Adam Haworth Stephens – The Miles We’ve Marched
Following Dylan last week, here’s the harmonica heir apparent. Stephens (one of Two Gallants) may just be the best songwriter going, although his latest is mostly lame. This song (about gay rights?) is from the stark, gut wrenching Vile Affections EP that was sold mostly at concerts and is sacrilegiously out of print. It is a rare flawless album. – tincanman
Patsy Gallant – From New York to LA
Sometimes, a ‘Spiller wants to feel fabulous, when I want to strut my stuff swaggering down the street and random choreographies take place around me, this is what I put on these days. (For all disco aficionados around, I strongly recommend the Disco Discharge series of compilations. This is from the, er, Pink Pounders volume, but there’s a little for all disco tastes.) – ejaydee
Buick 6 – Statesboro Blues
Buick 6′s take on Blind Willie McTell’s Statesboro Blues claims to be a live recording, but I don’t think so. Unusual rhythm for a blues; the National slide pushes it along, and the mandolin is applied judiciously. All the bits hang together well, and no-one gets ahead of himself. Roger Hubbard, main man, opened his own blues club in Lewes at 18, and booked both Jo Ann and Dave Kelly, as well as Tony McPhee. Good people to learn from, evidently…. – williamsbach
Richard Thompson – Here Without You
I was a bit miffed when derwic said, in motorbike week, that RT’s voice wasn’t all that… so here he is, harmonising along of Christine Collister and Clive Gregson, on the Byrds’ Here Without You. (Much better than the original!) – treefrogdemon
Sugar – If I Can’t Change Your Mind
Because it’s an early-90′s US alt-rock classic and has been on repeat on my i-pod for the last few days. – panthersan
Guy Clark – Black Diamond Strings
I came across this song at the ‘No Depression’ website, on Guy’s birthday. I played it once and found myself paying close attention to the lyric. Then I played it again. Then a third time. More plays followed in quick succession. I couldn’t seem to stop going back to the beginning. Something about that tune – it’s so familiar it could almost be the palm of your hand. It sounds like a Hank Williams tune or a Gram Parsons lyric, but a fresh one. I’ve always rated Guy Clark, who I learned about through listening to Townes Van Zandt from a very young age. For a long time, I thought Townes was better. After listening to Guy’s ‘Dublin Blues’ album so much recently, I am beginning to wonder. One of the best storytellers ever to pick up an acoustic guitar. – notsosourpus
earworm@tincanland.com
Now, in true Maki style, I had an idea the other day and before really thinking it through, suggested the possibilty of doing Christmas earworms for the 20th December post. They should, of course, be songs that you like but they don’t have to be songs that like Christmas. I’ve got two in the hamper – thanks Mitch and Bishbosh – let’s see if we get enough for a full post!
GO FROGS!
notsosourpus: let’s have a post of songs about Black Diamond strings. I know one.
Let’s stretch that to a No Depression post. I discovered them a couple of weeks ago; the in-flight country music channel (ahem!) on a BA flight to Capetown had their ‘No Depression: What It Sounds Like vol. 2‘ compilation, and I played it more or less constantly for the whole flight. There and back. (Well, except for a Stax compilation and Bo Diddley’s Greatest Hits).
There was no information available in flight – track titles appeared on screen, but there wasn’t a listing. Nor was there mention of any artistes, or anything about No Depression except the album title. Took a fair bit of research (well, Amazon via Google) to find that it’s Flatlanders, Resentments, Kieran Kane, Rosanne Cash, Drive-By Truckers (hi DsD!), Julie Miller etc. Fantastic alt-country, cover to cover. If anyone (notsosourpus, Tincanman, I’m looking at you) has it, would you please flaunt it?
Love that Patsy Gallant track, ejay! Back in the mid-90s, I was a ‘regular’ at (still) über-trendy gay pop-and-performance club Duckie, and this was one of the tracks that genius DJs the Readers Wifes would regularly play. Utterly exhilarating (as the best disco music can be). Love the Sugar track too, panthersan – had a little listen to it over the weekend in fact, to see if it was worth nomming for Arguments. (Decided it wasn’t!)
