Category: Music

May Day: Matthew Ryan is Guilty

Matthew Ryan May Day The first day of May reminds me of one of my favorite albums, Matthew Ryan’s May Day from 1997. Ryan — who grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania and later moved to Tennessee — has recorded more than ten albums with his gravely voice and unique music. As explained on his website, “His songs tend to be about girls, socio-political issues, people on the edges, breakups, brotherhood, hate, love, fighters and hope. Sometimes all in the same song. He prefers to think of them as songs for humans.”

If I think of albums with great opening tracks, one of the first ones I think of is May Day, with its powerful rocking opener, “Guilty.” I love the guitars, the drums, the voice, and the lyrics.

‘Cause lately I’ve been dreaming of angels and cranes,
In some kind of purgatory dodging the CIA,
With a head full of soot, waving black flags,
Throwing off the bodies just to cut down on the drag;
Take ’em to the desert or take ’em to a dried up well;
Tell ’em they’re in heaven and mutter, “welcome to hell;”
I’ve been guilty of all these things.

Matthew Ryan has recorded several excellent albums, but has yet to become the big star that he should be. I prefer the rocking sound in some of his earlier work to the softer songs that predominate several of his albums. As a recent USA Today review noted in a positive review of his album Dear Lover, “Some rockers must scream when they plumb emotions at this depth. Ryan rarely has to raise his voice above a raspy whisper.”

But I like it when he raises his voice, as he does on the outstanding 2014 album Boxers. And for me, he may never surpass the opening song “Guilty” on his debut album, although he has come close. But that is not a bad thing, because very few artists have set such a high threshold with their first song.


Ryan also recorded an excellent acoustic version of the song in 2010.

What is your favorite opening track on an album? What is your favorite Matthew Ryan song? Leave a comment.

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    This is the Tale of Captain Jack Sparrow

    Lonely Island Turtleneck & ChainOne of the highlights from the most recent Saturday Night Live was the “Jack Sparrow” video by Michael Bolton and Lonely Island, the group featuring Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone. The group has had a number of hilarious songs, and they are releasing their album, Turtleneck & Chain, this week. Lonely Island’s work also includes “I Just Had Sex” (feat. Akon) and the classic “Lazy Sunday.”

    The new video, “Jack Sparrow,” features Michael Bolton, who does an outstanding job. Whether you are a fan of humor or of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, just watch it yourself.

    What his your favorite Lonely Island video? Leave a comment and follow Chimesfreedom on Facebook.

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    Buy from Amazon

    Happy Birthday Robert Johnson!

    Robert Johnson Centennial Collection

    Blues legend Robert Johnson (probably) was born on May 8, 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Although he was only 27 when he died — possibly poisoned by a jealous husband in Mississippi — and he only left us 29 recordings, he is more than a legend in the music world. The singer and guitar player who allegedly sold his soul to the Devil for his guitar skills has influenced generations of musicians.

    In Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, Elijah Wald recounts a description of the birth written by Peter Guralnick: “Robert Johnson was born probably on May 8, 1911, the eleventh child of Julia Major Dodds, whose ten older children were all the offspring of her marriage to Charles Dodds. Robert was illegitimate, which . . . was the cause of the name confusion and the cause of many of Johnson’s later problems.”

    Here is a roundup of some websites about Johnson and stories from 2011 about the 100th anniversary of his birth:

    – A Sudbury Star article discusses Robert Johnson’s life and his influence on modern musicians.

    – USA Today gives an overview of events occurring to celebrate the anniversary, along with a video of Gregg Allman talking about Johnson.

    – The Gibson Guitar website has in interview with Robert Johnson’s grandson.

    – The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a review of a new 2-CD collection of Johnson’s music, The Centennial Collection. Amazon offers additional reviews of The Centennial Collection.

    – Here is a YouTube video of academics discussing what is thought to be the only known video of Johnson.

    – The Republic from Columbus, Indiana has an article about the connection between Johnson and Bob Dylan.

    – Mississippi’s Jackson Clarion Ledger discusses the planned celebration in Greenwood, Mississippi, where Johnson died in 1938.

    – Crawdaddy has a short article connecting Robert Johnson to current Mississippi blues.

    – The Robert Johnson Notebooks has a literary analysis of the lyrics to his songs.

    Of course, it all comes down to the music, so consider Robert Johnson playing and singing “Cross Road Blues.” Although many assume the song is about Johnson’s encounter with Satan at the crossroads, there is no mention of the Devil in the song. Instead, the song is most likely about the singer’s attempt to get home before dark, a genuine fear during a time when African-Americans did not want to encounter lynching parties in the South.

    For an electric version of the song, here is Eric Clapton introduced his version of “Crossroads,” by explaining what Johnson means to him. “It really shook me up.”

    Robert Johnson seems to be such a legendary figure of the past, one may find it hard to believe that his birth was not really that long ago. He could have lived to be alive today. Happy birthday Mr. Johnson, wherever you are.

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    Osama Bin Laden is Dead: The Long Road

    Instead of celebrating the death of one person, today is a good day to remember those murdered on September 11, 2001 and those lives lost since then because of that day’s events. It makes me think of Eddie Vedder, accompanied by Neil Young and Mike McReady, performing “The Long Road,” at the benefit concert that aired on September 21, 2001. Although the song was written years earlier by Vedder and Nusrat fateh ali Khan, it fit the occasion perfectly, much like Bruce Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins,” which also was written under different circumstances but performed at the concert.

    And the wind keeps rollin’,
    And the sky keeps turning gray,
    And the sun is setting,
    The sun will rise another day.

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    Graceland: Happy Birthday Willie Nelson!

    Graceland We celebrate the birthday of Willie Nelson’s, who was born during the final minutes of April 29, 1933 (so that his birthday is sometimes reported as April 30) in Abbott, Texas. One of my favorite Willie Nelson CDs is Across the Borderline,  which was produced by Don Was. The CD was released in 1993, during a traumatic period in Nelson’s life, a few years after his troubles with the IRS had come to a head. AllMusic rates the album highly and refers to it as an album surveying two decades of popular music by a wide variety of music writers. There are a number of guests on the CD, including Bob Dylan singing with Nelson on “Heartland,” a song the two legends wrote together. Despite the variety, though, there is a cohesion in the CD as the theme of loss weaves throughout the songs.

    Every song on the album is excellent, but standouts include the cover of two Paul Simon songs, “American Tune” and “Graceland.” I cannot find an article about the background behind “Graceland” (so don’t quote me), but I recall Paul Simon saying in an interview that he had always wanted Nelson to sing “Graceland” ever since he wrote it. Simon, who ended up playing guitar and producing the Nelson version, had to persuade Nelson to record “Graceland.” Nelson finally agreed as he eventually saw the meaning underlying the song.

    While I love Paul Simon’s version, Nelson’s voice really works well on the song, as he develops the aching notes of loss and sadness throughout the tune. When I hear Simon’s version, I think of the lyrics about the human trampoline bouncing into Graceland. But in Nelson’s version, I learned to see the loss in lines such as, “She comes back to tell me she’s gone/ As if I didn’t know that. . . As if I’d never noticed / The way she brushed her hair from her forehead.”

    Throughout the album Across the Borderline and its themes surrounding life’s pain and wreckage, there are moments of hope. The album ends with “Still is Still Moving to Me,” a Nelson original that invokes Eastern and taoist beliefs in keeping on and accepting. Similarly, the song “Graceland” ends with hope out of the loss: “Maybe I’ve a reason to believe / We all will be received / In Graceland.”

    The recording of the song on Across the Borderline is one of those rare moments when two musical geniuses are able to take what was already an outstanding song and make it powerfully relevant to a new singer. On the album, Nelson does all the singing, but in this version below, the two come together for a live performance to sing “Graceland” together. It is a a nice way to celebrate Nelson’s birthday today.

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