Lockwood & Summit

Stuff That Jack Likes, Best of 2009 Edition

2009-12-23T15:33:00.002-06:00

Here's my top 10 list of my favorite albums of 2009:

1. Miike Snow - Miike Snow
2. Micachu - Jewellery
3. The Juan Maclean - The Future Is Now
4. The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
5. Lake - Let's Build A Roof
6. Floating Action - Floating Action
7. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream
8. Passion Pit - Manners
9. The Hidden Cameras - Origin: Orphan
10. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Albums of My Life - 1998 - Sweet Honey in the Rock "Twenty-Five"

2009-12-20T18:42:00.003-06:00

by Steve Pick

It ain't easy to put an out of body experience into words, but here goes nothing. Listening to Sweet Honey in the Rock, even without taking into consideration any of the words they are singing, is like an instant transport into the mind of a zen buddhist after decades of introspective meditation. It will wash all this beauty right through your skin, into your soul. It raises the best kind of goosebumps, the ones that shimmer their way through your heart, your brain, your muscles and limbs. It is, in short, perfection.

At the time of Twenty-five, there had been a Sweet Honey in the Rock for 25 years, hence the album title. The five women in the group in 1998 had been together for several years at this point, but many others had come and gone over the years. I've seen Sweet Honey some 14 times since 1985, but this line-up is what I consider to be the definitive one - founder Bernice Johnson Reagon, Carol Maillard, Aisha Kahlil, Nitanju Bolade Casel, and the incomparable Ysaye Maria Barnwell.

I can't even imagine how these women worked up the songs they sang. Whether an original from one of the members, a spiritual, blues, or reggae song, or a traditional African chant, everything they touched was turned into something magical and beyond the ordinary. So, you bring in a song to the group, and somehow or another, they come up with harmonies, rhythmic variations, counterpoint, and emotional resonance far beyond the obvious. This was an ensemble of equals where nobody was less than a musical genius.

Twenty-five isn't necessarily my favorite Sweet Honey album (gotta go with In This Land from 1992), it is a perfectly representative one. Opening with a thrill ride of a canon, "We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For," Sweet Honey move so far beyond the obvious intent of energizing the audience to make the change we seek in the world. It's all those voices wrapping around those simple words, over and over again, in feats of astounding invention and intriguing chords and rhythms, taking us right out of the limits we think might be up against us. Heck, if this song could have been playing in the Senate while they were debating health care, that whole mess might have been a heck of a lot more inspired.

There is the thrilling "Chant," in which the members of Sweet Honey demonstrate their ability to take something without words and make it as meaningful, as beautiful, as mesmerizing as anything you've ever heard. There is Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," with its dichotomy of accepting fate vs. longing for freedom - when Kahlil starts her trumpet imitations for the last minute and a half or so, one can almost believe this battle to be won. There's the spiritual lament of "Motherless Chil'," the interior questioning of "Greed (A Sermonette)," the thrilling love songs "Sometime" (with Reagon's earth-shattering drawn-out syllables on the word "forever" which, as astounding as it is on record, only hints at what she did with this when she sang it live) and "Forever Love," one of the most intricately arranged pieces on an album of intricately arranged pieces.

Every member of Sweet Honey at this time had an established personality and role. Reagon, the powerful alto from the Gospel and freedom-song traditions (who had founded the group back in 1973); Maillard, another founding member whose soprano wafted through every song like bright clouds from heaven; Kahlil, the youngest member of the group whose playfulness and interest in popular musics like reggae and hip-hop helped energize Sweet Honey; Casel, whose voice hovered between soprano and alto, and whose emotional fervor was an essential component on so many ensemble pieces and a bolt of fury on the ones she led; and Barnwell, hands down the greatest female bass vocalist in history - she could sound like a bass fiddle, or a drum, or a tuba, or a piano, or an amazingly talented human being.

No other record I loved in 1998 remains quite as enthralling 11 years later as it did at the time (though Neko Case's The Virginian is just as plucky as ever, and Madonna's Ray of Light still gets me excited every time; I guess it was a great year for women). (Another one from my top 10 of that year is gonna represent 1999; I can't figure that one out, except I think it came out as an import the year before it appeared domestically, and thus I get to cheat on my own rules - cool.) I've long held that Sweet Honey in the Rock was (and presumably still is, though I've never seen them after Reagon retired a few years back) one of the five greatest musical artists of our time (along with David Murray, Ornette Coleman, Elvis Costello, and Richard Thompson). This record gives all the evidence you need to see why.

