Stagger Lee Saturdays - Mark Berenson

Mark Berenson (official AMG) is a local Colorado musician, who's recorded one album split between covers ("Trouble In Mind," "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out") and originals. (Plenty of samples on the official page -- check it out.)

This is the New Orleans version of the song, where every step you take, you're steppin' in Billy DeLyons' blood. But there's also information on Stag's duel of words with the sheriff, and his adventures in hell. (You'll hear another, very similar take on this next week.)

Mark Berenson - Stagolee
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Multiple Mondays: Season of the Witch Volume Two

Here's a second helping of Donovan's atmospheric classic (click here to see Volume One).

In chronological order, here are ten versions. As always, I recommend the zip, but you can cherry pick. (I have many more versions, but they are mostly either terrible, or jambands, which -- sorry! -- tend to run together to me. If you wanna hear more, comment down below.)

Zipfile

Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger (1967) 1 2
Vanilla Fudge (1968) 1 2
Terry Reid (1968) 1 2
Pesky Gee! (1969) 1 2
Suck (1970) 1 2
Coupla Prog (1970) 1 2
Richard Thompson (2003) 1 2
David Gans and Bob Weir (live 2004) 1 2
The Strangelings (2007) 1 2
Blue Matter (2007) 1 2

Aye, Pirate Week: Hoist The Colours

Aye, speakin' o' pirate mo'ies, har's the theme song t' ...At World's End, the third (but not last) POTC film. It war orchestrated by Hans Zimmer, who not coincidentally orchestrated that Tim Curry song we heard Sunday.

The lyrics war written by the film's writers and director, if this har 'pedia have any truth t' it. This be a fine shanty to sing whilst ye hoist yer own colours, ye blooming cockroachers!

More t'morrow, mateys.

Hans Zimmer - Hoist The Colours
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Buy from Amazon, matey -- Buy from Deep Discount, yarr.

Stagger Lee Saturdays - Axe Masterson

Axe Masterson (MySpace interview) is a Vermont blues/folk musician who's been playing live and in the studio for over 25 years. In 2007, he recorded an album as tribute to the Lomax field recordings, with a version of "Death Letter Blues" (a song best-known recently for the White Stripes' version) and, of course, his version of Stag.

Musically, this is a peppy but stripped-down version, just Axe's vocals, harmonica, and some lovely slide guitar. The lyrics are similarly stripped down -- we don't get to hear about any gambling, or a bulldog, or Stag's adventures in hell, or how all the women weeped and moaned.

The CD is out of print, so the buy link down there goes to MP3 downloads at [redacted], the MP3 downloading service I personally prefer, and one which USED TO send a high percentage of proceeds back to the artists. ([redacted] has given me no money to say this; I just think they're great.)

Axe Masterson - Stack O'Lee Blues
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Buy link removed due to Ukrainian lawbreaking

Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas

Last year around this time, the MP3 blogosphere was abuzz with news that Okkervil River had just released a new album-length collection of covers and live recordings for free, only on the band's website. I'm never one to sneer at things that are free, and so I downloaded it. And listened to it, over and over again.

I'm not a traditional music customer, as a quick perusal of this blog will certainly show, but this worked on me. (Don't believe me? Click on Okkervil River's tag at the bottom of this post.) Since that time, I've seen the band live and own copies of every single CD they've put out. The songs have crept into my soul, and this song I'm posting today has made my cry virtually every time I've heard it. (Hence its place in my Depressing Little Christmas mix, which I'm posting here on the 21st.)

This song is so tender, so explicitly rooted in personal existence and loss that the Otis Redding quote doesn't feel like a cheat at all. Rather, it feels like something that Otis Redding, were he still alive, would send a letter to the band thanking them for. The song gives us two or three details about home, about the relationship, and a quote from that song you listen to and cry and think about the breakup, and we fill in the rest of the story from our own lives.

