Digging for Something with Nick from Earnestness Is Underrated
Overlooked, underrated, over-hated or regionally specific gems.
I’m reaching out and asking writers, band members and music curators to tip us all off to their favourite underrated albums, overlooked or unfairly obscure gems… even the downright over-hated. Hopefully it’s another fun way for you to find some new-to-you music to love.
Joining me today is Nick from Earnestness Is Underrated!
They’ve provided an introduction regarding their picks:
I want to thank Dan for the initiation. Putting this list together ended up having a surprising impact on me for two reasons. First, Dan’s note that, “generally the more obscure the better” (which I didn’t entire follow) prompted me to think about some albums which were significant in my childhood and mostly unknown now. Second, I decided to take the idea of albums seriously. If I was going to recommend these, I thought, I should re-listen through the entire album. All of these put me a reflective mood; they all feel like sharing time with someone engaged in music and effort of creation.
People sometimes complain about how the modern world of streaming music makes it easy to have a short attention span, and switch to something else whenever interest flags. I admit, I don’t often listen to complete albums these days, and I certainly can’t remember the last time I intentionally listened to five complete albums over a couple of days (actually seven, because I changed my selections as I listened). It felt like immersing myself in a different era of listening. None of them feel manufactured, or over-produced. They are very human. I can happily recommend all of these (each with it’s own stronger and weaker tracks, of course); my selections are idiosyncratic but, for anyone reading this, even if they don’t strike your fancy I’d still encourage you to pick an album you loved 20 years ago and listen all the way through.
After mulling it over, I would offer the following to explain why I selected these specific albums. It’s easy to think of consensus great albums as summits — peaks that tower above the musical landscape. I would argue that each of these are also peaks. They may not rise as high but I can say with conviction that each of them offer a good perch to sit and survey the surroundings. Each of these albums contain songs that feel as good as they can be — that make me think either, “that’s the best version of that song that I’ve heard” or, “I don’t see how that song could be improved; it feels fully realized” and that’s no small accomplishment.
And now, let’s get to their album recommendations:
Bill Staines - Whistle Of The Jay (1979, Folk-Legacy)
Genres: Contemporary Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Nick says:
I’ve decided to put these in chronological order which ends up starting with, possibly, the most challenging of the 5. It sounds older than 1979, and at first listen might sound boring or too simple. The production and arrangements are plain, but the songwriting is exceptional. Bill Staines was described in the liner notes as, “a singing, songwriting solivigant1 … He writes for all of us, and his love for the land through which he wanders finds sure expression in his songs.” His best known song is “Roseville Fair” which was covered by Nanci Griffith. He describes it as “a song about falling in love — and staying in love.” His version captures the “staying” part quite well; a rarer sentiment in love songs2.
This album is particularly significant for two songs I remember from my childhood. Growing up I heard “Rivers of Texas” as a lullaby and I don’t know for sure but suspect my father learned it from this recording. Also, I had a few moments of being surprised to learn that some song that I’d learned early and thought of something that had existed forever was written and recorded by a specific person, not that long ago. Among them “Magic Penny” (Malvina Reynolds) and “Place In The Choir” from this album.
Dan says:
A lot of these songs feel very familiar in a cozy way, immediately “Missouri Road Song” sounds like something I’ve heard that I can’t put my finger on.
Jim Pepper - Comin’ And Goin’ (1983, Antilles)
Genre: Jazz Fusion, Powwow Music
Nick says:
I’m not generally a fan of either Jazz or Indigenous music of North America, but I think this is a fantastic album. I heard the cover of “Witchi-tai-to” by Brewer & Shipley, and was curious about the original. That lead me to this album which is I dearly love—I would say this is the most important and significant of the albums I’ve selected today.
Jim Pepper’s saxophone is in the Smithsonian museum for good reason; his playing and tone are really distinctive, and something about it feels really powerful and personal about it.
This provides some of the history behind the album:
“[Don Cherry] was always looking for Indians who can play jazz. Hey, we’re a really small minority.” . . . In 1971 [Jim Pepper] left New York “for six months and stayed away for 11 years.” He taught school in Portland, worked odd gigs with bands in the Northwest and fished for a living in Alaska, where he began to do social work with Indian children.
