kalatva.

Xavier Rudd has a really beautiful, delicate style in his music. He’s amazing at slide guitar, and plays the didgeridoo and a whole slew of other instruments too in a many of his songs. He does a beautiful cover of Jimi Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary. Here are two of his original songs too, one is more his classic gentle style (”White Moth”) and the other is a more reggae-style upbeat song of his that I really love (”Twist”).

The Wind Cries Mary

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Twist

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

White Moth

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

And the video:

The Magnetic Fields already have a pretty big following by now, but I have to pay tribute to my favourite song of theirs. Queen of the Savages is a very simple and pretty ukulele tune. Plus, the lyrics are awfully amusing.

Queen of the Savages

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Beirut is a band led by Zach Condon, a very talented young fellow who plays the ukelele. Beirut’s melodies are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. It’s been very difficult to decide on a song to sample here, because there are so many amazing choices. Elephant Gun is a beautifully melodic and melancholy tune. It starts with a solo ukulele tune, and then launches into the vocals and an accordion accompaniment, which is later joined by some brass. Enjoy!

Elephant Gun

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The music video for this song is on YouTube. It’s a fairly imaginative and peculiar video, with interesting characters and costumes, so you can check that out as well here: