Stella Hurt

[johnfoyle]

This song would appear to be about Teddy Grace (1905-1992), born Stella Gloria Crowson. The Oxford American told her story in one of their music specials -

http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/conten ... rrentIssue




Edit-
Nov. '09 - The Teddy Grace feature no longer seems to be online. I'll paste in a scan from the print edition ASAP.

[wordnat]

WTF??? LOL

[E*C*RIDER]

A fascinating story. I'm loving 'Stella Hurt' - that kicks off side two with a real crunch, but now having read this yarn i'm totally stunned by the song. Thanks John.

[johnfoyle]

Listening to the digital download VERY LOUD I'm kept thinking - Hey Bulldog! . Inspired , perhaps, by their cover of it in their early '07 tour , Steve Nieve's Grand Piano part on this is a straight lift/homage to the Lennon piano part on the 1967 Beatle recording. Playing them back to back and I'm even hearing bass sounds that are common to both. Whatever - this track just grows 'n grows on me.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/goingson

New Yorker

April 29, 2008
Elvis, Teddy, and Nick

The new Elvis Costello album is out, sort of. Costello released “Momofuku,” his most recent studio effort, on vinyl last week, which is kind of like not releasing it at all. Within a week or so, it will be available for download, and then it will appear on CD, but, for now, the album exists only for the handful of fans who managed to convince their local record stores to order the LP and the handful of critics who received copies and had generous colleagues with working turntables convert it to digital files by means of witchcraft. “Momofuku,” which the liner notes explain is not officially affiliated with the restaurant of the same name, is Costello’s first straightforward pop-rock offering in a little while. The opener, “No Hiding Place,” rips into the Internet generation and blog culture—which is, ironically, the only place people are discussing the album so far. “American Gangster Time” and “Drum and Bone” are typically wordy rockers. “My Three Sons” is a sometimes maudlin ballad. It’s a rich enough album to deserve a real review, of course.

The most intriguing song, at least after a few listens, is “Stella Hurt,” a portrait of the thirties swing and blues singer Teddy Grace. Grace, who was born into privileged white Louisiana society—she grew up on a forty-eight-acre pecan orchard in Arcadia—went on to sing in several orchestras in the South before a series of illnesses, bad marriages, and professional frustrations ground her career to a halt. Stella Hurt was Grace’s final married name, and the name she went by when she died in a nursing home in California in the early nineties. (For a more complete consideration of her life and work, here is an excellent article from the Oxford American.) Costello’s bio-song isn’t swing or blues; it’s straight-ahead rock with a vicious central riff, on guitar and piano both, that sounds like a devilish version of Bob Dylan’s “Solid Rock.” Topically, the song is a close cousin to Nick Lowe’s classic “Marie Provost,” which related the story of Marie Prevost, a silent-film actress who died in her apartment of alcoholism and starvation and was chewed up by her dogs. (Lowe’s immortal chorus: “She was a winner / Who became a doggie’s dinner.”) Grace’s life was far less tragic; you can see her here singing “Swing Makes the World Go Round” with the Mal Hallett Orchestra.—Ben Greenman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsRRTHXD ... s/goingson

[johnfoyle]

I emailed the Oxford American journalist who wrote the feature on Teddy Grace ; I told him of our interest. He replied -


Mon, 2 Jun 2008
Hello John,

I was thrilled to hear that Mr. Costello was listening to Teddy Grace. Now that he's written a song inspired by her life, I hope more folks will be tuned into her music.

I'd love to go on, but I'm in the thick of a deadline crunch this week (putting together the next OXFORD AMERICAN SOUTHERN DVD), but I'll try to return to the board later to give some more details about Teddy. In the meantime, I'm going to forward your e-mail to David McCain, who is THE authority on all things Teddy....

Best and thanks,

Derek

[johnfoyle]

A rather slight reason for updating this thread, but last year's Oxford American 'Music Issue' did prompt Elvis to write a song so let's see if this year's one does the same.


http://www.villagerecords.com/product_i ... ts_id=5324

OXFORD AMERICAN MAGAZINE
MUSIC ISSUE 2008
(extract)

...the previous nine issues this magazine has provided us with some of the most essential writing and portraits of music we’ve ever read. Nothing is ever “tossed off” with a deadline in mind. These writings are both literate and passionate from beginning to end. For this anniversary edition they are including a two CD set of music to accompany your reading. Disc one contains songs from artists that have been featured before, but by different tracks. Disc two features all new tracks and artists.

