Tag Archives: Legacy

Various Artists: Boots, Buckles & Spurs

Leave a reply

Fine collection of Country & Western for your saddle pack

In celebration of the National Finals Rodeo’s fiftieth anniversary, Sony BMG Nashville/Legacy’s gathered together fifty songs of cowboys, their Western lives and the frontier landscapes they roam. Spread across three discs are artists closely associated with cowboy music, including Gene Autry, The Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Rogers, Red Steagall, Don Walser, Chris LeDoux, Don Edwards, Riders in the Sky, and Michael Martin Murphy, as well as dozens of country artists who reach back to a time before Country & Western split into two genres. Much like rodeo’s sometimes tenuous relationship to the working life of a cowboy, the characters depicted in these songs are often romanticized images of a cinematic West. That’s not particularly surprising given that most of these songs are songs about cowboys rather than by cowboys, written in retrospect decades after the closing of the frontier. Many served as nostalgic soundtracks to baby boomer films and television programs of the 1950s, and some as modern day odes from subsequent generations of misfits and outlaws.

Cowboy and western themes – independence, the fulfillment of work, tranquility and loneliness on the range, the human bond with horses, dangers on the trail, and the rough lives of nomadic societal misfits – have remained remarkably consistent across increasing distance from the mythologized source and seven decades of changing musical tastes. Circling back from Brooks & Dunn’s electric “Cowboy Town” to Gene Autry’s acoustic “Back in the Saddle Again” one finds little instrumental similarity, but the fresh air of hard work and personal freedom creates a link between them. The independence and orneriness of cowboys proved a natural draw for both the original outlaw movement and its revivals, with songs from Waylon Jennings, Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, and Jessi Colter ranging from reflections of fellow travelers to hero worship.

The call of the West stretched beyond country artists to the Irish flutist James Galway, who waxed an early-80s cover of “The Wayward Wind” with vocalist Sylvia, and Canadian folk singer Ian Tyson, who recorded the traditional “Leavin’ Cheyenne.” Tyson’s original “Someday Soon,” memorably recorded by Judy Collins in 1969 is featured here in Suzy Bogguss’ superb 1991 hit cover. Most important to the survival of cowboy music over the decades is the enduring nostalgia for Western archetypes and the music itself, with missionary artists Don Walser, Don Edwards, and Riders in the Sky building careers expressly to keep old songs alive. Contemporary country artists borrow the nostalgia for an occasional remake, such as the Outlaws rock-reworking of “Ghost Riders in the Sky” or for an opportunistic pairing, such as Clint Black and Roy Rogers’ duet, “Hold on Partner.”

Though the bulk of this set is collected from the 1960s and 1970s, disc three is peppered with some some hard-charging modern country. As the program moves through tracks by Tracy Byrd, George Strait, Lonestar and Brooks & Dunn, it becomes evident that this collection is both a document of songs about the west and the soundtrack to modern-day rodeo events. Montgomery Gentry’s cover of “Wanted Dead or Alive” probably fires up the crowds, but as an historical document it harkens back more to Bon Jovi’s 1986 original than the Old West. Given the set’s dual identity, one can note that the omission of works by Tex Ritter and Jimmy Wakely (not to mention Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” though perhaps it was too ironic or simply not available for cross-licensing), but there are plenty of rodeo-themed songs here, including works from actual cowboys Rod Steagall and Chris LeDoux. In contrast to compilations that cover cowboy music as a cherished historical artifact, Legacy’s set shows the music still earning its daily keep at the rodeo. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Brad Paisley: Who Needs Pictures / Part II

Leave a reply

New traditionalist’s first two albums in one package

Sony BMG’s Legacy division has created a two-fer series titled “x2” (“times two”) that bundles pairs of previously released CDs into a slipcase at a discount price. Neither album is changed from its original release, so these aren’t meant to attract an artist’s long-time fans, but by focusing on catalog perennials (e.g., Boston’s first two albums), or the early works of artists who found greater acclaim mid-catalog, they provide newer fans a quick way to catch up. In Paisley’s case Legacy’s put together his first two albums, 1999’s Who Needs Pictures and 2001’s Part II, giving those who latched onto his work with the breakthroughs of Mud on the Tires and Time Well Wasted an opportunity to see how he got there. What you’ll find is that from the start Paisley was a matinee idol with a new traditionalist’s ear, and the two-year arc of these initial albums show just how quickly he capitalized on his writing, singing and guitar playing gifts.

