4-Track Cover | "Lua" by Bright Eyes

I remember there was a CD compilation from the organization Red Hot that was called Dark Was the Night. It had all of the 2000s indie heavy hitters on it. It was honestly an introduction to a lot of songs that would introduce me to some of my favorite songwriters. And there was a version of Bright Eyes’ “Lua” on it that had Conor Oberst — but it also had Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. And I love that song, and it loved that specific version of that song.

So, this week I recorded a little version of it that’s inspired by Gillian and Dave’s interpretation, using a tuning that I found from The Tallest Man on Earth. So, if that sounds interesting to you, you can watch/listen to it here in full.

I love this song. Hope you’re doing ok.

Sam

notes in gratitude to The Tallest Man 
on Earth (and a cover video)

I got most of the music that I love on a USB flash drive inside of a bubble mailer via USPS from Michigan to Ohio from my cousin Rob. I think this is how I got exposed to The Tallest Man on Earth in middle school or early high school. But memories can be fuzzy. All I know is that I fell in love with the songs on his early records at an impressionable age. I remember sharing them and Ezra Furman’s with my mom, and her response being something along the lines of, “the songs are nice, but that voice is not for me”.

The songs were for me. And the voice was too. Not because I loved the voice, but because it was emphatically and confidently his own voice, like a welcome mat into this art that knew that it wouldn’t be for everyone in the world — but anyone making art with the illusion that it is for everyone in the world is a bit deluded. For the kid that I was, slowing figuring out how my own voice sounded, it was a gift.

His playing was a gift as well. I learned his songs when I started to push myself playing guitar in high school. Trying out wacky tunings, practicing my fingerpicking while watching TV shows, and breaking way too many strings. Many of our songs are written in a D9 / DADEAD tuning that I learned “Like the Wheel” on. It feels more like home than standard ever did.

I am driving to Louisville to see him play tonight. I’ll enjoy soaking things in and appreciating songs. I covered his “Fields of Our Home” for this week exercise. After some hours together, I think I understand what it’s saying a bit more. But I arranged it a bit differently on standard and slowed it down a bit, added a bit of organ and mellotron and a kiss of backing vocals. I hope you enjoy it.

Be well,

Sam


a few thoughts on ”sun in an empty room” by the weakerthans (and a cover video)

“The things we need to say
Have been said already anyway
By parallelograms of light
On walls that we repainted white”

I met my bandmates in a mid-sized midwestern city by going to an open-mic near the campus of the state school that essentially drives our local economy through some combination of football and healthcare. I learned how to share songs and listen well, talk too much and settle down, and make a few friends. Jason was the host at the time, never far from a glass of red wine, and traditionally starting off the night with some fingerpicked folk. He played a Weakerthans cover somewhat often which took me probably over a year to figure out wasn’t his own song. It was just a gorgeous song that he played beautifully.

I found other songs by The Weakerthans after I got used to them sounding closer to The Hold Steady than Sufjan Stevens, which is sort of how it sounded when Jason played them (again, beautifully). This one always struck me. At a time when I and my friends were orbiting around campus from dorm to apartment to duplex in all sorts of roommate arrangements, I found some peace in packing my things into boxes, knowing that everything that I had could be distilled into something concrete. And the rooms left behind were sad but lovely. I always imagined that I had to say goodbye to songs that were left in that room that never got written, but hoped that other people might move in, find them, write them, and bring them to the world.

The song shares a title with an Edward Hopper painting from 1963. It’s an oil painting of sunlight hitting the walls and floors after streaming through a window. There aren’t any characters or people in it, but the light fills up the space. It makes me feel like I’m in my early twenties, starting to think I could figure it out some day. Maybe I would have time once I moved into the next 9-12 month lease.

I’m sharing a cover of this song this week from my orange couch, but I also cut a video using Hopper’s artwork paired with the song. I hope it finds you well.

Sam + Hello Emerson

4-Track Cover | "Like the Wheel" by The Tallest Man on Earth

Summer is difficult for me for some reason. Something about all of the social activities and the long days make life feel impossible to keep up with. I am more of a fall and winter person. I am more comfortable in that slowness. Nevertheless, the garden grows and the outdoor shows keep humming along.

When I feel like this, songs are a source of comfort and strength. So, I recorded this version of one of my favorite Tallest Man on Earth songs. I remember learning this song early in my guitar-playing. It’s in an open D9 tuning (DADEAD) that I’ve since used to write about a third of my released songs. It’s special to me - both the tuning and this song in particular. Enjoy.

