Always & Forever - Americana Vol. 1

2014-05-18

I know this blog is supposed to be about ambient music but over the years I've posted some outliers - "Quintessential Jazz" "Footsteps" "Psalms and Lullabies" "Sunday Morning Music" "Vox Electronix" and some other odd balls. It gets a little boring just mixing nothing but floating ambient so it's nice to branch out every now and then.This mix, "Always & Forever," is definitely on a different branch of the musical tree than ambient. It's a collection of Americana style tunes that I've been listening to a lot lately.

This mix, "Always & Forever," is definitely on a different branch of the musical tree than ambient. It's a collection of Americana style tunes that I've been listening to a lot lately.

I've been a fan of the Avett Brothers since my daughter introduced me to them 7 or 8 years ago. Listening to the banjo as used by the Avetts and Sufjan Stevens started me on a path to enjoying stripped down, acoustic, country/americana/roots/whatever-you-want-to-call-it music.

Even though this mix is Americana music I think it still retains some of the Low Light Mixes feel. Most of the tunes are simple and laid back.

There are two soundtracks represented here, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Nebraska." I love the beautiful simplicity of the "Nebraska" soundtrack. It always conjures up the black and white landscape images from the film.

Oops, there are three soundtracks used in this mix. I forgot about "Inside Llewyn Davis." Another of my favorite films from last year. The job Oscar Issac did was fabulous and so I couldn't resist using two cuts from the album.

Also included in this mix are four artists that I heard for the first time in 2013, Elephant Revival, Valerie June, Johnny Flynn and Gregory Alan Isakov. All excellent recordings.

Some other artists that I just had to include are The Avett Brothers because, well, they're the Avett Brothers. Also Blessed Feathers because they are local duo that does awesome music. And Andrew Bird because he has become my favorite all around artist over the last 2 or 3 years.

I hope you all enjoy this newest diversion from the ambient formula. I like this mix so much that I'll probably do more.

Cheers.

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