Note from woodsmeister  - This is a guest article from regular FolkBlog contributor and Australian correspondent Sue Barrett.  Published by permission.  All rights, credits, plaudits, etc., belong to her alone.

Celebrate Canada – 2011

By Sue Barrett

 

Be who you are! It’s the best course to take!
Stick to your own kind,
Although your heart may break,
Think of your mother, how it would bring her joy
If you dated a Canadian boy

(Nancy White – ‘Ballad of the Wannabe’, Stickers on Fruit)

When Elizabeth Taylor died earlier this year, American singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash shared a story via Twitter about how the film star (born 27 February 1932) used to send a birthday telegram every year to Rosanne’s father Johnny Cash (born 26 February 1932), which read: “Remember, I’m younger than you!”.

Amongst Johnny Cash’s music is a live album recorded in 1969 at San Quentin State Prison (Johnny Cash at San Quentin), with its intriguing line: ’cause I’m the *bleep* who named you “Sue”. Of course, these days, the bleep has been demystified, courtesy of YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=T678ic45k98)!

Canadian Buffy Sainte-Marie is another *bleeped* performer, with at least one of her singles (‘She Used to Wanna be a Ballerina’/ ‘Moratorium’) affected – *bleep* the war and bring our brothers home.

Some time after Johnny and Buffy released their records, two American performers met at a folk festival in Toronto – Cathy Fink (who had spent a number of years living in Canada) and Marcy Marxer. Later, working as a duo, Fink and Marxer included the Lou and Peter Berryman *bleeped* song, ‘A Chat With Your Mother’ (aka The F-Word Song), on their 1995 album, A Parents’ Home Companion.

Also appearing on A Parents’ Home Companion is Canadian Nancy White’s song, ‘Daughters of Feminists’ (“How do they get so girlie? How come they want a Barbie?”). Nancy White (www.myspace.com/nancywhitemusic) has two musician daughters – Suzy Wilde (StoneFox, Flashlight Radio) and Maddy Wilde (Spiral Beach).

In Canada, at this time of year, there is a series of Celebrate Canada events – National Aboriginal Day (21 June), Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (24 June), Canadian Multiculturalism Day (27 June) and Canada Day (1 July).

Six musicians from Canada now share their story – Mary Kastle (Vancouver), Annette Campagne (Regina), Little Hawk (Winnipeg), S. Lynn Phillips (Random Order) (Toronto), Faith Nolan (Toronto) and Tanya Davis (Halifax).

Continue reading Celebrate Canada – 2011

woodsmeister’s note:  Sue Barrett is a music journalist from Australia who occasionally provides articles for the FolkBlog.  This article is provided with her permission and all rights, credits and copyrights belong to Sue Barrett.

By Sue Barrett

Music is such a communicative tool.

[There are] not many people in the world who don’t listen to music.

And whether they actually listen to it and hear the content of it, or not, some part of every piece of music that everybody hears affects them.

Simply because of the vibration.

(Deb Morrow, Rhythms, July 2000)

In a tiny gallery/bar, a few months ago, a young musician was setting up her drum kit – quite a challenge really, with a “stage” not much bigger than the top of a kitchen table and a vintage couch just inches away from her snare drum.

Now Anastassijah Scales, performing that night as part of The Lucky Wonders, joins Bree van Reyk and Melissa York in sharing insights into the world of drums and percussion.

ANASTASSIJAH SCALES (www.theluckywonders.com)

Drummer/Songwriter

Australian Anastassijah Scales grew up in Armidale and Coffs Harbour, studied music at Southern Cross University (Lismore) and currently lives on the north coast of New South Wales. Anastassijah began performing, singing and playing guitar in her early teens, and drumming in bands when she was about seventeen. Late in 2009, Anastassijah joined the roots/pop/folk group, The Lucky Wonders, which spent 2010 touring Australia – from coast to coast – promoting its debut album, Thirteen O’Clock. The Lucky Wonders, who recently released two new songs (‘Anyway’ and ‘Thing About Leaving’), also includes songwriters Emma Royle and Jessie Vintila, with Sam Parker on bass.

