So, what are you listening to these days?

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This song from Waitress may, in fact, be Sara's best composition, or close to it (there's so many songs in contention). I have heard both her and another singer who has done the role (forget who) sing it and it's a seriously powerful piece of music and very well put together.


And a bit of news that I stumbled over while catching up with Sara's life: She's slated to return to the lead in Waitress for a limited run when the theatre lights go back on in New York. It will be her third run in the role.

She also reteamed with Jessie Nelson, her collaborator from Waitress, to create, and write music for, the TV series Little Voice on Amazon Prime and recently started releasing songs from another TV project, Girls4eva, in which she is starring.
 
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From North American pop and musicals, I have moved on to European symphonic metal. Dutch band Within Temptation is led by lead singer/songwriter Sharon den Adel and her partner in both music and life Robert Westerholt (the couple have three children together), who plays rhythm guitar and co-writes. The band started around the same time as Finnish band Nightwish, making them a seminal band in the symphonic metal genre. On their live album Black Symphony, they take the genre name literally, having a full orchestra on stage with them.

 
The Tragically Hip are back. Well, as much as they can be absent the late Gord Downie. They have released Saskadelphia, a collection of 6 songs originally recorded 30 years ago for the album that became Road Apples (Saskadelphia was their first choice for the title of that album but got shot down by the record company) but left off the tracklist in the end.

And on June 6, the band is reuniting at the Juno Awards to receive the humanitarian award and perform with Leslie Feist (who once opened for the Hip) taking over lead singer duties. Presenting the award are Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush, who lost their drummer Neil Peart to glioblastoma, the same cancer that killed Downie. The Hip's first arena gig was opening for the legendary power trio so it is a reunion of sorts as well.

The first single off of Saskadelphia:


The song "Montreal" was missing from the "lost" recordings but they did have a live version of it recorded that they included on Saskadelphia


These songs are definitely of an era and would have sat quite nicely on the version of Road Apples that did get released, which included their Canadian hit "Little Bones".
 
So some nice pirate posted the complete Nightwish virtual show from last night on Youtube and, sadly, I gave in to temptation. Oh wow. The absence of an audience is definitely noticeable but the band don't seem to mind, ripping through classics and new material with all the heart they can muster. The new bass player handled his parts well, Irish guitarist, flautist, piper, and vocalist Troy Donockley is proving a more than adequate male vocalist (still, Marko Hietala's distinctive voice is missed at times), and lead singer Floor Jansen is ... wow. She's just in top form, tearing into the vocals like they had been touring this set for a while. In fact, these two virtual gigs are her first live performances in something like 18 months, since she did a solo tour in late 2019. And the virtual set worked surprisingly well, with animated set pieces showing the exterior of the "venue", a huge lighthouse and observatory sitting on a cliff overlooking an ocean while the interior was the place's glass conservatory with videos playing in the "glass" and a massive tree sitting just behind keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen. Of course, the band were actually in front of a green screen the whole time.

I am not going to link to the video I watched because it will probably get hit with a takedown. However, one of the many beautiful moments was Floor and Troy doing their acoustic version of How's The Heart from the band's last album Human :|| Nature and there is a legit video of them doing it on Planet Rock from just before the pandemic.


And from the same set, an older Nightwish tune that continues to be a favorite of both fans and the band. Of course, last night's show has a full band version but this acoustic rendition really shows how strong a song it is, holding up very nicely even with just voice and guitar.

 
New Julia Westlin original out this week and it's a delightful piece in 50s "doo-wop" style, a bit of a change for Julia. She has moved from being a cover artist to mostly releasing original songs of late and it's a transition that I am quite enjoying.

 
Besides the epic, beautiful music and the sheer talent of the musicians, one thing that has drawn me to Nightwish is songwriter Tuomas Holopainen's love of science and nature. Who else would have titled a whole album after a quote from Charles Darwin or featured Richard Dawkins as a narrator on that same album? The song "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" is the title track off that album and reflects that overall theme. And, yes, the beautiful music and talent are on show as well.


I often wax poetic about the spirituality I find in contemplating the universe, nature, etc. but Tuomas goes one step further and writes songs that channel that feeling. Some of his songs could be possible hymns for a pantheistic church of some kind.

