Sharon Van Etten showed up on Conan last night to (yet again) play her song Leonard off of her new album, Tramp.  We haven’t tired of the song yet, and Van Etten obviously arrived in time for full makeup. She looks great in red. Sweet stuff.

The Shins showed up on the Letterman Show last night and played their fab song Simple Song for the broadcast show, and then played a full hour for Live on Letterman (web-only) of songs off of their newly-released album, Port of Morrow, and older songs.  Great stuff.  Check ’em both below.

Last night Esperanza Spalding performed Radio Song off of her new album, Radio Music Society, on the Letterman Show.   Radio Music Society was released today and bodes well for fans of crossover jazz, as we see a resurgence in new players of the genre.  Somehow Spalding manages to convey the spirits of both Wayne (Shorter) and Wonder (Stevie) on the new album.  The New York Times had a great feature article on her last week, which you can read HERE.  Check out her performance below.  Once again, Dave and Paul are right on with their fervent praise.

Spalding has this to say about Radio Song on her website: “This song speaks to an experience we’ve all had at one time or another: when for whatever reason, you turn on the radio and a fragment of a song just grabs you, everything in the world seems to stop, and you sit mesmerized and uplifted by the music. That moment of “being touched” from the radio is a testament to the power of song, and it’s at that magical moment when an artist – even someone we know nothing about – truly connects with their equally unknown listener.”

Neil Young is at the very top of a very small list of artists we consider to be the best of all-time.  Many of his best albums have been collaborations with the great band, Crazy Horse.   Now comes the great news, via Rolling Stone, that Young and Crazy Horse will release a new album, entitled Americana, on June 5th.  This will be the first Young album backed by the entirety of Crazy Horse since 1996, and we can’t wait.

As reported in Rolling Stone, the songs on Americana are all classic American folk songs, including This Land Is Your Land, Gallows Pole, Tom Dooley and Clementine.  This album now stands atop our list of most anticipated albums of 2012.  When done right (a la Dan Zanes and many others), these old standards are born anew and give history a chance.  We assume these covers by Young and Crazy Horse will be definitive new versions. As pointed out by the Audio Perv, Neil has penned words about each of the songs that can be found HERE.

Young has said this about the album: “What ties these songs together is the fact that while they may represent an America that may no longer exist,… [t]he emotions and scenarios behind these songs still resonate with what’s going on in the country today with equal, if not greater impact nearly 200 years later. The lyrics reflect the same concerns and are still remarkably meaningful to a society going through economic and cultural upheaval, especially during an election year. They are just as poignant and powerful today as the day they were written.”

Here is the complete track-listing for the new album (and no, it’s not THAT God Save the Queen):

Oh Susannah
Clementine
Tom Dooley
Gallows Pole
Get A Job
Travel On
High Flyin’ Bird
She’ll Be Comin ’Round The Mountain
This Land Is Your Land
Wayfarin’ Stranger
God Save The Queen

Sharon Van Etten showed up on KCRW today and once again performed her fine new song, Leonard.  She plays the Avalon tomorrow night and tickets are still available.  Check her out on KCRW below.

We’ve been fans of Nigerian Nneka for a while.  She’s delivered some stirring performances on KEXP and elsewhere.  Check out her intro and performance to Shining Star off of her recent album, Soul Is Heavy, courtesy of KUT Austin.  Feels like Sunday, but maybe it’s the sweet rain.

It’s that time of year again.  That’s right:  March Madness and the NBA Trade Deadline.  Oh wait, what we meant to say was SXSW.  According to various reports coming out of Austin, the University of Texas just lost in the NCAA Tourney.  Oh, and the musical frolic-fest that is SXSW is in full swing.  We’d love to be there to catch Chuck Prophet and a few others, but otherwise we’ll lazily monitor from afar.

