CD Odyssey Disc 571: Orff

I’m right in the middle of a four day weekend which has had a little bit of everything (music, friends, Arkham Horror, football).  I’m just home from a lovely lunch out with Sheila and ready to add ‘music review’ to the list.

Disc 571 is…. Carmina Burana

Artist: Composed by Carl Orff and performed by Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra

Year of Release: recorded in 1975, but composed in 1935 (music) and the 13^th Century (words).

What’s up with the Cover?  It looks like a bunch of very old playing cards – I think depicting the Jacks of each suit three times.  I expect they were trying to get across the “whimsical nature of fortune” theme of a lot of the music.  I appreciate the effort, but the result is a bit busy and unfocused.  I might’ve gone with just a King and a Joker, or maybe a picture of the monastery where the words to the songs were first found.

How I Came To Know It:  From the 1981 classic movie “Excalibur,” which used portions of “Carmina Burana” as its soundtrack. I love this movie, and the music was great so I set about finding what it was.  Once I discovered it was “Carmina Burana” I went to A&B Sound and asked the guy in the classical section to hook me up with a really good recording of it – this is what I got. 

How It Stacks Up:  I only have this one composition by Carl Orff.  Similarly, this is my only collection of 13^th century Bavarian manuscripts.  So on both counts, it can’t really stack up.

Rating:  4 stars

Carmina Burana is composed of some thirteenth century lyrics (in Latin), discovered in the nineteenth century and set to music (by Carl Orff) in the twentieth.  You’d expect a piece eight hundred years in the making to be pretty good, and “Carmina Burana” doesn’t disappoint.

From the opening boom of the kettle drums, you know this composition is going to be big, bombastic and full of pounding energy.  “Carmina Burana” is all of these things, particularly the opening and closing track, which sing about the rise and fall of a person’s luck in a way that makes chance seem like an approaching apocalypse.

No surprise that these sections were used in the movie “Excalibur” to make all the horse-riding, and questing and nation-building take on added weight.  If you haven’t listened to these sections of “Carmina Burana” while you watched King Arthur and his knights ride into battle one final time – trees spontaneously bursting into bloom at their mere passage – then you’re missing out. In fact, this stuff is such great movie soundtrack material it is used in action movie trailers even where the song doesn’t appear in the actual movie.

These sections were also used as a kick sample for industrial dance song by a band called Apotheosis back in the early nineties complete with an “Apocalypse Choir” mix, which is a pretty good description of all the crazy Latin chanting in the original as well.

The “fortune’s a bitch” sections are not the entirety of “Carmina Burana” however, just one part of it.  The original words uncovered in the monastery ranged into a lot of different subject, chief of them love and sex.  These sections dominate the central part of the record, and range from beautiful and melodic opera solos, to lively choral numbers, all of which I found very uplifting on my walks to and from work.

When translated, the lyrics are pretty sexy considering their origins.  From section XVII:

“A girl stood

In a red shift

If anyone touched it

The shift trembled

Eia.

“A girl stood

Like a rosebud

Her face was radiant,

Her mouth in flower.

Eia.”

Eh…yeah indeed.

The range between the softness of certain sections and the pounding symphony of others is so large that it is a piece of music best enjoyed on headphones.  Even so, it is hard to get the volume at the right level – it will always either be too quiet in places or too loud.

In fact, if you really want to fully appreciate it, see it live.  In 2003 I was fortunate to see “Carmina Burana” performed at UVic’s University Centre Auditorium (my thanks to our friend Chris D. for suggesting it).  It was absolutely amazing, with a full orchestra and a choir of around one hundred people.  Seeing it live you truly appreciate the power of the composition; it is like heavy metal for the classical set.

Since you can’t do that every day, however, you have other options ranging from sitting and listening to the whole composition on CD or even just one short song used to buoy the grand climax of an Arthurian legend.

Best tracks:   In the absence of repurposing sections for a movie, you can’t really single out individual songs on a classical recording so just listen to the whole thing.  Or if you just want to get blown away with some bombast, check out the Apotheosis dance hit.

CD Odyssey Disc 570: The Eurythmics

I’m just back from a good workout, feeling good and looking forward to a short work week (I am taking a couple days off this week).

But there is one thing that never takes a day off, and that’s my ongoing efforts to listen to every damned album I own and then talk about each one of them.  That’s what this blog is mostly about, in case you’re new.

Disc 570 is…. Touch

Artist: The Eurythmics

Year of Release: 1983

What’s up with the Cover?  The incredibly sexy lead singer of the Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, strikes a pose.  From the athletic curve of her shoulders, up the muscles of her neck to the bright flame-red hair and back down to the leather mask and the defiant glance she casts from behind it, this cover is both simple and sexy.  Well played, Eurythmics, well played.

How I Came To Know It:  This was not a big album for me back in 1983.  Even though I did like the Eurythmics, this wasn’t a record that got a lot of attention, outside of the video for “Here Comes the Rain Again.”  This was just me years later digging through the band’s back catalogue of albums once I realized they didn’t make any bad ones. 

How It Stacks Up:  We have five Eurythmics albums.  We’re still missing “In the Garden” and “Be Yourself Tonight” but I’ll remedy those oversights soon enough.  Of the five we do have, “Touch” is good, but I must reluctantly rank it fifth out of five.  I still like it, though.

Rating:  3 stars

Earlier Eurythmics reviews explored the band’s later albums (don’t blame me – the order is random), so this was my first chance to review something from their earlier work, and I enjoyed it.

Albums like “Touch” have a much more experimental feel to them.  The R&B influences are still there (as they are in most British pop music) but proto-techno sounds are much more prevalent. 

My earliest memory of this album is watching the moody video for “Here Comes the Rain Again.”  I was seriously into heavy metal at the time, but couldn’t resist Annie Lennox standing on some windswept cliff wrapped up in a medieval cloak.  I may have been a metal fan, but at thirteen I also liked fantasy novels and pretty girls.

