I began the day listening to Sister Euclid's Run Neil Run. Essentially it sounds as if a very relaxed Robert Randolph wandered into a Tortoise recording session and then began to play Neil Younf songs. It really works more often than not such as on the always amazing "Helpless" and the rocking "Ohio". I think that song may have been made to be played on the lap steel guitar. The fusion of "Southern Man" and "Dixieland" was interesting as well. The rest almost melded into the background and left me with little impression one way or another.
The day ended on a more folky note with the ever-Canadian Gordon Lightfoot and his second volume of dynamite numbers, Gord's Gold Vol. II. The unfortunate part of this compilation is that it holds the dubious honor of being comprised of re-recorded versions of some of Lightfoot's light and airy tunes of whatever random stories Gordon happens to be conjuring up from the depths of his muddled and slightly odd mind. Doubly unfortunate is the fact that these re-recordings occurred in the 80's, a time when the music industry's production values weren't at their best, resulting in a slick, empty sound as if it were recorded in the bathroom of a swanky night club during a coke party. Nevertheless, a few highlights arise out of the dross. 80's production can't destroy the imminently tuneful and catch lament of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "The Ghosts of Cape Horn" was one of the the fortunate few to avoid the dread re-recording process and exists on the record in a much more understated production. The song itself is an amusingly bizarre number that careens wildly from nutty yet catchy sea chanty to syrupy and mournful ballad and back again. It's sad that I bought this CD for only two songs, but at iTunes going rate, it was still reasonable since I only paid $2 for it.
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