Now on pins and needles awaiting an announced new collaboration between Nightwish lead singer Floor Jansen and Dutch tenor Henk Poort. They've worked together a couple times before, appearing on the Dutch TV show Beste Zangers (Best Singers) in the same season, and make a great team.
 
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Concrete Castles continues to build their repertoire and reputation. Third single is out and may be my favorite yet. And they did their first gig under the Concrete Castles name (they have done many over the years as First To Eleven, the name they now use solely for covers) recently.

 
Auri is a Finnish band that overlaps heavily with symphonic metal giants Nightwish, but has a softer, folkier sound. It consists of keyboardist/composer Tuomas Holopainen, singer Johanna Kurekala (Holopainen's wife), and guitarist/windplayer/vocalist Troy Donockley. Holopainen and Donockley both play the same roles in Nightwish.

This duet between Kurekala and Donockley is from the first Auri album.


And Pearl Diving is the leadoff single from their upcoming second album.


As a fan of Nightwish, I hear clear affinities. Tuomas Holopainen's distinctive style is unmistakable in places. At the same time, it is nice to hear the lighter touch he brings to this material.
 
Saturday night has started to make me a bit sad. Holger Peterson's blues show, followed by Lila's jazz show, just makes me miss my old guy so much. I have thousands of DVD's and CD's in this house that he made just for me. There were new CDs for every road trip. My old car doesn't fuss about pirated/homemade CDs. I listened to the soundtrack of "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou", on a little road trip yesterday, up to pick up my sister, re-unite her with her repaired motorcycle in Bracebridge, then drive home, and thought fondly of the three or four times we watched this movie together (we considered it "the" Cohen brothers classic).
 
Besides Auri, Tuomas has done some other non-Nightwish projects over the years (the band celebrates its 25th anniversary next year but does take breaks from time to time). Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge is a concept album of music he composed based on the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck comic series and graphic novel by Don Rosa. Rosa did the cover art for the album and appears in the video for the song "A Lifetime of Adventure". The singer is Johanna Kurekala, who married Holopainen the year after this album came out.


And "The Last Sled" again features Kurekala on vocals with Scrooge McDuck voiced by actor Alan Reid.


The music is closer in character to Nightwish than the Auri material but still has its own character. Hearing Tuomas working more with orchestral instrumentation than his usual rock band really shows his talent as a composer. I'm hoping beyond hope to hear some actual orchestral or choral music from him someday (he has done orchestral arrangements of Nightwish songs before).
 
LOVE this version of the old Bob Dylan classic! *ALERT* contains an exquisitely-timed f bomb

 
Every Friday, the show "Drive" on CBC Music has an hour from 5-6 called "Deep Dive", where they play the entirety of a classic album, with a little history and commentary. Today's was particularly lovely, as it was Joni Mitchell's "Blue". And, once again, reminded me of Dave. He added so much richness and wideness to my musical tastes.

If anyone wants to catch it in the next couple of hours, go to CBC Music and pick a more westerly time zone. It's just finishing up now.
 
BetteTheRed said:
Every Friday, the show "Drive" on CBC Music has an hour from 5-6 called "Deep Dive", where they play the entirety of a classic album, with a little history and commentary. Today's was particularly lovely, as it was Joni Mitchell's "Blue". And, once again, reminded me of Dave. He added so much richness and wideness to my musical tastes.

If anyone wants to catch it in the next couple of hours, go to CBC Music and pick a more westerly time zone. It's just finishing up now.
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The whole artist of the day concept that they brought in for Fridays is terrific. You have half an hour of the artist's work at the end of the morning show, then the Deep Dive at the end of the afternoon show. One of the bright lights of the current CBC Music format.
 
New Faouzia dropped today. After the power ballad she did with John Legend, the Winnipeg-based singer-songwriter is back to more EDM-pop sound with this one. The 80s videogame theme of the video fits nicely, too.


I must say, Faouzia's power ballads do highlight her voice better, but she seems to have more fun with songs like this. Wondering if she can get a "stripped" (ie. acoustic) version of this one. It seems like it might not suit that approach as well as older songs like "Tears of Gold".

And apparently she wrote this one during a break from studying for exams. I am still amazed that a person with a budding music career also has time to do an engineering degree.
 
Mendalla said:
And apparently she wrote this one during a break from studying for exams. I am still amazed that a person with a budding music career also has time to do an engineering degree.
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Nature does not hand out energy levels on an equal basis, for sure.
 
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