Ten Albums Part III

7. At Folsom Prison- Johnny Cash. Classic and quintessential Cash, both the bad boy of couuntry music and the redeemed sinner are in view here. This is a landmark historical live album and really has anyone besides Johnny Cash been cool enough to record an album in a penitentrary? (See also the follow up At San Quentin). Here Johnny took Jesus' words about visiting the prisoner literaly and his banter and connection with the prisoners (preserved in the live recording) bring a gritty warmth to the album. The music is great too, standard Cash tunes like Folsom Prison Blues, I Still Miss Someone, Jackson, and Give My Love to Rose are here. Also, Johnny sings fiercely and wryly about crime and its inevitable heartbreak in songs like Cocaine Blues, Busted, The Wall, and 25 Minutes To Go. Of course the greatest thing about any Cash album is that big as a mountain baritone voice and the power it commands. Whether singing about love or murder, its always finely tuned to the tone and character of the story at hand. It demands to be heard, and beneath it is the clear ring of truth and integrity.

Essential Tracks: Folsom Prison Blues, Cocaine Blues, Jackson, I Got Stripes

Key Lyric: I got stripes, stripes around my shoulders/ I got chains, chains around my feet/ I got stripes, stripes around my shoulders/ And them chains, them chains they're about to drag me down

8 and 9. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born- Wilco. Bold sonic discord and melody borrowing from folk, punk, jazz, blues, rock, country, classical, pop, and the kitchen sink. Former Uncle Tupelo singer/bassist Jeff Tweedy finally came into his own as a songwriter and well, flat out musical genius on these albums. I am not going to lie to you, this is not radio friendly music, nor is it what I would call accessible, but it is beautiful, daring, and at times breathtaking (did they really use a xylophone as the central instrument on their opening track?!?!). Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was orignally rejected by Reprise records, they told Tweedy to redo it. Tweedy promptly bought back the rights to his contract and put the album on the inernet for free. In the end, a subsidiary of Reprise bought the album (for alot more money) and it went gold. Artisitic liscense and the common man finally won.

Tweedy and the band mix and match sounds and melodies in such a contrasting and complementary way, that at first listen you are never sure exactly where they are going with it all. But trust them, these guys know what they are doing and if you give it time, you will be rewarded. You actually have to listen the music here. Moreover, it tells the story just as well as the lyrics from the ginger xylophone on I Am Trying To Break Your Heart that devolves into a scratchy alarm clock you feel the sheepishness of the druken and remorseful protagnist trying to patch up his relationship to the bitter-sweet strings on Jesus etc. about a man trying to comfort his lover.

A Ghost is Born followed in the footsteps and is just as quirky and surprising, but its beats and hooks are alot more catchy. They will leave you humming for days after a serious listen. Theologians and Handshake Drugs also have a serious groove, and the rock riff on the 9 minute long Spiders could have been a hit on the radio had it done been on well a 9 minute song. Here the songs take on artistic integrity, addiction, suffering, relationships, and love all to Wilco's amazing sonic landscape. A few of these songs can be frustrating in their meandering style and deconstructionist finality, but the majority are challenging and rewarding musical compositions about life.

Essential Tracks: I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, War on War, Jesus etc., Pot Kettle Black, Theologians, The Late Greats, Handshake Drugs, Hummingbird, Company in My Back

Key Lyric: Tall buildings shake/ Voices escape singing sad sad songs/ Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks/ Bitter melodies turning your orbit around

