Various Artists - Quiet About It (A Tribute to Jesse Winchester)

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:03
Size: 102,0 MB
Art: Front

1. James Taylor - Payday (3:09)
2. Rosanne Cash - Biloxi (3:24)
3. Jimmy Buffett - Gentleman of Leisure (4:36)
4. Allen Toussaint - I Wave Bye Bye (3:33)
5. Vince Gill - Talk Memphis (4:28)
6. Mac McAnally - Defying Gravity (3:56)
7. Lyle Lovett - Brand New Tennessee Waltz (3:53)
8. Lucinda Williams - Mississippi You're on My Mind (4:25)
9. Emmylou Harris/Vince Gill/Rodney Crowell - Dangerous Fun (3:35)
10. Little Feat - Rhumba Man (5:52)
11. Elvis Costello - Quiet About It (3:10)

To many, Jesse Winchester is still best known for his ideals rather than his music in 1967, rather than join the military and fight in Vietnam, he emigrated to Canada, and spent most of the '70s as an exile of conscience. If Winchester had been a protest singer in the manner of Phil Ochs, this might have made him a hero, but his songs rarely reflected his political views, and instead were compact, painterly meditations on life in the South and the mysteries of life and love (though his physical and emotional distance from his birthplace in Memphis certainly provided a powerful subtext to his music of the '70s).

If Winchester's music never quite clicked with a mass audience due to his inability to tour the United States during the '70s or the shifting tides of popular taste, he's long been a favorite among his fellow songwriters, and 11 noted performers interpret some of Winchester's best songs on Quiet About It: A Tribute to Jesse Winchester. Quiet About It is that rare tribute album that gives each artist room to find their own musical personality in these songs, while the 11 tracks still cohere into a whole that reveals the depth and lyricism of Winchester's work.

This hardly represents every worthwhile tune in his songbook, but the 11 here are all winners, and the songs bring out the best in the artists. Lyle Lovett (who was clearly influenced by Winchester's vocal style) finds every bit of sad beauty in "Brand New Tennessee Waltz," Vince Gill brings just the right swagger to "Talk Memphis," Allen Toussaint's version of "I Wave Bye Bye" is lovely and heartfelt, Lucinda Williams is all rough-hewn grace on "Mississippi You're On My Mind," and Elvis Costello's lo-fi take on "Quiet About It" is stylistically bold but true to the song's nature. James Taylor gives one of his best and liveliest performances in ages with his cocksure version of "Payday," and Jimmy Buffett (who spearheaded the project) reminds us that he was a gifted singer before he discovered how well singing about aquatic alcoholism could pay with a sharp take on "Gentleman of Leisure."

Quiet About It came about when Winchester revealed he'd been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and the artists involved banded together as a show of support (and to generate some songwriting royalties); thankfully, by the time the album appeared, Winchester was in remission, and this splendid celebration of an underappreciated talent arrived while the man who inspired it is still around to take a bow. If you don't know Winchester's work, Quiet About It is a sure convincer of his talents as a songwriter, and if you're a fan, you'll revel in some top-notch interpretations of his songs. Either way, Quiet About It is a must, and one of the finest tribute albums of recent memory.~Mark Deming
https://www.allmusic.com/album/quiet-about-it-a-tribute-to-jesse-winchester-mw0002418862

Quiet About It (A Tribute to Jesse Winchester)

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Charles Lloyd & The Marvels, Lucinda Williams - Vanished Gardens

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 73:21
Size: 167.9 MB
Styles: Contemporary jazz, Roots
Year: 2018
Art: Front

[ 8:41] 1. Defiant
[ 7:58] 2. Dust
[ 9:03] 3. Vanished Gardens
[ 6:22] 4. Ventura
[ 6:17] 5. Ballad Of The Sad Young Men
[ 6:30] 6. We've Come Too Far To Turn Around
[ 5:38] 7. Blues For Langston And Larue
[11:40] 8. Unsuffer Me
[ 5:15] 9. Monk's Mood
[ 5:53] 10. Angel

