i want the name of the one person responsible for the white dude in the old man hat voice

Phil - see here for another take:

birth of the flattened cool: the origins of the indie voice?

this woman can really sing ...

i like saying this to people and then putting on lene lovich

scott you mentioned a while back itt "the river" in western MA, it's like ground zero for this kind of stuff. "featureless" "ahistorical" "tasteful" very accurate. part of this intersects very neatly w/ "craftsmanship consumerism artisanal" craft beer gastropub single origin coffee

― marcos, Friday, December 16, 2016 10:58 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Indeed the vocal style seems employed in a way that reminds me of the stuff at Pier 1 they force to look "rustic" if that makes any sense.

Sometimes I go into a youtube hole of bland, competent Americana and I feel sort of overwhelmed by how much otherwise not that interesting "talent" and "craftsmanship" there is out there, like there's an entire musical world that's the rough equivalent of the movie Cold Mountain.

Like there are just so many people doing this sub-Gillian Welch schtick that are objectively *good*, like if they were a regular at your local coffee spot you'd think "This isn't my kind of music but damn, this person could be big." And most of them are b-listers, maybe getting a little play on FUV, a few second tent spots at festivals, maybe never to be heard from again in five years.

the vocal style is as if someone described the word "lilting" and then the vocals are performed without lilt

Watching the launch concert for the Ken Burns Country doc on PBS rn, and this Ketch Secor guy's Old Man Hat Power is off the charts!

http://www.tedxnashville.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Ketch-Secor-2-of-28-1160x700.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3AHqcinzZ4

Buskers should be executed. Also if you gave that dude a belt he wouldn't use it for his pants.

he's wearing a belt!

oops

Should be wearing suspenders instead.

sorry to say but the name of the man responsible for that is Tom Waits

I always forget what those rectangular box drum thingies are called but nothing good ever happens when they're around

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajón
I've seen them used effectively and with joy but there's definitely a strong wook contingent

Very important in Afro-Peruvian music. Tempted to FP you two.

you got a lotta cajones to do that

very important in lots of music! but often awkwardly co-opted by us/uk artists unsurprisingly

waits didn't invent this stuff or necessarily influence most it but he's important for combining so many of the quite different white guy hat styles that have been alluded to here. he lacks some of the soul and post-grunge elements that are important in some versions

the smoother coffeeshop/youtube style seems like the offspring of one strain of this stuff (the boho retro jazz/blues thing) and indie voice

^ worst comment section ever?

Does this style of singing draw more on 70s beatnik Waits, or post-1980 hobo-in-the-gutter Waits?

yes

ha. great thread btw. couple thoughts:

when did top 40 music become inundated with ukuleles and whistling? has that trend ever subsided? it’s almost as though there was — off on the sidelines, in car commercials and corporate coffeeshop playlists — a cynical approximation of "indie" music that inadvertently caught on, and then became a dominant mode of music production.

is there anything more embarrassing than the cloying faux-sincerity of the bon iver guy? what is it exactly about his delivery that seems to suggest we should listen in quiet reverence to his Deep Lyrics? just yuck

I had never heard that guy until the Taylor Swift duets (which I think are great)... I tried checking out his own music, and it’s sort of like abstract indie r&b? Idk

i like budo jeru's "off on the sidelines" thing, like this stuff was a lab experiment that was never meant to escape its carefully regulated environment, and has no natural predators in the wild. somehow this sonic palette became widely accepted as a means of conveying sincerity, creativity, wistfulness, old pain, new hope, individuality.... blah!!!

I see this person has not been honoured in this thread:

https://www.neweracap.co.uk/explore/new-era-music/ragnbone-man/

(no old man hat tho, he’s got a young man cap to sell you)

for USxors: this has 1.2 billion views and counting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk

As a guide to that track's bizarre reach and influence, my old man is in a 'rock' choir (he's 76 and the youngest by a distance) and they do a cover of Human.

was it hstencil who suggested an interesting answer to this question: kermit?

Does Mac Miller (RIP) fit this category? I listened to his 2020 album out of curiosity, thinking he was some kind of rapper; but I guess either I had him confused with someone else, or else at some point he reinvented himself on the model of Sublime's "What I Got"

(see the song "Surf" for a most egregious example of what I mean)

I don't actually hate it, musicwise; I just find the vocal affectations really distracting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKguzLCV2NE

serious answer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA1VQxaRQOI

lord buckley, for the record.

Excellent answer

I want the name of the one person responsible for the white instagram lady with the ukulele chunk-a-chunk sound

Lol

Nataly Dawn

Was gonna suggest Shirley Temple

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/05/c8/e7/05c8e7735dafa19741c454aabbeecaf9.jpg