Country Song Structure

No, this isn’t a post on how I’m drunk because my lady left me and my dog died. Though this is the best version of that ever. It’s about Country song narrative structure, or at least structure. You really can’t listen to Country radio and not be aware of this. It’s typical Verse-Chorus-Verse, often telling a story, but the aspect that gets used so often in Country tunes is that there is a revelation in the penultimate verse that changes the meaning of the chorus. Up until the penultimate verse, the listener thinks the song is about one thing, but then once that verse plays it becomes about something else. One beat-you-over-the-head example of this is Randy Travis’s “Three Wooden Crosses.”

The first verse-chorus combo goes:

A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher,
Ridin’ on a midnight bus bound for Mexico.
One’s headed for vacation, one for higher education,
An’ two of them were searchin’ for lost souls.
That driver never ever saw the stop sign.
An’ eighteen wheelers can’t stop on a dime.

There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway,
Why there’s not four of them, Heaven only knows.
I guess it’s not what you take when you leave this world behind you,
It’s what you leave behind you when you go.

– And so we think there are only three crosses because the hooker went to Hell, but hold on with your rush to judgment you hasty judgers. At the end we find out that there are only three crosses because the hooker didn’t die. In fact, she was given a bible by the dying preacher and she found God and had a son who became a preacher and the singer of the song. And so, ” There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway, Why there’s not four of them, Heaven only knows,” becomes not about the mystery of judgment but rather the unknowable plan of God.

I used to think that the brilliant part about this general structure was the moment of revelation when you go “Oh! I get it! How clever!” but now I realize that there’s something even better . . . you can only listen to the song with that moment of revelation once. Every time after that you know the intended meaning of the chorus. The song has two meanings: one the first time you hear it, and another for every time after.

Brilliant.

Oh! And on the theme of Christian themed music. Today was the beginning of A Very Special Acoustic Christmas going on heavy rotation at home. See the main Tift Merritt post for details. The album is awesome.

A Cold December

A recent visit to my new favorite tour date website, tourfilter, confirmed my past experience regarding live Alt-Country and Americana shows in New York City. Basically, I noticed that there’s  an incredible number of excellent shows from summer into fall in the city with October and November being particularly rich. I suppose this isn’t any big surprise. New York is large enough to support these niche genres and presumably the artists would prefer to be here before it gets cold as sin and slushy as something that’s slushy. Even the Two Man Gentlemen Band (who recently pre-released their 3rd record - “Heavy Petting”) are eschewing their usual Tuesday gigs for a tour which is good for them.  Still, it’s bad news for me. Sadly, they don’t make a lamp for this type of seasonal affective disorder. Recently through some friends, however, I’ve become more aware of the local folk scene which will hopefully get me through these hard times.

A brief note on Tourfilter (link above): While I’ve found it to not be quite as thorough as pollstar, which seems to operate at some sort of pre-cognitive speed, it does send you emails and allow you to set up an RSS feed to let you know when you’re chosen performers come to town. I have the no budget, no staff operation to thank for quite a few excellent shows recently.

Nous Non Plus!

FYI - Nous Non Plus at Mercury Lounge this Thursday (opening for The Little Death which is either Moby’s band or somehow associated with Moby or something). Anyway, NNP are the reigning faux French band in the city. Go and find out why. You can thank me later.

Did I Mention That I Love Vindication?

My introduction to small batch whiskey came the summer after my junior year in college–specifically, the night before my sister got married. I walked up to my sister’s future sister-in-law’s husband and–since this was before I was enlightened–said, “What’s that, a Shirley Temple?” Oh! The shame. It turned out to be a Maker’s Mark Manhattan on the rocks, my cocktail of choice for years. In fact, if there was bourbon in my liquor cabinet, it was Maker’s. Then at my friend Matt’s birthday party we sampled a little Woodford Reserve. It was no more Maker’s for me after that. Similar price point, much richer flavor. Then I decided I needed to try the other widely available, small batch bourbon, Knob Creek. I had been slightly turned off by it’s kitschy label for some time but I said what the hey, you know? Not only did Knob Creek have at least the same richness as Woodford, but it was also more complex, combining a nice caramel with a sharper edge, sort of characteristic of the interesting combination of sweet and spicy in good rye. Now my bourbon heart belonged to another.

