Vertimus

The problem with Classic as an album title is that it doesn't reflect the Country genre at all. That's presuming the album will be a single-disc, straightforward collection of Country-esque songs and not a double album, one disc of which is American Classics and Standards. I like Stars Fell On Alabama, but Quiet In The South is good too.

When people hear songs like SFOA and QITS, like Bluebird, they're not going to say, "Yuch--she's doing COUNTRY now?", they're going to realize that, regardless of genre or genre label, these are pure, top-drawer Lana songs, period (and in my modest opinion, they're better than what we've heard from her in a while). So the album, if the balance of the songs are half as good as those we've already heard, is going to be a success. I can't think of any true Lana fan not being touched by SFOA, and that would be true if it were a love song she wrote out of pure creativity, or if it is, as it is in fact, a reflection of her life at present. Only a very casual listener or non-fan would say, "Country doesn't interest me--pass."

But doesn't marry a swamp tour guide (no shade).

After HCO and QITS with its narrative of a frustrated woman with a roving spouse, who knows--Bluebird might be the final song on the album--I think it would be a perfect bittersweet closer, offering some hope but not too much. A lot depends on the other songs--if they turn out to be a 'loose collection' or more or less tell a story. I can see SFOA being the opener.

I'd love more singles, even if studio versions of Stars Fell on Alabama, which is gearing up to be among my favorite LDR tracks of all time, or QITS, but I hope more than half the album isn't known to us before it's released.

Thanks, buddy. Anyone would be injured or embarrassed by the SNL performance (and their follow-up the next week during the Weekly News segment, when one of the cast impersonated her)--oddly enough, decades before, Marianne Faithfull had a similar experience on SNL--she got up to the mic and couldn't sing. I didn't know about the billboard at the time she headlined Coachella. And I didn't know that Lasso was met with a ho-hum response from stans and fans--at least now, after Stagecoach, she knows Lasso or whatever it's going to be called will largely be embraced with open arms. The reaction has been tremendous. I think most artists and performers read their reviews--it's only common sense--but I didn't know LDR particularly did, despite songs like Arcadia and BBS. I hope she doesn't let the more idiotic, idealistic (i.e., Ann Powers), or aggressive (i.e., Ann Powers) affect her too much. You can ultimately only please yourself, and have to find peace of mind.

Does she care what the critics say? What's given you that impression?

Since we've already heard so many of the tracks, potential tracks, and covers, I hope the final album is something like 15-18. But from what I've heard, SFOA is a masterpiece just on its own. I can't imagine the studio version will be less good than the Stagecoach performance.

My Unpopular NFR! thoughts: Stars Fell Over Alabama, is, for me, a return to the Lana I love after the bland 1970s-style sentimentality of tracks like Love Song, How to Disappear, and LMLYLAW. We can get these kind of middle-of-the-road songs from any number of other artists. For different reasons, the less said about HIAB and the pointlessly reworked TNBAR the better. The title track is nothing special. I like Venice Bitch, but let's face it--it's just a little smidgen of a lyric that JA added a long instrumental to. It's 9% Lana and 91% JA. If I had to vote for More JA on Lana's present and future records or Less, I'd definitely vote Less, which was proven to me by his absence on BB, with beautifully-recorded vocals on IYLDWM and VFR, and then the return to JA-murk on some of the OB tracks, especially LTLI, the same quality that ruined Cinnamon for me. I like the challenging aspects of Lana's music to be spread among all the songs on the given album, as it was for the most part on Paradise and LFL (which certainly had some weak/bad tracks). On NFR!, MAC, VB, Hope, and The Greatest were challenging, but the balance of the record was vapid. I don't care for California because I feel it's a retread, something that came too easily for her at that point in her career--for stans, it's usually obvious when an artist begins repeating themselves--as Lana has with TJF and Fishtail. For me, Sweet and the OB title song are other tracks that seem to have come too easily for her.

After her clear success at Stagecoach, I feel confident that Lana knows the direction of the album, which can only hasten its release.

Thanks, my friend. In a sense, it reminds me of the 19th-century song Old Dog Tray by Stephen Foster. Any song about a man, woman, or child and their dog is poignant due to the shortness of dogs' lives. In Old Dog Tray, the speaker is also remembering his beloved pet. The understated Mr. Bojangles is the saddest thing for so many reasons--including the racial aspects of the song--and I was struck by it the first time I heard it in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band version. I think Lana must like or love it if it's on her radar.

Angel from Montgomery lyrics, by John Prine, 1971. I know the song from the Bonnie Raitt cover. I am an old woman Named after my mother My old man is another Child that's grown old If dreams were thunder And lightnin' was desire This old house would've burnt down At a long time ago Make me an angel That flies from Montgomery Make me a poster Of an old rodeo Just give me one thing That I can hold on to To believe in this livin' Is just a hard way to go When I was a young girl Well, I had me a cowboy He weren't much to look at Just a free ramblin' man But that was a long time And no matter how I tried Those years just flow by Like a broken down dam Make me an angel That flies from Montgomery Make me a poster Of an old rodeo Just give me one thing That I can hold on to To believe in this livin' Is just a hard way to go There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em they're buzzin' And I ain't done nothin' since I woke up today How the hell can a person Go to work in the mornin' And come home in the evenin' And have nothin' to say Make me an angel That flies from Montgomery Make me a poster Of an old rodeo Just give me one thing That I can hold on to To believe in this livin' Is just a hard way to go To believe in this livin' Is just a hard way to go

Another cover song that would have been suitable for the Stagecoach show is Mr. Bojangles, especially the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band interpretation that became a radio standard in its era. It's set in New Orleans and seems in line with Lana's vision of what classics and standards are. While not as widely known today as Country Roads, it's poignant and something of a tearjerker.

Gorgeous track.

I've heard a lot of love songs written by some of the masters of the form, but Stars Fell On Alabama is one of the prettiest to my ears. I do hope the opening, as we heard it at Stagecoach, is actually a part of the recorded version.