Would You Like Fries With That?....1

Upfront I’m not going to promise any sort of time table for this.  What this is will be a column that acts as a sort of clearing house of whatever my mind has sitting about.  It may appear once a week, it might not appear for a month or more.  I know the danger of promising a regular schedule and than not being able to fulfill said obligations.  Too many things can happen to get in the way, so no promises upfront but hopefully this will be the start of a regular column.

So what will the column be about?  Whatever I’m thinking of when I sit down to write it, so basically I’m saying it could be about anything or nothing.  What I’m listening to, what new records I’ve received in the mail, what news I’ve heard…heck it might even be what comic book I’ve just read.

Last week two of the best albums of the quickly vanishing year were released.  Alejandro Escovedo’s Big Station is another example of his superb writing and singing.  This man consistently puts out some of the best music.  A few years back I happened to have the privilege of seeing him perform live in a small acoustic setting.  Of all the shows I’ve been to I would count this one in my top ten.  He sat on a stool on the stage and with just one other guitar accompanying him he sang and talked about his life and music. 

The other album is Kelly Hogan’s I Like To Keep Myself In Pain.   Her absence between albums is way too long, so when I saw that she has a new album out I was over joyed.  How good she is is evident by how much time she spends singing with other artists and how much others want her to add her voice to their music.  For the last few years Kelly has been part of Neko Case’s band. 

While writing the above two paragraphs I initially paused when it came time to write Kelly or Alejandro by name.  How do I address an artist when I’m talking about their music?  Do I call them by their first name, as if we’re old buddies or do I go the route of referring to them by their last name and come across more indifferent to them.  Little things like this cause me worry and make me re think my words as I type them.  I’ve decided to err on the side of familiarity and speak of them as if we’re all friends, since that’s how I like to imagine this site filled with friends and lovers of music.

I’ve heard that Will Hoge is working on a new album with the title Modern American Protest Music and let me tell you, just that title alone makes me impatient to hear it.   On Memorial Day he put a song up for the day, “A Folded American Flag” and if this song is any indication of the rest of the album, it may be one of his best.

Recently received here at the sprawling Voices estates was Sam Cooper & The Sleepwalkers newest and it’s went a few spins in the car CD player.   Enjoyable music.

I’m currently reading big day coming by Jesse Jarnow.  The subtitle of the book is “You La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock.”   I’m on page 96 and the group just played their first show, so it’s presenting a lot of background information.  The book opens with a brief history of baseball and the field played on in Hoboken New Jersey.  It’s presenting a fascinating history that I was not that familiar with, and definitely did not realize the importance of Hoboken in music circles.  Recently I finished Everybody Loves Our Town by Mark Yarm.  This is an oral history of grunge.  This is the history besides Nirvana.  Of course that group is in the book, but it is so much more than that.  One of the better books I’ve read in a long time.  Also been on a music biography kick lately, reading bios of Ronnie Spector, Greg Allman and Ozzy.  All were interesting and gave me new understandings behind the singers.

I just purchased a new Ipod, one of those new fangled touch screen ones.  My old Ipod is a classic, bought so I could fill it up with as much music as humanly possible.  Unfortunately the touch versions don’t hold as much, still I bought the 64 gig version.  I thought I was going to be smart and use my music from the cloud and I wouldn’t have to download anything, but forgot when I’m not close to a Wifi connection the music stops.  I was driving down the highway yesterday and surprisingly it continued to play for quite awhile, but suddenly stopped and I was in a mini panic, thinking the device had broken until I realized that I was out of Wifi range and was not going to get any more music from any cloud.  So I’ve been taking some of that 64 gig and turning it into music since. 

First up was just about everything I have by Shannon McNally, than some Will Hoge.  Have to have those two in the Ipod.  After that it’s been a cross selection of music that such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Mighty Clouds of Joy and Mahalia Jackson.   As I’ve stated before on this site I’m not a religious person, but this music moves me and I love listening to it.  After the church services I’ve put some Gaslight Anthem, Patty Griffin, Hank Williams, Grace Potter, J Geils, Amanda Shaw, Richard Thompson, Dave Alvin and the list continues to grow.  If you think there’s someone I just have to have in the Ipod let me know.

