I caught Bonnie Raitt on Colbert last night doing a lovely cover of Gerry Rafferty'sRight Down the Line. Raitt and Colbert first discussed her 1974 album Streetlights and how she popularized John Prine's classic "Angel from Montgomery." I had no clue it was Raitt who gave "Angel" it's first bit of fame. John Prine released the song in 1971 on his self-titled debut album. It was then recorded in 1972 by Carly Simon, but the Elektra record executives didn't like it, so her version wasn't released until her 1995 box set Clouds in My Coffee. (I may have to agree with Elektra on this one. Her version is, well, odd. And very 1970s rock.) John Denver recorded "Angel" in 1973 for his album Farewell Andromeda. But it was Raitt's 1974 version that made the song widely known. Maybe it needed a woman's voice for people to get it.
Check out the Bonnie Raitt and Stephen Colbert duet of "Angel" from last night's post-show session. Nice work Stephen!
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Over the weekend the Juno awards were held in Ottawa. The Junos are the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys. William Shatner hosted the TV event on Sunday (how awesome is that?). Feist beat Michael Buble for artist of the year, Dallas Green beat Feist for songwriter of the year, and Dan Mangan won best new artist, even though he's not that new (similar to Bon Iver winning that award at the Grammys). Good old Justin Beiber won the Teenaged Girls' Choice Award, I mean People's Choice Award. You can see all of the nominees and award winners here.
And also like the Grammys, most of the Juno awards were handed out at a Gala on Saturday, the day before the TV broadcast. I was cruising around on twitter on Saturday night when someone posted that The Sadies, one of my favorite bands, had won best video. Cool! The winning video posted below is called Rumbleseat and features the song "Tell Her What I Said" from the 2010 album Darker Circles. Rumbleseat, directed by Mike Roberts, is more of an animated short film than an actual music video. It's pretty bad ass.
What kind of sick April Fool's joke is it to have two killer concerts in that same city on the same night? While I am at the Revival Tour tonight at the Middle East, which I believe is sold out, I want you to check out Jonny Corndawg with Shovels & Rope and Robert Ellis at the Great Scott.
Here's our main man Jonny Corndawg with his Couch by Couchwest performance (more on Couch by Couchwest later).
He may be eccentric, but he's one of the few country musicians who doesn't take himself too seriously, and actually adds some much needed humor to country music. He's one entertaining dude.
Shovels and Rope are husband/wife duo Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent. They have a handful of solo albums between the two of them, and their first proper duo release was entitled Shovels and Rope, which they now use as a band name. It's a great country album, and wow, does Hearst have some pipes! I can't wait to hear more from this duo.
Robert Ellis is an up-and-coming country/folk singer from Houston who pens lyrics miles beyond his 22-years. Someone on Amazon referred to him as Texas's Nick Drake. I've heard nothing but stellar things about his live show.