Paisley’s debut features a dozen originals and a cover of the traditional “In the Garden,” with generous doses of two-step beats, fiddle and Paisley’s twangy guitar. There’s no forgetting this is a Nashville recording, as producer Frank Rogers gives everything a tight polish, but Paisley’s unabashedly country with his vocals and heart-plucking lyrics. The album produced two chart-topping singles, the touching tribute to step-fathers, “He Didn’t Have to Be” and the serendipitous love song “We Danced.” Album tracks include the boot-scooting “Me Neither,” western swing “It Never Woulda Worked Out Anyway,” Mexicali-flavored “I’ve Been Better,” two-stepping “Sleepin’ on the Foldout,” and the hot-picked instrumental “The Nervous Breakdown.” Paisley’s lyrics split time between emotion and humor, but his earnest delivery keeps things from descending into treacle or country corn.

The sophomore release, Part II, was dead on in its title, as it continued all the elements of Paisley’s debut. Among the most noticeable changes are the inclusion of two covers: Darrell Scott’s harrowing tale of an Appalachian mining town “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” (covered to even greater effect the same year by Patty Loveless on her back-the-roots Mountain Soul release), and “Too Country,” on which Buck Owens, George Jones and Bill Anderson guest for the latter’s idyllic vision of a simple American life. Paisley’s originals again range from serious to comic, with both digging a bit deeper than on his debut. The chart-topping “I’m Gonna Miss Her” is both funny and home-spun, as an angler weighs another hour on the lake against the impending departure of his mate. The song’s lazy beat provides a perfect complement to the fisherman’s half-hearted contemplation of shortening his trip. The upbeat fiddle-and-steel tune “All You Really Need is Love” is comic in its catalog of a wedding’s endless expenses, but there’s a great deal of painful truth here for anyone who’s put together (or paid for) a wedding. The album’s other three hit singles include the heartbroken letting-go ballad “I Wish You’d Stay,” the philosophical interconnectedness of “Two People Fell in Love,” and the twangy two-step shuffle into marriage and adulthood, “Wrapped Around.”

As on Paisley’s debut, there’s a barn-burning instrumental, “Munster Rag,” featuring incredible guitar runs, and the album closes, as did the debut, with a traditional tune of faith, the gospel “The Old Rugged Cross,” recorded live with just voice-and-guitar at the Grand Old Opry. Part II is a more sophisticated and deeper album than Paisley’s debut, and paired with its predecessor, fans get a chance to hear the speed with which potential (Paisley’s, his producer’s, his band’s, and his cowriter’s) developed into music that launched a country superstar. If you only know Paisley from his more recent albums, you owe it to yourself to check out the quality of his early works. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Bruce Springsteen: Essential 3.0

1 Reply

Eco-friendly reissue of effective career overview

Several of Legacy’s two-disc Essential releases have been upgraded with a third-disc and plastic-free eco-friendly packaging. In Bruce Springsteen’s case, the original 2003 Essential set already included a third disc of rarities, and all three discs are reproduced here verbatim. The only difference with this 3.0 reissue appears to be the new quad-fold cardboard case. That said, Springsteen’s Essential — 1.0 or 3.0 — is an effective overview of a career that couldn’t be summarized to everyone’s satisfaction in only three discs. Disc one samples tracks from 1973’s Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. through 1982’s Nebraska, disc two samples from 1984’s chart-topping Born in the U.S.A. through 2002’s The Rising, and disc three provides odds ‘n’ sods from throughout Springsteen’s career, many officially unreleased anywhere else. The collection highlights seminal works with the E Street Band, solo recordings, hit singles, live tracks and soundtrack contributions, providing an overview that’s musically inviting to Springsteen neophytes and debate-inducing to long-time fans. What’s missing easily compares to what’s here, but such is life with a compilation; there’s not enough room to capture everyone’s favorites, and Essential’s producers haven’t tried.

