Quit Hollerin' At Me

While no one hollered at me today, it's always good to be prepared with a response.

Random Playlist (Continued)

Sunday evening random playlist via my iPod. A much better activity than sitting here looking out the window keeping watch for the forecasted freezing rain to arrive and worrying if I'm going to be able to get to work in the morning blues.

• The Traveling Wilburys - Wilbury Twist ..... One of the greatest supergroups!! Dylan, Petty, Harrison, Lynne & Orbison.
• Elliott Smith - Between The Bars
• Chris Whitley - Serve You ..... The cons (or is it a pro?) of having sizeable music collections. Discovering gems that have been in front of you for years but have gone unheard. Until now that is.  
• Clifton Chenier - Ay-Te Te Fee .... Nothing like a little Cajun music to make you want to get up and start dancing. 
• Bill Morrissey - Robert Johnson .... Singer/Songwriter/Storyteller.
• Chris Knight - Bring The Harvest Home .... Some folks might call this Country Music. I'm calling it Americana.
• Little Feat - Fat Man In the Bathtub ..... "Oh Juanita.....!" A demo version with just electric guitar and a drum. And Lowell George's voice of course. Sounding especially gritty.
• The Strokes - Games
• Dry Branch Fire Squad - Our Darlin's Gone
• Peter Bruntnell - Lonesome Charlie
• Jordan Zevon - Studebaker. One of those Desert Island Disc songs that I always come back to. The first time I heard it was on a tribute album for his father. I damn near cried. Warren Zevon never included it on his records. It's one of his best songs in my humble opinion.
• Crosby, Stills & Nash - Got It Made .... Stephen Still's voice!!
• Alex Woodard - Open Road ..... From a Relix Magazine music sampler disc included with each issue. Causes me to wonder how much great music is out there that I'll never hear?
• John Prine - Quit Hollerin' At Me .... I didn't know it until it came on but this is the song that I needed to hear tonight. 
• Sparklehorse - Painbirds
• Mary Lou Lord - Cold Kilburn Rain .... Jangly guitar. A little bit of a Byrds feel.

Black Friday Release

At my local record store. A Record Store Day/Black Friday release ......

Originally from 1976. Supposedly helped open the door for "Indie" recordings. Has a cover of the Grass Roots song, "Let's Live For Today." 

A 10" Clear Vinyl Record. (Though I'm not enough of a audiophile to know why clear vinyl is significant.)

Today's Record Store Find

You can browse through bins and racks seemingly endlessly and often not find anything to take home but then suddenly before you ......

Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks. The late Stephen Bruton contributing on guitar, banjo and mandolin. From 2009. Mostly traditional Blues numbers reworked.

All Music Guide Review

One of their songs was featured on the tribute album; "Things About Comin' My Way - A Tribute to the Music of the Mississippi Sheiks" who recorded in the early 1930's.

Mississippi Sheiks Tribute

Now Hear This!!!

As I recall it was a ordinary weeknight evening. The voice on the other end of the phone told me to be quiet and listen. He proceeded to play songs that I had never heard before. New sounds and a great voice, grabbing my attention. The caller was a friend. It was the 1970's. Probably 1971 or 72. Our teenage years. Who was this that I was listening to?

This was my introduction to Cat Stevens and his, Tea For The Tillerman album. I drove to the record store and purchased it the next day. Over forty years have passed since that evening and it still excites just like it did upon that first listen. Each song could be the centerpiece!

I guess it speaks well for an album of songs when you keep waiting for the musician to match the effort with follow-up records and though each record for the next seven or eight years, until he eventually dropped from public view, contained a gem or two, nothing would come close to matching Tea For The Tillerman.

All Music Guide Review

Giant Steps

John Coltrane's album, Giant Steps, was a transitional record for me but not in the way that one might think, though I do enjoy it's sounds. But it was the record where I made the switch from vinyl records to compact discs in 1989. I had joined one of those record clubs where you could choose ten albums for $1.99 and was lured in by those two magical words, "bonus tracks." Or maybe it was "alternate versions" but those words and that previously unknown concept sounded like heaven to me. I was floored at the idea of getting a half dozen extra tracks that couldn't be found on the vinyl and at that time, vinyl records were well on their way to nearing extinct status in record stores. I held out as long as I could but it was becoming obvious that I was going to have to give in to progress or do without new music in the 1990's forward. By then I had this compact disc in my possession for a month or two and those bonus tracks were taunting me with their very existence.

I had discovered "Trane" several years earlier through one of his records stumbled across at a flea market. I can't recall if I had some basic knowledge of his music at the time or if it was one of many chances taken over the years on a record that looked interesting even though I had no prior knowledge of what I would discover upon that first listen. I soon found in his music, a path to getting lost in contemplation. Upon getting hooked, a bonus discovery was that most Jazz musicians were far more prolific than the average rock or singer/songwriter variety of musician. For someone who struggled with anxiety while waiting for new releases from favorites, this was like discovering a gold mine. And here was John Coltrane with a existing sizeable cataloguie of music done over a relatively short amount of time before his passing away.

