From the Mind of MandoRon

Thought I would share a couple of things:

1. Be sure to check out Edge of Grace from GracePoint Church tomorrow night (May 16th) at Reuben’s (corner of Douglas and McLean).  I think they start playing at 6:30.  After the concert, stick around to check out the fireworks as the River Festival draws to a close.
2. Blake Aaron Guthrie will be performing on the Team Kansas Toyota Food Court Stage at Century II at 6:00 tomorrow (May 16th).  The River Festival people have good taste!  Blake has sang a few times at GP.  Great guy.  Go show Blake some love before Edge of Grace gets things ing.
3. On Tuesday, one of my favorite bands, Carbon Leaf, is releasing their new album “Nothing Rhymes with Woman”.  When I was thinking about buying a mandolin five years ago, I googled “mandolin rock” just to see what showed up.  The first link was to Amazon where they had several songs you could download for free.  I ordered two of their CD’s that night.  Amazon has a special edition of the new CD with two bonus tracks for $13.99 if you pre-order it.  I did.
4. Next Saturday (May 23rd…), I’m heading down to the Old Town Farmer’s Market to hear Trent Wagler from 10-noon.  A co-worker gave my his newest CD, “Adrienna Valentine”, for Christmas and I love it.  His band plays acoustic, Americana-type stuff.  A little bluegrass.  Some incredible ballads.  Trent’s voice is somewhere between Neil Young and Dan Fogerty.  If you’re interested, here’s a video of “Corrine”.  He’s got a pretty good mandolin player too… Jay Laap.  It’s my understanding, that Trent is Kim’s little brother…
5. Have you heard the new Jars of Clay album, “The Long Fall Back to Earth”.  I’ve been listening to it a lot.  It’s quite tasty.
6. Speaking of new albums… my friend Carmen Kamps has a new album out.  Check out “Here. Me. Now.” from Ferocious Mary over at CD Baby.  If I ever get around to following up on things, I’ll probably be having a giveaway on the blog in the near future.
7. U2 in Norman, OK on October 18!  Can’t wait!
8. Made a new friend recently.  Go check out www.circle37.com for some great thoughts about music.
9. And now a rant.  In the last few weeks, I’ve seen three musical performances that have me scratching my head.  Paula Abdul on American Idol, Ciara on Saturday Night Live, and Katy Perry on American Idol.  All three basically performed in ie with less than stellar vocals.  Paula was all effects.  Ciara rarely sang - mostly gyrations and back-up vocals.  Katy sounded terrible.  Is this what music has come to?  What does it show the Idol wannabe’s?  Usher was on earlier in the season.  What a great role for up and coming singers…  But apparently, you don’t need great vocals if you’ve got a great body.  Just check out the free video from Jessie James on itunes this week…

That’ll do for now.  Have an awesome weekend!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.