So, what are you listening to these days?

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Hey eighties people! Remember this one? Pat Benatar still has it four decades later. And her hubby, guitarist Neil Giraldo, is amazing here as well.

 
I love this video. Bose, maker of quality headsets, earbuds, etc., brought together the incredible singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Laufey with a young producer and composer named Eunike Tanzil. They had three hours to produce a new Laufey track. The goal: Celebrate and promote female producers in an industry where less than 3% of producers of top 100 songs are women. Laufey has some thoughts on this, needless to say, since she herself is a producer on her own albums.

Here's the "making of" video:


Do take note of how Eunike says Laufey's name. In spite of the English spelling, that's the actual pronunciation.

And, yes, there's no actual strings beyond Laufey's cello. It's all done with licensed samples from Eunike's laptop.

And here's the official music video for "Only Mine". Classic Laufey is all I can say. It's the kind of soft, romantic jazz-pop that has built the Icelandic artist's career. Job well-done to both ladies. And Laufey's cello solo at around 1:25 is gorgeous.


They clearly have a pretty good working relationship and that's no surprise. They have met before, in passing, as students at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
 
So, um, have you ever "lost" a singer? Like seriously, I was browsing through my Youtube "Favourites" playlist on my TV tonight and Julia Westlin came up. And I went, huh? There's a name I haven't heard in a while, what's up with her? When I went to her channel, I wasn't subscribed hence me not knowing what she's been up to. But I don't remember actually unsub'ing her.

Anyhow, the joyous news is that most of her output for the past year or so has been new original material. Like this.


And this, featuring a nice guitar solo by her husband, Canadian musician David MeShow. In fact, David works on most of her tracks in some capacity, either as an instrumentalist or in the background as an engineer, mixer, videographer, etc.


For those who've forgotten my past raving about Julia, she's a Swedish singer-songwriter-producer who met David through YouTube and ended up immigrating to Canada to marry him. They live in his hometown in Quebec. Her initial fame was mostly for her elaborate a capella covers but as time goes on, she is doing more and more original material.
 
I'm listening to Joni Mitchell after watching her at the Grannies (exuding wisdom with her song Both Sides Now) and also Luke Combs singing "Fast Car" with Traci Chapman, which she wrote and sang years ago. Supposedly he grew up listening to this song many times in his father's car. You can see the respect in his eyes when singing with her. She still sounds good but doesn't perform much anymore. Very underrated singer songwriter....she should make a comeback. Also loved her song "Baby Can I Hold You" back in the day.
(I'd like to post them vids but I get frustrated copying the urls. Lol)
 
Waterfall said:
he still sounds good but doesn't perform much anymore. Very underrated singer songwriter
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Definitely underrated. Wish we had more from Tracey.

I was kind of pleased to see that boygenius racked up three awards. I listened to them when they guested on Saturday Night Live last fall and was quite impressed. In spite of the name, it is actually an all-female supergroup.

Spiritbox, who I was plugging in the Best Metal Performance category, did not win. Old thrash tops new metalcore apparently and Metallica took the trophy. "72 Seasons" is solid, though not exceptional, for them so I guess I can't complain too much.
 
I'm starting to regret I didn't watch the grammies, it actually sounds like it might have been good this year. So now I wait for the whole show to be posted!
 
OMGWTFBBQ! Not only did Laufey win her first ever Grammy last night, she played cello (one of her three instruments) in Billy Joel's backup band when he performed his new single. And she was so straightforward and clearly happy and surprised when she won.

The one person she singled out for thanks was Junia Lin, her twin sister (yes, there's two of them). This performance of "From the Start" from her Grammy-winning album Bewitched features Junia sitting in on violin. Junia is credited as "Creative Director" on most of Laufey's videos.


Sadly, her show at Massey Hall in Toronto is sold out and only overpriced scalped tickets are available, else I might consider going up for it.

By the way, the correct pronunciation of her name is not "Low fee" or "Law fee" or "Low/Law fay" as it might appear. It is "Lay vay". Blame Icelandic.
 
Brazilian alto Violet Orlandi has been ramping up the quality of her covers and videos of late. And now she's started releasing new original material with the help of her partner (they're married, I think, but not sure) Ricardo Gifford, a drummer, writer, and producer. This is the acoustic version of her first original single. I kind of prefer this version but I'll post both.


And the video for the actual single:

 
Oo, went on YouTube to listen to the new St. Vincent track that came out today, only to discover that Lake Street Dive also released a new single. New albums from both are coming in the spring.

First up, Lake Street Dive. "Good Together" really sums up this band. While they lost a founding member during the pandemic (guitarist Mike "McDuck" Olson moved on to other projects in 2021) the current lineup continues their tradition of lively, entertaining r&b-inflected pop. Keyboardist and second vocalist Akie Bermiss joins original singer Rachael Price on this one, as he often does these days.


And then there's St. Vincent, the stage name of Annie Clark. Not sure show you classify this marvellous singer-songwriter-guitarist, but she continues to put out interesting, exciting cutting edge music. And she has gone from more of an alternative artist to the musical mainstream in terms of visibility, performing Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" when Kate was unable to appear at her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She even has her own signature electric guitars that I have seen at least one other artist using.

 
Never heard of The Native Howl before but I am definitely going to look into them more. This team-up with the incredible rock singer Lzzy Hale, best known for her band Halestorm, sold me within about 10 bars.

 
LOL, Wiki describes The Native Howl as a blend of bluegrass and thrash metal. Sounds about right.

 
Coming off of her Grammy win, Laufey isn't wasting time celebrating. Her new single, "Goddess" came out on Wednesday, part of the run-up to an expanded (Goddess edition) edition of her winning album Bewitched.


And Moroccan-born Canadian songstress Faouzia dropped a new single that riffs on Beethoven's famed piano piece Fur Elise. There's both an official video and this excellent live performance.


And a new band from Oz that I found in rather roundabout way. For reasons I still don't fathom, an intersex influencer named Blume (they/them pronouns) started coming up when I was browsing Youtube shorts. They're using their social media platforms to educate about being intersex and about the various forms that being intersex can take. As I watched a few of their videos, I discovered that they and their partner are getting into the music biz, starting a band called Mystic Tea Party. Their third single came out recently. Blume is the vocalist with Sebastian Walach providing instrumentals.

 
Best known for her metal singing, Montreal vocalist Alissa White-Gluz is also a vegan and animal rights activist. This lovely piece is one she co-wrote and performed to support a campaign against the fur industry (what's left of it, part of the video highlights fashion labels that don't offer real fur anymore). It's really quite different from her metal singing, highlighting her lovely, and sometimes quite powerful, singing voice rather than the growls and screams she uses in her regular gig fronting death metal band Arch-Enemy.

 
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