I saw Carrie Newcomer for the first time at The Ark on Wednesday. There's something about her voice and the songs that she writes that just draws me in. I can't really put my finger on it, but I really enjoy her music. There are a few songs on her current release, "The Geography of Light" that I just can't get out of my head. Her web site plays song samples when you open the page - if anyoone checks it out, I'd be interested to hear your opinions.

My husband and I were also at The Ark last night, for the first of 4 concerts in celebration of the retirement of Dave Siglin, who has been the program director of The Ark for 40 of its 42 years. Last night's show had Susan Werner, John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler and Chris Smither. I am a big fan of John, Susan and Cheryl, but I had never seen Chris Smither before and have only heard a few of his songs. Each artist was great, and I really enjoyed Chris Smither. Could anyone recommend any of his albums?

Thanks,

Theresa

Theresa

I got to see Chris Smither live, on a double bill at the Turning Point in Piermont NY, a while back. (it sounds like Turning Point is similar to the Ark.) MO might have been the other part of that bill I am not sure about that. Anyway, I liked his music a lot, very bluesy, acoustic and folky/rootsy, but I can't say I have recommendations for his albums, sorry there, now if you were talking John Gorka, I sure would.


Bob

Re:Chris Smither

I really like Small Revelations- came out about 10 years ago- and his latest, Leave the Light On.

Thanks, Doug - I'll check those Chris Smither albums out.

Bob, I have half of John Gorka's albums (all but one released since 1992). Could you recommend your favorite from his early releases? He also has a DVD that was released last year that I'm considering....

Theresa

UMMM that's a tough one to choose.....John Gorka's "Land of the Bottom Line" is outstanding.

Just Love, "I Saw a Stranger With your Hair" so clever, compelling....."That's How Legends Are made",,,,,,about JG working at a folk club and meeting all these troubadours..."The Sentinel"...aching and melancholy....."Land of the Bottom Line", an anthem........" The One That Got Away".......and on and on.

Not a bad song on the whole album. My wife thinks that before JG "settled down" he was a lot edgier, a bit angrier, and funnnier, not as much into straight love songs, she definitely liked his earlier stuff better, I think it is all good, but this album in particular is surely on my "Desert Island Disc" List

I just bought the new Kathleen Edwards CD, Asking For Flowers...I would describe it as alt country. Although I am horrible at categorizing music.

It is one of the best CDs I have purchased in a while....I haeven't been exciited about a CD in a while, but this one is very good.

I think the new Van Morrison album, "Keep it Simple" is due out any day now, really looking forward to that.

(Just wanted to get some activity going on this "Message Center", can't get into MySpace, even MO's spot on there,....... too old I guess.)

Always love this site though!

Yeah, maybe we can offer cash prizes for posting messages!

I've been offline the past two days. There was a lightning strike about half a block from our house, and Comcast's routers and nodes were melted. It was the loudest thing I've ever heard, very scary; it was also very mean; it fried a television, a radio, a couple of power strips and some of the memory in my computer.

good thing there is no such thing as global warming (climate change) !!!

Wowzers Mac! Glad you guys are O.K. Time to go buy a new HDTV?

Mac, I hope you didn't lose anything important on your computer with the lightning strike, that sounds like it was pretty scary, and costly too.

No cash prizes are necessary, we have some of the nicest folks around, here on this site.

It's raining in the O.C. I love the rain. Wifey gets the blues. No rain, no rainbows.

Well, we didn't lose anything big, like an HDTV, but the total comes to 3 radios/boomboxes, the Bose wave, one cheap little LCD TV, a GFCI that kept our garage doors from working for a day; somehow, my computer survived, but both memory chips had to be reseated, and one of them appears to be not working.

The strike itself was over 100 yards away, but it was a very large boom.

Mother Nature, she is powerful.

Not The Bose! I wake up to the wave 5 days a week.

Going golfing w/The Honda Center/Ducks. This job sucks!