what are you listening to lately?

Have y'all heard Gus Black's Uncivilized Love? Wow !!! Very fine writing, melody and audio quality.

Also Sue Foley (several, incl. Big City Blues), Lori Lieberman (Home of Whispers), Train (Drops of Jupiter), Jane's Addiction (Strays), Eva Cassidy (imagine) plus various Cowboy Junkies and Steve Earles. Good thread -- I'll have to check into some of these recommendations.

Cheap (3/12.77L($20)) HMV compilations of jazz standards compiled under "Diva", "Batterie" (Drums), "Violon", "Sax", that I picked up at HMV at Heathrow this summer. Only good deal there.

Tom Ovans has got my attention. He's a singer/songwriter from Boston who now lives in Austin. He's got an incredible and strange voice, which has been compared to Dylan, Joe Ely, Tom Waites, et al. Sounds like rusted barbed wire and has a clamp on his nuts. Really, really strangely beautiful. His lyrics are biting, cutting, from the fire in his belly. Can't get enough of him.

In my ongoing PSA for personal recommendations - the Amazon links to my recent purchases that don't suck. Click the link, scroll down to "Listen to Samples" (for ease, just click the Listen to All button) - and through the miracle of modern technology - hear snippets streamed via Real Player or Windoze MP:

Dennison Wittmer - Recovered
Bebel Gilberto - Tanto Tempo
Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
Mull Historical Society - Us

Richard Bona, Mino Cinelu - "Mino Cinelu" (if you haven't heard this already, it's a MUST HAVE. Fantastic music, FANTASTIC fidelity)

Bob Dylan - "Love And Theft" (SACD)

Paul Simon - "You're the One"

Bryan Ferry - "Frantic" (is this SACD coming to the US anytime soon? I can't afford $50+)