American Songwriter » September/October 2009

Sheryl Crow: 100 Miles From Memphis

Patrick Burns — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:37:48 +0000

100 Miles From Memphis" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/100-miles-from-memphis-sheryl-crow.jpg" alt="Sheryl Crow: 100 Miles From Memphis" width="200" height="200" />
Sheryl Crow 100 Miles From Memphis A&M Rating: 4 out of 5 stars With 100 Miles from Memphis, Sheryl Crow takes us back to the glory days of 1960s and 1970s American soul and R&B. The album’s name is a reference to her hometown, Kennett, Missouri, which sits 100 miles from the Tennessee Blues capital. For Crow, the region “is part of who I am, and it’s the biggest inspiration for what I do.” On her seventh album, the American songstress returns to her artistic roots, and reveals more of herself in the process. Since 1993’s Tuesday Night Music Club, for which she won three Grammys, Sheryl Crow has constructed her image on a carefree, vibrant approach to folk-rock and country-pop, looking to Carole King and Bonnie Raitt as vocal progenitors. But on 100 Miles from Memphis¸ she flashes her groovy side. Over the course of 12 songs, she effortlessly channels the classic sounds of Motown, Stax, and the Memphis radio stations she tuned into as a child. From the initial energy blast of the bluesy, stomping “Our Love Is Fading,” the album never tires, touching on reggae (“Eye To Eye”), sinuous, rollicking R&B (“Long Road Home”) and jangly doo-wop (“Peaceful Feeling”). “Summer Day,” the first single, is the quintessential summer love song. From the opening funky bass hook and “nah, nah, nah” chants, the song is structurally flawless. And, as a nod to its title, the nostalgic string arrangements echo those bittersweet summer days that always seem to end too soon. Crow’s chameleon-like ability to bounce from style to style is perhaps most demonstrative on “Eye To Eye,” a breezy reggae jam with a rock steady jaunt straight from Studio One. As guest and close friend Keith Richards plays the slinky guitar riff, Crow gracefully slides into the chorus: “If we don’t see eye to eye, it doesn’t mean we can’t try, to get along.” Here, the 48-year-old mother of two intimates that she has “learned how to dig deep,” not only in songwriting, but also in life. It could be that Crow’s lifetime familiarity with the musical references on 100 Miles is what gives her the poise to approach topics she heretofore shied away from, like vulnerability, lost love and sex. On “Stop,” the only song for which she takes sole songwriting credit, her voice is desperate as she croons, “I could beg, I could pray, that you could come back one day.” She continues on the sultry, “Sign Your Name,” a cover of the Terence Trent D’Arby 1987 classic. The seductive, raspy whisper on the line, “slowly we make love,” presents a surprisingly sexy side of Crow. Yet her self-assuredness – not just here, but across the whole album – conveys that this is just one side of the same woman who has been behind the microphone all along. Replicating the vintage sounds of Booker T, Marvin Gaye, and Sly Stone is no easy task, so credit the backing band for really throwing itself into the enterprise. Producers Justin Stanley and Doyle Bramhall II prioritized the instrumentation on the album by writing the music first and having Crow go back to pen the lyrics. The impeccable production ensures that repeat listens will always reveal more detail. And, for as remarkably focused on Crow’s voice as the songs are, there’s often still enough space for the musicians to air it out, like the extended deep funk jam on “Roses and Moonlight.” Crow’s limitless capacity to appropriate various vocal styles is one reason for her massive commercial success. The same quality has also led some to criticize her music as too impersonal. On 100 Miles from Memphis, however, Crow’s biographical bona fides silence these complaints. It may have taken her over 20 years, but today Sheryl Crow is retrieving and expanding upon those parts of her artistic sensibility that had always been there. As the artist admits, “These feelings won’t go away.”

Bart Herbison: On The Money (Extended Version)

Matthew Shearon — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:00:19 +0000

