I’m in the John Prine state of mind.

I guess it was a year ago about this time when I professed my love for The Missing Years album. Another track popped up tonight while I was holding my youngest daughter, getting ready to give her a bath. I immediately stopped in my tracks, and we spent the next four and a half minutes dancing and spinning. What a look of joy on her face. Goosebump moments.

Non-parents have already moved on to the next web site, but you parents know how it is - those spontaneous moments out of nowhere where your child can somehow convince you - just with an expression or a gleam in her eye - that all is right with this world. Escapism in its purest, most innocent (not to mention healthiest) form.

So it’s this song that I’ve absolutely loved since the record came out back in 1991. It’s the joyful, reeling melody, combined with Prine’s witty and beautiful lyrics. I mean look at this verse:

Life is a blessing, it’s a delicatessen
Of all the little favors you do.
All wrapped up together no matter the weather,
Baby you always come through.
It’s a measure of treasure that gives me the pleasure
Of loving you the way I do
And you know I would gladly say I need your love badly
And bring these little things to you.

Who else but John Prine could craft that?

So listen up, and if you have a spare few moments with your kid, give him or her a whirl with this one…

John Prine - You Got Gold (mp3) - from The Missing Years (Boss fans - Bruce and Prine duet on “Take a Look at My Heart”, reason enough to pick up the album - and so do Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt)

John’s most recent album is a collection of old school country & western standards with bluegrass legend Mac Wiseman. It’s a great ride, and definitely puts me in a great place each time I hear it. Here’s a taste of what you’re in store for….

John Prine & Mac Wiseman - Don’t Be Ashamed of Your Age (mp3) - from Standard Songs for Average People

John’s Official Site

Country, Folk

I was driving home from work last week, listening to Sirius Disorder while Howard was on commercial (sorry, I’m addicted), and was thrilled to hear a great song that I’d only previously heard coming from the raspy voice of John Prine. But this time it was emanating softly and sweetly from the mouths of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

It turns out that Plant and Nashville bluegrass cutie Krauss holed up with producer T-Bone Burnett for an album of covers. They take on a broad sampling of some of their favorite tunes, ranging from the Everly Brothers to Tom Waits. The album, Raising Sand, will be out October 23rd. This should be good. Check out the track list (with songwriter in parenths):

“Rich Woman” (Dorothy LaBostrie/McKinley Millet)
“Killing the Blues” (Rowland Salley)
“Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” (Sam Phillips)
“Polly Come Home” (Gene Clark)
“Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)” (Phil and Don Everly)
“Through the Morning, Through the Night” (Gene Clark)
“Please Read The Letter” (Robert Plant/Michael Lee/Jimmy Page/Charlie Jones)
“Trampled Rose” (Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan)
“Fortune Teller” (Naomi Neville)
“Stick With Me Baby” (Mel Tillis)
“Nothin’” (Townes Van Zandt)
“Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson” (Milt Campbell)
“Your Long Journey” (A.D. Watson and Rosa Lee Watson)

The song I heard in the car was “Killing the Blues”. Silly me, not knowing that “Killing the Blues” isn’t a Prine-penned song at all, but rather a 1977 composition by Rowland Salley, who went on to play bass in Chris Isaak’s band. A great song, cool lyrics… check out the Prine version here…

John Prine - Killing the Blues (mp3) - from Pink Cadillac

PRE-ORDER Robert Plant & Allison Krauss - Raising Sand on the Rounder Records Site or Amazon.

Folk

I missed Cry Cry Cry, a folk supergroup of sorts, the first time around. The group was made up of Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplanski, and Richard Sindell. They released only one album, in 1999.

I sure am glad I heard this song a few weeks ago on Sirius Disorder. It’s really one of the most beautiful and bittersweet songs I’ve come across in a while.

“I saw my choices, and I chose Memphis, now all I can see is you.”

Cry Cry Cry - Memphis (mp3)

Buy Cry Cry Cry.

Folk, Laid Back

I’ve been spending a good amount of time with Matt the Electrician. No, my marriage is not in jeopardy. Matt the Electrician is Matt Sever, a singer / guitarist / songwriter from one of America’s music hubs, Austin, Texas. Matt has been playing his gigs and building his fan base since the late 90’s. His latest CD, One Thing Right, is a clever, melodic ride through the neo-folk alt-country landscape. His bio likens his voice to “a young Paul Simon wrapped around a Tom Waits heart.” I dig his voice. It has a nice light sandpapery feel, sort of Jakob Dylan-ish in my opinion. Quite pleasing to these old ears.

It’s a good sign that it was difficult for me to select one song off the album. There are several I really enjoy: “Held Together”, “On the Radar”, “My Dog”… but this one takes top billing at this space in time.

Matt is launching a west coast tour soon (including an April 5 stop at the Rhythm Room here in Phoenix). He’ll also be popping up around town at SXSW, which starts in a few days.

Matt the Electrician: In the Waves (mp3)

Buy One Thing Right (also available on iTunes).

Matt the Electrician’s Tour Dates | Official Site | MySpace

Folk, Roots Rock

Not a Friday goes by that I don’t discover an amazing new song on David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun on Sirius. Tonight, driving home from work, it was this song that put me in a happy place for 5 minutes of freeway time. I am in love with this voice.

The song is “Shake Sugaree” by Elizabeth Cotten. The voice is her daughter, Brenda Evans, according to All Music. But according to the eMusic review of the album, it’s Cotten’s 12 year old granddaughter. Either way, she sings like an angel.

Elizabeth Cotten was an important figure in the early folk scene, and had quite a unique story to tell. Born in North Carolina in 1895, she started playing the guitar at an early age, playing it left handed and upside down. She developed a picking style that had her playing the bass lines with her fingers, and the melody with her thumb (you’ll see it in the video below).

She got married at 15, and put her guitar away for the next several decades. She ended up, of all things, being a housekeeper for the Charles Seeger family (a very musical family which included Charles’ son, folk legend Pete). The Seegers encouraged her to pick up the guitar and start playing again, and what resulted were some groundbreaking folk / blues tunes. She recorded the ‘Shake Sugaree’ album in 1967, and lived to the ripe old age of 95 (passing in 1987).

So listen to Elizabeth’s signature guitar pickin’ accompanying her daughter (or granddaughter) on “Shake Sugaree” (not to be confused with the Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter-penned “Sugaree”).

Elizabeth Cotten: Shake Sugaree (mp3)

Buy ‘Shake Sugaree’ on Amazon or eMusic.

Now check out Elizabeth and Pete Seeger doing “Freight Train”…

Folk

As a member of the Reeltime Travelers, Martha Scanlan’s voice helped catch the attention of T-Bone Burnett and Bob Neuwirth, who had the group record a song for the Cold Mountain soundtrack. A few years later, Martha has recorded and released her debut album, The West Was Burning. It was released last Tuesday, and features the Band’s Levon Helm on drums (among others).

Great voice, an earthy, acoustic vibe, and overall, a really nice album (Sugar Hill knows how to do it right). Check her out…

Martha Scanlan: Get Right Church (mp3)

Buy The West Was Burning

Martha Scanlin’s Official Site | MySpace

Acoustic, Folk

The Seeger Sessions fall tour hit Dublin a few nights ago for a 3 night stand. On night two, Bruce began to sing…

My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state / I’m a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8 I always done an honest job as honest as I could I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain’t no good.

That’s right, it was “Highway Patrolman”, Seeger Sessions style. What do you think?

Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band: Highway Patrolman (mp3) - live from The Point, Dublin, Ireland, November 18, 2006.

MP3 Note: you’ll have to turn this one up a little. May I remind you to turn down your speakers or iPod immediately after the song or you will experience an unpleasant jolt like I just did.

Buy the Seeger Sessions: The American Land Edition.
Buy Nebraska.
The Nebraska page on Bruce’s web site.

Folk The Boss

Tuesday, November 7th is Election Day in this U.S. of A. I will be hitting the polls first thing Tuesday morning, and for what it’s worth, I encourage all of you American readers to do the same. Get out and vote, people!

Warning: Political Opinion Section following…

I try to keep to music 99% of the time, but given the times we live in, it’s impossible for me to not say anything.

I keep hearing that tomorrow is a referendum on George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Well no kidding. I thought the 2004 election was the same, but the very slight majority of my countrymen and women were scared into decided to re-elect GW, and to keep the Republicans in control of Congress. I still marvel at how people can listen to and watch our president and be swayed or impressed by him. It’s really beyond me. Many feel different, and that’s fine. I just don’t get it, that’s all.

