Waldon goes live with deluxe set
The shows were her first COVID and with a new band. The result is a special deluxe version of the album, out April 14 on Oh Boy Records. The extended edition, which also includes live recordings of Waldon's songs "White Noise, White Lines" and "False King," features an unreleased studio version of the late John Prine's "Spanish Pipedream." That single, along with a live medley of "Season's Ending/Sweet Little Girl," was released on March 31.
"I felt like a whole new life with the music," she said of the live shows. "Writing a song by yourself in your bedroom or on your back porch is one thing. But then to share it with an audience in a dark, sweaty club is really special. We were just having a lot of fun, and the audience would feel it. I think everybody just wanted to be there."
Playing on the live songs were Libby Weitnauer on fiddle, Muskraft Jones on pedal steel guitar, Junior Tutwiler on electric and slide guitar, Erik Mendez on bass and Zach Martin on drums.
Waldon said she thought "Spanish Pipeline" is as relevant today as when it was released in 1971. "I think all humans at the end of the day just want to pursue this type of dream and freedom and also, they deserve to live how they want to and be treated just the same. It makes you think without preaching to you, something John was good at."
The live medley of "Season's Ending/Sweet Little Girl" features a fiddle tune Weitnauer traced to Kentucky fiddler John Morgan Salyer. As Waldon concluded the last refrain of "Sweet Little Girl," Weitnauer reprised the tune, fiddling away as the band breaks out into a jam.
"That part of the song," Waldon said, "just literally makes my blood boil to listen to it. It makes every goose pimple on my body stand up because it just represents some kind of inherent rage and also pride I've had my whole life. We usually end it whenever I feel like it needs to end, and so it can kind of go as long or short as we want it. It's really special when people feel it too. A band that has that special chemistry can do stuff like that."
The track list is:
Ain't No Regular Dog (Voice Memo Snippet)
No Regular Dog (Live)
Sweet Little Girl (Voice Memo Snippet)
Season's Ending/Fiddle Interlude/Sweet Little Girl (Live)
Tall and Mighty (Voice Memo)
Tall and Mighty (Live)
You Can't Ever Tell (Live)
History Repeats Itself (Voice Memo)
History Repeats Itself (Live)
Backwater Blues (Worktape)
Backwater Blues (Live)
Simple as Love (Live)
Peace Alone (Voice Memo)
Peace Alone (Live)
Progress Again (Voice Memo)
False King (live)
White Noise, White Lines (Live)
Spanish Pipedream
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