Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Burying the Dead
Hoarse vocals delivering 12 mid-tempo or slow, contemplative songs with well-trodden folk-rock structures usually earn a quick "No" from this quarter. McGraw grapples with grand topics: the death of a loved one and/or the Meaning of Life (capitals intended: one envisions Bertie Wooster throwing-away "STERN stuff, Jeeves"). When McGraw waxes emphatic without engaging music, I'm checking my Facebook. The more laidback material is like a spontaneous diary: poetic imagery being croaked into a microphone + the bright percussion of banjo or finger-picked guitar gurgling like a brook.
Haunting enough to segue with Tom Waits is a cover of Leonard Cohen's "The Faith": "The cross on every hill/ A star, a minaret/ So many graves to fill/ Love, aren't you tired yet?" "Young Men" is the one I'm least likely to want to live without: it's the kind of nice that Gordon Lightfoot would probably have welcomed into his repertoire. But I doubt Lightfoot ever spouted a line this dazzling: "Wounds are like diamonds or demons at play." And McGraw does an ingenious reworking of Billy Joel's "My Life."
I guess we'll never hear McGraw covering "Take the Skinheads Bowling." Still, how many artists are willing to go into such deep territory, let alone set up a tent and camping stove?
- Album: Burying the Dead (2010)
- Artist: Richard McGraw
- Label: Non-Utopian Records
- Songs: (1) That Old Song (2) My Life (3) Hurting Heart (4) Balmville Motel (5) Your Lover (6) On Our Knees (7) Asheville (8) I'm Cool (9) The Faith (10) Young Men (11) Her Town (12) Grace
Here's something you might be interested in.
Burying the Dead
Burying the Dead
Hoarse vocals delivering 12 mid-tempo or slow, contemplative songs with well-trodden folk-rock structures usually earn a quick "No" from this quarter. McGraw grapples with grand topics: the death of a loved one and/or the Meaning of Life (capitals intended: one envisions Bertie Wooster throwing-away "STERN stuff, Jeeves"). When McGraw waxes emphatic without engaging music, I'm checking my Facebook. The more laidback material is like a spontaneous diary: poetic imagery being croaked into a microphone + the bright percussion of banjo or finger-picked guitar gurgling like a brook.
Haunting enough to segue with Tom Waits is a cover of Leonard Cohen's "The Faith": "The cross on every hill/ A star, a minaret/ So many graves to fill/ Love, aren't you tired yet?" "Young Men" is the one I'm least likely to want to live without: it's the kind of nice that Gordon Lightfoot would probably have welcomed into his repertoire. But I doubt Lightfoot ever spouted a line this dazzling: "Wounds are like diamonds or demons at play." And McGraw does an ingenious reworking of Billy Joel's "My Life."
I guess we'll never hear McGraw covering "Take the Skinheads Bowling." Still, how many artists are willing to go into such deep territory, let alone set up a tent and camping stove?
- Album: Burying the Dead (2010)
- Artist: Richard McGraw
- Label: Non-Utopian Records
- Songs: (1) That Old Song (2) My Life (3) Hurting Heart (4) Balmville Motel (5) Your Lover (6) On Our Knees (7) Asheville (8) I'm Cool (9) The Faith (10) Young Men (11) Her Town (12) Grace