OT: moody dudes with acoustic guitars
When I posted Jeffrey Foucault here a couple entries ago I was reminded of my abiding love for Moody Dudes with Acoustic Guitars--a genre of music that continues to flourish (and brood) the world over. xD Here's a small selection.
david wilcox; strong chemistry.
Was debating between songs of his to share, but picked this one in the end, because it's, it's got slink. Very understated, lovely dark tones in this one. Just him and the guitar and his easygoing tenor (which is naturally pretty gentle, and inclined towards softer songs than this one). I'd grown accustomed to his music being wistfully introspective, and then he sprang this on me. Creepy! (Also very fun to sing.)
a poppy flower is beautiful
gentle as a lover's touch
a touch is just a touch of strong medicine
and it's possible to take too much
we take it for comfort, to take away the pain for us
a poppy flower is beautiful
a thousand poppies is
dangerous
Buy Big Horizon. (Also would highly recommend How Did You Find Me Here. His cover of Buddy Mondlock's 'The Kid' is wooooonderful. *_*)
mike doughty; (when I) box the days (up).
Another difficult decision. It's all so good !Ever since I stumbled onto Mike Doughty--via this very community, actually, some time ago (whoever posted 'Rising Sign' has my everlasting gratitude!)--I've been devouring his discography with relish. His lyrics are always deliciously strange. Off-kilter vagrant poetry. Very restless stuff. This is from his new album, which features the fantastic Andrew 'Scrap' Livingston on crazy skittish cello doing circles around the guitar. ♥! I like listening to this song on public transportation.
well I dreamed I was a king in Phnom Penh
and I was giving up my throne
and all the people chatting on the muddy banks
said I'm an okay king and I sure can play the saxophone
then I woke up in a motel, I was
not so far from there
heard the shower running through a closed door
saw her dress laid across a desk chair
Buy Sad Man Happy Man.
frank christian; from my hands.
Another sly lyricist--and, damn, can he play guitar. Some iTunes biography describes him as 'virtuosic'. This is not an exaggeration. He makes it sound so easy to just dance all over the scale; he's fast, he's clever, and hard to get out of your head. I'm more sure of this song's attitude than its meaning, but the imagery gets across some dry, dark anticipation of...what. A chase? A less than healthy relationship's next stage? You be the judge (I have no idea). It's a terrific song.
don’t rebuke me with your blue-pencil words
it’s not some rumor I have overheard
or a passing bell at midnight delivering commands
I can wash you from my hands
mmmmm, you can watch me where I stand
Buy Follow That Road or From My Hands. This version of the song is from the former; the latter has a slightly slower, more produced take of it. Follow That Road's a compilation album from this songwriter's retreat on Martha's Vineyard, so the songs on it are all live and performed with much less accompaniment than their finalized counterparts.
nick drake; things behind the sun.
Where would a list of moody folk singers be without Nick Drake? The moodiest of them all. I listen to Nick Drake and I want to take rickety trains to unfamiliar forests and get there just before sunset so I get caught in long tree-shadows as the light moves through 'em. The melody is plain, but there's a lot of layers to this song. It's definitely an evening light song, and kind of a lonely, uncertain one. But all his songs sound lonely to me.
and once you've seen what they have been
to win the earth just won't seem worth
your night or your day
who'll hear what I say
open up the broken cup
let goodly sin and sunshine in
yes, that's today
Buy Pink Moon.
california guitar trio; punta patri.
Stepping back from lyrics for a moment, here's a slow-burning instrumental track from the versatile, prolific and yet bizarrely underrated California Guitar Trio. Nobody I know seems to have heard of them! This is my absolute favorite song of theirs (though nearly outmatched by another track from the same album, 'Waters of Eden'): mysterious, fluid, complex. It intensifies beautifully. This is a good song to listen to while trying to write an exciting scene in a novel, or gain momentum on something you're doing. Also, if you like this, you'll love The Senate's 'Harmonopticon' (and here it is)--if anything, it's even more intense.
Buy Rocks the West.
james keelaghan; I would I were.
