My lovely and talented friend Sarah (see day 1 for link) started this challenge.
I am going to do this the way Sarah did – a song every day and with a few lines about why I like each artist and song, and why it is significant for me. I am as much about the music as the words by the way, so I have to like both if I include a song.
Please feel free to join in this challenge with your own lists!
‘Silver Rider’ by Low
Low are a band from Duluth, Minnesota, who formed in 1994 around the central husband & wife partnership of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. Their aim was to counter the grunge scene of the early 90s by creating slow, minimalist and quiet music. Their voices harmonise incredibly well. 25 years later they just released the latest in a long line of albums, to great acclaim. Oddly though, this new album is the first of theirs I really dislike!
My first encounter with Low was via an acquaintance at work who promoted gigs in my city. I was intrigued enough by the song title ‘Little Argument With Myself’ to listen to the band.
The album ‘The Great Destroyer’ in 2004 is as close to rock as Low get. The track ‘Silver Rider’ I loved right from the start.
( ‘Monkey’ opens the album with 20 seconds of piercing high pitched white noise. Friends of ours once put it on the cd player when visiting, without having ever heard of the band, and took it off quickly after ten seconds thinking the cd was faulty 🙂 )
The great Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin chose to cover two songs from this album ‘Monkey’ and ‘Silver Rider’ on his Band of Joy album and (sadly for me) these versions have overshadowed the originals despite being virtual copies. I much prefer the Low originals.
I have now seen Low perform in concert five times. One of which, amazingly, was in my local library in 2012! They can be a gamble live – they famously filled their half-hour slot at a festival once by extending their first and only song in the set with 25 minutes of jamming..
This is a new one on me but I really liked it – thanks for the share Darren :O) x
p.s. the music seems to stop at around 5.00 but the track is 8 minutes long – have I missed something?
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Glad you like it Lisa. The album track is definitely not 8 minutes long so I suspect a glitch by whoever uploaded it to youtube!
You might enjoy the song/video of ‘Especially Me’ , in which Mimi does the lead vocal.
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Glad you enjoyed it Lisa😊. This must be a mistake by the uploader because the album track is certainly not 8 mins long.
You might like ‘Especially Me’, for which Mimi does the lead vocal. x
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Yes I think you could be right ;O) OK, cool thanks Darren, I’ll give it a listen x
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I love when someone introduces me to new music. This track is lovely and I’ve just found a bunch more to listen to later. Thank you Darren.
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Really delighted you liked this one as Low are one of my favourite bands. There are some great videos on Youtube such as performances on KEXP.
I feel the same way about finding new music this way. People of our age often complain that there is no good music getting made any longer. It is not true – but the good stuff can’t compete with manufactured pop acts that get into the charts now. It needs to be searched for (or found via other people).
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Love it! BTW did you know they are performing in UK Thursday 29 August 2019 – Sunday 01 September 2019 at Larmer Tree Gardens, Sixpenny Handley. Just thought you might like to know.
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Thank you. I had heard they were over here to play festivals this summer. I was hoping they might play some indoor shows too, though their most recent album I find unlistenable and it puts me off a little.
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Very easy listening, good harmonies.
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