Stuff That Jack Likes, Volume 6

2009-12-12T19:14:00.005-06:00

A fairly frequent list of stuff that Euclid's own Jackieboy currently likes...

1. Brand spankin' new Hot Chip video for the song "One Life Stand" off their album of the same name, due February 9th:

2. This dog:

3. A preview of my top 10 of 2009 list... Miike Snow's video for "Animal". I will never tire of this track. Song of the year? Maybe:

4. The Kids in the Hall are back!!! Well, on Canadian TV, at least, with an 8-part series called Death Comes to Town:

Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town - watch more funny videos

Troubadour Dali CD Release Party Almost Here

2009-12-10T11:29:00.006-06:00

Get a sneak preview of the debut release from Troubadour Dali.
See the band live at Off Broadway Friday December 11 with special guests Jon Hardy and the Public and The Campfire Club.

Troubadour Dali has recruited accomplished producer Bill Racine (Mates of State, Rogue Wave) to mix its long-awaited album released Tuesday Dec. 15 on Euclid Records' new label. But the act hasn't exactly been sitting around doing nothing during the past couple of years: It's cycled through several lineups and carved out its own sound, away from the Brian Jonestown Massacre-influenced sonics which defined so much of its early output. An expanded lineup has enabled Troubadour Dali to incorporate more atmospherics and shoegaze-type textures — thus transforming its live show into an enveloping collage of ambient noise and pulsing pop-song constructs - Shae Moseley Riverfront Times

Hear "Take Us Down"

Hear "Lying Down"

Hear "Heavy Feather"

Euclid Records Mines the Past

2009-12-09T10:21:00.003-06:00

Once upon a time, Joe Schwab, the man behind the Euclid Records empire, was also the man working on a TV program called Psychotic Reaction. Back in the late 1980s, Psychotic Reaction featured live performances by quite a few national and St. Louis-area bands, and we're sharing some of the best ones at our brand spanking new YouTube channel. You should really head on over there to catch the really cool stuff: seasonal videos from Corporate Humor, Thin White Rope, the Bishops, Pianosaurus, Yo La Tengo, Fishbone and more.

Albums of My Life - 1997 - Buena Vista Social Club "Buena Vista Social Club"

2009-12-08T18:36:00.005-06:00

by Steve Pick

We've come to the 40th installment of this sort-of-weekly look at one album to represent each year of my life - only 12 more to go.

Well, I'm just stumped at how to go about talking about the Buena Vista Social Club. It's not as though I know nothing about Cuban music - it's more like I know just enough to be dangerous. I'm keenly aware of the limitations which prevent me from really saying anything intelligent about this magical album.

Ry Cooder has travelled around the world making musical collaborations, many of which have been exquisite. But, usually, these have been one-on-one meetings of Cooder with players from another culture; his work with Ali Farka Toure being a particularly lovely example.

When Cooder went to Cuba, he was originally supposed to referee a meeting between Cuban and African musicians, but it turned out the Africans couldn't get there. Instead, he became the mastermind behind rejuvenating the careers of a half dozen major Cuban players, some of whom had not actually performed in years before Cooder brought them back into the studio for this project.

After this record, pretty much all of these guys - Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Ruben Gonzalez - became stars of a sort in the U.S. Each made multiple solo records, as well as performed on follow-up and companion pieces to these original sessions, and when visa issues were straightened out, managed to tour here in this country. I was too stupid to go see Ochoa when he played St. Louis, the only one of the bunch to come to my fair city.

The film, directed by Wim Wenders, which documented the making of this album was what brought this music to my attention. Now, I can't remember if it was Cooder's presence or Wenders which brought me to it, but I distinctly remember the fascination I felt at hearing all these amazing voices (instrumental voices and vocals) for the first time. None of them were in fashion in Cuba anymore, but they were all still masters at performing.

Listening now to this record for the first time in several years, I'm struck more than ever at the ways Cuban music weaved its way around the history of jazz. Many of the shorter sons (Cuban songs) have melodies which clearly represent the "Latin tinge" of which Jelly Roll Morton spoke; and of course, there are elements of improvisation which jazz developed in a different way, but which work beautifully in some of the longer pieces. "El Cuarto de Tula" is as intense in its constant renovation of simple melodic motifs as any jazz piece one could name.

Cooder himself plays some electric slide guitar on several cuts, and he mostly stays in the background. I'll admit, he's jarring on the stunningly gorgeous title track, but Ruben Gonzalez's piano playing is so dominant, so clear of purpose, that I doubt anybody could have added any counterpoint beyond the bass and percussion of the original style. Otherwise, I smile now and then as Cooder bends notes which ordinarily fade into the Cuban ether, but mostly just think he fits the mood nicely.

Most of the major performers on this record have passed away in the dozen years since it appeared, but it's nice to know they were given a chance to revisit the skills of their youth, and to gain an appreciative audience of mostly people who barely had a sense there was any other kind of Cuban music. While I love the horn-driven rhythmic excitement of Latin music after Castro, I'm delighted to hear the romantic, slippery rhythms of these older styles. The Buena Vista Social Club doesn't sound like a nostalgia-fest for its performers; rather, it's proof that musical forms can come alive as long as there are musicians who play them as easy as most of us go about breathing.

2010 We're Ready For You

2009-12-08T10:29:00.002-06:00

You think this looks nice here on the internet, just imagine this slab of wood hanging on your wall beautifying your home and keeping you up to date, literally. We've got it for $14.99 online or come by and browse the store. We've also got last year's lovely calendar with new dates on it, so you have options.

Stuff That Jack Likes, Volume 5

2009-12-02T16:47:00.002-06:00

A fairly frequent list of stuff that Euclid's own Jackieboy currently likes...

1. A fun little animated video for "You Cried Me" by Jookabox (formally Grampall Jookabox) from his new album Dead Zone Boys. The best part of this video is ghost cat:

2. A band to keep your eye on: Think About Life with the video for "Sweet Sixteen" from their album Family:

3. And another one by Think About Life called "Havin' My Baby":

4. "Happy House" by The Juan Maclean off the album The Future Will Come, released earlier this year:

5. And finally, the offical video for the new Yeasayer song "Ambling Amp". Warning: NSFW. There's some of them naked people running around:

Yeasayer - Ambling Alp from Spy Films on Vimeo.

Albums of My Life - 1996 - Elvis Costello and the Attractions "All This Useless Beauty"

2009-11-29T17:34:00.005-06:00

by Steve Pick

19 years and 17 albums into his career, Elvis Costello released what sounds to me on most days like his masterpiece. Of course, it's not really fair to pretend an artist only has one masterpiece in him, especially since 8 of those previous 16 deserve consideration alongside All This Useless Beauty as absolutely essential listening, and none of the other 8 are less than good. (Have I mentioned before I think Costello is the greatest songwriter of all time?)

Something less than two years before the release of Beauty, Costello reunited his old band the Attractions for an album, Brutal Youth, which attempted to give his fan base what it thought it wanted. Brutal Youth appeared the year after Costello's most (unfairly) maligned record, The Juliet Letters, on which he teamed with classical musicians the Brodsky Quartet. There are some gorgeous songs on that album, but a lot of fans weren't interested in following Costello outside the pop realm. So, for Brutal Youth, he called in drummer Pete Thomas and keyboardist Steve Nieve to rock things up again. Bassist Bruce Thomas, who has long had a difficult (to say the least) relationship with Costello, came onboard after Nick Lowe had filled the chair for half the songs.

At any rate, Brutal Youth sold better than The Juliet Letters, but not nearly as well as Warner Brothers expected when they signed the consistent upper level cult artist a few years before. With one more record on his contract, and a very successful year of touring under his belt, Costello figured he'd use the Attractions not to revisit the past, but to create a perfectly contemporary original record that wouldn't sound like anything else in his catalog.

First step, he thought he'd cover the songs he'd written for other artists to sing. I can never remember exactly how well that worked out, because there are only two songs on All This Useless Beauty I'd heard before this record came out: "The Other End of the Telescope," co-written by Aimee Mann and released a few years earlier on the final Til Tuesday record, and "You Bowed Down," given to Roger McGuinn for his strong yet sales-challenged return to pop music in the early 90s.

