Posts Tagged ‘Lottery’

Today’s Top 5: Jade Bird

Posted: November 22, 2018 in 2010s, 2018, Jade Bird, Top 5
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It’s been a whirlwind few months for me and mine – we’re preparing to leap into a new life in the Raleigh-Durham area. It’s not just packing up for the move to another house, which would be a relative breeze: We’re downsizing. We just have way too many things, and it’s time others enjoyed them. (That’s my mantra, and I’m sticking to it.) We parted with the bulk of our CD and LP collection a while back and are now sorting through the hundred-plus boxes of books that have cluttered the attic for years. Most of those tomes are being given to our local library.

It’s why my posts to this page have dwindled. What free time I have has been focused on shedding the ephemera from our lives – and there’s much, much more to shed between now and the day when the movers knock on our door.

Finding the time to listen to music (as opposed to having it play in the background) has been difficult, and will be difficult until January; and finding the time to write about it has been all but impossible. That said, my ballyhooed Album of the Year honor – which I will post at some point in the next month – was locked-in long ago, as were the the runners-up.

All of which has nothing to do with today’s post on Jade Bird. She’s not in the running for any of the Old Grey Cat’s awards save one, Concert of the Year, due to not releasing an album in 2018. (Spoiler alert: She’s in the Top 3.) But, as fans can attest, Jade has released a string of strong singles over the past 11 months. “Love Has All Been Done Before,” her latest, is absolutely killer. Here she is performing it when she played Philly in September. 

She played a stripped-down version of the song for Indie88 in the Collective Arts Black Box Sessions, which was posted to YouTube just this week:

She also performed a rockin’ “Uh Huh” during the session.

And here’s her take on Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere,” posted way back in January, for Indie88.

Here she wins with “Lottery,” and plays a few other tunes, in a video posted this week by 102.1 The Edge.

And, finally, two bonuses:

“Something American,” posted last month by The Bridge 909 in Studio:

And, from last year, her spellbinding rendition of Joni’s “River.”

Taking Flight: Jade Bird in Philadelphia, 9/29/18

Posted: September 30, 2018 in 2010s, 2018, Concert, Jade Bird
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Seatbelts were fastened. Smoking materials were extinguished. And, after taxiing to the runway while being serenaded by Field Report (aka singer-songwriter Christopher Porterfield), the jet known as Jade Bird rocketed into the sky for a rollicking performance that featured songs from her 2017 Something American E.P., a few recent singles, new material, and two choice covers. The crowd, it’s safe to say, was wowed.

The snappy set was as compact and concise as the songs, with nary a note out of place. Introductory patter was kept to a minimum. It was as if she, guitarist Will Rees, bassist Jesske Hume and drummer Matt Johnson were a twang-infused Ramones for the night. (Not that I’ve seen the Ramones.)

The inclusion of “Walk Like an Egyptian,” especially for an old Bangles fan like me, was just plain great. The audience enjoyed it, as well, and even joined in on some of the “oh whey oh” lines.

About the only negative: the set’s brevity, which clocked in at just under an hour. Elsewhere on this tour, she’s included a stirring rendition of Kate Bush’s “Running Up the Hill”; it would have been nice if she’d played it, too.

Afterwards, we talked with a few other veteran music fans who, like us, were besotted by Jade’s talent. She reminded one of a young Carlene Carter. She reminds me, however, of a young Kasey Chambers – think “Freight Train” and “Barricades & Brickwalls.” While she doesn’t possess the same quirky humor or pathos as Kasey, she does possess a similar knack for crafting killer tunes.

The set (as best as I remember it):

  1. What Am I Here For
  2. Cathedral
  3. Good at It
  4. Good Woman
  5. Side Effects
  6. Ruins
  7. Does Anybody Know
  8. If I Die
  9. Furious
  10. Uh Huh
  11. Hold That Thought
  12. Walk Like an Egyptian
  13. Love Has All Been Done Before
  14. Lottery
  15. Going, Gone
  16. **Something American
  17. **I’ve Been Everywhere