Grace Pettis - The Gypsy's Code

This was a lovely surprise to read this morning - Grace Pettis won the Mountain Stage New Song Contest. Mountain Stage is a pretty big deal in the states, and they have a great track record of finding awesome singer/songwriters. 

I know Grace through her dad, Pierce Pettis - a truly awesome singer/songwriter himself - who has clearly passed on the 'being a ridiculously gifted singer/songwriter' genes to Grace. 

Last time I saw Grace, we were mucking about in a giant Walmart in rural Alabama, trying to buy guns and camouflage gear, just to see if it was possible... that was just after her slightly absent minded dad had nearly shot Evil Harv with some tiny fireworks... a weekend full of WIN! 

Anyway, here's one of her songs - 

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more coming soon. Please spread the word about her - she's amazing.  

Rob Ickes - I Can't Make You Love Me

So, stumbling through a few links from a tweet, to a site to a list of artists to one I knew cos I'd seen him live...

..brought me to this page - http://robickes.argoarts.com/ 

And I clicked on the 'play' button for 'I Can't Make You Love Me', and within about a minute had tears in my eyes. 

It's truly outstanding. Listened the the other two tracks, both beautiful. 

Scoured the usual haunts looking for the highest res download I could find (the first link only has 3 tracks, I wanted to whole album). Ended up with Amazon (256k VBR) for about seven quid. Bargain. Bought it, am listening now, it's outstanding. 

I saw Rob Ickes play in 2004 - Evil Harv and I were in Nashville and went to see my friend Dave Pomeroy play with his new trio, which featured Rob on Dobro and Andy Leftwich on mandolin. It was, of course, mind-blowingly brilliant. The other three people in the audience thought so too. Yup, there were 5 people there. For that.

They did an album, under the name 'Three Ring Circle' - go and get that too :) 

I've got a broken bass u-huh ooooo

...to miss-quote the Pixies.

Actually, I haven't. I've got a fixed bass. Fixed because it was smashed up by British Airways, who paid for it to be fixed. But it sounds different. I love the sound of the bass as it is now, but just occasionally I go back and watch vids like this recorded before the accident, and miss the sound. There was something pretty miraculous about the bass as it was...

Maybe I'll grow to love the sound now as much, especially as I start recording a new album soon.

Till then I'll just have to remember to not stop Believin' ;)

Jeff Schmidt - Outre

This album's been out for a few years now, but is one of the few solo bass records that I come back to time and time again to listen to. 

As I've said before, I don't like most solo bass playing. Jeff's a massive exception to that rule. His music is amazing. 

He also did an amazing podcast about the making of the album, and continues to blog smart musical things at beautiful-bass.com

Here's the album, listen, then download it, it's amazing:

http://jeffschmidt.bandcamp.com/album/outre">From Under The Weight of Knowing by Jeff Schmidt http://jeffschmidt.bandcamp.com/album/outre">From Under The Weight of Knowing by Jeff Schmidt

She Makes War - Three...Two...One EP

I heard this months ago, when Laura first put it out. Came back to it today after Laura (AKA She Makes War, AKA @warriorgrrl ) added it to the 'Bandcamp directory for the Stevie-Connected' at solobasssteve.com  - we were listening on the laptop, but it deserved big speakers. So we bought the download (a bargainous £2 ), and are now enjoying the 3rd time through it in a row. Top stuff. 

http://shemakeswar.bandcamp.com/album/three-two-one">Picture Of Us by She Makes War http://shemakeswar.bandcamp.com/album/three-two-one">Picture Of Us by She Makes War

The bass playing I'm most proud of from the last couple of years....

Well, there are two things I'm really proud of. One is the Lawson Dodds Wood album, which isn't on bandcamp.. .yet... 

The other is this track by Miriam Jones. It's called Routine Runaway, it's a heart-meltingly joyous song, and I really love the way the arrangement came out. A lot of it was my idea, arrangement-wise, and I'm grateful that Miriam trusted me when the first time we tried it it sounded like arse... Jez Carr's piano on it is fab too... 

have a listen, then go buy the EP. :) 

http://miriamjones.bandcamp.com/track/routine-runaway">Routine Runaway by Miriam Jones http://miriamjones.bandcamp.com/track/routine-runaway">Routine Runaway by Miriam Jones

Ben Walker - This Is Not An Album

Despite his protestations, This Is Not An Album is, basically, an album. And a fine collection of songs it is too. 

Ben Walker is the posh mentalist who stalks TV chefs, mentioned in this video. He's fab, he's all over youtube, and he writes a lovely blog at www.ihatemornings.com  

But underneath it all are wonderful, funny, catchy songs - comedy songs are a risky business. If they aren't great songs, they suck. They just don't work. Ben makes it work, cos the tunes are fab. And that's why he's involved in Office Gigs. 

Have a listen, and if you like it, grab the download and toss him some paypal moneys on the way: 

Starlight Casts No Shadow - Neil Alexander And Nail

OK, tell me this fab tune doesn't remind you of the theme tune to the TV version of Hitch-hikers Guide To the Galaxy? :) 

Been listening to loads of Neil Alexander's music of late - he's @nailmusic on twitter, and he's fab. Check him out - 

http://nailmusic.bandcamp.com/track/starlight-casts-no-shadow">Starlight Casts No Shadow by Neil Alexander & NAIL http://nailmusic.bandcamp.com/track/starlight-casts-no-shadow">Starlight Casts No Shadow by Neil Alexander & NAIL