A Higher Power

In church on Sunday making out in front of the preacher,
You had a black shirt on with a big picture of Nietzsche.
When we had done our thing for a full Christian hour,
I had made up my mind that there must be a higher power.

Jens Lekman - Higher Power [buy]

lekman's here.

Dave Rawlings Machine - Friend of a Friend

On a rec from an old hometown pal I got the debut Dave Rawlings Machine album Friend of a Friend. Here's a recommendation for you: go get it for yourself, loved ones, and strangers. I can’t stop listening to it to save my life. Full to overflowing with generosity of spirit Friend of a Friend conjures up a world with laughter in the air, possibility around every corner, and a sense that good times are present when good friends are near. Even strangers, like the telegraph man in one of the album’s best tracks, “Ruby”, bring help. Wisely placed in the center of the album is Rawlings’ and long-time musical partner Gillian Welch’s miraculous duet cover of Conor Oberst’s “Method Acting” into Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer.” An absolutely entrancing song, “Method>Cortez” is the one dark room in this house. The abiding joy found elsewhere on the album, while deeply present on the song, is tempered here by a desperate yearning for understanding which seems out of reach. When Rawlings’ sings

I don’t know what tomorrow brings,
It’s alive with such possibility,
But I know that I feel better when I sing,
Burdens are lifted from me,
That’s my voice rising

it’s the pain behind “feeling better” and the weight of those burdens that we register. But that burden can be lifted and the world still sings with possibility.

Rawlings and friends have so many musical textures and colors at hand, and they cover, without any loss in creativity, a large amount of stylistic territory. We are treated to country porch hi jinx with "It's Too Easy" and “To Be Young (Is to be Sad, Is to be High)"; some Michael Hurley silliness "Sweet Tooth"; a dust bowl folk blues "How's About You?" which hits the right notes during our depressing economic moment; a trad folk "Monkey and the Engineer"; and, another highlight, a gorgeous piece of Dylanesque folk-pop “Bells of Harlem.” Really, strangers will thank you.

Dave Rawlings Machine - Method Acting>Cortez the Killer
DRM - To Be Young (is to be Sad, is to be High) [buy]

Coupla videos of Rawlings, Welch, and some members of Old Crow Medicine Show at Grimey's in Nashville performing songs off Friend of a Friend:

Standing on the corner in twos and threes

There were plenty of good reasons for the USofA to get the hell out of Vietnam. But on this cut from the slightly uneven Does Anybody Know I’m Here? Watson and The Sherlocks advance a unique argument for bringing the troops home.

If Uncle Sam don’t change his policy,
And bring some men home from oversea,
The girls are going to start a revolution,
Cause they need men, that’s the only solution.

Watson and The Sherlocks - Standing on the Corner [buy]

the drinks are on me tonight

Over at Groover’s they’ve got a post about Tom Waits turning sixty today. Here’s a bar-room lament off his live album Nighthawks at the Diner -- from what feels like, musically for Waits, an eternity ago.
Tom Waits - Intro
Tom Waits - Warm Beer and Cold Women

Singing it for you too

At about the 6 minute mark, during a moment of relative silence in “Lost Someone,” a woman in the audience let’s out a great cry, letting James Brown and the world know that she too has lost someone. Or maybe just got loose enough to let everybody know that she needed to be heard. “Lost Someone,” the centerpiece to Brown’s immortal 1963 Apollo show, is composed of many such moments. Clocking in at over 10 minutes, the song moves at a slow pace, with a crisp horn arrangement for punctuation. The song gives Brown time to employ all those tricks of the showbiz trade he mastered night after night on the circuit. Here he pleads with a lost love to “come on home to me,” allowing, through his own imploring words and gestures, his audience a space to let their pleas be heard as well, if only for a moment.

“Now I want you to know that I’m not singing this song for myself now,
I’m not singing this song only for myself now,
I’m singing it for you too.”

Yeah, it does sound like the churchhouse. But if it is, then this one’s got a bit more Saturday night in it than usual. Ribald laughter, calling people (men) out, and letting Saturday night feel the full weight of your desire and freedom. And James Brown just happens to be the minister.

And then James caps the performance with a comment about the weather.

“I said it’s gettin’ a little cold outside.”

A simple line and the entire building is as one. Where once you mainly heard the foreground of the audience, after that line you can practically hear the doorman of the Apollo sigh and nod in assent. The whole building is present in that moment, in a way that I’ve rarely encountered on any live recording. No wonder he could stop a riot in Boston.

