Looking North

Another from the recent Shifting Paradigm Records discoveries.

'Looking North' by Bryan Nichols. Released in 2016.

Solo jazz piano alternately reminding me of similar sounding moments and directions from Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea recordings of the 1970's. Best heard with midnight moods and vibes. 

Bandcamp Page
 

Random Playlist #4749

Just another popup playlist featuring mostly little-known random tunes .....

• Barn Burning - Friendship Fails You
• Call and Response - Trapped Under Ice
• The Lowest Pair - Pear Tree
• Memory Tapes - Wait in the Dark

Several of these songs were first heard on the Oregon Public Broadcast overnight online radio stream that used to be heard after regular programming had concluded for the day. Regrettably in my opinion, the stream was ended a few years ago. It was a great source of new music. Mostly Indie Rock or Indie Pop sounds.

• The Outdoor Type - On My Mind
• Porcelain Raft - Drifting In and Out
• Radical Face - Ghost Towns
• Shotgun and Jaybird - Secret
• Thieving Irons - Sleepwalking Into the Ocean
• Tired Pony - Point Me at Lost Lands / Pieces

I broke some sad news earlier today to a couple of people where I assumed that they already knew. It never crossed my mind that they didn't. There's a lesson in there about tact, sensitivity and the dangers of assumptions.

• The Twilight Sad - Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave
• The xx - I Dare You

First Playlist of 2026

Just another random playlist for a Sunday evening. And just in case I ever get my own community radio program .....

• Hiss Golden Messenger - Mahogany Dread .... I keep changing favorite HGM songs every month or two. Then can't get enough of the current favorite. A testament to the strength and depth of their collected works.
• Arlo Guthrie - Deportees
• 75 Dollar Bill - Like Laundry
• Greg Brown - Who Woulda Thunk It
• Fred Neil - Everybody's Talkin ..... I got to know the Neil Diamond cover long ago from what I identify these days as my first vinyl album.  More time has always been demanded with the songwriter's version.  
• Warren Zevon - Empty Handed Heart ..... I've always loved the Linda Ronstadt descant in this song. Gives me chills and all that.
• Tom Rush - Urge for Going ..... You know what I thought upon hearing this song this evening? "They just don't write songs like this anymore."
• Drive-By Truckers / Patterson Hood - Box of Spiders
• The Lost Gonzo Band - Loose and I'm On My Way .... I think the album is from the mid-1970's. Something about listening to The Eagles, Poco, JD Souther, Little Feat, Jackson Browne, etc., must have led me here.

Monday bonus tracks ....

• Tom Jans - Gotta Move
• Little Village - Solar Sex Panel / She Runs Hot ..... Kind of an early 1990's supergroup with John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner.
• The Bats - Sir Queen
• Stephen Stills and Manassas - Anyway
• Little Feat - One Clear Moment .... The daily goal that I strive for each day in these senior years.

Seven Last Words

I recently discovered this great independent record label, based in Minneapolis, Shifting Paradigm Records, and from what I can tell, releasing mostly jazz. 

One of my recent selections from their catalogue is 'Seven Last Words' by Adam Booker.

Released in 2020. Alternating between classical leaning solo bowed acoustic bass and more traditional sounding jazz quartet pieces with trumpet and flugelhorn .... no saxophone, 

An album review from the No Treble webpage:

No Treble

...... and the Bandcamp page:

Bandcamp - Seven Last Words

Revolver

In the cd player. 'Revolver' by The Beatles. A 2009 remastered version.

I rarely listened to their records until ten or fifteen years ago. I'm still catching up today. As I listened, I thought of those folks back in the 1960's who had been fans for three or four years and taking a first listen to each of The Beatles new releases from 1966 until their breakup. The anticipation they must have felt. And on the day of release, ..... (because the real true followers and fanatics were there in the record store on the day of release for new records from their favorite bands and musicians) .... hearing each of these songs for the first time. Hearing 'Taxman' and then the excitement for what would come next on the record. Having no idea what sounds would follow with 'Eleanor Rigby.' Hearing 'Love You To' and as it neared its final notes, the anticipation of what was next with Here, There and Everywhere.' All these songs that have become standards nearly sixty years later and heard so often, they were all new and unknown at one time.

That idea has always been fascinating to me. I had my favorite musicians and bands back in the 1970's and beyond and I've always felt that excitement while one tune was playing, over what new song I was about to hear next. Especially so on the dive home with a new record and during the seconds of silence between songs on a record. Those seconds could sometimes seem like an eternity.

Trumpets and Trombones

Part of my continuing obsession and search for new sounds ..... the self-titled album by Kelan Philip Cohran & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, on compact disc and the Honest Jons Records label. Released in 2012.

Out of Chicago, a jazz-funk blend of trumpets and trombones by (according to Wikipedia) jazz trumpeter, Kelan Philip Cohran and his eight sons. 

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Favorite song from the record .... 'Spin.' Ten delightful minutes of head-bobbing, jazz-funk, trumpet, trombone and percussion groove joy. Give it a listen!!

Saturday With a Chill In the Air, Playlist

A quiet (and chilly) Saturday night playlist. Maybe some recent repeat choices ......

