One Bird, Two Lists

If Americana, alt-country or whatever you may call it is your thing, do head over to the Bird List, where thirty of the ´web´s leading aficionados of twanglike music´ picked the best albums of the year. I participated as well, but my list didn´t make much of an impact on the final outcome I guess. Oh well. Maybe I´m just not twang enough.

For the record, here´s my personal top 15 of 2009 as submitted to the Bird List´s totally cool politburo. On the whole, I wasn´t too impressed with what I heard this year to be honest. Quite a few great songs, but not too many consistently great albums. Cool with me though, as that gave me the time to discover tons of amazing older stuff to keep me busy. More about that in a later post.

For The Sake Of The Song´s fave albums of 2009:

1. Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
2. Bonnie Prince Billy & The Picket Line - Funtown Comedown
3. Bob Dylan- Together Through Life
4. Son Volt - American Central Dust
5. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - s/t
6. Molina & Johnson - s/t
7. Espers - III
8. Port O´Brien - Threadbare
9. King Creosote - Flick The Vs
10. Drive-By Truckers - The Fine Print
11. Iron & Wine - Around The Well
12. Simon Joyner - Out Into The Snow
13. Bowerbirds - Upper Air
14. The Western States - Bye And Bye
15. Magnolia Electric Co - Josephine

Which brings us to the moment you´ve all been waiting for: today´s soundtrack, featuring a few choice cuts from my personal hitlist.

Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2 MP3

Molina & Johnson - Twenty Cycles To The Ground MP3

Espers - Caroline MP3

Drive-By Truckers - George Jones Talkin´ Cell Phone Blues MP3

The Western States - The Water Remembers My Face MP3

Nothing About Nothing

"San Francisco´s fine.
You sure get lots of sun...
But I'm used to four seasons,
California's got but one."

Sometimes pleasant surprises come from an unexpected source. NCIS is some American tv series I´ve never heard of, but the freshly released soundtrack - NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack Vol. 2. - brings us a brand new old Dylan song: California.

California´s more or less a blueprint for what would eventually become Outlaw Blues, and was recorded at the sessions for Dylan´s landmark album Bringing It All Back Home in January ´65. The song was in circulation among collectors already, and although I´m not completely sure I guess this is a cleaned-up version thereof.

Anyway, it´s always nice to have one more Dylan song to listen to, but California hardly is Bob´s holy grail. Back then, at the top of his game, he could write a song like this in his sleep. Makes sense that he traded it in for the far superior Outlaw Blues, keeping only the closing verse:

"I´ve got my dark sunglasses

And for good luck I´ve got my black tooth,

Don't ask me nothin' about nothin',

I just might tell you the truth..."

Bob Dylan - California MP3

Bob Dylan - Outlaw Blues MP3

Ghost Ships

"Ghost ships are sailing on empty seas, the light in the darkness don´t shine on me..." As an addendum to last Thursday´s post, here´s another - and in my eyes even better - version of the Saints track Ghosts Ships. Found on Saints vocalist Chris Bailey´s first solo effort Casablanca (´83), and with a beautiful semi-acoustic guitar sound, it´s the same song under a different title: Wait Till Tomorrow. "So wait until tomorrow and we will see, I don't know about tomorrow..."

Chris Bailey - Wait Till Tomorrow MP3

And as a bonus, here are a couple more tracks from that slightly overlooked and long out of print album. Bailey trivia fact: although everybody thinks of him as a full-blooded Aussie, he was in fact born in Kenya and carries an Irish passport.

Chris Bailey - It´s Only Time MP3

Chris Bailey - Home Again MP3

Ok ok, here are some classic Saints tracks as well... No Time comes from their punky debut (I´m) Stranded, while Know Your Product (check out them horns) stems from follow-up Eternally Yours, and Temple Of The Lord from All Fool´s Day. "Drag out your chains, let's all be citizen Kane's, and go dance on the edge of disaster..."

The Saints - No Time MP3

The Saints - Know Your Product MP3

The Saints - Temple Of The Lord MP3

Ship Comes In

"A song will lift as the mainsail shifts...". As the final part of a triptych about the sea, here´s a six pack about ships. Again, picking only half a dozen songs wasn´t easy, but here goes.

Chris Bailey and his Saints were once known as a first generation punk band, but these Aussies were a great white soul combo all along of course. The blistering Ghost Ships is further proof of that theory. Meanwhile, John Cale gives new life to the old allegory of the Ship Of Fools. Find it on Fear, one of his stellar seventies albums.

Maki Asakawa is a Japanese artist I know nothing about really, but her jazzy Shipwreck Blues goes down a treat. As for David Ackles, he´s unjustly forgotten. Ballad Of The Ship Of State comes from his ´72 masterpiece American Gothic. "Is the ship going home? Will you take some old young men for crew?"

Tyler Ramsey´s contribution was part of last year´s impressive debut A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea. Hey Tyler, how about a follow-up dude? And for a closer, there´s Dylan´s majestic When The Ship Comes In. This piano-driven version stems from The Bootleg Series 1-3 treasure trove. "And the sun will respect every face on the deck... the hour that the ship comes in."

The Saints - Ghost Ships MP3

John Cale - Ship Of Fools MP3

Maki Asakawa - Shipwreck Blues MP3

David Ackles - Ballad Of The Ship Of State MP3

Tyler Ramsey - Ships MP3

Bob Dylan - When The Ship Comes In

Songs Of The Sea

"Bring me song of the sea... sing me a song of the sea." After a sailor´s theme, a six pack of songs about the sea is so obvious I almost opted out in the end. But as there are simply too many great songs inspired by the briny, I had no choice really. Selecting six beauties out of a truckload of candidates was hard enough. Here´s the ones that made the cut.

Robert Wyatt´s contribution stems from his terrific Rock Bottom album. "You look different every time you come from the foam-crested brine, it's your skin shining softly in the moonlight... partly fish, partly porpoise, partly baby sperm whale..." Great stuff. Postrockers avant la lettre Codeine succeed in matching the rhythm of the waves, while freakfolkers Tunng are stuck in the big city, transistor radio buzzing, longing for the sea.

Iggy finds himself in the service of the bourgeoisie and threatens to jump into The Endless Sea. A gem from New Values, his last really good album. The protagonist of the Hüskers´ classic punk opera Zen Arcade finds himself at a desolate shore. "The waves kept on repeating, each one crashing to the shore, and my footprints nowhere leading, as they disappeared once more..."

And last but not least here´s Sandy Denny again, this time making an appearance with the great Fotheringay. "Sea flows under your doors in London town, and all your defences are all broken down... you laugh at me on funny days, but mine's the slight of hand... don't you know I am a joker, a deceiver? And I'm waiting for the land."

Robert Wyatt - Sea Song MP3

Codeine - Sea MP3

Tunng - Song Of The Sea MP3

Iggy Pop - The Endless Sea MP3

Hüsker Dü - Standing By The Sea MP3

Fotheringay - The Sea MP3

A Sailor´s Life...

...it is a merry life. That fado about Portuguese sailors in the post below made me think of other songs about that romantic but slowly disappearing profession. So while it seems that everybody else is busy blogging Christmas ditties (I won´t, promise...) here´s a six pack of delicious sailor songs for you. All hands on deck, lift the anchor, and hoist the main sail. The Titanic sails at dawn.

The alternative bluegrass trio Bad Livers tells all about Pee Pee The Sailor, in a hilarious Butthole Surfers cover. Anyone got the original btw? Never could track it down. Sandy Denny shines in Fairport Convention´s beautiful lament A Sailor´s Life, and master picker Leo Kottke finds a sailor´s grave in the strangest of places.

The Detroit Cobras do the marinero rock, while Tim Buckley goes way out there with some stellar vocal improvisation on Starsailor. Bob Dylan, in a rare live performance from ´92, relates of a female sailor. "In her jacket blue and trousers white, just like a sailor neat and tight, the sea, it was the heart's delight, of the female rambling sailor..." Heave ho!

Bad Livers - The Adventures Of Pee Pee The Sailor MP3

Fairport Convention - A Sailor´s Life MP3

Leo Kottke - The Sailor´s Grave On The Prairie MP3

Detroit Cobras - Hey Sailor MP3

Tim Buckley - Starsailor MP3

Bob Dylan - Female Rambling Sailor (live in Perth ´92) MP3

Affectionate Tides

Time for something a little different now: the fado of Portugal. Beautiful, timeless music. The special kind of sadness (a.k.a. saudade) that´s inherent to the genre never fails to move me, especially when Amália Rodrigues is behind the microphone. Amália (1920-1999) was the undisputed queen of fado, or in Portuguese, rainha do fado. An amazing singer, she laid down the rules that modern fadistas still respect today.

Here´s a selection of some of her best songs, including my personal favorite: the rather upbeat yet still vaguely melancholic Fado Marujo. For those who´ve never been to beautiful, ramshackle Lisbon: the Madragoa, Bairro Alto and Alfama mentioned in the lyrics are old city quarters.