By sampling in chronological order from Springsteen’s releases, the first two discs compact twenty years into two hours, flashing through two decades of artistic development. The set opens with Springsteen’s love of wordplay in full bloom, stuffing immense wads of vocabulary into the rhymes of “Blinded by the Light,” “For You” and “Spirit in the Night.” His poetry turns to romantic imagery on “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” and the E Street band’s epochal sound finally comes to the fore on “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),” “Thunder Road,” “Born to Run,” and “Badlands,” with Clarence Clemons’ husky sax swelling alongside the band’s propulsive rhythms. Springsteen’s urban landscapes of last-chance lovers and desperate adolescents are cinematic in form and epic in length stretching well past the two-minutes-thirty of AM radio hits. Starting with 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town the selections develop a sense of Springsteen’s introspection and social conscious, including the class distinctions of “Badlands” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” the restless wandering and despair of “The Promised Land,” and the hard-scrabble fatalism of “The River.” Even The River’s hit single, “Hungry Heart,” with the Turtles’ Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan providing sunny harmony vocals, is based on themes of dissatisfaction and leaving. The darkness turned absolutely bleak on Nebraska’s 4-track demos, with the title track’s first-person rendering of spree killer Charles Starkweather, and the fatalistic crime and corruption of the grim, pre-makeover “Atlantic City.”

Disc two opens with the similarly dark title track to Born in the U.S.A., but pumped up with a pounding, radio-ready rock arrangement. Like many of Springsteen’s upbeat works, the lyrics are at odds with the music’s anthemic qualities. Max Weinberg’s drumming pounds out oversized studio beats for the nostalgic “Glory Days” and the synthesizer riffed “Dancing in the Dark.” Three years passed between the massive success of Born in the U.S.A. and its follow-up, Tunnel of Love. The latter album is a more personal effort, with Springsteen choreographing members of the E Street Band, rather than gathering them together for planned sessions. The album’s title track comments on the unexpected complexities of married life, and the Brill Building baion-beat “Brilliant Disguise” expresses painful uncertainty and ambivalence.

Another five years passed before Springsteen issued the 1992 album pair Human Touch and Lucky Town, and neither advanced his legend. As a songwriter, he still had something to say, but musically he drew from generic rock production. Of the two, Lucky Town is more engaged, and the two songs here, the title track and “Living Proof,” resound with poetic word craft and emphatic vocals. The following year’s soundtrack contribution, “Streets of Philadelphia,” stripped Springsteen’s sound to a drum beat and synthesizer wash. Its stark arrangement and subdued vocal reflect the emaciation of the film’s protagonist, but also echo Springsteen’s earlier themes of desolation, desperation and loss. Two years later he’d return to the Americana-themed works of Nebraska with the modern day dust bowl folk songs of The Ghost of Tom Joad. The confusion and dislocation Springsteen had expressed on Born in the U.S.A. turned to anger and bitterness, as a decade further along the problems of the underclass had been swept further under the rug rather than improved.

Springsteen toured Tom Joad as a solo acoustic show in 1995 and 1996, and then went silent until a 2000 live reunion with the E Street Band. The reunion in New York City is documented here with the social documentary “American Skin (41 Shots)” and the optimistic and inclusive declarations of “Land of Hope and Dreams” that provide a contrarian’s response to Woody Guthrie’s “This Train is Bound for Glory.” The question of whether Springsteen and E Street would reunite for studio sessions was answered with 2002’s The Rising, the full band’s first album since 1984’s Born in the U.S.A. The title song is a classic Springsteen anthem, with a sing-along revivalist chorus that belies the lyric’s dire story of a firefighter’s tragic climb of the bombed World Trade Center tower. The celebratory soul of “Mary’s Place” recalls the band’s early work, but without the dark undercurrents of “Lonesome Day.”

