Pop-centric music sites make room for reviews of ancient Impulse! reissues, Kamasai Washington reignites the concept of soul-groove expressionism as both prayer book and political manifesto, and writers measure the breadth, value and impact of “cosmic” improv in pieces that dot the Internet. The fire music that certain maestros conjured during the late ’60s is enjoying a heyday, and its trickle-down is having a bit more reach than even its most ardent supporters might have imagined. A couple years ago, I wouldn’t have bet that a Pharoah Sanders and Joey DeFrancesco collab was in the cards, but In The Key Of The Universe finds the 47-year-old organ virtuoso and 78-year-old reed magician celebrating “The Creator Has A Master Plan,” the half-century-old song of praise that was the centerpiece of Sanders’ earthshaking album, Karma.
Though there’s plenty of bounce and swing in play throughout the 10-track program, DeFrancesco’s embrace of spiritual jazz employs the kind of contemplative aura that gave so many of yesteryear’s exploratory efforts their personality. Functionally, it can come from the use of dreamy long tones and pensive phrasings, and at several points here, a simmering heat rather than a roiling ardor shapes the record’s temperament. More relaxed and less predictable than previous swing-fueled DeFrancesco discs, Key is marked by a strain of passion that genuflects to grace. With veteran drummer Billy Hart—who was part of the original “Creator” recording in 1969—contouring the action, there’s an exquisite flow to the entire program. Even the rolling yowls Sanders deploys during “And So It Is” are refined, their gravitas speaking for itself while their message meticulously rendered.
To some degree, this aesthetic shift could be spotted in the cool fervor of “Lift Every Voice And Sing” and “A Change Is Gonna Come” from DeFrancesco’s 2017 album Project Freedom. That’s where the thoughtful impact of Troy Roberts came into play. The saxophonist has a key role here, as well, bringing eloquence to his nuanced solos on “Vibrations In Blue” and “A Path Through The Noise,” and tastefully echoing Trane when bolstering the music’s searching quality. There’s a sobriety to his work, identifiable even on the boppish ditty “It Swung Wide Open,” where DeFrancesco returns to the kind of barn-burning romp that earned him his rep.
When Sanders and Roberts’ horns blow side by side on the title track (which sounds like it could be pinched from McCoy Tyner’s songbook) the air gets thick. And the bookend solos of the elder’s pithy excursion and the keyboardist’s curt stroll are a sweet inter-generational exchange reminding listeners that improv can be a place where various roads converge and everyone benefits from the exchange.
Hats off to everyone who worked on keeping the franchise alive this year. Still sobbing because Rosalía didn’t crack the Top 10. Here’s what I voted for.
ALBUMS
Harriet Tubman The Beauty Side of Terror (30 points)
The wordless roar of the NYC drums-bass-guitar ensemble has seldom sounded so poignant – even as it hits the gas on the expressway to yr skull. But better yet, it feels like a possible bulwark against the steady barrage of deceit that has shown up on most of our doorsteps for the last two years – like putting on a suit of new armor before facing down that demon for the umpteenth time.
Bill Frisell Music IS (10 points)
Yves Tumors Safe In The Hands of Love (10 points)
Travis Scott Astroworld (10 points)
Rosalía El Mal Querer (10 points)
The most addictive album to be streamed in this Red Hook brickstone accomplished its goals by foregoing the virtuosity of forebears such as Estrella Morente and concentrating on the kind of futuristic backgrounds that always leave the past in sight. I liked “Malamente” just fine, but doubled down on my commitment to the full disc when echos of tUnE-yArDs and Laurie Anderson wafted through the cantina.