What’s even more stupefying to me is how people allow Bush and his puppeteers to manipulate them with fear. To listen to them tell us how they are the party that keeps us safe, while at the same time they strip us of our civil liberties (habeus corpus, bah, who needs it?), and foment the situation in Iraq by “staying the course”. God bless the brave troops who have been killed, maimed, and who put themselves in harm’s way every day, all for the tragically misguided policies of this current administration.

I encourage you to read Thomas Friedman’s recent New York Times op-ed. In part, it says:

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men — to launch an invasion of a foreign country not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What could be a bigger insult than that?

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than sending them off to war without the proper equipment, so that some soldiers in the field were left to buy their own body armor and to retrofit their own jeeps with scrap metal so that roadside bombs in Iraq would only maim them for life and not kill them? And what could be more injurious and insulting than Don Rumsfeld’s response to criticism that he sent our troops off in haste and unprepared: Hey, you go to war with the army you’ve got — get over it.

The pollsters say the Democrats are in pretty good shape going into tomorrow. There may be a Democrat majority in Congress for the first time since the GOP took control in 1994. There could be hearings on Iraq. Imagine, this administration could actually be held accountable. They’re certainly not going to own up to any failures themselves. Bush, Rummy, or Cheney admitting mistakes? Please.

So make your voice heard, America, whatever your beliefs and political leanings. Yes, I am hoping more Americans feel the way I do (for the first time in 10 years). I am hoping we all collectively wake up, and get on the road to taking our country back. Bush and company think we’re stupid, folks. Let’s show them finally that we’re not.

That concludes my Political Opinion Section.

Here’s an election day song from the late Texas troubadour, Blaze Foley.

Blaze Foley: Election Day (mp3) - from Live at the Austin Outhouse, available on Amazon and iTunes.

Folk, Miscellaneous

First off, a very cool video interview / press conference of Bruce before the Oslo show can be found here. The quality of the video itself is amazing, IF you have some patience. The Norwegian server that’s hosting it is probably getting slammed, and maybe it’ll get better. But some … patience … is … required.

And look what happened on the road to Oslo…

Bruce Springsteen music gear truck blocks Sweden-Norway crossing

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Sunday October 29, 2006

Oslo - A truck laden with equipment for a concert being given by US rock musician Bruce Springsteen blocked the Sweden-Norway border crossing at Svinesund for several hours Sunday. The driver was slightly hurt after he skidded on the icy road, rammed a railing and was left with the trucked slewed side-on to the traffic, blocking it, the NTB news agency said.

The contents were undamaged, meaning the Oslo concert could go ahead later as scheduled.

And go on it did!

Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band
Oslo, Norway
October 29, 2006

Atlantic City
John Henry
Ol’ Dan Tucker
Further On Up the Road
Jesse James
O Mary Don’t You Weep
Love of the Common People
Growin’ Up
Erie Canal
My Oklahoma Home
The River
Mrs. McGrath
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
Jacob’s Ladder
Long Time Comin’
Open All Night
Pay Me My Money Down

Encore:
Fire
Land of Hope & Dreams
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
When the Saints Go Marching In
This Little Light of Mine
American Land

Buy the Seeger Sessions American Land Edition, okay? Okay!

Folk The Boss

‘Twas 5 nights ago, in the 2100 year old Spanish city of Valencia, that Bruce Springsteen and his fabulous Seeger Sessions Band did play this 39 year old song for the 1st time, to almost 30,000 people en el Estadio Ciutat De Valencia (the city’s soccer stadium).

From El Backstreets: “Written in 1967 by Ronnie Wilkins and John Hurley, it was the title track of a Waylon Jennings album that year; it was later a hit for Paul Young and has been also covered by Stiff Little Fingers, Elton John, Indigo Girls, John Denver, and others.”

Bruce puts away the throaty growl for a song and gets smooth. The recording leaves a little to be desired (the taper must have been pretty far away), but somethin’ is always better than nothin’, si?

Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band: Love of the Common People (mp3)

Buy the Seeger Sessions: American Land Edition (mp3)

Join my Boss Board.

Folk The Boss