Mississippi John Hurt sang a song that was on my mother’s old Newport Folk Festival records; referencing turning 21, the lyrics went “You’re 3×7, you know what you want to do.” Half my life time ago, I didn’t know, not really. Now I do. These are the songs on my iTunes Party Shuffle this week, as I turn 6×7 today.
1. “Ghost Repeater”, Jeffrey Foucault
2. “Blood and the Ram”, The Gourds
3. “This Heart of Mine”, Wailin’ Jennys
4. “One Tree Hill”, U2
5. “But the Days and Nights are Long”, Cheryl Wheeler
6. “Little Tornado”, Aimee Mann
7. “Holiday Inn”, Elton John
8. “Don’t Go Easy”, Jill Barber
9. “Willin’”, The Flying Burrito Brothers
10. “Change”, Tracy Chapman
Bonus Track: “Martyrs and Thieves”, Jennifer Knapp
Lest anyone with a dirty mind think otherwise, this refers to my newfound penchant for cradling a baby in the crook of my left arm while typing with my right. Several of these songs have shown up on previous FRTs. I think this means that I ought to limit myself to one FRT per month.
1. “Steve’s Hammer (For Pete), Steve Earle
2. “Writing to Reach You”, Travis
3. “Return of the Grievous Angel”, Gram Parsons
4. “Pretty Face”, Oh Susanna
5. “Walk Down this Mountain”, Bebo Norman
6. “The Shape You’re In”, Catherine Feeny
7. “You’re Still Standing There”, Lucy Kaplansky
8. “Thunder Road”, Bruce Springsteen
9. “Wisemen”, James Blunt
10. “Salvation Song”, The Avett Brothers
Bonus Track: “We Close Our Eyes”, Oingo Boingo
You know the rules — hit shuffle on your iPod or iPhone or MP3 players and see what ten songs come up. Bonus track is whatever’s been in your head most this week.
1. “Brilliant Disguise”, Bruce Springsteen
2. “We’re All Gonna Die Someday”, Kacey Chambers
3. “Bang Your Head” (Metal Health)”, Quiet Riot
4. “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos”, Joan Baez
5. “I’m Coming Home”, Robert Earl Keen
6. “Welfare Music”, John Hiatt
7. “Songbird”, Rosie Thomas
8. “Gaudeamus Igitur”, Mario Lanza
9. “My Heart is Free”, Tift Merritt
10. “The Truth About You”, Rosanne Cash
Bonus Track: “One Tree Hill”, U2
And the first FRT in a while features new discoveries for me at #1 and #7, my favorite song off the new GNR record, a magnificent Loretta Lynn/Jack White duet, and on the bonus, a song by my beloved Catatonia, featuring the sublime Cerys Matthews (she of the most wonderful name).
1. “Jungle Drum”, Emiliana Torrini
2. “The Everlasting”, Manic Street Preachers
3. “Ootishenia”, Be Good Tanyas
4. “My Favorite Book”, Stars
5. “Portland, Oregon”, Loretta Lynn
6. “For a Dancer”, Jackson Browne
7. “Reasons to Love You”, Meiko
8. “I.R.S.”, Guns n’ Roses
9. “Angels”, BoDeans
10. “Warm and Tender”, Caitlin Cary
Bonus Track: “International Velvet”, Catatonia
Quite simply, the randomest random ten ever. #3 makes me think of my senior year of high school, and about my gently aging classmates. That song came out when I was 17, and it means far more to me now at 41. #7 and #10 are much loved, and I make no apologies for #4 and #8. The bonus track has been in my head this week, and it’s a lovely bit about the aftermath of Katrina from a very fine outfit.
1. “Living Room”, Tegan and Sara
2. “Shout at the Devil”, Motley Crue
3. “No Surrender”, Bruce Springsteen
4. “You’re Having My Baby”, Paul Anka
5. “Follow the Lights”, Ryan Adams
6. “Keys to the Kingdom”, Abigail Washburn
7. “Ripple”, Grateful Dead
8. “Ich Bin Nicht Ich”, Tokio Hotel
9. “How Many Miles”, The Waifs
10. “Dead Flowers”, Rolling Stones
Bonus Track: “God-Forsaken Town”, Reckless Kelly
Lots of good stuff for this, the last FRT of the Bush presidency. It’s a genuinely random 10 the shuffle on iTunes produced, but I suppose that a case can be made that several of these songs have W. themes.
I make no apologies for loving #10, though the first 9 line up better with the genres I normally focus on. And the bonus track, as always, is the non-randomly chosen song that has been in my head most this week. I never liked the Seattle sound much, but while I had little time for Nirvana, I was always fond of Alice in Chains and the doomed and charismatic Layne Staley. Ryan Adams offers a faithful and strong cover of what, for me, is the quintessential early ’90s grunge classic. It’s very fine.
