi" Celebration Florida (Fat Possum, 11)
* Abigail Washburn, "Chains" City of Refuge (Foreign Children, 11)
* Amy Speace, "Battened Hatches" Land Like a Bird (Thirty Tigers, 11)
* Decemberists, "Don't Carry It All" King is Dead (Capitol, 11)
* The O's, "In Numbers We Survive" Between the Two (Idol, 11)