PAT: A-CAKE

Mindful there has not been too much a pitter-PATter of posts arriving under this banner, time to think out of the box. And what could be better than a cake box, something that may have me awarding me a pat, SWIDT, on the back for inspiration. Of course, Cake are no strangers here, usually courtesy their way with quirky covers, enough to endear themselves to me bigtime. But they are more than just novelty revisionings, having a wealth of their own penned material on hand as well. As I have discovered.

With a modus operandi of always avoiding the obvious, this was apparent from the start by the prominence of trumpet, lead trumpet even, an instrument more reviled than revered in rock and pop, delegated, where I thought it should be, to old man's music like jazz or, within reason, the unison brass parts of soul music. I had utmost suspicion of the instrument, feeling it as uncool as short hair and straight trousers. Until then, just to damn my eyes, short hair and straight trousers came back in. My version of punk coasted into post-punk and an enduring love of Chumbawamba, another band with trumpet, forcing me to swallow my prejudice, luckily also coinciding with the astonishing discovery that jazz was OK too. (And that I preferred jazz trumpet solos to saxophone solos, despite sax being just about allowed a seat at the table of my earlier rockist tastes. And since you ask, Chet more than Miles.)

Rock'n'Roll Lifestyle/Motorcade of Generosity (1994)

Cake I first heard through their astonishing de- and reconstruction of I Will Survive, reeking so of mariachi I had to go and gather that whole style into my body of required and allowable listening. It has been touched on here. I bought the parent record. The second single from their second album, it came out in 1997 and made the indie charts at home, managing a 29 in the UK, and higher in some other european countries. Given their first album was all originals, and largely damned either by faint praise, or just plain damned, this left the band with a dilemma, one that never quite lost them, continuing arguably to be better known for their covers, despite barely doing any others over the next few records. (Having a self-penned song called Jolene on their debut arguably didn't help, allowing the lazy to make assumptions: I certainly downloaded the track on that basis!!) 

The Distance/Fashion Nugget (1996)

Never There/Prolonging the Magic (1998)

In researching this piece I was, therefore a little surprised to see their last record, 2011's Showroom of Compassion actually hit the coveted Billboard #1 slot, if only for a week, albeit based on the then lowest sales to attain that slot. And not a cover in sight. (Well, one, actually.) Also that all the four ahead of that had entirely satisfactory sales, with only the very first failing to make any splash, so bang goes my assertion. But maybe the fact they refused a greatest hits, and released instead the only other record of theirs I own, b-sides and Rarities, which is nearly all cover versions, explains my fallacy. 

Comfort Eagle/Comfort Eagle (2001) 

Sick of You/Showroom of Compassion (2011)

Scattered through this prose are a few of their finest. If you are unfamiliar, listen. If you know them, re-aquaint. The trumpet of Vince DeFiori is certainly not the only cause to celebrate, the caustic and conversational singing of John McCrea, also the main songwriter, being a joyful characteristic of the sound. These two are the sole permanently present members of the band, as they seemed to get through a slew of rhythm sections along the way. Just two lead guitarists, though, with a special mention for Greg Brown, no, not that one, there from the start, who left in 1997, if still making later guest appearances, his spiky playing adding to the overall counter-intuiveness of the whole. But for the last ten years there has been little sight or sound. There was promise of new material as far back as 2018, with only a single video, below, sneaking out. A demo leaked in January this year, so maybe we haven't quite had all our Cake yet. 

Sinking Ship (2018)

Eat some!

I Have A Dream: Dream On (Live)

Greg Brown: Dream On (Live)

Purchase

Dream On is a cynical song, suggesting that it is in vain that we hope for true love, a peaceful world, and politicians who will respond to the needs of the people. Of course, the comedic quality of the lyrics blunts the edge of this theme.

Although I'm an optimist in my private family life, I have to admit that I am cynical most of the time when it comes to overall social progress. It so often seems that for every forward step we take, we take two steps back.

On Monday a friend's Facebook status was "Happy birthday MLK, we're still trying our best."

I appreciated that positive attitude. Most of us really are trying our best. So in spite of Greg Brown's comic cynicism, I will do my best to continue to dream on.

Sleepsongs: You Might As Well Go To Sleep / Sleeper

Greg Brown: You Might As Well Go To Sleep

[purchase]

Eliza Gilkyson: Sleeper (orig. Greg Brown)

[purchase]

As a chronicler of the human condition, Greg Brown is well-known for a particular emotional depth and wonder-at-the-world attitude which rests heavily on concrete, often wry imagery. He's strong in every life-stage, too, from death to parenthood, from hormone-crazed lust to love's end - and his deep signature growl only frames the journey all the better. Sleeper, which we hear here covered by his contemporary and labelmate Eliza Gilkyson, is a great example, running through a patient sequence of life's moments and metaphors verse by verse and stage by stage fluidly, like the streams and hills of his native rural Iowa.

But although Brown's songs of age increasingly resonate with me, my favorite parts of his songbook are those which take on the lens of parenthood in all its hopeful, aching glory. And where Say A Little Prayer - perhaps my favorite from his songbook - lulls us slowly through a sick child's love lullaby, on You Might As Well Go To Sleep, we get the other side of love: I love you, but it's late, and my job is to get you to let the day go and get some sleep, so let's get moving, already.

Both Say A Little Prayer and You Might As Well Go To Sleep, of course, reveal the father figure as deeply sensitive, caring and gentle, the dad each one of us yearns to be at his best moments. But like Sleeper, the former is pure poetry, while in his kiddie sleepsong, the long, repetitive language culminates in what amounts to a paragraph of highly recognizable too-wired-to-sleep kid language bounced back gently yet firmly from the bedside. That the punchline still doesn't break the tone of lighthearted, slightly exasperated poignancy is just one more piece of evidence for his genius - and one more perfectly articulated facet of the "how to live right" model which Greg Brown provides for us, over and over again.

The moral: though several of us have proselytized about him before, it's time to buy some Greg Brown. The whole catalog is solid, but if you, too, have kids or just know some, Greg Brown's Bathtub Blues, the 1993 kids album which today's track comes from, makes a wonderful addition to the library. And if you, too, love strong female singer-songwriters and coverage, it's worth noting that the Red House collection Going Driftless: An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown is on this coverblogger's eternal top ten.

Call Me: Memphis, Tennessee

Bill Morrissey and Greg Brown: Memphis, Tennessee

[purchase]

In 1993, Greg Brown and Bill Morrissey were big names in folk music, so the news that they had done an album together was big news. Friend of Mine has some traditional songs, songs by folk artists old a new, and some ringers, like this one, originally by Chuck Berry. But try finding more versions of this song. There are simply too many. Memphis, Tennessee has been done in country, punk, rockabilly, and rock versions. Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, and Sammy Kershaw have all done it. So this is a song that has become part of the culture. That’s because Chuck Berry expressed something universal here, the yearning of a father who has been separated from his daughter. So Memphis, Tennessee has become part of the culture and has a universal theme. Maybe that means that it is a folk song after all. And maybe it’s really not so surprising that Brown and Morrissey recorded it.

Public Domain: Star Maker Tradition Edition

It is the custom, here on Star Maker, to end the week with a multi-song post. In a week that has emphasized traditional music, I could hardly do otherwise. So here are songs from three albums I wanted to get to this week, and somehow never did.

Bill Morrissey and Greg Brown: He Was a Friend of Mine

[purchase]

It would have been enough to have a track from either Bill Morrissey or Greg Brown. These two are among the finest artists in acoustic music today. But here they are together.

I first heard He Was a Friend of Mine in the version by the Byrds. The lyrics don’t quite fit, but the song always felt like a tribute to John F Kennedy, and I think the Byrds may have had that in mind. So I was surprised to find that this is a traditional song.

John Wesley Harding: Little Musgrave

[purchase]

As far as I know, John Wesley Harding was only a folk singer for one album, but it is a fine one. Little Musgrave tells the story of a man of low rank who beds a lord’s wife. These stories always end badly. It is not surprising that a lord’s wife would stray, given that she was in an arranged marriage where love was not part of the deal. But the songs where the lord is the one who strays have very different endings. Completely unfair!

The New St George: The Mermaid

[purchase]

I seem to be stuck on songs of the sea this week. But fear not, if we ever do a week of sea songs, I have plenty of material left. I wanted to make sure I included a tale of a sailor’s encounter with the supernatural this week, and this is one of the most beautiful examples I know. For the story of the New St George, go here.

Record Labels: Red House Records

Greg Brown: The Poet Game [purchase]

Eliza Gilkyson: Hard Times in Babylon [purchase]

Like so many of our favorites, acoustic roots label Red House was started by a musician looking to release his own records outside the mainstream corporate model. The move was a such a success, in fact, that after two albums in 1981 and 1982, Greg Brown soon had no time to make both the music and the records, so Red House briefly went dormant after its second release.

In many stories, that would be all she wrote. But happily, in 1983, Brown met Bob Feldman, who took over the label, and soon amassed a stable of singer-songwriters from the upper midwest -- Spider John Koerner, John Gorka, and Peter Outrushko among them -- before growing to encompass a more national set of artists of a particularly poetic, usually raw, and generally intimate roots/folk bent, from Eliza Gilkyson, Rosalie Sorrels, and Lucy Kaplansky to Guy Davis and Ramblin' Jack Elliot.

Feldman passed in 2006, but the label which he nurtured lives on. In fact, Danny Schmidt, the newest addition to the Red House Records stable, is playing at my house tomorrow, just two weeks after the release of Instead the Forest Rose to Sing.

Duets: Men’s Edition

I couldn’t help noticing that all of the songs posted this week were duets between a male and a female singer. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that, and the music has been great. But there are other possibilities. Here are two fine examples of duets between two male singers. There also many fine all-female duets, but I leave that thought with my fellow Starmakers. There’s still time!

Johnny Cash/ Willie Nelson: (Ghost) Riders in the Sky

[purchase]

VH-1 Storytellers was a series that usually featured one artist talking about the craft of songwriting, and playing examples. Musically, the results were often spectacular.

But, for one episode, somebody had the idea of getting Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson together to talk about each others songs. Cash and Nelson are, of course, both country artists, but with very different styles. So this could have been a disaster. But, judging from the episode as aired, the two really hit it off, and the music showed it. (Ghost) Riders in the Sky is only one example of how wonderfully they were able to mesh musically.

Bill Morrissey and Greg Brown: Duncan and Brady

[purchase]

Bill Morrissey and Greg Brown used to run into each other on the folk circuit, (they probably still do, for that matter). Over time, they became friends, and jammed together at festivals. Soon enough, they got the idea of recording an album together. What with schedule conflicts and all that travel, it took a few years before it finally happened. Both are fine songwriters, but by the time they went into the studio together, they had decided to record a set of songs by other writers. Duncan and Brady is a traditional song that they selected.

Fifty States: Iowa

Greg Brown: Iowa Waltz

[purchase]

I suppose I should knock off my adopted home state of Iowa. I hated Iowa when I first moved here, but I've learned over the years that it's a wonderful place to live (except for the months of December, January, and February, which suck eggs). We have dense forest across the street from our house, we have the right sized cities, we have good people, we have universities, we have good music. If it weren't for those nasty, ugly winters when all the leaves fall off the trees, it would be everything I would want in a place to raise a family.

Greg Brown grew up a couple of hours south of my house. I'm not a farmer, and since I live in a University town I don't really know any farmers. But, I still love this line:

We take care of our own, take care of our young,
Make hay while the sun shines.
Growing our crops, singing our songs,
And planting until harvest time.

Boats: Ships

Greg Brown: Ships

[purchase]

Greg Brown is from Fairfield, Iowa, of all places, home of the Maharishi International University.

He is known for his intimate live performances. He tells wonderful stories, he's funny, and his music is well suited to small venues. The featured track, Ships, is about Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and John Wayne. It's a simple song that seems to have a simple message: Each of these people had troubles and sorrows in life, and now they are all dead.

Fellow SMM author, boyhowdy, sent me the following story about Greg Brown via email:

I once had the opportunity to hang with him for a while, and out of idle curiosity, asked him what the strangest thing he ever autographed was. "A Breast", says he, in his wry basso. "That's not so weird", I said.

"Well", he said. "it was kind of jiggly, so I had to use my other hand to hold it down..."

I love "wry basso" as a description of his voice. It's true, his voice has a "wry" quality to it. Sort of a sardonic mocking quality, slightly cynical, but ultimately humorous. Weird mix, I know - but this is what I hear in his voice and his music.

Go buy One Night (see "purchase" link above). It's really an excellent performance and it made a great CD.

One last thing: This track was covered by Redbird. Check it out:

Redbird: Ships