Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Outlaw Music

It's a wonderful thing, music. An endless source of inspiration, and joy. That even after twenty-five years has the power to educate and amaze. I had one of those moments today, when you feel like your really hearing something for the first time. A brand new sound. More and more I  find myself looking back into music, rather than ahead. I think it probably takes time and patience to see past the parameters and dimensions of what popular music and popular music media tell us is good. Quite often we have established prejudices against specific genres of music. We've all been guilty of it at one point or another. I believe more so when we're younger. We see things more clearly as we age.

So for me most of what excites me regarding music exists in the past, and few things are as exciting as those moments when you listen to music and discover that moment was the exact right moment in your life to hear that music. Those moments when you really notice everything about a song. The lyrics, the music, the physicality of the song. When you feel like you could be standing in the recording studio at the moment it was recorded. Lyrics are a big one for me. I'm often guilty of noticing lyrics last. The music has always grabbed my attention first. Tones and melodies, big guitar hooks, especially with hip hop. A big beat, a great sample, a bass line. So when I realize I'm really caught up in some song lyrics I know I'm listening to something important. Not necessarily to anyone else, but important to myself and my personal experiences.

So again, there I was earlier on Spotify. I don't know if you've tried this music service, but it's pretty incredible. I'm a late comer to the site, having spent quite a long time being cynical about the whole idea of having an endless collection of music available to you on a website that you can share with others. I was always worried about it devaluing music, cheapening the listening experience. In fact it is a very useful tool for discovering music, and tasting music before you buy it. Anyway, I was on there earlier looking up Willie Nelson records. Having discovered a great song of his on Youtube. The song was Shotgun Willie and it turns out it's the title track of his 1973 album Shotgun Willie. An album that marked a turning point in his career, that had in Willie's own words "cleared his throat." A classic 1970's record, introspective, with a pared down natural sound. Honest and raw. I grew up hearing the Willie Nelson everyone knows, On The Road Again and all that. This record was different. More like the outlaw country I've been reading about. And it really hit me. It sounds like summer to me. Fresh and invigorating.

Then I moved on to Hank Williams. I've been a fan of his for years but I don't believe a person can ever listen to too much Hank. And I discovered a song I'd never heard before, I Told Lie A To My Heart. A timeless piece of songwriting. Willie Nelson also dueted with Hank on this song on his album Half Nelson.

From Hank I went to Kris Kristofferson. Another man I've always known about, but to whom I'd never really listened. I'd recently had the opportunity to see Taxi Driver in the cinema and in the film Cybil Shepherd's character talks about a Kris Kristofferson record, specifically the song The Pilgrim-Chapter 33. I was intrigued so I put on The Silver Tongued Devil And I and Kristofferson, his first two albums. His voice hit me like a brick. In Hip Hop they say you can tell the real mc's from the frauds, because the real mc speaks from the heart, from personal experience,hip hop is in their blood and you can hear that honesty in his/her voice. Where as the frauds, those that are fronting, are rapping for money. Kristofferson is country. You can hear it in his deep voice. He speaks from hard personal experience. You can almost taste the whiskey. You feel like your looking through a window into the truth of those times back in the late 60's. At Kristofferson and his  friends Johnny and June, Rambling Jack Elliott, Willie Nelson. And it's exhilarating.

So I looked into Rambling Jack Elliott. A folk singer who was close friends with Woody Guthrie, who had a big influence on Woody's son Arlo Guthrie, and a young folk singer named Bob Dylan. I listened to Hard  Travellin'(a reissue of Jack Elliott Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie and Rambling Jack Elliott). Again I was struck by the voice. He has a relaxed confidant tone. Well travelled. He sort of speaks rather than sings. I discovered a great song of his called East Virginia Blues that's real Sunday morning music. Elliott bridges the gap between folk and country and still records and tours today.

From Ramblin' Jack I went to an icon of Canadian music. One of our nation's most celebrated singer songwriters. Gordon Lightfoot. I grew up with Gordon Lightfoot like every Canadian did. Loving songs like Sundown and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The latter one of my favourite songs. When I was younger though I did dismiss his music to an extent as old people music. Largely in part because his music is highly polished and very produced. But last year my wife and I were in Manchester, in the northern quarter, sat in a little cafe/bar called Oddbar having breakfast. Which I highly recommend by the way. I noticed they had a jukebox so I selected a handful of Sunday morning style Canadian influenced tunes from the 70's and 80's, that included Lightfoot's The Wreck... partly out of surprise that I had found it on an English jukebox and partly out of nostalgia for my homeland. Either way, it was a lovely morning, I was eating a delicious breakfast with my lovely wife, and that song started playing and I fell in love with Gordon Lightfoot's music all over again.

On this day though I wanted to taste the songs I wasn't already familiar with. I listened to 1972's Don Quixote, 1974's Sundown, and 1975's Cold On The Shoulder. And I was struck by two songs, Second Cup Of Coffee from Don Quixote, and All the Lovely Ladies from Cold On The Shoulder. Lightfoot's silky voice draws the listener in, his lyrics beguiling. Beneath the sometimes outdated production he is a natural born storyteller

This was an emotionally and aesthetically satisfying listening session and from here I went on to Bobby Womack's album Fly Me To The Moon, The Sonic's album The Savage Young Sonics, Mitch Ryder, Link Wray, R.L Burnside, and Townes Van Zandt. The latter two artists I'd been infatuated with for a long time.

As is usually the case, I hadn't planned on spending so much time listening, which brings me back to the beginning. That's the beauty of music. The ease at which you can lose yourself in it. It's been a while since I listened to such a range of beautiful music. Certainly in one sitting. I still listen to a lot of new music. Although, in the last few years my real obsession has been hip hop. Focused on but not restricted to old school and golden age hip hop. But more and more it's the times I go back to the 1970's and earlier that the music really effects me. Singer songwriter stuff. Blues, Country, Folk, and Rock. Hip Hop effects me, but it's on a visceral level. This stuff, the music I've been talking about here today, it effects me on a personal level. It makes me feel privileged to be experiencing it. It transcends time. Feels like something that has been dug up from deep in the earth. Something invaluable to the preservation of our stories and experiences both as individuals and as a people.

Men like Van Zandt, Nelson, Lightfoot, Williams, are men I admire. True artists and storytellers who live, or lived, the life they sing about. And it's a beautiful moment when you reach that place on your personal life path where this music makes real sense to you. Like the last piece of a puzzle falling into place. And the real wonder to me, is that I know it won't end. I went through it with the blues a longtime ago, I went through it with jazz, and punk and hip hop.

It's a cycle that never stops if you keep an open mind.