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Archive for the ‘John K. Samson’ Category

Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, December 14, 2019)

Posted in An Horse, Brian Bonz, Crazy Horse, Destroyer, Frightened Rabbit, John K. Samson, Kenny O'Brien & The O'Douls, Kevin Devine, Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band, Kevin Devine and the Goddman Band, Ozzy Osbourne, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on December 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 14, 2019] Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band

I have seen Kevin Devine twice.  The first time was in 2017 when he opened for Frightened Rabbit.  The second time was earlier this year when he did a brief solo tour with John K. Samson.  The second show was so good–he was so full of energy as a headliner, that I knew I’d see him again.  But I really wanted to see him with The Goddamn Band (hilarious name).

When it was announced that Kevin and the Goddamn Band would be playing a short tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of the 2009 album Brother’s Blood, I bought tickets immediately.  I didn’t even know the album, I just wanted to see the whole band.  And holy cow was it a great choice.

Kevin has a fantastic stage presence–he bonds with the crowd instantly (even when I first saw him as an opening act and had no idea who he was, he just owned the stage).  He invites the audience to sing and the audience does.

And with the whole band, that interaction was even greater.  Kevin joked with the band members, soloed off of them and made the whole show like a party.

The crowd was totally into it–singing along to nearly every song.

It was a fantastic show.

I have since listened to the album a bunch and the songs are really great–but this live show was something amazing.  The band feeds off of each other, making every song bigger, richer, with more noise and jamming.  They clearly love playing with each other and were having a fantastic time. It was wonderful. (more…)

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John K. Samson (Boot and Saddle, Philadelphia, PA, May 10, 2019) [KEVIN DEVINE]

Posted in Boot & Saddle, John K. Samson, Philadelphia, PA, Steven Page, The Art of Time Ensemble, The Weakerthans on May 10, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 10, 2019] John K. Samson

I loved The Weakerthans from the moment I first heard “Civil Twilight” on a compilation and then on their album Reunion Tour.

I then went back and devoured the other three albums and loved the incredible lyrics that John K. Samson wrote.

Reunion Tour came out in 2007.  And that was the last anyone heard from The Weakerthans.  Well, not really, they put out a live album and toured some, but otherwise, that was pretty much it.  Sometime in 2014 they announced that they were more or less officially broken up.  So I figured I’d never get to see them live.

And I won’t.  But John K. Samson has been releasing solo albums since around 2009.  He has played Philly about three times in ten years.  And I was so excited to get a ticket to this show before it sold out.

The thing that made me so incredibly happy (aside from the play list) was that he sounded EXACTLY like he was supposed to.  I don’t mean that I don’t expect his voice to change over the years, but Samson has a distinctive voice and he sounded just like John K. Samson!

It was wonderful.

And the setlist was fantastic. (more…)

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“Her Big Break: The New Yorker Says Yes to Alice Munro” (The Walrus, January /February 2014)

Posted in Alice Munro, Arkells, AroarA, CBC Radio 3, Dan Mangan, John K. Samson, Kathryn Calder, Library Voices, Moxy Fruvous, New Yorker, The Darcys, The Walrus on January 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

2014-01SOUNDTRACK: NOBEL PRIZE PLAYLIST-CBC Radio 3 (2013).

cbcIn honor of Alice Munro’s Nobel Prize, CBC radio has a playlist of “Literary Music.” Now, I have made many literary playlists over they years myself (including “My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors” by Moxy Fruvous which is not included here), but this one consists of a few bands that I don’t know (and two that I do).

  • Library Voices–“Generation Handclap”
  • The Darcys–“Pretty Girls”
  • Kathryn Calder–“Right Book”
  • AroarA–“#6”
  • Arkells–“Book Club”
  • Dan Mangan–“Road Regrets”
  • John K. Samson–“When I Write My Master’s Thesis”

Samson is the only artist I know well, although I know Dan Mangan a little.  It’s a good listen and I’m sure if you scrutinize the lyrics you’ll find their literary worth.

Listen here.

[READ: January 18, 2014] “Her Big Break”

I’ve been a fan of Alice Munro for a while, and I’m always happy to see her in the New Yorker.  Strangely, I have never read any of her collected short stories.  Maybe some day….

When Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature, I imagined she’d get a lot more press.  And then I realized that it’s a literature prize.  And she’s Canadian.  So, perhaps a few columns in Canada’s The Walrus is all she’ll get.

But this article, which is really entirely this below letter and a brief introduction, explains that on November 18, 1976, Charles McGrath, a fiction editor at The New Yorker, sent Alice Munro her first acceptance letter from the magazine for her story “Royal Beatings.”  Soon after this, she signed a first-reading agreement with the magazine, which I gather means that they will see any of her short stories before she can send them anywhere else.

I am including this letter in its entirety because I assume that most people, like me, have never actually seen an acceptance letter from a magazine for a piece of fiction (I have several rejections).  But even if you have seen an acceptance letter, I can’t imagine that it will every be as thoughtful and considerate as this one.  i also love that as recent as 1976 The NEw Yorker was kind of prudish about their fiction.  I mean, now, the cursing is rampant, but back then the fiction was a more genteel breed.

I have not read “Royal Beatings,” but you can bet I’ve added it to my short list. (more…)

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