Pistol Annies Interstate Gospel (10 points)
The last quarter of the year was dedicated to letting ‘Interstate Gospel’ pump through the earbuds while heading home from work on the F train to Brooklyn. Harried is as harried does, and but as isolated phrases like “recreational percocet,” “break him in good tonight” or “fool enough to lose the crown,” got visually pasted on my fellow straphangers, the textures of the songs (and their sentiments) became more and more red-blooded. Disappointment is always lurking in the trio’s stuff, and ultimately, if Pistol Annies reminds me of any other act, it’s the Flatlanders. Wonderfully viable on her own, each Annie has a POV that likes to keep a hankie ready for tears even when she’s whooping it up. When they join forces (like Ely/Gilmore/Hancock), that POV gets extrapolated and the emotions in play become more and more palpable. From “Got My Name Changed Back” to “When I Was His Wife” I liked the fact that I couldn’t figure out whether to laugh to keep from crying or cry to keep from laughing – praying all the while that kind of emotional turmoil never comes my way. (From the Nashville Scene’s Critic’s Poll)
Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFUNK Wet Robots (5 points)
Neneh Cherry Broken Politics (5 points)
Noname Room 25 (5 points)
Beach House 7 (5 points)
SINGLES
Midland “Burn Out”
Still not sure if they own the pose or the pose owns them, but the Nashville trio sipped their double shot of classicism convincingly enough to invest in their twang for 3:08 and the second or two it takes to snuggle that soggy dollar bill into the jukebox. Plus, somewhere in the middle of the dim lights, thick smoke and sad, sad music, the singer’s poor-poor-pitiful-me vibe became pretty damn convincing.
Anuel AA feat. Romeo Santos “Ella Quiere Beber (Remix)”
Ashley McBryde “Girl Goin’ Nowhere”
Robyn “Honey”
Leikeli47 “Hoyt and Schemerhorn”
Cardi B ft. Bad Bunny and J Balvin “I Like It”
Sure, sure – props to Cardi and her Caribbean superstar henchmen for guiding this baby through the summer and into the fall. From Washington Heights to San Pedro, no one was doubting its power. But how about an all-caps SHOUT OUT to Pete Rodriguez and his ’60s jewel for powering both the groove and refrain. With deathless charisma like that in the engine house, Tairrie (italics) B coulda been on the mic to kick it to the top.
The Internet “La Di Da”
It’s not as if anyone asked for an update of Jungle Brothers’ “Feeling Alright,” but the sense of Cali cool that’s central to the sunny feels that drive the LA crew’s optimistic nugget is almost equal to the kind of de la soul the Native Tongue outfit sculpted as their mission statement.
Rosalía “Malamente”
Amy Rigby “Tom Petty Karaoke”
Can’t think of anything more restorative than getting out of your head whenever the need truly strikes, and inspired by J Mascis hitting a Cape Cod stage for a karaoke blast through “Don’t Do Me Like That,” one of America’s most insightful songwriters extrapolates about how we can all use some guardian angels who come equipped with radiant refrains and indelible choruses. Rigby has been inspired by icons previously; her ode to Joey Ramone is one of her finest moments, revealing just how transcendent music can be when you’re not liking what the mirror’s presenting. Rigby can take a bow, though. The posi feels she generates while name-checking “American Girl” and “Learning To Fly” glimmers with the same strength of strings that drives the dreams in “Free Fallin’.
The more I listen to Wing Walker Orchestra’s ‘Hazel” album, the more amped I get for seeing some of this material unfold at Threes Brewing in Gowanus tonight. Seems that in the large, reed-player/boss Drew Williams has crafted his suite to eschew solos. As the jittery beats of the rhythm section clatter, a blend of reeds and brass float above, essaying curt themes and creating cagey juxtapositions that not only balance, but challenge each other. That’s where the music’s tension comes from, and that’s where the power of arrangement trumps the glee of improvisation. Echoes are in the air – how could they not be at this late date? So ground broken by Previte/Glass/Schneider/Horvitz is being re-tilled to a degree. The Ordinaires, too. Fine by me, because the 11-piece outfit’s lush action speaks in a present tense that gets nudged to the fore when the tUnE-yArDs and Attias charts finally grant the players some wiggle room. The album hits on Friday. The band takes over the upstairs room at 333 Douglass St, Brooklyn tonight at 8 pm.
Russ Lossing’s career is centered on writing and playing his own music, but he’s intermittently addressed our ever-growing jazz canon with the kind of insight that can only be honed by decades of improvising. Check the pianist’s takes on Sonny Rollins’ “Pent-Up House,” Andrew Hill’s “Awake,” or Paul Motian’s “Dance” to see how the work of others can be keenly renovated. Particularly memorable is a 2004 lilt through Bird’s “Dexterity” with a forlorn attitude that nonetheless allowed room for a boppish patina honoring Parker’s frenetic contours. On this new trio date, Lossing dedicates the bulk of the program to covers of well-known titles, and his refractions are both shrewd and inviting.
