(Sad Songs & Waltzes is a recurring feature on Muzzle of Bees, where artists share their favorite sad songs. Previous contributors include Megafaun, Delta Spirit, Damien Jurado, Conrad Plymouth, Frontier Ruckus, and Roadside Graves.)

By Ben Weaver:

One morning my son said to me, “Dad, when you are sleeping you can see your dreams.” Sad things make me happy, and happy things make me cry, and crying does not always mean I am sad. So what is a sad song? When I was working in the restaurant, every Wednesday these inner city kids would come in and sell us produce from their garden. They grew beautiful stuff and I always got choked up when they came in. Their interest in growing food instead of playing xbox overwhelmed me. I prefer the notion that things can be beautiful without being pretty, and I can’t understand how a beautiful thing could be made up of anything less than equal parts of good and bad, pretty and ugly, happy and sad. In trying to think of what songs make me cry I realized that it is not always a sad song that makes me cry as much as it is a true song. So hear is my list of sad-true songs that have the potential to make me scream from the bridge as I ride my bike over the river in the middle of the night.

Chris Bell – “I Am The Cosmos” (listen)
I remember listening to this song driving around the neighborhood when I was growing up. We had this tree that we would hang out under especially in the fall. Smoking cigarettes and being tragic. Something about the idea, particularly in the fall, of telling ourselves stories and watching them go up in smoke while singing the line, “Every night I tell myself, I am the Cosmos,” compounded the invincibility into to perfect melancholy.

Doris Duke – “I Don’t Care Anymore” (listen)
“I met a man who treated me like he bought me by the pound.” From what I know she has disappeared and I heard something about her being a maid in a Toronto hotel. This song is from a record called, I’m a Loser and is by far one of my most treasured finds. Personally I think she puts Aretha to shame.

The Replacements – “Sadly Beautiful” (listen)
Again this takes me back to high school. Growing up in Minneapolis. Feeling like an adult in a teenager’s body. Swearing to god you had it all figured out. That the answer was somewhere out there in the dark and even though no one else believed it, at least Paul Westerberg did.

Jeff Mitchell – “Let’s Leave Her Here” (listen)
This is one of my favorite songs. In my mind its brilliance lies in the fact that he could be singing about a million different things and every one of them would be what the song was about. Each line has an individual story. I miss Jeff.

Neil Young – “On The Beach” (listen)
“I need a crowd of people, but I can’t face them day to day.” No one could sum it up better.

Randy Newman – “I Miss You” (listen)
Halfway through this song, when the drums come in I always start to loose my shit. I know the production leaves a lot to be desired and it’s a bit of a cliché to write someone a love song 20 years too late, but still something gets me every time. Maybe it’s that you can always hear New Orleans in every dam note he plays.

Roscoe Holcomb – “The Hills of Mexico” (listen)
When I hear his voice and banjo I have to stop doing whatever I’m doing. I don’t know what it is exactly, some ultimate truth, every needle in every haystack, the high and the low. It’s all there in his playing and singing.

Townes Van Zandt – “Marie” (listen)
“I got to get Marie some kind of coat, were heading down into fall.” This time of year that line enters my brain on a daily basis. The song speaks for itself.

Blaze Foley – “Clay Pigeons” (listen)
“Smoking cigarettes in the last seat, try and hide my sorrow from the people I meet and get along with it all.” I put these two back to back because Townes once said that Marie was not inspired directly by Blaze but that he did put a lot of Blaze’s derelict nature into the song. I guess Blaze favored sleeping under pool tables to a bed.

MP3: Ben Weaver – “East Jefferson”
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Buy: Ben Weaver – Mirepoix & Smoke

(Sad Songs & Waltzes is a recurring feature on Muzzle of Bees, where artists share their favorite sad songs. Previous contributors include Megafaun, Delta Spirit, Damien Jurado, Conrad Plymouth, and Roadside Graves.)

We’re very excited to be presenting Frontier Ruckus in Madison (High Noon Saloon, November 10th) and Milwaukee (Cactus Club, November 12th) later this month. Their album, Deadmalls & Nightfalls, is one of our favorites of the year and we cannot wait to see the band live. The band recently got in touch, with each band member providing a song for our Sad Songs & Waltzes feature. Enjoy.

Red House Painters – “Katy Song” (Matthew Milia)
I was torn between picking this tune and something maybe a tad more classically heavyhearted, such as Chet Baker singing “I Get Along Without You Very Well.” However, the pure despondence of this song’s mood and its personal prevalence over me in a hot small room during a seriously low summer a few back leave me little choice. My favorite version, and the one I shamelessly wallowed within during that time, is off of Kozelek’s live solo album Little Drummer Boy. There’s this distraught conflict in it between the unlimited potential for sweetness inside love (“…there in the clearing I know you’ll be wearing your young aching smile, waving your hand”) and the grievous impossibility of actually knowing how to access it, protect it, keep it whole (“…you got some kind of family there to turn to, and that’s more than I could ever give you”). This essential failure to harness love in its overabundance is so regretful that it debilitates, embitters, overrides everything else to the extent of existential crisis–melodramatic, sure, but no one can dispute the reality of the emotion: “without you what does my life amount to?”

Townes Van Zandt – “Tower Song” (Brian Barnes)
A string of sober realizations on the brink of a severance. Like most Townes songs, there’s a penetration that can’t be shook; the distance is numbing, and the hopeful ending doesn’t quite break the clouds. Out of all of his brilliant songs, when night falls and I’m sitting alone with a guitar, I return to this one most.

Pedro The Lion – “Bad Things to Such Good People” (Ryan Etzcorn)
“Bad Things” stands out in the sense that the usual grip of sadness and hopelessness in Bazan songs is abandoned for a moment of shaking wrath. Whereas a lot of his tunes are content to plod along in that sensation-dulling, punishing Mark Kozelek sort of way (see: Matt’s pick) this is a rare speed-monster that heightens the terror of Bazan’s yelping accusations: “and all the while/the good lord smiled/and looked the other way.” It’s the story of the faithful Job retold…minus the happy restoration at the end. The worthless and wicked son is forced to stand on the “well kept cemetery lawn” in his jail shoes and witness his righteous father’s destruction following the death of the better, “golden child” son. This is my go-to song when I feel like ruining my day.

Built to Spill – “Twin Falls” (Zach Nichols)
In the genre of one-sided reminiscence emphasizing nostalgic ache, this song is the most heartbreaking. How painful it is to know with certainty your alternate life. Listening just once is difficult–when the elementary school flirtations drain away into a brand of small-town-escapee survivor’s guilt–the only anesthesia is starting over.

Robert Ellis – “Bamboo” (David W. Jones)
If I weren’t a brawny, emotionless lumberjack, I would have cried my eyes out the first time I heard Robert Ellis‘ “Bamboo”. It turns out that the rest of Frontier Ruckus isn’t so stolid as me; upon the band’s first listen to the song, our van, Desperauto, was stricken with a kind of somber silence I’ve never heard before. Even the continuous rattle and vibration of Dessie’s shocks seemed insignificant. Zachary sighs audibly every time Robert laments not having a backyard. It truly is one of the more powerful sad songs I’ve heard in some time.

P.S- I am not particularly brawny, nor am I a lumberjack. I cried a little, alright?

Buy: Frontier Ruckus – Deadmalls And Nightfalls
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MP3: Frontier Ruckus – “The Upper Room”

If you’re unfamiliar with Hurray For The Riff Raff the prefect introduction is their recently released Daytrotter session. I feel like you can get a pretty good feel for a band by looking at their record collection, analyzing their favorites and the albums that mean a lot to them. Take one look at the albums chosen by Alynda Lee Segarra for our 5 Albums feature and regular MoB readers will find a group they can get behind. Take our recommendation and pick up Hurray for the Riff Raff’s album It Don’t Mean I Don’t Love You and hope this New Orleans three-piece makes it to Wisconsin on their next tour.

