Appetizers For Your Week | How's My Living?

I guess by virtue of reading these words, you’ll know that this thing is in fact on. Hi. I’m Mel. My official introduction came to you last week, and I’m pretty thrilled to be here.

Right now I’m hard at work on what I hope will be the writing sample that will get me in to the graduate school of my choice — it’s a long story, it had better be a long essay, and it’s consumed most of my waking thoughts for the last several weeks — but rather than expose folks to a bunch of unformed, unfinished thoughts that don’t make any sense right now, I thought I’d start off with some slightly more formed and finished thoughts — like appetizers.

Austin’s Waterloo Records may be my favorite record store in the country solely by virtue of their decision to sort their stock purely alphabetically, and not by genre. Every time I go in, I’m struck by how refreshing it is to know exactly where to find what I’m looking for in an unfamiliar store.

Recently I discovered Hayes Carll by way of “She Left Me For Jesus”. It’s one of those songs I feel like I ought to feel guilty about liking, but I can’t quite bring myself to do it — maybe because it’s got just the right degree of sly to suit me.

In the land of excellent covers, I’m enamored of Jeff Tweedy and Avi Buffalo covering Neil Young’s “Look Out For My Love” two weeks ago at the Wilco-curated Solid Sound Festival. When it comes to conveying fragility through tone and timbre, Neil Young is one of the best, but these two might have him beat here. [Via.]

Weather, automobile, and energy levels willing, I’m planning on leaving straight from work Friday to head up to Laramie, Wyoming to see Mavis Staples at the Snowy Range Music Festival, despite the 6am flight I’m on from Denver the next day. I picked up her album Live: Hope at the Hideout last weekend and it’s been nearly all I’ve listened to since. I don’t think I want to pass up the chance to see her this week.

Now it’s back to the land of the writing sample, population me, a bunch of nudie suits, and some history of the Grand Ole Opry. Have a good week, y’all. I’ll see you soon.