• Interview: Brian Ossip talked to Warped Tour band June Divided [DC Music Live].
• According to New York’s Complex magazine, the Black Cat’s Red Room is one of the 25 douchiest bars in DC. The Washington CityPaper quotes the article and responds.
Lyle Lovett is coming to Wolf Trap on Tuesday, 14 August, and ShowlistDC is giving away a pair of orchestra tickets! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me which song you’d most like to hear Lovett play live, and I’ll pick the winners at random (using random.org) on Thursday, 9 August at 5 PM Eastern. Be sure to use a valid email address when you enter, so I can contact you if you win (and don’t worry: your email address won’t be posted publicly when you comment on this entry and won’t be added to any sort of mailing list). If you’re a hotmail user, please add showlistdc@gmail.com to your address book or no-spam list, as other hotmail users have had problems with emails from us not getting through. Also note that we ask winners to respond within 24 hours, or else we have to pick another winner, so make sure to check your email regularly!
Lyle Lovett plays both solo acoustic and “large band” shows, but this one is somewhat in between; it’s being billed as “Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group”. It should be a good hybrid for the gorgeous Wolf Trap stage– that space always feels a lot more intimate than its size might suggest, and Lovett’s devastating, laid-back tunes should sound great here! In case you don’t know much about him, here’s a little history: he released his first solo album back in 1986(!) and has won four Grammies throughout his career (Best Country Album in 1996, Best Country Male Vocal in 1989, Best Country Duo/Group with Vocal in 1994 with Asleep at the Wheel, and Best Pop Vocal Collaboration in 1994 with Al Green). He’s also acted in a number of films (and yes, he was briefly married to Julia Roberts, whom he met on the set of The Player). While he’s probably most often labelled as a “country singer/songwriter”, his songs are understated and laid-back, not at all like the sound most people associate with mainstream country these days.
He has released 13 studio albums to date (you can see his discography here); his most recent album is Release Me, which features a few originals and a ton of covers including Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freightliner Blues” and Chuck Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man”. He’s sure to play songs from his whole career too, so check out some videos from some of our favorite songs below, and let us know what song you’d like to hear him play! (As an aside: We like to make giveaways on ShowlistDC open to anyone, whether or not you’re already familiar with the band’s music! So sample some of Lovett’s songs, and if you like what you hear, then throw your name in the hat to check out a show by this great songwriter!)
If you come across this post after the contest has closed, or if you’re not the lucky winner, then you can pick up tickets for $42 (orchestra) or $25 (lawn), plus service fees, via tickets.com. And now on to the videos….
“If You Were To Wake Up” (not an official video, but it’s our favorite of Lovett’s songs)
“In My Own Mind”
“North Dakota”
“She’s Already Made Up Her Mind”
Contest is now closed and the winner has been notified!
• Apparently Northwest DC is not go-go friendly. Author Natalie Hopkinson was at Politics & Prose last night reading from her new book Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City. She brought a CD of go-go tunes, but a customer complained and the music was shut off [DCist]. the Washington CityPaper also reports.
