Shelter From The Storm

Similar notes as with my list of 10 Favorite New Albums of 2008:

1. These are my “favorite” reissues from the past year. I’m sure there are some I missed, but these are the ones I spent the most time listening to and was most thankful to see released, for one reason or another.

2. It’s interesting to note that of the thirteen albums listed here, four consist of completely new “previously unreleased” material (Hank Williams, Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Simon & Garfunkel). The other nine consist of “new” versions of rather well known albums that have been easily available on CD for many years. There are still tons of albums that have never been reissued on CD. There are just as many that were available on CD for a short time or in some foreign country, but are impossible to find. We seem to be seeing less and less reissues of those types of albums. I think the major labels have basically decided that everything worth releasing has been released. There are still a few labels, such as Collector’s Choice, Wounded Bird, American Beat and Raven, who are actively releasing albums that have never been on CD before, but they seem to be getting fewer and fewer.

3. They are pretty much in order.

4. I couldn’t keep it to ten.

1. Jesus Of Cool by Nick Lowe
Simply superb. Yep Roc did absolutely everything right. Beautiful packaging, bonus tracks galore, etc., etc. The blueprint for how to put together a great reissue. Not to mention the classic music contained therein. It doesn’t get any better than this for those of us who love a good reissue.

2. Warren Zevon by Warren Zevon
His first, and best, album. It sounds terrific and the extra disc of outtakes, alternate takes and live performances, while not revelatory, is a welcome addition to the catalog.

3. The Unreleased Recordings by Hank Williams
A very flawed release. Still, you can’t deny the importance, power and just plain magic of this music. 54 new live performances from Hank Williams, never before officially released. Wonderful stuff. Williams recorded this material for a radio program that ran for 15 minutes on weekday mornings. He performs some of his best known compositions, along with lots of covers and traditional gospel songs. However, it’s almost unforgivable the way the songs have been edited from the complete performances. I have a fifteen disc bootleg set of the entire surviving radio shows and the between song conversations, jingles, intro and outros add so much to these performances. I realize Time Life was trying to make this material as accessible as possible to the general public, but really, it’s the true fans who are going to buy something like this and they would have been so much better served by the complete performances.

4 & 5. Tumbleweed Connection & Elton John by Elton John
Tumbleweed Connection is my favorite Elton John album. Just wonderful from beginning to end. Very different in many ways from everything he did before and after. The music sounds better than ever and a bonus disc includes a ton of rare and unreleased demos, outtakes, etc. I bought this album on 8-track, I bought it on vinyl, I  bought it on CD, I bought the “remastered” CD and now I’ve bought this. I don’t know what else they can come up with, but chances are I’d probably buy another version if they put one out. His self-titled “faux” debut is a true classic and the beginning of an amazing run through the seventies. My first exposure to Elton John, when I was 15 years old. Like Tumbleweed Connection the bonus disc is full of great unreleased material.

6 & 7. Tea For The Tillerman & Teaser And The Firecat by Cat Stevens
It’s hard to overstate how important these albums were at the time of their release. Finally given the “Deluxe Edition” treatment with a bonus track full of unreleased material on each. One of the first concerts I ever saw was Stevens at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. I never got over it. This period was a high water mark that he never equalled again. 

8. Just Roll Tape by Stephen Stills
Just Stephen alone with his guitar in the studio in early 1968 putting down songs, one after another. This was truly a time when Stills could seeming do no wrong. Even the throwaway songs are great. This is the kind of stuff that no one ever thought would see the light of day, least of all Stills as he was recording it. A fan’s dream come true.

9. Songs For Beginners by Graham Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash, as a group, as various duos and as solo artists, released an amazing amount of great material during their peak run from 1969 to 1977. Each made a simply stunning debut solo album, but this one is my favorite. I listened to it non-stop when it was released. Nash went back and remixed the entire thing and it sounds fantastic. The only disappointment is the lack of any unreleased bonus material. No outtakes, no unreleased songs, nothing. Instead, we get an extra disc with DVD audio, an interview with Nash, a photo gallery and lyrics.