"Giant Steps" was another step in this process of discovery. Maybe his most easily listenable record but equally fascinating as the others. And did I mention that the compact disc has BONUS TRACKS!!!

Random iPod Playlist

It's amazing what your iPod on shuffle play will conjure up at times. Like it can read your mind, mood and emotions of the moment.

• The Posies - Love Letter Boxes
• John Mellencamp - Troubled Land .... I first heard his music when he was known as Johnny Cougar.
• Willie Dixon & Memphis Slim - Sittin' and Cryin' the Blues
• John Hiatt - Dust Down a Country Road
• The BoDeans - Nobody Loves Me
• Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone (Live) ..... Where he supposedly switched from acoustic to electric for the first time and someone in the crowd yelled out: "judas!" And Dylan replied: "I don't belieeeeeve you ..... You're a liar." I wonder how many people he won over by the time he finished the song? Seems a given now that this tune has to be electric and loud!
• Charley Patton - Screamin' & Hollerin' the Blues .... From an old and scratchy sounding vinyl. The way early Blues should sound. I don't think that I'd want to hear it with todays high tech recording equipment.
• Dave Matthews Band - Stolen Away On 55th & 3rd
• Jerry Garcia, David Grisman & Tony Rice - Guitar Space
• Tony Joe White - A Place to Watch the Sun Go Down
• Little Feat - Six Feet of Snow .... For an old lost friend. (R.I.P. Mitch) Lowell George era Little Feat. His favorite!!
• Snow Patrol - Crack the Shutters
• Bill Morrissey - Long Gone ..... There was a series of Singer/Songwriters that all seemed to come into my view about the same time. Gorka, Paul, Shindell, Kaplansky. Bill Morrissey might have had the most unique voice.
• James McMurtry - Jaws of Life .... Maybe I'm the only one who thinks so but the beginning of this song starts playing and initially I'm thinking, "Lou Reed." Even after he begins singing. But it soon becomes obvious that it's James McMurtry. Not that that's a bad thing. (Nor would Lou Reed be a bad thing.)
• Cyndi Lauper - When You Were Mine .... A friend once told me that he really enjoyed Cyndi Lauper's new album. I was a little shocked and awed at the time. I understand why now.  

Denying The Vanishing Physical Music Magazine Blues

There are not many physical publications still standing in the music magazine world but thankfully Relix is still there. Originally dealing mostly with all things related to the Grateful Dead, it's branched out into the Jambands scene then into the Bluegrass, Newgrass, Americana, Singer/Songwriter and other genres. Full of interesting columns, feature articles and reviews. There's also a free disc of new music included with each issue, primarily of up and coming musicians and groups, but also a few established names. Well worth searching out in the magazine racks of book stores.

It's published bi-monthly with a few exceptions through the year where it comes out monthly. It's also available in a online digital format.

The sampler disc has led to my personal discovery of several new acts in the past eight years ..... Greensky Bluegrass, Cary Brothers, Delta Moon, Colin Lake & Wellbottom, P.J. Pacifico, Great Lake Swimmers and others.

Without Frontiers

Started reading, "Without Frontiers - The Life and Music of Peter Gabriel." In the prologue there's a story about Gabriel getting back together with Genesis for a benefit concert to pay off a huge debt resulting from the first concert by the organization he created to promore World Music, WOMAD, A bit of history previously unknown to me. There's never been much that's been widely shared about the Peter Gabriel story. The book should be a revelation to longtime listeners of his music.  

On the sleeve: "Without Frontiers gets to the heart of the psychological threads common to so many of Gabriel's disparate endeavors and in the end a picture emerges of a man who, despite his high profile, has somehow managed to live an enviably normal life through it all."

The Pleasures Of A Record Collection

You ever lay on the floor gazing at the spines and attached titles of your (or another persons) vinyl record collection? Pondering the artwork, liner notes, songs and history within each. Or thumbing through a stack of old 45's (Not to forget 78's)? Reflecting on the memories and emotions that many of your records bring forth. For a true vinyl junkie it's one of the more rewarding moments of collecting. Up there with the actual listening to the albums/records. the experience works with compact discs also, just to a lesser degree.

Everybody has a starting point in record collecting. Most likely everyone has a mentor who helped get them started. Mine was the older brother of one of my best friends. I'd go down the street and around the corner in the neighborhood that I grew up in to play a little driveway basketball with a friend and end up inside the house listening to his brother's records. Creedence, Guess Who, Woodstock (Drug Store Truck Driving Man), The White Album by The Beatles, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, San Francisco Nights by Eric Burdon, White Bird ..... and so much more. It was quite an education for a thirteen year old. And 45 years later, those hours have never been forgotten.

Visits to local record stores have been a regular ritual since about age sixteen. Some friends have called it an obsession. Once a week generally being the rate. Often times there's multiple visits within a week. When you hear something that truly excites you, you just can't wait until next week or next month. Or hope that someone gets it for you on your birthday. There's a desire to get to the record store as soon as possible. When I drive by locations around town where a record shop once existed, I feel a twinge or two of sadness for its no longer being there. Especially the places that helped get me started with collecting and the joy of browsing through shelves, racks, crates and bins of records.

Some of my longest drives home have been while traveling just a few blocks with new record releases and purchases in hand and dealing with the anticipation of hearing for the first time, the sounds on the disc.

With many favorite records, you can recall exact details of past listening experiences. You can conjure up an image of the occasion and though it may have been thirty years ago, it often feels like it was in the recent past ..... like it's still within reach. Even if maybe you have'nt listened to the record since. They take you back to high school or an old friends house. Or return you to your dorm room in college. Or driving along a lonely country road where you may have first heard something on the radio.

Late 60's Playlist

From the days of AM radio listening, often late at night while the rest of the family slept. When Top-40 radio was king. A few that I didn't especially care for back then but over the years, they grow on you and you realize how wrong you were in your youth. Wish that I had collected the 45's!!

• The Boxtops - Cry Like a Baby .... Hated it back then. Love it today!!
• Gary Puckett and The Union Gap - Young Girl
• Phil Ochs - Outside of a Small Circle of Friends .... As a kid I didn't recognize the apathy described in the song.
• Eric Burden and The Animals - San Francisco Nights
• The Foundations - Baby Now That I've Found You .... What first comes to mind when I think music of the 1960's!!
• Otis Redding - Sitting On the Dock of the Bay .... The radio DJ used to say by "the late great Otis Redding." I had to find out what "late" meant. 
• The Guess Who - These Eyes .... The one that I always come back to!!
• The Delfonics - La La Means I Love You
• It's A Beautiful Day - White Bird
• The Troggs - Love Is All Around
• The Zombies - Time of the Season
• Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman .... Funny how sometimes it takes many years and several cover versions before you realize how great a song is. 
• The Beatles - You've Got to Hide Your Love Away .... Eddie Vedder covers it like it's his own song but he's still not The Beatles. 
• Classics IV - Spooky

Many of the songs from this era cause a terrible yearning and nostalgic ache deep inside my soul. The songs of my youth. My true introduction to the pleasures of listening to music. Transitor radios. You knew that your favorite hit songs would be played every few hours. You'd wait with great anticipation to hear those favorites again. And when you occasionally hear one of those songs now, you feel chills throughout your body.

Record Store Find

Browsing through the local record store and I came across this vinyl gem from 1967. Folk music of the era. My first knowledge of Fred Neil was in discovering that he was the songwriter of Everybody's Talking. Neil Diamonds version had been a favorite of mine for several years by then. His album, Touching You, Touching Me, which this song is on, may have been the first album that I purchased. I recall feeling surprise though when discovering who the songwriter was. Why wasn't he more famous? Fred Neil apparently shunned the spotlight.

Tonights Listen

First heard fourty years ago on late night FM radio. Captivated by the opening piano notes. Amazed both then and now that it's all improvisation. Exploring ideas. A different direction from what I knew as Jazz. In fact, my proper introduction to Jazz and the sounds of ECM Records, their motto being: "The Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence."

Desert Island Disc List For This Moment In Time

It can change daily, even hourly, depending on mood and attitude. But for this evening, in this place, at this moment in time, and with the volume turned way up, my Stranded on a Desert Island song list would include .....

• Son Volt - Back Into Your World
• Neil Young - Old Man
• Blackie and The Rodeo Kings - Nickels and Dimes
• John Hiatt - Slow Turning
• Richard Buckner - Born Into Giving It Up
• Peter Gabriel - Red Rain
• Otis Redding - Sitting On the Dock of the Bay
• Jackson Browne - Walking Slow
• Bob Dylan - Shelter From the Storm
• Warren Zevon - Tenderness On the Block
• The Beatles - You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
• Sun Kil Moon - Among the Leaves
• R.E.M. - The Outsiders
• Ellis Paul - The World Ain't Slowing Down
• Greensky Bluegrass - Old Barns

It's difficult to come up with a short list. Each song brings to mind two or three others. Often for no obvious reason other then it's a great song! Over a lifetime (half century-plus) of devoted listening there's certainly at least a thousand songs (a conservative estimate) that could qualify on any given day. How does one eliminate any favorites from consideration? If asked tomorrow, the list might be entirely different.

And a few honorable mentions for this evening ......

• Sonny Landreth - Love and Glory
• Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
• U2 - With Or Without You
• Tom Rush - No Regrets / Joshua Gone Barbados
• The Shins - New Slang

The Uncollected

Recently have stumbled across a treasure of vinyl recordings from Hindsight Records. "The Uncollected" series of live Big Band Jazz recordings made from radio broadcasts primarily in the 1930's and 1940's. Each album with fascinating liner and song notes. Every recording is a joy to listen to. Especially when framed against one's knowledge of world events of those years. What radio used to be.

Hindsight Records Website