As the project developed, Costello started bringing new material in, as well as songs he'd written with others in mind, but which hadn't been picked up for their use. The Attractions are generally thought of as a rip-roaring rock'n'roll band, which they certainly had proved time and time again that they could be. But Costello had in mind something else entirely for this record - there is so much open space in the arrangements on these songs, so many quiet passages, and it's all ten times more effective for our knowledge of just what could happen at any moment.

We're four songs into the album, and halfway through "Complicated Shadows" at that, before the full throttle power of the Attractions is unleashed. It will come back now and again, especially on the dynamically rich "It's Time" near the end of the album, but for the most part we are meant to consider rock as just one aspect of Costello's music.

Meanwhile, the man himself gave a clinic on how to use a limited vocal prowess in unlimited ways. Costello had always been an expressive singer with a wide range of vocal mannerisms and sophisticated phrasing abilities. But somehow he never sounded better before or after than he does on this album, especially in the lengthy quiet passages. Listen to the way he wraps softly around the words on "All This Useless Beauty" itself, expanding on the sense of loss inherent in the idea that nobody understands the role of beauty in illuminating emotional truths. Of course, he also presents these thoughts inside one of the most luscious melodies in a 32-years-and-counting career of same.

Song after song, Costello snags us with delightfully intimate vocal connections, and he, Nieve, Thomas and Thomas offer(or occasionally comment overwhelmingly) with touchingly light-handed support mixed with delirious rococo effects now and again. "Why Can't a Man Stand Alone" sounds like a masterful Solomon Burke record, and is resoundingly more soulful than anything on the soul pastiche Get Happy album. (Not that I have a single complaint about that record, which is a 45 minute party-on-the-box every time I take it out to listen.) "Poor Fractured Atlas" is a gentle portrait of a frustrated and angry individual who flails hopelessly at ghosts he can't quite touch - at times, I think it's an early attack on Rush Limbaugh types, at others I think it's a snarky comment on rock critics who no longer understood exactly where Costello fit in a culture which no longer valued his melodic mastery or verbal virtuosity.

I love this whole record with all my heart, but the last three songs create a triptych of magnificence that is rarely achieved on any record I know. "You Bowed Down," fueled by the ringing McGuinn-inspired 12-string guitar, is a nuanced tale of two former lovers who have betrayed each other so many times the only thing left to achieve is deciding which one gave in first. Costello and the Attractions deliver this one as if it had already been the gigantic pop hit it deserved to be, except that radio stations that year had decided Costello was too old to be part of the "Alternative Rock" he'd helped to invent.

Then comes "It's Time," a sad but invigorating examination of the end of a relationship that's sometimes a one-night-stand gone awry and sometimes a long-term emotional roller coaster ride. Here, there is no holding back, though dynamics are important, as the band pumps it up and drops down to a scratchy, quiet distance at proper intervals. As the last full band song on the last album ever by this band, it shows just how far they had come since "Watching the Detectives," their first recording, and just how much they'd retained in their ability to mesh with each other.

Finally, there is "I Want to Vanish," an exquisite melding of Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas and the afore-mentioned Brodsky Quartet. Costello has rarely if ever written a more haunting song, as the narrator quietly insists, with an exquisite tune, that he has nothing left to live for, and nothing at all to understand. It's chilling and as gorgeous as anything you'd care to name, and proof positive that the venture into "high art" could be put to use on a pop record without losing any of the values of either.

It frustrates me to hear people tell me Costello never matched the perfection of his earliest records. Heck, this isn't even the last great thing the man has done in his career, though I don't think he's come close to matching it since. I've been listening to All This Useless Beauty for 13 and one half years, and it does nothing but sound deeper and richer with time. It sounds to me like musical perfection.

Cover Me - Home Made Folk Art 2

2009-11-28T14:35:00.006-06:00

by Joe Schwab

While digging through the vast Euclid archives, I was overjoyed to find two more homemade covers. The last ones we put up were LP's from Sarah Vaughan and Teddy Wilson that were received with a very positive response.

Our new finds are the rare Prestige LP from Phil Woods entitled Pairing Off. The other is the Riverside classic by the late George Russell, Ezz-thetics. I particularly love the illustration of Russell as it's reminescent of me. I think I'll make it my new Facebook photo!

