A Song Chain

A song chain is a game. It’s a variation on word association. We all played that as kids, where you call out a word, and the next person calls out the first word they think of. So think of a song, and then the next song you think of, and so on. Let me show you how it works.

Richard Thompson: Crawl Back (Under My Stone)

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My wife and I were talking earlier today about trying to find a concert or something special to do, just for the two of us, for a treat as the holidays approach. We did this a few years ago, and our treat was a Richard Thompson concert. He doesn’t get to area again until March, so we’ll have to do something else this year.

Usually, my posts of Thompson’s songs, both here and on Star Maker Machine, tend to focus on his softer side. Songs like Beeswing and Vincent Black Lightning show off Richard Thompson the storyteller. But the man can also flat out rock. Crawl Back is a fine example. Take the words literally, and the song seems to be an apology by a man who feels that he has let his lover down. But Thompson’s delivery makes it clear that this is actually a brush-off song. He’s telling her that her standards don’t suit him, and he’s gone. It’s powerful stuff, and one side of Thompson at his best.

Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy: King of Bohemia

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Thinking of Richard Thompson reminded me of one of my favorite covers of his songs, King of Bohemia as performed by Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy. I’m partly posting this as a kind of apology to readers of Star Maker Machine. Quite some time ago, I posted this song there. At the time, I was having problems with my file host, and in the end, I actually had to change hosts. The result was that this song was only up for an eye blink, and many people may have missed it. So here it is again. This time, my hosting situation is solid, so everyone should have a chance to hear it. You can read my original thoughts on the song Here.

Ann Savoy is a well known Cajun musician, and that naturally made me think of…

Beausoleil: Zydeco Gris Gris

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…Beausoliel. It isn’t usually hard to match an artist to the best venue for their performance. There should be good acoustics, and some acts may need a piano. Usually, the hardest thing is deciding how large an audience you need room for. But I once saw Beausoleil, and there was another consideration. Symphony Space in New York City is a nice mid-sized hall where I have had the great pleasure of seeing some of the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The problem for a Beausoleil show there was the fact that the seats are bolted to the floor. This is not a band to sit and listen to. Seats or no seats, everybody got up and danced in the limited space in the aisles. We were most likely in violation of the fire codes that night. It was a great show though.

The song Zydeco Gris Gris is a fine example of Beausoleil’s artistry. The term Gris Gris refers to magical practices in New Orleans, and that reminded of me our recent Magic theme on Star Maker Machine. A strange thing happened that week: no one posted a song with the word magic in the title. I really though someone would post…

Peter Green: Black Magic Woman

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…this one. Black Magic Woman is the song that was a hit for Santana back when. But it was written by Peter Green, for the blues band he was in at the time. Perhaps you’ve heard of Fleetwood Mac? Green was one of the founders of the band, but he didn’t stay long, and he was long gone by the time they reached the height of their popularity. Green had some serious problems that kept him out of the music business for many years. But by 2003, Green had a band, and he revisited some of his old material. I like his vocal on this remake better than the Fleetwood Mac original. The song as done here is also twice as long as the original version. Although this is a studio recording, it has the feel of a live jam, and a fine one.

Call for Help:

Mary Bragg: Sweet Skin

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Donate here

The picture above may look familiar. I reviewed Mary Bragg’s last album Sugar here, and I included the song Sweet Skin. Listening to it again, I am struck by the way Bragg combines the funky bass line with the bluesy harp and vocal. It really works.

I don’t have any songs to share from Bragg’s next album at the moment. She is raising money to record it, by way of a Kickstarter campaign. I described how that works last week, but the key point is that Bragg needs to hit her goal by her deadline, or she gets nothing. So I ask anyone who can to please help. Thank you.

For a Song: Walk Away Renee

I am sure that the vast majority of my readers know this song. I thought I did. Walk Away Renee is a late 60s pop classic, in the same vein as California Dreamin’. And that is not a random comparison; The Left Banke, (not much more than the answer to a trivia question these days), were indeed inspired in part by the famous Mamas and the Papas hit. I had always regarded both as disposable pop from a period that produced much better music.

But the two versions presented here made me reevaluate Walk Away Renee. The best covers can do that. Stripping away the dated production of the original, these spare arrangements laid bare the ache of the lyric.

Peppino D‘Agostino (featuring David Wilcox): Walk Away Renee

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“New Age music” has always been a double-edged sword of a marketing label. In the 1980s, when Peppino D’Agostino came on the scene, it was a useful way to promote sales for artists whose music was mostly acoustic, and whose influences encompassed world music, folk, jazz, and pop, while not fitting neatly into any one of these. But the “New Age” label quickly came to mean that these varying influences had been blended together into a mush and bleached of all emotion. Peppino D’Agostino is an acoustic guitar player whose music combines many of these influences, but the result is innovative and heartfelt. It is no accident that D’Agostino was able to get David Wilcox to sing on his version of Walk Away Renee.

Guitar and voice dominate the arrangement. What other instruments there are add color from far in the background of the mix. This puts the lyrics at center stage. The performances of D’Agostino and Wilcox have a quiet intensity the brings out the loneliness and yearning of the song.

Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy: Walk Away Renee

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In her recent work, Linda Ronstadt has tried on various musical styles. Starting with her orchestral albums with Nelson Riddle, and continuing into explorations of Mexican music and acoustic country, Ronstadt has shown remarkable stylistic range, while approaching each project with sincerity and dedication. For the album Adieu False Heart, Ronstadt teamed with Ann Savoy for a set of Cajun treatments of songs from various genres. The term quiet intensity applies to their version of Walk Away Renee. They cannot intertwine guitar and voice as D’Agostino and Wilcox do, but their vocal harmonies, as well as some delicious embellishments from fiddle and accordion, emphasize the beauty of the melody as well as the emotion of the piece.