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Archive for August, 2022

The Mountain Goats / Garcia Peoples (Anchor Rock Club, Atlantic City, NJ, August 29, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Anchor Rock Club, Atlantic City, NJ, Garcia Peoples, John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats on August 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 29, 2022 ] The Mountain Goats

Back in 2021 I wrote:

I’ve enjoyed a lot of The Mountain Goats’ music and I’d like to see them live, but their timing always seems to be terrible.

Some day I’ll see them preferably in a place smaller than the Fillmore, as well).

I don’t know how big the Anchor Rock Club is, but this show lined up with our vacation, so it was a no go.

I was especially looking forward to this show because Garcia Peoples were opening.  This is now the third time that I have failed to see Garcia Peoples.

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Ben Folds: In Actual Person Live for Real Tour (Xcite Center, Parx Casino, Bensalem, PA, August 27, 2022) [rescheduled]

Posted in Ben Folds, Bensalem, PA, Parx Casino, Xcite Center on August 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 27, 2022] Ben Folds [rescheduled from August 28, 2021]

Last year, a few weeks before his scheduled concert, Ben postponed this show (Parx couldn’t comply with his COVID requests).  So we waited a year for this show.

I feel like we’ve seen Ben practically a dozen times, but this was only our fifth show.

I thought this would be a great show because Parx is close and easy to get to and I had a great time at the Flaming Lips show here and there was no opening act.

But things were kind of weird right from the start.  He was really late coming out.  I accept that a start time is fungible, but the lights went down and it took him a solid five minutes to come out.  During which time someone loudly made a I’ll bet he had to rush to the bathroom joke which really set the tone.

It’s hard to say is Ben was annoyed, but he seemed to be.  He didn’t like the camera set up (one was on the keyboard) and he just didn’t seem as fun as he has in the past.

Of course, he’s professional, so he sounded great and his playing was wonderful.

The crowd around us was weird.  It was a much older crowd than a typical show that we go to and I’m guessing a Saturday night show at a casino is going to lend itself to a lot of drunken people.  Because the bad behavior was in evidence.

A lot of talking, a lot of singing loudly and a lot of talking back to Ben.

The singing loudly isn’t really a problem per se, especially when he requests it, but when no one else around you is singing and you are singing very loudly, well, that’s pretty rude.  But I will admot that everyone sounded quite lovely during the Regina Spector parts of “You Don’t Know Me.”

When somebody shouted the inevitable “Bitches Ain’t Shit” request, Ben sang something about being in a “fucking casino.”

The one genuinely new piece of information we learned was that “Feed Jones Pt.2” is indeed a Pt. 2.  It’s not a secret, really, but I never noticed that the song “Cigarette” on Whatever and Ever Amen” is about Fred Jones (its a 90 second song that I probably never really paid attention to).  So it was neat that he played these two songs in a row to connect the parts.

But astonishingly, when he played an encore of, “The Luckiest,” a gentle, sad, heartwarming song people actually talked all the way through it.  It was really shocking as this is regarded as one of his most beautiful songs.

When we saw him five years ago, he played two sets–one all request.  And it wound up being six songs longer than this show.  Indeed, when he played Morristown, he played several more songs and even did a New Jersey improv song.

So, for whatever reason, this show didn’t feel as great as the previous ones.  I blame the casino.  And the drunks.

(Live and in Person)
Bensalem 2021		 (And a Piano)
Morristown, 2016
So There ⇓ Annie Waits ®
Annie Waits ®
The Last Polka 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Capable of Anything ⇓ Capable of Anything ⇓
Sentimental Guy § All U Can Eat ‰
Still Fighting It ® Effington ⇔
The Last Polka 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Bastard §
Evaporated 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Effington ⇔ Phone in a Pool ⇓
Landed §
I’m Not the Man ⇓
(followed by “Song About Janet Lemansky” improv)
You Don’t Know Me ⇔ Landed §
Rock This Bitch ♦ Give Judy My Notice §
Jesusland § Not a Fan ⇓
Cigarette 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Encore
Fred Jones Pt. 2 ®
Song for the Dumped 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Tiny Dancer
(Elton John cover)
Zak and Sara ®
Alice Childress 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)
Don’t Change Your Plans 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)
Encore
Emaline 5Õ
(Ben Folds Five song) (followed by “Newtown’ improv)
The Luckiest ® Doc Pomus Ø
The Luckiest ®
Jackson Cannery 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head) ⇔
Bitches Ain’t Shit
(Dr. Dre cover)
Philosophy 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
encore 2
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)

