DARK WAS THE NIGHT

So there I was going through my nightly internet routine...Check email, Check Facebook, Very quick check on the hardly ever used Myspace (just to check for messages), then on to the blogs. I've got 7 that I check every night and a handful of others that I check a couple times a month. So it should go without saying, if you write it I'm going to read it. So anyways I was making my way through, when I got to my dear sweet eldest sisters' school blog. And very much to my surprise I got a mention. She said she wrote because she saw on my blog that it had been 5 weeks since her last post. Then I got to looking and realized it had been the same amount of time since I had posted. So feeling shamed that my very busy (finishing her Doctorate while teaching classes and chasing after an almost 2 year old) and very tired (did I mention she just had a baby day after Christmas and hasn't slept much since?) found time to post on a blog she's not even sure people are reading (I am), I decided it was time to for me to post also...but what to write?

So I got to thinking about what's going on right now and I came up with something I'm pretty excited about. I love music; the platform for expression, the power to move peoples' souls, whatever it is it stirs up a part of me nothing else can. I really enjoy finding new bands and discovering new sounds. It just so happens that a bunch of bands that I've found in the last couple of years got together and put out a compilation called "Dark Was The Night." Now, every once in a while something happens that can really lighten your heart, something you love can actually make a difference. Now I would have bought this Cd set anyway but it comes with the added bonus that it's a benefit Cd.

Dark Was the Night is two-disc CD, featuring 31 tracks that have been exclusively recorded for the compilation. That's cool in and of itself, but what's even better is that sales from the album will benefit the Red Hot Organization - an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. Check out Red Hot's link and see that they really are a worthy cause, to date they have donated nearly 7 million dollars to AIDS relief around the world. Everyone wins here you get great music and someone somewhere just might get to live. I bought my copy at Amazon.com but I'm pretty sure it's also available on iTunes


DARK WAS THE NIGHT

THIS DISC

1 Knotty Pine – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2 Cello Song (Nick Drake) – The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
3 Train Song (Vashti Bunyan recorded, written by Alasdair Clayre) – Feist + Ben Gibbard
4 Brackett, WI – Bon Iver
5 Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
6 So Far Around the Bend – The National (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
7 Tightrope – Yeasayer
8 Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone) – My Brightest Diamond
9 Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson) – Kronos Quartet
10 I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan) – Antony + Bryce Dessner
11 Big Red Machine – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12 Sleepless – The Decemberists
13 Stolen Houses (Die) – Iron and Wine
14 Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist
15 You Are The Blood – Sufjan Stevens

THAT DISC

1 Well-Alright – Spoon
2 Lenin – Arcade Fire
3 Mimizan – Beirut
4 El Caporal – My Morning Jacket
5 Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis) – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
6 With A Girl Like You (The Troggs) – Dave Sitek
7 Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets) – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8 Hey, Snow White (Destroyer) – The New Pornographers
9 Gentle Hour (Snapper) – Yo La Tengo
10 Another Saturday (traditional song) – Stuart Murdoch
11 Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps
12 Amazing Grace (traditional song) – Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
13 The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family) – Andrew Bird
14 Lua – Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch
15 When the Road Runs Out – Blonde Redhead + Devastations
16 Love vs. Porn – Kevin Drew

31 tracks on 2 Cd's cost me something like $12. It's amazing that something so inexpensive can make such a big difference!

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. ~Anne Frank