STICKY DOORKNOBS

Music for your weekend

It was a long time coming, but the end of June finally gave us what are so far the two best musical offerings of 2008 (so far): Coldplay's long awaited "Viva La Vida," and John Mayer's live effort, "Where the Light Is."

The first six months of '08 have been unusually dry from the popular music standpoint, but these two more than make up for it.

Coldplay received a creative booster shot from producer Brian Eno, who has worked with U2, the band Chris Martin so desperately wants his band to be. Fortunately, Coldplay doesn't resemble U2 as much as just a re-invigorated Coldplay. After an apparent self-imposed excitement hiatus with their 2005 album "X&Y," the band is back with what may ultimately prove to be its strongest effort yet, although "Rush of Blood to the Head" will be hard to beat when rock music historians look back over the band's contributions one day. "Viva la Vida" is uplifting, upbeat and memorable with almost every song. You half way expect these guys to break into "I Melt With You" on this CD. "Yes" is one of the best songs they have ever recorded with "Strawberry Swing" and the title track also among the ranks of their most ambitious. It's good to see Coldplay back.

Mayer's "Where the Light Is" casts that light squarely where it needs to be: on Mayer's superb craftmanship as a guitarist. Channeling SRV one moment and Hendrix the next, Mayer is much more than a "pop star," he is an axman of considerable renown and should be remembered as such. While Hendrix's "Bold as Love" is uneccesarily dragged down by an odd verbal mantra on love, Wrapped around the bizarre two minute speech is some great blues guitar work. If you like your blues uninterrupted, check out the SRVish "Every Day I Have the Blues" and then Mayer's great live re-creation of "Gravity."

This is more a blues album than a pop album, as it should be ... but with a solo set, a second set with the John Mayer Trio and a third with the entire band, it's sort of like getting three albums in one. Best album of the year so far.

A Dozen More CDs of Note (and worthy of purchase)
January-June 2008
"Wheels" Dan Tyminski
"Revelation," Journey
"Home Before Dark," Neil Diamond
"Nine Lives," Steve Windwood
"Mudcrutch," Mudcrutch
"Just Us Kids," James McMurtry
"One Hell of a Ride," Willie Nelson
"Troubadour," George Strait
"The Hits," Dave Clark Five
"Soul Speak," Michael McDonald
"Seeing Things," Jakob Dylan
"Backwoods Barbie," Dolly Parton

Meeting Sara Hickman

SAN ANGELO -- Shortly after I met my wife, she told me stories of how she and her sister had grown up in Southwest Houston with a girl who she said was far more creative than the other kids on the block. The girl, Karen told me, had gone on to achieve a modest amount of pop star success. I admit I hadn't heard of the woman at that point in my life, but would come to know her, as would others, in the 1980s.

Her name was (and still is, actually) Sara Hickman. Sara didn't achieve the mega-stardom that would properly justify her considerable talent as a song-smith, vocalist extraordinaire and performer, but you get the impression when talking to her that didn't put the skids on what is obviously a joy-filled life. Sara's voice is exquisite, capable of acting alone, carrying a church sanctuary or a concert hall without aid of instrumentation. With the best of them she can bend all the right notes at all the right times, wrapping her nimble cords around melodies in a wide array of octaves. Her range is impressive, her passion for her craft infectious. If we can make superstars out of the likes of some of the people we have crowned in the last 20 years while talents like Sara Hickman are left behind, relatively speaking, we should seriously reconsider what we fancy entertainment.

It's not as if Sara has had zero recognition. She toured with the late Dan Fogelberg and rode a brief wave of media attention with her still memorable, hummable, "I Couldn't Help Myself." She's had some fine albums, "Shortstop" "Equal Scary People" and 2006's "Motherlode" among them. Based in Austin today, Sara has a new passion: she is in the middle of a 12-month tour of Texas to join with others in a dialogue about capital punishment. With the help of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Dealth Penalty and its founder, Bob Van Steenburg, the two will bring the year-long tour to a close in Austin in October. Their appearances are a time of peaceful, open and frank conversation and song, bringing awareness to Texas' rampant penchant for execution. I recently commented to Bob how massive an undertaking he and the others in the tour had undertaken. "Yes," he said. "But I'm right!"

