A Happy Take On An Angry Song, and Why That Might Be A Good Thing

Patty Loveless has a blast with this one. Who wouldn't, with Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and two crackerjack back-up singers? And that drummer? That's how to rock hard -- stay off the cymbal.

All that said, I want Loveless to be angry; clearly she's singing about a toxic relationship with a psychopath. Even Richard Thompson, who wrote this one and a whole host of other brilliant songs about toxic relationships, invariably comes across as someone who's more bilious than contemptuous. Bluegrass icon, Jimmy Martin, would have torn this one up and spat it out -- and we would have been wildly entertained.

If we can't have Jimmy, we might as well have Loveless' transcendent country pop. It's not a bad alternative.

What, you thought I was saying I hated her interpretation? Quite the contrary; I love it. I just wouldn't sing it this way.

Perhaps what Patty Loveless is saying is, "Thank the good Lord I've never been through this with some crazy man."

In any case, here she is with Richard Thompson's legitimately "Tear-Stained Letter".

Have You Seen Them Live? Fairport Convention Edition

EDITOR'S NOTE: As often happens, the clip I originally blogged about here has disappeared from YouTube.

And I couldn't be happier.

See, this clip includes not only the song I blogged about -- starting at about 2:59 -- but a long-deleted performance of one of this duo's most famous medleys.

Don't ask me why -- I mean, it's not for lack of genius -- but, for the most part, Fairport Convention's studio work leaves me cold. Yet, the first time I saw them live remains at the top of my list of all-time favorite concerts.

Certain self-congratulatory types will tell you that every name act is better live than in the studio, but that doesn't explain The Stones; Crosby, Stills and Nash; The Neville Brothers; Bonnie Raitt, or a whole host of other acts whose live shows I find less than compelling.

All that said, Music Times Five is in imminent danger of turning into the Fairport Convention blog. Since virtuoso fiddler and elfin extrovert, Dave Swarbrick, passed, I have been rediscovering my undying love for the live work of Fairport Convention. I keep finding clips which I am desperate to share, and you'll probably get most of them.

Let's start with this one, in which Swarb and Simon Nicol take a busman's holiday away from the rest of the band, but not away from its music. It's a sneaky, seemingly-populist rant by ex-Fairporter, Richard Thompson, and Nicol plays the malcontented everyman to perfection -- a man so caught up in his own misery that he doesn't even realize he's come up with the solution to his problems mid-tirade:

So you steal a car and you go for a ride
You end up sleeping with some girl guide
And everything you do leaves you empty inside
It's time to ring some changes

I said something about ranting and, for two musicians working unplugged, Swarbrick and Nicol make a big, gorgeous noise. Swarb's playing is so smart here: he harmonizes with Nicol on the choruses, and the resulting overtones give the performance an almost orchestral ring.

This is Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention with Richard Thompson's "Time To Ring Some Changes".