A “gristly” take
April 18, 2008 by nonotes
A bit more than two years ago, I published on this site a mini-review of a then-new version of “SJI” by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan. I really didn’t care for it, but of course I know that Campbell and Lanegan have a lot of indie-rockin’ fans. Anyway, Campbell did the singing on that, so I was interested to come upon a recent reference to another Lanegan project where “SJI” popped up. This time, Lanegan does the singing.
Lanegan (Screaming Trees; Queens of the Stone Age) has a project with Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs; Twilight Singers), in which they call themselves the Gutter Twins. The Independent recaps a recent show here, and notes:
Lanegan’s gristly “she’ll never find another man like me” during the folk standard “St James Infirmary Blues” finds rare comfort in somewhat macho conceit.
A couple of years ago I did some research into the song "St. James Infirmary," wrote up what I found, emailed that essay to friends and posted it on my web site (as part of a series of "Letters From New Orleans," as I was living in that city at the time). Based on the feedback, I wrote a second version of the essay, and asked for more feedback. Based on that, I wrote a 
