Twelve YouTube Videos I'm Enjoying Right Now

And you won't find any unboxing videos on the list

YouTube isn’t just unboxing videos and pundits ranting during their morning commute. There’s also a lot of creativity unleashed by those tubers. But sometimes you have to dig deep to find it.

As a wise cat once said: “It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.”

There should be a warning sign: “Podcaster on board.”

I always try my best to have fun, and I managed to uncover some of this buried treasure on my own. But I had help too. Here as always, I depend upon the kindness of strangers (and a few friends) all over the world, who tell me about their favorite new videos. Otherwise, I would have never found some of them.

That’s the real story of artistry right now, at least in music. So much of it is hidden from view. But here are a dozen of my recent favorites. I’ve enjoyed them—and now you can too.

Happy listening!

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Are you ready for Afrofuturist gospel music? Florence Adooni is the gospel queen of Ghana, and as soon as those vocals start, I’m ready to stand up and testify—under oath if necessary. There’s also a heavy dose of jazz here, and even some avant-garde polytonal elements. In a hipper world, this is how we would spread the good news.

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It’s always high risk when I refer to Steely Dan here—the comment section goes crazy like Black Friday at WalMart. But I’m still going to share this video of Kent Nishimura playing his solo guitar version of “Hey Nineteen”—and you can sue me if he plays too long. My thanks to Steve Carlton for calling it to my attention.

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I have previously praised the sadly under-appreciated Susana Raya—and have even dubbed her the “Andalusian Eva Cassidy.” If you want to some background, check out her Spanish reintrepretation of “My One and Only Love,” or her introspective home-made rendition of “Manhã de Carnaval,” or her version of Russ Freeman’s “The Wind.” Today I’ll share her reworking and Spanish translation of Nick Drake’s “River Man.”

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Here’s some indigenous Siberian hiphop. Need I say more?

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