What surprised me more was how much I liked the driving synth beat of the song.  Lennox’s voice was filled with new frontiers of mystery. Amid the ongoing pop vs. rock debates at high school that week, I decided to go out on a limb and defend this band among my long-haired peers only to find…they agreed.

There is an innovative edge to the Eurythmic’s early music that is hard to resist, and although at the time I only knew the singles, “Touch” as an album has plenty of examples of this.  The sound is techno, and full of synth and samples which are ultimately used to create the same effect that R&B had done ten years earlier; lay down a groove.

My favourite example of this is on “Aqua,” which mixes a groovy bass riff, some African rhythms and a smooth jazz vocal from Lennox to create a funky beat that feels slightly uncomfortable in exactly the proportion the song’s lyrics of betrayal require.  This is a hidden gem of a song, and another shining example of what you’ll miss out on if you insist on sticking with that damned copy of the Eurythmics Greatest Hits on your dusty CD shelf.

When you’re this ambitious, however, you are going to sometimes miss, and the things that make “Aqua” so well have the effect of wrecking another promising song on the album, “Paint a Rumour.”  This song starts off with a similar approach.  Lennox sings simply lines over and over again, while odd synth sounds layer in a groove.  The ‘computer processing’ sounds work at the beginning, but halfway through they become overdone and the song begins to dissemble into what sounds unpleasantly like modern techno music.  Also like modern techno, the song goes on for far too long (It is 7:30 and should be about half that).

For similar reasons I don’t like one of the album’s hits, “Right By Your Side” with its calypso drums, awkward hand claps and police whistles.  The melody of this song could stand alone, but it is buried in all this artifice like a room with too many pictures hanging on the walls.  Worst of all, it ends with a sax solo fade out.  Dave Stewart – you are better than that.

“Paint a Rumour” and “Right By Your Side” are the exceptions however and other layered techno-dance tracks including “Regrets,” “The First Cut” and “Cool Blue” all work well in basically the same way.  So for that, let’s give a big chunk of credit to the other half of the Eurythmics, guitar player and producer Dave Stewart, who seamlessly melds Lennox’s smooth vocals over some genuinely interesting studio decisions.

I don’t look for “Touch” to keep things simple; it isn’t what this record’s vibe is about.  However, the exception to this is “Who’s That Girl?” a soulful vocal gem from Lennox, about infidelity and betrayal.  It is both dark and pretty, just like Lennox, and it leave you feeling both uncomfortable and slightly aroused at the same time.  In terms of tone it falls somewhere between the vague suspicions of Bill Wither’s “Who Is He (And What is He To You)?” and the full-on rage of Marianne Faithful’s “Why’d Ya Do it?” but it has earned its place among the great “I think you’re cheating” songs of our time.

Of course, you’d be crazy to cheat on Annie Lennox.  Even wearing that Barbara Streisand wig in the “Who’s That Girl?” video she still pulls off playful siren and slighted Valkyrie at the same time.  If you haven’t seen the video, you’re still just fine with the song, since she does all that with just her voice as well.

“Touch” isn’t the greatest Eurythmics album, but it has plenty of great moments, and is worth getting to know better.

Best tracks:   Here Comes the Rain Again, Regrets, Who’s That Girl?, Aqua

CD Odyssey Disc 569: U2

It is always strange when I randomly roll the exact same band twice in a row, but here we are.

Disc 569 is…. The Unforgettable Fire

Artist: U2

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover?  A castle ruin.  The liner notes don’t indicate what castle it is and I really wanted to know so I broke with my usual practice and looked it up. Turns out it is Moydrum Castle, located near Athlone, Ireland.  Of historical note, it is a ruin because in 1921 the IRA burned it down.

The picture is a good one, but I could have done with a colour other than magenta to frame it in, like a nice emerald green. The magenta just makes the cover a bit garish despite Moydrum’s imposing presence.

How I Came To Know It:  When this album came out in 1984 I was firmly in my heavy metal phase, and not terribly inclined to listen to bands like U2 that were all the rage with the preppie set.  However, my friend Rob was a bit more open minded.  One night when I was hanging out at his place he said he wanted to play a song off of “Unforgettable Fire” for me.  Needless to say, I was dubious, but he was a persuasive guy when he wanted to be.

He turned off all the lights and we sat in the darkness and listened to “MLK.”  It was awesome.  I wouldn’t say that night I got over my distrust of all things non-metal, but it was the beginning of the journey.  Thanks, Rob!

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven U2 albums.  Of those seven I’d put “The Unforgettable Fire” tied for first place with “The Joshua Tree.”  They are very different, so when I want singles I listen to “Joshua Tree” but when I want a nice mood piece I got with “Unforgettable Fire.”  If I had to choose, I’ll put “The Unforgettable Fire” first, if only because on every listen I find myself appreciating it more, but it is really a dead heat.

Rating:  4 stars

It is very hard to artificially establish a mood.  A mood has to be something that comes naturally from within you, and if you feel it strongly enough it washes over others as well.  That’s how “The Unforgettable Fire” works, as it builds a mood that lives somewhere between inspiration and melancholy.

As I just noted in the review for “All You Can’t Leave Behind,” the production decisions of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois perfectly suit this band, and there is no better example of this than “The Unforgettable Fire.”  The Edge’s nerdy guitar work, with all of its feedback looping and reverb could easily go wrong, but with Eno and Lanois on the sound board it fits in perfectly, and the duo have the good sense to let Bono’s voice soar over the top of the big pillowy clouds of sound.

Because this album presents itself as a single mood piece, it is hard to pick out individual tracks.  The record as a whole takes on a life of its own, and the sequence of songs is done so artfully I sometimes got so lost in my musically inspired reverie that I didn’t notice when a new song started.

This can be a bad thing on some records, where you are left with the feeling that there are no peaks and valleys to the music, and no dynamics that allow you to find auditory landmarks.  Not here though – when an album does it this well it just makes you appreciate it all the more.