Last night Elizabeth Cook appeared on Letterman.  (I’ve put a video of part of the show she did with Jason Isbell on The Late Show on the site.)  Elizabeth is an amazing singer and writer, each of her albums just gets better and better.  Her newest is an EP of gospel music.  Besides her music Elizabeth hosts a morning show on Sirius XM radio, that besides some good music she plays is fun to listen to for her comments inbetween the songs.  I’ve read somewhere that after her first appearance on Letterman the host was so taken with her that he has his production team trying to develop a sitcom for her and she’s been spending a lot of her time in Hollywood instead of the music studio.  I’m happy for whatever makes her successful but I’ll miss some of the music she won’t be able to make if she’s doing tv.

I think we’re at the end of this first column.  Like I said at the start there is no format or formal structure to this endeavor so no two columns will read much the same.  Hopefully it’ll be more of a chance for me to talk more directly to all of you out there and feel free to leave comments.  We can turn this into a dialogue and not me just talking at you. 

This is where I need a catchy sign off phrase.  I used to sign my letter peace until peace out became such a catch phrase.  I don’t want to jump on any bandwagon and try to come across as cooler than I am, so I think I’ll just end with a simple statement and hope.  Take care.

Jason Isbell and Elizabeth Cook on The Late Show

Two great performers Jason Isbell and Elizabeth Cook preform two Townes Van Zandt songs.

Video Wednesday

This week we showcase Elizabeth Cook.

SONG OF THE DAY

Today we feature Elizabeth Cook's song "Rock and Roll Man" from her album Welder.

Song of America

This week’s Voices to Hear is going to be a bit different than pervious ones. Instead of one voice to highlight in this week’s column we’re going to talk about an entire album’s worth of voices. The album is Song of America and it features 50 artists different artists. (What? You didn’t think an album would have a MySpace page? Everyone and everything has a MySpace page nowdays.)

If you’ve heard of this album at all it’s due to the identity of the executive producer of the record, Janet Reno. Yes, that Janet Reno, the former Attorney General of the United States. Most of the press has focused on that point, which at least gives it a chance to get out there and maybe be heard.

The genesis of the album started ten years ago when Ed Petterson, a singer-songwriter from Brooklyn New York wrote a song about the American cowboy. He brought the song to his Aunt to listen to. His Aunt just happened to be Janet Reno. She liked the song, but suggested that he should go farther than just one song about one point in America’s history. She suggested that he record a collection of songs that would reflect American’s history.

What they ended up envisioning was a collection of songs that would trace the events that shaped our nation’s history. The album became a collection that could be used as a tool to help teach the youth of our country about their history through song. The album was divided into five broad themes from America’s history:

United We Stand, Divided We Fall
War and Peace
Work
Families at Home and on the Move
Faith and Ideals

The performers interpreted these songs in their own style for the listeners of today. In some ways it was the same idea that was behind Wilco and Billy Bragg’s updating of Woody Guthrie song’s from Mermaid Avenue. They took the words but made the music their own.

The performers came from all sorts of musical genres. The album opens with a Lakota Indian song and ends with a Woody Guthrie song. To list all the performers on this album would stretch this column out too long, but such performers as The Blind Boys of Alabama, John Wesley Harding, Freedy Johnston, Marah, Janis Ian, Elizabeth Cook, John Mellencamp, Old Crow Medicine Show and a host of others. In keeping with the theme of this column almost all of the performers were not well known. John Mellencamp is probably the biggest name on the album.

The album is divided into three cds: red, white and blue. The red disc starts with songs from the American Revolution and each disc moves the songs through the history of our country. Some of the songs on these two discs you’ve probably heard a million times and may not have thought of since you were in school. Harper Simon (Paul Simon’s son) does a version of Yankee Doodle, The Mavericks do Dixie, Joni Harms does Home On The Range. The blue disc brings us up to the modern era and has songs that most listeners will be more familiar with, at least from radio. This disc has Kim Richey doing the Rascals “Get Together,” Anthony David doing Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” Martha Wainwright doing Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.” Only one artist is represented by two songs on the album, Bruce Springsteen: Matthew Ryan does “Youngstown” and Bettye LaVette does “Streets of Philadelphia.”

