The Underground of Happiness

******************************************************************************************************** Bedouine – Back to you (from the album Bedouine , Spacebomb) Another wonderful nugget recorded at Matthew E. White’s Spacebomb hub in Richmond Virginia. The origin though is the voice and songs of Azniv Korkejian born in Syria to Armenian parents but resident in the US for some years. Her voice is an intoxicating thing. Hushed. Softly spoken. Insistent. Containing something of a Carole King about it. Or even a Karen Carpenter maybe. Another time anyway. When there was strength in subtlety and soul was in the nuance as much as the decibels. And the dream of an arrangement behind the perfect match. Gently enervating brass and woodwind. Uplifting top note strings. Beautiful pitter patter bass. A genius falsetto backing vocal that catches me every time. She also has a way with a lyric Ms Korkejian. California city parks They talk in excl...

Another gorgeous helping of late night lounge love songs smouldering with desire and longing. There are a couple of new songs. Some recycled. And the majority live from last year’s tour of Future Standards . The great news is the central presence of Lonna Kelley who is becoming a regular collaborator of Gelb’s. Her persuasive voice mercifully free of vibrato is a wonderful foil to Gelb’s insinuating melodies. The two new songs ‘Presumptuous’ and ‘All you need to know’ are both worthy additions to Gelb’s epic canon of work and to the body of the classic American songbook. What’s also fascinating is to ponder how Tucson – a part of the US you might associate with the Mexican border and country music and what might be called Americana or folk or roots – can give rise to this convincing blend of jazz and blues and maybe Gershwin. Amounting to a brand of lounge that detours in a carefree manner around the dreaded Easy Listening label. That is to say they contain a ...

Part 2 of this list, out of four in total, the others to follow in January. There will be another Best of Mix also over the next week, stay tuned to Mixcloud. ********************************************************************* 1. Trashcan Sinatras – Let me inside (Or let me out) A monumental year for fans of this treasured Scottish band. A new crowdfunded album, the wonderful Wild pendulum , possibly their best ever work, and tours in America and Europe. And having seen them play live in November, the big insight (other than the obvious genius on show) was the sheer soulfulness of the songs. So yeah, top notch tunes and buckets of soul. I’ll take that any year. http://theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.ie/2016/11/trashcan-sinatras-workmans-club-dublin.html Track 14 in this playlist 2. Britta Phillips – One fine summer morning (from the album Luck or magic, Double Feature) Another artist I saw play live in 2016. In these thoughts from last June, I was zoning...

A captivating tune from Howe Gelb as he goes back (to the future?) to a piano trio format and back to the atmosphere of the standards he grew up with. He also hooks up here with Lonna Kelley , often time associate of Gelb’s and duetter on ‘Pen to paper’ from the last Giant Sand record, Heartbreak Pass , one of the most glorious vocal performances ever committed to record I still believe. There’s a narcotic effect to this dual vocal, sleepy and late night. But though steeped in later years nostalgia, there’s a satisfying knottiness to the lyric that keeps pulling you back to wide awake. Love was just a just reward just not the thing that your heart could ill afford A beautiful intimate late night experience, this. Track 1 in this playlist

I sat down for a chat with Howe Gelb a few weeks ago. What a pleasure that was for me. He’s a wonderful speaker, a raconteur, you could sit down and listen to him all night. The warm engaging quality you find in his music is all there in person too. He was in town as part of the Giant Sand Farewell Tour which stopped off at Cyprus Avenue in Cork on April 14th. It was a beautiful day, the evening sunny so we sat on the street outside The Oliver Plunkett Bar just across the way from the venue. That's the strains of their regular Thursday night trad session you can hear cranking up in the background. The Farewell Tour was, I gather, a decision not to take to traipsing around the world much anymore (Howe turns 60 soon), although he hasn’t ruled out festival appearances, beginning with a few in Europe this summer. And to coincide, Fire Records are releasing a slew of his back catalogue over the next while, Sun Set , starting with six Giant Sand albums from across the deca...

The centrepiece of this week's show was a snippet of an interview I did with Howe Gelb a few weeks ago, when Giant Sand played in Cork as part of their farewell tour. The full interview is about 30 minutes long and I'll upload the whole thing here soon. He's a fascinating man. Also new music from Rozi Plain (gorgeous kosmische), Britta Phillips (noirish dream pop from her debut album), Cate Le Bon (keeping it brilliantly wonky), Dieterich & Barnes (John Dieterich of Deerhoof and Jeremy Barnes of Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk and a Hacksaw etc, making superb left field improv instrumentals) and XIXA (two of the guys from the Giant Sand band making psych cumbia). And Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld (pic), making vivid compelling chamber sounds, glorious. More on the blog. The Underground of Happiness uplifting pop music of every creed www.theundergroundofhappiness.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/theundergroundofhappiness Twitter: UndergroundOfHappy ...

You know how things come together sometimes, coincidences you could say. Well two albums came my way in the last month or so which seem to me to be connected, although as far as I know there's no direct contact between the people involved. Naim Amor is a French guitar player and singer who has spent the last ten years or so living in Tucson , Arizona. While living there, he's rubbed up against Howe Gelb, Calexico and other members of that city's notable music community. He sings in English and French and plays a kind of smoky, beautifully understated French jazz. Apparently, Howe Gelb says he's the best guitar player he's seen, and he's seen a few. His new album Dansons is just out on Vacilando 68 and it breaks new ground in combining Brazilian rhythms with Amor's well bedded French roots style. The result is a fascinating mixture of desert folk and sunny samba. Here's the opening track from the album, Creole , a great example of that fusion. Her...

We're not all that fussed about keeping up with trends, here around the UOH chalet. However, we tend to get excited when new Giant Sand material is announced. Have a listen to this, we played it on the show this week. Giant Sand "Recovery Mission (Radio Edit)" by FortLowellRecords Beautiful or what? I particularly like those lines - They found water on Mars, not much but surely substantial About a pound of frozen tears' worth, as such it's purely circumstantial Wry and poignant would be words. And that children's chorus later on is perfectly judged. It turns out that the tune is Howe Gelb's response to a certain shooting in Tucson, Arizona earlier this year. You'll have heard about it. Here are all the details, quoted from the Fort Lowell Records website, the label on which the compilation appears. (By the way, you'll find eight other tracks from the album streaming on that link - at first listen, they sound really good. In fact, I...