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Country, folk, Great albums, Singer Songwriter, Steve Earle

September 24: Steve Earle released Jerusalem in 2002

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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)

steve earle bergenfest 2013
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!

He sings about fears in Ashes to Ashes and Conspiracy Theory,  the ever-growing differences between the rich and the poor in Amerika V. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do), desperation of a Mexican man who lost his job in one of the many oppressive, foreign-owned assembly plants in What’s A Simple Man to Do and  the injustice of the American judicial system in The Truth. Earle seems not so angry, but rather sad about the state of things.

He did not make a protest album all through, he has (as always) room for some sweet country ballads on the record. I especially like his duet with Emmylou Harris, I Remember You.

Steve Earle ends the album with a message of  hope, a hope that the answers can be found in peace and forgiveness.

Jerusalem is the bold work of a thinking man and the album is a thought-provoking work of art.

Live @ Palladium, Malmö, Sweden 2009/10/28. Steve Earle do John Walker’s Blues from Jerusalem for the first time on the European leg of his 2009 tour:

Steve Earle Mix 2013
Photo: alldylan

Steve Earle performing Jerusalem(the song) live at Factory Theatre in Sydney on 8 April 2012 (with an incredible intro):

Steve Earle – Jerusalem on Spotify:

– Hallgeir (photos of Steve Earle taken at Bergenfest 2013, Norway)

Music Calendar, Nick Cave

Today: Nick Cave is 56 Happy birthday

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“If you got a trumpet, get on your feet, brother, and blow it!”

― Nick Cave

“I was about 12 years old and I was sitting watching the television and it was some kind of talent show, you know, and on marches this monkey, this ape, in a pair of red-checked trousers with a little matching jacket holding a ukulele and it started jigging around playing it, and it was looking straight into the camera, straight at me, and I remember thinking, that’s it, that’ll be me, you know, that’ll be me.”
― Nick Cave

 

Nicholas Edward “Nick” Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional film actor.

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He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1983, a group known for its eclectic influences and musical styles. Before that, he had fronted the group The Birthday Party in the early 1980s, a band renowned for its highly gothic, challenging lyrics and violent sound influenced by free jazz, blues, and post-punk. In 2006, he formed the garage rock band Grinderman that released its debut the following year. Cave’s music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with religion, death, love and violence.

Upon Cave’s induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, ARIA Awards committee chairman Ed St John said, “Nick Cave has enjoyed—and continues to enjoy—one of the most extraordinary careers in the annals of popular music. He is an Australian artist like Sidney Nolan is an Australian artist—beyond comparison, beyond genre, beyond dispute.”

Nick Cave bergenfest photo-2

“O we will know, won’t we?
The stars will explode in the sky
O but they don’t, do they?
Stars have their moment and then they die 
~Nick Cave ((Are You) The One That I’ve Been Waiting For?)

From allmusic – Steve Huey:

After goth pioneers the Birthday Party called it quits in 1983, singer/songwriter Nick Cave assembled the Bad Seeds, a post-punk supergroup featuring former Birthday Party guitarist Mick Harvey on drums, ex-Magazine bassist Barry Adamson, and Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist Blixa Bargeld. With the Bad Seeds, Cave continued to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock, and arty post-punk, although in a more subdued fashion than his work with the Birthday Party. Cave also allowed his literary aspirations to come to the forefront; the lyrics are narrative prose, heavy on literary allusions and myth-making, and take some inspiration from Leonard Cohen. Cave’s gloomy lyrics, dark musical arrangements, and deep baritone voice recall the albums of Scott Walker, who also obsessed over death and love with a frightening passion. However, Cave brings a hefty amount of post-punk experimentalism to Walker’s epic dark pop.
… read more over @ allmusic.com 

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Here is a brilliant live version of “People Ain’t No Good” (one of his best):

The Mercy Seat:

My Nick Cave Spotify playlist for today:

Nick Cave’s best album – The Boatman’s Call (1997):


Other September 22:

Continue reading Today: Nick Cave is 56 Happy birthday →

Leonard Cohen, Music Calendar

Today: Happy 79th birthday Leonard Cohen

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Like a Bird on a Wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
~Leonard  Cohen, Bird On A Wire

“The older I get, the surer I am that I’m not running the show.”
― Leonard Cohen

“I don’t remember
lighting this cigarette
and I don’t remember
if I’m here alone
or waiting for someone.”
~Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Leonard Norman Cohen
Born 21 September 1934 (age 79)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres Folk, folk rock, rock, pop rock,spoken word, synthpop
Occupations Musician, singer-songwriter,poet, novelist
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano,keyboards, synthesizer
Years active 1956-present
Labels Columbia
Associated acts Sharon Robinson, Jennifer Warnes

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honour.

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While giving the speech at Cohen’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the “highest and most influential echelon of songwriters.”

The critic Bruce Eder wrote an assessment of Cohen’s overall career in popular music, writing:
“[Cohen is] one of the most fascinating and enigmatic. . .singer/songwriters of the late ’60s. . . [and] has retained an audience across four decades of music-making. . . Second only to Bob Dylan (and perhaps Paul Simon) [in terms of influence], he commands the attention of critics and younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who is still working at the outset of the 21st century.”

