So here we are again, more than a day late and way more than a dollar short. Why do I even put "Tuesday" in the title? I DID record this song on Tuesday, so there's that, at least. Without further ado, this week's tune:
"Ariel Ramirez" - Richard Buckner
I have to admit, I didn't really know a whole lot about Richard Buckner other than this song before doin' a little research for the post. His was a name that was always on my periphery, being mentioned in the same breath with other darkly impressionistic southern-gothic folk singers as the late, great Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, to Jay Farrar in his creakier, more experimental moments to Sparklehorse' Mark Linkous. I'd gotten a hold of several of his tunes, but the one that always stood out was "Ariel Ramirez". A short two-minute stagger through melancholy and regret, it's spare instrumentation and lyrics-that-talk-about-everything-but-the-actual-point-he's-trying-to-make afford listeners the opportunity to let their minds create images and interpretations that tap into their own past experiences, without ever getting too specific. Being literal isn't Richard's thing. He's had a long career, with it's business ups & downs (he was signed to MCA for a hot minute in the late 90's & soon thereafter unceremoniously dropped - he dubbed the label "Musical Career Assasins", and spent entire shows asking the audience if anyone knew an actual honest record label executive), but with a consistently progressing artistic arc that finds him becoming more vague, more restless, and even more willing to push the boundaries of his songwriting and his arrangements. In essence, taking his own aesthetic as far as he can drag it. They've even used the song in a Volkswagen commercial.
Here's Buckner's version:
I love the misspelling of "Your" in the second line. The fancy font makes it even funnier.
(ed. note - It's been a while since I started composing this post, and in the meantime, Buckner's song "A Gauzy Dress in the Sun" has been on a damn-near constant loop. Sweet Jesus in the morning, what a song.)
For my version, I went over to my good friend Tim "Sweet T" Warren's house out in Bloomingdale, GA, to record. He's got a little studio/man-cave that is pimped out properly and has a real comfortable feel for layin' down tracks. He's also a pretty rockin'-good songwriter in his own right. Check it! I kinda swapped Buckner's guitar lines for piano, put a old-telephone-call effect on the backing vocals, and let the song do the rest of the work.
You can stream it at my MySpace page.....
Marquez
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