"Chega a Lisboa, salta do barco num salto,
Vai parar à Madragoa ou então ao Bairro Alto,
Entra em Alfama e faz de Alfama o convés,
Há sempre um Vasco Da Gama num marujo Português...

(...)

Sempre que passa um marujo português,
Passa o mar numa ameaça de carinhosas marés..."

Which roughly translates as:

"He arrives in Lisbon, hits the quay in one jump,
He´ll end up in Madragoa or later in the Bairro Alto,
Goes to the Alfama and pretends the Alfama is his ship´s deck,

There´s a Vasco Da Gama in every Portuguese sailor...

(...)

Every time a Portuguese sailor passes by,

the sea passes with a threat of affectionate tides..."

Amália Rodrigues - Fado Marujo MP3

Amália Rodrigues - Coimbra MP3

Amália Rodrigues - Fado Malhoa MP3

Amália Rodrigues - Céu Da Minha Rua MP3

Amália Rodrigues - Fado De Adica MP3

Classy

To celebrate my beloved Barça’s´s impressive 1-0 win in yet another steaming edition of El Classico last night, I proudly present... the cool ruler. Here´s to Puyol, Valdez, Ibra and the rest of the squad. "Extra classic that´s what you are..."

Gregory Isaacs - Extra Classic MP3

Gregory Isaacs - Classy Dub MP3

Sun Shines Down On Carlisle Wall

It´s no big step from Joanna Newsom to Alasdair Roberts. They´re labelmates on Drag City, pals with and championed by Bonnie Will Oldham and they both operate in what some people call the freakfolk genre. The former Appendix Out vocalist is a lot less freaky than Newsom though, preferring a more traditional approach to folk. And that´s cool, too.

On my fave album of his for instance, the Scotsman shows a lot of reverence for ye olde ballads he takes on. Following in the footsteps of Shirley Collins, Planxty and Nic ´Penguin Eggs´ Jones, there´s not a trace of postmodern irony here. Tastefully and sparsely instrumentated in a no-frills Oldham production, No Earthly Man simply sounds pure and timeless. For proof, listen to the beautiful infanticide ballad The Cruel Mother, starring Isobel Campbell on cello and John McCusker on fiddle amongst others. "And the lion shall be lord of all..."

Alasdair Roberts - The Cruel Mother MP3

Better Late Than Never

"There's a bell in my ears,
There's a wide white roar,
Drop a bell down the stairs,
Hear it fall forevermore..."

The coin suddenly dropped. People had been telling me for ages I´d love Joanna Newsom´s Ys album, but I never quite got it. And I honestly don´t know why, but yesterday night I easily connected the dots from Memphis Minnie to Billie Holiday to Karen Dalton to Sandy Denny to Patti Smith to Lydia Lunch to... Joanna Newsom, and it all made sense somehow.

"Then I hear a noise from the hull,
Seven days out to sea,
And it is the damnable bell!
And it tolls - well, I believe, that it tolls - it tolls for me!
And it tolls for me!"

Joanna Newsom - Sawdust & Diamonds MP3

Funtown

To paraphrase Steve Earle´s famous remark on Townes Van Zandt: Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy is one of the greatest modern-day musicians around, and I´ll stand on Beck´s coffee table in my Onitsuka Tigers and say that. But hey, he´ll probably agree.

Anyway: Bonnie Prince Billy will soon release his second album of the year, and that´s great news. Entitled Funtown Comedown, and available on vinyl and as a download only, it´ll feature a mix of Bonnie classics and covers performed live with Louisville locals The Picket Line. So you´d better hoof it pronto to these fine folks over at Drag City, one of my fave record labels for well over a decade now, as they´ve got an exclusive track not on the album available for free download. You´ll be amazed by the remarkably loose and upbeat sound I guess. Very promising.

While we´re waiting, here are some fun guest appearances of the prolific lion of Louisville. Covering a Buck Owens tune with Susanna, building bridges with Angie Hart, hiphopping with Sage Francis, going ambient in Iceland with Valgeir Sigurðsson, doing the lofi with the Sundowners, or comforting Scout Niblett: it´s all good.

Bonnie Prince Billy & Susanna - (I´ll Love You) Forever And Ever MP3

Angie Hart - Little Bridges MP3

Sage Francis - Sea Lion MP3

Valgeir Sigurðsson - Evolution Of Waters MP3

Sundowners - Turkey Vulture MP3

Scout Niblett - Comfort You MP3