The Adam Haworth Stephens is lovely, tinny. Never heard of him before but will be looking out for his stuff now. Particularly loving the cello (?) but of course the harmonica is aces too.
The Buick 6 is just the right side of yee-haw for me, wb. Nice tight sound. And I agree on the comforting familiarity of the Guy Clark, sourpus. Very pleasing.
I think I have tended to fall into the trap of thinking like derwic too, tfd – purely because I first heard Richard Thompson properly when I bought “I want to see the bright lights tonight” on spec and completely fell in love with Linda’s voice. In comparison, the songs he sings on that album disappointed me a little. But this is beautiful. And he does have a lovely voice really!
Another nice selection, all – thanks!
Hey Maki – great idea
will you do a New Year one the week after?
(just keeping you on your toes)
the disco stood out this week -
also black diamond strings has stuck in my head like the preverbial earworm
I wrote this without seeing any of the above comments so obviously my thoughts are not shared.
Seems as though we have 4 here that somehow share some common threads and two that stand alone, one stand alone is NY to LA and for me, that’s just not my style. The other is Sugar and that one typifies to my totally out of touch mind, what is wrong with a lot of contemporary pop music. There is no melody in there, there’s no tune, what I hear is that awful bloody drummer bashing away behind a ‘singer’ who’s reciting a lyric that’s mostly unintelligible accompanied by various guitars all of which play accompanying sounds but not a trace of melody. I’m picking on this one because it seems so typical of much of what pop has become, I hope that there’s some here who can cause me to see the error of my ways.
Tinny’s piece isn’t overwhelmed with melody either but the voice and the acoustic backing create an interesting piece that causes the listener to pay attention. Statesboro Blues, well what can you say, it’s a blues, Thompson, not sure if those harmonies are better than the original and my main Mac is out of commission so I can’t check but there is melody, harmony and interesting and legible lyrics there.
Strings, like Blues, Country is a law unto itself, I could and did hum along with that melody never having heard it before.
Thing I love about Dylan are his melodies, his tunes, listen twice to any obscure solo gtr. Dylan and you’re hooked, there’s an instantly recognizable tune, same thing with the Beatles, great melodies. Am I wrong?
I very much doubt I’m the person to convince you to see the error of your ways on Sugar, gf, but I think it’s got a cracking melody! Yes, the presentation is a little ramshackle, but that’s half its charm. You have to work for it a little!
One thought I’ve had recently is the idea of posting a tune and then Spillers joining in and posting alternate versions in the comments, if you’ve followed the ‘manual’ post you can see that it’s fairly simple. The idea came when I saw multiple versions of lots of songs in my iTunes and then hit play on the top one and let it play through them all.
“Flawless album” – Blimey, tinny, that’s a hell of a claim. Won’t get in from work until about 1am, but can’t go to bed without seeing why you feel you can make that claim. ↲Laters. ↲DsD
One thing I’ve been told a million times is to never exaggerate DsD
Really liked the Buick 6 and Richard Thompson songs and the Patsy Gallant is just disco fabulous.
Pingback: Best songwriter going? Adam Haworth Stephens « Tincanland
erm, something is auto doing something. I put a link to earworms on my blog and this appeared here. creepy
Apparently they’re called “pingbacks” – automatic links generated by WP when one post provides a link to another. Seem harmless enough when they happen among friends but I believe they can be disabled by unchecking the “Allow pingbacks” option on the posts configurations, which, unsurprisingly, is set at “allow” by default.
Stephens hasn’t exactly been hiding in the bushes, DsD,bish, but I didn’t spot his beady little eyes peering out until quite recently. I’ve done more on him HERE
I’ve spent a month now listening to Two Gallants and Stephens pretty much daily and even though there’s only a few albums, I’ve only begun to plumb the depths.
*fingers crossed on link
Test:
[audio http://makinavaja2010.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/08-dreamville1.mp3%5D
With personal fave Guy Clark and anyone doing Statesboro Blues on the list, nothing else had a chance.
Except if I had to pick only one it would be the Richard Thompson, who I am rarely able to listen to for a full song. Will I get shouted at if i say he really should always sing with backup?
