Tribute Album for Beginners

I can't stand tribute albums. Well, normally that's the case. Mostly they just fail to live up to the greatness of whomever or whatever they are attempting to pay tribute to. Usually it has to do with a lack of focus: too broad a spectrum of performers covering a wide range of styles by a particular artist and there's usually some song that just outright sucks, which makes it hard to listen to as an album.

Folkyeah and Grass Roots Records are responsible for this Graham Nash tribute record that can proudly stand right next to the album its paying tribute to: Songs for Beginners. Yes, it's a tribute album with songs by many different artists, but song for song it recreates Graham's spectacular solo debut album, which I previously discussed here. There's really not a bad song on the album, which has just as much to do with the solidity of Graham's original, but also the strength of the artists selected to cover them, among them: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (aka Will Oldham), Vetiver, Nile Nash (Graham's daughter) and many others that I'm less familiar with but hope to become more familiar with in the time to come. Check out the promotional video they made, which has snippets of most of the songs:

"BE YOURSELF" GRAHAM NASH 2010 TRIBUTE ADVANCE EPK #2 promo from (((folkYEAH!))) on Vimeo.

If you're into vinyl, I suggest you order yours before it's too late - they only pressed 1000 and they did a superb job with gatefold cover, excellent artwork and nice thick vinyl. There's a bonus EP, which strangely I didn't receive (but hope to rectify that) but instead got the 7" single of Bonnie Prince Billy's song from the comp.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Hombre Sencillo (Simple Man)
I was surprised to really like this one as I've had mixed experiences with Will Oldham. I know lots of people are fanatical about him, but I can take him or leave him depending on the song/album. This song, however, is making me want to revisit my position. By far, this is the most radical reinterpretation of any of Graham's songs on the album, yet even in its deviation I think it gets to the real heart of Graham's humble message to "be yourself". Sure, it sounds like a hippy cliche, but with the crap that gets paraded around as popular music, this message is more urgent than ever. They even made a little mini-movie which I highly recommend you watch.

Moore Brothers - Man in the Mirror
Beautiful harmonies from the group I've never heard above before, but will now keep my eyes peeled for "moore" to come.

Mariee Sioux (w/ Greg Weeks of Espers) - Sleep Song
Magical. Possibly my favorite song from Graham's album rivaling "I Used to be a King" (Vetiver does this version and while it's fantastic, surprisingly it's not one of my favorites from the tribute album) this lullabye reminds me a lot of another version I recently came across from Claudine Longet . . .

Claudine Longet - Sleep Song

Vetiver: Things of the Past and Present

So far this blog has been solidly dedicated to older tunes from the 60s and 70s mostly, with the exception of Arthur Russell and some later John Martyn cuts. This is not because I'm some music purist that believese that only the old stuff is good (though I'm guilty of that 75% of the time), but because I spend most of my energy digging backwards rather than in the present. So usually when I find something new it's by accident, like what happened with Vetiver.

For the last two years I've been pretty solidly obsessed with Ronnie Lane of the (Small) Faces. One evening, hanging out with my friend Matt on a visit to NYC I was playing a mix that included Ronnie Lane's cover of D. Adam's "Roll On Babe." Matt said something like, "Vetiver's awesome," to which I gave him a confused look, explaining that we were listening to Ronnie Lane. He explained that Vetiver covered this song on one of their albums, to which I was skeptical and intrigued. He ripped me a copy and since then I have been slowly and irreversably falling in love with Vetiver. What I find interesting is that had it not been for their cover of a song I already loved I probably wouldn't have bothered to dig deeper, but their commitment to an obscure, yet wonderful song like "Roll On Babe" meant that we were kinda in on the same deliciously underappreciated secret.





















I committed to purchase the album with that song, "Thing of the Past", on vinyl and absorbed the band's subdued and understated tone. At first it didn't really penetrate my armor of skepticism, but by the third or fourth listen I really began to appreciate the quirky selections - all the songs on that album are covers of relatively obscure folksy singer-songwriters, a style that is clearly the foremost influence on the band - and the sensitive treatment the band gives each piece of music, demonstrating a serious amount of respect for the source material. Come to think of it, that's one of the reasons I like them, because they seem to have a clear sense of where they sit and what they're trying to do, because they know what came before and what elements to cherry pick and what dated sounds or themes to leave on the rehearsal space floor.

More recently I picked up their newest one, "Tight Knit" and then there was no going back. This album is all originals (I think) and is their strongest release to date, though I still haven't gotten around to pick up their first one. The songs have a wider emotional range that extend from giddy "Everyday" to nostalgic "Rolling Sea" to ethereal "At the Forest's edge" as opposed to most of the previous albums that refused to budge too far from warm and melancholic nostalgia. Seeing as I got into the group because of a cover, I have included that one and another perfect surprise, finding out they also covered my favorite Lindsey Buckingham Fleetwood Mac song, "Save Me a Place." I rounded it out with an original, "Rolling Sea" from the newest album.

Now I just can't wait to check them out live. They're a local band I've been told, though they've been on tour since I discovered them, but I hear they're coming back in a couple months . . .

Vetiver - Roll On Babe











Vetiver - Save Me a Place











Vetiver - Rolling Sea