A real shining star

A few years ago, I bought a CD of cover versions of songs by Alejandro Escovedo (Por Vida) which some musician friends had organised to try and (I think) pay for his medical bills when he caught hepatitis and his insurance wouldn't cover it. It was a good album, and I loved the idea of the musical community rallying around to help one of their own.

Now there is another example. Mark Mulcahy is a US singer-songwriter whose wife died last year, leaving him alone to bring up his two young daughters. To try and help keep financial pressures off the family, a very special cast of musicians have released 'Ciao my shining star - a love letter to Melissa' (see a Guardian piece for background here).

I saw Mark at least twice in the tiny Lobby venue in Cork a few years ago, and I recall an immensely charismatic and powerful presence, tall and shaggy, with a voice that could flow from whisper to shout almost in an instant, and I bought all his solo albums. 'Smile sunset' is my favourite, and of the wonderful tracks on it, 'Resolution no. 1' is by far the most special, with his emotional voice doing tender miracles in lines like 'Do you still wanna have a baby, would you still want me around?', and songs like 'I just shot myself in the foot again' and the chamber pop epic 'A cup of tea and your insights', trailling off after 7 minutes with the line 'I know that I could be alright' being repeated so often it sounds like both a statement and a plea. In contrast to the optimism this album brings to me, his previous album 'Fathering' is more harrowing (hint: it's key track is wonderfully named 'Hey, self defeater'), but very powerful. I must admit that I have not gone back much into his earlier work with Miracle Legion and Polaris (with one exception, as mentioned below).

Another key track from 'Smile sunset' is 'Mikon the Icon', and the clip below shows pictures of Mark with this track playing over them, showcasing his quite unique voice:

The clip below shows 'Cookie jar', my favourite track off his third solo album, 'In pursuit of your happiness'; I remember hearing this song for the first time on an Uncut CD without looking at the track-list, and immediately knowing it was him from the guitar sound. I know far far too little about guitars or real music stuff to have any explanation for what I mean when I say that Mark Mulcahy has a very Mark Mulcahy guitar sound, as well as a very Mark Mulcahy voice, but there is one, and it bursts out of a cookie jar as soon as this song starts. Of course, just to disprove my point, the live version shown below starts with piano instead of guitar (I do at least know the difference between those instruments) but do check the album version and see what I mean.

So, being a fan of both Mark and cover versions albums, I was understandably excited to hear about this coming out when I read about it a while ago, but my interest was predictably craked up to near-dangerous levels when I found that The National would feature. There is simply no artist today who can excite me with teen-like anticipation like these guys, who still bring out in me the early star-struck fan who waited eagerly for releases by Depeche Mode over 20 years ago. It was the same with 'Dark was the night' earlier this year (see my post on that here), which yielded the magnificent 'So far around the bend'.

So, when I downloaded the album from iTunes (or the 21 tracks on sale in Ireland, 20 more being cruelly held for US customers only, grrr!), the first track to go on was their version of 'Ashamed of the story I told' (from his incarnation as Polaris). The song is really good, with the expected blend of great vocals, drums and a lovely piano motif, if perhaps a little circularly repetitive towards the end, with an odd verse-chorus ratio (although listening to the Polaris original reveals it to be a pretty faithful reproduction).

Then, I switched off shuffle and listened to the tracks as sequenced, with Thom Yorke ('All for the best' as track 1, the National at number 2, and Michael Stipe ('Everything's coming undone') as 3. The first impression of this trio of tracks is that they are all very good (I love the percussion and drumming on Thom Yorke's song and Stipe has a very un-REM almost-celticronic backing) but somehow louder, more technical and more impersonal than Mulcahy's songs at their best, capturing the energy but missing some of the heart? It is the 4th track ('Love's the only thing that shuts me up' by David Berkeley [who?]) that first really catches the starlight that is so important in these songs. Of the others, early highlights include 'I woke up in the mayflower' by Josh Rose, whose voice sounds unexpectedly like Mulcahy's, and tracks by Hayden, Mercury Rev, and the Unbelievable Truth (whose album I bought a decade ago, liked, forgot, and never thought about again until now). Others at first listen scare me, like Frank Black always does, while Dinosoar Jr take pretty much the same scorch and burn approah they took to the Cure's 'Just like heaven' a while back, which I am not sure I have yet forgiven them for.

Of course, another great function of covers' albums is to introduce you to new artists you have not yet heard, by presenting them to you in familiar guises through songs you already know, like a musical chaperone trying to pair you up with an artist first on common ground; this certainly is the case here, and both Chrises Collingwood and Harford will be worth a look in future.

I found the original Mark Mulcahy version of 'All for the best' here, and it raises a very interesting topic (perhaps for another post) of how closely cover versions should follow the template of the original; some of the songs on this album clearly do this to greater or lesser extents, but Thom Yoke has gone off-road in a very interesting way (would we expect any less?):

Even if, so far, I am not sure anyone has managed to capture that voice, and that guitar sound, just right, there is a hell of a lot of pleasure to be got from this album (and a lot more besides if I can only figure out how to access the US-only material). For the musical quality alone it comes strongly recommended; when the background story is considered, it is pretty much compulsory for anyone who likes this blog or the bands mentioned here to buy it.

His Myspace page, with the National and Thom Yorke tracks to listen to, as well as his own tracks (obviously) is here, while I, as usual, direct those in search of more detail to Wikipedia here and the Allmusic Guide here.