Euclid Records to Release Troubadour Dali Debut CD

2009-11-26T08:15:00.000-06:00

This is exciting news! We've been working on this for months and now the time has come. Euclid Records will be releasing its first full-length CD on December 15, when the debut album from St. Louis' premier psychedelic band, Troubadour Dali, comes out. There will be a CD release party on Friday, December 11 at Off Broadway - more details will be forthcoming. But circle those dates right now, and remember that Euclid Records isn't just your source for all the great music everybody else has released, but we're now your source for great music we provide ourselves.

A Mac a Day - the Day After

2009-11-25T14:17:00.004-06:00

by Steve Pick
photos by Jim Varvaris

You know, in this biz, you get to meet a lot of the people who make the records you enjoy, and you understand that musicians are just regular folks like you and me. But darned if I wasn't just a little bit overwhelmed by the fact that I was standing just a few feet away from Ian McLagan, one of the greatest keyboardists in rock history, and a man who has spent 45 years contributing to records great and small. Goosebumps, I tell you.

On stage, though, he was just an enormously talented guy singing songs which he's written, and which carry forth the legacy of the musicians he grew up loving and the musicians he grew older playing with. Concentrating mostly on songs from his latest (and most critically acclaimed) solo album Never Say Never, McLagan demonstrated his melodic gifts both as a pianist and as a singer. The man just never settles for the obvious or the cliched.

And of course, he ended the show with a delightful nod to history, a version of the Faces classic "Glad and Sorry" written by his late friend and long-time bassist Ronnie Lane. As he said, "if you sing Ronnie's songs, it keeps him alive" and that is as noble a way to carry on the work of a dear friend as you can name. Here's what that one sounded like.

A Mac a Day - Day 9

2009-11-23T12:26:00.001-06:00

And now, with just one day left until Ian McLagan is performing right here in our store, we'll give you a sneak preview of what he's doing Nov. 24 at 3 pm (and again that night at Off Broadway).

A Mac a Day - Day 8

2009-11-22T17:19:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the late posting. Here's another classic from Ian McLagan's Small Faces days,this time augmented by P.P. Arnold, as we are only 2 days away from seeing him play live in Euclid Records at 3 pm Tuesday, Nov. 24.

A Mac a Day - Day 7

2009-11-21T10:34:00.001-06:00

Last year, Ian McLagan went over to Europe as an adjunct member of James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards - check out how much energy and excitement he adds to the already brilliant "Choctaw Bingo." There's more of this available on the DVD and CD James McMurtry Live in Europe.

A Mac a Day - Day 6

2009-11-20T11:09:00.003-06:00

Here's another classic from the Small Faces era, 2 minutes and 2 seconds of pure rock & roll excitement. Don't forget to catch Ian McLagan Tuesday Nov. 24 when he plays in the store at 3 pm.

Cover Me - Labels

2009-11-19T16:07:00.007-06:00

by Joe Schwab

Over the past year, Euclid has gone into the record production game. We've released six singles in 2009 with another on the way, and the first full length CD by Troubadour Dali will be hitting the streets in December. Most of our work such as set up, production, paper work, mixing etc are of varying degrees of mundane. The real fun is designing a label. When our buddy Art Chantry designed the Euclid crown logo, he envisioned an old 50's style label. And how perceptive is Mr. Chantry now, eh?

Well, this brings us to a couple of my favorite label designs. These two have always stuck in my mind. The first is from the Stepheny label. Stepheny Records put out a dozen or so releases of mostly light jazz combos and big bands back in the 50's. I'd love to have a bit more history about the subject on the label. I'm assuming this is Steph herself set in a bust like those old busts of Beethoven and Brahms that graced pianos back in the day. I guess it's the expression that brings to mind one of the 3 Stooges after a good chug of moonshine.

Which segues nicely to our second label, the one off from Shemp Records (Remember, "if it ain't Shemp, it ain't shit!"). Shemp only produced one record as far as I know, by Beaver Harris and Don Pullen. If the company wasn't a winner, then the label sure is. I can only say that I would have loved to come up with this concept. You can't look at it without it putting a big smile on your face!

Hmmmm...Euclid Records subsidiary label, Larry Records? Larry Fine, Larry Davis, Larry Sanders, Larry Storch, Larry King...

