at Marymoor Park

No Depression Festival - Short Version:

It was hot. We ate barbecue. I drank a lot of beer and cider. Most of us had dirty, bare feet. Zee Avi is adorable. Jeff Fielder is totally amazing. Jessica Lea Mayfield is a lo-fi version of Jesse Sykes. Everyone loved Justin Townes Earle. No one much liked Patterson Hood. Sam Beam makes me swoon, EVERY DAMN TIME. Lesbians love Gillian Welch.

No Depression Festival - Long Version:

Due to bad traffic across the water, I was a little late arriving at the No Depression festival on Saturday but still managed to hear the last two or three songs by the very pleasant Zee Avi. I was interested to see her live, owing to the lore that has built up around her unusual entry into the biz and she pulled it off with very confident stage presence. I have to admit though, she does sound a little like Norah Jones to me.

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Falling Apart finds itself walking a pencil-thin line. It isn’t poppy enough to whet the thirst of mainstream country fans, and it's tainted with enough dog-in-the-pickup-truck, girlfriend’s leaving, cut-off flannel shirt honky-tonk twang to scare off the most alt-country fans.

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Get your YeeeHAW! on this Tuesday night.

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This week the imaginary mailbin had loads of treasures, though a surprisingly small number of Northwest releases. Here are some highlights:

• Best of the bin: The Saps, a Chicago-based band whose debut release C'mon Already - Start a Fire officially (self) releases on March 27th. Expect an imaginary review forthcoming, and follow the link to their MySpace page to find tour info for Chicago, New York, and Boston for late March.
• Traveled the farthest to get here: The Dark Beaks, who braved customs to send their CD Spill Your Heart all the way from Dunedin, New Zealand (!!). Thanks, fellas!

And this week in Northwest releases in the imaginary mailbins...

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