Three Monks, two Dukes, a few standards and an original that sounds like it could be clipped from some overlooked Powell or Pullen book – Changes uses mainstream fare to provide the leader and his rhythm section of Michael Formanek and Gerald Cleaver enough leeway to nurture new elements from the melodies and twist the rhythms toward locales where overt swing makes hay with looser elaborations. Like those of Tom Rainey’s Obbligato outfit, Lossing’s bend and stretch inversions are cagey enough to keep listeners guessing while delivering the comforts of familiarity.
Ellington cast a bittersweet mood with “Reflections in D,” and the trio milks its dreamy atmosphere with a wealth of nuance. “Epistrophy” gallops and glides; “Bye Bye Blackbird” waxes wooly but resolves refined; “Little Girl Blue” sanctions a handful of harmonic idiosyncrasies. Because their individual work as leaders has a deep regard for both tunefulness and abstraction, the trio sounds like it’s more mature than this debut date should be – there’s an immersive quality to the music. As Changes spills forward, we learn about the artists’ vision as well as the pliability of the material they’ve chosen.
The results of the Nashville Scene’s Annual Country Critics’ Poll hit this week. Thanks to Geoffrey Himes for all the work of inviting/organizing/tabulating/writing/publishing. Participants have been sharing their ballots. Here’s a chunk of mine.
TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2018:
Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour
Pistol Annies – Interstate Gospel
Ashley McBryde – Girl Going Nowhere
Ashley Monroe – Sparrow
Amy Rigby – The Old Guys
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Downey To Lubbock
Doug Paisley – Starter Home
Lori McKenna – The Tree
Amanda Shires – To The Sunset
Becky Warren – Undesirable
TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES:
1. Pistol Annies – Got My Name Changed Back
2. Ruston Kelly – Dying Star
3. Kacey Musgraves – Space Cowboy
4. Jason Aldean – Memory Drowns the Whiskey
5. Midland – Burn Out
6. Cam – Diane
7. Joshua Headey – Mr Jukebox
8. Morgan Wallen – Up Down
9. Ashley McBryde – A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega
10. Kane Brown – Lose It
COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS:
1. Eric Church
2. Kane Brown
3. Sturgill Simpson
COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS:
1. Ashley McBryde
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Margo Price
COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS:
1. Ashley McBryde
2. Sturgill Simpson
3. Margo Price
COUNTRY MUSIC’S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS:
1. Ashley McBride
2. Kacey Musgraves
3. Lori McKenna
The last quarter of the year was dedicated to letting ‘Interstate Gospel’ pump through the earbuds while heading home from work on the F train to Brooklyn. Harried is as harried does, and but as isolated phrases like “recreational percocet,” “break him in good tonight” or “fool enough to lose the crown,” got visually pasted on my fellow straphangers, the textures of the songs (and their sentiments) became more and more red-blooded. Disappointment is always lurking in the trio’s stuff, and ultimately, if Pistol Annies reminds me of any other act, it’s the Flatlanders. Wonderfully viable on her own, each Annie has a POV that likes to keep a hankie ready for tears even when she’s whooping it up. When they join forces (like Ely/Gilmore/Hancock), that POV gets extrapolated and the emotions in play become more and more palpable. From “Got My Name Changed Back” to “When I Was His Wife” I liked the fact that I couldn’t figure out whether to laugh to keep from crying or cry to keep from laughing – praying all the while that kind of emotional turmoil never comes my way.
Had a few chances to profile Mark Cutler’s work in the Providence Phoenix through the years. This piece below is from 2010, when the RI-based singer’s Red album came out. He’d been rolling with the Men of Great Courage for awhile, and there were little thrills in the air each time they’d play one of the LaProv watering holes they called home. Sometimes rugged, sometimes gentle, Cutler’s songs are always poignant, even when the music itself tilts toward the ornery side. MC has a knack for illustrating life’s darker hues, but he’s long made a point of sharing a range of emotions – one of the things that keeps listeners on their toes at any given MoGC gig. An array of artists celebrate his work in performances titled Too Many Stars this Saturday and Sunday at the Met Cafe in Pawtucket. The shows are named after one of Cutler’s best songs, and speak to the outpouring of support he’s receiving from his local contemporaries. It would wise to drop by and bask in the spirit of a true rock ‘n’ roll community.