 

Bethlehem with y music 2016 Ben Folds Five
Holmdel 2013		 Starland Ballroom 2004
Beautiful Mechanical
(yMusic cover)
 Philosophy 5ß Hiro’s Song ®
So There ⇓ Michael Praytor, Five Years Later 5§ Zak and Sara ®
Capable of Anything ⇓ Alice Childress 5ß Annie Waits ®
Rock This Bitch
(about SteelStacks)
 Erase Me 5§ All U Can Eat ‰
Phone in a Pool ⇓ Landed § Late §
Music in Circles
(yMusic cover)
 Brick ϖ
Careless Whisper
(George Michael cover) (with Rufus Wainwright)
Still Fighting It ® Sky High 5§ Philosophy 5ß
Not a Fan ⇓ Do It Anyway 5§ Gone ®
Effington ⇔ Underground 5ß
Where’s Summer B.? 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
Erase Me 5§
(Ben Folds Five song)
 Song for the Dumped 5ß Rockin’ the Suburbs ®
Jesusland § Army 5⊗ Army 5⊗
Improvisation
(No “Bitches Ain’t Shit” Tonight)
 Steven’s Last Night in Town 5ϖ
(This included a drum battle with Brian Rosenworcel of Guster)
I’m Not the Man ⇓
Fair 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song) (with Guster)
Boxing 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
 Not the Same ®
Song for the Dumped 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
 Encore
Steven’s Last Night in Town 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
 Short Bus Benny
Encore
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
Landed §
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
You Don’t Know Me ⇔
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)

 

® Rockin’ the Suburbs 
§ Songs for Silverman
⇓ So There
⇔ Way to Normal
♦ Live
Ø Lonely Avenue
‰ Sunny 16 EP
5§ The Sound of the Life of the Mind
5ß Ben Folds Five
5ϖ Whatever and Ever Amen
5⊗ The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
5Õ Naked Baby Photos

 

 

Ben Folds announced he was doing a new solo tour. The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold MessnerI grabbed tickets for myself and S.  Initially we considered going to the Mayo Center, but that show was right during the first few weeks of school and that’s chaotic enough.  So this show, which was just before school started seemed like a fun way to say goodbye to the summer.

Then

Update On My Fall 2021 Tour.

Here are new COVID protocols for my upcoming indoor concerts:

You will be asked for proof of vaccination, and masks will be required at all times inside venues for any indoor shows I perform in 2021.

My York, PA show on August 27 will be postponed – rescheduled to 2022.

My Bensalem, PA show on August 28 will be postponed – rescheduled to 2022.

And the venue sent us

Dear Ben Folds fans, out of concern for the health and well–being of the community, his audiences, venue staff, and his crew, Ben Folds is instituting a vaccine mandate and requiring mask wearing for his upcoming tour.Due to this decision once most tickets had been sold for the August, 28 performance here in Bensalem, working in cooperation with Mr. Folds, the difficult decision has been made to postpone his concert in the Xcite Center until Saturday, August 27, 2022 rather than try to retroactively impose this policy after tickets had been sold.

To be honest, it has been a hectic couple of weeks and not having to go out is really not a bad thing.  So we’ll see him next year.

 

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Anthrax / Black Label Society / Hatebreed (Fillmore Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, August 28, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Anthrax, Black Label Society, Hatebreed, Montclair, NJ, Ozzy Osbourne, Wellmont Theater on August 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 28, 2022] Anthrax / Black Label Society / Hatebreed

Anthrax is the only band of the classic heavy metal landscape that I’ve never seen (who I want to see, anyhow). They’re back to almost their original lineup (okay, not original, but “classic” lineup).

This is the third or fourth time they’ve come around recently, but they’re never with anyone else that I want to see.

I don’t really care about Black Label Society, the band created by Zakk Wylde.  I’ve never cared about him and his silly name (although I didn’t realize he was from Bayonne, so that’s kind of cool).  I now he played with Ozzy, but  that was long after I cared about Ozzy too, so whatever.  When this tour was announced, I listened to couple of songs and thought they were okay.  Their presence on the bill definitely impacted my decision not to go.  If it had been a band I liked more, I might have stuck it out. (more…)

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Los Campesinos! / Proper. (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 27, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Los Campesinos!, Philadelphia, PA, Proper., Union Transfer on August 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 27, 2022] Los Campesinos! / Proper

I have been a fan of Los Campesinos! (who are actually Welsh) since their debut album.

But I have never seen them live.

