Every Moment Has A Song

(via mental floss) by Erika Berlin

There are four Grammy categories that carry the most prestige—Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. The latter is self-explanatory, but what of the other three? For the distinctions between Album, Record, and Song, we have to look at the Grammy academy’s rules about who is eligible for each of those awards…

Songs You May Have Missed #573

27 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: asia, john payne, ready to go home

Asia: “Ready to Go Home” (2001)

A poignant reflection on the end of life. As I wrote elsewhere in this blog: This is the kind of song most rock bands wouldn’t touch; it takes balls, frankly, to sing about the surrender of earthly cares and the forgiveness of sins within the rock arena. This is the kind of song that makes Asia’s John Payne era matter. With none of the Wetton-Downes power harmony bluster Asia is known for, “Ready to Go Home” might actually be the boldest artistic statement in their catalog.

Co-written by Andrew (“Thank You for Being a Friend”) Gold and 10cc alum Graham Gouldman.

On the street below these walls
Where I used to walk
Now I can barely crawl
All this darkness rising tall
Lord, shine a light for me
I’m waiting to be called

I’m ready to go home
I’m ready to receive
Forgiveness for my sins
I’m ready to begin

Take this river to the sea
Where the delta flows
The tide is washing over me
Guide this soul to heaven’s door
Show me where tomorrow lies
I’m waiting to be born

I’m ready to lay down
I’m ready now to sleep
A promise I must keep
I’m ready to go home

Sometimes I lay down with these memories
Breathe shallow deep inside of me
When time has run its course with me
And I’m ready to go home

When the evening shadows fall
When the time has come
I’ll let defenses fall
To surrender’s to survive
I will give up everything
To those I leave behind

The Jayhawks are Back!

25 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: the jayhawks

Roots country band The Jayhawks are a favorite of this blog and their welcome return in the form of new album Paging Mr. Proust arrives April 29th.

Its lead track and first single “Quiet Corners & Empty Spaces” has the sweeping, melodic sound of their classic Rainy Day Music LP. Listen to it here.

Songs You May Have Missed #572

19 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: fairport convention, fotheringay, sandy denny

Fairport Convention: “Fotheringay” (1969)

Fairport Convention’s second album, What We Did on Our Holidays, was Sandy Denny’s debut with the band. What she brought in the way of ethereal vocals and songwriting capability (she wrote “Fotheringay”) made an already formidable lineup even stronger.

That’s guitar legend Richard Thompson, still a teenager when this was recorded, providing the fluid, folky and atmospheric acoustic guitar. So much was ahead for Thompson, who showed a necessary restraint within the confines of mostly three-minute songs at this stage of Fairport’s existence. He soon left the band to record as a solo act (which he still does today) and to make a series of well-regarded albums with (now ex) wife Linda Thompson. His own material provides a format more conducive to his cutting loose with jaw-dropping solos.

Richard was fortunate enough to have recorded with the two women regarded as the best British female folk singers of all time in Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson.

As for Denny, she left Fairport a few years later as well, forming a new folk band whose name was shared with this song, Fotheringay. Her life was cut tragically short in 1978 when, having fallen down a staircase and hit her head on concrete, she died of a trauma-related brain hemorrhage a few weeks later.