1-2-1 Edition

Staff Notes- soul music lost a legend with the recent passing of Solomon Burke. We have the recipe but Memphis Soul Stew will never taste the same.

1. Belief- John Mayer

1. "Belief is a beautiful armor that makes for the heaviest sword, like punching underwater you never can hit who you're trying for. What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand, belief can, belief can, what puts a folded flag inside his mother's hands, belief can, belief can." JM batting lead off for the 2nd week in a row (I have baseball on the brain). "Waiting On The World To Change", the debut single from the album "Continuum" drew musical and thematic comparisons to the Marvin Gaye classic "What's Going On". That groundbreaking work (which will forever be included in my desert island top 5 albums) is a true concept piece where the story is told over the course of the album. "Continuum" doesn't have a unified thematic thread but "Belief" and "Waiting On The World To Change" are brothers in arms. Both songs question the war, just from different angles. "Waiting On The World To Change" questions how we got there- "when you trust your television, what you get it what you've got, cause when they own the information oh they can bend it all they want." "Belief" questions how we'll ever get out of it- "we're never gonna win the world, we're never gonna stop the war, we're never gonna beat this if belief is what we're fighting for." Like Gaye before him, Mayer doesn't claim to have the answers to the challenging issues of the day, but as an artist he calls his audience to question how we got here and where we should go. Before I head to that desert island I'm grabbing my copy of "Continuum" as well.
2. Family (featuring Jack Johnson)- Zack Gill

• "She was feeling the yuletide burn, cause her family was wearing on her nerves, she was tired of fighting and feeling frustrated, finding it hard to relate to those of whom she was related." You may think that you've never heard Zack Gill but chances are you have. Zack plays piano and accordion for Jack Johnson and is a member of this touring band. As much as Jack Johnson's sound is defined by the simple elements of his voice and guitar, more and more his signature sound includes his partner Zack. It turns out that Zack is a decent songwriter in his own right and has a warm soulful voice (file Zack under blue eyed soul). "Family" is a holiday themed song about the struggles of spending time with relatives but ultimately understanding and appreciating the bond. I should probably listen to this song more as I often find extended family holiday events a serious strain on my mental health. A few years ago I caught Zack Gill open for Mason Jennings (who is on Jack Johnson's record label) at the TLA in Philly. The highlight of Zack's set, without a doubt, was a German themed rendition of the Charlie Daniels Band classic "Devil Went Down to Georgia". In this version the protagonist battles the devil on accordion with hilarious results. Believe it or not I once saw Charlie Daniels sing the national anthem. It came before the 2007 Outback Bowl between Penn State and the University of Tennessee. I wasn't all that moved but the redneck UT fans were in their glory.

1. Powder Blue- BareNaked Ladies

• "With each mistake you either bend or break, with every word I chose, you only seem to bruise. You're going off the deep end, I'm going over all the things I've got to say. I made love blind and lost my mind." It was bound to happen and it happened today...we've gotten into some obscure BareNaked Ladies. "Powder Blue" is a left over from the sessions that gave us the album "Maroon". You probably know "Maroon" for songs like "Pinch Me" and "Too Little Too Late". You may be interested to know the album was produced by Don Was, who brought us "Everybody Walk the Dinosaur" when Was was in Was (Not Was). "Powder Blue" first found life on an Australian "Pinch Me" CD single import which featured a few songs that didn't make it off the cutting room floor. This is by far the best of that collection...."Born Human" a song about dating a girl raised by wolves is by far the quirkiest. "Powder Blue" shows up as a live number on the "Talk To The Hand: Live in Michigan" CD/DVD/Blu-ray and the original Ships and Dip album. While the Ladies are best known for upbeat pop tunes they've recorded a number of songs with very dark undercurrents. Songs like "I'll Be That Girl" (references to auto erotic asphyxiation and suicide), "War on Drugs" (depression and suicide), "The Flag" (spousal abuse) and "I Live With It Everyday" (suicide) to name a few. "Powder Blue" fits into that tradition nicely. Someone queue up a happy song.