Subdivision :: Ani DiFranco

"Then suddenly I hear my guitar singin'
And so I just start singin' along
And somewhere in my chest
All the noise just gets crushed by the song."
-Ani DiFranco (from "imagine that")

So I know that adoration of Ani DiFranco isn't a universally shared pastime. And I know that sometimes it's hard to escape her cuz she's so doggone prolific and her music is so widely embraced in this twenty-something Western/progressive/hippy/GLBTA female subculture of ours.
But what can I say? I just had to post this one while I'm on this spirit guitarist kick cuz that's what Ani is!

For all the slapping, popping, ripping and knocking sounds that this woman gets out of a guitar, it's sometimes forgotten that she can also make it sing like few others can. It's also easy to see her music as one mountainous pile of songs since she has made more albums in 15 years than many musicians make in a lifetime. But I have to say that from my own experience, it's not the volume of Ani's work that astonishes me, but the intricacy of each song and how so many of them seem to fit my life like my clothing fits my body. And any artist who can do that ONCE, much less over and over again, has wicked-hella skills and deserves wicked-hella props.

This song is a clip from Ani's movie "Render". And I'm warning you now that this entry is gonna drip with sentiment because this particular song pulls miles out of my heart every time I hear it. The first time I saw this movie, I was at a place in my life where I was deeply in love with the act and atmosphere of growing up (a feeling that college life stirs in many people). And I remember how moved I was by the purple and gold grace of the Tiny Folksinger standing there and smiling to herself as her guitar literally sighs from chord to chord (listen to the first five chords and TELL me there's not a sigh in there!...right as the audience is screaming adorations at her)). And then she starts to dance and sway around the stage with the music in between verses! This song talks about some heavy stuff! It's not easy to stomach and it's really sad. But the way she delivers it seems so graceful to me that it's easier to sidestep the guilt and the alienation one might otherwise feel if someone was soapboxing this stuff.

The song isn't demanding that other people agree with what she's singing about. You don't even have to like the music! You don't even have to listen! But the way she's playing it seems to transcend preoccupations with such things. In this country, where the Music Business is playing God in it's own version of Survival of the Fittest and where so many musicians are pruned instead of nurtured and supported and where so much of the music is killed long before it even reaches our ears, it's easy to forget that music was birthed out of the need to share and give and express. It's easy to forget about the time before community became audience and songs became performances. There are songs that remind us of those origins - even in the midst of a concert that we traveled miles and paid money to see....maybe that's why we travel and pay in the first place. Anyway, this song is one of those for me.

SUBDIVISION::ANI DIFRANCO

white people are so scared of black people.
they bulldoze out to the country, and put up houses on little loop-d-loop streets.
and while america gets its heart cut right out of its chest,
the berlin wall still runs downmain street separating east side from west.

and nothing is stirring, not even a mouse, in the boarded up stores and the broken down houses, so they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps just to prove they got no manners, no mercy, and no sense.

and i wonder then what it will take for my city to rise.
first we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes. the ghost of old buildings are haunting parking lots in the city of good neighbors that history forgot.

i remember the first time i saw someone lying on the cold street, i thought, "i can't just walk past you, this can't just be true."
but i learned by example to just keep moving my feet.
it's amazing the things that we all learn to do.

so we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter, serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water and the old farmroad's a four-lane that leads to the mall and my dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall

and i wonder then what it will take for my country to rise.
first we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes.
'til nation's last taker succumbs to one last dumb decision and america the beautiful is just one big subdivision.

Killing For Love :: Jose Gonzalez

DON'T BE ALARMED BY THE NAKED PIG GUY! IT'S JUST A SCANDINAVIAN'S TAKE ON THE TRAGIC FLAWS OF CONSUMER CULTURE!


So another fine spirit guitarist I'm obsessed with lately is Jose Gonzalez.

This tune is a great example of why. I've looked up the guitar tabs for this song, and it's infuriatingly simple/hard. By that I mean that the left hand chords are pretty easy, but the right hand has you playing three different syncopated rhythms at once (one with the thumb, one with the fingers, and another with hammer-ons and pull offs in the left hand....sheesh!)! To have such a hella sick guitar part as the musical mantra for the song, and for Jose to pull it off (and think it up in the first place!) is a testament to his chops. Plus, the fact that sometimes he plays a riff for hours before even thinking of lyrics (not uncommon), it kinda gives the song a test-run for the waiting repeat buttons of his future listeners' CD players (I've been listening to this one for days). And those lyrics! Attached to any other melody and instrument, they might not do much, but here, they're kinda the spearhead in this javelin of a song so they can cut more deeply.

