Top 10 Albums of the '10s

With the end of the decade comes the inevitable Top Ten Albums of the Decade list. As I get older, my selections continue to drift further from the mainstream of popular music. I'm fine with that. The biggest shock here is that, for the first decade in my lifetime, which began in the '60s, there is no Bob Dylan album on my list. Tempest was his only album of new material, and I found it a bit uninspired compared to the trilogy of Time Out of Mind, "Love & Theft," and Modern Times, which had made the years 1997-2006 so exciting for Dylan fans. Leonard Cohen, on the other hand, released four albums in the '10s for the first time since the '70s, and each was brilliant--including the posthumous Thanks for the Dance, which came out just as the decade was coming to an end.

Aside from Cohen, the most exciting artist of the decade for me was Laura Marling, who released five albums in the decade, any of which could have been included on this list. In addition to the one I have chosen, Once I Was An Eagle, I was especially moved by I Speak Because I Can and Semper Femina, and the two Marling shows I saw were spellbinding--especially the one at the Triple Door in downtown Seattle, when she covered Dylan's Blood on the Tracks outtake "Up to Me" (at my request!) and Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," the loveliest version of that oft-sung chestnut I have ever heard.

My other favorite shows of the decade were all by artists on this list: Bruce Springsteen's three hour and forty-five minute show at Key Arena, when he played The River in its entirety; the handful of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings shows I saw at the Moore Theatre, with their amazing songs and harmonies and Rawlings' spine-tingling acoustic guitar work; Emmy the Great's show at the tiny Barboza, downstairs from Neumo's, when she asked me onstage to hold her iPhone so she could read the lyrics while she played my request, "The Hypnotist's Son"; Paul Simon's concert at the club the Showbox, when I stood as close to Simon as Garfunkel used to; and the many Tom Russell and Aoife O'Donovan shows I saw, including a pair of shows Aoife did with her I'm With Her bandmates Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz.

All in all it was a great decade to be a music fan, even as the music business always seemed on the verge of disintegration, if press accounts were to be believed. Perhaps, like Mark Twain, reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. I hope so. Here, without further ado, are my top ten albums of the decade:

1. Popular Problems - Leonard Cohen
2. The Harrow and the Harvest - Gillian Welch
3. Once I Was An Eagle - Laura Marling
4. Stranger to Stranger - Paul Simon
5. Western Stars - Bruce Springsteen
6. Virtue - Emmy the Great
7. Mesabi - Tom Russell
8. Fossils - Aoife O'Donovan
9. Pure Comedy - Father John Misty
10. Stranger in the Alps - Phoebe Bridgers

Amanda Shires Compares Mythologies with Leonard Cohen

I went to a Jason Isbell show a couple of weeks ago, and walked out feeling like hell. No doubt about it, Jason is a great songwriter, but the show was so unrelievedly bleak that I found myself wishing I'd stayed home and watched "Seinfeld" reruns instead. And I was doubly disappointed that Isbell's wife and regular bandmate, Amanda Shires, wasn't there for the show. He said she had a gig of her own back in Nashville. Come to think of it, that's where I wish I was. Amanda's violin and vocals are like little rays of light sneaking between the blinds into the dark rooms of Jason's songs. But more than that, she's an accomplished singer-songwriter in her own right. Her work is full of that light, making even her most bittersweet songs something to lift your spirit.

A great and famous man once said, "There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in." Amanda shares my admiration for this great man; indeed, she wrote a song for him called "A Song For Leonard Cohen":

I wish that I could buy you a drink
And then more and then five

I'd get you drunk and I'd get me outgoing
All week or just this one night...

We'd compare mythologies*
And toast those friends that never believed
That our voices ever had much to offer
And then, maybe, we would go for a walk
And I'd just listen while you talk...

Amanda has a tattoo of lyrics from Leonard's "Take This Waltz" on her back.

At her May 15, 2014 show at St. Bonaventure's Parish Hall, in Bristol, England, she followed "A Song For Leonard Cohen" with a cover of the master's "I'm Your Man." Both tracks from the show are below.** Isbell plays guitar on the tracks, and if you listen real close I swear you can hear him smiling--something I don't think he did the whole night I saw him play. I bet Amanda makes you smile too.

A Song For Leonard Cohen

I'm Your Man


*"Let Us Compare Mythologies" was the title of Leonard Cohen's first book of poetry, published in 1956, when he was 21.

**I'm sorry to say I can't find the name of the taper, but it's a lovely recording, so thank you, whoever you are.

Here are videos of both songs, for those who don't like to download MP3s:

NSDLD Cover of the Day: Lucinda Williams is "Tryin' to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door" plus "The Rising"

If you were going to create a Mt. Rushmore for the genre loosely known as country-rock, Lucinda Williams would have to be one of the four artists on it. (Who'd be the others? Let me know your thoughts down where the drunkards roll in the comments section.) For me, "Tryin' to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door" was the greatest song on Time Out of Mind, so I'm especially glad Lucinda decided to make it a staple in her live sets between 2013 and 2015. This version is from a semi-acoustic show with Doug Pettibone on February 2, 2103, at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. Thanks to Perks for the recording!

Tryin' to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door - Lucinda Williams

Today's bonus cut is Lucinda's cover of "The Rising," the title track from Bruce Springsteen's 9-11 inspired Grammy-winning album. I'm a huge Springsteen fan, but his post-Tom Joad studio work has left me mostly cold. It's just too big for my taste--the sounds overpower the songs. For me, Lucinda gets this one just right. It's from her performance on June 22, 2015, in Ocean City, New Jersey.