Also, we play Rumba Cafe in Columbus, Ohio this Wednesday night with Eliza Edens and October Ember. Come hang for beautiful songs. Grab tickets here to save a few bucks.

Best wishes to your summer,

Sam

Upcoming Shows

4-Track Cover | "Nowhere" by Charlotte Cornfield

I love Charlotte Cornfield. I found her first through her 2019 record The Shape of Your Name after discovering that Leif Vollbekk (who you should also listen to) played on the record. She paints scenes in her songs that feel so comfortable and lived in, with arrangements that seem to make room for the listener to fill in the details, rather than forcing the listener to see things exactly the way that the producer/songwriter/artist wants them to be seen. I love that. She made this record with Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman; it’s a match made in heaven. Apparently heaven is in Canada.

Anyway, I’m hoping and wishing for her to play Columbus because she puts out songs that hit me the same way that Ezra Furman’s songs hit me in middle school. The blissful and bewildering reaction of, “Oh my gosh… you can write a song like that? That’s allowed too?” Her songs put me back in that stage of wonder and lights a fire under my bum to get back to the drafting table.

Hope you enjoy this little bit from the record recorded with Dan, our percussionist and music director at the tail end of a band meeting a little while ago.

Our song found its way into a NYT bestseller!

Tl;dr — Our song, “Seat 16b” found its way into a NYT bestseller. I covered this Mountain Goats song in gratitude. Go read Maggie Smith’s new book.

I read Maggie Smith’s “You Could Make This Place Beautiful” about two weeks ago. I sat with it, and it sat with me. She’s a Columbus writer, and I’ve loved her writing for years. I got to meet her at the release show for our second record, just before covid hit.

In her new book, she mentions our song, “Seat 16b” as part of a playlist that her daughter made for her son of his favorite songs. I remember them all coming to an outside show post-covid, and talking to her son after. We played his favorite song last; what a relief that it was on the setlist at all!

Thanks, Maggie. Thanks for continuing to make space to keep writing, moving, and living. I’m flattered your son is a fan, and touched that your daughter put us on his playlist. And entirely humbled to find our band printed in such a gorgeous book.

I’d recommend buying a copy, or borrowing one from the library, reading it all, and finding us on page 297.

But Sam, why cover this Mountain Goats song?

In the book, she mentioned writing a tweet during the events of the book: “Photo essay that won't happen: Divorced woman drives her rumpled c. 2005 wedding dress across the country and takes photos of it in various locations. It's a metaphorical "Weekend at Bernie's" sans stapled-on toupee and sunglasses, because the dead thing is the marriage.”

John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats picked this up by tweeting, “this would be a song called "Picture of My Dress" imo.” Then, he wrote and recorded it.

So, two weeks ago, I sat in my orange chair, reading this amazing book by a favorite writer, learning that her writing inspired a favorite songwriter to write a song. I suppose inspiration is an endless cycle if we’re willing to kick the ball along when it comes to us.

Here’s to kicking it along.

4-Track Cover | "Hide" by The Cordial Sins

The Cordial Sins just put out their debut album called Small Talk.

It is good! I recorded a cover of one of the songs, called “Hide.” You can watch it below.

Support their crowdfunding campaign!

They are running a pre-order sale to press their new record on vinyl. I love pressing things on vinyl, and I’ve already made my pre-order. I think you should do that to. Click this link to learn more, or go to www.thecordialsins.com.

4-Track Cover | "I Needed You" by Eliza Edens

A cover of "I Needed You" by Eliza Edens on my Zoom recorder's 4-track setting featuring several barbers giving the neighbor's roof a haircut.

See Eliza Edens and our band at Rambling House in Columbus on Friday 2/24 at 9p. Buy tickets here.

----lyrics

I want a simple house, simple man

Dancing in the wilderness

Never mind what I might find down the road again

Little car, dotted line

Are you passing through to another time?

Never know which one of us will bend

Wasn’t kind of you, wasn’t always true when

I needed you

Your flannel shirt, your calming words

I needed you

City lights, country nights

Playing pool and tossing dice

Never know who’s arms I’ll lay in

Coffee cup, wish me luck

Circle through the redux

Never know what cycle I’m spinnin’

Wasn’t kind of you, wasn’t always true when

I needed you

How cruel to be, this kind of free when

I needed you

Big heart, highway mind

Rock ‘n roll baby turn the dial

Never know what song I’m singin’

I’m a simple person with a simple truth

I want a simple way to love you but I

Never seem to know which way’s the wind

Wasn’t kind of you, wasn’t always true when

I needed you

Your soft t-shirt, your calm embrace

I needed you

I needed you