Alternative Acoustic

There's an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm from 2002 where Alanis Morissette is performing at a benefit concert that's eventually held at Larry David's home, where she sings a stripped-down acoustic arrangement of "You Oughta Know" with guitarist David Levita for an audience of wealthy Hollywood liberals. This may not have been the genesis of her 2005 album Jagged Little Pill Acoustic – initially for sale only in Starbucks stores, but released to mass retail in late July – but that performance not only offers a clue to the sound of this acoustic-based reinterpretation of her blockbuster breakthrough, but also to its target audience…

Having rescheduled their March and April tour dates due to the ongoing Covid-19 emergency, elbow have brought forward the release of ‘Live at The Ritz – An Acoustic Performance’. Recorded in October 2019 in the intimate surroundings of The Ritz in Manchester, the album includes acoustic versions of tracks from ‘Giants of All Sizes’ alongside older favourites.

Hello Starling is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. As Ritter's previous albums have done, Hello Starling was compared to other Americana greats such as Woody Guthrie, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen. His voice on the album was described as smooth with sleepy, rough edges. George Graham praised the lyrics and vocal delivery. Hello Starling was reissued on January 17, 2010 as a two-disc Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition includes the complete original studio album and a second bonus disc. The bonus disc contains solo acoustic versions of all the original tracks (re-recorded by Ritter in Nashville of June 2008) as well as four live bonus tracks, an introduction by Dennis Lehane, and a full color lyric and photo booklet with never-before-seen photos.

Idaho-bred singer/songwriter Josh Ritter's V2 Records debut follows in the footsteps of 2003's Hello Starling only in instrumentation. While he retains his literate tongue and expressive voice, there is far less humor on Animal Years than on his previous two outings. Producer Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse) keeps Animal Years intimate but transient, like a circus train crawling through a small town on a busy Saturday afternoon. Essentially built around two startlingly affecting diatribes on the war in Iraq, Ritter utilizes the voices of Peter and Paul, as well as Laurel & Hardy, to eke some kind of explanation from both the Administration and the Creator.

'Acoustic Sessions' features eight-live tracks and consists of stripped-back versions of songs from his recent album, 'Why Me? Why Not? 'Now That I've Found You', 'Once', 'Alright Now' and 'Meadow' all appear alongside new re-workings of Oasis classics 'Cast No Shadow' and 'Stand By Me' and a demo version of 'Once.'

Live Acoustic (Nettwerk) is an EP by Sarah McLachlan. It was released on 31 May 2004 in Canada only. Four of the tracks were recorded live at a "Live from the Lounge" event with Ryan Seacrest for radio station Star 98.7 on 7 October 2003…