(no subject)

[miko2]

Today's Song: Ain't No Grave by Crooked Still

I had wanted to follow up the last two reccomendations with a couple of more based on other favorite bands from the Islamic world, but for some inexplicable reason Pakistan's Junoon, despite being one of the most popular rock bands in South Asia, is not available on iTunes. Yeah, I know this can have a lot to do with what they and their label want. Anyway, the best I can do for them is link to their web site (above) and to a video on Youtube so you can get a taste of them. They're described as "Sufi rock", a label the band apparently dislikes, but you can be assured they are roughly Pakistan's political equivelent to U2, and sing about peace and agaisnt war. They are, in fact, a band that Bono of U2 apparently likes. ^_^

I had less hope of finding Oleg Fesov on iTunes, but he's worth mentioning too. A wonderful pop singer originally from Tajikistan (he fled after a civil war and moved to Moscow, then later Germany), he creates beautiful pop tunes infused with the music of his native people. And wonder of wonders, someone's actually put up a Youtube video featuring my favorite of his songs, along with video footage. A second video, more professionally made by the looks of it, is also on Youtube, although the sound quality is not so good.

But enough of bands you can't find on iTunes. Crooked Still is an innovative alternative bluegrass band from Boston, Mass., featuring a cello, bass, and banjo and the lovely vocals of Aoife O'Donovan. They have a very distinctive sound, and although they pretty much only cover old standards and other's songs (no original material), they do it so very well. Worth checking out. Here's their Myspace page

As Crooked Still plays it, Ain't No Grave is an upbeat bluegrass rocker with a smooth as silk vocal delivery. There's a Youtube video of Ain't No Grave. The sound quality is pretty horrible though, and they play it much faster than the album version. For a video with better sound, here's them performing Ecstasty in Rockville, MD.

Note for kehf: while exploring the links on the Crooked Still myspace page, which links to a lot of the other modern bluegrass/folk bands that I like such as The Duhks, The Wailin' Jennys, Flook, and (of course) Uncle Earl, I found this listing among Uncle Earl's concert tour dates for this year:

Aug 23 2007 6:30P Kenmore Concert Series Kenmore, Washington.

^_^