Jenny Lewis Follows Her Bliss on “Austin City Limits”
With news of Jenny Lewis reuniting with her former band, Rilo Kiley for a North American tour, after a 17-year break, this got me to thinking about Lewis’ most-recent solo album, Joy’All, and her 2023 appearance on PBS’ “Austin City Limits” (ACL). Lewis was on the iconic music program to promote the album, which reflects her life during, and after, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 30-minute airing, she and her band (Megan Coleman, Drums; Nicole Lawrence, Guitar; Jess Nolan, Keyboards and Vocals; Ryan Madora, Bass and Vocals) performed six songs. They opened with the title track, which despite the unsettling picture the opening verse paints confirms in the chorus Lewis’ shift to find the silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud. (Yes, that was a Rilo Kiley reference in there.)
The poetic, picturesque, “Heads Gonna Roll,” from her 2019 album, On the Line, was next on the set list, followed by a pair of songs, “Cherry Baby” and “Psychos,” with a theme that fits right into Lewis’ lyrical wheelhouse: relationship disconnect. The last two performances, the empowering ode to singlehood, canine companionship, and life’s simple pleasures, “Puppy and a Truck” (“I ain’t got no kids/I ain’t got no roots/I’m an orphan/Catch me if you can/I’m lacing up my boots”) and the stream-of-consciousness, “Love Feel,” serve as the antidotes to the aforementioned angst.
As is customary after an artist’s televised performance, ACL includes interview footage, where Lewis summarized her perspective: “The older you get, you realize that with the good stuff you have to take all the other stuff as well, and it’s just the balance of the joy and the suffering… I just write through all of the things, the good times and the difficult times. You just write to all of it.”
Check out the performance of “Psychos,” where Lewis makes additional references to balance (“Jesus Christ and the devil/Yin and Yang”; “When you are up and down”; “Is it the ego, the id? Hello, goodbye”), as well as the cyclical nature of life (“It’s a merry-go-round”), that lyric now even more profound as Lewis embarks on that 24-date Rilo Kiley reunion tour. She’s taking her own advice: “Follow your joy’all.”
Well Played: A Review of Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well
When you dive into Kacey Musgraves’ lovely folk-country album, Deeper Well, you’ll likely discover the singer/songwriter secure, but searching. After love (captured on the masterpiece that is 2018’s Golden Hour) and loss (poured out on 2021’s star-crossed) come self-healing, (personal and professional) lessons learned, even a few unanswered questions, all reflected on 14 sonically soothing, acoustic-centered tracks, with Musgraves’ angelic voice at the heart (of the woods).
Here, Musgraves is at her earthiest. Throughout the album, she and her writing team have incorporated references to the natural world and its inhabitants, the seasons and the afterlife: With the opener, “Cardinal,” the scarlet-red bird is seen as a messenger “from the other side” (an expression Musgraves also adds to “Dinner with Friends”). She also asks: “Are you just watching and waiting for spring?” With “Too Good to be True,” Musgraves musters the courage to open herself up to that foreshadowed new beginning (“Summer’s gone, but you’re still here/For both of us, it’s been a year”), yet subsequently on “Moving Out,” cohabitation comes with challenges. She sings metaphorically, “That big tree in the front yard lost a limb,” and uses the season of autumn to signify the decay of that relationship, evidenced by the following track, “Giver/Taker” and its opening line: “Sundown and I’m lonely in this house.”
But it’s the title track, as well as “Sway” that document her quest for centeredness amid all the changes that life can bring “without a warning,” words expressed on “Too Good to be True” and similarly on “Cardinal.” Musgraves never pretends to have it all figured out; in fact, on “The Architect,” she paints a series of scenarios to convey a balance of curiosity and confusion about creation, and life on the planet, leading, once again, to confirm Musgraves’ knack for relatability through lyrical construction. By album’s end, “Nothing to be Scared of” finds her dipping her toes in the relationship waters once again. And if life and love ever get murky again, Musgraves now knows she can always go back to the well.
Photo 1: “Cardinal” music video, directed by Scott Cudmore; Photo 2 and 3: “My Saturn Has Returned” promo for Deeper Well (cinematographer: Mika Matinazad).
The Pop Zeal Project (Track 83): Carole King: “I Feel The Earth Move”
A determined pounding of the piano keys starts Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move.” The singer-songwriter-musician had already co-written tracks made famous by The Shirelles (1960’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”) and Aretha Franklin (1967’s “[You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman”), but with her second solo release, 1971’s Tapestry, King continued to make her voice—and her piano-playing—heard.
With the Women’s Liberation Movement already in full force in the early ‘70s, King’s material weaved its way into the hearts, minds and spirits of young women in particular, allowing Tapestry to stay on the charts for an astounding six-plus years. On “I Feel,” she freely described, through expert lyrical and musical constructions, the emotional and physical experiences of new love, from a female point of view. The most provocative lyric is toward the end when King describes the ecstatic fever that comes over her when she’s near the person who rocks her world, going vocally high at “I get a hot and cold” then quickly dropping to quietly repeat “all over” four times, like a vocal gyration, until the track ramps up to the chorus once again.
Whether it was The Shirelles’ song, conveying hesitancy—or Aretha’s, expressing certainty—in a relationship, or this smartly crafted track, best believe that when King felt something, you didn’t just hear it, it was damn near palpable.
Album photography: Jim McCrary
The Pop Zeal Project: Sheryl Crow: “Safe and Sound”
In 1997, pop/rock musician, Sheryl Crow sang the theme song to the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. Unfortunately, the song and the film, separately and as a pairing, failed to create any lasting memories, unlike many that had come before. However, five years later, Crow released her cool, Southern-California-inspired album, C’mon, C’mon, which featured a song entitled, “Safe and Sound.” Now THAT was what “Tomorrow Never Dies” should’ve been.
Granted Bond-film theme songs have varied in style, but there are some core elements that tend to be incorporated, giving the tracks immediate recognition, and, in many cases, help contribute to their longevity. Here’s why “Safe and Sound,” at least musically speaking, works as the Bond theme that never was:
Quieter verses with hints of piano harken to Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only.” (In a live capacity, Crow has been known to play piano when performing “Safe and Sound.”)
Those pop-ballad verses erupt to a rock-inspired chorus, not unlike Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live and Let Die.”
As showcased on “Tomorrow Never Dies,” Crow’s vocal range still lends to that impassioned, big-voice quality reminiscent of Shirley Bassey’s work on “Goldfinger” and “Diamonds Are Forever,” and Lulu’s “The Man with the Golden Gun.”
Take a listen, and as the track plays, it’s easy to imagine the classic silhouettes and other artistic imagery featured in Bond-film opening credits. In particular, take note of the climactic crescendo and Crow’s vocal run; both cement the song as soundtrack worthy.