This product will be in stock on Tuesday 25 November, 2008.


It doesn't seem to available from the magazine's site yet -

http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/

[johnfoyle]

This arrived here yesterday and it's as good as the blurb says. See for yourself - the magazine's site -

http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/index.cfm

- has links to a few sample articles.

Endlessly fascinating accounts of musicians that not even I have heard of! Right now I'm checking up on Patrick Sky , after reading Sven Birkerts account of this 1960's folk obscurity.

http://www.wirz.de/music/skyfrm.htm

[johnfoyle]

It's that time of year again -

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/ ... sic-issue/


ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH: "Record Player" by Haley Jane Samuelson, from her series Another Room (2009), courtesy of Hous Projects, NYC.

Coming DECEMBER FIRST, 2009: Our Eleventh Annual Southern Music Issue, with two CDs. What does this mean? It means the PERFECT, stress-free holiday gift is just around the corner. Okay, “perfect” is too much. We’ll go instead with Peter Gurlanick’s concept of “IMPERFECT PERFECTION.” (That’s how Peter described the workings of one Jerry Lee Lewis in last year’s Music Issue. And if you missed last year’s Music Issue, you also missed Jerry Lee’s uncanny cover of “HOLD ON, I’M COMING” on the OA CD.) Please don’t think we are bragging on ourselves when we say the upcoming SOUTHERN MUSIC ISSUE will be full of imperfect perfection. We are not. We are referring instead to the great host of sublime artists who will be peppering our TWO. NEW. CDs.

They are the ones providing the perfect imperfection, as are the award-winning writers in the issue.

Question: Why TWO CDs and not just ONE?

• Well, last year, in honor of our tenth year of doing Music Issues, we put out TWO CDs—instead of just one. And the TWO CDs were so well received (and, frankly, so fun to put together) that we wanted to do it again. So we have!

• Plus: Starting off a gift subscription to THE OXFORD AMERICAN with a Southern Music Issue that features TWO CDs makes for a blast-off of a holiday present. Somebody is going to be very, very happy.

• Also: This year we introduce our new SOUTHERN STATE SERIES OF CDs, kicking off with, naturally, the Natural State (aka Arkansas). This means that one of the two CDs you receive will focus on music from Arkansas. Says Editor Marc Smirnoff: “We are going to mess with people’s preconceptions about what Arkansas music means. It means the same thing that Southern music means: everything: the old, the new, the fresh, the forgotten, etc.”

• Here is another message from Editor Marc Smirnoff: “Last year’s Music Issue was pretty good. Writers like Kevin Brockmeier, Peter Gurlanick, Roy Blount, Grant Alden, and Jack Pendarvis really shook things up. As did, of course, the artists on the two CDs: Jerry Lee, Ella (doing a Cream cover!), Neko, Lucinda, Elvis, Eartha—we’re on a first-name basis here—Love, Big Star, and on and on. But you know what? This year, both the magazine and the CDs are going to shake it up even more. We have to. It’s our Music Issue. And it’s our Golden Rule: Shake Things Up Even More.”

• So remember the date: December 1, 2009. That’s when THE OXFORD AMERICAN’s 11th Annual SOUTHERN MUSIC ISSUE WITH TWO, YUP TWO, CDs hits the stands, the airwaves, and sings sweetly to your ears and eyes.

• To ensure you get a copy, you may pre-order by CLICKING HERE.

http://store.oxfordamerican.org/Product ... e=Issue+67

[johnfoyle]

I've added the text of the 2007 feature that inspired this song to wiki -

http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... tella_Hurt

[jmm]

Thanks John

[johnfoyle]

My copy of Oxford American Southern Music Issue finally reached me today. It's endlessly fascinating, dozens of obscure artists that just demand to be checked out. It certainly helped pass the time on a Dublin-Belfast train journey that featured not one but two train break-downs. In freezing rain and howling winds.

[johnfoyle]

Seeing as how Church Underground on National Ransom may be about a obscure 1920s/30s singer , Ruth Etting , this thread is due a 'bump'.