Cracks In Sidewalks

Jess Chalker “You and Me Said the Raindrop to the Seed” (The You and Me song)

I guess it’s somewhat perfect to follow the Joni Mitchell posting with this one.  A friend of mine just turned me on to this unsigned singer/songwriter from Australia who got featured on YouTube for her song “You and Me Said the Raindrop to the Seed” (The You and Me song.)  And in trying to get some info on her and give you more than a YouTube link I came across her Myspace page.  Under influences the first person she mentions in a very long list of influences is Joni Mitchell.

So what have I learned about Jess Chalker after watching about 8 of her videos that she has posted on YouTube, I feel as if I discovered a disarming talented singer/songwriter whom I bet will be signed by years end.  A&R guys, check her out!  She’s posted about 15 to 20 original songs on YouTube, just Jess and her guitar to whom you’re about to be introduced.  To me she seems like the complete package.  Her videos are very simple, mostly Jess in her living room singing solo, playing acoustic guitar in a contemporary folk style.  There’s nothing fancy, just a pure voice, simple guitar styling, and a beautiful girl singing smart lyrics with meaning.  Besides the song I’m posting below one of my other favorites was “He Kissed Me Twice.”  I also liked “This Little Heart.”

So, good luck Jess.  I hope this posting wins you a few more fans, and better yet a contract.  If it does, be sure to let us know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AW-LgDx_Qk

Having been a major Joni Mitchell fan ever since I opened my mouth and realized I could sing, I’ve been playing and listening to Joni Mitchell for years.  She may quite possibly be my biggest musical hero of all!  Besides being an outstanding musician and lyricist, she has a great voice, is beautiful, original, explorative, inventive, does unusual open tunings on her guitar, and she’s a good painter.  In my book Joni is in a class and a league all her own to be admired and awed, and loved from both near and afar.

To begin with I chose a song not from her early career, which most people are familiar with, and not a song that is all that recent either.  The song I chose was the title track to her 1991 album by the same name, “Night Ride Home” and the entire CD, not just this one song is one that I never tire of hearing.  I’m certain over the years I have played it at least one thousand times without exaggeration.  Some times I just get in the mood and have to hear it.  It is great for both late night and early morning listening and the cricket sounds that open the CD always make me feel like I am in the wild, tucked away in a cabin some where and not in some NYC apartment or even driving in a car up or down the California coast.

Mitchell’s awards and honors are too numerous to mention, and her influence on other singers and artists has been likewise widespread.  It would probably be easier to compile a list of artists she hasn’t influenced then a list of ones she has.  This Canadian born singer/songwriter/artist has a discography that spans 40 years and more than 20 albums, beginning with her first LP, “Song to a Seagull,” that was released in 1968, to her most recent album, “Shine,” released in 2007.

To view the music video of Joni Mitchell singing “Night Ride Home,” simply click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser and enjoy the ride!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xupUGoPEJ8o

With Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man” as this weeks “Weekly Hype,” I decided to choose Antony for today’s “Daily Tune On.”  There were so many moving performances in the movie, it was hard to choose one, but Antony is such an unusual character to me and his performance of  “If It Be Your Will” was so emotional that he is where I ultimately landed for this one entry.

To me Antony has such an unusual sounding voice that it stands out in a crowd and rises above most others.  Watching him perform you feel as if you are being given entry to a very private moment, a glimpse into the man’s soul, and if you move you might disturb the mood or you could be asked to leave.  It is very personal, a bit like watching the face of a guitarist as he takes the most intimate solo of his life, letting out what he’s held inside for so long.  He seems to channel his vocal experience.   At times he can look uncomfortable and even disturbed, moving his hands back and forth, going deep inside himself, but you know what he is touching is very pure and its essence is revealed in the vocal performance you hear on the other end.

For this piece I have chosen the song Antony sang at the concert for “I’m Your Man.”  It’s a Leonard Cohen song entitled “If It Be Your Will.”

Antony, whose full name is Antony Hegarty, plays with a group called Antony and the Johnsons.  You can also see and hear him in the Lou Reed movie, “Berlin,” Steve Buscemi’s movie “Animal Factory” and several others.  He can be heard on the soundtrack to the Dylan inspired movie, “I’m Not There,” as well as many other artistic vehicles.   In 2005 Antony and the Johnsons released the “I Am a Bird Now” LP on the Secretly Canadian label.

To see Antony perform “I’m Your Man,” simply click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MDlMdu2gjw

Before starting “Cracks In Sidewalks,” I made a list of musicians I thought would be fun to talk about, and Bob’s name surfaced.  I really had no idea what he had been up to, but I figured it would be interesting, so I googled him.  (I think YouTube has about 40 Bob Brozman videos on their site.)

