Five Records with… Owen Temple
Posted on | November 20, 2009 | 2 Comments
I recently spoke with Owen Temple after shooting some upcoming video with him at Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas. He released the fantastic (and underrated) Dollars and Dimes this year. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“Jerry Jeff chose some great songs here and introduced me to some great writers. Everything from the album cover on, I thought “This looks fun”. This record is like an anthology of Texas songwriters. Viva Terlingua is the same thing as well.”
“A masterpiece — all stories, set around Lubbock, where he is from. He reminds me that that’s what music is for me — stories about these places and the characters that inhabit these places. As far as his career, he records things that interest him, even when people say ‘you can’t do that!’. He always makes me say ‘Wow‘”.
“Like Terry Allen, they have always been experimental, and only wanting to make music that makes them say ‘wow’. They push the envelope sonically and made the record they wanted to.”
Leon Russell and the Shelter People
“A song I wish I had written — ‘Stranger in a Strange Land‘. I love the simplicity of the chorus – its a song that everyone can identify with. We’ve all felt like we were the only person on the planet feeling that way at that time. The pre-chorus, where the baby looks around and feels just as out of place as the wise man, is profound. Also, he managed to include the word burro in the song.”
“I first met him at a songswap at Cheatham Street, and I admired what he was doing. He has put out a few great EP’s, including 4 of No Kind. I love the song “Sunset”. One of my favorites.”
Owen Temple – Dollars and Dimes
Throwback Thursday – Terry Allen/John Hiatt – “I’m Not That Kat Anymore”
Posted on | November 5, 2009 | 1 Comment
1. Doug Sahm had his own way with the blues. Filtering it through his own blend of British Invasion pop and the Tex-Mex he grew up with in San Antonio (a combination mythologized by Bruce Robison’s It Came From San Antonio), the blues became something else entirely. I covered Sahm’s Doug Sahm and Band on an earlier Throwback Thursday, but today, I would like to check out two versions of “I’m Not That Kat Anymore” filtered through a few near-legends, John Hiatt and Terry Allen. The song describes to a man with an identity crisis, who loudly claims not to be his flaky older self, but whose actions show that not a whole lot has changed.
2. Hiatt’s version, from the fantastic Heard it on the X, is closer to Doug’s original style, with the hard charging, Vox organ-fueled rock that Sahm built his name on. His growling voice delivers an earnestness for the listener to believe him, yet the song’s tempo and swirling sound show that life is going by too fast for the narrator to change his wild ways. A fuzzed out baritone guitar pays tribute to the border blaster Mexican radio stations of the early 60’s that broadcast rock and roll into the United States, presumably where Sahm first heard his British heroes.
3. Terry Allen’s version from this year’s Keep Your Soul has his typical (as of late) lurching, David Byrne via west Texas style. More of a recitation than a vocal performance, Allen’s rendition gives the narrator a little more swagger, only revealing a little bit of vulnerability when he admits that after getting his pleasure from “making the pretty girls hot”, he felt “lowdown”. Of course, immediately after, he offers to be on call for a presumed pretty girl, finishing up with the now-ironic declaration that he ain’t who he used to be. Allen’s delivery highlights the more unrepentant side of the narrator
4. Sahm’s original track showed a two-faced man, conflicted about who he wanted to be versus who others thought he should be. While Sahm was noted for his groove, his wry songs were too often overlooked. John Hiatt and Terry Allen show two sides of the same song, showing how much power of interpretation to paint two pictures of the same scene.
John Hiatt – I’m Not That Kat Anymore
Terry Allen – I’m Not That Kat Anymore
Five Records with… Charlie Robison
Posted on | September 4, 2009 | No Comments
I had the chance to speak with Charlie Robison (who just released the impressive Beautiful Day) last week and talk to him about some of his favorite records. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“I remember being 13 and playing this constantly. It painted some unbelievable pictures – I wanted to write music and do the same thing.”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
“Hearing “Refugee” for the first time was remarkable…I admire Tom most for his longevity. He and Springsteen are still making great music today just like when they first started out. To be able to be so consistently good for so long is incredible.”
“I listened to this while making Beautiful Day. I listen to all sorts of music that I’m not moved to draw influence from – Sinatra, Eminem for starters. It inspires me creatively. I listened to a lot of reggaeton, like Damien Marley while making this record and none of that shows up, but it pushed me to do what I do better.”
“This is a song I wish I had written — The mood it creates is so rich, the words he uses. Feels like you are right there creeping around town with him. This is the sort of music that made me want to write my own songs in the first place.”
“Terry has this brilliant way of parodying country music while celebrating it and including himself in it. He hit a pinnacle in the 90’s with this record and Human Remains, but it sort of got lost on the younger generation with all the new wave country singers. What a talent.”
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