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]