Posts Tagged ‘Judy Collins’

  
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Live Music: Folk Festival 50, Newport, R.I. (Day Two)

by Ken Shane

Josh RitterTo be honest, I had my doubts about Day Two of Folk Festival 50. First of all, I was still tired from the day one. Next, it appeared that the lineup wasn’t quite as strong as it was on Saturday, and yet it was hard to deny that there were some compelling artists scheduled. The weather was also a bit iffy, with rain and thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon.

Josh Ritter was the first performer on the Fort Stage on Sunday, and he was one of the prime reasons that I was at the festival. I’m a big fan of the Idaho songwriter, and his set did not disappoint. He appeared with his full band, and they sounded great on songs like “Right Moves,” and “Real Long Distance” from Josh’s most recent album, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, and on the title track from his 2003 album Hello Starling. The real standout however, was one that Josh played solo, the beautiful and powerful anti-war song “Girl In the War.” He dedicated “Another New World” to Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. Not only is Josh a wonderful songwriter and performer, he comes across as a completely genuine guy, and the early audience at Fort Adams was very appreciative. (more…)

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Monday, June 29th, 2009

The Popdose Interview: Amy Speace

by Jon Cummings

Singer-songwriter Amy Speace’s new album is one of those projects whose success you’re tempted to attribute to the big names that appear in the credits. In the case of The Killer in Me (available June 30), it’s a stellar list: in addition to James Mastro, her producer and guitarist, who once led the Bongos and the Health & Happiness Show, there’s Brit-rock legend Ian Hunter, who lends backing vocals to two tracks, and recording engineer Mitch Easter, who hosted sessions for the album at his Fidelitorium studio in North Carolina.

Still, it’s Speace’s album, though Speace herself defies easy characterization. She records for Judy Collins’s label, Wildflower, but she’s not a pure folkie. She recorded a bluegrass rave-up of Blondie’s “Dreaming” for her last album, Songs for Bright Street, but nobody will mistake her for Alison Krauss (or Debbie Harry, for that matter). She sounds just as comfortable rocking a fuzz pedal as she does backed by fiddles and banjos.

As a result, The Killer in Me is truly killer — one of the finest Americana albums to come along in years. Recovering from her recent divorce and other personal calamities, Speace holed herself up in a cabin in the Catskills and emerged with songs as caustic as the title track and as bleak as “Haven’t Learned a Thing,” with its opening lyric “I have failed and I have fallen, cried ’til I was bawling / Been down so low my face was on the tiles.” But the album also has room for tracks as radiant as “Better,” which Speace says she couldn’t get just right until she, Mastro, and Easter spent some time “dancing around the control room to the Faces’ ‘Ooh La La.’” Popdose caught up with Speace last week in Cleveland, where she was about to kick off her U.S. tour.

It’s hard not to be impressed by the diversity of styles you engage in your music. So many singer-songwriters get bogged down in a sameness of sounds and tempos, but you just blow right through one genre after another. How do you account for your ability to bring such variety?

I think it’s that I just don’t give a shit. (laughs) I don’t care about genre classifications, and I’m not going to limit what I’m doing to fit into somebody’s little box of who I should be. Maybe it’s because I came into this as a second career [previously an actress and drama teacher, she once toured with the National Shakespeare Company], and never had a chance to spend much time thinking about what kind of artist I want to be. I know that ever since I was a kid, the stuff I’ve liked to listen to went from Waylon Jennings and Townes Van Zandt to the Replacements and X.

So I figure I should just make the music that’s in my head and not pay attention to radio genres, because I’m not gonna get a lot of radio play anyway. You know, people aren’t going into Wal-Mart to buy my record. It’s people like me, who read No Depression and sit around at folk festivals all day and are constantly seeking out new shit to listen to.

(more…)

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Thursday, June 25th, 2009

The Producers: Leaving Elektra, Life With the Crüe, and Meeting Twisted Sister

by Tom Werman

producers_big

I departed Elektra after four months as Vice President in charge of A&R. I had signed one band (Stranger, whose album included a song called “There’s a Party in My Pants and You’re Invited”) and agreed to produce three Elektra albums per year for two years; I would receive an advance fee that would be collateralized against any future royalties (if the album recouped its recording costs), and I would receive a number of percentage points per album, based on the retail price (I can’t recall the number exactly, but I know it was quite acceptable to me after seven years of being underpaid for producing). I was happy with this, as it was competitive with the best production deals at the time. If I could be fortunate enough to produce a platinum album with these terms, I stood to make half a million dollars.