James Brown - Lost Someone [buy]

One more item. Reading about this song on the wiki, I discovered that "Lost Someone" was cut in two and put on the A and B side of the album. Talk about the cruelest cut! One of the greatest live performances ever, with the pinnacle song in some fundamental way, and the damned thing is cut in two! Apparently, DJs would either drop the needle as fast as they could on the B side to finish the concert, or they would, horror of horrors, play a commercial, and then come back to the show. But no matter what the DJs did the folks would call in for more. The album had a long run, 66 weeks, on the pop charts. And in some way marked the real beginning of the James Brown empire. It's as fresh today as it was back then.

Little Cale

39 years old woke up and said hello to me this morning. How I got here I do not know. But one thing’s for sure: little Cale, who just hit the one year old mark, is laughing for both of us. And this lullaby by Townes is for him.

Townes Van Zandt - Intro to Katie Belle
Townes Van Zandt - Katie Belle [buy]
Aw Hell, the next song by Guy Clark on this fine live set with Townes, Clark, and Steve Earle is worth a listen as well:
Guy Clark - The Cape

Funksville, take one

Elvis - Down in the Alley (alternate take) [buy]

Edan's Echo Party

It’s been over 4 years since Edan released the stellar psychedelic hip-hop concept album Beauty and the Beat. So folks have been getting antsy for some new material from the Humble Magnificent. It has finally arrived in the form of Echo Party. Here's some press-release-speak:

The Hiatus Is Over
‘Echo Party’ is Edans first album since his 2005 critically acclaimed sophomore release, ‘Beauty And The Beat’ (Lewis Recordings).
Boston native, Edan Portnoy first made his mark with debut album ‘Primitive Plus’. Hes a producer, emcee and deejay whos produced for notable artists such as Souls of Mischief, Akrobatik, Mr. Lif and David Holmes.
‘Echo Party’ is just that – a party, an eccentric bonanza of sounds that has been lovingly crafted, polished and played to perfection. Edan had full access to Traffic Entertainment Group’s extensive back catalogue to mix and rework in any way he could imagine. Two years later Five Day Weekend and Edan are set to release ‘Echo Party’. What began as a simple mix, has grown into a colourful full on production album that features Edan as the musician displaying his skills on live instruments including synthesizers, guitar, percussion, echoplex even glockenspiel and kazoo.
‘Echo Party’ has Edans personality intermixed with a wealth of amazing material. Elements are pulled from original multi tracks and these isolated accapellas and drum breaks have not been heard by any ears except the engineers and original artists that were in on the original sessions. Other portions are more identifiable though obscured by the filter of Edan’s ever improving studio techniques. Only an artist like Edan with his borderline obsessive commitment to detail could have brought such a project to life.
‘Echo Party’ promises to be one of 2009s most celebrated releases.

Yeah, kazoos. When I saw Edan he was touring to support Beauty -- and having fun with those kazoos in the process. And even in his adopted hometown of Boston his unique take on hip-hop scored him some boos from the crowd. (Yeah, you just gotta love that Dirty Water.) Edan obviously does not give a hoot in the world for commercial success, since you don’t exactly make a big money career by spending years bricoleuring together a one track, 29 minute mixtape. And though it’s a real shame that more cashmoney doesn’t flow his way, if Edan is okay with that and it means we get to enjoy work as dazzling as Beauty, then everybody wins. Here’s a sampling of Edan’s 3 main albums:

Primitive Plus




Edan - Ultra '88 (tribute) [buy]
Edan - Mic Manipulator





Beauty and the Beat



Edan - Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme [buy]
Edan and Mr. Lif - Making Planets




Echo Party





Edan - Echo Party [buy]





Check Edan's myspace page, which features his radioshow.

Only Time Will Tell

Bettye Lavette - Only Time Will Tell [buy]

this, that, the other

Sitting in Boston, Big Sur dreamin'

Ed tells me the Echo & the Bunnymen tour in the USofA has been halted by those fun loving guys and gals in the IRS. And, yep, the Bunnymen's website confirms it. Spare us the cutter!
Echo and the Bunnymen - The Cutter [buy]

Wilco has a loft. How many guitars do these fellows have?
Image from LoftLifeMagazine

GarageHangover has some wonderful photos of Hendrix, Soft Machine, and The Who.

If you ain't, you should be listening to a Country Song of the Day.

This is a tough month for Sean, so this one's for him...


And, for good measure, the theme song from Fellini's Amarcord.

Nino Rota - Amarcord

If you've got eyes and ears, you wanna let them take a stroll with this film.