And while picking out individual tracks cheapens the listening experience, some of these tracks are so damned good that not singling them out would be a crime of its own.

The most obvious is “Pride.” It was never a huge hit in North America like it was in the U.K. but it should have been, and everyone who discovered U2 a couple years later with the “Joshua Tree” album quickly went back and found this gem.

The song is about Martin Luther King Jr.  It would be easy to say it was about his assassination, which features prominently, but it is really about King’s spirit, and his unquenchable thirst for justice.  The Edge’s guitar intro is instantly recognizable and one of my favourites in music, even if it is accomplished with weird technical tricks (I’ve not been able to appreciate the Edge the same way since I saw a documentary which revealed his approach to playing the guitar is not unlike someone mastering a video game).

Back to the song, which is a beautiful homage to a very important figure in mankind’s most important mission; to make our civilization kinder and more just.  The day after we’ve all been inundated with stories about the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, it was great to be reminded of someone like King, who made a much greater difference in the lives of Americans.

The best song on the record is also probably the best U2 song ever, “Bad.”  It comes right after a solemn little instrumental called “4^th of July” that leaves you expectant for something great to happen.  Then something great happens.  Again, the Edge is on his game with a gentle rolling guitar riff, punctuated with very high notes in all the right places.

“Bad” is one of the greatest break-up songs ever.  It hits me in the gut every bit as hard as U2’s other classic in the genre, “With or Without You” and if anything is slightly more beautiful for its subtlety.  It is a song about a man who loves so much he cannot let go, even though that’s what he knows would be right.  The whole song is brilliantly constructed musically and lyrically.  Here’s a favourite section:

“If I could throw this

Lifeless lifeline to the wind

Leave this heart of clay

See you walk, walk away

Into the night

And through the rain

Into the half-light

And through the flame”

If he could he would.  But he can’t and that’s what makes the song so damned heartbreaking.

The album ends with “MLK” a second tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.  Where “Pride” is a defiant celebration of his work, “MLK” is a quiet prayer for the man.  When I first heard this song at 14 years old in my friend Rob’s basement it blew me away.  We played it three times in a row that night, each time savouring the way Bono’s voice filled the room with his gentle tribute, and his heartfelt wish for Dr. King:

“Sleep, sleep tonight.

And may your dreams be realized.”

“Pride,” “Bad” and “MLK” provide the ballast for this album and raise it up.  There are weaker songs on the album (“Indian Summer Sky” comes to mind, and “4^th of July” is nothing to write home about without being followed by “Bad”), but as part of the whole they are welcome adjustments to the mood the album creates.  If you know the song “Pride” from a greatest hits package, or an i-Tunes download, do yourself a favour and see how it fits into the record as a whole. 

Best tracks:   A Sort of Homecoming, Pride, Wire, Bad, Elvis Presley and America, MLK

CD Odyssey Disc 568: U2

After two straight concert reviews it was fun to get back to randomly determining my next review (that’s what I do, in the event that you are new to the blog).

This is a good one from a band I haven’t reviewed in over three years because – random!

Disc 568 is…. All That You Can’t Leave Behind

Artist: U2

Year of Release: 2000

What’s up with the Cover?  The band poses in a glary section of the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris.  A suitable cover since the album’s title makes you think of everything you absolutely have to bring with you on a trip or put another way, all that you can’t leave behind.

How I Came To Know It:  Basically I kept hearing songs off of this album and for the most part I liked them, so I took a chance on my first U2 album since 1991’s “Achtung Baby.”

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven U2 albums.  Of those seven I’d put “All You Can’t Leave Behind” third best.

Rating:  4 stars

It is always gratifying when a band can put out a classic album many years after they first break big.  “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” is one of those albums.

The album sees the return of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who produced a few other U2 gems like “Unforgettable Fire,” “Joshua Tree” and “Achtung, Baby” – all classics. Where do those killer records rank overall?  Tsk tsk – such impatience.  You’ll have to wait until I review them, my friends.  But I digress…

The point is Eno/Lanois plus U2 equals musical greatness.  Eno and Lanois’ expansive production style perfectly suits the band’s atmospheric predilections.  On “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” they bring in some of the club sound and neo-techno elements the band experimented on with records like “Zooropa” and “Pop” but they make it more melodic and listenable.

In terms of song quality, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” has much to recommend it.  I don’t love all the hits, but the ones I do I love a lot, particularly “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” and “Walk On.”

“Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” could be a theme song for anyone who suffers anxiety at any level.  I get a little myself now and then (it is impossible to be present and aware in the world and not be a little anxious) and this song captures the feeling of wrestling with a problem long after you should put it away.  Hearing Bono sing ‘you’ve got to get yourself together’ is exactly the tonic I need to do exactly that. Also hearing him climb up to that falsetto in the bridge reminds you why he will always be remembered as one of rock and roll’s great vocalist. 

The other hit that appeals is “Walk On” which has a similar theme, although in this case it is about leaving regret behind you and moving on with your life.  The Edge’s guitar is nice and restrained and not overly synthed up on this song as well, giving it some honest emotional resonance.

The album was a radio darling, which you know for me means exactly squat.  I mention it for context only, because although it spawned a lot of hits, not every one of them was a hit for me.

The first track is the big but emotionally empty “Beautiful Day.”  “Beautiful Day” is one of those songs that bands that can write hits in their sleep (like U2) write when they need a hit.  Mission accomplished, but it doesn’t speak to me.  “Elevation” has a killer riff to start it off, but the lyrics are so bad that they distract from all the good things the song accomplishes musically.  Case in point: “A mole/digging in a hole/digging up my soul.”  Hey U2 – just because you can rhyme the words doesn’t mean you should.

Despite these minor missteps, the album has a generally uplifting quality to most of the songs, and a flavour that suits a band that’s been around for a while, seen some triumph and disaster (although mostly triumph) and has learned to take Kipling’s advice and treat those two imposters just the same.

