Gaby Moreno: “Dance The Night Away”
Converts can be zealous pains in the tuchus, and I cop fully to being said zealot when it comes to Gaby Moreno’s music. I first heard her on an album she made with Ted-favorite Van Dyke Parks back in 2019, “¡Spangled!,” replete with his characteristic rococo arrangements and expansive definition of Americana. You should listen. And then, one year ago, she was the opening act for Los Lobos at a show here in Tucson. Three songs in to her set, she unleashed her take on Lee Hazelwood’s “Your Sweet Love” (“Dulce Amor”) and I was hooked. Simple, expressive lines that sing the note itself rather than the seven or eight around it for one of those “vocal runs” that get the coaches all atwitter on “The Voice” or “American Idol.” No trendy affectations. And she’s a stellar guitarist to boot.
As is my lifelong practice, when I hear one song from an artist who turns my brain upside down, I need to hear them all. I was stunned to find her catalog stretching back nearly two decades, all categorized on iTunes under the genre of Latin Pop. Yes, she’s a native of Guatemala, but her music – while hewing beautifully to her heritage – stretches beyond borders. There are traditional albums, there are albums from a close-harmony Andrews Sisters-type trio called “The SongBirds.” Movie and television spotlights. Her record-making prowess, for me, is right up there with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Lindsey Buckingham, Kate Bush. Artists who do what moves them rather than what shifts units.
In that just world that exists only in our musical minds, Gaby Moreno’s new album, Dusk, should propel her to the top of every chart everywhere, genre be damned. It’s a shining example of performance and production, right down to its careful sequencing. She chose to close the album with a single from late last year, “Dance The Night Away,” a song whose title suggests cliché but whose execution moves into the realm of something new, exciting, and beautiful. The whole album is like that. There’s a Dylan cover. There’s some Stax soul. Do not pass this by.
Gaby Moreno won a Grammy award a few weeks ago. I didn’t watch the show, so I don’t know if they broadcast this performance, but take a few minutes and watch it. You'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
Crowded House “Oh Hi”
My friends know of my love for Crowded House and, frankly, for all things Neil Finn. I wrote last year in this very space of the decision Angie and I made to add another 500 miles to our cross-country drive to see the band in Boston, a show in which the brand-new “Oh Hi” was a highlight.
It's now the first single from an album due on May 31, and I love it. Like the best of songs, it’s open for interpretation as the listener sees fit. And its opening salvo, “Every child is a mystic, having visions of a new dawn,” brings me great joy. He doesn’t limit that vision to children, though; the song reminds everyone that the same light is in your head.
I love the single, but prefer this version from a couple weeks back on BBC Radio 2. Here’s a guy who has been making music professionally for nearly 50 years, and the look of artistic joy on his face at 1:27 reminds me that there are, indeed, artists (like Gaby Moreno) making music for the art. Neil Finn has long followed his own path. He’s a favorite.
Joe Jackson “What A Racket”
Speaking of artists who do what they want … well, here’s Joe Jackson. He brought Louis Prima and jive back to our attention decades before Brian Setzer and the great Jive Revival Scare of the late 1990s and, here, he shares his 2024 take on the British Music Hall scene of the late 19th Century. Because he can.
In between, his catalog has taken us everywhere from new age to new wave (whatever either of those were), a little Cole Porter pop, and occasional stabs at boffin jazz. He revisits his catalog in ways that the audience doesn’t suspect (power trio, solo, however he wants it) and, this year, he’s touring his music hall project by playing one set of his hits solo and following it with music from Max Champion. We’ve got tickets to see the show in June, and I can’t wait.
Rod Stewart and Jools Holland “Almost Like Being In Love”
I last bought a Rod Stewart album at age 15 when I picked up a copy of “Every Picture Tells A Story.” And when he did those Great American Songbook albums, I scoffed my snooty music snob scoff and said, “That’ll never do.” But it did to the tune of millions in album sales.
I like to imagine the look on the suits at his record company, then, when he said, “Hey fellas, I’m doing another one of those standards records, but this one is with Jools Holland and his Orchestra.” Jools is awesome, and knowing they pretty much cut this live in the studio rather than laboring over it for months brought me enough joy to plunk down the cash necessary to buy this one. Plus, drummer Gilson Lavis, who was in Squeeze along with Jools back in the day, is one of the world’s most underrated. He’s a monster player, and this band brings out the very best in Rod Stewart circa 2024. A keeper.
Here's a four-song playlist for you (with a couple bonus tracks). Go farther than this.