Loons at night in Lac Saint Paul, Quebec, Canada

Ballad of Birmingham

The mother smiled to know that her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come to her face.

On September 15, 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb planted by the KKK exploded outside the basement of a church, killing 4 black children and injuring 22 people. Many artists have responded to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing with powerful songs. John Coltrane’s “Alabama,” Joan Baez’s recording of Richard Farina’s “Birmingham Sunday” (both used by Spike Lee in his excellent documentary 4 Little Girls), Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam,” and The Drive-by Truckers’ “Ronnie & Neil.” In 1967 Jerry Moore recorded for ESP an exceptional version of Dudley Randall’s poem “Ballad of Birmingham.” The poem is structured around the (innocent and ironic) contrast between the supposedly safe space of a church and the taken for granted dangers of the freedom marches in Birmingham. But irony and innocence are swallowed whole by the bombing, and we are left with the omnipresence of brutality and death during the Civil Rights Movement.

Jerry Moore - Ballad of Birmingham [buy]
John Coltrane - Alabama [buy]

slow down

sera's here.

sera cahoone - baker lake [buy]
sera cahoone - the colder the air [buy]

My Own Private Idaho Soundtrack

I recently had the pleasure to re-screen Gus Van Sant’s 1991 film My Own Private Idaho. Idaho starts out on a dead run with River Phoenix standing still in the middle of a road, looking into the distance and seeing that big landscape smile back at him, only to narcolepsy-out and wish-fulfill a loving mother. A quick jump to hustling, the Muffler Man, more hustling, and then those salmon chasing their dna up the stream -- and that’s before we are done with the opening credits. (And it must be said: River Phoenix is relentlessly alive in the film, giving the character layer upon layer of emotional depth.) The movie is a noted hybrid, with, to mention but one filmic aspect, the use of 8mm (documentary-like) footage to conjure up pieces of the past. But that hybridity also pervades the soundtrack. Eddy Arnold, Rudy Valee, Bill Stafford (who won an Independent Spirit Award for his work on the film), Madonna, Elton John. You get the picture. I can’t remember when I first saw Idaho, but I know I didn’t watch the end-credits and hear Shane MacGowan’s rough trade tale of The Old Main Drag.

The Pogues - The Old Main Drag [buy]

Bill Stafford, apparently known in the pedal steel world as “Mr. Smooth,” floats mysteriously through a number of musical interludes and gracefully pedal-steels his way through moving versions of “America the Beautiful” and "Home of the Free.” Unfortunately, they did not release an official soundtrack for the film and I haven’t been able to locate either of Stafford’s contributions online, but you can watch some clips of Bill and friends at his website having a good time and grinning through some laid-back Hawaiian songs, and this number:

wouldn't matter anyway

Sitting in Oli’s living room in Algete, Spain, I first heard Todd Snider singing “Iron Mike’s Main Man’s Last Request.” And God how I laughed with that song, and still sitting there stunned at how intimately Snider inhabited that character. He made real the subtle yet blunt reality of working class life, something that most people who talk or sing about poor folk have little real connection to. Snider's standing with, not singing about. Tonight I heard his most recent album, The Excitement Plan, for the first time, and found “Corpus Christi Bay” -- another perfectly sketched story of a man and the world he lives and that lives him. Here's a bit of America for you.

Todd Snider - Corpus Christi Bay [buy it at Snider's site]

with all this fever in my mind

Tallest Man on Earth - Where Do My Bluebird Fly [buy]

with friends of our own

Image from a Utah Phillips appreciation site. That's Kuddie sporting the smaller rose tattoo, with Utah Phillips to his left.

This one's for Don and Jack. See ya soon boys. Safe Journey.

Round the big fire there's good food and music,
Til the warm evening fades like a slow fiddle tune,
In silence we linger, bad times forgotten,
Our babies asleep, 'neath the great silver moon.

Kuddie - Scott's Creek Bluff [buy]

Billie Sunday, no.5, With a little help from my friends

So my friend and workmate Ed Moloy went down to Austin, Texas for one of those out of control librarian/archivist conferences, found his way to a Kat Edmonson concert, and promptly fell head over heels for the singer. It's not hard to hear why.

Kat Edmonson - Summertime [buy]

SalGal texted me today from the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass fest in San Francisco. Tons of great artists, including Mavis Staples, Todd Snider, and Booker T jamming with the Drive-By Truckers.


Booker T & the MGs version of "Summertime" has a somberness which captures something essential about the song.

Booker T. & The MGs [buy]


But then there's Billie and the gang putting another spin on the whole affair. Bunny Berigan's muted trumpet practically tells the whole story, but then Billie steps in as only Lady can to complete the tale.

