Cheap Music: Amazon.com Black Friday Sales; Signature Sounds Sale

With Thanksgiving hot on our heels, that means the season of holiday music sales and Black Friday deals is near. Here are a couple of places to find good music at good prices, whether you're shopping for gifts for family and friends or, um, buying stuff for yourself.

Bruce Springsteen's "The Promise" 3 CD/3 Blu-ray set will be just $58.99 for a few hours on Thanksgiving Day.

Amazon.com Black Friday Deals 

Amazon.com is having Black Friday music dealsthat started yesterday and continue through Monday, Nov. 28th.

If you're a fan of Amazon's lightning deals and other time-limited sales, you'll like the setup of their Black Friday music sale. Several items are put on sale for a two- or four-hour window, then they go up to their regular price.

For example, here are the Black Friday specials for Wednesday, Nov. 23rd:

5 a.m. - 9 a.m. PST:
Various Artists: "Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology" - $55.99
Amos Lee: "Mission Bell" - $5.99

9 a.m. - 1 p.m. PST:
Pearl Jam: "Live at the Gorge 05/06" - $18.99
Tony Bennett: "Duets II" - $6.99

1 p.m. - 5 p.m. PST:
Queen: "Queen 40 Limited Edition Collector's Box Set" - $32.99
Mumford & Sons: "Sigh No More" - $4.99

5 p.m. - 9 p.m. PST:
Various Artists: "The 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Concerts" (4CD) - $25.99
Eddie Vedder: "Ukulele Songs" - $4.99

Some of the highlights of Thanksgiving Day offerings:
5 a.m. - 9 a.m. PST: U2: "Joshua Tree" (Remastered/Expanded Super Deluxe Edition, 2CD/DVD) - $22.99
9 a.m. - 1 p.m. PST: Bruce Springsteen: "The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story" (3 CD/3 DVD) - $58.99

Signature Sounds Pre-Holiday Sale

This Massachusetts-based label features a great stable of singer-songwriters and Americana musicians, and their annual sale at this time each year lets you buy any CD for $9.99 or less. (You also get a free 11-track sampler with each order than includes a physical CD.)

I somehow missed this sale until I got an e-mail from the label today, so unfortunately the one-week-only sale ends tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 23rd, at Midnight Eastern time.

Signature Sounds artists include Eilen Jewell, Josh Ritter, Crooked Still, Kris Delmhorst, Patty Larkin, Chris Smither, Lori McKenna, Winterpills, Richard Shindell, and Louise Taylor. 

Free Music: Mellow Music Podcasts for Thanksgiving Weekend

Sixteen-year-old Canadian singer Nikki Yanofsky is featured in a live concert podcast from CBC Radio 2. Photo: Florian Kragulj

Since many of us here in the U.S. (including me) are still recovering from Thanksgiving dinner and are in a groggy turkey coma, here's a selection of mellow music podcasts for free download, much of it recorded live in concert. And interestingly, much of it is from Canada (where they celebrate Thanksgiving in October).

The Acoustic Long Island podcast has three new episodes in the last month with live performances by singer-songwriter Kat Mulvaney and the folk-blues duo Nini and Ben.

The Canada Live podcast from CBC Radio 2 has several good recent podcasts with singer-songwriters from up north:
* the Great Canadian Song Quest 2010 concert;
* the Rootstock concert featuring Sarah Slean, Joel Plaskett, Steven Page, Hawksley Workman, and others; and
* a concert from 16-year-old singing phenom Nikki Yanofsky, who wowed viewers around the world with her rendition of "O Canada" during the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics earlier this year.

I'd never heard of the Canadian singer-songwriter Al Tuck, but apparently he's one of those individuals who is much-loved by his fellow musicians but is underappreciated by the masses. CBC Radio 3 devoted a recent podcast to Al Tuck, with songs by Tuck himself and covers of his tunes by a variety of Canadian artists, who also talk about what he has meant to them and their music.