This is one of those albums that I was absolutely fascinated with, after listening to it it will make you proud to be an American. And it does it without resorting to the sort of jingo posturing you usually find in these type of projects.

As one final note, with the kind permission of Miss Heather, I’m going to include two songs with this column. There was so much great stuff to chose from it was a really tough decision, but I went with both ends of the timeline. The first song is Harper Simon’s “Yankee Doodle” and the second song is a heart breaking rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” by Bettye LaVette. But I could have easily picked any of the other forty eight songs to showcase, they’re all that good.


Harper Simon "Yankee Doddle Dandy"


Bettye Lavette "Streets of Philadelphia"

The Best of 2007

I'm not going to make a top ten list, because there's no way I could make a list like that. My top picks change day to day, sometimes within the hour. One day I would swear to you a certain album is the best album of the year, catch me the next day and I'll be telling you it's a different album. So what I'm going to do here is just list what I think some of the best albums of the year were. This list will continue throughout the month, as I remember other ablums that were put out this year. If you have any suggestions feel free to comment.

1. Lori McKenna "Unglamarous"

If I was going to make a top ten, this would be somewhere in that top ten. Lori has been a favorite of mine for years, her music has been coming out on small labels until this year. Faith Hill discovered her and recorded three of her songs for her last album and that led Lori to a big label contract with Tim McGraw producing the album. They did a pretty good job of not over producing the music and trying to make her fit into what's hip. It's not my favorite album by Lori, but it's still very good and better than a lot of stuff out there.


2. Jesse Malin "Glitter in the Gutter"
This is Jesse's third solo album. He was the lead singer of the punk group D-Generation. Anyone following him from that group looking for the same will be surprised. Here he's making pop more in the vain of Ryan Adams than the loud angry punk from his former group. Ryan had a hand in this album, as in the previous three. One song "Broken Radio" is a duet with Bruce Springsteen. Jesse writes some really good story songs and his album actually is filled with a lot of hope.

3. Maria McKee "Late December"
Maria started off in the americana group Lone Justice when she was barely out of her teens. The group was destined for super stardom but never seemed to make it. Since the break up of the band she has recorded several excellent solo albums. One of her early songs ended up on the Dixie Chicks first album, giving her the financial freedom to record how she wants. She is not content to merely stick to one genre. One ablum will be her roots rock, the next could be labeled alternative. This album is almost threatrical, close to opera in some instances. Maria has a voice that can pull just about any style of music off. I enjoyed this album but I have to admit I'm more of a fan of her roots rock style.

4. Susan Cowsill Band "Live at Carrollton Station: Covered In Vinyl Series Vol. 1"
Susan is a favorite of mine. She's been around years, from the family band, The Cowsills, to the New Orlean's based Contintental Drifters, to finally her own solo career. She's still based out of New Orleans and at the local club Carrollton Station she does a monthly show where her band covers an album from someone else. They do the entire album at the show. This is cuts from different shows where she covered Joni Mitchell, Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zepplin. Hopefully this is just the first in what will be a series of releases. I'd like to see a release of one entire show, where she redoes the entire album.

5. Amanda Shaw "Pretty Runs Out"
Amanda is another local favorite and this is her big label debut. She's a 17 year old fiddle playing sensation. She's released two previous albums on small local labels until Rounder Records decided to grab her up. This is a good album, but not the Amanda Shaw album I was hoping for. It starts off good, with the title song, as close to theme song for Brittney as could be written. Rounder wisely teamed Amanda up with some veteran local artists in helping her craft some songs, Shannon McNally and Anders Osborne each have a hand in writing some of the material on this album. But they also try to make Amanda into a more contemporary vocalist, singing material written by popsmith Dianne Warren. In concert she does covers by such artists as the Clash and Charlie Daniels, it would have been nice to see that ability to stretch more on this album.
6. Elizabeth Cook "Balls"
The title for this album is short for the song "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman". This is straight ahead old fashioned country music produced by Rodney Crowell.