![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In the midst of many errands that took us southward yesterday, we stopped in at Streelight Records and I picked up some new music. I got
I haven't had a chance to listen to everything yet, but this morning on the way to rehearsal I listened to the Old & in the Way (now, I've heard this disc a gazillion times before, I just didn't own it) and really enjoyed it. Jerry's banjo picking is downright amazing and the vocal harmonies are wonderful. This truly was a bluegrass supergroup.
On the way home I started listening to the Ben Harper discs. Now, he has split the album into two parts, one disc with more personal songs done in his more traditional mellow ballad-like mode. I haven't listened too closely to this one yet as I was blown away by the second disc with very hard hitting, rock oriented political songs. The lyrics are his standard--sharp, cutting words about politics, race and class. What is really different here is his execution. It is a much harder rock-like sound than he typically produces and I love it. He also clearly has taken influences from different periods of popular music and it is fascinating. "Better Way" sounds like something the Beatles/George Harrison would have produced in their later years with the use of tambura and the vocal harmonies (though it is all Harper harmonizoing with himself). "Black Rain" sounds like something out of Shaft, which seems appropriate given the content. "The Way You Found Me" has a very bluesy feel, complete with blues piano.
The song I am most taken with at the moment is "Gather 'Round The Stone" an anti-war piece, clearly focused on the current war in Iraq. Very poignant lyrics (which are quite reminiscient of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", though this is nowhere near the searing indictment of war and the government that MoW is) and the song has undertones of a spiritual--subtle, but still there. It is a beautifully executed song with a painfully relevant message and, like I said, I am quite taken with it at the moment.
And now, I shall listen to my new Phish shows. Yay!
- The new Ben Harper, Both Sides of the Gun
- Old & In the Way, Breakdown
- Phish, New Year's Eve 1995, Live at Madison Square Garden
- Live Phish 18: 05/07/94 The Bomb Factory, Dallas, Texas (How could I possibly pass up a show with a "Purple Rain" cover and "Amazing Grace"?)
- Beastie Show Breaks
I haven't had a chance to listen to everything yet, but this morning on the way to rehearsal I listened to the Old & in the Way (now, I've heard this disc a gazillion times before, I just didn't own it) and really enjoyed it. Jerry's banjo picking is downright amazing and the vocal harmonies are wonderful. This truly was a bluegrass supergroup.
On the way home I started listening to the Ben Harper discs. Now, he has split the album into two parts, one disc with more personal songs done in his more traditional mellow ballad-like mode. I haven't listened too closely to this one yet as I was blown away by the second disc with very hard hitting, rock oriented political songs. The lyrics are his standard--sharp, cutting words about politics, race and class. What is really different here is his execution. It is a much harder rock-like sound than he typically produces and I love it. He also clearly has taken influences from different periods of popular music and it is fascinating. "Better Way" sounds like something the Beatles/George Harrison would have produced in their later years with the use of tambura and the vocal harmonies (though it is all Harper harmonizoing with himself). "Black Rain" sounds like something out of Shaft, which seems appropriate given the content. "The Way You Found Me" has a very bluesy feel, complete with blues piano.
The song I am most taken with at the moment is "Gather 'Round The Stone" an anti-war piece, clearly focused on the current war in Iraq. Very poignant lyrics (which are quite reminiscient of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", though this is nowhere near the searing indictment of war and the government that MoW is) and the song has undertones of a spiritual--subtle, but still there. It is a beautifully executed song with a painfully relevant message and, like I said, I am quite taken with it at the moment.
- Gather 'Round the Stone
Written by: Ben Harper
you're too young to know
that you're too young to go
there's no freedom to be found
lying face up in the ground
ashes from an unfinished life
are all that's left
in a tear-drop-shaped locket
hanging from his mother's chest
you whip the back of freedom
‘till it bleeds an oil stream
then you sail down upon it
in your killing machine
old men who send children
off to die in vain
they will hear death's constant whisper
call remember my name
gather 'round the stone
And now, I shall listen to my new Phish shows. Yay!
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
