Showing posts with label Shelby Lynne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shelby Lynne. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Covered in Folk: Randy Newman
(Bonnie Raitt, The Duhks, J.J. Cale, Shelby Lynne, and 9 more!)




Though my father hasn't missed it in decades, I haven't been able to attend the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival since I started teaching over a decade ago -- something about the way a last gasp of hunker-down-and-teach takes over public education as we approach state testing, and the long downhill slide toward the end of the school year. But every year as we hit the last weekend in April my mind begins to muse upon the great acts I saw down there the few years I made it: Los Lobos, the Indigo Girls, Taj Mahal, Blues Traveler, the Neville Brothers, a holy host of Marsalis siblings, and many, many more.

What stands out strongest after all these years is the time I saw Randy Newman play a whole set of songs about rain in a downpour one year at Jazzfest. We were muddy football fields away from the stage, umbrella-less to boot, but what I remember best is the clarity of his set, just that wry warbly scratchy voice and a barroom piano style, over a substance chock full of extremely unreliable narrators and sarcasm, with a power that I had never really heard in his music before.

The scene was terrible; the view was worse. But Newman's music got burned into my brain. And since then, though I haven't made it to another performance, I've never passed up a chance to listen to his songs, no matter who is singing them.

Randy Newman's original performances aren't folk, quite -- though as a set of produced music that, at its best, focuses and features the simple melodies and heartfelt, story-troped acoustic output of a songwriter and his stringed instrument, much of his songs share the qualities of both traditional folkways and modern singer-songwriter folk. That so many from the folkworld and beyond have managed to take his work and make it beautiful in their own way acknowledges this ground, it is true. But that the songs speak -- as all good folk should -- to a nation and a people and a heart all at once is both a testament to the inherent beauty in the songs themselves, and the inherent and universal beauty in the human condition, even at its most terrible and sodden and rained-upon, of which they speak so effectively.

Today, in honor of my tenth consecutive year missing Jazzfest, we bring you a predominantly southern-tinged set of Randy Newman coversongs. Though I could not resist a song or two from the lighter and less historically-relevant side of the Newman catalog, those younger folks who only know Newman from his recent work scoring Disney soundtracks may be pleasantly surprised to find that in his younger days, Newman was a gifted songwriter, known for his ability to expose the whole range of the human experience, from the poignant to the historical accurate to the absurd, rub it raw, and somehow manage to make it touching all the same. Sometimes, I guess, it takes a little rain to make you really understand.




Today's bonus coversongs come with little fanfare after two megaposts in three days:

  • Randy Newman covers Harry Nilsson's Remember
  • Randy Newman "covers" Every Man A King, bringing his trademark irony to lyrics originally by Huey P. Long just by singing them straight alongside his Good Old Boys

Randy Newman will play this year's Jazzfest on Thursday evening. Can't make it? Check out this related post @ Star Maker Machine: The Preservation Hall Jazz Band covers Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Shelby Lynne Covers:
Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton
plus covers from Allison Moorer, Steve Earle, and Cash, too!

Just a few days left to win an autographed copy of Just A Little Lovin', Shelby Lynne's new acoustic country tribute to the songs of Dusty Springfield! To tempt you a little more, today we're featuring a pair of older covers by this perpetually on-the-verge singer-songwriter, plus a matching set by her equally talented sister Allison Moorer.



If Shelby Lynne was pure contemporary country, you'd not find her here on a coverblog devoted to folk music. But though she's made her share of slick pop country albums, since the confessional turn of 1999 recording I Am Shelby Lynne, which garnered her a much-belated Grammy for Best New Artist in 2001, Shelby Lynne no longer considers herself a country music artist in the same vein as Carrie Underwood or Shanaia Twain, and it's not hard to see - or hear - why.

The relationship between country music and folk music is complex, especially since the advent of alt-country. In one way, it's true, for example, that bluegrass is to country as folk and blues are to rock...but it is equally true that bluegrass, folk, and the more traditional forms of country music share more with the modern alt-country movement, and more with each other, than they do with the kind of pop country that makes the crossover to what's left of the mainstream radio spectrum.

It is not necessary to reconcile these parallel truths in order to enjoy Shelby Lynne's wonderful new release Just A Little Lovin'. That's not to say it defies categorization, necessarily; if anything, with a few powerful exceptions, this is both a sweet in-genre tribute to a seminal 60s-era pop-folk artist and a sultry pop record, in the same vein as KD Lang's later work, or the best of Diana Krall, if a little farther South, geographically speaking. But where Lang and Krall slip too easily into softpop torch songs, Lynne's choices on this powerful collection of Dusty Springfield covers span a wider, warmer spectrum, from the piano bar ballad to the smooth bass-and-snare jazz trio to the pulsing, driving alt-country of Lucinda Williams or Michelle Shocked.

It's all good. At its best, in cuts like the dark, bluesy Willie and Laura Mae Jones, or the deep, slow jazz of the title cut, Lynne's delivery bleeds raw at the edges, creating a nuanced, powerful, mature balance between vocal control and roots-ragged empathy. Her ability to truly reinterpret Dusty is both honorably unique and, on an emotional level, uncannily accurate. And the stripped down acoustic instrumentation, heavy on the languid piano and acoustic guitar, supports this sound exceptionally well.

I've been asked not to post tracks from Just A Little Lovin' until Tuesday, the album's official release date; as we come to the end of our contest, I'll able to share a few tracks to tempt you one more time. Happily, however, Shelby Lynne's previous coverwork is diverse enough to speak to both the complicated relationship between folk and country, and the overwhelming power of this Grammy-winning vocalist at her interpretive best. Here's two of my favorites: A truly country Johnny Cash cover, and an absolutely stunning folked-down version of Dolly Parton's The Seeker which hints at her work-to-come.


Interested in hearing for yourself? Hedge your bets: pre-order Just A Little Lovin' directly from the fine folks at Filter, and enter our contest to win an autographed copy!


Today's bonus coversongs continue in a countrified vein, with a unique twist: I was able to find both a companion Cash cover and a companion Dolly Parton cover from Shelby Lynne's sister, the equally wonderful, slightly more alt-country chanteuse Allison Moorer, who is also slated to release a coveralbum in the coming months:


And, just for fun, Allison's husband, country folk rocker Steve Earle, with his own take on a Cash tune...and Johnny Cash himself, with a cover of Earle, for the extra point:

Thursday, January 24, 2008

WIN Shelby Lynne Covering the Songs of Dusty Springfield



No music today, folks...just a promise of what's to come.

Singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne's new album Just A Little Lovin', a stripped-down acoustic set of covers of Dusty Springfield songs (plus one Dusty-esque original), comes out on January 29th, and I can't wait. Shelby was once pure Nashville Country, but she left that behind long before her 2001 Grammy for Best New Artist; her newest work floats a set of masterful vocals over acoustic guitar and piano, resulting in a sound comparable to the better, sparser works of Alison Krauss or even Norah Jones: folk-tinged, with a twang and a fully mature control over her own sound. If the cuts I've heard are any indication, we're in for a real treat.

And if you're as excited as I am -- or just intrigued enough to care -- now's the time to pay attention. Because thanks to Lost Highway Records, Filter, and the other good folks behind this record, I've been given the chance to offer one of you your very own autographed copy of Just A Little Lovin'.

I'll be posting a few songs from Just A Little Lovin', plus some other great covers from Shelby Lynne, in the next few days. In the meantime, if you'd like to take a crack at winning an autographed copy of Shelby Lynne's sweet new cover album, leave a shout-out and your email address in the comments below. I'll pick a winner sometime next week.