I first met Bob many years ago in Santa Cruz, California.  He was working in the same music store as my boyfriend, also a guitarist but more a Wes Montgomery type, and they became friends.  From the beginning we were in awe of Bob and went to see him as often as we could when he had gigs.  He would also come to hear my boyfriend play and they would exchange musical tips.  We’d go to his house in the mountains for dinner, listen to old 78’s because Bob didn’t own anything but an old 78 phonograph.  We’d talk about music, and visit a special room in his house where all sorts of beautiful old string instruments lived and lined the walls, including a number of old “National” guitars, and a 1920’s yuke, that would eventually came home to live with us.  Besides his solo gigs on occasion we would make trips to Berkeley to hear Bob play with his “other” band, the “Cheap Suit Serenaders,” legendary comic book artist, R. Crumb’s, “novelty band.”  And the last time we spoke he told me he had just obtained the world’s second largest collection of Hawaiian 78’s, a fact I’ve never forgotten.  But that was a long time ago and it’s been years now since I’ve seen or spoken to Bob.

Bob Brozman is unique and always has been.  It’s hard to describe him but it’s as if he were born of another era and came out with his guitar in hand ready to wander and play; sort of like Woody Guthrie, only in the body of a skinny wiry haired charismatic New Yorker.  He’s a virtuoso slide guitarist full of energy and humor who also knows all the fun show “tricks” of his trade; how to slap his guitar to sound like a bass or a drum, how to play with his instrument behind his back, and most of all how to make the audience happy with his contagious renditions of whatever it is he is playing.  I really don’t know if there is anyone else quite like him around. He’s what musicians refer to as a “musicians musician,” the highest complement one musician can give another!

From what I read before writing this article, Bob is on the road almost constantly touring the world and has become even more of an ethnomusicologist and world musical expert.  He is someone not known to the mainstream, but has something to offer everyone.  I’ve attached two links below.  The first link will take you directly to Bob’s official website, and the second will take you to one of his many YouTube performances.  Check out a couple while you’re on the site.  You’ll have a lot of fun and you can thank me later for turning you on to this “world” musical treasure.

http://www.bobbrozman.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX–sM5G52U&feature=related

“A Change Is Gonna Come”

Whenever in need of inspiration Aaron Neville is there with “A Change Is Gonna Come”.  For me when I listen to this song I think of not only a universal change for the betterment of mankind, but I also think about what ever changes I need to implement in my own personal life in order to facilitate movement to help lead me to a better place.  When I hear Aaron Neville sing this song, it makes me believe that anything is possible.  That a change will truly come, “oh yes it will.”

To listen to a rendition of this song, click on the link below or cut and paste the link into your browser.

http://www.nutsie.com/song/A%20Change%20Is%20Gonna%20Come/86722

To learn more about Aaron Neville and The Neville Brothers check out the link below.

http://www.nevilles.com/

Somehow I missed the Cocteau Twins when they were around and playing.  I guess I was into other music then.  It wasn’t until 2001 that I listened to the Cocteau Twins for the first time and at the time I didn’t realize that they had already been disbanded for years.  But I fell in love with the vocals and sound of the band even when I could barely understand a word that was being sung.  It still conveyed emotion and at times possibly even more.

I was first introduced to the band with their CD “Blue Bell Knoll.”  So I decided to introduce the Cocteau Twins to this blog with the song “Blue Bell Knoll” from the disc of the same name.

The band was comprised of Scottish singer, Elizabeth Fraser, who was the vocalist and lyricist for the band, Scottish guitarist, keyboard, drum and bass player Robin Guthrie, and English bass, guitar, and piano player Simon Raymonde.  By this time Will Heggie had left the group and Simon Raymonde had taken his place.   All three contributed to the songwriting and feel of the group and also to this particular cut.

If you want to talk about the sound of the Cocteau Twins, the words that come to my mind are ethereal, haunting, and other worldly.  When Elizabeth Fraser sings, she could be singing anything; you don’t focus on the lyrics of a song, you just feel the music.  And the musical montage that creates the setting on which her vocals fall, rounds out the cloud on which they land.   I guess that’s what I like best about their sound.  It can take me anywhere I want to be at the time I’m listening to it, and I don’t have to think.

Below I’ve connected you to two links.  The first is a YouTube video that someone put together using the Cocteau Twin’s cut from the CD “Blue Bell Knoll.”   I want you to be able to hear the entire song.  And the second I just couldn’t resist, having always been a major Tim Buckley fan, it’s a video I found on YouTube of Elizabeth Frazer singing live, Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren.”  She does an absolutely amazing arrangement of the song!  Maybe it’s because they are the Cocteau “Twins,” I gave you two this time?

Cocteau Twins “Blue Bell Knoll”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oespMmWnDo&feature=related

Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2vw189q4U&feature=related

I went to my first Beth Orton concert this past spring.  She was playing at the Hiro Ballroom in NYC, downstairs from the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea.  I had been working crazy like a dog on a freelance project I was producing and was just a couple of days away from having to have some major surgery.  So I really didn’t know what to expect of myself when we got there, as I was pretty wiped and very distracted by what I needed to accomplish over the next several days.  I didn’t know if I could truly enjoy the show, but decided it was good for me to go anyway; put some energy back into my system and enjoy life.

