Beirut and Louisville
Friday evening finds me in Louisville, Kentucky, at the end of the SLA Leadership Summit. As I stated in June, it's always a distinct pleasure to reconnect with the SLA membership - to see old friends, meet new people, deepen the friendships that have formed, catch up, throw your crazy ideas out and see what people think of them, and listen to their crazy ideas. Turns out that they're all pretty good ideas. Some of the most amazing people, compassionate and capable folks, come here and share freely of themselves and their thoughts, feelings, passions and, occasionally, souls.
OK, that seems a bit overwritten - we had a damn good time 
Funny thing is we totally struck out finding bluegrass in Louisville proper. There's a venue a block away called Coyote's, but it appears to only open for special events. Didn't have time to investigate deeper on other venues, local bands. Oh well.
A meeting doesn't go by, though, without picking up some new music. So far, I have some new bands to listen to: Teenage Bottlerocket's new album (based in Wyoming, wonder if they'll be coming by soon), The Dollyrots, Immaculate Machine, new Hot Hot Heat, Ima Robot, Babyshambles, The Damnwells. I don't know more than half these bands, so I'm excited. And more to come.
My musical companion this trip - the "hit" so to speak - is Beirut. I first heard Elephant Gun almost a year ago in February 2007 from KEXP. (If you haven't tuned into what KEXP puts out in podcasts, start now.) Just before the conference, I downloaded several of their live in-studio sessions from the past year and a half, and found two live Beirut sessions. These guys are multi-instrument performers - ukeleles, mandolin, accordion, percussion. It all sounds vaguely Eastern European, lots of waltzes thrown in.
I really liked Elephant Gun, but when I went to explore further, everything sounded kind of the same to me. Coming back to it now, I've discovered several gems, the greatest of which is Scenic World on Gulag Orkestar. Goddamn, I love this song! I am this freakin' close to starting a podcast. I have thought of the name of it: Music Therapy. 15-20 minutes of great songs. I'll obviously let you know when I get that going - first I need the equipment and the learning Until then, I have to pack and be out by 11am tomorrow morning, with an afternoon of wandering around downtown Louisville. Where's the art museum? Oh, here it is.
