I’ve discovered a number of really interesting musicians through YouTube over the years. It’s another avenue to get exposure, and as someone who doesn’t listen to the radio or stream music, anything new is going to come to my attention through reading about it, direct recommendation, or YouTube.
In recent years, I stumbled onto Pomplamoose, which is essentially a husband and wife duo, Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, and an assortment of side musicians. Their videos are always live recordings, fun to watch and they really give me an appreciation for skilled musicianship. They’ve been around since 2008 but, as with most things, I discovered them just a few years back when the algorithm fed me one or two of their cover songs and I became quite enamored of their approach to familiar songs. They have some originals, too, and then suddenly they started doing some songs in French, which turned into this record, and I’ve already established that I’m a sucker for gentle French pop songs, particularly as Sunday morning background music. Released in 2021, I bought it direct from their website and it has been part of my Sunday morning rotation ever since. A little of this, a little Jane Birkin, some France Gall maybe, some Françoise Hardy . . . my morning is complete. Well, and coffee, of course.
This is quite magnificent, actually. Oh, how I wish I had conquered French. But maybe it’s better that I don’t understand, and can just listen to the sounds.
