Different Kinds of Honey

Photo from eatlocalhoney.com

So I finally decided to listen to the original version of Bobby Russell’s “Honey” as sung by Bobby Goldsboro. A huge hit for Goldsboro in 1968, the song actually replaced “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” at the top of the charts. The public came to its collective senses five weeks later by listening to the wise counsel of Archie Bell and the Drells to get into it and “Tighten Up.” But for those five long weeks it seems America wanted to give their time over to a damned near unlistenable piece of fluff.

Bobby Goldsboro - Honey [buy]

Goldsboro has absolutely no connection to the song. Or at least his (and his producer’s) way of connecting to it creates so little emotional resonance that the song comes across as laughable. And those sappy strings dutifully do their best to heavy-hand you into some pre-programmed weepy response.

So if Goldsboro’s version is so damned awful, then why in the world did I ever listen to it? Because Milo Jones’ version is so damned good and I just had to hear the original.


Perhaps the key to why Jones’ version doesn’t sound like emotional corn syrup is that his guitar playing (always exceptional) pushes the song forward, not allowing it to get mired in bathos. And yet Jones seems much more caught up in the sad tale than the stock-still Goldsboro. However he does it, the song becomes an affecting take on married life and the loss of a spouse.

Milo Jones - Honey [buy]

Crooning With Bullhorns

Photo from Flickr

A tune from Sean Hayes' 2003 album Alabama Chicken

lost in a dream
as we try to retrieve
pieces from yesterday
what will it be

open a box
inside there's a string
your skin is the air
and your blood sings

Sean Hayes - Here We Are... [buy]

Billie Sunday, no.4 - Karen Dalton

Image from Light in the Attic Records

In Volume 1 of Chronicles, Dylan reminisced that Karen Dalton, with her Billie Holiday voice and Jimmy Reed guitar skills, was his favorite singer at Cafe Wha?. And it’s not hard to hear the comparison to Billie.



Upon first encountering Dalton’s singing, my reaction, besides astonishment at the broken-hearted beauty of her melancholy blues, was to wonder “where is she from?” For while Dalton made her name in the 60s New York folk scene, she hails from Oklahoma and sounds undeniably Country. And though I’ve yet to hear anyone claim Lady Day sounded like a country singer -- her perfect diction isn’t exactly what most country singers are known for -- the title to Dalton’s second studio album, In My Own Time, nicely illustrates one of the main parallels between the two singers: a world-weary Southern languorousness which refuses to hurry-up for anyone.

Karen Dalton - In My Own Dream [buy]

Though I’d say this isn’t what Bob had in mind, another prime comparison arises from the limited vocal range of both singers -- neither possesses a big voice. Early in her career, this “lack” to Billie’s voice caused some people to think she wasn’t much of a singer. With Dalton, I have to think the frailty to her voice is a big reason for the “acquired taste” backhanded compliment paid to her. But both singers turn this lack into intimate presence. Before her recording career took-off, Billie played the Harlem clubs for tips, walking from table to table, singing low to individual tables and amazing the patrons with her ability to improvise endlessly. (Microphones weren’t permitted anyway -- amplified sound might drift into the streets, calling unwanted attention to an illegal club.) Known for her extreme reluctance to perform, in studio or live settings, Dalton’s voice effortlessly signifies anti-modern country blues authenticity.

Karen Dalton - Blues On My Ceiling [buy]

Even on her second, more heavily produced album, In My Own Time, there are moments, as during the end of “Something On Your Mind,” when Dalton seems to sing to herself, as though she is so caught up in the song that the performance is secondary -- which only makes the performance that much more powerful. (Easy to see comparisons to the eternally shy and performance-averse Nick Drake.)

Karen Dalton - Something On Your Mind [buy]

Obviously, Dalton never attained Holiday’s popularity, but she may finally be getting some of the attention she deserves. It never hurts to have Bob sing your praises in the first volume of his autobiography. So if you haven’t found your way to her music yet, both of Dalton’s two studio albums are well worth your time. She's an absolutely singular artist.

Whispering Bob Harris

Seems like Whispering Bob Harris, one-time host of the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, has been doing a country music show for the BBC since 1998. The current streaming-show at Bob Harris Country features East Nashville artists. There's some great photos of him with various artists at his website. Here’s a Whistle Test clip of Harris giving that famous whispering intro to a Tim Buckley performance of “Dolphins.”

She Grew Diamonds In Her Hair

Not too many words flying out of me this week. But here's a darn catchy summery tune from yet another band I'm just now finding out about.

The Broken West - Down In The Valley [buy]

One More Saturday Morning

Image from The Southern Diaspora

Well, I’ve been drunk all week on Loretta Lynn’s first top-ten single, the jaw-droppingly perfect “Success.”

Loretta Lynn - Success [buy]

So last night I took myself out on the town while still sitting in the living room, and had one helluva time watching the very well done Loretta bio-pic Coal Miner’s Daughter. And friends, the price is being paid today, and now I’m singing Lefty’s confession “Just Can’t Live That Fast (Anymore).”

