Townes Van Zandt: Live at the Old Quarter (Disc 1 & 2)

I bumped into a Townes Van Zandt's music only recently, but I was immediately hypnotized by it: rarely had I heard songs so intense and a songwriting apparently so simple and yet so deep, the typical example being Van Zandt's most famous song, Pancho and Lefty (the cover version by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard in 1983 reached #1 in the Country Chart), which after you first listen to it, it may not sound a first rate number, but then later, it slowly grows on you (and gets huge).
TVZ has recorded a vast number of (excellent) LP's, but I have just purchased this one, the "Live at the Old Quarter", which I particularly love because of the sparse arrangement: only Van Zandt singing and playing his acoustic guitar.
What more? This one has TVZ's best songs from the first part of his career, and also some blues numbers that he loved (i.e. Chaffeur's blues and Cocaine blues in the second disc). If you like his music go search for more. My advice is (but I'm not into his whole carerr yet, so I'm not such a good or impartial judge of it, I suppose) go buy "Our Mother the Mountain"(too).

Live at the Old Quarter (Disc 1)
Live at the Old Quarter (Disc 2)

The Unthanks: New album leaked

I have already ordered it...but my mailman is being lazy, so: I cannot delay this wait for much longer and I guess I'm going to download it thanks to (the usual welcome post by) Bolachas. Yipee!
Btw, if you want to buy it (and I already know it's sure woth it), go see the Unthanks' official site.

Rachel Unthanks & The Winterset: Live BBC 2008

They probably are one of my favourite bands of this decade, and I mean really. I say this simply because "The Bairns" just knocked me dead. It reminds me of when I listened to Lal Waterson for the first time: I instantly knew that was a great voice, with depth and intensity. And the Unthanks (their “new” name) seem to have the Midas touch too. You know, it’s a bit like listening to Richard Thompson playing Britney Spears’ Baby one more time…I mean: it sounds almost good… (or Caetano Veloso performing Jackson’s Black or white, for that matter). The point being: it looks like they can take any song (particularly from the british folk canon), make it their own, and make it sound divine.

So, just in case any of you haven't heard anything from Rachel Unthank/The Unthanks, this is a rip from a BBC radio christmas special with 3 songs (Tar Barrel In Dal, Felton Lonnin, This Endris Night).

If you want to know more about the Unthanks and their forthcoming album, "Here's the tender coming" go listen to BBC 2 "The Radcliff and Maconie Show" from 08/09/09, when they played live 3 new songs. Incidentally: does anyone have an upload of "Here's the tender..."?

And here are also 2 videos of them playing for "Shoot the player", dating back to some months ago:

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset: Blue Bleezin Blind Drunk from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset: On A Monday Morning from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Live BBC 2008