kalatva.

This little Santa Cruz trio needs to be better known by all. They have great talent in such a simple form, with guitar, banjo, and double bass. Their music is a modern version of folky bluegrass, so have a listen. The first is one of their most popular songs, Old Number Seven, and the second is another of my favourites, called The Plank.

Old Number Seven

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The Plank

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The Marseille Figs is a neat band I just found out about. They’re kind of a mix of jazz and folk, with some punk elements thrown in sometimes. They have a whole slew of instruments at their disposal, and so with this mix of genres and instruments, each of their songs varies quite a bit from the next. The song i’m featuring here, Staggerlee, is my favourite out of their songs.

Staggerlee

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This is such a beautiful song, and Yael Naim has such a beautiful voice that it can’t go unmentioned. Apple gets all the credit for introducing me to this song. They used Naim’s song New Soul for the first Macbook Air ad, and it’s such a beautiful and creative tune that it became immediately very popular. The music video for New Soul is also lovely and imaginative.

New Soul

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And the video:

New Morning is not one of the most well-known Bob Dylan albums. It does feature, however, a song that anyone would recognize from The Big Lebowski, but which people often don’t recognize as Bob Dylan. I think this song is neat because in it Dylan differs a fair bit from his classic style, with some added background frills and a more melodic base than most of his songs.

The Man in Me

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Dikanda is a Polish folk band.  They are inspired by traditional Eastern European folk songs, but unlike many old folk bands, they have a really full band of instruments (accordion, violin, guitar, bass, drums, and vocals) which makes the arrangements really amazing.  These are two of my favourite songs of theirs:

Hosadyna

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Ketrin Ketrin

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