Friday Quick Hitters: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Luminescent Orchestrii, The Windbreakers

Obviously, I listen to a lot more music than I’m able to share on this site.  A lot more.

The thing is… writing reviews takes time, and I have two jobs, a baby, a wife, and a dog that all require my attention.  It’s sometimes hard to find time to write lengthy reviews of all the stuff I want to feature.  ReviewShine Wednesday was one attempt to feature more music by writing shorter reviews of newer stuff.  Of course, there’s a lot of stuff I dig that isn’t featured on that site.

That’s what this space will hopefully become.  A place for me to briefly (two or three sentences at most) mention music that I’m listening to, but I know I’ll never have time to feature properly.  It will give you more stuff to listen to, and leave me feeling less guilty about all the stuff I’m neglecting/have neglected.

Carolina Chocolate Drops & Luminescent Orchestrii – Self-Titled EP

Nothing much here… Just your typical, “traditional string band paired with an Eastern European folk/klezmer band and a human beat box” record.  I’m sure we all have hundreds of these in our collection.

In all seriousness though… this EP is a lot of fun.

Carolina Chocolate Drops & Luminescent Orchestrii: Knockin’ (Buy Album)

The Windbreakers – Time Machine (1982 – 2002)

This is a “best of” collection from Tim Lee‘s former band and is full of jangly goodness.  Lee and  Bobby Sutliff were the driving forces behind this band and counted themselves as friends and contemporaries of groups like R.E.M. and Let’s Active.  This collection from 2003 is more than strong.

The Windbreakers: Changeless (Buy Album)

Notes and Last Week’s Live Music

***First off… I want to send out some get well wishes to Americana icon Buddy Miller. Buddy suffered a heart attack on Thursday and is currently recovering from a triple bypass surgery.

Get well Buddy.

***It’s Tennessee Shines time again. This month, Jim Lauderdale is joined by The Gibson Brothers, Megan McCormick, local favorite Erick Baker, and blues legend Pinetop Perkins. Perkins recently celebrated his 95th birthday and is still churning out great blues records. His latest, Pinetop Perkins and Friends, includes guest shots from Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughn, and B.B. King.

Tennessee Shines airs live on WDVX Wednesday night at 7:00 (Eastern). Here’s a classic cut from Pinetop.

Pinetop Perkins: Got My Mojo Working (Buy Album)

***Now that you know what’s coming up, I can tell you about a couple of great live acts I saw last week here in town.

On Wednesday, Nels Andrews came to town to play the Blue Plate Special. Nels is a terrific singer-songwriter whose sparse and simple songs transport the listener instantly to the American Southwest where he spent a good portion of his life. For his performance, he was joined by mandolin/banjo player Brandon Seabrook. I actually found myself focusing on Seabrook for most of the performance as he coaxed sounds out a four-string banjo that I have never heard before. At times, he even drew a fiddle bow across the strings of both instruments. It filled out the sound quite nicely.

Friday it was Luminescent Orchestrii for a Blue Plate at The Square Room. The Gypsy folk rockers from New York put on a high energy show that was as diverse as it was entertaining. From Albanian folk songs to Romanian rave-ups, the band brought the traditional sounds of Eastern Europe to East Tennessee. Another concert attendee commented that Luminescent Orchestrii sound like The Duhks might sound if they were based out of Romania instead of Canada. It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand most of the lyrics (the songs were performed in many different languages)… I understood the music, and it was one of the more enjoyable shows I’ve seen in a while.

Here’s a taste of each artist.

Nels Andrews: Dollar and the Dream (Buy Album)
Luminescent Orchestrii: Moldavian (Buy Album)