Five Records With… Adam Carroll
Posted on | January 8, 2010 | 1 Comment
I recently spoke with Adam Carroll, a singer/songwriter from Lockhart, TX. He and Michael O’Connor are about to release Hard Times, which I covered here. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“ When I was 19, I listened to this thing forever, before I started playing guitar. If there was anyone that made me want to get into music, it was Neil.“
“Doug Sahm — He makes San Antonio really cool, which it is. He plays blues, Tejano, just that old style. I really admire that he did what he wanted to. A lot of musicians talk about him, but I dont think he gets enough credit.”
“Michael and I were trying to write honky tonk songs while making Hard Times. If you want to call yourself a honky tonk singer, you had better listen to Ernest. He’s not the best singer in the world, but he’s the best at what he does, which is good news for me.”
“Theres a song called “One For the Money” that he wrote for Sam Peckinpah, that I wish I had written. Also, from the same record, “The Lights of Magdala” is about as good as it gets.“
Canadian Amplifier – Bootleg Series Vol. 1
“He does stuff with sound, and this little bitty guitar, that is cooler than anyone I’m hearing. He can do more interesting things with beat up old equipment that new gear can’t recreate. Also a great writer.”
Adam Carroll – “Highway Prayer”
Posted on | December 22, 2009 | 2 Comments
1. Ryan Bingham has made sure to let everyone know that the traveling life of a musician is not for the faint of heart. I covered “The Weary Kind” a few weeks back, and it does an able job of warning would-be musicians about the hardships of his occupation. “Highway Prayer”, originally from Adam Carroll’s 2008 release Old Town Rock and Roll, is an inversion of that — offering encouragement and support to those who might find themselves trapped in such a life. The upcoming release Hard Times has Michael O’Connor taking over vocals, with his rasp adding a good bit of weariness to the song.
2. “Highway Prayer” begins by specifying the groups to whom the song is written: those who “the road is all that matters”, that “live on borrowed time”, whose “seeds in life are scattered”. It takes a subtle personal turn, as Carroll dedicates the song to “those who have lived on next to nothing/ playing in a bar in Jacksonville”, a town just down the road from his home of Tyler. The chorus warns such people not to “stay too late” or “cry too long”, for soon they will be back home, regaling friends and family with stories of their travel.
3. When Carroll identifies himself with those weary travelers in the second verse, the song gains another layer, functioning as a support message for travelers and an internal mantra, repeated over and over again as the white lines fly by. Gabe Rhodes’ harmonium gives this song the appropriate hymnal feel, as it salutes traveling musicians that have gone by and ones to come. “Highway Prayer” is a stunning song, delivered simply enough for everyone to understand it, but with implied weight well beyond its verses.
Michael O’Connor – Highway Prayer
Five Records With… Michael O’Connor
Posted on | December 18, 2009 | 1 Comment
I recently spoke with Michael O’Connor, a singer/songwriter/guitarist who has played with the likes of Slaid Cleaves and Susan Gibson. He and Adam Carroll are about to release Hard Times, which I covered here. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“My older brother brought this album home when I was about eight or nine years old. “School’s Out” made me want to run away from home, get my hands on a Les Paul and burn down the whole damn town.“
“Tom Waits’ music has got me through some hard times in my life. I never tire of this album; it’s blues, rock, gospel, country, folk, and none of these at the same time. Tom is an original — folks either get him or they don’t, and I dig that.”
“Mance was from Navasota, Texas and was a master songster and guitar player. He played slide guitar with a pocket knife. You can hear him say at the beginning of the song ‘Mance’s Blues,’ ‘Alright. We don’t care about no tape now. We got the blues.’”
“I wish I had written the title track: ‘…if a shadow don’t seem much company, well, who said it would be?‘ What more can I say about Townes? I saw him play about six months before he died; it was ragged and perfect. He was a treasure and a poet.“
“From the blue-eyed soul side of Americana. This is a solid production from a great singer/songwriter and fantastic musician…Impeccable.”
Michael O’Connor – Bottle Down
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