There are a handful of Hall and Oates songs that I've always liked but I never went out of my way to listen to the duo. I didn't own any of their albums nor did I ever see them tour.

So it wasn't exactly breaking news to me when I heard back in 2008 about a new concept Daryl Hall had created. But after several friends and family recommended it, I checked it out and was hooked. Live From Daryl's House is an interesting concept. Each month, Daryl Hall invites an artist or music group to his house where he and his band jam for several hours, covering some of Hall and Oates's songs as well as some from the guest artist.

Two episodes have become favorites and get played relatively often:

Episode 5: KT Tunstall
Here is a clip of them playing Out of Time

Episode 15: Company of Thieves
Here is a clip of them playing Pressure, a Company of Thieves tune:

I highly recommend checking out the show and, even if you're not a fan of Daryl or his music, check the archives. He's had quite a few guest artists that cover a wide variety of music.

Found via Facebook - Vika Yermolyeva can seriously rock a piano! She covers an insane variety of excellent songs.

Sweet Child O' Mine


Hurt


More Than A Feeling - a rather unique cover


Personal Jesus - actually covering Johnny Cash's version


Stop by her site and give her a listen!

Just had a fantastic lunch at Penn Brewery, a local German brew pub. I've been there several times over the last ten years and it's always had good German food. They brew their own beer too and most of them are fantastic. But today's meal, despite not including an excellent beer, was extremely good. I had their Bacon Brew Dog. It's menu description is:

A 10 inch Silver Star frankfurter stuffed with fresh jalapenos, wrapped in three pieces of bacon, then deep fried and topped with shredded cheddar jack cheese, BBQ sauce and vinegar slaw in a hot dog bun.

Hot damn is it all that and more! The jalapenos were very fresh and pretty hot, the bacon was very crispy, and the BBQ sauce and slaw paired well together. The only thing I would have changed is to put it on a more substantial bun - this one started falling apart when confronted with so much tasty goodness.

Cheers to Penn Brewery - that was a tasty dog!

If you haven't checked out Gretchen Menn before, do it now. She's a phenomenal guitarist who was influenced heavily by Steve Morse, Eric Johnson, and Frank Zappa. You can definitely hear a bit of Eric Johnson in her playing. Quite a few of her songs have vaulted into my playlist.

Valentino's Victory Lap


Oleo Strut

I can't recall what brought Meytal Cohen to my attention, but Hot damn! This woman can rock a drum set.

Covering Metallica's Enter Sandman


Covering Paramore's Misery Business


Covering System of a Down's Toxicity

I found Phil McDarby in a rather roundabout way. I'm pretty sure it started with a wiki-wander, had a detour through an anime site, and at some point I ended up at this image:


Wonder

It literally stopped me in my tracks. Something about it stirred some wonderful memories of my childhood and I found myself staring at, into, it for several minutes. He's got some really fantastic digital art. The image above is my favorite, but this one comes in a close second:


The Amber Dragon’s Hoard

Saw Sarah Jarosz play with Steve Martin on Austin City Limits and was floored. Unfortunately, PBS is no longer streaming that episode but, if you can find it, it is definitely worth watching!

Run Away


Annabelle Lee


A clip from an after-hours jam session

I'm a fan of the Firefly universe which led me to this guy, Otis Frampton. He created a very awesome image of the main characters from Firefly. Unfortunately, it was a commissioned work so he is not selling prints of it. If he were to create another, uncommissioned image set in the Firefly universe, he might find some buyers (hint hint!)

Here's a cropped portion of the work:



He has quite a few awesome prints in his online store, including one titled "Lost & Found" - I may have to pick up a copy of that one!

Found via a Spotify suggestion, Jessica Lee Mayfield instantly struck a chord with me. Her voice intrigued me immediately and, after listening to a few songs, so did her lyrics.

Definitely someone to check out!

Blues Skies Again - one of my favorites


Our Hearts Are Wrong - if you've heard of her, it was probably this song