Three words: Jenny Owen Youngs

According to my regular annual practice, in November I donated to Michele Rundgren's public radio pledge drive for her weekly show in Kauai, which I listen to over the Internet. They always send people "thank you" CDs when they pledge, and one of the CDs Michele sent me in December was "Batten the Hatches" by Jenny Owen Youngs (from New Jersey, 26 years old). I can't stop listening to it. I immediately downloaded her other available songs and remixes off of iTunes (mostly from one digital EP). Don't know if you'll like her music or not, but you'll surely admire her youthful pluck, aplomb and forthrightness.

Go to:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6. How's that for me really liking an artist. She'll be playing in Hullen Hall at Hendrix in Conway on Wednesday Jan. 16. I'll be the one there with bells on.

Seriously, if you check her out on YouTube for live performances, you'll see she does really great performances of her recorded tunes (occasionally sitting in the lap of an audience member).

Maybe it's the lyrics, maybe it's her voice, maybe it's the instrumentation, maybe it's the production, maybe it's my inability to categorize it, maybe you'll think I've lost my musical mind, but there it is.

Anyway, I've also been listening to various holiday favorites throughout the season, so have a Happy New Year folks!

Puppini's, Todd and Owsley

The Puppini Sister's new sophomore-effort CD (UK version -- US not out yet), The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo, arrived and is quite enjoyable. They do a few great covers like the Classic IV's Spooky, the Bangles' Walk Like An Egyptian and the standards Old Cape Cod and It Don't Mean A Thing, but they also show some good songwriting, too. Here's a cool new video of Spooky.



As for live music, brother Vinnie and I drove down to the House of Blues in Dallas last Sunday to see Todd Rundgren and had a wonderful time, met some neat Todd fans and saw a great show (a no keyboards-hot guitars rock night).
Go here to see guitarist Jesse Gress do a blues harmonica solo on guitar! Here are some more bits of cuts from that night.

Finally, been listening a lot this week to Owsley, a power-pop young guy who is very good at the genre. See albums here and here. I think that my kids turned me on to him, but I can't remember which kid or when. Shows I'm getting old. But I really like this guy. Check him out.

Later!

Dang Me

Okay. So I've been taking all these old albums to digital. And I came across this "best of" Roger Miller album. And, looking at the titles, I thought, "WTF, some of these are good tunes; might as well port them over." And in listening to them in the process, all of this baggage from my childhood just got delivered without a note to my door. Gio, you probably have this happen when you're inadvertently exposed to Italian tenors; I don't know. But I grew up listening to KHOZ (mostly AM) radio in Harrison. In the morning, Upton Horn would play country music from sign-on (sunup) until about eight o'clock. Then another DJ, Mark Williams, would come on and play an eclectic mix of what, I suppose could have been jazz and adult contemporary--everything from Count Basie to Andy Williams--from 8 til 10. Then Mark would host an hour of "tradio,"--"My son has a '63 Fairlane with a blown engine for sale..." Then Uppie Horn would come back on and play country from 11 'til 3, when the kids got out of school. Then they'd have rock and roll 'till sign-off (sundown). Is it any wonder my musical tastes are so friggin' schizophrenic?

But I digress.

Uppie played most everything Roger Miller ever did. And I liked it. And I learned most of it on guitar.

Roger was a really good writer. If anyone who might chance upon this post can cite an influence from which he might have derived his style, I'd be interested in knowing it. Otherwise, I'll go on assuming he was a true original. And his voice...he did this scat singing thing that I never heard anyone do before or since.

If it's been a while since you've heard any Roger Miller, maybe you can go to Amazon and listen to the samples. But if you see any of his stuff in the bargain bin, check it out. Notable (well, they're all notable, but listen to): Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd. You Don't Want My Love. Dang Me.

Very interesting sidenote: This album was on the Smash label, same as the "All Mitch Ryder Hits" album I earlier reviewed.

The back of the album cover shows four snapshots of Roger. In two of them, he's smoking cigarettes. He died at 56 of lung cancer in '92. But he wrote some really good stuff while he was here.

Clinton for President

Has to be a step up from what we have now.

Soul music site

If you're into soul and R&B, here's a site you might like, if you havent' been there before:

Soul-Patrol.com

Give Me Some Money

Relative to my earlier post regarding pop music in TV spots, I just noticed that Amex is using Spinal Tap's "Give Me Some Money."
What a delicious ironic twist; an inside joke that very few will get, and can't possibly be worth what the client is paying for it. But must have been fun for the creative director.
Made me grin just thinking about the song.

Raul Midón

Been listening to Raul Midón, a blind black singer/songwriter/guitarist who plays with a Latin percussive style and sings like Donny Hathaway with a little Stevie Wonder thrown in. Has two available CDs and one early hard-to-finder. Smooth voice and nice delivery; good songs. Has a duet remake with a lady (whose name I can't spell or pronounce) of "Where Is The Love." Even my 16-year-old, Jack, likes this guy because of the way he strums with a flailing motion of the tips of his fingers (long nails) just like Jack does (ala Lindsey Buckingham).

Also, thanks to Mr. Nicholson, I've been listening to my Mitch Ryder "Best of" CD in the car and really enjoying some of the songs I was less familiar with, like the one he mentioned, "I'd Rather Go To Jail." Nice.

Waiting for my copy of the new Puppini Sisters second CD to show up in the mail. Has a version of "Walk Like An Egyptian" done swing. Hmmm. I'll report when it arrives.

Ry Cooder

I've recently digitized six Ry Cooder albums, produced from the early 70's to the mid 80's.

In chronological order:

Into the Purple Valley

Boomer's Story

Paradise and Lunch

Chicken Skin Music

Bop 'til you Drop

Slide Area

Ry's a prolific guy; had a quite few more albums between and since then, including, but not limited to Jazz, Borderline, and Buena Vista Social Club.

Ry didn't write a lot, but really pulled some gems from the American musical canon, from obscure acoustic blues guys, Bachrach, Johnny Cash, Elvis, depression-era folk stuff, early funk, name a genre, he's probably mined it.

Our friend Mr. Mohney also gave me a CD of Talking Timbuktu with Ali Farka Toure, something completely different from all of the above.

That early era saw him working with Jim Dickenson a lot,, who produced and played on his first couple of albums. Again the LA session guys who were doing stuff for the Warner-Reprise stable get in on a lot of the earlier stuff. Keltner, Milt Holland, Red Callender, RussTitelman, a lot of those folks. John Hiatt sings background vox on Slide Area, a collaboration that later found great traction in Hiatt's own stuff and Little Village.

Obviously, I like the guy, and I'm happy to say this is some of the stuff that holds up. I like his slide playing--always tasteful, clean and innovative. But I think the thing that brings me back to his material is he had some monster grooves. Check out Down in Hollywood or Look at Granny Run from Bop 'til you Drop. Or go back to Paradise and Lunch and listen to Fool for a Cigarette or Married Man's a Fool. Just about any of the albums above are going to have at least one or two tunes that will pull all but the most hidebound white guys out of their seats. But, of course, I'm a fool for a groove. You could probably put Mein Kampf to a good groove and I'd be right there telling you it was okay. What did that song say? Who gives a s*&t, it was right in the pocket.

Randy Newman--Good Old Boys

Here's another one I pulled from the album stack.

Jesus! I'd forgotten what a fine piece of work this is. On so many levels.

I enjoyed listening to it in the '70s. But I also enjoyed listening to Grand Funk. I guess you have to go back and actually hear it all again to re-validate what's enduring and what's not (unless, of course, you had fully-hatched, impeccable taste in y0ur twenties--and I have pulled out a few albums that I gently put back in the stack without any more strain to my hard drive).

In the first place, that crew that was doing sessions in LA in the mid-70's deserves quite a bit of credit in its own right.

This one's got Jim Keltner, Andy Newkirk and Milt Holland on drums. Ry Cooder on guitar (more on him later--I've just converted 5 of his CDs from '71-'82). Willie Weeks, Russ Titelman and Red Callendar on bass. Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey and Don Henley on bckg vox. When you go back and look at all the pop music all these guys created, it's quite impressive.

When you look at all of the tunes that endured from this album, it's also equally impressive: Rednecks, Marie, Naked Man, Back on My Feet Again, Guilty, Rollin', Back on My Feet Again...I don't think there's a piker in the lot.

Of course, Lousiana 1927 became the theme song for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (BTW, I might recommend as a good read, Rising Tide: The Great Misssissippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America by John Barry. Really interesting if you have any interest at all in the Delta. A good library check-out. This album would be good soundtrack to the book if you want to be put in a cultural mood).

If you have this one hanging around in your collection and haven't listened to it in a few years, do yourself a favor and revisit it. The man can turn a phrase to music.

From the vault

The new turntable has me digging into a lot of different stuff. Pulled out the Wild Tchoupitoulas, (1976) which is, of course, the Nevilles and the Meters along with Mardi Gras Indians, the Wild Tchoupitoulas. Also, its successor, Fiyo on the Bayou, by the Neville Brothers,(1981) arguably the best album they've ever done. Both have versions of New Orleans mainstay "Brother John" ,with the Nevilles adding "Iko Iko" (same song, basically), to their version. Both have "Hey Pocky Way." (BTW, Gio, if you all play that again, get BJ to add about 20 BPMs to what it's fallen into). The Neville's album has a couple of Aaron Neville ballads--I gotta believe in 1981, they were still thinking they could maybe get another "Tell it Like It Is."

Also "CDing" a lot of my old Allman Bros. vinyl. (more on that later).

Tonight's project is All Mitch Ryder Hits. The Detroit Wheels were a great band. Jim McCarty on guitar. A bunch of white guys who played like they were on speed, but still kept it in the pocket. High energy meets Motown groove. It was really innovative for its time. I can still listen to this stuff. I still have the same album my buddy Dave Morton bought in the eighth grade. It was brought out at parties--always a dancing hit--from time to time in the 70's and 80's. This one's going to be a test to see just how much noise Audacity can remove.

Speaking of the '60's, I've also been catching Tom Petty's "Buried Treasure" show on XM. They've wised up and started playing his shows, along with Bob Dylan's and Marty Stuart's (both of which I also really like) all day long on one of their channels. Petty's show replays all day on Thursday. He pulls out some cool stuff: chestnuts you haven't heard in a while, and some other eclectic stuff. Those three shows are worth the price of XM for me.

Footnote---Interesting Vintage Guitar interview with Jim McCarty.

New life for vinyl

I just bought off eBay (one of the best transactions I've ever had--the guy delivered FedEx free) an Ion USB turntable. It's a lightweight little thing--not like the Duals and Luxman I had in earlier days. But it's pretty cool.
It came with Audacity , letting you record vinyl into your computer and convert to wav or mp3, and remove clicks and pops.
Test project was Derek and the Dominoes, which was the wife's favorite college album.
I looked into the closet with all the vinyl I have and I'm starting to get kind of stoked. I know originally we thought maybe this blog would promote us getting into some new listening, but I have some really good old stuff on vinyl. Currently converting Ry Cooder's Into the Purple Valley, Dusty in Memphis, Light as a Feather by Chick Corea, and Church Street Blues by Tony Rice.
Now, how to explain about all the dusty shit that's falling out of all of those double album covers I haven't opened since the '70's.
So, Gio, I'll try to send you something interesting out of the collection to repay you for Lester Roadhog Moran. Which I've enjoyed immensely (the stuff holds up really well--but maybe that's because I spent every Saturday night in 1972 playing at the Shirley VFW club.)

PT(B) at BA on DVD/CD!

I picked up Paul Thorn's new live DVD/CD combo this week. Very nice! I saw Paul in Little Rock a couple of years ago and was very impressed by his band, especially guitarist Bill Hinds. I had already been familiar with Paul's studio CDs for a good while and always enjoyed his wry lyrics, etc. (Recent interview.)

Check out the vid and audio samples on his site. (This package was captured at WorkPlay in Birmingham where the family and I caught Todd Rundgren earlier this year. Neat seeing on DVD a venue I was recently in.) Anyway, this outing shows Paul's not John Hiatt or young Tom Waits or the new Elvis -- and that's all right. I like what he is just fine. And some things he occasionally does better than those other fellas. (Hell I can cook better than Elvis; especially now.)

Bill Hinds tone, playfulness and slide work will impress you, I'll bet.

Also -- My brother, Jay, let me borrow his new Herbie Hancock CD of guest stars called Possibilities. Favorite cut is When Love Comes To Town with guests Jonny Lang and Joss Stone. Smokin'!

Later.

I Love New/Old Fusions

Short and sweet: Was listening to NPR yesterday, and heard a story on The Brian Setzer Orchestra's new CD (released this week), Wolfgang's Big Night Out. What a great idea! Mr. Setzer had already morphed from rockabilly revival to a guitar-led big band. Now to take famous classical pieces and arrange them to fit that jumpin', guitar-led big band is too cool! Going to the trouble to find and enlist an 84-year-old arranger who had done this kind of thing during the big band era was genius. I went to iTunes to listen to all the 30-second clips and was blown away. This one goes on my "next payday" list for sure. Listen to the NPR story linked above for the skinny. Adios for now.

I love that song--where can I buy that widget?

I've long been amazed and perplexed by the now long-running trend of using "golden oldies" as sound tracks for TV commercials.
I know the rationale for doing this probably lies in the belief that the emotional attachment to those songs--all of the pleasant memories they might conjure up from peoples' youth--can be latched to brand qualities of the products or services offered.
I think creative directors are particularly suceptible to this line of thinking. It's a hell of a lot easier to scroll through the canon of pop songs and pick one that seems to match the product and spot than to think about doing something innovative with audio. I also wonder how many of them like to boast at dinner parties that they were able to negotiate a particular classic into their spot.
But I have a personal theory about this: I think that for the most part, people hear the music and don't make the connection with the brand. Here's a little test for you. With what products are these songs--all of which have seen heavy recent rotation--associated?:
I'm Free--Rolling Stones
Every Day is a Winding Road--Sheryl Crow
All Right Now--Free
Come and Get Your Love--Redbone
Just What I Needed--Cars
I've Been Everywhere--Johnny Cash
Free Ride--Edgar Winter
Gimme Some Lovin'--Spencer Davis Group

Wonder how much these advertisers paid for the rights to these songs...
Wonder how they calculate ROI...
Wonder how long can this trend last...

