Music Review: Aoife O'Donovan "Fossils" album

Aoife O'Donovan's debut solo album "Fossils" is great music that will make you happy. 

She writes modern folk songs which are very much in the spirit of traditional English folk songs from centuries ago.  The songs include the traditional topics of love, death, and loneliness, but the songs as delivered are never depressing and often downright cheerful. 

Her voice is clear and beautiful.  Although many modern singers go into histrionics, Aoife just sings, comfortably within her range.  The word to sum her up is "smooth."  (She reminds me a bit of singer Janet Pressley from Cincinnati, who I also highly recommend.  See www.bluejordan.com for Janet Pressley.)

The arrangements are never cluttered.  The musicians are first-rate. The recording is clear; it isn't over-produced or mixed too loud.

Aoife comes out of the bluegrass world, but this album has more in common with Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album than with any bluegrass album.  You'll like this music even if you hate bluegrass.

If you like Sade, Joni Mitchell, or Judy Collins, you'll probably like this album. 

Highly recommended. 

You can listen to MP3 previews on Amazon.  You'll find the album if you search for "aoife".  I bought the album on CD, instead of MP3,to get the extra sound quality.  The CD sounds much much better on a good stereo system than the MP3 does on computer speakers or cheap headphones. 

As a bonus, the CD's front cover is an amusing picture of the lovely Aoife O'Donovan herself.  As one Amazon reviewer put it, "Could they possibly have made her look any goofier?"

Vimeo has Aoife's video for her song "Red & White & Blue & Gold."

Twenty sizzling summer sex stories for 99 cents!

The charity ebook to benefit Sommer Marsden's family has finally been released! (Her husband is fighting a serious illness.)  "Summer Loving" includes twenty hot erotic stories with a summer theme for the low low price of 99 cents.  I've only read the first three stories so far and I've already gotten my money's worth. 

The twenty stories are the best of the hundreds of stories submitted by generous writers. You'll recognize the authors and love the stories.  

This project was organized by the great Alison Tyler so you're guaranteed high-quality smut.

Go to All Romance Ebooks to download "Summer Loving."

EDIT: As of August 2014, the price had increased from $.99 to $2.99.  It's still worth the money.

Another great writer's blog

Another example of a great writer's blog is

Sommer Marsden's blog

Writer Beware

The Writer Beware blog exposes the shady characters who try to cheat authors.

Music Video - Renaissance - BBC Sight and Sound concert from 1977

The band Renaissance performed a beautiful mixture of rock and classical-inspired music featuring Annie Haslam's lovely voice.  Here's their BBC Sight and Sound concert from 1977 on Youtube.

Where do you get those crazy ideas for stories?

 Actual headlines from the September 4, 2013 issue of an Ohio newspaper:

Shots fired when woman attacked with ironing board

Chain-reaction with police cars becomes drug bust

Lebron James to produce his own sitcom

Put on your kilt for Irish Fest this weekend.

Live video from the International Space Station

Live streaming video from the International Space Station shows the interior of the space station while the astronauts are working and views of the Earth while the astronauts are off-duty.