Bob Dylan is releasing a new box set in his Bootleg series, Another Self-Portrait, on August 27. The new set includes unreleased recordings made for Nashville Skyline (1969), New Morning (1970), and the much-maligned Self-Portrait (1970). Critic Greil Marcus famously reviewed the latter album, asking “What is this Shit?” But he is much more kind in his review of the new box set, which looks like it might have some gems.
Rolling Stone premiered one of the songs on the new set, “Pretty Saro.” The song is an old English folk tune dating from he early 1700s. Although through the centuries the song had basically disappeared in England, it was preserved in the U.S. by singers in the Appalachian Mountains. More recently, Iris DeMent recorded the song the 2000 film Songcatcher.
In “Pretty Saro” the singer finds himself alone away from home. He understands that his love, Pretty Saro, will not have him because he had no land. At the end, he wishes he were a poet who could write her a letter. As he sits by the river, he reveals he dreams of his lost love wherever he goes. In the version used by Iris DeMent, the song ends with the singer wishing he was a turtle dove who could fly back to Saro and lay in her arms.
Check out the video for Bob Dylan’s version of “Pretty Saro” created by Jennifer Lebeau, who used photos and videos from the Farm Security Administration to accompany the song. Lebeau had also worked on Dylan’s 1994 MTV Unplugged video.
What do you think of Dylan’s version of “Pretty Saro”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Anytime you have a bad day, put on this excellent song by Paul Thorn, “I Have a Good Day (Every Now and Then).” It is one of those songs that by the time it breaks into the chorus, you think you have heard the song all your life. I could listen to this song all day.
Before starting a music career, the Wisconsin-born Thorn was briefly a professional boxer and fought Roberto Durán. So he knows what it is like to take a punch and get back up again. He also knows how to sing a great song. “I Have a Good Day” appears on Thorn’s CD, So Far So Good LIVE (2006). You can check out some of the mp3s from the album, including “I Have a Good Day” on Thorn’s website here.
Check out the latest video by the Paul Thorn Band of “What the Hell is Goin’ On?” — a song written by Elvin Bisop from Thorn’s new album of the same name here. You may get a free download of the song through Thorn’s website or through the link below. For a review of the new CD, check out this article from No Depression. Thanks to Majel for introducing me to Thorn’s music.
What is your favorite Paul Thorn song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Cowboy Jack Clement passed away this week in Nashville from cancer at the age of 82. The singer, producer, and songwriter had a long career with connections to some important figures in music history. Early in his career, Cowboy Jack Clement worked as a producer and engineer for Sam Phillips at Sun Records, helping discover Jerry Lee Lewis and recording him on such songs as “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” He wrote Johnny Cash’s “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” and produced the singer’s recording of “Ring of Fire.” He also produced several U2 performances in 1987 for their Rattle & Hum album. And he continued producing music until his death, with his most recent work being on Cathy Maguire‘s upcoming 2014 album.
In 2005, a movie called Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan focused on Clement’s career using his home movies. He had been in the Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame since 1973, and he was going to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year.
Among all of Clement’s accomplishments, the one that stands out for me is that he wrote the song, “I Guess Things Happen That Way.” The song was a hit for Johnny Cash in 1958. Almost four decades later, the song appeared on the excellent soundtrack to the underrated Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner movie, A Perfect World (1993). Here is Cash’s original version of the song. (A live 1994 version is also on YouTube, but I prefer the original recording with the background singers the 1950s slapback sound.)
“I Guess Things Happen That Way” is one of the great heartbreak songs. In the song, the singer tells the listener about missing his lost love: “You ask me if I’ll miss her kisses./I guess I will, everyday.” He does not know if he will find another love (“I don’t know. I can’t say.).
But what is great about the song is that amid the pain, the singer and the upbeat music — including the background ba-doo-pa-doo’s — contemplate life getting better: “You ask me if I’ll get along./I guess I will, someway.” And the wonderful refrain reminds all of the heartbroken that they are not alone, “I don’t like it but I guess things happen that way.” It is one of the most perfect songs about the contradictory agony and hope that comes from losing a love.
Johnny Cash later recorded the song with Bob Dylan in 1969 while Dylan was making Nashville Skyline. “I Guess Things Happen That Way” did not end up on the album but you may listen to their version below. (Thanks to Michael Gray for pointing me to the Dylan-Cash collaboration.)
Clement originally wrote “I Guess Things Happen That Way” from a man’s point of view: “Heaven help me be a man / and have the strength to stand alone.” But Emmylou Harris shows that the song is more universal by adding a few tweaks (“Heaven help me to be strong”) in this performance at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
The song also may be performed as a man-woman duet, as shown by Kris Kristofferson and Norah Jones at a Johnny Cash tribute concert. Finally, here is a recent Clement performance of “Guess Things Happen That Way.” Paul Smith of Boundary Road accompanies Clement at the The Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa in Nashville, Tennessee.
We are sad at the passing of Cowboy Jack Clement. But we are thankful for the work he created during his long career giving us a little extra joy and comfort for our short time here on earth. I don’t like it, but I guess things happen that way.
What is your favorite Cowboy Jack Clement song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Ed Helms and Will Forte fill in for Mumford & Sons in the band’s latest video for the song “Hopeless Wanderer.” The funnymen capture everything Mumfordy about the group, also showing the band has a nice sense of humor. Check it out.
I like the song too.
What is your favorite part of the video? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On August 3 in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from the port of Palos in Spain. On that date, he hoped to find a western passageway that would take him to China and India. By the end of the year, he found land and landed in the Bahamas, but he did not realize he had discovered a New World.
Every school child knows the year he sailed and the names of his ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. During the journey, the largest ship and the only one with a deck, the Santa Maria, ran aground and was destroyed. The Pinta disappeared for a period after a storm, but later joined the Nina in returning to Spain. Columbus returned on the Nina.
Kentucky singer-songwriter Chris Knight sings about a different kind of boat in “Send a Boat,” from his excellent 2006 album A Pretty Good Guy. The people in the song are less famous than Columbus, but they are no less familiar.
As in a lot of Knight’s songs, the characters are facing hard times. Each verse features a different setting. The first verse is about a lonely woman left behind by her children. The second verse features a lonely old man with a bottle. The final verse is about a hungry and abused child. They could be from the same family at different times, or they could be anyone. Knight foresees the tragic results of our neglect of our fellow humans when, after describing the abused child, he notes, “If he ever grows up, he’ll get him a gun.”
Knight hints at the solution in the chorus: “While we try to stay afloat./ If you would, Lord, send a boat.” But from the sound of the dark song, it does not seem there are enough boats like the Nina and the Pinta to get everyone home safely. What is your favorite Chris Knight song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Bob Dylan is releasing a new box set in his Bootleg series, Another Self-Portrait, on August 27. The new set includes unreleased recordings made for Nashville Skyline (1969), New Morning (1970), and the much-maligned Self-Portrait (1970). Critic Greil Marcus famously reviewed the latter album, asking “What is this Shit?” But he is much more kind in his review of the new box set, which looks like it might have some gems.
. The people in the song are less famous than Columbus, but they are no less familiar.