Tom Waits Covers #6: Jennifer Warnes

An admission - I've never heard Famous Blue Raincoat, Jennifer Warnes' highly regarded album of Leonard Cohen covers. Because I only know her from belting out Up Where We Belong and The Time of My Life I'm afraid she's always had a strong whiff of cheese to me.

That set of Cohen covers evidently increased Jennifer's muso cred and as the All Music Guide notes, "suddenly a singer who had seemed like a second-rate Linda Ronstadt now appeared to be a first-class interpretive artist."

It's no surprise then that if she could work her magic on Laughing Len's songbook she could also have a similar effect on the Tom Waits canon.

This bluesy version of the Small Change classic is from Jennifer Warnes' album The Well. Released in 2001 it was her first LP in nine years.

MP3: Jennifer Warnes - Invitation to the Blues

But The Well at Amazon

Invitation to the Blues is in my personal pantheon of great Tom Waits songs. When I saw Tom in concert for the first time in 2000 I'll admit to getting a bit dusty when he played it solo on piano as I looked down from the balcony of the glorious Grand Rex Theatre in Paris.

This is a much earlier live version from a gig in Germany in 1977. You can grab MP3s of the while show over at Captains Dead.

MP3: Tom Waits - Invitation to the Blues (live)


As always do let me know what you think of either of the tracks and also suggest any other great Tom Waits covers I ought to post.

Previous Tom Waits Covers on Carnival Saloon
Sara Watkins - Pony
Solomon Burke - Diamond In Your Mind
Bette Midler - Shiver Me Timbers
Tori Amos & Heidi Talbot - Time
Bruce Springsteen - Jersey Girl (inc. Tom & Bruce duet)

Tom Waits - Theme Music for Iron Man 2

Fans of the Song Wars segment on Adam & Joe's much-missed 6 Music radio show will know the pair are parody song maestros. This week's edition of Adam's Big Mix Tape, guest presented by alter-ego Ken Korda, had a film theme and featured this brilliant imagining of what might have happened if the theme song duties for Iron Man 2 had been given to Tom Waits rather than AC/DC. There is of course a loose connection between Tom and Iron Man 2: Scarlett Johansson released an album of Waits covers back in 2008.

Here's Ken Korda's introduction followed by the song itself.

MP3: Ken Korda - Iron Man 2 backstory


MP3: 'Tom Waits' - Iron Man 2


Related Links
Adam Buxton's Big Mix Tape - listen online to the 6 Music show
Adam & Joe's Blog - contribute to their shows
Adam Buxton's personal website - includes Adam's blog
Tom Waits - official site

Music For Mardi Gras

With  New Orleans still on a high after the Saints' Super Bowl victory I'm sure this year's Mardi Gras will be something to remember (Hurricanes and Dixie beer not withstanding). My only Mardi Gras, back in 1996, was one of the most memorable trips of my life. Each year on Fat Tuesday, as well eating pancakes, I also like to have my own little Mardi Gras celebration. These are some of the tunes that make me wish I was in New Orleans today.

MP3: Professor Longhair - Go To The Mardi Gras

I posted this one last year too but it's the definitive Mardi Gras song performed by the definitive New Orleans artist.
Buy Professor Longhair - The London Concert: 7digital | Amazon

MP3: Sugar Boy Crawford & His Cane Cutters - Jock-A-Mo

This 50s gem is from a great 52 track compilation called Crazy Man Crazy! The Roots of Rock'n'Roll I bought on Sunday. The song morphed into The Dixie Cups' hit Iki Iko in 1964.
Buy Crazy Man Crazy! 7digital | Amazon

MP3: Fats Domino - Walking To New Orleans

During my Mardi Gras trip I went to a memorable block party hosted by WWOZ DJ The Governor.  The following day he did an entire show of Fats tunes; this one was obviously included.
Buy The Fats Domino Jukebox: 7digital | Amazon

MP3: The Meters - Hey Pocky A-Way

I discovered the New Orleans masters of funk relatively recently while researching one my chicken song posts. This track has become a carnival standard.
Buy The Very Best of The Meters: 7digital | Amazon

MP3: Dejan's Olympia Brass Band - Ain't My Fault

The Olympia Brass Band are New Orleans legends. You may recall this appearance in the Bond film Live and Let Die.


