5 Songs Apr. 12, 2024

Oh, how the good songs keep coming to mind

Wade Bowen & Randy Rogers– “Rita Ballou” 2017 single available on Best of Wade Bowen. Oh, sure, I could have picked Guy Clark’s original masterful version of this song, but there is a charm to this rendition by these two country music journeymen. Both Bowen and Rogers have been big on the Texas honky tonk/singer songwriter circuit for more than two decades. They did this recording as part of Bruce Robison’s The Next Waltz Country Cover Song Challenge.  “Rita Ballou” is the tale of a woman who loves to dance in a bar but who doesn’t take any of the men home with her. The song posits “Every beer joint in town has made a fool for you,” but I like to think she has her own motivations, and they aren’t about love or sex. Bowen and Rogers each sing their own verses, and join in harmony occasionally, delivering the song as if it might make Rita cut a rug or two. Nice fiddle and pedal steel from the backing band. “Every cowboy in Texas would ride a bull for you.” Love that line no matter who sings it.

Jay McShann – “Blue and Sentimental,” recorded 1972, released on With Kansas City in Mind in 1993. (The album, and thus the video, mis-spells the first word of the song as “Blues.”) The great Kansas City piano player Jay McShann never broke through to the big time the way his near-contemporary Count Basie, who co-wrote this gorgeous tune in 1936, did. But McShann did carry on the Kansas City jazz sound for a long time after everybody else moved on. This small group recording is a stunning example of what he could do. Julian Dash opens with a warm, elegant tenor sax statement of the melody followed by sweet improvisation. He sounds here a bit like Ben Webster, with that shimmering overtone thing happening. Buddy Tate takes over on clarinet for a couple choruses – he plays that instrument with a highly personal style that is perfect for the mood already conjured up by Dash. Then McShann simply dazzles on his piano solo – he keeps the feel of his reed players, but plays around more with the possibilities of the piano allowing for simply more notes. Dash comes back for another chorus, and ends with a fascinating little arpeggio which resolves the performance perfectly.

Robert Jr. Lockwood & Johnny Shines – “Rockin’ Free” 1981 from Mister Blues Is Back to Stay. Up to a certain time, most jazz musicians steeped themselves in the blues, but only a few blues musicians were interested in jazz. I have only just realized that Robert Jr. Lockwood and Johnny Shines, Mississippi Delta masters who each had associations with Robert Johnson, were capable of being first rate jazz performers. This instrumental is a spritely swingin’ blues tune with sharp solos by tenor saxophonist Maurice Reedus, pianist Carl “Ace” Carter, alto saxophonist Bobby Marcus, and one of the two guitar players, presumably Lockwood since he wrote the tune. The guitar solo is a special treat, a jagged bluesy thing with jazz chords interspersed – it kind of reminds me of James “Blood” Ulmer.

The dB’s – “Send Me Something Real” 2012 from Falling Off the Sky. I was too young in the 60s, and too into comic books to pay attention to the Beatles. I was oblivious in the 70s of Big Star. But the 80s and me? That was the time of the dB’s, one of the greatest pop/rock bands I ever heard, and one that deserves a place in the pantheon including the two bands I mentioned above. Of course, they sold next to nothing, but decades later, they got back together for this terrific album and a tour which allowed me to finally see the original line-up on stage. This song is a typical Chris Stamey number, a darkly melodic little gem with an incredibly bright bridge. Stamey is looking for something or someone he’s lost, a connection he wants back. It’s the “something real” of the chorus, where he’s joined in harmony with Peter Holsapple (the other leader and fantastic songwriter in the band). Then after a couple verses and choruses, infinity explodes as “it seems like an eternity since you were here with me.” It’s a perfect pop rock construction with a fantastic arrangement featuring the two guitarists with Gene Holder on bass and Will Rigby on drums. Alas, this record didn’t sell either,, but both songwriters continue to record great music on their own.

Ry Cooder – “Jesus on the Mainline” 1974 from Paradise and Lunch. Not everybody remembers that Ry Cooder was actually in Captain Beefheart’s earliest Magic Band. Weird is in his blood, you know. While Beefheart used the blues and other roots forms as a catapult to wild and far out new inventions, Cooder went on to immerse himself in all sorts of early Americana folk styles. This song clearly dates from the 1910s, back when telephones were becoming more and more important in American life. (Kids, a mainline was what they used to call a landline back in the days when there wasn’t any other way to speak across great distances.) So, the metaphor sprung up from some religious writer thinking prayer was almost the same thing as talking on the phone (though, honestly, it seems kind of like a one way conversation.) There are dozens and dozens of versions of this song, but Cooder’s is the closest thing to a “hit” in my lifetime. (Warner Brothers in the 70s famously kept lots of artists on its roster who didn’t exactly sell millions – Cooder’s many classic records from that decade are a legacy of this great business plan.) This song actually falls right there in his limited baritone range, and with the Salvation Army style thump and brass wedded to his always lovely slide guitar, it’s a perfectly enjoyable little record.