The highlight for me on the record, and its emotional, and thematic centre is “Kite.”  “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” may not be a five star album, but “Kite” is a five star song.  Starting with a string section, it feels important from the very first notes, then slowly builds like an orchestra.  At its core this is a song of parting as good as any in a long tradition of Irish songs of parting.   The image is of a kite, and how it pulls hard against the string, wanting to be free and how sometimes – for the sake of both the kite and yourself – you’ve got to let go.

Behind the kite imagery this song manages to wrap up half a lifetime of experience into four and a half perfectly timed minutes. All the good and bad, all the self-affirmation and regret.  All the things you do or refuse to do that ultimately leads you wherever you are.  And even as you look back and wonder if you could have done it better, Bono offers these words of wisdom:

“Did I waste it?  Not so much I couldn’t taste it.

Life should be fragrant – rooftop to the basement.”

In terms of advice on how to live your life, those two lines sound pretty good to me.

There are some other pretty songs filling up what we old timers call “Side Two” including “In a Little While” and “New York” before the record ends, fittingly, with “Grace.”  U2 is fond of ending their records with what passes for a prayer (“40” from “War” and “MLK” from “The Unforgettable Fire” come to mind).

“Grace” holds this tradition up well.  It is a song about both a girl and the concept of grace, stealing into our souls and helping us see the beauty of the world all around us.  For a record that reminds us throughout that things aren’t so bad, I can’t think of a more fitting ending.  As it slowly meanders its way to a fade-out, “Grace” leaves me stuck in a moment that I don’t want to get out of.  But since the Odyssey won’t finish itself, I will reluctantly let go of the string of this particular kite, knowing we will meet again.

 

Best tracks:   Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, Walk On, Kite, In a Little While, Grace

CD Odyssey Disc 567: Lindi Ortega

This is the second straight album I chose to review an album under Rule #5, again so that I could also talk about the live show that accompanied it.

Disc 567 is…. Tin Star

Artist: Lindi Ortega

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover?  Lindi is posing, arms akimbo, on some old chest, the tin star brazenly signaling her intent to conquer the music world.

Even more importantly, Lindi has autographed this album to Sheila and I (more on that later).  This is only the second time I’ve got an artist to autograph an album (the last time was Kate Fenner of the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, on an album I reviewed back at Disc 320 LINK.  I was similarly enamoured of Kate back in the day but this time I avoided blushing like a school boy this time around.  I have no idea how.

How I Came To Know It:  I discovered Lindi Ortega about a year and a half ago while digging up Neko Case tracks on Youtube.  Lindi was a recommended artist and so I took a chance on the song “Cigarettes & Truckstops.”  I loved that song and Lindi’s website cleverly allowed me to stream the whole album.  When I saw how great she was I ran out and bought it without a moment’s hesitation.

“Tin Star” was just me snapping up her newest release when it came out, songs unheard. After hearing her two previous records, I knew it would be good.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Lindi Ortega albums, “Tin Star”, “Cigarettes & Truckstops” and 2011’s “Little Red Boots.”  They are all amazing, but I’ll have to put “Tin Star” third best.  Still great, but competition is fierce.

Rating:  4 stars

Listening to Lindi Ortega’s third album I am left wondering for the hundredth time, “why is this artist not more famous?”  Lindi has consistently been putting out quality records for years and yet remains relatively unknown.  It really demonstrates that fame is very arbitrarily assigned, especially when I see some of the painfully bad new country acts that enjoy commercial success.

Ortega’s style is rooted in outlaw country, with a healthy helping of both blues and Canadian roots rock. Combined with her voice – which is equal parts sexy and powerful – the result is like nothing you’ve ever heard but I’ll take a stab at it and say she’s a cross between Emmylou Harris and Neko Case with maybe a hint of Gwen Stefani’s rock/punk edge.

“Tin Star” follows the fairly bluesy “Cigarettes & Truckstops,” and is a step back in the direction of more traditional country song constructions, albeit with a lot of modern arrangements that belie her obvious love for rock and alternative music.

Where on previous albums Ortega touched on the ephemeral nature of fame I noted earlier, on “Tin Star” it becomes the central theme.  Mercifully uninterested pointless, vacuous Nashville studio hits, Ortega instead is clearly inspired by her own experience, and not afraid to share those experiences in her writing.

The title track, “Tin Star” is a good example, and as far as I’m concerned what should be a classic country song for decades to come for the music alone.  Ortega juxtaposes her own tin star ‘beat up and rusty’ with the myriad stars of country music that she is surrounded by in the Nashville community.  The bridge of the song has her poignantly admit:

“Well if the music wasn’t running through the blood in my veins

I might just walk away, O I would walk away.

But the music keeps on running through the blood in my veins

And it just makes me stay, O it makes me stay.”

Other songs that follow upon this theme include the up-tempo and defiant “All These Cats” detailing the competitive nature of the music industry, and “Waiting On My Luck to Change” which feels like a cross between a forties standard and a Patsy Cline crooner.

The album explores the full range of love song themes as well because hey - the world can’t have enough love songs.  “Something for You” is a vulnerable and exposed song of longing whereas “I Want You” is the same vulnerability expressed as pure sexual desire.  Ortega has a siren’s voice that hint at rocks just under the surface of the water, but that would have you steer your boat onto the reef anyway.

“This is Not Surreal” had me thinking of early Leonard Cohen songs like “Master Song” or “Who By Fire”, with its haunting flamenco guitar style, augmented with a Daniel Lanois-like echo in the production that really worked.

