And back again....

Just want to point out some independent artists who not only have incredible talent, but who also happen to be friends (except for one, but he was best man at a friend's wedding). So in no order:

1 - Lisa Piccirillo, who happens to be my daughter, has the voice of an angel, a remarkable vocal range, and together with those gifts, is a skilled writer as well. Listen to "Easier" off of her CD "Momentum" to see what I mean. It reminds me somehow of Paul Simon's "Overs" from the Bookends LP, though I don't quite know why. I would say more, but you'd accuse me of nepotism :).

2 - Mary Cutrufello is a friend going back more that 10 years. Her story is here http://www.marycutrufello.com/acousticabout.htm

Mary is simply one of the finest guitar players I have ever seen, and she writes lyrics both touchingly sweet and poignant ("Sister Cecil," from "When The Night Is Through") and street-wise hard ("Bring on the Night" from "35"), and still performs as hard as the '78 Springsteen (before he became content). You need to see her, so check out her schedule on her MySpace page. And buy her a beer.

3 - Michael McDermott, the best man mentioned above, writes holy songs. Or rather, songs steeped in the mysticism that maybe only Irish Catholics see on bad days. Michael writes achingly of love, loss, suffering, some redemption, but mostly about what it's like to live with your nerves outside your body (or maybe that' s just the way I hear it). I have a dear friend who leaks me his new stuff before it's officially out. The guy can sing, too. Noise From Words is his latest. I wrote a nice review on Amazon :).

4 - Patrick Taylor and Syd came to visit last October when, as part of Lisa's band and co-members of The Co-op, they spent the night at our house before heading off the next day to a gig. We stayed up until 3:30AM playing old Beatles, Band, and Dylan songs. Both Patrick and Syd have new material out on the Co-op label, and you should check them out not only for their youthful abandon and exuberence, but because they make some damn fine music both together, and apart.

That's all I came here to say. I hope there's some Chad and Jeremy news shortly, as they start a brief CA tour this week. Their MySpace page has been is disarray for awhile now, but it has been brought to their attention, so I would assume someone's working on it.

And speaking of beer......