They Say It’s Your Birthday: Paul Simon

Posted by Ray Padgett at 12:30 pm No Responses »

Oct 132011

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with other people singing his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

“I usually come in second [to Bob Dylan],” Paul Simon told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “I don’t like coming in second.”

Well, bad news Paul. Bob beat you to something else: turning 70. When Dylan turned 70 in May, it was accompanied with all manner of fanfare, tributes, and think pieces. We ourselves held a five-day celebration. Paul’s 70th birthday today comes with noticeably less pomp and circumstance. No lavish tributes, no critic navel-gazing, not much notice of any kind. It’s an occasion worth celebrating though, whether he was first or not. Continue reading »

G. Love Lists "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" with the Avett Brothers (Cover Me Premiere)

Posted by Brent Rydin at 1:00 pm 11 Responses »

Feb 012011

Paul Simon has always been a master of crafting simple narratives with his music. The man is a storyteller, and “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” is quite the story. Simon paints a picture of a man and a woman, having the discussion quietly but intensely. Perhaps over coffee, perhaps at a low-key bar; it seems like it’s probably in New York.

Where Simon gave us a smooth, calm conversation, G. Love’s cover seems more like a recounting of it over shots of whiskey and empty beer bottles. It takes a masterful artist to cover a song so ubiquitous and give it his own unique sense of story, and G. Love‘s distinct style does just that. Continue reading »

Watch: G. Love and the Avett Bros. Stomp Through “Fixin’ to Die”

Posted by Ray Padgett at 9:30 am 4 Responses »

Jan 142011

We first heard G. Love and the Avett Brothers’ “Fixin’ to Die” collaboration last month, but today we bring it back with visual accompaniment. The new music video shows the band recording the old delta blues song in an old church with lots of stomping, old-timey harmonies, and stained-glass windows. It’s sparse, but you probably don’t want high production on a blues song about dying. Continue reading »

G. Love Sings Delta Blues, with Help from Avett Bros

Posted by Ray Padgett at 10:30 am 1 Response »

Dec 032010

G. Love has announced his fourth solo album, called, cheerfully, Fixin’ to Die. For this one he replaced his highly-regarded hip-hop collective Special Sauce with a decidedly rootsier group: the Avett Brothers. The pair not only produced the disc, but play the role of Love’s backup band. Recorded in a converted church, Love described the back-to-basics blues album as “the record behind all the other records.”

“It was an emotional recording session and I was truly blown away by the level of focus, care and passion Scott & Seth [Avett] brought to it,” G. Love said. “It was a tremendously positive and encouraging experience. This is the most inspired I’ve ever felt making a record.” Continue reading »