…
In Portland in 1979, Pepper got a call from Don Cherry, who exclaimed: “Man, I finally found you. I’ve been looking for you for years.” They began to work together, toured West Africa together for the U.S. Information Service in 1982. Working with Cherry “gave me a lot of credibility in New York” and, making up his mind to pay the psychic price, he moved back there. He met Jean-Pierre Weiller, a young French producer who had just set up a small, independent American label called Europa Records that would treat artists with respect.
Dan says:
Pepper’s previous album Pepper's Pow Wow from 1971 definitely seems a bit more on some people’s radar (still only 158 ratings on Rate Your Music, but 8 text reviews on there isn’t nothing either). I’m not sure I’ve ever heard an album that so interestingly juxtaposes its traditional elements with its jazz/fusion ones. Really fascinating the way this features straight-forward traditional music and then moves into fusion, then later mixes both. It is very well paced in that regard.
Kirsty MacColl - What Do Pretty Girls Do (1995, Hux)
Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Pop Rock
Nick says:
This is probably the least obscure selection. I’ve seen some very nice tributes to Kirsty MacColl on Substack, but most of them don’t mention this album which isn’t well known and collects her performances on the BBC.
It includes my favorite performances of “My Affair”, “Bad”, “Can’t Stop Killing You”, and (particularly) “Free World” and great versions of “What Do Pretty Girls Do”, “ "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" and “Walk Right Back.” I agree completely with the Allmusic summary "BBC sets are always fun for fans, but for an artist like MacColl, who has always shied away from live performance and whose albums have always been meticulously produced, this one is particularly revealing. She sounds relaxed and, the sheer quality of the songs (and her voice) is made even more apparent in this straightforward, no-frills setting."
This is the only one of the five which wasn’t originally recorded as an album, but it still fits clearly within my mood of making music at a personal scale.
Dan says:
My prior experience with Kirsty MacColl is mainly “Fairytale of New York”. A duet from them and Billy Bragg together is unsurprisingly very great, as is their version of “A New England.” Surprised I had never heard “Free World” until today, either.
Sylvia Herold - Bowl Of Crystal Tears (1997, Tuxedo)
Genres: Folk, World Music, Country
Nick says:
An album of mostly traditional music3.
I listened to this album a lot in college. It’s tricky to know where to start because for so many of the songs this is the version that I think of as definitive and “that’s just how that song is supposed to go.” This is another album which might come across as blandly tasteful folk on a first impression, but she really sings the songs incredibly well. The first two tracks are particularly gorgeous tunes.
Sylvia Herold writes in the liner notes:
“Songs are intriguing packages to be learned and sung. I find endless pleasure in examining them from different angles, searching for hidden treasures. Sometimes I don’t feel like analyzing but just want to luxuriate in the sensations of singing . . .
For the past decade I’ve been pursuing my passion for American popular songs of the ‘30s and ‘40s, recording four albums with the swing vocal trio Cats & Jammers. Nevertheless my experience with other genres only renews my appreciation for narrative folk songs.
The melodies of these songs are beautiful, yet the words fascinate me the most. Epic tales are told in tidy fashion. We learn the protagonists life story and watch the unfolding of a pivotal scene. . . . I find singing these songs gratifying and never tire of them. I am especially drawn to the sad ones, and this album has a high percentage of them. I don’t sing these songs to feel bad; quite the opposite. Sometimes the sadder the song, the more satisfying and uplifting it is. So, by now, I should be very happy indeed.”
The notes on the songs are brief but informative, and I particularly like her note on the closing track, “When I Was In My Prime” which gives a sense of her relationship with the material.
From a traditional standpoint, we have to take this song at face value. This woman truly believes that her life is ruined, her youth and virtue are gone. From a more modern perspective, I can imagine a woman indulging in a delicious bout of dramatics and self-pity over a failed love affair. The flowers represent different types of love and lend the song a psychedelic ambiance. I heard this one sung by Jacqui McShee on a Pentangle album.4
Dan says:
Definitely something that sits very outside of the ordinary in terms of my day-to-day listening, but that I can appreciate.
