Although the title indeed suggests dark songs and plenty of melancholy, singer-songwriter Grayson Capps injects his personality into these classic songs on Heartbreak, Misery, and Death, and the listen may brighten your day. That’s due to his astute selection of songs and rough-hewn, enjoyable baritone vocals.
The Alabama-bred Capps teams with his longtime guitarist, Corky Hughes, to deliver a relatively simple duo album through sixteen songs, all under five minutes in length. Typically, an album of covers is not one that I’d cover, but Capps has produced several great albums of originals, and his gritty, honest approach sets him apart. He gets to the raw essence of these songs, no adornment necessary. Chances are that you know at least a few of these songs but have never heard them rendered this way. Who doesn’t love Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” or Randy Newman’s “Guilty,” for example? Many others may have been popular at their time and have gone overlooked.
He dedicates the album to his dad, Ronald Everett Capps, who was prone to pick up his guitar and play many of these songs with his friends when Grayson was just a youngster. So, those memories of hearing the songs performed live or on vinyl inspired Grayson to put this collection together. One of those first vinyl attractions is the lead off Doc Watson’s track, “Wake Up Little Maggie,’ where Capps confesses to emulating Watson to find his singing voice. Appropriately, he takes it a cappela here. Capps renders a couple of other Watson tunes, “Columbus Stockade Blues,” released as one of three singles, and “Moody River.” Capps says the former is one of the first he learned to play on the guitar. You’ll hear him strumming his acoustic while adding tasty guitar fills. Capps grew to appreciate the latter for its more complex chord progressions, and again, Hughes delivers the perfect mournful accompaniment with his sustained lines. Toward the end, we hear the traditional “Alberta,” with Capps again gravitating toward Watson’s version.
Hearing “Alberta” reminded me of Dylan’s often panned Self Portrait. Dylan covered that song with two versions and did “Early Morning Rain” and “Copper Kettle,” which Capps does here. Most would agree, however, that Capps’ voice is more straightforward on the ears, not to mention Hughes’ sparkling guitar work.
There was always music in his house growing up. Capps also points to his dad’s friends, Fred Stokes and Bobby Long, who would often gather and play these songs into the wee hours of the morning. One of Stokes’s favorites was the traditional “Barbarss Allen,” a song that is generations old. The simple nursery rhyme-like but memorable melody of “Today” is another favorite of his dad and Long.. Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain” got considerable radio airplay as a hit, but it’s revelatory to hear it rendered this way, stripped of its commercial trappings. Capps was drawn not so much to the original but to the Peter, Paul, and Mary version, which he leans toward her. Yet his reading of Randy Newman’s “Guilty” makes it seem like a different song, as Capps emotionally puts his own busking experience in New Orleans into it.
Other familiar fare is “Wreck on the Highway,” not written by Hank Williams but long associated with him, and Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which is the one song that Capps introduced to his dad rather than being the recipient. To these ears, no version of that tune will ever compare with the late Jeff Buckley’s, but Capps handles it much differently, without the glorious crescendos.
Most of the others trace to those oft late drunken nights when a young Capps would listen to his dad, Stokes, and Long sing “Stoney,” “I Really Don’t Want to Know,” Old Maid’s Lament,” St. James Hospital” (the darkest one here) and the old chestnut “Copper Kettle.” Just as you may envision those crusty three-part harmonies, you may find yourself singing along with these tunes, maybe even trying a different key until it sounds just right.
