Leonard Cohen

A few years ago, my person rented this concert movie from Netflix, and we watched it together three times in a row. What a great collection of performers! After that, of course, we had to have the soundtrack.

Even if you don't know who Leonard Cohen is, you've undoubtedly heard his songs, whether it's the '60s iconic "Suzanne" ("takes you down to a place by the river") or "Famous Blue Raincoat" (1971) which has been recorded by a host of artists such as Jennifer Warnes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPlpxHhzSp0or).  

What's also stunning about this album is the variety of artists who gathered to pay tribute to Cohen: the McGarrigles, the Wainwrights, Nick Cave, Perla Batalla...the list goes on.

My favorite song on the album is "If It Be Your Will," a Cohen anthem sung in the most moving manner by Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKhGKB6faW0). 

Cohen says that the song isn't religious in the traditional sense of the word; rather, the song reflects his awe of the natural world's spirituality. Even housecats and city cats can understand what Cohen means by that.

My cousin cat, Kali, contemplating the natural world outside her New York apartment window.

Here's wishing you a beautiful Sunday in your natural world, wherever it may be.

Peace out!

Tracy Chapman & Patsy Cline

Like most cats, Tracy Chapman was raised by her mother, but unlike most cats, she began playing music very early, when her mother bought her a ukelele. This just confirms my belief that many more cats would be in the music business if cat moms had better access to music stores and credit cards. Tracy has been writing and performing for over 25 years, and she's won many awards for her songs such as "Fast Car," which is something cats need to watch out for (fast cars, not music awards).

New Beginning is her fourth album, and the best-known song on it is "Give Me One Reason," a slow, rhythmical plea to an unnamed lover who's about to be abandoned. This song won the Best Rock Song Grammy Award in 1997. Chapman's guitar is straight-forward and her voice evocative, and I particularly like her purry sound on "Heaven's Here on Earth." "Cold Feet" was another of my favorites, even though I don't get cold feet, because I'm part Maine Coon cat, and I have lots of fur between my toes. 

Here's an oldie-but-a-goodie! Patsy Cline's been gone a long time, but go into any country-western bar that has a jukebox or a karaoke machine, and you'll find all her greatest hits. This album contains 12 of those hits, from "Walking After Midnight" (a thing that cats love to do) to "You're Stronger Than Me," something that most male cats have to admit eventually. In fact, just to be on the safe side, I'd better dedicate this review to my bro Sparky, the Top Cat in my neighborhood.

There's a little throb in Patsy's voice that made the parakeets in our house chirp in response whenever they heard it. I finally had to go tell them to shut up, so I could enjoy the rest of this terrific album. Oh, if it weren't for that cage, I'd have had a little snack to go along with my Patsy Cline.
Listen to her sing "Crazy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzq5X-p2C0Y
Peace out!

Chanman

Whew! Sometimes, reviewing music can be a cat's worst nightmare, and all you can do is laugh, because things have taken such a sharp turn toward the ridiculous. My person got this CD from a bass player who had performed for a time with "Chanman" in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a place where extremely wealthy people go to experience the West. 
The fact that places such as Jackson Hole and Sun Valley aren't in the least representative of real life in the West is beside the point, but as I listened to Chanman sing "Tell me where will the homeless sleep tonight," I couldn't help but appreciate the irony of his situation. Chanman's music has been described as "Folk rock in the groove tradition of Ski Bum music." In Jackson's preppie coffee joints, Chanman could only have been easily-ignorable background noise, which is a good thing, given the banality of his music. 
Despite some competent saxophone on cuts such as "Backstabber," boredom reigns. How did the bass player manage to stay awake? At least, the drummer had sticks to poke himself with to keep from passing out. 
Chanman is a minimalist lyricist: for example, the song "Liz and Phil" primarily consists of--you guessed it--incessant repetitions of the words "Liz and Phil." I presume that Liz and Phil are Chanman's friends, but even they must have been embarrassed by the homage. 

Chanman veers across the line from music into comedy with "Sensual Work of Art," wherein he compares his ladylove to the Mona Lisa, The Birth of Venus, and to Picasso's depictions of women (scarcely a smooth move, flattery-wise). One of the lines in "Sensual Work of Art" is "You've got to suffer..."  I did.
Chanman's tortured crooning recalls the soundtrack of Ishtar, the 1987 comedy film. Ishtar's plot concerns two highly-untalented musician/songwriters who take their show on the road in the Middle East, with hilarious consequences.
You can sample some Ishtar music (I recommend "How Big Am I?") at http://ishtarthemovie.com/Songs.php 
You can also purchase Chanman's CDs on cdbaby.com, but really, why would you want to?
I was going to review Tracy Chapman and Patsy Cline in this same blog post, but the Goddess Bastet would surely strike me down if I lumped them in with this guy, so I'll save them for next time.
Peace out!

Francis Cabrel & The Calling

What better way to celebrate St. Valentine's Day than by listening to a romantic Frenchman singing about love and newspapers?

My person knew enough French to explain that the title of Francis Cabrel's album, Quelqu'un de l'Intérieur, means "Someone on the Inside," and she translated other titles such as "L'enfant qui dort" (the sleeping child) and "Question d'équilibre" (a question of balance).
Cabrel is fairly famous in France as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, and local politician. Early in his career, he was influenced by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen (who I will be reviewing in a few weeks), and I could hear those influences in his songs.
A lot of Cabrel's songs seem to be about ethical questions, which are not of much interest to cats. One song did catch my attention: "Edition Spéciale" which Cabrel sings and plays really fast. It's very catchy, and my person sang along in what I suspect was really bad French. This song is what motivated her to buy the album in the first place. She'd seen Albert Brooks sing along with it in the movie Broadcast News, so I assumed that the song is about the news, and I got to thinking about the newspaper that the other cat and I eat our breakfast on every morning. It's certainly a "special edition" on the days we're served chopped kidneys or liver. After that thought, it was hard for me to pay much attention to the rest of "Someone on the Inside," since I was thinking about my own insides and how empty they felt.

Listen to Cabrel sing "Edition Spéciale" at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXJX2AWeFew

After Frenchy was finished, we sampled The Calling's Camino Palmero, which I thought might be in Spanish, but it wasn't. The Calling released only two albums and haven't been heard from since 2005. They are one of those one-hit wonders whose song "Wherever You Will Go" was all over the charts in 2001, went to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the Adult Top 40 for 23 weeks.
I guess if a band is only going to have one big hit, it ought to be a good one like "Wherever You Will Go." Take a listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC8LZiNP3RE 
My person petted me pretty much non-stop during "Wherever You Will Go" and promised that we'd never part. We have a loving relationship: she loves me, and I love the way she massages my ears. It was a nice way to spend Valentine's Day afternoon.
Peace Out!