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.
I have been a fan of Jesse Malin’s work since he released The Fine Art of Self-Destruction in the U.S. back in 2003. So, I was particularly excited to hear that Lucinda Williams was producing his latest album, Sunset Kids.
The album also features a duet with Malin and Williams. The song is “Room 13.” Malin explained to Rolling Stone that that song is about loneliness: “Music can be a great way to hide the pain and loneliness, but sometimes you’ve gotta deal with it head on. ‘Room 13’ is that place far away from the distractions, the noise and the telephone zombies. It’s a place where you’re forced to reflect on what really matters most.” Check it out.
Malin’s album Sunset Kids will hit the Internet on August 30, 2019 on Wicked Cool Records.
Unfortunately, I did not discover Richmond Fontaine until they released their final full-length album in 2016, You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To. The alt-country band began touring in 1994 in the Pacific Northwest area and released a number of albums with wonderful music. One of my favorite songs remains “Wake Up Ray,” which appeared on their 2016 album.
In the song, the singer recalls that he once was married and living in Montana. He recounts that things went well until they didn’t, and “she got to where she couldn’t stand our place/ She got to where she cringed at the way I slept and ate.”
Then the singer tells us how he bought her a bird called “Little Joe,” leading to a story of how his wife released the bird in a rage.
Wake up Ray, the sun’s coming up and still I can’t stop thinking, How can someone you love so much grow against you so? All I did, all I did was try to toe that line; The same line you see everyone else toe; Now all I remember is running through the snow, Looking for Little Joe as the wind blowed .
“Wake Up Ray” is a beautiful song, intertwining a simple domestic incident into the broader tapestry of a dissolving relationship. It is not surprising that the song contains such memorable images, as lead singer and songwriter Willy Vlautin is also an acclaimed author.
Today, Vlautin plays with the band The Delines, featuring Amy Boone on lead vocals. The rest of Richmond Fontaine included Dave Harding, Paul Brainard, Joe Davis, and Stuart Gaston. Check out all of their albums.
What is your favorite Richmond Fontaine song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
