Various Artists – Tribute To A Songpoet: Songs Of Eric Andersen. Y&T Music/EARecords

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Most folk, including us here at Blabber’n’Smoke, aren’t too aware of Eric Andersen. He is perhaps THE cult artist of the Greenwich Village years, rubbing shoulders with his much better known contemporaries such as, well, Dylan, and the rest. His songs have been recorded by the likes of The Grateful Dead, Judy Collins, Fairport Convention, Gillian Welch, and Linda Thompson but, now aged 80, he remains pretty much a secret, perhaps in part because he’s never had that one killer song which rises above all others.

This album, a three disc affair on CD, does its best to remedy the situation as a host of famous fans perform his songs. Most of them have been recorded specifically for the album but there’s a clutch of vintage recordings included and it’s one of those which opens the album. From 1970, Bob Dylan sings Thirsty Boots, accompanied by Al Kooper on piano and David Bromberg on guitar with the song sounding as if it were an outtake from New Morning. It’s a swell start to the collection but not really indicative of what is to follow. The 1972 appearance of Linda Rondstadt  (with her proto Eagles backing band) singing (I Ain’t Always Been) Faithful and Rick Danko’s live rendition of Blue River are most welcome, the latter particularly poignant, especially when it’s followed by Andersen himself singing Thirsty Boots at a club gig in 1982 which closes the album’s song cycle. Of the new recordings, they are much varied, several of them well removed from Andersen’s folkie perspective, but in the main they pay testament to his song writing skills.

Close The Door Lightly When You Go is perhaps the best known song here (thanks to Iain Matthews) and Richard Barone with Allison Moorer perform it quite deftly while Amy Helms delivers a soulful Blue River, the title song from his most successful album. Thereafter it’s pretty much a pick and mix affair as to what will capture one’s fancy but the doleful folk rock of Goin’ Gone by Richard Shindell stands out as does Foghorn by Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams along with Janis Ian’s powerful rendition of Hills Of Tuscany, a song which has a Dylan like intensity to it. Pick of the mix goes to Wesley Stace’s eight minutes of sparkling and jangled mystery on Time Run Like A Freight Train and Eyes Of The Immigrant by Lucy Kaplansky, a song written many moons ago but still relevant these days.

That leaves another couple of dozen songs we haven’t mentioned (and artists such as Willie Nile, Elliott Murphy, Happy Traum, Dom Flemons and Lenny Kaye) but, rest assured, all are worth exploring. What’s for certain is that this collection shines a welcome light on a mighty fine songwriter who has for too long has remained in the shadows.

Jesper Lindell. Twilights. Brunnsvik Sounds.

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Hailing from Sweden, Jesper Lindell has drunk deep from the well of Americana on his second album, Twilights. This is apparent immediately as the swirling organ strains of Westcoast Rain open the album in a grand fashion. An unashamedly Band like romp (with a little Van Morrison Caledonia soul thrown in for good measure) it’s quite terrific with keyboard player, Rasmus Fors getting that Garth Hudson clavinet sound down to a T.

While Lindell ranges around as the album unspools, The Band come around again on a cover of Twilight (from their 1977 album Islands) which features Levon Helm’s daughter Amy on vocals. Again, Lindell and his band capture that essence which Helm and his band mates still had at this late stage in their career. Later on, Lindell lights into another Band like number on Nights Like These, a lovely late night slouch with horns boosting the soul quotient and Lindell exercising his voice quite emotively in a Van Morrison like passion. On another tack, a Bo Diddley beat introduces the dance friendly New Orleans meets Texas shuffle of Dance which has funky Farfisa keyboards and an infectious back line while Living Easy pumps up the syncopated funk factor with the band billowing and swaying, recalling the likes of Lowell George’s solo album.

Reining it in somewhat, Lindell can fuel a fine ballad without ever falling into the trap of being too dramatic. If There Comes A Time is the type of song Bob Seeger could have had a hit with while Christmas Card, which features First Aid Kit’s Klara Soderberg on vocals, finds Lindell and Soderberg sounding both rough and tender over a muted percussive background which gives the song an ethereal quality. The line, “My doctor he says I’m gonna be OK,” may or may not refer to Lindell himself as he was recently seriously ill, eventually requiring a kidney transplant, but the song does express hope with Lindell opening the song with the words, “Things are better now.”

The closing song, Into The Blue, is quite out of kilter with the preceding numbers. An atmospheric seven minute glide into Hiss Golden Messenger territory, it finds Lindell’s voice cranked high, a straining falsetto buffered by martial drumming and rippling guitars. As an exercise in sound, it’s quite wonderful as it meanders towards its fuzzy cosmic conclusion.

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Amy Helm. This Too Shall Light. Yep Roc Records

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a1400136712_16Amy Helm’s second album opens with a blast of guitar sounding like a foghorn announcing the arrival of what is quite a special album. That foghorn guitar belongs to the opening title song which is a masterful slice of soulful funk, the rhythm section metronomic and sly while guitars fizz and burn beneath her impassioned vocals. The song was written for Helm by Hiss Golden Messenger’s Mike Taylor and Josh Kaufman and it’s a perfect introduction to an album that is yet another addition to the grand canon of releases which celebrate the soul of American roots music.

Produced by Joe Henry, This Too Shall Lie finds Helm recording in LA, far away from her Woodstock home. The overall sound however is steeped in the south with churchlike organ, slippery guitar and gospel like harmonies present throughout. There’s a preponderance of covers here which is not a bad thing as Helm delivers a magisterial reading of Allen Toussaint’s Freedom For The Stallion, transforms the Milk Carton Kids’ Michigan into an aching slice of Muscle Shoals groove with hints of Aretha Franklin within it and offers T Bone Burnett’s River of Love an excellent soulful makeover.

Helm’s voice is a revelation here as she delves into soul and gospel, powerful and emotive this talent was only hinted at on her previous album. Her tribute to Odetta is a tour de force and its allied to a tremendous arrangement which has an almost chain gang like repetition to it as it hammers along although elaborate piano notes take the song to a higher plain. The shadow of her late father Levon Helm (who last recorded on Helm’s debut album) is cast on two songs. The Stones I Throw was a Band staple back when they were Levon and The Hawks and here it’s given an excellent rambunctious rendition as if it were the Staple Singers delivering it. The album closes with an a capella rendition of Gloryland which was Levon’s usual choice of encore. It goes without saying really that here Amy Helm and her harmony singers put their all into this Ralph Stanley song which encapsulates that southern sense of finality, glory and redemption as they close the lid on an excellent album.

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