Pale Frail Lovely One (Outrageous Cherry cover)

Some love for the lifers

Over time, I’ve slowly gotten used to the idea that people pay attention to me, not just when I put out music, but also when I talk on stage and in interviews etc. I’ve made a conscious effort on this platform and in the books I’ve written to let my love be known and clearly stated. Especially when it comes to the people I have met solely through the good fortune of getting to spend my life traveling the highways and byways of a musical world that I, personally, would never describe as the “music biz.”

It’s a business. Sure. But I’m talking about a worldwide community of general good deed doers—music makers, fans, venue workers, record store folk, caterers, truckers, poster artists, DJs, label people (heck, I’ve even loved a promoter or two)—all the good eggs that seem to sustain themselves on little more than the goodwill generated when a bunch of people get together and make something awesome happen.

“Lifers” is a good word for them (us? I think I qualify as a lifer by now). They’re the people that change your life with a record recommendation or by teaching you a trick to keep your guitar in tune, or even by just being a willing and enthusiastic participant in the collective travail of putting on a show or getting a record out into the world. Spiritually generous women and men that dig being around like-minded lovers of the general beauty of it all.

Which brings us to Matthew Smith. My friend of close to 30 years from Detroit. Leader of Outrageous Cherry and the Matthew Smith Group. Rock-n-roll encyclopedia. One-of-a-kind!! (I know I just spent a paragraph generalizing a group of people as something akin to circus folk. But that’s the amazing thing about a true music ecosystem—at its healthiest, it seems to simultaneously nurture and embrace the communal and uniquely individual aspects of everyone involved.)

Matthew Smith Group. Photo by Munaf Rayani

So yeah. I’ve never met anyone else like Matt. I love him. And the amount of awesome information, inspiration, and encouragement I’ve gotten from him over the years would be impossible to catalog and convey. However, I can give you a recent example of the type of thing Matt contributes reliably. Nothing big. Just a gentle admonishment about my book’s chapter on Leo Sayer’s “Long Tall Glasses” that came in the form of a reminder that Sayer wrote or co-wrote almost all of the songs on Roger Daltrey’s first solo record. Which is something I should have known, given that I had that record at a very young age. In fact, that specific record, which came to me by way of my brother’s oft talked about (by me) and handed down (to me) record collection, is the missing link between Leo Sayer and my Dad’s insane devotion to “Long Tall Glasses.” My brother must have kept up with Leo long enough after learning about him by reading the liner notes of Daltrey to buy some of his early solo records. Which in turn either resulted in him turning my dad onto the tune or—my preferred imagining of the scenario—my dad heard it wafting through the walls of my brother’s bedroom, and was drawn to it like a sailor drawn to the dangers of a rocky shore by siren song.

Whatever happened, my brother never got that record back from my dad. Which, again, is all just to say Matt is fucking great and I wouldn’t have pieced that all together like the Warren Report without him. So here’s to Matt. One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite people. “Pale Frail Lovely One.”

OxO—Jeffy

This Week in Wilco, Etc.

2003 / February 25: Down with Wilco by the Minus 5 is released on Yep Roc Records.

2022 / February 25: Nick Offerman opens for Jeff at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles. Sammy Tweedy takes lead vocals on a cover of Neil Young’s “Helpless.”

2008 / February 27: Bob Boilen introduces Wilco’s 28-song set at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. The set is later broadcast on NPR.

Pale Frail Lovely One (Outrageous Cherry cover)