Lefty Frizzell - Just Can’t Live That Fast (Anymore) [buy]

Land It

Image from Skybucket Records.

Just play it piss-off the neighbours loud. And thank your divinity of choice for Rock & Roll.

Vulture Whale - Land It [buy song] [buy new album]

Then go to The Adios Lounge and see what he has to say about the mighty Vulture Whale.

fly through the night

The spotlighted show over at the Dead archive is a Fillmore East concert from September 19th, 1970 -- the day after Hendrix died. It was only the day after Hendrix passed away that the band got the terrible news. They dedicated that night’s set to Jimi. Besides being capped by a "Lovelight" with Pigpen giving everyone some frank and important instructions, there is the matter of the Dark Star. With this version they certainly did justice to Jimi. A glowing Star all the way through, with a let-the-sunshine-in groove to ride-out the song, the utterly transfixing sonic landscape -- with a brilliant use of silence -- starting around the 8 minute mark is to this fella’s ears one of the Dead's most sublime moments.


(The second song is Dark Star.)

In his history of the band, Dennis McNally notes that:

Hendrix’s loss was all the more poignant because they had never jammed with him; on the one occasion that he’d come to a show, ax in hand, the Dead had gotten so high on LSD and so deep in their music that when Mickey Hart finally remembered to signal for him to join them, it was hours later and he’d departed.

That’s the Good Ol’ Grateful Dead, folks. But while they might have missed him that particular day, on the 19th Hendrix was playing in the band.

Horribly, less than a month later, Janis would fly away. On the day Jerry died (14 years ago today), McNally was on NPR talking about Garcia. The song he chose to play was this jazzy accoustic version of “Bird Song” -- a Robert Hunter tune dedicated to Joplin -- from the band’s 1981 album Reckoning. What a sad day that was.

If you hear that same sweet song again, will you know why?
Anyone who sings a tune so sweet is passin' by,
Laugh in the sunshine, sing, cry in the dark, fly through the night.

Grateful Dead - Bird Song [buy]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Prankster

Jerry & Mickey apologize for the Dead missing a show.
Jerry & Mickey - Apology

but I don't care

Throw “Drive By Truckers Austin” into Youtube and you’ll get Blaze Foley mocking the former rob-the-poor-to-feed-the-rich idiot in chief Ronald Reagan.



And, why not, here’s Lucinda Williams’ “Drunken Angel” lament for Foley.

Billie Sunday, no.3 - Bessie & Louis

Today’s Billie Sunday is devoted to Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong -- the two main musical influences on Lady Day. In her own words:

I think I copied my style from Louis Armstrong. Because I used to like the big volume and the big sound that Bessie Smith got when she sang. But when I was quite young, I heard a record Louis Armstrong made called the “West End Blues.” And he doesn’t say any words, and I thought, this is wonderful! And I like the feeling he got from it. So I liked the feeling that Louis got and I wanted the big volume that Bessie Smith got. But I found that it didn’t work with me, because I didn’t have a big voice. So anyway between the two of them I sorta got Billie Holiday.

Louis Armstrong - West End Blues

What I find interesting about Billie’s statement is how it places the influence of Bessie Smith. For while Lady Day claims that it was “between the two of them” that she got her way of singing, she only states that (because of her smaller voice) she couldn’t be Bessie. Whereas Louis’ “singing” with his horn was a way of approaching a song which she wanted to emulate and felt as though she could. And many musicians have commented on the horn-like quality to Billie’s singing.

Again Billie:

I don’t think I’m singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. I try to improvise like Lester Young, like Louis Armstrong, or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight singing.

So where does that leave Bessie’s influence? For folks wanting a rather more nuanced and informed take on the subject than I’m capable of, I recommend you take a look at what Gunther Schuller has to say. But listen to this clip of Bessie singing “Back Water Blues.”

Bessie Smith - Back Water Blues

One thing I hear in relation to Billie is how Bessie just saunters through the song. How often Billie strolls easy -- like she’s a billionaire of time. But that only takes us back to the “feel” of “West End Blues.” For it, too, is surely one of the more leisurely takes on the blues, with the band moving like they had all the time in the world, knowing full-well they could never be late. And thus we are back to the question of what Billie took specifically from Bessie. Like I said, see old Gunther, for he is a more knowledgeable guide through these streets. Here’s Billie and Lester making it look too easy with Irving Berlin’s “This Year’s Kisses.”

Billie Holiday - This Year's Kisses

Rest In Peace John "Marmaduke" Dawson

NRPS - Last Lonely Eagle

Since finding out this morning that Dawson passed away, I’ve been listening to the New Riders’ first album - a really fine piece of San Francisco country rock. I especially can’t stop playing the Dawson-penned “All I Ever Wanted,” which features Jerry Garcia’s shimmering, poignant pedal steel work.

NRPS - All I Ever Wanted