Renowned saxophonist Charles Lloyd and singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams bring the best of their musical worlds to "Vanished Gardens," a dazzling blend of jazz tunes glowing like embers and Williams' intricately poetic songs. Lloyd establishes a reflective mood right from the start on opening ballad "Defiant," with Bill Frisell's guitar and Greg Leisz's pedal steel laying foundations for his tenor saxophone, along with the other two Marvels, drummer Eric Harland and bassist Reuben Rogers. Frisell and Leisz each take solo turns, but their playing, each from one channel of the stereo spectrum, often feels more like a duet. Near its conclusion, Lloyd returns front and center to add some more delicate melodies. The track's nearly nine minutes coast by so brilliantly, in just another five, ideas to solve half your problems surely would have sprung from it.

Williams makes her entrance on track two, "Dust," and while the reflections remain inspired, Lloyd's sax is anguished and darkness is hovering: "You couldn't cry if you wanted to/Even your thoughts are dust." Williams appears on five tracks, including three reinterpretations of tunes from her solo albums, one new song, and a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel."

"We've Come Too Far to Turn Around," the new tune, has a gospel mood of people demonstrating resilience while facing a long series of mini apocalypses. On "Unsuffer Me," Williams' aching call of "My joy is dead/I long for bliss" is answered by the band in a hypnotic, bluesy jam.

Among the instrumentals, Lloyd plays the alto flute on the groovy "Blues for Langston and LaRue," while Thelonious Monk's meditative "Monk's Mood" is a captivating duet by Lloyd and Frisell. In its entirety, "Vanished Gardens" is a dynamic ensemble's testament to creativity, musicianship and independence. ~Pablo Gorondi

Vanished Gardens mc
Vanished Gardens zippy

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Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Styles: Country
Year: 1998
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:49
Size: 120,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:36)  1. Right In Time
(4:44)  2. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
(4:42)  3. 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
(3:20)  4. Drunken Angel
(3:08)  5. Concrete And Barbed Wire
(5:28)  6. Lake Charles
(3:28)  7. Can't Let Go
(3:31)  8. I Lost It
(3:30)  9. Metal Firecracker
(3:23) 10. Greenville
(4:09) 11. Still I Long For Your Kiss
(4:01) 12. Joy
(3:42) 13. Jackson

It isn't surprising that Lucinda Williams' level of craft takes time to assemble, but the six-year wait between Sweet Old World and its 1998 follow-up, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, still raised eyebrows. The delay stemmed both from label difficulties and Williams' meticulous perfectionism, the latter reportedly over a too-produced sound and her own vocals. Listening to the record, one can understand why both might have concerned Williams. Car Wheels is far and away her most produced album to date, which is something of a mixed blessing. Its surfaces are clean and contemporary, with something in the timbres of the instruments (especially the drums) sounding extremely typical of a late-'90s major-label roots-rock album. While that might subtly alter the timeless qualities of Williams' writing, there's also no denying that her sound is punchier and livelier. The production also throws Williams' idiosyncratic voice into sharp relief, to the point where it's noticeably separate from the band. As a result, every inflection and slight tonal alteration is captured, and it would hardly be surprising if Williams did obsess over those small details. But whether or not you miss the earthiness of Car Wheels' predecessors, it's ultimately the material that matters, and Williams' songwriting is as captivating as ever. Intentionally or not, the album's common thread seems to be its strongly grounded sense of place specifically, the Deep South, conveyed through images and numerous references to specific towns. Many songs are set, in some way, in the middle or aftermath of not-quite-resolved love affairs, as Williams meditates on the complexities of human passion. Even her simplest songs have more going on under the surface than their poetic structures might indicate. In the end, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is Williams' third straight winner; although she might not be the most prolific songwriter of the '90s, she's certainly one of the most brilliant. ~ Steve Huey http://www.allmusic.com/album/car-wheels-on-a-gravel-road-mw0000028744

