Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Greg Brown performing "Lately"
CD Review
One More Goodnight Kiss, Greg Brown, Red House Records, 1988
Revised December 19, 2008
The first two paragraphs have been used in other reviews of folk musician/singer/songwriter Greg Brown’s work.
Greg Brown is a particular kind of folk singer who before I listened to his “Greg Brown-The Live One ” album reviewed elsewhere in this space I had not really paid attention to since the days of my early youth when I listened intently to Woody Guthrie whose songs were seemingly forged from the very heart of Americana. As a child of the urban folk revival of the 1960’s I got caught up in listening to the more political message songs provided by the likes of Bob Dylan or Phil Ochs. As a poet/singer/songwriter Greg has come out of the heartland of America, like Woody, in a fury to write and sing his tales of love, remembrance, tragedy, desperation and, on occasion, just pure whimsy. He is thus in very good company, and belongs there.
His songs evoke, under more modern conditions to be sure, the days gone by when the community spirit of small town life meant something. A strong bass voice grainy with the trials and tribulations of life lend authenticity to his words, as does strong guitar playing when necessary. Needless to say the variety of topics covered in his songs speak for themselves from Grandma's food cellars to vanishing Iowa family farms to sweaty nights of lovemaking entwined with the up and down battles of love and, of course, the ubiquitous bouts of fishing that gain more than a nod in his albums.
Outstanding here are the songs of childhood remembrance like “Say A Little Prayer” and “Walking Down To Casey”. The struggle just to survive that I can, although a mere city boy, relate to in “Cheapest Kind”. The ode to everyone’s grandmother, city or country, farm or tenement, in “Canned Goods”. Can’t you just smell Grandma’s cooking as you listen , if only as an alternative to the routine at home. As a bonus the eerily beautiful lyrical poetry in song of “I Wish I Were A Painter” makes me wish that I could put some lyrics like those together, once.
I Wish I Was a Painter
lyrics by Ella Mae Brown
In these hills is every color,
every one but one or two.
If I knew how to paint pictures,
just think of what I could do.
[chorus:]
I wish I was a painter,
and could mix red, green and blue.
Oh, I wish I was a painter--
I'd paint a picture for you.
Blue sky is such a companion,
if you had some to hang on your wall,
then could you ever be sorry,
when night came nightly at all?
[repeat chorus]
And the seasons turning colors,
if I could paint Summer for you,
then in the deep of the Winter,
you could have some Summer too.
[repeat chorus]
Here in the hills of the Ozarks,
I've seen almost every hue.
And I just wish I could catch them,
I'd turn your wall into a view.
[repeat chorus]
Canned Goods
Well let the wild winter wind bellow and blow
I'm as warm as a July tomato
[chorus:]
There's peaches on the shelf, potatoes in the bin
Supper ready, everybody come on in
Taste a little of the summer
Taste a little of the summer
Taste a little of the summer
Grandma put it all in jars
Well there's a root cellar, fruit cellar down below
Watch your head now, and down we go
[repeat chorus]
Well maybe you are weary and you don't give a damn
I bet you never tasted her blackberry jam
[repeat chorus]
Oh she got magic in her, you know what I mean
She puts the sun and rain in with her beans
[repeat chorus]
What with the snow and the economy and everything
I think I'll just stay down here and eat until spring
[repeat chorus]
When I go down to see Grandma, I gain a lot a weight
With her dear hands she gives me plate after plate
She cans the pickles, sweet and dill
And the songs of the whip-or-will and the morning dew and the evening moon
I really gotta go down and see her soon
Cause the canned goods that I buy at the store
Ain't got the summer in em anymore
You bet Grandma as sure as you're born I'll take some more potatoes and
a thunder storm
[repeat chorus]
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