Emmylou Harris
Emmylou HarrisEmmylou’s incredible voice can be heard in the background of many T.V. shows as her haunting lyrics often fit the drama going on on the screen remarkably well!I first came across Emmylou when I borrowed Gram Parsons’ “G.P.” album many many years ago. Her voice just commanded my attention and I went out and bought all her back-catalog. For many years afterwards she was my undisputed favorite artiste, although I much prefer her earlier albums when she sang ‘real’ country. From ‘Wrecking Ball’ onwards, I haven’t always been as impressed, but she will always remain near the top of my list. For full info on Emmylou you can’t beat www.Emmylou.netbut there are many other sites dedicated to this outstanding singer. I have seen Emmylou in concert many times in my native England and have never failed to be moved and totally enraptured at her performance. I was lucky to have lived in a country where Emmylou got national attention, and her music was played on mainstream radio, I have just watched a fascinating BBC documentary about her (“From A Deeper Well” – read about that HERE) and an old concert from the seventies. My favorite album of hers? Phew! That’s a tough question, but thank you for asking. I LOVE “Elite Hotel” and “Thirteen” (why isn’t that available over here?) but my favorite is JUST “Last Date“. Favorite individual track? Oh NOW you’re asking! So many….. but I’ll choose the basic simplicity of “Making Believe”. |
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Lucinda Williams
Lucinda has had her songs played in many top T.V. shows, including The Sopranos, House, Crossing Jordan, Brothers and Sisters, and Men In Trees.
I first heard of Lucinda as a singing partner of Emmylou Harris, and the writer of several songs recorded by Emmylou and Mary-Chapin Carpenter, and when I heard her singing, I was captivated. I have not yet seen her live in concert but one day I will be there in the front row. I was a little disappointed with “World Without Tears” but “Essence” and “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road” are amongst my most played CDs of all time and she seems to be back on form with her latest, “Little Honey”. This woman knows how to write AND sing! Find out all about Lucinda at lucindawilliams.com . My favorite tracks? “Right In Time”, “Metal Firecracker” and “Something About What Happens When We Touch” – fave album “Essence”.
Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny (1947-1978)
Some of my favorite artists died young. Buddy Holly, Jim Croce, John Denver, and the subject of this article, Sandy Denny.
Born Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny in Wimbledon, U.K. in 1947, Sandy was influenced early on by traditional and folk music and over her tragically short career was recognized by her peers as the pre-eminent folk singer songwriter of her time. She wrote so many poignant, beautiful songs but her stand out track to me is “Who Knows Where The Time Goes” covered very many times, by such people as Judy Collins, Nanci Griffith and Eva Cassidy.
In 2007, listeners to BBC Radio Two voted the track as the “Favourite Folk Track of All Time”, quite rightly in my opinion.
Sandy replaced Judy Dyble in the superb British folk band “Fairport Convention” in 1968. and steered the band towards exploring traditional British folk music. The album “Liege and Lief”, featuring Sandy’s magical voice is probably the best folk album ever, certainly one that I still play very often. Prior to that she had been approached by another folk group, “The Strawbs” and cut one album with them, featuring an early version of “Who Knows Where The Time Goes.”
Following this, Sandy formed her own group with husband to be Trevor Lucas. The band was called “Fotheringay” and their one album is also amongst the most-played in this household, but once again her stay was short-lived as she disbanded the group to pursue a solo career. She did in fact later rejoin Fairport Convention for one further album, “Rising For The Moon.”
She went on to record four solo albums “The North Star Grassman and the Ravens”, “Sandy”, “Like An Old-Fashioned Waltz” (the title track of which has been covered by Emmylou Harris) and “Rendezvous”. Sandy was insecure and had frequent doubts about her talent – no-one else shared her doubts yet she could not see that. Her insecurity led her to drinking more than she should and in her last few months she suffered some blackouts. It was one of these that probably led to her having a fall down some stairs, and a month later a collapse which led to her untimely death in 1978 at the age of just 31.
