Ryan Adams: "Kim" (2014)

Ryan Adam's album called Ryan Adams is excellent and there are many nice cuts on the album. "Gimme Something Good", "Am I Safe", and "My Wrecking Ball" are all worth owning. According to Adams, he couldn't come up with a name for the album so just left it at his name. Years from now many people are going to mistake this work as his first album. This is the first all Ryan Adams produced album recorded in his home studio in L.A.

But back to the music...after listening to the album quite a few times, the staff at Monahan's Song keep coming back to his cut "Kim." The guitar work is crisp and clean and feels very original. The song really grabs you when the drums kick in. Don't look too much for clever lyrics on this one. The words convey an immediate and not thought out expression of pain and abandonment. This person who has lost Kim has not sat down and thought this all through yet:

I can't sleep, can't let go
Underneath my feet it's miles
Nothing, there's nowhere to go
With this key, scratched into my arm
I spell out your name, it's ringing in my head
Like a false alarm
As the leaves begin to fall and grey
Walking down the street I watched you walk away
To be with him
Kim, Kim, Kim
Oh Kim!

Parts of this song remind us of a more lilting version of "Allison Road" by the Gin Blossoms (written by Robin Wilson), which was featured in Monahan's Song on 9/11/13.

Our research finds that none other than Johnny Depp does some lead on this track. Listen for it at about 2:20 into the video below. He has played on stage live playing "Kim" several times with Adams.

We are not going to do better than Wiki's bio for Adams :
David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and producer. He is best known for his prolific solo career, and as a former member of alternative country band Whiskeytown, with whom he recorded three studio albums.

In 2000, Adams left Whiskeytown and released his first solo album, Heartbreaker, to critical acclaim. The album was nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize. In 2001, Adams released the UK certified-gold Gold, which included the hit single, "New York, New York".

He released five albums with the rock band The Cardinals and in 2009 Adams married singer-songwriter and actress Mandy Moore. Adams left The Cardinals and announced that he was taking a break from music. He resumed performing in October 2010 and released his thirteenth studio album, Ashes & Fire, on October 11, 2011.^[4] The album peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. In September 2014, Adams released his fourteenth album Ryan Adams on his PAX AM label.

So while "Gimme Something Good" is already the song leading in play from this album, we highly recommend "Kim".  Give it a listen. 

Robbie Robertson: "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" (1987)

Robbie Robertson was born Jaime Robert Klegerman in Toronto, Canada. His father was Jewish and mother Mohawk. After his father died, his mother remarried and took the name Robertson and so did Robbie.

 

He grew up playing in a number of local bands and met Ronnie Hawkins, who performed sever songs Robbie had written. He played lead guitar in Ronnie's band know as the Hawks and by the time he had left the band in 1963, he was known to be a guitar wizard. 

 The rest of the Hawks, (Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson) left as well and would together form The Band. The Band would back Bob Dylan for years and they would be famous of their own accord as well until the stopped touring in 1976. Their final concert "The Last Waltz" was filmed by Martin Scorsese and is a concert film classic. Ronnie Hawkins and countless stars appeared as guests in the concert. The most interesting moment for us is on "Further On Up the Road", where Eric Claptons's guitar strap falls off just as he was going into the opening lead. Robbie took the lead and didn't miss a note until Clapton was re-strapped.

Robertson released his first solo album in 1987 cleverly called "Robbie Robertson".  

According to Wikipedia: "When asked about the inspiration for the album's single "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", producer Daniel Lanoithes commented: "Robbie Robertson was describing what it was like to hang out in Arkansas with Levon Helm in his old neighborhood. He was telling me about the hot nights and fishing with dynamite, and was asking someone for directions for someplace somewhere down the crazy river. ... I had presented him with this instrument that Eno introduced me to called the Suzuki Omnichord, like an electric autoharp. He found a little chord sequence with it that was sweet and wonderful. As he was developing his chord sequence I recorded him and superimposed his storytelling, which I was secretly recording, on top. That was the birth of 'Somewhere Down The Crazy River.' It's kind of like a guy with a deep voice telling you about steaming nights in Arkansas.”

 

Robertsons narration led to some film work and he would wind up narrating,acting or composing music for over 20 movies.

