We Are Family: The Neville Brothers

The Neville Brothers: Yellow Moon

[purchase]

I got a chance to see the Neville Brothers live in their hometown way back in my teenage years, in the midst of the Jazz and Heritage Festival, and let me tell you, if you've seen 'em too, you know I'll never forget the swampy energy that oozed from that stage that night like dark voodoo sweat.

Unusually for a sibling act, the Neville Brothers started off separately, making names for themselves as solo and session players; they did not perform together until their uncle Big Chief Jolly brought them together for a 1976 recording session for his Louisiana carnival "tribe" The Wild Tchoupitoulas. On their own, each of the brothers had evolved his own style - Art as the long-time post-doo-wop solo artist and founding keyboardist for The Meters, Cyril as the hand percussionist who followed in his older brother's footsteps, Aaron as the angelic and saccharine soul pop singer, Charles as the rock & roll and jazz session saxophonist. Put 'em together, and the sound is a fusion of all these styles and more: big, bold, smooth and sultry all at once, and every second of it pure New Orleans funk through and through.

We Are Family: Van Halen

Van Halen: You Really Got Me

[purchase]

Sometimes it's fun to try to post something that meets the theme in more ways than one. It's sort of like sinking a three-pointer in a basketball game.

In this case, brother-band Van Halen is covering a tune by another brother-band, The Kinks.

Alex and Eddie Van Halen started playing music as kids, one on the guitar and the other on drums. What I didn't realize until researching this post, is that it was Eddie who was on the drums and Alex who handled the ax. At some point early in their career their interests shifted, and they traded instruments. The world should be grateful that they did as Eddie went on to become perhaps the most wildly inventive and celebrated guitar player of the post-Hendrix era who, with the help of a one-of-a-kind vocalist, made Van Halen the most successful rock act of the 80's.

Anyone who watched the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert on HBO last week knows that Eddie's influence is still widely noticeable. Case in point: None other than Jeff Beck broke into a classic sequence of Eddie two-handed finger-taps during one of his solos.

I'll let someone else write about The Kinks, maybe the greatest brother-band of all time. In the meantime, enjoy this cover song that is special in the sense that it rocks even harder than the original.

We Are Family: Pieta, Zoe, and Constie Brown

Pieta, Zoe, and Constie Brown: Ella Mae

[purchase]

Going Driftless, a Red House Records celebration of the songs of beloved label founder and folk musician Greg Brown, is hands-down one of my favorite tribute albums. The disc features a plethora of female voices I've grown to love - among them Lucy Kaplansky, Lucinda Williams, Iris Dement, Ani DiFranco, Shawn Colvin, and Eliza Gilkyson - and it makes for a great set, the songs soaring once loosened from the earthly bonds granted through Brown's deep basso voice and loose, ragged style.

But of all the covers on the album, there's no song so delicately, poignantly done as Ella Mae, an early rarity Greg Brown wrote in tribute to his father's mother, here performed by his three singer-songwriter daughters. Though it's the sibling trio that makes the song fit our theme, there are four generations of family here - subject, son, songwriter, and performers - lurking like ghosts in the performance, and the bittersweet ache of family heritage and missed opportunity is palpable in every measure.

Photo: Greg Brown, daughter Pieta, and singer-songwriter Bo Ramsey.

We Are Family: The Shaggs

The Shaggs: Philosophy Of The World

[purchase]

Three sisters, and one dad with a mission. Austin Wiggins thought it would be just marvellous if his three girls formed a band together, so he bought Dot, Helen and Betty their instruments, paid for their music lessons and even found them a record deal. The resulting Philosophy Of The World came out in ´69 in a small edition on a fly-by-night label, and did nothing. End of story? Nope.

Over the years, that unique album slowly but surely acquired an amazing cult status. And why may that be, you ask? Well, simply because Philosophy Of The World might just be the most primitive, endearing, beguiling, irritating, heartbreaking, skin crawling record you´ll ever hear. A stone outsider classic.

Leftovers (Little Black Book): Sharon and Karen Edition

Leftovers, especially this year, have been a lot of songs from “themes I missed in the time I was here.” That’s as true of my posts as anyone else’s. But I missed our Little Black Book theme because it happened before I became involved in Star Maker Machine. So I never saw the formal definition of the theme. It seems to me that a little black book implies that something illicit is going on. These ladies are not entirely respectable, and you keep them secret. Here are two who fit that description perfectly.

David Bromberg: Sharon

[purchase]

Sharon is not the kind that you can make an honest woman of. To cheat on a girlfriend or a wife, you don’t have to talk to Sharon, or even set eyes upon her. The transgression has occurred as soon as you enter her tent.

Jill Sobule: Karen by Night

[purchase]

Karen is trickier. By day, she seems respectable enough, boring even. But Karen has a secret. To learn it, add moonlight. And no, she’s not a werewolf. Nothing supernatural is needed here.

Leftovers (Fruits and Vegetables): Homegrown Tomatoes

Guy Clark: Homegrown Tomatoes

[purchase]

Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: Homegrown Tomatoes

[purchase]

Like several others of our hardy band here at Star Maker Machine, I start each week by compiling a quick list of likely candidates for the week's theme; from there, I generally dip in as time allows and the whim hits. It's a useful method, I guess, but it sure does leave a lot of good songs hanging at week's end, especially when I've been busy.

Today seemed like a good day to ketchup on a few old playlists, just to see what I missed. So I set the ol' music manager to shuffle, closed my eyes, clicked on a random playlist, and figured I'd just post whatever came up. And to my utter delight, up comes Fruits and Vegetables week, and Texas troubadour Guy Clark, live and grinning, singing of the juicy sensualities of summer's harvest just as the snow finally starts falling outside my New England windows. Yeah, that's a keeper.

Jay and Molly's cover is a swingin' set, too. And why not pick a bonus tomato song, while the fruit's on the vine?

Pink Martini: Hang On Little Tomato

[purchase]

Leftovers (Color My World): The Gold Around You

Mark Bradley: The Gold Around You

[out of print]

I debated about whether this should be in the Metals or the Color My World theme. I eventually decided that it fit better as a color.

Sometime in the late '90s or early '00s, I was in a used record store in New Brunswick, NJ with a friend of mine, killing time before a concert. He unearthed a copy of Mark Bradley's posthumous CD, Extraordinary and asked me if I though he would like it. I told my friend, who is significantly older than me, that he would probably really love some of it and really hate some of it. He bought the CD, and later sent me an email that simply said, "You were right."

Mark was one of a kind. He was the songwriter other songwriters revered. You wrote some absolutely beautiful, personal songs. He wrote political diatribes. He was also fond of off-the-wall improvs with his band Walt Whitman’s Beard. Basically, he lived his life with his heart on his sleeve. His flame burned brightly in late '80s/early '90s New Brunswick, but it didn't last long. When he passed away in 1994, he was only in his late '20s.

I saw Mark perform a couple of times, but his impact didn't really hit me until I attended a tribute concert in 1995 that also celebrated the release of the "Extraordinary" CD. The disc is a mix of home demos, studio recordings, and live performances. "The Gold Around You" is a home demo from December 1993. The low fidelity somehow ads to its charm. The song is about love: The magic of that first meeting, and the insecurities and doubt that can crop up in a long-term relationship.

Paul Rieder: The Gold Around You

[not commercially available]

Paul Rieder (Wooden Soldiers, All Gods' Children, Walt Whitman's Beard, Fiesherman's Stew) helped put together the Extraordinary CD. Later, he spent a few years living in Austin, Texas. While there, he recorded some home demos that have never been officially released, including his take on "The Gold Around You" (as well as several other Mark Bradley covers). Paul's dobro and mandolin playing give his version a appropriately southwestern feel.

Kate Evans: The Gold Around You

[purchase]

Kate Evans (All Gods' Children, ISOE) has a way of masterfully wringing strong emotions from delicate performances, as if there is no filter between her heart and her voice. She sings her version (from her 2000 album, Release) alone at the piano, and you just want to hug her when it's done.

Bonus cover: My own out-of-tune, home-recorded version of this song, recorded in 2005, can be found here.

Leftovers (This and That:): The Joni Edition

Looking back on our This and That theme, I see I'd already posted three times... so it wasn't as if I was feeling under-represented - however, I germinated an idea in my head all week that, because of the scope/breadth/comprehensiveness, I just ran out of time executing. I've been saving this for six months, in anticipation of another chance at Leftovers - in Joni's words:

Come to the dinner gong The table is laden high...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do songs about anti-war... heroin addiction... relationships... a cocaine connection... duality/dichotomy... a privileged couple on vacation... the slippery slope of success... and anti-war 40 years later have in common? - This Joni... and That Mitchell... on eight separate albums!

