Joe Henry – “The Song That I Know” 2023 from All the Eye Can See. Joe Henry’s album released last January was his first since his 2019 diagnosis of stage 4 prostate cancer. Naturally enough, he might be worried about songs and other things going on without him. But this typically knotty mix of allusion, metaphor, imagery, and direct statement has more to do with the way things continue than with the way things end, I think. Tramps can seize the day without finding a way home, horses can refuse to work without pay, and cities may burn, but the song carries on. The recording is simply beautiful. It opens with a stark set of piano chords playing a sing-song minor key melody which sets the base for Henry’s elastically melodic vocals. Soon an accordion joins in, then suddenly there is a gently plucked acoustic guitar. By the time of the elegant bridge, an acoustic bass has been added, then violin, then two clarinets, everything playing counterpoint, rising and falling in and out of the mix before Henry sings the last verse. It’s intimate and expansive, sparse and filling.
Will Kimbrough – “I Love My Baby” 2002 from Home Away. Will Kimbrough has made a life in music without ever becoming a household name. He produces records by and has toured in bands with the likes of Todd Snider and Rodney Crowell, and both as a solo artist and member of Daddy, he’s released a dozen or so albums of his own music. I always kind of forget about him until suddenly I’m struck by a song like this one. Kimbrough sings of a love with warts – she bothers him sometimes, he acts badly at others and of course, he’s on the road a lot. But ultimately, “I love my baby / Always.” It’s a nice, stately song with a simple melody over strummed acoustic guitar, piano chords, bass, and drums. The instrumental bridge roars with an elegant electric guitar solo and some plinked electric piano or synthesizer notes. Kimbrough is the kind of singer who puts his heart where his mouth is – you can feel the love, you can feel the hurt, you can feel the respect. (There are so many songs available on youTube that it always astonishes me when I find one that isn’t - if you have a streaming service, you can hear it now. It’s worth looking for.)
Michael Nesmith & the First National Band – “Propinquity (I’ve Just Begun to Care” 1971 from Nevada Fighter. I love when a song teaches me a new word. “Propinquity” is virtually the same as “proximity,” but the “pinqu” sounds fancier than the “xim.” This song, apparently, dates back to before Nesmith was a Monkee – the Monkees themselves recorded it but didn’t release it until the 90ss on one of those outtakes records I never heard. Nesmith and the First National Band were right there with the likes of the Flying Burrito Brothers in the early days of combining rock with country music, but it was hard for the public to shake off Nesmith’s reputation from the Monkees, so they didn’t hit it big. I saw them on American Bandstand at the time and was confused myself. This is a sweet little country song about waking up to the possibility of love with a long-time friend. Or is it sweet? “I’ve known you for a long time / But I’ve just begun to care” is a little ambivalent, especially in the context of how he rattles off all the heartaches the friend has experienced before he cared. Oh, well, it sounds as though he means well, and the pedal steel certainly makes it seem as if love is in the air now.
Lovie Austin and Her Blues Serenaders – “Steppin’ On the Blues” 1925 available on Lovie Austin’s Blues Serenaders. I’ve read a lot of jazz history books, but if Lovie Austin was mentioned in any of them, it must have been in passing. She was one of the few women jazz instrumentalists to get any kind of recording career in the 20s. Here her piano accompanies Jimmy O’Bryant on clarinet and Tommy Ladnier on cornet on a tune the three are credited with co-writing. It sounds related to “St. Louis Blues,” especially in a couple of places where the opening phrase of that song’s verse is lifted whole hog. Ladnier, who worked with King Oliver in the months before Louis Armstrong took the second cornet chair, has a rich tone and a vibrant rhythmic attack. He sets out the melody and does all the lead improvising, with O’Bryant winding around him, commenting on him, and occasionally joining in unison with him. Austin’s piano is rock solid and rollicking at the same time. A great example of early jazz that holds up 99 years after it was recorded.
Rickie Lee Jones – “Nature Boy” 2023 from Pieces of Treasure. I don’t always enjoy Rickie Lee Jones as much as some do, but she does have her moments. The album full of pop standards she did last year is full of them. I’ve always loved this song made famous in 1949 by Nat King Cole, though I never read up on its background before. It was written by eden ahbez, who was sort of a proto-hippy and Nature Boys were actually 1940s long-haired vegetarians who dropped out from society long before that was cool - ahbez apparently wrote this song while living in a cave. (No mention of what he did with the endless royalty checks once this became such an ubiquitous number to record.) Jones gives this song a long introduction with a Middle Eastern stringed instrument over light tambourines before she starts vocalizing as best she can in that style. After a minute and a half, the song itself starts, and she sings it beautifully, with just piano, guitar, bass, and cymbals added to that other instrument. She sounds both innocent and exhausted as she tells the story of encountering the very special boy with the philosophy of love. She’s not Billie Holiday, but she does conjure up her spirit here.