SOUNDTRACK: BRANDI CARLILE-Tiny Desk Concert #229 (July 9, 2012).
I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars. But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.
Brandi Carlile has been making a lot of noise on WXPN this last year. She has a few song that I really like. But I didn’t realize that her background was in country music—it’s slightly apparent on her more recent music. But in this Tiny Desk, her whole country style really comes out. Well, I guess she’s more alternative country—it’s strange that she has a country twang in her voice since she is from Washington.
“Raise Hell” is a romping stomping ass kicking song. The riffing and power of the song is undeniable. And it’s lyrically fun. She actually sounds a bit like one of the Indigo Girls (I can never remember which one is which) on this song, with a notable but not pronounced accent.
Her backing band is great—two guitars a cello and a violin. And they sing some great “ooohs” always right on pitch and sometimes quite high.
She asks if they should do a guitar version of “That Wasn’t Me.” This is straightforward folk song with some more great “oooh” backing vocals. But when the strings kick in about half way through, it really elevates the song. Bob jokes about how often they’ve played the song in that way and she says, “That arrangement is about 5 minutes old.”
For the final song she wants to feature the strings. “Promise to Keep” is a pretty , slow song with great strings and backing vocals. Her voice is strong and powerful throughout all the songs and she hist some really high falsettos in this one.
I am glad she is moving more towards folk, although some of that stomping country would be fun to see live.
[READ: December 11, 2016] “Crazy Life”
Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar. Which is what exactly? Well…
The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas. This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.
I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.
Most of the stories so far have been somewhat hopeful, but this one really removes all hope from the characters’ lives.
The story is told in first person by Dulcie. Dulcie is dating Chuey, a gang member who has been picked up by the cops in the past. She gives him grief but then realizes that this time it is far more serious.
She went downtown and there were all the town’s reporters there. There was talk of capturing an important gang member. I love that Dulcie walks through one reporter’s take because she doesn’t care about the media.
Dulcie knows she has to lie about who she is–they’d never let a girlfriend in to see a perpetrator. So she pretends to be Chuiey’s wife.
After some hurdles, she gets to see him and he reveals that they think he was the shooter, but he swears he was just the driver.
I Just Read About That... 