When You Walk it Makes No Sound

 

Waiting with you at the railway station
Moonlight filling the gaps in our conversation
Wondering when the next train comes
Late night on the platform we were the only ones

You said this place has had enough of you
That we should get on the next train and ride the whole night through
You wrote a letter to your lover
Left it on the fireplace for her to discover

And as you told me this I looked at you
And I could see I'd better stay with you
So I'll stay with you

When you walk it makes no sound
But I traced your footsteps on the ground
Out to a cabin by the trees
You let me in and we shot the breeze

You said you still don't have your head on straight

That we should get out of here if it's not too late
You lit a burner on the stove
You left it burning and off we drove

And as I watched you drive I thought to myself
That I should give you what I bought for myself
So I'll give it to you
Yeah, I'll give it to you

You stood still in the desert wind
You held a hand out for a friend
And then the sun slipped away
I saw you smile and try to say

That you won't always need me by your side
That when the night comes there'll be no need to hide
I knew just what you planned to do
So I took one last look at you

You know your image it still stands on my shelf
You know I always loved you more than myself
Though I couldn't show it
No, I never knew how to show it
I guess it's a little too late to show it
When you walk it makes no sound
But I'll trace your footsteps on the ground

Maggie Bell

This WayBack Wednsesday offering comes from the 1974 release, Queen of the Night, Maggie Bell's first solo effort after her stint with Stone the Crows. Hailing from Glascow, her vocal prowess was often compared to Janis Joplin.

A Woman Left Lonely


"From a musical family, she sang from her teenage years, leaving school at the age of fifteen, to work as a window dresser by day and singer at night. Bell was introduced to Leslie Harvey, by his older brother Alex, after getting up on stage to sing with him (Alex). Leslie Harvey was, at that time, a guitarist with the Kinning Park Ramblers. Bell joined the group as one of the vocalists. After the band split up, Bell moved to the Mecca Band at the Sauchiehall Street Locarno, and later to the Dennistoun Palais Band.

She then rejoined Harvey, forming a group, initially known as Power, eventually travelling to Germany to sing on United States Air Force bases in the mid 1960s. Peter Grant, who was managing The Yardbirds at the time, spotted Power playing at one of these bases, and agreed to produce and manage them, impressed by the vocal ability of Bell and the guitar playing of Harvey. Power was renamed as Stone the Crows, an expression used by Grant upon hearing this band.

This group lasted until 1973, finding that Harvey's death from accidental electrocution, on 2 May 1972, took too much out of the group for them to continue. The live chemistry between Bell and Harvey was missing. Peter Grant remained as Bell's manager after the split, and organised her first solo album, Queen of the Night, which was recorded in New York with record producer Jerry Wexler.

Although critically feted in the U.K., Maggie Bell never quite achieved the commercial breakthrough everyone had so expected -- always a bridesmaid, never a bride."
-Wiki

From the Archives:
Maggie Bell stretches John Prine´s "Souvenirs" to the max with Steve Gadd ably assisting by splashing the drums as deep as Bell's vocals. Her up-tempo version of J.J. Cale´s "After Midnight" is more captivating than Eric Clapton´s; she oozes that Etta James sexuality while Reggie Young throws some tasty guitar into the semi-calypso groove.

Souvenirs


After Midnight


Queen of the Night

 Bell's identity is unique on much of the material, but a couple of tunes have her paying tribute to some of her sisters. The title track, "Queen of the Night," is drenched in gorgeous harmonies by The Sweet Inspirations and is pure Genya Ravan, but conversely, the cover of "A Woman Left Lonely,"(HEARD ABOVE) embraced totally by Janis Joplin on "Pearl", is a sweet vocal and totally alien to how Joplin ripped the song to shreds so wonderfully. It works on an entirely different level on "Queen of the Night" -- Bell's voice is an instrument that slips into different styles on a moment's notice. She takes the fun but silly RingStarr/Vini Ponica number five hit from the same year and gives it some style, then turns around with Deadric Malone´s "As the Years Go Passing By" and delivers another brand of quality sound. Cornell Dupree's fabulous guitar leads cook in the background -- the frosting on the cake for "As the Years Go Passing By." Intense and beautiful, it is the real sleeper here.

As the Years Go Passing By


 While Merry Clayton was singing back-up on Ringo Starr´s "Oh My My" and ex- Black Oak Arkansas Ruby Starr would track Paul McCartney´s "Maybe I'm Amazed," Bell broke through her Stone The Crows image to cover a range of ideas, giving even David Clayton Thomas some respectability, taking his original "Yesterday's Music" to new heights with a Bonnie Bramlett-style touch of gospel. From Will Jennings to Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen, Bell's Queen of the Night is a stunningly marvelous mix of blues, pop, soul, and Southern rock. "We Had It All" builds with a smoldering tension that gives Bell a platform for her inspired phrasings. Sager must've been over the top when she first heard this version of "The Other Side." This is music straight from the heart, which concludes with "Trade Winds," piano, drums, and Bell's voice tapering off like the end of a great set at some intimate nightclub.

