South By Southwest Music Conference is underway in Austin. I wish I could be there to take in the sounds and sights, not to mention all the BBQ.
Guess I’ll have to make do with the free 22-song sampler that SXSW is offering from its site. Whoa is me.
The disc features new music from Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Civil Wars, Lucinda Williams, Bright Eyes and Hayes Carll, among others.
Here’s a video from Mayfield performing “Sometimes at Night” from her album, Tell Me live at the Kent State Folk Festival in her hometown of Kent, OH. The album, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, is out now on Nonesuch Records.
I also like this “official video” from Nashville duo The Civil Wars:
According to Twangville, the harmonies between Joy Williams and John Paul White of The Civil Wars “have a dark sweetness to them that grows even darker as gothic-folk arrangements envelope them.”
Gothic-folk. I like.