Mothers: A Mother's Cry

Loosegoats: A Mother's Cry

[purchase]

A baby bird has left its nest
Staggering like they always do
A mother's cry can cut through any man's chest
And it does
Yes it does

Sometimes I wish that it would be a little easier
'Cause the hardest fall comes when you're on the ground
Sometimes I wish that it would be a little easier
On you
On me

In the evil I see good
Easy to find but often so misunderstood
A mother's cry can cut through any man's chest
And it does
Yes it does

Mothers: Mother Russia

Renaissance: Mother Russia

[purchase]

Tracks like "Mother Russia", from Renaissance's 1974 Turn of the Cards, are why punk rock had to be invented. This is not music that will make you want to join a band. This is music that will turn you into an egghead. Bathe in its orchestral rock excess! I love it.

Mothers: Mama Didn't Lie

Doris: Mama Didn't Lie

[purchase]

Doris Svensson became something of a cult figure in Sweden a few years ago when the TV show Musikbyrån did a half hour special on the music scene in late 60's/early 70's. Before the show, very few had even heard of her, and suddenly her only album Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby (1970) sold like crazy.

It was reissued on cd in 1996 with a number of bonus tracks, including this Curtis Mayfield penned number, originally recorded by Jan Bradley and The Fascinations in 1963. There was also a cover of The Band's Whispering Pine, which can be checked out here.

Mothers: Mother's Spiritual

Laura Nyro – Mother's Spiritual

[purchase]

This song comes from one of Laura Nyro's later albums, recorded in 1984 when she was a single mother of a 2-year-old boy. By then, she'd moved away from the jazz and soul–drenched pop that often defined her earlier songs (and made big hits for artists like The Fifth Dimension, Barbra Streisand, Three Dog Night, and Blood, Sweat and Tears). Recorded in her Connecticut home studio and using only a piano and her compelling voice, the title song is a poetic ode to motherhood. And although I love her Brill Building pop sound (she did an entire cover album in 1971 with LaBelle just full of gems from the likes of Martha and the Vandellas, Curtis Mayfield, and Ben E. King), I also love her heartfelt ballads like this one.

Guest post by Geoviki

Mothers: My Mother’s Keeper

Laura Siersema: My Mother‘s Keeper

[purchase]

One of my great pleasures in running Oliver di Place is discovering artists who are new to me. I feature their most recent work, and that usually means I don’t get to share them with you here. That’s because, at Star Maker, we have an informal rule against posting new music. But lately, I have begun to get from my Oliver artists some of their older work. Laura Siersema is one of these, and the first one I am sharing here.

My Mother’s Keeper is from Siersema’s debut album. The song is a beautiful portrait of women who go out on their own, only to discover that they must return home to care for their mothers in later life. Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe the song is about women who find echoes of their mother’s behavior in themselves as they get older. This is one of those lyrics that will start conversations about its meaning. I don’t think there is a single right answer. And it is very difficult to write a lyric like this.

Meanwhile, Siersema sings this one in an intimate alto, although she sings in a warm soprano elsewhere. For accompaniment, there is just Siersema’s piano, but that is all the song needs. You can hear more of Siersema’s early work here. With her latest album, Siersema says she has found her sound. It is built from what she was doing on her debut. You can hear what she sounds like now here.

Mothers: Night Time Was My Mother

Driver Quartet: Night Time Was My Mother

[out of print]

For a few years in the late '90s, Driver Quartet were making interesting sounds in downtown NYC. Bandleader David Driver's mannered vocals were the obvious focus of the group, but the rest of the band were all master musicians, so the backing by keyboardist Fil Krohnengold, woodwind/accordion player Peter Kiesewalter, and bassist Adam Bernstein (yes, him again) was always more interesting than simple backing.

They specialized in digging up obscurities from the American Popular Songbook, and sprinkling them with originals (often from bassist Bernstein), as well as a few more well-known songs. (There reworking of "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" is sublime.)

"Night Time Was My Mother" is one of the obscurities. Written by Connie Pearce and Arnold Miller, the liner notes to the Driver Quartet CD Night Time state that the song was "[o]riginally recorded by June Christy in 1958, in an arrangement by her longtime collaborator Pete Rugolo. We have yet to find another version." (I've recently discovered that another artist has since recorded it.)

The band must have really liked the song. They only released one EP (Big and Strong and Lonely) and one full-length CD (the aforementioned Night Time), yet both discs took their titles from its dark lyrics. Both discs also open with a version of the song. I've chosen to share the slightly longer second version, from Night Time.

Mothers: Every Mother's Son

Chris Smither: Every Mother's Son

[out of print; purchase used here]

Today's post marks the fifth Chris Smither post since this blog's inception, though only my second since the man himself moved from his long-time home of Woodstock to our own local area, and I think it's fair to warn all our readers that just as I plan to see him another three dozen times or more before I die, I plan to keep posting and promoting the undersung folkblues poet until I've converted everyone within earshot.

Smither's performance and songwriting prowess have matured and mellowed with age, but this early track from 1972 sophomore release Don't It Drag On is a personal favorite: deep and blue, pensive and peaceful, yet elegantly simple in its structure and lyric. There's also a great live version on his 1991 comeback album Another Way To Find You.

Mothers: Mother of Earth

Mick Harvey: Mother of Earth

[purchase]

There's a story that Billy Idol heard the Gun Club playing Mother of Earth, tried to copy it and came up with White Wedding. Former Bad Seed Mick Harvey simply decided to cover the song. Think of this as a prayer by a man who has used up all his chances. Think of Edward Weston's photograph of a dead drifter he stumbled on in the desert. Think of John Fante's "Ask the Dust" if you want but try not to think of White Wedding. You'll be receiving all the wrong messages.

The 2005 album, One Man's Treasure, slipped under too many radars, maybe because Harvey was covering songs, maybe because it wasn't quite what Bad Seeds fans wanted. Too bad. There isn't a dull moment on this album.

Guest post from John. His blog is One Man’s Treasure. Coincidence?

Mothers: The Bob Dylan & The Band Edition

Bob Dylan & The Hawks: Tell Me Momma

[purchase]


Bob Dylan & The Band: Tough Mama

[purchase]


Bob Dylan & The Band: It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding

[purchase]

Tell Me Momma was the opening song of the second half of Dylan's set during the controversial electric rock band tour of 1966. This take is from the infamous "Judas gig" in Manchester on May 17. The Band, or The Hawks as they were still known from their hellraising years with Ronnie Hawkins, are all present on this track, sans drummer Levon Helm who had chosen to leave the tour because of the overwhelmingly negative response from the audience, and been replaced by Mickey Jones.

Tough Mama is taken from 1974's Planet Waves, the only proper studio album Dylan and The Band recorded together. They had collaborated on Blonde On Blonde in 1966 (again without Helm), but only guitarist Robbie Robertson appeared on the finished album. And of course they had the legendary sessions in Woodstock in 1967, eventually released as The Basement Tapes in 1975, which wasn't originally intended for release but played a big role on Dylan's John Wesley Harding (1967) and The Band's debut album Music From Big Pink (1968).

Following the release of Planet Waves, Dylan and The Band went on tour - Dylan's first in eight years. Before The Flood was recorded during this tour, and it's from this live album the incendiary rendition of It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding is taken. Although I confess it doesn't entirely fit into this post, as Dylan did it by himself and doesn't feature The Band at all. But it's the only song on there that references a mother in the title, so I'm shoehorning it in.

Hats off to Darius. Photo by Neil Preston.

Mothers: Mother Stands For Comfort

Kate Bush: Mother Stands For Comfort

[purchase]

A mother’s love is a thing of great power. You hear of mothers who are suddenly able to lift cars, because they believe their child lies beneath. As Kate Bush sees it here, a mother protects her child, no matter what he may have done. “Mother will hide the murderer. Mother will hide the madman.” Bush apparently meant for this song to be taken literally.

The melody and some of the instrumental lines have a hymn like quality. But other parts are disorienting. There are odd sound effects, and the music overall has an otherworldly feel. This all creates a dramatic tension that is very powerful.

Oh, before I leave you, let me take a moment to thank David and Geoviki for answering the call, and making sure I had this to post.

Instrumentals/Mothers: Smother Your Mother Tango

Mambo Combo: Smother Your Mother Tango

[purchase]

Surely there's a more appropriate song out there for our transition from one theme to the next this week - after all, we're looking towards Mother's Day, and though my own mother and I have a classically strained and essentially dysfunctional relationship, the titular sentiment here is a bit violent even for me. But I just couldn't resist this joyous faux-latin tango, in no small part because the backstory is delightfully ridiculous.

Mambo Combo was formed when one of its members, a punk guitarist named Bob Friedman, came up with a truly silly name for a band for a small festival that he was promoting, and - purely as a joke - decided to recruit three drummers and two other guitarists, all local punk musicians themselves, to form a band that fit the name, despite having no experience whatsoever with the world of latin music. In 1997, after fifteen years of tongue-in-cheek for-fun-only gigs led to a serious reputation, Mambo Combo recorded their one and only studio album, Mr. Happy; since then, they've leveraged their work into a full-time gig, continuing to perform for parties and at bars in the Baltimore area.

I have no idea how I ended up with this track after all that - must have picked it up on the blogs somewhere - but for what it's worth, it's infectiously fun. The Mambo Combo website is endearingly old-school, too.

Instrumentals: Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder

Quicksilver Messenger Service: Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder

[purchase]

Quicksilver Messenger Service circa 1969, from the one album they made while famed British session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins (a/k/a "Edward") was a member of the band. Hopkins played on hits by just about everyone on both sides of the Atlantic in the '60s and '70s (a partial list includes The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Jeff Beck Group, Rod Stewart, Cat Stevens, Donovan, Jefferson Airplane, The Steve Miller Band, Art Garfunkel, Jerry Garcia, The Beatles, and all four solo Beatles), but here he gets to stretch out on one of his own compositions.

Instrumentals: Synchronicity

Sugizo – Synchronicity

[purchase]

Darius has generously encouraged me to offer up a second post for Instrumentals Week, and since I've been a huge fan of Star Maker Machine these past years, I took him up on it with glee. Besides, I just retired yesterday, so it's not like I don’t have the time. Heh.

There's no one quite so passionate as a convert. And although I have more traditional tastes, and would like to share those with you, I suspect I'll try hard to coax you into following me into my new love of Japanese rock (aka J-Rock or J-Pop). Like most of you, I've liked world music in one incarnation or another for quite a while, but I recently discovered this whole new genre. Don't you just love it when worlds unfold like that? You're all music lovers, so I know you've had it happen, too. Scales falling from eyes!

So. Sugizo. That's him in the photo, looking like he's decked out in Halloween crepe and doing the goth limbo. He plays both guitar and violin, amply on display in this song. He's the lead guitarist for Luna Sea, a big name in the 90's, mainly, but who reform on occasion. At the moment, he's joined X-Japan, one of the biggest J-Rock groups ever. If you like your rock with a side of emo soap opera, come sit by me and I'll fill you in. Or you can Wiki them. And if you happen to live in Chicago, you lucky things, you can see X-Japan reunited at Lollapalooza this summer, an event that has me counting my frequent flier miles. Think The Beatles, if they'd managed to get back together before George died (because oh yes, we also have tragic band member death).

Synchronicity is from the Sugizo-penned soundtrack to the movie Soundtrack (and boy, if you want to confound a Google search, name your movie Soundtrack). Sugizo also stars in this film. I just watched it a few weeks ago and couldn't make much sense of it, to be frank. It's mostly a lot of violent imagery backed with tender violin playing. Still, the music's terrific and the actors are easy on the eyes, so what's not to like?

Guest post by Geoviki

Instrumentals: Pond Crossings II, Folk Dance Edition

It was almost two years ago that I began posting here. And very soon after, Boyhowdy did me the distinct honor of inviting me to do a guest post on his blog, Cover Lay Down. For my theme, I chose to examine how songs from the British Isles changed when the came to the United States. You can still see that post here, although the songs are long gone. I wanted to wrap up my posts for this week with a sequel of sorts to that post. Let’s take a look at how music for folk dancing manages its trip across the pond.

All of the music in this post is instrumental by necessity. Live, there is a caller who announces the steps as they happen. After two or three repetitions of the music, with variations, the caller drops out, and the dance propels itself.

Ted Furey: Saddle the Pony

[purchase]

Irish folk dancing is a lively affair. Often, the music contains a missing percussion part, which is supplied live by the thunderous sound of the dancers’ feet hitting the floor. Thanks to Riverdance, most people know about step dancing, which is strictly for performance. But Ireland has a rich tradition of jigs, reels, strathspeys, and other dance tunes. These are participatory dances; no one is expected to sit still and just watch. Indeed, sitting still when a master is playing one of these tunes is almost impossible.

Ted Furey probably hoped that his children would follow in his footsteps as a musician. In his time, Ted was known as one of the finest traditional Irish fiddlers. Indeed, future generations of Fureys have made their mark as well. I will be looking in on some of them in a Spotlight on Celtic music on Oliver di Place. That’s coming up soon. Watch the sidebar here to find out when I post it, or pay me a visit sooner if you like.

Bonnie Rideout: Mrs Gunn‘s Strathspey- Sweet Molly- Wise Maid

[purchase]

Bonnie Rideout is actually American, but her interpretations are authentic enough that she has won several Scottish Fiddle championships. In Scotland and Ireland both, bands often play “sets” rather than single tunes. The dancers know to expect this, and don’t miss a step. A “set” is what we would call a medley, where one tune blends into the next.

Foxfire: The Introduction

[purchase]

English country dancing is a more stately affair. The music is slower, and there is more of an emphasis on the beauty of the melody and the playing. The dances that go with it reflect this. There are moves and postures that are very specific, and purists will let you know if you miss one.

Foxfire is one of the leading English country dance bands. They are affiliated with the Country Dance and Song Society, which is an excellent resource for more information on the music and associated dances in this post.

Stella Kimble: Cotton Eyed Joe

[purchase]

Based on the results, I’m guessing that more Scottish and Irish that English people settled the American South. Here we find square dancing, not like you learned it in gym class, but as a living folk-dance form. The energy found in Celtic folk dance music is here too, and again, there is a missing percussion part supplied by the thunder of the dancers’ feet.

I cannot find much information about Stella Kimble. I know she was from North Carolina, and she is regarded by many bluegrass musicians as an important pioneer on the banjo. If anyone has more information, please share it in the comments.

Possum Ridge String Band: The Road to Lisdoonvarna

[purchase]

For the section on contra dancing, I knew I wanted a version of The Road to Lisdoonvarna. I think I’ve danced to this at every contradance I ever attended. Contradancing and its music is what happened to all this in New England. It is not quite as energetic as Southern square dancing, which means that an ordinary mortal can hope to get through an entire evening on the dance floor. The music shows more of the English influence than its Southern cousin, with smoother playing and greater variety in the harmonies.

I knew what I wanted this version of Lisdoonvarna to sound like. This is how I remember hearing it at dances. Curiously, The Possum Ridge String Band is based in Virginia.