It’s Saturday night and neon beer signs are illuminating a well-worn pool table. A curvy woman with streaks of gray running through her long brown hair eyes her male opponent, thrusts her cue arm forward, and sinks the eight ball to a round of applause. The six or seven onlookers are glad she beat the guy, who now seems a tad embarrassed. Ten feet away, Mark Cutler sings a Rolling Stones song. “You’re outta touch my baby/my poor old fashioned baby…” It’s tilting toward midnight, and Nick-a-Nees is pulsing. Some patrons are simply out to grab a little pleasure; some are, as writer Peter Watrous once put it, out to “dodge whatever law is on their tail.” Cutler’s music, vivid and potent, provides an apt soundtrack for this kind of scene.
The 52-year old rocker has been around the block a time or two. He spent the early ‘80s leading the Schemers, the acclaimed regional kingpins that bent punk and pop to form a sound both edgy and classic. After that it was the Raindogs, who made a couple fetching discs in the early ‘90s and toured with Bob Dylan, Don Henley, and Warren Zevon. Often, Cutler’s songs are telling snapshots of the unexpected disappointments, unusual achievements, and unassuming acts of kindness that pepper so many of our lives – he’s got a sharp eye when it comes to reflecting on how we all interact. Somehow, in this bar, on this evening, the music wafts through the air in an oddly fitting way. Whether driving his Men of Great Courage on a tune about a spooky midnight stroll, or gently declaring a deep camaraderie with “We Shall Always Remain Friends,” he’s concocting a soundtrack to the feelings in the room.
For the last year or so Cutler’s been in a pointedly active period. Five days a week he leaves his Riverside home for his software job in Boston. The weekends are reserved for gigs with one of his various ensembles. The tiny string band features bassist Jim Berger, accordionist Dick Reed, mandolinist David Richardson, and banjo player Bob Kirkman. The Men of Great Courage step it up a bit, rocking with same personnel plus superb smacker Bob Giusti on drums (these days it’s Rick Couto – ed). Cutler sometimes plays solo; his cozy breakfast shows at the Liberty Elm Diner enjoy an ever-increasing buzz. Then there’s Forever Young, the Neil Young tribute ensemble he shares with a scad of other local notables – they’re always working. Did I mention the occasional Schemers reunion or the visual art he enjoys making in his spare time? Suffice to say there’s no dust on this dude.
A few weeks ago at Providence’s Penalty Box, Cutler walked up to the mic, greeted the throng, and signaled a downbeat from Giusti. Bam – the Courage boys were off into “Like A Rolling Stone,” and their leader brought a typically nuanced feel to lines like “now you don’t talk so loud/now you don’t seem so proud.” Performers have to be actors to some degree, and when Cutler cruises through a classic, he finds a way to personalize it without forsaking the character at hand. Rolling through songs by Muddy Waters or Television, he splices a wealth of rock and blues nuggets with his own, quite sizable, songbook. A glance back through the years reminds that several of those originals have been on equal footing with the classics. The strongest titles by the Schemers and Raindogs boast a deep emotional clout. Ditto for those on Red(75 or Less), Cutler’s latest and best solo disc.
“Tonight let’s not talk of darkness/while we wait out the storm” he gently sings at the record’s start. Cutler is a “Lead on, MacDuff” optimist, a guy who believes good things come if you help build ‘em yourself. That song, “Vampires,” is a note to his son, who suffered the usual slings and arrows engendered by divorce. It’s a poignant way to begin an album, and it’s a harbinger of what’s ahead. Red’s music is largely acoustic, and dewy with a bittersweet tone that’s long been a Cutler strong suit. Here, in middle-age, he’s got a way with words and sense of melody that eloquently allows melancholy to bubble up without overwhelming.
“Hovering,” which he uses as a soundtrack to a YouTube clip of his first skydiving leap, is a love song with a blue, dreamy essence. “You Can’t Give It Away” describes the punch in the gut when trouble unites with isolation. Even when he swaggers – and he’s always had a sting when it comes to muscular rock tunes – there’s something wistful about the groove. “There’s a lot of frustration in the neighborhood,” goes the clenched-fist growl in “Doc Pomus’ Ghost.” In the middle of the tune he unleashes a vicious slide guitar solo that reminds how much kick he’s still got in him, and just how articulate he’s become. Some kinds of reflection aren’t afraid to throw a few punches.
I caught up with Cutler after the dust of the work day subsided, and we chatted away about a number of things. I didn’t tell him that there are pieces of Red that remind me of both Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love and John Prine’s Diamonds In The Rough – he gets a bit embarrassed by stuff like that. But there are. Seems like he’s found a way of waxing plaintive while still flexing a few muscles. Neat trick.
You jumped out of a plane a couple years ago. How was it to be a first time skydiver?
Someone gave me a jump session for a birthday present. We get in the airplane, and it’s just me and my instructor and another person and their instructor. We start to move, and it strikes me: the door is open. I started freaking out. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get up to jumping height, and they closed it on the way up. About halfway up I realized I was breathing hard. Finally we’re there and the door opens. What hits you is the violence of the wind up there, the sound of it. You put your feet on a platform and you fall forward. I wasn’t afraid; it was exciting. I trusted the equipment and the instructor. The free falling for a minute was fantastic. One of the best things I’ve ever done – that and white water rafting when I was younger. I want to do it with my son. I knew we’d be okay.
Does that experience go to the heart of who you are? If everything takes care of itself, you don’t feel a need to worry?
Well, for a few weeks right after that, I definitely felt that way. There’s a euphoria. After doing that, I knew I could jump off a cliff into water. If anyone is suffering from low self esteem, they should go skydiving. It would improve their outlook immensely.
How is it being a commuter?
Good points and bad points. The good is that I’m just riding, not driving; I don’t deal with the traffic. The bad point is that it takes four hours out of my day, out of my life.
Is there room for creativity on the train?
I read a lot of books, I’ve written lyrics on the train, I listen to a lot of music, I bring my laptop and have made some loops, some electronica stuff. I took my camera on the train, snapping pictures outside the door. But I stopped because people might have found it creepy.
What do you mean electronica?
I’ve got Pro Tools, and program called Reason. Sampling and loops. I think I might create an alter ego and make an electronica album. I listen to WRIU at night, and some of that stuff is pretty cool. I do some ambient stuff, and I’d like to use some weird sampling stuff, Sinatra or something. I might use the name Rev Mok.
There’s a mania in your work process lately. You have four bands and you often play out two nights a week. What drives it?
I want to stay in shape. I want to be good. We don’t rehearse, so this is the way I keep my voice happening and keep my chops up. And I’ve gotta tell you: I love to play.
That’s part of the unspoken emotion coming from the stage the last couple times I’ve seen you. The people’s reaction is palpable. Seems like after all these years you’re this house band for a close-knit community.
There is a communal kind of thing going on, for sure. If we play something like Muddy Waters’ “Got My Mojo Working,” you see it in the crowd: there’s a tribal thing taking place. I feel like I’m the drummer of the tribe, and we’re creating a vibe. I like the hypnotic effect of the repeated riff on that song and “Shake Your Hip,” by Slim Harpo. It takes me somewhere. I hardly drink anymore, and I don’t do drugs or anything like that. But I’ll tell you, I really do get high off of it. Sounds corny, but the other guys feel the same. They get into some kind of trance, and we feel lucky we’re able to get to that special kind of place.
Is it different from the days of larger clubs, more youthful audiences, and louder music?
Sure it is. I think I’m having more fun now, though. Back then it was 1000 people at the Living Room – there was something crazy about that. Those were fun days, though. Local bands were taken as seriously as the national acts. Press, radio, clubs – there was a professional aura about the scene. Record companies would come and see bands playing to several hundred people, and these were several hundred people who knew the words to the songs. Now it’s good if you get 50 people in a place. Seems like time is of the essence now. These gigs I’ve been doing the past few years, they feel very special to me, and I think it’s because I’m doing it for the reasons we should have been doing ‘em all the long. You gotta do it for love, not for some payoff.
Happily, you were part of a few bands that did have a payoff. You’re saying there’s a different metric for success at work these days?