Trade Winds

Steve Earle

I remember holdin' on to you
All them long and lonely nights
I put you through
Somewhere in there I'm sure I made you cry
But I can't remember if we said goodbye
But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico
One place I may never go in my life again
Was I just off somewhere or just too high
But I can't remember if we said goodbye
I only miss you every now and then
Like the soft breeze blowin up from the Carribean
Most Novembers I break down and cry
'cause I can't remember if we said goodbye
But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico
One place I will never go in my life again
Was I just off somewhere or may be just too high
But I can't remember if we said goodbye
No I can't remember if we said goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye

Eleanor McEvoy

In a world where the word star and the gift of talent are often devalued, Eleanor McEvoy is neither an overnight success nor a four week wonder. A musician and songwriter of note, the real deal, possessing all of the qualities that go to make up the complete artist.

Her career began at the age of four when she took piano lessons, taking up violin at the age of eight. Upon finishing school she attended Trinity College in Dublin where she studied music by day and worked in pit orchestras and music clubs by night.
Eleanor graduated from Trinity and was accepted into the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland where she worked four years before finally taking the plunge to concentrate on her passion for songwriting.

After a long hard slog, the girl who spent the year of 1988 busking in Union Square, New York had come a long way, a route that took her through the disciplines of classical music, Irish traditional music and contemporary music to a point where she finally found success in 1992.
It happened when one of her songs "Only a Woman's Heart" inspired the title for, and appeared on, the "A Woman's Heart" anthology album. It has since gone on to become the best selling album in Irish history, staying in the Irish Top 10 for over a year.
Since then Eleanor has gone on to become an artist and performer known throughout the world. Her critically acclaimed canon of work spans six albums, several singles and appearances on numerous compilation albums and is today recognised as Ireland's most successful female singer songwriter having enjoyed personal chart success and numerous cover versions of her songs. (Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, Phil Coulter, amongst others). Her song "All I Have" features in the lastest series of the HBO cult series "Six Feet Under"

Her co-writing song credits have seen her published with fellow writers and performers such as Rodney Crowell, Lloyd Cole, Johnny Rivers, Brad Parker, Henry Priestman and Dave Rotheray. The new album "Out There" takes a hard look at the precarious nature of our new wealthy world as well as throwing new light on the idiosyncrasies of love and life. The songs are fresh, the tunes infectious, the lyrics wry and witty and the playing gorgeous. "Out There" features 12 brand new Eleanor McEvoy compositions, plus a co-write with The Beautiful South's Dave Rotheray and an interpretation of Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me."

 

RIP Turner Stephen Bruton

Stephen Bruton, a Texas musician long admired and much in demand as much for his astute guitar work as for his insights as a songwriter, died Saturday May 10, 2009 in Los Angeles of complications of cancer. He was 60.

Bruton, who had played with Kris Kristofferson for nearly 40 years and whose songs had been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Buffett and numerous others, died at the home of a friend since childhood, musician-producer T Bone Burnett, with whom he'd recently completed work on a film, "Crazy Heart," that Burnett is producing and for which he asked Bruton to produce the music.

Hope

 "A hope with no cognitive content is not a hope but a sententious cipher. There is no hope which is not also in part a memory."
               -Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno

A Place Where We Used To Live

The Ragpicker's Dream is Mark Knopfler's third solo album (after Golden Heart and Sailing to Philadelphia), released in 2002

A Place Where We Used To Live

This empty kitchen's where

I'd while away the hours

Just next to my old chair

You'd usually have some flowers

The shelves of books

Even the picture hooks

Everything is gone

But my heart is hanging on

If this old neighbourhood

Survived us both alright

Don't know that it withstood

All the things that took our light

You on the stair

I can see you there

Everything is gone

But my heart is hanging on

Once there was a little girl

Used to wonder what she would be

Went out into the big wide world

Now she's just a memory

There used to be a little school here

Where I learned to write my name

But time has been a little cruel here

Time has no shame

It's just a place where

We used to live

It's just a place where

We used to live

Now in another town

You lead another life

And now upstairs and down

You're someone else's wife

Here in the dust

There's not a trace of us

Everything is gone

But my heart is hanging on

It's just a place where

We used to live

It's just a place where

We used to live