5 Songs Mar. 15, 2024

Songs you may remember, or songs you may have missed

Cristina Vane – “Travelin’ Blues” 2021 from Nowhere Sounds Lovely. Born in Italy, raised all over Europe, and now living in Nashville, Cristina Vane has somehow immersed herself in all elements of American music – blues, country, rock, folk, and more. This particular song, while nominally a blues, is more of a folk/country hybrid. Vane’s delicate but forceful fingerpicked guitar line anchors it, and there’s either a banjo played like a dobro or a dobro played like a banjo offering counterpoint, along with very light bass and drums accompaniment. Vane has a beautiful straight-forward voice, capable of adding expression with dips into a lower register, and making use of a light vibrato at times. “Sometimes I make bad decisions / And I suspect it’s ‘cause I’m human,” with that last syllable dropping down over a couple of half notes. But she carries on, traveling towards the nowhere which sounds lovely.

Mississippi John Hurt – “Trouble, I’ve Had It All My Days” 1971 (recorded 1966) from Last Sessions. Was there ever a guitarist with a more gentle touch than Mississippi John Hurt? Others imitated him, but he was the man whose strumming and finger picking sounded like a cool breeze by a quiet stream every single time he picked up the instrument. Sometimes he sang of subjects closer to the spirit of that sound, but here, he’s contemplating the existential question of existence – how do we carry on when so many things go wrong. Hurt was 73 when he recorded this, just a few months before he died. It certainly sounds like a perfect valedictory song for a blues performer. Trouble has followed him all his days. His girl left last night and stayed out all night long, he can’t get her off his mind, he winds up arrested and thrown in jail. All he wants now is the grave. And yet, it’s so pretty, there is a lightness to the way he sings and the way he plays the guitar – sometimes, the guitar substitutes for whole lines of lyrics. The act of testifying to his troubles becomes a way of batting them down.

Chris Connor – “This Heart of Mine” 2002 from I Walk With Music. I’m not always understanding why celebrities changed their names back in the day, but I have to admit Chris Connor is a more memorable moniker than Mary Jean Loutsenhizer. Connor’s most famous music came in the 1950s, a golden age for jazz singers, but she carried on recording until only a few years before her death in 2009 at age 81. This late career gem of a record is highlighted by this lovely take on the Harry Warren and Arthur Freed song originally sung by Fred Astaire in the 1944 film Ziegfield Follies. Her alto was still luscious at age 75, and she sings the song simply and straight-forwardly, backed by piano, electric bass, drums, and a sympathetic string section. Halfway through the cut, the rhythm section starts swinging for the piano solo, and then Connor takes that cue and leans into the verses for a second, hotter time. My fave part of the song is the rhyme of “gay amours” with “overtures,” which is a little mushed up on the straight take, but which bites hard on the swinging part.

Brenda Lee – “Dum Dum” 1961 from All the Way. At age 16, Brenda Lee was putting adult emotions into teenage love songs. This Jackie DeShannon song could easily be performed as a trifle, but Lee leans into the Owen Bradley arrangement, and makes a pop country treat out of it. The nonsense words which serve as the hook are perfect stand-ins for the combination of sexual desire and comfort with her boyfriend she sings of in the verses. I like the details of Ma being in the kitchen and Pa next door – they can make out in the living room, but they have to control themselves. Lee’s throaty growls and asides mix with her earnest, sometimes forceful declarations of love and half-spoken come-ons. The music is built on a catchy organ hook with a laid-back rhythm, some insistent backing vocals, and a honking sax solo near the end. It’s a pretty sweet little record.

The Troggs – “Widge You” date unknown available on The Best of the Troggs. I can’t find much out about this song, which sounds to me like it came from the later part of the 60s. In a way, it sounds to me as though the English chameleons were trying to channel Creedence Clearwater Revival here. It’s got a sort of a choogling rhythm, and the classic I-IV-V chord progression of the blues and rock’n’roll. Reg Presley even sings a bit like John Fogerty on this one, though his vocals are kind of buried in the mix. The title, which is weird until you hear it song, is a mush-mouthed way of saying “With you,” as in “Sometimes I will but then again sometimes I won’t widge you.” Guitarist Chris Britton opens the song with some lovely chiming melodic riffs, and plays a fantastic, tightly constructed solo about two thirds of the way through as Pete Staples (unless it’s after 1969 and it is Tony Murray) ups the ante with a contrapuntal bass line below it. A fun obscurity.