Billy Bragg mondegreen

Mondegreens, for the uninitiated, are misheard lyrics--e.g., hearing "'scuse me while I kiss this guy" in "Purple Haze." I was spinning the great Mermaid Avenue CD the other day, on which Billy Bragg and Wilco set rediscovered Woody Guthrie lyrics to music, and I was reminded of how I first heard Billy Bragg sing one of the tracks in his thick Cockney accent: "Way over yonder in the monarchy."

The lyric is "Way over yonder in the minor key"...but I still like the monarchy version. Sounds like a song Bragg should write.

Check out Wikipedia's list of mondegreens here.

Listen to my NPR review of the recent Billy Bragg box set here.

David Wilcox on getting lost on guitar, 2006

"I’ve noticed that when I would go and hear people play, it always sounded better if I didn’t look. I almost wanted to have a little velvet curtain in front of the fretboard, because I’d hear somebody play something so cool, and I’d look up and say, 'Oh, I can see where he’s getting the nine off the open string.' And it would ruin it for me, because if I knew how to play it, it wasn’t mystical anymore. It would sort of dissect it and kill it. So I have always chosen to keep it alive, even if I have to hide the knowledge of it from myself. It’s so much more fun for me to hear and feel a progression than to know what it is."

From a feature Q&A in Acoustic Guitar, April 2007. For more on singer-songwriter David Wilcox, see his site.

Spins: Eric Bibb

I opened a show last night for folk/bluesman Eric Bibb, and it was a pleasure to hear his smooth, soulful renditions of songs from Taj Mahal and Rev. Gary Davis along with original tunes. I was particularly struck by his version of "No More Cane on the Brazos," a Texas work song collected back in the '30s by John Lomax. Since songs like that were originally sung unaccompanied, they're wide open to interpretation for an instrumentalist, and I loved Eric's jazzy harmonization on the guitar.

More about Eric Bibb.

Spins: The Ditty Bops, Moon Over the Freeway

This young duo got plenty of press last summer for touring the country by bicycle, but the music is the real story. Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald play a fresh and irresistible blend of swing, Tin Pan Alley, ragtime... Breezy and playful, wordy and witty, they come across sorta like the Roches in cowboy hats playing a swing dance. The instrumental backing is understated and sweet too, in particular Abby DeWald's agile acoustic guitar.

Read more about the Ditty Bops.

Arlo Guthrie on running his own label, 2003

"I remember years ago when I was working with Warners, our agreement was that I could buy my stuff at cost and sell it on the road, those kind of places. Well, their cost was twice as much as what I actually had to pay to manufacture it myself. I said, ‘Well, how is that?’ And they said, ‘Well, we have big buildings filled with secretaries and limousines and lunches and stuff like that.’ Well I didn't have any of that, so the cost of me doing it--it didn't make sense to go with a large label, especially nowadays with the Internet and people can buy and trade and listen to stuff whenever they want worldwide."

From the book The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour's Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business