Before Songs for a Blue Guitar could appear, the Red House Painters' singer/songwriter/guitarist Mark Kozelek had to leave his old label 4AD (allegedly over a Kozelek solo album 4AD rejected), split up the band, and find a new home for his music on Supreme Recordings. Fortunately for Kozelek and his audience, it's worth all the tumult. This is the solo album Kozelek wanted to make masquerading as the Red House Painters album; no other Painters are listed in the liner notes. The benefits that resulted from his freedom from the group setting are evident on Songs for a Blue Guitar. The album compiles a diverse group of styles, including gently hypnotic folk in "Have You Forgotten" and "Trailways," and country-rock, both slow ("Song for a Blue Guitar") and fast ("Make Like Paper"), as well as a various selection of covers. Mixed with Kozelek's traditionally beautiful and sad material, Yes' "Long Distance Runaround," Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs," and the Cars' "All Mixed Up" bring light to the Red House Painters' typically shadowy songs. The deep beauty and eclecticism on Songs for a Blue Guitar make it another artistic triumph for the Red House Painters.
So, after a few days of brilliant weather, we're back to the in-between. Cold, rainy, snow, but no real commitment to either one. This kind of weather sparked me to put on Ryan Adams' Love is Hell for the drive this morning. I found myself enjoying that record more than I was expecting to. I like the album - Though, I never seem to listen to it. That should be changed, I have been neglectful.Sa...
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They call it ice fog, the ghosted weight unsettling our livestock. It's midnight, but grey - white moonlight white stars on tin roof & dead grass, on muddy rapids. Cows lay down in rain, but this fog bewitches; forward space uncertain, obscured, they hold. Still. I'm warm inside but know the paralysis. I'm looking out and can't see a damned thing, looking back's the same haze. The whole year wa...
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So, after a few days of brilliant weather, we're back to the in-between. Cold, rainy, snow, but no real commitment to either one. This kind of weather sparked me to put on Ryan Adams' Love is Hell for the drive this morning. I found myself enjoying that record more than I was expecting to. I like the album - Though, I never seem to listen to it. That should be changed, I have been neglectful.Sa...
More >
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 "Songs for a Blue Guitar")
