A New Years Resolution

I don't think I've ever made a New Years Resolution before.  Possibly when I was a kid I may have resolved to do the washing up or tidy my bedroom but never a proper starting or stopping something on January 1st.

The closest that I've ever got was quitting dairy on my fortieth birthday with the intention of going fully vegan a year later.  My omnivorous diet didn't last the full twelve months so there was no last meat hurrah for me just sometime in February 2011 I finished a plate of chicken and potatoes and I knew that I wouldn't eat meat again.

However, this year I sort of accidentally made a resolution.  It wasn't actually on January 1st, it was a couple of days later when I was recording the first Jacket's Americana Jukebox of the year.  It was a Hank Williams special; I commemorated the 60th anniversary of his death with a show of tribute songs, covers and originals.

The first couple of tributes - Ray Wylie Hubbard's 'Loco Gringo's Lament' and Todd Snider's 'Alcohol and Pills' came to me instantly but I employed the power of wikipedia for the rest.  In doing so I found out that Snider's version of 'Alcohol and Pills' was written by Fred Eaglesmith.

i had known the name for quite awhile but had always dismissed him as a Nashville Hat Act.  I don't know why, I just did.  It's not that, like many Americana fans, I am adverse to mainstream country it's just I don't actively seek it out.  His name cropped up when I was asked to review Mary Gauthier's album 'Live at Blue Rock'.  Gauthier covered three Eaglesmith songs: 'Your Sister Cried', 'The Rocket' and 'Cigarette Machine', on it, the latter being one of the stand out tracks.

By way of a recommendation on the the Americana UK forum I bought 6 Volts and voted it my third best album of 2012 in the aUK writers poll.  We had to write a sentence about our ten choices; "lo fi genius" was mine.  I thought that description particularly apt for an album recorded with just a single microphone.  As such the album is sparse.  The power of Eaglesmith's lyrics hit hard; 'Betty Oshawa', 'Trucker's Speed' and 'Cigarette Machine' are all tales of folks who didn't get the easy option in life.

The resolution was to listen to a Fred Eaglesmith album a month throughout 2013.  I'm not counting 6 volts as I got it last year so that gives me 12 choices to make from another eighteen releases.  This months is 'Falling Stars and Broken Hearts', another aUk recommendation.  It is one of his 'classics' apparently.  I'll write my thoughts up next month, not an album review - I do those elsewhere- just a few words.  Until then, here's 'Cigarette Machine'.