Mavis Staples

Last Friday night I went to see Mavis Staples at the Kennedy Center. She started performing with her family 60 years ago, and she is still going strong. Her sister Yvonne still sings with her.

Here is a recent performance of a song originally from The Staples Singers days, "March Up Freedom's Highway".



Here is an interview with Mavis talking about Martin Luther King and Freedom Songs.



Mavis performing another hit from The Staple Singers days, in Central Park, "I'll Take You There".



Here is a scene from the 1978 film The Last Waltz. The Band and The Staples Singers performing "The Weight".javascript:void(0)

Jakob Dylan

Last Thursday I went to see Jakob Dylan. The first two songs are off his most recent album, Women + Country. Back up singing on these videos and on the album is by Neko Case and Kelly Hogan.

My favorite song from the album, "Everybody's Hurtin'".



"They've Trapped Us Boys"



Here is a song originally recorded with his band, The Wallflowers, "Sixth Avenue Heartache".

Campbell Brothers

I went to three concerts last week, so this week I am going to post video of the artist I saw last week.

On Tuesday on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center I saw the Campbell Brothers. They play sacred steel, which is gospel music from the Pentecostal Church played with steel guitars. I have seen them once before, so I knew it would be a good show. You can watch the entire concert here on the Millennium Stage archive.

Here are some other videos.

"Power Lord"



An instrumental version of the Sam Cooke song "A Change is Gonna Come"



The brothers are sometimes accompanied by Katie Jackson, a gospel singer from Baltimore, who has one of the most amazing voices I have ever heard. She did perform a song at the concert last week. He is a video with her singing "What's His Name".

Hank Williams - Gospel Covers

Here are a couple covers of Hank Williams' gospel songs.

Patty Griffin recorded this song, "House of Gold", on her latest album, Downtown Church. I think this is my favorite track on the album, and I have been watching for a video. This video is recorded sideways, but the audio is pretty good so I am including it.



Here are the Holmes Brothers with "I Saw the Light".



Hank Williams did not write this, but it is a song he sang. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings' version of "I'll Fly Away".

Hank WIlliams - Covers

Here are a couple covers of Hank Williams songs.

Lucinda Williams - "Jambalaya"



Norah Jones - "Cold, Cold Heart"



Ray Charles - "Your Cheatin' Heart"

Hank Williams

To celebrate Hank William's Pulitzer Prize win last week, I am going to focus on him this week.

Today a few vidoes of him. First, a video with two songs, "Cold,Cold Heart", and a duet with Anita Carter on "I Can't Help I If I'm Still In Love With You".



Another of his most popular songs, "Hey Good Lookin".



This is a live recording, but there is no video with it. I think this is probably a radio performance. "I'll Sail My Ship Alone".



This is probably his most popular song, "I Saw the Light".

Richard Bona

The Lizz Wright concert I went to last week was a double bill, with Richard Bona performing the second half of the show. I was not familiar with him before the show, but I was very impressed by what I saw. He plays bass, and had a great band. At one point during his set Lizz Wright came back out and sang Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You". Bona accompanied her on acoustic guitar. No video of that, but here are a couple Richard Bona videos.

Here is "Ekwa Mwato (Affirmation Of The Spirit)"



He did this A Capella performance at the concert. He records several different vocal parts as he is singing, and then replays them so he is singing with himself.



He performed this song, "Please Don’t Stop", at the concert I saw, and this looks like the same band that I saw with him.

Lizz Wright

I saw Lizz Wright last weekend at Town Hall in New York. I did a post of her videos last fall after I saw her in Philadelphia. She is definitely one of my favorite singers.

No video from the concert I attended, but she did perform this song at the concert, Neil Young's "Old Man".



"Song for Mia" she wrote with Toshi Reagon, who she performs it with in this video. Reagon did not perform with her last weekend, but she was in the audience. Also this song was included in the soundtrack of the movie The Secret Life of Bees.



Finally, here is "Trouble", my favorite song off her album, Dreaming Wide Awake.

David Gray

I am doing posts this week on artists that I have seen live in the last couple weeks.

I went to a David Gray concert a couple weeks ago. I think this is the first time that I have had video on this blog from a concert where I was present. The first two videos are from the concert at the Lyric Opera house. I was in the first row of the balcony for this concert. I included a video of "Nemesis" on my 2009 Favorites post. This video, from the Lyric, is a better version of the song, so I am including the song again.



Also from the concert at the Lyric, here is "Babylon", one of the big hits of the White Ladder album.



He performed "Full Steam" at the concert, but here is a duet video of the recording he did with Annie Lennox.

Emmylou Harris - How She Could Sing the WIldwood Flower

This post is about one of the songs on Harris' latest album All I Intended To Be. Here is an interview where she discusses the song, "How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower".



Here Buddy Miller helps her sing the song she wrote with Kate and Anna McGarrigle



Here is the show about the Carter Family that inspired the song.



You can click out and see Harris and Iris DeMent singing the Carter Family song "Wildwood Flower".

Emmylou Harris - In the Beginning

I normally only do three post a week on this blog, but I could probably do an entire Emmylou Harris month. Instead of that, I am just go to do an extra post this week.

Emmylou Harris first came to national attention sing with Gram Parson.

Here is some audio of Parsons describing how they meet.



The is some video of Parsons and Harris singing together, but it is not that great, so here is just the audio of them singing "Love Hurts".



After Parsons death in 1973 Harris wrought this song about her feelings, "Boulder to Birmingham".



There are several videos of Harris singing my favorite Parsons song, "Hickory Wind", but they all have embedding block, so I can't include them on this block. Here is a video from 1975 that you can click out to.

Emmylou Harris - Trios

Emmylou Harris is one of the best harmony singers ever. In addition to recording two trio albums with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, she has recorded and performed with numerous other artists.

Here are three videos with three totally different trio combinations.

"Are You Tired of Me My Darling" is an old Carter Family song that Emmylou and Iris Dement recorded with Nanci Griffith for Nanci's Other Voices/Other Rooms album.



This is one of my favorite videos on all of YouTube. Emmylou, Mary Black and Dolores Keane performing "Sonny".



The last two videos where from back in the 1990's. Here is a video from a recent Three Girls and their Buddy concert. Emmylou, Patty Griffin and Shawn Colvin singing Patty's song "Mary".

Emmylou Harris

The best part about writing a blog is that you get to make up all the rules. So, in that vein, I am declaring this Emmylou Harris week on this blog. Last week was her birthday, but I am not going to say how old she is, because I consider to be ageless.

Of the songs that Emmylou has written herself "Red Dirt Girl" is my favorite.



Here, with some help from Buddy Miller, is a great cover of the Townes Van Zandt song "Pancho & Lefty".



From the same concert, one of Lucinda William's best songs, "Sweet Old World".

Miserere Mei Deus ("Have mercy on me, O God")

For Good Friday, here is the King's College Chapel Choir with "Miserere Mei Deus" by Gregorio Allegri. Written for performance at the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week, this is the piece that a 14 year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart heard on Wednesday of Holy Week, went home and wrote down the music from memory, then returned to the Sistine Chapel on Good Friday so he could make corrections to his transcription.