Laura Marling – TwentyFourBit

Video: Laura Marling Tiny Desk Concert

November 9, 2012July 12, 2012

Laura Marling Tiny Desk Laura Marling is in the studio these days recording the follow-up to A Creature I Don’t Know (“It will probably be released in about six months.”). In the meantime, NPR shared her latest Tiny Desk Concert, an intimate 3-song set with a pair from said 2011 LP and a new one, “Once.” While they’re calling the latter “a premiere of sorts,” this tune has, in fact, been debuted a number of times so far — most notably live on television this April. This is an excellent little show regardless, so checking out the clip above is recommended.

As you may have noticed, live previews from Marling show up around here regularly, such as potential future album cuts “I Was An Eagle” and “Pray For Me”. There are always a few new live tunes floating around and today is no different… Below, catch a glimpse of a track — possibly titled “Rosie” — rolled out in San Francisco just two weeks ago:

Laura Marling Covers Allman Brothers

April 27, 2012April 25, 2012

We’ve known that Laura Marling can pull off covers culled from the canon of her own genre with ease — such as oft-honored tunes by Jackson C. Frank, Neil Young, and Ryan Adams — but her take on Southern rock is something new to these ears. Granted, we’ll have to give her a pass for whittling this one down from the extended, jam-heavy original, but the vocals are spot-on with a soulful mood here that feels appropriate to the solo-acoustic setting. Add someone like Blake Mills on slide guitar, perhaps, plus a couple of drum kits and they could really sink their teeth into this section of her record collection. Either way, “Whipping Post” is a damn fine start:

Interview: Ethan Johns

April 17, 2012April 14, 2012

“Eth’s got a mouth full of cookies!” Ever since Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker opened with that impromptu studio moment, dubbed “(Argument with David Rawlings Concerning Morrissey),” I’ve been drawn to the fact that both the joke’s subject and the producer keeping the tape rolling on the cut are the same guy. As a first track on a solo debut, leaving it in seemed bold — one of a number of brave choices I’ve come to expect from Ethan Johns. Now over ten years later, Johns-captured moments have piled high aside the turntable: from the haunting glow that emerges around “Starlite Diner” on Adams’ 29 to Ray LaMontagne’s cathartic “Burn,” to the dark undercurrent lurking beneath Laura Marling’s “Hope In the Air,” among too many others to mention. In short, the guy is a hero of mine, and his entire discography thus far cannot be recommended enough to fans of great songwriting.

As not only the producer on those sets but a multi-instrumentalist whose performances on them are notable in their own right, a new solo release seemed inevitable (Johns put out a hard-to-find solo record in 1991). Now his own tunes will finally see the light of day on an LP due this summer, complete with mixing by his father, legendary producer Glyn Johns, and guest appearances from a number of talented friends. With little fanfare, a first taste hit the web in March in the form of an official video for the moving acoustic cut “Whip-Poor-Will.” Details were scarce and, needless to say, I had a number of burning questions, so it was a thrill to hear he digs this site and was up for an interview. Here are highlights from the lengthy phone chat between my humble 4-track setup in California and Johns’ England studio.