While the first two discs survey Springsteen’s albums, disc three provides the collector’s bait of rarities, alternate takes and live versions unavailable on other official releases. The disc opens with a 1979 studio take of “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come),” a tune Springsteen gave to Dave Edmunds and released in his own voice only on this set. It’s followed by the Nebraska-era solo rockabilly “The Big Payback,” a raucous New Years live take of “Held Up Without a Gun” and a 1984 live cover of Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped.” The Born in the U.S.A. outtake “None But the Brave” offers a classic E Street memory of Asbury Park’s 1970s rock ‘n’ roll bars. The mid-90s drum-loop lined “Missing” found Springsteen experimenting, as did his falsetto vocal for “Lift Me Up,” the latter from the soundtrack to John Sayles’ film Limbo. There’s a by-the-numbers cover of “Viva Las Vegas,” a live version of the otherwise unreleased rocker “Code of Silence,” an off-the-cuff solo country-blues rendition of The Rising’s “Countin’ on a Miracle,” and Springsteen’s stark title track for the film “Dead Man Walking.” The disc’s greatest surprise is the otherwise unreleased post-Nebraska “County Fair,” an unusually sentimental ode that drifts away in an unresolved musical tag.

Springsteen’s short liner notes acknowledge that this set couldn’t possibly please fans weaned on the original albums. There’s simply too many emotional connections between times and places and people and songs to capture in forty-two tracks. Instead, the first two discs provide a convincing view of Springsteen’s greatness, and a quick tour through many of the endless highlights of his catalog, while disc three offers up rarities that demonstrate what he leaves in the can is often more compelling than other artists’ best work. All three discs provide a map to the additional treasures awaiting listeners who take on Springsteen’s full catalog, and Bob Ludwig’s remastering is particularly sweet on the earlier albums’ selections. The set’s 44-page booklet includes extensive production and musical credits, photos, and full lyrics for each song. If you’re not ready to snap up Springteen’s first eight albums plus The Rising, this is a great place to get a sample. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Donovan, Tammy Wynette, The Bangles: Playlist

Leave a reply

Legacy’s latest version of the single-disc artist overview has a few novel twists. Rather than a strict chronological recitation of an artist’s chart hits, the song selections are meant to gather those tracks a fan might compile for themselves. The 14-track playlists are still hit focused, but don’t always provide a full accounting of an artist’s chart success. Mono singles, longer album versions, out-of-print and non-hit tracks are sequenced to optimize song-to-song segues and draw out an impression of the artist’s overall catalog. The results are intended to deliver a listening experience rather than a hits archive. As a physical disc, Legacy’s marketing these as CD-quality alternatives to MP3s, improving on the package’s ecological aspects with a plastic-free digipack made of 100% recycled paperboard, and including additional materials (pictures, liner notes, credits, wallpapers) on the disc itself, rather than in a printed booklet.

Donovan

Donovan’s Playlist opens with his 1966 flower-power anthems, “Sunshine Superman” and “Mellow Yellow,” the former in the longer stereo album version, the latter in the mono single mix. The Scottish Woody Guthrie’s acoustic folk is heard in the mono singles “Catch the Wind” and “Colours,” the latter featuring a harmonica bridge left off the album version. The body of the compilation runs through most of Donovan’s US hits (including specific single versions of “There is a Mountain” and “Epistle to Dippy”), omitting “Jennifer Juniper,” “Lalena” and “To Susan on the West Coast Waiting.” In place of the three missing hits are the album tracks “Season of the Witch” from 1966’s Sunshine Superman, “Young Girl Blues” from 1966’s Mellow Yellow, “Isle of Islay” from 1967’s A Gift From a Flower to a Garden, and “Happiness Runs” from 1969’s Barabajagal.

Those looking for a straightforward accounting of Donovan’s US chart hits should seek out the Greatest jifiHits or Essential CDs. Those looking for flavor beyond the hits will find the stark, piercing portrait of loneliness, “Young Girl Blues,” particularly affecting, and the positivity of “Happiness Runs” a sweet folk round. What the album tracks show is that Donovan can’t easily be captured in only fourteen tracks. Key protest titles (“The War Drags On,” “Universal Soldier”), winning B-sides (“Sunny South Kensington”), and writerly album works (“Writer in the Sun,” “Sand and Foam”) await you on original album reissues, longer single-disc offerings like Best Of-Sunshine Superman, or longer-form collections like Troubadour: The Definitive Collection or Try for the Sun: The Journey of Donovan. As a short overview, though, this is a good place to start your journey into the world of Donovan.

Tammy Wynette

How well each Playlist volumes live up to the marketing promise differs artist by artist. With over forty hit singles to her name, Wynette’s Playlist couldn’t possibly capture them all; instead, the selections cherry-pick hits that stretch from 1966’s “Apartment #9” through 1976’s chart topping “’Til I Can Make it on My Own.” All fourteen tracks are notated as identical recordings on 45 and LP, so there’s no collector’s aspect, and given that the same titles were released in 2004 as The Essential Tammy Wynette, this volume is more of a repackage rather than a fresh appraisal. That said, this is a solid single-disc introduction to one of country music’s greatest vocalists. It’s not a deep survey or career retrospective, for that you’ll need to seek the out-of-print Tears of Fire: The 25th Anniversary Collection.

The Bangles

The Bangles edition of Playlist partly reneges on the premise by reeling off their eight U.S. chart hits in order, starting with the 1986 Prince-authored breakthrough “Manic Monday” and concluding with 1989’s “Be With You.” Unlike other artists in this series with more extensive hit catalogs, The Bangles chart run fits snugly into half a disc. Also included is the group’s AOR hit “Hero Takes a Fall” from 1984’s All Over the Place, and five album tracks from All Over the Place, Different Light, and Everything. The non-hits favor covers, including Katrina and the Waves’ “Going Down to Liverpool,” The Merry-Go-Round’s “Live,” and Big Star’s “September Gurls.” This is the same track sequence offered on 2006’s We Are the ‘80s.

While these fourteen selections provide a fair representation of the Bangles’ commercially successful years, they could have better captured the fan’s view. Missing are tracks from the group’s pre-Columbia EP on Faulty/IRS, their paisley-underground compilation appearances, 12” remixes that accompanied their hits, and material from their various reunions. Perhaps those are too arcane for a 14-track once-over, but without them this set offers only one compilation producer’s selection of album tracks over another’s. Many will find the album tracks included here (particularly the covers and the original “Dover Beach”) an improvement over the selections on Greatest Hits, but your mileage may vary. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Carole King: Tapestry (Legacy Edition)

Leave a reply

Seminal singer-songwriter LP augmented with live tracks

At the time of this album’s 1971 release, Carole King had long since proven herself one of America’s greatest pop songwriters, but she had yet to be fully recognized as a performer. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Early in her career she’d released a few singles from her perch at the legendary Brill Building, including the minor hit “It Might As Well Rain Until September.” She’d also produced a smattering of titles for the Dimension and Tomorrow labels in the mid-60s, an album with the group The City in 1969, and her solo debut, Writer, in 1970. The latter held many charms, but found King singing her way past rock ‘n’ roll backings or fitting herself into country rock. Writer‘s variety is broader than the piano-centered productions of Tapestry, but neither the upbeat numbers nor the placid ballads of King’s debut proved the expressive jazz-tinged singer-songwriter vehicles of this sophomore breakthrough.

Presciently, Writer’s closing cover of “Up on the Roof” did point the way to Tapestry, taking what had been a signature 1962 performance by The Drifters and rearranging its Latin beat and swirling strings into an introspective piano ballad. It’s the same magic King performed in transforming the searching adolescence of the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” into the thoughtful worry-wonder of a woman on the brink of thirty. The feats are all the more impressive for the lyrics having been written when King was barely twenty-years-old herself, writing for commercial acceptance on AM radio rather than pure self expression. Here, as throughout Tapestry, King’s piano is the instrumental focus, allowing her to emote through her voice and fingers in parallel.

The funky opener, “I Feel the Earth Move,” finds King’s vocals equally at home up-tempo. Her emancipated expression is breathtaking, and a bluesy piano solo enhances the euphoric freedom. Such openly emotional writing would be cloying in less talented hands, but King was not only an expert wordsmith, but a definitive interpreter of her own material. Her gospel-tinged version of “You’ve Got a Friend” is heavier than James Taylor’s contemporaneous single, amplifying both the pain and relief of the song’s lyrics, and the closing take of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” is stripped of Aretha Franklin’s arrangement and supported instead by King’s piano playing and an overdubbed backing vocal. The spare instrumentation brings this closer to a songwriter’s demo, but King’s performance finds a dedication to the lyrics that reclaims her stake in the song.

In addition to re-imagined versions of earlier songs, King composed intimate new works of relationships being strained (“So Far Way”) and broken (“It’s Too Late”), loneliness (“Home Again”), salvation (“Way Over Yonder”) and faithfulness (“Where You Lead”). It’s only with “Smackwater Jack” and the album’s title track that King took to more fictional abandon. The sum total of Tapestry swept the 1971 Grammys, netting King awards for Album of the and Pop Vocal Performance, as well as Record of the Year ( “It’s Too Late”) and Song of the Year (“You’ve Got a Friend”). The album launched “It’s Too Late” to the top of the charts, and followed with “So Far Away” as a top twenty. Both singles’ B-sides, “I Feel the Earth Move” and “Smackwater Jack,” got their share of airplay, with the album peaking at #1 at the start of a six-year stay on the charts.

Legacy’s two-CD reissue features the original album on disc one, and a second disc of live takes recorded at various locations in 1973 and 1976. The eleven tracks of disc two repeat the Tapestry song list, save “Where You Lead,” whose lyrics King had deemed servile, and left off her set list. Over the years, this material was performed in a variety of musical settings, but Legacy has selected arrangements featuring only voice and piano. There’s not much distance between Lou Adler’s lean arrangements for the original album and these solo takes, but removing the intermediation of studio recording pushes King even closer to her songs. She adds an occasional inflection to her melodies, but what really sets these performances apart is the communication with her audience. The songs are transformed from interior expressions of a songwriter to vehicles for sharing emotions and responses.

King really digs into her songs on stage, bringing the sleeper “Beautiful” fully to life and adding extra passion to “Way Over Yonder.” As on the original album her “covers” of songs made into hits by others reveal new emotional layers. “You’ve Got a Friend” spurs King to vocal exclamation, and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” is sung with a declarative force that’s in startling contrast to its intimate lyric. Even more so than on the studio versions you get a hear King’s singing and playing as natural expressions. Running the live tracks in the same order as the album suggests just how carefully the album was sequenced; but what isn’t shown here is how these songs fit into King’s larger live set. It’s also interesting to note that none of these tracks were selected from tours that promoted Tapestry itself; they’re all from subsequent album tours.

Those who purchased earlier versions of Tapestry will enjoy the new light shed by the live tracks; they can be purchased individually from on-line download services. Those picking up their first Tapestry CD may also want to reach back to the 1999 reissue for the bonus track “Out in the Cold,” likewise available as a download. This latter track is reputed to be a Tapestry outtake, though its provenance remains disputed. Legacy’s deluxe gatefold digipack includes new liner notes by Harvey Kubernick, period photos from the recording sessions, and song-by-song lyrics and instrumental credits. This is a superb reintroduction of one of the 1970s most endearing and enduring albums. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Carole King’s Home Page