Lots of good new music lately, although it’s all decidedly of the ultra-sensitive coffeehouse variety. If this keeps up, soon I will grow breasts and start taking a lot of candlelit baths. Most recently, I’ve been digging on this:

If you haven’t heard Bill Frisell, he’s what I suppose you could loosely describe as a jazz guitarist, though his output is so varied that any description would probably fall short of the mark. He started his career with ECM, and if you’re a guitar nerd, you know that means his early stuff is heavy on the skronk. His later releases have been through Nonesuch, and have been much more melodic. My favorite is the wonderfully titled Good Dog Happy Man.

It’s what I think a lot of people would describe as good Sunday morning music. Since it’s still technically Sunday morning as I write this, here are a couple songs from Good Dog:

Shenandoah
Poem for Eva

Now, Petra Haden & Bill Frisell is something a little different–a vocal project, fronted by the daughter of jazz luminary Charlie Haden. Petra used to sing for a band called that dog; their records weren’t very good, but she has a pleasant voice. An entire record of that voice floating in front of Frisell’s unmistakeable, wonderful guitar makes me happy. Hear for yourself. Let me know what you think:

The Quiet Room
I Don’t Want to Grow Up
Yellow

For all you Tom Waits fans, yeah, that’s the “I Don’t Want to Grow Up” you know and love. And yeah, that’s a cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow.” They also do “Moon River,” “When You Wish Upon a Star,” and probably a couple others I’m not remembering right now.

Good stuff.

About the Author

Jeff Giles

Jeff Giles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Popdose and Dadnabbit, as well as an entertainment writer whose work can be seen at Rotten Tomatoes and a number of other sites. Hey, why not follow him at Twitter while you're at it?

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