A love song. James Keelaghan's voice. Asdlkjasd. It's so rich and sincere and simple. He does a lot of storytelling songs, and they're quite moving, but I've always been most attached to this one--it's so elegant and uncomplicated and, and, yeah I. I am a sap for this song, basically. If you are a sap too, then you will like it. It's one of those love songs where it doesn't matter whether it's requited or not, because that's not the point.
I wish the northern lights were of
a fabric apprehended
that from these earthbound human hands
those lights could be suspended
...and though this world is touch and go
I cannot but believe
of all the things that touch us first
love is the last to leave
Buy My Skies.
jeffrey foucault; secretariat.
This is the first song I ever heard of Jeffrey Foucault's, & it sent me scrambling for more. Irresistible! It's smooooooth and melancholy and (if you listen to the lyrics) lets longing war with weariness and cynicism to great effect. The singer (Foucault himself or some invention of his, I don't know) doesn't want to be alone anymore, but at the heart of the song confesses 'Love is patient, love is kind--but let's be honest; love is a catalogue of deadly sins.' The variety of comparisons--from Secretariat to Achilles to John Henry--give the singer an interesting character, too; like Doughty, a little bit of the poet-askew.
I need a woman with eyes like Rodin
to see the body caught within the stone
I'm going to take this bronze star heart
I've got; I'm going to melt it down
wait for love to cast the metal into bone
Buy Miles from the Lightning.
townes van zandt; highway kind.
The title track from the Jeffrey Foucault album from above is dedicated to Townes van Zandt, and you can see why the former was so fond of the latter--going from this song, at least, they have a lot in common. This song has much less hope than 'Secretariat', however: beware. Listening to it will not cheer you up. It's kind of devastating, in a quiet way. Sadness that's so certain and familiar it doesn't need to speak up anymore. if you want to be even more depressed by this song, glancing at van Zandt's biography will do it to you. |D But it's a beautiful song, one of the best of its kind, and well worth listening to--best, I think, after nightfall.
time among the pine trees
it felt like breath of air
usually I just walk these streets
and tell myself to care
sometimes I believe me
and sometimes I don't hear
sometimes the shape I'm in
won't let me go
Buy The Highway Kind.
nick drummond; man in the moon.
Ostensibly, the lyrics to this make their way towards a somewhat optimistic sentiment--one's eventual reunion with loved ones in the afterlife? 'my grandfather's waiting there/with a smile...and he says/I/I know/when you're ready, come find me', etc. But it's a lot more eerie than perusal of the lyrics would indicate. Nick Drummond mentions the moon in passing in a lot of his songs, most of them written for the aforementioned The Senate (my favorite local band, sadly on indefinite hiatus) of which he's the lead singer. This is the first song of his where it takes center stage, and the song's mood sets it up as a...hm, not ominous image, not like "doooom" but more in the sense of an omen. Tracking the shivery reflection of the moon on water up to its surer origin and thinking about death: that's what I get from this song. Nick is one of those guys who (like Andrew Bird) can just soar right up to high notes like it's nothing. Dude, I'm a soprano, and I can't always do that. :| Dang.
well I don't know where they've gone
but they're gone every day
when the living is over,
and the body breaks
well, some say we fly
won't you ease my mind
won't you ease my mind
Buy Where I'll Be.
ellis paul; king of seventh avenue.
Another find from Follow that Road, this is sort of the inverse of 'Man in the Moon' in that its subject--a man contemplating a leap from the twenty-seventh floor of a building in New York--seems depressing, but the song itself is actually very uplifting. I always feel better after listening to this song. Ellis Paul is a great urban storyteller; he strikes a great balance between lyricism/conversation/confession. All his songs are inhabited, if that makes sense.
in the window across from me
a man is committing a robbery
another form of the new york city lottery
his ears must be burning,
he drops his bag and he stares
I am the man out on the building
yes, there's no net down there
and there's a woman below that I see
her silhouette is quite beautiful
Buy Stories.
And, a bonus: a Dude with an Acoustic Guitar singing about how moody he's been and his method for ditching the moodiness. xD
buddy mondlock; magnolia street.
