Amid all the hoopla associated with the Radiators reuniting for two shows at Tipitina’s this past week, fishheads and other fans of New Orleans music may have missed the fact that the band’s leader and songwriter has gifted us with more music.
Love in the Ruins is a collection of tunes that Ed Volker, aka Zeke Fishhead, wrote between March of 1983 and February of 1984. Three of the tunes will be familiar to fans with long memories or large collections of vintage tapes.
Here’s what Volker (pictured center/bottom from around the period the songs were written) has to say about the latest collection of songs.
“I’d begun a grand attempt at assembling a chronological catalog of all my song writings some years ago, making fresh copies of sound recordings along the way, along with the relevant lyrics. Occasionally I was inspired to record new versions of a few here and there.
But it wasn’t until I’d retired from roadwork with the Rads that I felt I had the time to pursue a more immersive engagement with some of the more inspiring material. Until the late ’80’s, most of my songwriting was accomplished in energetic bursts, and, unless the tunes were used by the Rads, they just sat in limbo. And, so now having the time to attend to the more worthy pieces, I’m helping them see the light of day… …three of the tuna in this set were, in fact, briefly learnt and performed by the Rads: BIRD IN THE HAND, ALL THE GOOD ONES, and TIGER.
In revisiting these tunes, I spent considerable time with each one, letting them play in my head on long walks on the bayou or sometimes when I’d wake in the middle of the night, thereby lavishing on them the care and attention they were denied in my youthful haste. I added musical bridges and instrumental passages…in the instance of BIRD IN THE HAND, I jettisoned the verse lyrics entirely, shooting for earthier reflections of what the chorus points to – ‘You gotta walk it like you talk it.’
While I think I’ve deepened and matured as a writer, the younger, simpler, and more energetic place these songs originally came out of has come to be an inspiration and a goad to the older, slower, crankier ‘me’ of today..”
The video was shot in 1984.
The album can be downloaded here.