Billie Holiday - Summertime [buy]

but flower too

I've been given a body. What should I do with it,
So singular, so my own?

For this joy, quiet, to live and breathe,
Who, tell me, am I to thank?

I am gardener, but flower too;
In the world's dungeon I am not alone.

On the windowpanes of eternity,
My breath, my warmth has already settled.

On it a pattern is pressed,
Unrecognizable of late.

Even if moment's gloom streams down -
The pattern, so dear, won't be crossed out!

-- Osip Mandelstam (1909)

Huey plus Jerry equals ?

Image from Dead.net

“This time there was no Grateful Dead to confuse the Party’s supporters...”

In popular media mythology the 1960s was a decade-long political and cultural confrontation between the Woodstock generation and what Nixon would come to call “the silent majority.” What is presented is basically one mass of people versus another. But like all myths that image is an extreme oversimplification, perhaps no more apparent than in regards to those who are grouped as “radicals.” Whether we want to talk about the internal divisions within the main civil rights organizations, the disagreements between counter-culturalists and political radicals over how to change society, or the battles between insurgent feminists and the male-dominated leftist organizations of the day, you don’t have to read too far in the history of the period to notice how much conflict existed within those not belonging to that so-called silent majority. In his history of the period, There’s A Riot Going On, Peter Doggett does a good job of tracking these differences as they relate to the more general politics of Rock and Roll in the late 60s and early 70s.

One of the more amusing, yet instructive, instances of culture clash that Doggett recounts concerns the March 5th, 1971 benefit concert for the Black Panther Party that the Grateful Dead headlined. During a plane trip to New York City on September, 16, 1970 (2 days before Hendrix’s death), the Dead had a long, enjoyable conversation with BPP leader Huey Newton -- of which the FBI filed a report on a few days later. (Huey and Jerry and the boys conversed while in another section of the plane Ray Charles beat the Dead’s tour manager, Sam Cutler, at chess.) The Dead were not known as a revolutionary political group, but they liked Newton and The Panthers’ concrete, everyday efforts to feed and clothe the poor in the Oakland community were just the sort of DIY social work (like the Diggers’ similar efforts) they supported. So when Newton later asked them to play the benefit concert the band agreed. They were to share the stage with two BPP-affiliated revolutionary groups, The Lumpen and The Vanguard. I haven’t been able to locate any information about The Vanguard, but you can read about and listen to The Lumpen’s 45rpm blast of R&B revolutionary-rhetoric, “Free Bobby Now,” over at the excellent GarageHangover (which includes comments from some original band members). As for the Dead’s set, well, as Doggett writes “even with an abridged set built around the mid-60s R&B hit “Turn on Your Lovelight,” [the Dead] made little impact on the predominantly black crowd.” (One song! Shortest Dead show ever?) This one-song-show isn’t listed on Archive.Org, but you can get a feeling for what the Dead were sounding like at the time from their February 1971 run at Capital Theatre -- the second night of which is conveniently released as Three From the Vault.

Grateful Dead - Bertha
Grateful Dead - Easy Wind

so just leave time alone

Along with John Prine’s “Paradise,” probably the song which I start almost unconsciously singing more than any other is Ed and Patsy Bruce’s “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” Way back when I was a trouble-making 8 year old, my pops used to sit in the living room on Sunday mornings and strum his guitar along to Waylon Jennings’ and Willie Nelson’s duet version of “Mammas” from their double-platinum 1978 release Waylon & Willie. (My roommate Jenna just told me that when she was growing-up her mom would cut a friend’s hair and when he went to wash his hair out he would sing “Mammas” in a pitch-perfect Kermit the Frog voice: now that’s a mash-up I can get behind.) But when I return to W&W, I find myself listening to Nelson's “Pick-Up the Tempo” more than any other tune. Willie’s concept album Phases and Stages features a rather slower take on the tune, but the real template for the duet version is Waylon’s performance of it on This Time from 1974. The rendition on W&W simply overdubs Willie’s voice onto that version. However, even if it is an overdub, I still like it better than either of the other two. And my pop's had it right all along: it's a sweet Sunday morning album.

Waylon and Willie - Pick Up the Tempo [buy]

And here’s that other very singable “Paradise."