A Mac a Day - Day 5

2009-11-19T10:12:00.003-06:00

We'll get back to showing some older clips with Ian McLagan, but we just wanted to let you see how cool he is performing one of his classic songs he co-wrote with Ronnie Lane. "You're So Rude" was originally on the Faces brilliant A Nod Is As Good As A Wink to a Blind Horse album, but we think the Bump Band does it justice here.

We are just so excited about McLagan playing Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 3 pm in our store - hope you can make it.

A Mac a Day - Day 4

2009-11-17T14:17:00.001-06:00

There probably hasn't been an hour passed in the last 38 years without at least one radio station in the country (and more likely several) playing "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart. It's one of the biggest and most deserved hits of all time. That's Ian McLagan playing organ on that record, and here's a little clip of the Faces performing the song live that shows just how great these guys could be. Only six more days until Nov. 24, when Ian McLagan will play right here at Euclid Records at 3 pm.

A Mac a Day - Day 3

2009-11-17T11:00:00.003-06:00

After Steve Marriott left the Small Faces, the others recruited Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood to take his place. The new line-up made one record under the old name before dropping the Small word. As the Faces, they became more popular than ever, and released some pretty amazing albums. Even better were their concerts (as documented on quite a few cuts in the essential box set Five Guys Walk Into a Bar). Here's a clip that features Ian McLagan on electric piano as the guys cover Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed."

Don't forget it's exactly one week until Nov. 24 when McLagan will be right here in Euclid Records performing live at 3 pm.

Stuff That Jack Likes, Volume 4

2009-11-16T13:41:00.005-06:00

A fairly frequent list of stuff that Euclid's own Jackieboy currently likes...

1. I will be spinnin' records at The Halo Bar as DJ Jackieboy this Wednesday, November 18th! I'll be playing lots of great indie rock/pop, electronic and dancy grooves all night long, from 11p.m. until 3a.m. Hope to see you there!

2. An awkwardly beautiful video for "Like a Diamond" by Glass Ghost off their new record Idol Omen. (It is available to be special ordered, so give us a call):

3. An absolutely insane video for "I Say Fever" by Ramona Falls from their album Intuit. Not my favorite song on the record, but definitely the creepiest:

4. Brand new LCD Soundsystem single "Bye Bye Bayou", which I will definitely be playing at the spin on Wednesday and which will defintely not be on their next album. You can get it on an exclusive 12" here at Euclid Records:

5. New Yeasayer single "Ambling Amp", also available on 12" at Euclid Records. This makes me very, very excited for their new record next year:

A Mac a Day - Day 2

2009-11-16T13:33:00.003-06:00

Many critics consider Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces to be one of the very best concept albums of all time. It's chock full of great songs, and here's one of them, the delightful "Happiness Stan" performed by the band back when they were all so young and pretty.

Don't forget, next Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 3 pm, Ian McLagan will be right here on the stage at Euclid Records. Call us (314-961-8978) for details.

A Mac a Day - Day 1

2009-11-15T10:26:00.002-06:00

Ian McLagan will be performing in Euclid Records on Tuesday, Nov. 24. We'll be jogging down memory lane until then, reminding you of some of the amazing things this man has accomplished in the last 45 years.

Albums of My Life - 1995 - Cassandra Wilson "New Moon Daughter"

2009-11-14T13:40:00.003-06:00

by Steve Pick

Cassandra Wilson sold more jazz vocal records in the 90s than anybody else. New Moon Daughter, though perhaps slightly less perfect than her previous album, Blue Light 'Til Dawn, was her biggest hit. It's moodiness, the brooding, darkly delirious soundscapes matched to her husky, enticing voice, make for a perfect encapsulation of 1995 as I remember it. That year, on the one hand, I moved in with the love of my life, and on the other hand, I lost my father, and my newspaper column, and prepared to lose my favorite pet. So, yeah, sweet songs a la "Harvest Moon" and loss songs like "Death Letter" tend to rattle around in my head when I think of that year.

I'm still not sure about the structure of this album, which opens with an eerie take on Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit." This is a song which was devastating in the context of Holiday's time; it just wasn't done for any artist, let alone an African-American female singer, to talk about the evil happenings in the South. Lynching and racism were major issues linked by the horrible images of the former; by 1995, racism was far from dead, but lynching had thankfully faded into something of the past. So, Wilson was chasing both the ghosts of Holiday's vocal talent, and of a social ill no longer prevalent. No matter how haunting the music is, no matter how skillfully Wilson finds a way into the song which skips past comparisons to the original, it simply can't be as stunning as it wants to be.

