Let's just throw it all out and see what's sticks...

Another thumbs-up for that Trouble With Sweeney album: "tres Foldsian, but better, and more Scottish - but from Philly," says Jasper Coolidge over at his fine, fine site. Ace concert pics of many ace music-makers, the most recent of which being the NYC debut of Tilly & the Wall: "Perhaps the most important event to happen in music in my lifetime. I admit I am one who tends to hyperbolize each new amazing bliss-inducing band I come across, but dammit, you must believe me when I say that a Kool-Aid perma-smile did not leave my usually stricken with grouchy stress face the entire time they played. For that to happen, means that some other magical forces had to be at work besides the ol' cute girls in a band routine."
Hmm, maybe we'd better meet 'em...

Don't know if that was one of them but Tilly had some dates booked with Rilo Kiley who are running-in new material for their next album on a stripped-down acoustic tour. The Boston Globe caught their show last week...

And talking of shows, Damien Jurado's UK dates have been cancelled again - recording commitments cited. Presumably this means Denison Witmer won't now be over either. Oh well...

...let's pick ourselves up with a bit of classical harp. Indie-folk harp, oh yes! A distinctly dodgy proposition? Not in the hands of Joanna Newsom. Quirky, a little bit Bjork-y, songs like clam, crab, cockle, cowrie and Bridges and balloons from her self-releases [hear here] definitely whet the appetite for her label debut The milk-eyed mender in March. Signing to Drag City should help matters as she remarked last summer: "I would like to be on a record label, because it is very expensive to tour with a harp. It's a huge deterrent for me to go cross country. When I get asked to tour with someone, I don't know if I will eat at all if I go. Any vehicle that is big enough to carry a harp is one that burns up a lot of gasoline..."

Still with harps but this time of the mouth variety, it's new year, new site, new album(!) from the very singular StarlingsTN. Between hell and Baton Rouge (Jan 24) will apparently develop the spaced-out ambient Appalachian vibe the guys conjured up on their debut, Leaper's Fork [reviewed June 12 2002]. It's electric dulcimers-a-go-go, basically...