Category: Vocalist

Carrie Underwood and Michael W. Smith: All Is Well

In 2013 I posted the song “All Is Well”, one of my favorite Christmas songs. It’s from the Michael W. Smith Christmas album.

This is a live version Michael W. performed with Carrie Underwood. I first heard it years ago and have never forgotten it. Underwood almost overpowers the song but I don’t care, it’s a great song and a great rendition.

Personally it’s been a tough year, we’ve lost some dear souls near to my heart. Yet God is good. All the more reason to somberly and soberly reflect on the words of this important musical work.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Jules Larson wants it all!

So several days ago I began posting videos by Jules Larson, my latest favorite vocalist – and whoever is writing and arranging her songs, perhaps her, is also on the top of my list nowadays. I posted several in a row, and you might have thought I was done, BUT NO, here’s another! And OK, on this one I have to say some of the lyrics are just a little bitty bit predictable, but those lyrics end up going somewhere a bit unexpected, and overall, she is still remarkably refreshing and fantastic. Everything she does is gold.

Jules Larson and Overnight Lows – I Got Up

It’s hard to find information about Jules Larson. But I’m starting to piece together some things, and she was apparently with a fantastic band called Overnight Lows for a while and did some great music. It seems she did this before going off on her own. This is a fun, upbeat, encouraging, and FUN piece they did, see below:

Stray Cats / Brian Setzer Orchestra: Rock This Town

I love Brian Setzer‘s spirit, energy, guitar work, and his brilliance in merging rockabilly with big band sounds, this is a taste of it. If you only have about 90 seconds or so, you can skip to the 3:30 mark and get a sense of what this is all about:

I finally got a chance to see the Brian Setzer Orchestra for their Christmas 2018 tour, and loved it so much I got 2019 tickets as soon as they were available, I had AWESOME seats.  But unfortunately the tour was cancelled – Brian was diagnosed with severe tinnitus. Hopefully he’ll recover – the original Stray Cats are just now releasing a new album so that’s a good sign. There’s no tour that I know of, but this is the age of COVID-19 and we’re still in the midst of the pandemic, so I wouldn’t expect one.  In the meantime, you can enjoy that video and many others – look for the Brian Setzer Orchestra, especially from their Christmas tours.

Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) – Paul Revere & The Raiders, from 1971

This is one of my favorite songs from the 1970’s:

That’s “Indian Reservation”, with the subtitle “The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian”.  It was by a band called Paul Revere & The Raiders, and I’ve loved that song since I was a kid. The lead singer is Mark Lindsay. Wikipedia reports that he says he is one-eighth Cherokee, although there’s no citation behind that, and this one edit is the only edit attributed to the anonymous Wikipedia editor behind the assertion.

Regardless, it’s a great song. And recently I learned that it was a remake.  An earlier version of this song was performed by Marvin Rainwater in 1959:

I think I prefer the version by the Raiders.

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