We book-end this month’s video playlist with Dan Auerbach (of the Black Keys), opening with a rocking take on “My Last Mistake ” and closing with a special acoustic performance of “Trouble Weighs a Ton.” In between we’ve got live performances from Alex Dezen (the Damnwells), Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Justin Townes Earle, Sam & Ruby, the Volunteers, the Smoking Popes, Ben Kweller and Longwave. There are also videos from Lions in the Street and Girls, Guns & Glory plus the Explorers Club treat us to their take on the Chuck Berry chestnut “Johnny B. Goode.”
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.
So, you actually like Sam & Ruby? Everything I’ve heard/seen from them so far has something deeply wrong with it: mawkishly bad lyrics, ham-handed gestures at pop-vocal sensibilities, and most off all a pervasive awareness–an awareness that seems to inform every note and every on-stage gesture–that they might be able to fill the Norah Jones niche.