MOJO PRESENTS 15 SONGS FOR A NEW SEASON

THE WEATHER STATION, BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY, BILL EVANS, DJANGO REINHARDT, MIGHTY BABY, REAL ESTATE AND MORE

2021-05-01 - Live At The Gaslight 1962.

1 REAL ESTATE DARLING

A rejuvenating burst of jangle-pop, from New Jersey’s unassuming heirs to The Feelies and Felt. This tentative love song compares an intensifying relationship to the one between a pair of stoic finches. From Real Estate’s fourth album,

In Mind, from 2017.

Written by Real Estate. From In Mind. ᝈ&©

Holders: 2017 Domino Recording Co. Ltd. MCIV Publishing (SESAC), Alex Bleeker Music (SESAC), AEKBRS (ASCAP), Domino Publishing Company USA (ASCAP), Copyright Control administered by Domino Publishing Company.

2 THE SKIFFLE PLAYERS COO COO BIRD

More spring birds at play, as the LA collective lock into a folk-motorik, cosmically choogling version of the ancient song, renowned in both English and Appalachian traditions (stick around for Track 13, and Jean Ritchie’s much older version). Cass McCombs fronts this 2016 take, with assistance from Farmer Dave Scher, Aaron Sperske, Dan Horne and, on guitar, the late, great Neal Casal.

Traditional arranged and adapted by Cass McCombs. From Skifflin’ (Spiritual Pajamas). spiritualpajamas.bandcamp.com

3 DJANGO REINHARDT

SWINGTIME IN SPRINGTIME

Springtime in Paris now, as the legendary jazz guitarist brings his unique verve to proceedings. This version, from September 1947, finds Reinhardt playing with Hubert Rostaing on clarinet and, on piano, Jacques ‘Jack’ Diéval. Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, even Tony Iommi paid their respects to Django. But only Hank Marvin tackled the syncopations of Swingtime In Springtime himself.

Written by Django Reinhardt. PF Day.

4 CIBO MATTO ÁGUAS DE MARÇO

Not strictly a spring song, since Águas De Março (Waters Of March) heralds the end of the Brazilian summer. Still, this ravishing Antônio Carlos Jobim bossa has a lightness of touch to sit perfectly in our mix. Dating from 1997, it is impeccably handled by the Japanese-American band Cibo Matto, just after Sean Ono Lennon joined their ranks.

Written by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Published by Corcovado Music Corp., BMI, ᝈ1996 WEA International Inc. USWB19601068, Licensed courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd.

5 THE WEATHER STATION FLOODPLAIN

Tamara Lindeman’s fifth album as The Weather Station, Ignorance, looks set to be celebrated as one of 2021’s finest albums, a masterpiece of climate anxiety. But Floodplain is from 2015’s neglected Loyalty; another song, like Águas de Março, about seasonal torrents of rain seen during a spring road trip across Lindeman’s homeland of Canada.

6 MIGHTY BABY VIRGIN SPRING

Fifty this year, Mighty Baby’s A Jug

Of Love remains one of the great underrated British rock albums: bucolic psychedelia made by a gang of ex-Mods newly converted to Sufism. Virgin Spring is the centrepiece (this is the single edit), a freeflowing beauty that sounds like it was made at a Home Counties Big Pink.

Written by King, Powell, Evans, Whiteman, Stone. Copyright Control ISRC Code – GBBLY1903709 ᝈ1971 Alan King, Roger Powell, Rabia Lemahieu, Ian Whiteman. Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

7 THE GO! TEAM WILLOW’S SONG

Though a pagan adherence to the Gregorian calendar seems unlikely, May 1 has long been the focal point of uncanny vernal activity – or that’s how it was portrayed in the classic 1973 folk horror movie, The Wicker Man. Paul Giovanni’s gorgeous Willow’s Song is here given a layered makeover by Brighton sampladelic crew The Go! Team: it surfaced as a bonus track on their 2007 album, Proof Of Youth.

Written by Paul Giovanni. Published by British Lion Music Ltd. ᝈMemphis Industries Ltd 2007.

8 THE WATERSONS HAL AN TOW

Lal & Mike Waterson made the revered Bright Phoebus in 1972, but earned their folk bona fides as half of this family band. 1965’s Frost And

Fire gathered a calendar year of seasonal songs, including this May marvel. “Halan” seems to mean “first of the month”, while a “tow” is a garland, alluding to adornments worn by spring ritual dancers.

9 BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY THERE WILL BE SPRING

Will Oldham’s first version of There Will Be Spring, on 2011’s Wolfroy

Goes To Town, was stark and hushed. Revisiting it in 2014, he adds more warmth and steel to his vision of seasonal rebirth even as the world burns. An oft-overlooked gem in Oldham’s deep and endlessly rewarding catalogue.

10 JOHNNY HORTON WHEN IT’S SPRINGTIME IN ALASKA (IT’S FORTY BELOW)

Honky-tonk man Johnny Horton knew, to a degree, what he was talking about when he wrote this chilling murder ballad in 1959: before becoming a country star, he’d prospected for gold in Alaska. Horton died in a road crash the year after Springtime became a country Number 1. Johnny Cash made a reading at the funeral, and ended up covering Springtime In Alaska himself in 1965.

Written by Franks. Copyright Control.

11 CLIFFORD BROWN & MAX ROACH QUINTET JOY SPRING

A rather grim fluke of sequencing: like Johnny Horton, trumpet star Clifford Brown died young in a car accident – in 1956, just two years after he’d recorded the effortless swing of Joy Spring. The title was actually the pet name for his wife, Larue Anderson, a classical music student introduced to him by the drummer here, Max Roach. Pianist Richie Powell, tragically, died in the same crash as Brown.

Written by Brown. Brent Music.

12 MODERN NATURE MAYDAY

If The Colours Of Spring’s cover art pays homage to Talk Talk, Modern Nature’s Mayday is the track that most brings that band to mind. It’s the current project of Jack Cooper, former frontman of Mazes and Ultimate Painting. From the 2020

Annual mini-album, Mayday melds the folk and jazz influences that fill this compilation. That’s Jeff Tobias from US band Sunwatchers, exceptional, on saxophone.

13 JEAN RITCHIE THE CUCKOO

Our second version of The Cuckoo is radically different from the one essayed by The Skiffle Players. Jean Ritchie, a singer and Appalachian dulcimer player from Viper, Kentucky, was part of a famous ballad-singing family. She was teaching music in New York after World War Two when she fell in with the nascent folk revival scene, and was recorded by noted song-hunter Alan Lomax. You can hear Bob Dylan’s version on

Traditional. Copyright Control.

14 JOLIE HOLLAND FIRST SIGN OF SPRING

The artist behind a 2006 album called Springtime Can Kill You, Jolie Holland was an early member of The Be Good Tanyas alongside Frazey Ford. But it’s solo that she’s made her name, with songs like this beauty from 2014’s Wine Dark Sea: a skewed, romantic jazz-folk song that presents the dance of two lovers on a frozen sidewalk as indication of better days ahead.

15 BILL EVANS TRIO SPRING IS HERE

And finally, one for the road. From 1959, the exquisite pianist Bill Evans, with Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums, makes tender capital out of the Rodgers & Hart standard. A staple in jazz repertoire at the time – Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra and many more had a go – but has anyone caught the bright melancholy of the song quite so well as the Evans trio?

Written by Rodgers And Hart. Robbins Music Corp.