and the whirlwind is in the thorn-tree...

The Man in Black

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,

And tell the world that everything's OK,

But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,

'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.
- Johnny Cash

He'd always been there. A brooding presence emanating from radios and televisions that bore witness to all the evil that people could do to each other. Even when he was a younger man, you swore he'd lived hundreds of years already. The black hair couldn't belie the creases and lines on that face or in a voice scraped raw from shouting at the devils that pursued him night after night.

Yet, I look at pictures of him in the last years of his life; the hair has gone white, his hands are gnarled and twisted by age as if he'd become a grand old oak tree that weathered many a storm, and the years have been stripped away. If some of us are born young to age and gradually be beaten down by the world, he was born old to learn innocence and to find his way home.

Johnny Cash's black clad figure has been as much a symbol of rugged American individualism as any other man in the last hundred years. Unlike other figures that have let their image be co-opted by various political movements or philosophies, he was never brought into any fold.

The music establishment in Nashville wanted nothing to do with him, but couldn't ignore the fact that he appealed to more people around the world than most of their other acts combined. They would try to claim him as one of their own, but the reality was that as they stretched out one hand in welcome they used the other to try and shove him under the rug.

I have often wondered what they used to say behind June Carter's back about her relationship with Johnny. I doubt if anybody would have dared say anything to her face, but I'm sure there were things said along the lines of "How could a girl from such a good family…" or "He's only with her because of who she is".

June was the hand that reached out and brought Johnny back to safety when he was drowning in a sea of drugs and fame. But even she wasn't enough to keep all his demons at bay.
I wouldn't presume to assume I know what demons possessed him, and it's none of my business anyway. But I know that when I look at photos from certain points in his life the smiles seem to be hiding desperation. The unguarded pictures, the ones not posed or planned, transmit heartbreaking pain. Fatigue that goes beyond the physical emanates from every line etched on his face and tells more of his life's story than any biography ever could. Finding solace in drugs isn't a solution to anything, but when you feel like you have nothing else, it's an easy out…but it’s not the only way to find a measure of peace.

Redemption
How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.
- Johnny Cash

Johnny gained victory through the redemptive power of his personal faith. But when Johnny talked of redemption, you understood what he meant and you knew he was sincere.

He never talked about it like it was a treat that could be taken away from you if you didn't behave, or that it was only available if you sent in your box tops and twenty-five dollars. Not only was he seeking to redeem himself in the eyes of God, he seemed to spend his whole live trying to redeem himself to the man who looked out at him from the mirror everyday.

You also knew that the only person that Johnny would ever sit in judgment on would be himself. He didn’t seem self-righteous or holier than thou. His faith gave him strength and offered him a way home. Peace for a troubled mind is sometimes salvation enough that the additional promise about saving your immortal soul is almost too good to be true.

When listening to Johnny sing a gospel song, I always feet a bit like I’m intruding upon a personal conversation, eavesdropping on a man's personal prayer. He wasn't singing to impress anyone or to convert them. He was genuinely giving thanks.

Legacy
I never met Johnny Cash; I listened to his music, I saw him perform live one time and I watched him on television over the years – I knew of him but I didn’t know him. Most of the time all I ever would see of him was the carefully presented image of The Man in Black. It's only been in recent years, the almost three since his death on Sept. 12, 2003, and the couple of years before that when he was recording those last amazing records with Rick Rubin, that I began thinking about who he was beyond that cut-out figure of the lone gunman.

It's truly amazing how just because someone is a public figure we think we know them personally. We refer to them by their first names when we either talk about or write about them, and we make casual assumptions about what their opinions on matters would be. We act like we have an intimate association; even though it's more than likely we've never even met them or exchanged a single word of conversation

No human being is so one dimensional that we can claim to know them just by what is presented as their public face. We can know facts and tidbits of information that will allow us to draw conclusions, conclusions that stand as much chance of being wrong as right, but nothing that justifies our proprietary attitude towards them.

On very rare occasions an artist comes along who allows little pieces of their soul come through in their work, but even then, we aren't privy to their innermost thoughts and dreams, their fears and joys.

Johnny Cash was one of those who bared quite a bit of his soul through performance, song writing, and his willingness to talk about himself and his life with a great deal of honesty. But last night as I watched the documentary “Johnny Cash’s America”, for the first time, I realized (for all my familiarity with his work) that I didn’t know him at all, really.

