Sam Smith’s recent hit “Stay With Me” has such a timeless sound that I am repeatedly forgetting that it is a new song and has not been around for decades. Smith recently used his unique voice to reinterpret Whitney Houston’s 1985 hit song, “How Will I Know.”
“How Will I Know” — written by George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam, Narada Michael Walden — appeared on Houston’s debut album, Whitney Houston (1085) after Janet Jackson had turned down the opportunity to record it. While Houston’s wonderful version is uplifting, Smith takes an aching soulful approach, giving the song a different meaning. Check it out.
What is your favorite Sam Smith song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In this new video from the Weekly Feed, country singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam discusses acting, country music, and his next CD. Yoakam explains to interviewer Kyle Meredith how he came to sing a Creedance Clearwater Revival song recently as a character on CBS’s Under The Dome.
In the video, Yoakam also explains why when he does cover songs, he usually tries to avoid iconic recordings. Other topics include Yoakam’s thoughts on David Bowie, Buck Owens, T-Rex, and the state of the music industry.
Yoakam is one of the more intelligent artists around and he has a great understanding of history. So it is always enlightening to hear him talk about various subjects. Check out this interview from the WFPK studios in Louisville, Kentucky.
Below is the clip from Under the Dome that he discusses, where his character sits in jail and sings “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”
If all that leaves you wanting more Yoakam, below is the song he mentions at the end of the interview, “A Heart Like Mine,” from his 3 Pears (2012) CD. The song was co-produced by Beck.
What is your favorite Dwight Yoakam song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Jerry Lee Lewis is releasing a new album on October 28, Rock & Roll Time. Like his other recent albums of duets, Last Man Standing (2006) and Mean Old Man (2010), the new album features help from some famous names like Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, Shelby Lynne, and Nils Lofgren.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that the album will have eleven tracks, with roughly half originals and half covers (like “Folsom Prison Blues” and Bob Dylan’s “Stepchild”). Check out the title track, “Rock & Roll Time,” below.
Rock & Roll Time is not all we will be hearing from Jerry Lee Lewis. On September 23, Saguaro Road Records is releasing The Knox Phillips Sessions, a previously unreleased 1970s album from Lewis that was produced by Knox Phillips (the son of the legendary producer Sam Phillips). Additionally, a new Jerry Lee Lewis authorized biography Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story hits bookstores October 28. For the book, Lewis sat for interviews with author Rick Bragg.
It looks like there’s going to be a lot of Jerry Lee Lewis this Fall. The more Killer the better.
What is your favorite Jerry Lee Lewis song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers will release her seventh album, Bittersweet (2014), later this month, and she has already released a video for one of the songs from the new album, “Wheelbarrow.”
The video for “Wheelbarrow” was directed by Renny Wijeyamohan, who recorded parts of the video in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. The Australian singer’s song rocks out with electric guitars, while the video features a robbery by two lovers, as well as a wheelbarrow. Check it out.
Bittersweet, which is Chambers’s first solo album in four years, will be released on August 29.
What is your favorite Kasey Chambers song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On August 23, 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in the electric chair. The execution of the Italian-born anarchists drew worldwide protests from people who believed the two men were innocent of the murder charges against them. Many today still debate whether or not the two were guilty of the crime, but most agree that anti-immigrant sentiment and other factors affected the fairness of their trial.
The saga of Sacco and Vanzetti has inspired various forms of art, including songs. Chimesfreedom previously addressed the songs that Woody Guthrie wrote about the case.
Charlie King’s “Two Good Arms”
Additionally, folksinger Charlie King wrote an excellent song about the case called “Two Good Arms,” and I have seen him perform it on several occasions. King, who grew up in Massachusetts and has been performing for fifty years, is not as well known as he should be. But artists like Pete Seeger have recognized his talent.
Here is King’s “Two Good Arms” below.
For another version, here is Holly Near covering his song at the 1987 Philadelphia Folk Festival. And you may hear King’s original version on his webpage and a live performance here.
King took much of the lyrics of “Two Good Arms” directly from the speech that Vanzetti made at his sentencing. It is interesting how he recognized the poetry in Vanzetti’s own words.
At the sentencing, the native Italian speaker presented his plea in English: “That I am not only innocent of these two crimes, but in all my life I have never stolen and I have never killed and I have never spilled blood. . . . Not only am I innocent of these two crimes, not only in all my life I have never stolen, never killed, never spilled blood, but I have struggled all my life, since I began to reason, to eliminate crime from the earth. Everybody that knows these two arms knows very well that I did not need to go into the streets and kill a man or try to take money. I can live by my two hands and live well.”
Legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti
The fate of Sacco and Vanzetti remains relevant today, as many debate whether states have executed innocent people in recent years. A new book, The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, recounts how Texas may have executed an innocent man when it executed Carlos DeLuna. Others claim that other executed men like Cameron Todd Willingham were innocent.
It is difficult to prove innocence to everyone’s satisfaction after someone has been executed, but these and other cases certainly raise questions about the justice system, as any system run by humans is bound to make mistakes at some point. Thus, one may wonder whether society should execute people rather than holding them in prison. These ongoing risks make it important that we answer the opening question of Charlie King’s song with an affirmation that we all will remember past injustices and work to prevent them in the future.
Photo of Vanzetti (left) and Sacco (right) via public domain.
(2012) CD. The song was co-produced by Beck.
. Like his other recent albums of duets, Last Man Standing (2006) and Mean Old Man (2010), the new album features help from some famous names like Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, Shelby Lynne, and Nils Lofgren.
, recounts how Texas may have executed an innocent man when it executed Carlos DeLuna. Others claim that other executed men like 
