A musical tribute to Larry Brown

Day 4 of Larry Brown Week.

One needs no better indication of the mutual appreciation between Larry Brown and Americana musicians than Just One More, subtitled “a musical tribute to Larry Brown, a great American author.” The disc, which collects performances from 18 artists, is a heartfelt appreciation of Brown and his writing, but also of his vocal patronage of many of those on the collection.

In the liner notes to the disc, Brown’s widow Mary Annie writes, “I think he wished he had the talent to do music for a living.” Barring that, he channeled that desire and energy into playing guitar for fun, listening to music and writing about some of his favorite artists.

The first I knew of Brown’s interest in Americana came when I received a promo CD for a Blue Mountain album. Brown had penned the one-sheet that accompanied the disc, a mix of laudatory bio and fairly insightful analysis that showed he knew of what he wrote. He later contributed liner notes to the band’s album Homegrown, writing, “They’ve done the same thing I’ve done, practicing something over and over, for years, trying to get to the place where they want to be.”

This new disc, coming from Bloodshot Records on May 22, contains a mix of new and old songs. Of the 18, 10 are new, most of those seemingly written specifically for this compilation. Those are the best songs here, particularly Scott Miller’s “Thirsty Fingers,” Brent Best’s “Robert Cole” and Ben Weaver’s “Here’s to My Disgrace.” Brown’s novelist peer Madison Smartt Bell joins with musician Wyn Cooper on the fitting “Going Down with Larry Brown,” while Jim Dickinson and Duff Dorrough tackle Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Remember You.”

A couple of previously released songs stand out as well. Alejandro Escovedo’s “Baby’s Got New Plans” is offered in a previously unreleased live recording, while Cary Hudson, former leader of Blue Mountain, offers “Song in C” from his most recent solo album, which talks of “lowriding with Larry Brown.”

The disc was compiled by Tim Lee, who contributes the track “The Bridge” with his wife, Susan Bauer Lee. Tim is a talented singer-songwriter who once co-fronted (and occasionally still does) the wonderful Southern pop group the Windbreakers. He writes in the liner notes that “you didn’t need to know Larry well to have a keen awareness of his love of music, and he strongly believed in walking that road on which music and literature co-exist.”

That road is extended here on this disc. What at first feels like a slightly disjointed collection of songs begins to cohere around one feeling: an overwhelming respect for Brown and his work. Lee answered a few questions about the disc recently, which follow.

TIRBD: How did you choose the artists who appear: did you put out word and then have people get in touch, or did you approach specific artists?

TL: We started out with a list of artists we felt would be interested, starting with Mississippi musicians, friends of Larry’s and folks we knew Larry was a fan of. From the beginning, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone loved the concept and wanted to be involved. As we progressed, artists would mention other artists and the initial list grew pretty quickly.

We started out with the notion that we’d approach 18 or 20 artists and hopefully come away with a dozen or so songs. In the end, we had over 20 tracks contributed and only room for 18 on the actual disc. The extra songs will be available with the digital download version, and there is a limited edition bonus disc with eight songs on it.

How and why were the actual songs chosen? Some are new and clearly influenced by Brown’s work, but others have been out there a while.

I generally left that up to the individual artists. Some went with already existing recordings because of time limitations. Others felt strongly about writing songs specifically for the project. Some had Larry Brown-related tracks on hand. Cary Hudson’s “Song in C” had already been recorded for his latest record, but it was such an obvious choice, we had to use it. Caroline Herring and Scott Miller wrote specifically for the compilation. Alejandro Escovedo chose a live version of “Baby’s Got New Plans,” because he knew it was one of Larry’s favorites. It seems like it was almost a different circumstance for every artist.

Why was Brown so beloved by musicians?

This is a tough question. This was addressed on the “Larry Brown and Music” panel during the Oxford Conference for the Book in March. Several musicians tried to answer this one, and they all had different answers. When I first contacted Bo Ramsey about the project, he said he “hears a lot of blues in Larry’s writing.” I like that statement. Others say it’s the terse quality of Larry’s writing that songwriters relate to. You could probably ask 20 musicians and get 20 different answers.

How would you characterize him as a music fan and/or someone who wrote about music?

Larry was just a guy who loved music. Like his wife, Mary Annie, says, if he could’ve been a musician, he probably would’ve given up the writing. But I think he felt music in a way that few non-musicians do, you know? He wasn’t simply a frustrated musician; he was someone who related to music and had the writing talent to express that relationship in words. When he wrote about music, he had an uncanny ability to relate the music-listening experience. I always felt like I was standing next to him in those bars, listening to those bands with a cold longneck in my hand.