Frank Turner "I Still Believe"

While everyone is working and/or revealing their "Top" lists for the year (including MVY), sometimes, your best discoveries of the year are things that didn't actually come out that year.

I knew Frank Turner's name when his album "Tape Deck Heart" came out this year.  I had a vague recollection that I had liked what I heard previously, but MVY hadn't played anything by him and I hadn't listened to deeply.

Clearly, I hadn't listen to deeply.

Because after I was instantly won over by his 2013 single "Recovery," and delved into the album, I happened to be cleaning up in the MVY basement and found an old copy of "England Keep My Bones."

And THAT record hasn't come out of my CD player in a month.

Falling somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and Billy Bragg (with a little bit of Richard Thompson's knack for making original songs sound like ancient traditional tunes on songs like "English Curse), this kind of thing is right up my alley.  It's a shame I missed it the first time around.

But this 2011 release is one of my favorites for 2013.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Billy Bragg "Handyman Blues"

The thing about being a homeowner is that you live with wear and tear.

Like that hole in the screen door.

It was a hole first.  Right at the bottom.  I can't even remember how it got there.  Then the kids started kicking at it.  Eventually, it got loose enough that the cat started treating it like a cat door.

And no one was coming to fix it.


I am not handy.

I know this has been a bit of a frustration for my wife, who had hoped that, over the years, I might at least develop some interest in the subject.  (And just to be clear, she is reasonably handy, and very, very willing to try to fix things around the house.  Last Christmas, she asked for, and received, a power sander)

Instead, cabinet handles remain loose.  Sink stoppers are repaired with scotch tape.  Hanging a picture on a wall may require 6 or 7 large nail holes.

I am not handy.  But I am a husband, sympathetic to my wife's wishes.

I stared at that screen door.  I vowed to replace the screen.


Let's just jump ahead here, with some quick edits to the film.

Lots of small cuts on hand.  Staples from staple gun strewn about driveway.  Large, uneven bulges of metal screen protrude from finished door.  The first time it closes, a chunk of wood falls off.

Zoom in on that tear in the new screen, caused by the handyman putting it up.

"Nice work," my wife says sarcastically.


So she didn't marry a handyman.  And that's frustrating sometimes.

But it's okay, too.  And she knows that.

After 8 years of marriage, we've both come to understand that you can't marry someone who can be all things.  Your spouse may be a great cook, a carpenter, an artist, a CEO, a good listener, a party-person, a co-parent, a lover, a business partner or a friend.

They can been several of these things.  But not all of them. 

You trade some minuses for some pluses.

We're happy.  We make each other laugh.  We balance each other out.

After 8 years, our marriage continues to work really, really well.

Even if our screen door doesn't.


You don't get to say this line very often:  "This Billy Bragg song made me laugh!"  But it's pretty true to my life.

Happy Anniversary, baby.


See the video on Youtube.

Justin Townes Earle “Harlem River Blues”

Justin Townes Earle has every reason to sound he lives downstream.

He has every reason to sound like his Dad, Steve Earle, one of America’s great songwriters. How could he not be influenced by that?

He has every reason to sound like the man he was named for, Townes Van Zandt. His Dad was certainly a fan, and Justin most certainly grew up listening to Townes’ tunes.

But how refreshing that, at least on “Harlem River Blues” he seems to evoke the most upstream influence of both Townes and Steve.

Doesn’t this track sound like a Woody Guthrie song? Or at least an outtake from the Billy Bragg/Wilco “Mermaid Avenue” project?