Buy New Orleans - Rebuild, Restore, Rejoice: 7digital | Amazon

MP3: Jerry Lee Lewis - Jambalaya

I'm on a bit of a Jerry Lee kick at the moment after recently reading Joe Bonomo's new book about The Killer. Not technically a Mardi Gras song I guess but jambalaya, crawfish pie and file gumbo would be high on my list of Mardi Gras eats (along with a fried oyster po' boy,  Popeye's chicken and Zapps chips).
Buy Jerry Lee Lewis - Legendary Sun Classics: Amazon

MP3: Tom Waits - I Wish I Was in New Orleans

My sentiments exactly. I remember we played this as we drove over Lake Pontchartrain into New Orleans for Mardi Gras in 1996. "Arm-in-arm down Burgundy, a bottle and my friends and me". Perfect.
Buy Tom Waits - Small Change: 7digital | Amazon

If you have your own favourite Mardi Gras songs, please do leave a comment and tell me what they are. 

Related Posts

I Wish I Was In New Orleans - last year's Mardi Gras post featuring two Professor Longhair tracks and a lethal sangria recipe from Tipitina's

State Songs #19: Louisiana - songs by Lucinda Williams, Guy Clark, The Be Good Tanyas, Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, Emmylou Harris, Lightnin' Hopkins, Waylon Jennings

Related Links
Home of the Groove - great blog full of Mardi Gras songs and New Orleans R&B

Tom Waits Film Festival

It's a great week to be a Tom Waits fan. On Monday we got a free preview of the Glitter & Doom live album and this Friday sees the release of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which stars Tom as the Devil.

Waits has said he doesn't consider himself an actor, "I like doing it, but there's a difference between being an actor and doing some acting". That said he's appeared in more than two dozen films though it's also fair to say he's never strayed far from the eccentric persona he's created for himself.

One of my favourite Tom Waits cameos is in Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer's Candy Mountain. Sadly no one's put any clips on YouTube but if you want to see our hero dressed in a remarkable pair of check trousers practicing golf shots do track down a copy.

Here are a few choice clips from the Waits 'acting' oeuvre that I did find on a quick trawl. Please post others you know of in the comments.

Down By Law (1986)
Jim Jarmusch is the director most associated with Waits and Down By Law is easily his meatiest role. There are quite a few songs from Rain Dogs on the soundtrack too. Waits can be heard as another DJ in Mystery Train too.



Coffee & Cigarettes (2003)
More Jarmusch. This sequence was filmed in 1993 but I had to wait a decade before I finally saw it. The most remarkable thing about the clip is that Iggy Pop is wearing a shirt.



The Fisher King (1991)
Tom plays to type as a homeless Vietnam veteran in Terry Gilliam's wonderful New York fable.



Short Cuts (1993)
One of my favourite Robert Altman films and probably Tom's best acting performance.



Cold Feet (1989)
An oddball but enjoyable comedy written by Tom McGuane (Rancho Deluxe, The Missouri Breaks). Tom plays a a hit man called Kenny in his most over-the-top acting performance. There's an even better clip of Waits in Cold Feet at iMDB.




Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Did I just write that Cold Feet was Waits' most over-the-top performance? Whoops. It's this one, playing the Bedlam bug eater Renfield for his old pal Francis Ford Coppola.



Mystery Men (1999)
Barney Hoskyns' excellent Waits biog Lowside of the Road claims that Tim Burton actually made this deadbeat superhero comedy and that credited director 'Kinka Usher' is a psuedonym. As far as I know Usher is actually a well-regarded ads director. Anyway, in the film Tom plays Dr Heller, the genius who makes the hapless heroes' non-lethal weapons (the blame thrower is my favourite). This clip is an outtake (you'll have to go to YouTube to watch).



