Live from The Living Room

Do you wanna download audio of some guy playing guitar in somebody’s Illinois living room? Naw, me neither. But, what if the guy was Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy? Now you’re on to something. Check out The Owl & the Bear for more cool live downloads, including some of my faves Alejandro Escovedo, Tom Waits, Elliott Smith, The Shins, Lucinda Williams, Peter Bjorn & John and Cat Power. Goodness!

Whilst blogging Jeff Tweedy, here's an interview with him on The Onion AV Club.

UPDATE: I have actually downloaded the Tom Waits & the Nighthawks concert from December 14, 1976. In a word --unbelieveable! If you are a fan, you must check this out like now.

Telling Stories

Jessica Peters is a 27-year-old single mom from Hurst who makes her living as a data entry clerk for an oil and gas company. But in her spare time she’s making a documentary about the late great Dallas singer-songwriter Elliott Smith (above) -- and she’s close to finishing. The project is titled Strange Butterflies and there’s a cool story about her efforts on the Big D Little d blog.

“Peters' goal is to tell Smith's story through the people he impacted in the cities he lived; to that end, she put out a call for musicians from Smith's various home cities--Portland, NYC, Dallas and LA--to record Elliott Smith covers that would fit each city's footage,” writes Sam Machkovech on Big D Little d. Fort Worth’s own The Theater Fire has put together a cut for the project, “Say Yes” from Smith’s Either/Or. You can visit the Strange Butterflies MySpace page and find out more or make a contribution if you are so inclined.