March of `09 is ripe for the picking when it comes to some of the best releases of the year. I’ll start out with a track from Richard Shindell’s record Not Far Now also plenty of greqat bonus tracks at the end of the post.
P.S. I just added a Danny Barnes Christmas song to the now huge S:I Christmas Mix.
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Sometimes I labor over a post wondering if the music is good enough, if the artist is “legit” enough or simply if I care enough. That’s not the case with a Richard Shindell post. The man is clearly in the upper echelon of the folk world. And his stature and music has only grown since his move to Argentina. With each new release he continues to blend the culture of Buenos Aires with his original homeland of New Jersey, it’s an odd, beguiling combination.
It’s been too long since his last record of original songs though. His covers record South Of Delia tided us over for a time with it’s reinterpretations of classics from Bob Dylan, Woody Gutherie and Bruce Springsteen (and new classics from Josh Ritter and Jeffrey Foucault). The new record is called Not Far Now (Signature Sounds) and Richard describes how he knew it was time to record a new album below:
“There are various subtle indications that it is time to make a new album,” he explains from his adopted hometown of Buenos Aires. “Like when my fans start looking at me funny, when I’ve run through every puzzle at every level in the sudoku book, or when my children start to ask me what I do for a living…”
The song I linked to is about a mule. Apparently it’s a song that Richard has been performing live and that people respond to for the obvious reasons:
“Of the eleven songs on this record,” Shindell reflects, “there are three that have shown up pretty regularly in my live sets during the past year or two. People seem to like ‘Clara’ the most, as do I. This is perhaps explained by the fact that Clara is a mule, and people generally like songs about mules.”
Buy it here.
Bonus mp3’s
Che Guevera T-Shirt
The Last Fare Of The Day
Arrowhead (live)
The Courier (live)
Abuelita
You Stay Here