“Voodoo Mama” was my least favourite.  It’s actually a good song, just not in my wheel house.  It celebrates New Orleans’ music tradition, both lyrically and instrumentally but I wasn’t feeling the pull like I do with some other classic Louisiana songs like Emmylou’s “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” or Tom Petty’s “Louisiana Rain.”  Maybe I just like my Louisiana songs to be more depressing.  And on that note…

“Lived and Died Alone” is a brilliantly brave and edgy song about necrophilia (yes, necrophilia) that reminded me of Alice Cooper’s “I Love the Dead” from a female perspective.  Whereas Cooper’s “I Love the Dead” is outward looking and sexually focused, “Lived and Died Alone” is more a tragic love song.  In it our heroine digs up corpses to sleep with because they are the only partners that she feels are as lonely as her, and therefore the only partner that can truly understand her.  It is creepy as hell, but I like creepy.

The album ends with “Songs About,” returning to Ortega’s compulsion to write and play music.  I hope she never loses that because she is head and shoulders above the vast majority of what is coming out of Nashville these days.  Never lose heart, Lindi – the Indigo Girls got rejected by Nashville (and wrote a kick ass song about it on their way out of town) and Leonard Cohen never even made it there, getting waylaid by the charms of New York along the way.  They both turned out pretty well.

 

Best tracks:   Hard as This, Tin Star, Lived and Died Alone, Something for You, All These Cats, Songs About

The Concert – November 14, 2013 at Lucky Bar

Lucky Bar as a venue is basically a big cavern, so to get a good spot you just have to forget about finding a table and go stand on the dance floor, which is what we did.

The opening act was Devin Cuddy (Jim Cuddy’s son, if you’re wondering). Vocally, I wished that he would sing into the higher register a bit more often, and I also wanted his songs to be a little more dynamic, but he is a pretty talented blues piano player and did well overall.  I wish he had a guitar accompanying him (and I think he wished the same, at one point exclaiming, “this song has a pretty extensive guitar section which you’ll just have to imagine”).  The lack of a band kept the arrangements a bit too sparse for the Bob Dylan/Ray Charles inspired folk-blues he was playing, but that wasn’t his fault.

When Lindi Ortega hit the stage the room felt instantly filled with the strength of her personality.  She has a great stage presence, and banter that borders on actual conversation with the audience.  Her persona is a cross between rock star and coquette and she wears it perfectly.  She also wears her little black dress and little red boots perfectly and it would be deeply dishonest of me if I didn’t note the obvious; Lindi Ortega is smokin’ hot.

Fortunately, her music is every bit the equal of her beauty.  The great voice I noted in the album review was on full display, and filled the relatively small venue.

The set list was well chosen, with a focus on her new material.  “Tin Star” was a particular favourite for me as well as the obvious and devilish joy she had singing the combative “All These Cats” – take that haters!

She doesn’t soft-pedal her edginess for a live audience, and I was thrilled when she sang “Lived and Died Alone” – even more thrilled when she acknowledged me when I shouted out the Alice Cooper lyric “I love the dead before they’re cold.”  (Before she started playing – I’m not a dick). I love a country girl who rocks the Alice Cooper vibe.

She only played about a half dozen songs from her earlier albums, but they were well chosen, standouts including “Angels,” “Little Lie” and a performance of “Little Red Boots” that had the attention of every man in the room, and more than a few of the women.

I also loved hearing “High” which is an unabashed song about..er…getting high.  Greg Keelor would be proud, but I’m sure it is just the type of song that horrifies the country music establishment.  Good.

I would have liked to hear “Murder of Crows” but without a bass player (she only had drums and guitar accompanying her) I think it would have suffered.

I had been Youtubing Ortega a fair bit leading up to the show, so I knew she did a few covers as well, and the concert was no exception.  She played the hell out of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” and clearly enjoyed the over-the-top nature of the song as much as I do.  She also played the Eagles’ “Desperado” but it felt more like the Johnny Cash version to me (i.e. – better).  “Desperado” really showed off her vocal chops yet again.

The show was exceptional, and Ortega not only commands centre-stage, she obviously enjoys standing there.  Some artists tour just for the money, but you get the feeling that Ortega truly loves the fan interaction.

And special bonus points for taking time to meet the fans after the show was over.  She offered everyone a hug (I’m still kicking myself for forgetting to cash that cheque) and graciously let herself be photographed a dozen times.  When I finally got to the head of the receiving line I desperately wanted to discuss music, but instead I just blurted out how Sheila and I were both wearing little red shoes.  At least I thought to give her my blog card and got to put my arm around her waist.

I’m not sure Lindi Ortega lives for that fan interaction at the end (as Rush teaches us in “Limelight” there will always be a disconnect between the musician and the fan) but there is an undeniable warmth about her nonetheless as she takes the time to glad-hand with strangers.

So kudos to you, Lindi.  You are not only crazy talented and dead sexy – you are gracious to (little red) boot. 

You're going to know us by our little red boots!

CD Odyssey Disc 566: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell

It has been a fun and eventful long weekend.  In addition to getting out for drinks with friends I attended a vintage fashion fair, a vinyl fair (where I bought two records).  Last night Sheila and I played Arkham Horror and successfully saved the world from an ancient horror (screw you, Bokrug!).  Today I took her – Sheila, not Bokrug – out on a photo shoot for a travelling skirt project she and her fellow fashion bloggers are up to.

The highlight the weekend was Saturday night, when we went and saw Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell and Richard Thompson perform at the Alix Goolden Hall.  I feel fortunate to have seen a living legend like Emmylou Harris perform live. In preparation for the show, I invoked Rule #5 (see sidebar), and here is the resulting review, followed by a review of the concert.

Disc 566 is…. Old Yellow Moon

Artist: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover?  Emmylou and Rodney share a moment on some old country road.  These two have known each other for decades and the affection they have for each other comes through in this picture and all the other pictures in the album sleeve as well.

How I Came To Know It:  I am a longtime Emmylou Harris fan, and this was just me buying her latest album when it came out in advance of seeing her in concert.  Concerts are usually more enjoyable when you know the music beforehand.