10. Achtung Baby- U2. When I first heard (with eager anticipation) the opening single for U2's first album of the 90's, The Fly, I was more than a little taken back. What happened to U2? Well for one, in my opinion, they made one of the greatest rock albums of all time, but for another they were trying something new and daring, and well they had the guts and the integrity to do it. No longer were U2 the earnest young men of rock conviction, but now they were loud, distorted, slightly obnoxious, and into electronica, disco, and dance music. What they were still, was the kings of iconic lyrics, memorable melodies, and brilliant song writing. With Achtung Baby and the subsequent Zooropa and Pop, U2 dwelved into European modern life, postmodernism, and the silliness of it all. Kind of an open letter to western civilization in all of its decadence, hyper-individulism, and pointless consumerism. What they offered through the "rythym thats confusing you" was an essentially biblical answer. In fact much of the album, while also understood as love songs, tells parts of the gospel story. Until the End of the World is about the Last Supper and Judas's betrayla of Jesus, with a final offer of grace and salvation offered at the end. Whose Going to Ride Your Wild Horses could be about Peter and Jesus. And Mysterious Ways is a treatment of John Baptist and the Holy Spirit. The rest of the album deals with love, the falleness of the world ("The universe exploding 'cos-a one man's lie"), relationships, and hope. At the time I had never heard anything like it, and no one expected it from U2. It was both loud and profane in its sound, as well as beautiful and thoughtful. Just the the fact that probably the most poignant song of the 90's, One, is on this album makes it great, but from the distortion and clanking of Zoo Station (about the reunification of Europe), to the dicso dance groove of Mysterious Ways all of these songs are worthy of consideration. Listen closely, and let the boys from Ireland show you that the stuff of this world is all an illusion, and the only things worth anything in it are love and God. Its been their main point all along.

Essential Tracks: One, Ultraviolet, Until the End of the World, Mysterious Ways, The Fly, Acrobat

Key Lyric:No, nothing makes sense, nothing seems to fit./ I know you'd hit out if you only knew who to hit./ And I'd join the movement/ If there was one I could believe in/ Yeah, I'd break bread and wine/ If there was a church I could receive in./ 'Cause I need it now./ To take the cup/ To fill it up, to drink it slow./ I can't let you go.

10 Albums Part II

4. Hitchhike to Rhome- Old 97s: Named after a Johnny Cash song (Wreck of the Old 97) these four guys from Dallas, blended country, power pop, and punk to create a sound distinctly their own, which with singer Rhett Miller's comedicly clever and witty lyrics capture exactly what it was like to be a slacker Dallasite both in love with country and rock music. That is to say, the Old 97's capture a moment for many people of my generation, just graduated from college, cool, optimistic, and completely Texan. While some of their later work Too Far to Care and Fight Songs were more polished and well received, Hitchhike was the Old 97's in their original element. Here are songs about lost love, cheating girlfriends, broken hearts, unrequited passion, and crime (all country standard themes). Moreover, there is a certain rock-a-billy/honky tonk groove that retains a specific hipster/alternative edge to all the music. These guys made it cool for all the kids in Deep Ellum with their horned rimmed glasses, Doc Maarten's, and Tripping Daisy t-shirts to love and apreciate country and their Texas roots. This is a fun album, that will make you laugh.

Essential Tracks: If My Heart Were a Car, Wish the Worst, Doreen, Stoned

Key Lyric: If my heart were a car/ You'd have stripped it along time ago

5. Hollywood Town Hall- The Jayhawks: Critically acclaimed, this is a beautiful and heartfelt album, that comes right out of the heartland of America. In the spirit of The Byrds, harmony and melody are the key words here. The two lead singers, Mark Olson and Gary Louris, share harmonies that are both elegant and exhilirating, both with such unique and un-imitatable (is that a word) voices. With these two part harmonies, come catchy guitar hooks and well layered songs, with rock and folk emphases. They also are not afraid to rock out. There is not a bad song on the album. The lyrics themselves give us glimpses of stories in progress, and transfer feelings and sentiments of sadness, longing, faith, and hope more than actual story lines. The Jayhawks with both Olson and Louris would go on to make only one more album together, before Olson retired from the group to take care of his wife, singer Victoria Williams, who had been diagnosed with multiple-sclerosis. Tis a pity, Louris kept the band together and put out a number of solid albums, but nothing that ever matched the beauty and harmony of this album. P.S. I had a friend whose first date with his future wife was to a Jayhawks concert, so they can't be bad.

