Checking on Americana UK’s past references to Mark Otis Selby finds only my own pick as No 10 in my top 10 americana albums back in 2020, so it’s definitely the case that more people should know of his talents and appreciate his musical legacy.
Oklahoma-born Selby sadly passed away in 2017, and my own introduction to his music was his final album, Naked Sessions, released posthumously in 2018. The album has proved an enduring favourite, back in 2020 I described it as “stripped back..emotion of guitar and vocals..as raw as it gets”, and on every listen that emotion still grabs me, so hard to achieve on a recording, but the listener feels they are in the room, with Selby giving the performance of his life, sadly aware that this would be his last recording.
Every track is a winner, drawing on his career as both performer and writer, with most songs co-writes with his life partner as well as collaborator Tia Sillers. There’s Your Trouble was their breakthrough composition, a big hit for The Dixie Chicks ( as they were then), which won the band their first Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1999, but here played as written, on acoustic guitar, with Selby’s vocals and harmonica, a nod to his musical roots, with acoustic blues an important influence in his writing and playing.
In her 2018 tribute to Selby, Sillers wrote, “Many of the versions heard on this LP are the original guitar and vocals Mark recorded the day he wrote the song, including Rise Up, where you hear Mark and Kenny Wayne lost in the zen and creative bliss of the moment. MOS wasn’t able to do the filmed portion of The Naked Sessions, but he gave his vigorous two thumbs up approval of this wonderful collection of his songs spanning 20 years of live recordings”.
Blue On Black, a co-write with Sillers and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, whose recording was a number 1 hit, had a blues/rock vibe, but his work, as a Nashville writer and performer, has clear americana leanings too, no more so than on Tumbleweeds, a personal favourite song on the much-used theme of a cowboy born at the wrong time, Selby singing “On a half-broke pony on the wide open range/whoa, buffalo free/nowhere to go but wherever I please/what can I say, its a helluva joke/born too late with a cowboy ghost in me/I still dream of tumbleweed”.
And of course, Lucinda Sing is his ode to another collaborator in Lucinda Williams, americana royalty.
If I had to choose a current favourite track on the album, it would be Backdoor To My Heart, “This is the backdoor to my heart/but don’t you tell a soul/that I’ve given you the key to these rooms inside of me/don’t you let nobody know”.
Selby’s first two solo albums, One Way Ticket and One Of These Days, were released in 1984 and 1986, respectively, followed by More Storms Comin’ and Dirt on Vanguard Records in 2000 and 2003.
These earlier releases are on some, but not all, streaming platforms, but his 2006 release, Mark Otis Selby And The Horse He Rode In On, is on most, and is a fine predecessor to Naked Sessions.
Sharing its acoustic vibe, the album has some excellent covers, A Whiter Shade Of Pale drawing deeper meaning from its familiar lyrics, again with an intimacy that feels as if he is playing just for you, with Selby’s chops on acoustic guitar there to the fore. And Hendrix’s Little Wing is transformed to a tender love song, with both jazzy and classic Hendrix tones. Both masterly performances from a supremely talented guitarist.
Of the Selby originals, Know The Blues is an atmospheric vocal and harmonica nod to his blues roots, while Deep Pockets is a tender love song, Selby singing “I got deep pockets, overflowing/a long road in front of me/it knows where I’m going/I ain’t got no money, that may be true/but I’ve got deep pockets baby full of love for you”, with harmony vocals from partner Sillers.
Between these albums, Selby released Blue Highway, an excellent electric blues set, with echoes of Canadian bluesman Colin James, showing him to be a fine electric guitarist too, and reflecting his collaborations with Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
Add to these Nine Pound Hammer from 2008, featuring songs at the rock end of americana, a fine live album, Live at the Rockpalast, and Mark Selby’s Nashville Picks Vol. 1, an album from 2007 combining tracks by himself, his partner Sillers, and other personal favourite Nashville artists, and you have a fantastic back catalogue to explore. Get listening!