How It Stacks Up:  It is hard to stack up a collaboration album like this one.  I have ten of Emmylou’s solo albums, and two collaboration albums (this one and another called “All The Road Running” that she did with Mark Knopfler in 2006).  The two compilations are pretty equal, but I’ll put this one second, if only because I’m a bigger fan of Mark Knopfler than I am of Rodney Crowell.

Rating:  3 stars

“Old Yellow Moon” is “an album forty years in the making” as Emmylou herself said a number of times at the concert on Saturday.  Considering all the previous collaboration between her and Rodney Crowell, it is surprising that they didn’t do an album like this years ago.

Given that it took so long to finally do so, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the album has a very traditional feel.  These songs would be equally at home in the fifties and sixties as they do today (and in the case of the Roger Miller cover “Invitation to the Blues” they actually date from the fifties). The other songs have their origins in almost every decade since, all the way up to some modern compositions by Crowell and steel guitar player Hank DeVito.  Crowell and Harris give them all arrangements that are rooted in bluegrass and old Nashville country.

As ever, the best part of the record is Emmylou Harris’ voice.  Even at age 66 it is still a powerful instrument, with the signature quaver that has made her rightfully famous. Most of the time, she blends her talents with Rodney Crowell’s vocals, who is also no slouch.  Crowell has a very high register and the two of them make pretty harmonies together.  They cleverly leave a little space in between these harmonies, letting each voice’s distinctive quality stand out, while still complementing its counterpart.

This is particularly effective on their remake of the Kris Kristofferson’s “Chase the Feeling,” a song about drug/alcohol abuse.  Kristofferson has been one of my favourite songwriters for years, with brilliant lines like these:

“And you’re dealing with some demons

Who are driving you insane

And I’ve seen them drag you screaming

Down the hallways of your brain.

“You got loaded again

Ain’t you handsome when you’re high

Nothing matters

Chase the feeling ‘til you die.”

I enjoy Kristofferson’s gravelly original well enough, but the up-tempo version that Harris and Crowell perform on “Old Yellow Moon” captures the manic quality of addiction and makes the whole song unexpectedly more poignant.

Following immediately after such a brilliant song about addition, “Black Caffeine” stands out like a sore thumb.  Coffee addition is a real thing, but it isn’t what Kristofferson was writing about, and hearing about how you take your coffee immediately after witnessing demons dragging someone down the hallways of his mind falls flat.  Even if this song wasn’t so poorly placed, it just doesn’t stand up to the quality on the rest of the album. Fortunately, “Black Caffeine” is the only song on the album I didn’t enjoy at some level.

There are lots of good “old timey” up tempo songs on the record that are good (notably Crowell taking the lead on “Bluebird Wine” a song he wrote but that Harris originally made famous).  For all that, my favourites on the album are the slower and more somber songs, maybe because they let Emmylou’s vocals drip with hurt and heartache.  I love her singing the Patti Scialfa’s “Spanish Dancer” which lets her voice shine solo.  Not to be outdone, Crowell delivers a tearjerker of his own composition with “Open Season on My Heart” with an assist on the hurt-meter from Harris’ masterful vocals on the harmony.

Overall, “Old Yellow Moon” is relaxed and understated record by two master musicians who have a strong chemistry with each other that comes out clearly in their performances.  This isn’t an album to knock you out of your chair, but it has a quiet and refined beauty that settles and soothes, like a cup of warm tea on a cold winter’s night.

 

Best tracks:   Spanish Dancer, Open Season on My Heart, Chase the Feeling, Bluebird Wine, Old Yellow Moon

The Concert – November 9, 2013 at the Alix Goolden Hall

It is hard to go wrong seeing a show at the Alix Goolden Hall; an old Presbyterian Church converted to a concert hall.  The place has amazing acoustics and all the sound man has to do is not over-amplify the place.

The show was opened by Richard Thompson, who with well over twenty albums of his own, spanning more than forty years is a legend in his own right.  A big shout out to Sheila’s coworker Greg W. who put us on to Thompson a few weeks ago and helped me appreciate him in advance of seeing him live.

Thompson did not disappoint.  He did a set of about seven or eight songs, and all were excellent.  In terms of performance banter, he isn’t nearly as funny as he thinks he is, but he is personable and relaxed on stage.  More importantly, man can he play guitar. I sat in awe watching his fingers effortlessly move up and down the fretboard with precision and feeling.

Thompson was so good that after he finished the enthusiastic crowd gave him a standing ovation for over five minutes, clapping in unison and urging him to return for an encore.  Of course, it was Emmylou’s night so an encore was not in the cards, although he did come out and perform a couple songs with her and Crowell later.

Richard Thompson was a hard act to follow, but Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell were up to the task.  Eschewing any introductory banter, they launched right into some Gram Parsons classics, with “Return of the Grievous Angel” and “Wheels” both of which were brilliantly played.  Later they would play a tear jerker version of his classic “Love Hurts” as well.

It must be hard to choose a set list from forty years of music, but it was expertly done.  In addition to Gram Parson, they honoured Townes Van Zandt with understated versions of “Pancho and Lefty” and “If I Needed You” (the latter of which I am learning on guitar myself).  “Pancho and Lefty” is always great, although I could’ve used Emmylou’s mike being turned up just a little bit more because – duh.

I like a concert where the new album gets featured, and “Old Yellow Moon” was well represented.  They did six of the record’s twelve songs and although with the exception of “Bluebird Wine” they weren’t the six I would’ve chosen, they were still good.  Experienced artists always come alive a little bit more when they are doing new material – it only makes sense if you think about how often they’ve played their old material.

Kudos to the backup band as well, particularly lead guitar and keyboards, both of whom were amazing.  Long-standing acts like Emmylou Harris consistently find the best of the best when they tour, and it definitely showed.

The lead up to the encore was a bit busy, with an obvious effort being made to get the room amped up to end the show, but I forgave it all when the final song was “Boulder to Birmingham” – one of my all-time favourites.  If she’d played “Before Believing” I would probably have fainted with delight, so good thing she stopped there.

