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So, I am all over the place with my guitar playing. Real life has come crushing into my free time with work duties and such. Plus there was a keen moment of realization in terms of my limits in playing that sent me back for a quick turn when it comes to the timing of walk-ups and walk-downs and bass rolls for a song I recorded but removed from MySound Click page called "Bury Me Beneath the Willow Tree" usually I pick the most raw unadorned version of a song to clue off of like Woody Guthrie's version but I have to be honest my favorite version of it right now is the Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs bluegrass version which is just really incredible.

My problem was that my timing was completely off I was starting the walk-up on the wrong beat all together. And I was doing this for every song I did a bass roll, walk-up or walk-down on and I had learned my mistake really well. Oh I was very good at fucking this up and unlearning it has been a bitch that has absorbed way too much of my free time on the guitar.

This did not mean I stopped learning new songs all together though I have been rotating during my practice around "Red River Valley" which I really do like the Woody Guthrie version best btw. Also for the kids I learned "Wheels on the Bus" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" which Johnny Cash did a weird haunting version of the song. Freaky I found it on youtube sometime ago.

It made me want to learn "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain". I know the chords but I am not happy with the sound I am getting on the strum. I found a cool little basic fingerpicking lesson for the song. He does alternating bass on the thumb and then hits all three higher strings at the same time and I kind of like the sound.

My family and I will be going to New York for Thanksgiving holiday but when I get back I am going to dig into that one I need another fingerpicking song to work on anyway.

Funny thing is I am finding it very hard to find the time to work on lessons from the second DVD of the "Acoustic Guitar Method" by David Hamburger and I feel like I really need to return back to it to keep the progression of my skills up.

All of this put together has got me thinking about adding one of the "Old Town School of Folk Music" CDs to my list for Christmas but I cannot really decide which one I want.

There is one song I have been learning I finally decided to record. Its the song I guess in a sense starting me back listening to modern style country in the first place. Yes I am talking about Uncle Tupelo and the song is "No Depression". Its such a perfect song for the times but at the same time also gave me a great workout in the intro for my timing issues with walk-ups and walk-downs too.

Me playing - No Depression

Nick Cave's Jukebox again
Another CD set of songs which have inspired Nick Cave over the years is going on the market. This is the third this year and the fifth overall. The first two were Original Seeds way back in 1998 and the follow up Original Seeds, Volume 2 in 2004. I would rate the first Original Seeds very highly just because there was nothing like it before but now that is very different.


Original Seeds - Track listing:
1. Tim Rose - Long Time Man
2. Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps - Cat Man
3. Leonard Cohen - Avalanche
4. Karen Dalton - Katie Cruel
5. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Hammer Song
6. Tom Jones - Weeping Annaleah
7. The Loved Ones - Sad Dark Eyes
8. Scott Walker - The Big Hurt
9. John Lee Hooker - Tupelo Blues
10. Lefty Frizzell - The Long Black Veil
11. Johnny Cash - The Folk Singer
12. Odetta - Another Man Done Gone
13. Blind Willie Johnson - I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge
14. Edwin Hawkins Singers - Oh Happy Day
15. Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg - Je t'aime...moi non plus
16. Isaac Hayes - By The Time I Get To Phoenix
I would still rate this one the best out of them all. I would give it four out of five stars too. Most tracks make sense if you're a fan of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds which is the sub-title of the CD, Songs that inspired the Bad Seeds. All but three songs can be found on their albums in covers and/or based on but rewritten in someway. Cat Man was an early The Birthday Party cover. The Big Hurt was on the MOJO soundtrack with the help of the great British band Gallon Drunk and Jane & Serge classic Cave sung an English version called I Love You....Nor Do I with Anita Lane. The liner notes from this CD is great and I recommend this album. But I should warn you about the last song it's almost 19 minutes long and is sometimes a bit too much. It really should be Glen Campbell's By The Time I Get To Phoenix which is the original too but for some mad reason this one got put on the CD. Which I think is the reason why I wouldn't rate it five stars, missing one whole star for this nightmare of a song, sorry Issac but I wish you got to Phoenix a bit quicker. Cave says about it: "He does a long explanation about what women are actually like; it's very funny. How men have just got to go out." This quote is from a great book called "Songwriters Speak" I found at my local library, more about that later but here's the website: http://www.debbiekruger.com/songwritersspeak/about.html


Original Seeds, Volume 2 - Track listing:
1. Harry Belafonte - Did You Hear About Jerry?
2.Tom Waits - Way Down In The Hole
3. Fred Neil - A Little Bit of Rain
4. Gang of Four - Love Like Anthrax
5. Bob Dylan - Sara
6. Tim Rose - Hey Joe
7. The First Edition - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
8. Elvis Presley - In The Ghetto
9. Nina Simone - Plain Gold Ring
10. The Stooges - Loose
11. Leadbelly - Black Betty
12. Hoyt Axton - Double Dare
13. Lou Reed - Perfect Day
14. Alice Cooper - Street Fight
This one is not in any way as good as the the first one. I would rate it two and half out of five. Why? Well, I'm giving it half a star each for the songs which are on Bad Seeds albums the rest are, really could be's. Only Hey Joe, In The Ghetto, Plain Gold Ring, Black Betty and the last half star goes to writing up liner notes to convince you the rest are just as important. Loose was a live favorite of The Birthday Party. Some were going to be on the cover album Kicking Against the Pricks but never recorded. Played live once or twice in the years of playing shows. Mick Harvey has played the others himself solo or on his albums. Another warning for the last song again this time it's only 55 seconds long so why is it here? Well, I don't really know which is what I mean by the liner notes hoping you buy in too what is written but one word for that song: pointless.


