March 24, 2009: Joe Sun - "Old Flames (Can't Hold a Candle to You)"

25 Albums That Shaped My Life
#1

Joe Sun
Old Flames (Can't Hold a Candle to You)
Ovation Records, 1978


When I last posted, about two
weeks ago, I promised that this new feature would be beginning shortly. A very busy schedule pushed it back a little further than anticipated, but here we are. The goal here is to showcase songs from the 25 albums that have had the biggest impact on my life. I'm going for total honesty, and baring all my musical skeletons. We begin at ground zero...

I was about two years old when I first discovered the stereo in the basement and my parents' collection of 8-Track tapes. By age three, I was obsessed with them. My mom will tell stories to anyone who will listen of how I would fall asleep while organizing and memorizing them (see the picture to prove it). My favorite was the 1978 debut from Rochester, Minnesota-born country singer Joe Sun, which I played so often that it drove my parents to hide the tape from me.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Sun

February 9, 2009: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - "Please Read the Letter"

I don't usually pay much attention to the Grammys, and this year was no exception. My wife and I spent Sunday night giving the dog a bath and watching The Wire on DVD. I was completely oblivious to the fact that the Grammys were taking place that night.

Well after midnight, while checking Twins updates on the Star Tribune's website, I noticed a link in the "Most Read Stories" sidebar that read "Plant, Krauss dominate Grammys." I smiled. I don't give much credibility to those awards, but it's still nice on those rare occasions when they get it right.

January 2, 2009: Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "You Want That Picture"

Ask anybody who knows me well and they'll admit that I can be one stubborn bastard when I wanna be.

For years -- YEARS, I tell you! -- I was a Will Oldham hater. With absolutely no basis, I had made up my mind that he was pretentious and insincere. I never bothered to listen to his records closely because I could somehow tell that it wasn't the genuine article.

Over the last couple years, though, I have finally discovered the error of my ways. Sometimes people can make up their mind about something... anything... and it's much more work to change their mind than it ever was to make up that mind in the first place. For me, I can't even remember when or where the Oldham hate started. I probably heard somebody playing some Palace record and thought to myself, "This guy thinks he's the next Johnny Cash or Bob Dylan, but he's not, so I think he's full of shit." And that flippant, instantaneous reaction blocked me from several years of great music from Palace/Will Oldham/Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

Now that I've come around, I can quite comfortably recommend his newest album, Lie Down In the Light. "You Want That Picture" is the standout cut on the album, a gorgeous duet with Ashley Webber (formerly of Canadian indie band The Organ).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Oldham

January 1, 2009: Steve Earle - "Hard-Core Troubadour"

Despite the fact that he did not release an album in 2008, Steve Earle was probably the artist to whom I listened to most over the year. I have been a fan for several years, but it was this past year that I really dove in to his entire catalog.

I'm sure that the political fever of the summer (and the content of Earle's recent work) and my addiction to The Wire were gateways, but it was the greatness of the music and the songs that kept him on my stereo so frequently.

"Hard-Core Troubadour" is from Steve's 1996 album I Feel Alright, his second album following his prison release and newfound sobriety. The title of the song has become a moniker of sorts for Earle. And, damn... the song just rocks.



http://www.steveearle.com/

December 20, 2008: Willie Nelson - "Winter Wonderland"

Take a look around, Twin Citizens!

Now, listen to Willie's take on this holiday standard and relax. It's gorgeous out there.



http://www.willienelson.com/

December 14, 2008: The Sadies w/ Robyn Hitchcock - "Why Would Anybody Live Here?"

Blizzards, freezing rain, bone-crunching wind chill... The Sadies are from Canada. They have probably asked themselves this question on more than a few occasions. I know I was asking it all day long as I waited for my wife to safely return from the Northern Minnesota Winter Wonderland. Thankfully, she's back in one piece.

http://www.thesadies.net/
http://www.robynhitchcock.com/

November 30, 2008: Bobby Bare - "Talk Me Some Sense"

My wife and I spent last Thanksgiving in Dixon, Illinois visiting her parents. Our "Black Friday" last year was spent walking through the town. One of the places we checked out was a large antique/junk store. Anytime I find myself in a place like that, my first instinct is to keep my eyes open for stacks of records. Most records found in antique stores are beat up, overpriced, and very common... antique stores are where trashed Andy Williams, Guy Lombardo, and Johnny Mathis records go when they die. Every once in a while, though, you'll find something cool.

The payoff in Dixon last year was a copy of Bobby Bare's 1966 album Talk Me Some Sense for $1. On first glance, it wasn't in the greatest shape (though it did clean up and play quite nicely), but I figured it was worth the small gamble. Bare was a guy who had been on my list of guys to check out for a long time, but I had never gotten around to it. From all I had heard, I figured I would probably like him, but I really wasn't prepared for what I was about to hear when I got the record home. It has since become one of my most played records from the country portion of my collection.

The title track is particularly great. It's the best protest song against protest songs that I've heard, at any rate. Given that it's immediately followed on the album by a Dylan cover ("It Ain't Me, Babe") and a fantastic pro-civil rights anthem ("What Color (Is a Man)") - the latter being pretty ballsy for a country singer of the time - leads me to believe that there has to be at least a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek aspect to "Talk Me Some Sense." Even if not, though, I love the song.

Sadly for you, I could not find any youtube videos or other internet streams of the song. Last year, Omni Records reissued Talk Me Some Sense on CD, packaged with Bare's urban sprawl concept album A Bird Named Yesterday. Both albums are great, so it's well worth picking up.



















