One of the nice movie surprises of recent years is Hell or High Water (2016), directed by David Mackenzie and starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, and Gil Birmingham. Besides being an excellent movie, the film makes great use of a beautiful song too.
The movie, about two brothers who rob banks in order to keep one bank from foreclosing on family land, features a beautiful scene between the two brothers with a wonderful song about dying in the background. It is Gillian Welch’s haunting voice on her song, “I’m Not Afraid to Die.”
The song works well in the film, portraying the bond between the two brothers and highlighting the risks they are taking. There is a overall sadness to the film that reflects on hard times for struggling people who are often left behind in modern society. Hell or High Water deals with nuances, even while the movie written by Taylor Sheridan also features action. The characters are flawed and human, even the sheriff played by Bridges.
So “I’m Not Afraid to Die” works well against the West Texas landscape. There are moments of confidence in the song written by Welch and David Rawlings, as you can see in the title about not being afraid.
Forget my sins upon the wind; My hobo soul will rise; Lie-d Lie-d Lie I’m not afraid to die.
Yet Welch’s voice reveals a deep sadness underlying the boast. And if you listen carefully, you find some fears: “Sometimes it finds me fast asleep,/ And wakes me where I lie.”
“I’m not Afraid to Die” works like some of the best hymns. It finds faith within doubt, buried deep within a melody and voice that comforts you while confronting the terrors of this world.
Above, Welch and Rawlings perform “I’m Not Afraid to Die” in Atlanta at Variety Playhouse. “I’m Not Afraid to Die” originally appeared on Welch’s 1998 album Hell Amongst the Yearlings.
Hell or High Water has a great soundtrack. What is your favorite song from the movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Henry L. Carrigan Jr.’s recent book Fifteen Spirituals That Will Change Your Life is a delightful quick tour of fifteen hymns and spirituals. Carrigan’s guidance through these songs will educate and delight you. His book also will make you want to track down various versions of songs you have heard before and new ones you have not heard.
Carrigan, a musician and journalist who writes for No Depression, examines many of the most popular religious songs, including “Amazing Grace,” Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “How Great Thou Art,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?,” and “I’ll Fly Away.” I also learned about a few songs I had not heard before.
For each song, Carrigan tells the reader about the origin of the song. In the cases where there are known composers, he informs us about the writers. Then he provides a deeper discussion of the lyrics and the meaning of the songs, often suggesting different versions you should hear. Throughout, he often reflects on his own personal experiences with each song. Finally, he ends each chapter with a “Reflection” section, providing guidance to religious readers who want to use the songs to find a closer connection to their faith.
The well-written book is for believers, non-believers, and for all music lovers. One does not have to be religious to enjoy this book about some of our most beautiful folk songs. Atheists may skip over the short “Reflection” sections, but even they will find insight in the suggestions there. One tip: To better understand an extremely familiar song like “Amazing Grace,” find a new version to hear.
I enjoyed learning more about songs I knew. I knew the story that a former captain of a slave ship wrote “Amazing Grace,” but I did not know all of the details about the history of that song or other songs I knew.
I especially enjoyed Carrigan’s suggestions about versions of the songs to check out. Among his insight, he led me to a lovely Tina Turner version of one of the highlighted spirituals.
The book may lead you to other discoveries. I had never heard Andraé Crouch‘s “If Heaven Was Never Promised to Me,” and found it to have some of the most loving lyrics about one’s relationship with God.
The book, unfortunately, does not include complete lyrics to the songs, which I assume was a rights issue. But Carrigan quotes from the lyrics in his discussion of the songs, giving the reader some insight into the words. The purpose of his book, though, is to get you to listen to the songs, and it will send you following Carrigan’s suggestions.
In short, Fifteen Spirituals That Will Change Your Lifemay lead you to some life-changing discoveries. But even if it does not meet the title’s boast, the book is a delightful pleasurable and informative read about some great songs.
What is your favorite spiritual? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Recently, Sheryl Crow released a video for a new version of her song, “Redemption Day,” combining her vocals with those of Johnny Cash. Cash had recorded Crow’s song not long before his death in 2003.
Cash’s version originally appeared on his posthumous album, American VI: Ain’t No Grave in 2010. Crow has been using Cash’s version as a duet partner in her live shows, and she thought it was a good time to release the song and video.
The video features Crow at a piano and images of Cash. Also, we see a young boy intertwined with destructive and hopeful images, as the song warns that we need to take better care of our planet and each other.
There is a train that’s heading straight To Heaven’s gate, to Heaven’s gate; And on the way, child and man, And woman wait, watch and wait, For redemption day.
Crow explained to Entertainment magazine how having Cash’s voice on the song helps bring home the message about being better people. It’s “because he stood up for what he believed at a time when what he believed wasn’t so popular — it means more.”
“Redemption Day” will appear on a duets album Crow is releasing on August 30, 2019 called Threads. The album also will feature duets with Keith Richards, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Willie Nelson, Joe Walsh and Vince Gill.
Willie Nelson has released a video for his cover of Guy Clark’s song “Immigrant Eyes.” The track appears on Nelson’s new album, Ride Me Back Home.
Clark’s original version of “Immigrant Eyes” appeared on his 1989 album Old Friends. But with immigration in the news, it is not difficult to understand why Nelson wanted to release his own version.
In the song, Clark remembers his immigrant grandfather. The song connects many of us to our immigrant heritage, which in turn connects us to today’s immigrants.
Sometimes when I looked in my grandfather’s immigrant eyes; I saw that day reflected and couldn’t hold my feelings inside; I saw started with nothing and working hard all of his life; “So don’t take it for granted, ” said grandfather’s immigrant eyes; “Don’t take it for granted, ” said grandfather’s immigrant eyes.
Bruce Springsteen’s face appears on the overwhelming majority of the covers of his twenty-five regular and live albums. But his album Western Stars may be his most unusual album cover of a long career.
One writer who discussed Springsteen’s past covers once noted that “more than anything, Springsteen’s biggest problem is that he’s a little too in love with his own face.” NPR, meanwhile, once labeled his album covers “ugly.”
While you might have to squint to see him on some albums, like Live in Dublin and Springsteen on Broadway, Springsteen appears on the cover of every one of his albums since his 1972 debut Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ in some form. One might discount the choice for that first album as being before a vision of a career of album covers.
The two major exceptions prior to Western Stars, then, to Springsteen album covers are 1982’s Nebraska and 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad. The latter features a painting by Eric Dinyer. Dinyer may have have done the painting of a homeless man on the sidewalk before approached about the album (although some may have speculated the painting was meant to represent Springsteen). And now Western Stars, Springsteen’s first album with an animal on the cover.
Much has been written about he lush arrangements on Western Stars and the fact that Springsteen has noted the influence of 1970s California pop and songwriters like Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach. So it is worth asking why would Springsteen’s most operatic album be grouped with his two most instrumentally stark albums?
Maybe it is mere coincidence that Springsteen chose to omit his face from Western Stars and those other albums. But an artistic genius like Springsteen more likely thinks these things through. One things that connects the albums is that they all technically are solo outings without the E Street Band. But Springsteen has used his likeness on other albums without the band.
Although Western Stars differs in sound from the sparse instrumentation of Nebraska and the less melodic The Ghost of Tom Joad, the three albums are really about the same things. These albums rely heavily on characters facing hard times and/or personal crises.
It is true that different characters — and even Western characters — appear on other Springsteen albums (“Outlaw Pete,” “Reno,” etc.). But these three albums represent a complete immersion into telling the stories of struggling people, largely against the backdrop of the Western United States. That does not mean the albums are not as personal as songs that might seem more in the voice of the rock singer, like “Born to Run.” Springsteen is still here. But he is taking us somewhere into the souls of other people, teaching us empathy as we go.
Ann Powers at NPR wrote one of the most insightful articles about the new album. In the article, she argues that Springsteen’s songs on Western Stars connect to questions from popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s as in the movie Easy Rider, “Who gets hurt when people, especially men, try to be free?” She recounts how Springsteen uses characters in unstable professions to delve into the problems of modern masculinity: “The men who populate Western Stars have sought freedom and know its edges in an unfree world.”
Western Stars opens with a traveling hitchhiker narrator in the first song and then goes into another song about a traveler, “The Wayfarer.” Another song is in the voice of a stuntman (“Drive Fast (The Stuntman),” another in the voice of a songwriter (“Somewhere North of Nashville”), a crane operator (“Tucson Train”), someone who worked in movies (“Western Star”) and so on.
One may wonder too why Springsteen, who has been prone to comment on current events with his albums, appears to leave politics alone on this album. Whereas Magic reflected on the Bush years and Working on a Dream was a commentary on the Obama election, one may only speculate where Trump is in all of this. One explanation is that Springsteen has been working on this album for a long time. But another explanation is that there is some politics here, with Springsteen mining the minds of Americans feeling excluded from the American Dream.
As for more about the album, songs like “There Goes My Miracle” immediately grabbed me as if I had heard the song my entire life. “Tucson Train” is the most joyous on the album. And the lyrics to songs like “Western Stars” and “Chasin’ Wild Horses” are gut-punchers. For more about the album, Backstreetshas an insightful review.
So, returning to our original question, why is Springsteen absent from the cover of Western Stars? It is a good question that makes one delve into the questions Springsteen ponders on this album about the West and displaced men. Discuss among yourselves.
