This Was a Pizza Hut, Now It's All Covered With Daisies: 5 Songs About Flowers

This week's songs are from Louis Armstrong, Hiss Golden Messenger, Kelly Hogan, Andrew Sa, and Tweedy

RIP James Gadson - Bill Withers - “Use Me”

James Gadson started his career as a member of pick-up bands for the likes of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding when they came through Kansas City. He would go on to play on major disco hits (“I Will Survive,” “Baby Don’t Leave Me This Way”), and ultimately was an in-demand player for the likes of Justin Timberlake, Harry Styles, and D’Angelo. On sheer coincidence, he plays on one of this week’s selected songs. But my personal favorite of his credits is on Beck’s “Paper Tiger,” which I’ve previously written about. But here is his magic on Bill Withers’ “Use Me,” where it sounds like all 4 of his limbs are on different grooves and his timing is impeccable.

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Spring is springing. Flowers are on their way up.

When my wife and I were both working from home full-time during the pandemic, I bought a small collapsible desk and moved my workspace to a room on the front face of our condo. From the second floor, I looked down at a patch on the parkway, between the sidewalk and the street where a hodgepodge of plants grew. Something about staring down at a patch of dirt can give a person ideas. So I started to read up on native plants and learned about Dough Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park concept and then started to grow native plants from seed. We’ve since moved, giving me a blank canvas to start from, to build a garden. Long story short, I like to think I got into gardening out of circumstances and curiosity, rather than aging into a minor hobby.

I’ve just recently cut back the detritus from last year’s growth and am happy to see how much green is already sprouting. I’m excited for the flowers to come out.

Here are 5 songs on flowers.

“When I got out of the wagon with the other boys the first thing I noticed was several large trees standing before the building. A very lovely odor was swinging across my nostrils. ‘What flowers are those that smell so good?’ I asked. Honeysuckles was the answer. I fell in love with them, and I'm ready to get a whiff of them any time.” - Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong - “Jeannine (I Dream of Lilac Time)”

There’s few better ways to construct an intro to a song better than Louis Armstrong and his arranger Gordon Jenkins do here. It’s not as economical as say, the Ramones (“1-2-3-4”), but this is a minute forty well spent. Especially if you’re outside on a sunny day. Armstrong’s voice comes in like he’s out for a walk and breaking a long pause to let his companion know what she means to him. And suddenly, he’s gone. His version, released in 1959, cuts out all of the setting done by Gene Austin’s 1928 original, and instead lets the orchestra pull you into his early Spring headspace before getting straight to his point. The lush orchestration makes it more generous of spirit than Armstrong’s version of “La Vie En Rose.” The spring sunshine feels new, so bask in it.

“As many dark clouds as seem to be hovering right now, we’re just living in one tiny little moment. There’s a lot of history behind us, and a lot of time to be passed through in front of us. It’s up to us to figure out how we behave when we wake up each morning. I’m trying to look for the silver lining in every day.” - M.C. Taylor

Hiss Golden Messenger - “Jenny of the Roses”

I can’t say I listen to much Hiss Golden Messenger (aka M.C. Taylor), but I do listen to “Jenny of the Roses” pretty frequently. It’s got a laid back energy that works for low key, take-it-easy times, but also enough momentum to get your head bobbing and wanting to put the windows down in the car (that hi-hat is doing a lot of heavy lifting there). That feeling is a credit to producer Brad Cook, who’s worked with Waxahatchee, Iron & Wine, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Whitney. It’s a flat, straightforward sound of a band playing in a room. “Jenny of the Roses” is the lead track off of Hiss Golden Messenger’s Hallelujah Anyhow. It’s music that’s primary ambition is to get your toe tapping, clear your mind and warm up the soul a bit—in other words, it’s porch music.

“If you bait your trap with Booker T., everyone else will come.” - Kelly Hogan

Kelly Hogan - “Plant White Roses”

Here is the great Kelly Hogan covering the Magnetic Fields’ “Plant White Roses.” After a stint in Rock*A*Teens, Hogan moved to Chicago and joined the thriving scene at the still-great Hideout. She’s collaborated with Andrew Bird, Neko Case, Nora O’Connor, Alejandro Escovedo, and the Drive-by Truckers. She’s sung back-up as part of Mavis Staples’ band and the Decemberists, while also keeping busy with any number of side projects. On 2012’s I Like to Keep Myself in Pain, she worked with some friends to select songs to play, then got Booker T, drummer James Gadson, the Dap-Kings’ Gabe Roth, and Scott Ligon of NRBQ to serve as an all-star backing band. Hogan warms up the Magnetic Fields’ original, which sounds cold and distant by comparison.

Andrew Sa - “Lavender Cowboy”

Andrew Sa hit my radar as one of the curators of a local Cosmic Country showcase (also at the Hideout). He’s got a voice that immediately grabs hold of your attention, and he can nail the high notes of songs like Roy Orbinson’s “Blue Bayou” and Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.” His first album is coming out in June and “Lavender Cowboy,” the first single is tremendous. A pedal steel adds a lush depth to otherwise sparse instrumentation, and the contrasts are in the structure of the song itself: verses in a tight pocket that release with a descending melody in the chorus. The album’s producer H.C. McEntire also plays in the backing band, which includes Spencer Tweedy on drums.

“If you look at the horizon at sunset or daybreak, that point where light and dark meet, that's what we all think of as beauty. That's where the beauty lives, in that space. It's blurry and leaks into it each other. There seems to be a clear line. And just above it, there's this sort of mysterious array of colors and we're drawn to it. It's symbolic in ways that we don't tend to even comprehend most of the time. But to me it's just a good example of how nature provides.” - Jeff Tweedy

Tweedy - “Flowering”

Speaking of Spencer Tweedy…Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and his son Spencer apparently started making music together in their basement while Tweedy’s wife was going through cancer treatment, which resulted in the album Sukierae—which happens to be one of her nicknames. “Flowering” is one of the tracks from it that I go back to often. It’s got a plodding charm; an easiness, and warmth. An example of Tweedy’s free-associative lyrical style establishing a through-line, it weaves in imagery right out of early spring in Chicago:

March through the salt slush
Howling at the ground

Whistle my answer
Dance a blank face
Torment my sugar
And leap at any trace of

Flowering

Thanks for reading. Enjoy listening.