This song is in two of my "playlists": It's in my Christmas playlist, and my Okkervil River playlist, which means in the last twelve months I've heard it probably two dozen times. Last week, I was listening to it, preparing to get misty, and ... I didn't anymore. This post is a thank-you to Will Sheff and the Okkervil River boys, yes, but more than that it's a thank-you to Tiki. Our relationship is still new and hobbling around on its little-deer legs: there's nothing formalized or set in stone about it, and the future holds nothing but surprises for us. But that doesn't matter: you've kept me from crying when I listen to this song, and that's the best Christmas present I'll get all year.

Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas (live)

Guestpost: Raul Malo - Marshmallow World

Howdy, all. Today's post is brought to you by my good friend Todd, who's been collaborating with me on internet things before some of you were even born. Todd says:

I'd have to say "Marshmallow World" from the Maverick's Raul Malo is an outstanding bit of business. Raul does an outstanding classic crooner rendition with a bit of pep in it. It's enough to make you bop your head while driving and get immediately in the Christmas Spirit.

Mark here again. I love love love "Marshmallow World." There aren't enough Mondays in the month to do it this December, but next year I'll post a Multiple Monday with eight or so excellent versions of this song. Thanks, Todd!

Raul Malo - Marshmallow World
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Guestpost: Ethan Lipton - Gift Basket

Chris, AKA CD, is this blog's most revered commenter. Also, mostly its only commenter (not counting the splogs and onepost commenters who need a file fixed). Until last week, I didn't know his last name, or even his first name, but he's good people. Today, he wants to talk to you about Ethan Lipton's Waitsian tune "Gift Basket."

Let's review the reasons to enjoy the holidays, shall we? There's the whole good will on earth towards one's fellow man, fresh snowfalls, twinkly lights, egg nog, and, if one has been a good boy/girl this year, maybe, just maybe, some goodies underneath the tree.

What other reasons do we have to celebrate the birth of Santa or whoever? Why, because it allows us hopefully to entice our clients to stick with us for at least one more economic quarter. Realizing this truest of purposes behind Christmas, Ethan Lipton penned the perfect ditty, Gift Basket. And in today's damn near frozen economy, this could well be the song of the 2008 Holiday Season.

So as you're digging through that fruit and cheese basket and deciding whether or not you're ballsy enough to sample that spiced deer venison, just remember, we thank you for your fine support.

Thanks, Chris!!

Ethan Lipton - Gift Basket
This song is sadly not commercially available -- buy some of Ethan's other things instead.

Stagger Lee Saturdays - Keb' Mo'

This post is a little peremptory, since I'm working on a monster for Monday, and I have fancy plans (and pants to match) for December.

I haven't seen Honeydripper yet, but I love John Sayles (seriously: Lone Star, Brother from Another Planet -- what's not to like?!?) Today's take on Stag is from Keb' Mo', who I've avoided like the plague since his contribution to a Johnny Cash tribute album, in which he rewrites Folsom Prison Blues so the singer is falsely accused ("They say I shot a man down in Reno / But that was just a lie.") With that said, this is a good, lowkey take on Stag.

Keb' Mo' - Stack O Lee
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LebowskiFest!

Howdy folks. I may not have internet access for the next week or so (it all depends on how the various motels roll their home versions of wifi), so if I don't post, don't worry. I'm off to LebowskiFest in Kentucky.

Here's a YouTube ukulele cover of "Dead Flowers", the Rolling Stones song that Townes Van Zandt performed live, which recording later became the final song of The Big Lebowski.

Wookie Fat Cat - Dead Flowers
See his other uke covers, including "Alice's Restaurant" and "Waterloo Sunset".

Eddie Izzard - Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!

So I saw Eddie Izzard twice in Atlanta last week. And here is a musical track from him, his cover of a classic Beatles song from Sgt. Pepper.

You should really click on that first link if you're not familiar with the song, so you can hear just how much Eddie is improvising lyrically here. The original lyrics are based on an old 1843 circus poster that John Lennon became enamored with, and the song incorporates some interesting chord changes and an incredible use of tape loops.

