It Is Longing That I Feel

Better start saving up y´all, as the Soulsavers are about to release a follow-up to their impressive It´s Not How Far You Fall, It´s The Way You Land (´07) pretty soon. The British producer twosome Rich Machin and Ian Glover have once again invited former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan to sing on the bulk of their material, and that sure is good news. His voice matches perfectly with the atmospheric, moody musical landscapes the duo manages to cook up.

Bonnie Prince Billy will also be present once more, performing a Lanegan original no less, while other tracks feature Spiritualized´s Jason Pierce, Faith No More´s Mike Patton and last but not least Butthole Surfer Gibby Haines.

Here´s a fine taste of the new album, tentatively called Broken, with Lanegan doing a mighty fine piano-driven version of the Bonnie Prince Billy penned Palace Brothers´ classic You Will Miss Me When I Burn.

Soulsavers - You Will Miss Me When I Burn MP3

Palace Brothers - You Will Miss Me When I Burn MP3

Novelty Grab Bag

Thanks god it´s Friday... and I guess you all know what that means by now. Yup, it´s Grab Bag time again, where you get to hear the highlights of my personal musical diet of the past week. 

Tonight Grab Bag goes country big time, with no less than three fine novelty songs featuring southern accents, steel guitars and twang. But that´s not all folks. Also got the Soulsavers for you, with a track from last year´s wonderful collaboration with Mark Lanegan. Plus there´s a new group called Community Gun just begging to be introduced, and the reggae pick of the week just happens to be the heavenly vocal trio The Mighty Diamonds. Enjoy. I must be off now to listen to my latest acquisition: Sibylle Baier´s Colour Green album... More on her next week.

Let´s get the ball rolling with some wacky country songs. God Less America (Crypt ´98) is an amazing collection of novelty country songs. It´s subtitled A Heartrendering Set Of Country & Western Tales Of Misery And Confusion: 1955-1966 and that´s spot on for once. Just take Too Many Pills, Arkey Blue´s woeful tale of a pillpoppin´ country singer on a downslide. "The women, the pills, the whiskey, all haunt his memory..." Nice rhyme there. It suddenly strikes me this could well be another song about Ole Hank...

Arkey Blue & The Blue Cowboys - Too Many Pills MP3

From the same album (long out of print, try eBay) comes the hilarious ditty Please Don´t Go Topless, Mother. Young Troy Hess pleads with his mom to please please please stop her go-go dancing ways. How old is this kid anyway? Not yet in his teens I guess. "You´re ruining your reputation, and I can give you two big reasons why." Poor lad.

Troy Hess - Please Don´t Go Topless, Mother MP3

Time for some roots reggae now. The Mighty Diamonds have been one of Jamaica´s finest vocal trios for decades, and as far as I know they´re still around. Their finest hour without a doubt was Right Time (Virgin ´76), their flawless and very rootsy debut album. Donald ´Tabby´ Sharpe, Fitzroy ´Bunny´ Simmons and Lloyd Ferguson sure knew how to let their voices melt together in a way that must have pleased Jah. "Natty Dread Will Never Run Away." Right on.

Mighty Diamonds - Right Time MP3

Mighty Diamonds - Gnashing Of Teeth MP3

I just can´t get enough of the Soulsavers beautiful It´s Not How Far You Fall, It´s The Way You Land (V2 ´07). Their Neil Young cover Through My Sails not only features former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan, who´s present on nearly all the tracks on the album, but we get Will Oldham in the choir as well. How atmospheric can you get? The original, the only track on Zuma (´75) without Crazy Horse but with Crosby, Stills and Nash, pales in comparison. And that´s saying something.

Soulsavers - Through My Sails MP

Neil Young - Through My Sails MP3

I´m always a sucker for good songtitles. So when Community Gun sent me their new self-released ep and I discovered a song called Midnight Moses And Eileen on it I just had to check it out... Sounds promising, don´t you agree? And lo and behold, the Highland, New York quartet proved me right with a great song. Tom Waits meets the Mats? Something like that. If I worked for a record label, I´d sign ´em up pronto.

Community Gun - Midnight Moses And Elaine MP3

Well alright then, one more song from God Less America to close up tonight´s chapter of Grab Bag. Eddie Noack (´30-´78) was a honky tonk singer and songwriter with degrees in English and journalism, surely a rarity. He got famous when Hank Snow recorded his song These Hands in ´56. The funny Dolores finds him in psycho territory. "There´s a killer in the neighbourhood, Dolores. A man who sees a girl and goes berserk..." If Dolores had just followed his sound advice to stay inside the house that fateful night, she would not have gotten killed... by her serial killer husband himself.

Eddie Noack - Dolores MP3

Lanegan revisited

As promised, here´s some more Mark Lanegan stuff. I´ve always been a fan of his first band the Screaming Trees, and albums like Buzz Factory, Uncle Anesthesia and Sweet Oblivion (with the powerful Nearly Lost You) still get played regularly around here. Lanegan´s solo work proved quite different from the psychedelic grunge the Trees dished out, and showcased his extraordinary dark voice on moody albums like the beautifully arranged Whiskey For The Holy Ghost (including the exquisite Borracho) and the tasteful covers collection I´ll Take Care Of You.

Last year saw a fascinating collaboration with the Soulsavers. Lanegan provided the vocals for the British electronica duo´s It´s Not How Far You Fall, It´s The Way You Land. The gospelish opener Revival is a killer, but the rest of the songs are not too far behind. Lanegan´s next project will be a long awaited teaming up with Afghan Whigs vocalist Greg Dulli as the Gutter Twins. Although I´m usually not too fond of the whole supergroup trip, this one sure looks like a potential dream combination. Two great white soulsingers (which they are of course, their grungy background notwithstanding) for the price of one, right? Idle Hands hasn´t really convinced me yet, but let´s put our judgements on hold until Sub Pop releases the full album Saturnalia next month.

Screaming Trees - Nearly Lost You MP3

Mark Lanegan - Borracho MP3

Soulsavers - Revival MP3

The Gutter Twins - Idle Hands MP3

Spiritual stuff

Embroidering on yesterday´s Jesus Dread thingy, here are three versions of a song called Spiritual. A dark, soulsearching, brooding plea to a saviour. Now I´m an atheist myself, but that doesn´t stop me from enjoying songs with a religious theme. Same as I can walk into a grand cathedral (or a beautiful Hindu temple) and admire the art and the atmosphere there, or read a chapter in the bible (or the Buddhist teachings) and enjoy its literary merits, music based on faith can warm the hart whether you believe or not.

Spiritual is a moodpiece of the highest order, written in 1995 by Josh Haden for Spain´s debut album The Blue Moods Of Spain. "Jesus oh Jesus I don´t want to die alone, Jesus if you hear my last breath, don´t leave me here, left to die a lonely death I know I have sinned but Lord I´m suffering..." A song more or less made for someone like Johnny Cash, who covered it on Unchained (´96). Cash can sing the Memphis phonebook and I´d buy it, but I guess his age and rep gives this interpretation just that little bit extra. Nice sparse arrangement too. The Soulsavers (featuring singer Mark Lanegan, formerly of the Screaming Trees) also did a worthy version of this song on last year´s surprising It´s Not How Far You Fall, It´s The Way You Land. You can´t get much more atmospheric I guess. More on the Soulsavers and Lanegan in the next post btw, folks. I really can´t decide which version of the three I like most, so please post a comment if you have a preference and why ok?

Spain - Spiritual MP3

Johnny Cash - Spiritual MP3

Soulsavers - Spiritual Mp3