Amazing that it's been fifteen months since I've completed and posted a mix-CD that I've made. Way back when, I'd crank out a new tape (that was the medium then) sometimes every fifteen days, and now I went the entire year of 2009 without sending one of my creations out the door to the mailbox (or into my own stereo). This one has been in the works for a while, hampered by A) not having the time to sit and work on it and B) my CD burner totally crapping out (meaning I had to organize and edit at home and then re-create it on my in-laws' computer). My, things weren't so difficult when you just had to deal with a stack of CD's and a Maxell XLII....
About The Title: My Aunt Stella was somewhat a renaissance woman. She was a painter, writer, and family historian. My grandfather's only sister, she lived alone in a one bedroom apartment in Old Louisville until her death in 1979. She wrote and had published a series of books about "Chalk Talks," a method of catechesis involving illustrating lessons on a blackboard. She documented how my Dad's family moved from the family farm in western Kentucky to Louisville in the early twentieth century and how her father took a job as an elevator operator. And she painted. Oils. Mostly still life and landscape scenes. I, fortunately have two of her works hanging in my home now. We only visited her, as much as I recall, a few times a year, and the better part of my memories from those visits are nothing more than sketchy images. I do recall, however, that we always got to draw and paint at her apartment. Paper, pencils, crayons, and paint were always in bountiful supply, and I'm sure she enjoyed her little way of encouraging each of us in our artistic pursuits. This is something she started doing, I'm sure, from the first time that my older brothers and sisters came to visit and could pick up a crayon. The cover of this CD is a detail from a watercolor my brother David made when he was five years old, the title is from the title Aunt Stella gave to his painting. Somehow, it ended up in a box of my things that I unpacked after we moved a few years ago. He's getting it back, along with this CD inspired by it, for his birthday.
About The Music: My brother's musical tastes, when we were growing up, leaned heavily toward the geographically named bands. He wasn't the brother that had Velvet Underground And Nico or Rocket To Russia, but his LP collection included a healthy dose of some music that, perhaps, have a more lasting impression on me than Never Mind The Bollocks. He played records for me and wanted me to hear what he heard, to encourage me to feel the music. And even though he didn't share my infatuation with The Police, The English Beat, and countless new wave and punk bands I discovered through high school, he understood how important music is to the teenage, now adult, soul. The music I chose for this disc tries to reflect both the music he taught me about and the music I learned on my own. Some of these songs, that he's heard of, I've tried to put a spin around: instead of George Harrison and Eric Clapton on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," we get ex-members of Galaxie 500; "Across The Universe" is the stripped down version from Let It Be: Naked (very possibly the only reason to buy that version of the album); Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound Of Silence" is the original version from Wednesday Morning, 3AM and seems, to me at least, to be a more honest take than the more familiar version from their second album. Of the "newer" songs, some were ones I've wanted to use for a while (eg. "Ring The Bells" and "Shiny"). Others, like "Naked As We Came," I've discovered along the way of putting this together and they just seemed to fit. "How We Operate" from Gomez, is just a fantastic song that really seems to tie the whole mix together. The closing pairing of "Stare And Stare" and "Voodoo Child (slight return)" has been used before by me on a mix (way back in 1995), but I figure, if you can't plagiarize yourself, who can you plagiarize?
