tUnE-yArDs – Live And Solo

Merrill Garbus: photo by Chrissy Piper

I was gutted to miss Merrill Garbus (aka tUnE-yArDs) at Glastonbury last week. We heard an outstanding session from her on the Marc Riley show earlier this year, but somehow it’s only when you actually see her smashing out “Hatari” with nothing but a ukulele, that you appreciate the true wild originality of her talent.

The video below comes from the Secret Garden series produced by New York’s Hooves on the Turf blog, where they film artists performing a few songs outside the context of a regular show… In this case in a friend’s apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn.

It just goes to show: you don’t need expensive equipment or production techniques to make truly gobsmacking music or – come to that – videos. All it takes is a bit of talent, a lot of time and the determination to make it happen.

Tom Robinson

London-based broadcaster & songwriter, born 1950. His best known songs are 2-4-6-8 Motorway, Glad To Be Gay and War Baby; he has also co-written songs with Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Dan Hartman and Manu Katché. Read More...

2 Comments

  1. Liza Wolfe

    I quite agree with the sentiment you don’t need amazing hi end equipment to make great sounds now. I recorded this at home using logic pro with a focusrite 2 channel soundcard on a mac pro with decent mic’s (Shure and Audio Technics)

    The backing vocals were ther hardest to record and mix however I think anyone can record at home now and produce very listenable tracks and videos with little expense and give the big boys a run for their money quality wise!

    If only the marketing was that easy!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfG_P1QXQ5Q

    Liza x

  2. Tom

    We do our best to make it that easy Liza – you’re kind of pushing at an open door.

    Although we’re about to take our August Break, most weeks of the year there’s a great big red box at the top of our blog where you – or anybody else – can send us a track. If we like it we feature it right here on the blog in our Listening Post that same weekend. And if our readers like it we feature it in our Fresh Faves…

    You should try it sometime 🙂

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