Before exiting the label, I attended the Grammys with Bob and a few other executives – a pretty boring affair lasting four hours (it’s actually recorded “live on tape,” which allows for reshoots), replete with orders to minimize the number of trips we made to the bathroom in order to avoid visibly empty seats. The next time I had an opportunity to attend the Grammys, I passed. I had one personally significant meeting at the office with a Mrs. Ellis McDaniel, who was Bo Diddley’s wife. I can’t recall the express purpose of our meeting, but Bo Diddley was such a heavy musical influence on me in my teenage years that I count this as one of the more significant meetings I had while at Elektra. (more…)

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Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

CD Review: Leonard Cohen, “Live in London”

by Ken Shane

Leonard Cohen LiveThe definition of “cool” is a very amorphous thing. Basically, it depends on who’s doing the defining. One thing that a lot of people agree on these days is that Leonard Cohen is cool, and there is nothing in this new live CD set to suggest otherwise. Live in London (Columbia) comes to us from a July 17, 2008 concert that took place at that city’s O2 arena. The then 73-year-old Cohen clearly beguiled his British audience, and that effect is not lost in the transition to the recorded medium.

Blessed with a sartorially and musically resplendent band, and armed with a bushel of great songs from his 40-plus year career, Cohen could have hardly gone wrong, and he doesn’t. The first thing that strikes you is, of course, that voice. Deep as the depths of night, tender when it’s called for, edgy when required by the material, it is the perfect vehicle for these grand songs which have nobly stood the test of time. As Cohen writes in “Tower of Song,” “I was born like this / I had no choice / I was born with the gift of a golden voice …”

To call Cohen’s band tasteful would be something of an understatement. As I listened to their sympathetic accompaniment, I was reminded in some ways of Steely Dan in the sense of the way that the deceptively smooth music masked the darkness of the lyrics. These musicians clearly understand that their role is not to stand out individually, but to make Cohen stand out by playing collectively. That said, Cohen recognizes their contribution by name-checking them at various points in the set. One musician who really does shine is Javier Mas. He plays a variety of stringed instruments, and each of his solos is brilliantly considered. Keyboard player Neil Larsen and guitarist Bob Metzger also have some nice moments.

Though the performance is filled with classics from various eras of Cohen’s career, there can be little doubt that the real standout is his reading of his often-covered gem “Hallelujah,” which features a brilliant arrangement, and a passionate performance from Cohen. Other standouts are the insane proclamations of “First We Take Manhattan,” and “Suzanne,” originally written as a poem about the wife of a friend, and perhaps the first song to bring Cohen to public attention as a songwriter, in my case through a beautiful cover version by Judy Collins.

Cohen is in good spirits throughout, charming, and self-deprecating. He delights the audience when he recounts that the last time he stood on a London stage, in 1994, he was “just a 60-year-old kid with a crazy dream.” There is a reason why Leonard Cohen is one of the most respected musicians in the world among his peers, and it’s on full display here. Acolytes like U2 and REM sing his praises, and with good reason. He is a poet in every sense of the word, weaving together indelible images into a beautiful, and sometimes troubling tapestry. If you haven’t become a believer yet, this is a great place to jump in.

When you look up “cool” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Leonard Cohen there.

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Friday, December 5th, 2008

The Fifth Day of Mellowmas: A Little River Christmas

by Jeff Giles and Jason Hare

We bet you didn’t even know that Little River Band released a Christmas CD this year!  Well, now you know.  Please, thank us later.

Little River Band — Mary’s Christmas (download)

From We Call It Crap Christmas Amazon

Jeff: Ooh, pretty!

Jason: Pretty piano opening.

Jeff: Nice guitar. And here’s the dildo singer to ruin it all.

Jason: She was an ordinary girl who…oh, no.

She was an ordinary girl who loved a carpenter
Now they’re makin’ wedding plans
She knows he could leave her there to bear the shame
But he’s not that kinda man.

Oh, fuck. What the hell are they talking about? What is this, some contemporary Christmas story?

Jeff: They’re totally turning the baby Jesus story into a red-state tale of premarital sex woe!

Jason: “It will be a miracle if they can get through this.” Are they talking about us?

Jeff: Joseph is just some poor bastard who’s gotten roped into raising Mary’s bastard baby!

Jason: Hey, it’s HER Christmas, dude.

Jeff: True, true. Is that why she’s guzzling Schapps even though she’s nine months pregnant?

Jason: Oh my god. They’re talking about rumors spreading.

Jeff: This is AWFUL.

Jason: I know.

Jeff: They just did the bit about Mary being told her baby will be a king one day, but tonight he’s just her baby, and the world will have to wait.

Jason: And who do we blame? I mean, Little River Band doesn’t even have any of the original members, right?

Jeff: This makes Barry’s song look restrained. Soaring guitar solo! Gearshift! FUCK YOU, LITTLE RIVER BAND!

Jason: They rhyme “Christmas” with “sure just.” Who DOES that?

Jeff: We call them dried-up has-beens.

Jason: “Just an ordinary girl who loved a carpenter.”

Jeff: Oh, that was foul.

Jason: Thank god they repeated that line.

Jeff: Yeah.

Jason: Because I had almost forgotten how much it irritated me the first time around.

Jeff: I do believe I detected the distinctive odor of the pro-life movement in those lyrics, too.

Jason: I played this for Jessica and she said, “this is offensive to…absolutely everybody.”

Jeff: It takes a special kind of dickweed to insert your political beliefs into a holiday song, doesn’t it?

Jason: (stares at Judy Collins)

Jeff: Ha ha ha ha ha! Careful — I’ve heard that if you look her directly in the eyes, you turn to stone.

Jason: Hold on, I’m squeezing toothpaste into my eyes.

Jeff: Anyway, back to this shitty band. Are all the original members gone? Who can we blame for writing this terrible piece of dreck?

Jason: Hold on, I’ll get the CD. It’s under a few banana peels in the kitchen garbage.

Jeff: That was a gift!

Jason: I’m re-gifting it! To the kids that were bombed in Sarajevo!

Jeff: Haven’t they suffered enough? Rivers of blood, fire raining from the sky, AND the Shitty River Band?

Jason: Music credits go to “Elenburg, Helton, Swain.” Who are “Elenburg, Helton, Swain”?

Jeff: I’m trying to get their address. No luck. They must be pseudonyms.

Jason: Smart move. Plus, this CD has no UPC code, no record label information…

Jeff: All I know is, if I ever meet anyone with any of those last names, I’m kicking them in the junk.

Jason: So the oldest member of the band, I believe, is Wayne Nelson, who is the bassist and sings lead vocals.

Jeff: But is he a founding member?

Jason: Oh, of course not. He joined in 1980, 5 years after the band formed.

Jeff: That’s hilarious.

Jason: The band started in Australia, but i’m not sure any Australians are in it. Nelson is from Rome, Illinois. A suburb of Peoria. “Song for Peoria.”

Jeff: I’m looking at a LRB message board thread about this album.

Jason: Oh yeah?

Jeff: “I just checked thier website, and there’s no original members left! I’ll take a pass on this…”

Jason: Ha ha ha! I know what’s going to happen next. We’re going to get one of those “LRB are GREAT! You’re just jealous!” comments.

Jeff: Oh, I hope so. I’d love to talk to a LRB fan and find out what makes them tick. Other than light beer and generic cigarettes.

Jason: Okay, so I found this about the disc: “We chose songs written by a diverse group of writers – from Kenny Loggins to Keb Mo, from Neil Diamond to Mariah Carey.”

Jeff: What?

Jason: I’m serious!

Jeff: Oh shit, they do “Celebrate Me Home”!

Jason: Yeah. It’s not good. Kenny’s version was at least a little soulful. Not this version. I will tell you that their version of “Silent Night” starts out as a guitar instrumental, and is absolutely awesome. No joke.

Jeff: If this was an instrumental album, I think I might like it.

