Richard Shindell: The Kenworth Of My Dreams [ purchase ] Nominally, this twangy countrified folk song is about a truck, and its new owner, who purchases and fixes up the titular Kenworth with the help of his brother-in-law, and settles into the life of a long-haul trucker despite the ridicule of his friends and family. But like all Richard Shindell songs, there's hints of the confessional around the edges of our narrative voice, and the upbeat bounce of the production is a ruse, designed to strain and pull [...]
It's coming on 2012, and all around us, bloggers tout their 2011 taste, jostling to be the best and first match for your own preferences, inviting debate over position in the ranks. And so, as we do every year as the calendar comes to a close, we struggle with the conceit of The Year In Review, surveying a year's worth of posts, writing a never-ending series of half-hearted drafts, flinching every time we approach the task, yet feeling guilt every time we put it down. My reluctance to pass judgement isn't a cop-out. [...]
Originally posted, with slight modifications, in August 2009. Because it's one of my favorite sets...and because bloggers need vacations, too. We're in Truro for a short weekend, just like in 2009, in the same rented beachhouse high on the dunes above the Cape Cod sound. Wakeless trawlers and shore fishermen, beach wanderers and bathers are few and far between, mere specks on an otherwise natural landscape that fills the sense with color: green grasses, faded yellow sand, the variable [...]
I had big plans to share some thoughts about my conflicted love for America this year on the anniversary of our birth as a nation. But looking in the archives, I see I've written it before: both last year, when we mused upon the complexity of patriotism in a modern age, and in our first year, at a time when our national discourse was increasingly polarized by the impending presidential election. Our Single Song Sunday from last year remains live, and I encourage you to head back into the archives for 10 [...]
They ran the last trucks through Paradise Lake Road last night, their claws clutching desperately at the piles of brush and branches which have covered the curbsides and yards since the month began. The high school seniors who worked so tirelessly to bring hope and helping hands to shellshocked neighborhoods the morning after their graduation did not happen begin to move on, visiting colleges, taking off for the summer. The church with the fallen clocktower posts daily on our facebook page, its requests sounding evermore desperate as it struggles to find enough volunteers to keep the momentum going. [...]
Richard Shindell : Born in the USA [ purchase ] From transformative covers of songs with California in the titles, it's not hard to get to another transformative cover. This one also kicks off a week of songs about people affected by wars, both soldiers and those who waited for them at home. It's all in honor of Memorial Day, but I hope this theme resonates for our readers in countries other than the United States as well. Here then, is Richard Shindell's version of Bruce Springstein's Born in [...]
Richard Shindell: On A Sea of Fleur De Lis [ purchase ] Richard Shindell: On A Sea of Fleur De Lis [live] [ purchase ] Solas: On A Sea of Fleur De Lis [ purchase ] Solas: On A Sea of Fleur De Lis [live] [ purchase ] One [...]
It's a point of personal pride that in almost three years of existence, we've never missed a scheduled post here at Cover Lay Down. But tonight we're as close as we've ever come, thanks to the sudden, time-consuming duality of both long days in the classroom and long nights at rehearsals for our local community theater production - and the heat wave we're experiencing here in New England doesn't help. I had half a post written, but it looks like it's not going to make it out of draft form 'til Sunday. [...]
I've cheated a little here, penning this a few days in advance just in case something goes awry in our plans, scheduling it to post automatically so you could be here now. But in my mind, it's Wednesday as I write this, legs up in the passenger seat for a short leg of the long drive from San Simeon to Monterey, where my wife's relatives will be putting us up at a seaside conference center and resort that boasts such "authentic" rustic environs that it eschews TV and radio, and provides wi-fi solely in the lobby. [...]
Each year as schooldays fade into memory and the summer festival season grows close, my thoughts turn to Dave Carter . An up-and-coming singer-songwriter, already well respected by critics and peers, Carter was on the road with his partner Tracy Grammer in the summer of 2002 when he was stricken down with a heart attack during an early morning run in the New England heat. Their scheduled set at that day's Green River Festival was taken over by Signature Sounds labelmate Mark Erelli with little fanfare. [...]