Townes Van Zandt – Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas
Townes Van Zandt is by far my favorite songwriter of all time. Townes’ lyrics are gentle, comforting, straight forward and yet also staggering in their poetic genius. When you are down, this is your man who will bring you back up. His music means more to me than I can explain, this album is the first Townes album I ever heard, sitting in my buddy’s truck outside my house in New Orleans. There are some voices we’re just searching for, a certain sound with certain words that we look for in music to soothe our troubles, and this was mine. Thankfully it even exists! There are few Townes albums that were produced simply and well. A lot of his album’s are decorated with terribly corny overdubs and synthesizers (damn you the 1980’s! Ruining country music!) But this is him in his prime, on stage, with his guitar, telling you jokes and singing to you. Songs like “Don’t take it to bad”, “If I needed you”, “White Freight Liner”, and of course “Poncho and Lefty.” These are classic songs that will live on for a long time, they cut right to the heart of any human willing to sit and listen. They ring true to any lonesome wanderer. These songs are honest and brilliantly crafted, I can only hope to write songs like these one day.

Neil Young – On the beach
I want to make a record like this one day! It is a dream come true. The story behind this album is the whole band drank tons of tequila and got incredibly stoned on some kind of honey and weed concoqution. And apparently that combined with the band only hearing the songs once or twice before recording created this blues driven master piece. I can’t even hold a coherent conversation after some tequila nevermind create a classic rock and roll album. Neil is where it’s at. From start to finish this album is everything you want from Rock n’ Roll. Starts out with some clean electric guitar driven pop song “Walk on” (The slide player is amazing!) to the spaced out glory of “See the sky about to rain” which has the best ending ever (wait for it.) Then there’s some dark borderline evil droning blues in the middle “Vampire Blues” “Revolution Blues” And don’t forget the mysterious “For the turnstiles” Which includes the highest male harmonies I’ve ever heard! Where did that song come from?! Another planet, I’m telling you this man is an alien. Sent to bring us the last couple of songs on the album that bring me to tears everytime. “Motion Pictures” and “Ambulance blues” They are just heartbreaking, it’s like you’re right there with Neil in some shitty motel room, he’s wasted, it’s been a tough year and he’s just singing all about it. The songs are looping and strange, don’t seem to planned out. I will always strive to create that magic in a recording. Thanks Neil, you rule.

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
Bob is a tough one. I love so many albums, they all carry such different feels. It’s hard to pin one down and say “this is what has influenced me” because I’d say 70% of Dylan’s huge body of work has inspired and effected me (Yes even ‘Slow Train Coming‘). And it’s a hard tug of war between his early bootlegs and his later explosion into Rock and Roll. Those early bootlegs and albums some of the most magical, honest and childlike (meant in the best way possible) recordings ever made. They definitely carry a lot of qualities that all musicians strive for (such as the ability to stop time.) But anyways, the point is Highway 61 Revisited will blow your mind! Every song on this album starts in a incredible way, whether it’s the bang of a drum and a screaming organ in “Like a Rolling Stone” or the calm country pace of “It takes a lot to laugh..” This whole album is a work of art. His lyrical senses were at an all time strange and dark place, Dylan was definitely dancing with some demons while making this album and it shows. He is full of youthful ego that is contagious and can pick you up no matter how low you are. But you can hear that faint trace of the human boy Dylan sometimes, and you realize he’s just human just like you (Which is a very strange thing to realize.) and he’s not a demon, he’s a very confused young genius going through some shit. Then he’ll come out of it and make something like John Wesley Harding. Whatever you create, do it to the fullest and with all you got, that’s the lesson here folks.

