Rocky Road to Dublin – The Dubliners

One of my favorite vocalists of all time makes an appearance on this special Saint Patrick’s day edition of Shake The Monday Blues. He is another name in the long list of musicians that have gone long before their time. Luke Kelly could sing like no other, and on this St. Patrick’s Day morning he is in my headphones. I hope you enjoy it. Happy Saint Patrick’s day Lúc Ó Ceallaigh, I’m sure he’s celebrating somewhere.

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The Big Easy Express: Scenes and Songs

One of my favorite features on this blog has always been Scenes And Songs. I am happy to finally be able to contribute something to back to it. The 2012 documentary film Big Easy Express chronicles three of the most popular indie / folk / bluegrass bands of the moment: Old Crow Medicine Show, Mumford and Sons, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The scene I have chosen is the opening sequence.

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Tom Waits, A Map, and Big Data

Hot damn I love the internet. While “researching” for this blog last night I stumbled across a simple website: tomwaitsmap.com. It basically is just a google map with pins marking the location of every place mentioned in a Tom Waits song. It’s a great way to visually qualify what we already knew about Mr. Waits: that he LOVES traveling, and more specifically, singing about traveling. I found myself spending tons of time clicking on each pin, singing the lyrics in my head, and thinking about what all these places could mean to Tom Waits.

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5 Favorite Jimmy Fallon Music Videos

Jimmy Fallon just got a big ol’ promotion. I’ve always been a fan of his. He takes his music just seriously enough to make it really good, but not quite so seriously that he can’t have a ton of fun with it. In honor of his new position (and hopefully not the death of his ability to do fun things like this) I bring you my top five favorite Jimmy Fallon music videos.

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Train On the Island – Old Crow Medicine Show

I’ve got a short but sweet video to kick off your work week. This weekend I rewatched the documentary film The Big Easy Express. For anyone that has yet to watch it, you are missing out. This clip comes fairly early on and captures Old Crow Medicine Show doing what they do best: playing music. No bells, whistles, or audience, just a band and their passion. Cory Younts just nails the vocals. Eat your heart out.

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Flying With Musical Instruments is Now Less Scary

Any traveling musicians out there? If you are like me, you have at one point you have taken off your strings, packed the case with spare clothes, and crossed your fingers that you got a nice flight crew that would look the other way as you refused to let the baggage crew jump up and down on your favorite possession. Well hopefully we will never have to do that again.

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The Highwaymen: Great Song, Terrible Video

Oh man, I’ve had this song stuck in my head all day. I actually really like this song. With Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson you can’t go wrong. I sang this song all the way through the morning. When lunch finally rolled around I sprinted to my computer, got on YouTube and found the video. With coffee in hand I hit play.

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