World Party: Is It Like Today? [purchase]
Eliza Gilkyson: Is It Like Today? [purchase]
As someone who worked in the service industries through much of the ubiquitous Top 40 radio nineties, I must have had this song buried in my brain somewhere, but it was Eliza Gilkyson's 2005 pensive folkcover that sent me to the stacks to rediscover it, and finally listen to the lyrics.
Turns out the original is pretty deep. Plus it's got a great British janglepop thing going on.
Michael McNevin (with Tom Prasada-Rao): Silver Hair
[purchase]
Major life challenges have kept me from posting the last few weeks... but I love this song, co-written by Michael McNevin and Tom Prasado-Rao, so much that I'm attempting to come up for air to share it with all of you - I dedicate it to my mom, who is fighting the good fight, and sports the most beautiful head of silver hair... which I am proud to have inherited...
On a lighter note, I ran across the following, applicable to our outgoing theme, on Punoftheday.com:
"Dreams of gold lead the gang to boron the safe at the chemical plant but when the copper arrived they felt out of their element and now they argon."
Bono & Keith Richards: Silver & Gold
[purchase]
Can I get one more under the wire?
This song originally appeared on the Artists United Against Apartheid album in 1985. It came out the year before I moved to South Africa, and my understanding of apartheid at the time that I heard this record was very limited. I understood it more as a fashionable cause than as a reality.
After arriving in the country, it didn't take long to recognize that apartheid was worthy of worldwide condemnation and protest. Seeing an entire race of people legally and consistently relegated to second class status, and worse, was horrifying to an American kid. Bravo to Little Steven, Bono, The Specials, Keith Richards, and everyone else in the international artistic and political communities who took a stand. Even more props to the people of South Africa, who I've always loved, for making an incredibly difficult change - not without its bumps, bruises, and fractures.
This is not Bono at his best - he's a little too breathy and affected for my taste, but the song is pretty strong, and Richards's guitar is excellent.
Kings of Convenience: Gold In The Air Of Summer
[purchase]
... slipping one more in under the wire from my #1 favorite Norwegian artists (except maybe Sissel Kyrkjebø).
The Pretenders: Brass In Pocket
[Purchase]
Brass is a metal alloy consisting of copper and zinc, but within this song it's a synonym for money. Indeed, brass and other copper alloys, were often used in making coins in ancient times.
This #1 hit from 1980 features Chrissy Hynde singing about all the things she has going for her and why she's going to make you notice her...she's special.
The Rolling Stones: You Got The Silver [purchase]
Susan Tedeschi: You Got The Silver [purchase]
A blast from the past to clear the palate and the plate for the second half of the week. The loose, surprisingly sparse original was the first Stones song to feature Keith Richards on solo vocal, way back on their seminal 1969 recording Let It Bleed; the cover, from modern blueswoman extraordinaire Susan Tedeschi, retains both the arrangement and the pacing of the original -- the slow start, the high wailing finish -- but tightens it up a notch throughout. Both are beautiful.
Bright Eyes: Going for the Gold
[purchase]
Musical Wunderkind, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, has been composing music since he was 13 years old. He has been extremely prolific in his career, releasing no fewer than 22 albums under various band names before his 30th birthday, and that doesn't even count the many guest appearances & singles that he's released during that same time period. Oberst is also a co-founding member of Saddlecreek Records, which now boasts a few bands that have been heard of outside of Omaha (e.g., Smashmouth, Rilo Kelly, Neva Dinova, and others).
Going for the Gold is a really great song, from an album that collects songs from four artists. It's worth checking out.
The Polyphonic Spree: Lithium
[Purchase]
Lithium is the lightest of metals. In fact, it corrodes quickly under normal conditions and therefore must be kept in an oil or gel to be sustained for any period of time. It only occurs naturally on the planet in compounds because of this. A number of practical uses have been found for it, most notably being its use in batteries. But another use is as a mood stabilizer. It can be used to treat bipolar disorder, mania and depression, but must be monitored because above a very small amount it is very toxic.
The mood stabilizing affects of lithium is what inspired the Nirvana song named after it. The song is a tale of all the highs and lows a person can go through and how the lithium makes us stop feeling the things we once did. The song deals with the feelings of this treatment and how sometimes feeling awful is better than feeling nothing at all.
This cover of the song by The Polyphonic Spree takes a completely different feel to it. The Polyphonic Spree is a "choral symphonic rock" group that features about 20 members in robes that makes music that's entirely too happy for its own good. Many have thought the group to be some kind of religious cult before, but really it is just the brainchild of rocker Tim DeLaughter, previously of the group Tripping Daisy. When The Polyphonic Spree takes on this Nirvana classic all of the sudden it feels like a song by Stuart Smalley with it's overly happy and hopeful take on life. Overall, I really like this cover simply because it takes a classic song that almost everyone knows, and gives it a whole new spin.
Mark O'Connor: Gold Rush
[purchase]
Gold has no utilitarian value, but it was the very first metal discovered anyway -- way back in 6000 BC, apparently by some stone age man looking for a nice anniversary gift for the stone age woman who has everything.
Since then, of course, gold has built a reputation for driving men mad enough to face malls on Christmas Eve, fork over two month's pay for tiny round fingerhoops, or even swarm California to sift dirt by the side of some muddy stream all day. People write songs about all of its uses, and there's enough good ones out there; it's a good bet you'll see a few more gold tunes as we pursue our metals theme this week.
But this jumpin' tune is a great starting point for any set. Bill Monroe wrote it, and fiddle master Mark O'Connor's version is just light and frothy, a full-blown reel in a bottle. That's Bill there on mandolin, spinning the gold himself.
Tony Furtado Band w/ Kelly Joe Phelps: Raleigh and Spencer
People keep recommending that I check out the jazz and delta blues fusion sound of Kelly Joe Phelps, and here's just one more reason to pursue it: a wonderfully slow and mystical blues take on American oldtime tradtune Raleigh and Spencer from the Tony Furtado Band's 2001 self-titled album, in which Tony's jambanjo and jazzy summery production mix exquisitely with Kelly Jo Phelps' gorgeous lapstyle slide guitar and vocals.
Phelps has made a name for himself as a guest and session player -- you've heard him with Tim O'Brien, Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, Jay Farrar and Townes Van Zandt -- but it's less common to hear his voice alongside the playing. Personally, I think his vocal style rivals his prowess with the lap steel.
The Old 97's: Four Leaf Clover
[purchase]
The Old 97's feat. Exene Cervenka: Four Leaf Clover
[purchase]
"Four Leaf Clover" is the perfect example of how the right guest can enhance a track and really turn it into something special.
The song first appeared on The Old 97's 1994 debut Hitchhike to Rhome. It was a decent enough song at the time with a rolling drum beat and bit of a harder edge than the rest of the songs on the countrified album. But, even with that edge 97's vocalist Rhett Miller still sounds a little reserved. Solid... but not a standout track by any means. That's the first version of the song that is linked above.
In 1997, the band reworked the track for their classic album Too Far to Care. Here, they played up the rock side of the track even more with feedback, ramped up guitars, and a scorching vocal from Exene Cervenka. As a veteran of L.A. punk rock stalwarts X, Cervenka certainly knew how to bring a fire and energy to the track that was lacking in the original. Miller fed off that fire... peppering his own vocal with growls and howls that were absent the first time around.
Exene Cervenka's mere presence transforms the track from a forgettable filler to an essential album closing rocker.
Ane Brun (feat. Ron Sexsmith): Song No.6
Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun teamed up with Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith for a track on her 2005 album "A Temporary Dive". The song is a love song, and one of the few marginally upbeat songs that Brun has sung, as her music usually tends to be more melancholic and filled with longing. Her voice is mesmerizing to me. It usually sounds like the flutter in her voice is out of despair, but in this track it doubles for enthusiasm.
Featuring a male vocalist in the song brings an already great song to a whole new level, making it feel more intimate and real, like a conversation between smitten lovers. Ron Sexsmith's slow laid-back vocals make a beautiful match to hers. This could be considered a duet as well, but at the same time, the song could have been successful as her song alone, and the obvious caliber of the singer chosen makes this most certainly something special.
Jonatha Brooke feat. Michael Franti: Steady Pull
[purchase]
2001's Steady Pull represented new directions for Jonatha Brooke. She had just completed a cross country move prior to recording the album and was feeling refreshed and reinvigorated in the studio.
The album itself contained many artistic leaps and experiments for Brooke. She co-produced the album, played several instruments (guitars, wurlitzer, finger bells, ukulele, piano, bass), and even arranged strings for the first time in her career. The feeling of experimentation was carried over on the album's title track as well when Brooke enlisted the help of socially conscious hip-hop artist Michael Franti. Franti's involvement is minimal on the track... mostly just a background vocal. His presence, however, lends credibility to the track that the folky Brooke may not have been able to achieve by herself.
Brooke says she just wanted the song to have a nice groove. Franti's funky vocals helped to ensure that happened.
Phish feat. Alison Krauss: If I Could
[purchase]
Alison Krauss was just 22, the youngest cast member of the Grand Ole Opry and two Grammys into her career when her sweet and breathy twang startled the hell out of me on this dreamy, swirling slowjam from Phish's underrated 1994 studio album Hoist.
Eventually, of course, Krauss would become the go-to sidegirl for harmonies and countrygrass credibility. But Krauss was still a true blue bluegrass voice back then, known only to the in-crowd, not yet the Grammy-sweeping cross-over artist she would become with Raising Sand. The track is gorgeous, and the boys of Phish deserve major props for correctly gauging just how much string-band legitimacy and ballad beauty would come of such a guest.
Stephen Stills: Old Times Good Times
[purchase]
Stephen Stills's first solo album is a buffet of guest appearances. I could post to this week's theme at least five times from this album alone, and each post would include an amazing guest appearance by a well known artist (think Eric Clapton, Cass Elliot, Ringo Starr and others). But I think out of all of the guest appearances on this album the best one has to be the performance by Jimi Hendrix on Old Times Good Times. I have always thought it was a bit odd that Hendrix, a superstar at this point in his career, didn't force himself on the song more than he did. He plays a solo, but it's not blaring and self-serving like Clapton's is on the following track, instead his contribution is more understated and supportive. But this is exactly what makes his work on this song so excellent. He adds a unique sound, a bluesy grit, that few other people could add as effectively.
Give it a listen.
Indigo Girls: Galileo
[purchase]
I was an active Indigo Girls fan throughout my teen years, and well into my late adolescent protogrunge period; though their first album Strange Fire and their subsequent major-label self-titled debut remain the gold standard for their dark acoustic alternative folk, in many ways, 1992 release Rites of Passage, which many ex-fans mark as the beginning of the end, was also the best of their subsequent high-production albums, most notably for the tight harmonies, full band orchestration, and percussive rhythms that pepper the disk.
My two favorite songs on that album, the one above and album denoument Let It Be Me, feature especially rich vocal mixes, starring the distinctive backup tones of both Jackson Browne and David Crosby. Their presence in the tracks themselves is light and sparse -- that's Browne on the three part harmony, and Crosby on the faint frills between the lines -- but the addition of such elder statesmen into the mix makes all the difference.