Yeah, if it’s a good gig, and people are having a great time, and I’m sweating, and I’m hovering six inches over the floor – that levitation thing when it’s all going right – that’s all I need.
The ‘80s rock scene in Providence seemed unusually fruitful. Was it really, or do we romanticize it? Are there lots of talents around these days?
I’d say yes. I’m not familiar with all of ‘em, but that’s the feeling I get. There’s an Olneyville scene, some good bands in the East Bay. Six Star General, Von Doom, others. I don’t know if they want to become rock stars…maybe they do. But they create guerrilla gigs, like we do. The Penalty Box and Nick-a-Nees – we’re setting up on the floor, we don’t care. I look at pictures of Howlin’ Wolf playing in the corner of a grocery store, and I feel part of that tradition. Proud to be part of it, too.
Then there’s the Greenwich Hotel and you recently played at Dan’s in West Greenwich – it’s almost like an intra-RI Rolling Thunder Revue.
Ha! Plus, there’s no pressure. No one’s saying “how much money are we going to make on you guys.” We’ll all make money and we’ll all have a good time. I love the Greenwich Hotel, playing in that window, and that horseshoe bar. It’s like The Shining meets Ironweed.
Some writers peter out as they get older. You’re still rather prolific. Are you writing more than ever?
I think I care more these days. I’m trying harder for something that means something. I heard that Neil Young sometimes starts a song and doesn’t leave til it’s done. I’ve been trying a couple songs like that. I’ve got things percolating in my head. I’ve got a drum kit in the living room, and I’ve got some rock ‘n’ roll songs, and Jerry Jeff Walker type songs – things I could release myself. I’m not writing more, I’m just writing smarter. I’ve got a ton more tunes that didn’t make the record. Some songs on Red are old, actually. “Vampires” I wrote for my son when I got divorced. He was 9 or 10 when he found out I was getting an apartment and he was bummed. I wanted to make sure it only hurt him once – I didn’t want to go back and forth. So the song says “don’t let them bite you again.” I know exactly how I felt when I wrote that line, and I had the tears in my eyes. If I was ever a method actor, I’d just think of that line and I could cry for you.
You made Red with Emerson Torrey; your Schemers partner is now your producer.
We’re brothers. He literally lived in my mother’s house when I didn’t. He had no place to stay and I was living with my girlfriend. He’s my biggest supporter and the guy who give me my biggest kick in the ass. He’s always told me the truth. We’ve had our fights, but they’ve always been worthwhile.
The lyrics are strong here. “Remain Friends” speaks of “making a choice to ignore each other’s evil twin.”
I was thinking of a scenario like Treasure of Sierra Madre, of two old robbers making one last caper. “You know if I get caught, I’m going to tell ‘em everything. And if you get caught, do the same thing. Don’t worry about it, you’ll get a lesser sentence. We’ll still be pals.”
Seems like the ultimate forgiveness. The other line that’s impressive is “I’m wondering about the land mines I set up in the past.” Guess none of us ever really get away from that.
There’s tons of [those land mines] out there. Personal ones, professional ones – all sorts of things. It’s like “I wonder what little secret is going to come back and bite me in the ass?”
You’re an easy laugher, but artistically you’ve always struck me as being a somber type of guy, or at least way skilled at articulating bluer moods. Is it part of you?
I agree, I think it is. I love laughing, but I like melancholy a lot. Wistfulness, longing, I like autumn; I think there’s particular energy there.
I’m thinking as far back as the Raindogs’ “Phantom Flame” and “This Is the Place” – they’re bittersweet.
They tug at my heart. But bittersweet is still sweet, right? I think there’s more to mine [when you’re working with] sadness. I wish I could be clever and funny like some people I know, but I just don’t think that’s where my strengths lie.
Ever tried to write something against type? The song that sounds like nothing else on the disc is “Ain’t Been Born.”
That’s my tribute to Lowell George. I originally wrote it on electric piano; I was thinking of Aretha’s “I Never Loved a Man…” and I recalled a line in a Laura Nyro song: “He ain’t been born yet,” so that went in there. And I was thinking of the L.A. scene of the ‘70s – Bonnie Raitt and those guys. Some people say that track sounds like the Band, but especially during the slide solo I was thinking of Lowell. The simple and beautiful way he played.
Name a Lowell George song that kills you.
