Words by Woody: Guthrie's Greatest Gifts

Listening to the new box set, from Billy Bragg & Wilco, Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions got me thinking about what are the best adaptions of Woody Guthrie's words to the music of others:

1: Bob Dylan & Joan Baez: Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
When schoolteacher Martin Hoffman set this 1948 Guthrie poem about the dehumanization of immigrants to music he really could not have know how germane those words would be to American politics fifty years later or that he would start a trend still booming to this day. His version was spread by Pete Seeger and became a centerpiece of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue of the mid-seventies.


Bob Dylan & Joan Baez - Deportee by vicky7xthomas


2: Billy Bragg & Wilco: Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key
The nineties may not have been Brit folk-punker Billy Bragg's best decade as a solo artist but his success in bringing Woody Guthrie into the 21st century, a task for which he was anointed  by Nora Guthrie, will remain one of the most celebrated accomplishments of his life.




3: Wilco & Billy Bragg: California Stars
Despite having a less reverent, historically-minded view of the task of adapting Guthrie's words than Mr. Bragg, Chicago alt-country/NOT alt-country band Wilco drew up a stellar set of songs in order to play The Band to Bragg's Dylan.




4.  Jim James, Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, and Anders Parker: Careless Reckless Love
Curious that Nora Guthrie chose to have Jay Farrar, former partner of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, into the archives but the results are pretty as hell, so let us ignore any subtext in her choice.




5. The Dropkick Murphys: Shipping Up to Boston
Boston celtic-punks The Dropkick Murphy's earned a trip to the Guthrie Archives and came out of with one of their most famous songs and an appearance in Martin Scorsese's The Departed.




6. The Klezmatics:  Mermaid Avenue
New York Jewish-folk preservationists, the Klezamtics celebrated another aspect of Woody's words with two [!] collections, Wonder Wheel (2006) and Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah (2006).




So what's the most successful melding of Woody's words and modern music? Let us know in  the COMMENTS section.

Gentleman Jesse: Leaving Atlanta (2012)

Four questions about Gentleman Jesse's new album Leaving Atlanta:

1. Is this the Gentleman Jesse album to own?
Hell yes, the first album kicks along nicely and then there's been some fine singles but with this new album and aspiring classics like "I'm Only Lonely (When I'm Around You)" and "Careful What you Wish For" and "Eat Me Alive" Jesse's got a reasonable nominee for AMG album pick (if he only had a proper entry there!)




2. Does Jesse still have an Exploding Heart?
Yeah, there's a some sonic similarities between Jesse's historically-minded garagy-pop-punk and the tragically departed Portland band's distinctive retro-style but Jesse's got ever-expanding taste in full-fledged rock n' roll as the rockabilly-powered single, "Rooting for The Underdog" goes to show:

3. What happened to His Men
Jesse dropped  "His Men" who backed him on his first album (keeping drummer/producer David Rahn), which allowed him to expand his sound (garage rock legend King Louie, who kept company with the aforementioned Exploding Hearts, plays harmonica here) without losing his edge.

4. Is the title secret tribute to the Atlanta Thrashers move from Atalanta, Georgia to MRML's home-base, Winnipeg, Manitoba, for the 2011-2012 hockey season?
Probably not. It's a more of a tribute to the love/hate relationship Jesse's had with his hometown, especially after a rough few years since his last album.

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Teenage Bottlerocket: Joy Division 7" (2012)

Now this comes as a bit of a surprise. Wyoming's favourite Ramonesophiles, Teenage Bottlerocket (more HERE), have self-released a strictly-limited edition 7" of Joy Division covers. So, while plundering new source material, means some trickier guitar lines, some martial drumming and a certain seriousness, it's still recognizably TB. Joy Division may have been moody, atmospheric, blah, blah, blah but they were capable of writing such drop-dead perfect choruses that it made Ian Curtis' suicide that much more gut-wrenching. In tribute to Joy Division's depth, Teenage Bottlerocket stayed away from the most obvious choices, "Love Will Tear Us Apart", "She's  Lost Control" et al and instead rip through ferocious versions of "Ice Age" and "Walked In Line".

 

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Mike Scott & The Bootlegs: Isis (Demos, 1978)

(The above photo is of Another Pretty Face)

Mike Scott came to public attention as leader of new wave band Another Pretty Face, whose "All the Boys Love Carrie" achieved NME single of the week in 1979. Of course, he gained significantly more attention in  the eighties as the leader of The Waterboys (whom Scott describes as "myself and whoever are my current traveling musical companions.")

Before all that, Scott, along with a  band called the Bootlegs, recorded a set of demos in 1978 that betrayed a love of artists like David Bowie, Lou Reed (see "Pale Blue Eyes" here) and Bob Dylan. Intriguingly, Scott & his bootlegs choose to cover "Isis" a dense epic Dylan co-wrote with psychologist Jacques Levy for the 1976 album, Desire. Rather than use the laid-back Desire arrangement (not to be confused with pummeling live versions of the Rolling Thunder Revue tours), Scott & co. treats "Isis" like an outtake from the Highway 61 sessions, though they do add very un-Dylan-like 'ba-ba'ba's'' to stand-in for the harmonica.




Mike Scott & the Bootlegs
Taybank Studio, Ayr, Scotland 1978-09-04

1. So Hard to Explain
2. The End
3. Death in Venice
4. My Mafia
5. Pale Blue Eyes
6. Ask the Angels
7. C'mon Everybody (partial)
8. Isis
9. What Can I Do (cut)

İzleyin: Bob Dylan - Like a rolling stone

So tell us what you make of the different version of Isis and of Mike Scott's work in general in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the MS & B Demos).



Mike Scott's Homepage

The Living Deadbeats: Single (Free Download!)

A friend, and current Vancouverite, recently said that Vancouver sees too many good touring bands to need any great local acts. While it might be a bit of a stretch, it is true that at times Vancouver's underground rock n' roll scene has struggled to live up to its early glory days.

The Living Deadbeats, however, are set to help Vancouver rise from the musical dead. While the cover of the band's single might suggest some sorta psychobillly-freakout, front woman Lindsay's powerful, growling voice is gonna make a lot of people remember Mia Zappata (R.I.P.).  It's a reasonable point of comparison, especially as Zappata's band, The Gits, were as rooted in punk as they were in the blues. The Bellrays, with their mix of Detroit rock and Detroit Soul might also be a helpful comparison too but in the end The Living Deadbeat's lethal mix of garage rock, pop, rockabilly, soul and punk isn't paying homage to anything but their hometown's proud musical history.





The band, who also include Pete Fiend, formerly of The Finks, The Fiends and inspirational blog, O Canadarm, on bass, Dirty Swagger on guitar and Nadja on the drums, have offered up this free single as a taste of what's to come on their forthcoming full-length, As well, the band's gonna be touring Canada, as far as Ontario anyway,  in the summer - so let's check 'em out in the flesh Canucks!


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>>>>    Free download is in the COMMENTS section!    <<<<<