10. Sugar Mountain – Live At Canterbury House 1968 by Neil Young
The third release in the “Neil Young Archives Performance Series,” this is a great show from November 1968, the earliest solo live material we’ve seen officially released to date. It’s just Neil and his guitar playing Buffalo Springfield songs and others that would appear on his first solo album. He sounds oh so young and innocent. It’s great stuff and I hope he continues to release more of this type of material. His Archives, Vol. 1 box set that he’s teasing us with for almost 20 years (!)  has been delayed once again. It’s supposed to be released on February 24th right now, but that has changed so often no one really believes it. With a $431.99 list price (I kid you not) it’s hard to say how many people will actually buy it, even when it’s on sale at Amazon for $323.99.

11. Tapestry by Carole King
Another “Legacy” edition. Another classic. The album that launched the singer-songwriter craze of the early seventies. Another album I’ve bought over and over again. The bonus disc includes solo live performances of all but one track from the album, all recorded in 1973 and 1976. 

12. This Years Model by Elvis Costello
As good as My Aim Is True was, This Years Model was a huge leap forward for Costello. The band was red hot, Nick Lowe’s production was spot on and Costello was at the top of his songwriting skills. This record has so much power, it just snarls from the speakers. Even though this has been rereleased twice already (Ryko and Rhino) this version boasts a near perfect bonus disc, a complete concert from Washington, D.C. in February 1978 (along with ten demos, alternates and outtakes). I saw Costello on this tour in Houston. He came out, tour through 15 or 20 songs non-stop and split, leaving everyone dazed. The proverbial “angry young man” never sounded so good.

In the mid-eighties I came across a publication from the Elliott Murphy Information Society. A newsletter really that provided a lot of information about, well, Elliott Murphy. Now, I’d been a big fan for many, many years (his debut, Aquashow, is in my Top 10 of all time), so I was very happy to make this discovery. I subscribed to the newsletter and eagerly awaited each edition (I think they came out quarterly). This was probably 1985 or 1986, way before email or websites. I can’t remember how it happened exactly, but at some point t-shirts were offered for sale through the newsletter. They were $15.00 each I think. At the time, I thought that was an extraordinarily high price of a t-shirt (again, this was way before the artist merch business got so out of hand) and I sent a postcard or something off to the editor of the newsletter saying so. One day not long after that the phone rang. It was Charlie Hunter, the guy behind the EMIS. I was quite surprised that he was calling me, but he’d phoned just to say hi, and tell me that he had gotten my postcard and to explain why he didn’t think $15.00 was too much for a t-shirt. Well, I never did buy a t-shirt but Charlie and I became friends and corresponded here and there. When I started my label Dejadisc in 1992 Charlie was a huge help, offering lots of advice. Actually, I think I drove him crazy calling him up at all hours of the day and night with questions about the music business. He helped me license my first release, Elliott’s album Party Girls And Broken Poets, which at the time, was his only album that had never been reissued on CD. Charlie did the artwork for the CD release and he also did the artwork for my second release, and album from Texas singer-songwriter David Rodriguez. He did both of these on a “spec” agreement that if they sold a certain amount I’d pay him a certain amount. Well, neither ever sold much and so Charlie never made any money for doing those packages. Apart from his work with Elliott Murphy and the help he so graciously gave me when I was starting my label, I’ll always be thankful to Charlie for introducing me to the music of Fred Eaglesmith. I was at a Folk Alliance conference in Washington D.C. one year when Charlie told me about this new guy he was managing. I had a lot of confidence in Charlie, so I figured if he was managing this guy he must be something special. A month or two later at SXSW I got my first chance to see Eaglesmith and I was blown away. I went to see him three times over the course of a few days and I was totally hooked. I can’t remember when I lost track of Charlie. I still hear about him now and then, but I haven’t spoken to him in at least ten years. He’s a great guy, a real music lover, one of the good ones. He used to say, “The only causes worth fighting for are the lost ones.” (A quote from my favorite movie of all time, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington; that alone made me like him immensely.) I hope he’s doing well out there.

Live From The Paradise Motel is, as the name implies, a live album, recorded in one night at the La Casa Music Series in Birmingham, Michigan. It’s a sparse, acoustic recording with just Eaglesmith, a bass player and a mandolin player. Both the sidemen, who also contribute vocals and the harmonies throughout, are outstanding. With sixteen tracks, all written by Eaglesmith, it’s a superb showcase for his intensely powerful songs. Fred opens the show (and album) with a short accapella number, “Yellow Barley Straw,” which segues perfectly into “Thirty Years Of Farming.” It’s clear from the beginning this is man who writes what he knows. Tractors, small towns, general stores, ploughs, foreclosures and hard times fill the songs with a sense of the great American mid-west, though in fact, Eaglesmith is from Canada. Eaglesmith is a terrific story-teller, but what really sets his songs apart from many others are the characters who populate them. From the farmer who sees his farm auctioned off in “Thirty Years Of Farming” to the two bit criminal wannabes of “Little Buffalo” to the forlorn lovers of “Rodeo Rose” these are real people, the kind of people you can find in just about any small town from Ohio to Montana to Winnipeg. 

This is a deeply intimate album, but not in the Joni Mitchell/Jackson Browne sense of confessional songwriting. Eagelesmith is a master storyteller and there’s never been more evidence of his skills than the tracks on this album. Almost every song is the equivalent of a finely crafted short story. Eaglesmith has a remarkable ability to bring characters, situations and places to life in a sparing, economical way that requires very few words. When I was a freshman in high school I had a very influential teacher for a creative writing class. I’ve always remembered his advice to “show, don’t tell.” Eaglesmith doesn’t so much “tell” a story; it’s more as if he shows it all to you. It’s almost as if you’re in a dark theater somewhere watching an old movie from the 1940’s. The characters are very, very much alive in the music.

Mixed in with the songs of farming, sharecropping and rural life (“Sweaburg General Store,” Sharecroppin’,” “Go Out And Plough”)  are songs of lost love, travel, missed opportunities (“The Highway Callin’,”My Last Six Dollars,” “Rough Edges”) and a lot of stuff that has just plain gone wrong. Eaglesmith is not, to say the least, an optimist painting confident, cheerful, positive pictures of life and love. Over the years Eaglesmith has written and recorded a fair amount of love songs, but you’d be hard pressed to find even one that represents a joyful, healthy or in any way positive portrayal of the romantic liaison between a man and a woman. Most are full of regret, despair, disillusionment, despair and heartache. Many involve jail. Most (if not all) end badly. Almost every relationship has either buckled under the weight of hard times and disparate personalities or is on the verge of collapsing from the abandoned dreams, postponed promises and/or disintegrating hopes that seem to haunt the players that wander from one song to the next. ”I’m Just Deamin’” is a perfect example of a Fred Eaglesmith love song, depicting a love that was doomed from the start. “Should of never had a girl who didn’t know hay from straw,” he sings and everything you need to know about the relationship is entwined in those simple words. ”Summerlea” might be the closest thing he’s ever written to real love song though it’s by no means anywhere close to the traditional type of song you’d usually associate with that genre. 

“Sunflowers” showcases Eaglesmith’s amazing ability to set a scene, recounting the funeral of a neighboring farmer with stunningly straightforward understatement and an amazing sense of detail. It always gives me shivers. “Harold Wilson,” which closes out the album is another portrait of another farmer, this one still alive, but living in a motel for $100 per month after losing his land and his family. In reality there isn’t much that separates him from the dead farmer in “Sunflowers,” except that he’s still breathing. 

“Little Buffalo” just might be my favorite song on the album. It’s a comical tale of “restless nights and endless fights” with an infectious sing-along chorus. Dancing around the account of barricades, flying bullets, barking dogs and waling sirens, and on full display, is Eaglesmith’s caustic wit and humor, something else he’s well known for.

Fred Eaglesmith has written many, many great songs. But, he’s never really made a great album. Don’t get me wrong, he’s made some pretty damn good ones, including Drive-In Movie and Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline and this one. Still he’s never made that album where everything came together in one perfect classic performance. They’re all flawed in one way or another, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. The production is bad (or just plain weird), the songs are not quite up to par, etc. This album is as close to a true masterpiece as he’s come in my opinion. There are some songs on other albums that are better than the best songs on this album, but no other album is a strong throughout as this one.