I defy anyone to stay woebegone after listening to this song.
take the lover's cross on up the hill
and push it off into the lover's landfill
we carry all this stuff around
we're not so deep; we're just weighted down
we should be nicer to our feet
and take 'em dancin' down magnolia street
Buy Poetic Justice.
david wilcox; strong chemistry.
Was debating between songs of his to share, but picked this one in the end, because it's, it's got slink. Very understated, lovely dark tones in this one. Just him and the guitar and his easygoing tenor (which is naturally pretty gentle, and inclined towards softer songs than this one). I'd grown accustomed to his music being wistfully introspective, and then he sprang this on me. Creepy! (Also very fun to sing.)
a poppy flower is beautiful
gentle as a lover's touch
a touch is just a touch of strong medicine
and it's possible to take too much
we take it for comfort, to take away the pain for us
a poppy flower is beautiful
a thousand poppies is
dangerous
Buy Big Horizon. (Also would highly recommend How Did You Find Me Here. His cover of Buddy Mondlock's 'The Kid' is wooooonderful. *_*)
mike doughty; (when I) box the days (up).
Another difficult decision. It's all so good !Ever since I stumbled onto Mike Doughty--via this very community, actually, some time ago (whoever posted 'Rising Sign' has my everlasting gratitude!)--I've been devouring his discography with relish. His lyrics are always deliciously strange. Off-kilter vagrant poetry. Very restless stuff. This is from his new album, which features the fantastic Andrew 'Scrap' Livingston on crazy skittish cello doing circles around the guitar. ♥! I like listening to this song on public transportation.
well I dreamed I was a king in Phnom Penh
and I was giving up my throne
and all the people chatting on the muddy banks
said I'm an okay king and I sure can play the saxophone
then I woke up in a motel, I was
not so far from there
heard the shower running through a closed door
saw her dress laid across a desk chair
Buy Sad Man Happy Man.
frank christian; from my hands.
Another sly lyricist--and, damn, can he play guitar. Some iTunes biography describes him as 'virtuosic'. This is not an exaggeration. He makes it sound so easy to just dance all over the scale; he's fast, he's clever, and hard to get out of your head. I'm more sure of this song's attitude than its meaning, but the imagery gets across some dry, dark anticipation of...what. A chase? A less than healthy relationship's next stage? You be the judge (I have no idea). It's a terrific song.
don’t rebuke me with your blue-pencil words
it’s not some rumor I have overheard
or a passing bell at midnight delivering commands
I can wash you from my hands
mmmmm, you can watch me where I stand
Buy Follow That Road or From My Hands. This version of the song is from the former; the latter has a slightly slower, more produced take of it. Follow That Road's a compilation album from this songwriter's retreat on Martha's Vineyard, so the songs on it are all live and performed with much less accompaniment than their finalized counterparts.
nick drake; things behind the sun.
Where would a list of moody folk singers be without Nick Drake? The moodiest of them all. I listen to Nick Drake and I want to take rickety trains to unfamiliar forests and get there just before sunset so I get caught in long tree-shadows as the light moves through 'em. The melody is plain, but there's a lot of layers to this song. It's definitely an evening light song, and kind of a lonely, uncertain one. But all his songs sound lonely to me.
and once you've seen what they have been
to win the earth just won't seem worth
your night or your day
who'll hear what I say
open up the broken cup
let goodly sin and sunshine in
yes, that's today
Buy Pink Moon.
california guitar trio; punta patri.
Stepping back from lyrics for a moment, here's a slow-burning instrumental track from the versatile, prolific and yet bizarrely underrated California Guitar Trio. Nobody I know seems to have heard of them! This is my absolute favorite song of theirs (though nearly outmatched by another track from the same album, 'Waters of Eden'): mysterious, fluid, complex. It intensifies beautifully. This is a good song to listen to while trying to write an exciting scene in a novel, or gain momentum on something you're doing. Also, if you like this, you'll love The Senate's 'Harmonopticon' (and here it is)--if anything, it's even more intense.
Buy Rocks the West.
james keelaghan; I would I were.
A love song. James Keelaghan's voice. Asdlkjasd. It's so rich and sincere and simple. He does a lot of storytelling songs, and they're quite moving, but I've always been most attached to this one--it's so elegant and uncomplicated and, and, yeah I. I am a sap for this song, basically. If you are a sap too, then you will like it. It's one of those love songs where it doesn't matter whether it's requited or not, because that's not the point.