Of course we wouldn’t have minded catching Bruce Springsteen perform yesterday for 2-1/2 hours and give one of the best keynote speeches of all time.  You can check the speech out way below (note:  Parental Advisory for language).  But first, courtesy of Consequence of Sound, you can check out below Springsteen’s set-culminating read of Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land, featuring Régine Chassagne and Win and Will Butler from Arcade Fire, Tom Morello (lighting it up with a little Occupy SXSW venom), Eric Burdon of The Animals, Alejandro Escovedo, Garland Jeffreys, Joe Ely, and members of The Low Anthem.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – “This Land Is Your Land” (Woody Guthrie cover) from Consequence of Sound on Vimeo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWVp7NBp9XU

You can also catch The Shins live set HERE this afternoon.

Penguin Cafe Orchestra was a brilliant British ensemble that put “chamber-pop” on the map in the ’70s and ’80s.   That title does a disservice, however, to their inventive, moving compositions.  For us they placated both our classical and pop urges in one fell swoop.  And we found that their songs provided a great score for commedia dell’arte plays.  Unfortunately, their leader Simon Jeffes passed away in 1997.  Thereafter the PCO put together occasional tours until Jeffes’ son, Arthur, restarted the ensemble in 2010 with a new group of musicians to stake out the next chapter of the PCO.

Recently, renowned concert violinist, Lara St. John joined Great Lake Swimmers on CBC’s Studio Q to perform a medley of Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B minor BWV 1002 and Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s Music for a Found Harmonium.   Now that’s entertainment!

You can see the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra perform their own version of Music for a Found Harmonium after, followed by PCO’s great Perpetuum Mobile, Air a Danser, Paul’s Dance, and Salty Bean Fumble. Sorely missed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO8-qTEz0zk&feature=uploademail

Sheffield’s Slow Club appeared on BreakThruRadio TV last week.   Check out the band, with leaders Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor, as they perform their beautifully schizophrenic song Everything Is New off of their recent sophomore album Paradise.  We love the ethereal vocals juxtaposed against the guitar crunch (though could we please turn down the dang cymbals??  The equivalent of chewing aluminum foil.).  After some interviewing, they move on to the confessional Not Mine 2 Love.  They just finished their US tour in California and now head back to the UK.  We’ve joined the Slow Club.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIOcnnk9HjI&feature=uploademail

The Decemberists are streaming their new twenty-song live double-album We All Raise Our Voices to the Air (Live Songs 04.11-08.11) in its entirety at Rolling Stone (Disc 1), Paste (Disc 2), and Spinner.

The album, their first-ever live record, features songs from The King Is Dead, as well as many fan favorites.  Tracks come from shows at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Stubb’s in Austin, Marymoor Amphitheatre in Seattle, the tour-closing pair of shows at McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheatre in Portland, and others listed below.  The album features Sara Watkins on fiddle, guitar, and vocals and several tracks include an appearance by PABST (Portland Auxiliary Brass [Saxophone Trumpet]).  The track list is below.  If you enjoyed, as we did, their enthralling, must-see set on Austin City Limits that aired last year, you’ll love this album.

We All Raise Our Voices to the Air (Live Songs 04.11-08.11)

Disc 1
1. The Infanta
2. Calamity Song
3. Rise To Me
4. The Soldiering Life 
5. We Both Go Down Together
6. The Bagman’s Gambit
7. Down By The Water
8. Leslie Ann Levine
9. The Rake’s Song
10. The Crane Wife 1, 2, and 3

Locations:  1, 4, 9  – McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheatre in Troutdale, OR; 2  – Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, GA; 3 – Overture Center in Madison, WI; 5 – Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN; 6 – Benedum Center in Pittsburgh, PA; 7 – Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville, KY; 8, 10 – Britt Pavilion in Jacksonville, OR

Disc 2
1. Oceanside
2. Billy Liar
3. Grace Cathedral Hill
4. All Arise!
5. Rox In The Box
6. June Hymn
7. Dracula’s Daughter > O Valencia!
8. This Is Why We Fight
9. The Mariner’s Revenge Song
10. I Was Meant For The Stage

Locations:  1, 5 – Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, GA; 2 – Britt Pavilion in Jacksonville, OR; 3 – University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA; 4 – Stubb’s in Austin, TX; 6 – Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI; 7, 9, 10 – McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheatre in Troutdale, OR; 8 – Marymoor Amphitheatre in Redmond, WA