After a week of songs about particular places in the northeastern US, we end the week with a short post about a song whose only place is in the heart. “More Hearts than Mine” is by Michigan born singer-songwriter Ingrid Andress, and because I really like his cover, we’ll have a bonus track today from honey-voiced Elliot Duke who’s web presence doesn’t make it immediately clear where he hails from.
I think he definitely deserves much more attention, though. Dang, here’s a link to his single out last year called “Movin’ On.” Check it out. Give him views and listens. Buy something from the guy if you can and keep his music going. Let’s make this guy famous.
For her part, Andress has been nominated for four Grammy awards so far and has put out two albums. Today’s single was released in 2019 for her 2020 album Lady Like. Her second album, Good Person came out in 2022, and her single “Wishful Drinking” hit number five on the Billboard Country Airplay Chart. And I don’t often say this, but she’s got a really cool website.
To show how one song can hit beautifully in different ways, here’s Duke’s moving acoustic cover followed by the original video from 2019 that tells the story so gorgeously in its own right. Sorry for ending the week on a tear jerker, but it’s such a good cry and worth every second. Here’s “More Hearts than Mine.”
Okay, so it’s not like he was there with me, just his music and a little park and boat ramp in Cold Spring Harbor that was named after him. And now I’ve had Billy Joel New York songs on my mind all weekend.
Here’s the story: Brian had a card tournament on Long Island on Saturday, our pup Eliot and I tagged along thinking we could do some sightseeing while he played. Even though I did some research beforehand, I gotta tell you, it’s not as easy as it used to be to just, as the Indigo Girls say, “Get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down,” and reviews online can be deceiving.
First of all, and this part I knew, most New York state parks do not allow dogs, but even Sunken Meadow State Park is confusing on the issue. Online it says that they are allowed on back trails only, not on the beach. Cool. I would have liked the shade, but when you pull up, the signs clearly say no dogs. Period. Only after getting home did I discover that one of the places I had thought of going to, Sagamore Hills, turned out to be one that allows dogs. Ah well, next time.
Cold Spring Harbor is a lovely little village, though I could never afford to live there. Eliot and I had a delicious breakfast at a shady sidewalk cafe (see above photo), and there’s a little beach there that allows dogs on leash. You just don’t want to park there without a permit. Because I am my father’s son, we parked for free by the woods just up the road where there were some very well tended and shady trails. Eliot did not like the water at the beach though, as he’s used to the river, and he kept barking at a piece of driftwood and wouldn’t get his feet wet.
When I saw it on the map, I was thinking, “Cold Spring Harbor, doesn’t Billy Joel have a song that mentions Cold Spring Harbor?” Well, turns out he does. It’s on his first studio album called, Cold Spring Harbor and was released in 1971. The album didn’t really pick up in popularity though until 1973 with the release of “Piano Man.”
For a Two-for-Tuesday feature, it seemed like “New York State of Mind” would be a no-brainer, but since we only drove through the city to get to Long Island, how about for our second song we play a tune that I played for Brian on the drive out? It’s one of my favorites and I think it’s highly underrated, only hitting number 57 on the top billboard 10. It’s called “Downeaster Alexa,” and it’s from his 11th studio album.
“Is that the name of a boat?” Brian asked. Yup, a downeaster is a style of fishing boat made for efficiency and safety at sea. And while this song is a fictional account of a fisherman trying to make a living, it’s inspired by the name of Billy Joel’s boat, which is named after his daughter Alexa.
First, a live recording of the Cold Spring Harbor tune, “Everybody Loves You Now.” And then from his 1989 album Stormfront, the song “Downeaster Alexa.” I think it’s important to note that three years after the release of Stormfront, Joel was cited for participating in a protest in support of local fishermen. I realize it’s a controversial issue regarding the preservation of striped bass, but it’s also about how hard it is for the working class to live in an area that has been overly gentrified.
How does one explain the Mountain Goats to someone who has never heard the band? Well, first off, it’s not so much a band as one guy who just as frequently performs solo as he collaborates with other musicians. While band members change from time to time, John Darnielle remains the core member.