01. Amazing Grace/DANIEL LANOIS with AARON NEVILLE
02. Bad/U2
03. First Girl I Loved/JACKSON BROWNE
04. Ring The Bells/JAMES
05. Naked As We Came/IRON AND WINE
06. Across The Universe/THE BEATLES
07. While My Guitar Gently Weeps/DAMON & NAOMI
08. How We Operate/GOMEZ
09. You Are The Everything/R.E.M.
10. Shiny/THE DECEMBERISTS
11. Pigs On The Wing (part one)/PINK FLOYD
12. Trouble/ISOBEL CAMPBELL and MARK LANEGAN
13. Walk On The Wild Side/LOU REED
14. Poor Places/WILCO
15. The Sound Of Silence/SIMON & GARFUNKEL
16. This Is The Night/THE THE
17. Stare And Stare/MC 900 FT JESUS
18. Voodoo Child (slight return)/JIMI HENDRIX
About The Title: My Aunt Stella was somewhat a renaissance woman. She was a painter, writer, and family historian. My grandfather's only sister, she lived alone in a one bedroom apartment in Old Louisville until her death in 1979. She wrote and had published a series of books about "Chalk Talks," a method of catechesis involving illustrating lessons on a blackboard. She documented how my Dad's family moved from the family farm in western Kentucky to Louisville in the early twentieth century and how her father took a job as an elevator operator. And she painted. Oils. Mostly still life and landscape scenes. I, fortunately have two of her works hanging in my home now. We only visited her, as much as I recall, a few times a year, and the better part of my memories from those visits are nothing more than sketchy images. I do recall, however, that we always got to draw and paint at her apartment. Paper, pencils, crayons, and paint were always in bountiful supply, and I'm sure she enjoyed her little way of encouraging each of us in our artistic pursuits. This is something she started doing, I'm sure, from the first time that my older brothers and sisters came to visit and could pick up a crayon. The cover of this CD is a detail from a watercolor my brother David made when he was five years old, the title is from the title Aunt Stella gave to his painting. Somehow, it ended up in a box of my things that I unpacked after we moved a few years ago. He's getting it back, along with this CD inspired by it, for his birthday.
About The Music: My brother's musical tastes, when we were growing up, leaned heavily toward the geographically named bands. He wasn't the brother that had Velvet Underground And Nico or Rocket To Russia, but his LP collection included a healthy dose of some music that, perhaps, have a more lasting impression on me than Never Mind The Bollocks. He played records for me and wanted me to hear what he heard, to encourage me to feel the music. And even though he didn't share my infatuation with The Police, The English Beat, and countless new wave and punk bands I discovered through high school, he understood how important music is to the teenage, now adult, soul. The music I chose for this disc tries to reflect both the music he taught me about and the music I learned on my own. Some of these songs, that he's heard of, I've tried to put a spin around: instead of George Harrison and Eric Clapton on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," we get ex-members of Galaxie 500; "Across The Universe" is the stripped down version from Let It Be: Naked (very possibly the only reason to buy that version of the album); Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound Of Silence" is the original version from Wednesday Morning, 3AM and seems, to me at least, to be a more honest take than the more familiar version from their second album. Of the "newer" songs, some were ones I've wanted to use for a while (eg. "Ring The Bells" and "Shiny"). Others, like "Naked As We Came," I've discovered along the way of putting this together and they just seemed to fit. "How We Operate" from Gomez, is just a fantastic song that really seems to tie the whole mix together. The closing pairing of "Stare And Stare" and "Voodoo Child (slight return)" has been used before by me on a mix (way back in 1995), but I figure, if you can't plagiarize yourself, who can you plagiarize?
01. Amazing Grace/DANIEL LANOIS with AARON NEVILLE
02. Bad/U2
03. First Girl I Loved/JACKSON BROWNE
04. Ring The Bells/JAMES
05. Naked As We Came/IRON AND WINE
06. Across The Universe/THE BEATLES
07. While My Guitar Gently Weeps/DAMON & NAOMI
08. How We Operate/GOMEZ
09. You Are The Everything/R.E.M.
10. Shiny/THE DECEMBERISTS
11. Pigs On The Wing (part one)/PINK FLOYD
12. Trouble/ISOBEL CAMPBELL and MARK LANEGAN
13. Walk On The Wild Side/LOU REED
14. Poor Places/WILCO
15. The Sound Of Silence/SIMON & GARFUNKEL
16. This Is The Night/THE THE
17. Stare And Stare/MC 900 FT JESUS
18. Voodoo Child (slight return)/JIMI HENDRIX