And though I like the Jimmy Martin version better, Del and the boys do a good job with #7.
1. “Dancing Barefoot”, Patti Smith
2. “Welfare Music”, John Hiatt
3. “Johnny 99″, Bruce Springsteen
4. “You’ll Always Be”, Oh Susanna
5. “Water and Stone”, Catie Curtis
6. “Biko”, Peter Gabriel
7. “My Lord Keeps a Record”, Del McCoury Band
8. “No Time to Cry”, Iris Dement
9. “I Am a Rock”, Simon and Garfunkel
10. “Umbrella”, Rihanna
Bonus Track: “Down in a Hole”, Ryan Adams
Amy Millan and Emily Haines are two new discoveries from the holiday break. I’ve never been a fan of the Who, but #7 is an obvious exception to that rule. Haines’ take on the Neil Young classic is marvelous, and Millan’s song is the one I’ve had in my head all week.
1. “Broken Things”, Lucy Kaplansky
2. “The Moth”, Aimee Mann
3. “Gillian”, The Waifs
4. “It’s a Shame”, Third Day
5. “World Spins Madly On”, the Weepies
6. “Losing You”, Amy Millan
7. “Love Reign O’er Me”, The Who
8. “The Maid Needs a Maid”, Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton
9. “Holiday Inn”, Elton John
10. “Tear-Stained Eye”, Son Volt
Bonus Track One: “Family”, Dar Williams
Bonus Track Two: “Nineteen Sixty-Nine”, Easterhouse
All sorts of covers and strange bits of goodness on here. The bonuses are not random; one of my favorite versions of a favorite carol, and one of many, many songs I loved by the late and marvelous Odetta.
1. “Rose-Colored Glasses”, The Meat Purveyors
2. “Firecracker”, Wailin’ Jennys
3. “Gravity”, Sara Bareilles
4. “Jesse”, Joan Baez
5. “St. Joseph’s”, The Avett Brothers
6. “Sloop John B”, The Beach Boys
7. “Fall Into the Night”, Eliza Gilkyson
8. “Long Black Veil”, The Band
9. “Angel Eyes”, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson
10. “Pop Life”, Prince
Bonus Track One: “The Holly and the Ivy”, Anonymous 4
Bonus Track Two: “Cool Water”, Odetta
I started coming down with the flu on Tuesday, and it’s thrown a serious wrench in my plans to run a marathon on Sunday. Unless I feel ooodles better in the next few hours, I’m not going to be able to do it. I’ll make a final decision when I wake up tomorrow morning.
So home on the couch, with this very random collection produced by shuffling the Ipod.
1. “Wind and Rain”, Crooked Still
2. “The Year that Clayton Delaney Died”, Tom T. Hall
3. “Safe to Land”, Jars of Clay
4. “Sin City”, The Kennedys
5. “Malibu”, Hole
6. “Teen for God”, Dar Williams
7. “Tracks of My Tears”, Billy Bragg
8. “The Beautiful Ones”, Prince and the Revolution
9. “The Times You’ve Come”, Jackson Browne
10. “If I Had a Hammer”, Sam Cooke
Bonus Track: “These Thousand Hills”, Third Day
One of these songs is very much not like the others. #8 is one of those nuggets of hard rock candy that got into my head in high school, and never let go. And #6 is by one of my favorite artists working today.
1. “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive”, Patty Loveless
2. “After the Gold Rush”, Trio (Harris, Parton, Ronstadt)
3. “Fancy Funeral”, Lucinda Williams
4. “Nightswimming”, REM
5. “One Voice”, Wailin’ Jennys
6. “Death Came and Got Me”, Rosie Thomas
7. “The Shape You’re In”, Catherine Feeny
8. “Rock and Roll Party in the Street”, Axe
9. “Something Less than Something”, Caitlin Cary
10. “Visions”, Jennifer Knapp
New and old goodies here. The bonus track is what I’ve been blasting on my iPod all week. #2 and #4 are by artists new to me within the past month or so; thank goodness for Pandora and Sirius satellite radio!
To remind everyone of the rules: random ten is determined by hitting “party shuffle” on the Itunes account. The bonus track is the song that you’ve had on your mind or in your head most in the past week.
1. “Orphan Girl”, Emmylou Harris
2. “Come on Get Higher”, Matt Nathanson
3. “Jesse James”, Bruce Springsteen
4. “Brokedown Palace”, Adrienne Young and Little Sadie
5. “Tonight You’re Gonna Lose Me”, The Lonesome Sisters
6. “Farther On”, Jackson Browne
7. “Dark Come Soon”, Tegan and Sara
8. “Turn Me On”, Norah Jones
9. “Heaven Now”, Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch, Fats Kaplin
10. “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”, Prince
Bonus Track: “Welfare Music”, John Hiatt
I don’t know about any of you all, but my 403(b) retirement account is down 40% this year. In that spirit, music for cheering us up.
There are a few songs so well-loved that I have at least five different versions on my Ipod. #3 is one of those, joining tracks like “Pancho and Lefty” and “Sin City” as alt.country classics of which it’s almost impossible to produce a bad cover. And Richard Shindell, who does many wonderful covers (check out his “Born in the USA”) nails “Willin’”.
1. “When I Drink I Cheat”, The Way-Goners
2. “Reasons to Be Beautiful”, Hole
3. “Willin’”, Richard Shindell
4. “Paradise”, John Prine
5. “Gillian”, The Waifs
6. “It’s Alright”, Dar Williams
7. “Might as Well Dance”, Patty Larkin
8. “Stupid Nouth Shut”, Hem
9. “Step on my Old Size Nines”, Stereophonics
10. “Short Work”, Kris Delmhorst
Actually, I don’t know if that’s a fair title. I’ve been a fan of traditional folk and country music and its offshoots, like Americana and “alt. country” for years. And here’s what I’ve noticed: fans of bluegrass and Americana tend, for whatever reason, to be farther to the left than fans of more mainstream country music. For example, the Tim McGraw/Faith Hill/Kenny Chesney demographic tends to lean right, and the Del McCoury/Ricky Skaggs/Alison Krauss demographic leans left. That’s based on the bumperstickers I see in the parking lots at these sorts of concerts, as well as on entirely informal observation. I’ve seen all of these in concert a time or nine, and the differences between the two audiences are marked. If mandolins and dobros are involved, you’re gonna have more “blue” voters. If large cowboy hats are in evidence, or if the male artist in question wears a vest without anything else on his torso, you’re gonna have a majority of Palin fans.
I’ve got two recent discoveries on this FRT: the Avett Brothers and Alecia Nugent. Good modern bluegrassy-goodness. #8 has been in my head all week.
1. “God Knows What”, Alecia Nugent
2. “Gold”, Emmylou Harris
3. “With Arms Outstretched”, Rilo Kiley
4. “Oh My Sweet Carolina”, Ryan Adams
5. “Coast”, Eliza Gilkyson
6. “Out of the Rain”, Duhks
7. “From Silver Lake”, Jackson Browne
8. “Ootishenia”, Be Good Tanyas
9. “Pretty Girl from Cedar Lane”, The Avett Brothers
10. “That Don’t Worry Me Now”, Shawn Colvin
Bonus Track: “Must I Paint You a Picture”, Billy Bragg
Lots of old favorites here, and (with #7 and #8) a pair of newer tracks I’ve grown fond of. A note about #2: when I was first doing a little bit of internet dating, back in early 1999 on match.com, I remember listing that track as the one that best described my life. It was not a wise strategy, I came to understand.
Two songs with devil themes, too. What could that mean?
1. “If I Had a Hammer”, Sam Cooke
2. “The Silver-Tongued Devil and I”, Kris Kristofferson
3. “Up to the Mountain (MLK song)”, Patty Griffin
4. “Get Thee Behind Me Satan”, Billy Joe Shaver
5. “The Truth About You”, Rosanne Cash
6. “Your Letter”, Joan Armatrading
7. “The Shape You’re In”, Catherine Feeny
8. “Echo Park”, Joseph Arthur
9. “Alone Again”, Dokken
10. “Versatile Heart”, Linda Thompson
Bonus Track: “If I Had a Rocket Launcher”, Bruce Cockburn
After a couple of months away, the FRT returns. I’m very fond of all of these songs, though how #8 snuck on here, I’m not sure. It’s no doubt one of my wife’s favorites, as it’s not something I ever downloaded.
1. “Another Country”, Tift Merritt
2. “At My Window”, Townes Van Zandt
3. “Wreck of the Day”, Anna Nalick
4. “Both Sides Now”, Joni Mitchell
5. “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”, Del McCoury Band
6. “So Begins the Task”, Stephen Stills
7. “Forever in Blue Jeans”, Neil Diamond
8. “Give a Little Bit”, Goo Goo Dolls
9. “Goodbye”, Steve Earle
10. “Enough to Go By”, Vienna Teng
Bonus Track: “Heaven Tonight”, Hole
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