He was cool and tough and sang songs about real life and real people. He was an outlaw and a patriot and a man's man and no one wanted to know anything different…and that's a real pity because he was also a husband and a father, he was a farmer and woodworker, he made ridiculous mistakes and he had remarkable triumphs, he was just like you and me.

Johnny Cash was born on February 26th, 1932 and died September 12, 2003. His wife of thirty-five years, June Carter, preceded him in death by four months. They are together and at peace, forever.

They deserve it.

Resources

2009 should see the long-awaited release of the sixth (and final) album from Johnny Cash's remarkable "American Recordings" sessions which he recorded in the final years of his life, right up to just a week before he died. The first five albums are rightly regarded as masterpieces, as is the subsequent 5 cd box set "Unearthed", which is a collection of other tracks recorded during the same sessions. The rumoured track listing for American VI is:

• San Antonio

• Redemption Day

• Here Comes a Boy

• That's Enough

• 1st Corinthians 5:55

• I Can't Help But Wonder

• Nine-Pound Hammer (the old Monroe Brothers song)

• North to Alaska

• His Eye is on the Sparrow (great old hymn)

• If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again (another great old hymn)

• The Eye of an Eagle

• Don't Take Everybody for Your Friend

• Belshazzar

• Loading Coal

• A Half a Mile a Day

• Flesh and Blood

• I Am a Pilgrim (another great old hymn)

• Beautiful Dreamer

• Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down (another great old hymn)

• Family Bible (another great old hymn)

Watch a video for the song “When the Man Comes Around”…

Watch an excellent biography produced by mars hill church…


His studio albums are legendary, but his live shows were just incredible – the way he and the audience would feed off of the emotional content of the music elevated the experience to the sublime… For your edification and enjoyment here's a wonderful live set from the Newport Folk Festival, 1964 – the American recordings era wasn’t the first time that Johnny connected with America’s youth…

buy his recordings...

In your eyes there's a sadness enough to kill the both of us...

Oh What Joy! Oh What Bliss! A Brand New Camera Obscura song!

This morning started out on a gloomy note, but you know, there's nothing like a little dreamy twee-pop to get you through one of those days…and no one makes music dreamier than Glasgow’s Camera Obscura. Once again, vocalist Tracy Anne Campbell manages to make sadness sound sweet and romantic in a way that most of her contemporaries just can't match...

Entitled My Maudlin Career, this is the band's fourth studio record, and will see release on April 28. By all accounts, it promises to pick up where Let’s Get Out of This Country (2006) left off…and I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

The song-list for the album is as follows:

1. French Navy 2. The Sweetest Thing 3. You Told A Lie 4. Away With Murder 5. Swans 6. James 7. Careless Love 8. My Maudlin Career 9. Forest And Sands 10. Other Towns And Cities 11. Honey In The Sun

The advance track, "My Maudlin Career", is a wee bit of wistful melancholy, filled with all those deliciously layered sound-scapes that make their music pure pop perfection.

Who knew that persistent despair could be so charming and cute!

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resources
website

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myspace

for sale

watch the video for the song "If Looks Could Kill" from Let's Get Out of This Country...

and I wanna dive in an ocean of pink tourmaline...

Come tell me your story to unload your glorious grief
Where you are the valet of honour and I am the thief
And don't ever mention the stains that you left on my track
How from a beautiful girl I became someone ruined and wrecked
It was all in your back
All in your back

So I spin in the dance of your absence and put on a show
But why do I smile baby, you of all people should know
The one that you loved
Died a long time ago

You can't do me wrong with charity until
You'll exhaust your lies and remedies, you will
But with your voice and melodies you kill, you kill
Your version of glory is dark and it's covered with sin
And I wanna dive in an ocean of pink tourmaline
I've seen the pure souls they exist and they fly
I think I could live with it, I know I can now

You can't do me wrong with charity until
You'll exhaust your lies and remedies, you will
But with your voice and melodies you kill…you kill

It's funny how now that I'm not in the palm of your hand
You're still running blindly to save me again and again
But I don't need a friend
No, I don't need a friend

You can't do me wrong with charity until
You'll exhaust your lies and remedies, you will
But with your voice and melodies you kill…you kill
--In Your Back, Keren Ann

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Romance...now certainly the French culture didn’t invent the notion of romance, but their pop music tradition has perfected the art of infusing romantic music with just enough melancholy to stir an emotional response that lingers long after the song is over. Jane Birkin…Francoise Hardy…Serge Gainsbourg…Edith Piaf…France Gall…the legacy of these artists, and others, bear out this premise quite clearly while the work of Berry, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Benjamin Biolay, Emilie Simon, etc. all promise that this tradition will continue to flourish, and that’s a good thing. For me, this notion of romantic music nears perfection in the work and the voice of Keren Ann Zeidel.

