My favorite kind of Random Weekend selections are the ones that are a complete mystery to me, despite the fact that I once bought or otherwise acquired the album years ago.
It’s both a chance to (re)discover new music, and a reminder of the fickle nature of memory. How is it that I once spent the time and attention required to add an album called Ash Wednesday by an artist called Elvis Perkins to my iTunes library, but my brain has completely erased any record of such a thing ever happening?
I remember buying Patti Scialfa’s second album, 2004’s 23rd Street Lullaby, after reading rave reviews.
Scialfa, longtime E-Street Band member and wife of Bruce Springsteen, had put her solo career on hold for 11 years after the release of her debut album, and 23rd Street Lullaby was celebrated not just for its music but for the fact that it put the spotlight on somebody perennially relegated to the background.
Even the most basic and uninspiring Beatles songs have interesting back stories.
‘Hello, Goodbye’ is the sort of fluff that Paul McCartney could write in 15 minutes, and that’s kind of what he did. When Alistair Taylor, one of Brian Epstein’s assistants, asked McCartney about his songwriting process, Paul sat down at a harmonium and asked Taylor to do a call-and-response. Taylor would say the opposite of whatever word McCartney offered up, and Paul built the song around that framework.
Al Green’s 2003 album I Can’t Stop has shown up on Random Weekends twice before, both times in 2015. And both times, I used the space to comment that this isn’t an album I’ve ever actively listened to, but rather one I consider nice background music. I must have really meant it.
That seems like a rather lazy approach. Surely there is something interesting to say about this album.
The Random iTunes Fairy must have felt bad for last week’s post calling Ron Sexsmith a “no-hit wonder.” She has brought him back for an encore performance just eight days later.
Today’s track is from the 2008 album Exit Strategy of the Soul. It’s one of Sexsmith’s more sonically interesting albums, adding horns to most tracks and getting a little more experimental in its production. That doesn’t apply to today’s selection, though, which is a pretty straightforward ballad.
Meet Me In Montauk 