Paul Sullivan - Mixtape # 1: Up Yer Strum

Home > Blog > Blog > Mixtape # 1: Up Yer Strum

Mixtape # 1: Up Yer Strum

Monday, 01 June 2009 13:33

I love a good strum now and again. There are times when you just have to turn off all that ‘oomph oomph’ music – all those ringing guitars, caterwauling vocalists and stuttering basslines - and zone out to the tranquilising twang of an acoustic guitar and the genial jangle of a tambourine.

Current MySpace statistics show there are roughly 82 trillion singer-songwriters contributing to our planet’s strum-o-sphere. How to whittle those down to a handful for an hour-long mixtape/compilation? Easy: go with what you know.

I picked out a handful of my favourite singer-songwriter albums from the last few years and set about selecting specific songs. As you’ll see I didn’t get hung up on genre: you’ll hear bits of bluegrass, alt.country, neo-folk, classic Appalachian/Americana - even some electronica. And yes there’s a couple of bands, some slightly older material and yes, yes, yes Thom Yorke is in there.

So sue me.

For me these tunes represent a selection of superb singer-songwriters - as well as 17 excellent albums. Obviously I had to sacrifice more than I could fit in - ciao Cat Powers, PJ Harvey, The Cave Singers, Arthur & Yu, Jim White, Peggy Honeywell, James Yorkston, Marissa Nadler etc. But hey, that just leaves plenty of ammo for Volume #2, right?

Since there's no Spotify here in Germany yet I've had to link to YouTube and other sources for samples. Apologies in advance for the nauseating nature of some of the accompanying videos (the mawkish Lambchop link in particular). You can download the mix in its strummy entirety by clicking here.

Tracklist

Lambchop 'The Daily Growl' (taken from "Is A Woman")

Bonnie Prince Billy 'Lay & Love' (taken from "The Letting Go")

Adem 'Ringing In My Ears' (taken from "Homesongs")

Micah P Hinson 'Jackeyed' (taken from "Micah P Hinson & The Opera Circuit")

Sufjan Stevens 'Decatur, Or Round Of Applause For Your Step Mother!' (taken from "Illinois!")

Devendra Banhart 'Santa Maria Da Feira' (taken from "Cripple Crow")

Elvis Perkins 'While You Were Sleeping' (taken from "Ash Wednesday")

Elliot Smith 'Let’s Get Lost' (taken from "From A Basement To A Hill")

Bon Iver 'Skinny Love' (taken from "For Emma Forever Ago")

The Tallest Man On Earth 'I Won’t Be Found' (taken from "Shallow Graves")

Cortney Tidwell 'La La' (taken from "Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up")

Fleet Foxes 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song' (taken from "Fleet Foxes")