Tune of the Day

@slaw, my main attraction to Mary Gauthier is in her honesty, vulnerability, and all-around pathos. I mentioned the turnaround (also called tag ending) she employed in "After You’re Gone" just as evidence of her also having a good understanding of classic Pop song construction and songwriting technique (to create and achieve a desired emotional response in the listener). Brian Wilson she is not (he’s about the most sophisticated in those terms of all the Rock ’n’ Roll songwriters), but then he doesn’t have her abilities either (lyrically, of course, but also as a singer).

I’m a much bigger fan of Lennon & McCartney together than either alone. They really were an excellent team, and the music of each imo greatly benefitted from the influence of the other. That’s one reason I liked them less and less in their final couple of years, after they had stopped writing together (post-Rubber Soul). But I really like the first couple McCartney solo albums, and none of Lennon’s. They also became less and less a good band, as a performing combo. They were a young Rock ’n’ Roll band (my God, George Harrison was 20 years old at the time of Meet The Beatles!) who became a Pop group. By the time of their last few years, I had moved on (I liked other writers more, and other bands---as a group of musicians---as well). I have no use for Magical Mystery Tour (true, not a real album. I have the UK double 7" EP version), Get Back/Hey Jude is just awful, and though going out on Abbey Road was an improvement, for some reason I just don’t like it. Most others seem to like it, so it’s not them (The Beatles), it’s me!

"After You’re Gone" by Mary Gauthier, on her Filth & Fire album. A new classic, imo. It’s an unfortunate myth that being a good musician automatically makes for a good songwriter. Damn those Beatles ;-) .

Dig how Mary goes to the "different" chord only at the end of what you think will be the final line of the last verse (as she sings "gone"); she instead then repeats the chord progression leading up to that chord, but then DOESN’T go to it this time, but to the one in the earlier verses (in songwriting that's known as a "turnaround"). THAT’S masterful songwriting; playing an instrument well has NOTHING to do with songwriting. Keith Emerson was a much better pianist than is Brian Wilson; who wrote "better" songs? If you say Emerson, we’re done ;-) .

I hear a lot of music "written" by musicians who obviously don’t have the knowledge of music itself required to do it well enough for me to find it musically satisfying. It is considered common wisdom that The Beatles revolutionized Pop music. I don’t disagree, but was it all to the good? Prior to them, only the best songwriters were professionals, and only the best musicians were on records. You had all the Brill Building songwriting pros composing songs still considered classics, songs still recorded anew. You had The Swampers (the house band at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals), The Wrecking Crew (Hal Blaine, Carol King, etc., heard on SO much of the music recorded in L.A. in the 60’s), and The Funk Brothers (the Motown house band, whose members included the great James Jamerson on bass), plus Booker T & The MG’s backing Otis Redding, one of the greatest singers.

Yes, The Beatles changed all that. After them, every band and group was expected to write their own songs. NOTHING they had done as teenagers (learning how to play guitar, bass, piano, drums, whatever) prepared them for doing so. That The Beatles were as good a group (as opposed to band) as they were, AND as good of songwriters, was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke!

Something I neglected to mention about Jim Lauderdale, something that might break down any resistance some have to listening to someone as Country as Jim (I realize a fair number of Rockers have an aversion to the genre):

When I saw Lucinda Williams on her Car Wheels tour, Jim served as her bandleader/harmony singer/acoustic guitarist. He stood beside her on stage, playing his acoustic, singing harmony, providing what appeared to be moral support (she’s not the most confident of live performers), and leading the band (which included the great drummer Jim Christie, who quit Dwight Yoakam’s band to join hers).

Jim hosts the annual Americana Music Awards Show, and lately has been involved with another favorite music maker of mine, Buddy Miller. I’m tellin’ ya, the guy is ridiculously talented.

While listening to the Jim Lauderdale track, you should hopefully become aware of the feeling that the players are "holding back". It’s a hard thing to describe and quantify, but it’s what separates the men from the boys in the area of musicianship.

By playing just a little "late", a hair "behind" the middle of the "pocket", a great deal of musical tension is created, a feeling of anticipation. When that tension is finally released, it’s SO satisfying! That tension-and-release is very sexual, if I may be slightly vulgar. The tension is also maintained by the musicians refraining from playing any superfluous notes. As the old Jazz guys always said, the notes you don’t play are as important as those you do. For you Rockers, think of "I Can See For Miles" by The Who, and "Skakin’ All Over" by The Guess Who (The Who’s version on Live At Leeds is all about release, missing the tension created by The Guess Who. Compare the two versions!).

This style of playing is referred to by some as laid-back (often said somewhat pejoratively by those who don’t understand or appreciate it), and is for some reason a specialty of southern U.S.A. musicians. That is why Dylan started recording in Nashville in 1965, and why Jerry Wexler took Aretha, Dusty, Wilson Pickett, and other Atlantic Records singers down to Muscle Shoals in 1968-9. Wilson said he walked into the studio and saw these white crackers sitting around, and thought to himself, "Jerry, what have you got me into?" He says then the band (known as The Swampers) started playing, and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing---the funkiest band he had ever heard! The drummer, Roger Hawkins, is a favorite of mine (and of Jim Keltner, who says he wishes he played more like Roger) who was enticed out of the studio by Steve Winwood for a stint in Traffic. As good a musical drummer as I have ever heard.

Jim Lauderdale has that kind of taste in musicians.

Sure do, @slaw. New West Records had a great sale back in November, and I picked up the Hiatt LP as well as the new ones by Rodney Crowell and Richard Thompson for $13.99 each, plus the Court Yard Hounds (the two sisters from The Dixie Chicks) LP for $7.98 and the Crazy Heart soundtrack on LP for $9.98. And three John Hiatt albums on CD for $3.99 each!

New West has a really fine roster of artists; in addition to the above, it includes the great Buddy Miller, Steve Earle (as well as his son, Justin Townes), J.D. McPherson, The Secret Sisters (produced by T Bone Burnett), and Lilly Hiatt (Johns daughter, I presume ;-).

"As If We Would Never Love Again" on Jim Lauderdale’s Onward Through It All album. A great, great song (chord progressions, melody) from a "perfect" album (not a single bad song. Jim is a master songwriter, his songs having been recorded and made hits by a LOT of other singers. Look him up!), played by some of the best musicians in the world (none of whom you’ve heard of ;-) as a shuffle with a subtle swing feel, complete with walking bass, a favorite of mine.

I dig how the drummer switches from playing cross-stick on the snare drum on the first verse, to the tip of the stick on the drumhead on the second verse. Taste and class! Superb pedal steel playing, lead guitar parts and tone to die for (in the mold of James Burton), acoustic piano played honky-tonk style, nice harmony parts to compliment Jim’s great singing of the melody. What’s not to love? For those of you raised on Rock but now drawn to some Americana or Alt-Country artists or bands, this is how the music is played by men, rather than boys ;-) .