Had she lived, who knows whether her self-doubts would have enabled her to continue and further what to me was a glittering career, who knows what incredible songs she would have written like the tunes of hers that have become standards. A terrible waste of an immense talent, but Sandy Denny lives on in the hearts of her huge following of fans.
Joy Division
“Joy Division” were a short lived Manchester UK band comprising Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris. You may well recognize the last three names as they went on to form “New Order” together with Morris’s wife Gillian Gilbert and to have massive international success. The event that led to the demise of “Joy Division” was the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis. He had been beset by depression and epilepsy throughout his short life and his marriage to wife Deborah was going through problems. The marital situation was the basis for the lyrics of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and sadly Curtis hanged himself in 1980, aged just 23 and on the eve of Joy Division’s first American tour which was then called off.
Curtis had joined Hook and Sumner after all three met at a Sex Pistols gig in Manchester. Hook and Sumner had long been friends and were impressed with Curtis’s vocals and his ability to write meaningful and commercially successful lyrics. Morris joined the group later and they were at first called “Warsaw” but changed the name to “Joy Division” to avoid confusion with an established punk group “Warsaw Pakt.” The group signed to Tony Wilson’s “Factory” record label and were championed by the BBC”s legendary DJ John Peel. Their first album 1979″s “Unknown Pleasures” sold out its initial 10,000 pressing very rapidly and was called by one critic the “best debut album of the year” while also being largely responsible for the growth of Factory Records.
The band’s second and only other album “Closer” was released in 1980 but their European tour of that year was beset by difficulties as Ian Curtis’s seizures became more frequent, which increased his depression. He attempted suicide in April that year but continued to perform with the group when at all possible, but on May 18 1980 his wife discovered his body at their home.
Rather than continue under the name “Joy Division” the remaining three members renamed themselves “New Order” and their first single, “Ceremony” was an Ian Curtis song that would have been recorded by the old group. New order went on to amazing worldwide success, but that’s another story.
Cowboy Junkies
COWBOY JUNKIES
I recently picked up a second hand copy of “The Trinity Session” by Cowboy Junkies. I had had the album for years but had somehow lost it over time. The album was once hardly ever off my CD player, and since ‘re-discovering’ it, it has gone back to being one of my most-played discs.
I was astonished to see that the album had been released in 1988, twenty-one years ago! This prompted me to find out more about the group, and I had expected to find that they had long since broken up, but was pleasantly surprised to find that they are very much alive and kicking, and had in fact released a twenty-year anniversary edition CD, called “Trinity Revisited” with guest singers Natalie Merchant, Ryan Adams and Vic Chesnutt and the rest of the group revisiting the familiar songs from the original album, which was their second ever release.
The first album, the strangely titled “Whites Off Earth Now!“, had never achieved the commercial success of the second one. In fact success has been relatively limited for the group, with only the 1988 Trinity Session release being a hit in the USA. Seven other albums have made the Billboard Top 200 but have mostly peaked at comparatively low figures. In their home country of Canada they have fared much better, with 14 singles reaching the Canadian charts, the highest being a number 7 slot for “Angel Mine” .
I always like to see how a group chose their name, but all I can find about the Cowboy Junkies is that they chose their name ‘randomly’ on the way to their fist gig. The group personnel has remained unchanged since they first formed in 1985 in Toronto, Ontario. Three family members, Margo, Michael and Peter Timmins and Alan Anton. The three Timmins siblings are descendants of one Noah Timmins who founded the Canadian city named after him. Another musician, Jeff Bird, while officially not a member of the group, has played with them on many albums and on tours.
My favorite track on “the Trinity Session” is “Sweet Jane” a cover of the 1960s song by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground and the single was featured in the film “Natural Born Killers”. “Sweet Jane” has also been played in the background music of many hit TV shows, such as ‘Cold Case’, ‘Crossing Jordan’, ‘Big Love’ and ‘CSI’ while “To Love Is To Bury” also from ‘The Trinity Session’ has joined ‘Sweet Jane‘ as being featured in episodes of the vampire series ‘True Blood’.
