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Song of the Day #731: ‘Stray Paper (Live)’ – Tift Merritt

I’m writing this post way in advance, shortly after Tift Merritt’s new album (See You On the Moon) was released. I’ve been listening to it on repeat and rediscovering exactly why and how much I love this woman. She is a brilliant writer and performer and one of the most sensitive and intelligent artists I follow.

Merritt is a real Renaissance woman. In addition to writing all of her music and lyrics and playing guitar, piano, harmonica, tambourine, you name it, she has displayed her photography in a museum exhibit and hosts a public radio interview show where she interviews favorite actors, writers and musicians about their inspirations.

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Song of the Day #730: ‘Learn to Live With What You Are (Live)’ – Ben Folds

Continuing this week’s live series, here’s a clip of Ben Folds performing one of his EP tracks for a MySpace concert. Ben took requests from the online audience and, as usual, delivered a funny and musically diverse show.

‘Learn to Live With What You Are’ is one of Folds’ earnest songs. He’s even better at these than he is at the smart-ass ones, if you ask me. The message here is as simple as they come, but it’s a powerful one. How many of us spend our time trying to be something we aren’t, or trying to live up to expectations that have been attached to us by others or ourselves?

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Song of the Day #729: ‘Building a Mystery (Live)’ – Sarah McLachlan

I’m not a big concertgoer… it costs too much money and the venues around me rarely do justice to the performers. But through the magic of YouTube, I can watch live performances by my favorite artists from the comfort of my den. I realize it’s not the same thing, but it’s the same principal that makes me far happier to watch a Miami Dolphins game on my HD TV than from a hot seat in the stadium.

This week I’ll feature live performances of a handful of songs by a random sampling of artists. I’m sure I would have enjoyed being in the audience for every one of them, but I’m enjoying them just the same right here. I hope you do as well.

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Song of the Day #728: ‘Canadee-i-o’ – Bob Dylan

I’ve long had a plan to turn three of Dylan’s 90s folk song covers, culled from Good As I Been to You and its sequel World Gone Wrong, into a screenplay. The idea would be to intertwine three war stories, touching on thin connections between each… sort of Babel meets Saving Private Ryan. World Gone Wrong would be the working title.

Two of the songs would come from Good As I Been to You. One is ‘Arthur McBride,’ a tale of a military recruitment attempt that ends in violence. That one has a definite Tarantino feel to it… like the underground bar scene in Inglourious Basterds moved to a battlefield.

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Song of the Day #727: ‘Diamond Joe’ – Bob Dylan

The album that immediately followed Under the Red Sky wasn’t new material but the first three volumes of The Bootleg Series, probably the most extraordinary collection of unreleased tracks by any artist ever. The Bootleg Series is now up to its eighth volume, with each edition shedding new light on Dylan’s marvelous career.

But for now I’m limiting these Dylan Weekends to releases of new material, so I’ll skip ahead to 1992’s Good As I Been to You. This was Dylan’s first album that didn’t contain a single original song (even his self-titled debut contained two of his own tracks among a collection of covers). It was also his first album since he went electric to include only acoustic instruments.

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