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Sherry Fraser – Marcy Playground (1997)

I think it’s safe to say that most people know Marcy Playground because of the 1997 radio hit “Sex and Candy”, which was one of those GROSSLY overplayed songs that I was forced to hate because I heard it so much. After “Sex and Candy”, Marcy Playground only had two singles show up on the charts that were barely noticed and they have quietly kept making music ever since. But here’s the thing; that first album is FULL of great tunes that kinda got overshadowed by that big old stinky radio hit. John Wazniak is Marcy Playground and he didn’t know it at the time, but when he was writing the songs for that first album, he had a learning disability that had gone undiagnosed until much later in his life. It had always caused him troubles in school and also made the writing of the album a difficult process for him. Oddly enough he looks back on that time now and feels like his songs were scattered and fantastical because he was having a hard time even figuring out who he was, saying: “Even though I still love to tell a good story, I think I can just do it in fewer words and less — it’s hard to explain.” For me, I still listen to that album and feel that with time the songs sound even better to me now than when they first hit my ears. They are simple, catchy, smart, and fun, especially the tracks Vampires of New York and Sherry Frasier.

One Trick Pony - Paul Simon (1980)

By the time Paul Simon was 35, Simon and Grafunkel were done and he had already released two hugely successful solo albums, but he was feeling lost in a new generation of musicians who were appealing to a new population of music fans. Famously, new Columbia Records head Walter Yetnikoff did not like Paul’s music and made it clear that he had no interest in backing the music Paul had become known for and had made Columbia so much money with over the years. One phone call of note between the two ended with Yetnikoff screaming “NO! I DON’T WANT ANOTHER ALBUM OF ELIZABETHAN FOLK SONGS! AND F**K YOU!”.

So, Paul bought himself out of his contract with Columbia for about 1.5 mill and defected to Yetnikoff’s arch nemesis, Warner Records, who had promised to back a movie Paul would write and star in called “One Trick Pony”. So Paul defected to Warner ready for a new phase of his career, but the movie tanked and the album of the same name, that wasn’t quite a soundtrack but did feature songs written specifically for the movie, also didn’t do so well. Even his next album for Warner was also considered a commercial failure and it seemed like Yetnikoff and Columbia were the winners of the battle. Then in 1986, Simon released Graceland and the rest is Paul Simon and Warner Music “winning the war” history. Back to One Trick Pony; the movie is interesting because it really does mirror what Paul was going through at the time, and he played the lead of Jonah, a has-been musician lost in a new generation of music (he was hardly a has-been in real life but by the standards of his own early success certainly felt that way). The film is more appealing to people who understand the music industry, which is why it didn’t do very well, but the music that accompanied it, the One Trick Pony album, is full of amazing songs that you probably haven’t heard outside of the cut “Late in the Evening”. Check out the title track of the movie and the album and thank me another time.

On The Lookout - Kae Sun (2010)

The emergence of Drake this year has helped give some much deserved attention to a Canadian hip hop scene that has been paying its dues for a very long time. There is a unique style of hip hop in this country right now that is not only a fresh sound with elements of folk, soul, classic funk and R&B but it’s also lyrically socially conscious. It seems like the rest of the world is finally starting to take notice and one of the artists who you are going to be hearing a lot about is the Toronto-based and Ghana-native MC/poet Kae Sun. His album “Lion on A Leash” is a righteous blend of African and reggae sounds which has just been released in the US. Listen to the track “On The Lookout”, check out some of his poetry at kaesunmusic.com, and remember I told you so when he’s on the cover of Rolling Stone.

I was Just Thinking – Teitur (2003)

Teitur Lassen is a musician from the Faroe Islands, which belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, but you can just call him Teitur. Somehow, on such a small island with a population of barley 50 000 he was discovered at the age of 17 by an American music publisher, which eventually led to his first album. In 2003 he released “Poetry and Airplanes” and critics loved it, word of mouth was HUGE, and other musicians like Rufus Wainwright and John Mayer went crazy for him, but the sales were low. His music was placed in blockbuster movies, he was handpicked by artist like Wainright, Mayer, and KT Tunstell to join them on tour, but all of that wasn’t translating into him becoming the star everyone thought he should be. John Mayer wrote a column in Esquire Magazine talking about the injustice of Teitur not being a massive star and blamed it on a lack of vision by the record company. While Mayer has become known on occasion to put his foot in his mouth, he might have been onto something when he wrote that column.

Christine’s Tune – Flying Burrito Brothers (1969)

Gram Parsons died when he was just 26 years old, but left a major influence on both rock and country music with his work as a solo artist and with the International Submarine Band, The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. The success of artists like Wilco, The Black Crowes, Tom Petty, The Eagles and Ryan Adams can be traced back to the musical seeds he planted; Elvis Costello and U2 count him as an early influence and he discovered Emmylou Harris. What else do you need to know?

Before you start your Gram Parson’s journey however, you should understand a little bit about what made him tick, which I think can be summed up in the events after his death in 1973. The story goes that Parson’s had been regularly hanging out at the Joshua Tree National Monument for several years with his band mates and friends like Keith Richards, to get high, and become one with the desert. Gram made a pact with his pal Phil Kaufman that whoever died first, the other would drive their body out to their favorite part of the desert in Joshua Tree, California, and ‘set their spirit free’. In other words, cremate the body there in the desert. Two months later, Gram overdosed and Phil kept his word, stealing his friends body and setting his spirit free in his favorite place.