SONG OF THE DAY

“Life Is Unbelievable” by John Southworth (The Pillowmaker, digital release, Grimsey Records, 2007).

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– John Southworth (not to be confused with the 16th English martyr) is a Canadian singer-songwriter.

– His style encompasses the full spectrum of popular song genres, from oldies-radio to folk, 80’s pop to cabaret.

– Since 1996, Southworth has released six records, his latest in 2009.

– The NY Press has described him as “delightfully eccentric, seems to have emerged out of a time vacuum”.

– Rich Terfry (of my favorite radio show) of CBC Radio 2 (aka my favorite radio channel) said, “John is to music what Guy Maddin is to film.”

– Southworth’s debut album Mars Pennsylvania, released in 1996, received rave critical acclaim. One reviewer said, “If Burt Bacharach and Bobby Vinton had a sexually ambiguous alien love child, John Southworth would be it. Damn odd music. But catchy and wonderful at the same time.” Exclaim Magazine called it “the most original Canadian debut album since Mary Margaret O’Hara’s ‘Miss America’”; the Toronto Star called him a “pop poet”.

– In 1999 Southworth released the high-energy lo-fi album Sedona Arizona, produced by fellow Canadian cohort Hawksley Workman. To promote these records, Southworth performed theatrical shows in white face with a three-piece bluegrass band. An apartment recording of the bluegrass Sedona songs would later surface on the self-released “Rose Milk Appalachia” EP in 2001.

– Southworth claimed to have stopped listening to music of any kind for a full year, before returning to a steady diet of AM-oldie radio stations and traditional ballads. This period would inspire the wide-eyed and magical Yosemite, released in 2005. “The concept of such a beautiful album cannot be readily accepted in today’s world,” said Lee Johnson in Designerpunk. Yosemite was recorded with a group of Toronto jazz and avant-garde improv musicians, consisting of Jean Martin (drums), Justin Haynes (guitar) and Andrew Downing (bass), later dubbed by Southworth as The South Seas. To promote the album, Southworth took on a persona he called “the lost child of the railroad” and completed a cross-country Canadian tour by train. Inspired by Nature artists like Andy Goldsworthy, he planted ceremonial turnip seeds along the way.

– In 2006, Southworth and The South Seas returned again to create The Pillowmaker. The record was co-produced with drummer Jean Martin and featured nineteen haunting dream-vision songs. Two of the songs have since garnered cover versions by Canadian artists Sarah Slean (“Eyes Are The Flowers” on the upcoming “Black Flowers” CD with The Art of Time Ensemble), as well as Veda Hille and Kim Barlow’s CBC Radio duet of “We Can Live Life”.

– Southworth’s sixth record, Mama Tevatron, is set for an official release in Canada in summer 2009. On his website, Southworth has described “Mama” as “divine and savage, an epic medicinal leech”.

– Southworth has taken part in the last three Art of Time Ensemble’s Source and Inspiration concerts at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, contributing original songs inspired by select Schumann, Schubert, and Korngold pieces.

– Southworth has directed Bravo-funded videos for “Life Is Unbelievable” and “First Of May”, as well as super-8 videos for “Pineapple Shoes”, “Simple Simple Boy”, and “Sunday Brunch Buffet”.

VIDEO OF THE DAY