What are your favourite Tom Waits films? Have you seen Doctor Parnassus? Do leave a comment below.

Related Posts
Tom Waits 2.0 - Tom's new website and free MP3s

Buy Tom Waits Movies at Amazon

Tom Waits 2.0

Yesterday saw the relaunch of tomwaits.com. The main draw is the availability of eight tracks from his forthcoming live album Glitter & Doom to download for free. After one listen my favourite is the spoken-word Circus, originally from Real Gone.

MP3: Tom Waits - Circus (live)

Buy Glitter & Doom at Amazon


The rest of the site is well worth exploring too and shows a fairly enlightened view when it comes to sharing copyrighted material. The songs section lists every lyric and you can listen to about 50 tracks in full spanning all of Waits' career.

I was surprised to see the majority of the increasingly rare Big Time concert movie clipped up in the video section but then realised that as well as 'official' videos like the Glitter & Doom trailer (below) the site is also pulling in stuff from YouTube that's clearly been ripped by fans.



The photos section is also generous. A wonderful selection of stills, like the one at the top of this post, by the likes of Anton Corbijn, can all be downloaded as large .jpegs. Of note to MP3 bloggers is the listing of Hype Machine in the site's links section alongside the two preeminent fansites The Eyeball Kid and The Tom Waits Library.

Finally, if you just want to while away your lunch hour the Wit & Wisdom section is an amusing compendium of such Waitsaian bon mots as "a gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't".

With any luck I'll have another Tom Waits post here later in the week.

Related Posts
Tom Waits in Paris - my eyewitness account of the Glitter & Doom tour
Bob Dylan 2.0 - I got excited by the relaunch of Bob's site last year too

Related Links
Tom Waits - official site

Buy Tom Waits Goodies at Amazon

Food for the Fourth

The greatest thing about America's 4 July celebrations is not the fireworks but the gluttony that accompanies them. So, in honour of the USA's annual pig-out here are some food related songs from Carnival Saloon regulars, plus a couple of oldies, to go with your meat feasts.

MP3: Wendy Rene - Bar-B-Q

There's no other tribute to grilled meat that compares to Wendy Rene's 1964 Stax single. In this year's Southern Music issue of the Oxford American Zeth Landry even suggests that Bar-B-Q "should be adopted as our nation's tailgating anthem". Trivia: According to the OA article Rene owned a pet monkey called Chico that used to terrorise the likes of Rufus Thomas and Stax boss Jim Stewart.
More Wendy Rene: Wikipedia | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: Tom Waits - Filipino Box Spring Hog (1993 version)

In Tom's own words: "When we lived on Union Avenue in LA, we had parties. We sawed the floorboards out of the living room, and we took the bed, the box spring, and first dug out the hole and filled it with wood, poured gasoline on it, and lit a fire. And the box spring over the top, that was the grill. We brought in a pig and cooked it right there." This is an earlier version than the one on Mule Variations. It's from the 1993 benefit record Born to Choose.
More Tom Waits: MySpace | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: Old Crow Medicine Show - Mary's Kitchen

One of the great things about many American food songs is their penchant for innuendo. When the Old Crows sing "come on into Mary's kitchen if you want your sausage ground" I don't think that they're talking about a pound of bangers.
More Old Crows: official site | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: Justin Townes Earle - Chitlin' Cooking Time in Cheatham County (live)

We saw Justin Townes Earle perform this rip-snorter with the brilliant Cory Younts at the Borderline in January. Pig intestines aren't to everyone's taste (though Joanne loves 'em) but if you do fancy eating them the Virginia Department of Health offers the following advice: Keep children out of the kitchen until the chitlins are pre-boiled and the kitchen is thoroughly cleaned.
More Justin Townes Earle: MySpace | Amazon

MP3: Charlie Singleton - Alligator Meat

I once ate alligator meat in the Florida Everglades. I found it tough and not quite as "all reet" as Charlie Singleton suggests. Singleton went to the same school as Charlie Parker in Kansas City and started recording in 1949, aged just 19.
More Charlie Singleton: All Music | Amazon

Enjoy your Independence Day - and remember Americans - if it wasn't for us Brits you'd have nothing to celebrate today. You're welcome!

