The latest Almanac is here to whisper in your ear and tell you secrets about where it’s been.  I only say one bad word, and it’s at the very end of the broadcast.  There’s way too many good covers, but here’s the best of recently. If I sound a little more nervous than usual, well, I am.  Almanac is heading into it’s fourth season, y’all.  You all look prettier and kinder by the year, your faces are disfigured with love.

Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard (Paul Simon Cover)    3:32    Julie Doiron
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (Postal Service cover)    3:44    Jonna Lee
The Same Old Song (The Four Tops Cover)    3:04    Iron & Wine
It’s All Over Now (Baby Blue) -  13th Floor Elevators
Alone Again Or    3:25    Calexico
Love Will Tear Us Apart    3:29    The Cure
Buckets Of Rain (Bob Dylan Cover)    3:29    Neko Case
Highway To The Danger Zone    2:45    Homesick Elephant
Too Little Too Late [Jo Jo Cover]    4:10    Daniel Rossen
Just Like Heaven    4:19    The Watson Twins    Fire Songs
The Breeze/My Baby Cries    6:22    Bill Callahan
Footloose    4:57    Doveman
Always On My Mind (Willie Nelson Cover)    4:51    Iron & Wine/Calexico

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This is an entirely unscripted Almanac, done spur of the moment, and not the official start to Season Four. Sometimes you do things for other people, and sometimes you do things just for yourself.

Jim Cain    4:29    Bill Callahan
I’m Getting Back Into Getting Into You    2:35    Silver Jews
Tear in Your Hand – Tori Amos
My Friend    5:03    Bill Callahan
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)    3:39
Crush    3:02    Noise Rathchet
Cat Heaven    5:06    Jets to Brazil
NYC    4:22    Interpol
Sixteen, Maybe Less    4:49    Calexico / Iron & Wine
There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve    2:44    A.C. Newman
Lemurs, Man, Lemurs    3:10    Minus the Bear
The Purple Bottle    6:52    Animal Collective

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Because perhaps you need a special treat to get you through tonight.  Through secret back channels and the sharp eyes of an internet friend, I came across two new mp3’s from the Bill Callahan album, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle,  which doesn’t release until April 2009.  I think this album will end up being very personally important, and there isn’t much I love more than a Smog album.

I’m not even going to fill your long ears with tales about when the next Almanac is coming out.  It sits idle and indolent on my hard drive, at about an hour and a half.  My mornings are filled with my office job which I like, and then my afternoons and evenings with all manner of designing and manufacturing underwear.  Today I worked a twelve hour day, I think.  Good for the naturally indolent side of me, difficult though to adjust to that much work.   I have never been the sort of person to falter and fail at writing back to e-mails, I’ve always made time for everything, but on days like today, I just want to fall into bed.

Listening to these two, in the dark, especially Jim Cain, is sort of a lonely experience.  The violins at the end kill me, in the same way that every Bill Callahan song contains a moment so small it might escape everyone else, but for you, it is, and it is just what you needed to hear.

Jim Cain by Bill Callahan (removed by request of Drag City)

My Friend by Bill Callahan (removed by request of Drag City)