Wave Goodbye

Lowlights - Wave Goodbye [buy]

When the Lord Made Me

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan get in a nice one-two punch with their reworking of Hank’s “Ramblin’ Man.” The song dips into Tom Waits territory, with a whiplash slapping down through the song, literalizing the demand placed upon a supposedly free man to take to the road because God made him a wanderer. However, if the good Lord’s whip sends him out onto the road, then Isobel Campbell plays devil’s advocate, whispering seductively in his ear about how she’s back at home “cooking up a storm” and missing her man.
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ramblin’ Man [buy]
But, mercy, the sheer weight of Hank’s version! God may have put him out on that lost highway, but it sounds to me like hell hounds are on his trail. If this is freedom, doom shadows it unto the grave.
Luke the Drifter - Ramblin’ Man [buy]

it's like walking on a trampoline

The Clientele - Since K Got Over Me
The Clientele - The Dance of The Hours

I Often Dream of Trains

I can easily imagine a devilish grin on Robyn Hitchcock’s face when he did the song-sequencing for his I Often Dream of Trains. A stark and autumnal nocturne opens the album, preparing you for a bit of shoe-gazing, only to jolt back into classic Hitchcockian surrealism with the self-pleasuring fantasy “Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl.” But then we have a minor key meditation on the mysteries of consciousness and love (“Cathedral”). The record more or less goes on like this until a nocturne fade-out. This slightly schizophrenic back and forth might call into question the conceit of wholeness implicit in those bookending nocturnes, but even if that is true, it wouldn’t diminish the album for an instant. From the bizarro Barber Shop Quartet lesson in parenting (and personal favorite) “Uncorrected Personality Traits” to the twisted sing-a-long “Ye Sleeping Nights of Jesus” to the, yes, haunting “Trams of Old London” and (instrumental) “Heart Full Of Leaves” I Often Dream of Trains is full of brilliant songwriting.

Robyn Hitchcock - Uncorrected Personality Traits [buy]
Robyn Hitchcock - Trams of Old London

Vocals Only

So, I sort of followed my labor day advice about buying an unemployed friend a beer, or two, or twelve. I bought a 12-pack -- for myself. And ended-up listening to the vocals-only Pet Sounds disc. Is it me, or is the vocals-only “Caroline, No” an even fuller expression of loss than the album version?

Beach Boys - Caroline, No (Vocals Only) [buy]

Labor Day Blues

Labor Day isn’t quite as celebratory a holiday when the unemployment rate is at 10%.  It also doesn’t help that the social safety net which should be in place is instead torn and frayed and not adequate to the pressing demands of families scrambling to make ends meet in a recessionary economy.  And while I’m at it, why in the hell is our military budget basically as big as all the other military budgets combined?  Couldn’t we shave-off a few of those billions of dollars and make them available for slightly more important social needs?  Ok, enough ranting.  If you’ve got a job, raise a glass and be thankful – and buy your friend who doesn’t have a job a cold beer, or two, or twelve.  Ronnie Van Zant can tell you about paying dues and watching where his money goes.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Workin’ For MCA [buy]

Why Is It Taking So Long?

The refrain to Pops Staples’ steady-groovin’ “Black Boy” -- a knowing “well, well, well” -- does a whole lot of signifying.

Pops Staples - Black Boy [buy]

What A Meal You'll Be!

boy you just keep on walking
why don't you stand still,
my you look so delicious
hold still jack while i get my fill

Rudy Green and HIs Orchestra - Buzzard Pie [buy]

Different Kinds of Honey

Photo from eatlocalhoney.com

So I finally decided to listen to the original version of Bobby Russell’s “Honey” as sung by Bobby Goldsboro. A huge hit for Goldsboro in 1968, the song actually replaced “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” at the top of the charts. The public came to its collective senses five weeks later by listening to the wise counsel of Archie Bell and the Drells to get into it and “Tighten Up.” But for those five long weeks it seems America wanted to give their time over to a damned near unlistenable piece of fluff.

Bobby Goldsboro - Honey [buy]

Goldsboro has absolutely no connection to the song. Or at least his (and his producer’s) way of connecting to it creates so little emotional resonance that the song comes across as laughable. And those sappy strings dutifully do their best to heavy-hand you into some pre-programmed weepy response.

So if Goldsboro’s version is so damned awful, then why in the world did I ever listen to it? Because Milo Jones’ version is so damned good and I just had to hear the original.


Perhaps the key to why Jones’ version doesn’t sound like emotional corn syrup is that his guitar playing (always exceptional) pushes the song forward, not allowing it to get mired in bathos. And yet Jones seems much more caught up in the sad tale than the stock-still Goldsboro. However he does it, the song becomes an affecting take on married life and the loss of a spouse.