Second, the band’s style has evolved from home-grown music, sometimes recorded on a boom box to more polished studio work. Yet, their songs and music still have an essence of authenticity that is just probably not what you expect. There is a well practiced rawness, as contradictory as that may sound, and a lot of painfully honest lyrics that include the open sharing of feelings and thoughts in which the character in a song will “say the quiet part out loud.” While the effect may cause you to gasp, the gasp is just as likely to be followed by a sense of relief—like, I am so glad someone said it!
His lyrics can take me from cheers to tears. But results may vary for you. The important thing may be to let it speak to your gut without taking it too literally. Darnielle is sometimes an unreliable narrator and other times shockingly honest, but the voice, the man himself, never makes you feel like he is truly dangerous. To me, his work is art, even when it’s just play.
The best way to show you what the Mountain Goats are like is to just play you some music. It was hard to choose, but here are three that I like a great deal. Probably my favorite album is from 2005, Sunset Tree. In 2014, the Walking Dead TV show famously used the song “Up the Wolves” in its show. I never saw it. I just can’t do zombies.
Below, from that same album is a live version of “This Year” from that same album. I wasn’t going to play the original music video, but I have to. It’s just too iconic, too much a product of its time not to share. But trigger warning, it’s wild and weird with a little fake blood and completely non-real kidnapping.
The second song from the 2002 album Tallahassee is called “No Children” and is beloved by both me and my former wife—don’t worry, we actually are really good friends. No, seriously, we’re cool.
And finally, an unreleased song that John usually performs live. It was written around 2010 about a real person, and it’s called “You Were Cool.” In one concert sometime ago, he said since a lot of people ask, the person the song is about is doing really well. I hope that’s still true.
It’s Brian’s birthday today and last night he said that he couldn’t believe he was going to be xx years old for only a few more hours. I was stunned and had to stop to do the math for a moment— thought he was a year younger! Already everyone thinks he’s much younger than he is. Old friends see his photos and comment on how my sons have grown. That’s him, holding our youngest and floofiest family member, Eliot.
Since Brian didn’t specify which Jewel song would make him happiest today, I picked one from the 90’s and one from 2010. Her debut studio album, Pieces of You, wowed the world in 1995 and featured “You Were Meant for Me” as its second single. It’s the same album that featured “Foolish Games” and “Who Will Save your Soul.”
Her second album, Spirit, came out in 1998 and had one of my favorite songs, “Hands,” but since that one has been much parodied over the years, and sometimes delightfully so, I thought we’d skip ahead into a country album of hers that I really wasn’t that familiar with. It’s called Sweet and Wild, and so my own personal dedication to Brian is the video below called “Satisfied.”
If you see Brian, in person or on the socials today, wish the young man a happy birthday.
Mondays are hard. Even if, like me, you went into work for a few hours yesterday, it’s still not as bad as Monday. Even if, like me, your two Sunday hours consisted of lugging into a hallway storage area an entire deconstructed 19-hole mini-golf course, which is bigger than it the word “mini” makes that sound, today is still the official Monday. And there is so much to do, so many moving parts to the week ahead.
That brings us to today’s song and video from 2014. While the lyrics to OK Go’s “I Won’t Let You Down” are not exactly many or complex, the tune is peppy and fun, and the video itself is frankly astonishing. Recorded in Japan before it was illegal to fly a drone half a mile into the sky, this video has a lot going on. The whole thing took something like 50 or 60 takes to record it all in one cut, so says The Independent.
The band is known for their complex video releases and has been in the public eye since their appearance on the MTV Music Awards in 2006. They are also known for dropping their label and going independent (with corporate sponsors) and for a recent battle with Post, the company that makes cereal. Yup, seriously.
Take five minutes of your Monday to get this song in your head. Watch the video so you can be wowed, and smile. The documentary video about the making of the video is fun to watch too, so I’ll add that for you to watch if you have time later. We’ll get to Tuesday soon enough. Hang in there!
Maybe all you need is someone to trust Maybe all you need is someone
Jeff's Song of the Day 