Diana Krall's "Glad Rag Doll" ~ An Americana-Jazz Fusion Album?

I just picked up an mp3 version of Diana Krall's October 2012 album, "Glad Rag Doll" (Deluxe Version) (Verve) from Amazon.com.
 
This album is extraordinary and a huge departure for Krall. She chose T Bone Burnett to produce the album and his alt-country/Americana sensibilities are stamped all over the album. It is indeed a delicious fusion of jazz, blues and Americana. There's no violin section on this album; her string section instead consists of guitars, both electric and acousitc.  Jazz purists, still tutting over husband Elvis Costello's influence on Krall's jazz sound, have to be in conniptions over this album.
 
The songs are largely from the 20s and 30s. Krall says she culled the songs from her father's collection of old 78s. Choosing my favorite cuts from the album is tricky business and I'm sure that if asked a few days from now, I might have an entirely new list.  As for now, however, I have to go with "Lonely Avenue," "There Ain't No Sweet Man that's Worth the Salt of my Tears"  and title track, "Glad Rag Doll."Krall's version of Don Pomus' R&B hit, "Lonely Avenue" has an ethereal feeling, with lots of blues guitar work and it ends in a beautiful cacophony of sound.  Pomis' tune has been covered by countless artists over the years, including Ray Charles, who had a hit with the song in 1956, Joe Cocker, The Animals, Taj Mahal and even Jimmy Hendrix. I prefer Krall's version.  "There Ain't No Sweet Man," a song with too long a title, opens with a familiar Krall sound  ---  the artist alone on the piano --- but it quickly morphs into a rolicking two-step blues tune with lots of fuzzy blues guitar work.  Without the liner notes, I don't know which of the four guitarists on the album did the guitar work on this song, but it's masterful and complements Krall's smoky vocals perfectly.  "Glad Rag Doll" is a 1928 Milton Ager and Jack Yellen tune composed for the 1929 talkie picture of the same name.  Krall's version of the song is beautifully spare, featuring only Krall's vocals and an acoustic guitar.  The alternative version of "Rag Doll" on the Deluxe version of the album is equally spare but uses piano instead of the acoustic guitar. I prefer the guitar version.
The album is thoughtfully produced.  None of the songs feels over-produced or unnecessarily complicated.  My quarrel with a lot of commercial music is the tendency to over-produce the songs with scores of layered vocals and strings.  Even some of Krall's prior songs have a little more violin than I think is necessary.  Each added instrument on this album, by contrast, has a necessary role to play in the song. On "Glad Rag Doll," Burnett wisely left Krall's voice and the sole acoustic guitar alone.
If you buy the album, don’t make the mistake I did.  It comes in a standard and Deluxe version, the latter adds four additional songs to the 13-cut album, including alternative versions of “Glad Rag Doll” and “There Ain’t No Sweet Man.”  The Deluxe version is only an additional dollar on Amzon.com.  Unfortunately, when I purchased the album, I didn’t know about the Deluxe version and grabbed the first link I found.  Because the sample tracks for the four bonus tracks were sufficiently compelling, I ended up buying them separately at 99 cents a pop.  (Ouch!)  To make matters worse, neither my computer nor my smartphone recognize that they are part of the same album; rather, they both list the standard and Deluxe versions as separate albums and I cannot simply listen to the whole album without creating a separate playlist solely to put the two albums together.
As you have probably gathered, I highly recommend this new Krall album. I've been playing it through over and over again since purchasing it.  As with a lot of Burnett’s work, it isn’t easy to pigeonhole this album cleanly into a single genre.  Fortunately, the Americana community is forgiving on that score and I would anticipate that no one will complain that the album is out of place when I cross-publish this blog on my NoDepression.com account. (NoDepression is a website dedicated to Americana music.)  Jazz purists who dismiss this album as departing too far from traditional Jazz modalities, will sadly miss what is also an outstanding Jazz album.



While this may not be a good reason to buy the album (or maybe it is), Diana Krall, at 48 years old (and a mother of two), looks incredibly sexy posed as a Ziegfled girl on the cover. In an interview appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Krall explained that she was only trying to illustrate the title and the 1920s theme. (WSJ, "Diana Krall Sings With No Strings Attached," by Marc Meyers, Sept. 20, 2012.)
Here are the cuts on the Deluxe version of the album.  The standard version omits the bonus cuts after the carnival barker (Costello) brings the curtain down on cut number 13 (another great tune).
Song List for Glad Rag Doll (Deluxe Version) (Verve)
1. We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye (Woods)
2. There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth the Salt of My Tears (Fisher)
3. Just Like a Butterfly That's Caught in the Rain (Dixon/Woods)
4. You Know I Know Ev'rything's Made for Love (Sherman/Tobias/Johnson)
5. Glad Rag Doll (Ager/Dougherty/Yellen)
6. I'm A Little Mixed Up (James/Johnson)
7. Prairie Lullaby (Hill)
8. Here Lies Love (Rainger/Robin)
9. I Used to Love You But It's All Over Now (von Tilzer/Brown)
10. Let it Rain (Kendis/Dyson)
11. Lonely Avenue (Pomus)
12. Wide River to Cross (Miller/Miller)
13. When the Curtain Comes Down (Hoefle/Lewis/Sherman)
Bonus Tracks:
14. As Long As I Love
15. Glad Rag Doll (Alternate version)
16. Garden In The Rain
17. There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth The Salt Of My Tears (Alternate version)

Does the Philadelphia Folk Festival Care About Disabled People?