Sara and Bob, along with talented San Angelo-based singer-songwriter Cindy Jordan, brought the tour to San Angelo Wednesday night

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Sara. Or hugging her about four times (Sara's a hugger). She painted revealing word pictures through her song and voice, and shared with the 200 or so in attendance her intimate emotive expressions on love, life and death through lyric.

Sara's most poignant moment came during a song she wrote called "The One," a heart-wrenching story told through the eyes of the mother of the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho. Almost three hours after opening the evening with her beautiful a cappella, "It's OK,"  Sara closed with "We Are Each Other's Angels," one of the most uplifting and hope-filled songs I've had the pleasure to clap along with recently.

(Watch Sara singing both "The One" and "Each Other's Angels." last night in San Angelo.

Or watch Sara's original video of "The One" here.)

Thanks, Sara, for sharing your talent with West Texas.

Eddy Arnold dies

I may date myself with this one, but has country music ever given us a purer, more beautiful voice than Eddy Arnold, who died today at 89.

The story does not say what brought on Arnold's death but reports seem to hint a broken heart may have had something to do with it. Arnold's wife of 66 years, Sally, died in March.

Arnold's most memorable songs were "Make the World Go Away" and "What's He Doin' in My World."

75 Willies

Willie Nelson turns 75 today. For anyone building a Willie catalog, here are 75 ways to build the best one you can hope for. (Personal favorites are in bold face, just in case you were wondering).

• "All Of Me"
• "Always Late (With Your Kisses)"
• "Always Now"
• "Always On My Mind"
• "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground." A riveting ballad that showed the singer's tender side, his masterful guitar work and Mickey Raphael's dramatic harmonica.
• "Beer for My Horses (with Toby Keith)." It's actually a Toby Keith song, but Willie buts the twinkle in it and has plenty of fun to boot.
• "Big Booty"
• "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain"
• "Blue Skies"
• "City Of New Orleans." A tribute to the late Steve Goodman and one of America's great lasting folk songs.
• "Crazy." One of country music's signature songs regardless the era. But only two people should really sing this song.
• "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"
• "Faded Love"
• "Forgiving You Was Easy"
• "Funny How Time Slips Away"
• "Georgia On My Mind"
• "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues"
• "Graceland"
• "Half a Man" (with George Jones)
• "Hello Walls"
• "Help Me Make It Through The Night." MIx the expert songwriting of Kristofferson and the interpretive vocals of Willie Nelson and it makes for a memorable pairing.
  
• "Highwayman." You want supergroups, try WIllie, Waylon, Cash and Kristofferson. Others pale.
• "I'd Have To Be Crazy." Some of Willie's best songwriting.
• "I'm Not Trying to Forget You"
• "I Can Get Off On You"
  
• "I Didn't Come Here (And I Ain't Leavin')"
• "I've Just Destroyed The World I'm Livin In"
• "I Love You A Thousand Ways"
• "I Never Go Around Mirrors"
• "If You've Got The Money I've Got The Time"
• "If You Could Touch Her At All." A song all about ownership. And make no mistake: women are the owners.
• "Is The Better Part Over"
• "It Always Will Be." Latter Day Willie from the great album by the same name.
• "Keep Me from Blowing Away"
• "Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning"
• "Living In The Promiseland"
• "Louisiana"
• "Luckenbach, Texas"
• "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys"
• "Maria (Shut Up And Kiss Me)"
• "Midnight Rider"
• "Moment of Forever"
• "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys." If you grew up in the Seventies in Dallas, Texas, this song took on an entirely different and wonderfully nostalgic meaning.
• "My Life's Been A Pleasure"
• "Night Life"
• "Old Friends" (with Roger Miller & Ray Price). The friendship between these three legends is evident.
• "On The Road Again"
• "One For My Baby (And One For The Road)." Yes, WIllie can take even a Sinatra song and put his own stamp on it.
• "Pancho And Lefty." One of the greatest songs of the American West ever recorded.
• "Reasons to Quit"
• "Recollection Phoenix"
• "Red Headed Stranger Medley"
• "Remember Me"
• "Rollin' My Sweet Baby's Arms"
• "Pretty Paper." Christmas really should be about others.
• "September Song." This and "Stardust" really highlighted Willie's ability to wrap his voice around someone else's songs and make them all his own.
• "Shotgun Willie"
• "Stardust"
  
• "Stay A Little Longer"
• "Still Is Still Moving To Me"
• "Summertime" (with Leon Russell). Wilie and Leon's album contained real gems. "Summertime," "One For the Road" and "Thay Lucky Old Sun" were the best of the bunch.
• "Sweet Memories"
• "Texas"
• "Texas In My Soul"
• "That Lucky Old Sun"
• "Till I Gain Control Again." Rodney Crowell's masterpiece made masterful by Willie's vocal stylings.
  
