Thursday, June 9, 2011

Random Youtube Video of the Day

The video of the day is a song that has been covered almost millions of times since it's creation by Leonard Cohen in 1984. It's the very famous Hallelujah NOT written by a man named Handel. After spending the past hour on Youtube trying to find my favorite version of it.(trust me just about every famous artist in the past 20 years has done a cover from Willie Nelson to Rufus Wainwright to Imogen Heap and every artist in between) I'm going to put my list of top 5 versions of this song before posting it and if you ever have the time, do listen to the different versions because the top 5 are all good. I'll also include a few honorable mentions as most of the artists who did it have voices worthy of this song. It's a marvelous song about love and faith with a few  biblical references thrown in for good measure. One of them being the story of Samson and Delilah when she cuts his hair. The other being the story of King David and Bathsheba when he sees her bathing.

1.Espen Lind- Four Norwegian guys, one on guitar and all singing throughout the song as solos and harmony. They also clearly love the song and really give the song everything. The last guy to sing a solo is my favorite and has a pretty neat voice.
2.Kate Voegele- No one knows who she is but I first heard hers a few years ago and it's great. It's now a studio record on youtube that has a million hits. The one she had a few years ago had less than a 1,000 views and some strange picture when I found it.
3.Rufus Wainwright- This is the one that is in the movie Shrek, pretty normal version of it.
4.Imogen Heap- The most bare of any covers but it's very beautiful and soulful as typical of her singing.
5.Allison Crowe- Her at a piano, singing..what more to say?

Honorable Mentions
KD Lang- Solid woman vocals, piano and light synthesized orchestral background.
Jeff Buckley- Probably the most famous version..I find it too self-indulgent and lacks soul.
Willie Nelson- Just cause it's Willie you should listen to it.

After all that here's Espen Lind's incredible and Art of Choice blog winning version of Hallelujah. Enjoy.


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Random Youtube Video of the Day

Today's video is dedicated to a great new bluegrass band that was formed a few years ago. They are called the Punch Brothers and have opened for Dave Matthews, played with Steve Martin and performed on David Letterman as well as touring all over the US of A. My buddy Paul Kowert is the bass player for them, a former Curtis Institute of Music student as well he joined the band in 2008. Chris Thile is the lead vocalist and mandolin player, formerly of the band Nickel Creek. Gabe Witcher on the fiddle, Noam Pikelny on the banjo and Chris Eldridge on guitar. They have a really incredible album called antifogmatic that you can purchase on iTunes. My favorite song of theirs is Rye Whiskey..so here it is in a live radio recording of it. Enjoy.