Danny Schmidt and "The Company of Friends"

Danny Schmidt has a number of terrific releases out -- the same with songs -- and it's past time for a highlight here.

Therefore, I'm going with "The Company of Friends" on his "Little Grey Sheep" offering.

Here is Schmidt's description of his creation:

"I wrote this song after the death of my friend, RB Smith . . . a beloved member of the Charlottesville community. So beloved, in fact, that at the viewing of his body before his burial ceremony, the line went from the funeral home, out to the street, and around the block. And it got me thinking what it's important to accumulate in life and what's not so important. This song is a re-evaluation thanks to RB."

It opens with:

"When I die, let them judge me by my company of friends
Let them know me as the footprints that I left upon the sand
Let them laugh for all the laughter
Let them cry for laughter’s end
But when I die, let them judge me by my company of friends ..."

Later, he details what he believes in. It's terrific and moving. Below is a video of the song.

Andrew Calhoun and John Prine

Can anyone name another folk song written by one singer-songwriter about another that steers clear of any and all obsequiousness and actually ventures into warts and all territory?

Andrew Calhoun's "Goin' Down To See John Prine" is the only one I can locate. A segment of his lyrics:

"... At the folkie's Sunday softball, for weeks they had it planned
John would come to play a game with his entire band
I had my year-old son there, we had brought him down to see
A man who just ignored him, and barely noticed me
He was out of shape and shouting, like his good time wasn't real
Then he headed out for a private thing with the boys in center field
And I wished it didn't matter, and I wished I didn't care
Just my tough luck to love someone who wasn't really there
On a sunny summer afternoon, for me the game was blown
Who'd believe this strung-out fool was the man who wrote "Sam Stone"? ...

The song is on Andrew's "Tiger Tattoo" release.

Here's a version:

A great songwriters article

Evert Cilliers aka Adam Ash writes at the 3 Quarks Daily site about great songwriters -- he has but eight in his pantheon -- and laments that it has been some time since anyone emerged. It's a fascinating piece sure to have you muttering "but what about ..."

My sense is his life, minus Bob Dylan, has been bereft of exposure to the "underground" folk music genre with which we are familiar.

Carrie Newcomer and "Bare To The Bone"

One of Carrie Newcomer's songs is especially spiritually striking (yes, actually many more than one) -- though not religious. It's message is of living life on a clearly loving basis or as she sings it "wrapped in hope and good intention and bare to the bone."

The title: "Bare To The Bone' (not to be confused with "Bad To The Bone"

Keith Greeninger's "North to Southeast"

It's a few releases back but Keith Greeninger's "North to Southeast" song on his "Wind River Crossing" is simply a stunning 11+ minute folk opera. Unfortunately, no video or audio of it besides a 30 second snippet is available on line and that length doesn't begin to do it justice.

A tribute to Bill Morrissey

Bill Morrissey died in late July but left behind quite the cultural legacy. Anyone providing the world "Birches" and "She's That Kind of Mystery" plus the whole "Something I Saw or Though I Saw" release has given more than taken.

Music as a saviour

Here's a fine read from Glenn W. Smith on a concert by Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell and Vince Gill:

"... If Emily Dickinson could sing she would have become Emmylou Harris. If Marty Robbins had survived “El Paso” he would have become Rodney Crowell. Vince Gill is the Huck Finn of guitar. He plays from the territories ..."

and

"... This great river of American soulfulness, from Anne Hutchinson to Henry Thoreau to Sojourner Truth to Margaret Fuller to Fats Waller to Bob Dylan to William Carlos Williams to William Faulkner to Janis Joplin…why are our politicians so blind and deaf to the gifts these artists bring to us? Why do they want to reduce life some a kind of shadow life, a life in which everything but their own power or pursuit of power is without meaning?"

Terence Martin has passed

Folk singer-songwriter Terence Martin died on November 7 from pancreatic cancer.