• "Tired
• "Too Sick to Pray"
• "Uncloudy Day"
• "When I was Young and Grandma Wasn't Old"
• Whiskey River." Nothing says Willie like the opening strains of this song and an unfurling gigantic Texas flag.
• "Who'll Buy My Memories"
• "Why Me"
• "Won't Catch Me Cryin' "
  

Tuesday songs

There aren't a lot of memorable Tuesday songs. Tuesday seems to be pretty much just another average normal day of the week, unlike Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

In fact, to my recollection, there are only two really notable Tuesday songs that could pour off most anyone's musical consciousness: "Tuesday Afternoon" by the Moody Blues, and "Ruby Tuesday," by the Rolling Stones.

Counting Crows does a song on  their brand new album, "Saturday Nights and Sunday Morning," called "On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago"; Michael McDonald's Motown Two has "Tuesday Heartbreak," the original of which can be found on Stevie Wonder's Talking Book."

Others:

• "Tuesday," Spyro Gyra (which never actually says Tuesday, but something about a Tuesday must have inspired the smooth jazz group.
• "Sun Comes Up It's Tuesday Morning, Cowboy Junkies
• "Church on Tuesday,": Stone Temple Pilots
• "Groovy Tuesday" Smithereens
• "Another Tuesday Morning," Jim Brickman
• "Tuesday Morning," Melissa Etheridge

There are most assuredly others but those seem to be the most notable.

The 1980s gave us the synth rock-new wave one-hit wonder, Til Tuesday, responsible for the once catchy "Voices Carry." If the band was named after any other day of the week (Til Monday, for instance) they probably wouldn't receive much mention since Monday is a day with plenty of songs named after it. Sheryl Crow's "Tuesday Night Music Club" also must be mentioned.

But if you think Tuesdays has a dearth of songs named after it ... wait Til Wednesday and Thursday.

Monday songs

The guys on the TV this morning were talking about Monday songs. One liked "Manic Monday," another peferred "It Sure is Monday." And so I got to thinkin'. 'Course it was early so I have no idea if it was good thikin' or bad thinkin,' but I still thought: wonder what the top songs for each day of the week are.

And so we begin:

The Best Monday Songs

• "Monday Morning," Fleetwood Mac. Rockingest Monday song. Monday should rock more.
• "Monday, Monday," The Mamas and Papas. Kinda depressing, but with ahrmony vocals like this, the music is at least uplifting.
• "Rainy Days and Mondays," The Carpenters. Goes to the core of our Monday problem: "Rainy days and Mondays all ... ways ...get ...me down"
• "Come Monday," Jimmy Buffett. A Monday song for the optimistic road weary musician.
• "Monday," Wilco
• "Manic Monday," The Bangles.
• "Monday Morning Church," Alan Jackson
• "Blue Monday," Fats Domino
• "It Sure is Monday," Mark Chesnutt

Tomorrow: Tuesday Songs.

'Willie and Family Live' was (and is) a real thriller, too

There's been much written in the pop culture media lately of the just-passed 25th anniversary of the release of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller.' And for just reason. It was a landmark achievement. An astonishing accomplishment with a fresh and exciting sound. Evidence of its R&B greatness can be found simply by giving it another whirl in the changer a quarter century later. The King of Pop may be weird, but he is unquestionably a pop music genius.

But what has been largely overlooked by that same pop culture media is that 2008 also brings with it the 30th anniversary of another work of monumental proportions; a CD that has not aged one day since its release, especially impressive given that many of the songs contained on the album were already somewhat aged when they were pressed onto vinyl that day in 1978.