Jason: But then they add vocals and shit and they turn it to crap. And their version of “‘Til the Season Comes ‘Round Again” is also quite nice. There are a few songs on there that aren’t too bad, to be honest.

Jeff: God, you’re really into the giving spirit of Mellowmas, aren’t you?

Jason: “Mary’s Christmas,” however, is…well, you know. Have you listened to the rest of the CD?

Jeff: I hear “Mary’s Christmas” and I never want to listen to another LRB song again.

Jason: Have you?

Jeff: No!

Jason: What the FUCK, Jeff? I’ve listened to EVERY SINGLE SONG you’ve sent me for Mellowmas consideration! EVERY SINGLE ONE! I listened to the ENTIRE Jarreau CD. And all of Judy Collins.

Jeff: Well, you know, you made a mistake, which was telling me which song you wanted us to do from this album. This is the only one I haven’t listened to all of, if it makes you feel better.

Jason: It doesn’t. Listen to all of it and then I’ll feel better.

Jeff: Having heard “Mary’s Christmas,” I can understand why it doesn’t make you feel better.

Jason: Especially listen to “Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child” or “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” which is a song that just never, ever, ever needs to be covered.

Jeff: Especially by some hacks using someone else’s band name.

Jason: The original members of the band lost the rights to the name. So they have to tour under their last names.

Jeff: That’s almost as sad as “Song for Sarajevo.”

Jason: Which, as you can imagine, sells MILLIONS of tickets. I wonder if they would have the balls to rhyme “Christmas” with “sure just”?

Jeff: If I started a band, and it sold some records, and then some other asswipes went and stole the name for shit like this, I don’t think I’d have the energy to do much other than cry.

Jason: Just an ordinary girl who loved a carpenter, Jeff.

Oh, wait! Maybe the lyric is “Just an ordinary girl who loved a Carpenter.” Maybe she’s talking about Richard?

Jeff: …Or Karen! The love that dares not speak its name!

Jason: Oooh, lesbian gearshift! I like it!

Jeff: Ooh, “Mary’s Christmas” just got a whole lot better!

Jason: There’s a joke to be made here about a Christmas bush, I just know it.

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Thursday, December 4th, 2008

The Fourth Day of Mellowmas: Sarajevomas…?

by Jeff Giles and Jason Hare

[Note: After reading this, you may be in desperate need of some actual holiday cheer -- so head on over to visit our friends at Suburban Sprawl, who have just released their annual free holiday compilation. Now, on with the show!]

Yes, children, believe it or not, we’re only on day four of Mellowmas.  Doesn’t it seem like we’ve been listening to crappy holiday music forever?  Well, bad news: today’s no different.

You see, kids, back in 1994, Judy Collins chose to bestow upon the world a Christmas album.  Come Rejoice!  A Judy Collins Christmas, it was called.  And yeah, it contained all the traditional Christmas songs, but also a curious little ditty entitled “Song for Sarajevo.” And that’s the song we’ll be listening to today.  But first…

Jason: So, Jeff, before we even start playing this track, I want you to know: I have high, high hopes for this song.

Jeff: I don’t know why.

Jason: I mean, “Song for Sarajevo”? I think this is going to be really, really uplifting. I think I’m going to walk away feeling really good about the world. Even better than when Bono told me to thank God it’s them instead of me.

Jeff: Your optimism…it’s contagious.

Jason: I mean, I don’t know. Have you ever been to Sarajevo?

Jeff: I hear it’s lovely this time of year.

Jason: Maybe it’s a wonderful, prosperous place that Santa enjoys. And that Judy Collins enjoys, too.

Jeff: I think they hang mistletoe over the landmines.

Jason: Maybe Judy and Santa go together. Do a little Bob Hope-esque show.

Jeff: Can Judy even move? I mean, I don’t want to be indelicate, but judging from the cover photo…

Jason: Hang on, let me see where I put the CD. Oh, here it is, in the trash.

Jeff: You threw it away? That was a gift! That cost me a whole three dollars!

Jason: I’m re-gifting it to my garbage man! Maybe he, too, will be moved and uplifted by “Song for Sarajevo.” We can play the track now. I just wanted to let you know that I have a huge smile on my face, and am ready to feel really, really good about myself and the world.

So bring it to me, Judy.