Dan Bryk - Lover's Leap (2000, Scratchie)
Nick says:
A pop album! We close with a change of pace; this is one of my best (and only) finds from scouting the discount CD bin. I bought it knowing nothing about it, and am convinced that it’s a minor masterpiece.
Robert Christagu said: “Four of the first five tracks on this fat Canadian's Fountains of Wayne-scouted, Smashing Pumpkins-financed U.S. debut are the gemlike acts of idiosyncratic genius pop nerds are forever discerning on the recordings of other pop nerds. After that, … a bunch of the kind of craftsmanship nerds swear by and normal people forget before the next one's over. But the legendary computer programmer, the predatory piano player, the ex who doesn't mean a thing to him tonight, and all the chunky girls who slide their reassuring hands along his ample hips are four more proofs of just how exaggerated reports of song's demise remain. A-”
I disagree with him somewhat. The first two songs are an amazing pair describing his teenage years — his affection for computer games and BBSs and then his story about being sexually assaulted by an man who played piano. The latter is stark and heartbreaking and perhaps nothing could easily follow it, but “She Doesn’t Mean A Thing To Me Tonight” feels like too much bravado as if an attempt to move past the uncomfortable intimacy of the prior song. Two of my favorites are “Spadina Expressway” (about feeling like an abandoned highway project says something about the difficulties of life, and coming to peace with feeling incomplete or unfinished) and “The Letter Home” which contains one of my favorite lyrics about being young and in love but also uncertain. “Where we lay boring and bored / hoping to be ignored.”
Bryk has spoken about his experience as a niche artist:
[DB:] Sometimes I do wonder aloud when I’m writing, “do you ever expect anyone to want to sleep with you again after singing this?” but I guess I’m a glutton for punishment, a confessional songwriter, as opposed to a professional. Perhaps I’m secretly one of those self-flagellating priests and playing “Fingers” for a room of unsuspecting teenagers waiting for Hayden or [Fountains of Wayne] to come on and share their post-adolescent feelings is like some crazy auto da fe, my own little heresy on the clichés of pop music. Guess I’m just a little too sensitive.
…
PM: What is the most comical thing about your music in your mind?
DB: That I get away with it, most of the time. There’s two extremes, of either pandering to the audience or actively making them uncomfortable, and I guess I swing between those a little bit. That’s pretty funny.
Dan says:
Really interesting that—despite this orbiting around my exact genre planets (off-kilter pop music by nerds, Fountains of Wayne-adjacent)—it has eluded me. Worse, as a Canadian I have to admit I basically had no idea this existed. Some really good tunes on here! “Bound to Be Happy” might be the sleeper hit of the album for me. I might actually say the B-side is sneakily stronger than the more immediate A-side.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
Footnotes by Nick:
Not a word I recognized; defined as “a solitary wanderer” or “solivagant comes from Latin for ‘alone-going’. You know soli from solus, known to us as solo. Vagant comes from vago, ‘I wander’, also seen in vagabond; it has wandered far and wide, making, among others, French vague ‘wave’ and English vague ‘vague’. It looks like Swedish våga ‘dare’ but is not related. It may also lead you to vagrant, a word for a less raffish sort of vagabond, which came by way of Old French and Frankish and Old High German from the same ancient Proto-Indo-European root that gives us walk but, oddly, seems not to be the same root as gave us vago – though we don’t know where they came from before that: paths converge and diverge.”
This recent cover (and video) also highlight that sentiment in a lovely way.
The one exception is “The Widow’s Promise” of which she writes, “In this song, the devil challenges a woman to a sexual contest — with predictable results. Songwriter Mick Ryan claims to have been inspired by “The Hite Report” on female sexuality.
Thanks again for the invitation, and for listening to all five albums. I'm glad you liked them and found them interesting to explore and, since you asked for obscure albums, I'm glad that I could share some that you hadn't heard before.
Oddly, no. But i don't usually seek out live sets like that. Her albums, however, get frequent spins, especially Kites