1676 Great Spotify Tunes (7)

(Playlist on spotify- http://open.spotify.com/user/128264634/starred ) It’s been a while since post #6 of this series, so here’s more of the songs from my spotify Starred playlist, which is made up of all the songs I’ve featured on my weekly blog playlist posts since July 2012.

1. Josh Turner – “Why Don’t We Just Dance?” – The lyrics are pretty basic, but I included this song in my blog plalist because I like dancing to it with my cat.
2. John Common & Blinding Flashes of Light – “The Man Who Could” – John Common makes the sort of eclectic, experimental music my sister used to really like in college, not exactly my thing. But, I liked some of the songs he played live at the New West Fest show back in August 2012, and some of his album tracks also appeal to me. This is one he and his band played at New West Fest.
3. Chuck Pyle – “River and the Rain” – Chuck Pyle was the very last performer I caught at New West Fest in 2012, and I really liked his live show. His recordings are sometimes a bit flat by comparison, lacking his personality and storytelling, but these are still songs that have lasting quality, enough to be turning up in another few decades on tribute albums when the younger generations rediscover his vast catalog of original songs.
4. Danielle Ate the Sandwich – “Pet Store” – Here is one of my favorite songs by Danielle Ate the Sandwich. Danielle is a Fort Collins artist who just recently moved back to Fort Collins from Michigan, where she lived and performed for a couple years. She tours a lot, so if you live in the US, there’s a good chance she’ll be playing at a venue near you in the next year. She has several great albums available now, plus many youtube videos, which she used with great success to build a following when she was getting started. She posts new videos regularly, and there are a couple youtube versions of this song now.
5. Mama Lenny & the Remedy – “No Sympathy” – This band was the showstopper act from the 2012 New West Fest, a great soul/funk band that played their set just before Alison Krauss took the stage. Since that night Mama Lenny & the Remedy have played many shows in the Fort Collins area, released a new album, and birthed several new babies, the next generation of great local musicians. Thanks to the exhausting challenges of performing while very pregnant, and the musicians’ need to spend time with their growing families, the band was not doing muc touring and took several months off from performing at all while they focused on developing new material for their new album. Now that they are back in the scene, they are once again winning the hearts of the many music lovers in the Colorado/Wyoming/Nebraska area.
6. Bell X1 – “In Every Sunflower” – A friend of mine from French class turned out to have his own music blog, and recommended this British folk-pop band on his blog. They remind me of some of the songs on the top 40 this season, only a bit better.
7. Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now” – This song is sure to be a classic hit on the oldies channels in a few decades, though it remains to be seen whose recording tops those oldies charts. I really like Lady Antebellum’s recording, but it is a song that sounds rather easy to cover well, too.
8. Devotchka – “The Man From San Sebastian” – I managed to miss all of Devotchka’s shows in Fort Collins while I lived there, but I did wind up being friends with their merchandise person, so I heard about them frequently. This Denver band has been very successful, with their mainstream-accessible, “Latin” influenced style.
9. Katie Glassmann – “Honey Pie” – Katie is one of Colorado’s great local violin/fiddle players, with classical training and advanced training in gypsy fiddling. Her music sounds like it comes from the 1920’s, with lyrics and vocals that could easily be soundtracks for old black & white silent movies.
10. John Mellencamp – “Paper In Fire” – If you asked me back in the late 80’s what my favorite current song was, this would have been my answer.
11. Celtic Thunder – “My Boy” – This is still not my favorite Celtic Thunder song, but every so often it gets stuck in my head, especially after its singer, George Donaldson, died in March.
12. The Judds – “I Know Where I’m Going”
13. Celtic Thunder – “I Wanna Know What Love Is”
14. Three Dog Night – “Old Fashioned Love Song”
15. Genesis – “Land of Confusion” – If you have never seen this music video you owe it to yourself to find it on youtube and watch it.