Well folks, it turns out that the good people–and by good people I mean the team of liquor drinkers assembled by the Times’s Eric Asimov–agree. Knob Creek beat out Woodford Reserve in their recent bourbon rankings. Maker’s didn’t even make the list. Incidentally, it turns out that Maker’s is manufactured in much larger batches. When you check out the recent rankings also note the nod to Tuthilltown Spirits, a distillery focusing on local sourcing that’s in Gardner, New York–only a stone’s throw from my home town of New Paltz.

I love vindication.

Christian McBride Band Tickets - Get’em While They’re Hot!

[Update:  Day of show corrected.  The concert is on Saturday,  not Friday]

Below is a brief recounting of my introduction to Jazz in general and Christian McBride specifically. If you’re just interested in the tickets skip down to the “Ticket Info” heading below.

So my Christian McBride Band tickets for this Friday were born a long time ago in a city called Poughkeepsie or maybe a town called Poughquag. That was where I went for saxophone lessons with the most excellent Steve K. who I believe was in a polka band. Don’t get me wrong, the man was a serious sax teacher. I wasn’t bad when I got to him, but when he was done with me I was on my way to NYSSMA - don’t knock it, it was probably my greatest musical achievement prior to, dare I say it, the year that my marching band performed selections from Gustav Holst’s The Planets (Mars, Venus, and Jupiter I believe). Anyway, as a parting gift he gave me a CD by Joe Henderson, Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn (incidentally, I think Strayhorn might be one of the greatest Jazz last names I’ve ever heard). I was obsessed with the disc for a time and started to keep a casual eye out for the other musician’s in addition to Henderson, including one Christian McBride on bass. Thus when I got the CU Arts email letting me know that the Christian McBride Band would be here on December 1st with seven dollar tickets, I knew I had to go.

Unfortunately the date turns out to coincide with my friends’ engagement party so the tickets are up for grabs. See below on how to get them.

Ticket Info

So these 2 tickets, normally $25 a piece, are $7 dollars for Columbia University Students. I’ll just be looking to pass them on to someone for face value ($14). I’d prefer to give them away to CU students, students, and the general public in that order. If you’re interested just leave a comment on the blog that you’re interested and the site should have you enter an email address (which will not be visible on the site) and I’ll contact you so we can make arrangements to get you the tickets. If you missed the link to the details above, the show information is:

The Christian McBride Band, Friday  Saturday, December 1, 8:00 p.m. - Columbia’s Miller Theater

Step, Step, Side to Side

So maybe I’m just a little slow on the uptake, but I was recently made aware that R. Kelly’s Step in the Name of Love off of his Chocolate Factory contains a coordinated dance.  On my way out from Terence and Catherine’s most excellent going away party at AmCaf I had to pass through another private party where everyone clearly knew this dance.  I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but somewhere between the curtain separating the two parties and the coat check, a nice young lady decided to teach me the dance.  I’m lacking video of the vision of grace that I’m sure I was but, like all good coordinated dance song singers, Mr. Kelly gives us the directions:

step step side to side
round and round dip it down
separate bring it back
now let me see you do the love slide (yeah)

(dance) step step side to side
round and round dip it down
separate bring it back
now let me see you do the love slide

(step) step (step) step (step) side to side
round and round dip it down
separate bring it back
now let me see you do the love slide

Rinse .  Repeat.

New York, meet Tift. Tift, New York.

(Soon to be replaced by better pictures I hope) New photo courtesy of Mark. More at his Picasa website.

Sometimes a great show lives up to your expectations and sometimes it exceeds them. I am very thankful that tonight’s Tift Merritt show falls into that rare, latter category. This post is probably going to get a little detailed, so I’ll provide the highlights here and post the rest below. This show made a few things very clear to me:

1. Despite the solid band that backs her on both her albums, it’s her voice that powers her songs. This was the first time I saw Tift play solo. Her version of Good Hearted Man tonight was a case in point. On Tambourine her vocals rest on top of a lush arrangement with horns and some great backing vocals. She sang it while accompanying herself on the piano tonight. It lost nothing. Nothing. The crowd went wild over it. She seemed quite bashful when she received the response but it was well deserved.
2. What made Bramble Rose great is back. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Tambourine. But I want to marry Bramble Rose. The songs carry more emotional weight and are they are consistently more intimate. The new songs that Tift played tonight hit those very notes after what must have been a very reflective period living in Paris. Another Country had the same ability to make your heart feel like it’s about to break when the emotional peak of the lyrics coincides with the hook on the refrain. The new compositions might be more mature, though. This emotional sweet spot was more understated in the new songs which gave them a greater resonance.

