When Jan suggested The Book of Daniel a few months ago, my first thought was of E.L. Doctorow’s novel of the same name, which was my least favorite of the texts we read in my most favorite grad school class, Prof. William Veeder’s “Contemporary Historical Fiction.” Every year I try (and invariably fail) to teach Eudora Welty’s wonderful and little-known short story “Where is the Voice Coming From” as finely as Bill did. Oh well. Anyway, here’s what Jan had to say about The Book of Daniel: “Daniel Gustafsson (who is the brother of Swedish Bright Eyes-type singer-songwriter Boy Omega) has written some awesome songs recently. Imagine John K. Samson of the Weakerthans playing beautiful jazz versions of Buckley or Wainwright songs.” Exactly. I’ve included three of the six songs available for free and legal download from Gustafsson’s EP; the rest are available at Daniel’s website, and there’s more info at Swedesplease, a really cool version of 3hive (free, legal MP3s) specifically for Swedish bands. (Who would have known there’d be enough to keep it going?)
Sharing the sharing.
I find his music rather intriguing. A little disjointed, but easy to listen to. After the piano solo in “Alice’s Last Song” I was half-expecting Lionel Richie to chime in with his lyrics from “Hello”.
hey! bill veeder is my graduate advisor!
although neither sounds like tBoD, check out http://www.canastamusic.com and http://www.hexesandohs.ca. good stuff.
wow. just, wow. his music is disjointed AND ethereal.