BREE VAN REYK (www.myspace.com/breevanreyk)

Percussionist/Drummer/Multi-Instrumentalist/Composer

Australian Bree van Reyk was ten when she started learning percussion, later going on to complete a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the School of Music, Australian National University, Canberra. Bree began her professional music career playing triangle with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra in an Opera Australia production of The Barber of Seville, when she was twelve years of age. Since then, Bree has been a member of the indie rock group, The Rebel Astronauts, and has played percussion, drums and/or other instruments with a range of classical, popular and new/contemporary music performers and groups, including Holly Throsby, Darren Hanlon and Ensemble Offspring. In addition, Bree is a member of Synergy Percussion and plays with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (the orchestral partner of Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet). Bree also writes and records music for dance, theatre and film – recently combining with Nick Wales on the soundtrack for the dance theatre work, Happy As Larry, and composing music for, and performing live as a solo instrumentalist in, Bell Shakespeare’s 20th anniversary production of King Lear.

MELISSA YORK (www.humbletripe.com)

Drummer

Melissa York is a self taught pop-punk drummer, who grew up in New York City and New Jersey and now lives in North Carolina. As her family’s apartment wasn’t big enough for a drum set, Melissa began playing flute in about 8th grade, then moved on to clarinet, bass clarinet and tuba. When she was in her early 20s, Melissa finally took up drums. Since then, she has performed with many bands, including The Manacled, Vitapup, the Rings, Sugar Shock, Ex-Members, The Butchies and Team Dresch. Melissa York is currently the drummer with the indie/Americana/folk-rock band Humble Tripe, as well a member of Amy Ray’s band.

Continue reading Beat, Texture and Layers of Sounds – Into the World of Drums and Percussion

woodsmeister’s note – Another great article from Sue Barrett, our Australian correspondent.  This article is posted with permission from Sue Barrett, and all rights are reserved to her.

By Sue Barrett

Heavy traffic, too much traffic/
In your house and on the phone/
In my mind and on the road/
And there’s no time between/
(Kym Pitman, ‘Spaces Between’)

In pursuing sporting glory, athletes build physical fitness, develop technical skills and undertake endless mental rehearsal, in a landscape pitted with injuries, bad luck and the vagaries of form.  And in pursuing artistic creativity, songwriters look to merge words and music into new songs that will withstand personal criticism and public scrutiny, in a life that can be full of “heavy traffic, too much traffic” and with “no time between”.

For some songwriters, their creations emerge year after year, using a “9 to 5” working day routine.  Other songwriters fit song writing into a touring life, writing between gigs or in precious time off the road.  A further group of songwriters has a creativity that co-exists with, and perhaps feeds upon having, another profession.

If you read The New York Times best seller lists, you may well find a novel by Jeffery Deaver – the same Jeffery Deaver who trained as a lawyer and who, as a singer-songwriter, “performed and taught music in clubs in the San Francisco Bay area and Chicago.”

If you attended a gig in Milton, New South Wales in April, you might have got to see Paul Greene – the same Paul Greene who represented Australia in track at the Atlanta Olympic Games.

And if you go to church at First Parish, Cambridge, Massachusetts, you could hear the preachings of Fred Small – the same Fred Small who worked as a lawyer for the Conservation Law Foundation, before becoming a full-time singer-songwriter, then a minister.

FolkBlog now explores the lives of five people for whom song writing is just one of the things they do, five people who are more than a songwriter…

• Emma Royle (Australia) – singer-songwriter/ carpenter
• Deborah Romeyn (Canada) – singer-songwriter/ massage therapist/ high school teacher
• Nedra Johnson (New York City, USA) – singer-songwriter/ multi-instrumentalist/ website designer
• Ana Christensen (Tennessee, USA) – singer-songwriter/ veterinary assistant/ photojournalist
• Vicki Bennett (Australia) – songwriter/ performer/ doctor

Continue reading More Than a Songwriter

woodsmeister’s note – Sue Barrett is a music journalist from Australia who occasionally submits articles to FolkBlog.  All rights for this article are hers alone and it is presented here by her permission.

By Sue Barrett

Walk into any record store and you’ll invariably find a jumble of flyers, stickers and free music magazines.

A browse of ‘the Classies’ (classified advertisements) in a recent issue of one such magazine found drums, guitars and keyboards for sale; tuition available for voice, guitar, bass, drums, piano/keyboards, sax and harmonica; musicians seeking groups (including people playing bass, double bass, drums, tenor saxophone); and bands and studios seeking drummers, guitarists, bass players, keyboard players, even people to play accordion and tabla.

This is a variation on the story – it tells of four musicians who add something special to rock, pop, folk and new music, with kick ass fiddle and beautiful and tender violin.

• Shari Ulrich was born in the USA, but lives on an island off the west coast of Canada. Her new solo album, Find Our Way, features her daughter on violin.
• Ruth Ungar Merenda grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York State and, with The Mammals in hibernation, provides the ‘Ruthy’ part of the folk music duo, Mike and Ruthy.
• Lyndell Montgomery is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, who lives in a very old farmhouse in Ontario and is about to release her first solo album.
• Sophie Kinston is an English-born, Australian-based, violinist/ceramicist who plays electric violin with the Rosie Burgess Trio.

Now over to Shari, Ruth, Lyndell and Sophie…

Continue reading Variations on Corelli – Four Women with Kick Ass Fiddle and Beautiful and Tender Violin

Editor’s Note – Sue Barrett is an Australian music writer who occasionally contributes feature articles to FolkBlog.  This article appears by the author’s permission.

By Sue Barrett

So if you need something when times get hard
You can probably find it in my dad’s yard
And if you need hope
If you’re coming apart
You can surely find it in my dad’s heart

(Catie Curtis — ‘Dad’s Yard’)

Catie Curtis was once a teenager, playing drums and basketball. Then she became a house painter and a social services agency worker. These days, she’s a professional musician, with a string of albums, a documentary on her life and songs dotted through television shows and films.  And now the Massachusetts-based singer/songwriter has a new CD, Hello Stranger (as part of a string band side-project).

As a songwriter, what feeds/impedes your creativity?

My creativity is fed by time plus coffee plus a little nervous energy plus love of guitar plus good conversation and books. And my creativity is impeded by a lack of those things.

How has your career, and your life as a musician, been affected by technological developments, such as CDs, websites, email, cell phones?

I can reach more people through technology, but then at the same time, so can everyone else! So there’s a state of saturation that is different from the mid-90s, when I was launched by EMI/Guardian Records. As a frequent traveller, I feel a lot safer on the road with the cell phone and GPS — that’s been life-altering. It’s a lot easier for me to be in touch with fans now, which I love. I update my own website, and write newsletters. But the best part is putting all that down and returning to the process of writing songs, which is by nature a slow, solitary, pencil-paper-guitar process. And performing remains, as always, about being in the moment.

When interviewed ten years ago, you had a friend with a chronic illness who was really struggling and you said you couldn’t play Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Should I Fall Behind’ (which you were learning for a wedding) without crying. Have you continued to experience songs/circumstances where singing is really difficult?

Funny you should ask. My friend Mary Reeve, who lived with ALS for 12 years and who I spoke about in 1999, died recently. I played ‘Look at You Now’ at her funeral. I had to get into the right space to do that. There are times at shows I lose it because I’m thinking of how a certain song applies to someone who I know is in the audience.

You attended Brown University on a basketball scholarship and you’ve maintained an interest in women’s college basketball. Have you written any songs about basketball or about female athletes?

No and I haven’t written any songs about dogs (which I also love) either. What is WRONG with me??!!

How do you arrange your touring schedule/touring arrangements so as to maximise the positive things and minimise the negative things?

I take 6 AM flights home, I sleep on planes, I take short trips, many of them. I don’t take every gig I’m offered. But I also get a lot of quiet time driving in the car. I have to admit to loving that. And I try to kidnap friends and take them with me on the road whenever possible. I love playing music, still, after all these years!

When you’re on the road, do you continue to “call home, once a day, at least”?

I call home incessantly. It’s a problem. I try to wait until I have a lot to say but usually it’s like, “hi just checking in. again”.

Have you ever had the chance to observe the reaction of your children when they hear one of your songs on the radio or on television or in a film?

When Celia was four, my song ‘Sweet Life’ came on the radio, and I said, “Celia, I got a song on the radio!”. She said, “I got a big fork and a big spoon”! And when Lucy was six, she heard ‘100 Miles’ in a Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen movie and yelled to me “Ma, your song is in this movie”, sort of like “you left your shoe in my room”.

Over the years, you’ve made references to reading books. What have you been reading recently?

I read Anne LaMott and Rumi poems. ‘Fools’, from my last CD, Sweet Life, was written after reading a Rumi poem about living with courage. Lately I’ve been reading some parenting book about playfulness. There’s a lot to learn on this parenting journey.

You used to work for a social services agency and your songs include observations on vulnerable and disadvantaged people. Can you tell us about your New York City guitar initiative?

I was given a guitar when I was 15 years old. I have been wanting to pay it forward ever since then. So I started Aspire to Inspire, to raise funds to give guitars to young musicians. We gave away the first 15 guitars to kids hand-picked through the Fresh Air Camps by teachers from the ASCAP Foundation. There’s an online endowment at http://www.HopeEquity.org/catiecurtis if anyone wants to help give guitars to aspiring musicians!

How did you come to start recording in Nashville?

I’d always wanted to record in Nashville. The opportunity presented itself with Sweet Life because my label, Compass Records, is based in Nashville and they have a really great vintage studio in their building. Garry West owns Compass with his wife Alison Brown. Nashville is the perfect place to make a recording that sounds warm and friendly.

Catie Curtis’ new CD, Hello Stranger, is available through iTunes and Compass Records and includes a duet with Mary Gauthier of A. P. Carter’s song ,‘Hello Stranger’, and a re-recording of Catie’s song, ‘Dad’s Yard’.

More info:

http://www.catiecurtis.com

http://www.myspace.com/catiecurtis

Select Discography

• Dandelion
• From Years To Hours
• Truth From Lies
• Catie Curtis
• A Crash Course in Roses
• My Shirt Looks Good on You
• Acoustic Valentine
• Dreaming in Romance Languages
• Long Night Moon
• Sweet Life
• Hello Stranger

Documentary

Tangled Stories: A Year with Catie Curtis

Select List of TV Shows

• Grey’s Anatomy
• Dawson’s Creek
• Felicity
• Alias
• Desperate Housewives
• Chicago Hope
• North Shore

Select Filmography

• 500 Miles to Graceland
• A Slipping Down Life
• Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family
• Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School
• Our Lips Are Sealed

SUE BARRETT is an Australian music writer, with a special interest in women in music. Sue first interviewed Catie Curtis in 1999 for Rhythms magazine (Australia’s roots music monthly).

© 2009

Woodsmeister’s note – The following article is by FolkBlog Australian contributor Sue Barrett and published here by her permission.

By Sue Barrett

“Tuesday night I reorganize my record collection; I often do this at periods of emotional stress…When Laura was here I had the records arranged alphabetically; before that I had them filed in chronological order…Tonight, though, I fancy something different, so I try to remember the order I bought them in…”
(Nick Hornby – High Fidelity, 1995)

At breakfast, a few days ago, Ronnie Gilbert was singing ‘Mothers, Daughters, Wives’; June Taber performed ‘He Fades Away’; and Totally Gourdgeous sang ‘Strangers and Foreigners’ – on tape, that is, not in person.

Ronnie, June and Totally Gourdgeous present something of a problem for music collectors, however, given their mixture of solo and non-solo recordings.

If one looks to Rob (the record shop owning anti-hero of High Fidelity) for a solution, then one probably isn’t going to find it. Although Rob’s alphabetical phase was probably the most practical, alphabetical order doesn’t cope well with all circumstances – including Ronnie’s albums with The Weavers and Holly Near; June’s albums with Martin Simpson and Maddy Prior; and the solo albums of the various members of Totally Gourdgeous.

There could be a case for keeping all Christmas recordings together, rarities together and signed copies together. One might want to shelve Hunter Davis’ Torn with the Cris Williamson recordings (because of their duet performance of ‘Arm and a Leg’), to put Shelby Lynne’s Just a Little Lovin’ with the Dusty Springfield albums and to slip the Young Blood II compilation album (with its Kings of the World track, featuring Jen Anderson) amongst Weddings Parties Anything’s output. And coping with Gretchen Phillips, given her many collaborations and handmade covers, is definitely for another day!

Then there’s the issue of what to do when a performer does something that is totally different to their previous recordings – like a singer-songwriter releasing an album of covers.

Actually, singer-songwriters releasing a covers album is an issue in its own right, one about which singer-songwriters Kate Campbell, Richard Shindell and Cyndi Boste have first-hand experience…

KATE CAMPBELL (www.katecampbell.com)

Kate Campbell is an American singer-songwriter, whose compositions focus on “people and everyday living”. She was born in New Orleans (Louisiana), spent some time in Sledge (Mississippi), but has lived most of her life in Nashville, Tennessee. Kate’s CD, Twang on a Wire (2003), focuses on songs written by other people and released by female performers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Dolly Parton (‘Down from Dover’), Donna Fargo (‘Funny Face’) and Emmylou Harris (‘Boulder to Birmingham’). The album takes its name from the song ‘Twang on a Wire’, which Kate wrote with Mark Narmore.

When and how did you begin writing songs?
I wrote my first song when I was six or seven – so I’ve been writing since I was a very little girl. I wrote it on the ukulele. My father is a minister and I hung out with teenagers (who were playing guitar, doing Dylan, singing Peter Paul and Mary). I thought that everybody played guitar and wrote songs and sang – so I did! My parents gave me the ukulele, then I started taking piano when I was about seven. I played clarinet in the band – starting in the fourth grade or whenever you could. I really began to write by the fifth or sixth grade – like 12 years old.

Of your own songs that you’ve recorded, which are the oldest?

Well, you know, there are recordings which no one will ever hear that we have from before my first album that was officially released! But some of the older tunes that I’ve recorded since I’ve been making records are ‘Trains Don’t Run From Nashville’, ‘Jerusalem Inn’ and ‘Would You Be a Parson’.

When and how did you begin performing your own songs?

I think the very first time I ever sang was when my hands were bigger and I’d started moving from the ukulele to the regular guitar. Me and a friend sang ‘Silent Night’ in the third grade. Another of the very first songs I sang was a Dolly Parton song – ‘Daddy was an Old Time Preacher Man’ – and my sister and I sang that at church for an event they were having for my father. I mostly sang at church – it was a good place because people were encouraging – even if you were bad they wouldn’t tell you.

How do you go about learning/performing someone else’s song?

It’s harder. It’s harder, for me.  When I was first learning – when I was playing the piano and picking up the guitar here in Nashville (I’ve mostly lived my life in Nashville – my father’s family has lived in Nashville for 200 years), the Sunday paper [The Tennessean] had this colored insert called the ‘Sunday Showcase’ and it used to have the TV listings and the chords and lyrics of a song. I would get the song out of the paper and sit down at the piano or guitar and try to play it. I would have heard the song on the radio, ’cause it was mostly pop songs (although every now and then there would be a country song). Most often it wasn’t in a key that I could sing it in, so I figured out how to transpose.

I like to sing songs from the radio, but from early on I would mostly sing what I wrote. Early in my career – I was through college and back in Nashville trying to get a publishing deal – I got hired a couple of nights to do cover tunes in a bar. I hated it and I’m sure I was awful. I had to use notes because I’m just not a cover tune person.

With my tunes, even those from the very first record, I’m asked to do them frequently enough for them to come back easily. There are probably only three or four of my tunes that I couldn’t do and that’s only usually tunes that I never, for whatever reason, did very much in the first place in concert.

I hardly ever do any of the Twang on a Wire songs in concert because I can’t remember the words. There are so many songs in my head now that I have make myself learn the words (the words more than anything) to perform somebody else’s song.

Why did you decide to record an album of songs mainly written by other people? And how did you come to select the songs on Twang on a Wire?

I’m truly a product of the American south and its music. I was born in New Orleans, lived in the Delta and I’ve spent most of my life in Nashville. I’ve done half of my records in Muscle Shoals [Alabama] and written for Fame Publishing. My mother’s from Kentucky and my grandfather in Kentucky loved bluegrass music – even though the least amount of influence that people will hear in my music is bluegrass. I like to tell people that I have a lot of blue but no grass in my music! There are three main strains that people hear in my music – Mississippi acoustic blues underneath, gospel music and the Nashville country sound.

The tunes on Twang on a Wire are tunes that I remember inspired me as a girl and that I think are great songs, great performances, great songwriters. Twang on a Wire is my tribute record to those women, those songs and those songwriters (some of whom were men). The songs come from a critical time in my life – it was when I was really beginning to sing and play the guitar. I was listening to the radio. I was in Nashville. And the women’s movement was also beginning to grow.

With some of these songs, it’s amazing that they were on the radio, on AM country radio, in Nashville – songs like ‘Honey on His Hands’ and ‘Mississippi Woman, Louisiana Man’, songs by Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette.

Then there was ‘Funny Face’, which was not necessarily a strong woman’s song, except that it was HUGE hit.

I could have put any number of Dolly Parton songs on – but I think ‘Down from Dover’ is an incredible song. I think it’s so pure, how Dolly Parton writes. I haven’t met Dolly, but my mother sat next to her on an airplane once!

Kris Kristofferson wrote ‘Help me Make it through the Night’, but what changed the song is that a woman sang it – it was a number one for Sammi Smith in the country music market in the early ’70s.

Those songs definitely influenced my life. I don’t necessarily agree with all the thing in the songs – but they definitely formed my musical heritage. And I wanted everybody else to enjoy them as well.

Did you write the song ‘Twang on a Wire’ particularly for the album?

I wrote the song close to doing the album – I wrote it with my friend Mark Narmore. I have no idea where the title came from – sometimes you feel like titles fall from the sky – and I just felt that I had it one day. I spent a year or so thinking about it, then Mark and I were talking about it and we ended up writing the song – truly about me playing the guitar. It’s kinda my story. The song came first, then I realised that it was a way to do my country women tribute record.

Did you listen/re-listen to other people singing the songs before recording them?

I listened to the versions that I remembered – I didn’t listen to any other people recording them. Then me and the guys got together and played them. We had a great time! There’s a different feel on some of them, but with some of them I felt the original feel was so lovely (like Rose Garden). I wasn’t trying to do a reinterpretation by any means, although there are a couple of songs that we did kinda re-invent (like ‘Would You Lay With Me in a Field of Stone’).

In recording Twang on a Wire, did part of you fear that it might result in people no longer wanting to hear you perform your own songs?

No – it didn’t enter my mind at all! I guess by the time I did Twang on a Wire, I felt that people would truly see this as a tribute record. And I think that’s how people have seen it. Lots of times people want me to sing ‘Boulder to Birmingham’ in concert – so I’ll do an encore of ‘Boulder to Birmingham’. Every now and then, people want me to do ‘Harper Valley PTA’, but it’s much better with a band. I just loved those performances and those women and those songs. And I hope that other people like it and remember those songs and remember country music and the impact that music can have on us all.

What’s been happening in your world in recent times?

I came out with a new CD last October, called Save the Day. And people seem to be enjoying that. From a recording stand point, it sounds super. John Prine is one of my favorites and he is absolutely spectacular on it. And, of course, Nanci Griffith came and sang along. Mac McAnally, who appears on a lot of my CDs, shows up on this one. I’m proud of it; I think it sounds well; and I hope I continue to grow as a songwriter.

What are some of your future plans?

This summer, I’m have some song writing camps – I’ve been doing 2 or 3 every year for about 5 or 6 years. Then I’m going back to the UK in October 2009. And it looks like in 2010 that I may do a little trip to Ireland, where I’m the host and we see the sites and listen to music every night in a pub.

We’re thinking about, maybe, doing a live album. I think there are very few great live albums – I can only name a couple, like the Allman Brothers Band and the Steve Miller Band. I just can’t envisage someone wanting to hear me sing and play guitar live over and over again – but we’re contemplating it. It’s something that I have to talk to Will Kimbrough [producer, songwriter, guitarist] about. So that may be next.

I’ve never done a holiday record (and I really don’t want to), but I kinda want to do a peace record. One of the songs that I’d want to record is Will’s song, ‘God Forgive our Warring Ways’.

In his novel High Fidelity, English writer Nick Hornby covers such vitally important things as organising music collections and making compilation tapes. Can you tell us about your music collection and how it is organised?

I’ve read Nick Hornby’s book and I have the accompanying CD!

I’m a very eclectic listener.

I love classical music and I have my classical music together. I really like requiems.

I like jazz – usually jazz blues, blue dark jazz (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk). So I have that together.

And then I’ll kinda do stuff in alphabetical order.

I love southern rock.

I also like electronic out-there stuff – like Air.

I love the great songwriters – I’m a huge Tom Waits fan and I have all of Springsteen’s. And people like Guy Clark are great – but they’re not heard on the radio that much.

I’m on a Rolling Stones binge right now – I’ve been listening to Beggars Banquet over and over again. To me, the interesting thing about Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones was their ability to write their own music, but to also do tremendous blues covers and country music songs.

If I was to make a CD to listen to, then it would be The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Miles Davis, Elvis Presley (he did some really weird recordings and those are the ones I like the most), Bonnie “Prince” Billy (he’s really dark – and I like him a lot), Ray LaMontagne.

No one would ever probably know the songs I write by what I listen to!

Editor’s note – after the jump- Richard Shindell and Cyndi Boste
Continue reading Making Them My Own — Songwriters Singing Songs by Other Songwriters