{"id":20041,"date":"2020-12-21T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T10:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20041"},"modified":"2020-12-22T11:23:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T16:23:04","slug":"dan-penn-have-mercy-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/21\/dan-penn-have-mercy-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Penn: Have ‘Mercy’! Part 1 of 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

This feature appeared previously in Goldmine<\/em> Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Sixty-plus years into his career, Alabama-born songwriter and musician Dan Penn returns with a new album. Out on August 28, Living on Mercy<\/i> showcases Penn\u2019s brand of music, a style that can be labeled as anything from pop to country to soul to rhythm and blues. That genre-spanning character has been a hallmark of Penn\u2019s work since his earliest recording session, 1960\u2019s \u201cCrazy Over You.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Penn\u2019s hit songwriting credits make for a long list. A composer of songs with a trademark Southern pop-soul flavor, he\u2019s written or co-written songs made famous by the likes of Aretha Franklin (1967\u2019s \u201cDo Right Woman, Do Right Man,\u201d #9 pop, #37 R&B), James and Bobby Purify (\u201cI\u2019m Your Puppet,\u201d #6 pop, #5 R&B that same year), The Box Tops (\u201cCry Like a Baby,\u201d #2 pop in 1968), James Carr (1967\u2019s \u201cThe Dark End of the Street, #10 R&B) and many others. His songs have also been covered by artists as varied as the Detroit Cobras, Nick Lowe, Merrilee Rush, Faron Young, Jerry Garcia, Albert King and Hank Williams, Jr.<\/p>\n

As a producer and\/or engineer, Penn has been involved in the creation of many classics as well: The Box Tops\u2019 \u201cThe Letter\u201d and recordings by Irma Thomas, Solomon Burke, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells, Ronnie Millsap, Frank Black, Steve Cropper, Yo Yo Ma and many others. Penn\u2019s creative outpouring has enhanced the worlds of pop, rock, soul, country, R&B and beyond.<\/p>\n

And while he\u2019s recorded comparatively few albums under his own name, Penn remains engaged and active today at age 78. For many years now he has mounted tours with friend and frequent songwriting collaborator Spooner Oldham; the pair\u2019s live shows are a kind of informal masterclass in songwriting, often taking their compositions back to skeletal demo form to reveal the simple genius in those songs.<\/p>\n

Dan Penn\u2019s latest project is a solo album, his first since 2016\u2019s demo collection Something About the Night<\/i>. And his first album of new material since 1995\u2019s Do Right Man<\/i>. Recorded in Nashville and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Living on Mercy<\/i> demonstrates that Penn\u2019s muse is as strong as ever.<\/p>\n

While he sometimes writes on his own, Penn is immersed in the collaborative songwriting tradition; that\u2019s the approach he used on Living on Mercy<\/i>. That method has worked well for him since his earliest days. \u201cCo-writing is a special deal,\u201d he says. \u201cYou gotta know your way around: somebody\u2019s gotta give, and everybody can\u2019t talk at one time.\u201d But he says that for him, the process \u2013 involving \u201ctwo people, sometimes three\u201d \u2013 means that \u201ceverybody offers their opinions and their licks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penn values certain qualities in a potential songwriting collaborator. \u201cI can write on my guitar by myself,\u201d he says with characteristic modesty. \u201cBut it’s not always exactly what I want. I don’t go to the good chords; I’m kind of limited.\u201d He mentions Will McFarlane, piano player on the new album and his writing partner on \u201cI\u2019ll See You in My Dreams\u201d and \u201cI Didn\u2019t Hear That Comin\u2019,\u201d two of the standout tracks on Living on Mercy<\/i>. \u201cWill can carry you to places that you might want to go,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that’s what I’m always looking for: a better musician than me.\u201d That, he says, is one of the best reasons to co-write.<\/p>\n

When pressed, Penn admits that on occasion, there\u2019s friction in the co-writing process. But he long ago figured out how to deal with that kind of situation. If it happens that he wants the song to develop one way and his partner sees it differently, Penn says, \u201cI just let them have it. If they want it, they can take it. I\u2019ll write another one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when the song is his, Penn tries to stay open-minded about how another artist might interpret it. He recalls the 1966 session with the Purify brothers. \u201cMe and Spooner had been writing every night over there at FAME Studios,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWe had the studio: the mics, the pianos, the big speakers, the board. We had it all.\u201d He says that studio owner Rich Hall gave them every opportunity to write something good. \u201cSo we wrote \u2018I’m Your Puppet,\u2019 and the Purify Brothers cut it. I was the engineer on that record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penn admits that at first, he wasn\u2019t pleased with how the session went. \u201cI thought they had it too fast,\u201d he says. Worse still, they changed his lyrics from \u201cI\u2019m the<\/i> puppet\u201d to \u201cI\u2019m your<\/i> puppet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t particularly like the way they did it at the time,\u201d he recalls. But then he delivers the punch line: \u201cBut after I got my couple of first [royalty] checks, I said, \u2018You know, I like this!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Penn was in his early twenties when \u201cI\u2019m Your Puppet\u201d hit the charts; he had previously scored with a hit single recorded by Conway Twitty, \u201cIs a Bluebird Blue?\u201d But \u201cPuppet\u201d was his first major success, and it set him on a course he follows to this day. His father had encouraged him to take a job at the plant where he worked; they pay was better than at FAME Studios. \u201cI just stayed with it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd after \u2018I’m Your Puppet,\u2019 I said, OK, don’t look back. Just lean forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some fifty-plus years later, Dan Penn\u2019s approach to working in the studio remains straightforward. \u201cWe cut the album old-style,\u201d he says. While many of today\u2019s recordings are assembled from individual parts recorded in far-flung locations, that\u2019s not Penn\u2019s way. \u201cEverybody is on their instrument, and then away we go,\u201d he says. Remarkably, that live-in-the-studio approach carries right through to the vocals. \u201cThe vocals are the ones that came off the floor,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen they were playing, that’s what I was singing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Penn \u2013 an old hand behind the recording console \u2013 doesn\u2019t look down upon the more \u201cmodern\u201d methods. While emphasizing that for him, playing live while recording is important to capture the right feel, he respects the layered approach, too. Plenty of good albums are made \u201cby just a couple of people and some drum machines coming off of the computers,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they’re pretty realistic. I\u2019ve got a friend who cuts that way, and I love his records.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a potential downside to using real musicians, too, Penn admits with a chuckle. \u201cA real band can kind of get away from you,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt brings on slack between the drums, the bass and everybody else.\u201d But his old-school perspective brings equanimity to that realization. \u201cSlack can be good, and it can be bad,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a> \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This feature appeared previously in Goldmine Magazine. Sixty-plus years into his career, Alabama-born songwriter and musician Dan Penn returns with a new album. Out on August 28, Living on Mercy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,51],"tags":[4374],"class_list":["post-20041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","tag-dan-penn","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20041"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20378,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041\/revisions\/20378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}