A Few Moments with Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell first came into my consciousness more than 20 years ago when Prince mentioned her as one of his biggest influences in an interview. He’s covered Joni’s “A Case of You” (“U”, naturally, when Prince does it) over the years, and “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” has that Joni influence as well.
Oh, I’ve heard “Big Yellow Taxi”, and I’ve seen her sing with The Band in The Last Waltz
. But beyond that, not much Joni in my life.
But I heard her new single, “Shine”, in the car a few weeks ago (on Sirius of course – “terrestrial” radio would never play such a song – at least not in Phoenix: Radio Wasteland America). It’s a beautiful, fascinating song. I can’t quite measure the feeling it gives me. It’s contentment, but guilt. Joy and sadness, if that’s possible. Just read her amazing lyrics to this song. Well, listen first, then go back and read along the second time.
It’s raining steadily outside right now for the first time in ages. Has been all day. It’s dark, quiet, and all I hear are the rain and this beatiful song. They perfectly complement each other.
Joni Mitchell – Shine (mp3)
Buy: Shine
Joni’s Official Site
Mmmemphis
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
.
A Referral for Matt the Electrician
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
Shake Sugaree
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”).
New Stuff: The West Was Burning
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)
Martha Scanlin’s Official Site | MySpace
Dublin’s Highway Patrolman
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.It’s Election Day…
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 intodecided 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.
A Goldmine of Bruce Oslo Goodness
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, 2006Oslo – 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, 2006Atlantic 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 DownEncore:
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 LandBuy the Seeger Sessions American Land Edition, okay? Okay!
Bruce’s Love of the Common People
‘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.
The Boss in Rotterdam: Factory
Hey I went a whole week without a Bruce post! I thought I’d post another tour debut, “Factory”. There’s no new arrangement here, it actually sounds quite the same as the E Street reunion tour version. But still good in my most humble opinion. And all those who think that Bruce could stand on stage and fart into a microphone for an hour, and I’d still enjoy it, well – yeah, you may be right. But put me back in the 10th row.
Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band: Factory (mp3) – Live in Rotterdam, Oct. 13, 2006And of course the original can be found right here:
