SuperNormaal, Available from iTunes and Spotify.
Postcard Comets’ David Partridge muses on the songs of the new album
WATER’S NEVER FAR The album opener is an impressionistic recounting of a journey I made to Ohio to play a gig with friends. For the geographically indifferent, the trip followed the northern edge of Lake Ontario west, then up the Niagara River to the southern shore of Lake Erie and finally up the Cuyahoga River. So, water was, in fact, never far.
I was looking for a way to blend factual and emotional landscape. I kind of fell into the reference to CNN; I watch quite often. I was actually watching in the hotel before the show. They were reporting on flooding in the Midwest and it was a great chance to introduce a different aspect of the power of water.
I like to think of this as the first in a trilogy of CNN-referencing songs. The second may well be on the next album. The third is, as yet, unwritten. Can there be a 2-song trilogy?
Buck plays some nice stuff on dobro here, making the track a favourite of mine on that count alone.
HE COULD FIX ANYTHING Buck wrote this song; I did not. Dammit. Buck’s not available to share his thoughts on the song but if he were, he probably would be loath to do so anyway. Buck prefers to let them stand as they are. That’s why he’s prone to improvising and moving on where I’m determined to tinker and tweak.
But his reticence gives me a chance to talk about Buck’s oeuvre. He’d disapprove of that word, too, by the way. Right about here I’d expect an eye roll and a sarcastic remark about a French egg.
But whether he’d acknowledge it or not, Buck’s material has a unique voice. He regularly writes about regular folks– the farmer in this one as well as a variety of waitresses, gas pump attendants, even abusive husbands. Even in cases like the latter, he tends not to be judgmental. He draws a picture; you see what you see, and think what you think, about the characters he has created. That “let them stand as they are” thing again.
He Could Fix Anything is about a small town handyman and his errant daughter. It’s simultaneously concise and detailed and is one of my favourites among many fine songs Buck has written. I seldom do a solo set without it.
THE L.A. MAN Although I love many Canadian places, I don’t hear the romance in their names. Part of being Canadian, I suppose. UK place names? Sure. American names? Of course. It may be that where my homeland is concerned, familiarity drains the exotic from say, the name Edmonton. I like Edmonton, mind; I’ve been there many times. But the name doesn’t bring a mythology the way, say Kansas City might.
Canadians are not a nation of myth builders; I think that’s fair. Suffice it to say that, for me, I Left My Heart In Mimico just doesn’t resonate like that cable car song.
I raise this because someone referred to this song as “very Canadian.” And it is, in that it longs for the magic of somewhere else, and it has a bunch of snow in it.
But those attributes are not exclusively Canadian. If you switched the chorus reference from Canada to, say, “Michigan’s cooling him down,” or substituted Wyoming or any halfway-northern, three-syllable state, the meaning would be much the same.
So, I suppose, The L.A. Man is about the allure of otherness. And, if I may lead the listener a bit more, you have to wonder whether the singer would really catch fire elsewhere as he believes that he will. Does the lyric acknowledge a real geographical impediment or challenge the dream itself?
Personally, I wax and wane. So you decide.
ANGRY WORDS This song is a favourite of Buck’s. It has a straightforward and direct lyric about being pissed off. That may explain why he likes it. It wouldn’t be because it contains some of his most muscular guitar work, although it does.
I tried for years to get this the way I heard it in my head and, here, I think we got it. Of special note is the fine, “angry wordless” sax part by Bernie Tessier. And let’s nod in the direction of the great bass line from Howard Rabkin, a guy who puts the “fun” in “funky.”
MUST BE THE RADIO This is another of Buck’s character vignettes. The character this time is a working class musician, coming home from a gig on the streetcar, writing a song in his head. It’s very detailed visually; you can see the song’s movie without trying to hard, no video required.
Strictly speaking, this is a cover. Buck performed and recorded this with a previous band. It got on SuperNormaal because I was dying to sing it. Actually, I tried first to get Buck to sing it but he declined. Lucky for me.
It also includes on of my favorite Buck guitar licks, that lovely descending line off the top off the song and in the subsequent breaks. It’s as much a part of the song as the verses and chorus.
So, is this a self-portrait? Don’t know. Maybe, but like the song says, “You never were that clear”….