Ed--August 29

Been listening to Al Green's 1970 release, "Al Green Gets Next to You." I picked up the album at the library, primarily because I’d heard an Arkansas Public Radio piece on Roosevelt Sykes, an Arkansan who wrote “Driving Wheel,” cut #6 on the album.
This album is pre-Rev. Green, pre-“Let’s Stay Together,” but it has some really good R&B stuff on it. It has a little more edge on it than his most familiar stuff. “Tired of Being Alone” scores the "most likely to get repurposed as a contemporary TV spot soundtrack" award.
My favorite cut is the aforementioned “Driving Wheel,” which was also covered by Junior Parker. I'm going to bet Keith Richards picked up the hook lick from "Last Time," from this song. This version kicks the song in the butt. I took it to the band, and got a lot of “I’ve never heard that song before…people won’t know that one…” responses (someday Gio—since it’s mostly you and I on here anyway—we need to start us up a real honest-to-god R&B band that forges its way into people’s hearts on the strength of its grooves). Also notable are the title cut, and the blues standard, “I’m a Ram.” There’s a pretty surreal version of “Light my Fire,” in which he talks the verses. Kind of like William Shatner, only Al pulls it off. This is some good listening, which I’d never heard before.

I’ve also come late to listening to the Beatles’ “Love,” a masterful piece of remixing, proving again that we may never see the likes of anyone else who can play the studio like George Martin. It might be kind of interesting to see if he and Paul could come up with anything new and remarkable today.

I have a couple of more things in the queue, and will try to get back to posting more regularly.

Morty's sappy side

As predicted, I have been listening to the latest releases by Swan Dive and Stephen Bishop -- both Bossa Nova CDs. I'm getting quite mellow as I'm driving (my best listening space). Hope I don't nod off, but I really am enjoying them.

Swan Dive has always had a bit of BN, but this one is full tilt, as is Stephen's, thanks to Brazilian guitarist/producer Oscar Castro-Neves (who was with the first Brazil 66). As Todd Rundgren did a decade ago with his With A Twist CD, Stephen takes some of his most well known songs and redoes them BN, but he also wrote some new ones for this release, of which my favorite is Take This Empty Heart. It seems that Stephen has taken the Paul McCartney route of releasing his CD through one retailer: Target (Paul's was Starbucks). I also noticed that Kenny Loggins has a new one only out on the Target label, too. That wacky music biz!

You can hear bits of both the BN CDs on the MySpace pages I linked to their names. If so inclined, you may also visit their official sites, www.swandive.org and www.stephenbishop.com.

Needless to say, I'll probably be ready for some balls-to-the-wall rock pretty damn soon ...

The Harmonies of August

Been listening to a new group out of England called The Puppini Sisters. They do old and new songs alike in an Andrews Sisters style. (They also have a guitarist that obviously likes Django.) Love their voices and harmonies. I especially like their 1940s-style versions of I Will Survive and Heart Of Glass. My favorite this week is their cover of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. I like it better than the original. The CD is called Betcha Bottom Dollar. Their MySpace page has videos (scroll down on the page) of live performances and a wonderful animation of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Taking a retro sound and making it fresh is always cool, plus they sing great and look great with 40s style hair and clothes.

When my budget can afford it I will be getting 2 new Bossa Nova CDs; one each from Swan Dive and Stephen Bishop. I'll report in on them then! Bye for now.

No new words for a month ... Summer vacation?

Just a quick note to say I've been listening almost exclusively to my Ryan Shaw CD (Thanks, Ed!). Also the new Prince single, Guitar. And the new Paul McCartney single, Dance Tonight. And Frank lent me his copy of the Beatles' "Love" CD to rip. Really like it. Speaking of Mr. Cox, he and I got to talking last week about the old Statler's comedy album: Lester "Roadhog" Moran and the Cadillac Cowboys Alive at the Johnny Mack Brown High School. Seems they re-released it on CD in the mid-90s as "The Complete ..." with extra cuts and I found it on iTunes! Bought it and have been listening to it a lot. Awwlll right! Mighty fine!

Ed--June 16

I caught an interview on NPR yesterday (listen to this first) with Ryan Shaw.
He's a 26-year old kid that has an album that sounds like it could have come out of Memphis or Detroit in '68. I was intrigued.
I just happened to be around the corner from Best Buy; ran in and picked up the CD, This is Ryan Shaw, and have been listening to it all day.
I'm a fool for a groove, anyway. This one has some great production, plus, the guy can really sing. You'll hear a couple of his originals on his Web site, but he also does some exemplary covers, my favorite Jackie Wilson's I'll Be Satisfied and Wilson Pickett's I Found a Love (you'll be able to hear these as long as NPR has them archived) .
Gio, I'm going to go out on a limb (about three inches) and say you're gonna want to go out and buy this one.

Penquin Audio Books have diverted my ears

OK. For the last few weeks my music listening (which takes place primarily in my car) has been hijacked by a really good audio book (unabridged, 22 CDs). I did, however pick up a good 2-CD, re-release of the 2 albums released in the early 70s by Carole King's (and occasionally James Taylor's) backup band at the time, Jo Mama.

Led by Danny Kortchmar on guitar (and with him handling most of the songwriting), the band sounds very much like the type of performances found on Carole King records, but with a very different lead singer, Abigale Haness. Haness had a grittier, more soulful voice than King, more like Lydia Pense from Cold Blood meets Linda Ronstadt than, say, Janis Joplin. Ralph Schuckett (who later was in Todd Rundgren's Utopia) delivered a funkier piano style than King also. Plus he added some sweet organ to the mix. Bass was by Charles Larkey (Carole's squeeze at the time) and drums were by the late great Joel Bishop O'Brien.

The early jazz, rock, soul, folk fusion of those days was evident in Kortchmar's Machine Gun Kelly (also done by James Taylor) and a more rockin' cover of Carole King's Smack Water Jack. My favorite cut is Kortchmar's 3 A.M. in L.A., a jazzy fusion instrumental sandwiched around a torch ballad sung wonderfully by Haness.

As mentioned before in my comment to Ernest Edmund's re-introduction to Richard Leo Johnson, I have also been re-listening to Richard's Creatures of Habit CD from the early 90s, done with former Gunbunnies percussionist, Jud Martindale. It is so much more palatable to my (more mature) ears now than when I first got it. The talented Mr. RLJ was way ahead of his time. Still is.

When I finish this book (I'm on disc 19), I'll revert back to more music listening. Till then, happy musicking!

Email Notifications

I'm testing a couple of Feedburner widgets, seen in the upper left sidebar: the email notification tool and the feed subscription tool.
If you use a feed reader like Bloglines or My Yahoo or Google Reader (If you don't, you might check them out. My personal preference is Bloglines, simply because I've used it for a couple of years) the feed subscription tool will sign you up to automatically receive new postings.
If this line is still here, the email notification works.

Ed--May 22

Will somehow stumbled upon a copy of Striking it Rich, (1972) by Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks. Until I listened to it again, I'd forgotten just how much time I'd spent listening to their stuff. Never covered any of their material at the time, but the stuff OTL is playing now probably owes quite a bit to this music.