Interview by MATTHEW W. SHEARON A lot of songwriters ask us questions like, “What is going on in Washington, D.C., or in record company board rooms?” or “How do I get paid from subscription services?” Luckily, just down the street from our office, in the country group Alabama’s former Nashville office, the staff of NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) works earnestly to answer these questions for us and to aid songwriters across the globe. Bart Herbison, NSAI’s Executive Director, took a few minutes out of his morning to chat with us about where NSAI has been and is going. For those of us who haven’t followed the most recent sessions of Congress and the courts, could you offer a brief summary? I could tell a two-hour story here, but let me cut to the chase. What began as how to develop a “uni-license” covering both mechanical and performance royalties for subscription services and other new digital uses of music evolved into legislation called SIRA, (the Section 115 Copyright Reform Act). This piece of legislation was difficult to get to because all sides, the computer industry, the record labels, the music industry, songwriters, publishers all had to agree on it. When that legislative effort stalled and marketplace negotiations failed, these issues moved to the jurisdiction of the Copyright Royalty Board. It started off again with the divisions with the record labels and computer companies on one side and songwriters and music publishers on another. However, during the course of the proceedings the music industry began unprecedented communications and eventually created both a licensing and rate structure for new digital music uses. Were those conversations taking place in or out of the courtroom? So during a break in that trial, we still believed that we could still talk to and resolve this before the end of the trial. So last summer, about this time, we started some behind-the-scenes negotiations with the labels. They began to talk to us and with the music publishers and songwriters. We worked the current deal on the table for subscription music. So what are a couple specifics of this agreement? Songwriters and music publishers will receive 10.5 percent of the gross revenues of subscription services including the advertising revenue—an important precedent for music copyright holders. There are several different models of subscriptions, everything from tethered downloads to streaming sites. How the consumer uses the music determines how much payment goes through mechanical royalty channels and how much through performing rights societies. It is important to note that the mechanical portion of this agreement is retroactive for seven years effective this past March. What’s still on the table, what are you working on right now? There are a couple important legislative initiatives in Washington, D.C. for the music industry. One seeks a royalty for the sound recording owners from broadcasters. The other would ensure that songwriters and composers who write songs for movies and television continue to receive performance royalties when their music is part of a downloaded program or movie. Generally speaking though, this is a very quiet time in terms of Copyright issues in Congress. Songwriters’ issues in Congress are usually about money “coming in.” NSAI is also putting a new focus on money “going out.” For example, we just announced the creation of the first-ever Group Copyright Infringement Insurance plan that will allow more songwriters to afford this necessary coverage. The rates are dramatically lower and elements of the policy were created especially for songwriters. “Frivolous” lawsuits have become numerous and can literally wipe out a songwriter’s career earnings. We’re also working on ringtones. There was a raise on ringtones for songwriters and publishers from 9.1 to 27 cents, effective March 1st [ed. note, ringtone rates are now set at 27 cents per ringtone]. And for the first time ever, there was a late fee on record labels. An appeal to that is just now beginning in a U.S. district court in New York, so we’ll be working closely with all parties involved to come to a resolution. Just this October, a version of the performance royalty bill made out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. What’s your feeling about the progress? Getting the legislation to this point has been a long and complicated process. One of the Nashville Songwriters Association International's roles in this process has been to establish protections for songwriters within the bill--essentially to ensure that when this royalty is enacted it does not come at the expense of current performance royalties paid to American songwriters. Those protections remained intact in the version of the legislation that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. We will continue to work to see that those protections remain intact throughout the rest of the legislative process. What are you’re guiding principles when you’re neck deep in all these legislative and judicial processes? We’ve got two guiding philosophies here at NSAI in terms of our legislative work. One is we’ve got to redefine the American royalties system. Music is being stolen now instead of being paid for. People are making millions, if not tens of millions, on our music with ad sales and other things that leave songwriters out. So we’ve got to redefine copyright royalties. The other principle here is “United we stand as an industry, and divided we fall.” There have been too many scenarios with the labels on one side and the publisher and writers on another, or some other subset of that when there’s a legislative whatever. How are royalty models different in other countries? Around the world there are other models. For instance, Internet service providers and some other companies make a small percentage headwater payment out to the copyright. Movie theaters in Europe will pay big royalties for your songs in movies that play in the theater. In Canada, there is a proposal to essentially add a dollar a month on everyone’s cable bill. Why would you do that? Because then they could create a legal site in Canada where you can go to download all the music you want for free legally. And with movies, why would you do that? Because it would generate $27 billion royalties its first year, if that model were moved to America. Those things are all just in the discussion phases in America. So there are probably seven or eight new royalty streams that we’re trying to secure for songwriters. And let’s say you were able to take all those band-aids off of the royalties and copyright system tomorrow, where do you start making changes? Well, that’s actually pretty easy to me. You have to follow a song, whether it’s digital or out here in the terrestrial world still, on a truck with a bar code. And we have to get a fair, measured payment from everybody that accesses that music along the way. And on the Internet, even more than that, everybody that transmits the music. We’re up to three billion illegal downloads per month worldwide. Now, that’s not all music. It’s copyrighted material. But a substantial portion of it is music. And the argument for years has been that the Internet service providers say, “We just send it through our system, we don’t have any liability for it,” and we say, “You do.” From your point-of-view, is piracy still a conversation we need to be having or will the free market work things out? We still need to have it… in fact we need to raise the volume! I do believe that the marketplace will see some movement on this issue. We can put a huge dent in Internet piracy if we can finally conclude precisely how the music industry, government and the Internet Service Providers can punish and remove the accounts of illegal downloaders. We’ve taken some measured steps. Last year, there was a piece of legislation in Congress that shifted a lot of this authority over piracy and the burden of prosecution to the federal government--no one in the music industry wants to sue our own customers. It was a start, but the penalty portion still needs work. We need some teeth in that law where the FBI send you a Copyright infringement notice, where federal prosecutors make examples of this activity. If someone downloads hundreds of songs illegally, and they are warned multiple times about possible prosecution, but still insist on continuing the activity, then there must be repercussions, and serious ones.

