Jack Rose

While I'm on the subject of guitarists influenced by John Fahey, I'd like to pay respects to Jack Rose, an extremely talented solo guitarist who sadly died today of an apparent heart attack. While Rose was strongly influenced by Fahey, he also incorporated eastern music, especially raga, into his vast body of work, much like Sir Richard Bishop and Robbie Basho. Rose also played in a prominent drone band (as prominent as a drone band can be, I mean) called Pelt.

Rose was immensely talented, somewhat prolific, and hardly well-known throughout his 15+ year career. His music was characterized by its often dark style of folk and blues, the result of playing a 12-string slide guitar. There's a lot of solitude in his music, especially evident on the excellent s/t release on Tequila Sunrise. It was also released on CD after the LP version sold out, which is available here and here. I picked up that record without knowing anything about it really, and I've since invested serious hours into it.

Although much of his work is generally pretty haunting, here's one of his more upbeat ragtime songs off the Kensington Blues album.

07 Flirtin' With the Undertaker by regularexpress

Medicine Head

Back in my record store days, this great Dandelion Records single compilation(John Peel's record label) came in that first introduced me to the music of Medicine Head.

Although their later output treads toward the boogie side of British blues and folk, Medicine Head's early singles, off their debut New Bottles, Old Medicine, are right up the London equivalent to Tin Pan Alley. Bert Jansch, Jackson C. Franke, the softer personality of Peter Green, and John Martyn are all contemporaries. It's ambling, pensive, and warm folk music that all those guys did so well, and that nearly nobody has been able to do since.

Medicine Head - This Love of Old

And here's some of that boogie I was talking about:

Richard Youngs

Last night, I briefly mentioned the influence of Bert Jansch on British folk musicians. One such apprentice is Richard Youngs. Calling him a folk musician, however, would be greatly dwarfing Youngs' indulgences in a slew of genres, from experimental, raga, and noise freakouts to simpler folk and electronic works. My introduction to him was 2005's Naive Shaman, a body of amorphous and pulsing electronic sounds to complement his floating melodies. His voice is not unlike Jeff Mangum's (of Neutral Milk Hotel) at his most content, though traces of Jansch and Tim Buckley come through as well.

I was originally intending to post a song off Naive Shaman, but I've decided to keep with the folk theme of last night's post and go with a song called "Trees That Fall" off the 2002 album May. We're coming into autumn here. The air is cooling and getting a little crisper, and some folk tunes only seem appropriate for such weather. Of course, it would make sense for me to post something off his 2007 album Autumn Response, but, well, I can't, because I don't own it.

I will eventually get to some of his more experimental works another time, but for now, bask in the pastoral comforts of this song.

Richard Youngs - Trees That Fall

Needle of Death

There's a song I'd like to share this evening by a Scottish fellow named Bert Jansch. He's had quite a prolific career, putting out dozens of albums on a myriad of labels as a solo artist as well as a fair few albums with Pentangle. "Needle of Death" was one of his most popular songs, released off his first album in 1965 before he took to playing with a group. The album also contains a song called "Alice's Wonderland," written by Charles Mingus. As is pretty evident when you listen to his recordings, Jansch influenced many important songwriters, including the recently-deceased John Martyn and the long-ago-deceased Nick Drake. Jansch is still alive and well.

Bert Jansch - Needle of Death

Yo La Tengo recorded it for their Today is the Day EP, released a few months after Summer Sun in 2003. Georgia Hubley takes the vocal duties and treats the song with the somber loving care it deserves. I think Yo La Tengo are generally better off when they're doing their own material, but in this instance, they do the song justice and then some. The entire EP is a little gem, one side smoking hot indie rock, the other a handful of more subdued and acoustic numbers.

I don't really feel like putting in the links to the usual informative sites, and I suspect nobody will have a problem with it since nobody comments on this thing anyway.

Yo La Tengo - Needle of Death

Loudon Wainwright III

While at work on a sunny summer day I heard something interesting on the speakers. I thought, "Is this the new Ryan Adams? But it's…good!" It wasn't Ryan Adams, and that guy still stinks. It turned out to be Loudon Wainwright III. Album II. "Me & My Friend the Cat." I started doing a bit of research and found that Loudon has existed on the periphery of fame for nearly 40 years. As the singing surgeon on M*A*S*H*, the original sidekick to David Letterman, and the dad of both Martha and Rufus Wainwright, Loudon has reasons for fame aside from his incredible 38 year, 22 album career.

I found that some of his music was a little hit and miss, but overall, bafflingly good. He mixes humour with heart-wrenching pain, nostalgia, and self-deprecation better than any songwriter I've ever heard. He was originally heralded as "the new Bob Dylan", but unlike Dylan, Loudon didn't reinvent himself a dozen times, never lied about where he came from, and doesn't suck live.

His talent lies in his willingness to discuss personal details fully and precisely, such as the time he hit Martha in the car, or his divorce from Kate McGarrigle, or his career failures. Loudon can construct songs in a variety of genres- lounge, reggae, folk, country, rock, blues- and always sound comfortable and authentic. A reggae song about being a pathetic tourist in Jamaica, or a rowdy bar song about the alcoholic implications of dinner parties with friends ("drinks before dinner and wine with dinner and after-dinner drinks"), or a cheesy "Running-On-Empty"-esque country song about his biggest fan (both literally and figuratively) being a bigger fan of both Bob Dylan and Neil Young: this is all just typical Loudon- personal, funny, and poignant.

All this has gotten him a decent career and following, but rarely any commercial success. His only real single was "Dead Skunk," a minor AM radio hit over 35 years ago. He's had acting roles in a variety of things, notably Tim Burton's "Big Fish," and the TV show "Undeclared," but it's probably too late for a full-blown entry into stardom. So ol' Loudo will have to remain on the fringes, as he's done for nearly 40 years, getting his name spelled wrong on marquees worldwide.

-Cole

Me & My Friend The Cat.mp3
The Swimming Song.mp3
Wine With Dinner.mp3
Lullaby.mp3
T.S.M.N.W.A. (They Spelled My Name Wrong Again).mp3