This performance is from Eddie's cameo in Across The Universe, a film I have yet to see (I feel a little leery that it'll be that Bee Gees/George Burns movie all over again). You can see the movie clip here. I should point out that the soundtrack isn't bad, for what it is (which is a collection of covers of classic songs, most of which I consider perfect, with slight musical and production updates presumably undertaken to make the songs more palatable for today's tastes). It certainly doesn't make me cringe and leave the room, like I do with the Bee Gees/Frampton soundtrack.

This song is certainly my personal favorite from the album, but then I'm a sucker for anything Izzard.

Eddie Izzard - Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

Stagger Lee Saturdays - Samuel L. Jackson

This is from the soundtrack to Black Snake Moan. Sam Jackson's character here was inspired by R. L. Burnside, who does a mean Stag hisownself. And he's backed by Burnside's own band here, as well.

But where Burnside was quietly laughing at the evil Stag does, here Sam Jackson boasts, loud and proud, of the violence and the psychopathy that the song brings out in him. Sam also curses a lot more too, but that's only to be expected. Nobody curses as well as Sam Jackson.

Samuel L. Jackson - Stack-o-lee
Buy from Deep Discount -- Buy from Amazon

The New Pornographers

As I reassured my mother (and my roommate), they aren't actually producers of pornography.

That I know of.

I'm another one of those New Pornographers fans who goes to see and hear Miss Neko Case primarily. Not to say that the other members of the band aren't great and all, but I'm all about the Neko. Which means that I am a lucky, lucky boy. You see, she had a fall and fractured her ankle (at one show, it was jokingly blamed on Cat Power), and the Athens show was her last on this tour. She had a hard time getting onto the stage, and spent quite a bit of the show trying to get her leg comfortable.

Musically, I have to admit I'm not that big a fan of The New Pornographers, really. They have a handful of songs I love, and another bunch of songs I like, but I don't care for them as a whole. With that said, here are three of my favorites that got played on Thursday.

"Mass Romantic" is one of the few NP songs where Neko gets to sing powerfully. Usually she's doing backing vocals, or sweet lyrical interludes, and almost never the knock-me-on-my-ass powerful vocals she does as a solo act. "Go Places" is a remix you can only get by buying the exclusive 4-disc set of Challengers (which, for the record, only costs $5 more than the standard one-disc edition). "Myriad Harbour" is a song written and primarily sung by Dan Bekar, who wasn't on this tour. So the band invited Will Sheff onstage to sing Dan's part (and I think it was a pretty good impression).

Zip file
Buy from Matador Records

Okkervil River -- A Brief Introduction

This poster here is not for the show I saw last night, but it's pretty, and it represents a few things about the band -- their darkness and their mystery and their roughness.

I was all psyched to come here today and write an impassioned love note to Okkervil River for the show they put on, but I don't have to. It's already been done by others.

So let me say a few personal things instead. I'm a sucker for bands that have a trumpet in them. If you're a rock band, and you include a trumpet, I'll listen to any album you put out at least twice. Okkervil River has a trumpet, and it plays the trumpet figures that haunt my mind whenever I hear a sad song, any sad song at all, on the radio.

Will Sheff's vocals consistently affect me emotionally, no matter the lyrical content of the song. (Scroll down or click to listen to what he does, even with a silly song like "Simon Smith and The Amazing Dancing Bear.")

So here are my three favorite songs that the band played last night. "Plus Ones" is a good summation of everything Okkervil River can do, lyrically and musically. "John Allyn Smith Sails" turns into a surprise cover, which seems inevitable as soon as you hear the first strains. And "Westfall" is incredible -- a driving rock song that feels like the band's audition for the next volume of Murder Ballads. (The song was inspired by a real-life murder, kind of, and the way that Will Sheff's coworkers kept trying to see the evil in the banal murderer.)

(Okkervil River opened for The New Pornographers. Direct your browser this way tomorrow for a post on that half of the show.)

Okkervil River - Plus Ones
Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails
Okkervil River - Westfall

Buy CDs from the record label -- The Stage Names, source of "Plus Ones" and "John Allyn Smith."
Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See, source of "Westfall."