MAKING YOUR OWN VIDEOS: Final Cut Pro

americansongwriter — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:04:13 +0000

In the world of video editing, Final Cut is the Pro Tools of video. Right out of the box, Final Cut Studio offers an amazing deal, with more than seven different audio/video editing programs that all work together to fulfill any want or desire a video maker could ever have. Kevin Fulda and Jake Jorgovan of Rabbit Hole Recording break down video gear. FINAL CUT STUDIO COST: $1395 In the world of video editing, Final Cut is the Pro Tools of video. Right out of the box, Final Cut Studio offers an amazing deal, with more than seven different audio/video editing programs that all work together to fulfill any want or desire a video maker could ever have. At core of this package is Final Cut Pro, an editing software that could be likened to a combination of Photoshop’s layer-visibility and Pro Tools’ time-based editing. Accordingly, those already experienced with digital audio workstations and Photoshop may pick up the Final Cut style quickly, while the average computer user may find it as cryptic as hieroglyphics. Final Cut’s strength rests in its unique ability to hold up to 99 audio and video tracks, as well as a huge bank of audio and video plug-in effects. While the interface may cause initial confusion, once mastered, the software provides all of the necessary functions to efficiently cut and edit professional videos. Final Cut gives editors all the tools necessary to tweak a project to perfection and distribute the video to a wide range of formats. While Final Cut does have the capacity to produce professional products ready for mass production, it still relies on the user behind the keyboard to craft professional output. This software is not for typical home video folks, but is a great choice for those who are seriously looking to get into the filmmaking business.