Milo Jones - Honey [buy]

Crooning With Bullhorns

Photo from Flickr

A tune from Sean Hayes' 2003 album Alabama Chicken

lost in a dream
as we try to retrieve
pieces from yesterday
what will it be

open a box
inside there's a string
your skin is the air
and your blood sings

Sean Hayes - Here We Are... [buy]

Billie Sunday, no.4 - Karen Dalton

Image from Light in the Attic Records

In Volume 1 of Chronicles, Dylan reminisced that Karen Dalton, with her Billie Holiday voice and Jimmy Reed guitar skills, was his favorite singer at Cafe Wha?. And it’s not hard to hear the comparison to Billie.



Upon first encountering Dalton’s singing, my reaction, besides astonishment at the broken-hearted beauty of her melancholy blues, was to wonder “where is she from?” For while Dalton made her name in the 60s New York folk scene, she hails from Oklahoma and sounds undeniably Country. And though I’ve yet to hear anyone claim Lady Day sounded like a country singer -- her perfect diction isn’t exactly what most country singers are known for -- the title to Dalton’s second studio album, In My Own Time, nicely illustrates one of the main parallels between the two singers: a world-weary Southern languorousness which refuses to hurry-up for anyone.

Karen Dalton - In My Own Dream [buy]

Though I’d say this isn’t what Bob had in mind, another prime comparison arises from the limited vocal range of both singers -- neither possesses a big voice. Early in her career, this “lack” to Billie’s voice caused some people to think she wasn’t much of a singer. With Dalton, I have to think the frailty to her voice is a big reason for the “acquired taste” backhanded compliment paid to her. But both singers turn this lack into intimate presence. Before her recording career took-off, Billie played the Harlem clubs for tips, walking from table to table, singing low to individual tables and amazing the patrons with her ability to improvise endlessly. (Microphones weren’t permitted anyway -- amplified sound might drift into the streets, calling unwanted attention to an illegal club.) Known for her extreme reluctance to perform, in studio or live settings, Dalton’s voice effortlessly signifies anti-modern country blues authenticity.

Karen Dalton - Blues On My Ceiling [buy]

Even on her second, more heavily produced album, In My Own Time, there are moments, as during the end of “Something On Your Mind,” when Dalton seems to sing to herself, as though she is so caught up in the song that the performance is secondary -- which only makes the performance that much more powerful. (Easy to see comparisons to the eternally shy and performance-averse Nick Drake.)

Karen Dalton - Something On Your Mind [buy]

Obviously, Dalton never attained Holiday’s popularity, but she may finally be getting some of the attention she deserves. It never hurts to have Bob sing your praises in the first volume of his autobiography. So if you haven’t found your way to her music yet, both of Dalton’s two studio albums are well worth your time. She's an absolutely singular artist.

Whispering Bob Harris

Seems like Whispering Bob Harris, one-time host of the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, has been doing a country music show for the BBC since 1998. The current streaming-show at Bob Harris Country features East Nashville artists. There's some great photos of him with various artists at his website. Here’s a Whistle Test clip of Harris giving that famous whispering intro to a Tim Buckley performance of “Dolphins.”

She Grew Diamonds In Her Hair

Not too many words flying out of me this week. But here's a darn catchy summery tune from yet another band I'm just now finding out about.

The Broken West - Down In The Valley [buy]

One More Saturday Morning

Image from The Southern Diaspora

Well, I’ve been drunk all week on Loretta Lynn’s first top-ten single, the jaw-droppingly perfect “Success.”

Loretta Lynn - Success [buy]

So last night I took myself out on the town while still sitting in the living room, and had one helluva time watching the very well done Loretta bio-pic Coal Miner’s Daughter. And friends, the price is being paid today, and now I’m singing Lefty’s confession “Just Can’t Live That Fast (Anymore).”

Lefty Frizzell - Just Can’t Live That Fast (Anymore) [buy]

Land It

Image from Skybucket Records.

Just play it piss-off the neighbours loud. And thank your divinity of choice for Rock & Roll.

Vulture Whale - Land It [buy song] [buy new album]

Then go to The Adios Lounge and see what he has to say about the mighty Vulture Whale.

fly through the night

The spotlighted show over at the Dead archive is a Fillmore East concert from September 19th, 1970 -- the day after Hendrix died. It was only the day after Hendrix passed away that the band got the terrible news. They dedicated that night’s set to Jimi. Besides being capped by a "Lovelight" with Pigpen giving everyone some frank and important instructions, there is the matter of the Dark Star. With this version they certainly did justice to Jimi. A glowing Star all the way through, with a let-the-sunshine-in groove to ride-out the song, the utterly transfixing sonic landscape -- with a brilliant use of silence -- starting around the 8 minute mark is to this fella’s ears one of the Dead's most sublime moments.