The Other Details

I should perhaps be more subtle with my note-taking at concerts. At one point during the show, Tift said something like, “There’s the critic in the back taking notes” from the stage with mock scorn. With no witty retort in hand, I gracefully flailed my arms in a crossing pattern trying to indicate that “No, I am not a critic but merely a nerdy fan taking notes for the set list he would later post on his informal blog of low readership.” Unconvinced that said hand waiving conveyed this message I decided to give Tift the url for Rattle My Cage after the show. Tift was very friendly and I left the show and our conversations with an autographed poster and the potential for the beginning of what I’m sure will be a large celebrity readership.

Anyway, the show was opened by the Rosewood Thieves who were quite good. Catchy yet sedate independent sound that borders on alt-country/Americana. Unfortunately my set list for them is mostly illegible, but I’d definitely go see them again. I stood next to the lead singer’s cousin during the set. Right.

Finally, I have Chris and Nina a big thank you for letting me know about the show. Without them, I would have missed one of the best shows I’ve seen all year. I also met Mark who was snapping pictures in the hopes that he would pass some along to be to include on Rattle My Cage. He was off to the Living Room and Rockwood Music Hall afterwards so if these come in it will probably be tomorrow or later.

Okay, so rather than try to present this as a narrative I’m going to do it as an semi-annotated set list. A bunch of the songs were new, presumably off her new album, Another Country due out in February, so my titles might not be correct:

[Update: Corrections and additions courtesy of Chris P.]

1. Something to Me
2. [I missed this one] - I think it might have been Morning is My Destination. My Heart is Free
3. Can’t Keep from Tryin’ Hopes too High - The Bramble Rose style melodies became apparent here. The narratives here seem more personal, though.
4. Another Country - I’m listening to this on Tift’s myspace page right now and it reconfirms it’s instant emotional impact. While Tift was playing it, around the time of the third verse, a water bottle she had perched on the piano slipped off onto the keys with a loud piano crash. Needless to say this broke the mood instantly. She stopped and after a little bit of stage banter made the very wise choice to move the starting point back so that the song would peak after an appropriate build. The amazing thing was that when she restarted the song, she didn’t have to get into it again. She was just there. Some musicians have beautiful voices that they can turn on and off at will, but this was something different. It was as though the emotion in the song was always residing in her voice. When she sings there’s no other possibility than to have this feeling in it. I had to dry my eyes a little. Seriously.
5. Supposed to Make You Happy - Tift stepped away from the microphone for this song. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was having some problems with the sound in her monitor or if it was her plan, but it was my ideal, like when Laura and her band played the Whiskey Makes You Sweeter than You Are at the show at Mo’ Pitkins a few years back. She and her guitar and harmonica were beautiful. You had to strain just the slightest bit to hear. It was perfect.
6. At this point Tift mentioned that basically, the difference between playing in rock clubs and playing in book stores (the show was at Housing Works’s books store at 68 Prince Street with its proceeds going to support homeless men, women, and children living with HIV and AIDS) was that the reading you do before shows in rock clubs is on the walls. She then shared with us a selection of books she pulled off the stacks downstairs: The Truth About Modeling, The Trouble with Being Born, Marijuana, Beautiful Sinners of New York, The Music Lover’s Poetry Anthology.
7. In This Land - I think I remember this quasi-protest song from the last time I saw Tift. Again, acapella with tambourine. Excellent.
8. Virginia, No One Can Warn You - G D C D G, Capo on the 5th fret. Great version. Serious crowd response. And then Tiift singles me out for taking notes here. And says I’m writnig somethign like “She’s clumsy” because she kept knocking things over. Never, I say! She’s still the paragon of grace in my eyes.
9. Keep You Happy (?) - Not to be confused with Supposed to Make You Happy - This one has my favorite country song writing device of the inversion in the last chorus which, in this case, becomes “keep me happy.” Another new one from Another Country I expect.
10. Good Hearted Man - This was spectacular. As I noted above, this minimalist version lost none of the power and the crowd let her know it. It was a performance to remember.
11. Mille Tendreses - I think. At least it was in French and the lyrics to this song on her website are also in French. Allan Light of WFUV who was the MC came on stage to thank us and Tift’s return to the stage seemed like legitimate encore and not the typical encore out of duty.
12. Ain’t Looking Closely
13. Morning is My Destination