Essential Tracks: Waiting for the Sun, Crowded in the Wings, Two Angels, Clouds

Key Lyrics: Your words hung high in the rafters/ And settled down like rain/ Remain happy ever after

6. All That You Can't Leave Behind- U2. The second but not the last U2 album in the list. After experimenting with dance music, electronica, and ironic self mockery, U2 went back to playing straight forward, honest rock n' roll on this album. The opening Beautiful Day quickly became the anthem of this first decade of the new millenium, with its hope and faith ("See the bird with the leaf in her mouth/ After the flood all the colors came out) and was timely and relevant enough to help heal a mourning nation after 9-11 (they were the first band to play a big concert in NYC after the attacks and their performance at the following Super Bowl was a patriotic, pastoral, and touching memorial to those who lost their lives). U2, as Bono liked to say, were re-applying for the job of best band in the world, and this album earned them the job. The ablum follows the typical U2 album formula of a series of rock anthems, soulful ballads all touching on the U2's favorite themes of love, relationships, faith, and hope ending with the beautifully simple Grace a meditation on God's mercy. What is most amazing about this album is how worshipful it is. Elevation and Grace are basically worship songs and could work in any church service. When I Look at The World is a treatment of Christ's enduring love and compassion for the world. In the end, the album's thesis is that through our lives in this transient and temporal world, it is love that is all that you cannot leave behind. Through it all you get what you would expect from U2, a perfect blend of guitar, bass, drums and voice producing songs of worth that have the power to change your day, make you ponder life, or get you through some of your hardest moments.

Essential Tracks: Beautiful Day, Walk On, Elevation, Kite

Key Lyric: You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been/ A place that has to be believed to be seen

10 Albums (That Shaped my Life) Part I

Ok, its a hypothetical, but a fun one to think about anyway, but what if you had to go live in isolation on a desserted island for awhile and there was only room for 10 cds. Which cd's would you take? And they have to be albums, not mix cds of your favorite songs. So here goes mine,

1. The Joshua Tree- U2: Probably U2's most loved album and truly a great one, if you don't own it, stop reading this, drive to Best Buy and purchase it. Now!! The music begins U2's exploration of American genre's such as blues, gospel, country, and folk, all done up to The Edge's elegant and beautiful guitar arrangements. Add in Bono's earnest, yearning lyrics about love, faith, and political oppression, and the word"soaring" comes to mind. I remember I first achieved U2 consciouness when the Joshua Tree came out in the late 80's and I saw a video for "Where the Streets Have No Name." Famously (and illegally) shot on top of a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, so U2 could give a free concert, you could see the playful rock n' roll rebelliousness in their eyes, but also a softness of integrity and compassion, as they sang and played with purpose, a song that seemed to echo out of the Bible, as if David had written it himself. To a 13 year old like myself, they were cool, but they were important also. I will never forget that moment of waking up to U2, and The Joshua Tree was the first album of U2's I ever owned. Almost 20 years later, its still a classic album.

Essential Tracks: Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You, Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Running to Stand Still

Key Lyric: You broke the bonds/ You loosed the chains/ You carried the cross/ And my shame/ You know I believe it.

2. Highway 61 Revisited- Bob Dylan: Dylan's epic masterpiece, and as usual a strikingly confrontational piece of rock n' roll history. Folk legend Dylan plugs in, and makes a straight-forward rock album, with heavy blues influences. The album jolted the musical world, showing that the social consiousness and poetry of folk music could be tapped in rock music, brining Dylan a whole new audience and improtance; while at the same time, completely alienating the snobbish folk set, who labeled him a "Judas." The music here is meandering and loud, almost and at times improvised. Dylan sneers through it all telling modernist tales of isolation, absurdity, sadness, achings for redemption, and even sometimes hilarity. Here Dylan is taking on the underlying dissatisfaction and aimlessness of the world around. The album exudes rock and roll attitude, and contains arguably the greatest rock song ever Like A Rolling Stone, with its jaded and cutting character study of "miss lonely." Not only is it a living relic of American cultural history, but its also a beautiful layered piece of art, full of great organ hooks, crescendoing guitars, and Dylan's lyrics, which leave the listener diggin deep with every listen. Flat out just a great rock album, with Dylan's keen lyrical and literary wit.