Des Ark – Live at Radio WXDU
I first heard this album about 4 years ago before I started Riff Raff. I was still just recording some songs by myself and handing those recordings out to very few people. (One of which being Walt) Walt gave this record to me after meeting Aimee on a tour he just went on. A very simple radio recording of Aimee and her guitars and banjos. It blew my world apart. I was a very, very new to songwriting at the time, with few influences I could name and no sense of purpose in my songwriting other than to expell some personal demons. Des Ark unwound a world I wanted in on, Aimee sings with a warm drawl that you ethier have or you don’t, songs that are brutally honest. That are on a mission to straighten things out but are not going to try to sugarcoat anything. I felt like it was the first time I’d heard songs that didn’t lie. She doesn’t claim to be perfect, and she admits she‘s got the devil in her sometimes. They are complicated and rough and beautiful. I feel like we are embarking on a new world of music as I see more and more female songwriters and band leaders. Well, Des Ark definitely is making that process of coming out of the wood work possible. Aimee totally inspired me to do whatever it is I do today.

Sundown Songs – Like a Jazz Band in Nashville
I had the privilege to play with these guys this past summer. This is their first album, made before I jumped in. I can tell you, this album was on repeat all throughout the homes in New Orleans. They left it behind when they spilt up to embark on separate travels two years ago. The idea behind the band was to basically bring together three songwriters who loved each other’s music. Add some other friends who played Bass (Homemade bass in fact.) and slide guitar. The result is them sitting in a small room with recording equipment for a couple of days and creating a simple, beautiful, I’d even say life changing album. These people are for real. Their songs are the real deal, full of heartache and lonesome-ness. Tales of traveling for a long time with no home to speak of. But there is also a serious thirst for adventure, solitude and life behind every song.

Catherine Cavazos is my favorite female singer of all time, dead or alive. She’s right next to Billie Holiday in my mind, her singing is pure gold. She digs it out of her whole existence everytime she sings. Brings out that gold right up to you in the form of a song. She is a treasure and a real artist, on this record you get to hear the magic of her songwriting and voice captured for the first time. Hank Williams, Mahalia Jackson, Ray Charles, they’d all be proud of her, I’m sure of it. I am so thankful to know these people and I hope their music reaches others out there. Real country music aint dead, long live Sundown Songs!

Buy: Hurray for the Riff Raff – It Don’t Mean I Don’t Love You
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MP3: Hurray for the Riff Raff – “Bricks”
Video: Hurray for the Riff Raff – “Bricks”

The Avett Brothers show in Chicago on Sunday has stuck with me. Their records haven’t left my daily listening routine and I’ve spent hours scouring YouTube. During said search, I uncovered Scott Avett performing one of my favorite Townes Van Zandt songs, “Greensboro Woman” on the tour bus en route to Covington, KY from Columbus, OH.

Check out Scott’s take above and, if you haven’t heard the original via Townes, please download it below.

MP3: Townes Van Zandt – “Greensboro Woman”

I have been enjoying Steve Earle’s tribute/take on Townes Van Zandt songs, Townes for a couple weeks now. Out on the always reliable New West Records, I now have a free and legal download of one of the best tracks from the record, “To Live Is To Fly.”

The album includes guest appearances by Tom Morello, Allison Moorer, and Justin Townes Earle, who appears on record with his old man for the first time. “Earle and Van Zandt first met when Van Zandt heckled an Earle show in 1972, the sort of thing that must be a total nightmare for most singer-songwriters. But the two stayed tight until Van Zandt’s death in 1997.” Earle says, “This may be one of the best records I’ve ever made. That hurts a singer-songwriter’s feelings. Then again, it’s some consolation that I cherry picked through the career of one of the best songwriters that ever lived.”

Steve Earle releases Townes on May 12th via New West Records.

Townes:

01 Pancho and Lefty
02 White Freightliner Blues
03 Colorado Girl
04 Where I Lead Me
05 Lungs
06 No Place to Fall
07 Loretta
08 Brand New Companion
09 Rake
10 Delta Momma Blues
11 Marie
12 Don’t Take It Too Bad
13 Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold
14 (Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria
15 To Live Is to Fly

Myspace: Steve Earle
MP3: Steve Earle – “To Live Is To Fly”