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Country, Dolly Parton, Great albums, Music Calendar, Singer Songwriter

October 2: Dolly Parton released Coat of Many Colors in 1971

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Coat of Many Colors_Dolly Parton

A new acquaintance in the night
You mean no more to her than all the others she’s held tight
But I know she’s convinced you it was love at first sight
But she’s never met a man she didn’t like

 

Coat of Many Colors is the eighth solo studio album by Dolly Parton, released in 1971 by RCA Records. The title song, which Parton has described as her favourite of all the songs she’s ever written, deals with the poverty of her childhood. It reached #4 on the U.S. country singles charts.

Dolly Parton – Coat of Many Colors (acoustic):

Over the years, Parton would re-record a number of the songs from the album. She redid “Traveling Man” (not to be confused with the Ricky Nelson song of the same name), a song that involved an unusual love triangle between a travelling salesman, a woman, and her mother, for inclusion on her 1973 album Bubbling Over. She would also re-record her composition “My Blue Tears”, an “old-timey” folk-influenced song, with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt in the mid-1970s, for an ill-fated Trio album project. (The recording would eventually surface on Ronstadt’s 1982 album Get Closer). Parton cut the song for a third time in 2001, including it on her Little Sparrow album. “Early Morning Breeze” later appeared on her 1974 Jolene album.

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Bruce Springsteen, Great albums, Music Calendar, Sound

September 30: Bruce Springsteen released Nebraska in 1982

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nebraska

They declared me unfit to live, said into that great void my soul be hurled. 
They wanted to know why I did what I did; 
Well sir, I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.
– Nebraska

 

“The fact that you didn’t intend to release it makes it the most intimate record you’ll ever do. This is an absolutely legitimate piece of art.” Steven Van Zandt

“I felt that it was my best writing. I felt I was getting better as a writer. I was learning things. I was certainly taking a hard look at everything around me.”
Bruce Springsteen

Nebraska posts on Johannasvisions:
Nebraska covered part one
Nebraska covered part two
Unreleased – The Losin’ Kind

I really love this album. I did not buy it in 1982 I got it a few years later, I listened to it at the record store when it was released, but it didn’t impress me. I couldn’t connect to it musically or lyrically. It is not an album that imidiately catches your attention, it needs to be listened to, properly.

When I did that I became very impressed!

Some facts (from Wikipedia):

Released September 30, 1982
Recorded Mostly January 3, 1982 at Springsteen’s Colts Neck, New Jersey bedroom
Genre Americana, folk rock, folk
Length 40:50
Label Columbia
Producer Bruce Springsteen

Nebraska is the sixth studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1982 on Columbia Records.

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Great albums, Music Calendar, Steve Earle

September 24: Steve Earle released Jerusalem in 2002

Steve_Earle-Jerusalem-Frontal

“I woke up this mornin’ and none of the news was good 
And death machines were rumblin’ ‘cross the ground where Jesus stood 
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way 
And there was nothin’ anyone could do or say

And I almost listened to him 
Yeah, I almost lost my mind 
Then I regained my senses again 
And looked into my heart to find

That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham 
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem”
– Steve Earle (Jerusalem)

Steve Earle released this “protest album” post 9/11, but contrary to widespread belief it is not a concept album about the tragic events on that date. Yes, there are some songs relating to it, but only three out of eleven (maybe four). There were som controversy when it came out, especially the song John Walker’s Blues were widely discussed and often slated in right wing media. It is not a song that takes sides, it is a song that tells us that an ordinary American kid fell in with the wrong crowd (in this case, the Taliban). Earle make us look at this boy, and he does not say that he is innocent, but he says that he should be treated like a human being despite his faults and despite his guilt. It is a fantastic song.

“…Earle has crafted a vision of America thrown into chaos, where the falling of the World Trade Center towers is just another symbol of a larger malaise which surrounds us. Before its release,Jerusalem already generated no small controversy over the song “John Walker’s Blues,” which tells the tale of “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh as seen through his own eyes. While “John Walker’s Blues” is no more an endorsement of Lindh’s actions than Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” was a tribute to mass-murderer Charles Starkweather, even though it’s one of the album’s strongest songs, if anything, it doesn’t go quite far enough.”
– Mark Demming (allmusic.com)

Photo AllDylan
Photo AllDylan

Steve Earle made a “state of the nation” album, and he is confused and he doesn’t come up with the answers, but he asks the important questions!

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Great albums, Kinks, Music Calendar

September 15: The Kinks released Something Else in 1967

The_Kinks-Something_Else_By_The_Kinks-Frontal

September 15: The Kinks released Something Else in 1967

Something Else by The Kinks, often called just Something Else, is their fifth UK studio album. Two hit singles are included: “Waterloo Sunset” and “Death of a Clown”. In 2003, the album was ranked #288 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Something Else is sentimental (of course), sarcastic and hip but at the same time lush and romantic, it has some of the best songs Kinks ever recorded.

The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset:

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Country, Great albums, Music Calendar, Rock, Sound

September 15: The Jayhawks released Hollywood Town Hall in 1992

hollywood_Town_hall

September 15: The Jayhawks released Hollywood Town Hall in 1992

Hollywood Town Hall is a 1992 album by The Jayhawks. It peaked at #11 on the Billboard Heatseekers and #192 on the Billboard 200. It came as a breath of fresh air during “the grunge movement”. It is a fantastic record, easy to like but not simple in any way. It is a strong album all through, no weak tracks. It should have been a monster seller of course, it is radio friendly and it is one of the best albums to drive to ever made.

The Jayhawks – Take me with you when you go:

It manages in a strange way to mix the heartache of Nashville with the west-coast sounds of Laurel Canyon. It has cool riffs and great harmonies, the playing is good and the production sounds big and lush. It sounds like Neil Young mixed with The Louvin Brothers!

There are some really great guests on the album, Nicky Hopkins, Charley Drayton and Benmont Tench contributes to a warm and organic sound.

The Jayhawks – Waiting for the sun (Letterman 1991, network debut):

Talk about wearing your influences on both sleeves: Hollywood Town Hall sounds like the Everly Brothers backed by the Rolling Stones during their ”Dead Flowers” era, with Neil Young sitting in for an occasional vibrato-drenched solo. Yet the Minneapolis-based ‘Hawks wear their hearts proudly. There’s nothing nostalgic about the passion and desperation in every syllable of singer-songwriter Mark Olson’s voice — or in the band’s effortless mix of sawdust harmonies and craggy electric guitars. A
– Entertainment Weekly

Hollywood Town Hall at Spotify:

It was one of the more unlikely major label releases of 1992 — nothing to do with grunge, certainly not a last holdout from ’80s mainstream sludge. On the flip side, it wasn’t really the incipient alternative country/No Depression sound either, for all that there was a clear influence from the likes of Gram Parsons and fellow travelers throughout the grooves. This wasn’t a sepia-toned collection of murder ballads or the similarly minded efforts that were almost overreactions to Nashville’s triumphalism throughout the ’90s. At base, Hollywood Town Hall found a finely balanced point — accessible enough for should-have-been success (sclerotic classic rock station programmers were fools to ignore this while still playing the Eagles into the ground) but bowing to no trends.
– Ned Ragget (Allmusic) 4.5/5

– Hallgeir