Anyone leaving "Waterproof" (Click on #9 on the right) and "The Way It Didn't Go" has left a mark of beauty on this world.

The Pogues via Madison Avenue

I don't think anyone could ever have convinced me that a national car campaign would be backed by any Pogues song. Consider me wrong. Happily so.



Here's the real thing:

Attended a Tom Russell concert tonight

Tom Russell played Don Quixote's tonight in Felton, CA and it was a show that will be remembered for a long, long time.

Actually, check "played" and "show' because it was more performance art. I thought of this parallel -- Jack Nicholson discussing various of his many movies AND escapades -- because when Tom was on stage it was so much more than the offerings of a singer-songwriter. He was the bard of El Paso, musically twining the past and present of himself and others into intriguing directions.

He appeared born to be in front of a crowd -- assured on stage, sharing a mix of stories and songs, alongside elements of teasing, humor and self-deprecation. It was vaudeville, all characters played by Tom Russell.

Mike Regenstreif calls Russell "...the finest singer-songwriter of my generation ..."

Amen to that.

Here's Jeff Schwager on "Mesabi," Russell's latest.

Dave Carter's "Gentle Arms of Eden"

It's always tough to write out the this phrase: the late Dave Carter.

He is missed like few others.

His songbook overflows with intelligent and literate lyrics and one song in particular -- Gentle Arms of Eden -- particularly resonates with an engaging rhythm and clever, picture-inducing words. Such as:

"... And the people sang rejoicing when the field was glad with grain ..."

"... And the world is ill with greed and will and enterprise of war ..."

"... Till a single cell did jump and hum for joy as though to say ..."

And this marvelous chorus:

"... This is my home, this is my only home
This is the only sacred ground that i have ever known
And should i stray in the dark night alone
Rock me goddess in the gentle arms of eden ..."

The song calls for a video companion piece, illustrating Carter's lyrics.

Dave Carter/Tracy Grammer "Gentle Arms of Eden"

Here are the entire lyrics.

This song is now included in the hymnal in at least one Unitarian Universalist congregation.

It's on the Drum Hat Buddha release.

About Steve Seskin & "Cactus in a Coffee Can"

Steve Seskin resides in the Bay Area, has recorded numerous albums and received many awards yet so many people are unaware of him and his talent. It's difficult to capture his songwriting style but my best attempt is simple yet profound.

As an example, here's one of his most moving (co-written with Allen Shamblin) -- "Cactus in a Coffee Can" in which an adoptee locates her dying birth mother, works out a degree of emotional closure yet all is bittersweet.

The first chorus goes:

"My mama's first love was crack
She made her livin' lyin' on her back
She gave me away on the day that I was born"

Then the daughter offers:  

She said, "The last 10 years I've spent trackin' her down
It just don't seem fair that when I finally found her she was almost gone
We had two weeks together to laugh and to cry
Two weeks to say hello and goodbye
She gave me this little cactus, said it's kinda like me,
It'll hurt you to hold it but it blooms every spring"

Go here and click on #9 "Cactus in a Coffee Can"

Two more Tom Russell items

Found this August 6, 2010 Tongo Rad post at the now defunct Horseflies Music Blog and he does a tremendous job at breaking down Tom Russell's "U.S. Steel" song:

"... By all rights what you’ve got here are the ingredients for some standard blue collar fare, no disputing that. But what makes is stand above all of the rest is just how smartly written the lyric is and how well the arrangement is executed .."

Go here for more and it's definitely worth your while.

and

Here's another broader Tom Russell piece by ScottR at The Agonist, dated March 8, 2011. This line in particular jumped out at me:

"... Music has always been about the lyrics for me ..."

This also hit home:

"... I tried to tell him how much his music meant to me, and how I had lost a very close musician friend a couple years back, and how he had helped fill a hell of hole in my life. I tried to tell him that I had taken a creative writing course at one point in my life and the instructor had pointed out how many writers “take the easy way out” in their writing instead of doing the hard work to get it right. I said that even Dylan was guilty of it at times. I told him that I had never seen him do that. He looked at me, handed me back the CD’s, shook my hand, and said, “Thank you…, that really means a lot to me ...”

Adoption Songs 2: "Someone Who Looks Like Me" by Mary McCaslin

Although not being adopted, songs on the subject have a tendency to strike an emotional chord with me.

Mary McCaslin's "Someone Who Looks Like Me" (from her "Broken Promises CD) is another song on the subject. The clutching at your heart plaintive chorus goes:

"... I would almost give it all to see my family tree
In my life I've never seen someone who looks like me ..."

Here is Mary performing the song.

Here is Mary writing about it.

Here is where her "Broken Promises" CD can be purchased.

Adoption Songs 1: "All This Time" by Paul Kamm & Eleanore McDonald

Although not being adopted, songs on the subject have a tendency to strike an emotional chord with me.

"All This Time" (Fields of Elysian CD) by Paul Kamm and Eleanore McDonald is one such cut. This part in particular is especially moving:

:... Do you live in California or in Tennessee
does the wind blow your hair in some delta breeze
now I keep a place inside that only
you would see
oh but all this time
did you think of me ..."

Unfortunately, I couldn't find it on-line anywhere but the CD can be ordered by going here.

Also, here is the Facebook page of Paul and Eleanore.

Chris Kokesh and "Lucy"

Chris Kokesh is a relatively unknown singer-songwriter out of Portland with a very good release titled "October Valentine." One cut on it -- "Lucy" -- just gets it so right as a mother dying of cancer observes her two teenagers:

"My son’s just turning 15, he already tows the line
He’s so much like his father I know that he’ll be fine
Lucy is two years younger, but she smells like cigarettes
She still needs her mama, but she doesn’t know it yet"

The release is full of such gems. As Kokesh puts it: "I write songs about real people, and my audiences see themselves there. There are plenty of people who are louder and showier than I am. My strength is in my emotional connection with the song and the music. I believe in the stories I tell, and that comes through." 

To play the song, go to Chris' MySpace page and click on "Lucy"

Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Girls Like Me"

It's eerie when a song practically describes your life such as Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Girls Like Me" does mine (I'm a male).

With verses like:

"... We live alone and in our heads
We eat standing up or in our beds
Guilt and fear merge easily
In the quiet souls of girls like me ..."

and

"... and hopefulness is like a drug
It makes a girl believe in love
And if somehow you love us back
You think there’s something wrong with that ..."

Here is a recorded 'video' version.

Lori McKenna's song "That's How You Know"

Lori McKenna is a singer-songwriter unfamiliar to me but she has a stop-everything-and-listen song in "That's How You Know." It's on her "Lorraine" release.

Here's how it opens:

"When you take the train to midtown to have coffee by yourself
Pull the pictures from the drawer and put them back up on the shelf

When you hear the sound of church bells
And they don’t make you wanna cry
And you’re not getting drunk just so you can hide..."

And closes:

"...When you’re thankful that you ever knew a love this strong
When you finally find the courage to write this song

That’s how you know
That’s how you know
That’s how you know
You’re moving on"

It's an emotional powerhouse.

You can listen to it here.

Dar Williams and her "After All" song

Dar Williams has quite the number of exceptional songs and "After All" is deserving of inclusion in that category. It's riveting, chock full of lyrics emitting meaning for so many. Based on their respective life experiences, ten separate people would each probably choose a different set of lyrics.

Here's mine:

"...Growing up, my mom had a room full of books
and hid away in there
Her father raging down a spiral stair
'Til he found someone
Most days his son..."

and

"..We will push on into that mystery
And it'll push right back
And there are worse things than that..."

It's fascinating, a little bit scary but also comforting when an artist hits close to home.


Here Williams is performing it.

I do have a nitpicking question though. Does this line from the song work for you?


"...it worked me over like a work of art..."

Wouldn't "it worked me over like a piece of art" be better?

Sorry Dar.

A review of the Joe Crookston CD "Darkling and the BlueBird Jubilee"

First, it was "The Sylvan Song" and "Fall Down As The Rain" as musical highlights in the CD with the latter song as the title.

Then came the release of a host of compelling compositions with "Able, Baker, Charlie and Dog" ("John Jones," "Freddy the Falcon," "Brooklyn in July," "Blue Tattoo" as well as the title cut) generally featuring historical events and figures in and around Ithaca, New York and the state itself.

With "Darkling & the BlueBird Jubilee," Joe Crookston re-enters the realm of storytelling: especially spiritual and with the carving out of room for listener interpretation, paving the way for individual takeaway from the various tales.

The Highlights

"Good Luck John" depicts the yin-yang of instantaneously ascribing a value judgment to life's events minus any period of time-passing perspective, and also not. Label it the gauging of happenings as a 'it just is what it is -- at least for the time being' portrayal.

In the mental illness and family-driven "The Nazarene," Crookston amply demonstrates his songwriting motif in which observations/facts are again offered without the tipping point weight of positive or negative being attached. Two examples are: 

" ...Mom thinks she's Jesus Christ the Nazarene ..."

"... down the hall into the room where the other prophets are ..."

Such 'epithets' as crazy or sick are not utilized, yet portrayed, because the illness isn't the point, or at least not the primary focus.

"The Nazarene" is the most haunting and compelling cut. Given radio play, this song will be a stop-listeners-in-their-tracks composition.

In the title cut "Darkling and the BlueBird Jubilee," Crookston starkly illustrates that objects and even life itself can be wrestled away but not values and how one lives life. A key lines: 

"... where love and persistence are the alter where I kneel ..."

Another captivating cut, "Caitlin at the Window," intertwines the lives of Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin McNamara Thomas. From the perspective of the latter, it reflects on the haunting of their tumultuous twining and his final resting place in Lougharne, Wales (which also became hers). 

"I Sing" is philosophical gospel blues set to a banjo background.

In "Everything Here Is Good," all unfurls in an almost effortless flow (that's one of Crookston's major artistic skills). Give it a listen and you'll understand.

Sounding as if straight out of a hymnal but never directly affiliating with such is the backbone of "A Friend Like You."

What Crookston has done with the liner notes for each song dovetails with the overall arc of the release. The offering for the title cut, "Darkling & the BlueBird Jubilee," reads: good? bad? hope. cynicism. triumph? be. accept. struggle. battle. accept. good? bad? evil. dark. light. transcend. continue. overcome.

Two other elements that remains constant throughout Crookston's work are his 'nothing is forced, all seems organic' inviting vocals and the instrumentation surrounding his lyrics. Concerning the latter, he brings to mind Martin Simpson, who during his period fronting the group "Band of Angels," would improvise with guitar play in between songs and what that produced was just as engaging as anything on the set list.

There are stories told here, maybe not as fully sketched as those on "Able, Baker, Charlie and Dog." This one is in the vein of "The Sylvan Song" -- more left to the perception and discernment of the listener.

"Darkling & the BlueBird Jubilee" is definitely one of the top releases of the year, a very enjoyable compilation. Crookston may be under-recognized but his multi-faceted musical strengths make him one of the best today.

PLAYLIST

"I Sing - 2:33
"Caitlin At The Window" - 4:17
"Mercy Now" - 5:10 Mary Gauthier)
"Good Luck John" - 3:42
"The Nazarene" - 4:42
"Darkling & the BlueBird Jubilee" - 3:20
"Everything Here is Good" - 3:21
"Wilderness Alone" - 3:21
"Blue" - 3:43
"A Friend Like You" - 3:22
"To Keep You Warm" - 2:46
"Darkling/Bluebird (Fear & Transcend) - 3:59

Joe Crookston's site

John Prine's "Christmas In Prison"

Christmas (aka the Holidays) are supposed to be a time of great joy and cheer but sometimes circumstances prevent such celebrating.

Musically, John Prine captures this most poignantly with his *Christmas In Prison."

It's definitely downer material but the song eloquently captures the sentiment and that makes it a moving listen.

Tom Russell's entry into the Folk Pantheon

Mike Regenstreif calls Tom Russell “the best songwriter of my generation” and initially that seemed a stretch to me. Russell has been a favorite of mine but I've tended to put the more literate singer-songwriters (we're talking Dave Carter territory) on my highest pedestal. 

But in reviewing Russell's output (not even considering his releases of late as he's shattered and stomped on the mold of running out of things to say as a performer ages) and his genre-crossing talents, he deserves such rightful recognition.

The Russell songs that connect with me the most:

* "U.S. Steel" with that great line: "My ex-boss Mr Goodwin, he keeps shaking my one good hand..." - Russell never names the culprits behind the individual decimation he is describing, just the effects, and that's a teaching moment decision for me 

* "Gallo Del Cielo" - his yips are an unexpected plus and this: anyone else have a stirring song about cockfighting?

* "The Sky Above, The Mud Below" featuring these descriptive verses:

"...Now the Deacon was a preacher who had fallen hard from grace
He owned the bar and a string of quarter horses that he'd race
Yea, Deacon he could drink and curse, though he still quoted sacred verse
He was sheriff, judge; he owned the hearse, a man you did not anger..." 

and
 

"...Well the trial commenced and ended quick they didn't have a hope
Deac says we'll cut your hair now boys and you can braid yourselves a rope
The Old Testament, it says somewhere eye for eye and hair for hair
Covet not thy neighbors mare, I believe it’s Revelations..." 

* "Manzanar" - this detailing of the Japanese-American internment during WWII will cause you to pause and ponder

* "Big Water" - with Russell and Iris Dement trading off verses and the line about his wife and kid, a pair of old hound dogs and a Sears and Roebuck canoe, it is simply classic

* "Isaac Lewis" - is as good as any of the lost-at-sea celtic and UK genre

* "Tonight We Ride" - is simply a cowboy song with an extremely engaging rhythm

* "The Angel of Lyon" - featuring: 

"...And he sang Ave Maria 
Or at least the parts he knew..." 

Yes, it's a minor point (maybe) but who writes that a character sings a song and then continues with a description about the lyrics, and not the vocals  -- what caused Russell to make such a decision? 

and

"He had a vision of Anne Marie
With a rosary in her hand
So it's exit the rainmaker
The old gray flannel man..."

There's more single-minded focus featured later in the song but those last two lines in the above are just descriptively perfect.

* "The Man from God Knows Where" - the entire folk opera

Being Irish probably genetically predisposes me to enjoying it but what an undertaking and his carrying it off is an absolute joy.

Holes

I'm not sure why this coalesced in my brain but I just got thinking about songs with the word/subject 'holes' in them and these three songs, each by a different artist, immediately came to mind. All carry quite the emotional impact:

"We all got holes to fill
And them holes are all that's real"

Townes Van Zandt performing "To Live is To Fly" - lyrics for "To Live is To Fly"

"There's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes"

John Prine performing "Sam Stone" - lyrics for "Sam Stone"

"There's a hole in the middle of a pretty good life"

Bob Franke performing "For Real"- lyrics for "For Real"

Bob Franke

* "For Real" (can also be found on Bob's MySpace page)

* "A Still, Small Voice"

* "Hard Love" (can also be found on Bob's MySpace page)

* "Thanksgiving Eve"

* "Alleluia, The Great Storm Is Over"

The above are a quintet from the Bob Franke Songbook and are more compelling than any fivesome furnished by Gershwin or Sousa.

This isn't a knock against the pair at all -- just praise for the level of Franke's creative artistry and indicating his rightful place in the pantheon American songwriters.

Money may not follow talent but Franke at least has the satisfaction that his inspirations rightfully share a spot with the best America has enjoyed.