Personnel: Lucinda Williams (vocals, acoustic guitar, dobro); Buddy Miller (acoustic & electric guitars, mando guitar, background vocals); Steve Earle (acoustic & resonator guitars, harmonica, background vocals); Gurf Morlix (6 & 12 string electric guitars, electric & acoustic slide guitars, background vocals); Charlie Sexton (electric & slide guitars, dobro); Johnny Lee Schell (electric & slide guitars, dobro); Bo Ramsey (electric & slide guitars); Ray Kennedy, Greg Leisz (12 string electric guitar, mandolin); Richard "Hombre" Price (dobro); Roy Bittan (accordion, Hammond B-3 organ, organ); Michael Smotherman (Hammond B-3 organ); John Ciambotti (acoustic & electric basses); Donald Lindley (drums, percussion); Jim Lauderdale, Emmylou Harris (background vocals).

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

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Lucinda Williams - The Ghosts Of Highway 20 Disc 1 And Disc 2

Disc 1

Styles: Country
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:42 + 42:33
Size: 100,5 MB + 97,9 MB
Art: Front

(6:19)  1. Dust
(5:28)  2. House Of Earth
(5:46)  3. I Know All About It
(5:13)  4. Place In My Heart
(6:14)  5. Death Came
(5:34)  6. Doors Of Heaven
(9:05)  7. Louisiana Story

Disc 2

( 7:20)  1. Ghosts Of Highway 20
( 4:07)  2. Bitter Memory
( 4:01)  3. Factory
( 5:36)  4. Can't Close The Door On Love
( 5:09)  5. If My Love Could Kill
( 3:34)  6. If There's A Heaven
(12:42)  7. Faith & Grace

Calling her own shots seems to agree with Lucinda Williams. While the singer/songwriter has long had a reputation for taking her time between albums, she's back with another double-disc set, The Ghosts of Highway 20, just a year-and-a-half later. She launched her own label with Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone in the fall of 2014. In many ways, The Ghosts of Highway 20 feels like a companion piece to Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone in its emotionally direct approach and willingness to let the songs play themselves out at their own pace, they drift with the current, but they don't meander, and they get where they're going in their own sweet time. Most of the performances on Highway 20 are anchored by the guitar interplay of Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz (the latter also co-produced the album with Williams and Tom Overby), and while their performances seem low on flash, especially given the estimable talents of these players, they have a faultless instinct for the moods and rhythms of these songs, and this is an album where nuance truly takes center stage. However, while Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone was an album that covered a wide variety of themes, the 14 songs on The Ghosts of Highway 20 all seem to turn on some sort of struggle against depression ("Dust"), against the limitations of our lives on Earth ("Doors of Heaven"), against the past ("Bitter Memory" and the title song), and against betrayal ("I Know All About It"). 

Even as Williams calls up nostalgic images of life in Louisiana ("Louisiana Story"), she's still trying to free herself from memories of hurts inflicted by her loved ones, and her appeals to the Lord for guidance and peace ("If There's a Heaven" and "Faith & Grace") sound and feel sincere, as if the shackles of her physical being are just too much for her. Williams' vocal performances here represent a remarkable high-wire act, as she brings her emotions to the surface without resorting to histrionics. Her musical adaptation of Woody Guthrie's "House of Earth," a curiously erotic dialogue between a whore and a customer, is all the more striking for its refusal to play broad. After releasing one of the best and boldest albums of her career with Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, Williams goes from strength to strength with The Ghosts of Highway 20, and it seems like a welcome surprise that she's moving into one of the most fruitful periods of her recording career as she approaches her fourth decade as a musician. ~ Mark Deming http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-ghosts-of-highway-20-mw0002901047

Personnel:  Lucinda Williams - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lead vocals, background vocals;  Carlton "Santa" Davis – drums;  Bill Frisell - electric guitar;  Greg Leisz - acoustic guitar, electric guitar;  Val McCallum - electric guitar;  Butch Norton - drums, percussion, background vocals;  Ras Michael - hand drums, background vocals;  David Sutton - bass guitar, background vocals

The Ghosts Of Highway 20 Disc 1 And Disc 2

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