• Watchhouse - New Star
• Hiss Golden Messenger - Standing In the Doorway
• Gregg Allman - All My Friends ..... Flashing back. Freshman year of college. Eighteen years old. Playing this record in my dorm room. Probably should have played the record less and studied more.
• Stephen Stills & Manassas - Anyway ..... (A drastic switch for no particular reason in playlist tone and era.) I always seem to find my way back to the 70's.
• Souther-Hillman- Furay Band - Fallin' In Love
• The Beatles - Nowhere Man / Here, There and Everywhere
• Bruce Cockburn - Last Night of the World / Joy Will Find a Way
• Dan Fogelburg - Part of the Plan ..... There are some great songs on his early albums before he went all sugary sweet. Just my opinion.
• Grateful Dead - Box of Rain .... 'It's just a box of rain, I don't know who put it there. Believe it if you need it or leave it if you dare.'

Greensky Bluegrass

"So many things about me nobody seems to know" ......

I've been a fan of Greensky Bluegrass for a couple decades now. My introduction was a Relix Magazine sampler disc with their song, 'Tuesday Letter.' I've seen them live two .... maybe three times. Bought a cd out of a suitcase from one of the band members at that first show. Dragged my brother along to a second show. I'm not always a fan of the long, extended jams .... my mind gets foggy after a while of the 'noodling,' which I'm not sure is an established term of 'Deadheads' or a description of my own making .....but the basic songs, which make up the albums, I love. 

James McMurtry

More storytelling from James McMurtry. A 2025 release. The illustration on the front cover was done in the 1960's by author, Ken Kesey while visiting James McMurtry's father, Larry. 

Singer/songwriter that I've followed since the early 1990's enjoying the stories I've heard along the way. All his recordings have been consistently great. 

I.G.Y. Playlist

Gotta be one of my all-time favorites. Wherever I am, I hear those notes and I never walk away until it's finished playing. I especially love the point where he croons: "Oooohhh Wahhhhh" ....

Since covid it's been my habit to get in and out of stores as quickly as possible. But this song comes over the store audio system, and I want to stay a while. 

I also associate it with a time long ago ..... a Sunday morning, lying in bed and it came on the radio. It's funny how you have these odd little moments .... you don't recall 99.9999-plus per cent of the individual minutes of your life but then you have two or three nondescript minutes that stand out clearly. Moments that have no real importance other that you remember and can visualize exactly where you were and what you heard at 7:22am on this random Sunday in 1982.

Making this into a mostly 80's playlist .....

• Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver .... Another favorite to hear over the store audio system. 
• Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World .... I'm usually a pretty courteous driver when it comes to playing the radio too loud, but this song comes on and the volume's way up and I'm the only person on the road or in the world. When this song came out, it was the worst of times for me. When I hear it these days, I think I try to make up for the pleasure and joy that I couldn't feel back then. 
• General Public - Never You Done That
• Big Country - Restless Natives
• Jolene - Pensacola

• Bourgeois Tagg - I Don't Mind At All .... I love the obvious Beatles influence and inspiration.
• Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
• Peter Himmelman - Eleventh Confession ..... 'I needed to tell you I needed surrender. I never was good at playing pretender."
• Warren Zevon - Searching For a Heart .... Just inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. About damn time!! I love the line in this song: "They tell me love requires a little standing in line."

Rituals

Now playing on the turntable: New album titled 'Rituals' from Watchhouse, Americana group formerly known as Mandolin Orange. More great songs about life!! Maybe my favorite non-jazz related release of 2025. One of those records where you think you've decided on a favorite song ..... but then you hear what's next and have to reconsider all that you thought you knew.

The dominant themes in my world these days is that of growing older, looking back on life and loving someone far away. Whether intended or not when the songs were written, I hear much in the lyrics and the feel of the music that creates connections to my daily issues and life questions.

The songs often lead to reflection and are personally haunting in how old memories are revisited.

In the song, 'Endless Highway Pt. 2' there's a couple minutes of fiddle playing that transported me back fifty years .... so eerily similar to the fiddle of the late, great David Lindley on Jackson Browne albums. 

Tonight's Playlist

What I'm listening to tonight. A Sunday evening playlist if I must call it something. Roots stuff for me ....

• Josh White - What's Done is Done ..... A Portland, Oregon pastor. I've always thought that the majority of gospel/worship music was inane and poorly written. He changes that long help notion for me. Gives the word with intelligence.
• Todd Snider - Like a Force of Nature / While We Still Have a Chance
• The Youngbloods - Quicksand ..... Late 1960's. Feels like a song that should be played while the credits roll of a movie with a bittersweet ending.
• Joe Pug - Hymn #35 ..... How many more great singer/songwriters are out there awaiting their sound to be discovered by chance one day by an individual like myself?
• Waxahatchee - Right Back to It
• Watchhouse - House of Stone ..... Duo formerly known as Mandolin Orange.
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - If We Were Vampires .... For the past decade, I believe the greatest songwriter out there in this moment.
• Joe Pug - Unsophisticated Heart
• The Bats - Electric Sea View ..... A new album coming soon. 
• Richard Buckner - Beautiful Question ..... Been a fan for 15-20 years now. This is from a 4-song live recording I just found on Bandcamp. Where I find a great amount of new music these days.