The Friday Refrain: A bit of what's new in music...

Hey there ho there hi there hey there! Sorry for the blip last week - it was a busy weekend of seeing an author friend's book signing and an afternoon spent on a hill in Theodore Wirth Park tallying wins and losses for a Kubb Tournament. And pretty awesome too. Then this week - it's warm. Warm. Warm. We will be dusting off the running stroller in an hour or so and going for the year's first run. Also, I think I saw 3 large crane type birds landing on the Mississippi today. Which seems early, but they know better.

Let's just give a brief recap of last week: Country star Reba McEntire released Sing It Now; Sampha released Process; Elbow are back with Little Fictions; Leann Rimes released Remnants; Syd of The Internet had Fin; and Less Than Jake are back with Sound The Alarm. Last year Jesca Hoop released an album last with Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, this week she is back solo with Memories Are Now. Lupe Fiasco returns with Drogas Light. Tinariwen has Elwan and Thievery Corporation is out with The Temple of I & I. Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears (possibly the best & the's ever) released Backlash as well. That's a whole spectrum of music right there and that's pretty representative of how 2017's music scene has been so far. Which is pretty neat. Oh man, Michael Bolton not only has a Netflix Valentine's Day Special but he also released Songs of Cinema today.

And then there's the list of yore, and the list of yore yore (two weeks ago)

This is when I put together fun lists, however I fear the wee one will be emerging from his dark cavern of slumber soon and thus it won't happen, so I'm going to concentrate on getting my Spotify Playlists put together instead. And if this is still here when I post it, that means I was correct and I should say Happy Listening now! (suddenly I want Cheez-its. Seriously want Cheez-its. That is very odd.)Happy Listening!