An A-Z of American Cities - C

 

No Chicago for you this week as that would be far to easy.Apologies then to Wilko, Sujan Stevens, Doris Day, Paper Lace and countless others

When Kevin Montgomery was singing about Cherokee City on his album 2.30 am where the girls are too rich and they're way to pretty it is not clear whether he is referring to Cherokee City, Arkansas (population 73), or Cherokee City, Iowa (population 5099).Whichever one it is it's going in.

In the comments last week Alyson suggested Last Train to Clarksville and Chattanooga Choo Choo.Hmm The Monkees versus Glen Miller? Clearly, there was  always only going to be one winner and it was one that I already had lined up.  Georgia then  as opposed to Tennessee and to the city of Clarkesville and it's population of 1991.

Dwight Yoakam featured last week so rather than featuring him two weeks in a row here are Freakwater  covering his song South of Cincinnati, a song taken from Rough Trade Shops Country 1 compilation. In the state of Ohio it is considerably bigger than the two above with a population in excess of 300,000.

Finally from another compilation Texas Boogie .. a collection of Texas songs (which has plenty of material for this series). We are off to Corpus Christi a coastal city and the largest in Nueces County, Texas which is marginally larger population wise than Cincinatti.Another cover with Johnny Rodriguez doing the honours on the Robert Earl Keen song Corpus Christi Bay.

The letter D next Sunday with Dallas and Denver being excluded.

Kevin Montgomery - Cherokee City

The Monkees -Last Train to Clarkesville

Freakwater -South of Cincinnati

Johnny Rodriguez - Corpus Christi Bay

The Saturday Shuffle 3

 

Another random shuffle from my gym MP3 player.

Psychedelic Americana music is made for the gym and who better to provide that than Rose City Band?

Morning Light is a track (and the shortest) from their second and best album 2020's Summerlong. I see that they have just released their 4th album Garden Party. I'm tempted but as things stand the price is too steep for me. It's time to begin to draw lines in the sand.

Ironmasters from The Men They Couldn't Hang's masterpiece of a debut album Night of a Thousand Candles is an absolute belter and again is ideal gym material.

We had the album Summerlong above and now we have Summerteeth. What are the odds on that?

The three songs chosen have come from the three acts best albums. In this case it is Wilco with a song from 1999's Summerteeth. Most folk would probably plump for the 2001 follow up Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as their best but this is the one for me. A Shot in the Arm vies with She's a Jar and Via Chicago as the top song on the album.

Three crackers today. Will next Saturday's random shuffle be as fruitful?

Rose City Band - Morning Light

The Men They Couldn't Hang - Iron Masters

Wilco -A Shot in the Arm

Dream Attic

 

I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment with respect to solo albums by Richard Thompson.

Front Parlour Ballads appeared here recently as part of the Debra Haul.

This week I give you Dream Attic a live album from 2010 on the Proper label. 

To quote Wiki instead of recording new songs in a studio, Thompson made demo recordings, rehearsed the songs with his band and then recorded the new material live on a two-week tour of the Western USA in February 2010. Each night's first set presented thirteen new songs, played live, in the sequence they would soon have on the album.

The album was assembled from these live recordings. No studio overdubs were done. Each track on the finished album is an entire, unedited live performance of the song.

I say live but I picked up the Deluxe 2 x CD edition with Disc 1 being the "Electric" album with 13 tracks and with Disc 2 comprising of the original acoustic guitar and vocal demos for the 13 songs.

It seems only fair to feature one electric and one acoustic song.

Richard Thompson - The Money Shuffle (Electric)

Richard Thompson -Haul Me Up (Acoustic)

If Jesus Drove a Motor Home

 

New series alert - Jesus songs!

The idea is to share a couple of songs with Jesus in the title. I've got quite a few  so we will see how we get along.

Oh, and lest anyone accuses me of being sacrilegious I will end every post with a gospel song.

Jim White has a good few Jesus songs and it was listening to his album Drill a Hole in the Substrate and Tell Me What You See  when selecting That Girl From Brownsville, Texas for the A-Z of American Cities that inspired this series.

On the album he ponders a scenario that we surely have all thought about at some point in time namely what If Jesus Drove a Motor Home. If this series lasts for any length of time Jim will almost certainly feature again.

Another act who have more than one Jesus Song are Bellshill duo The Vaselines .Today's offering by them is Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam which, as by brother is wont to say, is a bloody good trade in.

Finally for the gospel number I give you Marie Knight with Jesus Met the Woman at the Well.

More soon if I haven't been struck down.

Jim White -If Jesus Drove a Motor Home

The Vaselines -Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam

Marie Knight - Jesus Met the Woman at the Well

Gordon Lightfoot

 

The sad news came in yesterday that the Canadian singer songwriter Gordon Lightfoot has died aged 84.

For years I was only vaguely familiar with his music via the song  The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. However a couple of years ago I was at a gig where the DJ playing prior to the bands played a song which completely blew me away. A quick Google search informed me that it was a song of his called Sundown.

Around the same time there was a TV series called The Serpent based on the true story of a man robbing and murdering tourists along the Far East hippie trail.The theme tune to the series was Gordon's If You Could Read My Mind. A song which I was only familiar with courtesy of the Johnny Cash cover

When I previously mentioned my lack of knowledge of his songs Ernie very kindly stepped up to the plate and provided me with a very large selection of his other tunes.

Sundown you better take care. Rest easy Gordon. 

Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown

Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind

Paper Trails

 

Dropkick are a band who come from Edinburgh less than 50 miles away from where I am sitting typing this.

They have been on the go since 2001 but despite their proximity they only came to my attention via Brian's Best of 2020 list. That's right it took someone from Seattle to introduce someone from Glasgow to an Edinburgh band!

He described their 2020 album The Scenic Route thus They're a little bit country (early Jayhawks) and a little bit rock 'n' roll (Teenage Fanclub around 'Songs From Northern Britain') and have somehow improved upon 2018 album 'Longwave...' and that's saying a lot.

Obviously that was enough for me to pull the trigger and The Scenic Route was duly purchased. Shortly after that the released a Best Of double album with 30 tracks (with an additional 20 on the accompanying CDs). That was pretty handy given that their back catalogue extends to some 18 records.This does not include lead singer Andrew Taylor's solo work or his three albums as part of The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness. More details available here I note that they have just released yet another one The Wireless Revolution

I've made a slight inroad into the back catalogue with the purchase of a the  CD of Paper Trails their 12th album from 2012 on Sound Asleep Records.A good find given that it appears to be sold out on Bandcamp.I'm happy to report it does not deviate too far from Brian's description above.

On the back of this I have purchased a ticket to see them in August.

Dropkick - Until I Fall Away

Dropkick -Paper Trails

Do It With Love

 

A couple of years ago Ernie very kindly shared a promo copy of this album by Starry Skies  on the basis that "they are from your neck of the woods".

I was vaguely familiar with them having a copy of Ask the Animals when they were known as Warren McIntyre and Starry Skies. Towards the end of 2001 I saw The Gracious Losers at the CCA when I noticed a poster advertising that they were playing the following week. I went along and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I would describe their music as happy pop. Nothing startling but watching them or listening to them leaves you with a smile on your face.

I was in the City Centre the other day and popped into Love Music in Dundas Street. I bought a few CDs and as part of my haul I took the opportunity to upgrade Do It With Love (Foxstar Records, 2020)  from a digital copy to CD

If you like this (and I can't imagine why you wouldn't) their back catalogue is available on Bandcamp at reasonable prices.

Don't you worry baby

Starry Skies - Do It With Love

Starry Skies - Forgotten Dream