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Bare

November 26, 2008: Waylon Jennings - "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean"

Today is my brother Jim's 29th birthday. Naturally, I brainstormed birthday songs and songs with variations of "Jim" in the title so that I could make the Greatest Song of Today a dedication... I came close to pulling the trigger on "Jim Dandy" by Black Oak Arkansas, but couldn't quite do it.

In the end, I decided the best way to go was Waylon. (Really, when is Waylon not the best way to go?) He loves Waylon. I love Waylon. We were raised on Waylon. I don't know about you, Jim, but "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" is one of my favorite Waylon Jennings songs. Plus, when you drove my drunk ass and all of my drunk friends all over the city during my bachelor party, we capped the night off with me singing my heart out with this song during karaoke at the Vegas Lounge. It's sentimental!

The fantastic live version that I've chosen for Song of the Day comes from Waylon Live: The Expanded Edition, a 2003 42-song double CD reissue of Waylon Live, originally an 11-song LP released in 1976. It was recorded over a three night stand in Austin in 1974, at the absolute peak of Waylon's powers. The restored double CD is one of the great archival finds of the last decade. It's all killer, with the Waylors (featuring Ralph Mooney, the greatest steel guitar player who ever lived, in my humble opinion) playing like a band possessed and Waylon himself singing with all of his soul. For anyone reading this, if you have anything more than a passing interest in country music, Waylon Live: The Expanded Edition is essential.

I couldn't find a youtube video of the Waylon Live performance, but I did find this one, which is pretty similar. Enjoy! And happy birthday, Jim!



www.waylon.com

November 18, 2008: Bobbie Gentry - "Mississippi Delta"

Now here is a tune that could carry the "Greatest Song of the Day" banner on any day. I have never attempted to make a list of my top ten favorite songs of all-time. No... that would be nearly impossible. However, if I were ambitious enough to give it a shot, there's no way in hell that "Mississippi Delta" misses the cut.

"Mississippi Delta" was the first single that Bobbie Gentry released for Capitol Records in 1967. However, it was the b-side to that 45 - the classic ballad "Ode to Billie Joe" - that became the iconic megahit.

Of course most know Bobbie Gentry for "Ode to Billie Joe," for being one of the first female country musicians to write and play her own material, and for having completely disappeared from the public eye about thirty years ago. The problem I have is that she tends to get pigeonholed as a country singer. She was so much more. She was just as much a soul singer, a folk singer, and a swamp rocker as she was a country singer. There is no greater evidence that I can present than "Mississippi Delta." Recorded 41 years ago, to my ears it remains the funkiest thing a white woman has ever put on wax.

It is with great excitement that I give you today's Greatest Song of the Day, courtesy of the incomparable Ms. Gentry.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbie_Gentry

November 16, 2008: Drive-By Truckers - "Heathens"

Today, I will meet Patterson Hood. I guess you could call him the "frontman" of the Drive-By Truckers. He founded the band with Mike Cooley a dozen years ago. While both serve as singers and songwriters in the band, Cooley tends to come off as intensely private, possibly with a bit of a mean streak. Patterson is the approachable one. He's the guy who does all the interviews, who stands in the middle of the stage at the shows, who interacts with the audience, and he's the guy who always has a big ol' grin on his face.

During the three-album run of Decoration Day, The Dirty South, and A Blessing In a Curse, which say the addition of Jason Isbell to the Truckers' three-pronged singer/songwriter attack alongside Hood and Cooley, a pretty solid argument could be made that Hood was only the third best singer/songwriter in his own band. Perhaps that's because while Isbell and Cooley have been consistently great, Hood has taken more chances in his songwriting. Sometimes he falls flat, but usually he hits it... and good lord, he knows how to knock it out of the park.

One such case is "Heathens," from my favorite Drive-By Truckers album, Decoration Day. I don't know if it was the arrival of the prodigiously talented Isbell as a third songwriter in the band, or if it was some of the personal issues in his life spilling out onto record, but Patterson definitely stepped up his songwriting game on the fourth Truckers LP. His songs on that album ("Sinkhole," "My Sweet Annette," and "Something's Gotta Give Pretty Soon" also among them) represented the most personal collection he had put forth to date. With the same thing happening from both Cooley and Isbell, everything came together for a flawless album.

The thing I love most about Patterson Hood is the persona he projects. Watching him perform and listening to him sing, you can tell that this is a man whose life was saved by rock and roll. His love of rock mythology may occasionally border on schmaltzy, but it is always sincere. I can't help but love a guy who appears to be having so much fun.

Anyway, Patterson is giving a solo in-store performance at 2 PM today at Treehouse Records, sandwiched between a couple of sold out Drive-By Truckers shows with The Hold Steady at First Avenue. Of all the songs he's written, "Heathens" is probably my favorite. Therefore, it is today's Greatest Song of the Day.

www.drivebytruckers.com
www.pattersonhood.com
www.newwestrecords.com

November 14, 2008: Neko Case & Her Boyfriends - "Lord, Don't Move the Mountain"

From a 2000 John Peel Session on BBC Radio 1 comes this goosebump-inducing take on the gospel standard "Lord, Don't Move the Mountain." Prior to the performance, Neko talks of learning the song from a Bessie Griffin album. I've never heard Bessie's version, but I've heard incarnations from Mahalia Jackson, Etta James, and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. I'll put Ms. Case's version up against any of those esteemed artists. As much as I love Neko Case's own songs, I often think her greatest vocal moments happen when she lets it rip on gospel and soul covers, such as "John Saw That Number" from Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and "Runnin' Out of Fools" and "Look For Me (I'll Be Around)" from Blacklisted.

As a bonus, I decided to let the track run through John Peel's stunned reaction to the performance. It's always good to hear his voice. I still miss you, Mr. Peel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/artists/n/nekocase/