John Baizly & Katie Jones “If I Needed You” (2013) I didn't know what to think when this came up in the suggested tracks on YouTube. Baizley's main gig is Baroness - one of those big production heavy metal/prog bands. Some call them cutting edge. If that’s the case, they’re over my head.
“If I Needed You” is one of those great Townes Van Zandt songs that come out of a deceptively simple melody, relying more on emotional connection than virtuoso songwriting and playing skills. “How on earth is this guy going to pull THAT off?” is the first thought that came to mind. Curiosity can lead you to some unusual places.
It's nothing like Baroness. It's not even a straight Texas troubadour approach – one of those out-of-genre exercises that some artists and producers like to engage in to prove the artist’s “flexibility.” No, it wasn’t any of that.
Where Van Zandt’s version is sung in the here & now, this version conjures up a romance from the past. The contract has been surrendered – a bond that threatens to fade and never quite does. And then it finally does, but you know it will be back. Baizley & Jones’ version of “If I Needed You” rolls in like an Appalachian fog and leaves like a vanishing UFO. I dig it.
Brandi Carlile “The Joke” (2017) This one deserves attention for a lot more reasons than being one of Paul Buckmasters last arrangement projects. [Buckmaster died this week]. That isn’t to downplay Buckmaster’s role. The orchestration is astonishing – maybe one of Buckmaster’s best.
“The Joke” is the first single from Carlile’s new album, By The Way, I Forgive You. [Scheduled for release tomorrow.] It’s a BIG song – big production, big vocals, big emotion, big story. The kind of record that usually overplays the drama at the expense of everything else. The kind of song contestants will be singing on those godawful TV competitions with disastrous results for years to come. But the drama quotient on “The Joke,” boosted and pulled back at all the right moments by Buckmaster, is devastatingly good in the hands of a vocalist as supremely talented as Carlile. AND – it’s a great and honest song. It’s also a tough song. Street tough. No whining. Just the facts, sir. Listen up.
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