Cover Of The Day-To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)

"To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)" has been floating up in my cranium for quite some time now. I first heard Dave Rawlings Machine play it at an in-store performance at the Disc Exchange, and he dedicated the song to his old friend Ryan Adams, but seeing as the song was a bit of a downer, I thought maybe "old friend" was sarcasm.

Now, I'm in the middle of going through this book; 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die. Lo and behold, Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker is right towards the front of the book, so I piece together the album on Grooveshark, and begin to listen. The gibbering voices at the very beginning strike me funny. I notice that the title song is called "(Argument With Dave Rawlings Concerning Morrissey)", which leads me to believe that they are actually friends. Then, the first track, "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)". reveals the whole situation to me. So, to clarify,Ryan Addams, Heartbreaker-"To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)", and Dave Rawlings Machine, A Friend Of A Friend- "To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)". Lucky for everyone, they are both great.

Ryan Addam's song is a slow churning acoustic guitar jam with a gritty Southern percussive pace-maker, maintaining the same shuffle step throughout the song's entirety. Ryan Addams goes everywhere from screaming, to melodic whispers in the span of two minutes, and the whole romp is a sound to be heard. It's an outstanding song, as well as the first I've ever heard from Ryan Addams. That's right, I never heard anything from him or Whiskeytown. It's a lovely start, and this album is top-notch, just four songs in.

Dave Rawlings takes the Southern drawl from the original, and puts it under a microscope, taking out the refined acoustic guitar and the drum beat, and replacing them with fiddles and wash-boards. The newly backwoods version has it's own beauty very different from the original, a feat Dave Rawlings manages to do again on the album with his shortened version of Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer". Seeing as Dave only has one official album, he will probably give the song a twirl at Bonnaroo, and I'll be sure to tell you all about it.