There's a new album that was released in the last couple of months. It's called Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow. It's a compilation of songs written by Tom Waits and/or Kathleen Brennan (his wife and musical partner) performed by other artists. The recordings themselves had all been previously released by said artists between 1984 and 2020. And even though I already had about a quarter of the performances on the album, being the Tom Waits fan that I am, I felt compelled to buy a copy. I've listened to it a number of times now and I seem to be finding something new and different each time I do.
The fascinating thing to me is that it's also made me want to go back and listen to the albums that featured some of those songs. I don't have enough memory on my phone to include my entire music library. In fact, with the exception of Bruce Springsteen's rendition of "Jersey Girl," I didn't have any of those Waits covers that I already owned on my phone. Because of that, I haven't actually listened to a lot of those albums in quite some time, and it's been a joy to revisit them.
This week's album in particular stood out to me because I remember how taken I was with it when it was released more than 20 years ago--long before I had any non-landline phone, let alone an iPhone. As I write this, I'm listening to it again for the first time in many years and remembering why I was taken with it in the first place. Full disclosure--I did have a bit of a celebrity crush on the artist. I suppose if I'm honest, I still kind of do.
After a decade of mining classic pop standards from the "Great American Songbook," Diana Krall decided to branch out a bit for her new album. While half of the songs on the album are covers, this time, they were more in a folk and blues vein including songs written by Mose Allison ("Stop This World"), Joni Mitchell ("Black Crow"), the aforementioned Mr. Waits ("Temptation"), and even Elvis Costello ("Almost Blue"), whom she married the year before.
However, the one thing that excited me was that she and Costello co-wrote the other half of the album's songs. As a fan of her interpretations of standards, I was curious to hear what she was capable of writing--although, to be fair, I was already a fan of Mr. Costello's so I had a sneaking suspicion it would be at least pretty good. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. To this day, it's still one of my favourite albums of hers just because it does feel distinctly hers. This week, please enjoy the one and only Diana Krall with her 2004 album, The Girl In The Other Room. I keep hoping the two of them will do something like this again.
Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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