Mumford & Sons "I Will Wait" Music Video

This band is so good that I will even forgive Marcus Mumford the ridiculous patch of hair doing whatever it's doing above his lip. Between Dave Matthews and Avett Brothers albums out this week and Mumford's new album out on the 24th, I am overwhelmed with musical euphoria.

SXSW Aftermath

It was around 9:30 pm on Saturday night, just before Mumford & Sons took the stage that my body gave out on me. During Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (who were on just before) I tried to reason with it. The conversation went something like this:

Body: Soooooo we're done here.

Me: No! Mumford & Sons are on next. I LOVE them! 

Body: I'm sorry, but we're finished here. It's been a long SXSW week. We have walked, danced, and worked on minimal sleep for you. We are throbbing and hurting and can't do this any longer.

Me: Please no! Just one more hour. I am certain that Mumford is going to bring out the Austin High Marching Band again and I will cry just like they did during the Railroad Revival show. 

Body: You cry a lot when it comes that Railroad Revival show.

Me: Because it was so amazing!

Body: Still, we're done here. Time to go home. Do you not realize that every part of us hurts?

Me: NO! Let's make a deal. I'll leave this crowd and go to the back. I'll get some water and rest on a nice soft grassy slope. No more walking. We'll be under the stars and it will be beautiful and I will listen to Mumford & Sons and then I promise to go home and rest and not walk anymore! I'll even get a cab!!!

Body: No dice sister, this is the end of your SXSW line. Say good bye and go home.

Indeed, it was the end of my SXSW line for 2012. Even on a grassy slope looking up at the stars listening to The Magnetic Zeros singing "Home", my body'd had enough and so I hailed a cab and rode home singing "So come out of your cave walking on your hands, and see the world hanging upside down.." in my head. 

Except even missing out on Mumford & Sons, I can't complain. I had the most amazing SXSW this year! I saw over 46 shows in venues ranging from a tiny living room to the always swanky Moody Theater. I made new friends, met amazing artists, took pictures and danced until I could no longer feel the throbbing in my tired feet. I saw legends like Fiona Apple and new artists like The Lumineers. The lead singer of one of the very buzzed about bands even spent the night on my couch (I have yet to actually meet him, but saw him sleeping there when I left one morning)! It was incredible and amazing and every other positive adjective I could ever muster up. 

I will share stories and music throughout the days and weeks ahead! There is no doubt that this is going to be a great year for music! 

Accidental Playlist: Songs for Winter

This past week it was hard to imagine it is winter. The Austin sunshine blanketed me in warm sunshine and I wore my shorts and worked outside coffee shops while Cooper chased bugs at my feet. Even the Northeast was graced with unseasonably warm and sunny weather. Still, there is no question that the bareness of the trees and the cooler temperatures looming on the forecast are telling us that we are indeed in winter.

This week's Accidental Playlist features songs for this cold, snowy, quieter season. Artists featured include The Decemberists, Mumford and Sons, The Head and the Heart, Pretty Lights, The Avett Brothers and a number of others. Check it out on Spotify.

NEw Music from Mumford and Sons (sort of)

I can't imagine a more perfect band to lend to the dark, haunting love story of Wuthering Heights than Mumford and Sons. Their song "The Enemy" will be featured in the film, but as of now there is no plan to release it on its own. You can hear part of it as the background for the trailer. It is everything I love about this band.

Mumford and Sons new song: Ghosts

A perfect song for Marcus Mumford's haunting voice, this song, like so many off of their first album, reaches into places in my heart, melancholy places that long to be eternally hopeful.

Railroad Revival: Mumford and Sons

A few months back a friend and I were discussing Mumford and Sons and speculating about their sophomore album. There is always trepidation surrounding any bands ability to maintain their sound and quality in the shorter and more pressured song writing period, and with a band who has garnered as much popularity as Mumford, there is a worry of “selling out.”  I’m not entirely sure what selling out would sound like from a band like Mumford, but I was worried nonetheless.While it is certainly too early to judge entirely, their performance at the Railroad Revival concert squelched some of my fears.

The band took a little while to warm up on stage at the start of their set. I expected more of their high energy songs towards the beginning rather than the more choral pieces that they opted for. They tried out several new songs and I was pleased with what I heard. They have the same heart, soul and poetry of their first album and no hint at any kind of “sell out” sound. Sweet relief! The highlight came at the end when the Austin High Marching Band joined them on stage for their final number, The Cave. I was later forwarded an email from the director of the band who said that they were only told that morning that they were going to perform. I am that much more impressed! Below is video of The Cave (it’s fan video so it’s shaky). I love the crowd enthusiastically singing along. I was one of them.

I am refreshed with a band like Mumford and Sons. Their poetic lyrics remind me of Dylan and their sound and harmonies are rich and soulful. I am looking forward to all that they will bring in the future.

Railroad Revival Tour

By the end of the second act of the Railroad Revival concert last night, Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons had played no less than three different instruments (plus vocals), and his own band had yet to perform. When they did eventually go on, he would add at least 2 more instruments to that list. There was no question among the cheering crowd or the bands that continually requested him on stage that Mumford’s musicality is something to be celebrated.

Everything about last nights Railroad Revival show seemed like a celebration. Fill a stage with fiddles, mandolins, banjos, and the camaraderie of a group of musicians who have spent the past six days jamming with one another aboard a train and it’s hard not to be infected with their energy and excitement.

Old Crow Medicine Show started off the set with their sound that transported me deep into the heart of the Appalachian mountains. Alex Ebert commented later saying that their name was appropriate because their musical medicine was sure to cure any ailment of the soul. He might be right. When Edward Sharpe came out on stage a friend of mine said, “It looks like a bunch of homeless people from San Francisco got together and started a band.” That’s exactly what they look like, and damn can they put on a great show! Mumford and Son finished off the set and for their final number, The Cave, they brought out the entire Austin High Marching Band to accompany them. It was perfection. Then again, I’m partial to both Mumford and Sons and marching bands.

The finale brought all the musicians on stage for a jam of Woody Guthrie’s, This Train Is Bound For Glory. As I danced and sang along in the heat and sweat of a hot Texas night, I couldn’t help but feel so lucky to be a part of this concert experience. It is a train that is bound for glory for sure.

Railroad Revival Tour Arrives in Austin!

Big Easy Express!

In 2003 a movie called Festival Express came to the theaters. It was a documentary about a group of musicians that included Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Band and other notable artists of 1970 who traveled across Canada by railcar performing concerts along the way. I called up my dad to see if he’d be my date to the film. “It’s about a bunch of bands you love” I told him. We sat in the dark of an old art house movie theater and as the film opened on footage of the first concert, my father leaned over to me and whispered, “I was at this concert.” Of course he was.

Railroad Revival is my Festival Express. “A bunch of bands I love,” comprised of Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show are traveling by railcar across the southern US giving concerts along the way.  They are even filming the experience for a documentary, which I can only hope comes out sooner than the 33 years it took Festival Express.  To say that I am giddy/excited/euphoric is an understatement.

This afternoon, completely by accident and serendipity, I caught their train rolling into town. I threw my car into park and leaving the keys in the ignition and doors wide open, I raced out into the grass and watched as it casually rolled by in front of me. Artists waved from the windows, musicians played guitars in the open windows, and I was so filled with bliss at being a witness to such an event that I found my hands were shaking too much to take pictures. Fortunately, my mother had more composure and documented the occasion for me.

What is it about a group of musicians that can bring me to a shaking mess beside the railroad tracks?