This one contains some Hicks favorites: Walking One and Only, I Scare Myself, Canned Music, and You Got to Believe, in addition to an enjoyable cover of I'm an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande).
While it is widely rumored that old Dan was a pretty hard guy to get along with, you gotta give it to him: he did take his music in a drastically different direction than most everyone else in the business was headed at the time. And though the cast changed quite a bit, he always put together some pretty good players to make it happen. Stalwarts in his lineup included John Girton on guitar, Jaime Leopold on bass, and Maryann Price and Naomi Ruth Eisenberg adding to Dan's vocals for a signature sound.
Those of us around Hendrix in '74 had a close encounter with Naomi Ruth when, after the Hot Licks were disbanded, she was playing as a sideperson for the late B.W. Stephenson (whom Steve really pissed off by introducing as "Cat" Stephenson at a Hendrix performance--but that's another story) . I always thought she was an okay violinist, but after listening to this again, I've upgraded my opinion of her playing. She's good.
This one holds up really well. I would recommend it, Where's the Money, or Last Train to Hicksville for anyone wanting to get a feel for the work the group did back in the early '70s.
Think I'll have another drink...

[note--June 7: I was in San Francisco this past weekend and got to catch a gypsy jazz festival up in Mill Valley. Dan played with one of the groups, Hot Club Sandwich. He played snare drum and sang. He was dry and wry, scatted quite a bit, and, like the rest of us, had put on about 70 pounds since the Hot Licks days.]

Elvin Bishop

This might sound ridiculous but I enjoyed most of the "Devil's Rejects" soundtrack thoroughly. It was a nice mixture of Buck Owens, Elvin Bishop and pretty much everything else everyone has already heard on the Joe Dirt OST. It's sometimes a bit discomforting but it seems my musical tastes are regressing rapidly. I've recently turned into a huge country music and southern rock fan. I know it's vexing to Eddie Boy that I went from Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dave Brubeck in 5th grade to Cheap Trick and techno in 13th.
Of course everything previously stated was a serious overstatement but I don't visit blues, jazz and bluegrass as much as I used to/should. It might be my subconscious protecting my ego from getting hurt trying to pick Johnny Smith tunes or it might be that I'm too busy playing everyone's favorite cover song three times a week with the guys.
So this, my first post, will actually not be what I'm listening2 but what I'm going to make myself listen to in weeks to come. WhatIMListening2 changes every month from The Crystal Method to Kanye West to Berlioz to Dwight Yoakam to Death Cab For Cutie. This month will be the first month in my life that I will ever truly DECIDE for myself what I am going to play and listen to: Tony Rice, Dave Brubeck, Johnny Smith, etc.

Nibb High Football Rules,
WEN

Ed--May 11

Been listening to Mavis Staples' We'll Never Turn Back, a collection of "freedom songs," widely associated with the civil rights movement of the '60s. Mavis certainly takes you to church, as one would expect. But what attracts and holds me to this one is Ry Cooder produces and plays on it; and the groove is highly reminiscent of the best material he did in 70s for Reprise: Chicken Skin Music, Bop 'til you Drop, and perhaps my favorite, Paradise and Lunch. (I'm looking forward to getting my ebay turntable purchase in, so I can record some of these to CD). Her version of "Jesus on the Mainline," which Ry covered himself on Paradise and Lunch, is the first thing that's given me goose bumps in a while.

I've also been listening to Richard's Leo Johnson's Legend of Vernon McAlister. For those of us who've known Richard's work for a while, this is quite a departure from his early days where technique and innovation reigned supreme, but you had to have a telescope to find a musical theme. Well, this one has no shortage of plainly accessible themes, beginning with the concept of "Vernon" who performs the entire project on a National Duolian. A lot of it is layering of musical themes, with an icing of EBow sustained lines. Richard also played me some of his new album Who Knew Charlie Shoe?, (see photo below) another concept album, with a new character. What I heard was probably the most easily-accessible Richard Johnson ever recorded, with some very interesting percussion, added by yet another character. Go to the site, read the interview.

More obscurity, I suppose …

This week, I have been listening to an old comedy album by Albert Brooks that I had on vinyl back in the day and now have purchased on CD. It's dated but still funny. His routine on rewriting the national anthem is a classic.

While preparing a prog rock sampler of 2 CDs for my brother Vinnie to listen to at work with his new "baby hippie" crew (they look like they just left Woodstock and talk about dropping acid a lot), I have been listening to Kevin Gilbert again. Another deceased-too-young musical wizard who got the royal bad-music-biz treatment (bend over) when he was in Toy Matinee and then recorded 2 great solo CDs (one released post mortem) before shuffling off the mortal coil at 29 back in 1996. I seem to return to him often in my listening habits. I wonder how it would have been if he had lived and passed the audition to replace Phil Collins in Genesis. He was supposed to fly to England for that chance a week after he died.

Anyway, his other available work is worth checking out, if you've never delved. He did win a Grammy for writing some/most of the songs on Sheryl Crow's 1st album. He sang well; played piano, bass, guitar and drums excellently; and he even produced a Keith Emerson CD.

Finally, I'm gearing up to go see Todd Rundgren perform this Wednesday in Birmingham, AL. He's finishing up a 2-week mini-tour with Jerry Marotta (drms), John Montagna (bass) and Jesse Gress (gtr) -- all great players. No keyboards and lots of guitar hero material this tour. Next week he starts another tour as singer for the New Cars once again.

I'll report next time on how it went.

And what will we be laughing about twenty years from now?

Okay, it's not exactly on topic, but I thought this would be of interest to the three still reading this: Spinal Tap performing live again.

Just watched the 2oth anniversary edition of the film with brother Randy, who'd never seen it, and have to say it holds up well.

"The director [Rob Reiner/Marty DeBergi] said the new short film explains what the band has been doing with their lives lately. Nigel has been raising miniature horses to race but can't find jockeys small enough to ride them; David is now a hip-hop producer who also runs a colonic clinic; and Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet."

Remember records?

Remember vinyl? The 80s? Those 12" disco singles of longer and different remixes of artist's songs for play in dance clubs?

Well the latest in several anthology/best of CDs by Prince has finally included some of these remix gems (if you like Prince), and I quickly bought my favorites off of iTunes and burned a disc for the car. So that's what I've been listening to this week: Pop Life, She's Always In My Hair, Let's Work, Kiss, Thieves In The Temple -- all extended, and usually better than the original, mixes. So sue me, I like the little Prince guy.

Also, with excellent co-writing help from my co-workers, studio assist from The Works' Steve Patrick (track creator extraordinaire) and Jason Tedford (engineer and mixdown champ), Barbara Raney's inspired background vocals, my own lead vocals, and a great video slideshow put together by Chip Bayer (co-worker) in one afternoon, we have assaulted the YouTube galaxy with that Sanjaya/Kaw-Liga thang I was coughing about last week. Go to this link for a listen/view. Share with your friends.

Ed--4/22

I traveled to Savannah this week on business, but also got to spend some time with Richard Leo down there. Great hospitality from him and Ms. Jane, who haven't changed a bit (Jane can still tell a five minute story in less than an hour). I walked him through posting here, so if we're lucky we'll hear from him.
Coincidentally, I'd gone to the library last week and borrowed the 1985 Across a Crowded Room by Richard Thompson.
I remember discussions with both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Patrick back in the early '90's that can be condensed into something like this: (them) "Richard Thompson is a really good guitar player." (me) "No, he's not."
Back then, I was allowing technique to play a pretty big role in what I judged as greatness. Of course, back then I still wasn't ready to admit that technical whizzes are a dime a dozen. People who play wonderously unexpected parts that are exactly right for the song are extremely rare.
Richard Thompson is one of those.
If you can get ahold of this album, note the solo on "I Ain't Gonna Drag My Feet No More." Or maybe "Fire in the Engine Room."
Yeah. Richard Thompson is a really good guitar player. There, I said it. Satisfied?
He can also turn a phrase, when he wants to. Not that I put too much stock in lyrics.