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Nothin'

I know how late I am to this party. Really, I do. But just because this album was all the rage months ago does not mean I suck for just having bought it myownself this week.

I've LISTENED to it all, a while ago (thanks, Jen!). But I didn't fall in love with this song till yesterday. This is a Townes Van Zandt song, and I love Townes. (But his version doesn't stand out from his other songs, not for me.) This version stands out from everything, because it has that fiddle. Ms. Krauss plays fiddle like a 60-year old blind blues singer plays the harmonica, with all the weight of the world coming out through the bow. I have a serious crush on her now, just because of this (much the same way I crushed on Scarlet Rivera because of her fiddle on, say, "Isis".)

The CD was produced by T-Bone Burnett, Coen musical supervisor (that is to say, responsible for the O Brother and Ladykillers and Lebowski soundtracks) and artist in his own right. He's my second favorite producer-artist working right now, right behind Daniel Lanois.

This track is so good it makes me weak in the knees.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Nothin'
Buy from Plant and Krauss -- Buy from Deep Discount

PS -- Alzheimer's research needs funding. You can give as little as a dollar through this link. Do it for Terry Pratchett.

Ellen Page and Michael Cera - Anyone Else But You

So here's my second post about Juno. I first heard of this movie through my daily surfing. Neil Gaiman linked to his free audio stories on last.fm, and also his own playlists there, which I clicked through to see who else was playing The Velvet Underground, and the most-played song that week was "I'm Sticking With You" as a result of it being on this album. (For the record, "...Sticking..." is used well in the movie, but not over a particularly memorable scene.)

And then I heard that Jason Bateman and Michael Cera were both in the movie, and I was convinced. Let me get this out of the way: Michael Cera is just adorable. I'm seriously, in my heart of hearts, considering watching Superbad because he's in it.

The film is wonderful, and it ends with this song. (We've previously heard about a minute of the original version of this song played during the movie.) We see Ellen Page and Michael Cera sitting in front of his character's house, just strumming and singing this, themselves, in their own quiet voices, in a nice slow pullout shot. It sums up their characters and their search for love, and the happy ending they've been hoping for during the last two hours. It's so damn sweet.

Did I mention yet how much I loved this movie? Jason Reitman, keep making films, and I'll keep watching them. If you're still in, I'm still in.

Ellen Page and Michael Cera - Anyone Else But You
Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

Music Via Chicago

So a few months ago my good friend who shall remain nameless (excepting his nickname, which is "Big'un") traveled on business to the city of Chicago. And I spent a few hours before that compiling music to make his trip more pleasant. It's certainly not a complete collection of songs about the city (as he points out, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" is missing, and that one's just the tip of the iceberg).

However, it is a nice collection of blues and indie songs that help to capture, in some small way, the soul of the city. In fact, I collected too much music to fit onto one CD, so if you're burning it to a disc I recommend that you remove tracks 11, 13, and 19. At some point, I may expand this into a 2-disc set, if anyone else goes to Chicago.

1. Home To Emily (Theme From The Bob Newhart Show)
2. Via Chicago (Wilco)
3. Dear Chicago (Ryan Adams)
4. Chicago Promenade (Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, live)
5. Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson)
6. A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Wish (Steve Goodman, live)
7. Chicago (Sufjan Stevens)
8. Chicago (Ladyslipper)
9. Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night (The Hold Steady)
10. Sweet Home Chicago (Taj Mahal feat. The Pointer Sisters)
11. Chicago (Microfilm, Sufjan Stevens cover)
12. Chicago X 12 (Rogue Wave)
13. Chicago (Frank Sinatra)
14. My Kind Of Town (Frank Sinatra)
15. On A Freezing Chicago Street (Margo & The Nuclear So And Sos)
16. Old Man Chicago (Alberta Cross)
17. Via Chicago (Jeff Tweedy, live)
18. Born In Chicago (The Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
19. Chicago (Sufjan Stevens, easy listening mix)
20. Blue Chicago Moon (Songs: Ohia)
21. Sweet Home Chicago (The Blues Brothers)

Zip file part 1 -- Zip file part 2