I was really surprised to see that they were playing Philly, but I see that they have come to Philly in 2017 and 2018.  So I hope they will come in 2023 or 2024 (even if they haven’t put out a record since 2017).

I had never heard of Proper. But they sound amazing.

“Our bio says, ‘Just three n**gas making prog rock, don’t overthink it.’ It’s been changing with our sound,” frontman Erik Garlington laughs. Originally named the Great White, Proper. are a collective accustomed to change. And as the trio – completed by Natasha Johnson and Elijah Watson – have continued to pave their way in the alternative scene, they’ve become even more forthright. After being told they “talk white… like, real proper”, the band switched up their name and ran with it. Now, in their latest polemic American epic, Proper. ditch their off-hand humour and embark on unravelling the emotional weight behind everyday Black American identity.

Having played emo, pop-punk, hardcore and everything in-between, Proper. are continuing to carve their own sonic stamp. [like on] their recent, Bartees Strange-produced record, The Great American Novel.

I couldn’t believe that the Ben Folds show was rescheduled to this night.  (And it wasn’t all that great because the audience was terrible).

So, now I want to see both bands tour again soon.

 

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The Decemberists : Arise from the Bunkers Tour (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, August 25, 2022)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, The Decemberists, The Met Philadelphia on August 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 25, 2022] The Decemberists

The Decemberists are one of our favorite bands and yet we have seen them very few times.  We were supposed to see them on their last tour but they cancelled our show because Colin lost his voice.

Then last year’s show was postponed for COVID.

Finally it was rescheduled.

We were on the left side of the stage, in front of Jenny Conlee.  I had a great view of her Leslie cabinet and speaker and it was really neat watching it spin faster and faster as the sound got bigger and wilder. (more…)

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The Beths / Rosie Tucker (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 26, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Rosie Tucker, Set in New Jersey!, The Beths on August 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 26, 2022] The Beths / Rosie Tucker

I wonder what it is about Asbury Lanes.  This is what I wrote about Nada Surf when they played here:

I had just seen Nada Surf in November and didn’t really need to see them again.  But never pass up a chance to see a great live band, right?

November to July = 8 months.

So I’ll say the same about The Beths.  I had just seen them in February.  And here they were 6 months later playing Asbury Lanes.

Never pass up a chance to see a great live band.  Yes.  Unless, of course, you already have tickets to Peter Hook & The Light AND you are going out to concerts the two days before and the day after.

But seriously, The Beths are amazing live, and I would see them as many times as I could.

Back in January, Rosie Tucker was supposed to open for Best Coast.  But that tour was cancelled.

I wrote:

I didn’t know Rosie Tucker until Friday when I listened to her album because it was highly recommended on NPR Music.  I really liked her blend of quirky pop, enjoyable lyrics and kind of garagey sounds.  Her name sounds like she’ll be a country singer, but she’s far from that.  I hope to see her some time in the near future.

And maybe I still will.

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Peter Hook & the Light / El Ten Eleven (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 26, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in El Ten Eleven, Joy Division, New Order, Peter Hook & The Light, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on August 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 26, 2022] Peter Hook & the Light / El Ten Eleven

This was a show I hated to miss.  Since I had blown off Pet Shop Boys & New Order earlier in the year, I figured at least I’d get to see Peter Hook do the songs (although this tour was largely Joy Division).

Plus I really wanted to see El Ten Eleven, a duo who plays amazingly complex songs using all kinds of pedals and other gadgets.  In videos they are impressive to watch.  I have really wanted to see them live.

This double bill was amazing.  And I had gotten tickets for my wife and I as soon as they went on sale.

Then The Decemberists announced a show on the day before this.  And Ben Folds rescheduled his show to the date after this.  And my wife would rather see those two (both seated, thank you very much).  And she wouldn’t do three nights out in a row.  She probably wouldn’t have liked El Ten Eleven anyhow.

I’m not sure if Peter Hook will tour again, but I really want to see El Ten Eleven.

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The Goon Sax (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia PA, August 25, 2022) [BAND BROKE UP]

Posted in Interpol, Johnny Brenda's, Pavement, Philadelphia, PA, Spoon, The Goon Sax on August 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[BAND BROKE UP: August 25, 2022] The Goon Sax

I first heard of The Goon Sax in June of 2021.  Bob Boilen raved about them and I really liked the song he played.

I decided they would be fun to see live.

They were scheduled to do some U.S. shows opening for Interpol, Spoon & Pavement.  And during the tour, they set up a headline date at Johnny Brenda’s.  I was so excited to see them.

