Fine China: 'Trees At Night'

I love to promote local music.

Phoenix guitar-pop heroes Fine China have returned with their new single ‘Trees At Night.’

Here’s what singer / songwriter Rob Withem has to say about the track:

“In my home growing up there was an odd assortment of vinyl records among which were new age type albums by artists like Andreas Vollenweider and Mannheim Steamroller, and a whole stack of Windam Hill samplers from the early 80’s. I always was drawn to the songs with nature sounds, songs that sort of had a setting in which they existed. With ‘Trees at Night’ I wanted to combine that approach with pure pop music. So a song not only is a song but it lives in a place.“

Though the track is certainly not “New Age,” you can certainly feel that touchpoint. The track definitely has an 80’s feel and captures a nostalgic move but remains original and engaging.

Lyrics :

If you asked me for a moment
If you told me as a friend
That I'm going on alone

In the shadow of the moonlight
There's a ghost upon the room
I'm going on alone

Faces in the leaves speak with voices we deceive not
Rivers get the land both beautiful and damned
But it's on my mind and it's in the trees at night

I don't want to be a lion and I never was a lamb
Is my heart beating or is it just a hologram

Faces in the leaves speak with voices we deceive not
And the rain waters the land for the lonely and the grand
But it's on my mind and it's in the trees at night

• Visit Fine China’s official website.

• Follow Fine China at Twitter.

• Visit Fine China’s page at the Velvet Blue Music page.

• Purchase Fine China’s music at Amazon.

Giant Sand, Live at Mad Dog Studios/The Atlantic Session (01/30/90)

I don’t know if it’s still around, but when we lived in KY (roughly 2002-2005), I was part of The Sandman Series. This was a CDR series of bootlegs organized by Jim Blackman and Howe Gelb. Basically, the way it worked was that CDRs were sent out to “seeders.” I was a seeder. The seeders committed to recording and mailing the CDRs to a certain number of people (I think it was around 10 but I really don’t remember). I seeded several different discs, but the one I still return to most was called The Atlantic Session.

The core group (at that time) of Howe Gelb, John Convertino and Joey Burns recorded this set as a demo for Atlantic Records at Mad Dog Studios in CA. It was never officially released until the Sandman Series helped bring it to the light of day. As the name suggests, this is a studio recording. The band is tight and the tunes are bitchin.

The set is available at the fantastic Archive.org.

Dive right in.

• Visit Giant Sand/Howe Gelb’s official website.

• Follow Giant Sand at Facebook.

• Follow Howe Gelb at Facebook.

• Visit the Archive.org page for the show.

• Browse all posts marked “Giant Sand” here at Holiday at the Sea.

• Purchase Giant Sand music at Amazon.

Remembering Rainer Ptacek With Arizona Illustrated

By now you’re probably familiar with my love for Rainer Ptacek and his sunbaked folk blues. If not, visit this post, or this post, or this post. I’m not going to give further background information on the amazing singer/songwriter/guitarist here. Instead, enjoy this profile from Arizona Public Media (which actually does a good job profiling the story). Actually, the whole video is 28 minutes, but only the first 15 (or just shy thereof) minutes is about Rainer even if the segments about “healing art” and “Tucson trains” are interesting.

The video profile features interviews with Rainer’s widow Patti Keating, Howe Gelb, and Rainer himself. It includes some overlapping footage with the KUAT profile featured here but also includes some home movie segments which don’t quite feel like we should be privileged to see, adding depth to the music and weight to the loss.

And here’s grainy black and white footage of Rainer playing the song Patti mentions, ‘Don't Know Why ‘ in 1989.

• Visit Rainer Ptacek’s official website.

• Purchase Rainer’s music at Bandcamp.

• Purchase Rainer’s music at Amazon.

• Visit previous posts about Rainer.

Harsh Narayan: Grand Canyon Sarangi

Phoenician and tabla player (“tablist?”)Shreyas Iyer operates the Dhaa School of Music. Their website says:

“Dhaa School of Music strives to teach this complex musical instrument, Tabla, in a fun and supportive environment. The goal is to cultivate the seed of love for this instrument so that it becomes a lifelong journey for each and every student.”

On Sunday October 20, the Dhaa School of Music, together with Authentic Yoga Teacher Training are hosting and evening of live music with Harsh Narayan and Shreyas Iyer “Only 60 seats available and these are filling up fast. Get your tickets soon.”

Here is “A beautiful short clip of Harsh Narayan bonding with the elements at Grand Canyon. Thanks to Camillo Scherer for some great camera work.”

• Visit Harsh Narayan’s official website.

• Purchase tickets for the event.