(I boogeyed a bit to ejay’s, but it wasn’t a pretty sight).
Yes
Hmm – that didn’t turn out QUITE as I thought…but anyway, it’s Dreamville by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers plus orchestra, and it mentions Black Diamond strings….Oh wait! Did I forget the bracket at the end?
[audio http://makinavaja2010.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/08-dreamville1.mp3%5D
No…
TFD: I think if you go back to the idiots guide comments you’ll see your mistake, there’s one there where Maki and I work through posting music in comments, it shows as ‘bootleg’ and it’s all in the brackets, these not these[].
For some reason it didn’t post my pointy brackets above.
It should read – it shows as ‘bootleg’ and it’s all in the brackets, these , not these[].
still doing it, bloody wordpress! after the first ‘these’ there’s supposed to be a pair of pointy brackets.
[audio http://makinavaja2010.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/08-dreamville1.mp3%5D
Well, this time it worked on Preview in Maki’s blog but now it’s just the same…is it because it’s in a Comment not a post???
Maki I need help!
For posts its different. Back later
dreamville
Tfd, I’ll explain what I did later!
Oh, thank you, Maki. (Please don’t hurry – I know you’re busy.)
Everyone and Maki: I’m sorry for being a nuisance. I have a headache now, if that’s any consolation.
Goodness, is that the time?
I read that Willie Nelson has been a bit unfortunate (or careless) on the road in Texas and if he’s not very lucky will soon be saying Hello Walls
Well done Tfd. Mrs Maki and I are very impressed! Mrs Maki says she’ll send you a song a little later. Watch this space…
I’m afraid after hearing the Patsy Gallant, I abandoned The Spill and went to youtube to search out more fabulosity.
Will come back to the other contributions later.
“….so here he is, harmonising along of Christine Collister and Clive Gregson, on the Byrds’ Here Without You. (Much better than the original!)…”
So sorry, but – ***disagree***disagree***disagree*** – although my favourite version remains that by Chris Stamey & Peter Holsapple (which retains the arrangement of the original, but brings out the keening edge of the lyrics): http://open.spotify.com/track/3uE2Pnk87ksrRf4P7b1JK9 . Each to their own.
Don’t often get a chance to listen to the Earworms, but Adam Haworth Stephens and Buick 6 tweaked my antenna. And Sugar I know of old.
Nae bother, Shiv!
This is another very strong selection of tracks. Maki, how do you keep on doing it?
Really like the Adam Haworth Stephens, Tinny, but for the guitar rather than the gob iron. Overuse of that wide open, blowy acoustic harmonica is often perceived, perhaps unfairly, as one of Dylans’ weaknesses; don’t know how much more of it there is on AHS’ album. The voice is great, too – bits of Steve Earle as well as the Dylan – but I’m not sure that the whole thing will end up as a whistle-it-all-day earworm.
Patsy Gallant. Hmmm. I wasn’t a fan of this when it first came out (1976?), and I’d be a liar if I claimed a complete change of heart now. Can’t really pinpoint the problem; maybe it’s trying a bit too hard. It’s not the disco thing – I like some of that, and it’s definitely underrepresented here – but, aargh, I dunno. Maybe it sounds too much like a show tune. Not that show tunes are all bad, either….
Sugar I quite like. It’s a bit indie for me, but has energy, and I can discern a slight melody. I agree with GF that the drums are a bit high and the vocals low in the mix, but that’s just a bit of production. Mind you, production is everything in pop music today, isn’t it?
The Richard Thompson is lovely. As a master songwriter, I don’t think he has any more need to defend his voice than does Bob Dylan, but it’s nice to hear him in duet and adding plenty to someone else’s material.
Maybe I’m a bit ‘No Depression’ biased right now (see previous post), but Guy Clarke is definitely Find Of The Week for me. Like a wistful Steve Earle, or a happy (-er) Townes van Zandt, if that makes any sense at all. And anyway, as we always say on rugby days, if you can’t be biased, there’s no point in watching the game, is there?