New Members

I've invited a couple of new potential participants: my pal Chuck, and our old friend Richard Leo, whose photo you'll see below.
Now Steve, you be nice. They might be sensitive.

charlie shoe and junkfish...after the recording session...

The Old and the New

I've got a lot more old music on my computer than I do new. For years I wasn't exposed to any new music unless it was through friends. Then I discovered the digital music stations offered by Cox Communications. I'd load a blank DVD into the recorder and stream the jazz, blues, alternative, or even the showtunes channel. I could get 6 hours of music on a DVD! I discovered a lot of new artists that way.

When my wife got a free subscription to Paste magazine from a friend she worked with, we discovered new independent label bands and songwriters. Over the years, the magazine has expanded to cover films, books, interviews, etc. We've been subscribers for three years now. Every month a new issue arrives with a CD with over 20 songs. The latest contains Umphrey's McGee, Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs, and a band from Siloam Springs (now in Nashville) - Jackson Waters. In past issues: Norah Jones, Son Volt, Hem, Beck, and Lucinda Williams.

I also subscribe to a couple of sites where I can download mp3s at a fair price. Recent downloads: The OKeh Ellington a two-disc collection of greats from the Duke, including East St. Louis Toodle-oo, which Steely Dan covered in 1974 on Pretzel Logic. Jazz pianist Jacky Terrasson and a host of Paris-based musicians - A Paris.... I recently found a couple of projects interpreting the music of a couple of megastars: Guitarist/composer Joel Harrison's Harrison on Harrison where he explores some interesting arrangements of the music of George Harrison. And, saxophonist Tim Reis's The Rolling Stones Project.

Long-time friend and former bandmateTim Alexander turned me on to Verve Unmixed, Vol. 2: Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, Ramsey Lewis, Cal Tjader. I don't really have a favorite cut -- they're all good. But when I put this disc in my cd player, I'm always reminded that I should listen to more of the underrated tenor player, Archie Shepp. In fact, I'm going to go look for some Shepp downloads now.

Ah, brothers ...

Seems my listening as of late has been influenced by my siblings.

Young Vinnie, in his continuing inability to master his computer, asked me to download and burn for him one of the newer male soul singers -- a guy with a retro attitude and sound: Musiq Soulchild (aka Taalib Johnson). His new CD, Luvanmusiq, has some very pleasant vocal performances (mostly sans rap), and you never know if the analog sounds you're hearing are from a sample or an antique instrument. According to the reviews, many are made from sampling older songs from the 70s and 80s. Though still a little modern (e.g. Justin Timberlake) sounding for my taste (give me Marvin Gaye), it was nice to hear someone actually entering the charts with nicely performed R&B vocals rather than strictly rap or American Idol-type, Glee Club voices. (Speaking of American Idol, my buddies at work and I plan to do a parody rewrite next week of Kaw-liga using, instead, the name Sanjaya). In conclusion, I have to admit that Musiq is well-sung (rim-shot).

As for my brother Jay, in a return to his occasional penchant for 70s contemporary Christian music artists (hardly contemporary any longer), burned me a new acoustic, live-in-the-studio CD by Randy Stonehill (w/ Phil Keaggy). The revisited songs from years/careers past are a bit preachy, but such is the context, ... duh. Keaggy's fluid acoustic leads are nice over Stonehill's "James Tayloresque" chording style. Both still sing well. 'Nuff said.

Finally, in my MySpace meanderings I happened upon a link to a very nice video overview of the quirky guitar genius of Adrian Belew (another Zappa-connection player, like Johnny "Guitar" Watson). Enjoy, and read you next time.

Ed--April 10

I have a jazz gig this week. So I've been listening to XM jazz and some other stuff:

Modern Jazz Quartet The Complete Last Concert

Etta James The Sweetest Peaches, pt. 2 Dang, she has a lot of anthology albums out there.

Sonny Rollins Plus Four

Chet Baker Stella by Starlight Sounds like this one was cobbled together from several performances, both live and in the studio. Kind of inconsistent. If anyone can recommend Chet Baker albums from his earlier days that have more up-tempo material on them, let me know.

Clifford Brown More Study in Brown This is a guy I never listened to when I was "into" jazz earlier in life. The more I hear him, the more I like him.

Hype is overated...

But here's a little gem that is un-overatable Yes dear friends, I give you a man who single-handedly (but with two hands instead of one!) nearly destroyed my nasal passages in 1982. A man worshiped and cravenly used by our dear departed Frank Zappa. A man whose hat alone is bigger than life...and the head it sits upon. A man who, not unlike the possum his ownself, can mispronounce two simple words, i.e. "for you" and make you grin so hard you get a boner. Who is this man, you ask? Quit pestering me, will ya? Yes, yes, of course, it's Johnny "Guitar" Watson and he's a real mother for ya. "The Hits" (Best of the Funk Years) is everything you could want in a JGW anthology. That is it has the one great song he's actually known for, a couple of others you might remember fondly and a whole slew of late seventys dreck that is so dreadfully wrong...it's right. It was 1982. But I digress. That's the year I discovered that Johnny was something other than an insanely delirious voice spouting flambe' vocals on Zappa records. He was an artist in is own right. At the time I was a part time gigilo for a rather wealthy former debutante with a penchant for partying and to listening to Mr. Watson while she did. And, as she was footing the bill, I was happy to oblige. The only unfortunate outcome of all this is that I cannot listen to "Real Mother For Ya" without needing to evacuate to this day. And currently he's in heavy rotation in the car. You can see the potential for disaster. Anywhoo (was I complaining earlier of people being windy?) "Ain't That a Bitch" is good too, perhaps "Superman Lover". But listening to the children's choruses in "Funk Beyond The Call Of Duty" is not for the feint of heart. Don't say I didn't warn you. "Com'ere Grutar"!

ps: His tone sucks. You won't care.

Ed--March 30

My buddy Chuck gave me a copy of Scott Miller's Citation. I like most of it. I think it probably falls into that catch-all category they've dubbed "Americana." It's got some country without relying heavily on the three or four shopworn themes Nashville seems to be leaning on ( we're country and proud/don't we live in a by-God great country; mama took the baby and run off from daddy who was drunk and whuppin' em; let's party country-style [with a Carribean beat], etc.). Also some Springsteeny, rockish stuff and some Greg Brown-like storytelling songs. If you hit the link, listen to "Eight Miles a Gallon." Jim Dickinson produced it, and Ry Cooder is a guest player.

Also, our man Arch (who listens to more new music than most of the musicians I know) loaned me The River in Reverse, a collaboration of Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint. Recorded in NY after Toussaint evacuated, it features songs from the both of them. With the exception of a few of Elvis's tunes that kind of ramble around, a lot of the tunes are laid right in the pocket with fine rhythm and horn sections. Good version of the Joe Stampley/Uniques standard, "All These Things" (which I wasn't aware Toussaint had written); also "On Your Way Down, " which made Toussaint a few bucks thanks to Little Feat.