(The second song is Dark Star.)

In his history of the band, Dennis McNally notes that:

Hendrix’s loss was all the more poignant because they had never jammed with him; on the one occasion that he’d come to a show, ax in hand, the Dead had gotten so high on LSD and so deep in their music that when Mickey Hart finally remembered to signal for him to join them, it was hours later and he’d departed.

That’s the Good Ol’ Grateful Dead, folks. But while they might have missed him that particular day, on the 19th Hendrix was playing in the band.

Horribly, less than a month later, Janis would fly away. On the day Jerry died (14 years ago today), McNally was on NPR talking about Garcia. The song he chose to play was this jazzy accoustic version of “Bird Song” -- a Robert Hunter tune dedicated to Joplin -- from the band’s 1981 album Reckoning. What a sad day that was.

If you hear that same sweet song again, will you know why?
Anyone who sings a tune so sweet is passin' by,
Laugh in the sunshine, sing, cry in the dark, fly through the night.

Grateful Dead - Bird Song [buy]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Prankster

Jerry & Mickey apologize for the Dead missing a show.
Jerry & Mickey - Apology

but I don't care

Throw “Drive By Truckers Austin” into Youtube and you’ll get Blaze Foley mocking the former rob-the-poor-to-feed-the-rich idiot in chief Ronald Reagan.



And, why not, here’s Lucinda Williams’ “Drunken Angel” lament for Foley.

Billie Sunday, no.3 - Bessie & Louis

Today’s Billie Sunday is devoted to Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong -- the two main musical influences on Lady Day. In her own words:

I think I copied my style from Louis Armstrong. Because I used to like the big volume and the big sound that Bessie Smith got when she sang. But when I was quite young, I heard a record Louis Armstrong made called the “West End Blues.” And he doesn’t say any words, and I thought, this is wonderful! And I like the feeling he got from it. So I liked the feeling that Louis got and I wanted the big volume that Bessie Smith got. But I found that it didn’t work with me, because I didn’t have a big voice. So anyway between the two of them I sorta got Billie Holiday.

Louis Armstrong - West End Blues

What I find interesting about Billie’s statement is how it places the influence of Bessie Smith. For while Lady Day claims that it was “between the two of them” that she got her way of singing, she only states that (because of her smaller voice) she couldn’t be Bessie. Whereas Louis’ “singing” with his horn was a way of approaching a song which she wanted to emulate and felt as though she could. And many musicians have commented on the horn-like quality to Billie’s singing.

Again Billie:

I don’t think I’m singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. I try to improvise like Lester Young, like Louis Armstrong, or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight singing.

So where does that leave Bessie’s influence? For folks wanting a rather more nuanced and informed take on the subject than I’m capable of, I recommend you take a look at what Gunther Schuller has to say. But listen to this clip of Bessie singing “Back Water Blues.”

Bessie Smith - Back Water Blues

One thing I hear in relation to Billie is how Bessie just saunters through the song. How often Billie strolls easy -- like she’s a billionaire of time. But that only takes us back to the “feel” of “West End Blues.” For it, too, is surely one of the more leisurely takes on the blues, with the band moving like they had all the time in the world, knowing full-well they could never be late. And thus we are back to the question of what Billie took specifically from Bessie. Like I said, see old Gunther, for he is a more knowledgeable guide through these streets. Here’s Billie and Lester making it look too easy with Irving Berlin’s “This Year’s Kisses.”

Billie Holiday - This Year's Kisses

Rest In Peace John "Marmaduke" Dawson

NRPS - Last Lonely Eagle

Since finding out this morning that Dawson passed away, I’ve been listening to the New Riders’ first album - a really fine piece of San Francisco country rock. I especially can’t stop playing the Dawson-penned “All I Ever Wanted,” which features Jerry Garcia’s shimmering, poignant pedal steel work.

NRPS - All I Ever Wanted

Lefty's curls

When Lefty Frizzell was still a teenager trying to sing his way out of picking cotton for a living, he played 15 minute spots on KGFL in Roswell, New Mexico and fashioned himself as “a boy with a wave in his hair and a curl in his voice.” It wasn’t long before Lefty hit it real big on the national country charts with his “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time” and “I Love You a Thousand Ways.” In the liner notes to the two-disc set Look What Thoughts Will Do Frizzell is quoted as saying “...I get tired of holding high notes for a long time. Instead of straining, I just let it roll down, and it feels good to me.” Thank the country music gods it felt good to him, for no matter the reasons for his mellifluous vocal style, Frizzell sweet-voiced his way through many classic country tunes and deeply influenced a number of other future country music legends. It’s tough to pick one song to highlight Frizzell’s way of singing, but I’ll throw “You Can Go On Your Way Now” out there. (And is it me, or does that pedal steel sometimes sound like a lazy zither?)

