The young woman singing in this clip appears to be the driving force behind the shoombabies YouTube channel. She sometimes performs solo, both with and without a guitar, but often is joined by a wide range of accompanying musicians.
In this case, the girl playing guitar isn’t identified and isn’t all that great a guitar player (or at least, her guitar doesn’t sound all that great to me… but maybe that’s more of a tuning issue). And I find that adds to the appeal of the clip.
“My music taste is like most people’s dads,” is how maybesotory introduces herself on her YouTube page, and that hits on the key ingredient of her immense appeal.
Tory is a porcelain-lovely English lass with bee-stung lips and a wide assortment of hairstyles (though she tends to favor the bangs she sports in this clip). Her song selections are solidly 60s: Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and a whole lot of Bob Dylan. As she comments on one of her clips, she feels she was born in the wrong decade.
Sayaka Alessandra is a beauty with a deep, rich voice and a name so pretty it should be the inspiration for a follow-up to Ben Folds’ ‘Saskia Hamilton.’
According to her personal website, “Since being discovered on YouTube Sayaka has gone on to sing in Café’s, Lounges and outdoor venues. In the short time she’s been singing and learning guitar her talents have excelled. At the present rate of improvement her fans predict she’s on the way to becoming an international star.”
Theme weeks are a song-of-the-day blogger’s best friend. They allow you to come up with material in batches rather than piecing thoughts together one post at a time. I can knock out five theme posts in the time that it takes me to select and write a couple of standalones.
So I’m always on the lookout for a new theme week.
Recently I was thinking about how often I hear that somebody likes Bob Dylan’s songs but hates his voice so I decided to troll YouTube for Dylan covers. Specifically, Bob Dylan songs covered by cute girls. Now that sounds like a theme week.
This Random Weekend has become something of a theme weekend on its own, with the second quiet country ballad in a row popping up today. The melody of today’s song even sounds a lot like yesterday’s.
Lyle Lovett’s 2009 release, Natural Forces, is a collection of both Lovett originals and songs he covered by other Texas musicians, including Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen and other lesser-known songwriters.