A slide solo that knocks my socks of is the one on “Skin It Back” from Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. God damn, how does he do that? It’s some scale that’s out of this world and he just tosses it off.
Do you feel more eloquent as a writer these days? Do age, maturity, or experience make it easier?
It doesn’t make it easier. But you definitely know when you’re bullshitting. You try to avoid the clichés. Unless you grab a cliché and twist it your way. Sometimes you get a hot three day stretch, writing two songs. “Wow, it’s happening.” Then you go for a month or two without anything. Working the day job doesn’t help the process. I was reading an interview with Richard Thompson. When he gets in a songwriting mode, the first day he’s just messing around, plucking guitar, and the second day it starts to come a bit. Third day, it arrives. So it’s like setting the table for your muse. And I don’t get those three days in a row. Real life interferes. Raymond Carver wrote short stories because his family life was in the way all the time. That’s why he didn’t write the long book – he took what he could get. I look at it that way, too. “Alright this is what I’m getting, this is what I can do. And I’m going to seize the moment.”
Several of these songs avoid the bold statement. The lyrics are more slanted toward poetry than they are narrative.
There are secrets in there. There are no lies in there, meaning they’re all honest. They’re all meant to be up for interpretation. Fun to figure out.
Age old question: what’s more important, lyrics or music?
I don’t mean to cop out, but they’re intertwined – though it’s the music that usually hits me first, then the sound of the words and then the meaning of the words. It’s the overall sound, you know?
Let’s unlock some songs. “Cousin Mary’s New Car.”
The title is from John Coltrane, and then I wanted to write a song for Rickie Lee Jones, like in the Pirates mode. If I had the right arrangement – the Van Morrison vamping with the horns – I think you’d hear [the Rickie Lee thing]. But all I had was a guitar and little box I was tapping on when I wrote it. Johnny Tornado – what a great name – was friend of mine. I threw him in there. It’s about loss of innocence. “Reaching the state of grace sure would be fine/but we’re miles away from that sweet borderline.” I remember [Rich] Lupo telling me about Jaco Pastorious standing outside Lupo’s in a puddle, rubbing Vaseline all over him in a frenzy. That’s where I got “I was shining the street in my off Broadway show.” A bunch of collected images, and when you put ‘em together they create a painting.
What about “You Know What To Do.”
Actually that’s about blackmail, even though it sounds like a love song. That song was an assignment from the Rhode Island Songwriters Association, a “songwriters in the round” thing. The subject was “Innocent Eyes.” I wasn’t going to write a song exactly called that, so I started thinking: “what about fake innocent eyes?” There are all these little kernels of life in there.
You’re a film buff. Have movies ever prompted a song?
Absolutely. Literature, TV shows. I wrote “You Can’t Give It Away” after reading Huckleberry Finn and watching the fifth season of The Wire. They both have to do with children. There’s a line where Huck says “I felt like someone broke my breath in half like a twig, and they took the bigger half.” At the same time I wrote a song I haven’t used yet called “Just One Breath.” “If I had one breath I’d break it in two/I’d take the smaller and give the big one to you.” I felt like I was trying to rescue little Huck. It was also written for a friend who was really lonely at the time, so alone that he’s even happy to let trouble in – it’s his only visitor. “Cousin Mary’s New Car” has a scene from Look Back in Anger. The part where she irons her hair and the trumpet player abuses his girlfriend. But John Ford westerns, and Marty Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, they’ve been inspiring me for a long time.
Ever write short stories?
Yes, but they’re nothing memorable. I’d like to take a graphic novel course, though. I have an idea called The Hovering Man, that has to do with my father. He died in a car crash 20 days before I was born. An oil tanker crashed into my father’s car. Bad winter storm, very cinematic. The guy got out of the truck all dazed, and dragged my father from the car, and wires were sparking. I was thinking, “Wow, what a great start to a story. I wonder: when my father’s soul was leaving, mine was coming in, and maybe we passed and he touched me, and that made him not be able to make the full transition, so now he’s hovering above the place he died. He sees everything that’s going on. I’m trying to think of ways to flesh that out. Wonder what super powers he would have?
hats off to a nice run by Ken Nordine, a cat who always knew what time it was on Arcturus and Pleiades. 98 yrs old.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…6 days ago
