A new documentary about the life of Guy Clark is being released. Without Getting Killed or Caught recounts the music and life of the legendary Texas singer-songwriter.
Guy Clark is one of my favorite artists, so it is great to see his work getting more attention. One of my favorite all-time songs, Clark’s “L.A. Freeway,” provides the line that is the title of the upcoming film.
The documentary started out and was partially funded as a Kickstarter project. The film features commentary from many of those influenced by Clark, like Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell.
The movie is adapted from Clark’s wife’s writings in The Diaries of Susanna Clark, including the complicated relationship shared by her, Clark, and Townes Van Zandt. In the documentary, actress Sissy Spacek voices Susanna’s narration.
Many years ago, we noted that country singer Marty Brown had apparently shared his wonderful musical talents with his children. So we are delighted to hear that his son Marty Brown Jr. is finally releasing his first album with his band Maceo, entitled Boomtown. And it was worth the wait.
Old Legends
The younger Brown has been performing music, honing his musical chops, and writing songs with his father for years. And the band Maceo, with an outstanding group of musicians, finds some of its influences in Southern Rock and Outlaw Country. Some of the tracks on the album may remind one of Shooter Jennings, another son of a country legend.
The album rocks but it also features intelligent lyrics steeped in county traditions. In a nod to the past, on the song “Old Legends,” Brown proclaims, “Old legends never die, they just keep on living on.”
Boomtown
Yet, even with the album’s connections to the past, Maceo brings a young person’s perspective, guitars, and wisdom that makes everything new again. It’s honest young country that should find a place in today’s country music world. In the title track from the album, “Boomtown,” Brown takes a look at his “one-horse town” that “ain’t no Boomtown.” But he still finds a lot to love there.
For those of us who grew up in a small town, we hear a realistic reflection of a non-idealized life that is still loved. So the singer’s repeated assertion that “this ain’t no Boomtown,” backed by a tight electric band with a solid beat, ends up as more of a boast than a lament.
Another highlight of the album is “Lessons in Lonely,” a catchy country weeper that sounds like an instant classic. Not surprisingly, the beautiful song was co-written by Marty Brown Jr.’s father Marty Brown, along with Charles Victor.
The band Maceo is named after Brown’s hometown of Maceo, Kentucky. And the group features Marty Brown Jr. (Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar), Collin Sagely (Percussion), Brian Haunhorst (Rythym Guitar, Backing Vocals), and Chris Dillard (Bass).
Boomtown is an uplifting album, perfect for blasting on your car stereo while driving country roads. Or just sitting in a lonely room with headphones and letting Brown and his bandmates take you on a fun ride. It’s all good.
Lucinda Williams is tackling social and political issues in her upcoming album, Good Souls, Better Angels (2020). The first track released off the album is the song “Man Without a Soul.”
From the title, one may correctly surmise that the song is about the current occupant of the White House. In the song, she warns the president that somehow it will all come to an end. Williams sings, “You bring nothing good to this world, beyond a web of cheating and stealing/ You hide behind your wall of lies, but it’s coming down/ Yeah, it’s coming down.”
You may hear the track at Rolling Stone or check out a live performance of “Man Without a Soul” below.
Williams and her husband Tom Overby produced the album with Ray Kennedy. Good Souls, Better Angels will hit the Internet on April 24, 2020 through Highway 20/Thirty Tigers.
One of the highlights of the Steve Martin film “Leap of Faith” is the performance of “Change in My Life,” although there is a small mystery surrounding the performers.
I am never sure whether people are going to like the 1992 movie Leap of Faith. The comedy-drama never seems sure what position it wants to take about faith and religion as it focuses on the cynical traveling preacher played by Steve Martin. And is it a drama or a comedy? There’s a seriousness to it, but not in the same way that Burt Lancaster captured with a stellar performance in a similar storyline in 1956’s The Rainmaker (a movie that inspired a 1975 Tanya Tucker song).
But a really good gospel song cannot hide its power, and during one scene in Leap of Faith with the song “A Change in My Life,” one can’t help finding some meaning in the film. Anyone who loved the song in the film, however, may have encountered confusion in trying to track down a recording.
Leap of Faith the Movie
The 1992 movie Leap of Faith came at an interesting time in Steve Martin’s career. He was taking a turn away from goofy characters like The Jerk (1979). Instead, he expanded into more serious roles starting to some extent with Roxanne in 1987. In the early 1990s, he starred in L.A. Story (1991), Father of the Bride (1991), Grand Canyon (1991), and Leap of Faith (1992).
One may see why he seemed perfect for Leap of Faith. He was able to embrace his serious side in the dramatic scenes while letting out a little of his wild-and-crazy-guy during his tent sermons. I find his performance mesmerizing at times.
You usually root for Martin’s characters. But here his character Jonas has a harder edge, a fake healer wrapped in cynicism. The movie also provided a strong female lead in Debra Winger that boosted everyone’s performance in a strong cast. The cast also includes Liam Neeson, Meat Loaf, Lolita Davidovich, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
“A Change in My Life” in the Film
The movie also has a pretty good soundtrack. But there is one song that stands out, “A Change in My Life.”
During the movie, the song plays against a backdrop of the traveling healing show. Amidst the scenes of workers promoting and setting up the tent show, the singers reveal a moment of beautiful sincerity in a movie that wavers in its faith at times.
Apparently, the song had the same effect on others that it had on me when I first heard it in the movie theater. It sent me to the record store to buy the soundtrack.
I bought the soundtrack on cassette tape and popped in my car stereo. But disappointment followed immediately. The version of “A Change in My Life” on the soundtrack was different than the version from the movie.
The Soundtrack Version
The soundtrack version was still very good. But it did not have the same power of the movie version.
