SOUNDTRACK: THE CIVIL WARS-Tiny Desk Concert #137 (June 27, 3011).
Many Tiny Desk performances just show the band playing. But there’s evidently a lot of time before hand where the band sets up and has fun. I love seeing that, and it’s kind of a shame they cut so much of it out.
As this show starts, Joy Williams is holding the film clacker with Bob. He tells her to give it a loud clack. She kind of lets it go on its own accord and then says she didn’t do a good job. John Paul White then says “I could have done it so much better,” to much laughter.
The Civil Wars are Joy and John Paul and they have terrific chemistry. The first song is “Barton Hollow,” John Paul plays a loud percussive resonator guitar and the two sing great harmonies. He sings loudly with her nice harmonies, but the middle part is quieter with her gorgeous voice singing out the lyrics. I really like the down step chords in the “walking and running” section at the end of the song.
Before “Twenty Years” Bob asks if they ever had a desk job.
Joy says no: daycare, rock climbing. John Paul says No: forklift driver, seed cleaning, (she asks what that means, but he doesn’t hear her which is a shame as I’d like to know too) cleaning out chicken houses. He pauses…. I wanted a desk job.
For the song, John Paul switches to a simple acoustic guitar and plays less percussively for this somewhat quieter song.
It’s really fun to watch the two of them play together. As the blurb notes: “There’s blissful, swooning chemistry as they stare into each other’s eyes and sing magnificently together.” So it’s a bit of shock that they are not married to each other (they each have spouses, though). Turns out that they met at a songwriting session at a Nashville studio in 2008.
Before “Poison & Wine” John Paul asks if they are all so quiet and respectful or if Bob rules with an iron fist.
Joy plays the keyboard for this song while John Paul plays a quiet guitar. This song has wonderful harmonies in the beautiful if puzzling chorus , “I Don’t Love you, I always will.”
I didn’t know The Civil Wars before this set and I am really hooked.
[READ: February 2, 2016] The Unsinkable Walker Bean
This book has some pretty great blurbs attached to its (from Brain Selznick and Jeff Smith) but I found that I couldn’t really get into it.
A lot of the problem was the artwork. Interestingly, the artwork on the cover (which I assume is also one by Reiner since it looks like his style) is really great. But the interior art feels like a sloppy version of this cover art. And while it’s not sloppy, of course, it just doesn’t look as nice as it might. Couple that with text that is hard to read, a story line that is full of weird little details and twists and it all wound up being a story that felt way too long for what it was.
There was a lot that I did like about it. I liked the general premise and I liked two of the crew members that Walker Bean befriends, and of course I loved the various gadgets that they created. I just didn’t enjoy the story all that much. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 