What goes around ...

Haven't much new to post this week because I've been listening primarily to Robert Palmer's Drive thanks to yorolpal's post on it. What a great album. Also been listening to that Tom Jones & Jools Holland CD I posted earlier about. Go here to see another great video from that project. I'm in retro rock & blues land, and I'm not in a hurry to get out.

P.S. Glad to see someone else is enjoying Rachael Yamagata (see Bluefootball's last post).

Quick message to yorolpal from the Mortman!

Found this on MySpace. Too funny.

No More Lengthy Blow Hole

Guilty as charged. Windyness no more. Just playlist.

Rachael Yamagato - I Want you
Sinatra - Learnin' the Blues
Prez Prado - Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White
Angelique Kidjo - Summertime
Antonio Carlos Jobim - Agua de Beber
Art Blakey Live - Moanin'
Art Farmer with Benny Golson - Killer Joe
Yonder Mountain String Band - Midwest Gospel Radio
Jackson Waters - Come Undone

Like or not? Story behind every song. You guess.

Pollen John and George and Ringo ... with a side of pet dander

Ah, and the weeks fly by ... into hay fever hell. My blog has a clog. I've been sick with drippy sneezy allergy/cold symptoms but still have a few new listenings to post (besides the dull throbbing of my sinuses).

Got my signed advance copy of Jonatha Brooke's new CD from her website yesterday. One listen through and I'm enjoying it very much. Always need a few listens though to pick favorites, etc, though.

I also downloaded six "lost" BE mp3 tracks from Duke Boyne's site (scroll down his page). Very enjoyable. (I think I had these on a cassette from Mr. Jaibird years ago. Remember cassettes?)

Thanks to my brother Jay, I was directed to Bekka Bramlett's site to watch three 2006 videos of her dueting with the great Sam Moore. I highly recommend you going there and hitting the video button. Being the daughter of Delaney and Bonnie, it's no secret where she got those stellar cords. Of course, at 71, Sam is still one of the finest soul singers alive. If you missed his last CD, Overnight Sensational, you need it in your collection.

And please check out my comment to yorolpal's (aka Doghouse Riley) last post to get a video dose of great Tom Jones. Also, my copy of his recommended Robert Palmer CD, Drive, is supposedly in the mail.

Hope I am past this sneezefest next week. Same blog time, same blog channel ...

Enui is boring...

Boy, there sure are some windy sumbitches in here. You'd think they had something else to do other than listen to obscure (read failed, dead or, just maybe, brilliant...you pick) artists and then blow hole about it at length to this tiny choir. I say that with love, of course. This week I'VE been mainly listening to the voices in my head saying k-k-k-k-k-kill y-y-y-your pa-pa-pa-parents to which I always reply "stop stuttering!!" Well, that and Robert Palmer's "DRIVE". One look at the pasty, puffy, glassy-eyed rotter on the CD cover and it's self-evident why he died so young...he was having fun. You should try it sometimes. Like the previously mentioned Tom Jones, Palmer is another genius at covering other's material better than they did it in the first place. Just listen to his reading of Lieber/Stoller's Hound Dog. Sit down Elvis, let alone Big Mama Thornton, was it? Not a stinker on the CD. And nothing remotely like Simply Irresistible or Addicted to Love or any other of his umpteen hits...just covers of new to old chestnuts roasted afresh by one of the truly great, yet unheralded stylists of our times. But then why take my word for it? Because I'm right, I guess.

Ed-3/18

This week I've been listening to an album recorded in Germany, live with a big band featuring European gypsy guitar phenom Biréli Lagrène. Biréli was a child prodigy gypsy jazzer, who is arguably (and aficionados of GJ argue, believe me) the best gypsy jazz player living today. I'll get a bit deeper into this fascinating field in another post. You can see five of the best gypsy jazzers in this YouTube video. Biréli (the guy in the white shirt) and two other reigning GJ giants, Angelo Debarre (the guy who starts the song) and Stochelo Rosenberg trade licks in this outstanding version of There Will Never Be Another You during the same performance.

But the live album I've been listening to shows Biréli's chops as a straight-ahead jazz player. I uploaded this version of Caravan (be sure to stay on the page long enough to let the file load into online player).

I don't know much about the album--there are announcements of personnel in German--but whoever did the arranging was really good and, as you'll hear by listening to the version of Caravan, there are some other great musicians playing there. If any of my friends here wants a copy of it, let me know, and we'll figure out a way to get it to you

It's a statement about how little I've listened to jazz in the past twenty years that I'm just now getting to know Biréli's playing. He's been around for a long time. Did a live album with Jaco Pastorius in 1986. Played with a lot of folks, like Larry Coryell. and Gil Evans. The fact that he can move freely between straight-ahead jazz and the very restrictive genre of gypsy jazz shows him as a truly remarkable player.

Finally, if you find yourself interested in the live performance videos, watch Bereli's solo.

90s Submergence and BE (& welcome newbies)

Sure is nice to see some more people in our cybercorner! I spent some time this week compiling a 3-hour mp3 CD for a young (under 30) co-worker whose musical tastes were somewhat revealed to me on his MySpace page, so I decided to see if I could turn him on to some similar stuff that I like. It was a hit. There wasn't a song he didn't like!

Anyway, all that's to say that I was listening to mostly edgy 90s rock like Adrian Belew, Mike Keneally's Beer For Dolphins, Kevin Gilbert, XTC, Oingo Boingo, The Rubinoos ... you get the picture.

Interestingly, after running into drummer Duke Boyne at The GroanUps gig in Hot Springs last week, I put quite a bit of the music of his former band, BE, on the CD. That's what I've been listening to in the car all week -- the Thistupidream and Avalanche CDs by BE.

I miss BE. They were great. Period. Mark Summerlin, their guitar player, is doing some solo stuff now, as evidenced on his MySpace page. Nice.

Have a nice week newbies! You, too, Ed (Vince says hi). Keep your ears open ...

P.S. AG, I like that Bob guy a bunch, plus he has a fantastic site layout.

Ed March 13--A trip to the country

I took a little break from "lost in the 50's with Miles and Bird" to listen to a 2002 Buddy Miller album I'd not heard, Midnight and Lonesome.

I was raised on country music and spent some of my formative years playing with Ernie Gardner and the Country 4 at the Shirley VFW. I still like it on occasion. But I just can't tolerate the stuff Nashville's putting out now, which is just so...well...manufactured. Oh, I understand the market dynamics of mass production for mass consumption--god knows, it's what pays my mortgage. And most of the stuff hitting the country charts is craftfully produced by phenomenonally talented people. But I can't handle it. Maybe it's a generational thing. Maybe those in the previous generation were declaring similarly, "Merle Haggard, he's just a cheap, drugstore knockoff Lefty Frisell."

Buddy Miller, he's different. Real handmade country. Damned fine guitarist, (even if he's not as fast and slick as Brent Mason). He plays exactly the right stuff; like nobody else. Good singer. Good songwriter. Good producer. I don't get tired of listening to him.
Listen to some Buddy Miller if you any kind of tolerance for country and haven't heard him.