A LITTLE MORE THAN ME Known by some as “the song with the names,” this is another staple of the live solo shows. For many, this is the favourite from the album. As evidence, consider the fact that someone went to the time and trouble to do a video of A Little More Than Me and post it on youTube. Thanks again, Bob! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xyHYMR-tys
As for those names, all of the folks lauded in the song are personal inspirations for me but I don’t think it matters whether you even know who they are. It’s not about the names; it’s a love song about aspiring to be more than you seem to be.
And yes, I actually did dream that I could sing like Randy Meisner. One listen to Eagles’ Take It To The limit will tell you why.
THE GUARDHOUSE AND THE MOON This is a retelling of an actual incident that occurred near the end of high school; a dear friend enlisted in the armed forces when I had decided to go to university. Hanging above this human drama at the gates of the military base was the moon. It seemed huge, about the size of the hole I expected my friend to leave in my life.
But like all things adolescent, it was not as dramatic as all that, over time at least. We still speak regularly and raucously although he’s lived far away for many years. So the “wound” has faded but the friendship has not.
I’d like to acknowledge my sister and my cousin Glenn who have both been advocates for this song for many years.
And, of course, Buck Wilburn for that wonderful lead guitar.
AT LEAST THERE’S TOMORROW This Buck Wilburn song is an interesting amalgam of elements. It starts with folky picking and continues with at least a nod toward old soul ballads with that descending chord pattern and the backbeat guitar “chick.” Even so, the latter bars of the verse and the instrumental passages have almost a chamber music feel, a blend of formality and longing. But the chorus clearly has roots in country.
For all of that, I consider this one of Buck’s most emotionally complex melodies; and the lyric is focused throughout. There is a broad reach here but a unified intent.
Also, if I may put on my “fan” hat in praise of my friend, let me say, “No one saves their lies like you”– that’s nice. I’d steal his line but you guys certainly would bust me for it. As you should.
NEVER FALL IN LOVE This is a song that I wrote years ago. It’s relatively simple; a six line chorus where four of the lines are exactly the same, and verse and chorus chords that are virtually interchangeable.
But I find that getting simple is not simple at all.
So this one took its time and picked up a little something at every stage. There’s a scent of reggae here that dates back to some Jamaican 45s I catalogued for someone’s music thesis years ago. But this is a long way from the Wailers. It’s Toronto, not Trenchtown. It was a hard rocker for a while, too, but it lost its sadness in that incarnation. Then it went purely acoustic but I missed the pulse.
It’s more balanced now. Buck’s kinetic acoustic playing is a tempering factor; Virginia Evans’ lovely voice brings texture to the choruses and the outro. The bubble and bump comes from the fine bass playing of Howard Rabkin.
Never Fall In Love was a lesson in musical patience. And patience is an attribute where I need all the lessons I can get.
CLANDESTINY This is a story of a seedy affair told from the perspective of the betrayed. I tried to come at this from a different, ironic place because the truth is that I’m more interested in secrets than secretions.
Even though Clandestiny tells a tale of cheatin’, I hope that the seedy details are only signposts. I’m really drawn to why a deceiver fails to see that lies are almost always found out. A secret is not immortal. It perishes with a single observation or the sound of a whisper at a single ear.
The death of a sexual secret is almost inevitable. This is the origin of the concept of “clandestiny”: the destiny of a clandestine act is that it will be exposed.
By the way, I thought I invented the word “clandestiny.” Turns out it’s also the name of some old video game. So much for genius….
ABANDONED HIGHWAY It’s odd how a thing that you saw, or a place where you stood, comes to mind much later, embodying an emotional state completely unrelated to the original event. Odd, too, is the affection we can develop toward a painful moment well past. Odd enough to inspire a song?
Apparently so. Maybe even a modest video to boot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FeYK4UxktQ
Abandoned Highway features Buck Wilburn on two acoustic guitar tracks and the harmony vocal. The organ solo is largely inspired (meaning stolen) from the part on an old demo of the song by a fine keyboardist named Frank Gennuso, with whom I have, regrettably, lost contact. Frank, if this finds you, get in touch.
That’s it, SuperNormaal track by track. Enjoy the album!
David Partridge
POSTCARD COMETS
October 10th, 2011 | No Comments