As a post-script I’d like to mention that if you really love Tift’s music there are two compilations you should look into for her contributions. Her version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” on the country-compilation A Very Special Acoustic Christmas is simply awesome. Also, “It’s the Shame” on Songs for Sixty-Five Roses (a disc of North Carolina artists covering other NC artists — I think — whose proceeds go to supporting systic fibrosis research — I know — has an incredible emotional impact.

I need to hyper-link a bunch of stuff in here, but I’m exhausted. Tomorrow most likely.

Virginia, No One Can Warn You

Tonight is a Tift Merritt/Rosewood Thieves show at Housing Works Live from Home which I expect to be excellent. Tift’s playing solo on guitar and piano which will totally highlight her voice and her song writing. Plus she’s seriously easy on the eyes. Review to follow, I’m sure.

Lederhosen hanging from the trees!

This in from my uncle who, along with my aunt, is living on Koln, Germany for the year while my cousin studies German philosophy. I like the last two lines especially:

Yesterday [November 11th] it was St. Martin’s Day, the “official” opening of the Karneval in Köln. The two days before that, children dress up, knock on friends’ doors, sing a few pretty local songs and then hope for sweet gifts in return. On the day itself - the 11th day of the 11th month - everyone between the ages of 16 and about 40 or more gets dressed up as Friars, Dairy Maids, Nuns, Hansel & Gretel, soldiers, cowboys, Cardinals, pirates, historical figures, or what have you, many in the most outlandish costumes imaginable. And then they all get drunk in the streets together! It begins in Heumarkt Platz with entertainment and speeches on a stage that’s impossible to see because it’s so surrounded with jammed-up crowds of costumed partygoers. Susan and I saw it firsthand but took our neighbors’ advice to clear out from there long before the afternoon. At exactly 11 minutes past 11, they shout and yell and cheer to mark the significant moment. What’s the significance? Hmmm…

 

But that’s just the more formal beginning. Throughout the afternoon and evening, at various spots all around the city, people gather outside pubs, discos, kiosks, etc. (all still in their wild costumes) and drink themselves silly. The rain didn’t seem to hamper them very much at all. To meet Brandon, Anna & Taran for dinner at our favorite Greek restaurant down Zulpicherstrasse toward the University, Susan and I made our way through the crowds who filled the 4 blocks of Zulpicher (now blocked off to auto traffic) and couldn’t believe how many empty beer bottles had been piled up on the sidewalk and massed along the curbs or some even just tossed into the street! The Germans don’t let go very often. When they do, it’s pretty crazy.

Incidentally, the cropped photo at the top of Rattle My Cage is from a February 2006 Karneval Celebration at NYC’s very own Zum Schneider.  Highly recommended — well, at least during Karneval.  They do a cabaret show.  Last year:  The Schmuppets take Manhattan or The Schmuppet Movie.  You get the idea.

Did Doogie Houser just steal my fucking car?

So my friend Paul, of the most excellent Square Off and Share, had a fantastic (or at least not incredibly awkward) interaction with Danny Leiner, director of the comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle recounted here. Not only did I feel the need to pass this along, but it gave me the opportunity to demonstrate that the universe unfolds in a circle of life. How so? Because the title of this post, taken from the aforementioned Harold and Kumar, refers to the breakout role of Neil Patrick Harris, my only celebrity siting in New York — well, that is if you don’t count the time I saw Julia Stiles in her senior year at Columbia and like the keen mind you know me to be thought, “Huh? That girl looks a lot like Julia Stiles.”