Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 9-22-22

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Today’s playlist celebrates the September 21 birthday of Leonard Cohen, inadvertently missed the other day; the September 22 birthdays of Joan Jett, Nick Cave, Whitesnake’s David Coverdale, Mystikal, Toni Basil, Right Said Fred’s Richard Fairbrass, The Rentals’ Matt Sharp, Debby Boone, Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano, Marlena Shaw, Martin Solveig, The Jones Girls’ Shirley Jones, Timebox’s Mike Patto, and Pat Suzuki; and the September 23 birthdays of Bruce Springsteen, John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Ani DiFranco, The Whispers’ Walter and Wallace Scott, Jermaine Dupri, Freeez’s John Rocca, K’s Choice’s Sam Bettens, Paul Petersen, Anya Marina, and Mary Kay Place.

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Happy Australia Day – Twenty Australian Music Acts You Should Know

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Today is Australia Day, unless you are in Australia, in which case it was yesterday, because by the time I post this it will be tomorrow there, which is their today but our tomorrow. Therefore, our today is Australia Day, which makes no sense, really, as the holiday is celebrated in Australia, where, as I pointed out, today is tomorrow, the day after Australia Day.

Australia Day commemorates the day the British proclaimed sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of the country/continent, or at least that’s what someone entered in Wikipedia.

Today’s playlist is made up of twenty acts that hail from Australia. Before anyone asks, AC/DC’s music is not on Spotify, hence their exclusion.

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I auditioned for American Idol

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In February 2002 my friend Sophie and I auditioned to be the hosts of a new US television series based on the successful UK show Pop Idol. On American Idol, amateur singers competed against each other and the public voted for the winner.

I’ve never seen American Idol. It’s not because I’m bitter I didn’t get the job. I have a different opinion than many of the show’s viewers as to what constitutes good singing. Being loud and hitting high notes do not necessarily make for great singing. A great singer is expressive, feeling the words they are singing. Aretha Franklin and Adele are two singers who can belt and hit a wide range of notes. They also know when to sing softly or when not to let vocal gymnastics get in the way of the song. They are great singers. Bob Dylan and Tom Waits are also great singers. They own their material. They feel their material. They live their material (more accurately, the personas they put forth for each song lives the material).

Dylan and Waits are also great songwriters. Dylan is the better-known of the two, but as today is Waits’ birthday, I’m going to focus on him. His songs have been recorded by a diverse group of artists, including Elvis Costello, Eagles, The Ramones, Johnny Cash, The Pogues, Solomon Burke, Steve Earle, Marianne Faithfull, The Neville Brothers, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Norah Jones, Bette Midler, Bruce Springsteen and Neko Case, the latter two appearing on today’s playlist with Waits covers. His sole US top forty hit on the Billboard Hot 100 was not as an artist, but as the writer of “Downtown Train,” which Rod Stewart took to the top ten in 1990.

Today’s Tom Waits-inspired playlist kicks off with the singer-songwriter’s version of that one hit. Enjoy!