Essential Tracks: Like A Rolling Stone, Queen Jane Approximately, Ballad of a Thin Man, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

Key Lyric: Everybody said they'd stand behind me/ When the game got rough/ But the joke was on me/ There was nobody even there to call my bluff/ I'm going back to New York City/ I do believe I've had enough

3. No Depression- Uncle Tupelo: Before alternative country became moderately popular (for people of my age and generation) three young men from eastern Illinois put out a volatile and charged album that mixed punk, folk, country, and the gut feelings of injustice of the American dispossesed. Think Woody Guthrie meets Nirvana. You know from the opening sonic guitar riff on Graveyard Shift that this album was special, and could get your heart racing. With Jay Farrar's clear and earnest voice, and socially conscious lyrics, and bassist Jeff Tweedy's rock sensibility, Uncle Tupelo in one album defined a musical movement and coined the term "No Depression" that would help to describe and label and launch a multitude of up and coming bands. While Tweedy (who sings on a number of the cuts) was still coming into his own as a song writer, he still provides some solid moments on Screen Door and That Year. Still, its Farrar who shines brightest, singing about small time, blue collar, alcoholic malaise and nailing that American country/folk sensibility every time. You deeply believe his voice and lyrics, they are honest, true, and angry, yearning for something better, even salvation: "whiskey bottle over Jesus/Not forever/ Just for now." The two great influences of rock, both country and blues, were expressions of the poor and dispossesed in both the black and white community, and thus Uncle Tupelo stays to the roots. Also there is still time for a brillant cover of the Carter family spiritual No Depression about life during the Great Depression. In this, Farrar and Tweedy show they drink from the great well-spring of American music linking the future with the past. If you are even remotely interested in the fusion of country and rock, this is an essential album to own.

Essential Tracks: No Depression, Graveyard Shift, Whiskey Bottle, Life worth Livin

Key Lyrics: I'm going where there's no depression/ To a better land thats free from care/ I leave this world of toil and trouble/ My home's in heaven/ I'm going there

Next week three more albums.

The Importance of Song

Well we just finished with the Christmas season, and as I was reflecting and reading abit this year, I stumbled across The Magnificat" in Luke 1:46-55, which is Mary's seemingly spontaneous response to finding out she was pregnant with the saviour of the world. Its a song of joy at God's action in the world to bless her and to bring about righteousness and justice in the world.

Essentially its a song, bursting forth from Mary's innermost heart and passion. Clearly, it shows Mary to be more than an idle, quiet wall flower that we in the Protestant tradition often want her to be. Here she is a brave woman concerned with the salvaiton of her people, righteousness, and the downfall of evil rulers. In a recent Christianity Today article, Scot McKnight makes the case that Mary is a revolutionary against evil, sin, and corrupt rulers.

The Magnificat also shows the importance of song in the Bible. The Old Testament (perticularly the Psalms) has lots of song and music, and here in the tradition we see Mary pouring out her soul in an expression of the coming kingdom of God. Songs have the power to carry meaning, feeling, and most of all truth. They are important in almost every culture in the world, as a way of passing on story, tradition, moral codes, and truth. They can make us cry with sadness, laugh with joy, or investigate profound questions. Sometimes they just make us feel that sublime moment of equilibrium when all in the world seems to be right. However, most of all songs, like Mary's help point us to God.

Next up: 10 albums I can't live without.