Nashville.com Official Guide To Nashville, TN
Today, September 8, the Amazon Original playlist “Amazon Acoustics” relaunches with twenty fresh tracks including newly recorded songs from artists like Tift Merritt, Philadelphia punks Beach Slang, and buzzworthy newcomers Middle Kids, ALA.NI, LPX and Gabriel Garzón-Montano. These new songs and more additions join the playlist, which already features original acoustic recordings from Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, Ashley Monroe, Deer Tick, and many more. “Amazon Acoustics” will be available for streaming exclusively through Amazon Music Unlimited and Amazon Prime Music at www.amazon.com/acoustics.
Stream Beach Slang’s “Hot Tramps [Quiet Slang]” now via Soundcloud:
James Alex on “Hot Tramps” (Quiet Slang):
I wrote this song on the same day David Bowie died. I don’t know. I felt like making something was the best way to punch through it, to figure it out . I suppose, some of it’s about Bowie. Most of it’s about a girl. All of it’s about patching up the cracks. So, that’s the deal, you know? A few chords, some clumsy words and a title you swiped from a hero—it doesn’t fix it all, but it numbs the sting. Maybe that’s enough.
And, yeah, Amazon has been a gigantic sweetheart in all of this. I mean, there’s something really cool about supporting art-making for nothing more than supporting art-making. Thanks for letting me ride. Thanks for having soul. And thank you for Glenn Schick—man, you mastered some real magic into the thing.
Of her take on Johnny Thunders’ classic, “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory,” Merritt, who recorded the song with members of Hiss Golden Messenger and Mountain Man, notes, “I’ve always loved this song. What a beautiful chorus. I wanted to try it like a modern Buddy Holly might, but with lots of Skeeter Davis harmony. Turns out MC Taylor and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig bring their own kind of worn in magic to the Skeeter Davis role. Thanks Johnny Thunders, we had a ball.”
Middle Kids turn in a surprisingly stark version of Blink 182’s pop-punk anthem “All the Small Things,” saying of their fascinating reading of the song, “we don’t play covers in our live set, but we are interested in the infinite discovery of what makes a ‘great’ song. In this recording, we were attempting to re-imagine a pop-punk classic as a sad country ballad. We kept the beautiful words and the melody, but changed instrumentation to bring out different emotion.”
Likewise, singer-songwriter Ella Vos contributes the at-once beautiful and haunting original song, “Down in Flames” to “Amazon Acoustics,” and of its genesis she says, I wrote ‘Down in Flames’ during a dark time in my life. My partner and I struggled to keep our love alive, and every day, we showed our worst sides. We led each other down a path that I hope we’ll never see again.”
Elsewhere on the playlist, LPX, the newly-minted solo project from MS MR’s Lizzy Plapinger, offers a moody, deconstructed version of the Rilo Kiley standout, “Portions for Foxes,” that places particular emphasis on Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis’ razor-sharp songwriting. Of the song choice, Plapinger says, “I’ve loved Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis specifically, and this song since I first heard it in high school. I love how equally romantic and cutting it is. Her lyrics perfectly encapsulate the struggle of trying to move on but still fighting and engaging with the lingering attachment to an ex, and all the blame and understanding that falls both ways.”
New tracks to be added to “Amazon Acoustics” include:
1. “Ready to Die (Acoustic),” Aaron Lee Tasjan
2. “Not Coming Home (Acoustic),” ALA.NI
3. “So It Goes,” Anders Parker
4. “Black Sheep Boy (live),” Andrew Combs
5. “Hot Tramps [Quiet Slang],” Beach Slang
6. “Image of Love,” Cody ChesnuTT
7 “Down In Flames (Acoustic),” Ella Vos
8. “Lonely Stage,” James Gillespie
9. “Portions for Foxes,” LPX
10. “Lights Down Low (Acoustic),” MAX
11. “All the Small Things,” Middle Kids
12. “More than a Feeling,” Milo Greene
13. “Wish for the Moon,” My Brightest Diamond
14. “Disappeared Planets (Acoustic),” Richard Edwards of Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s
15. “Strung Out (Acoustic),” Ruby Empress
16. “There Is War,” Sam Cohen
17. “Jesus He Knows Me,” SYML
18. “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory,” Tift Merrit
19. “Lonely (Acoustic),” Colony House
20. “Crawl (Petit),” Gabriel Garzón-Montano
Amazon Music Unlimited is available on all Amazon Music compatible devices including Amazon Echo, Fire devices, iPads, iPhones, Android devices, Sonos players and more. To find out how to listen, visit www.amazon.com/howtolisten. Customers who sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited can begin their free 30 day trial today. To find out how to listen, visit www.amazon.com/howtolisten. With Amazon Music Unlimited, there is no searching or browsing required, just ask “Alexa, play the “Amazon Acoustics playlist,” on enabled devices.
