Emma Swift - Blonde On The Tracks (2020)

Emma Swift is an Australian singer-songwriter currently living in Nashville with her partner, veteran, English rock n' roller, Robyn Hitchcock.

Swift released her self-titled, debut EP in 2014 and it wasn't until August of this year that she released an eight song set of Bob Dylan covers that is generating a lot of positive press. She cleverly named it Blonde On The Tracks.

I'm not usually one to sit through unappealing vocals but Dylan is one of the few bad singers I can stomach. Even so, it's always rewarding to hear someone with a great set of pipes cover his work. Swift has a strong but feminine voice surrounded by tight folk-rock arrangements that are totally satisfying.

Swift applies an eclectic touch to this record. She didn't always redo the most obvious songs and that's a good thing. Much of Dylan's most loved and famous works have been covered way too often so she decided to keep things fresh. A case in point is a track the revered composer just released this year. "I Contain Multitudes" is from his latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways. It's the very first re-imagining of that new song and Swift chose it as the featured track from the album. 

There are more than a few high points. On "Queen Jane Approximately" the producer, Wilco's Patrick Sansone, adds twelve-string guitar as a salute to The Byrds simply because that great band was once the premier interpreter of the Dylan songbook. 

Other standouts include a twelve minute version of "Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands," "You're A Big Girl Now," and a superb cover of "Simple Twist of Fate," one of Dylan's greatest efforts. Swift's vocal on this tune from his Blood on the Tracks LP (1975) is simply superb.

Blonde On The Tracks is a quite satisfying collection that Swift mostly recorded in 2017. She finished it up this year as only her second career release due to the COVID-19 lockdown because she was unable to enter a studio to work on her own material.

You can stream the whole record and purchase it in several formats at Swift's Bandcamp page. If you want a copy please buy it from them instead of Spotify, iTunes, or Amazon because, as Swift discusses in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, struggling musicians like her receive a much bigger piece of the pie on units sold with Bandcamp, allowing those who make most of their income on the road to survive while they've lost the ability to tour. The other three mega-sites offer recording artists only a paltry share of the profits. During the interview, she tells Times staff writer, Randall Roberts, that Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, is "a morally reprehensible human being."

The Band
Guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion: Patrick Sansone
Guitar: Robyn Hitchcock
Pedal steel: Thayer Serrano
Bass: Jon Estes
Drums and percussion: Jon Radford

Track Listing
Queen Jane Approximately
I Contain Multitudes
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
Simple Twist of Fate
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
The Man in Me
Going Going Gone
You're a Big Girl Now 

​

Comments

  1. William Kates2:15 PM, October 19, 2020

    Thanks Charlie for the tip on Emma. Your readers also might want to know that on the first Friday of each month Bandcamp gives 100% of the price you pay directly to the artist.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zach Phillips1:50 PM, October 24, 2020

    A great album.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

WHAT'S HOT TODAY!

Slower Than Slow: 16 RPM Records

Image
Have you ever heard of a long forgotten vinyl format, the 16 2/3 RPM record? They were half the speed of the 33 1/3 RPM albums that were the traditional standard for recorded music. Most record players in the 1950s and 1960s came with a speed setting to play these long forgotten discs that were considered novelties even during the years they were available. Because most, but not all, 16s had big holes and were 7" in diameter many of them were mistaken for 45 RPMs and at that size the speed allowed for up to 20 minutes of playing time per side. However, there was no true standard size and they were also manufactured to be 9, 10, or 12 inches in diameter, and these larger records played even longer. Just like the other speeds and formats 16s could be played one record at a time or stacked on a changer for continuous play. Radio stations often used the discs for pre-recorded radio shows containing interviews, dramas, and documentaries. More frequen...
Read more

The Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight (1977)

Image
In 2006 Hall and Oates released Home For Christmas , their one and only holiday album, an extremely good set of music that immediately became one of my favorite seasonal listens. I wrote then that I was stunned at how many overtly religious songs the famous duo put on the the disc considering the very politically correct climate of the new millennium. One of them was a cover version of a song that alluded me for almost thirty years, "Christmas Must Be Tonight." I liked the new, upbeat track sung by Daryl Hall and it made me go out and search for Robbie Robertson's never-to-be classic. Sung by Rick Danko, it appears on the great American band's last album, Islands (1977). It's a surprise that a group whose members were not known to have any specific or powerfully strong religious beliefs would release a song that tackled the subject of Jesus's birth as blatantly as our most loved Christmas carols. It's not about a reckless reinde...
Read more

The Chieftains With Jackson Browne - The Rebel Jesus (1991)

Image
"The Rebel Jesus" is a Christmas song composed by Jackson Browne and performed with The Chieftains, the eclectic, veteran Irish folk band on  The Bells of Dublin,  their 1991 holiday album. Browne wrote the song specifically for his guest appearance on this record. The singer-songwriter, who is deservedly in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, can be a bit preachy when he wants to be, and he is again here, but no one can dispute what the man is saying.  The last two verses are the key to the song. Browne points out that people often feel more generous at Christmas so they'll give to those who were less fortunate than themselves during the holidays. But, if anyone tries to dig deeper and root out the poverty that envelops the downtrodden they are often scorned like Jesus was. This message is coming from a man who is admittedly a "heathen and a pagan," but on this occasion he is "on the side of the rebel Jesus." At the same time Browne doesn't want to sp...
Read more

The Beatles - Christmas Messages (1963 - 1969)

Image
For seven straight years beginning in 1963 - even before they were famous in America - The Beatles recorded annual Christmas messages exclusively for their fan club members as a holiday thank you. They were issued on seven-inch, vinyl records that were very thin, very bendable, and easily damaged. These flexi-discs, as they were called, could not be stacked on record changers. Over the years the tracks have been bootlegged in countless ways, and until a few years ago the only legal release was sent to fan club members in 1970 on 33 RPM vinyl records after the boys from Liverpool went their separate ways. The LP cover shown here is from that album. Finally, in 2017, a limited edition box set  on colored vinyl was released and is now an expensive collector's item. Many Beatles fans managed to hear these records over the years, and with the Internet being what it is, there are several websites where anyone can easily listen to all of them.  Archive.org ...
Read more

Chicago: An Album By Album Analysis Of The Terry Kath Era (1969 - 1977)

Image
The original lineup of Chicago has always been one of my all time favorite bands. My affection for this great horn band is such that I want to discuss all of the albums they recorded before Terry Kath's unfortunate and accidental passing. Their debut album is now forty years old, and it's followup is not far behind, yet their music endures to this day. * * * * * Everyone Must Own * * * * Excellent * * * Good * * Fair * Poor * * * * * Chicago Transit Authority (1969) - Whether they were playing screaming psychedelic hard rock, jazz, blues, or love songs, everyone in the band proved they were worthy of the huge mass success that followed CTA 's release. The band's ability to play anything and play it well is the hallmark of their debut album. The stars are Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, and the horns, and even Peter Cetera demonstrates he can be a rock and roll animal when he wants to be. The standout tracks are Lamm's "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It...
Read more