Music Friday: "Bearden 1645" & "Social Skills"

I had been waiting for a new album by John Fullbright for a good while, and one finally came out this year titled The Liar. 

Below are a couple of tasty cuts from the album. 

Enjoy.

Music Friday: "High Road"

John Fullbright's second album, Songs, came out this spring, and I've been listening to it pretty regularly. It's a solid effort, a slower-paced affair compared to From the Ground Up, which is an outstanding album. 

A representative sample from the new album is "High Road," a song about love and loss. 

Music Friday: "All the Time in the World," "Moving," & "Satan & St. Paul"

I wrote about John Fullbright's fine album a short while ago in a Random Notes... post, so today I offer a trio of songs from the release. 

Good people, it's mighty fine stuff. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Food Porn Alert

What you see above is the eleven-pound bird I lovingly basted every thirty minutes on Christmas Eve day.

We travel to see my parents on the 27th, but I'm bringing part of the bird with me. Virg always loved the neck, so I'm bringing it with. Darby, our dog, got the turkey's heart, and I get the liver. Huzzah offal. 

Speaking of Darby, it's safe to say she may sometimes dread the holidays.

One of my favorite characters in American cinema is the father in A Christmas Story. He's known affectionately as "The Old Man." 

I got an Eddie Bauer clearance catalog this week, and I turned to the pages where this coat is advertised. It's a great coat if you want to look like a ribbed condom. For her pleasure. 

I remember reading about one of those questions that's supposed to tell you something about your personality. It's whether you're a Beatles person or a Rolling Stones person. From those two choices, for me it's Stones all the way. 

I've trolled a number of best albums of 2012 lists to see how mine compares to others. When I do this, I discover new artists. One album you might want to check out is John Fullbright's From the Ground Up. Fullbright, a native of Okemah, OK (birthplace of Woody Guthrie), put out a fine album this year. The genre is Americana and all the loose connotations that category entails. Todd Mathis at Twangville compares him to Jason Isbell in his review, but I think he's more like a cross between John Hiatt and Joe Pug. Although I'm an agnostic, I enjoy the religious imagery in the lyrics, and he also plays a good harp.