Cuddle Magic - "Expectations". The voice like a trombone solo is back. But the thing you should understand is: there are no actual trombones here. There's a salt of drums, a pepper of strings, a little woodwind and whistle and the guitars that do not let you go. But the trombone thing is a different thing. Remember when you did not know the trombone? Remember when you thought the trombone was just the slide-whistle sound of an ice-cream scoop leaving a cone? When you thought they were the wan backup singers of the brass section? Remember that time? And then gradually, slowly, hearing the great trombonists playing, hearing the right trombonists play, you learned that really the trombone is the greatest instrument of all? Because humanity lives in that moment a scoop leaves a cone; wisdom in the slip from low to high. Well all that is in this man's singing. // This is a song by Cuddle Magic, dumb and handsome, clever and plain, beautiful as anything you decide you are yes going to treasure. [anticipate Picture / go see Cuddle Magic in Iowa and the northeast / site]

The Curtains - "Go Lucky". Where the cork grows, there are years of sky. There is wind and sunlight among the trees. There are smaller plants that grow green among the roots. In time the cork trees are stripped. The cork is taken in trucks, boats and jet-planes. At M. Giddenze's vineyard, grapes are turned to wine. Steel channels pour wine into grey bottles. Labels are steamed onto glass. And then the small carved corks, falling slipped thunk into the mouth of every one. A cork in every one. These fine bottles crisscross the world, they hide in a thousand cellars, and a cork in every one. The memory of wind and sunlight, tightly held, in the dark. (I do not need to tell you that this is another voice like a trombone solo.) [site/buy]

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I am still seeking the most wonderful songs of 2009.

This Thursday (November 19), I will be doing a short reading at Le Pick-Up. I'll be reading from something I've been working on for a while. It's free and at 7pm. It would be nice to see you.

(photo source)