Pearhead Jukebox

Hey there. It's been a while hasn't it? I'm still here and I do check in everyday to check/respond to comments and to see what others are doing. I haven't made any new constructions in a while but I do have a few half finished ones waiting for me to wrap up. This is not one of those. I threw this together quickly in the last 24 hours. The reason for the post and the construction was to pay tribute to my friend, band mate, collaborator and the primary reason for my band Pearhead's existence who passed away the last week. Kenny Parisot, You are sorely missed. This is a collection of songs that we regularly covered live and/or recorded under our alter ego Mighty Man. None of these are our versions and not every one is the original version. To shake things up and make the listen more interesting I used live versions or alternate cover versions. Enjoy.

 

Tracklist

 

01 You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones *

    From the album Totally Stripped. This was our standard show opener.

02 Ain't Hurtin' Nobody - John Prine *

    From the album Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings. Both Kenny and I are big  Prine fans and we did several of his songs.

03 Long Tall Texan - Lyle Lovett

    From the album The Road To Ensenada. We based our version on a Lyle Lovett live rendition but this is pretty close to how we do it as well.

04 (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding

    From the album The Dock of the Bay. Another standard song from our setlist.

05 Deep Elem Blues - Blackberry Smoke

    From the TRI Studios session with Bob Weir. A dead standard of an old song which we played often.

06 Eurotrash Girl - Cracker *

    A live unplugged version recorded 11/01/2005 at Knickerbockers Bar. Downloaded from The Internet Archives. One of the more contempory songs from our setlists. We played and recorded this before most of the band ever heard the original.

07 For What It's Worth - Crosby, Stills & Nash

    A live rendition from the album Allies. Closer to how we did it at least this is the version I had in my head when we played it.

08 Jersey Girl - Bruce Springsteen *

    From the album Live  1975-1985. Originally written by Tom Waits, Bruce added a verse. Kenny changed it to Mexican Girl in honor of his wife.

09 Pale Blue Eyes [closet mix] - The Velvet Underground *

    From the album The Velvet Underground

10 She Belongs to Me - Bob Dylan

    A live solo acoustic version

11 Angel From Montgomery (Live) - Bonnie Raitt & John Prine *

    A live version of a duet with Bonnie Raitt who is more closely associated with the song and it's composer John Prine

12 Tower of song - Leonard Cohen

    From the album I'm Your Man

13 When I Paint My Masterpiece - Grateful Dead *

    Written by Dylan, first recorded by The Band but often played by the Grateful Dead. This is my favorite version taped off The Gratelful Dead Hour.

14 Whipping Post - Allman Brothers Band

    From the debut self titled album.

15 Into the Mystic - Swell Season *

    From a live recording. Closer to our version than the Van Morrison original.

16 Goodnight, Irene - Lucius *

    Written by Lead Belly. This is a recent rendition that is pretty close to ours

* We recorded our versions of these songs under the name Mighty Man. You can listen to them here. (You can listen to Pearhead songs here.)

Reality Notes

Kenny was a master story teller and wrote some amazing songs. I posted a collection of demos and stripped down version of his songs here a while back. We tried to keep our covers interesting and often avoided the expected, tried and true songs that everybody else was doing. This is only some of the songs we would do regularly and some we attempted once in a while. The Mighty Man album started as a side project between just me and Kenny when the band seemed to be in a lull. During this period it was often just Kenny and I in the studio so we started to record covers to keep busy and entertain ourselves. The band eventually returned and demanded to be included.

The cover was constructed in Paint.net. I have made all my covers in Microsoft Word until recently when I lost access to my MS account and my copy stopped working. Since then I have been trying different programs looking for a replacement. I did find Paint.net frustrating and gave up once I had this but I am not completely happy with it. If I can make a better one I will replace it.

Kenny Parisot - Tell The Wind

Here's something a bit special to me. This is a collection of demos we recorded of a co-worker of my brothers way back in the early 2000s. What makes them special is that these demos served as the foundation of my band's first album.

When we recorded these our intention was not to start a band. My brother Pat met Kenny at work and in passing Kenny mentioned that he sang and played a little guitar and wrote songs. He wanted to record them so he had something to give his kids and friends. Pat offered to record him and Kenny accepted and that was it.

The plan was to make simple guitar and vocal demos but after the initial sessions Pat started to enhance the recordings with other instruments played by him, me and other friends. By the end of the sessions a core group emerged and that became the first incarnation of Pearhead.

01 Brown Guitar
02 Cinnamon Roll
03 Ghetto Song
04 Willow
05 Michelle
06 None and Slim
07 Red White and Blue
08 She's A Dancer
09 Remember Love
10 Tell The Wind
11 Set You Free
12 Mango
13 Soft Mattress
14 Whiskers on a Kitty

Reality Notes

Two songs here have some additional instruments. Ghetto Song has some heavy guitar and slight percussion and the title song, Tell The Wind, has some Mandolin. Both of these songs received further treatment before they were done.

Two other songs, None And Slim and Mango, were held over and rerecorded for the second album and two more songs, Willow and She's A Dancer, were demos from the second album sessions but they fit in nice here. She's A Dancer features Kenny playing the banjo. After the first album was done and the band coalesced he felt there were enough guitar players and he switched to banjo.

Remember Love is how it appears on the finished album but because it is just guitar and vocal I feel it fits in.

Some of these might sound rough guitar wise. Kenny never laid claimed to musical proficiency but his songs are amazing. He has that ability to paint pictures with words. In the course of enhancing and overdubbing we learned to follow his vocals more than his guitar. He was always rhythmically sound when he sang. when we recorded the next album the bulk of the songs were recorded as a band then enhanced so there are fewer solo demos from that album.

The cover art was sketched by our drummer from the time Ryan. He was doodling while listening to the finished album. I added the text.

If you want to hear how these songs developed you can listen to and download both albums at our ReverbNation page or check out my netLabel's website where you can download everything I've been involved with that I can offer for free (it's a bit of a mess at the moment but all the download links are good).. Our new album is nearing completion. We've added a second lead singer/songwriter and I'm very excited about what we've been doing. Still a few months away but I'll share it here when it is done.