SAD EYED LADY OF THE LOWLANDS - Emma Swift
There are two types of people: those who think Bob Dylan can't sing worth a damn and those who know that he's a fantastic vocalist. Needless to say, I am in the latter camp.
I think both camps will agree, however, that Nashvillian-by-way-of Australia Emma Swift can sing very well. She has referred to herself as the anti-Paul McCartney - able to “take a sad song and make it sadder.” Her most recent project is ambitious: an album of Bob Dylan covers, cleverly titled "Blonde on the Tracks."
"Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" is perhaps the most challenging song that she covers. There are people who think that some of Dylan's lyrics (such as those in "Sad Eyed Lady") are nonsense, they're nothing more than words that sound good when strung together. Again, I strongly disagree with this take (though I think there is nothing wrong with lyrics that are pleasing to the ear and have no deeper meaning). Covering a song like Sad Eyed Lady, with its opaque phrases, is not as straightforward as singing a Dylan love song along the lines of "Make You Feel My Love," which is much more direct and - perhaps not coincidentally - notably covered by Adele, Garth Brooks, and Billy Joel.
Oh, and "Sad Eyed Lady" is a very long song, the original version on Blonde On Blonde clocking in at 11:22.
"Sad Eyed Lady" has been covered by some amazing artists: Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Steve Howe, Old Crow Medicine Show. While each version is pleasant enough, none of them have worked for me. I never felt these singers were emotionally connected to the lyrics. Emma's version is the first one that's really resonated.
Head over to Bandcamp to hear (and/or buy) Blonde on the Tracks if you haven't already. The album has been generating tremendous buzz since its release, a tribute not only to Emma's artistry but to her hard work as an independent artist, wearing as many hats as needed to get her album produced, publicized, played, sold, shipped, and so on.
She kindly took time to answer my questions about "Sad Eyed Lady."
1 - What is it about Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands that compelled you to include it on Blonde on the Tracks, when there are many hundreds of Bob Dylan songs from which to pick?
EMMA SWIFT: There are hundreds of songs, but there’s only one "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." It felt right. It felt honest. It felt essential. When the world gets me down, that song is like going back to the womb. It restores me back to my factory settings.
2 - This is a song dense with poetic imagery which is anything but straightforward or linear. Did you try to figure out what phrases like "The kings of Tyrus with their convict list" meant specifically to you or was it a more intuitive, open ended process of letting the words flow through you while singing?
ES: Everything I do is based on intuition. I’m a Pisces rising, it’s in my astrological DNA.
ES: I love Dylan’s phrasing, but I’m not a mimic. It’s not in my skill set. Some folks are extraordinarily gifted in this way, but I am quite limited. I can only really sing in my own style. So I didn’t have to work hard to get his voice out of my head, the hard work would have been trying to sound more like him.
4 - This is a famously long song and your version is nearly 12 minutes long. Do you have to approach it differently vocally from a typical 3-4 minute cut to pace yourself in the studio, or was it not a concern as you could cut and paste various takes?
ES: I don’t really think of Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands being a long song, I think of it more like a meditation or a soliloquy. I approached it the same way I approach the recording of any song I do: with tenderness, depth of feeling, vulnerability, nervousness, fear and wonder.
Another song from "Blonde on the Tracks"
5 - Were you familiar with any other cover version of the song (such as Joan Baez's) and did they influence your take at all?
ES: When I made the album I had to work hard to erase all knowledge of Dylan covers from my mind. There are so many, and the feeling that I might just be needlessly adding to the pile was a worry that my shadow self definitely liked to remind me of from time to time. Negative self-talk and hyper-awareness of what everyone else has done or is doing are the enemy of my creative life force and are to be avoided at all costs!
6 - Did you try doing Sad Eyed Lady at any different tempos/keys/arrangements, or did you go into the recording knowing exactly how you wanted it to sound?
ES: I never go into anything in life knowing exactly how it is going to turn out, I’m just not that kind of soul! Recording music is fun because a studio session can go in all kinds of directions once you’re in there and the band are bouncing off each other. We didn’t do much experimentation, we just played the song. The beauty in Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands had already been masterfully laid out by Dylan more than 40 years before, we just had to play it through and see what happened.
7 - How did you decide where to place it on the album, between "Simple Twist of Fate" and "The Man in Me" as track #5?
ES: It’s the centrepiece of the record, so I put it in the middle. I wanted it to be unavoidable. Something to unclog the arteries and the tear ducts.
Emma is a great Twitter follow. Also find her at YouTube, Patreon, Instagram, Facebook and emmaswift.com
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