When we got into the club it was standing room only. Then I noticed a big table to the side of us that had been reserved and there were only two people sitting at the table.  Given everything I was dealing with and how tired I was I decided to be bold.  So I tapped on the shoulder of the man sitting at the table and asked if he wouldn’t mind if my date and myself joined he and his friend at their table (The table could easily hold 6 people and they were only two.)  So he asked his friend and they motioned for us to come up and join them.  My date later told me it was Sam Mendes, the film director who directed one of my favorite movies, American Beauty, and is married to Kate Winslet.  It was very funny!  Anyway the concert was wonderful and we enjoyed the show, and Beth Orton shared some amusing stories of new motherhood, and the hiatus she took to have her daughter and to be a mom.  The tales she told, and the simplicity and strength of her vocals and musical arrangements created an organic evening that I found both amusing and touching, nicely tying together words, humor, humanity, love, and song.

Below is a sample of Beth Orton.  The song I chose is called “Shopping Trolley,” and is from her album “Comfort of Stangers,” which was released about two years ago and is a CD I have enjoyed tremendously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TiR__3g3dU&feature=related

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova “Falling Slowly”

With the movie “Once” as my weekly hype this week, I had to choose the song “Falling Slowly” as the Daily Tune On for today.

Glen and Marketa met eachother when “The Frames”, Glen’s Irish band, was touring the Czech Republic, Marketa’s home country.  They met through her father who is also a musician and a music promoter.  Since then they have recorded and toured as “The Swell Season,” and together they wrote the songs for what started off as the small independent Irish film “Once,” and turned into a sleeper hit changing their lives forever.

Below is a cut of their song “Falling Slowly”, for which they won the Academy Award this year in the “Best Original Song” category.  It is actually a performance that they did on the David Letterman show.  I would have preferred to give you a different live performance, but the audio on some of the others I found could not compare to this one.

To read more about the movie “Once” and Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, and to find out how to get information about their upcoming U.S. and European tour, check out this weeks “CIS Weekly Hype.”

To hear this track either click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser and enjoy the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPbC2YrUUsI

“Dig, Lazarus, Dig” is Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds latest, and this performance of the title song to his new CD is a lot of fun.  Yes, “Mr. Cool” himself I thought would be a good Friday Tune On!

What can I say about Nick Cave except I love him!   This song represents some of what I love about Nick Cave, which is his poetry, and his humor.  A friend of mine when he heard this song thought that Nick must have written it just for him.  But alas he did not.

I also love Nick Cave’s deep resonant voice and the way he uses it to express the stories in his songs.  He can be sultry, sexy, punk, funny, soft, hard, fast or slow, but his lyrics always bite to the bone whatever it is he is singing about.

This song shows a side of his musical expression but doesn’t begin to cover the many other adjectives he displays when singing let’s say a love song or a ballad, or even an up tempo crazy song like “Babe I’m On Fire” from his “Noctorama” CD.  To me Nick Cave sings like a painter.  I see color in his music.  And I have to say that the tone of his voice and the pictures he paints with it affect me!

We’ll dig deeper and look at some of his other music later.  But for now, enjoy the show!!!

To view this video of Nick Cave performing “Dig, Lazarus, Dig,” either clink on the link below or cut and paste the link into your browser.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7kV5XkBQsKU&feature=related

A friend of mine who likes to make me CD compilations, put this cut on one of the CD’s he made for me recently and I found myself drawn to Charlotte Gainsbourg’s soft lilting voice and lyrical phrasing.  It could also be because she is French and I am a bit of a Francophile, but there’s no other way to describe the way French actress and daughter of famed French singer Serge Gainsbourg, sings this song from the soundtrack of the Dylan inspired movie “I’m Not There,” she sings it “Just Like A Woman.”

Charlotte Gainsbourg, who also plays the role of “Claire,” wife of Robbie Clark in “I’m Not There”, a fictional character based on the life of Dylan’s ex-wife Sara, brings new meaning to this older song.   I found myself loving hearing it sung softly by a woman and I guess in particular this woman, as the sound of her voice and the words she emphasized helped the lyrics take on a new life.  I thought about different things than I would have if I had been listening to Dylan sing this song and I enjoyed that experience.

Gainsbourg has sung the title track to three of her film’s; got her motion picture debut playing the daughter of Catherine Deneuve in the French film “Paroles et musique;”and has released two albums.  Her second album topped the French charts and went platinum in France.

To hear Charlotte Gainsbourg sing this arrangement of Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman”, either click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.  When you get on the page simply click the play button to the right, and “voila.”

http://www.last.fm/music/Charlotte%2BGainsbourg%2B%2526%2BCalexico/_/Just+Like+A+Woman