And then on July 12, they posted to Twitter that they were breaking up.  Before the big tour!

“after nine years of giving it our everything we’ve decided to draw the curtain on this band.

It’s taken us places stranger, more beautiful, and far beyond anything we could have imagined, and brought us to meeting and working with so many special and incredibly inspiring people. Our gratitude to everyone who’s been with us and allowed the madness of the last 9 years to happen is far beyond anything we can palpably express.”

So that sucks for me.

It’s crazy that they’ve been around so long and I’d never heard of them:

The Goon Sax formed in 2013. The band released their first album, Up To Anything, to widespread acclaim in 2016, and followed up with We’re Not Talking in 2018. In 2020, the trio of Riley Jones (drums, vocals), Louis Forster (guitars, vocals) and James Harrison (guitars, vcoals) signed with iconic New York City label Matador.  The Goon Sax’s third album, 2021’s Mirror II, was described as “a new beginning” by the label.

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Holy Fuck / Penelope Isles / John Deluxe (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, August 13, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Holy Fuck, John Deluxe, Kung Fu Necktie, Penelope Isles, Philadelphia, PA on August 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 13, 2022] Holy Fuck / Penelope Isles / John Deluxe (rescheduled from June 10, 2020, February 16, 2021 and April 3, 2022]

After all of these postponements, I can’t believe I had to miss this show.  I don’t know if I mis-read the original rescheduled date or what, but I thought it was the 18th.  Turns out it was the 13th.

Well we went on vacation on the 14th, so I didn’t want to be out all night the night before our trip.  We were also away for the 18th, so the date really didn’t matter.

Penelope Isles is a duo from England.  The first song I heard on their record was kind of icy synth pop.  But the first track is fuzzy jangle guitar.  They’re kind of all over the place, but with a gentle vibe.

John Deluxe: wasn’t listed on the poster, but his name appeared on the venue website.

John “Deluxe” Markowski is a guitarist/vocalist based out of Philadelphia who uses samples and a variety of acoustic instruments to create unique avant-pop songs.

I didn’t like his stuff that much.

Both bands make Holy Fuck seem more mellow than they are.

~~~~~~

The resurgence of COVID meant Holy Fuck postponed their tour one more time.  I was bummed about this one because I didn’t have too many shows around this time.  But the new date is in a crowded field of shows

~~~~~~~

 

