Today’s song of the day is Lydia Loveless’s “Heaven.” Sometimes classified as alt-country, the Ohio-born young singer-songwriter has been releasing great music since 2010 that crosses borders around country, rock, and punk rock.
I detect some Lone Justice-era Maria McKee with a little Natalie Merchant in Loveless’s music. But either way, as AllMusic notes, “At her best, she’s quite simply as good and as brave a singer and songwriter as anyone working today.”
Loveless’s most recent album is Real, released in August 2016. Currently, Blend is featuring a remix contest for listeners to remix Loveless’s song “Heaven” from Real. For more information on the contest, head over to Blend’s website.
Even if you are not up for the remixing challenge, though, you should listen to the heartbreaking lyrics accompanied by Loveless’s wonderful voice on “Heaven.” Below, she performs the song acoustically live at White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I thought I would be okay, But everything just happens; Everything is an accident, man; No one goes to heaven, No one goes to heaven.
For more on Loveless, check out the documentary by filmmaker Gorman Bechard called Who is Lydia Loveless? The movie was released in April 2016.
What is your favorite Lydia Loveless song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
K. Patrick Tutera‘s short film The Last Hurrah is a charming homage to film noir and an entertaining story in its own right. The movie effectively tells an engaging tale through two characters with a past, spinning a narrative worthy of classic film noir movies.
The movie clocks in at less than 18 minutes, but in that time Tutera tells a tight well-paced story that never feels rushed. Every shot is effective, beginning with the credits that quickly establishes the movie’s film noir pedigree. The Last Hurrah‘s opening credits are accompanied by scenes that appear out of old film noir movies, such as shots of a winding road along the California coast and cars from the 1940s on city streets.
Quotes from William Faulkner and Picasso then appear on the screen, highlighting themes we will encounter. And a newsreel voice-over helps complete the setting. The short piece of news effectively confirms the time period as around the end of World War II. Thus, the astute viewer immediately knows The Last Hurrah is set in the same era as many classic film noir movies.
The camera then follows a woman and a man to an apartment. We see that Petra (Aleksandra Vujcic) and Samuel (Michael Bronte) are carrying bags that we soon discover contain money.
The images are beautifully shot as the two climb the stairs and go to an apartment. Director of Photography Philip Hurn did an excellent job throughout the movie.
Thus, before any conversation begins, the viewer recognizes the film noir setting. The black and white images combined with the sound of the rain evoke film noir so well that a vase on a mantle made me look twice to make sure it was not a maltese falcon statue.
Almost all of the rest of the film occurs inside the apartment. We learn how Petra and Samuel obtained their money, and, more importantly, we begin to learn about the past between the two characters.
To say more about the plot and what happens to Petra and Samuel would ruin the story. But the filmmakers do an excellent job creating a short story in one setting through conversation, styles, images, and sounds reminiscent of film noir. And veteran actors Vujcic and Bronte also do a great job effectively capturing the appropriate mood.
The entire movie, including the ending, makes viewers feel they are watching a movie from the classic film noir era. Even the music, with an outstanding score by composer David Frank, is perfect for the movie.
Tutera directed and wrote the screenplay for The Last Hurrah, a film that was funded through a Kickstarter campaign. The ultimate result reveals how the fundraising platform can be used to create quality work.
Watch for The Last Hurrah on the festival circuit to see an excellent short movie that takes you back to the time when Hollywood created beautiful film noir films. Also, keep an eye out for the future work of K. Patrick Tutera.
The Last Hurrah premieres on Saturday, December 10, 2016 at the Film Noir Festival in Albert, France. Leave your two cents in the comments.
Recently, Sturgill Simpson brought out a horn section for his performance at Paradiso in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Fortunately, rialto1961 did a great job of recording a large portion of the show in black and white before posting it on YouTube.
In this segment of the show from September 26, 2016, Simpson performs a number of originals and covers. The video includes: “Water in a Well,” “Long White Line,” “When the Levee Breaks” (Led Zeppelin cover), “I Never Go Around Mirrors” (Keith Whitley cover), “The Promise” (When in Rome cover), “You Don’t Miss Your Water” (William Bell cover), “Sea Stories,” and “In Bloom: (Nirvana cover).
Check out the video below.
What is your favorite Sturgill Simpson song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On October 22, 1903, Tom Horn was hanged in Wyoming, one day short of his forty-third birthday. Historians generally do not dispute that Horn had killed a number of men. But most believe Horn was innocent of the killing for which he was hanged. Many are familiar with Horn’s later life through one of Steve McQueen’s final films.
Tom Horn’s Life
Horn was born on November 21, 1860 at a family farm in Scotland County, Missouri. Young Tom had a troubled early life, growing up in a large family with an abusive father. In one of his early fights, he was beat up by two boys who then killed his dog.
At the age of sixteen, Horn moved West. There, he worked a number of different jobs, including acting as a scout for the Army. Horn acted as an interpreter when Geronimo surrendered to the Army. After the Apache Wars, Horn bought his own ranch. But cattle thieves overran his ranch, again causing him to wander.
Horn found other work, such as as a prospector, a ranch hand, a deputy sheriff in Arizona, and an agent for the Pinkerton Detective agency. But it was his work for cattle companies that eventually led to his demise.
