Onto the cover....
I've emphasized the "metal" in this version of "Metal Heart." From the noisy drum loop to the biting guitar harmonics, it's certainly not the pretty original from 'Moon Pix' or even her bluesier version on 'Jukebox.' I did a version more akin to that original, but I might as well have flown in Mick Turner from Australia to do the guitars. This one's a bit different. As always, let me know what you think...
Download file here:The FMTana-"Metal Heart"
It was the best of shows, it was the blurst of shows>
No ground is being broken to say Chan Marshall is enigmatic as a live performer. Saw her at the Troubadour put on an amazing show after Moon Pix came out. (Probably one of my favorite Troubadour shows ever.) She was fronting a three piece. The issues were evident when the guitarist had to follow her off-stage to coax her back for an encore. Saw her a couple years later at McCabe's Guitar Store by herself, supporting her first covers album. With no one to keep her on track, she wandered through songs aimlessly. The audience treated her like an 8 year old at a piano recital, encouraging her with uncomfortable applause and shouting for her to keep plugging away. Not such an enjoyable time. Especially coming off the Troubadour show where she was astonishingly good. I haven't seen her in a while, but just from what I've read and from current eyewitness accounts, it seems she's not the same skittish kitty from those first few tours.She can pull off bangs>
There's no need to go into whether I think Ms. Marshall is a looker or not. She is a top shelf songwriter with one of the best voices on the planet. She is above such discussion. I will say this though: Most girls cannot pull off bangs. Chan Marshall can pull off bangs. I will leave it at that.If you could sing at my funeral>Yes, it's macabre, but the only thing I want a say in for my funeral, much like my wedding, is the music. I want to be able to pick the music. And I think there are a few vocalists who sound like angels. Or I hope angels sound as good. One is Mimi Parker from Low and the other is Chan Marshall. I'm not sure what songs I'd want from the Cat Power catalog. Maybe "Good Woman" or "Half of You" from You Are Free. I love her cover of the Velvets' "I Found a Reason." "The Moon" from The Greatest has some applicable lyrics. I think "Colors and the Kids" might be too much. (See below.)It must be the colors and the kids>"Colors and the Kids" from Moon Pix may be one of the most devastating songs in my library. It's an open wound of a tune. It's the simplest piano with the clearest tone. No effects. Absolutely clean. You can actually hear her take her foot off the sustain pedal at the end. And then there's the vocal. It's as utterly exposed as a performer can get on a record. And it's beautiful to behold. That song alone would make Moon Pix my favorite record of hers. Luckily the other songs on it are pretty incredible as well. Including the song I decided to try a cover of.
As usual, click the pic Up and to the Right for a few Cat Power selections.
Or "How I Went To a Foreign Land And Then Got Sick, So That's Why It's Taken Me So Long To Update."
I am not one apt to travel. I am instead one apt to settle in. So going time zone upon time zone upon time zone from home is not natural to me. And despite having a very lovely time, it was obviously not natural to my physical body as well. My body let me know that. And then after my body stopped kicking me in the body, the jet lag rolled up its sleeves and got in its shots.
But I think I'm through it. So onto Willie.
As I did with "The Secret" (see below), I took one of G.A. Studdert Kennedy's World War I poems, "Today Thou Shalt Be With Me", and crafted a song around it. I like this one, but it wasn't easy to pull together. As easy as the melody and arrangement came, the recording process was as difficult. Largely due to the culprit pictured above: the Beast. Because of it's aged electronics and makeshift construction, it's temperamental. I'll leave it at that. I did cheat in this exercise by using the title of Kennedy's poem "Today Thou Shalt Be With Me" as a sort of chorus and also in the coda. Although, since I came up with this exercise, I consider the rules to be fairly malleable to my creative whims. I might start working in Bill Callahan lyrics in the future. Whatever sounds good.
(And whatever works as a segue to "The Up and To the Right" section as I'm tipping my cap to Smog, whose influence is very evident in the sound of The FMTana. At least to me it is. Click on the pic for some tunes.)
And here's the Woodbine Willie tune I've been blah-blahing on about:
Download file here:The FMTana-"Today Thou Shalt Be With Me"
Onto the cover....