Judy Collins — Song for Sarajevo (download)

From Come Rejoice! A Judy Collins Christmas Amazon

Jason: Uh oh. That key. It sounds minor.

Jeff: Oh my god! Blood in all the streets!

Jason: RUNNING LIKE A FLOOD! Dude. We’re FUCKED. She touched death itself!

Jeff: That explains the cover!

Jason: Ha ha ha ha!

Jeff: Planes! Bombing! Why?

Jason: I LOVE Christmas songs that mention bombing!

Jeff: Why did this sick bitch put this song on a Christmas record?

Jason: But hang on…when she closes her eyes, she dreams of peace. Of flowers on the hill.

Jeff: How nice for her. When I close my eyes now, I’m going to dream of death and Hell. And singing eunuchs.

Jason: Hang on. I have to go open my window and jump out.

Jeff: Once I had a home? Oh, this is awful.

Jason: Jesus, she has some real mother issues, doesn’t she? Maybe her mother is Mary?

Jeff: This is the most depressing “holiday” song EVER.

Jason: Did she say something before about fire raining down her life?

Jeff: Judy Collins fucking hates Christmas.

Jason: Hang on. I am stapling my ears shut.

Jeff: War is an evil bird, and every promise has been broken.

Jason: But hold on, Jeff. Because when she closes her eyes, she dreams of peace. When I close my eyes, I dream of dancing cheek to cheek with Michael McDonald, but that’s not happening either.

Jeff: Hold on, I’m swallowing toilet cleaner.

Jason: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Jeff: We’ve been so preoccupied with the lyrics, we haven’t mentioned the music, which sounds like October Project crossed with a bowel movement.

Jason: Hold up. My bathtub is almost full. I’m just going to go get the toaster.

Wait, now she’s asking us: When we close our eyes, do we dream of peace?

Jeff: Send in the clowns, Judy! Send in the fucking clowns RIGHT NOW!

Jason: I was to understand there would be uplifting moments here!

Jeff: Or do the clowns have bayonets?

Jason: Holy crap, she totally wavered on that last “peace.” And the eunuchs still sing. A fade-out? What, no big finish?

Jeff: That song had less holiday spirit than Eazy-E’s “Merry Motherfuckin’ Christmas.”

Jason: No “peace….OH YEAH!” ending?

Jeff: God, can you just imagine Christmas at Judy Collins’ house?

Jason: One second. I’m swallowing an entire bag of coal.

Jeff: “Before we bite into this delicious ham, I just wanted to let everyone know I ran over a kitten on the way here.”

Jason: She’s Judy Downer! “Merry Christmas, Aunt Judy!” “Yes, it’s so merry, except for the fire raining down my life.”

Jeff: “Would everyone like to come see the river of kitten blood out in the street?”

Jason: Ha ha ha ha!

Jeff: I would like to have a Mellowmas first right now. I would like to apologize for sending you this disc.

Jason: !!! Really?

Jeff: Are you kidding? This is terrible! And not in a good way, either! Seriously, what the fuck was she thinking?

Jason: There’s actually a song on this disc I liked. “Charlie & The Bells Medley: White Christmas/Happy New Year”

Jeff: Really? I thought it was going to be “Death of a Homeless Man on New Year’s Eve.”

Jason: And it looks like I gave “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” 3 out of 5 stars.

Jeff: I think I’d give Wing three stars after listening to this. At least Wing knows how to have a good time. Shit.

Jason: The Wing and Judy Collins Christmas Special. Can’t you see it? Shots of a very confused studio audience. The key grip hanging himself in the corner.

Jeff: Hang on. I’m pooping a Jarreaumas.

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Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Desert Island Discs: Tim Smith and Michael Quercio

by Darren Robbins


Tim Smith (ex-Jellyfish, current member of Sheryl Crow’s band)

1. The Beatles, Rubber Soul

My favorite period for the band, as they were firing on all cylinders. Pre-self-indulgent, post-early-sugar-pop.

“If I Needed Someone”

2. XTC, Black Sea

Their last record as a true “band.” Full of experiments, sonically and musically. They are one of my all-time faves. “Respectable Street” has one of the most amazing guitar riffs.

“Respectable Street” (more…)

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