For A Winter Night

This Windham Hill label recording is from 1988. Various acoustic instrumental offerings with traditional, folk or classical roots and a feeling of a cold Winter night.

Best when listened to without distraction, late at night (Most music is it seems), with the lights tuned down low and eyes closed.

So Many Roads

Another recent vinyl find! John Hammond's, "So Many Roads" from 1965. The Blues!

There's three members of the future group, The Band, playing with him. Listed in the album credits as Jaime Robertson (Robbie), Mark Helm (Levon) and Eric Hudson (Garth).

Here's some of the other sounds that were going on in the mid-60"s while The Beatles were starting out with their thing ..... Maybe not what John Hammond had in mind but an appropriate album title when you consider the different styles being played at the time .... British Invasion, R&B, Folk, The Blues, etc ....

Loving most things history, I feel wonder and amazement at all these sounds and recordings from forty or fifty years ago and grateful that they didn't get lost over time. There's so much that I never paid attention to or was exposed to while growing up during those years. 1960's Blues-Rock wasn't something you heard much of on the radio back then. Not even on the few FM stations that were starting up. And FM was the place where you could hear different sounds besides the "Top-40" that was being played on AM.
_______________________________________________________________________

I think it was 1968. (Actually 1967). I was eleven years old. I heard "Outside Of a Small Circle of Friends" played on the radio. It became a favorite of mine. I'd wait an hour or two just to hear it played again. I have this image burned into memory of sitting in the kitchen late at night and hearing it on the radio. (It must not have been a school night.) I don't recall how high it went on the charts but it received airplay for several weeks.

It was different from what we were mostly hearing. Where did this come from? Phil Ochs? ... I had never heard of him. No idea of his history but indeed he had a music history at that point. One of those songs that sounded upbeat and happy but if you listened to the lyrics .... about a woman being mugged and murdered and the apathy of her neighbors it was anything but cheery.

Many years later, likely in the 1980's, I found the album it was on. Folk Music with songs like "Miranda" and "Flower Lady." I didn't think the record to be like Bob Dylan or other Folk musicians of the time. It was a different style of Folk that I've always loved and that I've since heard in the recordings of people like Tim Buckley, Steve Noonan and the Terry Callier record previously noted here.

Wikipedia - Outside Of a Small Circle of Friends

Abercrombie and Friends

ECM Records kind of Jazz. Melding electric guitar, violin, double-bass and drums. Beautiful compositions!!

I'm not especially good at descriptions so I try to find words and phrases to use. Words that come to mind as I listen .... Soaring violin lines!! Quiet yet piercing guitar!!

The conflicted wind fades to a gentle evening breeze!! Footsteps in the dark! Improvised abstract poetry! Spiritual discovery and possibilities? .... All thoughts that came to mind at different points of the journey.

Dylan's Slow Train

Going back to my vinyl record collecting roots. This record has a long reserved spot on my list of twenty desert island discs. I recall his appearance on Saturday Night Live when he performed three songs from this record. I had that recording on Beta video tape for many years. I'm assuming that eventually the tape broke. That must have been a traumatic event in my life at that moment.

The one line of lyric that I always remember: "Sister let me tell you, about a vision that I saw ....."

If more Gospel music sounded like this, I would have been a fan. Then there's the sound of Mark Knopfler's guitar and the great use of horns!!

For any fans of this album who may not be up to date .... Dylan just released the latest in his Bootleg Series. Live recordings, rehearsels, demos, etc., partly centered around this record.

Terry Callier

One of those previously unknown (to my ears) records that I stumbled across recently while thumbing through the vinyl bins of my local record store. The cover art caught my attention. The songs were recorded in 1965. The record wasn't released until 1968. What I visualize when I think 60's Folk Music. Folk Music as it sounds best .... An acoustic guitar, bass and a beautiful voice. Great classic songs and tones that should not be obscure, overlooked, lost or forgotten.

From All Music Guide: "New Folk Sound is for the most part stark and simple, possessed of a subtle grace which spotlights his remarkably moving vocals to excellent effect."

This is history!! I marvel at the thought that this is music recorded over half a century ago yet if I close my eyes, this vinyl offering sounds as if he's standing only a few feet away. That's a magical feeling!

John Lee Hooker Live!

Live Electric Blues from 1977 and John Lee Hooker!! It's the voice that draws me in!

A "Black Friday" vinyl release picked up just two weeks ago. Did I mention that his voice is what demands my attention?

I had heard of him before but never paid much attention until I heard his vocals on Pete Townshend's, "The Iron Man" album. From that introduction, digging deeper into his music was what eventually led me to The Blues and expanding my tastes in music at a time when I was beginning to think that there wasn't much remaining to discover.