Legions of indie-pop boys around the world have a Texas-size crush on Keren Ann. As for me, let me assure you, I’m merely appreciative of her music and have nothing but respectful admiration for Mlle. Zeidel, she of dual passports (French and Dutch), she of French-Russian- Javanese- Dutch- Israeli descent, she of softly cooed ballads on landmark albums like Not Going Anywhere, Nolita, or her 2007 eponymous masterpiece. However, there is a good reason for all this fan-boy fervor. She’s a refreshing presence in the pop music world - her musical persona is feminine in the perfect way: She’s smart, not frivolous…attractive, not arrogant…vulnerable, not insecure…creative, not boring or pretentious.

When I first heard her sing four or five years ago, I was immediately struck by the power and beauty of her voice. As I’ve pointed out before, her music works like a tonic for those times when the stresses of life are working hard to bring you down. Her dreamy songs, sometimes barely rising above a whispery voice and a delicate melody, will compel you to stop and listen and join her for a few moments.

Keren Ann has one of the most beautifully emotive voices I’ve ever heard. The world kind of melts away when she starts to sing, each song lulling you into a pleasantly dreamlike state…drifting into moments both beautiful and genuine, but vaguely unreal. Her music is infused with a gracefulness that is both soothing and seductive all at once - her words float through your body and hit you in the heart…she can break your heart or mend it with one shift of her voice.

Tribute

So many days have been away
that I once abandoned Keren Ann for her straight power which reached my heart.
But When I come back I find that I'm still in love with her.
She comforts me, yes she did. And her voice was my safe harbor.
I hided myself in the cold winter night on my bed with her music
that I was sure I was not afraid of any separation.
Will the days come back again? Let me kiss myself with those pains.
And dying in the music.

Keren Ann not only writes beautifully, she inspires beautiful writing…I stumbled across this poem several months ago - I’m pretty sure it was originally written in mandarin and then processed through google translate or something similar.

Resources

Here’s a video for In Your Back (live)…


Visit Keren Ann at myspace…

Click here for a short live set…Click here to shop for her music…

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...and this post completes the epic Valentine's Trilogy...and in record time!

life is ever changing, but I will always find a constant and comfort in your love...

Sometime over the past couple of years, The Avett Brothers became my favorite band, and I mean “favorite” on a level I haven’t felt towards a band since my angsty years in high school with the Clash and REM. Their songs will bring you laughter, heartache, love, or rage, sometimes all in one song.

The Avett Brothers (Seth and Scott Avett with childhood friend Bob Crawford) are a band from Concord, North Carolina and they play a combination of old-time Appalachian, bluegrass, punk, pop melodies, folk, rock and roll, hard country, and ragtime. No, really I’m serious – you can hear elements of all these genres on all of their albums…The Washington Post has described their sound as “post civil-war modern rock”- the Avetts themselves prefer to be unlabeled, feeling that “none would do the music the justice. It's simply left up to each person to extract his or her own account from the Avetts music.” Mainly, their music is simple and honest. They offer up both confession and advice. They lament over love, but emerge defiant against apathy. They rejoice and celebrate the small things in life, but they’re not afraid to address the big questions.

Resources

Over the years, the Avetts have developed several topics that they return to again and again in their songwriting – they like to sing about family…they explore the consequences that come with making choices…they stress the importance of personal responsibility…and often they combine some or all of these themes in a series of songs written to pretty girls. Click here to try out a few of my favorites - a compilation of the songs to pretty girls, and then go get Emotionalism or maybe Mignonette …aw, just go ahead and get them all!

Watch a live video for the song Pretty Girl from Chile…

Check out the Avetts on myspace…

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This has been part two of a monumental three part Valentine’s special…I hope I can get the third one finished up!