The Rising - Lucinda Williams

Thanks Ed Tyre for the recording!

NSDLD Cover of the Day: "The Man in Me" by Jeff Bridges with Jackson Browne

Who can forget the classic moment in The Big Lebowski when The Dude soars over the city to the sound of His Bobness singing "The Man in Me"? Not me, and evidently not Jeff Bridges, who has taken to covering the song in his sets when he's out moonlighting as a country-rock crooner. The version here features harmonies from Jackson Browne, and comes from a benefit Browne headlined for The Sanctuary Centers of Santa Barbara*, a housing and treatment center for severely mentally disabled persons. Bridges introduces it by saying "This one's for the Dude"--I couldn't agree more.

The Man in Me - Jeff Bridges w/ Jackson Browne

Thanks Scooter123 for the recording!

*The web page for this worthy charity is at www.spcsb.org--anyone who donates gets free downloads on this site for life.

NSDLD Cover of the Day: "Pressing On" by John Doe Plus John Lennon's "Imagine" covered by Michael Stipe

 

First, my apologies to those who had trouble with yesterday's dropbox link. I have switched to sendspace, which seems to be working fine. So if you couldn't download Eric Clapton's cover of "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" yesterday, you should be able to now. Also, if you want to get updates on the daily covers, sign up here or follow me on Twitter; I'm not sure if the Expecting Rain links will continue.

Today's Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan cover is "Pressing On," performed by John Doe (with Cindy Wasserman), from April 15, 2015 at the Hollywood Palladium, where he opened for the Replacements. Doe also sang this on the soundtrack of Todd Haynes's wonderful filmic mediation on Dylan, I'm Not There. He's got a new album out called The Westerner and a memoir about his early days on the L.A. punk scene as one of the founders of X called Under the Big Black Sun.

Pressing On - John Doe

Thanks BLG for sharing this splendid recording.

Pressing on is what the people in Orlando are trying to do--they have had a bad few days. On Friday night, young singer Christina Grimmie was shot and killed while signing autographs after her show; Saturday night, more than 100 people were shot and and at least 50 of them were killed while out at a club trying to have a good time. I don't know what the killers' motives were, but I know one thing they had in common: they had guns the whole civilized world now wishes they hadn't. Everyone should do what they can to change this--at the very least, if you are an American citizen, you should vote. 

  
Both of these tragedies struck people who were out listening to music--which is sad, since music is one of the most healing things we have in what some wise person once called our "world gone wrong." One of the most peaceful, healing songs ever written is "Imagine," by John Lennon. Here it is, performed by Michael Stipe, opening for Patti Smith, at New York's Beacon Theater on November 10, 2015.
 
 Imagine - Michael Stipe

Thanks Neil D for the historic recording, and thanks John for the song, which can come in handy on a night like this.

Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan Cover of the Day: "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" by Eric Clapton

 

For several years, I periodically compiled and shared Bob Dylan cover CDs by various artists under the title Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan through the site dimeadozen.org. (The track listing for the whole series is here.*) The last one, Volume 40, was done about four years ago, and I moved on to other things. But I didn't stop collecting Dylan covers. Now, I'm going to try sharing them, one a day, here on Small Figures in a Vast Expanse. If people seem to like getting them this way, I'll continue; if not, we can all move on again.

First up is Eric Clapton doing "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," live in Tokyo on April 19, 2016. (It's also on his new studio album I Still Do, so if you like it here you can buy it there.) Clapton's been covering Dylan a long time, including a great version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and a duet with Dylan on "Sign Language" from his 1976 album No Reason to Cry. I got to see him at the 30th anniversary Bobfest live at Madison Square Garden, where he did beautiful versions of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "Don't Think Twice It's Alright," as well as taking a verse on "My Back Pages." His version of "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" is great, and it's a song that doesn't get covered much, so I'm happy to start this new series with it. Enjoy, comment, sign up here for updates, or follow me on twitter.

Thanks to Tom and Jerry for taping and sharing this and The Naniwa Hot Brothers for sound editing!


I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine (Live) - Eric Clapton **

**Apologies to those who had trouble with the dropbox link. I have switched to sendspace. Please let me know in the comments if there is any trouble with this one.

* I've since changed computers and don't have these in any organized way, so I can't repost them. But they're out in the world--if there's something you are looking for, please post in the comments and someone may be able to help you out. That goes for any tracks prior to this one on this blog too.

Richard Thompson Has Friends

It's been three weeks since Richard Thompson received the ultimate tribute--Bob Dylan covered one of his songs! Amazingly, no recording of His Bobness's version of "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" has surfaced online, a conspiracy the NSA should surely look into. In the meantime, while we wait...and wait...and wait for the digital equivalent of a tape to surace, here are two amazing Thompson performances.

The first is Thompson playing "Calvary Cross," once a regular showstopper but now rarely performed, with Dawes (of all people) on a Cayamo Cruise (of all places) while wearing sandals, shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt (of all outfits). Despite all those distractions, it's great.
















Next up is Richard playing perhaps his most beautiful song, "Beeswing," at Northumbrian concertina player Alistair Anderson's 'Diamond Dazzler' 60th Birthday celebration concert at The Sage Gateshead, on 14th of May 2008. Now that's more like it!

Now somebody, please, share Dylan's version 1952VBL with the rest of us--before it's too late.