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.  

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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

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.

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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)

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.

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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

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.

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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. :)