Related Posts
Chicken Songs for the Soul - finger lickin' goodness
Tom Waits Covers #2: Bruce Sprinsgteen - posted a year ago today

Tom Waits Covers #5: Bette Midler

Most Tom Waits fans are familiar with I Never Talk to Strangers, his bar-room duet with Bette Midler from the 1977 album Foreign Affairs. Fewer people know that the incongruous pair also enjoyed a lengthy on-off relationship in the late 70s.

MP3: Tom Waits & Bette Midler - I Never Talk To Strangers

Buy: Amazon | 7digital

This was during Waits' down-at-heal years when he called the infamous Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles his home.

According to Barney Hoskyns' new biography Lowside of the Road Waits' digs were such a tip that he didn't want his new gal seeing the place. Hoskyns quotes Midler, "Tom lives... sort of knee-deep in grunge so he was kind of reluctant to invite me over. I grew up in lots of clutter myself and delicate I ain't, so I kept after him till he finally invited me over".

Bette Midler first encountered Waits when he played a gig at the Bottom Line in New York in 1974 and was bowled over by songs from his brand new album The Heart of Saturday Night. Presumably Shiver Me Timbers was on the set list.

MP3: Tom Waits - Shiver Me Timbers

Buy: Amazon | 7digital

I'd not actually heard Midler's version until my friend Pete Marsh suggested it after my post on Sara Watkins' new Tom Waits cover. It's from Bette's third album, the brilliantly titled Songs for the New Depression (1976), which is notable also for her duet with Bob Dylan on Buckets of Rain. Pete warned that, "It may well be a bit Streisand-ish for you". I heard a live version recorded later which did sound a little Vegas lounge but this original I quite like.

MP3: Bette Midler - Shiver Me Timbers/Samedi et Venredi

Buy: Amazon | 7digital

It's dawned on me that the majority of Tom Waits covers I've posted so far have been by women. What is about songs of sailors, midgets and hard-luck cases that the ladies love so much? If you have any insights I'd like to hear them. Suggestions of other great Tom Waits covers are also most welcome.

Previous Tom Waits Covers
Solomon Burke - Diamond in Your Mind
Bruce Springsteen - Jersey Girl
Tori Amos & Heidi Talbot - Time
Sara Watkins - Pony

Other Related Posts
Songs from the Lowside of the Road - obscure tracks featured in the new biog

Related Links
Tom Waits - official site
The Eyeball Kid - essential Waits news blog
Bette Midler - official site

Tom Waits Covers #4: Sara Watkins

Fiddle player Sara Watkins formed the bluegrass band Nickel Creek in 1989 with her older bother Sean and mandolin ace Chris Thile. She was just eight years old. Five albums and thousands of column inches of praise later the trio put the band on indefinite hiatus in 2007.

Her solo album came out last month. Produced by John Paul Jones and featuring guest appearances from Gillian Welch, Tim O'Brien as well as her former bandmates, it's a great mix of original songs and covers. I was naturally delighted to hear that one of those covers was a Tom Waits track.

Pony is a highlight from Tom's 1999 album Mule Variations. It's a sparse and evocative narrative told by a typically down-on-his-luck Waitsian character. It's also probably the only song ever written to name check the town of Hushpuckena, Mississippi.

Compare the two versions and let me know what you think.

