mnspin

This week listen to a playlist of three winning tracks by Gawker Slowdown, chosen by Matt Perkins, Josiah Wordsworth chosen by Sarah Askari, and Nigel Egg chosen by M.anifest.

Gawker Slowdown | If I Do

Eric Kalenze, a Twin Cities metro area high school teacher and football coach performs as Gawker Slowdown. All songs are written, performed, and recorded by me in my basement project studio, usually while my lovely wife and daughters sleep.Began writing in 1991 while in college. Settled in with Third Wheel in 1995, for whom I played guitar, sang, and served as chief songwriter. Released two pretty good records, toured, broke up in 1999. I wanted to keep writing songs, but wanted to not worry so much about things like promotion, selling product, etc. Decided to go the self-recorded route (the cheap self-recorded route, at that--all songs at this site were recorded with modest means from my basement studio) and to do my thing while my family sleeps or takes overnight vacations to grandma's.

Josiah Wordsworth | My Catholic Darling

Since 2005, Josiah Wordsworth has been dazzling listeners with a refreshingly new sound that is taking audiences by storm. The sound lies somewhere in the realms of jazz, classical and rock; however, cannot claim itself to be anyone in particular. Josiah Wordsworth live is a jaw-dropping experience that routinely leaves listeners in shock and awe, leaving the audience a performance to never be forgotten. The 2007 debut EP "Blue State" made a stunning splash on the radio, receiving airplay on 180 CMJ affiliated radio stations, chart ing in the Top 10 in many markets for multiple weeks. In addition to the radio success of "Blue State", the album EP has been recently licensed to various TV networks, such as MTV, Oxygen, and Lifetime. April 2008 will mark the landing of the debut full-length LP, aptly titled "Wordsworth!", which is a monsoon of fresh air for all music lovers.

Nigel Egg | Black Man at the Door

Some guys in my high school heard me sing a Gilbert and Sullivan thing and asked me to try out with their rock band, “The Roots Of Evil”. This was 1965. After a while we fired Bruce, the guitar player, because he looked too young. It was a total asshole thing to do but it is the main reason I got into the blues. Frank joined the band, he almost had a moustache, and his brother was in the top local (Thanet, England) band, The RoJeans. Frank turned us on to John Mayall. The band became “Blind Lemon”. The other guys asked me to please stop singing falsetto trying to imitate John Mayall on “So Many Roads”. That’s about the sum total of what I knew about the blues, and I was fine with that. I was a Blues Guy. Now I am an Old Blues Guy. Once I accepted that idea, it grew around me like bark. It has been dawning upon me that there are many subjects to write sing blues about that few people do in a blues form. Living is hard. Even for white, privileged Americans like me, things come up. Somehow we manage to shut out war and genocide in Africa, starvation in Asia, global warming… and we worry about the little things, the things right in front of our faces. We get the blues about our refrigerators, our teenagers, the phone bill, what the neighbors think of our furniture…we even get the blues about our lawn. Admit it! These are good subjects for the blues. You can sing it out and away because you are recognizing it, celebrating it even. It seems like country music has corralled these day-to-day subjects that we all live with. I want to blow a little air up the blues’ skirt.

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