"Wait, did you hear that?
Oh this is sure stirring up some ghosts for me
She said "There's one thing you've got to learn
Is not to be afraid of it."
I said "No, I like it, I like it, it's good."
She said "You like it now,
But you'll learn to love is later."

Robbie composed some very famous songs including "The Weight", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Up On Cripple Creek", and "Broken Arrow".

A few things to watch for in this excellent video. The bass player is playing a fret less bass. The autoharp the song was composed on is visible in a few shots as well. Also watch for Sam Llanas, from The BoDeans, who provides a unique backing voice on the song. The BoDeans were featured on this blog in 2012.



BoDeans: Good Things (1991)

I was driving around last week listening to some old compilation CD's I had made in the 90's. I came upon several songs I had not heard in a decade and this one, "Good Things" by the Bodeans, had me listening to it over and over. The Bodeans always had great vocals and this song is no exception. The Bodeans had their day in the sun, but in my opinion, they deserved more fame than they received.

Fellow blogger Dr. Bristol put it this way:

"I remember seeing them play a local club just after the crest of an early hit, and I thought we must have just missed a fire drill. Surely a band who even got plaudits from Rolling Stone and MTV could draw a decent crowd, but this one was so tiny that my friends and I barely outnumbered the band. No matter – they played a great set. Great bands always do.

I’m not pretending they’re the second coming, but they are a good band that is well worth delving into if you’re looking for music that is atmospheric, straightforward, rocking, laid back, lyrical and guttural."

The band was formed by Kurt Neuman and Sam Llanas who met in high school in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The band would operate from Milwaukee and were perhaps the best example of a roots-rock band. Says Neuman on the band's website:
"I've always thought of the BoDeans as a truly American band," says the founder, primary writer and current frontman of the veteran Milwaukee-based group. "We were blue-collar kids straight out of the heartland-how could we be anything else? ‘Roots rock' was a label I fought when I was younger, but I came to realize that if by ‘roots' you meant blues, rock, country and soul all slammed together into one sound, then I'd say yes-that is the sound..."

Their first album, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams (1986) was produced by T-Bone Burnett and good enough to earn the distinction of being voted "Best New American Band" in Rolling Stone's readers poll that year.  The song "Only Love", made #16 on the US Mainstream Rock charts.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Mainstream_Rock_Tracks They toured extensively with U2 on The Joshua Tree Tour, increasing their fanbase. That year, they also contributed to Robbie Robertson's debut solo album alongside U2 and Peter Gabriel.They would record two more albums before  recording with David Z. (producer and sideman of Prince) at Paisley Park Studios, and released their 4th studio album Black and White that year. The album's electronic-influenced sound was a sharp departure from most of their previous efforts, with more emphasis on synthesizers, drum machines, and processed guitar tones. The album also explored darker and grander lyrical themes. Though not a single, the album's first track "Good Things" achieved some success and became one of their best-known songs. The rebellious and political "Black, White, and Blood Red" was the only single released from the album, though it did not perform well in comparison to their previous songs that made the charts.

Says Neuman looking back: "we set out to build a loyal fan base by giving them everything we had as performers every night. And in time, our fans came to know that they could count on us for a great time, a great show. Well worth their hard-earned dollars. I think many of the younger acts found they could make great-sounding computer records, but they didn’t know how to really perform. Or they didn’t understand the importance of a great performance."

The band would also attract fans when their song "Closer to Free" became the theme song to the TV series "Party of Five."

In 2011, Sam Llanas left the band and is currently touring on his own. Kurt is still leading the BoDeans, and the band released it's 11th album in June of 2012 called American Made.

"Good Things" has an infectious bass and great drums accompanied by the well melded voices of Neuman and Llanas.

Sunlight fall down on the fields
Sunlight fall down over me
Work all day, be all that I can be yeah-heh
Say I can say words only simple
Say I can say words only clear
But, oh, I can feel your heart is beating near. Yeah-heh
Haunted love is all that I feel, when you're passing by
Haunted love is all that I see, it's there in your eyes
And I say
No, no, no, don't pass me over No, no, no, don't pass me by
See I can see good things for you and I

I offer you two versions. The first is a live recording and you will see how well their fans know their lyrics. The second is a stripped down version recorded at a radio station. Check out the drummer using brushes on a cardboard box!