Thursday, October 25, 2012

In Defense of Folk Rock

    A couple of years ago, I posted a compilation featuring male artists (Billy Bragg, John Prine, and Ron Sexsmith) who, in one way or another incorporated folk into their music.  Tonight's compilation has a slightly different premise as I feature four female artists (Sarah Harmer, Jenny Lewis, Shannon McArdle, and Sharon Van Etten) who offer different variations on the ever-sturdy folk rock.  I am aware that Lewis (especially her band Rilo Kiley) is more likely to be considered indie rock, but like I said, it's different variations on folk rock.  

Download

Rabbit Fur Coat Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins
Washington  Sarah Harmer
One Day Sharon Van Etten
Poison My Cup Shannon McArdle
I'm That! The Mendoza Line
Almost Sarah Harmer
I Wish I Knew Sharon Van Etten
Sing A Song For Them Jenny Lewis
Wedding Dance Slow Dazzle
Go Ahead Rilo Kiley
Lodestar Sarah Harmer
Kevin's Sharon Van Etten
Life of His Own Sharon Van Etten
Close Call Rilo Kiley
The Dream Of Axes Shannon McArdle
How Deep in the Valley Sarah Harmer

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Johnny Paycheck - The Real Mr. Heartache

     Like a lot of folks, I was pretty unaware of Johnny Paycheck - save his huge hit Take This Job and Shove It for a long time.   So I was pretty unprepared for the insanely brilliant country to be found on the Country Music Foundation's 1996 24 track compilation of Paycheck's 1960s recordings on the Little Darlin' label.   The songwriting, the singing (jesus christ, he can sell a song), and, of course, Lloyd Green's inspired pedal steel playing.   Just phenomenal country.  Now, it went out of print a while back, then I think it was back in print for a while, but is now definitely out of print (and pretty rare).  However, Nowhere to Run, another compilation of his Little Darlin' label did come out last year and they share about 10-11 songs in common.  Still, there's about 18-19 tracks on that comp that aren't on The Real Mr. Heartache.   The Koch label also put out some other comps of Paycheck's stuff from the 60s - they're all good, but I think I'm kind of partial (at least this month) to The Complete Gospel Sessions.  And also check out The Soul and the Edge - it's a nice collection of his best 70s material.

Download

Don't Start Countin' On Me
The Girl They Talk About
A-11
The Real Mr. Heartache
I'm Barely Hangin' On To Me
The Lovin' Machine
He's In A Hurry (To Get Home To My Wife)
The Ballad Of Frisco Bay
Wherever You Are
Big Town Baby
Hang On Sally
(Pardon Me) I've Got Someone To Kill
(It's A Mighty Thin Line) Between Love And Hate
Apartment #9
The Late And Great Me
Motel Time Again
Jukebox Charlie
Touch My Heart
My Baby Don't Love Me Anymore
The Cave
Don't Monkey With Another Monkey's Monkey
(Like Me) You'll Recover In Time
It Won't Be Long (And I'll Be Hating You)
If I'm Gonna Sink (I Might As Well Go To The Bottom)


Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Passion and Pride of Johnny Paycheck

       Given his career arc, I understand that it would be difficult to make a Johnny Paycheck biopic.  But why, oh why, isn't his music used in more films? You'd think someone like Quentin Tarantino would have made some southern noir 60s film based around the music of Paycheck by now.  As a (very) partial remedy, I give you a 15 song sampler of the truly late and great Mr. Paycheck.  I'm pretty partial to his 60s stuff recorded on the Little Darlin' label, but I've also included a bunch of his 70s songs as well.  And since it's out of print, I will post the great Paycheck collection put out by the Country Music Foundation: The Real Heartache: The Little Darlin' Years next week.

Download

I'm A Coward
Heartbreak TN
Livin' in a House Full of Love
I'm Glad to Have Her Back Again
Not Much I Don't
She Thinks I Still Care
It's Only A Matter Of Wine
Kissing Yesterday Goodbye
I Thought I'd Never Fall in Love Again
She's All I Got
I'm Gonna Tell The World
Black Sheep
Passion and Pride
From Cotton To Satin (From Birmingham To Manhattan)
The Wheels Fell Off The Wagon

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Happy 15th Yep Roc!

          I was going to get all righteous (or just a little righteous) in discussing music labels and why they still matter, but I'm going to refrain and just say that Yep Roc has long seemed to be a cool (well, except for the name), artist friendly label.  And since they're celebrating their 15th birthday next weekend (October 11-13th) with a set of live shows in Carrboro, North Carolina by their various acts, I thought an homage was in order.  There's one track from each year from a different Yep Roc artist starting in 1998 with Nick Lowe's Faithless Lover from his Dig My Mood album (*) and ending with Eleni Mandell's Bun in the Oven (from her 2012 release I Can See the Future).  Needless to say, there were some Yep Roc artists I really like (I'm looking at you Big Sandy, Dave Alvin, etc.) that I couldn't fit in.

Download

Faithless Lover Nick Lowe
One Paper Kid Two Dollar Pistols With Tift Merritt
Turquoise Laika & The Cosmonauts
Fool's Paradise Greg Hawks & The Tremblers
Shallow Heart, Shallow Water Caitlin Cary
Some Tears Thad Cockrell
Drivin' All Night Long Amy Farris
Georgia Hard Robbie Fulks
Adventure Rocket Ship Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3
The Trial The Sadies
El Huracan y Pin Pon The Iguanas
Hot Talk Chuck Prophet
Cloud Spitter Steve Wynn And The Miracle 3
Little Tiger John Doe
Bun In The Oven Eleni Mandell



* I know Dig My Mood was initially released by Upstart records, but it was reissued by Yep Roc.  Therefore, it counts. :)