#MusicMonday, Vol. 78: Lenny Kravitz, Dillon Francis, Regina Spektor & more

Shanna - Feist, "Inside and Out"
Oh, how I love your little sweet n' salty voice, and this tune specifically with its chill, Sunday, soft rock of the '70s kind of bounce. Plus, of course, I'm a sucker for a black n' white video with a photography vibe.

Gabe - Lenny Kravitz, Mama Said Deluxe 21st Anniversary Edition (2012)
A 2-CD fully remastered version of Lenny's outstanding sophomore release from 1991. Kravitz showed he was no fluke after the attention his debut album garnered with this strong follow-up, which finds him channeling his inner fascinations with Curtis Mayfield, Sly Stone, Jimmy Page and David Bowie. "Stop Draggin' Around" still gets me fired up and elicits involuntary dance moves that I didn't even know I had. The main album has been fleshed out with demos, extended mixes and rarities while the bonus disc boasts a host of live tracks that show the real raw talent of Mr. Kravitz in his most comfortable setting: dazzling a live audience with his charisma and presence. One of the included b-sides from this era, "Light Skinned Girl From London," is worth the price of admission alone. I'm on a Lenny high this Monday and I like it.

Shae - Possessed by Paul James, Feed the Family (2012)
I first heard Possessed by Paul James (born Konrad Wert) on Hiram & Heddie: a Tribute to Hank Williams and Leadbelly. The voice — a mix of Hank Sr., yes, but also of Blind Willie McTell — stopped me cold. Immediately, I needed to hear more, so I sought out his albums. I've been listening to my favorite, Feed the Family, for a couple of months now. Wert blends his acoustic guitar, banjo and fiddle to create a sound that is country, folk and blues, haunting, raw and human. He played a free show at Crum's in St. Pete this past weekend, so it was a joy to get to see him live. Though he mostly played songs from the album he's currently recording, he played several from FtF, including my favorite tracks, "Shoulda Known Better" (video below) and "Take Off Your Mask."

Leilani - Regina Spektor, What We Saw from the Cheap Seats (2012)
Pure piano pop bliss with anti-folk and chamber overtones from one of my all-time favorite songstresses. As per usual, she has my throat tightening and eyes welling from track one, "Small Town Moon." Something about her voice is so pure and stunning that it squeezes your heart, and she has the uncanny ability to convey and evoke intense feelings and moods and vibes with her vocals, instrumentals and lyrics, from the vivid imagery of single "All the Rowboats," which likens the works of art in a museum to prisoners serving maximum sentences and carries an urgent percussive drive, to the more earnest crushing beauty of the melancholic "How." Below is a favorite from the album (though pretty much every track has something fantastic about it): “Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas),” which has a very bright, sparkly, Paris-in-the-summertime feel with horns, marimba and Spektor singing most charmingly in both English and French overtop. Spektor hits Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Thurs., Nov. 15; stay tuned for a full-length feature in this week's paper...