Mojo Presents Bad Seeds, Nick Cave: Roots & Collaborations - Tracks listing
1. The Saints - This Perfect Day
2. Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues
3. John Lee Hooker - Tupelo Blues
4. Karen Dalton - Katie Cruel
5. Tim Rose - Long Time Man
6. Scott Walker - The Big Hurt
7. Current 93 - All the Pretty Little Horses
8. Einstürzende Neubauten - Blume
9. Martin L. Gore - Loverman
10. Lydia Lunch - Done Dun
11. Beasts of Bourbon - Cocksucker Blues
12. The Golden Gate Quartet - Wade In The Water
13. Peggy Seeger - Henry Lee
14. Mississippi John Hurt - Stack O' Lee Blues
15. Hank Williams - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
This CD was given away for free with Mojo Magazine but I have seen it for sale on ebay. It was with this years March issue with Mr. Cave on the cover. I would rate it three out five stars which is good for a give-away album. A few double ups but the version of Long Time Man is different longer re-recorded in 2003 just before Tim Rose passed away. The one on Original Seeds was record in 1967. Cave sings on Current 93 and Lydia Lunch tracks. Loverman is the only cover and the reason for this one is both are on Mute Records. The rest is pretty clear if your a fan but if you buy the magazine that comes with the CD or should that be the other way around, there is a two page write up about all the tracks.


The Roots of Nick Cave - Tracks listing
1. Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes
2. Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle & Roll
3. Little Richard - Keep A Knockin'
4. Gene Vincent & His Big Blue Caps - Cat Man
5. Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You
6. John Lee Hooker - I'm Gonna Kill That Woman
7. Leadbelly - Bottle Up and Go
8. Ella Jenkins - Wade In The Water
9. The Alabama Singers - Jesus Met The Woman At The Well
10. Odetta - Another Man Done Gone
11. Leadbelly - Black Betty
12. Harry Belafonte - Mourning Song
13. Little Willie John - Fever
14. Charlie Gracie - 99 Ways
15. Hank Williams - Lost Highway
16. Roy Rogers - The Streets Of Laredo
17. Hobart Smith And Texas Gladden - Down In The Willow Garden
18. Ernest Phipps - Shine On Me
19. Chubby Parker - King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-me-o
20. Mississippi John Hurt - Stack O' Lee Blues
21. Dick Justice - Henry Lee
22. Blind Willie Johnson - John the Revelator
I think I got this one before the Mojo magazine's one but both came out around the same time at the beginning of the year. I'll rate it three and a half out of five stars just under the first one. I like it better maybe because I love all the really, really old songs on it. A lot of older songs or just a lot more than the three previous ones. More double up's again but a few ones that should have been so obvious before. The Streets Of Laredo was a song Conway Savage sung on tour around the time of the Doco "The Road To God Knows Where" which makes up a few of the songs here which were played kind-off like a tour mix tape. Harry's track makes more sense this time, it's from when Nick Cave - Mick Harvey - Blixa Bargeld did the soundtrack to To Have And To Hold and re-recorded mourning song (performed by raun raun theatre). John the Revelator is from The Harry Smith Project Live Vol. 1 and Shine on Me is from The Harry Smith Project Live Vol. 2. If you want more info there is good liner notes written by Dave Henderson who's from Mojo magazine too.


Nick Cave's Jukebox - Track listing
1. Gene Vincent & His Big Blue Caps - Cat Man
2. Bob Dylan - Gotta Serve Somebody (Live)
3. Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell On You
4. Tex Ritter - Rye Whiskey
5. Jimi Hendrix Hey Joe
6. Leadbelly - Black Betty
7. John Lee Hooker - I’m Gonna Kill That Woman
8. Johnny Cash - Wanted Man
9. Johnny Cash - Man In Black (Live)
10. Tommy McClennan Bottle It Up and Go
11. Elvis Presley - Blue Suede Shoes
12. Blind Willie Johnson - I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge
13. Neil Young - Helpless (live)
14. Little Willie John - Fever
15. Leroy Carr - How Long, How Long Blues
16. The Pogues - The Body of an American
17. The Everly Brothers - Down In The Willow Garden
18. Mississippi John Hurt - Stack O' Lee Blues
19. The Louvin Brothers Knoxville Girl
20. Dick Justice - Henry Lee
21. Chubby Parker - King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O
22. Louis Armstrong - Mack The Knife
23. Memphis Slim - Grinder Man Blues
This is going to be the fifth one of these kind of CD's and is out next week (October 12th or around about then). I don't think I should rate it because I don't have it yet. Once again more doubles and so many more than the others before this one. There are 23 tracks more than all the other CD's and all of these are total classics I could listen to them again and again. The songs which aren't on the other ones really should have been included before and also add up to the number of tracks on the first three. I don't know if it would be silly for me to buy another one but I guess if you haven't got any of the other four this new one looks like it could be the best one so far. Last thing to say about it would be is if you know anything about Nick Cave and the song Hey Joe it's off course the Tim Rose version he loves not the Jimi Hendrix one but in saying that Jimi's one is the more famous, and putting it on here is not doubling up the other song again so that's OK, I guess. I do think there are a lot of tracks which could or should be on these kind-off CDs but are not, I shall make a list here on last.fm at the end of this journal.

His drunken sing-a-long with David McComb

I just got this great book about David McComb & The Triffids which is so great. I'm not finished it yet but I think it would be five stars out of five it is that great. It's better than any bio book ever written. It written by all sorts of people. I would recommend it to everyone. One of the most funny story's is written by Nick Cave talking about getting drunk at an Aussie picnic in London with David and having a sing-a-long with each other, I'm going to write out the list of songs they sung but get the full story and so much more buy the book here: http://www.fremantlepress.com.au/books/newreleases/1104 And that is a drawing of David by Martyn P. Casey anyway here's the list of songs David & Nick sung, more of these songs have been covered heavily but I've tried to find the originals. Can you imagine two drunk Aussies singing them???
1. The Beatles - Maxwell's Silver Hammer
2. Bob Dylan - I Threw It All Away
3. Dionne Warwick - Walk On By
4. Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass - This Guy's in Love with You
5. John Denver - Leaving On A Jet Plane
6. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
7. Peter, Paul & Mary - Lemon Tree
8. Mississippi Sheiks - Sitting on Top of the World
9. The Seekers - Georgy Girl (From Film 'Georgy Girl')
10. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
11. Elvis Presley - Blue Moon
12. The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin'
13. Carpenters - Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
14. Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer
15. Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer
16. Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds
17. Elvis Presley - Kentucky Rain
18. Leonard Cohen - Bird on a Wire
19. Malvina Reynolds - Morningtown Ride
20. Simon & Garfunkel - Cecilia
21. The Beatles - Yesterday
22. Ella Fitzgerald - Anything Goes
23. Frank Sinatra - What'll I Do?
24. The 5th Dimension - (Last Night) I Didn't Get To Sleep At All
25. Carpenters - Close To Me
26. Bob Dylan - Belle Isle
27. Bob Dylan - Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
Nobody at the time put these two guys in a recording studio to record all this and as far as I know the only song they did together or should I say David sung on backing vocal's for Nick's Lay Me Low in 1994 which I have to say is kind-off perfect and very odd because a few years later McComb passed away but what is even more odd is the very last song he recorded was Still Alive And Well on Where Joy Kills Sorrow album. If you would like that album check it out here: http://www.wminc.com.au/catalogue1.shtml#006 It's a classic Aussie album.

Extras
OK here is a couple of things that I haven't fitted into my journals before about Cave, first is the book called "Songwriters Speaks" by Debbie Kruger. To sum up the book quickly it's got just over 600 pages and is full of interviews with Aussie songwriters. Most are, if not all, are mainstream singers and Cave is the only one I'm into but I've had a look at the others before returning, did I say it a library book? A few things I want to note down here for myself really but who ever reads these might like to know too is:
In the intro pages Kruger says "I particularly enjoyed his (Cave's) anecdotes about encounters with Rolf Harris and Barry Humphries." which are funny but are nowhere in the interview so my guess is these were edited out because there not about songwriting. The interview starts on page 430 and goes to 445 so it's longer that most magazines or online. It was done at his office in Hove, England in 2004 around the time of Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus.
The songs talked about are:
Loom of the Land saying the line "The elms and the poplars were turning their backs" which is from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and he wished he edited it out because "I don't like the idea of someone reading Lolita and going, "Oh, How often has he done that?" "
Into My Arms is talked about. In Triple J's Hottest 100 of all-time recently saying it was written after he visited a church which wouldn't be anything different from him really but the whole story is a bit more to it. He was in some drug rehab clinic and the only place you were allowed to go was a church and three days in on a Sunday he'd come back feeling very ill and "sat down and wrote that very quickly, and I didn't have anything there to play it on... rehabilitation didn't work [Laughs], at least I got a good song out of it." which makes a bit more sense really.
(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For? he said he wrote in a taxicab on the way to INXS singer Michael Hutchence's house which is a bit odd and kind-off changes the track for me but then again Cave played Into My Arms at Micheal's funeral and famously insisted the TV cameras to be turned off while he sung it.
Nobody's Baby Now was written for Johnny Cash's American Recordings but he thought "Fuck it, I'm not handing that over. I really love that song and I'm going to do it." then later on in the interview says "I'm particularly proud of the first verse... takes so long to get to the point." going on to say "It reminds me of Tupelo Honey the Van Morrison song."
There are off course other songs he talks about but see if you can find the book at your library too.


Another book Cave makes it in to is "The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature" which is an epic encyclopedia size book. Which has some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries. Very few contemporary songwriters make it into it only Kev Carmody's From Little Things Big Things Grow, Archie Roach's Took The Children Away, Yothu Yindi's Treaty and Cave's Opium Tea which I have to say is an odd one to pick but I've said that before in this journal. Check it out here: http://www.macquariepenanthology.com.au/aboutaustliteratureanthology.html

OK, to finish off here are few songs that might or might not have inspired Nick:
1. The Velvet Underground - Jesus
2. James Carter & The Prisoners - Po' Lazarus or The Fairfield Four - Po Lazarus
3. Muddy Waters - Honey Bee or listen to Honey Bee (Live)
4. J.B. Lenoir - I Feel So Good or listen to I Feel So Good (Take 21)
5. John Ashe - There's No Night Out In The Jail
6. The Pogues - Rainy Night in Soho
7. Bob Dylan - Stack A Lee or Woody Guthrie - Stack-O-lee or Alan Lomax - Stackerlee or Frank Hutchison - Stackalee
8. Leonard Cohen - Tower of Song
9. Roy Orbison - Running Scared
10. Wilmoth Houdini - Happy Land Of Canaan
11. The Walker Brothers - Orpheus
12. Jacques Offenbach - Orpheus In The Underworld
13. Miles Davis - Nature Boy or listen to John Coltrane - Nature Boy
14. Sir John Betjeman - Late-Flowering Lust or could it be the whole album Late Flowering Love
15. Johnny Thunders - Chinese Rocks
16. Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man
17. Sister Myrtle Fields - Jesus At The Well or Mahalia Jackson - Jesus Met the Woman At the Well or Reverend Gary Davis - Jesus Met the Woman at the Well or Bob Dylan - Jesus Met The Woman At The Well
Bob Dylan - Girl From the North Country or listen to Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - Girl From The North Country
18. John Lee Hooker - Grinder Man or listen to Peter Chatman - Grinder Man Blues or Milton Sparks - Grinder Man Blues
19. The Velvet Underground - All Tomorrow's Parties or Nico - All Tomorrows Parties
20. Cilla Black - Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart or Gene Pitney – Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
21. Alan Lomax - It Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
22. Bob Dylan - Love Henry or Ralph Stanley - Henry Lee
23. Karen Dalton - Something on Your Mind
24. Leonard Cohen - Why Don't You Try
25. The Box Tops - Weeping Analeah
26. Burl Ives - The Long Black Veil
27. Johnny Cash - Muddy Waters
28. Odetta - All the Pretty Little Horses
29. The Pop Group - We Are All Prostitutes
30. Bob Dylan - Death Is Not the End
31. Robert Johnson - Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)
32. James Iron-Head Baker - Black Betty
33. Memphis Minnie - Bumble Bee Blues
34. Odetta - Take This Hammer
35. John Lee Hooker - It Serves Me Right To Suffer
36. Frank Sinatra - Nature Boy
37. Leadbelly - My Friend Blind Lemon
38. Woody Guthrie - Rye Whiskey
39. Toni Fisher - The Big Hurt
40. Bob Dylan - Froggie Went A Courtin'
41. Frank Sinatra - From Here To Eternity
42. Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
43. Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World
44. Elvis Presley - Cindy, Cindy
45. Blind Willie Johnson - Let Your Light Shine On Me
46. Michel Polnareff - Goodbye Marylou
47. Bruce Springsteen - I'm on Fire
48. Bob Dylan - New Morning
49. Bobby Bare - 500 Miles Away From Home
50. The Seekers - The Carnival Is Over
I've written way to much but if you have some tracks to add to this very long track listing feel free to if you want to in the comment box below. I would have to have missed something so go for it. I like seeing comments you know. Thanks for reading and until next time.

Because I love this sort of thing, let's face it...

'First, make a list of your overall top-20 artists. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, add up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.'

1. Bob Dylan
-1- Bob Dylan and The Band
-2- Neil Young
-3- The Band
-4- Woody Guthrie
-5- Leonard Cohen
-6- Donovan
-7- Joan Baez
-8- Neil Young & Crazy Horse

2. The Beatles
-1- John Lennon
-2- George Harrison
-3- Paul McCartney
-4- Ringo Starr
-5- Paul McCartney & Wings
-6- The Who
-7- Wings
-8- The Rolling Stones

3. Belle and Sebastian
-1- Camera Obscura
-2- God Help The Girl
-3- The Magnetic Fields
-4- The Boy Least Likely To
-5- Jens Lekman
-6- of Montreal
-7-The Gentle Waves
-8- The Shins

4. Joan Baez
-1- Peter, Paul & Mary
-2- Judy Collins
-3- Pete Seeger
-4- Phil Ochs
-5- Bob Dylan
-6- Joni Mitchell
- Woody Guthrie
-7- Arlo Guthrie

5. Vienna Teng
-1- Charlotte Martin
-2- Corrinne May
-3- Rachael Sage
-4- Dar Williams
-5- Sarah Slean
-6- Rachael Yamagata
-7- Thea Gilmore
-8- Sarah Fimm

6. Leonard Cohen
Bob Dylan
-1- Tom Waits
-2- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
-3- Lou Reed
Neil Young
Joan Baez
-4- Nick Drake
-5- Tim Buckley

7. Jim Croce
-1- Harry Chapin
-2- James Taylor
-3- Dan Fogelberg
-4- John Denver
-5- Gordon Lightfoot
-6- Don McLean
-7- Jackson Browne
-8- Bob Seeger

8. John Denver
-1- Jim Croce
-2- Kenny Rogers
Dan Fogelberg
Gordon Lightfoot
Peter, Paul & Mary
-3- Anne Murray
-4- Neil Diamond
James Taylor

9. Over the Rhine
-1- Waterdeep
-2- The Violet Burning
-3- Sandra McCracken
-4- Hem
-5- Derek Webb
-6- The Innocence Mission
-7- The Choir
-8- The Choir

*An aside: I still don't understand why all of OtR's linked bands are Christian, as some of their songs are about sex and none that I have heard have obvious religious messages, they do not mention god during concerts, and they say nothing about Christianity on their website. Still looking for some insight here...

10. Flogging Molly
-1- Dropkick Murphys
-2- The Real McKenzies
-3- The Tossers
-4- The Pogues
-5- The Mahones
-6- The Bloody Irish Boys
-7- Blood or Whiskey
-8- The Dubliners

11. The Shins
-1- Death Cab for Cutie
-2- Band of Horses
-3- The Decemberists
-4- Vampire Weekend
-5- Rogue Wave
-6- The Postal Service
-7- Ra Ra Riot
-8- Fleet Foxes

12. The Traveling Wilburys
George Harrison
-1- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
-2- Tom Petty
Ringo Starr
-3- Jeff Lynne
-4- Electric Light Orchestra
-5- Mudcrutch
-6- Roy Orbison

13. Brandi Carlile
-1- Indigo Girls
-2- Patty Griffin
-3- Ingrid Michaelson
-4- Catie Curtis
-5- Missy Higgins
-6- Melissa Ferrick
-7- Rosie Thomas
Rachael Yamagata

14. Jewel
-1- Sarah McLachlan
-2- Sheryl Crow
-3- Lisa Loeb
-4- Heather Nova
-5- Paula Cole
-6- Alanis Morissette
-7- Natalie Merchant
-8- Anna Nalick

15. Ingrid Michaelson
-1- Meiko
-2- Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson
-3- Sara Bareilles
-4- Priscilla Ahn
-5- Jenny Owen Youngs
-6- Erin McCarley
-7- Greg Laswell
-8- A Fine Frenzy

16. Feist
-1- Broken Social Scene
-2- Kings of Convenience
-3- Cat Power
-4- Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton
-5- Stars
-6- She & Him
-7-Metric
-8-Rilo Kiley

17. Alanis Morissette
-1- Tori Amos
Sheryl Crow
-2- Jewel
-3- Natalis Imbruglia
Sarah McLachlan
-4- The Cranberries
-5- Meredith Brooks
-6- Fiona Apple

18. Ludovico Einaudi
-1- Roberto Cacciapaglia
-2- Giovannia Allevi
-3- Wim Mertens
-4- Max Richter
-5- Michael Nyman
-6- Fabrizio Paterlini
-7- David Nevue
-8- Dustin O'Halloran

19. Modest Mouse
-1- Ugly Casanova
-2- Built to Spill
-3- Wolf Parade
-4- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
-5- Neutral Milk Hotel
Death Cab for Cutie
-6- The Flaming Lips
-7- Bright Eyes

138... not bad. Also, this is meaningless, like your life. :) Luckily, it has enabled me to find a few artists I wish to explore further.

I was reading Beck's interview with Tom Waits but there's a link of an interview he did all by himself which is so much better really, it's from May last year. It's here to read it in full http://www.antilabelblog.com/?p=288#more-288

One question is: List some songs that were beacons for you? I've been looking at some of them here on last.fm so I'm just going to turn it into a journal. For some reason (I don't know why) I've started from the bottom to top anyway here goes:
Hava Nagila by Harry Belafonte
Empty Bed Blues by Bessie Smith
Wade in the Water by Big Mama Thornton or Wade In The Water by Mavis Staples or Wade in the Water by The Staple Singers or Wade in the Water by The Ramsey Lewis Trio or Wade in the Water by Ramsey Lewis
Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye
Harlem Shuffle by Bob & Earl
Mass In E Minor by Anton Bruckner or listen to here Mass in E Minor, WAB 27: I. Kyrie Mass in E Minor, WAB 27: II. Gloria Mass in E Minor, WAB 27: III. Credo Mass in E Minor, WAB 27: IV. Sanctus Mass in E Minor, WAB 27: V. Benedictus Mass in E Minor, WAB 27: VI. Agnus Dei
Oh, Holy Night by Billy Vaughn or Oh Holy Night by John Denver
Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing by Buffalo Springfield written by Neil Young
Theme from Once Upon a Time in America by Ennio Morricone
For What It´s Worth by Buffalo Springfield written by Stephen Stills
Walk Away Renee by The Four Tops or Walk Away Renee by The Left Banke
The Same Thing by Willie Dixon
Theme from Rawhide by Frankie Laine
Good Time Charlies Got The Blues by Danny O'Keefe
Substitute by The Who
In Dreams by Roy Orbison
96 Tears by Question Mark and the Mysterians
Raglan Road by The Dubliners or listen to The Young Dubliners Raglan Road
Bring a Little Water Sylvie by Leadbelly
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues
Restless Farewell by Bob Dylan or listen to Joan Baez Restless Farewell
I Just Want to See His Face by The Rolling Stones
Greensleeves by Odetta or listen to Greensleeves by John Coltrane
Pump It Up by Elvis Costello
Almost Blue by Elvis Costello
Sunday Morning Coming Down by Johnny Cash who first recorded it or the songwriter Kris Kristofferson Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down
You Win Again by Hank Williams
Hello Walls by Faron Young who first recorded it or the songwriter Willie Nelson Hello Walls
Hound Dog by Big Mama Thornton
Bring It On Home To Me by Sam Cooke
Nessun dorma by Giacomo Puccini
Crawlin' King Snake by John Lee Hooker
It's A Man's Man's Man's World by James Brown
Auld Lang Syne by John Fahey or Auld Lang Syne (Live) by Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin
Without a Song by Frank Sinatra or Without A Song by Sonny Rollins
Summertime by Billie Holiday or Summertime by George Gershwin
China Pig by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Shenandoah by Paul Robeson
Cause Of It All by Howlin' Wolf
All Shook Up by Otis Blackwell
Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
You've Really Got A Hold On Me by The Miracles
Boris The Spider by The Who
Train Kept A-Rollin' by Tiny Bradshaw or listen to The Yardbirds Train Kept a Rollin'
Waltzing Matilda by Burl Ives or Waltzing Matilda by John Fahey or Waltzing Matilda by Josh White
Dirty Old Town by The Pogues
Danny Boy by Johnny Cash or Danny Boy by Glenn Miller or Danny Boy by Gracie Fields
Autumn Leaves by Jo Stafford
Moon River by Danny Williams
Who'll Stop The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams
Just Like A Woman by Bob Dylan or listen to Nina Simone Just Like A Woman
I Can't Stop Loving You by Ray Charles or I Can't Stop Loving You by Don Gibson
Georgia On My Mind by Ray Charles
Sophisticated Lady by Duke Ellington
Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday
Deportee (Plane Wreck) by Woody Guthrie
Ball 'N' Chain by Big Mama Thornton
Ringo by Lorne Greene
Wang Dang Doodle by Willie Dixon or listen to Wang Dang Doodle by Koko Taylor or Wang Dang Doodle by Howlin' Wolf
Prisoner Of Love by Perry Como or Prisoner Of Love by James Brown
Just A Fool by Eddie Boyd
Louie Louie by The Kingsmen
Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry
The Rite Of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands by Bob Dylan or listen to Joan Baez Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Low lands
Come On In My Kitchen by Robert Johnson
Night Train by Jimmy Forrest
Soldier Boy by The Shirelles
You Really Got Me by The Kinks
El Paso by Marty Robbins
Pathetique Sonata: movement #1 (Beethoven) Pathetique Sonata: movement #2 (Beethoven) Pathetique Sonata: movement #3 (Beethoven) by off course Ludwig van Beethoven
Prelude No. 2 by George Gershwin
"If you ask me tomorrow the list would change, of course" say Tom Waits but how many time do you see such a great list of songs and I wish Tom Waits would make lists of songs every day of the week.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which is director by Terry Gilliam and the last role for Heath Ledger but what is even better is Tom Waits is The Devil!!! Here a photo from the film.

If a man don't have some regret in his life. Then he did not fuck up enough. If he did not fuck up enough he did not try hard enough.

But one of my biggest regrets did not come in the trying but the lack of trying. When I was a teenager there were not a bunch of video instructional vids for playing guitar.

In fact, I picked up a guitar at fifteen and bashed on it and fucked around with it and despite a bit of time not a whole damn lot came out of it. I regret that a lot. I regret not having the chance to play a song and sit and pick with my grandfather.

I had two grandfathers that lived long enough for me to know them. One grandfather made BBQ in the backwoods of GA and owned a restaurant and he farmed 40 acres of land. I got the chance to work with him in the fields and make BBQ with him and wash dishes in his restaurant and stir the big pots of Brunswick stew.

But I never did get the chance to strum a chord or two with my other grandfather or show him I respected the things that forged his life and his existence in the same way.

Oh if anyone picked up on it yes I had possibly the most Southern boy backstory of any person that ever lived. One grandfather was a part of The Bailes Brothers and played on the Grand Ol' Opry and Louisiana Hayride and my other grandfather owned a BBQ restaurant in GA.

It don't get any more southern than that.

Now, so many years later as I play the guitar now the regret at times creeps up on me hard. I was playing "Wheels on the Bus" for my son a toddler of like 16 months now. And he laughed and smiled so big it sent a goddamn chill down my spine. Corny?

Right now I put down trying to fingerpick melodies which is the next part in my Acoustic Guitar Method by David Hamburger I finally got one part of the "The Girl I Left Behind Me" down that had been giving me trouble and I am on a binge of just learning songs I want to learn.

There is "Red River Valley" for example and I keep going back to the Woody Guthrie version but I know it has been done by many. And then there is the Gram Parsons tune "Blue Eyes" which I have been lazy about really just kind of playing casual and such when I feel like it. But there is one that should be easy but the lesson I am using to learn it adds all kinds of flourishes and such I am talking about the Neil Young tune "Harvest Moon" the only problem with that one being it is drop D tuning and finding a good time to go into drop D during my practice is a bit of a pain.

Also it would seem to be a standard that half the world knows how to play but finding a really good video for how to play "Freight Train" by Elizabeth Cotten is frickin' hard because everyone want to do it Chet Atkins style or like Taj Mahal which means taking not a simple but mid-level difficulty song and tearing it into something way more complex.

I did post a couple more tune the first of which inspired part of the title of this journal.

Here is the soundclick link for :

Will the Circle Be Unbroken

And a really old little blues ditty called Sugar Babe

Just click on those to hear me playing.

I have not really been fingerpicking that long but I still have at least one more piece like that to post soon but I cannot decide if I want to post the fingerpicking version of the "Crawdad Song" or "The House of the Rising Sun" next.

I really should stop obsessing over finding a good documentary about American Folk Music.

They all really have faults that almost never end and I have never found one that really did the subject true justice. This one from the BBC however comes closest to the goal of a good documentary on the subject at least as close as one can possibly hope.

When a documentary tells you something about a beloved subject you did not know like the song Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" comes from The Carter Family's "When The World's On Fire" then at the very least you have hope.

It was also refreshing to Leadbelly mentioned in depth instead of in brief passing and its interesting to see him in stark contrast to another bluesman figure I knew very little about Josh White. Sure there was a lot of emphasis on John Lomax and Alan Lomax but at least they did not go to New York and stay there like many documentaries of this sort seem to.

It was also refreshing and probably only possible in a British telling of the story to see a documentary not gloss over the leftist leanings of the early folk singers in Greenwich Village. The word communist comes out a bit less like a curse here. I do find it amazing that many of these folks could in the early sixties and late fifties fail to realize that all the communist states had degenerated almost instantly to the flip-side mirror image of fascism but in left-leaning clothes where folks might be fed but still have no rights. The word Troskyite is not used as an apology like many other documentaries tend to do. Instead they just come across as amazingly naive. But as the documentary progressed into talking about the Civil Rights movement and the folk movements contribution you see it might have been a bonus.

Pete Seeger might still come across to me as a naive rich kid playing around in jeans and a banjo trying to act "common" but there is a flip-side to that sneer I raise. A bigot once said, "The only white folks who supported the Civil Rights movement were commies and jews." Early on in the movement he was almost right.

There were northern liberal white church leaders, Jewish groups, academics and leftists supporting the Civil Rights movement early on and that was just about it. It took a naivete to look at the movement early on and realize it had a chance to change the nation. Every one else simply thought well it has always been that way and always will be that way.

I found it very cool that they talk however briefly about the commercialization of country music and its leaning to the right early on as well. It usually takes a very focused documentary to bother mentioning how Guthrie played in a cowboy band early on for example.

The talk of black performers and their contribution did not end with Leadbelly's death for the documentary with talk not just of Robert Johnson in passing but also about Mississippi John Hurt and the Newport Folk Festival.

The documentary also did not shy away from the commercialization of folk music with The Kingston Trio or Peter Paul and Mary which is typically glossed over so more emphasis can be given to Joan Baez and of course Bob Dylan. The treatment of Dylan as important but set in a greater framework of a ton of other things going on was very telling. It is a rare thing to see him be given proper weight without completely taking over the end part of most of such documentaries.

And it even talked about the West Coast and how folk was being brough into psychadelic music with a nice bit from Roger McGuinnon The Byrds which almost reached a point of feeling out of place before being brought in very well back into the whole.

My only qualms about the documentary was there was not enough time given to the mention of the contribution of early country music from the Appalachians and perhaps almost an over-emphasis on the politics even outside of talking about the Greenwich Village crew.

But these are minor things. I am linking in the first part of the series from youtube.