AMERICAN ICONS: Harry Warren

Paul Zollo — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:47:08 +0000

He was “the invisible man,” according to the writer William Zinsser, a classic example of a songwriter whose songs are far more famous than he is. He was “the invisible man,” according to the writer William Zinsser, a classic example of a songwriter whose songs are far more famous than he is. Yet Harry Warren wrote many of America’s most beloved standards. His songs make up a diverse list that includes up-tempo anthems and also beautifully melodic ballads: “At Last,” “You’ll Never Know,” “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” “Lullaby of Broadway,” “42nd Street,” “I Only Have Eyes For You,” “We’re in the Money,” “That’s Amore,” and more. And though the general public might not know his name, the great singers of our time know and cherish his songs. “Harry Warren was an absolute giant,” said Mel Torme. “He’s one of the great songwriter gods to me. I’d lump him with Kern, Rodgers and Hart, Gershwin, Porter, Berlin. Warren stands head and shoulders with each of them.” Warren, like Kern and George Gershwin, was a melodist who collaborated on songs with a legion of great lyricists that included Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, Al Dubin, Billy Rose and Mack Gordon. Unlike almost all of his peers and collaborators, he was not Jewish, but an Italian-American, born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna, one of 11 children raised in Brooklyn. His father, a bootmaker, changed the family name to Warren when Harry was a tyke, and couldn’t afford music lessons for his sons, but encouraged Harry to teach himself to play the family accordion. Harry quickly mastered drums, and dropped out of school at 16 to perform with a carnival band. Piano was his next instrument, and he was playing everywhere: at Vitagraph Motion Picture Studios, in cafes and silent movie theaters, all of which provided him with steady employment until 1918, when he joined the U.S. Navy. It was during his time in the military when he became a serious songwriter. Warren was not only a tremendously gifted melodist, he was also a prolific one. Between 1918 and 1991, he wrote more than 800 songs, 500 of which were published. These were the days when the measure of a songwriter’s success had to do with how many times a single song was covered. Standards became standards precisely because they were recorded so many times. “You’ll Never Know,” written with Mack Gordon, was recorded more than 50 times, reaching the Top Ten 24 times. With Al Dubin in 1934, he wrote one of the most recorded songs of all time, “I Only Have Eyes For You,” which was been recorded by more than 100 artists, including Sinatra, Ruby Keeler, The Flamingos, Art Garfunkel, Elaine Paige, Count Basie and The Lettermen. But he also wrote a profusion of songs that didn’t become standards. Their appeal was short-lived, but were hits nonetheless, starting with his first hit in 1922, “Rose In the Rio Grande,” with lyrics by Edgar Leslie. Scoring many hits in the 1920s, his melodies possessed the perfect blend of intoxicating verve that crystallized the spirit of the Jazz Age. He wrote many songs for 18 of Busby Berkeley musicals, able to melodicize the ebullience contained in Berkeley’s flamboyant choreography. He also wrote countless songs that would now be considered novelties, such as “Seminola (An Indian Love Song)” in 1925, “In My Gondola” in 1926 and “Nagasaki” in 1928. In the 1930s, he went to work for Warner Brothers, composing the famous songs for movies for which he’s still known. He was nominated for a total of 11 Academy Awards, and was awarded with the Best Song Oscar on three occasions: “Lullaby of Broadway” with Dubin in 1935, “You’ll Never Know” with Gordon in 1943, and “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” with Mercer in 1946. Warren would collaborate in different ways with each lyricist. With Dubin, Warren would write a melody with no thought given to the words, and then give it to him to write the lyric. With Mercer, they did it together. “[Mercer] would sit in a room with you,” Warren remembered, “and just stare silently. I would play him a melody and he’d listen to it and then sit there without talking.” Asked who was the most dominant member of the team when he would work with a wordsmith, he said, “I think that to successfully write songs, you have to think of a cadence where the rhymes are going to fall. When a composer collaborates with a lyricist, I think the composer is in control.” In 1941, Warren wrote the beautifully romantic “At Last” with Mack Gordon, a song covered by everyone from Etta James -- for whom it became a signature song --through Christina Aguilera, Cyndi Lauper, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Scott, Miles Davis, David Bowie, and most recently by Beyoncé, who sang it in the 2009 inauguration ball for Barack and Michelle Obama’s first dance. Like George Gershwin and Harold Arlen, Warren aspired to be more than a hit songwriter -- he wanted to be a serious composer. Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, he continued to write songs, but the advent of rock and roll changed the game, about which he was both saddened and enraged. Like many of his peers, he felt the art of songwriting had plummeted to a dismal low from which it would never recover. And so he moved away from the short form of songs to write a masterwork—a Latin mass, completed in 1962. Sadly, there was little interest in it, and it went unheard for a decade until Loyola Marymount University staged a performance of it. To this day, though, it has never been recorded. Although his last years were not happy ones, he lived a long life -- to the age of 87 in 1981, when he died in Los Angeles. And though his name is not a household one, the names of many of his songs are, and their popularity persists and expands. The “invisible man” might continue to remain unseen, but the songs he wrote have never gone unheard.

STREET SMARTS: Surviving in Interesting Times

Michael Kosser — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:40:16 +0000

