Semi-Daily Journal

I'm partial to Cold Missouri Waters on that album, but lately I've been enjoying Emmylou Harris covering Julie Miller's All My Tears, so back to Cry Cry Cry I go...

I'm partial to "Cold Missouri Waters" as well. And the "Ballad of Mary Magdalene," and "Fall on Me," and...

Damn straight! I'd put "Cold Missiuri Waters" first as well, but the whole album is a joy. I saw them live here in Madison when when they were touring to promote that album. They seem to have quite a bit of chemistry.

You would probably also enjoy any of their solo albums. Richard Shindell's "Blue Divide" really speaks to me. (If memory serves, he has a solo version of "Mary Magdeline" on that album...)

It's dignus, second declension masculine, not dignis.

It's a dead language, to be sure, but you can still hurt its feelings....

I bought Cry Cry Cry because of the REM cover but
Cold Missouri Waters was my favorite song the year
the album was released. By the way, Julie Miller
sings beautifully with Kasey Chambers.

Actually, my favorite Cry Cry Cry cut is their spinetingling cover of Greg Brown's "Oh Lord, I Have Made You a Place in My Heart." Which is a spooky enough song to start with, granted.

Or Robert Earl Keen's _Shades Of Grey_,
the perfect capture of ordinary (well,
subordinary) people caught up in great
events.

I wonder how many $20 pledges for advance
copies of a hypothetical _Cry Cry Cry II_
they could sell over the internet?

By the way, you can hear 2/3 of them on
Shindell's live album _Courier_, on which
Kaplansky sings backup. Features a "trucking
triptych" of Shindell's _The Next Best Western_
and _Kenworth of My Dreams_ along with Lowell
George's _Willin'_.

You need a Latin spell-checker: I'm not worthy = "non sum dignus."

You need a Latin spell-checker: I'm not worthy = "non sum dignus."

The song that first comes to my mind when I think 'classic folk song' is "No More Fish, No Fishermen", which was written in 1996 by I. Sheldon Posen and John Goss and performed by the group Finest Kind. Not a false note or bit of pretension to be found.

BTW, 'Cold Missouri Water' was written by singer-songwriter James Keelaghan, and if you like that song you really must check him out.

I opened the "comments" to complain that the song in question is, of course, not a folk song (we know who wrote it, for one), but note the comments on some other songs and singers I like, so will just say, "yeah, there are a lot of good songs/singers/writers that too damned few folk have heard of, not limited to Shelley and James and all."

If you want more discussion of good singers/writers, etc., from the folk world, go over to www.mudcat.org and see what's up. There's a searchable database of lyrics, and a discussion page that includes requests for songs/singers/advice/BS/chat/what-have-you. A real community, too.

Don't mention my name over there, though. They know me by some other name.

Ed

A folk-like song?

:-)

So who would you recommend whom I probably have not heard of?

if you haven't heard Emmylou Harris singing Julie Miller songs with her, on "Spyboy", you should. It's not folk, no. but it's spine-tingling, and one of the things I use to remindmyself that modern Christian art doesn't have to be meretricious.