I saw the Shiftless Rounders last winter when they opened for Sarah Harmer at the Paradise. I was only lukewarm on them then, but I bought (Places) and pulled a few more songs off the web and they grew on me. When I saw they were coming back to the area–to Club Passim down in Harvard Square–I figured I'd swing by.

It's not easy to pin down what's so enjoyable about their shows. The lyrics have all the tragedy and bitterness old-time folk music was known for (Memphis has the worst drunk tank, and the meanest fuzz,) but…

“Look,” he said, “I know we’re in the epicenter of Puritanism, here between the library and the church, but can we get a big redneck yell?”

That was Josh Ritter playing a free outdoor concert at Copley Square this afternoon. A and I went in two weeks ago for one of the earlier shows in the series, but we left late and spent so long on the T that we only saw Edie Brickell (and a band that must be, I joked, the New New Bohemians,) play three or four songs before the show was over. I wanted to see…

I was scrambling around trying to figure out if anyone else wanted to go to The Weakerthans at the Paradise tomorrow night… then I called the 'dise and found out they were already sold out. Man, I suck.

Though it's good they're selling out shows.

The cassette player in my car has an adapter in it 90% of the time, to receive audio from an iPod or CD player, so there aren't many actual tapes left in the car. I fished out one the other day, and discovered a mix tape I'd made to take with me on a summer abroad (in Russia) in my college years. Not all of it's stuff I'd still claim, but there's some tracks I'll need to see if I can dig back up.

Since I was packing limited space, and I didn't want to leave music behind, I took…

I ran into this a while ago. It seems like it would work well here:

The Music Snob's Oath

I, , Do hereby swear off using my impressive-albiet-limited musical knowledge to impress, intimidate or influence friends, family, acquantances, employers, co-workers, prospective employers and prospective sexual partners.

A and I decided last night that we'd lost track of how many times we've seen Catie Curtis at the Iron Horse in Northampton. At least four, but maybe five. I can remember at least three opening acts - Meghan Toohey once, Girlyman once (I wasn't impressed, but everyone else seems to like them,) more recently Jennifer Kimball. And someone else I (evidently) forget. Once it was during the Super Bowl (maybe that was the Girlyman show,) and once we were having Sox scores relayed to the stage. We also saw her once at this awesome triple bill at…

Every time I hear this (Forgetting Evelyn,) I have to check to see if it's the Gin Blossoms. Anyone know of a connection between the bands?

It took me so long to find the CD store in Davis Square that I left when I didn't find the bands I was looking for. So much for supporting local business: I ordered on Amazon. I'm working on three new bands, all discovered via free downloads (free downloads! Share music, bands! I then buy your CDs so I can get more!)

Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans: Sarah Harmer covered one of their songs at The Paradise a few months ago, so I checked them out. Plea from a Cat Named Virtue was on their website, and that alone…

The thing that utterly baffles me is that while the software is starting to recommend neighbors for me, it appears to be looking much farther down the "long tail" of my artists ranking than I would expect. I'm getting a lot of overlap on Ani Difranco, Dar Williams, and (oddly enough) Sarah Harmer (and Weeping Tile), but none of the neighbors linked so far appear to even know about the Church, which was my most-played artist last week.

But maybe I'm asking too much. It might take a few months for this to really zoom in…

We were at the Dar Williams show Monday night at Wellesley College. Interesting show - just Dar and a guitar, which is always interesting. We've seen her play like that before, most notably at the Iron Horse in Northampton, but in this venue (the Wellesley Campus Center,) it was interesting and the right choice.

Too bad about the openers, which didn't appear to be at all musically connected to Dar and were more likely to turn off audience members than anyone else.

I wrote more on my blog, including some song notes.