[Review] Sarah Jarosz -- "Song Up In Her Head."

I've been meaning to talk about this CD for a while, but it got mixed up in the craziness over the last few months.

The same folks that sent me the Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers album a few months ago included this gem of a bluegrass album by Sarah Jarosz.

I've always had a soft spot for female artists with a bit of a twang (see Alison Krauss...the Taylor Swift thing is something else entirely). But Sarah Jarosz puts together some of the most beautiful bluegrass tracks I've heard in a while in her debut album "Song Up In Her Head" (Sugar Hill).

Jarosz is only 18, but she has a powerful voice that is well beyond her years. Even more impressive is that the Austin-born singer is a multi-instrumentalist. She is credited for playing guitar, mandolin, clawhammer banjo and piano.

She is also a masterful songwriter, writing all the songs on the album except for two covers. Jarosz has a lot of potential and I can't see where she goes from here.

The opening title track is a dark, brooding song that begins "The Virgin Mary/All Dressed in blue/ Sings "My First Lover"/ For an audience of two." The second track, "Edge of a Dream," softens things a little, allowing Jarosz to flaunt her vocal ability in this banjo driven ballad.

The highlight by far for me was the haunting -- and I mean haunting -- version of The Decembrists' "Shankill Butchers." I already loved this song, but Jarosz version is shockingly powerful.

I see big things ahead for this young girl.

Download: Sarah Jarosz - "Edge of a Dream."

Why I have no faith in T.J. Yates

This may seem like a strange thing to post after UNC just upset Miami, but stick with me. The Tar Heels have an amazing defense and they are the only reason we win these games. Two of the touchdowns were on interception returns.

The running game is also very impressive: Ryan Houston played great today without Shaun Draughn to help out. Receivers have also gotten involved in the running game, which has been very productive.

But the quarterback, T.J. Yates, is mediocre at best. Yates will never win a game for the Tar Heels, he will only lose them. Best case scenario: he does just enough not to screw it up for Carolina.

I've spent many Saturday afternoons complaining about the awful throws Yates throws, so today I decided to keep track. I kept a list of all the bad throws Yates made today. I wasn't overly critical. If the receiver had a legitimate chance at the ball, I gave Yates the benefit.

Here's what I found. Yates threw 10 awful passes. That doesn't sound like a whole lot, but here is the key: six of those were on third down.

The key to an offense is ball control and how they convert on third downs. With a run-based offense like UNC's, you will get into third-and-mediums or third-and-longs fairly often. Yates showed over and over again that he cannot consistently make the throw to get the first down.

In most of those third downs, the receiver was either past the first down or very close to it. In the first three series, Yates overthrew one receiver, underthrew another and threw one behind a reciever on third down to force punts.

In one series, Yates overthrew his buddy Zack Pianalto twice, on second and third downs inside the 10 yard line.

In the third quarter, Yates underthrew a receiver on second down and overthrew a receiver on third down in the same series.

He did have a pretty good day today. He threw for 213 yards and no interceptions. But he completed just barely over 50 percent of his passes. And when it comes down to it, I don't want the ball in his hands if we have to make a last second drive.

Yates isn't an awful quarterback, but he's not a good quarterback. He's mediocre at best and you need better than that if you want to become a top-notch football program.

Please don't stop the music

I'm really trying to figure out how to get back into finding and writing about new music. It's been way too long since I've felt like I really have my fingers on the pulse of the music world.

I used to spend hours scrolling down local and national music blogs and Web sites, storing away free mp3s like I was going into sonic hibernation.

But lately, with a 40+ hour work week and my mind on sports all the time, I've really fallen off. The most exposure I get to music anymore is the Top 40 station that I switch to whenever sports talk radio goes to commercial in my car.

I set up a rockin' Google Reader with all my sports, music and random blogs with the hopes that it will make me more likely to read through and keep up with them. It's even something I can check when I have some downtime at work (which is very rare).

Anyway, I guess the whole idea of this post was to ask you guys where you get your music knowledge. If you have any good blogs that I should read or artists/bands/records that I need to check out immediately, please let me know. I'm trying to dive back in, but I need someone to show me where the pool is.

I do have one album that I have yet to review because I feel like I haven't given it a good enough listen, but it seems pretty good. I'll give you a little teaser: it's a pop-opera (popera?) about college life. Sound stupid? I thought so, too. I've been pleasantly surprised.

I still care about this blog and I'll keep it rocking, don't you worry. Just trying to figure out how to fit it in to my life right now. I know I keep saying that. You should be concerned when I stop saying that.

Sports blogs!

Part of the reason that I have been less constant in updating this blog is that I'm spending most of my day writing about sports and not wanting to write about it again when I get home. I'm still working on ways to keep this blog updated (like reviewing an album that came across my desk recently...), but you can also keep up with my writing on two new sports blogs that I'm writing for the Lake Norman News and the Cabarrus News.

Here they are: Cabarrus Prep Sports and Lake Norman Prep Sports.

You can keep up with these and look at what I'm working on everyday and find out what's happening in the high school sports world north of Charlotte. I usually end up just posting very short blurbs here, so to read my more in depth articles, you'll have to check out the actual publications online.

Let me know what you think. Or, of course, if you have any news or information that you want published on those blogs or in the paper, let me know.

Change to CoreyInscoe.com

You may have noticed that when you go to the Web site now it redirects you to "thenoisebazaar.blogspot.com." This is because my Google domain account ran out and I decided to move it over to GoDaddy.

For some reason, I can't get into my DNS settings to change where the site is hosted, so the best I can do is just use domain forwarding. It shouldn't really affect anything, except anything linked to this won't be coreyinscoe.com/whatever but thenoisebazaar.blogspot.com/whatever.

Just thought I would let everyone know. And write a little bit on here. If you have any idea how to help me fix the DNS settings on GoDaddy, I'd love some help.

Posterous?

Just testing out this whole posterous thing. Why is it any better than my blogger blog or my facebook page or my twitter?

Maybe because it will update them all at the same time. We'll just have to see....
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Posted via email from Corey's posterous

Tuesday Guilty Pleasure: Ukuleles

I don't even really know how I can explain this one. But I can tell you where my obsession with ukuleles came from. One song. Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World." It was love at first listen.



Such a beautiful voice.... Anyway, that ukulele sound stuck with me. It sounds so simple and so sweet and fits with that chilled out, relaxed style of music that I've always loved. I fell for this instrument so hard that I finally got someone to buy one for me.

I instantly started trying to play it, but couldn't ever even get it in tune. So it's sat on the top of my bookcase for two years. Shameful.

You know what? I'm going to take it down and really get to work on it. Get it nice and tuned up and start learning some chords. Next thing you know, I'll be the next Kamakawiwoʻole.