Things only get slightly better with the second song, "Love is Blindness," written by U2. For here, Wilson tries to take her previous record's eclectic approach to its furthest reaches, by covering a song by what was possibly the biggest rock band in the world at the time. Unfortunately, the song is utterly forgettable, and Wilson's nuanced take on nothing still leaves us with nothing.

Things pick up from there, as you might be expecting for an album I'm choosing to represent an entire year. Wilson's self-penned "Solomon Sang" sounds like a great lost Joni Mitchell number from the mid-70s. The lyrics imagine some thoughts in the head of King Solomon which weren't mentioned directly in the Bible, and consider the pleasures of life to be not necessarily the ones which seem obvious to those from afar. Beautiful number.

Son House's "Death Letter" is one of those blues songs which can stand up to a thousand readings - the basic story is that the singer gets a letter telling of the death of a lover, and then goes to see that it is true, and that others are concerned, too. Wilson gives it a fearsome, dark reading, aware of the horrors and the unreality that is in the song. It's a chilling performance, especially if you're facing any kind of death demons in your life.

Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark" and Wilson's "Find Him" make a pleasant pairing, both about searches for love and happiness which seem elusive. "Skylark" was, in fact, the first jazz standard I'd heard Wilson sing (though far from the first she'd recorded); my familiarity with her started in some of the MBase stuff she did with Steve Coleman, and then picked up when she made these two albums for Blue Note which mostly concentrated on blues and pop/rock. By now, I've taken for granted Wilson's ability to match any song to her own voice; back when this came out, I was constantly being surprised.

Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and the Monkees "Last Train to Clarksville" make another strange yet perfect combination. Wilson makes the metaphors of Williams' classic come alive; you can particularly hear the robin sing and hear the train whistle blow, and feel the mood of the song. She chooses to open "Last Train to Clarksville" with her own scatting based on the pseudo-scatting the Monkees inserted in their original. Then she exaggerates the sadness of the song - this is the tale of an affair, and one last desperate attempt to reconnect before ending it. There is a hint of the excitement of the pop hit, but much more emotional depth is revealed.

The album is rounded out by three more Wilson originals, and a cover of Neil Young's then recent "Harvest Moon." The three originals are the most lively songs on the record, though, alas, the least memorable. I always enjoy hearing them, but never crave them, and it's Wilson's force of personality which makes them viable. Her take on "Harvest Moon" is as sweet as Young's original, but with a wider range of musical interest inserted into the song - as much from the arrangement as from Wilson's ability to take a very simple melody and add just a few grace notes here and there to garnish it.

I've seen Cassandra Wilson live a few times, and know that her albums reveal only a portion of her many skills as a singer. But, I also know that her best albums - and this is one of them - are as emotionally resonant as anything out there, and I'm glad to find a year where one stands head and shoulders above all competitors so I could write about it.

Some Links to Musical Thoughts and Delights

2009-11-07T14:03:00.004-06:00

We stumble across the coolest things across the internet. For example, ever wonder just what you might have been handed as you entered the door for a concert in 1929 by Louis Armstrong? Here's a blog with a scan of the program from June 29, 1929 at the Graystone Garden in Detroit. And when you're done being impressed with that, check out some of the other cool things on this blog - it's a great way to see the more day to day role jazz played in the olden days.

We are all in favor of people talking about music, and discovering new ways to hear things (or a way to find something in it for the first time). This takes you to a conversation between a jazz expert and a jazz neophyte, discussing the things going on in a particular Ella Fitzgerald track. There's a whole mess of interesting stuff on the NPR jazz blog itself.

This next link is only peripherally about music - it's from Eric Ambel's enjoyable blog, knuckleheadnyc. Ambel has played guitar over the years with Steve Earle, the Del Lords, and Joan Jett, among many other stalwarts, and has produced more than his share of good records. This little tale of how he became a Yankees fan, and of how he enjoyed their World Series victory, may annoy those who reflexively hate all things about that New York team, but it's really a sweet story about the fun of baseball fandom.