For more than sixty years now, the musical development of Dan Penn has been like a movie that is constantly in production with every glimpse of the director’s work in progress sought after by his fans. There have been countless stills from the movie in the form of the many classic recordings of his material by other artists that have cemented his place in the songwriters Pantheon. Very occasionally, we’ve had the pleasure of enjoying his own work through the handful of solo albumshe has released as full studio productions - Nobody’s Fool (1973), DoRight Man (1994) and Living On Mercy (2020).
And then of course there is the Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham live album, Moments FromThis Theatre, where the songwriters’ skills are so spellbindingly executed publicly in their purest, naked form.
Like all writers, he is constantly jotting ideas, returning to them time after time to spark them into life. Many get left behind but there are some that keep developing. Itches that need to be scratched. Periodically, we get to admire some of these survivors when Dan releases a collection of songs that he deems good enough to share with the outside world. So far, there have been few in the series of “demo” albums issued privately on his own Dandy label. Blue Nite Lounge was the first in 1999. It came out because he had been in Louisiana on a songwriting trip with Carson Whittsett and Bucky Lindsey recording their efforts for what he intended to be his next full studio production. When he got back home and heard the results, he decided that he simply couldn’t match the vocals he had done so it got released after a bit more work.
Inspired by the reception it got, he followed it up in 2008 with Junkyard Junky as a consequence of him reevaluating some archive material and deciding it was too good to just gather dust. He repeated the process with I Need A Holiday in 2013.
But aside from The Inside Track On Bobby Purify (which was a look through the songwriter’s keyhole at the Bobby Purify album he produced in 2006), it's been a long wait for this latest collection of his demos. Smoke Filled Room is the most recent review of his musical scrapbook and it has revealed original versions of some great songs that somehow never made it further than the Penn workbench.
As ever,the icing on the cake is Dan’s soulful singing and southern groove which burstsout of every track.
This selection clearly illustrates the breadth of his range as a writer, especially when he is bouncing ideas around with the other collaborators on these sessions and in particular, with Carson Whittsett and Bucky Lindsey. Their contribution at the songwriting summit meetings with Dan was always fruitful. Sadly,we’ve lost both of these musical architects now, but they live on through this release and their other work. These gatherings were regular events over the course of the trio’s friendship, and it is a real joy hearing Carson’s contribution on keyboards on so many of theserecordings. Bucky’s inimitable voice on Crazy Ole Girl is a treat too.
Let’s not forget that these tracks on Smoke Filled Room really are just demos because you might well do when you’re listening to them. Normally, this kind of stuff doesn’t get heard outside of the world of song-pitching. They are not made with any intention of being released in the original format. It is just part of the daily work of the songwriter and so it’s interesting listening to them and imagining how they might be interpreted by other artists. However, there is nothing quite like hearing them from the creator himself.
When he told me that he had another collection ready for public consumption and askedwhat I thought of the idea, I said that if Dan Penn reckons that they are good enough to be heard that’s good enough for me.
It's been well worth the wait again.
Turn offyour phone and make yourselves comfortable for another trailer from the Dan Penn epic.