For more information on the main image, visit the photographer’s website - Robert Doisneau

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Epilogue

My original intent for this post was for it to be a brief overview of the Avetts that would, hopefully, peak someone’s interest in what has become my favorite band…but I’m gonna head off down a rabbit trail for a bit, so bear with me – it’s a fairly short one, as rabbit trails go…

Getting up in the morning can be tough sometimes, most especially when I've spent the latter part of the night tossing and tumbling from one strange dream to another – not really bad dreams, just unsettling ones. Tucked away amongst these fleeting dreams, sometimes, is the song of the morning, a melody that’s persistently strumming away in the back of your mind from the moment I first awaken. Maddeningly, I don't always realize what song it is. Sometimes I don't even hear it clearly – and then suddenly the chorus comes crashing in while I'm shaving or the final few chords will be whispered softly as I take a final turn around the house before I leave for work, wondering what I've forgotten to do this morning. Sometimes it's hours later before I figure out what the song is, when I hear it playing on my computer at work while I’m sunk chin deep in paperwork and reports. This is just what happened this morning with the Avett’s beautiful ballad "Murder in the City". As the first chords came out of the tiny speakers, it was like having cold water dashed in my face, and as I listened to the song that I’d been humming all day I was struck by the truth captured in this quiet pop song. Sometimes it's not enough to simply get up in the morning and go through the day taking care of the duties and responsibilities that have fallen to me for resolution. Some days it’s good to wake up and engage a more personal set of obligations, ones we tend to take for granted all too often. I don't want to ever take the people in my life for granted...not ever.

Now watch the video for Murder in the City – this is why I love the Avetts so much…

…drifting…drifting…and floating around through chocolate bubbles

I may as well admit it - I'm a closet Anglofile with a sweet tooth for for sixties-inspired, super-cute go-go pop. if you have leanings in that direction, let me introduce you to a former chambermaid who is the holder of the musical grail - Angela Faye Tillett . As the bubbly British voice behind the groups Lollipop Train and Death By Chocolate, Angie leads the way through an enchanted world of childlike imagery, bubblegum singalongs, and giddy psychedelia - kinda like the Yellow Submarine on a detour through Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

Angie clearly has a fondness for sweets, which evoke powerful sensory memories for her -- as do colors, letters, breakfast cereal… She recites these reminiscences of pop culture, in the bored voice of a British schoolgirl delivering a report before class, while giddy pop keyboard lines bubble and eddy around her. In addition, she offers '60s spy movie instrumentals, quirky bubblegum psycedelia, and a few unusual covers, including a decidedly twee version of Cat Stevens's "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out."

Discography

Lollipop Train – Junior Electric Magazine
1. strawberry ?
2. i want it now
3. junior electric magazine
4. johnny shopping
5. banana milkshake
6. mr. bizarro
7. janet´s birthday party (hipster)
8. holiday in malta
9. theme from "daisies"
10. wowie zowie
11. presents prizes sweets & surprises
12. johnny johnny
13. let´s imagine
14. variation on a keyring

Death By Chocolate – S/T
1. mustard yellow
2. magpie
3. sky blue
4. the land of chocolate
5. orange
6. my friend jack
7. daddy's out of focus
8. olive
9. ice cold lemonade
10. the is bumble bee
11. a b & c
12. red
13. rainbow with a underneath & an elephant
14. who needs wings to fly? (from the flying nun)
15. the salvador dali murder mystery
16. if you want to sing out sing out
17. is bumble bee (the bee is coming)

Death By Chocolate – Zap the World
1. vox wah wah pedal
2. zap the world chorus
3. while i´m still young
4. bentley corniche
5. cutoutgirlscout
6. lime green fitted blouse
7. a b & c- part two
9. bridgit riley
10. artplay
11. cinammon grahams
12. bibi gin
13. the togetherness marriage bureau
14. zap the world
15. quite quite fantastic
16. swinging london
17. guru indian takeaway
18. john steed swordstick

Sadly, Angie must have lost her inspiration following the release of Zap the World (or else she just grew up and got a real job), and so it seems that there won’t be anymore daydreamy, poetic meanderings or pretty little pop songs full of charmingly inspired mania…

Resources

Try a little sample – download some extra chocolate love (a tracklist may be found in the comments)

a nice fansite - here

here's a video for the land of chocolate...images are from flickr

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This is the first of a (hopefully) three part special that takes its inspiration from the three things that have always made Valentine’s Day fun for me: chocolate, pretty girls, and a little bit of romance…I hope you enjoy them all!