Award-winning singer? Yes. New Zealand native? Yes. Gorgeous? Yes. Talented? Of course! If you answered similarly to all of these questions, then you might be Brooke Fraser. And if you are Brooke Fraser and you’re reading this, I don’t mean to be forward, but I think I’m in love. I hope that doesn’t scare you off, because I think we would be great together. If you’ve read some of my other posts, you’d know that I have a thing for accents and sexy singing voices. I think you have both of those things.
Brooke Fraser got her start in late 2003 with the release of her first album What To Do With Daylight. Since then she has released two more albums with the most recent addition, Flags, reaching #1 on the iTunes singer-songwriter chart in the first week of sales. Booyah.
Her recent press release tells you why:
“Flags is a dreamy, alternative-pop collection that showcases her agile soprano, lilting melodies and knack for telling her stories through the lives of vibrant characters…”
Dreamy? Agile? Lilting melodies? Ok, I’m interested. Of course, you won’t believe it until you hear it, but we can help point you in the right direction. And if you’re a Chicago new music fan, you can check out Brooke Fraser at Lincoln Hall on November 24th. I’ll be there. With flowers. And chocolates.
Check out the video for “Something In the Water”:
Buy the album:
I first met Griffin House, back in 2003, when he was promoting his album Upland. When I arrived at the venue and I heard his name as the opening act, the nerd in me thought, “wait…the Gryffindor’s have a house band?” Forgive me for my nerdy Harry Potter reference, I am who I am. The uniqueness of his name quickly disappeared once he hit the stage. Griffin House’s voice cast a spell on me. Kinda like a Expecto Patronuses charm. Damn, I need to get out more.
Griffin House is a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. His voice is warm, his lyrics are emotive, and his music is organic. For me, he is a modern day troubadour. He is the sort of guy I would want to go camping with, just so I would have music at the ready when it is time to sit around the campfire. If he wasn’t there I would just be singing kumbaya on repeat. When you listen to Griffin’s music, imagine a roaring campfire nearby. He delivers the vocal equivalent of a perfectly toasted marshmallow.
His latest release, The Learner, brings forth the same folk goodness that ran true through his previous works. Griffin House continues to balance on the edge of becoming a mainstream name. If and when that day comes, rest assured in knowing that as a listener, his music will still have the intimate feel of a campfire serenade.
KC’s Personal Picks: “River City Lights”, “If You Want To”, & “Feels So Right”
Check out Griffin House’s acoustic rendition of “River City Lights”
Buy The Learner
The Drive-By Truckers create solid music. You would be mistaken to take “solid” as a generic way to describe their music. When I say DBT creates solid music, I am saying that they are making some of the realist real music out there. Their sound is deeply rooted in the southern rock and alt-country genres. The sound is raw and the lyrics are honest. Basically, it is solid.
DBT
There are a lot of under appreciated bands out there, and Drive-By Truckers would be one of those. They have put out a lot of music since the mid 90′s, but it wasn’t until their recent release of The Big To-Do, that they finally got some mainstream media recognition. Appearances on David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon’s late night gigs shined the spotlight on a band that needs to be listened to. If you are looking for music that combines smart storytelling with gritty delivery, well, DBT is for you! Not looking for that sort of thing in music? Well, I would suggest putting a conch shell up to your ear.
KC’s Personal Picks: “This F@*!&%$ Job”, “Drag the Lake Charlie” and “Birthday Boy”
Not digging your current employment? “Working this Job” is for you!
Buy The Big To-Do
Musical discovery is a beautiful thing, and it hardly ever happens the way you’d expect. Sometimes, the dots just start connecting until you’ve found a link between two or three songs and realized, “Whoa, I’ve liked this band for a long time and didn’t even realize it.”
That’s sort of the way I got smacked in the face by Little Big Town, who apparently has crafted an entire catalog of fantastic country blues that I knew little about until researching this column.
See, I wanted to write about their song “Bones,” a non-single track from their 2005 album “The Road to Here,” because I’d heard it at the end of a True Blood episode a couple years ago and really loved it. For some reason though, despite my love and curiosity for discovering new bands, I never really looked into the band beyond that one song. Just kept playing it over and over again without growing tired.
Little did I know that they had released other songs since then which I also loved, yet had no idea that it was the same group. Exhibit A is “Good Lord Willing,” which was my favorite country song of 2008, and “Little White Church,” which came out earlier this year. Again, all this time I’d come across these songs independently of each other, liked them all, and never figured out it was the same people.
As a scout of freshness, it wasn’t my finest moment.
Now that those dots I spoke of earlier have been connected, I feel the need to pass the greatness of Little Big Town onto the masses, even though they’ve seen pretty solid success on the country charts for going on nine years now. The thing is, I’m not a huge country fan, and based on correspondences with readers, I’m guessing most of you guys aren’t huge country fans either. In every genre, however, there exists some really good stuff, which is what this is.
Despite the fact that this is a Nashville country group, there’s a lot of deep south in them, too. It’s bluesy and deeply soulful, which is part of what made “Bones” so believable in the True Blood Vibe. What makes them so unconventional, on top of being talented, is the fact that there’s no real lead singer. All four members of the group take turns singing lead, which also means there’s a ton of four-part harmony going on in these tracks, too. All of them are so talented at everything that it almost makes you sick.
But sick in a good way. Similar to the wrench in my gut I felt when I realized I’d screwed the goose on Little Big Town for so long, but that I’d found the perfect band to feature in my next column. That kind of sick.
As I said, musical discover is a beautiful thing.
Take a look back through our FreshScouts archives and it should be fairly clear that we love blues music. Storytellers that dwell in the pain and joy of life have a way of speaking directly to us. We proudly add bluesman Sean Costello to our archives. Costello was an incredibly talented young blues artist with a passion that flowed through every single note.
Sean Costello
At the ripe young age of sixteen, Sean Costello released his first blues album, Call the Cops. He immediately impacted the industry with his masterful command over the blues guitar. Costello’s riffs can make even the toughest man shed a tear. Costello didn’t stop there, he also dominated stages with gritty vocals and brutally honest song writing. He is often referenced as a true triple-threat in the blues industry. In his short career he worked with B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Susan Tedeschi, just to name a few. Costello churned out an incredible collection of music from 1996 to 2008.
Costello’s last album, We Can Get Together, was the one that introduced me to his genius. He was masterful on the album. You know, it still stings having to use the word “was” in reference to Costello. We lost a great musician in Sean Costello when he passed away do to an accidental overdose. It was after Costello’s sudden death in April 2008, that his family publicly shared that he had been suffering from Bipolar disorder. Sean’s music lives on, and thanks to his family a great organization spreads much needed awareness on the topic of Bipolar disorder. We here at FreshScouts ask that you check out The Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research. An eye opening statistic from the site points out that “Bipolar disorder affects more than 2 million Americans - about 3 out of every 100 adults.” Enjoy Costello’s music and do what you can to educate yourself and those around you.
KC’s Personal Picks: “Hard Luck Woman”, “Told Me A Lie” and “Going Home”
Check out Costello’s 2007 live version of “Told Me A Lie”
We Can Get Together
