What's in Your Top 5?

I was reading the Onion a few weeks back, and happened across a very interesting interview with a nationally known recording artist, whose name escapes me at the moment, but the name isn’t important. Generally, the rock star interview will always include the obligatory, “who are your influences”, or the “what type of music are you listening to now” question. In this case, the reporter asked the same question in a very compelling manner. He asked the artist to put his iPod on shuffle and write down the first five songs that came up. He then asked the artist to tell a brief story about each.

I thought this was pretty cool, and not being a rock star myself, there was little chance of a reporter asking this of me. Therefore, I am asking myself. So here are the first five songs that have been shuffled to the top of my iPod playlist.

“Get Up and Go” – Hanson

Yes, that Hanson. The “long-haired, pre-pubescent teen heartthrobs who rose to the top of the charts in 1997 with the mega-hit, ‘MmmmmBop’” Hanson. Why are they on my iPod? Because they are good. Seriously. I saw them live a few years ago at the Rave when I went to see a friend of mine, Pat McGee, who was doing support for them on the Midwest leg of their tour. I was blown away. They flippin rocked, as Greg Koch would say, “like demons of the day and of the night.”

In January of this year, I was in Boston tech-ing for the “Hot Stove. Cool Music” show at the HOB. The headliner for the evening was the new quasi-supergroup, “Tinted Windows”, comprised of Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick; James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins; Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne; and lo and behold, none other than Taylor (the middle) Hanson, on lead vocals.

“Laughing Out Loud” – The Wallflowers

The Wallflowers are best known as the band fronted by Jakob Dylan, son of Bob Dylan. Their first album, “Bringing Down the Horse”, pretty much kicked ass. It spawned four Billboard Top 10 hits – One Headlight, The Difference, Three Marlena’s and 6^th Avenue Heartache. They also won two Grammy’s in 1998.

I was lucky enough to open for them at Summerfest back in 2001. I remember keyboardist Rami Jaffee backstage watching the show in a big floppy hat. Our final song of the set was the Head East classic, “Never Been Any Reason.” Rami was practically freaking out (really, it’s Head East. Who wouldn’t be?). He ran one stage and squeezed in with Jerry, our keyboard player, and finished the song with us. It was pretty cool.

“Roulette” – Bruce Springsteen

Given the extremely large number of Springsteen songs on my iPod, the statistical probability of one popping up was pretty much a given. I am just glad it wasn’t a song from his latest album, “Working on a Dream”, which in my opinion pretty much sucks.

“Roulette” is an outtake from The River session and was on the B-Side of “One Step Up”. Side note: Paul Cebar does a KILLER cover version of “One Step Up”. It starts with a furious drum beat, then continues with Bruce’s searing Telecaster sound and so many lyrics that Bruce can hardly keep up with the pace of the song. It’s a deep cut that shows up in concerts on a very rare basis. I’ve been witness to it only twice and in both instances the energy was as intense as the song itself.

“That’s All It Took”  – Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels w/Emmylou Harris

I was getting into alt-country singer/songwriters like Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), and Ryan Adams when Anjl Rodee, an original member of “kb’smidlifecrisis”, turned me on to Gram Parsons. I didn’t know much about him, other than he was the guy who replaced David Crosby in the Byrds, hung out with the Stones, did a lot of drugs and OD’d in the early 70’s.

Before he died, he went country. “That’s All it Took is a duet with Emmylou Harris and sounds like it was cut right out of the George Jones/Tammy Wynette/Buck Ownes/Porter Wagoner songbook. However, not all his music was hardcore old country. Listening to his material, it’s easy to see how his writing and style influenced a lot of the alt-country artists of today. 

“My Last Name” – The Ranch

I was recording some music for a client in Nashville with a very gifted producer Jansen Press, who was a guitar player with Angie Aparo, Mary Karlzen, and other Nashville based artists. We needed a session bass player, so Jan called his friend Jerry Flowers, this 6 foot something bald guy.

As with most Nashville players, it only takes him about 20 minutes to lay down the entire bass line for the song. Zip in, zip out – just like going into Wisconsin. After Jerry leaves, Jan says “He used to be in this kick a$$ country band called The Ranch”, who played in bars around here. They actually got signed one night playing in this bar on Broadway.” I buy the CD and it blows me away. Totally rocking new country. Great picking and awesome harmonies. Oh…I forgot to mention, the front man for The Ranch was Keith Urban. So now I can say, Keith Urban’s bass player is playing on my song “I Want You Tonight”.

So those are my 5 songs and my 5 stories. Try it yourself. It’s pretty fun to do. Send me lists and your stories.  You can respond here, do it via the 96.5 WKLH Facebook page, Twitter @kb965, or email me at kb@wklh.com .