Lefty Frizzell - You Can Go On Your Way Now [buy]

BeepBeep

While most of my recent listening time has been devoted to honky-tonk tunes and Billie Holiday, this psych-pop rocker by The Beep Seals is too much fun to not pass along. Looking forward to hearing their new album Things That Roar. Unfortunately, it appears that the band has played its last show.

Rated O

Last night I followed the sound advice of my pal Tim and somehow found my way to Outside the Lines Studio in Medford to watch the rarely seen Oneida rearrange some synapses. You don’t have to spend too much time in the realm of Oneida to hear “best band in the world” claims dropped on you. I’m not going to wade into that particular naming contest, but what does have to be said is that any band this mad-hatter ferocious yet mesmerizingly subtle deserves even more people making large critical claims about them. Please take yourself over to the the band’s website, enemyhogs, and see what these Brooklyn (plus Roslindale!) fellows can do for your state of mind. (And thanks, Tim.)

Rain Again!?!

It is yet another (!) rainy summer day in Boston, and this morning I need some help convincing the eyes to open up. Thankfully, The Ruby Suns volunteered for the job. This is from their bouncy new album Sea Lion. You can stream more songs at their website. So get to it!

The Ruby Suns - Tane Mahuta [buy]

Just A Carefree Gal

Photo from Patsy Cline fan site

Early in her career Patsy Cline was a regular on the Town and Country television show. Considering that she became what we might call the first feminist of country music -- asserting much more control over the financial and musical aspects of her career than her contemporary female country singers and being known for not taking any guff from men -- the casual ogling by the show’s host and musicians before Patsy tears into “I’m Walking the Dog” seems particularly pathetic. Turning the gender tables on this one, Cline relishes “painting the town” and living the single life with “no one to tie me down.”

Patsy Cline - I'm Walking the Dog [buy]

La Blogotheque and Take Away Concerts

Yesterday I had the good fortune of stumbling into the wonderful world of La Blogotheque. My French isn’t so good, but those skills aren’t needed to enjoy the blog or the mini-concerts they are staging with excellent artists.

Here’s how the folks behind the site describe their “Les Concerts a Emporter”:

Every week, we invite an artist or a band to play in the streets, in a bar, a park, or even in a flat or in an elevator, and we film the whole session. Of course, what makes the beauty of it is all the little incidents, hesitations, and crazy stuff happening unexpectingly. Besides, we do not edit the videos so they look perfectly flawless, instead we keep the raw sound of the surroundings. Our goal is to try and capture instants, film the music just like it happens, without preparation, without tricks. Spontaneity is the keyword.

So when you get a chance, click your way over to the site and enjoy some live tunes by Fleet Foxes, REM, Vic Chesnutt, and many others.

And if you took six years of the Francais and actually retained some of the language, then you can read this post about Lady in Satin era Billie.

Billie Sunday, no.2

Billie & Basie -- 20 years after their first recordings together
Image from the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College

Billie Holiday toured with Count Basie and His Orchestra from early 1937 to early 1938. This was one of those matches made in jazz heaven, for Basie’s band -- featuring (among the many great players) Lester Young (ts), Herschel Evans (ts), and Buck Clayton (t), with the Count keeping the keys busy -- could swing you right out the damn building if they wanted to, and Billie was already known for her righteous sense of rhythm. With Basie’s band she would become known as “The Lady Who Swung the Band.” Sadly, this collaboration only produced three recordings: “Swing, Brother, Swing,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” and “I Can’t Get Started.” The reasons for Holiday leaving the band are disputed (and you can find thorough discussions of the split in two essential Billie bios: Donald Clarke’s Wishing on the Moon and Robert O’Meally’s Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday), but the reason for the lack of records made is not: Basie and Billie were signed to different labels, ruling out the possibility of studio work together. But those three sides! I’m going with “Swing, Brother, Swing” for this post. Billie practically sets the house on fire, singing like a woman who knew exactly what she wanted and wasn’t wasting any time on “foolish prattle” getting there.

Billie Holiday & Count Basie - Swing, Brother, Swing [buy]