The soundtrack notes revealed that the song was not an old timeless gospel song. It was written by Billy Straus, who arranged this soundtrack version with Sean Altman and has had a long career of writing music. On the soundtrack, “A Change in My Life” is listed as sung by John Pagano. IMDb, however, lists the artist as a group called The Angels of Mercy.
It seems, then, that John Pagano recorded the soundtrack version with The Angels of Mercy. The latter are actually the Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir from Minneapolis, Minnesota. But even this soundtrack version is probably not the most popular recording of “A Change in My Life.”
Rockapella and Other Versions
Many years later after I no longer had a cassette player for the movie soundtrack, I went looking for a recording of “A Change in My Life” for my iPod. The only one I found at the time was by the New York a cappella group called Rockapella.
And it is their version that I still have on my phone today.
If you hear “A Change in My Life,” it will most likely be this version by Rockapella (who in 1999 sang background vocals on a version by Sam Harris). Rockapella’s version first appeared on their 1992 self-titled album. Rockappella recorded the song and released it the same year as Leap of Faith.
As noted in one of the comments below (thanks Daniel Clayton), one of the founders of Rockapella was Sean Altman (who had arranged the version for the soundtrack of Leap of Faith). So also considering the timing, it appears the song is an original Rockapella song.
Many years later Leap of Faith made the leap to Broadway as a musical. In 2012 the movie’s story made it to the New York stage after a limited run in Los Angeles in 2010. The musical, however, has its own original music and the soundtrack does not include “A Change in My Life.”
There are a handful of covers of “A Change in My Life,” and not surprisingly some college acapella groups, like Chapman University’s Men of Harmony, have made sweet music out of the song. But maybe the most famous group to sing “A Change in My Life” is Hanson.
Best known for their hit “Mmmbop,” the Hanson brothers are very talented and underrated as adults. They get less attention than they should as adults because people got sick of hearing the cute kids singing that earworm of a pop song.
Yet, this live cover of “A Change in My Life” from 2013 shows that sibling harmony is something special and that these brothers have great taste in music. The fact that they have performed the song a number of times through the years illustrates their own connection to the song.
Who Sang “A Change in My Life” in the Movie?
This history brings us back to the great mystery about the singers in the movie and the version that many people love even if they cannot find a recording of it. Like others, I still love the movie version more than the official recordings. So who sang it?
Well, through a comment on YouTube, we have the information. A commenter named Daniel Carlin explained that he produced the version that appears in the movie, and the song was recorded live by the film’s music engineer Joseph Magee. Carlin has a long career in music. He is currently a professor and vice dean at the USC Thornton School of Music.
He reports, “We actually recorded it where you see the singers standing, then took away the overhead microphone stands and shot to a playback of the recording (run by the onset ProTools operator, engineer Fred Vogler).” But who are the singers?
Carlin reveals who did the singing in the movie: “The chorus is comprised of 6 members of the Edwin Hawkins Singers (who we flew in from Oakland), along with gospel singer [Shun] Pace-Rhodes (the . . . female gospel singer at the top of the screen), and additional local talent that we found in Texas, including the silver-toothed male soloist.” Today, the singer Shun Pace-Rhodes is better known as Tarrian LaShun Pace.
Finally, Carlin adds about the location of the scene. He reports it was in “Groom, Texas, where some rich local guy subsequently had a 19-story cross erected to commemorate the filming of the movie there. Show biz lives. “
How might you know the Edwin Hawkins Singers? Well, they took another song that was an 18th Century Hymn and turned it into a hit song. In 1968, they released “Oh Happy Day” which became the first gospel song that appeared on pop charts.
Several people responded to the comment, asking Carlin if a complete recording featuring the six Edwin Hawkins Singers and Tarrian LaShun Pace exists anywhere. But there has been no response, leaving us to believe that we will never get that version.
And it remains a mystery why the movie’s version did not appear on the soundtrack. Most likely, the soundtrack was made separately from the filming of the movie, and director Richard Pearce along with Carlin and others put together the scene in the movie with singers they chose.
At least we have the stunning moment that for a few minutes takes a Steve Martin film to another heavenly level.
Cass Elliott was an amazing talent who left us too soon in 1974. With the Mamas and the Papas, her voice always stood out. Similarly, John Denver had a wonderful tenor voice and was a great songwriter (although some music fans ignore the talent as a reaction to Denver becoming so popular in his heyday). Despite their talents, one might think they never crossed paths due to being in slightly different music genres. But one night on television in 1972, Elliot and Denver joined forces on one of Denver’s classic songs, “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”
The duet is from the August 19, 1972 premiere of the 90-minute NBC television show The Midnight Special. Those of us who grew up in the 1970s remember the Friday night show fondly. As a kid, I would stay up late to watch the show to see the latest music. Long before we had MTV, The Midnight Special was one of the few places to regularly catch current rock and pop stars performing on television.
So, one night on television in 1972, Elliot and Denver joined forces. Their voices intertwined on the choruses to create something special. Check it out.
This episode ofThe Midnight Special featured the Mamas and the Papas and Denver. And it was a special treat to hear Elliot and Denver together on the song. The tune had originally been a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary when they released it in 1969. But by 1972, Denver had become so popular, he could keep the songs he wrote as hits for himself.
In addition to being wonderful singers, both Cass Elliot and John Denver were involved in important social causes during their lives. You hear a little of that in Elliot’s introduction to the song about the importance of voting.
The country was divided at the time, as the Vietnam War continued with President Richard Richard M. Nixon in the White House. Two days after the Elliot-Denver performance, the Republican National Convention nominated Nixon and Spiro Agnew for a second term. But amidst the divisions in the country at the time, Mama Cass and John Denver showed America a little harmony.