Cataclysms are interesting. War, floods and pestilence are interesting times in that they are not boring. Songwriters are living in interesting times. Oh, I know, there are a handful of Nashville songwriters who have the system down pretty well. They write with the right artists and producers, and, more importantly, they are really great at mastering the formulae that the radio and record industries really seem to demand. I don’t wish to seem judgmental, but I have heard all the songs I care to hear about “I’m from the country, this is how we do things and if you don’t like it you can kiss my butt.” That particular sentiment has been making the rounds of radio since the middle period of Hank, Jr., and every year there are new versions. All right. We get it. Rednecks are good. Intellectuals are bad. Pickup trucks are good. Corollas are bad. Blue collar good, white collar bad. Country good, city bad. As the judges always say on Law and Order, can’t we move on? But I digress. This column addresses the question: “Will the next generation of songwriters be able to make a living?” I’m not sure I can answer it. First, let’s take a look at what’s happening. CD sales are falling, falling, falling. Very old country songwriters have seen all that before. Back in the early ‘70s, 100,000 was big album sales and 50,000 singles was a hit. And in those days, the writers split one cent for every record sold. So we depended on radio performances for our income. A No. 1 country hit in those days could earn its writers $30,000 total. We thought that was big money. Today a No. 1 country hit can mean a half-million dollars for its songwriters. Even in this down market, top country singers are still going multi-platinum. So where’s the problem? Well, you know the answers to that question. We’ve all talked enough about them. Too many artists writing their own songs and only rarely listening to outside material; short current playlists, and singles and albums released many months apart; major labels dwindling in numbers and shrunken artist rosters. Twenty-five years ago, hot songwriters were getting 100 cuts a year. Today, if you score a dozen major cuts in a year, then you are a major force. Furthermore, back in the good old days when a song became a big country hit, other artists cut it on their album. That was how country standards often got built. Nowadays, it’s virtually unheard of for an artist to put a classic on his/her album. The song has been devalued. The artist is king. And yet, songwriters on Music Row still get together to write, and songpluggers still plug, and songs still break through the wall of rigid stupidity from time to time. And when they do, the writer still has reason to celebrate, and will continue to have reason to celebrate for years to come. After all, publishers are finding new revenue streams for songwriters, replacements for and additions to traditional income sources. I recently talked to my friend Troy Tomlinson, president and CEO at Sony/ATV Nashville, and he gave me a pretty good fix on the old and the new. Sync Rights (Film, TV and Commercials) Nothing brand new here, but, according to Troy, “We’re spending extra man-hours in these areas. There are more opportunities for song placements because there are so many outlets.” Of special interest is the use of hit songs in many commercials. We all remember when most commercials were framed by memorable jingles especially written and recorded for the purpose of making commercials memorable. Jingle producer Steve Karmen wrote a wonderful book called Who Killed the Jingle?, in which he maintains that Madison Avenue’s own excesses caused agencies to forsake original jingles in favor of excerpts from hit records for their ads. Anyway, Troy sees considerable future growth in synchronization income. Lyric Reprints on Apparel We’ve all seen clever word content on T-shirts. Well, there’s gonna be a lot more of that, and much of it will be song lyrics, not only on T-shirts but on sweatshirts, shoes, jeans, and who knows what else? Publishing companies and writers can earn real money on royalties from a big-selling piece of clothing. Greeting Cards “Songs in greeting cards can be huge!” says Troy. Lyrics may be printed, or you might actually hear the songs on a self-contained chip with tiny speaker and power source in a greeting card. American Greetings and Hallmark are both big players in this field. Video Games Rock Band and Guitar Hero are voracious users of published music and every year a multitude of new games are released worldwide. Many of them use music for which their manufacturers pay considerable royalties. Ring-tones and Ring-backs There must be billions of cell phone users around the world and many of them like to customize their phones with hit songs for ring-tones and ring-backs—more revenue for hitmakers. Websites Every day new commercial sites come online, and some of them create deals for hit songs that will add to the attractiveness of the site. The Internet is that bright and shining thing that we all hope will add huge new revenues to make up for the ever-shrinking record sales. In addition to website themes, there are performance royalties from any number of online radio and video sites. Surely they will come up with models that will last and provide a steady stream of royalties for the songs they play. Surely the PROs will track these stations so they can pay writers and publishers on the basis of actual airplay. These are very exciting times. New media and new revenue streams mean new opportunities for the smart and the nimble. But unlike songwriters of the past, we can’t be passive song nerds. We’re going to have to really know our business if we’re going to survive.

