Grateful Handle

The Dead, thoroughly in the bag, with Pigpen fronting on Hard to Handle, churning up the R&B dance grooves, with some, it has to be said, slomo camera to catch freedom in motion. With Pig belting through covers of his beloved r&b, soul, and blues classics, the Dead had a strut about them that was lost when McKernan passed on. He looks very in his element in a great clip from "A Night at the Family Dog" circa 1970.

Soulful Captain

Captain Beefheart - I'm Glad [buy]

Willie and Barbara

then the dam broke

It demanded to be posted. What a complete performance, starting with the host, presiding with a dignified ease sadly lacking in today’s racetrack world. And then there’s Merle Travis hanging out in a farmhouse telling you about Sixteen Tons. Besides getting to see Travis playfully in complete control - picking, practically showing off with his strikingly assured sense of time and rhythm, and using the guitar as a percussive instrument - we're treated to some brushed drums and (is that an?) an accordion, which help give this country song a very jazzy feel. And Mr. Travis twice casually lets go of the neck of the guitar to lean on a box next to him. Nice work if you can get it.

Medicine Show

My pal and workmate, Josh Kantor, got a call from former Dream Syndicate lead singer/tunesmith Steve Wynn to play keyboards for his Boston concert which went down this past Friday. Wynn and his band Miracle 3 plus Josh played the Dream Syndicate album Medicine Show (now back in print) cover to cover. Fortunately for those of us who could not attend, the show was taped and uploaded to archive.org. Enjoy!

something else all of his own

Apparently this was bound to be a Ray Charles day. Walked out the door, spun the dial on the pod, and found The Genius beckoning. By the time I discovered myself at the T some of Ray's early tunes - "Kissa My Baby," "Don't You Know," and his first hit for the Atlantic label "It Should Have Been Me" - had managed to make the dark sky day a little brighter. And then I let Blues and Chaos, the fairly new compilation of Robert Palmer's writing (the music critic and clarinetist, not that other Robert Palmer), fall open to any page it wanted to. The music gods turned the page to his liner notes for Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul. Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder and chairman of Atlantic Records, had this to say to Palmer about his working relationship with Charles:

Ray was never just another artist to us, he was always somebody very important. At first, we didn't know how to bring out of him what we knew was there and we rteally didn't hit our stride until we let him do what he wanted to do. In the first two sessions, we were trying to guide him into what was our formula, the Atlantic formula for making R&B hits. It took us a little it of time to understand that he had something else all of his own. When we heard him on the road, we realized we had a genius of sorts, an artist who had a lot more to offer than just writing a song and singing it. He had a whole conception of what his band should sound like, of what the track should sound like, and of what he should sound like.

Ray Charles - It Should Have Been Me [buy]