MP3: Sara Watkins - Pony

More Sara Watkins: official site | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: Tom Waits - Pony

More Tom Waits: official site | Amazon | 7digital

Previous Tom Waits Covers
Solomon Burke - Diamond in Your Mind
Bruce Springsteen - Jersey Girl
Tori Amos & Heidi Talbot - Time

State Songs #14: Illinois

I've been to great city of Chicago quite a few times but apart from the interstate that's unfortunately all I've seen of Illinois. My first trip to the Windy City was on a low-budget Gap Year tour of the States. My friend James and I had so little money that we flipped a coin to see who'd take the cameras up to the Sears Tower observation deck. I lost.

For some reason a lot of my favourite artists have written songs about Illinois. Enjoy the selections and let me know any you think I should have included.

MP3: Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Feel The Illinoise!

I feel obliged to start with a track from Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise album even though I'm disappointed that his own musical tour around the USA seems to have stalled. The 1893 Chicago World's Fair, celebrated in this song, was extremely noteworthy. Not only did it introduce many Americans to electricity for the first time but Shredded Wheat and Juicy Fruit also made their debuts there.
More Sufjan Stevens: BBC | MySpace | Amazon | 7digital


MP3: Three Bits of Rhythm - I Used To Work In Chicago

I first heard of a version of this amusing post-war bit of sauce on Theme Time Radio Hour. I know nothing about the trio playing here except they were from Los Angeles. The track's from a compilation called Mellow Cats 'n' Kittens Vol.1: Hot R&B and Cool Blues 1946-1952.

MP3: The Handsome Family - The Giant of Illinois

Snow. Death. Strange goings-on. To me this conjures up Mid-Western Gothic in much the same way as Wisconsin Death Trip and Fargo do. The Handsome Family, Brett and Rennie Sparks, are always excellent live so do try and catch them on tour at the moment.
More Handsome Family: MySpace | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: Tom Waits - Johnsburg, Illinois (live)

Tom Waits has claimed that his wife Kathleen Brennan can drive a bulldozer and that he married her because she can stick a knitting needle through her lip and still drink coffee. Something about her that's certainly true is that she's from Johnsburg, Illionis. This version is from the Big Time live album.
More Tom Waits: BBC | MySpace | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: Frank Zappa - The Illinois Enema Bandit (live)

The dubious subject of this epic Zappa workout was a real criminal called Michael Kenyon and such couplets as "From farm to farm/Got a rubberized bag/And a hose on his arm/Lookin' for some rustic co-ed rump" are disturbingly accurate.
More Frank Zappa: BBC | official site Amazon

MP3: Wilco - Via Chicago (live)

This excellent live outing of the Summerteeth track is from Wilco's 2007 appearance on Austin City Limits. Aquarium Drunkard has posted the whole set so if you like what you hear pay him a visit and download the lot.
More Wilco: BBC | official site | Amazon | 7digital

Three of the four I states neighbour each other so we're staying in the Mid-West next time to visit the birthplace of David Letterman, Kurt Vonnegut and Steve McQueen - Indiana.

Related Posts
State Songs - links to every post on this musical road trip

Should I Put It In My Pants?

Gone Fishin' With John Lurie, Tom Waits & Pals


Some TV channels seem to devote the majority of their airtime to the "Fifty Greatest/Funniest/Daftest/Inspiring/Etc Moments of All Time" but I don't recall this scene of Tom Waits putting a freshly caught red snapper down his shorts ever making one of those countdown clip shows.



This is from the second episode of Fishing With John, John Lurie's surreal take on outward bound entertainment first broadcast in the States in 1991. I don't think it was ever shown on UK television but I have a well-worn set of VHS tapes that was probably my first ever transatlantic Amazon order. It's one of my most prized possessions.

Thankfully, at long last, the six-part series has been released on DVD over here. As well as Tom in Jamaica you can also enjoy Jim Jarmusch shark fishing in upstate New York, Matt Dillon in Costa Rica, Willem Dafoe on the ice in Maine and a double episode with Dennis Hopper in search of the giant squid in Thailand.

It is unlike any television programme you've ever seen. The hi-jinks on screen are matched by deadpan narration and as well as putting his pals in ludicrous situations Lurie also scored the series with a particularly peculiar soundtrack.