A.A. BONDY: On Track

Edd Hurt — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:44:10 +0000

A.A. Bondy takes it easy throughout his new full-length When the Devil’s Loose, but it’s a subtly tortured record whose religious preoccupations and melancholia seem ingrained. A former rock star who found the pressures and constraints of big-time, big-label life a drag on his muse, Bondy whistles in the dark on When the Devil’s Loose. He seems focused on larger issues of life and death, love and hate, but he doesn't think he's making religious art. On this record, “I don’t think there’s anything that has to do with that,” Bondy says. “Someone could say ‘Jesus’ and it could have nothing do with Jesus. But I don’t know why that is at this point.” On his first solo collection, 2007’s American Hearts, Bondy had quoted “I Just Want to See His Face,” one of the tracks on the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. Bondy’s new music doesn’t have much to do with the Stones and seems like a dim memory of rock and roll. It’s skeletal and doleful—one of the slowest records in recent memory. Now 36, Bondy spent his formative years in New Roads, Louisiana, not far from Baton Rouge and the Mississippi River. At 13 he moved to Birmingham, Alabama. First coming to attention in a Birmingham band called Verbena, Bondy practiced hard in what he says was a fairly indistinct local scene. “I always felt separate from everything that was goin’ on there,” he says about Birmingham. “There wasn’t even like there was a group of bands at any given time that were touring heavily.” Touted as a Southern-fried alternative to Nirvana in the late ‘90s, Verbena released a couple of solid full-length albums; 1999’s Into the Pink, produced by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. They were a tight, aggressive band, with Bondy’s classically disaffected rock and roll vocals up front. These days, Bondy looks back on those heady days with some asperity. “Being in that band on a major label was not making music,” he says. “What we should’ve done was just take the money and hidden somewhere and made the records we wanted to make, knowing that they probably wouldn’t have gotten promoted. It’s normal for a young band to reach for the ring, be a big band. But that’s just f***n’ stupid.” Verbena made one more record, 2003’s La Musica Negra, and Bondy went off to reinvent himself. He assumed his birth name, Auguste Arthur, and cut American Hearts by himself in Palenville, New York. (He says he doesn’t live there any more, but isn’t more specific: “I don't know where I go next, really.”) It takes on various forms of bedrock American music—post-grunge mixed with the wayward guitars of Alex Chilton’s depressive masterpiece Like Flies on Sherbert [sic]. When the Devil’s Loose continues the sound, but Bondy says he’s more open and confident as a songwriter these days, and not afraid of going for the unguarded moment. “I started recording with other musicians and singing live in the room at the same time,” he says. About half the tracks on When the Devil’s Loose were recorded in this fashion, but the record feels sparsely populated even when there’s a full band charging along. Bondy believes his songwriting has changed over the years. “I don’t think it’s so much about craft as it is whatever it takes to get to arrange things until they feel right,” he says. “The less time I spend on things, the better I feel about them—I don’t like to torture things. I attempt to talk about it, but I can’t speak as to why one day you get a good song and one day you don’t.” The record is full of country, blues and gospel music. “To the Morning” works out its 6/8 gospel feel and finds it way in the dark. The songs are minimalist and sleepy, as if Bondy woke up out of an afternoon nap to perform them. He doesn’t seem to sing his songs so much as visit them, and doesn’t offer any easy explanations for what he's doing. As he says, “I don't know what I’m into.” You believe him. AGE: 36 HOMETOWN: NEW ROADS, LOUISIANA Favorite singer/songwriters: Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Michael Hurley, Charley Patton, Nina Simone. He also digs Australian band the Dirty Three and Godspeed You Black Emperor. “It’s weird—I tend to like things that don’t involve singing.”

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON > Closer To The Bone

Holly Gleason — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:44:56 +0000

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No singer/songwriter freezes moments in amber with the delicate detail and emotional frisson like Kris Kristofferson. KRIS KRISTOFFERSON Closer To The Bone (NEW WEST) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars No singer/songwriter freezes moments in amber with the delicate detail and emotional frisson like Kris Kristofferson. With the phrase “Take the ribbon from your hair…,” an entire tumble of erotic desire, quench and cavern opened before listeners on the brink of the Sexual Revolution’s collision with human need as his faltering “Help Me Make It Through the Night” defined the depth charge of flesh and soul communions in a single song. So it’s been for the man who saw elegance in hung-over desolation (“Sunday Morning Coming Down”), dignity in singularity (“The Pilgrim #33”), ragged loneliness in the footloose (“Me & Bobby McGee”) and salvation in spite of ourselves (“Why Me”). Kristofferson’s career’s also embraced activism (“Third World Warrior”), social consciousness (“They Killed Him”) and turns as an actor in several definitive American films (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Flashpoint, A Star Is Born, Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid). With all that, what’s left? In the waning of days, how does one maintain fervor in a bigger, harder, faster, deeper world? For a man of pure vision and clarity of spirit, strip everything away. Opening Closer to the Bone, the sea-salt-weathered baritone confesses with the anything-but-ironic line, “Ain’t it kinda funny, ain’t it just the way though/Ain’t you getting better as you’re running out of time…,” and sets his most tender revelations in proper context. For the Rhodes Scholar, songs exhume what’s essential. Whether embracing the flickering end of his friend Johnny Cash (“Good Morning John”), the impact of loss on the ones gone (“Hall of Angels [Dedicated To Eddie Rabbitt’s Lost Child]”) or the consequences of honesty while honoring the blazing true spirit (“Sister Sinead”), these are detail-grounded sketches of people, moments, and especially the lessons they embody. Backed by a lean band—anchored by producer/bassist Don Was and the late Stephen Bruton on guitar, mandolin and vocals—this is lean acoustica. Wallflower Rami Jaffee overdubs occasional keyboards and Jim Keltner imbues an elegiac backbeat. The star is the stoic gentleness of a man championing the basic truths—love, forgiveness, honor, kindness. Looking back on a life more than lived, Kristofferson offers a map to his children—“From Here To Forever,” deep soul love to his wife—“Tell Me One More Time,” “Holy Woman,” and the freedom of recognition—“Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.” But what’s more heartening is a man honest about his own state of grace sowing reminders for the ages. “And you can’t free nobody else, if you can’t be true to yourself,” he rasps in “Let The Walls Come Down,” empowering snapshot of real life. “If you're looking for a miracle now, buddy, you better be one…” In Kristofferson’s world—after the accolades and adventures—it’s the things within our reach that will set us free. When he sings “The Wonder,” it’s the ultimate altar of surrender, a final notion to steer by and close an introspective record that can ultimately make those who hear it more.