Quite simply, her music sustains me... from my first discovery of Ladies of the Canyon at a garage sale in high school (1970)... to her 2007 release of Shine, her poetic and melodic songs make me laugh, cry and think... even years later when I didn't "get" them the first time around - in retrospect, I wish I'd made it my modus operandi here at Star Maker Machine to post a Joni song each and every week as, with her extensive catalog, most certainly one could be found to fit every theme...

I began my SMM apprenticeship with a Joni tune - a bit over a year later, I'd venture to reiterate Janet Jackson's Got 'Til It's Gone: Joni Mitchell never lies...

The Fiddle and the Drum

[purchase]

Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire

[purchase]

Court and Spark

[purchase]

Edith and the Kingpin

[purchase]

Otis and Marlena

[purchase]

Shadows and Light

[purchase]

Snakes and Ladders

[purchase]

Strong and Wrong

[purchase]

Leftovers (This and That): Love and Affection

Joan Armatrading: Love and Affection

[purchase]

Leftovers happen in different ways. Sometimes life intrudes, and there isn’t time to post for a particular theme. Then there are always those of us who missed a theme because we weren’t part of Star Maker Machine yet. But sometimes, a theme is announced and I have a full slate of posts in mind, only to realize after the week has passed that the perfect song completely slipped my mind. That happened to me after This and That week. I can’t believe I forgot Love and Affection.

Joan Armatrading was part of the first wave of singer-songwriters in the 1970s. But, she sounded like no one else. Her songs had a looseness that allowed plenty of freedom for her band. And she could capture unusual emotional states. Here, she depicts a woman in a relationship poised between friendship and love. It is not clear what, if anything, will push it over. But the emotion is delicious with anticipation.

BTW, there is a wonderful cover of this song, done in a medley with Sweet Jane, by a group called Two Nice Girls. If anyone has an mp3 of it, I would love to have it. Please let me know in the comments.

Leftovers (Long Songs) : Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet

Gavin Bryars : Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (part 1)

[purchase]

(Don't worry if you can't hear any music during the first seconds, it will come, the songs is a crescendo and starts at a very low level)

I first heard this astonishing piece of music at a dance show by French choregrapher Maguy Marin. When we got out of the theater everybody wanted to know where this strange song came from.

English composer Gavin Bryars once recorded a tramp singing a religious song in the streets of London. Then, as he recalls,

When I played it at home, I found that his singing was in tune with my piano, and I improvised a simple accompaniment. I noticed, too, that the first section of the song - 13 bars in length - formed an effective loop which repeated in a slightly unpredictable way. I took the tape loop to Leicester, where I was working in the Fine Art Department, and copied the loop onto a continuous reel of tape, thinking about perhaps adding an orchestrated accompaniment to this. The door of the recording room opened on to one of the large painting studios and I left the tape copying, with the door open, while I went to have a cup of coffee. When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping.

I was puzzled until I realised that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man's singing. This convinced me of the emotional power of the music and of the possibilities offered by adding a simple, though gradually evolving, orchestral accompaniment that respected the tramp's nobility and simple faith. Although he died before he could hear what I had done with his singing, the piece remains as an eloquent, but understated testimony to his spirit and optimism.

It's one of the most moving things I've ever heard.

Leftovers (Smiles): Smile Away

Paul and Linda McCartney: Smile Away

[purchase]

Having just returned from the dentist with my 41-year cavity-free record still intact, I though it would be good to revisit the Smiles thread. "Smile Away" comes from the Ram album, which was credited to Paul & Linda McCartney. That says less about Mrs. McCartney's musical abilities than it does about Paul's desire to share his life completely with his soulmate. It's a noble romantic gesture, but practically speaking, this is Paul's second solo album.

The disc is full of loose performances that often go in unexpected places. "Smile Away" is one of the more straight-ahead songs on the album, however. A charming '50s rock pastiche with only a handful of lyrics, it never pretends to be anything more than a catchy tune that will indeed make you smile away.