Other Listens on January 10th:
Nolita by Keren Ann
Dance To The Music by Sly & The Family Stone

OK, a couple of things: 

1. These are my “favorite” new albums released in 2008. I refrain from using the term “best new albums” as that’s too subjective of a term in my opinion. These are simply the records I liked most this year. I’m not saying they’re the best.

2. I’m sure there were other albums released this year that might have made this list but I simply haven’t heard them yet. This is what I’ve heard this year.

3. They are pretty much in order.

1. The Fabled City by Tom Morello The Nightwatchman
Wow. This album just completely knocked me out. I have one CD by Rage Against the Machine (The Battle Of Los Angeles) but I’ve never listened to it. Maybe I should. I bought this album after hearing Morello’s duet with Springsteen on “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” from the online only release Magic Tour Highlights. Great singer-songwriter rock. Passionate. Moving. My favorite album of the year.

2. Volume One by She & Him
A wonderful surprise and a very close runner up for my favorite album of the year. I wrote about this album here. A really, really terrific release with lots of minor pop gems. Let’s hope there really is a Volume Two coming as the name implies.

3. Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 by Bob Dylan
OK, it’s not “new” material, but it is a new release. Outtakes, alternate takes and live tracks that once again prove Dylan is either: a. the worst judge of his own material when it comes to picking tracks for albums; b. an honery son-of-a-bitch who likes to leave great tracks on the cutting room floor just to piss off his fans; or c. just doesn’t really worry too much about what goes on each album what doesn’t. Either way, this two (three if you’re willing to shell out $100 extra bucks for the deluxe version) disc set is ample evidence that what Dylan doesn’t put on an album completely blows most people’s released material out of the water. I wasn’t a big fan of Modern Times or Love & Trust (sure, I liked them but not the way some folks did). The material on this set which comes from those two albums is, to me, much, much better than what was officially released. 

4. Life Death Love And Freedom by John Mellencamp
The first time I heard this I thought Mellencamp must be terminally ill. Lots of songs about sickness, death, the meaning of life, etc. His best album in 20 years. I wrote about it here. 

5. Detours by Sheryl Crow
A very welcome comeback after Wildflowers. One of Crow’s strongest efforts ever, full of great and memorable songs. I wrote about it here.

6. Coal by Kathy Mattea
A complete surprise to me. I’ve never bought or listened to any Kathy Mattea albums before. She always seemed like just another bland Nashville female singer to me. A friend gave me a copy of this CD and it blew me away. Beautiful acoustic renditions of “coal miner” related songs produced to perfection by Marty Stuart.   

7. Time The Conqueror by Jackson Browne
Certainly not one of his best albums ever (we have to go back to the 70s for those), but a very strong release nonetheless. I haven’t listened to it a whole lot, but each time I do I find something new I like about it.  

8. Fearless by Taylor Swift
Hey, what do you expect from someone who also loves Shania Twain and Eddie Rabbitt. I don’t think the songs are quite as good as those on Swift’s first album and I find the production a little monotonous. Still it’s a superb display of what I’d call country-power pop shot full with teen angst and young girl blues balanced with all the hope, magic and promise that comes with young love. As the title implies Swift brings a sense of empowerment, spunk and toughness to the table that is so often lacking in other young singers. She ain’t nobody’s victim. Break her heart and you’ll probably live to regret it.  

9. Mudcrutch by Mudcrutch
Not really much of a surprise here. I’m a huge Tom Petty fan and this could easily be mistaken for a new Tom Petty album. He wrote the majority of the songs and the sound is very much in the vain of his work with the Heartbreakers. Still, it’s great to see him reaching back into his past to hook up with his old bandmates and there is a freshness here that has been missing from his other recent releases. And the songs are some of the best he’s written in a long time. Some great covers as well.

10. Misfit Scarecrow by Sammy Walker
At first I was disappointed in this release. There was just so much to live up to. Sammy’s two albums from the seventies on Warner Bros. are two of my all time favorite albums ever. It’s been almost fifteen years since his last release (1994’s Old Time Southern Dream). But with repeated listens the songs on this album won me over. The record label really dropped the ball on this one. You still can’t buy it at Amazon.com. It wasn’t available at iTunes for quite some time after it was released. Why bother releasing an album like this if you’re not going to make it easily available to the public? It’s not like there’s a huge Sammy Walker fanbase out there waiting for it.