New Feist - "Somewhere Down The Road"
At 37, songwriter Jesse Harris is carving out a place in the pantheon of notably covered artists with his latest record of tunes, the soundtrack to the upcoming Ethan Hawke written/directed film The Hottest State. Known well as the man who penned much of Norah's Come Away With Me (grabbing the Grammy for "Don't Know Why"), Jesse was asked by good friend Ethan to provide songs for the flick, and the resulting crop of tunes inspired Ethan to get all conceptual:
From our first conversation, I was overwhelmed by the quality of Jesse's songwriting and how perfectly matched it was to my aspirations for the tone and mood of the film. An idea began to develop: What if we scored the film entirely with original songs written by Jesse and performed by contemporary artists hand-picked to match certain scenes? To my mind this would give the entire film a continuity of authorship while still providing massive shifts in energy.Sounds like a cool idea, and it got a lot cooler once Willie, Bright Eyes. M. Ward, Cat Power, Brad Mehldau, et al signed on. Now Ethan's got a buzzy soundtrack and Jesse's looking even more like a songwriting treasure. And of course, no collection of indie rootsy-ness is complete without reigning queen of sultry acoustic meanderings, lovely Leslie.
For "Somewhere Down The Road," Feist sounds like she's delivering an outtake from The Reminder sessions: faint hints of glockenspiel, some horns, and a gentle shaker flesh out her chill, coffee-shop jazz spin on Harris's tune. Add a little Wurlitzer through the bridge and you've got yourself a bona fide Feist lullabye, smooth and true. Pretty.
[Pic from Feist @ Town Hall 6/12/07]
The Hottest State Soundtrack is out 8/7 via Hickory. Tracklist below.
01. Rocha"Ya No Te Veria Mas (Never See You)"
02. Willie Nelson - "Always Seem to Get Things Wrong"
03. Feist - "Somewhere Down the Road"
04. Bright Eyes - "Big Old House"
05. Emmylou Harris - "The Speed of Sound"
06. Jesse Harris - "It Will Stay With Us"
07. The Black Keys - "If You Ever Slip"
08. M. Ward - "Crooked Lines"
09. Norah Jones - "World of Trouble"
10. Brad Mehldau - "Never See You"
11. Cat Power - "It's Alright to Fail"
12. Jesse Harris - "One Day The Dam Will Break"
13. Tony Scherr - "You, The Queen"
14. "Morning In A Strange City (Cafe)" (score)
15. Rocha - "No More
16. Jesse Harris - "Dear Dorothy"
17. Rocha - "Never See You"
18. "There Are No Second Chances" (score)
Posted at 5:43 PM
Tags: Feist | Jesse Harris
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Don't forget about Jesse Harris's (very) own new album "Feel," which comes out July 10 (same day as the Pumpkins, Chris & Rich Robinson's new one, among other notable releases that day). I have it, got to listen to some of it, and will have my review of it up on my own site soon enough, BTW.
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"Add a little Wurlitzer through the bridge and you've got yourself a bona fide Feist lullabye, smooth and true. Pretty."
Ms. Feist can sing me to sleep anytime.
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word to Christopher
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oh someone please post a downloadable version of this. she's too lovely!
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Why does the Amazon link go to "Since Then: How I Survived Everything and Lived to Tell About it" by David Crosby?
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surreptitious crosby love?
there's no good explanation for that, colin. old links die hard, i guess. it's better now, thanks!
(*buy crosby*)
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Jesus, this voice...
she can do no wrong.
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wow. i love this. that soundtrack looks wicked awesome.
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The Feist song and a few of the others are streaming at the Hottest State MySpace page: http://myspace.com/thehotteststate
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