In our last episode, I covered some early musical
influences that inspired me to go from music listener to music performer. In
this post, I'd like to share one of my current influences with you - a
criminally under-recognized band from down under.
You may have never heard of
The Lucksmiths, which is too
bad because guitarist and primary songwriter Marty Donald is possibly the
greatest songwriter of all time. I know what you're thinking: Dylan, Simon, any
member of the Beatles not named Ringo, etc. (Don't you dare say Diane Warren.) I'm aware of their work, but hear me out.
I'm a big fan of restraint. Bruce Willis was far more
deadly with a subtle head nod in Unbreakable than he was with an arsenal at his
disposal in any of the Die Harderers. Pour through The Lucksmiths' catalogue from the late 90's on (when the band officially
found the sound that would go on to define the rest of their career) and you'll
find that Tali White, the band's lead singer and a man blessed with one of the
great baritone voices of our generation, rarely raises his voice above speaking
volume. It turns out that great pop songs sell themselves without requiring
huge dynamic swells or faux-emotion and
The Lucksmiths have no shortage of
great pop songs.
The secret sauce in all Marty Donald songs, the cherry on
top of all that wonderful melody and harmonic structure, is amazing wordplay. Donald's lyrics are full of puns, clever turns of phrase,
and unusual rhymes that somehow avoid feeling forced while remaining eminently
singable. "Music To Hold Hands To," the first track from
TheLucksmiths' 2001 album
Why That Doesn't Surpise Me, opens with the following
salvo:
You can't keep a secret,
But you keep a diary anyway
And you get away with murder
'Cause you've got a way with words
While that's certainly a line that any lyricist would die
to write, it may not even be the best line in the song once verse two rolls
around:
I could never understand you
Hating music to hold hands to
Sometimes something you can dance to Is the last thing that you need
Genius...and yet completely expected in a Donald-penned
tune. Marty Donald has so many clever ideas running through his head that he
can afford to give them away for free as song titles (examples -
"Friendless Summer" and "The Year of Driving Languorously")
without ever actually including them as lyrics in the songs themselves.
Mark Twain's oft-quoted advice to would-be writers is,
simply, "Write what you know." While this
statement can be
interpreted in the broader sense - we've all lived moments of loss, heartache,
or tension and can thus apply those experiences to almost any situation - Marty
Donald songs consistently deal with subjects that are extraordinary only in
their ordinariness. Donald explores extremely familiar subject matter
- a summer drive, an insomniac night, a quiet gathering
of friends, or a relationship coasting towards an inevitable ending, but has
the ability to elevate these mundane settings into moments of intense pathos.
As a songwriter, I look at Marty Donald the way that an
aspiring painter might look at
Picasso - as something to aspire to, but full of
wonder at how one gets from here to there.
Alan Honeycutt is a local singer-songwriter. He and his
wife, Lindsay, teach yoga at The Open Mind Center every Thursday at 6:30pm. To contact
Alan to say "hi" or book him for an event please email
honeycutt.lindsay@gmail.com. Hit Alan up on Spotify and he'll happily share his
"Essential Marty Donald"
playlist with you.
Alan will be performing live at
The Open Mind Center on
Friday 11/22 at 7:30pm and will likely play a Lucksmiths Cover.
You may have never heard of The Lucksmiths, which is too
bad because guitarist and primary songwriter Marty Donald is possibly the
greatest songwriter of all time. I know what you're thinking: Dylan, Simon, any
member of the Beatles not named Ringo, etc. (Don't you dare say Diane Warren.) I'm aware of their work, but hear me out.