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Song of the Day #43: ‘Strawberry Blonde’ – Ron Sexsmith

Ron Sexsmith has a knack for writing beautiful little songs about simple little moments.

He has a song called ‘Clown in Broad Daylight’ that’s about, well, seeing a clown in broad daylight. Here’s the opening verse: “Standing on the side of the road near the overpass with a sign around his neck that says ‘Carwash, free balloons,’ he’s a clown in broad daylight.”

It’s a great image and at the end he brings it around to a message about the importance of those little distractions: “Everything is alright, for against the backdrop of ordinary life it’s the easy laugh that gets you through your working day and the hogwash.”

And he makes it all sound good in a song.

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Song of the Day #42: ‘Even So’ – Rachael Yamagata

I mentioned Rachael Yamagata in my Sara Bareilles Song of the Day pick as another of the Fiona Apple disciples who’ve hit the scene in recent years. And based solely on her debut album Happenstance, I’d definitely call her my favorite.

Yamagata is a 31-year old Japanese-American who has a powerful voice and knows her way around a keyboard. Happenstance is one of those debuts that feels like it was made by a veteran… featuring confident songwriting, bold production and a willingness to stretch the boundaries in which young singer-songwriters (especially women) are often trapped. She reminds me a lot of Apple in that way, as well as in her overall sound.

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Song of the Day #41: ‘Up From Under’ – The Wallflowers

I feel bad for Jakob Dylan, one of the most underrated songwriters in my collection. I mean, how do you expect to forge an independent career when your dad is friggin’ Bob Dylan?

He’s gone at it a few ways. Early on he didn’t say anything about his dad. People asked, of course, but he tried to let his music speak for itself. Later, he wrote some songs that mentioned his father and opened up a bit more in interviews, usually to say that Bob was a very devoted family man. The stories were interesting, but it didn’t do much to help his sales.

Lately he doesn’t get much press at all, so his last name isn’t really a problem… nobody seems to know or care much about him or his pedigree.

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Song of the Day #40: ‘4th of July’ – Aimee Mann

Like Belle & Sebastian, Aimee Mann is an artist I could feature on this blog every day without running out of stellar material. Her six solo albums are jam-packed with soulful pop-rock masterpieces. And her work with ‘Til Tuesday hasn’t aged as well (production-wise, that is… it all has a definite 80s sheen) but is still quite solid.

Mann’s latest album, @#%&*! Smilers, is her best yet, a piano-driven exploration of heartbreak and loneliness that’s brilliantly listenable despite the subject matter. That’s really her gift — turning melancholy into electrifying art.

But for today’s song of the day, I’m skipping the new stuff and jumping all the way back to her first solo album, Whatever. It’s not the album of hers I reach for most, but every time I do I’m reminded of how brilliant she was right out of the gate. The song ‘4th of July,’ in particular, has always been a favorite.

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