Speaking of country, Bill from AR Rec. & CD Exch. pointed me to the blog of of friend of his, Red Neckerson. If you enjoy old country and rockabilly, this is a great blog. He's using a free file sharing service that also might be worth a look. Hit some of the song links.

BTW, keep on reading here. Our buddies AG, and Bluefootball have first-here posts with some stuff worth checking out.

Okay, My Back's to the Wall

Ed invited me to join his blog. He's also invited me to sit in with his band. The blog is the easier of the two, plus I don't have to stay up late. Since I thrive on easy, and love to express my opinion, how can I resist?

Here's what's been playing on my Zen this past week.

I'm intrigued with any arrangement of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," because I think it's one of the best songs ever written. It's hard to beat the original Charlie Mingus recording, however, this past week I've listened to versions by: Joni Mitchell (my second favorite) - she wrote the lyrics and Jaco's on the recording; and Jeff Beck. I'd forgotten how much I liked Beck; it looks like a Jeff Beck download weekend is coming up.

Also on the top of my jazz list is the Charlie Hunter Trio. (I discovered them on eMusic.com.) Check out "Cueball Bobbin'" on "Copperopolis." I'm working my way through Charlie's catalogue. I can't get enough of Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton's "Larry & Lee," especially their solid groove on "L.A. Underground." I burned "Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio" to CD and listened to it in both the car and the office. He's still my favorite on tenor sax.

I recently read something in Nightflying about a singer/songwriter I knew from Dickson Street in the 70s - Crow Johnson. She's an author now. Once again I searched eMusic.com and found "Coyote With Whiskey On His Breath" from a 1995 album "Painting Stories Cross the Sky." I've got to dig for some more Crow. This led to a quest for another blast to my past with the "Best of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen". A rousing live version of "Don't Let Go" quickly took me back to my days at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas. A lot of music was rolling through Austin in the early to mid-70s: Augie Meyers and the Western Head Band, Rusty Weir, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Steve Fromholz.

Like Ed, I'm always perusing the music section at the library. The Springdale Library (Member since 1959) has been an unbelievable resource for some great tunes. Most recently I've enjoyed two essentials: "The Essential Yo-Yo Ma" and the "Essential Elmer Bernstein Film Music Collection." I'm a big-time sucker for orchestrated film scores. Check out "A Walk on the Wild Side." Damn, who's that on flute?

One of the best values my wife has discovered is "Paste Magazine's Sampler." It arrives every month and is full of reviews, interviews, and the best part: a CD with 20 or so songs. We've discovered artists we never heard of and rediscovered bands we hadn't thought about in awhile. The latest CD features Son Volt, Norah Jones, Barenaked Ladies, my wife's favorite - Hem, and my daughter's favorite - Sleeping in the Aviary, plus fifteen or so other artists.

Right now I've got 3,850 songs on my Zen and 1,250 movies I've Tivo'd. When am I going to find time to listen and watch? It's just one more thing to worry about. And it's almost 11 p.m. So much for not having to stay up late.

AG: First post

Howdy, everybody!

I recently got turned onto a guy that's been around for awhile, I just somehow missed his music. Check out Bob Schneider . His site loads a very personable intro into his music, more like a radio interview than a promo. Check out the song Bullets from the Lonely Land album. Nice funk groove with interesting, accessible lyrics. There are a bunch of interesting tunes out from this guy - Mudhouse being another one that seems to cross genres more than most of the pop tunes you hear these days. And, don't miss Sons of Ralph.

Another recommendation I have along the same lines is Jet The Band Click on the little player gizmo at the top right and move up to "Are you Gonna Be My Girl) - reminds me of tunes we all grew up with, but with a fresh (and need I say popular with the younger generation) tone. Lots of good stuff, and I've heard them play acoustic with just keys and a guitar, they're the real deal, not a bunch of studio enhanced pretty boys.

And this might just make you puke...
My daughter is very much a teenager, and as such, commandeers the XM radio in my car. Which, is OK, because I like getting exposed to new stuff. Sometimes.

She typically says "OH this is my favorite song!" about every other song, so that's not new. Then, the other night, we're in the car and I hear "Take a look at my Girlfriend..." and she exclaims "THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE SONG!" I'm like "SuperTramp? Really??" and then, it happened.

Rap. As soon as the first eight bars were over, just a beat with sugar-rap on top. Including fantastic "lyrics" like this:

I mean she even cooks me pancakes
And alka seltzer when my tummy aches
If that ain't love then i don't know what love is

uuuuuhhhh, make it stop, make it stop. Cupid's Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes. There's even a video of this travesty available at iTunes. I sometimes think the accessibility of editing software has not been such a good thing...

|set rant off|
AG

Ed--March 11

My weekly trip to the library turned up east/west by Bill Frisell. There's a guy that lives on his own patch of land. Probably not going to be competing with John Pizarelli for dates at the Carlyle. This is a live double album, one disc recorded at a club in Oakland, the other at the Vanguard in NY, both with the same drummer, but with different bass players. I think each concert is supposed to reflect its regional identity, but the nuances are pretty subtle once you get up there where the air thins out.

This week I've also been paying a lot of attention to an instructional DVD by guitarist Corey Christiansen on quartal harmony: chord structure based on fourth intervals, rather than thirds. It's pretty fascinating stuff for a dilettante like me. Now that it's been pointed out to me, I can hear it used a lot in straight-ahead jazz, but also quite a bit by Donald Fagen; even Tony Rice. I went to a concert and clinic Corey did here in Fayetteville last year. Frank's bud, Ted thinks he's somewhat of a poseur, but I really enjoyed it, especially the clinic.

In the car (when you have two teenagers and two TVs going in the house, the aural enviornment is mostly saturated), it's been primarily XM jazz, NPR drive time and Razorback basketball.

This week's standard is Joy Spring by Clifford Brown.

Morty sez: Step up to the plate ...

I don't know about you Ed, but it's starting to feel awful lonely here. All other invitees: aren't you listening to anything? Even that voice inside your head that is telling you to kill your boss or your mother-in-law? Tell us about it. We won't judge ya or psychoanalyze ya. Promise. Just think, we can fill scads of webpages without killing a single tree! Follow the simple instructions and keyboard shortcuts. Use the Force if you have to. Join us soon, or I'll be forced to post the lyrics to the Monkees theme and you won't be able to get the tune out of your head for a week ...

Mortadella, the Italian Bologna, says "What Time is it Not?"

Back in the mid-80s when Prince's protege band The Time broke up, Prince decided to form a new protege band around the keyboard player of the last version of The Time, St. Paul (Peterson). The band was called The Family, included The Time's drummer and that Jerome fella, and had one self-titled record released in 1985. They recently reformed and I happened across their MySpace page. I always liked this Prince-formation, so I dragged out my CD (import) of the 1985 release and listened to it a bit this week. Shiny 80s synth-funk ala the purple guy and one of my secret indulgences.

Also been listening to several of Doug Powell's CDs. He's a power pop whiz from Nashvegas. Toured as an opening act with Todd Rundgren in '96. Is also an author and graphic design/flash wizard. He got some acclaim at the turn of the century (first time using that phrase in the 21st) with a Nashville band called Swag that included members from Sixpence None The Richer, The Mavericks and Wilco. They appeared on Conan once and the video is posted on Doug's site.

