Lisa Gerrard

Do you want to hear a truly beautiful voice? Then just give Lisa Gerrard another listen.
And keep a lookout for her new album "The Black Opal".

Lisa Gerrard (born April 12, 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with former music partner Brendan Perry.
Her career began in 1981 and she has been involved in a wide range of projects. Gerrard received a Golden Globe Award for the music score for film Gladiator, on which she collaborated with Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt. The movie also received an Academy Award nomination for best music score, but only Hans Zimmer was nominated. Both Gerrard and Badelt were deemed ineligible for the nomination. She also sings and is an instrumentalist for much of her work, most prolifically using the yangqin (a Chinese hammered dulcimer).

Serenity


Now We Are Free - from Gladiator


Aria - featured in Layer Cake

Leonard Cohen in San Jose

A wonderful evening of Leonard Cohen. I'm sure other blogs will provide the complete set list, I was too busy listening and enjoying the music to list what was sung.
I can say he did both of the new ones, and also from what I understand reintroduced "Democracy" to the set list for the first time in a while.
The band as always were superb, as were the "backup" singers.  But I have to highlight Javier Mas, I think you could put a set of strings on anything and he would play the heck out of it. Just so talented.

Not sure it was all of them but among the encores Closing Time produced quiet a moment.

all the women tear their blouses off

"Closing Time"

Ah we're drinking and we're dancing
and the band is really happening
and the Johnny Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
she's the Angel of Compassion
she's rubbing half the world against her thigh
And every drinker every dancer
lifts a happy face to thank her
the fiddler fiddles something so sublime
all the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it's CLOSING TIME
Yeah the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it's CLOSING TIME

Ah we're lonely, we're romantic
and the cider's laced with acid
and the Holy Spirit's crying, "Where's the beef?"
And the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with a mighty expectation of relief
So we struggle and we stagger
down the snakes and up the ladder
to the tower where the blessed hours chime
and I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
but CLOSING TIME

I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
CLOSING TIME

I loved you for your beauty
but that doesn't make a fool of me:
you were in it for your beauty too
and I loved you for your body
there's a voice that sounds like God to me
declaring, declaring, declaring that your body's really you
And I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
and I missed you since the place got wrecked
And I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah I missed you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah we're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening
and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
gets me fumbling gets me laughing
she's a hundred but she's wearing
something tight
and I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
which you can't reveal to the Ears of Youth
except to say it isn't worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights
of CLOSING TIME

The whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights
of CLOSING TIME

Oh the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
It's CLOSING TIME
And it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops
It's CLOSING TIME
I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
It's CLOSING TIME
The Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
But CLOSING TIME
I loved you when our love was blessed
I love you now there's nothing left
But CLOSING TIME
I miss you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex.

Thanks: Heck of a guy and albertnoonan

Evolution vs Creation explained

Finally we can resolve the differences between the Evolutionists and the Creationists.
Watch the video and you can see what really happened.




My Goodness, My Guiness.

Will Stratton

Here's a young singer I stumbled across with a very nice voice, and I believe he writes all of his own songs.

Will Stratton is singer-songwriter and composer who was born in Northern California and raised in New Jersey and California. He is 22 years old. His songwriting style has been frequently compared to that of the late Nick Drake, and he has professed a love of Drake's music in interviews. [Wikipedia]

Give him a listen, you could be hearing the next big thing for the first time.





Nineteen


Who Will

Kim Hoorweg - Never Again

Quick post, Kim just posted this to You Tube. A wonderful live version of "Never Again" with her combo at a Dutch Radio Station. I think this was recorded yesterday.
If you want to see more visit an earlier post.

Never Again


And here's another minute of bits and pieces, but the wonderful voice wins out.

Anneke van Giersbergen

Anneke van Giersbergen (born March 8, 1973) is the former singer of the Dutch band The Gathering, now involved in a solo project called Agua de Annique. She has also worked with Lawn, Farmer Boys, Ayreon, Napalm Death, Moonspell, Giant Squid, Devin Townsend and Within Temptation.
Van Giersbergen was born in Sint Michielsgestel, Netherlands. At the age of 8, she participated in soundmix contests. When she was 12, she was in her school choir. Later on, she joined her first band. She joined a few more bands before becoming part of the duo Bad Breath who played a mix of blues, jazz, folk and funk.
She finally joined The Gathering in 1994.
In 1998, she sang on the Ayreon album Into the Electric Castle, a concept album telling the tale of an alien entity 'kidnapping' 8 human souls from different times. Anneke portrayed an Egyptian woman from the time of the pharaohs.
She appears on the album Rubicon from John Wetton and Geoffrey Downes on the tracks "To Catch a Thief" and "Tears of Joy".
She also appears on the 2006 album Smear Campaign by the grindcore/death metal band Napalm Death, on the tracks "Weltschmerz" and "In Deference" "... for good effect and relevance to the track."
On June 5, 2007 it was announced that Anneke would be leaving The Gathering in August 2007 to focus on a new project, Agua de Annique,[3] and spend more time with her family. [Wikipedia] for more ....

As mentioned above she collaborated with quiet a few other artists, here are some of those collaborations. Enjoy.  I have to say my favorite is the "Blowers Daughter".

Anneke van Giersbergen & Agua de Annique
Hey Okay!


Anneke van Giersbergen & Danny Cavanagh
Blower's Daughter


Teardrop

Anneke van Giersbergen & Sharon den Adel
Somewhere

Dry River Yacht Club

“Sailing Musicians upon a yacht/upon the seas we sailed/When one day sailing on board our ship/through a storm we had to prevail/The storm took us and threw us/and tossed us around/It bumped us and blew us/It soaked us and shook us/It grabbed us until … The storm threw us into a dried river made of salt/And there we remain still.”

So goes the story of the Dry River Yacht Club, the Tempe-based eight-piece band. It might not be the real story of how the Yacht Club formed, but it’s certainly the more fanciful version. And the band is all about the whimsy.
It’s reflected in their sound – an artful mix of dark gypsy, bohemian, eastern European, Americana and world with a dash of early vocal blues, thanks to lead singer and squeeze box extraordinaire Garnet. The singer has drawn comparisons to Ani DiFranco, Zooey Deschanel and even Bjork.
The Yacht Club’s sound can be described as eclectic to say the least, but they didn’t necessarily set out to make it that way.
read more… [Bolachas]

Portland Patio Party


Yucca Tap Room