Last week at M8: Reviews of the latest from John Mellencamp (stream) and Aiofe O’Donovan (buy), the latter with production by Joe Henry. As for a decent week in music news …
Calexico’s El Mirador
Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino release El Mirador on April 8. You can buy/stream the 12-song album at the usual places; here’s the Bandcamp page.
El Mirador
1. El Mirador
2. Harness The Wind
3. Cumbia Peninsula
4. Then You Might See
5. Cumbia del Polvo
6. El Paso
7. The El Burro Song
8. Liberada
9. Turquoise
10. Constellation
11. Rancho Azul
12. Caldera
I’m looking forward to “The El Burro Song”. Meanwhile, the horns are ready to greet you in the first advance track, one of the more engaging lyric videos.
Hello Again: Dave Matthews Band summer dates
When summer’s here, the time is right for DMB fans in the seats. The band’s 2022 trek details are up for perusal and preparation. As they’ve done many years, the tour starts in May in the middle of the U.S. (this time, lovely Austin, TX on May 11), makes its way over to and down the east coast, takes a break in late July, and saunters toward a west coast conclusion in September.
If history is any indication, the band is slightly past due to make room for a hometown visit. The last shows at John Paul Jones arena were at the end of 2019. Charlottesville is unsurprisingly absent from the traditional summer shed slate. There’s nothing quite like a brief winter DMB run, though, and with any luck, this will be the year.
Whether they come to your town or not, there’s always old school couch-and-setlist tour from DMBAlmanac.
Tom Joad, white courtesy phone
It’s looking like the Bruce Springsteen archives will fire up again tomorrow. If a pre-order link is reliable, the selection is night two in Upper Darby, PA from the first leg of the Ghost Of Tom Joad tour.
This show features every song from The Ghost Of Tom Joad, two other non-album songs new to audiences, and the tour’s one and only performance of Blinded By The Light.
Shows later in the tour would loosen up with material a little bit, but this first series of dates features the Joad concept at its purest. Personally, I am hoping for an archive release of one of the rarer dates where Springsteen opened not with his own title track but with Woody Guthrie’s “Tom Joad”.
If you haven’t seen Ken Burns’ documentary about the Dust Bowl, it’s a really interesting look at an unusual, largely man-made American disaster and resilience in the face of it.
Steven Wilson puts it on paper
With Limited Edition Of One, Steven Wilson works through his somewhat unusual success on both sides of the recording console and much more. Knowing his discerning fanbase all too well (see title of book), Wilson makes his reflections available in a standard edition and two more deluxe options (Special and Artist’s).
The latter two versions include a companion CD that includes some previously unreleased material, along with assorted goodies. The Artist’s Edition is limited to 125 copies.
Limited Edition Of One hits virtual and physical shelves April 7.
