From: Portland, To: Elliott

Elliott Smith is a tragedy that most of my readers should be familiar with. Like so many troubled musicians, Elliott just could no longer bear with the sadness that so deeply affected his music. His sadness was his muse, his sadness was his voice, his sadness was the way he layered his guitars. His drugs were his enemy. I only saw Smith but one time and it was in chicago in the year 2000. He was mumbling and not making much sense, playing every song at the same seemingly 120bpm, and stopping and starting songs in the middle when he forgot the words. It was still an amazing experience.

Portland based Expunged Records has arranged another tribute cd for him. It includes artists such as The Helio Sequence, The Decemberists, Dolorean, and The Thermals doing their renditions of Elliott tunes. The album is available for preorder and comes out next week.

• The Decemberists - Clementine
• Crosstide - Angeles
• Amelia - Between the Bars