My Better Self

"Everybody Knows This is NOWHERE!!!! La, La, La, La, La, LAH"

- Dar Williams and Marshall Crenshaw

I don’t usually write about music here but I am making an exception as I have been astounded by two comeback albums. Spookily, as Dame Edna would say, they are both by singers called Willams.

Dar Williams was a favorite of mine back in the mid 90s. She sang great folk pop that invariably made me feel glad to be alive and had me jumping from Brighton pier into the English channel on hot days. Change is inevitable though and her last album ‘The Green World’ dragged a lot. So I grew up and lost interest. The other day I was shopping for second hand cds in Fremantle and came across her 2005 album ‘My Better Self’. It features Marshall (oh cruel world why was he never mega) Crenshaw on vocals and guitar and an astounding version of Neil Young’s ‘Everybody Knows this is Nowhere’. There is also a surprisingly good version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ featuring Ani DiFranco. It is not often that I play imaginary mandolin to folk pop and wake up the cat but there is a time and a place and this album is definitely it.

I thought I gave up on Lucinda Williams a few years ago when she changed styles from narrative to chant. In fact I sold her last two albums before I left the UK. So I was surprise d to find myself buying a second hand copy of her new album ‘West’. Genius. Yes sheer wanton Genius with 300 kinds of hot sauce to spare. The album is worth buying for the opening track ‘Are You OK?’ and it builds and builds. It is not often I lift an imaginary bourbon glass in an equally imaginary after hours Antone’s in Austin but there is a time and a place and this album is definitely it.

The other unexpected soundtrack to my back yard this summer is a compilation by the Flamin Groovies which just oozes the grease like the cheese from a chilli dog. Go buy some mirrored aviators and 'Shake Some Action'!