What's the point
if you hate, die and kill for love?
What's the point with a love that
makes you hate and kill for?

You've got a heart on fire,
it's bursting with desires.

You've got a heart filled with passion.
Will you let it burn for hate or compassion.

What's the point
if you hate, die and kill for love?
Whats the point with a love that
makes you hate and kill for?

What's the point
if you hate, die and kill for love?
Whats the point with a love that
makes you hate and kill for?

You're killing for love.
You're killing for love.
(etc, etc)

Our man Jose is Swedish, as it turns out - born of Argentinian parents. He grew up with lots of bossa nova music in the house. A lot of his hit songs are covers of tunes by some sweet bands (more obscure to the American than the European mainstream it seems) and I love that cuz he seems to listen to songs as intently as he plays them.

As an example of that and as a bonus - here's his cover of the Kylie Minogue's "Hand on Your Heart".



What? He didn't write it? Coulda fooled me by the way he sings it!....though the phrase "find a new romance" is kind of a dead give away of an 80's pop ballad. Even after I heard Kylie's version (and died a little inside), I still hear his and think of something new...and the chorus just kills me! On an NPR interview, he observed how odd it was that the 80's music video shows Kylie bouncing around so happily on a brightly colored set while she was singing something so intensely intimate and sad. Myself I prefer the animated Japanese silk screens.

I'm diggin' Jose Gonzalez these days because everything about his music (lyrics, voice, guitar work) aids in the expression of what he's getting at in any given song. And yay for that.

If you want a full dose of even more mind-rending songs and music videos, check out his website at http://www.jose-gonzalez.com/ and watch all the videos posted (on the funky upside-down-nature-sceen page) one after the other. They're kinda addictive. And a little intense and disturbing. Especially "Teardrop" and "Stay in the Shade".

Right on TIme :: Roby Duke

So I heard about this guy on the avalonguitar.com forum. It was actually an announcement of his death. Here's what they had to say about him there:

"To say he will be sorely missed is a colossal understatement. He was unique, a talent that towered over his peers in so many aspects of music - song writing, performing, vocals, production, sound engineering and music programming. But even such myriad talents paled into insignificance to the man - a humble, caring, loving, giving person; an encourager, a true friend, a man of deep faith and profound spiritual insight and a comic genius all rolled into one."

For a distinguised guild of guitar makers and pickers to revere this guy so affectionately made me want to look him up in a hurry. So the first song I heard was this one. And when the first thing he does is ask the audience to hum an accompaniment to his badass instrumentals, I knew it was my kind of music.

And as it turns out, he's a devout Christian. I haven't come across a ministering musician whose tunes actually moved me, whose lyrics I don't merely tolerate but really love, and whose artistic integrity sealed the deal in a long time. I must admit that I've been too jaded by the propensity of Christians I know to have selective hearing where God's voice is concerned...and I know that's only frustrating for me cuz I'm doing my damnedest to shed my OWN selective hearing. And here's a man whose whole life is singing and shining like the giant "OM" tattooed on his arm. And I am reminded what I'm listening for.

I'm starting to believe that playing a guitar the way folks like this guy and Jose Gonzalez and Peter Mayer and Ani DiFranco do starts to affect their spiritual lives eventually - maybe it's the whole idea that the vibration of strings makes the wood come alive and singing with that creates overtones to which heart, word and voice strings are all sympathetic. Or maybe it's some ancient instinct that a portable singing tree is the only appropriate musical companion for such living lyrics. And ya know, maybe being as wide open a channel as this kind of musicianship demands just makes it impossible to keep God from spilling into the songs and the life of the singer. Whichever it is, I've been astounded lately to see the pattern between playing and singing well and tapping into Divine things. Suddenly I see that I'm surrounded by the mentors I hunger for....and God's voice is clearer because it's gaining harmonies from all sides....and I do believe I just outlined a theme for my next several posts. :)

Here's my personal fave: