5 Songs July 26, 2024

This music can make any day a little better

Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup – “My Mama Don’t Allow Me” 1944 single available on If I Get Lucky. I’ve read about Arthur Crudup ever since I first began reading about rock’n’roll. He’s always mentioned in rock histories because he was a major influence on Elvis Presley, who recorded Crudup’s “That’s All Right” for the first record he ever released. Many’s the time I’ve read dismissals of Crudup, making it seem as if Presley added all the magic to the music. But Elvis Presley had good taste, and it’s obvious to me that if you actually listen to him, as evidenced on this record, Crudup’s talents become clear. The man had a keen, yearning, emotional power that he brought to his delivery. This song is all about the tension between a stable domestic life and the urge to play the field. “My mama don’t allow me to stay out all night long,” he cries, as if he’s pleading against temptation. “I ain’t nothin’ but a playboy / Hoo, some woman done me wrong.” Who did him wrong – the woman who won’t let him loose to follow his playboy instinct, or a woman who hurt him, thus leading him to settle down with just one? Most blues songs are clearly on the side of the rascal who moves from woman to woman – even when they’re bemoaning being left, it’s always clear they’ll find somebody else. But Crudup manages here to make his feeling ambivalent, even when the verses seem to lean more into the playboy side of the ledger. Oh, and don’t let anybody tell you his guitar playing is crude – it’s enormously expressive here, and complements his singing beautifully.

Keith Jarrett – “Only the Lonely” 2007 from My Foolish Heart. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette made a series of albums starting in 1987 in which the trio performed jazz standards. This live double CD was the culmination of that project. All three players have performed the wildest free jazz in their day, but the standards were delivered straight, with enormous love for the melodies and structures of the tunes. “Only the Lonely” – neither the Roy Orbison nor the Motels song of the same name – is most famously done by Frank Sinatra. Jarrett taps into the melancholy Sinatra delivers, but plays with a softer tone, allowing us to concentrate on the beauty of the melody without the anguish of the lyrics. He and bassist Peacock and drummer DeJohnette feed off each other, bringing emphasis to regular beats and swelling into a delicious crescendo about two thirds of the way through the performance. It’s just about a perfect jazz trio.

Waco Brothers – “Nowhere to Run” 2023 from The Men That God Forgot. I have never been able to fully keep up with the many projects of Jon Langford Musical Industrial Complex, and the Waco Brothers is one that I haven’t listened to nearly as much as I probably should have. I can’t remember what kept me from reviewing this album last year, because it’s pretty dang good stuff. “Nowhere to Run” is not the Martha and the Vandellas song. Instead, it concerns itself with an attempt to hold on to civilization in the face of dark forces aligned against it. Heavy thoughts, but presented in an enormously catchy manner. I love the clipped guitar riff that carries the groove, and the horns and the fiddle reinforcing and responding to the lyrics. I’m not actually sure which Waco is singing lead here – Langford is clearly heard on background vocals, especially in the cool little dub section at the end. I think he’s responsible for the equally magnificent deep low tones reinforcing a couple of words here and there. At any rate, this is the kind of track that’s very hard to get out of your head, but you won’t really want it to leave.

George Jones & Tammy Wynette – “Tattletale Eyes” 1976 from Golden Ring. Jones and Wynette had a stormy marriage, but they sure made some wonderful music together. This little ditty is about a couple who think they’ve broken up but whose eyes can’t stop devouring each other. It’s not profound in and of itself, but Jones and Wynette invest it with all the passion and angst those eyes can’t cover up. I’ve probably said here before that George Jones is one of my all-time favorite singers, and he pulls out most of his tricks in this song. The sudden drop to a lower register, the swoops, the ringing high notes, and the recitation before a wavering melodic twist at the end of a line – these are magnificent. Tammy Wynette has her own magnificence – she employs a light quiver, a gentle sense of uncertainty turning to desire, and a sure handle on the melody. Put them together on the chorus and they sound like a church choir somehow. Fantastic piano and pedal steel here, too. Any resemblance between this song and the previous year’s “Lyin’ Eyes” by the Eagles is, I’m sure, purely coincidental – this song says “You can’t keep a thing from tattletale eyes” while that song says “There ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes.”

Precious Bryant – “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray” 2006 from The Truth. Precious Bryant enjoyed her first phase of recording during the late stages of the blues and folk revivals of the 60s. She had grown up absorbing blues and gospel and other traditional forms. Her guitar playing was forceful, her singing direct and unadorned. This particular song is in the gospel tradition, though it really speaks more to the ways she misses her mother than any declaration of faith – she doesn’t sing “When I Can Hear” but “If I Could Hear.” I just love the sound of her guitar and the love in her vocal here. And the video shows her actually recording the song as you hear it on the record.