Danny Schmidt's new record Little Grey Sheep dropped into my lap from the fine folks at cdbaby a few weeks ago and I've listened to it a dozen times easy.
A combination of new material and older re-worked tunes, this record is simply amazing.
You can grab mp3s of "Drawing Board", "Cliff Song" and "Adios To Tejasito" here. You can also find some of the other tracks on previous live shows on archive.org.
Get this record. It's easily one of the best things I've listened to this year.
If you want to read more about the record or individual tracks, I can't say it better than Danny. So here's his synopsis of the whole thing...
And as always with Danny read and re-read the lyrics.
Josh Ritter played at the Parish on 6th Street Monday night October 29th. My wife and I had never seen Josh and his band before and they did not disappoint. From the first 'howdy' to the end of the hour and forty-five minute set they were in great form. More amazing than that was the crowd which by my wife's estimation was very drunk (it is Halloween week in the ATX after all). They were hanging on Josh's words and rolling right along with the ebbs and flows of the performance. Raucous and loud during the right songs and quiet and respectful during the solo stuff. In fact, you can even hear the drums from the band (or PA) downstairs during "Wings". The Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen covers were fantastic.
Three great moments: 1) At the beginning "Monster Ballads" a girl yells "you're adorable." Josh responds: "so are you" and says he wants her to have a beer for him. No word on whether that happened or not. 2) A different girl screams during "Empty Hearts" to which Josh responds "I'm gonna buy you a tattoo". He goes on to sing a line of the chorus and then says "you can choose...whatever you want". 3) At the end of the show the band comes back onstage in roman hemlets (ala the one on the cover of Josh' latest record) and Josh says "these are Roman helmets but....we're gonna pretend they're pirate hats." To which several guys in the crowd respond "arrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!".
I can't say enough good things about this show. Listen and decide for yourself.
ps, one note to would-be tapers. I didn't see this on Josh's site, but soundboard plugs aren't allowed without special permission. Make no mistake though, he's cool with recording.
Danny Schmidt's new record Little Grey Sheep dropped into my lap from the fine folks at cdbaby a few weeks ago and I've listened to it a dozen times easy.
