Lee Hazlewood lived from July 9, 1929 until August 4,
2007. He is known for his work with
guitarist Duane Eddy in the late 1950’s and with singer Nancy Sinatra in the
1960’s. He wrote and produced her #1
US/UK hit ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’.
Lee had a baritone voice and his sound was described as Cowboy
Psychedelia or Saccharine Underground.
He released his concept album TROUBLE IS A LONESOME TOWN in 1963. A few years back Charles Normal (younger
brother of the late Larry Norman) discovered the album in a secondhand junk
shop in Oslo, Norway. He couldn’t stop
playing it! Fast forward to 2013 and
under the moniker Thriftstore Masterpiece Normal and friends released their
version of the album on SideOneDummy Records¸albeit more fully
orchestrated. Normal produced, arranged,
and engineered the album, and played various instruments on it.
Each song begins with a narration by Normal’s mailman Jerry
Albertini. At the start of the album, he
tells us most of the people living in the small town of Trouble are good and
bad most of the time. The narrator says
when he was ten he found a friend. The
first song ‘Long Black Train’ is an upbeat musical mishmash of styles. Frank Black of Pixies fame delivers the
vocals, while Scott Gerweck plays trumpet.
Here are some of the words: “Back when I was ten Jim was my best
friend/We’d go down to the station and watch the trains come in/Someday I told
my friend/We’ll ride that train and then we’ll make a fortune for ourselves and
we’ll ride it home again/The long black train (2X)”. Unfortunately Jim gets in trouble for robbing
a bank. The narrator then starts to
describe a guy in the town of Trouble that people can barely stand to look at
as he looks so beat up. ‘Ugly Brown’ has
Larry Norman on lead vocals (it’s good to hear him again), Charles Normal on
guitar, mandolin, and synth, and Silver Sorenson on upright bass. It has a saloon music feel to it. The lyrics are depressing, almost as if the
song could fit on Larry’s SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SON project: “Nobody loves me
in this town, this town (2X)/When they have parties, they never invite me/Even
my own dog bites me/They call me, they call me/Ugly Brown/Nobody wants me in
this town, this town/I won’t swim in the river and that’s a fact/ Cause every
time I come out they keep throwing me back/They call me, they call me Ugly
Brown”.
‘Son of a Gun’ has a slow, moody feel to it. The vocals are handled by Frank Black and his
eight year old son Julian Clark. The
song speaks of how we tend to stereotype people: “It hurts to be told when
you’re not very old/That you’re an outlaw’s son/And the older you get/They
won’t let you forget/That you’re the son of a gun/A bad, bad gun, you son of a
gun/And then you’ll meet someone so sweet/And she says her heart you have
won/But her old dad gets awfully mad/She’ll marry no son of a gun/A bad, bad
gun/That son, son of a gun”. The
narrator then tells us about an undertaker named Sleepy and his assistant
Charlie who has a unique drinking problem.
‘We all make the Flowers Grow’ features Kristin Blix’s tender,
compelling vocals, and Jason Carter on percussion. Musically, it sounds like you’re in the
Caribbean! The lyrics reflect realistically
on our mortality: “Cowards and heroes, listen my friends/If you have money or
nothing to spend/It’ll make no difference in a hundred years or so/Sooner or
later, we all make the little flowers grow”.
‘Run Boy Run’ finds Frank Black on vocals, Kristin Blix
harmonizing, and William Slater on piano.
It is a fast, catchy, old country number, about a criminal: “You were
born by a railroad track/Never knew your ma and your pa ain’t comin’ back/Had
to make your way the best you can/But you didn’t have to steal from another
man/Run boy, run boy, run boy run/They’re gonna get you boy, run boy
run.../Shot a man for nothin’ and away you run/Wanted in most every state from
here to Tennessee/If you’re caught you’ll do your running hanging from a
tree”. Next, the narrator tells us about
George and Orville, two brothers who keep stealing from each other in
Trouble. Pete Yorn is on lead
vocals. He has toured with Coldplay and
collaborated with Scarlett Johansson.
Kristin Blix provides harmony vocals.
The track ‘Six Feet of Chain’ is a sarcastic song about incarceration:
“He can climb up a mountain so high/He can run, he can jump, he can fly/He can
have plenty, fortune, and fame/If he can do it on six feet of chain”.
The narrator tells us people argue over whether the railroad
was a good thing for Trouble or not.
Appropriately, the next song is called ‘The Railroad’. It has a playful pop sound. Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse) is on vocals,
while Charles Normal provides glockenspiel and samples. Here are some of the lyrics: “Workin’ on the
railroad all day long/Workin’ on the railroad I sing this song/Sing about an
old love I once knew/Sing about an old love or maybe two.../I drove a lotta hot
steel in my time//I drink a lot of stuff they call moonshine/I got me a lady in
every town/Workin’ on the railroad, never settle down”. The narrator informs us that Anna Mae
Stilwell is the best looking woman in Trouble.
A slow rock song ‘Look at that Woman’ is up next. It finds Courtney Taylor-Taylor of The Dandy
Warhols on lead and Fathead on backup vocals.
These lyrics remind us that looks can be deceiving: “Face like a
child/Body so nice/Eyes like an angel/Heart cold as ice/Look at that woman/She
seems so fine/I wish that woman was anybody else but mine/She can’t cook and
she can’t love/She ain’t worth a dime/I wish that woman was anybody else but mine”.
‘Peculiar Guy’ is the hardest rocker on the album. Eddie Argos delivers vocals that put me in
mind of Mick Jagger. Charles Normal
plays a mean electric guitar. The song
tells quite a tale: “I worked with my team and I soon grew as rich as the land/The
woman called Red learned to love me as I loved the land/My valley turned green,
my mountain smiled down from the sky/But a lion lured my mountain and a lion is
a peculiar guy/One morning the lion came down from his kingdom I owned/He
killed the woman called Red then left me alone/My valley turned brown, my
mountain didn’t seem so high/Cause a lion lured my mountain and that lion was a
peculiar guy/I climbed up my mountain and buried the woman called Red/I emptied
my gun in the back of that lion’s head”.
The narrator says you won’t find Trouble on any map, but if you take
three steps in any direction, you’ll be there.
Larry Norman performs the lead vocals with a country flare on the
closing title track. Charles provides
strings. Here are some of the words:
“Lord, I’d like to leave this town (2X)/But I guess I’ll hang around/Yes, I
guess I’ll hang around/Trouble is a lonesome town (2X)/Trouble is where I was
born/Trouble is where I am from.../Trouble is where I belong (2X)/Oh Lord,
trouble”.
What a delightful album of cohesive, imaginative stories
this is! It is great to meet all these
interesting characters from Trouble.
Fans of Johnny Cash’s storytelling should give this one a listen. Musically, it is a diverse, creative success! It is never boring. Charles Normal is very talented and I look
forward to whatever his next project may be.
I’m rating TROUBLE IS A LONESOME TOWN 90%. For more info visit: www.thriftstoremasterpiece.com
and www.larrynorman.com.