And guilty pleasure – the gentle dig and sly grin they both gave Lee Ann Womack’s version of Crowell’s “Ashes by Now” (“someone else had a hit with it a few years back”) before they lit into a version that – if you’ll pardon the extended metaphor – burned the pants off of the Womack Nu-Country effort.

And a final note of appreciation for the crowd, who were enthusiastic and present in the performance and not in any way a distraction to my experience.  There was a guy in front of me who with his Beatles-style bowl cut and turtleneck sweater reminded me of a sixties Bond villain.  He was a bit tall, but turned out to be as friendly and respectful as everyone else in the crowd, such that I forgave the partially lost sight line without a moment’s hesitation.

Shot of the old organ at the Alix Goolden Hall.

CD Odyssey Disc 565: Black Sabbath

As winter approaches I have become keenly aware that my best suit was built for warmer temperatures.  I got it on an end of summer clearance, or I never could have afforded it and it looks amazing, but it is getting damned cold.  Pretty soon I will have to break down and get out a winter jacket, but for now I am delaying as long as possible.

Disc 565 is…. Heaven and Hell

Artist: Black Sabbath

Year of Release: 1980

What’s up with the Cover?  “Smoking Angels” by artist Lynn Curlee.  This is one of my all-time favourite album covers, answering that eternal question “what do angels do when they are on a break?”  Have a smoke and play cards like everyone else, it would seem.  I even have a t-shirt featuring smoking angels which I like in large part because it reminds me of this album cover.

How I Came To Know It:  Through my brother, Virgil.  This was the first Black Sabbath album I ever heard, so my first introduction to Sabbath so as a ten year old, I assumed that Ronnie James Dio had always been their lead singer. I only later learned about Ozzy Osbourne.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eleven Black Sabbath albums, including one live album.  Dio is the singer on four of them, and “Heaven and Hell” is the best of the four.  It also stands up with the best of the Ozzy albums as well.  I had originally planned to put this record second overall, but after listening I must reluctantly admit that both “Paranoid” (reviewed at Disc 194) and their self-titled debut (reviewed at Disc 105) are slightly better, so I am moving them up, and dropping “Heaven and Hell” into fourth.

Rating:  4 stars but ever so close to 5

After ten years of records with front man Ozzie Osbourne, “Heaven and Hell” was Black Sabbath’s first record with a new vocalist.  They chose former Rainbow front man and metal god Ronnie James Dio.  Surely the powerful personality of Dio and the equally opinionated and talented Tony Iommi could never collaborate?  Yeah, tell that to Jagger/Richards or Lennon/McCartney.  Like them, it caused both artists to rise above.

The wheels would eventually come off the creative vehicle of this incarnation of Black Sabbath, but here in the opening discovery of just what they could do together by turning their individual talents into something greater, the results are truly awe inspiring.

Ozzie had sung along in bluesy style, aligning his vocals on the beat with the rhythm section.  Of course his stoner-savant lyrics and delivery had made the Sabbath sound classic.  Dio chose instead to soar above on the melody like an opera singer.  He instead augments Iommi’s guitar riffs, both complimenting them and competing with them.  The result changed Sabbath’s sound, but was no less awe-inspiring.  If anything, “Heaven and Hell” breathed new life into a band at a time when the quality of their records was starting to tail off.

The change in sound is never more apparent than on the opening track, “Neon Knights.”  On top of the churning guitar-driven riff that defines Black Sabbath enters Dio, with his power metal vocals blasting away.  Dio’s bizarre lyrics about ill-defined magic and mythology are in full display:

“Cry out to legions of the brave

Time again to save us from the jackals of the street

Ride out, protectors of the realm

Captains at the helm, sail across the sea of lights

“Circles and rings, dragons and kings

Weaving a charm and a spell

Blessed by the night, holy and bright

Called by the toll of the bell”

What the hell is he talking about?  As usual I have no idea, but it sounds very cool and important.  This song really appealed to me when I was a kid.  In fact, my main bedroom decoration growing up was a four foot square black satin flag above my bed depicting a purple “Neon Knight” from their “Live Evil” album with matching “Black Sabbath” lettering beside him.  I loved that tapestry and it is a good thing I don’t know what happened to it, because I’d probably lobbying to put it up somewhere in the house.

While I may have downgraded this album to #4 overall, it has some of my all-time favourite Black Sabbath songs.  The second track is the best on the album. “Children of the Sea” is perfectly played and perfectly paced.  It starts with an almost gentle combination of Iommi plucking guitar notes, and Geezer Butler filling in the bass behind but soon launches into a full-bore churning maelstrom of malice and roiling rock and roll.  The song sings of a doomed civilization that strongly reminded me of the Innsmouth stories in H.P. Lovecraft’s horror novels.

In those stories, the grim-faced people of Innsmouth make a dark deal with demonic people from the ocean’s depths, in return for their wealth and power, but find themselves slowly transformed into monsters themselves:

“We made the mountains shake with laughter as we played

Hiding in our corner of the world

Then we did the demon dance and rushed to nevermore

Threw away the key and locked the door

“Oh they say that it's over, yeah

And it just had to be

Yes they say that it's over

We're lost children of the sea”

There are other sections of the song that suggest it is about some other doom entirely, but screw it.  I love this song and I love Lovecraft, and that’s what it means for me.

The other great five star song on the album is the title track, which is more traditional Sabbath fare in terms of its song structure and sound, albeit with Dio’s new voice.  The song is a seven minute journey through inspired guitar riffs, the thick pounding of Bill Ward’s drum style.  It has a lot of layers of sound, but is expertly mixed.  Care to focus on the bass for a while?  It is there for you.  Basic guitar riff got your groove?  Thrash away.  Or maybe you prefer the clever little melodies Iommi inserts further back in the mix.  You can have that too.  No matter how I approach this song, I can’t find anything wrong with it.

