Song of the Week: Dillard and Clark Expedition -- Polly

We present to you today a beautiful song that we have previously been reluctant to post on this site. We were hesitant because the song is so nuanced and so mellow, that we have feared the click-happy listener won't take the time to get it. But bollocks to the click happy world. This is a great song that you need to hear!

The song is Polly by the Dillard And Clark Expedition, a proto-alt country band that featured the former Byrds frontman, Gene Clark. We think so much of his work that he is only the third artist to get a repeat posting. [In fact, for a detailed history of Gene Clark, we strongly encourage you to read the article from two years ago about his song, Out On The Side, which can be accessed by clicking here.]

Polly is from the Dillard And Clark Expedition's second, and final, album, Through The Morning, Through The Night. It's one of the two songs from the 1969 album, along with the stellar title track, that was later covered by the Robert Plant, Alison Krauss collaboration album entitled Raising Sand. An excellent album produced by T-Bone Burnett, whom we suspect of bringing the songs to the table. With all due respect to the Plant/Krauss cover of this rare gem, I much prefer the Gene Clark version. Where Plant's performance is dark and brooding and heightens the sense of a stalker as our protagonist, Clark sings the song with a sense of loss and sadness that speaks nicely to a protagonist filled with the lament of "what could have been?".

If the wild bird could speak, he'd tell of places you have been

He's been in my dreams and he knows all the ways of the wind.

Polly come home again. Spread your wings to the wind.

I felt much of the pain as it begins.

The violin work of Byron Berline adds to that sense of sadness of loss and matches the acoustic guitar arpeggios at 1:22 and again at the end of the song, ever so nicely. We hope you take time to sit back and listen to this one without obstruction.

Greg Cartwright: Right as Reign

Listen - Greg Cartwright performs Polly Anne and Time Bomb High School

About a year and a half ago, my wife Jane and I took a no-kids weekend trip to Asheville, NC, to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. At dinner that Saturday at an Indian restaurant I told Jane that one reason I had been curious about Asheville was that Greg Cartwright had relocated his family there from his native Memphis a couple years earlier. Over the past few years I had explored Cartwright’s records with the Reigning Sound (and some of his earlier work with the Oblivians and Compulsive Gamblers), and had been impressed by a Reigning Sound show in DC in 2004, particularly by Cartwright’s impassioned vocals and economical guitar work on a left-handed Gretsch Tennessean.

With Cartwright as the leader and only constant member, the Reigning Sound has put out four studio records and a couple of live discs since 2001. In his spare time he has also done production work for the Detroit Cobras and others, and he wrote songs for and played on the 2007 comeback album by Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las. Since the early 90s he has channeled his vast record collection, heavy on Memphis soul, doo-wop, and 60s garage and girl groups, into dozens of gritty songs and many more sweaty live shows.

On our way out of the restaurant a family waited to enter. I immediately recognized the dad as the man himself. Had he been summoned by our conversation? Cartwright’s wife, kids, and in-laws seemed genuinely shocked that I knew who he was, much less that I was a fan. "This is so cool!" said his young son at the effect his dad's music had on a complete stranger. As we were leaving, Cartwright told us he would be dj-ing at a bar that night. Six hours later Jane and I found ourselves in a dive called The Admiral watching a dozen or so college kids groove to the ultra-obscure (and totally great) soul and garage 45s Cartwright spun from his corner perch. I wanted to beam every music-loving friend I had to that spot right then.

Last year the Reigning Sound released Love and Curses, their best record yet. The finely detailed and compassionate character sketch "Polly Anne" shows the depth of Cartwright's songwriting. The one minute and 36 second title track from the 2002 release Time Bomb High School is a more characteristic blast of punk-inflected rock n roll with a noticeable Memphis edge to the vocal and brief guitar break.

Between family responsibilities and day jobs, the Reigning Sound don't play that often away from their home turf, but if and when they do make it to your neck of the woods, don't miss 'em.