I wish the northern lights were of
a fabric apprehended
that from these earthbound human hands
those lights could be suspended
...and though this world is touch and go
I cannot but believe
of all the things that touch us first
love is the last to leave
Buy My Skies.
jeffrey foucault; secretariat.
This is the first song I ever heard of Jeffrey Foucault's, & it sent me scrambling for more. Irresistible! It's smooooooth and melancholy and (if you listen to the lyrics) lets longing war with weariness and cynicism to great effect. The singer (Foucault himself or some invention of his, I don't know) doesn't want to be alone anymore, but at the heart of the song confesses 'Love is patient, love is kind--but let's be honest; love is a catalogue of deadly sins.' The variety of comparisons--from Secretariat to Achilles to John Henry--give the singer an interesting character, too; like Doughty, a little bit of the poet-askew.
I need a woman with eyes like Rodin
to see the body caught within the stone
I'm going to take this bronze star heart
I've got; I'm going to melt it down
wait for love to cast the metal into bone
Buy Miles from the Lightning.
townes van zandt; highway kind.
The title track from the Jeffrey Foucault album from above is dedicated to Townes van Zandt, and you can see why the former was so fond of the latter--going from this song, at least, they have a lot in common. This song has much less hope than 'Secretariat', however: beware. Listening to it will not cheer you up. It's kind of devastating, in a quiet way. Sadness that's so certain and familiar it doesn't need to speak up anymore. if you want to be even more depressed by this song, glancing at van Zandt's biography will do it to you. |D But it's a beautiful song, one of the best of its kind, and well worth listening to--best, I think, after nightfall.
time among the pine trees
it felt like breath of air
usually I just walk these streets
and tell myself to care
sometimes I believe me
and sometimes I don't hear
sometimes the shape I'm in
won't let me go
Buy The Highway Kind.
nick drummond; man in the moon.
Ostensibly, the lyrics to this make their way towards a somewhat optimistic sentiment--one's eventual reunion with loved ones in the afterlife? 'my grandfather's waiting there/with a smile...and he says/I/I know/when you're ready, come find me', etc. But it's a lot more eerie than perusal of the lyrics would indicate. Nick Drummond mentions the moon in passing in a lot of his songs, most of them written for the aforementioned The Senate (my favorite local band, sadly on indefinite hiatus) of which he's the lead singer. This is the first song of his where it takes center stage, and the song's mood sets it up as a...hm, not ominous image, not like "doooom" but more in the sense of an omen. Tracking the shivery reflection of the moon on water up to its surer origin and thinking about death: that's what I get from this song. Nick is one of those guys who (like Andrew Bird) can just soar right up to high notes like it's nothing. Dude, I'm a soprano, and I can't always do that. :| Dang.
well I don't know where they've gone
but they're gone every day
when the living is over,
and the body breaks
well, some say we fly
won't you ease my mind
won't you ease my mind
Buy Where I'll Be.
ellis paul; king of seventh avenue.
Another find from Follow that Road, this is sort of the inverse of 'Man in the Moon' in that its subject--a man contemplating a leap from the twenty-seventh floor of a building in New York--seems depressing, but the song itself is actually very uplifting. I always feel better after listening to this song. Ellis Paul is a great urban storyteller; he strikes a great balance between lyricism/conversation/confession. All his songs are inhabited, if that makes sense.
in the window across from me
a man is committing a robbery
another form of the new york city lottery
his ears must be burning,
he drops his bag and he stares
I am the man out on the building
yes, there's no net down there
and there's a woman below that I see
her silhouette is quite beautiful
Buy Stories.
And, a bonus: a Dude with an Acoustic Guitar singing about how moody he's been and his method for ditching the moodiness. xD
buddy mondlock; magnolia street.
I defy anyone to stay woebegone after listening to this song.
take the lover's cross on up the hill
and push it off into the lover's landfill
we carry all this stuff around
we're not so deep; we're just weighted down
we should be nicer to our feet
and take 'em dancin' down magnolia street
Buy Poetic Justice.