I recommend you give this eerie, atmospheric album a listen to and also explore the group’s other recordings.
Gram Parsons
With a rather strange family background involving his real father’s suicide, and his mother’s descent into alcoholism, it’s maybe not so surprising that Gram’s life was short although he packed into his time on Earth more than most people accomplish in three score years and ten.
Gram’s interest in music is rumored to have been kick-started by seeing Elvis Presley in concert, but his first ventures into the music scene were folk-tinged, with a group called “The Shilos” influenced by The Kingston Trio
From there, after getting an interest in country music by going to a Merle Haggard concert, he and friends formed “International Submarine Band” who issued the revered album “Safe At Home” featuring two well-known tracks written by Parsons, “Blue Eyes” and “Luxury Liner” later to be recorded by Emmylou Harris, with whom Parsons would form a wonderful musical partnership later in his brief life.
The International Submarine Band underwent numerous personnel changes including Parsons leaving them to collaborate with the magical Byrds. Roger McGuinn later insisted that Gram Parsons was never an official member of the band, and that he was merely hired to take part in the group’s legendary country rock album “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo”. His time with the group was filled with musical disagreements as he attempted to mould the Byrds into pure country-rock, and they soon parted company.
Parsons next venture was to form “Flying Burrito Brothers” with the Byrds’ Chris Hillman – a group which included at various times Chris Ethridge, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Bernie Leadon and many others. Like so much in Gram’s convoluted life, this group too had it’s complications, as “Flying Burrito Brothers” had also been the name of a band formed by the remaining members of the “IInternational Submarine Band” and that group continued to tour, adding the word “East” to the name of the band!
The Burrito’s “Gilded Palace of Sin” is another seminal country rock album, revered by thousands, and included “Christine’s Tune (Devil In Disguise)” and “Hot Burrito #2” later covered by Elvis Costello. The group opened for the Rolling Stones and Gram’s life took another strange turn when he formed a close relationship with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, and claimed to have influenced their style of music.
Gram’s life would take even more twists and turns. Watch this space for part two of the story…..
Gram Parsons MP3 downloads on Amazon
“Gram Parsons & the Fallen Angels: Live 1973”
“The Complete Reprise Sessions”
“Another Side Of This Life”
“G.P.”
“Grievous Angel”
“Revenge”- Delicious, Deceitful, Damn good!
On April 18th, ABC’s huge hit show “Revenge” comes back to our screens for the final few episodes of Season One, and we can’t wait. Riveting viewing, and an evening soap opera in the style of “Dallas” or “Dynasty” featuring the mega-rich, the working-class upstarts, and scenery that we mere mortals only dream about living near.
The series began with the apparent murder of Daniel Grayson, the rich kid of mega-rich Victoria and Conrad Grayson, at his engagement party to Emily Thorne. The action then changed to ‘flashback’ mode and we watched the events of the previous few months and years leading up to the death.
Amanda Clarke’s father had been framed years ago for the death of several hundred people in a plane crash caused by terrorists. The Graysons had been money laundering for the terrorist group and when that was about to be discovered they framed David Clarke, Amanda’s father. David had been having an affair with Victoria Grayson but she turned against him in order to save her family and the status of their rich life.
Those of you who haven’t watched the show may be saying “Who is Amanda Clarke?”. A GOOD question, for she is now calling herself Emily Thorne and has infiltrated herself into the Graysons by wooing their son Daniel, BUT there is a REAL Emily Thorne, a juvenile offender with a habit of killing people, who now calls herself Amanda Clarke, and who has now moved into the town. The real Amanda’s childhood sweetheart, Jack Porter, now falls for the fake Amanda believing she is the REAL one. Confused? Its just the way I tell the story. Its much clearer in the show, and the episodes are filled with intrigue, lust, betrayals and……REVENGE!!! Watch the show, you’ll thank me!
Choose one favorite song of all time…..
