Singer-songwriter Whitey Morgan has released a video of his cover of the Townes Van Zandt classic, “Waitin’ Round to Die.” The song is from Morgan’s upcoming album Sonic Ranch.
While Van Zandt’s original version of the song sounds like a sad lament, Morgan takes the song up a notch in both volume and tempo, grounding the sadness in anger and a touch of defiance. I like the Outlaw country take on a song I already loved, making Morgan’s “Waitin’ Round to Die” one of the best covers I have heard in a long time. Check it out.
Morgan and his band the 78’s previously released Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels (2008) and Whitey Morgan and the 78’s (2010). And, in 2014, Morgan released Grandpa’s Guitar. The Flint, Michigan honky-tonk singer (whose real name is Eric David Allen) releases Sonic Ranch on May 19, 2015.
What is your favorite cover of a Townes Van Zandt song that is not “Pancho and Lefty”? Leave your two cents in the comments?
For those of us who are not satisfied with three random trailers for the upcoming Avengers: Age Of Ultron, JohnnyB2K created a mashup of the three trailers. And it is not just three trailers thrown together. He put the scenes together in apparent chronological order, giving the viewer a bit more of the storyline.
So, if you are interested in the short film version of the sequel to The Avengers (2012), check out the mega-trailer below.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is scheduled to be released in the U.S. on May 1, 2015.
What do you think of the trailer mashup for Avengers: Age of Ultron? Leave your two cents in the comments.
One has to be suspicious of movies released during the post-Oscar and pre-summer movie season. So, when I saw there was a new sports movie called McFarland, USA that I had not heard anything about that starred Kevin Costner, I went into it with low expectations. Sometimes, though, low expectations lead one to find a pleasant surprise, and that is what I discovered in this “based-on-real-events sports movie” about a high school cross-country team.
In McFarland, USA, Costner plays Jim White, a high school coach who has screwed up so many times he ends up in a poor California school as an assistant football coach. But after he loses that position, he convinces the school to start a cross-country team because he has noticed the endurance of many of the students who work in the fields all day and run between work and school.
Yeah, the film has a lot of sport film conventions as a Disney movie with the down-on-his-luck coach and Mexican-American students with the odds against them. But the reason spots films follow many of these conventions is because, like this one, they are real-life stories about the kind of struggles that bring us to sports in the first place.
McFarland, USA does a pretty good job with the sports scenes, but it also features excellent acting from those like Carlos Pratts who portray the student athletes. At the same time, director Niki Caro does a decent job of showing how the coach’s wife (Maria Bello) and family has to adapt to their new neighborhood too. The movie is not perfect, but it is a pretty good sports movie that probably have not seen advertised very much.
Consistent with this kind of feel-good straightforward movie, audience members liked it more than critics, although the critical reaction has generally been positive. Rotten Tomatoes gives McFarland, USA an 80% critics rating and a 92% audience rating. So, give it a chance if you are looking for a fun movie, and make sure you stick around until the end for the traditional images of the real people portrayed in the movie.
What did you think of McFarland USA? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Van Morrison is taking some of his lesser known songs and reworking them with new singing partners on the upcoming album, Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue (2015). On the album, Van Morrison teams with artists such as Michael Bublé, George Benson, Steve Winwood, Taj Mahal, Mavis Staples, Bobby Womack, and Natalie Cole.
One of the tracks on the upcoming album is “Irish Heartbeat,” which first appeared on the album Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983). In the new version, Mark Knopfler joins Van Morrison on the song. Give it a listen below.
Mumford & Sons released a new single “Believe,” confirming earlier reports that the band’s upcoming album Wilder Mind includes electric guitars and synthesizers. The new song is not a great divergence from the Mumford & Sons sound we are used to hearing, but it does sound a bit different.
The album Wilder Mind will be released May 4, 2015.
What do you think of the electric Mumford & Sons? Leave your two cents in the comments.
hits stores on March 23, 2015.
includes electric guitars and synthesizers. The new song is not a great divergence from the Mumford & Sons sound we are used to hearing, but it does sound a bit different.