"Willie & Family Live" may not be the first live country album ever released, but time shows that it is still likely the best. The double CD puts the focus not on just Willie's legendary presence and extraordinary self-confidence, but the high quality musicianship Willie's Family had when they were onstage together. Mickey Raphael's nearly ever-present harmonica; Bobbie Nelson's exceptional piano; (Bobbie's 'Just As I Am' is as moving as an altar call on a Texas Sunday morning.

I attended three or four Willie & Family Live performances throughout the late '70s and early '80s and they were, almost note for note, true to the album's sequence, which was recorded in, of all places, Reno. I don't know how the music played there, but in Texas, a Willie and Family show was an event that defied description. Willie concerts were part smoky barroom, part tent revival and all party. And when he slowed it down, as with Rodney Crowell's 'Til I Gain Control Again' or his own 'Crazy',' the crowd grew quiet and contemplative, knowing they were in the presence of greatness.

Take a poll and ask people their favorite Willie Nelson song and you're likely to get 'Always On My Mind' and 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,' in that order. But to the die hards, the best Willie song is really six songs: the 'Whiskey River-Stay A Little Longer-Funny How Time Slips Away-Crazy-Night Life-If You've Got The Money'' medley that opens 'Willie & Family Live' and all of his concerts during his hey day. There was a time when you'd have had a large number of Willie fans vote that medley as the National Anthem of Texas.

As perfect a country CD as it still is, it lacks just one thing: the incomparable visual effect -- so memorable a sight that you can still get chills down your spine just thinking about it -- of seeing that huge Texas flag unfurled as Willie breaks into the opening strains of 'Whiskey River."

Now that's a real thriller.

An England Dan and John Ford Coley update

Sometimes the strangest things get people's attention. Not that England Dan and John Ford Coley are strange. They're not. It's just ... you never know. in Monday's Reporter-Telegram, we ran the recent Sticky Doorknobs posting about John Ford Coley, and it generated a few phone calls and emails.

First and foremost: Mike Henry, news director at KBST Radio in Big Spring (who took a really great and eerie photograph of recent grass fires here) called to make sure I knew that "Love is the Answer" was written by Todd Rundgren, and not England Dan or John Ford Coley. Thanks to Mike for the heads up. I really hate being wrong, but don't mind admitting it when it happens.

Another email came in from Elaine, who lives and works in Midland now, but who grew up in Rankin and  remembers both Dan Seals and brother Jimmy, who later went on to form half of the duet Seals and Crofts (Side note: It still constantly amazes me the number of natives of this region who grew up and made a name for themselves in the music industry; it's a list far too great to recount right now).

Anyway, Elaine tells me Dan and Jimmie's dad, Wayland, who had a country western band in the area, died at Midland Memorial Hospital in 1992. Elaine was at MMH at the time and remembers seeing both of the pop-rock artists at the same time shortly after Wayland passed away.

Thanks to Elaine for the email.

43 Great 'Rain' Songs

As we once again wait patiently for beneficial rainfall in our area, it seems to me that if we can't get rain, we can at least have the next best thing. Who knows, if enough people make a playlist of Great Rain Songs, and we all play them at the same time, we'll get more than just enough drops to dirty up our cars with mudballs.

Here then are my nominations for 40 Best Rain Songs of all time. Mostly alphabetical, except for the Top dozen; the undisputed Best Rain Songs of all time. Oh, the only requirement is that the word 'Rain" must be included in the title.

The Top 12

• "Singin' in the Rain," Gene Kelly. Any list of top rain songs would be incomplete without this at the top.
• "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain," Willie. Ditto for Willie.
• "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again," The Fortunes. The most feel-good rain song ever recorded.
• "Kentucky Rain," Elvis. One of the King's most enduring songs ever.
• "Rainy Night in Georgia," Brook Benton. Who needs paint to paint a picture? Brook Benton sure didn't.
• "Purple Rain, Prince. This one makes it in just because of the guitar solo.
• "Rain," The Beatles.
• "The Rain Song," Led Zeppelin. I don't know if it's about rain, but there's a lot of screaming and blues and that's good enough for me.
• "Rainy Day People," Gordon Lightfoot. Second to The Fortunes' for feel-good rain songs.
• "Songs About Rain," Gary Allan. More a song about rain songs than about rain. Still, one of Gary Allan's best.
• "Summer Rain," Johnny Rivers.
• "Who'll Stop the Rain," Creedence Clearwater Revival

Others of note

• "Another Rainy Day in New York City," Chicago
• "Bring on the Rain," Jodi Messina with Tim McGraw
• "Bring the Rain," Mercy Me
• "A Better Rain," George Strait
• "Buckets of Rain," Bob Dylan
• "Can You Stop the Rain," Peabo Bryson
• "Crying in the Rain," Art Garfunkel
• "Fire and Rain," James Taylor
• "Have You Ever Seen the Rain," Creedence Clearwater Revival
• "I Love a Rainy Night," Eddie Rabbit
• "I Made it Through the Rain," Barry Manilow
• "I Wish it Would Rain Down," Phil Collins
• "Is it Raining at Your House?" Vern Gosdin
• "It's Raining Again," Supertramp
• "Let it Rain," Eric Clapton
• "Midnight Rain," Poco
• "Rain Down," David Crowder Band
• "Rain Please Go Away," Alison Krauss and Union Station
• "Rainy Day Crossroad Blues," Doobie Brothers
• "Rainy Day Man," Patti Scialfa
• "Rainy Day Woman," Waylon Jennings
• "Rainy Day Women No. 12 and 35," Bob Dylan
• "Rainy Days and Mondays," The Carpenters
• "Raining in My Heart," Buddy Holly/Leo Sayer
• "Raining on Sunday," Radney Foster
• "Rhythm of the Rain," Dan Fogelberg
• "Save it for a Rainy Day," Stephen Bishop
• "Too Much Rain," Paul McCartney

Honorable Mention
(These would be disqualified because Rain is not actually in their titles. But you can't deny they don't belong, even if The Who song is not really about rain.)

• "Reign O'er Me," The Who
• "I Can See Clearly Now," Johnny Nash (More of an after-the-rain song than a rain song, but it HAD been raining, which makes it just good enough to qualify.)
• "Riders on the Storm," The Doors. (Hey, it starts with thunder. it has to be included.)

McDonald, Parton highlight slow first quarter

With at least double the number of decent CDs out at this time last year compared to this year, one wonders if 2008 will be a downturn in creativity in the recording arts. OK, *I* wonder. You probably don't care. But it's just kinda weird that the number of CDs worthy of adding to a collection seem significantly down through almost the first three months of '08.

Worth mentioning, however, are these:

-- "Soul Speak," Michael McDonald. The man could sing my 2006 tax return and make me feel good. And my gift to the IRS last year was one ugly piece of paper.  What can you say about a guy who can record re-creations of everything from "Livin' for the City" to "Into the Mystic" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and succeed wildly in all three genres. McDonald also gives much needed muscle to the old George Michael song "I Knew You Were Waiting" with a vocal prowess Michael didn't  muster.

-- "It's Time for a Love Revolution," Lenny Kravitz. A clear throwback to the 1970s, Lenny hits a high note on almost every song, especially the powerful ballad and the spiritual, "If You Want It." The back end of this CD is the strongest part of this above-average collection.

-- "Backwoods Barbie," Dolly Parton. So my kid comes home the other day and says she doesn't like Dolly because she's not real. Kids today. Dolly may be the original real deal. As she says herself in the title track, a song about fake versus genuine, Dolly may look like a Backwoods Barbie, but "Where it counts I'm real: "I'm just a Backwoods Barbie/Too much makeup too much hair/Don't be fooled by thinking the goods are not all there. Don't let these false eyelashes lead you to believe that I'm as shallow as I look, cause I run true and deep." Dolly may be the only contemporary singer who can pull those lyrics off today. She does a toe-tapping, bluegrass rendition of the Fine Yong Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy," and it's not bad, and her "Better Get to Livin'" is great advice song for anyone down on their luck. Although she clunks through yet another unneeded version of "I Will Always Love You" and the just plain weird  "Jesus and Gravity," Dolly scores big on most every other track, including the haunting "Only Dreaming," which is what Celtic Woman would sound like if she moved to Dolly's Smokey Mountains.

-- "Dave Clark Five's Greatest Hits." Yes, it is almost 40 years old and no there's nothing original here. Which is why it is so darned good. "Glad All Over" is one of the best songs ever recorded and "Because" is on par with many of the Beatles' early ballads, this shining collection is a long awaited addition of feel-good rock and roll for real music lovers.