@WB Clark’s Maybe I Can Paint Over That was one of my festive spill songs last year. Its from Somedays The Song Writes You – a good place to start your Guy Clark journey. For early in his career I suggest Old No 1, and for midway there’s Boats To Build.
“Maki, how do you keep on doing it?”
I don’t. It’s you who send them in! I normally cobble together a provisional list on Friday evenings then Mrs Maki and I sit down and listen through a couple of times over the weekend and make any changes we feel will make the list work better. We have overlapping but quite different tastes which maybe helps…
Another great list Maki. Statesboro Blues, Black Diamond Strings & The Miles We’ve Marched all making me want another listen. Richard Thompson in harmony was delightful & Sugar is already a candidate for my ski list. Great energy.
Er, what is No Depression exactly? I’m sure I should know.
Sod it…………….Just lost another post because of internet connection problems. Shortened version.
“The Miles We Marched” Loved it.
“Statesboro Blues” Great version.
“Here Without You” Lovely harmonies.
“If I Can’t Change Your Mind” Memories of the “Cheers” generation. Smashing.
Anonymous ??????????????? It’s me.
What’s goin’ on ?
Is there a queue for earworm submissions ?
Well, actually, yes there is. I know you’ve got one waiting Magic but so have many others and they’ve been waiting even longer. I try to be fair and I try not to make anyone feel left out. I do this in my (limited) free time and, frankly, don’t appreciate being pressured into altering lists because someone just has to see their earworm up on or before a certain date. In my time at the helm I’ve only had one person do this. Anyone who thinks they can do it better is welcome to take over!
If there was a Like button I’d click it for ya Maki
a nice mellow (mostly) selection this week.
AHS and Guy Clark were the standouts for me, but enjoyed the whole lot and the flow.
GF – I wouldn’t dream of trying to convince you otherwise on Sugar!!
@bishbosh – No Depression is an alt-country/Americana association that organizes a festival, runs a website, puts out the occasional compilation album and used to publish a magazine. They’re pretty good at it, too.
Isn’t No Depression also the name of an alt country “movement” started when Uncle Tupelo covered the Carter Family’s song No Depression? Tinny probably knows more about it than I do, but I think it’s a sort of punk-country thing.
I like both versions. Well, I really love the Uncle Tupelo version.
Ah I see! Thanks for the explanation, guys. I’m sure I’ll hear tell of it everywhere now. It’s always the way…
Nope, never heard of it before this week. Its dropped though
Panther: I want you to convince me, or at least to try. Obviously I’m missing something here, but that’s not unusual, so pray, what is it? Since it’s your post you’re the obvious one. As stated above my thought related to the state of contemporary pop and not to this specific tune, I think it’s a topic worth discussing and if not here, where?
I really enjoyed hearing Sugar again, after more than half a lifetime(!).
GF, I’m surprised you can’t hear a melody. To me, this sounds like a perfect pop song (imagine, say, The Hollies singing it) filtered through a punky energy and a grungy attitude. I guess whether that’s a beguiling proposition is a generational thing though. And how about those guitar arpeggios at the end?
This track was from what NME thought was the best album of 1992, and 25 reviews out of 27 on Amazon give it five stars: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Copper-Blue-Sugar/dp/B000025RQG
As for the rest – I can never resist (alt) country, and absolutely loved Patty Gallant (who, presumably, isn’t the other half of Two Gallants – but just imagine for a moment if she was…)
Another wonderful selection!
Maybe cause it’s a dreary rainy day, I was particularly drawn to the Sugar and the Patsy Gallant. Also loved the Guy CLark, and agree with BishBosh (was it?) That the cello is lovely in the Stevens.
Thanks, Maki and earwormers.
Barbryn: Agreed on the arpeggios, the one redeeming feature. First off I’ve never heard the cut or the group before which seems to put me in some small club. As I stated I wasn’t picking on that cut specifically but was using it as being representative of how much of rock/pop sounds [to my ears] these days, I blame Springsteen. I hate that awful dominant, loud bass drum that seems to be featured on a lot of current music.
Similarly I totally missed out on Ms Gallant, another I’d never heard of, WilliamB says show tune and I’d drink to that but to me it sounds more like the closing credits music of a 80′s TV show.