Who is Joe Grass and where can I hear more?

The other day, I was looking through the YouTube offerings from LaBlogotheque and came across the following haunting, melancholy take on "God Only Knows" by a fellow named Joe Grass:



My immediate thought was the title of this post, "Who is Joe Grass and where can I hear more?"  His website, http://www.joegrass.com/, only offers the promise that a new website is on the way.  I can only hope that new website arrives soon and carries with it news of a Joe Grass tour making its way into the USA and stopping somewhere in my vicinity.  Until then, I'll just have to hope the internet has more of these clips to be found.


JOE GRASS - We Waited from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.

January Hymn

As many of my friends and I recover from the aftermath of last night's football game that saw our beloved Steelers claim the AFC Championship, I offer up this little gem from the Decemberists' recently released "The King Is Dead."  Winter held a tight grip over the northeast this morning and as Colin Meloy wonders on "January Hymn"

     April all an ocean away
     Is this the better way to spend the day?
     Keeping the winter at bay

"January Hymn" is a small song about lost love with the usual amount of great songwriting imagery we've come to expect from a Decemberists song.  I'll just go ahead and let Mr. Meloy tell the story himself:


Colin Meloy Plays New Songs at Make It Pop! (#1 of 2) from opbmusic.org on Vimeo.

Punching the time and climbing life's long ladder

Sorry for the last couple of posts being a bit short on the rambling (but never short on good quality music).  I've been locked in the never ending battle between work and everything else I'd rather be doing.  Work is winning, but I'm about to turn the tide.  In the meantime, every good person owes it to themselves to take in the fantasterifficness of Ray LaMontagne and The Pariah Dogs playing a barn.  If anything, you absolutely must cheack out "Henry Nearly Killed Me (It's A Shame)" (starts about 6 minutes in with Ray rocking a harmonica).

Iron & Wine on Daytrotter

On January 25, we'll all be able to get our hands on the latest collection of the wonderful music bouncing around Sam Beam's head.  Until then, we can go over to Daytrotter and let them serve us an appetizer before the inevitably juicy main course.  I haven't listened to or watched the Daytrotter session yet.  I'm downloading it as I type.  I have enough confidence in Mr. Beam that I'll just blindly recommend that anyone who might stumble across this blog should listen to as much Iron & Wine as possible and rush out to the store (if you're into CDs and liner notes like me) or click your way through your digital music venue of choice an the 25th for the new album, "Kiss Each Other Clean."  I've only heard one song off of the album so far, the happier, darn near bouncy, less whispery "Tree By The River."  It'll be interesting to hear if the rest of the album is infused with the energy of "Tree By The River" or if we'll be treated to more of the simmering passion of much of Sam Beam's previous work.  Regardless, I'm excited (as if you couldn't tell).

Go.  Download.  Watch.  Enjoy.

A Seabass Says Interview: Drew Kennedy on Self Employment and Songwriting

I'm very happy to present the first ever Seabass Says interview.  If you've been here before, you may have noticed that the name Drew Kennedy has made an appearance or three.  As I've mentioned before, Drew is an old friend carving out a place for himself in the music industry and the Texas scene.  Next week, Drew and company will head into the studio to record the forthcoming "Fresh Water In The Salton Sea" and the world is invited to watch (read the details on Drew's site or just drop by the ustream feed when it goes live).  Before recording the album and between shows, rehearsals, sleep, hom life, booking shows, and whatever else he's juggling these days, Drew was kind enough to exchange emails with me over most of December.  I'll warn you that this is a long read (over 8,000 words), but I believe a good one (I have to thank Drew for approaching this in such a candid way).

I'll throw this up front, so you don't have to wade through too many words to get a peek at what "Fresh Water In The Salton Sea" has in store for us:

Drew Kennedy - The Captain and the Highway

On to the interview -->

Next Year, Baby

I don't think I have anything worthwhile to say about the New Year that hasn't been said before.  Early January is a great time of ambition and starting anew.  I'm a big fan.  Here's to '11 being everything you hope it can be.

To ring in 2011 here at Seabass Says, I'll turn it over to Jamie Cullum reinforcing that the piano is, in fact, a percussion instrument.

Jamie Cullum - Next Year, Baby