Doug also seems to have a large collection of cool teardrop-shaped electric guitars ala Vox Phantom-type (see graphic).

Those were my big listens of the week, along with a generous dose of NPR and AirAmerica radio. Be sure to tune in next week: same Blog time, same Blog channel!

Ed--March 4

On the strength of some very strong critical reviews I dl'ed "The Crane Wife" by the Decemberists. Not my cup of tea. There's a very specific 70's prog rock sound I can't exactly put my finger on: The Moody Blues without the orchesta? maybe Jethro Tull or Procol Harum...? Artsy lyrics and big production. Anyway, lots of other folks liked em', but it'll probably get lonely in my download folder unless Thomas takes a shining to them.

On the other hand, I made a trip to the Fayetteville library this week (good selection of music) and picked up "Boys and Girls in America" by The Hold Steady. I kind of like these guys, even though listening to this album front-to-back makes you want to go on a three day carrot juice cleanout diet. Boys and girls exploring various altered states of consciousness in America. Lots of obvious Bruce Springsteen influence. I could listen to this going down the road somewhere.

Also one cursory listening to Bob Dylan's "Modern Times," during a bike ride last Sunday. You know, you never find yourself saying, "Jeez, I wish he'd written just one more verse to that song."

This week's jazz study material: Charlie Parker's "Ornithology" and "Oleo" by Sonny Rollins. I've probably bitten off more than I can chew here.

OK, so what are you listening to?

Hey, where'd the words go?

This week I have been listening almost exclusively to Canadian Bruce Cockburn's 2005 instrumental acoustic guitar CD, Speechless. By compiling only the instrumental songs from his more-than-three-decade career and adding a couple of new ones he got a CD-worth pretty painlessly. It ranges from early 70s folksy stuff through 80s jazzy into 90s back-to-the-delta on a resophonic. Nice in the car.

Through MySpace friend requests, I got to hear Rachael Yamagata, who I enjoyed and is in the same vein as Madeleine Peyroux, one of my newer favorites who sounds very Billie Holliday-ish. Also The Electrolites for some Beatle-y pop.

That's all for this week, I guess. See yas next time.

Ed--Feb 24

Been busy this week: spent two days learning how to be diverse, one evening waiting for my neice to bring in the new Nicholson/Hoffman clan bundle of j0y, one evening rehearsing for a weekend gig. So this week's listening has been somewhat limited.

I did, however manage to listen to the Eric Clapton/ JJ Cale collaboration, Road to Escondido. For me, listening to Eric Clapton is kind of like going to McDonald's for a Big Mac. You know what you're going to get; no surprises. But every once in a while, it fits the culinary bill. Billy Preston did some really nice stuff on this CD. Derek Trucks is also a guest (if you've not had a chance to listen to him, check him out--he's a MF on slide). There is one kind of out of character song, "Dead End Road," which has a good country guitar solo, I'm guessing by Albert Lee, since he's on the credits. The one thing you have to give old Eric (and his techs, I suppose), whether you like him or not: he is a tone master. If they could model those tones, I'd be standing in line to buy. But I believe about two-thirds of tone is in your head and hands, and the rest is in the gear.

Othewise, I've been listening to the "Real Jazz" channel (ch. 70) on XM in the car. I figure if one wants to claim to know anything about jazz--and I can't--you need to be able to at least ID half the songs in the Real Book. Which I can't.

BTW, I'm linking to Amazon on some things, not because I'm interested in assisting in rationalizing their absurd P/E ratio, but because they have clips to most of these albums.

As If You Care...

This week I've been listening to my wife nag me to have the stairs refinished. And to paint the downstairs den. And rearrange the garage. And quit being such a moon calf. Oh yeah, and to The Adventures of Jet's "Coping With Insignificance". Interesting power pop with great singing (Hop Litzwire), playing and...get this...relevant, witty lyrics. These kids, I tell ya. Larry Carlton's "Firewire" is also in heavy rotation in the obsessive compulsive-mobile. Kick-ass production meets simple tasteful ginch. Don't hate him cause he's beautiful, OK? And finally, for those who are well grounded, know who they are and are comfortable with that; Tom Jones' "The Lead And How To Swing It". GRRRRRRR! Pappa likes. As per usual, ol Tom can take any song from any artist from any decade and any genre and do it better and more interestingly than the original. Don't believe me? Be prepared to be struck dumb, dim bulb. More later.

All Songs Considered

I installed a link to NPR's All Songs Considered. The NW AR affiliate doesn't carry it, but you can subscribe to the podcast or just go online and listen. This week's guest DJ is John Waters. If anyone else has any links they want to suggest, let me know.

Morty--Feb. 16

This week I've been listening to Larry Williams' best of CD. He was a late 50s rock and roll writer/singer who the Beatles covered with Dizzy Miss Lizzie and Bad Boy. When I first got it, I listened to only the songs I was familiar with, but I've been listening again for the hidden treasures. Also received my DVD off eBay of Derailroaded (the documentary about late 60s street singer, Zappa discovery Wild Man Fischer). So I've been listening to him, too.

Due to 16-year-old son Jack's retro prog/fusion rock phase, when we've been together in the car this week, he puts on Utopia's RA cd from '76.

Finally, been listening to Nashville guitarist and closet pop rock recording artist, Pat Buchanan. No, no, not the politician pundit guy, Faith Hill, Swan Dive and Rodney Crowell's guitar man. Go to: http://patbmusic.tripod.com for more info. Last time I saw him live, he got more different styles and sounds out of one acoustic guitar than I thought possible, as well as being the only slide player that can move effortlessly from George Harrison style to Tampa Red bottleneck blues style in a blink. His solo stuff is splendid vocal power pop ala British Invasion.

Oh well, that's all for now, glad to contribute. See yas next week.

Ed--Feb 15 06

Chet Baker--Somewhere Over the Rainbow
I'd listened to quite a bit of the later breathy-tone Chet Baker. He's a young guy here, in 1962, and playing with a bit more energy--maybe before he channelled too far into the heroin. I really enjoy his guitarist, Belgian Rene Thomas, on this record. Good versions of "Pent Up House" and "Well You Needn't"
Jerry Lee Lewis--Last Man Standing
I've never been a huge fan of Jerry Lee, but I gotta say, I've really enjoyed a lot of this record. Jerry Lee is actually playing pretty well, even at a rode-hard 71. This is one of those collaborations with an all-star cast: Jimmy Paige, Jagger and Richards , Neil Young, Merle, George Jones, John Fogerty (high-energy version of "Traveling Band"), Springsteen ("Pink Cadillac"), and more. Really good version of "Hadacol Boogie" with Buddy Guy. Jerry Lee does most of the singing-the guests just sort of cameo in most of the time.
Kate Campbell--Blues and Lamentations
Country/folkish singer songwriter with a Southern lit sensibility.
8 versions of "Stella by Starlight"
Trying to learn this one myself.
Joanna Newsom--Ys
Quirky. Couldn't do a regular diet of this, but it's certainly different. Don't buy the record, but listen to it if you get a chance. This album made it on to several critics' "Best of '06" lists. I guess just because she's so eccentric. She plays harp, sings in a really high, squeaky voice, and writes long abstruse lyrics.
Django--Souvenirs
What I listen to when I go back to the same old stuff.