If you follow the links you can get to all 12 parts with the last part being tagged with no number just identified as the final part.



Warning you need to click this pause it as it starts and let it load for a bit even on a fast connection for some reason or it pauses like mad.

I've just re-watched The Proposition and last week watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford for the first time and I have to say I love The Proposition but The Assassination is good but not great. Every minute of The Proposition is great but The Assassination is not so, I don't know maybe it's way, way to long but Nick Cave pops up in a scene at the end which woke me up, here it is on youtube, this is the best bit of the movie:


This song is not on the soundtrack. It's called Jesse James and is an old Traditional song which has been recorded by many artists here's Bruce Springsteen With The Sessions Band's Jesse James, The Pogues' Jesse James, Woody Guthrie's Jesse James, Pete Seeger's Jesse James, Ry Cooder's Jesse James, Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan & Chris Barber with The Ballad Of Jesse James and many others but who recorded it first was Bascom Lamar Lunsford recorded in 1924 with Poor Jesse James.

What is new is Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have a myspace page now which is here: http://www.myspace.com/nickcaveandwarrenellis with new songs you can't find anywhere else. Black Silk (Suture) is from The English Surgeon documentary film, the DVD is out now:



I haven't seen this, please let me known if you have. Both are going to score their fifth film, The Girls of Phnom Penh. The film is a documentary about "the Cambodian virginity trade" which is out later this year. The feature film The Road is still coming soon too. On their myspace is a few songs from theatrical productions of Woyzeck (2005) and Metamorphosis (2006) which has a release date of 5/11/2009, which I hope is true. Mary's Song, The Water Song and Drowning Music are so beautiful. If you click on videos you can see previews of these and the movies.

Back to Nick Cave - The Exhibition what I haven't talked about so far is Statue of Nick Cave on a horse, if you haven't heard about this well I don't know how to explain it. The Sculptor Corin Johnson's drawing and visual diary and a small version of it in a glass box are on show here. To be honest I have no idea what to say about this maybe what Cave himself said recently "It's not a joke". There is a white and green monkey sculpture, which was a souvenir from Gibraltar, present from Martyn P. Casey (to Nick Cave) who lives here in Perth so he can go and look at it himself (if he wants to). There is a Sacred Heart of Jesus bust and The Flagellation (also know as Ecce Homo) from his own collection on loan for the exhibition, more religions stuff.

I think I'll just get on and write about Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' late period songs and albums. Papa Won't Leave You, Henry is here from early hand-written notes to the final typed out version with not very many if any changes at all. A wall is covered in the pages which are taped up on the wall of the studio which can be seen in photo on the inside of the Let Love In album cover with the biggest being the sign "Cleaner's, Anyone Please Do Not Touch My Papers, Leave Them Us They Are" There are TV screens with his lyrics on pages which turn over when you press buttons. Lots of songs lyrics never made it to his albums, like ones called: Now That Your Back Again, If Only For A Day, Madelaine's Brooch (crossed out and changed to) Ring, Gospel Chord Song, Sugar Boy, And Underneath The Fog, David's Song, Trouble At Reillys which was the first draft for O'Malley's Bar, Bad Weather Girl changed into The Rain Song and finally into Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore. More notebooks opened on Mojo lyrics for the movie of the same name and a drawing of what was going the be the cover of Into My Arms looks like kind-off Crucifixion, maybe? Above on the wall is the finished Into My Arms words framed. Aussie artist Bill Henson name is written into notebook. The Stooges are in one of those little frames and late-70's Miles Davis is too.

A couple more things and I think I'm finished. There's a Christmas card from 1967 of a church choir with a very young Nick Cave singing in the third row, It's cute. I think that is everything but I could be back with part 7 (you never know) and I'll leave you with two poems which are hung up in the gallery.

Let Nothing Trouble You by St. Teresa of Avila

Let nothing trouble you.
Let nothing scare you.
All is fleeting.
God alone is unchanging.
Patience
Everything obtains.
Who possesses God
Nothing wants.
God alone suffices.


The Mower by Philip Larkin

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

Thu 11 Jun – Billy Bragg

I've been a bit lax with my writing of reviews of gigs over the past year due to a combination of not many gigs and real life getting in the way.

Anyway. The first guy on Dan Amore was really really dull. He sung songs about mountains and was rather bland.

Next on the billing was a poet called Patrick Jones. I'm rather fond of him and actually have a book of his, but reading his own stuff was odd. I spent most of it wondering where the turn tables and sampler were and the bits he did to to music were much better. I may be part of the hip hop generation after all...

Billy Bragg was awesome. He just about got the balance between rant, silly and songs right (although I'd possibly have liked slightly less rant and one extra song, partly as they're the same political rants I've been having myself recently with regard to the rise on the right and things), he played a good mix of stuff from throughout his career and a few Woody Guthrie songs (one off Mermaid Avenue, one not). It was a good gig. Only slight downside was that it was seated and I was on the very back row, I could still see fine due to the steepness of the theatre, but it was just a rather odd experience.