New Music That Doesn’t Suck: As Jonathan Swift once noted, everything comes back, including music recorded years ago
In 1710 Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels) wrote that “everything old is new again.”
And if you follow current trends you would have to agree: bell-bottom jeans, typewriters, marbles, cassette tapes, fanny packs and the list goes on and on. And one of the most interesting phenomena (musically at least) is making a video of a song that is years or even decades old.
For example, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah refused to make a video for what has become their most popular song. Yet here we are 20 years later with a new video for “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth.”
The same situation applied to “Real Love Baby,” a song by Father John Misty released in 2016 and whose new video has over 2.3 million views. There are also new videos for classics like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry,” LLCool J’s “Rock The Bells” and even Peggy Lee’s classic “Fever,” which was released over 60 years ago.
There was an article in The New York Times on new videos that ended with this quote from a music industry executive: “For a 15-year-old kid out there on Spotify, whether something is five minutes old, 10 years old or 50 years old, it’s still new to them.”
Amen!
Here’s the latest NMTDS:
John Fogerty: “Run Through The Jungle” from Creedence Clearwater Revival “Chronicle” and “John Fogerty Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years.”
The story of Fogerty’s decades-long quest to regain the publishing rights to his music reads like a bad television movie, fortunately one with a happy ending. “Legacy” is John’s re-recording of music from the CCR era and it is hard in most cases to tell the 50 plus year difference which is the way he wanted it.
Sarah McLachlan: “Better Broken”
This is the lead single from Sarah’s 10th studio album “Better Broken” and her first since “Wonderland” in 2016. She is known not only for her artistic endeavors but also for her philanthropy.
Molly Tuttle: “The Highway Knows”
From Molly’s fifth solo album “So Long Little Miss Sunshine.” She is the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year award. Like many current bluegrass artists (see Billy Strings) she mixes it up with some pop and rock music influences.
Kongos is a South African singer-songwriter whose combination of rock and tribal rhythms produced the 1971 hits “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” and “Tokoloshe Man.” According to the Guinness Book of Records, Kongos was the first artist to incorporate samples. “Nature’s Game” is an updated version of an unreleased song from 1986 co-produced here with his son’s band Kongos
Alabama Shakes: “Another Life”
It’s been almost 10 years since we’ve had any new Shakes music though lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard has released two brilliant solo albums. The band is back together and touring and has promised (hopefully) that there is more music to come.
I love artists who march to a different drummer and Ethel (her alias) certainly fits that description. Her latest “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You” features a wide spectrum of music ranging from pop-rock to what has been described as “sprawling abstract noise.” And this is not a Tik Tok-friendly album with the shortest song clocking in at almost 5 minutes and the longest over 15.
She has country roots but her seventh album ”Dreamsicle” owes as much to pop and R&B influences and there’s even some subtle hints of hip-hop. But with Maren you expect the unexpected. Noted for her outspoken views on political and social issues, not to mention country music itself, she was named as one of the 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time.
The song is to be one of the cuts on the band's upcoming eighth studio album. Shinedown is a major force in hard rock music and #1 on Billboard’s Greatest All Time Mainstream Rock Artist Chart. Every one of their 33 singles has charted in the Top 5.
This is from the band’s sixth studio album “A Bridge To Far.” The band is labeled folk-rock, which doesn’t fit a band of jazz musicians who have ventured musically into the realms of progressive and alternative rock.
I am a big fan of Thievery Corporation, an American electronic duo. To list all the musical genres they have explored over 10 studio albums and nine compilations would take too much space. And the band’s Eric Hilton has been just as wide-ranging through his nine solo albums.
And speaking of videos, I don’t usually feature them, but here is a video for the Lady Gaga song “The Dead Dance” that was directed by famed director Tim Burton — Batman, Beetlejuice, Planet of the Apes, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, to name just a few.
Till next time, good listening
David Hersrud is a third-generation South Dakota native. After college and graduate school, he spent more than six years in the music industry working with bands and artists like George Harrison, Eagles, The Beach Boys, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Frank Sinatra and Fleetwood Mac. He stayed active after returning to South Dakota and the family business as a writer, consultant and then the host of CDTV for 12 years. David and his wife Kathy live in Sturgis.
Photo: courtesy David Hersrud
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