Favorite songs come and go – in my case all the time. There’s always the song of the day playing inside my head, and I can’t help but sing along to it – out loud, much to the annoyance of certain of my work colleagues! But those songs come and go as my mood changes.
There are SOME songs, however, that ALWAYS stay with me and this article concerns those SPECIAL songs! The ones that always top my charts, that I can play time and time again and never get sick of. So please choose the ONE song that is your all-time favorite. Post a comment to tell me what that song is.
MY short list contains songs from most genres. Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?
Love Will Tear Us Apart – The Best of Joy Division
Other people’s choices: Chozen Love: “Vanished
April 15th 2012
In response to many requests, I have now expanded the favorite song request to your TOP TEN! Here’s MY list. This is the top NINE after Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
Kirsty MacColl -They Don’t Know
Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat
Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy
Kirsty MacColl – A New England
and I could go on for hours with more………..
“Luther” – a damaged detective!
“Luther
He is separated from his wife although he expects to get back with her. She has other ideas, though! His first case back involves an attractive young psychopath who he knows has murdered her parents but he can not prove. During the course of two seasons, Luther and Alice, the evil genius psychopath, get involved on many levels. Watch the YouTube video about this compelling show….
Music Played on TV Shows
I wonder if shows in the Fifties, like “Dragnet  ” or “Highway Patrol  ”, had songs playing in the background. I would guess probably not. This is a much more recent trend, and gradually the music played on television shows is becoming as important as the action. In “Cold Case”, for example, the music was cleverly taken solely from the year in which the action takes place. Several episodes of that show have featured the music of only one artist. Such as Bruce Springsteen, or Pearl Jam. When a show features a particular song, it can have quite an effect on the career of the artist, and can inspire a sudden surge in sales or downloads of the particular song. Sales of songs by such artists as Fauxliage, The Decemberists, and The Bravery jumped dramatically for a few days after episodes featuring their music aired.Another group to benefit from having their music played on TV is “The Kin”, who have had an upsurge in sales of their songs having been featured in “Army Wives” and “Moonlight”. Speaking of “Moonlight”, the vampire detective/love story which was inexplicably canceled after just one season by CBS, that show’s fans were frantically searching for the titles and singers of songs featured in each episode within seconds of the show having aired. People on the west coast were on forums searching for the music from fans on the east coast where the show had already been seen.The rise of iTunes over the last few years has been incredible to watch, and many fans of the shows have created “iMixes” of songs played during their favorite shows. “Moonlight” has more than its fair share of such fans.
One website gaining more and more devoted fans nowadays is www.TunesOnTheTube.tv which manages to list the songs played in shows usually on the same day that they are broadcast and covers an incredible 80 popular shows, past and present. This is a site by www.TunesOnTheTube.tv – check out all our pages for lists of the songs played in… 90210 – American Idol – Big Love – Bones– Brothers and Sisters – Californication – Chuck –The City – The Cleaner – Cold Case – Criminal Minds – CSI – CSI Miami – CSI New York –Damages – Dancing With The Stars – Desperate Housewives – Eli Stone – Entourage – ER–Everybody Hates Chris – Flashpoint – Friday Night Lights – Ghost Whisperer – Gossip Girl –Greek – Grey’s Anatomy – Heroes – The Hills – House – How I Met Your Mother – In Plain Sight – Kyle XY – The L Word – Army Wives – Life – Life On Mars – Lipstick Jungle – Lost –Medium – Monk – My Name Is Earl – Nip Tuck – One Tree Hill – Private Practice – Privileged –Pushing Daisies – Reaper – Rescue Me – Sarah Connor Chronicles – Scrubs – Smallville– So You Think You Can Dance – Supernatural – Swingtown – True Blood – Ugly Betty – Weeds –Without A Trace And these shows “Gone, But Not Forgotten” The 4400 – The Bionic Woman – Cashmere Mafia – Crossing Jordan – Jericho – Journeyman –K-Ville – Men In Trees – Moonlight – New Amsterdam – October Road – The Sopranos –Veronica Mars – What About Brian? Plus check out Music Played on British UK TV shows |
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