Youtube Musicians and a "New Era"

I don't know what you use youtube for, but I use it for a variety of things, including finding new music. It is an interesting thing to watch a person grow and become a better at what they do. You can see the humble beginnings of these people (even if you have not been watching them from the start) and you get to see where life -and often youtube- can take them!

Here are my three favourite youtube musicians:

Kokokaina aka Zee Avi
This girl has a voice reminiscent of Ella Fitzgerald and other classics of the day. Her voice style combined with the ukelele that she plays creates light, slightly jazzy, easy to listen to songs. My favourite of hers is "Someone You Used to Know".
Word is that Jack Johnson picked her up after a video of her's was featured on youtube. She has now recorded an album under "Zee Avi" with Bushfire Records. It will be out on May 19th! I'm anticipating this eagerly!

alleycat82 aka Jess Chalker
A young woman with a folk sound and whimsical lyrics and she plays a guitar named "Maryanne". Jess Chalker has many original songs with simple melodies and lovely lyrics. Listen to "Said the Raindrop to the Seed" and "Airplane Song" (which sounds similar to "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes.

newday38 aka Jennifer Yi
Her voice is pure and simple. You can really hear the emotion in her voice. This voice paired with piano makes for some very melodramatic listening! Check out her "Worn Me Down" cover and her original "Hallway Walk". She was also kind enough to send me some of her covers personally! Bet you don't get that with your big music stars!


On another note, Gen is leaving facebook and and is now writing a blog:"Little Rays of Genshine". I helped with that name. :) I am very excited about this "new era". I think that most of us are way too addicted to facebook (I will be leaving facebook shortly as well). So look for more postings in the coming weeks. There will probably be more on collaboration since I have a 15 page essay on a podcast with the same topic.

And don't think that I didn't try to get the pictures to line up. I did. Really. :\