In the past, I couldn’t find anything wrong with the whole album, and I was a bit nervous when I rolled it.  I have just reviewed two five star albums and adding a third would have made it look like I was getting soft.

This time around, however, I found a few minor imperfections on the record.  The first side, composed of the above noted songs, plus the furiously played “Lady Evil” is beyond reproach.  On the B side, there are a couple of lesser tracks, however.  “Wishing Well” is beautifully played, but not a great or memorable song and “Walk Away” has a bit of a later eighties metal sound that edges close to the cheesy.

I know what you’re thinking – those earlier lyrics aren’t cheesy?  All I can say is sometimes sheer greatness can transcend cheesy, and even make it awe-inspiring.  It is a tough thing to deliver for a complete record, but “Heaven and Hell” comes within a hair of pulling it off.

Best tracks:   Neon Knights, Children of the Sea, Lady Evil, Heaven and Hell, Die Young

CD Odyssey Disc 564: Johnny Cash

After a fun weekend (so fun, in fact, that I didn’t get around to writing this review until now) it was back to work.  It is always a great feeling when you enjoy your job like I do, but I’d be lying if I said the prospect of a three day weekend doesn’t also appeal.

On that weekend I’ll be going to see Emmylou Harris, but before I do here’s a review of a famous live album by another country music legend.  It is also the second five star album in a row, which is another reason I took my time before moving on.

Disc 564 is…. At San Quentin

Artist: Johnny Cash

Year of Release: 1969

What’s up with the Cover?  Johnny Cash on stage.  I used to stare at this picture as a kid, in awe of Johnny Cash’s star power and how eminently cool he looked.  I feel pretty much the same as an adult, although I now wonder if that bass neck in the foreground is a left-hander.  I hope so.

How I Came To Know It:  I’ve known this album since I was a very small child.  My Mom owned it on vinyl and it got played quite a bit.  When I saw it had been reissued in 2000 on CD with all the extra songs from the concert that didn’t fit on the original vinyl I snapped it up.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Johnny Cash albums, but one of them is a ‘best of’ so doesn’t really count.  The other four are his later American Recordings albums, making this the only classic Cash album I have.  I like it best for that, and it is also better than any of the American Recordings albums, so I’ll put it first of all of them, new and old alike.

Rating:  5 stars

You always know you’re listening to a classic live album when no matter how many times you listen to it, you always feels like you’re sitting in the audience, enjoying the show for the first time.  “Live at San Quentin” is one of those albums.

This is Johnny Cash at his greatest; larger than life and packing equal parts outlaw sneer and Christian devotion.  His audience for “Live at San Quentin” is a hall full of hardened criminals to whom he promises a set-list of “what you want me to, and what I want to do” before launching into a vigorous version of “I Walk the Line.”

Like any great concert, there are plenty of other crow-pleasing favourites, including “A Boy Named Sue,” “and “Ring of Fire” and they are all played beautifully.  In between songs, Cash’s gravelly voice dispenses humour, down-home wisdom and heartfelt appreciation for the musicians sharing the stage with him (these include wife June Carter and the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers).

Songs are very much chosen with the audience in mind, and Cash goes the extra mile for the inmates.  In addition to the obvious choices like “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Starkville City Jail” he has a couple songs specifically tailored to his audience. 

The first is “I Don’t Know Where I’m Bound” that Cash explains is a song that a San Quentin inmate had earlier mailed to him.  Cash uses the lyrics but writes a new tune to accompany them explaining that he couldn’t read the sheet music.  This seems unlikely, but if it is a lie, it is a white lie, and with the genius of Cash’s music, the lyrics speak beautifully to the mindset of an inmate at San Quentin, unsure of his future:

“Can't stand locks, bars or doors

Mean cops insanity and wars

Gotta find a place of peace

Till then my travellin' won’t cease

But I don't know where I'm bound

“There's gotta be a place for me

Under some green growing tree

Clear cool water running by

An unfettered view of the sky

But I don't know where I'm bound”

Sadly, this song wasn’t on the vinyl version I grew up with, and what a travesty to not include it.  The other San Quentin song is included, which is Johnny Cash’s own take on the maximum security penitentiary, as he imagines an inmate would view it.  On the surface, “San Quentin” is a visceral attack on the prison itself, as Cash sings “San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell” to a chorus of raucous cheers from the prisoners.

Even as a small boy, I loved the rugged iconoclasm of that line, delivered under the watchful eyes of the very guards and establishment that had invited him in.  Hidden inside the song, however, is an even more subtle attack on the nature of the prison system itself:

“San Quentin, what good do you think you do?

 Do you think I'll be different when you're through?

 You bent my heart and mind and you warp my soul,

Your stone walls turn my blood a little cold”

For all the dehumanizing experience of prison life, Cash has a genuine affection for his audience, notwithstanding that most of them would have earned their way in there.  As Cash puts it in his introduction to San Quentin, “I think I understand a little bit about how you feel about some things, it’s none of my business how you feel about some other things, and I don’t give a damn how you feel about some other things.”

Cash wins the prisoners over with a mix of honesty and irreverence, but he offers them hope in the same place he found it himself in his darkest hours: in religion.  You can almost feel the beaming smile of June Carter behind him as he sings “There’ll Be Peace in the Valley” and “He Turned the Water Into Wine.” “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago,” has a full church service feel, with the Statler brothers and the Carter family pitching in with verses.

It is in these moments that it is clear that Johnny Cash didn’t come to the prison to sell records.  He is there to give these men some hope at a dark time in their lives.  I’m not a religious man, and the devotionals aren’t my favourites, but they are what gives the record its heart.

“Live at San Quentin” is a labour of love for a group of people who hadn’t seen a lot of it in their lives.  It is also one hell of a live record that shows community of spirit can happen anywhere where there is a willing heart and a collection of amazing musicians.

Best tracks:   Big River, I Walk the Line, I Don’t Know Where I’m Bound, Starkville City Jail, San Quentin, Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire