songs:365

  • day 27: Dolphins

    Dolphins by Cass McCombs (originally by Fred Neil)

    This is 100% a song I heard because Spotify put it on a playlist for me. It’s a cover by Cass McCombs, who has some records out, along with the Chapin Sisters.

    Apparently the original author, Fred Neil, was huge in the NYC folk scene in the ’60s, so much so that you’ve heard his song Everybody’s Talkin’ as made famous by Harry Nilsson in Midnight Cowboy, and I should add that one to the list, but also… ALSO… he got into dolphins, met Ric O’Barry, and worked for animal rights (well, dolphins, at least) for decades after.

    A little backup vocal and some sort of software electric piano on the choruses.

    Tags: ,

  • day 26: Red Headed Stranger

    Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson.

    There are certain albums that call to mind an extremely specific setting, no matter how many times and formats and states and conditions I listen to them in. This is one of them! There are others.

    I am no more than eight years old, and this is the tape my dad listens to while putting up the carpet and other bits of the first retail storefront studio my mom called her place of business for a decent chunk of my youth. No need to close my eyes either, I could probably draw the gray carpet on the walls (a short pile, good for lots of velcro-backed frame corners to choose from) and smell the wood and paint and beginnings of the place, while Willie sang words I barely noticed.

    A concept album from 1975, who would’ve expected that… 😉

    Tags:

  • day 25: Not

    Not by Big Thief.

    I fell hard for this song earlier this year, and it deserves to be played and sung louder than this, but when I decided to stop working and play it, the dog decided that she needed my attention (she did) and the phone rang (it was important) and the trick to doing something like this every day might be to make time, but it really is less stressful to finish these up late at night.

    It feels just a little like being a teenager again, futzing with guitar effects under the black lights (and Doors posters) and incense burning and obviously up too late.

    Voices, guitars, one weird software mellotron thing for the bassline “violins.”

    Tags:

  • day 24: Sausalito

    Sausalito by Conor Oberst.

    There’s a Bright Eyes record that got me through some hard times and long trips when our first kid was born, and this isn’t it. This is off a Conor Oberst album from a couple years later, I think? I’m pretty sure this is a CD that’s floated around between the cars, and more recently I’ve been playing it off my phone in the car with the second kid,. and he tolerates it, which is nice. Just wanted to play something sweet today.

    A couple guitars and vocals, and one weird software mellotron underneath (and apparently way too loud). I would’ve added electric guitar and clumsily mashed in the fills if I had a little more time before everyone went to bed.

    Tags:

  • day 23: Third of May / Ōdaigahara

    Third of May / Ōdaigahara by Fleet Foxes.

    I’ve already mentioned Fleet Foxes here. I’ll probably do more than one song, but this was a good challenge for a Saturday afternoon. I do not have Robin Pecknold’s range, and layering on more voices singing it wrong doesn’t help.

    This particular song doesn’t have a particular special meaning for me — not nearly as much as, say, Helplessness Blues, or even Blue Ridge Mountains, so we might have to get to those another day. But I do love the chords and parts of this one, even if I kinda muddle the ending. (And I don’t even attempt the other two minutes of the instrumental after the lyrics wind down.)

    Aside from the obvious backup singing, there’s a little electric guitar track, and then software electric piano and flute to add some more low and high bits.

    Robin’s notes are all over the Genius page for this song.

    Tags:

  • day 22: New Coat of Paint

    New Coat of Paint by Tom Waits

    A little less country and a quiet one tonight. New Coat of Paint opens Heart of Saturday Night. It’s a scene setter. Before Tom Waits breaks your heart six or eight different ways. Easy enough to point back to that first record store job again as the first place I heard Tom Waits.

    I might’ve been mumble-singing this one while walking the dog this morning. (Sorry, neighbors. Not sorry, herons.)

    Added software vibraphone and tuba because we’re having fun here, folks.

    Tags:

  • day 21: Dead Flowers

    Dead Flowers by the Rolling Stones (and Townes van Zandt)

    We really love Big Lebowski around these parts. The Townes van Zandt version on the soundtrack was the only version of this song I knew for a good solid 20 years, until I found out it was a Rolling Stones song. Mick makes me laugh. Townes makes me cry.

    This one could use a second guitar and a little solo line and maybe even some backup singing on the chorus, but I need to sleep.

    It’s day 21, and that’s three weeks, and Dad taught me you have to do something for three weeks to make it a habit, so here we are with a habit.

    Tags: ,

  • day 20: When I Paint My Masterpiece

    When I Paint My Masterpiece, by The Band

    Is it a Dylan song? Is it a Band song? Is it a Dylan and The Band song? I know it best as a song by The Band, so that’s what it is to me.

    I must’ve sung this to my infant children a thousand times or more when I was rocking them to sleep in my arms. If it had worked better, I joked that I could probably play it when they were teenagers and they’d pass out without knowing why.

    I love this little song. It felt like a great day for something raw, and triumphant, and appropriately enough getting the recording for the day done before the aforementioned children are asleep in their beds means I can let a little looser and get a little louder.

    I’d add an accordion if I could. If I had a harmonica in the right key… huh wait maybe I do. Next time?

    Tags: ,

  • day 19: Handshake Drugs

    Handshake Drugs by Wilco.

    Alright, fine, it’s day 19 and I’m repeating artists. In the end it will probably be fun (albeit predictable) to see who I play most often. Wilco will be high on the list. Handshake Drugs is a simple little thing but a few words are doing a lot of work.

    Tags:

  • day 18: Highway Patrolman

    Highway Patrolman by Bruce Springsteen

    When did I start listening to Nebraska? On vinyl from some garage sale or thrift shop around the turn of the century? Probably. I knew nothing about it except that it was supposed to be good and different and I’ve gone all these years loving it (uh when in the right mood and able to handle how down it is) without ever reading about how it was made. Until just recently.

    Highway Patrolman was always my favorite, and I started playing this years ago, but now that I’m writing this down, I realize Hungry Heart is the song I really want to cover, so maybe I’ll have to do a second Springsteen.

    Tags: