If it’s December at You Ain’t No Picasso, then it’s time for Mixmas! Every year I like to turn YANP over to some of my favorite bands to showcase some of their favorite songs through a themed mix. They pick a theme, five songs that fit the theme and then share a little about why they picked each one. This year I’m also giving away a YANP shirt, so check below for the hint about tomorrow’s mix.

MP3: Caitlin Rose – Still Feelin Blue (Gram Parsons)

Caitlin is one of the rare musicians who I’ve met, but never seen perform. She was a ton of fun to hang out with at the Monolith Music Festival, but due to a scheduling conflict of bands, I didn’t get to see her play! The sadness was driven home all the more when I got back to Kentucky, looked her up on Myspace and realized that she’s really quite good! Oh well. I’ve been enjoying her music ever since and now she’s been kind enough to do a Mixmas as well. Way to make me feel really guilty for skipping your show, Caitlin.

“Failure Mix” by Caitlin Rose

Different types of failure in varying degrees. I like failure songs and spent a good amount of time searching for Bob Dylan song that tackles the subject, but I’m not sure there are any. Suggestions welcome. I hope these aren’t too wordy. I’m gonna send a couple zipped files in a separate email cause they wouldn’t fit.

Dolly Parton – False Eyelashes [Youtube link]
This was on Dolly’s first solo record for RCA “Just Because I’m a Woman” and I would blast it from the dairy dip window on Charlotte Avenue on a regular basis. It’s damn near impossible to imagine a time when Dolly’s delivery of this song could be considered anything but ironic, but after having read, in Dolly’s own colorful words, the Cinderella story that is “My Life and Other Unfinished Business” (her 1995 autobiography), you hear her sing the reality of what could have been. That fear of failure and the greasy sense of shame that comes along with crawling back home with nothing to show for yourself becomes all too real for anyone with even half a dream and a lick of pride. I like to think that before singing this song she has a little laugh before thanking the lord things turned out the way they did.

MP3: Nick Lowe – Lately I’ve Let Things Slide
A few years ago a friend of mine made me something he called his “sincere mix” and now songs like John Prine’s “Souvenirs”, Nina Simone’s “Lilac Wine” and “Amanda” by Ron Sexsmith will play forever in the jukebox of my mind, but this one’s my favorite. The lyrics aren’t cliche, but definitely familiar. They get more familiar every day. A couple of weeks ago my drummer dropped me on his car and I cracked his headlight with my head and I thought of the line…

“There’s a cut upon my brow/Must have banged myself somehow/but I can’t remember now”

Sometimes everything falls to pieces and the only thing you can do is accept it. Perhaps it builds character, I don’t know, but when you’re in that place the song practically writes itself and that’s sure as hell something be thankful for. So there’s that (and that last refrain)…

“I go to the bin, I throw the laundry in, dig out the cleanest shirt When all at once I’m seized again by exquisite hurt”

M4A: Linda Ronstadt – Everybody Loves a Winner
I’ve got my mom’s old copy of “Don’t Cry Now” with her name scribbled above the tracklisting. It’s one of my favorite album covers ever and I listen to it more than the other Ronstadt records. Besides “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” it’s steadily morose, but there’s a great variety of sadness to it. Homesick for “Colorado”, feeling sorry for the “Desperado”, then there’s that strange and wimpy JD Souther style empathy on “Don’t Cry Now”, and of course, the devil-may-care-crazy-kind-of-heart-sickness that is “Love Has No Pride”. “Everybody Loves a Winner” is a great little Booker T. penned Motown tune. Linda’s version is beautiful, but it would be nice to hear a more powerful rendition. I love the drums and back-up singers the most. This is an old fashioned and classy failure song. Rags to riches, fairweather friends

MP3: Deer Tick – Houston, TX
These days I listen to songs about moving on in the way that housewives read self-help books. This one seems resigned to failure in such a self assured way that it becomes significantly more bouyant than the rest on the list. Death for some just means rebirth and failure just gives way to something new like a not-quite-nihilistic realization that most things don’t matter or just aren’t worth the trouble(social or romantic niceties, “I ain’t gonna talk like a gentleman”). It helps develop a taste for being exactly what and how you are without having to carry the weight of someone else’s or even your own expectations.

“There’s nothing left and I am sure that it’s a sign That maybe I’m about as good as gone I know it’s best that in this empty heart of mine Is where I’ll begin to moving on”

MP3: The Replacements – Here Comes A Regular
Another song on the sincere mix was Paul Westerberg’s “Black Eyed Susan”. At the time, the only Replacements I’d heard was “Beer for Breakfast” which by that point had faded into early high school nostalgia territory and only resurfaced in drunken sing-a-longs with the friend who had introduced me to it. Without listening to all that came in between, the evolution of Paul Westerberg as a songwriter is apparent and pleasantly unsurprising. I’m not sure if he is underrated, but I don’t think there’s enough credit or credibility left in the music world to give him what he deserves. This song reminds me of all the time I wasted, coffee I drank and cigarettes I smoked in a Waffle House from the ages of 16 to 20.

MP3: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Fuckin’ Up
Didn’t he write this when he had that crazy fever? It shows. If Nirvana sounded more like this I would listen to them.

Tomorrow’s hint: the next contributor is a group that I used to write about quite often, but then fell silent for a while. They’ve kicked back into gear now with a new album out on Slumberland record. Oh, and they once titled an album after the singer of Young Marble Giants.