During the Johnson County War in Wyoming, Horn worked for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. Reportedly, Horn killed a number of men in this role. He then worked in Colorado for the Swan Land and Cattle Company, where he again killed more men who were suspected of rustling.
Horn then served in the Army in Cuba during the Spanish American War. Eventually, though, he ended up back West working for cattle owners, this time working for cattle baron John C. Coble in Wyoming.
The Murder and Trial
On July 18, 1901, the body of a 14-year-old son of sheep ranchers was found murdered. Authorities began investigating the killing of the young Willie Nickell, soon focusing on Tom Horn.
The government put Horn on trial in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The trial featured as a key piece of evidence a statement Horn made. He had claimed, apparently while still drunk, that if he did the killing, it was the “best shot that I ever made and the dirtiest trick that I ever done.”
On October 24, 1902, the jury found Horn guilty of the murder. A few days later, the court sentenced him to death by hanging.
During the appeal, Horn wrote his autobiography while in jail, focusing on his early life: Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter. Eventually, the Wyoming Supreme Court turned down the appeal.
The governor refused to stop the hanging. And Horn was hanged in Cheyenne by means of a “Julian Gallows” that used water as a means of releasing the trap door.
Many historians believe Horn was innocent of the killing of Willie Nickell, while noting that he did do a number of other killings. Still, his case is a reminder of how innocent people may be convicted of capital crimes. Still today, we discover innocent people on death rows across America.
Tom Horn on TV and Film
Tom Horn’s story has resonated in popular culture. The 1954 television series Stories of the Century, took an unflattering look at Tom Horn and his crimes.
The episode portrays Horn as someone who worked for the law but “then for some reason turned criminal.” In the episode, actor Louis Jean Heydt portays Horn.
Steve McQueen provided the most famous portrayal of Horn in the 1980 movie Tom Horn. The film was based on Horn’s writings, and McQueen gives a largely sympathetic portrayal of Horn, while not shying away from his violence.
McQueen was notorious for clashing with his directors, and Tom Horn went through several directors before TV director William Wiard came on board to finish the film. McQueen also requested several rewrites of the script, which included work by the great Western writer Thomas McGuane. Tom Horn — which was released on March 28, 1980 — was the next-to-last film released that starred McQueen. During the filming of the movie, McQueen had trouble breathing, and he was later diagnosed with a form of lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma. On August 1 of that year, his final film, The Hunter, was released. McQueen died on November 1, 1980 at the age of 50.
The movie Tom Horn received mixed reviews and did a disappointing $12 million at the box office. At the time, Variety claimed that McQueen appeared to be walking through the lead role. But actor James Coburn claimed Tom Horn was McQueen’s best film. Currently, it has a 68% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie seems to have aged well over time, as has Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, which was released the same year. Empire calls Tom Horn an “underrated, gloomy Western.”
In subsequent years, viewers were more tolerant of Westerns that focused on something besides action. In 2014, True West explained that the movie and McQueen’s acting in the film were ahead of their time: “Audiences were used to action-packed Westerns with gunfights and brawls. McQueen offered them something different—a meditation of the West and a character study of one of America’s best-known figures of the era.”
Below is the trailer for Tom Horn. Check it out.
Photo via public domain. What did you think of the movie “Tom Horn”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Randy Newman recently gave listeners a sneak peek at his next album with the release of the song “Putin.” Newman, who has always been skilled at finding the humor in the powerful, came up with the idea of the song when he saw a photo of a shirtless Vladimir Putin riding a horse or a tractor.
Newman explained to the Washington Post, “A person with that much extraordinary amount of power, doing things like that is disturbing but also kind of amusing.” Newman also noted that the song has nothing to do with current presidential candidate Donald Trump’s apparent fondness for the Russian leader.
Newman attempts to humanize Putin the song to some extent, revealing that the leader may have some doubt about his abilities. The songwriter realizes that the world is not black and white and that Putin is still a human being. Check it out.
The photo of the shirtless Putin was not the only thing that helped inspire the song. Newman explained to the post how he loves the song “Stalin Wasn’t Stallin’,” which is a 1943 Willie Johnson song recorded by the gospel group The Golden Gate Quartet.
The World War II song praises Joseph Stalin and the Russian people for their stand against Adolf Hitler and his army. Check out “Stalin Wasn’t Stallin'” below.
Randy Newman’s upcoming album is in the mixing stage. Newman explained that some of the songs feature more than one character and that he tries to bring in everything he has learned into the new album. We can’t wait. What do you think of “Putin”? Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo via www.kremlin.ru
Quotes from William Faulkner and Picasso then appear on the screen, highlighting themes we will encounter. And a newsreel voice-over helps complete the setting. The short piece of news effectively confirms the time period as around the end of World War II. Thus, the astute viewer immediately knows The Last Hurrah is set in the same era as many classic film noir movies.
To say more about the plot and what happens to Petra and Samuel would ruin the story. But the filmmakers do an excellent job creating a short story in one setting through conversation, styles, images, and sounds reminiscent of film noir. And veteran actors Vujcic and Bronte also do a great job effectively capturing the appropriate mood.
McQueen was notorious for clashing with his directors, and Tom Horn went through several directors before TV director 
Randy Newman recently gave listeners a sneak peek at his next album with the release of the song “Putin.” Newman, who has always been skilled at finding the humor in the powerful,