Tag: 2010s

Barbra Streisand & Blake Shelton | I’d Want It To Be You

“I’d Want It To Be You” is featured on Streisand’s 2014 album Partners, comprised of duets with various male vocalists. Streisand originally recorded the song with Willie Nelson, but it was not finished in time for the release so a version with country singer Blake Shelton was included instead (the Nelson cut was released in 2021.)

The track begins in Eb and shifts up a half step to E following the bridge at 2:50.

Brandy Clark | Daughter

“Brandy Clark is one of the names most identified with queer country music,” (CountryQueer.com). “An openly lesbian major-label country artist who sits comfortably in the top tier of Nashville’s finest songwriters, Clark has co-penned radio hits for years, like the groundbreaking ‘Follow Your Arrow’ for Kacey Musgraves, boldly asserting freedom of sexual preference. And Clark has famously channeled other marginalized characters in her own releases. Her influence within mainstream country music has rippled far beyond what’s suggested by mere name recognition.”

“Low-key and wry, Clark is a meticulous songwriter who made hits for Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, LeAnn Rimes and Kacey Musgraves before she put her own name on an album (NPR Tiny Desk Concerts) … But when Clark steps in front of a mic and turns on the charm, her humor pulls the audience right into every single joke … In anyone else’s hands, (‘Daughter’) might have been a bitter revenge fantasy, but Clark’s gently swooping verses and puckered choruses sketch the bemused, from-the-front-porch distance of wronged party who knows that fate is likely to do more damage to a cad than a key would ever do to his car’s glossy paint job.” Clark garnered “eleven (Grammy) nods in previous years. She was up for six trophies at the 2024 Grammy Awards (American Songwriter) … (her) impressive range as an artist landed her in three categories — Americana, country, and theater.” This week, she finally took home her first Grammy.

“Daughter,” from Clark’s 2016 release Big Day in a Small Town, makes great use of her sharp observational wit and top-drawer songcraft. The tune is built in G major overall; a transitional pre-chorus at 0:31 hides all the seams while leading us to a chorus in Bb major in 0:41. At 1:08, the next verse returns in G major and the cycle continues. There are three tunes included in this Tiny Desk concert; “Daughter” is the first, but all of them are worth a listen!

Kennedy Caughell | The Life I Never Led (from “Sister Act”)

“The Life I Never Led” is from Alan Menken and Glenn Slater’s musical Sister Act, which opened on Broadway in 2011 following a run in the West End two years earlier. The show, based on the 1992 film of the same name starring Whoopi Goldberg, tells the story of Deloris Van Cartier, a nightclub singer is forced to take refuge from the mob in a convent and introduces the choir to Motown music.

This song comes in the middle of the second act and is sung my Sister Mary Robert, who longs to leave the convent and explore what lies beyond its walls. Singer Kennedy Caughell’s performance, featured here, is from 2017. The tune begins in D and shifts up to F for the final verse at 2:26.

Darren Criss | Not Alone

Originally written for A Very Potter Musical, a parody of the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling, “Not Alone” is the final track on the debut EP by American singer/songwriter/actor Darren Criss. Criss, who co-wrote the score for the musical, also produced the EP and plays guitar for the song.

The tune begins in Bb and shifts up to C at 2:55.

I See Stars (from “Mean Girls”)

The 2004 teen comedy film Mean Girls was adapted into a musical in 2018, featuring a score by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin and a book by Tina Fey (who also wrote the original screenplay.) “I See Stars” is the finale of the show. A film adaptation of the musical will be released tomorrow.

The song begins in A and modulates up to Bb at 2:55.

Kate Yeager | Keep My Distance

American singer/songwriter Kate Yeager has performed at Radio City and Lincoln Center, and will be out on tour next month. “Furthering the lineage of artists like Carol King, Tracey Chapman, and Janis Joplin,” Yeager’s YouTube bio reads, “25-year old Kate Yeager’s lyrics and soul-infused vocals transcend stats, trends and ages.”

Her single “Keep My Distance” was released in 2019. It begins in F, modulates up half step to Gb at 2:28, and then another half step up to G at 3:00.

The Piano Guys | Can’t Help Falling In Love With You

“Jon fell in love with this song when he heard the reggae cover by UB40, one of his favorite bands,” The Piano Guys write on their website. “His arranging style often reflects the influence of the classical music and training with which he was raised. These two elements collide in this arrangement. (Think Beethoven meets UB40 with a little tounge-in-cheek thrown in for fun).

Their cover of this song, originally popularized by Elvis, is the penultimate track on their 2013 album The Piano Guys 2. It begins in C and modulates to D at 2:05.

Robert Glasper Experiment | Trust

“On Black Radio 2 (2013), the Robert Glasper Experiment attempts the near impossible: create a sequel that delivers fully on the promise of its groundbreaking, Grammy-winning predecessor,” (Qobuz). “Glasper’s group — bassist Derrick Hodge, Casey Benjamin on vocoder and synth, and drummer Mark Colenburg — again enlists a stellar cast of vocalists.

Instead of relying on covers, this set is almost entirely comprised of originals. There is an organic feel as well: there are no programmed loops on the record; everything was played live … Black Radio 2 is much more subtle than its predecessor. While it’s true that it possesses fewer standout performances, it’s wholly consistent, and on some level, it’s braver for relying on original material to carry it. It requires more listening to appreciate fully. Taken as a whole, however, it serves and fulfills the role of a sequel: the album deepens the band’s music-making aesthetic, and further establishes their sound not only as a signature, but even, perhaps, as its own genre.”

Co-written by Glasper and the track’s vocalist, Marsha Ambrosius, “Trust” starts in Eb minor; the chorus shifts into F dorian at 1:08, cycling through an incongruous but compelling G/A chord at the end of each phrase (first heard at 1:12). The short loop occurs a total of four times before the next verse begins at 1:36, reverting to the original key. The two key areas alternate from there.

Aimee Mann | Knock It Off

“Mental Illness (2017) is Aimee Mann’s quintessential statement, tempering the discord of life with elegant chamber folk,” (Pitchfork). ” … Mann doing an album called Mental Illness is a concept so fitting it took her a lifetime to find it. Having already delivered a new wave smash, scored an Academy Award nomination, recorded eight stylistically diverse solo records as well a fiesty collaboration with punk’s Ted Leo, Mann is rightfully pissed that she’s nevertheless pigeonholed as a dreary fabricator of slow, sad-sack songs. So she’s answered her critics with her slowest, sad-sack-iest album yet, one populated by ordinary people struggling against operatic levels of existential pain at odds with their humdrum lives.

Mann has long been an expert of articulating this tension. Originally written about her attraction to a woman on the down low, her 1985 ‘Til Tuesday single ‘Voices Carry’ found its defining shape when record company meddling forced Mann to recast it as a heterosexual melodrama that became a feminist anthem about overcoming male dominance. Yet no one would’ve predicted then that Mann would rank among the few new wave survivors who’d achieve both consistent sales and artistic credibility well into the 21st century … A rocker at heart if not always in practice, Mann has sometimes been muted but never mellow; her new wave training and constitutional angst haven’t allowed it. To prepare for her latest, she studied the gentle craftsmanship of Bread, Dan Fogelberg, and other unhip smoothies that punk tossed on the anti-establishment bonfire with Yes and ELP. Mental Illness is accordingly made of skeletal strings, coolly regulated commentary, and minimal drums. Juxtaposing elegant chamber folk against the discord of lives out of balance, it’s musically more delicate than even her soft rock models.”

After a start in Bb major overall, “Knock It Off” features a soft-spoken breezy bridge between 1:46 – 2:02, shifting us into Db major. Returning to Bb major for the balance of the tune, Mann decisively closes with a simple plagal cadence.