I’ve just now watched and listened to this new song recently played live by GAI and was attracted to it straight away. The words have a wonderful visual expressive emotional texture and I feel they do have an LC ring to them. Of course,
the violin here enhances the atmosphere of the song and the change of tempo adds more than another ‘string to the bow’ so to speak! The video captures the feeling of the song and moment well. This song, “Was I Just Another One”, is on his new album Evening Machines to be released in a few days on 5th Oct. 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xgrQt9KNtg
https://gregoryalanisakov.bandcamp.com/ ... g-machines
You can listen to 3 other official audio songs from the album in the above link and other info below -
https://theknow.denverpost.com/2018/09/ ... es/195586/
I notice that the link above from 2016 is not working with Gregory speaking about not enough and too much Leonard
Now who do I know who always says, "you can never get enough LC"
I should have copied that part then so I will do that now with these links –
https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/ ... an-isakov/
What records do you remember listening to then?
Let’s see … When I was real little, I had a single of “We Are the World.” I’d just play it over and over again. [Bruce] Springsteen was on it, so I really got into him when I was maybe seven or eight. Paul Simon. Nick Drake. Leonard Cohen was always a big one.
Leonard Cohen is the one who stands out for me as being pretty influential on your sound.
Yeah, for sure. I love his records.
Even though Cohen wasn’t from Colorado, he had that “sitting alone in a cabin in Colorado” sound to his songs.
Yeah, that’s it.
http://americansongwriter.com/2013/08/g ... an-isakov/
Who are your songwriting heroes?
I like Leonard Cohen. I like Sam Beam a lot. I like Nick Drake. I like John Steinbeck, even though he’s not a songwriter, but he could have been.
If you could co-write with anyone living or dead, who would it be?
Leonard Cohen — easy. I’m pretty lucky though, because I co-write with a lot of great songwriters, like Johann Wagner, and Ron Scott and Reed Foehl and my brother Ilan. All of them made it onto this (The Weatherman) record.
What do you consider to be the perfect song, and why?
I think a perfect song is one that makes you feel something. One that makes you forget that you’re listening to a song. I think Leonard Cohen’s “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong” is one of those. You feel like you’re in a different place from where you started from. Also, “Highway 29” by Bruce Springsteen — that one really takes you somewhere. I like songs that take you someplace. Make you drunk for a second, and bring you back, and you are different afterwards.
Gregory Alan Isakov: 'A good song takes you some place, leaves you somewhere different'