Tune of the Day

"The Times They Are A-Changing" by Bill Kirchen and Austin De Lone. Now my favorite version of this great song, found on the pair’s Transatlanticana album (reviewed by myself in the What’s In Your CDP Tonight thread.). Goosebump-inducing!

Sorry LP purists, available on CD only.

There's a video on You Tube picturing Brian Wilson and the other Beach Boys around the time the song "God Only Knows" was recorded. What makes this clip worth searching for is that what you hear is the isolated piano and melody vocal, sans the orchestration (by Brian) heard in the full mix version of the song on the Pet Sounds album.

This allows the song's chord structure and voicings to be more readily heard and appreciated. Brian is renown for his melodies and harmonies (with good reason), but imo it is his chord arrangements that elevate him above ALL his peers.

Yeah @reubent, imo Them are under-rated. As a band (ignoring songwriting), I think they and The Kinks were the best of the British Invasion (Manfred Mann perhaps third), and Van Morrison the best singer (followed by Eric Burton and Paul Jones). I actually saw Them live in ’66 (I think it was, though it may nave been in early ’67), the last tour with Van in the band. They were grrreat!

"Mystic Eyes" is another killer Them track, and of course "Here Comes The Night."

Here’s a timely yet timeless song: "Vigilante Man", written by Woody Guthrie. Being born too late to have heard his recordings when they were contemporary, I heard the song first by my (and a lot of musicians I know) favorite guitarist, Ry Cooder. The song is included on his 3rd album, Into The Purple Valley.

I just watched a fantastic video on YouTube, an interview with Ry Cooder done in England in 1983 (entitled Ry Cooder talks about influences, guitar styles, & more). In the interview, Ry says about the song: "I get a lot of requests for the song. Today, right now, ya know?. It’s not hard to figure out; there’s always somebody who’s the vigilante, and there’s always somebody who’s getting their head beat open."

Or, say, shot dead on the street.

@slaw, Yes! "SIC", a fantastic song written by Buddy, his wife Julie (a unique, adorable singer with a few of her own albums, as well as a couple with Buddy), and Jim Lauderdale, another great singer/songwriter.

If you haven't heard it yet, Buddy does "That's How I Got To Memphis"---a great song written by Tom T. Hall---on his Your Love And Other Lies album. A fantastic version! I sometimes put the song on repeat, listening to it a dozen times in a row.

Having just listened to Rodney Crowell’s The Houston Kid, I could nominate any number of songs on this fantastic album. I’ll say "Why Don't We Talk About It", a song Tom Petty wished he could write. The chord progression, the melody and harmonies, the musicianship, all stellar. The song even has a bridge/middle-8, the writing of which is a sadly-dying art.

Also on the album is a new song Rodney and his once-Father-In-Law Johnny Cash (Crowell was married to Rosanne Cash) collaborate on, the very cool "I Walk The Line (Revisited)".

Hearing a new true Rock ’n’ Roll song is a rarity these days. If you crave that music, you will find "Frankie Please" on Rodney Crowell’s excellent 2014 Tarpaper Sky album. The piano playing on the song is in the Jerry Lee Lewis/Little Richard style. The album is full of great songs, singing, harmonizing, and musicianship.

For you LP purists, the album is available in that format. On the dependable New West Records label.

Iris Dement: "Wasteland Of The Free". This was written and recorded during the Bush Presidency, but is perhaps even more relevant now. This song got her excommunicated from the Far Right Radical Evangelical community.

Iris was born in Arkansas into a Pentecostal family, which moved to Orange County in S. California when she was three years old. She has deep roots in Gospel, Hillbilly, and Folk, and was a frequent collaborator with her close friend John Prine.

Iris has made quite a few albums, all fantastic. This song is from her The Way I Should album. There is a video of the song viewable on YouTube. She’s my favorite living songwriter. I learned of her through Merle Haggard, who recorded her masterpiece song "No Time To Cry". His version is good, hers devastating.

Awesome reubent! Slow Turning is every bit as good an album as it’s predecessor, Bring The Family. And his band on the album, The Goners (with Sonny Landreth on guitar), are fantastic. I was able to see/hear he and they on the tour for the album at The Roxy Theater on Sunset Blvd.---one of my all-time favorite nights of music.

There was an opening act whose name I was unfamiliar with, so I didn’t enter The Roxy until the opener, a young, lanky woman, was playing her set closer. The song was fantastic, and she was a real good singer with a real good band. Turned out to be Sheryl Crow, whose first album had been recorded but not yet released. Damn it!

Great slaw. I'm still listening to the copy I bought at the time of it's original release. Quality is timeless! One of my San Jose peers (he played with some of the same guys I did) was in Maria's band for awhile, and then became a long-time member of Paul Williams' band. Not a favorite of mine, but it's a living!

Yes! Fantastic song @slaw, written by the great Jim Lauderdale. Very reminiscent of The Everly Brothers, don’t you think? Harmony singing by the wondeful Emmylou Harris.

Buddy Miller is not only a great guitarist, bandleader, and producer (he is imo the current MVP in music, much as Dave Edmunds was in the late-70's and 80's), but also a master interpreter of song. Take a listen to his take on Tom T. Hall's "That's How I Got To Memphis". As good as it gets!

@slaw, yup, DTB have been on my radar for a while now, but for some reason I’ve passed them by. I’m somewhat skeptical of young Alt-Country/Americana bands, often finding them a little weak in one way or another. But DTB aren’t young anymore, are they! With your prodding (;-) I just took a listen on Amazon, and damned if you’re not right, they warrant further investigation. So which DTB album should I start with?

I noticed DTB singer Tara Nevins has a couple of solo albums, the newest (Wood And Stone) produced by Larry Campbell, whom I like a lot. I took a listen, and oh yeah, I want it. Amazon is selling the LP for less than the CD (!), and had only one copy left in stock. I’ll receive it on Monday. Thanks pal-o-mine! I picked up the new Kelly Willis on LP while I was at it; less than ten bucks!

@slaw, the Tara Nevins and Kelly Willis LP's arrived today, and I gotta say, Amazons' LP shipping cartons are really well designed; both album covers are perfect, no dog-eared corners or dinged edges (a pet peeve of mine).

I haven't yet listened to Taras', but the album credits are impressive; Larry Campbell not only produces, but plays acoustic and electric guitar, pedal steel, mandolin, and harmonium, and sings harmony. Levon Helm plays drums on a couple of tracks, Jim Lauderdale and Allison Moore sing harmony on a track each, and the core band is comprised of an excellent drummer and upright bassist. The album was recorded at Levon Helms' studio in Woodstock, and mastered at The Mastering Lab in Ojai, CA, the facility built by Doug Sax (Sheffield Labs). Damn!