INSIDE PUBLISHING > E. Michael Harrington

Jewly Hight — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:44:49 +0000

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When songwriters (say, the guys behind Jib Jab’s irreverent song-and-dance cartoons) are accused of taking liberties with someone else’s song (say, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”), E. Michael Harrington is the sort of person who gets called in to determine whether anything untenable has gone down. That is, he’s an expert witness in matters of copyright infringement (and law and history and music theory), and he’s written and spoken plenty on the subject. There is no off-season to intellectual property disputes, but, thankfully, there is to college professorship. (Harrington is currently on the music faculty of New Jersey’s William Paterson University; before that, he was at Belmont University in Nashville). And that’s, no doubt, why we were able to get him on the phone on a weekday morning. Country music publishers are telling me just getting a cut on an album isn’t profitable enough anymore. Does that sound right to you? I think that’s generally true. Things have changed. People don’t buy as many CDs. The role of music is changing, and how we get it, how we use it, why we use it, where we use it—all these things have changed rapidly. The old-fashioned model of getting a song on an album, and that album’s going to sell millions is doubtful for all kinds of reasons. With physical outlets, so many have just died. But on the other hand, there’s more need for music and there’s more consumption, and there’s more music in more places. One of the problems is “How do you monetize it?” What are music publishers shifting to in terms of business models? I think one of the first things you’ve got to do is get it out and get it known. I think publishers now have to just do everything they can to get a buzz. Being aware and having a presence on Twitter, as well as Facebook, MySpace, these sort of things. I think you’ve also got to give things away. That silly notion that the RIAA still tries to sue people over downloading songs…that’s just wasting everyone’s time. It hasn’t worked. I think what publishers would have to do is just take advantage of all these things, work with them. Don’t say, “Uh oh, there’s twenty thousand downloads we didn’t get paid on.” I bet that’s true. But, OK, how do you fix it? Try to take advantage of these same things that are robbing you. Use them to get paid, or to get known. Bios of rising artists are touting song placements on TV and commercials as indicators of success, not radio airplay. Does it seem that other forms of licensing are supplanting radio airplay in importance? I don’t know if they’re supplanting them. They’re certainly supplementing them because there are so many other ways to get known now. You look at State Farm insurance, how they’re partnering with Latin bands and other musicians just to say, “Hey, we want that identity with our insurance, and we want to reach this kind of audience.” Or Bacardi rum and other corporations that want a music branding. Why shouldn’t the artist also be looking into that? Why not try to push more things towards Apple? I mean, Apple seems to be getting artists known—a few—and some writers as well. But I think you have to look at how you’re getting music into games, into ringtones, just all kinds of other ways. Is the mechanical royalty rate still set at what it was in 2007: 9.1 cents? Yes. That rate that had started at 2 cents in 1909 and was 2 cents in 1976, went up to 9.1. People were thinking, “Well, is it going to jump?” And it didn’t. Are there different standard royalty rates now for MP3s and for ringtones? Have all those been settled? 24 cents for ringtones. Some of it’s still not settled. Webcaster rates, those kinds of things. I don’t know that it’s too set yet. The other thing is when it comes to a contract, the contract can always say, ‘OK, I know the law says this, but you and I are going to agree that it’s this, three-quarters of the rate.’ It's called a controlled composition clause, and that’s still going to go on. Is there any standard for how digital music websites pay royalties? Part of it’s based on the size and how many listeners there are, which is the digital model as opposed to the old days. A lot of that’s still just a mess and it’s changing and not standard yet. Actually, artists in the future, it seems like they will be paid someday for terrestrial performances. But that’s another thing; songwriters and artists are often at odds with each other, because songwriters have been paid forever. But now what’s going to happen when other musicians on the recording are paid? Will that take away from songwriters? Will it mean that radio’s going to protest because it’s like, “Oh no, we have to pay even more now to promote your music?” And the NAB [National Association of Broadcasters] often views it as that: “We’re doing promotional work for you.” It seems like with such a high royalty rate, ringtones could be very lucrative. Oh yeah. I think it’s crazy not to take advantage of it. I remember hearing Terry McBride of Nettwerk, he was talking about Avril Lavigne. He got her to sing several of her choruses, like, “OK, now I want the one in Mandarin!” Try doing that on a hit country song, or any hit song. The ringtone market in China is gigantic. There’s a lot of piracy of the physical product of the CD, but it is common there for ringtones to sell 5 million, 10 million. Some have sold 20 million. In the United Sates you’re lucky if you get a million people buying a ringtone. And someone overseas may also end up re-recording an artist’s song. Right. This is something I care about a lot, the idea that when you write something and you release it, whether it’s the song or the sound recording containing that song...I think you’ve got to also release a lot of control and let people go break the law by making unauthorized derivatives; to chop it up, to filter it, to do various things with it. See, if you can do some deals with those people who are messing with your music, rather than trying to say, “Hey you’re breaking the copyright act, title 17 United States code. You’re making an unauthorized derivative work. We order you to stop.” No, try to deal with it. Let people create unusual versions. I think that could be a really lucrative market. So it’s not a question of what one thing will replace the old model, but what things are replacing it. Oh yeah. I don’t know when we’re going to get to a point like we were in 1990. No one thought, “It’s going to end up in your computer.” All this stuff’s going to happen and the law is so behind. And then you get the content creators always standing in the way. They’re always fighting technology. The RIAA, if they had their way, there wouldn’t be an iPod. I think I’m always going to be on the other person’s side because all these technologies have been sued—VCR, radio, TV. Everything was the end of the world as we know it. New technology threatens business, and then later on it becomes business.