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The Academy of American Poets has commented more broadly on Cohen’s overall career in the arts, including his work as a poet, novelist, and songwriter, stating that “[Cohen’s] successful blending of poetry, fiction, and music is made most clear in Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs, published in 1993, which gathered more than two hundred of Cohen’s poems . . .several novel excerpts, and almost sixty song lyrics. . .While it may seem to some that Leonard Cohen departed from the literary in pursuit of the musical, his fans continue to embrace him as a Renaissance man who straddles the elusive artistic borderlines.”

From allmusic.com – Bruce Eder:

One of the most fascinating and enigmatic — if not the most successful — singer/songwriters of the late ’60s, Leonard Cohen has retained an audience across four decades of music-making interrupted by various digressions into personal and creative exploration, all of which have only added to the mystique surrounding him. Second only to Bob Dylan (and perhaps Paul Simon), he commands the attention of critics and younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who is still working at the outset of the 21st century, which is all the more remarkable an achievement for someone who didn’t even aspire to a musical career until he was in his thirties.
read more over @ allmusic.com 

Leonard Cohen – Tower of Song – Live, London  2009:

Leonard Cohen – Dance me to the end of love (live. Later with Jools):

Album of the day – Ten New Songs (2001):

Other September 21:

Continue reading Today: Happy 79th birthday Leonard Cohen →

Great albums, Rock

Today: Paranoid by Black Sabbath was released in 1970

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Black-Sabbath-LP-Paranoid-cover

Paranoid is the second studio album Black Sabbath. Released 18 September 1970, it was the band’s only album to top the UK Albums Chart until the release of 13 in 2013.

Paranoid contains several of the band’s best-known signature songs, including “Iron Man”, “War Pigs”, and the title track.

It is one of the first metal albums and it is my favorite among the handful metal albums that I like. Slow, heavy and very, very blues based. Black Sabbath was a great band for about 4 albums (ok, 6, and then I’m stretching it a bit), after that I lost interest. Paranoid was their crowning achievement. The playing is excellent and Ozzy sings really well. They were never better.

Black Sabbath – War Pigs (Paris, 1970):

 

“…they did one thing and did it exceptionally well. If you want proof just take a look at the world of heavy metal. Without this album there wouldn’t be one. Simple as that.” – Sid Smith (BBC)

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Classic Albums documentary: Black Sabbath – Paranoid:

Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath’s most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and “Paranoid” and “Iron Man” both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Paranoid refined Black Sabbath’s signature sound — crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock — and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics.
– Steve Huey (Allmusic)

 

Black Sabbath – Paranoid (1970):

Black Sabbath – Paranoid on Spotify:

Hell, I have to include Iron Man as well. Here is a performance from the TV show, Beat Club (1972):

– Hallgeir

Country, Great albums, Music Calendar, Rock

Today: Uncle Tupelo released Still Feel Gone in 1991

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“When the Bible is a bottle
and a hardwood floor is home
When morning comes twice a day
or not at all…”
– Still Be Around

Still Feel Gone is the second album by Uncle Tupelo. It was released 17 September 1991 on Rockville Records and re-released in 2003 by Sony Legacy. It was my first Uncle Tupelo album (I bought No Depression the next day).

Uncle Tupelo was an alt. country music group from Belleville, Illinois, they were active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their earlier band, The Primitives, left to attend college. The trio recorded three albums for Rockville Records.
Uncle Tupelo broke up before it achieved commercial success, but the band is renowned for its impact on the alternative country music scene. The group’s first album, No Depression, became a byword for the genre and was widely influential. Uncle Tupelo’s sound was unlike popular country music of the time, drawing inspiration from styles as diverse as the hardcore punk of The Minutemen and the country instrumentation and harmony of the Carter Family and Hank Williams.

Uncle Tupelo is a very important band in the development of Alt.country/Americana.

“With the release of their 1990 debut LP, No Depression, the Belleville, IL, trio Uncle Tupelo launched more than simply their own career—by fusing the simplicity and honesty of country music with the bracing fury of punk, they kick-started a revolution which reverberated throughout the American underground.”
– Jason Ankeny (allmusic)

Uncle Tupelo – Gun (Bloomington,IN, 1992):

I love the contrasts in Uncle Tupelo, the country vs. punk/rock, Tweedy’s voice vs. Farrar’s voice, the heart aching ballads vs. the working class lament. The slow howls in the songs vs. the attacking guitars. The balance of innocence and rawness gives Still Feel Gone an edge and an emotional dimension seldom found.
To me the album sounds like a stew consisting of, The Clash, Neil Young, Rolling Stones, Husker Du and all the country music influences they surely got from their parents’ records and their radio listening habits. It’s a lovely stew and a contender for best album of 1991.

“The band eschews quaint rootsiness for the time-bomb attack of Jay Ferrar’s aggressive stop-start guitars and some deceptively gentle acoustic ballads that convey an underlying sense of dissatisfaction. The band’s melodic skills don’t always equal their unpretentiousness, but Still Feel Gone remains a vivid snapshot of life in a town that`s colored gray.”
– Chicago Tribune (Feb 1992)

Uncle Tupelo – Punch Drunk (Toad’s Place, New Haven CT, March 2, 1992):

“The characters that populate Still Feel Gone are far from one-dimensional caricatures of rural life. Songwriters Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy write with an insightful eye and ragged beauty that bring their images alive without coming off as rote shrieks of youthful disenchantment. “
– Rolling Stone Magazine (Mar 1992)

Uncle Tupelo – Still Feel Gone on Spotify:

– Hallgeir