My Sideways Taste In Music

[Jimmy Chisel]

Why do I call it sideways? Because my tastes (somewhat reflecting my personality)  are strange and eccentric. Currently I am rather dominated by folk music, but not completely limited to it. I don't really know if any of you will care that much for what I am about to unveil but I would like to make some recommendations to you all of people you may never have heard of, or maybe you have - either way I feel like sharing.

Loudon Wainwright III
- Possibly the longest surviving "New Bob Dylan", Loudon Wainwright's father was editor of Life magazine his son Rufus and daughters Martha and Lucy Wainwright Roche have achieved success as song-writers in their own rights (as has his sister Sloan). However Loudon is probably (in my opinion) superior to any of his kin who have followed in his footsteps. He can flip from comedy to tragedy even within the course of a single song and as a songwriter truly writes from what he knows (as a majority of his material is based on his life, his ex-wives, children and parents). He's ever really achieved a great amount of commercial success with the song "Dead Skunk" being his greatest chart hit however where is more to Loudon Wainwright's song writing that somewhat novelty songs.

His greatest songs are perhaps those about his family, his children and himself. They're mostly as open and honest as he allows himself to be (but by his own admission slightly affected by poetic license). Notable examples include Your Mother & I written to the children of his second marriage (to Suzzy Roche) or A Father & Son which is not only about his relationship with the then teenage Rufus, but also takes in Loudon's own troubled relationship with his father Loudon Wainwright Jnr (whose death inspired the highly recommendable History album).  In The Home Stretch, Wainwright lets us in on the plight of a middle-aged man traveling and performing alone in bars and clubs taking solace in the that he has at least "been a has been and not just a never was". For my money, it is one of his finest songs.

He is also an actor and has appeared in the tv series' M*A*S*H and Undeclared and one of his more notable film roles was as the gynecologist Dr. Everett Howard in Knocked Up.

John Cale
I decided to  go to the other end of the spectrum for this one. Cale is a Welsh musician who along with Lou Reed and others composed the orignal line up of The Velvet Underground. After he left the group he went solo, and has released many solo albums since then ranging from avant gaurde classical albums to rockish and popish and electroish albums. He's even set the poetry of Dylan Thomas to music when for album Words for the Dying he recorded Lie Still, Sleep Be Calmed and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

Dying on the Vine is perhaps one of his best and not much of Cale's output is instantly accessible, you have to give it time to grow on you.

Those are two big ones for me. Others would include Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Palace/Palace Brothers/Palace Music/Will Oldham, Randy Newman and Warren Zevon and the folk-punk styling of Andrew Jackson Jihad.

This was going to be larger but, meh, I think that promoting your own musical tastes is best done in small doses!