This is one of the two Tom Waits 'field recordings' from the series as well as the mysterious fish dance Lurie and Dillon perform before their adventure.

MP3: Tom Waits & John Lurie - River of Men


MP3: John Lurie - Fish Dance


The YouTube clip above is merely the tip of the iceberg. Do yourself a favour and get your hands on the DVD. You'll thank me for it.

Related Links
Amazon: Fishing With John DVD
Amazon: Fishing With John Soundtrack CD
City Paper: John Lurie Interview - talking trout

Tom Waits on Radio Bob

I've loved Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour since it began in 2006 but Tom Waits' occasional contributions since the second series have made it even more of weekly highlight for me.

Waits has often pepped up his interviews by sharing strange and unusual facts so the tapes he sends Bob while not being much of a departure are still often extremely funny.

MP3: Tom Waits - "Body Parts"


MP3: Tom Waits - "The RX Sign"


MP3: Tom Waits - "Passenger Pigeon"


MP3: Tom Waits - "Baker's Dozen"


MP3: Tom Waits - "Jewish Curses"


Related Posts
Songs From the Lowside of the Road - Barney Hoskyn's new Waits biog
Carnival Saloon: Tom Waits - all my posts that mention Tom, including cover version MP3s
Radio Bob Returns - welcoming back series two
Carnival Saloon: Bob Dylan - every Bob post here

Related Links
Annotated Theme Time - essential reading for TTRH obsessives
Theme Time Radio Hour on the BBC
Theme Time Radio Hour on XM radio
Unofficial Theme Time Radio Hour Archive - every episode for download

Songs from the Lowside of the Road

There's never been a solid, revealing and well-written book about Tom Waits, so Barney Hoskyns' superb new biography, Lowside of the Road, is a tome I'd been waiting to read for more than a decade and devoured in a day.

The challenge facing anyone wanting to delve into Tom Waits' life and work is that he and his wife Kathleen Brennan have built a "wall of inaccessibility" around themselves and their close associates. The book has an appendix of emails the author received from potential interviewees happy to speak to him until the Waits/Brennan camp effectively gagged them and in the prologue Hoskyns asks himself whether he "has the right" to probe into Waits' life.

Thankfully Hoskyns' pressed on and the resulting 600 pages is as illuminating, amusing and heartening a portrait of a musician you could hope to read. Naturally it's rich with anecdotes. These are some I enjoyed alongside musical accompaniment.

MP3: Tom Waits - Kentucky Avenue

"Childhood is very important to me a a writer" quotes Hoskyns and that's rarely more evident than in this track. Kentucky Avenue is the street in Whittier, California where Waits grew up. The song, from Blue Valentine, namechecks a number of Waits' childhood associates. The leg braces which Waits says he'll cut off with a hacksaw belonged to his best friend Kipper who had polio. The steak knife wielding Mrs Storm (a real person) also crops up in Spidey's Wild Ride from Orphans.

MP3: Guy Clark - Cold Dog Soup

Waits moved from Whittier to San Diego after his dad, Frank, left the family home. Here he became a fixture of the local folk music scene when he worked as the doorman at the Heritage coffee shop in Mission Beach. Guy Clark's song recalls Waits "in a pork-pie hat and silver skates/juggling three collection plates".

MP3: Frank Zappa - Stinkfoot

In the 70s Tom Waits shared the same manager as Frank Zappa - the infamous Herb Cohen (who wouldn't talk to Hoskyns unless the author brought a tube of Bath Olivers for him from London). Waits supported Zappa on a few tours and had to put up with incredibly hostile audiences who only wanted to see the Mothers of Invention. Listen to Stinkfoot and you'll hear Frank's gentle poke at TW.

MP3 Tom Waits - Singapore

One of the joys of Hoskyns' book for me was getting a glimpse into how the albums were made, especially those with weird instrumentation. On Singapore, the opener to Rain Dogs, percussionist Michael Blair is whacking a chest drawers. Waits recalled that, "On the last bar of the song the whole piece of furniture collapsed and there was nothing left of it. That's what I think of when I hear that song. I see the pile of wood and it excites me."

