Folk

The Deal: Two "shows" in one night at the Muse offers a look at some of the variety of Charlotte's music scene.

The Good: I'll start at the beginning. Nicolette Emanuelle opened up the early show with a fantastic piano-driven set. She often draws comparisons to Tori Amos, though her themes may come across a little darker. With only a drummer to back her, Emanuelle delighted with her talents on the keyboard, vocals and in songwriting. She'd even go back out to perform a few songs on cello with the next act.

The Hot House Hefftones were the second act of the early bill and hit the stage swinging with their combo of jazz and swing with some New Orleans flavor added by the trio of horns.

Singer Emily Estrella has one helluva stage presence on her as she sang and swayed, made faces and gestures to go with the lyrics and just appeared to be having a great time. A group I hadn't seen before, but one that I'm hoping to catch again soon.

Thief was the middle act on the third bill and got things a little more charged up with a full band, indie-rock sound as players even found time to change up instruments. Seeing as how the group drew a decent crowd to the Muse that required chairs to be moved out, I'd keep your eyes out for these guys.

The final band of the night was S.O. Stereo. Frontman Bradley C. Davis sank himself into the lyrics and let his emotions pour out through the band's brand of straight-forward rock. Having seen the band more than a year ago at Tremont, I can easily say they've come a long way since them and appear a lot more comfortable on stage.

The Soft Pack, formerly the Muslims, just contributed a little acoustic set to Sterogum's little acoustic feature called Decomposed. One of the songs they performed was "Call It a Day," from their self-titled EP, the one with the sleeves the band had blasted with a shotgun by a retired cop (it's already extremely hard to find copies).

Jacksonville's Derek Trucks, 29, has established himself as the greatest guitarist of his generation: He's a genre-hopping band leader/solo artist, key Allman Brother and while on tour with Eric Clapton a couple years back the kid named after Derek and the Dominos helped Slow Hand wonderfully recreate classics from Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Yeah, Trucks is the shit.

And so is his wife, Susan Tedeschi. She's a feisty blues guitarist, an accomplished songwriter and excellent soul singer. Her new album, Back to the River, features her crushing on emotive originals - several cowritten with Trucks, who also lends his slide guitar fineness to the disc - steeped in the sounds of the Deep South. Tedeschi's also a master interpreter of classic rock gems. One of the many highlights of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2008 was during the final moments when Tedeschi joined Derek Truck's group for a tent-raising rendition of The Band's "The Weight." I get chills and a smile comes to my face just thinking about that very special performance.

For today's interivew we call out Larkin Grimm.

Who are you?
Larkin Grimm.

Describe yourself in three words.
decadent, compassionate, reptilian.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
The Prophet Muhammed.  I'd ask him to play drums on a musical tour of the modern Islamic world with me and I'd ask him how it all compares to his original dream.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
A young Marlene Dietrich.  But first I would tie her to the bench in Marilyn Monroe's crypt, lying in a bed of Joe DiMaggio's roses.

So, this is my last post for Listen.com. I figured I'd wrap this up with that staple of the nerdy music journalist: the year end list!

I was in my car this morning, and the radio was turned to KFOG, the local AAA radio station. The morning host was going on about Los Lonely Boys' new Christmas album, and I thought, "Who the fuck is going to buy that?"

And then I thought, "Who the fuck buys any kind of Christmas album?" I mean, I have to admit that they've gotten better in recent years. There was the John Waters Christmas disc, with rude and crude ditties like the Black Power anthem "Santa Claus Is a Black Man," and BADD Santa, Peanut Butter Wolf's collection of holiday rap, funk, and oddness (Bruce Haack is god). And, sure, I'd rather hear Sufjan Stevens, Willie Nelson, Weezer, the Hives, Lady Gaga, or Lemmy Kilmeister (see the recent We Wish You a Metal XMAS and a Headbanging New Year) yowl about yule logs when I go into a department store. But usually Christmas music seems to sap the good cheer out of the "most wonderful time of the year."

For today's interview we call out U.K. songstress, Billy Childish cohort, former Thee Headcotees' singer/guitarist and recent Atlanta transplant Holly Golightly.

Who are you?
Holly Golightly.

Describe yourself in three words.
English, white, female.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
My great grandmother.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Myself.

What song do you wish you had written?
"Happy Birthday."

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Elvis Costello.

LP, CD or MP3?
LP.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
One where being in a band is not compulsory.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
'80s fashion comeback.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
Lawyer Dave.

For more than 40 years, Neil Diamond has been a fixture on the world's music scene. He's had countless hits and hit records, been the butt of jokes and created numerous sing-a-longs that are heard just about everywhere -- "Sweet Caroline" among them.

Surprisingly, it was his 2005 album, 12 Songs, that brought him back up toward the top of the charts and his 2008 release, Home Before Dark, that scored him the first number-one album of his career. Many give credit for that achievement to uber-producer Rick Rubin who got Diamond to strip away all the glitz and glam and go the way of James Taylor. Diamond has recently stated that he'll work with Rubin on his next album, but that it will probably different from the last two.

"I wasn't aware that we were trying to distill the essence of my music when we first started recording this stuff," Diamond says during a recent conference call with journalists. "Rick may have wanted to hearken back to simpler days of my career -- he was shooting to capture that in the sessions. Basically, we were going in to kind of find out what these songs would sound like and what they would feel like in a studio setting with a couple of additional musicians aside from myself."

Diamond says Rubin never discussed any intentions in those first sessions and acted more as a casual observer to what the band would do in the studio space. Diamond says he went into the studio simply to "create something wonderful, something magical."

The Deal: Teen country sensation releases sophomore album, follow up to triple-platinum self-titled debut, one month before her 19th birthday.

The Good: First off, credit has to be given to the fact Swift wrote or co-wrote all the tunes on her album. The album's tone sticks to the pop side of the country road. She's got a solid voice with strength at the right times and enough of a breezy tilt when needed. The album gives Swift a second building block in a strong foundation that is sure to lead to a lengthy career. Cliches are never good, but I'm sure the best is yet to come from the young singer. Part of Swift's appeal is that she teeters on the country fence - "White Horse" would do well on just about any pop station that plays ballads. Other songs use violins or other instrumentation to give it more of a country than pop feel, but it's definitely a fine line - see "You Belong With Me" and "Change."

Another sign that the recession has been going on a lot longer than a month: Two local record stores are going bye-bye. In fact, Open Mind Music -- which moved to Market Street a couple years back in the hopes of staving off extinction -- is already gone, having shuttered its doors last month. (The store will apparently sell its remaining underground hip-hop, freaky techno, and oddball rock at the Other Shop on Divisadero and online.) Now comes the news that the 24th Street location of Streetlight Records is going kaput after the holidays.