So this is the question (OK, it's my question): Will the Philadelphia
Folk Festival have adequate handicapped parking this year? They used
to have ample parking for the disabled but over the years, they began
to give it away to "Friends of the Festival," people who pay big bucks
for nice perks, including space in what was the handicapped parking
lot. It is been an incremental move over the last few years, but last
year was the big grab and the Fest had very little space left for the
disabled. We were instead shipped to distant lots and bussed in with
everyone else. The busses are overcrowded and to get one requires
standing (yes, standing) in line for over an hour at the end of each
evening. Once on the bus, we are jostled and bumped by all the stuff
we and everyone else has to carry by hand for the day (chairs,
blankets, coolers (which is its own challenge)). For someone with
allodynia (pain on contact) and who walks with a cane, it was and is
quite painful. It was hellish, actually. I complained about it last
year to Festival staff and I wrote to the Folksong Society about it a
couple of weeks ago, but got no response. Do they care?

2012 Philadelphia Folk Festival Lineup!

Justin Townes Earle's forthcoming album, "Nothing's Ever Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now," Pre-Listen Review

Justin Townes Earle's newest album, "Nothing's Ever Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now," is due out tomorrow,  March 27.  While it has garnered some good reviews, I can't help being put off by the cover art, which does not exactly scream alt-country. It has a decidedly urban feel. Is that Earle on the cover (the art work is way too small for small devices) and what's with the goofy hat? But I guess I should listen for once to some childhood advice and withhold judgment until I actually hear the tunes and not judge the album (if you'll excuse the cliche) by its cover art.
I was late to  JTE fandom.  (JTE is the insiders' way to say his three-part name.)  He seemed to have arrived on the folk/alt-country scene a few years ago as the annointed one, as if his heritage and famous name guaranteed him --- demanded even --- attention and adoration. It's not his fault, mind you. He wasn't making any demands or acting the part of the privileged class of children of famous performers. It was, if anything, thrust on him.  But fair or not, I bristle when told that I have to love something our someone (which explains why I don't own any Apple products).Consequently, for several years, I actively avoided the younger Earle while the rest of the folk and alt-country world went gaga for him. Considering how small that world is, that was no easy feat.
I wasn't able to avoid him forever, though, and I happened to catch --- by accident --- a pre-release listen to Earle's 2010 album, "Harlem River Blues." I actually thought I was tuning into something else at the time, but when I heard the opening title track, I was hooked. Earle's songs on that album are smartly written with compelling lyrics and just the right amount of production to frame Earle's outstanding voice.  The title track,"Harlem River Blues," "One More Night in Brooklyn,"  and "Working for the MTA," are the standout tunes and, two years later, are still in my regular rotation of songs. It is, in my estimation, a brilliant album and quite an achievement for a man so young.  (Born in 1982, he is only a few years older than my daughter.)
My experience with "Harlem River Blues" is the reason for my trepidation over "Nothing's Ever Gonna Change," since it appears to be everything "Harlem River" is not. From a conceited title, to a trying-too-hard-to-be-hip cover, it appears to lack the maturity of "Harlem River." I can't see the guy on this new cover promising his wife that he would get  out of Brooklyn no matter the cost because the ceiling is falling in on the baby. I also can't see him finding the honor in the work-a-day family tradition of running trains for the MTA. The guy on the new cover is moving TO  Brooklyn if it will make him look hip to the chicks on the subway, even if the ceiling is falling in. He's actually moving into the apartment the Earle of "Harlem River" moved his family out of. And he would certainly never admit that his dad was an engineer on the subway where the cover art photo was taken.
Maybe --- hopefully --- my impressions of Justin Townes Earle's new album will be wrong and I'll find it just as smart and perfectly produced as "Harlem River."  We'll see.
And if I do like it, maybe I can learn to appreciate Apple products, too.

The Milk Carton Kids

The "Milk Carton Kids" in Folk Alley's Folk Alliance 2012 recordings are a new discovery for me. Their clean sound (two acoustic guitars, one picking the other strumming) and great harmonies beg comparison to early (and pre-over-produced) Simon & Garfunkel. There really IS a lot of great new music out there.
Check them out and let Folk Alley know you appreciate their service. I am worried that the low number of "likes" and sparse comments on their Folk Alliance 2012 pages will cause them to rethink the trouble it takes to record in remote locations like this.

Milk Carton Kids also has a website and, of course, a Facebook page. 

The LIttle Willies' new release, "For the Good Times"

Listening to the LIttle Willies' new release, "For the Good Times," via Folk Alley & NPR's free "First Listen" program on my lunch break.  I like it so far.  Covers of classic country tunes.  Norah Jones is always a treat anyway. Check it out .http://tinyurl.com/Willies-Good-TImes
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May 4, 1970 — Ohio (Anniversary of Kent State Massacre)

Ohio, by Niel Young

Listen here: http://goo.gl/bur27

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are gunning us down.
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are cutting us down.
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.

The guardsmen fired

67 rounds in 13 seconds

on unarmed students protesting against the Viet Nam War.