BRENDAN BENSON> My Old, Familiar Friend

Hal Horowitz — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:45:08 +0000

My Old, Familiar Friend" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/brendonbenson.jpg" alt="BRENDAN BENSON> My Old, Familiar Friend" width="200" height="197" />
Jack White knows a good thing when he hears it. When he plucked Brendan Benson from near obscurity to join him in fronting The Raconteurs, he also helped resuscitate Benson’s floundering career. BRENDAN BENSON My Old, Familiar Friend (ATO) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Jack White knows a good thing when he hears it. When he plucked Brendan Benson from near obscurity to join him in fronting The Raconteurs, he also helped resuscitate Benson’s floundering career. This Gil Norton-produced gem finds the pop rocker revived and rejuvenated on his fourth solo release. The 11 songs crackle with the sharply written and sung pop/soul Todd Rundgren used to sling out so effortlessly, mixing ‘60s radio-ready choruses and 1980s style with contemporary energy. Songs such as “Lessons Learned” and the shimmering Philly International-inspired strings of “Garbage Day” borrow from the Wings playbook in their concise structures and sheer musicality. Benson keeps most tunes under four minutes and Norton polishes up the edges, leaving the singer/songwriter’s endearing voice and joyful, scrappy hooks intact. The result is a melodically rich near-classic that deserves to be heard by the larger audience White’s association will hopefully ensure.

CASTANETS > Texas Rose, the Thaw & the Beasts

Dustin Allen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:45:05 +0000

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Often dismissed as little more than a niche songwriter futzing with the boundaries of his own woodsy, quasi-Americana palate, Ray Raposa (a.k.a. Castanets) has remained a sorely overlooked act. CASTANETS Texas Rose, the Thaw & the Beasts (ASTHMATIC KITTY) Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars Often dismissed as little more than a niche songwriter futzing with the boundaries of his own woodsy, quasi-Americana palate, Ray Raposa (a.k.a. Castanets) has remained a sorely overlooked act. This is partially of his own making, as last year’s City of Refuge was a fitful patchwork of processed synths, reveling in revamped spirituals and drowsy chamber folk. Whatever glass ceiling Raposa had hanging over him, though, has been neatly removed with his latest foray, Texas Rose, the Thaw & the Beasts, which is not only his most realized work to date, but one of the year’s best. Sprawling and innovative, this album is more than just another outing from a compulsive and interesting artist. This is what Castanets was meant to sound like all along.