SOMETHING OLD
Merrilee Rush - Angel of the Morning
1968
Merrilee Rush - Angel of the Morning
1968
So long, Chip Taylor.
A prolific songwriter, the brother of Jon Voight and thus uncle of Angelina Jolie, and a friend to my father, Chip Taylor passed away last week at 86 years old. In his twenties, he experienced a memorable moment of driving into New York City as The Rolling Stones' Ruby Tuesday played. Wanting to capture that magic of seeing city skylines as his radio speakers burst with what resonates like an orchestra but was really just Keith Richards bowing a double bass as Brian Jones played an alto recorder, he got to thinking. I imagine him humming some vague idea of a melody as he drove toward his destination, and eventually sitting down with pen and paper to hone his creation: Angel of the Morning.
Evoking imagery of the morning's sunlight illuminating a woman's body through the blinds in an unfamiliar bedroom after a one-night stand, it's unsurprising that the first artist the song was offered to rejected it in fear of its effect on her image: Miss "Stupid Cupid" Connie Francis. Later, it went to Evie Sands, but flopped due to there being no budget within her label to promote it.
A few other singers took it on with little success while producer Tommy Cogbill kept a demo tape of it in his pocket, desperate for the world to truly hear it. Finally, he recorded an album with The Raiders in Memphis, who were on tour there with Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts, their opening act. When Cogbill met Rush, he realized he finally found the angel he was looking for all along.
Rush's recording topped the charts and became the standard version of the song until Juice Newton covered it in 1981. Rush's is my personal favorite, though. It encapsulates the purity of the song, the tender-hearted hurt as you turn away from a lover. I'm old enough to face the dawn. Only a young person feels the need to mention their age to quantify their bravery (especially bravery they are not completely sure they feel). Only someone in their early 20s, either witnessing or belonging to the 1960s "free love" movement alongside the notes of baroque and sunshine pop that defined the daydream-like pop music of the era, could bring this song to life in earnest. It's a sad but beautiful song, and I can almost see spring birds flying above my head with every listen. No hate to Juice Newton, but that 80s production is never going to encapsulate everything I hear in Chip Taylor's heartfelt songwriting.
SOMETHING NEW
Bedouine - Long Way to Fall
March 25th, 2026
Bedouine - Long Way to Fall
March 25th, 2026
Every time a pop star announces a new release with some trite single that will inevitably be talked about in the main cultural sphere ad nauseam, remember to look for musical spaces where the chatter is quieter. There are profoundly beautiful songs coming out every day.
Bedouine, born Azniv Korkejian, has revealed that we can expect to hear her next album in June (oh the joys of June being in our foreseeable future after such a brutal winter). Ahead of it, her contralto voice soars on Long Way To Fall, which is described as centering on the "grief that comes with growing up." When she recently returned to her childhood home in Saudi Arabia, one of many homes she moved to and from across the Middle East throughout a war-torn upbringing, she reunited with family and felt the strain that time put on their connections. She was particularly moved by a conversation with a family member struggling with addiction, and how it wasn't nearly as easy for her to be there for them the way it had been as children.
There's comfort in hearing that Bedouine, at 40, is still not ready to "stop being someone's kid" just as I am certainly not at 23. With age, though, comes the responsibility to act like you are. Acting seems to be a key part of growing up. Bedouine notes that as you get older, your familial connections become more delicate: "you have to respect each other’s space even when you’d rather shake someone awake."
A simple but striking lyric here is It's not that I'm stronger / Just been here a little bit longer.
So while time may not bring us strength, at least over the years we get better at playing pretend. When it comes her music, though, Bedouine gets to stop pretending, and instead share this deeply honest music complete with stunning strings, piano, slide guitar, and drums (many of which seem to have been played by my darling D'Addario brothers according to this Instagram post!!!).
SOMETHING BORROWED
Ian Matthews - Old Man at the Mill (Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson)
1973
Ian Matthews - Old Man at the Mill (Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson)
1973
In my latter college years, I played the cello in a weekly traditional folk music "session." I gained an appreciation for this deeply communal music style, and most notably, the fiddle. The musical spirit I felt in those sessions is palpable in Ian Matthews' rendition of Old Man at the Mill, beginning with a fairly bare sound of just his guitar and voice. It slowly swells, with gradual layers such as a couple additional vocal tracks, then the fiddle and electric bass kick in. Later, even some rhythmic clapping is added.
Hearing more musicians come in one at a time really captures what it felt like to sit in a circle with no sheet music and no conductor. Simply watching each other and intuiting where to come in, knowing what to add and when, just because you're all feeling the music together and gaining a group understanding. In a world becoming overrun with the word artificial, I find myself holding on tight to these human creations. There is nothing but the human spirit that can create the sound and feeling that shines in this recording. It also comes across as very danceable.
The song was written by Clarence Ashley and first recorded by him and Doc Watson around 1960. It's wonderful and bona fide, but there's something about Matthews' recording that really works for me. I think the crisp studio production helps make every note glow, but I also like how Matthews slowed it down ever so slightly. The slower pace creates what I can best describe as a sort of pulling feeling (imagine slowly pulling a heavy rope in tug of war, or a chain gang breaking rocks with a pick axe), and makes me even more eager for the next layer of instrumentation to join in.
SOMETHING... SLEEPY
Blitzen Trapper - Sleepytime in the Western World
2008
Blitzen Trapper - Sleepytime in the Western World
2008
I am extremely partial to Al Kooper's organ playing on Bob Dylan recordings such as Like a Rolling Stone and Positively 4th Street, and I have a hunch that the members of Portland-based Blitzen Trapper are too.
In an alternative universe where Bob Dylan would have admitted to being sleepy (which he famously denies in Mr. Tambourine Man), he very well may have put out Sleepytime in the Western World himself. Look, I only note this clear inspiration through the instrumentation and even on some very Dylan-esque vocal deliveries because I absolutely love it. Alongside the inspiration, this song is also very unique, especially looking back at what else was coming out in 2008.
It boasts a sonic fullness that makes this a spectacular album opener, but also knows exactly when to tone down its grandness. For example, around 1:40, everything winds down. There's some muffled radio static just before lead singer Eric Earley's voice becomes clearer as he narrates waking up on the street in a dreamlike scenario, with birds flying from his mouth, accompanied at first only by acoustic guitar. This moment is perfectly placed; where else but abruptly in the middle of the song would they place quietude when describing the inscrutable state of sleeping and dreaming?
There's also something about the guitar solo that follows this section that feels circus-like to me, adding even more to the song's whimsical surreality.
Sleepytime in the Western World is also just something I can really get behind in terms of passionate patriotism for our free country: sleepiness is "no crime in the western world." Plus, I wish I knew it existed when I hosted a playfully lethargic 2022 edition of The Dizzy Express titled Sleepy Time Time.