Music I've been listening to

I bought a new computer a couple of months ago and as I was transferring all my music from my old computer, I realized that I had been listening to the same artists for the last 5 or so years. So I went on a hunt on this great website last.fm, where you can listen to all kinds of music for free, see upcoming concerts and look for similar artists. You can also make your own library of music you like and share it with your friends. This is how I came upon a Norwegian singer called Ane Brun, who actually lives in Stockholm, a city I really loved when I went to visit in August. In any case, she caught my eye probably because of this and also because she has an absolutely enchanting voice and her songs have quite chilling lyrics. This is one of my favorites from her album "Changing of the Seasons".



"I was gonna love you till the end of all daytime
and I was gonna keep all our secret signs and our lullabies
I was made to believe that our love would grow old
we were gonna live in a treehouse and make babies
and we were gonna bury our ex-lovers and their ghosts
baby we were made of gold."

I was excited to see that she had an upcoming show at my favorite new bar in Brooklyn, Union Hall. So last night a friend and I went to the show, and I had such a great time and discovered a couple of really great artists I had never heard of before. The first opener was a singer songwriter named Mia Riddle and her group. They were playing similar indie acoustic kind of music and they were pretty good, apparently from Brooklyn, but tour all over the pace, even in Europe. We got to talk to Mia after the show and she seemed very nice.
Here is a video from her album "Tumble and Drag".



What I really like about these smaller shows and concert halls is how cozy and friendly they are and that the artists hang out at the bar with all the fans and it's real easy to go up to them and talk. So we got to talk to Ane for a few minutes too, she is just so cute and sweet, and we got to take some pictures with her.



One of the things I like so much about Union Hall too is the decoration. The walls in the bar area are lined with bookshelves and old looking books, there are old black and white family photos everywhere, including hanging on the wall behind the stage in the downstairs room where they have all the shows. The picture is of an older woman, looks a little scary, like it could be one of those photos in a haunted house that might start talking to you any moment. In any case, the whole place has a very cozy feel to it, like you were visiting long-lost relatives in their big country house.

Then it was another Swedish artist, Tobias Froberg, who had a really nice voice too and performed a few songs with Ane Brun.





Ane Brun was really amazing! It was a small enough concert that we were way in the front, some people were even sitting on the floor in front of us. For one of her songs, she invited people from the audience on the stage to hum with her. If I had any talent in singing, I would have loved to do that. It was the kind of live music experience during which I just closed my eyes and gave myself over completely to the melody and the next time I was conscious, it was an hour and a half later and the show was over.
Pretty amazing!