Wednesday, June 3, 2009

You'll Thank Me

or you should. Here's a link to all of the online songs of the brilliant Karl Straub. You've never heard of him, but he's a great singer/songwriter from the DC area. He led a band in the '90s called the Graverobbers. They released 3 great CD's. It took some searching but I have procured all 3. I never heard of Straub or the Graverobbers until a couple of years ago when I went to a Last Train Home show at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis. The band feature 2 former Graverobbers and band leader Eric Brace mentioned that a couple of the songs (that I liked a lot) were Graverobbers songs. Well that got me searching and I discovered that Straub wrote some of the prettiest pop music ever. I even wrote my first and only fan email ever to him. Surprisingly he answered back. I've only seen him perform once, in the tiny upstairs room of a restaurant/bar in the Del Ray area of Alexandria. Most of the folks there were there for a beer and conversation rather than music and were unaware that there was a great musician playing at the front of the room. So it wasn't the most inspiring show.
I've been on Straub's email list and it seems that over the past year he's gone digital culminating with the blog site listed over there on my link list. I don't visit it as much as I should, but today I found this convenient page with links to all of the songs he has online. Just listened to "Chick Flick On Acid" and while its a humorous look at chick flicks, its also sweet and sensitive.
And the songs are accompanied by Straub's commentary. For me its a revealing look at the creative process (something quite foreign to me).
Karl Straub Song Title List

Also, there's a link to his blog over there on my list of links.
If you're looking for something new to listen to, head on over.

No comments: