Traditional death ballads aren't a dime a dozen on the modern papcharts, but they're a recognizable form among the folkways. Most deal frankly with unrequited and/or unequal love and its aftereffects, with gruesome detail and haunted characters; most go so far as to show the callousness of humankind through ghosts and body parts transformed, though history suggests that such lascivious imagery was more commonplace in the Puritan and previous worlds, where the funerial was a family affair, life lessons were taught and learned through song, pining could kill, and death in its stark bodily form was an everpresent [...]
Andrew is a trumpeter in the pay of the local lord, and Annie is the miller's daughter. She loves him, but her family disapprove. They try to drive Andrew away by accusing him of witchcraft, and when that fails they beat Annie to death. Andrew dies of a broken heart. That's folk ballads for you. Actually in today's versions of the story, Andrew doesn't die in the end, making them relatively upbeat versions of this most gloomy of traditional songs. I love the arrangement of Martin Simpson's take on this. For comparison's [...]
Martin Simpson (born 5 May 1953, Scunthorpe, England) is a British folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is regarded by many as one of the most skilled folk guitarists currently playing on the British and American folk scene. He has been nominated 23 times in the 11 years of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including nine times consecutively as Artist of The Year, which he has won twice. His album Prodigal Son was named album of the year in 2008 and a song from that album, "Never Any Good" was named best original song of the [...]
On the canvas of my mind, I paint the summerself as a towheaded Tom Sawyer, barefoot and fancy free. And though I cannot see into the infinite minds that share my world, it's healthy, I think, to imagine that we all recreate our childhoods as such. But there was little point in going unshod in my suburban childhood. A walk meant pavement, not sidewalks, and on the street, the threat of broken glass or ancient gravel shards was everpresent. Even our own backyard was sparse and prickly, [...]
Omigod, you just have to hear this new Bob Dylan cover. You know that folksy ballad, "All Along the Watchtower"? Well some afro-headscarf weirdnik named Jimi rocked it so hard that… What's that? You've already heard it? You say it tops every single list of the best Dylan covers that has ever been made with absolutely no exceptions so don't bother looking to try to prove me wrong? Ah. Well,
It's always fascinated me how, as social animals who can both project future possibilities and mutate our environment to our benefit, we're nonetheless driven to make peace with our own foibles, accommodate small stumbling blocks, and work around difficulties otherwise solvable and surmountable. A case in point: the 9 key on my laptop keyboard has been broken since last winter, and - as removing the key cap to clean underneath it proved ineffective - I have been forced to conclude that there is something electronically awry here, somewhere in the circuitry. [...]
In planning my posts for this week, I remembered that the blogosphere was all abuzz a while ago with Pearl Jam's cover of Dylan's "Masters of War". Here we had the meeting of two religions, the cults of Dylan and Vedder getting together for interfaith services. While I admire both, I don't share the devotion of either group of fans, and I wound up not even playing the song when everybody was posting it. I had never even heard Dylan's original until this week. Now that I have, I must say that it is not Bob Dylan's best [...]
Bob Dylan: Boots of Spanish Leather [ purchase ] Nanci Griffith: Boots of Spanish Leather [ purchase ] Martin Simpson: Boots of Spanish Leather [ purchase ] There's been a Bob Dylan song in almost every single theme we've attempted here on Star Maker Machine, but those of us who appreciate his iconic songwriting know there's no such [...]
Though my father hasn't missed it in decades, I haven't been able to attend the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival since I started teaching over a decade ago -- something about the way a last gasp of hunker-down-and-teach takes over public education as we approach state testing, and the long downhill slide toward the end of the school year. But every year as we hit the last weekend in April my mind begins to muse upon the great acts I saw down there the few years I made it: Los Lobos, the Indigo Girls, Taj [...]
nice piece in the ny times this morning, in anticipation of the upcoming new orleans jazz & heritage festival , on the added emotional resonance of the randy newman song "louisiana 1927." originally written in the 1970s (and included on newman's album good old boys) about the great mississippi flood fifty years earlier, "the song's lament of being battered once by nature and again by a callous government had resonated with flood-ravaged audiences from new orleans to lake charles well before 2005. then katrina came, and mr. newman seemed downright clairvoyant," [...]
Today's theme is…states! I was going to try to do every state over a series of posts, but quickly realized I have fifty songs about California and none about, say, Delaware. So, instead, here's a choice sampling of songs about states. Mostly lesser-known songs, because at this point I can no longer find a cover of Georgia On My Mind or Sweet Home Alabama that excites me. Feel free to pass along any ideas though. And if anyone has a good cover of Private Idaho… Mavis Staples - Down [...]
I adore a good cover! The following are the ones that really amuse me. I'm On Fire by Carbon Leaf , covering Bruce Springsteen. They do this one a lot live, this particular version is from a set they did for iTunes. It can be found here. I am not a big fan of the original (I have issues with Bruce's voice), but this I love. Bron y Aur Stomp-She Talks to Angels by Carbon Leaf and Toby Lightman , covering Led [...]
Both songs today come from the album A Nod To Bob: An Artists' Tribute to Bob Dylan on His 60th Birthday which was released by Red House in 2001. I am always a bit leery of tributes and cover songs, but this album has some wonderful interpretations. A few, though, made me wonder if the singer had ever heard Bob Dylan sing. These are two of the songs I happen to like. MP3 File
Cover Lay Down
Doklands
Totally Fuzzy
Cover Me
Star Maker Machine
anyone's guess
Audiography: Stop. Pause. Play.
Keep the Coffee Coming
I’ll Just Leave This Here #161
BAND OF HORSES – The Funeral (Sound Remedy Remix)
Angger Dimas – Ribon Dooh (Preview)
K-Holes - "Frozen Stiff"