Our music library may be vast, but we've never claimed to be completists here at Cover Lay Down. There's always something missed or previously unheard, and always something new, too, released just in time to taunt us in the aftermath of a topical post. Serendipitous addenda come from fellow bloggers, readers, labels, artists and library visits into our welcoming ears and hands. From there, they make their way back to you via our (Re)Covered features, wherein we share new and newly-rediscovered songs that dropped into our laps just a bit [...]
Richard Shindell: The Ballad of Mary Magdalen [ purchase ] Cry Cry Cry: The Ballad of Mary Magdalen [ purchase ] This tale of Jesus' girlfriend's inner life after the ascension is one of my favorite songs from Richard Shindells' canon, and it's not hard to see why: the song offers a perfect set of all the things the ex-seminarian does best, from the fully humanized religious setting to the heartbreaking first-person portrayal of broken [...]
It's always tempting to treat the first post of a new year as more significant than it really needs to be. The turning of the calendar, the fireworks at the moment of truth: all that ritual creates a mandate, a weight of liminality that demands deliberation. I've got some strong candidates for upcoming features - there's a wealth of new coverfolk coming down the pike, and a new sense of appreciation rising for some singer-songwriters we've yet to cover here in our virtual pages. But I'd be a fool to [...]
I share with you now the Ghosts of Past, Present and Future - whether inhabiting a shadowed room, a relationship-in-flux (stalker?) or a smoky bar, the spirits (and demons) of love can be haunting... and daunting... Richard Shindell:Memory of You [ purchase ] (scroll down to Sparrows Point) "Why did you leave Your will so vague? Just three blue lines Across the page: You take the vase I'll keep the rose And the memory of you " Lynn Miles: The Ghost of Deadlock [...]
I don't know as much about Townes Van Zandt as I'd like to. Despite the great similarities in sound and sensibility between his work and that of Guthrie, Dylan, and other core members of the folkworld, somehow he never cropped up in a childhood balanced between a mother's love of the Seeger classics and a father's fandom for the singer-songwriters of his own generation. Of course, some of that is due to Van Zandt's relative obscurity during the bulk of his life - as my father notes, until his resurgence in [...]
Just a quick mid-week pop-in to point coverfans to the 29 Springsteen covers WXPN solicited from their favorite Philly bands, courtesy of Bruce of Some Velvet Blog . The track list is stellar, with nary a dud throughout: Farewell Flight's bedroom folk cover of Streets of Philadelphia is especially noteworthy, and don't forget to stick around until the end of the playlist for Susan Werner 's lovely version of My Hometown and a slow alt-country take on Independence Day from the John Train Band . [...]
Deborah Godin suggested I listen to this song. She was right. It is a good one. It is from Somewhere Near Paterson. MP3 File yousendit
For the past few years, my father and I have taken a week or so at the end of the summer to travel together, just the two of us. This year, we've gone to Germany to visit my brother and his wife, artists who recently moved here to take a stab at the European art scene; I'm writing this, in fact, from outside a Frankfurt Starbucks in the midst of morning rush hour, the only place I could find a decent Internet connection, though the price is pretty dear. It's precious time lost, for a [...]
We're in Truro for a short week, in a rented beachhouse high on the dunes above the Cape Cod sound. Wakeless trawlers and shore fishermen, beach wanderers and bathers are few and far between, mere specks on an otherwise natural landscape that fills the sense with color: green grasses, faded yellow sand, the variable blues of sky and water. At night the lights of Provincetown shine brightly just on the edge of the vista, a line of stars marking the difference between pitch-black sea and an invisible sky. Last [...]
Johnny Cash: Cry Cry Cry [ purchase ] Cry Cry Cry: By Way of Sorrow (written by Julie Miller ) [ purchase ] I batted around a few different ideas for my contribution this week, but kept coming back to the phrasing of the theme... and couldn't resist my need to tie together the two incarnations of Cry Cry Cry of which I'm aware: ~ the title of Johnny Cash's song [...]
Star Maker Machine
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A-Trak - "Round of Applause" / "Where My Money At" (MP3 Download)
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
Diplo x Usher: ‘Climax’