Not only did Holy Fuck cancel this tour, Boot & Saddle closed its doors.   Mega cancelled.

~~~

After seeing that this show was postponed, it gave me an opportunity to explore their music. I was now looking forward to seeing them in the new year.  Well, I guess February is still too soon to plan anything, so this tour has also been cancelled.

Holy Fuck have a great name that pretty much guarantees they won’t get much in the way of airplay or advertising.

Of course their music isn’t super commercial either–although it can be quite catchy (and has been used in a bunch of soundtracks).  They play an electronic dance music but in a decidedly old-school fashion.  They don’t use laptops at all, employing all manner of old school equipment. (more…)

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Kathleen Edwards (McLaughlin Norcross Memorial Dell, Haddon Heights, NJ, August 24, 2022)

Posted in Haddon Heights, NJ, Kathleen Edwards, McLaughlin Norcross Memorial Dell, Philadelphia, PA, Shannen Moser, Summer Concert Series on August 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 24, 2022] Kathleen Edwards

Back in 2019 Kathleen Edwards came out of “retirement” after spending five years running a coffee house in Stittsville, Ottawa called Quitters.  She has since sold Quitters and it is now something else.

She announced a few shows in 2019 and then a small tour in 2021.  I hoofed it into New York City to see what I imagined would be my only time seeing her.  (She was also opening for Jason Isbell, but I didn’t want to see her as an opener nor did I want to see Jason Isbell).

But then she announced a full tour in 2022!  I bought a ticket for her at SOPAC (I had hoofed it all the way to NYC and then she decided to play a place 40 min from my house!).  But she also announced a free show (FREE!) in Haddon Heights, NJ.  A place I’d never been and which I feared was too far away.

It’s a bit of a drive but not really worse than going to Philly and you avoid most of the Philly traffic. Plus, the venue turned out to be lovely.  A lot of people have played this summer concert series so I’ll be keeping an eye out for what’s going on next summer.

I probably could have sat on the lawn, but I decided to take the amphitheater seating that was provided  I relaxed in the full, but not packed crowd.  (I was concerned that no one would be there, but it was nicely crowded).

Kathleen came out on stage with a different set up than last time.  Last time it was guitar bass and drums, with the guitarist being Colin Cripps her ex-husband.  For this show she had a bassist Ryan Gavel and drummer Peter von Althen (same drummer different bassist) but she also had pedal steel guitar player Aaron Goldstein and Kinley Dowling who played keys and violin.  She said she was so thankful to finally have a woman on tour with her and that it brought a whole new energy to the show and the tour bus.

She told a funny story about how Aaron and Ryan were at the Toronto airport for six hours the day before but had missed their flight and had to fly into town early this morning–Aaron Goldstein a man with endless patience for your border services.  She also said that she forgot to introduce Aaron the other night and his whole family was in the audience.

I didn’t expect a hugely different set.  In fact, I didn’t know what to expect for a free show.  With people who were quite possibly there because they lived nearby and it was free.

She started with more or less the same few songs that she did in 2021, in a slightly re-arranged order. But they sounded different with this line up.  The electric guitar was gone and instead there were violin solos and a lot of pedal steel.  The pedal steel on “Options Open” changed the feel of the song but added some real depth.  As did Dowling’s backing vocals.

She seemed to think that there were not many fans there for he, but the crowd knew her stuff quite well, with a nice response for “Change the Sheets” (one of my faves) and “Hockey Skates.”  The new song “Glenfern” had a soaring violin riff which was a fun change.

Last time she told stories about some of the songs.  This time the stories were different, which was fun.  And nice to know she’s not on a script at all the shows.  She explained the origin of “One More Song the Radio won’t Like” as being a song she had to write to make her record a little longer.  She played it because someone said it was his birthday and he requested it.  She had come out to play a brief acoustic solo set (although Goldstein stayed for some lap steel accompaniment).  She also played “Empty Threat” in this style.

The band came back out and she played three different songs in the middle of the set which was fun.  She told us “Mercury” really won over people at rock festivals because it opens: “Want to go get high?/ Mercury is parked outside.”  I also enjoyed hearing “A Soft Place to Land” from Voyageur.

She then introduced Hard on Everyone with a lengthy story explaining that she had been living with someone who seemed to be angry and hard all the time–he was hard on things and things were always breaking.  She listened to a podcast called “Dirty John” and said “oh my fucking god, this is about me.”  She hoped that anyone in a similar situation could get out of it.  It really put a spin on this song that is dark but insanely catchy.  The song built and totally rocked by the end with a wicked solo from Goldstein.

She also later jokingly apologized for cursing so much at a family event.

She ended the set with “6’O’Clock News,” another fantastic song from her debut (this is the 20th anniversary of that album, Failer).

She left and the emcee for the night came out to say hat it was early enough that he was sure Kathleen would give us one more song.

She did, she came back out and played “Asking for Flowers,” a song I’ve always loved.

I really hoped she’d play “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory,” and indeed someone did shout it out as a request, but she didn’t hear him.

This set was wonderful and it got me even more psyched to see her in a few weeks with S.

2022 SOPAC 2022 Summer Concert, NJ 2021 LPR, NYC
Simple Math ¥ Simple Math ¥ Options Open ¥
Options Open ¥ Options Open ¥ In State ⇐
In State ⇐ Change the Sheets √ Simple Math ¥
Hockey Skates ⊕ Hockey Skates ⊕ Change the Sheets √
Birds on a Feeder ¥ Who Rescued Who ¥ Six O’Clock News ⊕
Glenfern ¥ Glenfern ¥ Birds on a Feeder ¥
Who Rescued Who ¥ One More Song the Radio Won’t Like ⊕ (solo w/ lap steel) Goodnight, California ∇
Evangeline (Emmylous Harris cover) Empty Threat √ (solo with lap steel) Empty Threat (solo acoustic) √
Mercury ⊕ Mercury ⊕ Who Rescued Who (solo with mandolin) ¥
Hard on Everyone ¥ Fools Ride ¥ Glenfern ¥
Six O’Clock News ⊕ A Soft Place to Land √ Copied Keys ⇐
Asking for Flowers ∇ Hard on Everyone ¥ The Logical Song (Supertramp cover)
encore Six O’Clock News ⊕ Hockey Skates ⊕
Goodnight, California ∇ encore Hard on Everyone ¥
Moneytalks (AC/DC cover) (partial) Asking for Flowers ∇ encore
Comes a Time (Neil Young cover) Asking for Flowers ∇
Back to Me ⇐

⊕= Failer (2002)
⇐ = Back to Me (2005)
∇ = Asking for Flowers (2008)
√ = Voyageur (2012)
¥ = Total Freedom (2020)

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