Discography Year Two - Week 18

And we've rung in the New Year, and hopefully this will be a better year!  I trust that the nano-overlords released this week's Discography selection on time, and I can testify that it is one of excellence.  I am have temporarily abandoned all of you for the warmer (100 degrees warmer when I left Vermont) climes of equatorial Africa, but you are all in my hearts.

Gary Beatrice

The esteemed GB is taking a short Discography break, but it is inconceivable that we would kick off the New Year without him.  Here's his post from the first week of 2017, and it is one of excellence (even if the year itself wasn't):

"Three songs, three father/son relationships. Actually, three healthy and positive father/son relationships. Even the healthiest of them are filled with challenge.

Mike Cooley is my third favorite Drive-By-Trucker songwriter but he nails it in Daddy's Cup. Superficially about auto racing, Daddy's Cup is all about the driving need for a child to make his father proud. After a poor debut dad tells son that if he quits now it will haunt him all his life. But does Dad say that, or is that the son hearing what is "expected" of him? After all the cup he wants to win is Daddy's cup.

In Outfit, Jason Isbell reveals how difficult, and important, the father and son relationship is from Dad's perspective. Son is leaving for the hope of a better life, and Dad just can't help but give him some final (southern) advice, the real point of which is, you better not give it away, you better not paint the homes of rich folk like I do. Tinged with regret, Outfit has to be the best father/son relationship song I've heard from the father's perspective, and how old was Isbell when he wrote it?  Maybe 28 or so? Not yet a father.

But Hiatt, in his simple, understated style, may capture it all the best in his Your Dad Did. He may be losing his job, spending more than he has, quietly laughing while Mom disciplines their children, but when it comes right down to it he's done what his father has and nothing much more. But then, Hiatt's character realizes, that ain't all bad. After all, he loves his wife and kids. Just like his Dad did."

Dave Wallace

Tift Merritt - I Am Your Tambourine

 Tift Merritt's first album, Bramble Rose, was a solid alt-country effort and marked her as someone to watch.  But I was completely unprepared for her follow-up effort, Tambourine, one of my favorite albums of the last 20 years.  A classic, I thought that Tambourine represented the birth of a major artist.  Unfortunately, she's never come close to hitting that height again, which has frustrated me.  But Tamborine remains, just an amazing album.  For the blog, I've picked the energetic, white-soul title track.

Kathy Seiler

Evanescence – Imperfection 

I don’t listen to much I’d consider metal, but I have a soft spot for Evansecence and Amy Lee’s voice. She’s got a soft edge while being really intense with her singing. I love the piano intro to this song, and the use of strings. The message is simple – I know you aren’t perfect but I still want you in my life, so please stick around. It’s easy to just get caught up in one another’s imperfections, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still want relationships with others who are imperfect. We are all imperfect. Something to remind myself of as we enter into this new year and consider the changes we might be trying to make in our lives right now.

My favorite line from the song:    

“Don’t look now but the little girl’s got a grenade.”

Phillip Seiler

Ben Folds "Late"

Because we are filing these early, I have a mini chain of songs. (I have often wondered what is the longest chain of bands mentioning other bands in song lyrics a person could string together. Anybody know one longer than three?) In this case, we have Ben Folds writing about his departed friend Elliott Smith who I featured last week. Part road song, part eulogy, "Late" captures the lonely spirit of the performer and the loss of friend, dear but distant. I especially love the guitar work as Folds is a pianist first. But there is no doubt that the guitar in this piece is an homage to Elliott. 

Ben Folds often revels in the more mundane aspects of life (G.I Joe dolls, black t-shirts, McMansions) but he shines a light of clarity on their significance. And he is brilliant in this song with this opening passage:

"Under some dirty words on a dirty wall

Eating takeout by myself

I played the shows

Got back in the van

And put the walkman on

And you were playing"

That's when the loss comes. It's not dramatic or exciting but instead, in the quiet moments when we don't expect, as we go about our lives while the person we love can no longer. Loss is as promised as death and taxes and yet it is something we so rarely allow ourselves to confront. I would take a good, honest song like this.

Dave Kelley

I am doing my own theme month for January.  As a middle aged, straight, white Christian male, I am appalled by what my demographic is doing to this country.  I continue to rely on women, people of color, the LGBT community, and non-Christians to save us from ourselves.  So in January I will limit myself to artists who are not straight, white, Christian males.  Sorry Bruce, Tom, Elvis, and Hank.  We will reconnect sometime after February 1st.

"Independent Thief"   Kathleen Edwards

This is my favorite song off of what I believe to be Edwards' best album.  She has done a lot of fantastic stuff, but "Back to Me" is easily her career highlight IMHO.  "Independent Thief"  features swirling organ work with some fantastic guitar surging below the surface.  Then at times the guitar rises to the surface and the organ is underneath.  That is a sound that I just adore and is a big part of the signature sound of two of my favorite rock bands....E Street and The Heartbreakers.  A kick ass horn section is about the only thing I prefer to the whole organ/guitar thing, and even that is a close call.  Thanks Kathleen for this gem.

P.S. Fuck Trump  

Kevin Andrews

I once read something on Cake’s website/blog by Robert McCrea, the band’s leader, recalling when he was young riding his bike to the library to take out records. Apparently, this fueled his penchant for covering other musician’s material. Cake has covered everything from Metallica to Doris Day. I’ve been planning to contribute this song for a while and looking into its story I learned it’s a cover from a group of Belgian studio musicians, The Chakachas. Who knew? Mashed on top of this is the preaching of Warren W. Wiersbe. Here, with fire and brimstone, is Thrills.

Gary Scudder

Bill Evans, Spartacus Love Theme

For those of you who love over-dubbing or hate over-dubbing, this is, I'm fairly certain, where it all began.  In 1963 Bill Evans decided to record himself playing a song solo on the piano, then play the tape and accompany himself, and then play that version and accompany himself once more. The result was Conversations With Myself.  Many jazz purists were initially horrified, but Evans quickly won them over.  In some ways it's a difficult album to listen to, because, essentially, Evans was talking to himself, so there wasn't a lot of consideration of what the audience might want to hear (which to me makes it even better).  That said, there are songs on it that I simply haven't warmed to, and I suspect after all these years I never will.  The exception would be his cover of the love theme from the film Spartacus, which is beautifully rendered.