Americana Awards Tonight; Get FREE Americana Sampler from Amazon.com

The Americana Music Association Awards take place tonight in Nashville, but unfortunately you won't find them on TV. (Too bad, since the quality of musicianship is undoubtedly higher than that found on most other music awards shows.)

There's good news, however: NPR Music is offering audio streaming of the Americana Music Awards (note: it's an early show, starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time).

And Amazon.com is offering a FREE Americana Music Awards Sampler with 14 tunes from folks including John Hiat, Buddy & Julie Miller, the Avett Brothers, James McMurtry, and Canadian Corb Lund (the "Hurtin' Albertan"). (This free sampler download offer may be good only in the U.S.)

The Americana Music Awards Sampler track listing:

1. The Open Road, John Hiatt
2. All The Time, Elizabeth Cook
3. Ellis County, Buddy And Julie Miller
4. Old Gin Road, Ponderosa
5. Shame, The Avett Brothers
6. Bury Me Far (From My Uniform), Joe Pug
7. A Crooked Road, Darrell Scott
8. To Live Is To Fly, Steve Earle
9. Mama's Little Baby, Delbert McClinton
10. A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment ((Hint: There is no C)), Ray Wylie Hubbard
11. Patchwork River, Jim Lauderdale
12. Devil's Best Dress, Corb Lund
13. Seven-Mile Island, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
14. Bayou Tortous, James McMurtry

Tonight's Americana Music Awards show will feature performances by Emmylou Harris, the Avett Brothers, Rodney Crowell, Wanda Jackson, Rosanne Cash, Patty Griffin, Sam Bush, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ryan Bingham, Corb Lund, Sarah Jarosz, and many others.

The Awards are part of the Americana Music Festival and Conference, which is taking place Sept. 8th to 11th.

Dar Williams Out On Tour with New Album - Hear Interview and Full Concert

Singer-songwriter Dar Williams recently came out with her latest album, Promised Land, and is touring in support of it. You can hear a radio interview she did that aired on public radio Sunday, Sept. 28th at the link below.

Williams talks about the things she writes about on her new album, the musicians and producers she's worked with, and how she fits songwriting into her busy life as a wife and mother... something that's a change from when she first started out as a carefree singer in her early 20s. "I know that I need to take the time to structure my life to create the empty spaces, so every story really has its due," said noted.

I've been a fan of Dar Williams since her first album, The Honesty Room, and have enjoyed seeing her in concert a number of times. She always puts on a good live show, and has a friendly and funny manner in talking to her audience. Some people may find it too cloying or cutesy, but it's one aspect of her style that has endeared her to her many fans over the years.

At the NPR Music link, you can hear the interview as well as songs from the new Dar Williams album and a complete Dar Williams concert.

Singer-Songwriter Dan Fogelberg, 56, Dies of Cancer

Dan Fogelberg, the popular singer-songwriter who had a string of hits in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Sunday morning, Dec. 16th, of prostate cancer. He was 56 years old and passed away at his home in Maine, with his wife present, according to a message on his Web site. Fogelberg was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2004.

I've always been a fan of folk and singer-songwriters, and I liked Fogelberg's music dating back to the late '70s. Somewhere in the vast warehouse that is my apartment I still have my copy of "Nether Lands," the 1977 Fogelberg album that has songs including "Love Gone By" ... um, on cassette. (I did say that I liked him going back to the 1970s.)

Dan Fogelberg's biggest hit was the ballad "Longer," and he was also known for the tunes "The Power of Gold," "Leader of the Band," and "Illinois." "Same Old Lang Syne," his wistful tale of a chance encounter between two former lovers at Christmastime, was a top 10 hit in 1980 and has been a standard holiday-season song on the radio ever since.

You can find out about Dan Fogelberg's music, career, and life at his Web site, above. while this is a sad loss, the length of his illness allowed time for Fogelberg's many fans and colleagues to express their support.