Thea Gilmore!! If you like *smart* songwriting, give her a spin!

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mrjinks, May 14, 2015.

  1. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    Like many folks here, I'm a hardcore Beatles/Dylan fan - I like catchy, melodic music, but I also like lyrics with some thought/creativity, and those two hit the marks best for me.

    But, much as I may love Richard Thompson or Elvis Costello or Paul Weller, there is no question that #3 in my book belongs to the amazing Thea Gilmore. Now 35, she's been releasing albums since she was 18, and this week sees a sort-of career retrospective (her 15th full-length album) released. I say "sort of" because it has a number of brand-new songs, several remakes and only a handful of "old" studio recordings.

    Like any compilation covering a lengthy discography, I have my gripes with some of the inclusions. But, MY GOD, if you people that love lyrics haven't checked her out, this is a great opportunity to do so.

    Here's a remake off the new album of one of her trademark earlier songs. This one "rocks" a bit more than usual for her (although she's done harder stuff than this, too).

    I may be forced to bump this thread a time or two with other examples of her work, until at least a couple of you say "wow - I'd never heard her and she IS amazing!" :)

    She can also sing beautifully, but don't be fooled by that voice. As she says on the opening (new) track of this collection:
    I am the lightning looking for the earth
    and you are the copper, for what it's worth...
    A storm is coming, it'll be here any day
    Get ready to burn or get out of my way​

    Do yourself a favor, and check her out.

    EDIT: and if you happen to already be a fan, chime in with some comments to keep this thread alive - at least for a little bit!
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2015
  2. Miche

    Miche Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm, Sweden
    Agree!
    Excellent singer with an edge and well worth investigating.
    I have most of her albums. Highly recommended.
     
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  3. JAuz

    JAuz Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    Uncut kept putting her songs on their free monthly CD which is where I got exposure to her music. "Gun Cotton", "Mainstream", "Heart String Blues" and her very excellent cover of Dylan's "I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine" are some of what I initially heard from her.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2015
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  4. noyoucmon

    noyoucmon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I saw and heard of her in the British press for years, and never heard a tune until her great cover of the Clash's "I'm Not Down" appeared on a magazine giveaway disc. I excitedly ran out and got the two-disc version of Songs from the Gutter (which includes the Clash cover on the bonus disc) and I'm sad to say it went nowhere for me.
     
  5. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Rules For Jokers/Avalanche/Songs From The Gutter is one hell of a great 3 album run.
     
  6. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    Fair enough - I certainly had a completely different reaction to that disc obviously (well, disc one anyway. disc two is a collection of her very earliest - and weakest - bsides and unreleased music). I still find that album full of rich and intriguing lyrics and textures. I quite like this verse from the opening song - it's not like anything I hear anyone else doing!
    So I am going down to nowhere
    With the drop-outs and the bums
    I’m a soldier of the vacuum
    When the darkness comes
    I’m a vaudeville comedian
    In a theatre of bones
    And Its a laugh a minute
    When nowhere is your home
     
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  7. noyoucmon

    noyoucmon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    She's got a way with words, it's true. Perhaps I'll try another disc of hers. What would you say is her finest album?
     
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  8. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
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  9. arthurprecarious

    arthurprecarious Forum Resident

    Location:
    North East England
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  10. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    She released a complete cover album of Dylan's
    John Wesley Harding. I LOVE it!
    [​IMG]
     
  11. JAuz

    JAuz Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I was not aware of that, very cool!

    Amazon says that this was released in 2011. The cover of "St Augustine" that I heard was from 2002 I think. Did she re-record that track for this album? Or just the rest of the songs? Or maybe she'd recorded all of it years earlier?

    I'll have to check this out.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2015
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  12. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    I would start with her last album 'Regardless'. Of the early albums 'Rules For Jokers' is the best. Avalanche suffers from a rather uncharacteristic commercial production - though it was her highest charting album I believe. Would then go for the album of reworked Sandy Denny lyrics - 'Don't Stop Singing'.
     
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  13. noyoucmon

    noyoucmon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Thanks for the tips!
     
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  14. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    Thanks for the advice....Thea's name comes up quite a few times in my Music-mags, but I never really took the time to check her out! Nice melodies, fine voice, a nice catalogue to dive in by spotify the next few days.....
     
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  15. glewes

    glewes Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    A friend outside of Manchester introduced me to Thea Gilmore's music quite some time ago. For a time, he had to send me her albums as they appeared, because I could not find them here in the US. I think Thea is one of the finest singer/songwriters working in popular music today. In addition to her own albums, her reinterpretation of Dylan's JWH is stunning, and her work setting Sandy Denny's poetry to music is wonderful--she makes it a true collaboration between two fine artists, rather than a "what Sandy might have done" exercise. Her own work is never predictable, but always well thought out and literate. For example, check out her "Christmas" album and see what she does with THAT hoary tradition! Highly recommended!
     
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  16. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    Tough to say, as her style is constantly evolving. Her last album (Regardless) was her biggest success yet in the UK, but it had more "sheen" and less "bile" than her previous works, so it was less "my style". I believe she's been paring down her wordplay somewhat over the last couple years and polishing her sound a bit - which is not a trend I like - but her good stuff is still SOOO good (to me) that I felt the need to give her new album a plug here.