Leftovers (Drugs): Stoned Soul Picnic

Laura Nyro: Stoned Soul Picnic

[purchase]

The 5th Dimension: Stoned Soul Picnic

[purchase]

Laura Love: Stoned Soul Picnic

[purchase]

Jill Sobule: Stoned Soul Picnic

[purchase]


It was the summer of 1968, a year before Woodstock, a year after the impromptu San Francisco gathering popularly referred to as the Summer of Love: the free love movement was thick in the air, and though the history books have surely magnified the scale of American awareness and participation in the movement, those of us conceived in the midst of it all have been taught to believe that hope was everywhere.

Into the midst of this swamp of countercultural change came two versions of a song: one by its author Laura Nyro, a popular white R&B and soul singer, the other by the popular African-American R&B quintet The 5th Dimnension, who would go on to chart with the Aquarius theme to the musical Hair in the following year. The dual versions became part of the bridge across the rapidly-closing racial divide, and within weeks, Stoned Soul Picnic was atop both the popcharts and the Black Singles Charts; according to apocryphal record, the song was sung on "every street corner", and - given its simplicity and its message - it's easy to see why.

As much as it reflects the civil rights aspect of the sixties counterculture, Stoned Soul Picnic is a product of its times on its lyrical and sensual merits, too. It's hard to figure out what, if anything, this song is really about, beyond the strange feeling that anything could happen, and should, if people would only join together in communal celebration. Other than the word "stoned" in the chorus and title, there's no direct mention of drugs or drug-taking; this is a promise of mood, not an instruction booklet for a movement.

But there's no denying the summery, soulful, swaying melody line of both original versions, which maintains a tone that clings to subsequent covers as if it were an inevitable aspect of the song. And the organic visualizations of nature that show up in every verse sound like a great trip, indeed.

Leftovers (Songs Called Songs): Just to Have You Hum Along (The Futon Song)

Betty Elders: Just to Have You Hum Along (The Futon Song)

[purchase]

Some of you may recall I had a life-changing summer, spending two months in the Atlanta area as primary caregiver for my ailing/aging mom, who passed away mid-July from pulmonary fibrosis - I still checked in with Star Maker Machine during that time (it was a touchstone of serenity when everything else was chaotically out of my control) but I rarely posted (lack of time, energy and my own CD collection trumped intention)...

I regret missing some themes during that period and it's nice to have a do-over (ah, if I could only... never mind) - I'm pleased to be able to offer up this little gem for the Songs Called Songs theme, however belatedly...

When I began my journey into the contemporary folk scene, I was like an addict - I just couldn't get enough, scouring used CD stores to find anything that seemed to fit into this newly-discovered genre. I ran across Betty Elders' Crayons in a bin for $4.95 and, as soon as I got it home and pressed Play, I knew I had scored - just hit a vein, baby!

I was captivated by her voice and songwriting, yet when I got to this song, I was a bit disturbed - it starts out sweet and, dare I say it, cute... but the further along it goes, although there's nary a pet rabbit in sight, it began to sound like a folk Fatal Attraction (bet you never thought you'd see those words in the same sentence, eh?).

I still love the song, but...

I'd crawl through shards of glass I'd be what I was not just to have you just to have you just to have you hum along

Yikes!

Leftovers (Metals): Ironbound - Fancy Poultry

Suzanne Vega: Ironbound - Fancy Poultry

[purchase]

During Metals week, I was hard at work shopping for a new file host, and making improvements to my blog. So I never got the chance to post this one.

The Ironbound section of Newark NJ is a Portugese enclave. The area takes its name from the fact that it is bounded on all sides by railroad tracks. Newark is a short trip on the PATH train from Greenwich Village, where Suzanne Vega was living when she wrote this. It is not necessary for me to describe it further; Vega does that beautifully.

Leftovers (Name-Droppers): I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone

Sleater-Kinney: I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone

[Purchase]

It was just a few weeks ago that we did a Name-Droppers theme. I had a few ideas that week, but only ended up finding time to post once. So now is my chance to make amends.

In particular, I wanted to include (what some would consider) Sleater-Kinney's major opus "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone". In the late 1990's, when the Pacific Northwest was having a huge influence over music, and the riot grrl scene was slowly dwindling away, Sleater-Kinney came on the scene with their all girl punk rock. They pushed the envelope of gender lines in rock music by making songs like this one. A song that's a play on The Ramone's song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", except now it's about wanting to be a punk rock icons like Ramone, of wanting fans to idolize them and use them as bathroom alone-time fodder and get fans back to their place after the show. For good measure, they also name-drop Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore.