Category: Music

Allison Russell: “The Returner” (Song of the Day)

The title track to Allison Russell’s album “The Returner” is a powerful (and catchy) song about empowerment and loving yourself and others.

Allison Russell has followed up her outstanding solo debut album Outside Child (2021), showing no sophomore slump, taking us to new heights with the wonderful album The Returner (2023). In her solo work, she continues to explore what makes us human, facing trauma, and finding ourselves.

American Songwriter summarizes the new album as “a 10-song collection woven together with surprise, gratitude, pain and musical beauty the world has never quite seen before.” Ken Tucker of NPR explains that while Outside Child made “stirring music out of the harrowing details of Russell’s youth as a survivor of sexual abuse and homelessness,” The Returner features “songs about a more uplifting adulthood.” While there is some truth to that album comparison, it may be a little simplistic to draw a sharp line between the two albums that way. Both albums convey struggles and strengths that are not often encountered with such poetry and grace in pop music.

Regarding the title track of the album, Allison Russell creates music that sounds like a lost classic from the 1960s. When I first played the song, I felt like I had heard it many times, and I had to stop everything so my ears could give it my full attention. And then once you pay attention to the lyrics, you realize this song is really something special.

“The Returner” is about turning over a new leaf and finding a better and stronger person within yourself, despite the struggles and pain you’ve been through. It’s as inspiring as “We Will Rock You” or the theme from “Rocky,” with this fighter taking on something larger and darker and coming out on the other side.

In “The Returner,” the singer proclaims one of the most life-affirming things one may say: “I’m worthy.” But she is not keeping the newfound worthiness and strength for just herself; she aims to spread the power and the love to everyone she can. And that is what Russell does with these songs.

Goodbye, so long, farewell, all I’ve been;
Ooh, oblivion,
Throw me in the ocean,
Ooh, see if I can swim;
I’m wild again, I’m a star child again;
I’ve come ten million miles, ooh, I’m burning;
I’m a summer dream, I’m a real light beam, I’m worthy
Of all the goodness and the love that the world’s gonna give to me;
I’m a give it back ten times, people, are you ready?
If you think you’re alone, hold on, I’m coming.

Check out “The Returner” from Allison Russell.

Russell incorporates different genres in her music, including elements from Americana, R&B, Country, Soul, and Folk. Even the lyrics to “The Returner” show her broad embrace of music, referencing jazz great John Coltrane and country legends the Carter Family in the same sentence: “I can’t think of a thing / That hasn’t been born of a dream / Like a love supreme / Like a circle unbroken.” Another example of the lack of limits on her music is that musicians on the album include Americana artist Brandi Carlile and Wendy & Lisa (Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman). The latter are known for their work with Prince in the 1980s.

As one may note from the results, Russell is not aiming to make ordinary music. Russell, who before these two albums was in Birds of Chicago and Our Native Daughters, highlights on the liner notes the importance of the studio where she recorded The Returner. She recorded the album in the same studio as Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Carole King’s Tapestry, two of the greatest singer-songwriter albums of all time. With such artists, Russell continues to carve out a significant place among the stars.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

Virginian Jake Kohn’s Young Soulful Voice Sounds Older Than the Hills in “Dreams”

Jake Kohn is young but the singer-songwriter from Virginia is a rising star with a voice for the ages.

Jake Kohn is just starting another year of high school, but his voice has been travelling far beyond Stephen City, Virginia. This summer, Kohn has been singing live at venues in states such as Tennessee, the Carolinas, Kentucky, and Ohio. And he has also make an impression on YouTube. Many are astounded by the soulful voice they hear coming out of someone who is only sixteen. But Kohn also writes beautiful songs, illustrating that he is likely someone we will be hearing a lot of in the future.

Kohn got his start when his great-grandmother gave him a guitar she had used as a kid. Not only did Kohn take to the instrument, but his voice has a touch of Joe Cocker that sounds much older than the young man from where it originates.

Kohn started out writing stories, and that evolved into writing songs. He finds inspiration in many great country songwriters, but his greatest influence is Justin Townes Earle. Kohn explains, “He’s my favorite songwriter and about the best guitar stylist I’ve ever heard.”

While a record label has yet to sign Kohn, I expect we have not heard the last of his amazing voice. His original song “Frostbite,”which was posted in March 2023, has more than 700,000 views on YouTube. This week, Kohn posted a new song. Check out Jake Kohn singing his latest, “Dreams.”

Leave your two cents in the comments.

The Song Paul McCartney Wrote for Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart responded to an offhand comment by Paul McCartney to get the former Beatle to write “Mine for Me” for him.

Rod Stewart Mine for Me

Lately, I’ve been digging deeper into Rod Stewart’s back catalog. As someone first exposed to Stewart in the late 1970s when he was making songs like “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and “Hot Legs,” which I did not particularly care for, I’ve found a lot more to love in his earlier and in his later work.

Is it possible for someone as famous as Rod Stewart actually to be underrated and underappreciated? At least in the U.S. for those of us who first knew him in the late 1970s, I think there is a case to be made that he is not given enough credit for both writing and performing great songs.

I’ve also been listening to the Beatles lately. So maybe that is why when I heard Stewart’s recording of “Mine for Me,” I immediately hit replay several times. Then, I had to look up who wrote it. While it is a somewhat simple song with a smart turn of the phrase, it also is a brilliant pop song. And few write better songs than Paul McCartney, who with his wife Linda McCartney wrote “Mine for Me” specifically for Rod Stewart.

There is a little story behind the creation of the song. During a press conference, McCartney made a comment that he would write a song if asked by any friend, such as Rod Stewart. And Stewart heard about the comment and called McCartney to accept the offer.

After the McCartneys wrote it, Stewart recorded the song. It appears on his 1974 album Smiler. In November 1974, Stewart released the song as a single and it made it into the top 100.

There are rumors about a demo recording by Paul and Linda. And Paul and Linda took the stage with Stewart and the Faces to sing the song on November 27, 1974 at the Lewisham Odeon in London. The performance reportedly appeared on an episode of the late-night music show The Midnight Special on April 25, 1975. And a short clip, which you may see at this link, was used for a promo for Stewart’s album.

One can hear how the lyrics of “Mine for Me” work for a rock star like Stewart. In the song, the singer is being tempted by another woman. But he tells her that he has a true love elsewhere and there is nobody like the woman who is “mine for me.”

While some may point out a problem with calling a person the possessive “mine,” the song really has a big heart. At least one writer has noted that McCartney probably had his life-long true love and cowriter Linda in mind while penning the words.

In a couple of hours I’ll be drivin’ home to the one I love;
So save your breath sweet painted lady it won’t be me;
Over the mountain and under the sea,
They’ll never be another one like mine for me.

Rod Stewart sings the song live in the video below. Although Paul McCartney does not appear in person, his catchy song with beautiful lyrics join the great voice of Rod Stewart to create a classic song. Check it out. If you have never heard the song before, I guarantee it will be going through your head the rest of the day.

Despite the catchy nature of the song and the fact that it was a minor hit in the U.S., others have not covered the song. At this time, somewhat surprisingly, there does even not appear to be any amateur covers of the song on YouTube either. So we only have Rod Stewart’s version of this minor McCartney classic, which is not a bad thing at all.

What is your favorite Paul McCartney song not recorded by Paul or the Beatles? Leave your two cents in the comments.

Esquerita, the Man Buried in an Unmarked Grave Who Inspired Little Richard and Rock and Roll

Esquerita, an early pioneer of rock and roll who influenced LIttle Richard, brought a unique style to the emerging music in the 1950s.

Esquerita (U.S. singer/pianist), unknown photographer, 1950s or early 1960s from Wikipedia

A small island off of Manhattan, Hart Island, is the final resting place of more than one million people. Long the cemetery for unclaimed and unidentified bodies, the island holds many in mass and unmarked graves.

Various pandemics in the city’s history sent many bodies to Hart Island. Along those lines, combined with discrimination and society’s treatment of the poor, Hart Island became the final resting place for many impoverished people who died from AIDS.

Thus, after one of the parents of rock and roll known as Esquerita died of complications related to AIDS on October 23, 1986, city workers buried him in an unmarked grave on Hart Island. His body remains lost among others on the island to this day (just as many earlier blues musicians, such as Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith, were laid to rest in unmarked graves).

Esquerita was born Eskew Reeder, Jr. on November 20 in either 1935 or 1938 in South Carolina. He still went by his birth name when as a young gay black teenager in the early 1950s, he met Richard Penniman, who would soon become famous as the legendary Little Richard. Reeder taught Penniman his piano and singing style. The two would stay in touch throughout their lives.

Esquerita had a deeper voice than Little Richard. But the driving piano and the rock-and-roll whoops of ecstasy as well as the excitement in the music illustrate clear parellels.

Yet, despite similarities in styles that helped birth rock and roll, their lives diverged widely. Little Richard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year Esquerita was buried in an unmarked grave in a potter’s field. Prior to that, in his later years, Esquerita worked as a parking lot attendant and was seen washing car windshields for tips in Brooklyn.

But Reeder, under the name Esqueriata and other names, made some great music during the early years of rock and roll. Like many other early rock and rollers, Esquerita’s music had its roots in gospel music. But he would develop his own style under the name Esquerita, often wearing makeup, sunglasses, wigs, and a high pompadour.

Starting in the 1950s and even going into the 1980s, he recorded and performed music, but never found the success or credit he deserved. One of his best-known songs from his early recordings is “Rockin’ the Joint,” where you can hear the Little Richard connection.

We encourage you to dig a little deeper into Esquerita’s catalog.

Unfortunately you cannot find his grave to pay your respects. But you can visit and enjoy the great music to hear the legacy left to us by Eskew Reeder, Jr., also known as Esquerita, S.Q. Reeder, Estrelita, Escorita, The Magnificent Malochi, and The Fabolash.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Although the Oscars Passed Over “Little Richard: I Am Everything,” You Shouldn’t
  • It’s Little Richard’s 1964 TV Special
  • Happy Birthday Little Richard!
  • Elvis Goes Into the Army: March 25, 1958
    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Dead & Company “The Final Tour”: Saratoga Performing Arts Center

    Although our purchased lawn seats in Saratoga Springs did not let us see the live humans of Dead & Company, the band put on a great show on its final tour.

    In 2022, my wife and I got a babysitter and scheduled a rare night out to see Dead & Company in Saratoga Springs, NY. As we left our home, lacking confidence in my ability to use online tickets, I pulled over to double check I could access the tickets on my phone. But it came up that the tickets were being refunded. My wife did a quick Google search and we discovered that our first post-baby post-pandemic-shutdown live music show was cancelled. John Mayer could not make it due to family health issues that night. So, we ended up going to see a movie, Top Gun: Maverick.

    Dead & Company was returning in 2023 as part of their final tour. Although a year earlier we had great tickets, we did not initially get tickets in 2023. So, later when we had to buy them through the secondary market, they were so expensive we settled for the lawn seats at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) on Sunday, June 18, 2023.

    I’ve had lawn seating at many concerts. It has always been a good experience, lounging on the lawn even though you see the band at a distance. But soon after arriving at SPAC, I realized something was different. Thousands of people were outside of a building instead of surrounding an open ampitheater. A realization came over me, my wife, and her cousin who had come with us. The band would be indoors out of our view completely.

    And that is how we paid $450 for three people to watch a band on a big screen and never even catch a glimpse of the real human forms of Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, Bob Weir, Oteil Burbridge, or Jeff Chimenti.

    The Show

    So, how was the show? Well I am not an expert on the Grateful Dead and had only seen them twice before this show, including one time touring with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. But like my previous shows, this one was a lot of fun with a lot of good music. And most importantly, the band always has one of the most fun, dedicated, and polite crowds of any live shows.

    As Bob Dylan noted in his book The Philosophy of Modern Song, “With most bands, the audience participates like in a spectator sport. They just stand there and watch. They keep a distance. With the Dead, the audience is part of the band – they might as well be on the stage.” So, in a sense, even from our vantage point outside the Center, we were with the band on the stage the whole time. Had it been any other band, I would not have enjoyed paying for tickets to never see the band members live.

    Being the last tour, there were a number of classics like “Friend of the Devil” and “Sugar Magnolia.” They played “Drums” and “Space” as they seem to be doing everywhere. Despite the love for those intstrumentals from many longtime fans, I noticed a lot of folks heading to the bathroom during them even as this version of the the Dead did a great job. Mayer, brought his guitar skills and bluesy vocals and love of the Grateful Dead catalog to the songs he sang. In the second set, to appease the longtime fans, Weir did most of the lead singing.

    As usual, there were some covers previously performed during the Jerry Garcia days, like Rev. Gary Davis’s “Death Have No Mercy” and an encore of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.” If you care to see the full list, you may check out the whole setlist from the show I basically watched on TV.

    In conclusion, if you like the Grateful Dead, you should have been there or maybe catch Dead & Company at one of the few remaining shows. It seems while this is the end of this particular version of the many post-Jerry Garcia bands, it is not the last we will hear of Bob Weir. Still, it is sad to know we are nearing the end of this great American band that carved out its own niche of music history and culture.

    Overall rating: The band: A. The venue’s lawn seating: C (saved from failing by excellent screen placement and wonderful videography). The fans: A+

    Check out a video from the show below. If you invite over a bunch of friends who are fans, you can pack yourself together in your yard and watch your screen to get the same experience I got at SPAC.

    Leave your two cents in the comments. What is your favorite show you’ve seen from the Grateful Dead or one of its offshoot bands?

  • Guy Clark Has Heard Doc Watson Play “Columbus Stockade Blues” (Song Within a Song)
  • 3 a.m. Albums: Frank Sinatra’s “In the Wee Small Hours”
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • Liberty: By the U.S. Post Office, Grateful Dead, & Walt Whitman
    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Buy from Amazon