    I quite like disc one of the album you don't care for; it perhaps has her "rock"-iest songs. Most of her albums have a couple misfires on them, but I think that's a sign of an artist exploring, so I'm fine with that. Rules for Jokers and Avalanche have a lot of her earliest, best works. A battle with depression gave way to the lyrically and musically dark "Liejacker". From that disc, "Old Soul" is the first real example of her writing LESS, but it's wowed everyone I've ever played it for. That album also features "Roll On" which is a song that absolutely astounds me, with lyrics and performance:
    Get me some good cocaine, get me any feeling left
    Show me pretty little dancing girls with collars round their necks
    Get me God on the line, boys, and make that call collect
    ...
    So here's my tongue, here's my body, c'mon and take my soul away
    I got ‘em cheap in the market, they weren't worth much anyway
    And if you want to fix them up maybe I'll buy them back someday
    ‘Til then I'll roll, roll on...
    Murphy's Heart had a number of great songs with some new textures: horn arrangements on a few tracks, and the sort of subtle sophisticated sounds that latter-day Leonard Cohen might use elsewhere ("Coffee & Roses"). She wrote music for unfinished Sandy Denny lyrics after that (at the request of Denny's estate) and came up with a VERY polished record which in turn continued on to Regardless...
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2015
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  17. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    I'm extremely envious of you - I've never had a chance to see her live and she's been at the top of my "must-see" list for about a decade now. That was a fabulous review of her new album, btw!

    And here is that new album, "Ghosts & Graffiti", for those who might wanna check it out. There's a 20-track cd or a 25-track double LP, as well as digital versions of both the short and long version.
    [​IMG]
     
  18. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    She wanted to do something special for Bob's 70th birthday and decided to "finish" recording John Wesley Harding ("Augustine" is the same recording you already own). I started another long-lost thread on it here, and it's got Thea's press release in post #1, if you're interested.
     
  19. dino77

    dino77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    She never did anything for me, kind of a female Elvis Costello. Guess I don't like smart songwriting.
     
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  20. 1ifbyrain2ifbytrain

    1ifbyrain2ifbytrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    I wish Ms. Gilmore would tour the states! She did a free show at the Seaport in NYC maybe 10 years ago that I saw and got to meet her after the show. I don't think she has played here since.
     
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  21. JAuz

    JAuz Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    Ha, apparently we had this conversation 4 years ago in that thread! I must be getting old.

    The good news is that Amazon has this album up for free streaming to Prime members so I'm on it this time.
     
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  22. pghmusiclover

    pghmusiclover Senior Member

    Don't forget the album on which Thea set some lyrics of Sandy Denny to music, "Don't Stop Singing", which was quite lovely!

    http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Stop-Singing-Sandy-Denny/dp/B0057MFA60/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431640372&sr=8-1&keywords=thea gilmore don't stop singing

    Also very nice is Thea's holiday/seasonal album, "Strange Communion", which features a gorgeous version of Yoko Ono's "Listen The Snow Is Falling":



    I'll be picking up Thea's latest on vinyl -- which I believe is a first for her!
     
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  23. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    Well, I'd say "female Elvis Costello" is a very apt description of her, so you're onto something there. I see a lot of members here in multiple threads and get to feel like I know so-and-so might be an ideal candidate to explore her music, hence the thread. Maybe "smart songwriting" isn't the best way to phrase it, but for people who appreciate very LITERATE songwriters (Dylan, Cohen, Costello, Richard Thompson, John Hiatt, Graham Parker, James McMurtry, etc.), I think they should really spin a song or two. NOTE: a couple of these very writers (Springsteen & Richard Thompson) are also fans of hers.

    I'm looking at you @RayS, @Jerryb, @Sean Murdock, @Arnold Grove, @Bemagnus, @Joey Self, @Paul H and so on. I have a hard time believing you guys wouldn't be wow-ed by a number of her songs. You want cool lyrics? You get that. You want catchy melodies? She can do that. Do you like your female vocalists to have great voices? She can sing like an angel, but she can snarl like Chrissie Hynde, too. Simple acoustic, folky stuff? Ok. More, ornate, intricate arrangements? Done. I can happily provide examples. :)

    This is one of her brand-new songs, full of her typical turns of phrase.

    Is she "a vision or a can of worms"?
    She's "a dissenter and a doubter, and a thinker not a shouter"
    "...growing old disgracefully..."
    "...not good at going by the book..."
    she's "the thorn upon your precious rose"
    with "a heart of gold, but a vandal for a soul"


    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2015
  24. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Thanks for the heads up. I have Prime so I'm "spinning" it now.
     
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  25. mrjinks

    mrjinks Optimistically Challenged Thread Starter

    Location:
    Boise, ID.
    Well, as hardcore Dylan fans, I think most of us will agree with the old slogan that "no one sings Dylan like Dylan" (or whatever the exact quote is). To me, it's similar to the situation with Bob's Sinatra album - I prefer Frank's take on Frank to Bob's take on Frank. I think Thea's covers are excellent (particularly her versions of Springsteen's "Cover Me" and Fogerty's "Bad Moon Rising", which are more like re-inventions than "covers"). But I'm happy to get you listening to her in whatever fashion is necessary.

    I just think you (and a few others), might appreciate her OWN artistic output (along with her sometimes outspoken societal views) even more than her covers of His Bobness. There's a lot of good stuff to discover there.
     

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