Chicago -
By The Beachwood Marfa Affairs Desk
Jeff Tweedy
January 21, 2007
Liberty Hall
Marfa, Texas
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Home of Marfa Public Radio
General Manager: Tom Michael, Chicago-born Friend of the Beachwood
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1. Be Patient With Me
2. Remember The Mountain Bed
3. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Posted on January 23, 2007
By Don Jacobson
They call themselves “Illinois’ premier rock trio.” Untoward hype from Backyard Tire Fire? Or a bit of tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation from the Bloomington-based alt country group? I’m leaning towards the latter because, although I have no idea how many rock trios there are in Illinois, I’d have to guess there are at least as many of them as there are three-car garages in Normal.
At least.
Posted on January 21, 2007
By Don Jacobson
There is a strain of Nashville country music that to me, as a dyed-in-the-wool rock ‘n’ roller, was always one of the least objectionable of its forms. That was truckin’ country. And Del Reeves, who died on New Year’s Day, was its Beatles.
Posted on January 9, 2007
By Don Jacobson
Daniel Lanois’ artsy take on Chicago meets Hank Williams’ traditional take on hellfire and the city.
Rocky World/Daniel Lanois
It’s not too often that Chicago is included in song lyrics of the truly artistic stripe. In most cases, I have to say, the city is called out in songs with the simplest of intentions. It’s kind of a sad state of affairs. Despite some apparent progress in sophistication that the city has made since, say, the 1920s, Chicago as a lyrical metaphor still seems to appeal to songwriters who merely want to employ its image to bash across some simple message, usually having something to do with pain, loss, human depravity or some combination thereof. Every time I see a song lyric that refers to Chicago as a gangster haven or as some kind of poverty-stricken wasteland (and there are so many), I have to shake my head and say, now I know how it feels to be typecast.
That brings me to “Rocky World” by Daniel Lanois. How refreshing it is to find a lyrical reference to Chicago that’s artsy enough to make me scratch my head and wonder, at least for a few seconds, what it really means. Basically, Lanois name-checks the city in what I believe is an articulation of a Canadian’s vision of the United States as something like a battlefield where you can win a living but lose everything that really matters.
Posted on January 2, 2007
