Late: The Late, Late, Late Edition

Billy Jonas: Late

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Susan Werner: Born a Little Late

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Todd Snider: Age Like Wine

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As soon as this week's theme was announced, I knew I wanted to present the Billy Jonas song of the same name, which illustrates a very good reason for being late - then when Anne submitted her post, it made me think of Susan Werner's Ode to the baby boomer. BWR's offering sparked my remembrance of Todd's tune - then it just made me smile that we are truly a collaborative blog, in every sense of the word... :-)

All Apologies: "Regrets? I've Had a Few" Edition

Susan Werner: Sorry About Jesus

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Ani DiFranco: Superhero

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Dory Previn: Left Hand Lost

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Where does sorry end and regret begin... or vice versa? - there's a fine line between apologizing to someone else and apologizing to yourself for things you wish you'd done/said/thought differently... things which are unalterably life-changing, and indelibly mark a that-was-then, this-is-now crossroads...

Susan begs forgiveness for weird "Jesus freak" (we all knew one) behavior while in high school - "I'm hardly like the person that I was back then"...

Ani laments a relationship-induced self-transformation from strong to vulnerable, knowing she can never go back - "and now look at me, I am just like everybody else"...

Dory ponders who she would have been and what she might have accomplished, if she had not allowed the nuns in school to change her natural left-leaning inclination to the other side - "and I'll never be completely me again"...

I personally am sorry/regretful I don't post here as often as I used to, sometimes even missing a week altogether (very unlike me!) - I vow to do better in the future...

Trains: Pulling into the Station Edition

Katy Moffatt: This Heart Stops for Railway Crosses

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Salamander Crossing: Passion Train

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Susan Werner: Time Between Trains

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Ah, so many train songs, so little time - please allow me to share three more favorites before the last whistle blows. This week has been quite a journey... segueing from melancholy to rollicking and everything in between... but our destination is in sight - why do I seem to have more baggage upon departing than boarding?

Katy Moffatt released The Greatest Show on Earth in 1993 but was prompted by a lawsuit from The Ringling Brothers Circus to re-release the recording as Evangeline Hotel - regardless of the title, between the lyrics (most of the songs are co-written with Tom Russell) and Katy's emotional yet powerful voice, it's a stunning piece of work... with the piece de resistance being This Heart Stops for Railway Crosses, a guaranteed lump-in-the-throat inducer every time...

Salamander Crossing, famous in New England in the 90's for "blending bluegrass instrumentation, stunning 3 part harmonies and an eclectic repertoire" disbanded in late 1999... and lead singer and fiddler Rani Arbo went on to form Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem - I've always loved the explanation for their choice of band name: "Under Henry Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, there lies a pair of tunnels. On the first warm, wet rainy night of spring, hundreds of salamanders begin a slow crawl from their wintering grounds across the street to a vernal pond to mate. The lucky ones find the tunnels. So there you have it. You want love, you gotta take a few risks."

I've seen Susan Werner tens of times (at various festivals, conferences and house concerts) - easily segueing from singer-songwriter folk to torch cabaret to agnostic gospel... and, in her latest release, chamber-music classic rock, she (to paraphrase one of her lyrics) "never disappoints" - I also love how she changes the line in Time Between Trains ("wonderin' why the fates above always route love through Miami") to another city when she plays here in South Florida... :-)

P.S. My understanding is that Boyhowdy will be showcasing Susan Werner on Cover Lay Down this week (probably tomorrow) - check it out!

[Edit boyhowdy 9:19 pm: Susan Werner cover feature now up at Cover Lay Down!]

Peace on Earth: A Matter of Faith

Susan Werner: Together

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On her album The Gospel Truth, Susan Werner wrestles with the question of religion. Much of the album is angry or bitter. The songs detail the hypocrisy of those preach hatred in the name of God, politicians who use religion to justify their wrong-headed policies, and also tell of Werner’s struggles with her own religious upbringing. But these struggles, and this venting, are not the last word. Werner concludes the album the song “Together”. Although the lyrics include the words, “if there is a God”, the song is nonetheless a prayer for tolerance. Coming at the end of this tumultuous album, it represents Werner’s reconciliation with her feelings about faith; she renounces the trappings of faith as she originally encountered them, but she holds to the moral values that her faith embodies.

Tracy Chapman: Heaven‘s Here on Earth

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By contrast, Tracy Chapman’s songs have never revealed any doubts about her faith. She has detailed many personal struggles, as well as political actions, in her work, but these have always seemed like spiritual statements. “Heaven’s Here On Earth” makes this explicit. Chapman makes it clear that she does not wait for the Lord to provide a better life in the next world; rather, she believes that God expects us to make this world the best it can be for all who live upon it while we are here.

I do not presume in this post to offer any judgment as to how anyone should conduct their spiritual life. I merely wish to present the contrasting views on the matter of two artists I greatly admire. It is for each of us to decide which path is the one we will walk, (perhaps, none of the above). But it does seem to me that each of these songs is, in its own way, a prayer for peace.