Freeze and Thaw :: Jayber Crow

Freeze and Thaw :: Jayber Crow

So, I know that we started to do themes each month this year, but I can't contain my excitement! Jayber Crow, a dynamic duo out of the Twin Cities (and 1/2 Luther Alum), just put out a new music video to go with the release of their latest album Two Short Stories on iTunes!!!
Not only is the song pretty amazing - this video is awesome and homemade, by Pete (the mandolin player). I have been playing this song pretty much non-stop since the weekend, so to find that a new video was released only spurred my non-stop loop of Jayber Crow's music.

I hope you all enjoy it just as much as I have been - especially with all the snow melting these last few days...

Enjoy!

The end.
Love,
Meggo.

Sprung :: David Brusie

Let's talk new. Let's talk local. Let's talk Minneapolis musician David Brusie and his new album Flyover State. And in doing so, let's plug his CD release show Friday night (TOMORROW!!!) at The Beat in Minneapolis. And if we're going to bring that up, let's make sure to point out that none other than much-blogged-about Jayber Crow is also sharing the bill!

I have known Brusie for a couple of years through, uh, our adult person jobs that pay the bills. But I didn't know until recently that he has been performing in the Twin Cities for a few years now, as a musician and with theater-comedy troupe Brave New Workshop. Admittedly, despite my curiousity and best intentions, I hadn't checked out his new album Flyover State until last weekend. After I did, I kicked myself that I hadn't done it earlier, especially after my mournful post last week about the lack of inspiring music coming my way.

A little pop, a little rock, a little folk, and awfully catchy, Flyover State is a solid piece of work. The album boasts an impressive 13 tracks, drawing from a range of influences. Brusie's lyrics are interesting, some pensive, some funny. This album is easy to listen to, but also engaging - this is more than just another indie pop rock background filler album. I'm looking forward to see what Brusie does in the upcoming year.

So, without further adieu, today's song o' the day is "Sprung", the opening track from Flyover State. Well produced and complete with hand claps and catchy rifts, it is effervescent and brings a smile to my face.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN ON DAVID'S MYSPACE!

Lyrics - David Brusie, "Sprung"
The hours, the waking hours for the walking wounded
Dead flowers underfoot with sunlight overhead
It's all beginning
And this time I'm here

This time it's all been sprung
From what's been punctured
This time it's all been done
And it all looks so vaguely familiar
And I missed you when I was gone
I walked away the moment I saw me
But I missed you when I was gone

Goodnight to all the demons and restrictors
And now good morning to those who watched me fade
The air's returning
To forgotten lungs

This time it's all been sprung
From what's been punctured
This time it's all been done
And the second hand reverses from curses
And I missed you when I was gone
You may have missed me, I was under the surface
But I missed you when I was gone

You're fast asleep, I'm wide awake
You're slow to rise, I'm fast to break
The days are short, the nights are long
And I missed you when I was gone
You're fast asleep, I'm wide awake
You're slow to rise, I'm fast to break
The days are short, the nights are long
And I missed you when I was gone

Want to hear more? Head on over to The Beat tomorrow night for a great night of locally grown music! As a bonus, if you are already a Jayber Crow fan, tomorrow is a rare opportunity to see a local show. Sure, you could go see Jayber Crow with Cloud Cult the next night at St. John's, but why not see them here in Minneapolis instead? If you don't know Jayber Crow yet, look them up starting with this very blog, because you are in for a real treat.


David Brusie Flyover State Release Show
Friday, October 17, 2008
with special guests Jayber Crow and Anthony Newes
The Beat
1414 W 28th St, Mpls
$6 admission

Be there or be square, folks.
XOXO
Kim

Jayber Crow :: Drinkin' Song Germinating Seed

The song for today is in honor of the meal I have just eaten. Every vegetable in our salad - swiss chard, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers - was grown by the hands of people we know. This summer I have spent nearly every day working with youth in a community garden and I hope I have managed to convey to them, at least to some extent, the absolute wonder that is food growing. Something that starts as a tiny seed becomes food that we can eat. Dirt produces food. There is nothing I can think of that is more amazing than that. Thus, despite that this may be the third or even fourth Jayber Crow song that has appeared in this blog, I offer "Drinkin' Song Germinating Seed" as not only my song of the day but the anthem of my summer.

To hear the song, please visit myspace.com/jaybercrow.

And if you have not yet purchased multiple copies of Jayber Crow's first full-length album, Two Short Stories, kick yourself in the ass for all the joy that has been missing in your life and go buy it.

Peace.

Panic of 1837 :: Jayber Crow

i had the privilege of not only getting to visit my hometown of choice [decorah, ia] this past weekend, but also to hear the musical stylings of none other than jayber crow. jayber crow is comprised of two guys, zach hawkins [fellow luther alum] and pete nelson. their music, as previously mentioned by sumner, really is reminiscent of the midwest...or at least the midwest that i grew up in. it always reminds me of 'home' and my families.

anyway, it was really great to see these guys perform and to hear some of their new music! it's so new, that there's not even a clip online that i can post on here for y'all to listen to, so you'll have to go to jayber crow's myspace page HERE to give it a listen. they've got a new album out called "two short stories"...and that's exactly what it is! the first 5 songs of the album is called 'freeze and thaw', while the last 6 make up 'where is this wilderness'.

the songs that they write are mostly about learning and growing and places that change you, or at least, that's what my interpretation is...i really dig their music, and hopefully, so will you! this particular song is from the second story of the album and is about john deere and his plow. for those of you who have grown up on farms and understand the significance of such machinery, then you'll enjoy this song. for those of you city folk, well...here's a little history lesson :) the lyrics aren't up anywhere online, so i typed them up really quick, so my apologies in advance if i've screwed any of them up...

hope y'all enjoy.
the end.
<3,
meggo.


Panic of 1837::Jayber Crow

so let us sing of sandy soil
virgin prairie left unspoiled
and all the tall grass
dying when winter came

coming back up in the spring
to die again, oh let us sing
i'll tell you now, boy
just how the world was made

but oh dear, john deere
headed west across the land
oh dear, john deere
some things you give you cannot get back again
some things you give you cannot get back again

so let us sing of the frontier
what unlucky pioneers
she was fertile
but she would not plow

johnny came to make a name
thought of a plow so scouring
they sunk it in, son
and she went quietly [not sure on this line]

they tore it up, man
as far as eyes could see
and they sent her down the mississippi river

whoaaa!!!!

oh dear, john deere
sank the steel into the land
oh dear, john deere
some things you give you cannot get back again
some things you give you cannot get back again
some things you give you cannot get back again
some things you give you cannot get back again

The Farmer and the Nomad :: Jayber Crow

I love the midwest and thus, I love the music of Jayber Crow. Jayber Crow is two folks (one of them is a Luther grad!) playing some good old original acoustic music. And I love it. It is pure hippie deliciousness. They're currently in the midst of making their first full-length album (which I am anxiously awaiting), but a couple of years ago they released an EP called "The Farmer and the Nomad." The songs on the are mostly about traveling and growing up. The entire EP is fantastic and I highly recommend buying it (especially since Jayber Crow won't make you pay shipping costs if you buy the CD before the end of 2007... check jaybercrow.com for more info on that...), but for now I just want to mention a few tidbits about the title track itself. "The Farmer and the Nomad" the song, encompasses the entire mood of the EP (perhaps explaining its selection as title track). The EP is about the rites of passage and little pieces of life that seem routine to the point of becoming mundane. But Jayber Crow songs present such things in such a way as to remind us of their simple beauty.


"The Farmer and the Nomad" (the song) reflects the notion that things that seem mundane, or things that are societally-construed as "unpleasant" are actually really beautiful. A good friend once told me that when she grew old, she hoped her face was covered in wrinkles so that everyone would know that she had laughed plenty and had had a good life. So few of the images we are bombarded by on a daily basis reflect the beauty of such a notion - that growing old and wrinkly might be desirable - that when I come across such a positive image, my heart leaps for joy. "Farmer" opens with the following lines: "If God grants me wrinkled face/Like a country house/Black soil for my calloused hands/Send my fingers down/This skin is young/And wants a little wind." Every time I hear those lines, I smile to myself. But the song has more to say about life's waves and cycles. The chorus (and ultimately the song) concludes with the following: "The farmer waits with steady hands to call me home/But until then, it's just the shifting grass, the open road." As someone who is currently geographically "transplanted" and who expects to move around a fair amount in the next decade, I am pursuing the open road as best I can and waiting for the day when I can put my roots down, probably on a farm somewhere in the midwest, like the good folksinger/hippie I am. Like the song says, I'm hoping I'll know when that time has come when I hear someone call me home. In the meantime, this song is my soundtrack.

Here is a clip of Pete and Zach (Jayber Crow) playing the song live. At the moment, you can hear the entire song (and the rest of the songs from their EP) on their myspace page, www.myspace.com/jaybercrow.



Peace.