Christmas music round up

I got three new CDs :-)

Peter Gabriel - Shaking the Tree.  Well not strictly new, I used to have this on cassette (any one under 20 now will need to go to wiki to look them up!) which bit the dust as cassette players reduced towards zero in the house.  It is a collection of his hits up to about 2000 ish - great stuff, Red Rain, Sledgehammer, Solsbury Hill, Don't Give Up etc. 

Steve Earl - I Won't Get Out of This World Alive.  Just under 38 mins - just like an old vinyl record!  12 tracks of utter brilliance frankly... super lyrics (e.g. Melancholy Malady) super playing throughout and Steve's voice just gets better with age.  Written in the time after his fathers death a very poigniant tribute.  Super duper!


The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow.  Fantastic debut from this Nashville duet.  They have voices that angels would have and together are just devine.  This is probably the debut CD of the year for me without a doubt.  If you've never heard of them try and check them out I'm positive you'll not be disappointed.

On other music front I got Tony Bacon's book on Gibson's odd shapes (Explorer, Flying Vee and Firebird) which has a good set of photos and I'm early on in reading but is as ever with his stuff well researched through interviews with Gibson employees of the day etc.

Also I have a new music book - Gordon Giltrap's classics.  I'm trying to learn Heartsong at the moment.  As ever with him it is almost a surprise to find something in standard tuning but still a challenge to come anywhere near his impecable playing.

I got some blu-rays (Cars2 :-)) and a condenser mic for use in the studio from my wife and son :-)  Looking forward to using that at some point soon.  I hope you all have a good Christmas yourselves

I should do the annual Furtheron review of the year soon... I'll try and get to that...

Comments

  1. sybil law28 December 2011 at 17:37

    Huh - I didn't get any music! I got a lot of awesome things, though - but my favorite gift is the plates (I sent my husband the link and instructions to buy two sets of them). I LOVE my new plates!
    Sad that I get so excited over dinner plates, huh?! Haha! Oh well. :)
    Glad to hear you had a nice Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Suburbia28 December 2011 at 18:04

    Used to love Peter Gabriel, saw him in concert once in the 80's; stunning

    ReplyDelete
  3. JohnJayJay28 December 2011 at 18:55

    Always nice to get the gift of music at Christmas. I received an iTunes giftcard and am pondering my purchases as I type this. Am curious about the Gibson book...are the guitar shapes simply artistic choices based on what was pleasing to the eye of the manufacturer, or is there a sonic reason (or ergonomic?) for their shapes. Always wondered about that Flying V...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Liz Hinds29 December 2011 at 13:26

    It's very strange but most of Christmas dvds are children's cartoons ...

    Happy New year, Furtheron. May this one be a new adventure for you.

    ReplyDelete

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