There are many more stories to thrill and delight any Tom Waits fan in the book. I notice that this week's Time Out has even pilfered one as it recalls that Waits drank in the Island Queen in Islington on his first visit to London in 1976. Good choice Tom.

Related Posts
Stalking Tom Waits
Waiting For Waits
Tom Waits in Paris
Carnival Saloon: Tom Waits - all my posts that mention Tom, including cover version MP3s

Related Links
Amazon: Lowside of the Road - buy the book
Faber & Faber: Lowside of the Road - publisher's info
The Times - review of the book
The Observer - review of the book

State Songs #5: California

I could post dozens of songs just about Los Angeles or San Francisco before even thinking about the rest of the state. Instead these are just a handful of my favourite California songs. By all means point out my omissions in the comments below and I'll tell you if it's a song I'd already thought of.

MP3: Tom Waits - Goin' Out West

The male version of Naomi Watts' character in Mulholland Drive. There's no way that this ex-con turned wannabe actor is ever going to make it in Hollywood whether he changes his name to Hannibal or Rex. Incidentally, you may remember Tony Franciosa from such films as Death Wish II and Across 110th Street.
More Tom Waits: Carnival Saloon | MySpace | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: The Arlenes - Going to California

Shortly after I moved to the capital 10 years ago Big Steve Arlene introduced me to North London's twang scene via his and Alan Tyler's still-going-strong Sunday afternoon club Come Down And Meet the Folks. This song was written shortly before the Family Arlene upped sticks from Camden to California. They've since moved to Nashville.
More Arlenes: official site | Amazon

MP3: Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars (live on Letterman)

This was the first dance at our wedding last year, beautifully played, pedal steel and all, by our friends Two Fingers of Firewater. Some trivia: The High Desert Mavericks, a minor league baseball team in Adelanto, California used the song as their theme during the 2001 season.
More Bragg & Wilco: woodyguthrie.org | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: Marlena Shaw - California Soul

I'm trying to up the soul quotient at the Carnival Saloon and Joanne suggested this track as we rifled through our CDs looking for state songs. I feel bad for not including Joni Mitchell's California for her too but we'll hear from Joni once we get to Iowa.
More Marlena: MySpace | Amazon | 7digital

MP3: Virgil Shaw - Back to Eureka

I bought Virgil Shaw's cracking album Quad Cities on a trip to Northern California so this song reminds me of Highway 1, the redwoods and Anchor Steam beer. I think I may have bought a Polaroid camera in Eureka.
More Virgil Shaw: MySpace | Amazon

MP3: Jolie Holland - Goodbye California

There are some people for whom excellent weather, an abundance of fruit and the Terminator as your state's governor aren't things to stick around for. Perhaps Jolie Holland is among their number.
More Jolie Holland: | MySpace |Amazon 7digital

MP3: Guy Clark - LA Freeway

Someone else who wanted an exit from the Golden State. Guy Clark does a wonderful intro to this on stage. Apparently the final straw was when the landlord he "couldn't stand" chopped down the fruit tree outside the Clarks' window.
More Guy Clark: official site | Amazon | 7digital

Next time you'll need to prepare for possible altitude sickness - we're heading for the mountains of Colorado.

Related Posts
State Songs #1: Alabama - Cat Power, Billie Holiday, Jim White, Joan Baez, Shelby Lynne and, of course, Lynryd Skynyrd.
State Songs #2: Alaska - Michelle Shocked, Johnny Cash, Port O'Brien, Dan Bern, The Velvet Underground
State Songs #3: Arizona - Wilco, Glen Campbell, The DeZurik Sisters, Dimitri Tiomkin and Public Enemy
State Songs #4: Arkansas - The New Lost City Ramblers, Hayes Carll, Marilyn Monroe & Jane Russell, REM, Bruce Springsteen