for the time being, a little sara

I know, I know.  I've been a horrible blogger despite the fact that I said I'd try harder to update this thing more often.  I apologize.

I have so much I want to say, but want to give considerable time to the blog entries.  So for now, I'll leave you with three songs that I simply can not get enough of.  They're all new songs by the one and only Sara Bareilles.  I love her to death and am so overwhelming glad that I was able to catch half of her set at Hotel Cafe on the last night of her Gravity tour this past Friday before racing over to see Amy Kuney at the Roxy.  It was pretty much a dream come true as two of my most favorite artists performed the same night and I had the pleasure of seeing them both.

So for now, here are three new lovely songs by Sara.  The first is August Moon from Sara's DVD, Between the Lines - Live at the Fillmore - a great concert DVD.

The second is Gonna Get Over You from a performance at Joe's Pub in New York City on Feb.17.

And last, but definitely not least, is Sara performing Free Ride at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on Feb. 23.  I was able to catch this song at Sara's show on Friday and have had it on repeat since then.

All of the songs are breathtakingly beautiful.  I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.

the hotel cafe tour at the henry fonda

Wow, I'm way past due on blogging, so I guess it's best to do some catching up and fill you in on what I've been listening to lately.

In November, I went on the spur of the moment decision to the Hotel Cafe Tour's last show at the Henry Fonda Theater. The line-up included Rachael Yamagata, Meiko, Jaymay, Lenka, Emily Wells, and Thao Nguyen.

Overall, I would have to say the show was fun, but not necessarily the best it could have been. Because it was the final night of the tour, it didn't seem as though any of the acts really took the show seriously. It was more like a party with everyone drinking and half-drunk, as opposed to a concert, and the fact that artists kept going on and off of the stage made the arrangement just seem messy.

Nonetheless, it was fun seeing one of my favorites, Jaymay, again and I always love to hear about new artists. Lenka's songs were fun to tap my feet along with (who can resist Australians?) and Meiko wooed the crowd with her well-known song, Boys With Girlfriends. Emily Wells' music surprised me, simply because I wasn't familiar her beforehand and Thao Nguyen's songs added an extra kick of spunk to the show. Rachael definitely turned out to be the most impressive act of the evening in my books. I had heard of Rachael before, yet never really sat down to give her songs a serious listen. She's so extremely talented and her voice is mesmorizing. Needless to say, I made sure to pick up a copy of

her album, Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart, not too long after the show.

Here's a clip of the entire night's line-up singing along with Thao's song, Bag of Hammers. This might have been my most favorite point in the evening.

Afterward, I managed to get a few shots with some of the performers as security was kicking everyone out.