Live music performances on Substack — discover and follow some amazing artists!
The Substack Music & Creativity Sessions - post #1
Wow, let me just say that there is phenomenal musical talent here on Substack.
I’ve been watching the livestream videos for the artists who participated in the Music & Creativity Sessions hosted by Substack — and been absolutely blown away.
As an added bonus, I’ve been able to add quite a few names to my Women in Rock list, which had been deficient in more recent artists and bands.
I’m sure many of you missed these sessions. But don’t despair!
I’m going to introduce the artists and share their videos with you in a stream of four posts. That way you won’t get too overwhelmed (as I have).
I’ve organized them according to the kind of session it was:
#1- livestreams that were mostly dedicated to performing
#2 - livestreams that were a combination of music and talk
#3 - livestreams devoted to conversation
#4 - livestreams for which a video is not available or not accessible unless you’re a paid subscriber, but you’ll want to know about the artist just the same.
Please feel free to download any of these posts if you want to access the videos at your leisure, and also feel free to share them with others who might be interested in discovering ‘new’ artists.
Enjoy! You’re in for a big treat.
Music performances
Carrie Newcomer is a folk, Americana, and world music singer-songwriter who plays guitar and mountain dulcimer. She played originally in Stone Soup, and philosophy and social issues influence her music. She does an acoustic concert for over 40 minutes. One of the songs she does is “You Can Do This Hard Thing” (above).
Dan Mangan is an award-winning indie rock and folk singer-songwriter, influenced by Nick Drake and the Beatles, and also scores film and TV series. He did an acoustic set of tunes from his new album for 45 minutes in his basement studio. Beautiful tunes, a lot from the perspective of being a dad and dealing with this crazy world. Listen to tracks from Dan’s new album Natural Light here. Love “Cut the Brakes.”
Dawes is a folk rock, indie folk, and indie rock band from L.A. influenced by the late 60s and early 70s Laurel Canyon sound, e.g. Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell. They allowed us to join them at a soundcheck, up close and personal.
Florence Shaw is the vocalist for Dry Cleaning, a South London post-punk band who have put out two highly regarded albums. Florence does spoken word more than singing, with the lyrics more like poems put to music. Florence read from her writings for 15 minutes and also showed us her notebooks and said a bit about her process. If you’re interested in poetry or lyrics, this will be of special interest.
Juliana Hatfield is an alternative rock singer-songwriter and record producer who was a member of bands Blake Babies, Some Girls, The Lemonheads, and the Juliana Hatfield Three. She shares rough mixes from her next album, and sometimes sings and plays along. Excited because the songs sound great.
Kimbra is a New Zealand multi award-winning pop, R&B, and indie rock singer-songwriter. Her song with Gotye, “Somebody That I Used to Know,” won a Grammy for Record of the Year. She does a 15-minute performance of four songs. What a voice.
Lloyd Cole is an English rock and pop singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who has 17 albums with his bands the Commotions and the Negatives and solo. He plays a number of his songs on electric guitar for about 20 minutes. Totally speaking my language.
Margo Price is a country singer-songwriter with four albums and a nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammys. She crossed over to rock when she collaborated with guitarist Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the Petty Country Tribute Album. She does an 18-minute acoustic set accompanied on guitar and harmonica by (I’m assuming) a member of her band, The Pricetags.
Tift Merritt is a country folk and Americana singer-songwriter with seven studio albums and nominations for numerous awards, including a Grammy for best country album. She does a 20-minute set on acoustic guitar, piano, and harmonica from her living room, handling a kid interruption with enviable aplomb.
Bonus song:
Adam James (AJ) Dieboldt is a country, rock, and Christian music singer, songwriter, composer (film, TV, games), and producer based in Nashville. Learn more about AJ and his fave tunes on his Tune Tag with Brad Kyle. Love this new song, “Diamonds in the Dust” (link below). Thanks to Daniel Helkenn for bringing AJ’s new substack to my attention.
Thanks for including me here Ellen! 🙏
Thanks Ellen. You’ve given me some new stuff to check out this week. We have continuous live performances running all day. I added AJ to the mix last week.