I was kicking around Hit By A Train, an Old 97’s fan site the other day trying to find the name of one of their older albums and stumbled upon a whole bunch of free mp3s. This is obviously old news to long time fans, but if you’ve never really listened to any of the the Old 97’s’ music before, these mp3s are a great introduction to a rock/alt-country band that has been around quite a while.

On the discography page there are two or three full versions of songs from many of the band’s albums available as free downloads. In addition, they provide several demo/outtake tracks on a separate download page. Some of these might be more interesting to the die hard fans, but are still fun. One of my favorites from this page is a song that was written by a guy named Homer Henderson called “Beer Cans.” The melody gets stuck in my head for days.

Old 97’s - Beer Cans

The character in this song loses his job and starts picking up beer cans on the highway so he will have enough money to marry his girl…? You’ve gotta love this guy’s level of commitment.

Old 97’s MySpace: www.myspace.com/theold97s

Old 97’s Website: www.old97s.com

Old 97’s fan site: www.hitbyatrain.com

Photo Credit: Theresa Ortolani

Die hard Tom Petty fans will surely be psyched to read Daphne Carr’s article that came out in the LA Weekly on Wednesday. This has got to be one of the niftiest pieces written on Tom Petty that I have read (more like interacted with) in a while.

Any longtime fan knows that there are numerous references to Southern California in both Tom Petty’s songwriting as well as his (and the Heartbreakers’) rock and roll story. The article is paired with a map of Los Angeles that has the locations of various song references and critical points in Tom Petty’s journey marked and numbered.

Here is the map: Tom Petty’s Los Angeles

Check out the article to get the skinny on how all of it fits together.

Artwork and map by Scott Gursky

On Sunday night we went out to 3rd and Lindsley for the Sons of William and Need to Breathe show. I have become a huge Sons of William fan over the past few years. They’re a rock and roll outfit from Louisiana that impresses me more each time I see them! My only complaint is that they didn’t get to play a longer set. After all, they were one of the main reasons for me deciding to peel my face from the computer screen and head out to the club.

After hearing Need to Breathe’s headlining set, I was left wondering how I had never heard of them until now. They put on a great show with their blend of melodic, accessible rock that seemed to genuinely impress the packed house in Nashville. The lead singer for this band could seriously double as Kid Rock (he probably gets that all the time and is annoyed by it, sorry). I’m talking about looks only here. He is actually a much better singer than Kid Rock.

Need to Breathe snuck in the third verse of the Counting Crows’ A Long December into one of their encore songs and made my night! It was complete with a beautifully sappy audience sing-along on the chorus. Hearing A Long December again put a big smile on my face and took me back to my high school days.

It was my senior year in high school and I somehow convinced my parents to let me and one of my friends drive four hours to Denver…over two mountain passes…on a school night…in an old borrowed car to see the Counting Crows!!! To top it all off, it pretty much rained the whole time, and we did the four hour drive back home the same night to make it to school on time the next day. We were utterly exhausted but I had such a great time. I love how just a snippet of a song can conjure up old memories.

Since I don’t have any live Sons of William or Need to Breathe mp3s, and since I’m already off topic with the Counting Crows tidbit, AND since my last two posts have had videos, here is video of A Long December. The sound quality isn’t all that great, but Adam Duritz tells the story behind the song.

We took a trip to our new multiplex, stadium seating, 632 screen movie theater last night to see Juno. To be honest, I kind of like those old little theaters with one screen that still have some unique character. There is this great little theater where I used to live in California called The Pageant that was always a kick to go to. The multiplex, however, is literally a stone’s throw away (well maybe if I was John Elway) so we usually give in to convenience.

The movie was great, all except the part about Gibson guitars being better than Fender guitars. Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to have a Gibson hanging on my wall, but any true guitar player knows that it’s the player and not the guitar that counts. Hmm…maybe that’s why I still can’t play…

Anyway, Juno finds its way into the blog this week because of the music. The soundtrack is a great collection of songs, some of which I never would have discovered if not for their placement and meaning within Juno. I’m always a sucker for folky, quirky, acoustic numbers and there are certainly some gems along these lines here. The great part is that you can actually buy the whole collection of songs on one disk or one download (unlike some other soundtracks). This probably has something to do with the “indie” nature of a lot of this music.

Alright, I know I just recently wrote about The Felice Brothers and am violating section {52-6RH/8-1} of the Blogger’s Code, but I couldn’t help myself when I came across this video. Besides, you can never have too much of a band that can channel Dylan and The Band and remain original at the same time! This past weekend I was able to get my hands on a copy of Adventures Of The Felice Brothers Vol.1 and have kept it spinning since.

Here is a live video of one of my favorites, Frankie’s Gun. Other than the tall person who keeps getting in the way, it’s not a bad video. The band looks like they’re having a blast!

Don’t you just love it when you take a chance on something and the payoff is much, much better than expected? I can’t say this is always the case with my local Chinese restaurant, which is why I usually stick to the Mongolian Beef, but that’s another topic entirely and perhaps even another blog.

On my recent trip to Florida I stumbled upon the new Grace Potter and the Nocturnals album This is Somewhere while perusing the shelves at the record store. I had never really heard any of their music before and pretty much bought it on a whim, but I was very pleasantly surprised. This is Somewhere is a stew of guitar and Hammond B-3 driven rock and blues influenced music. I was so impressed, I immediately checked their tour schedule and found out that they will be in Nashville at 3rd and Lindsley in a few weeks!

So I did what any music lover would do and bought tickets, which I might add were very reasonably priced at $10. I can’t wait to see them live. In the meantime, here are a couple live tracks off of their newest album from a show they did in Boston, MA at The Paradise on December 12, 2007:

GPNT, Stop the Bus

GPNT, Big White Gate

The entire show is available for download here.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ MySpace: www.myspace.com/gracepotterandthenocturnals

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ Website: www.gracepotter.com