April 17 - Spiritual

When I said yesterday that this would almost be a Johnny Cash weekend, it is because today's song also was covered by Johnny Cash as part of his American Recordings series. The song Spiritual first came to my attention with the band Spain, led by Josh Haden, son of jazz great Charlie Haden. Like his father, Josh Haden plays the bass, but he also sings and was the band's major song writer. In other words, the he was the band's undisputed leader - at least it certainly looked that way.

Their first album, The Blue Moods of Spain, is an album that I have a hard time classifying. Wikipedia calls it slowcore, dream pop, or soft rock, but I have a hard time with all of those labels. Yes, the music is slow and sometimes dreamy, but I am thinking more dark rooms filled with smoke and whiskey with a jazz-inspired combo playing in the corner - although this isn't jazz. Since I already have pointed out that I find labels to be about laziness, I won't dwell on that, but I do have a hard time describing their music as well.

Following their second album, She Haunts My Dreams, they came to Trondheim, and I remember dragging my dad along (he wasn't hard to convince) as well as my good friend Arve and his brother Rune to Veita scene, a great venue right downtown Trondheim that no longer exists, and that is a shame, because I had a lot of great experiences there. The concert was great - provided you, like me, are there to listen to the music rather than watch musicians jump around, because it did seem like they might have come in with nails earlier on and nailed their shoes to the stage so they would keep their place. However, the concert was somewhat marred by a drunken prick in the front row who insisted on touching Josh Haden's microphone stand. And when I say touching, it almost seemed like it was in an attempt of displaced self gratification, because that mic stand started moving back and forth. However, after mr. Haden had offered to take the offender out (I am thinking another drink might have taken him out as well, but I think a broken nose would have been the most appropriate thing on that occasion), security stepped in and the drunken trønder stepped out.

Anyway, today's song, Spiritual, is the closing song on The Blue Moods of Spain, and it is the perfect example on how a song with religious/spiritual lyrics can move even a secular heathen like me. And I thought it fit well on a Sunday...