Sam's Place

I had no idea. A total surprise to discover a new Little Feat album. Released this year on their Hot Tomato record label.

I've been a huge fan since their late 1980's reformation. 

This one with all lead vocals by their percussionist and occasional (until now) lead vocalist, Sam Clayton. There's also a duet with Bonnie Raitt. Great blues sounds. 

Little Feat always reminds me of my old friend Mitch. (R.I.P.). He was a huge fan of their 1970's music and the vocals of Lowell George. He would refuse, despite all my efforts and offers to make mix-tapes and cd's, to listen to anything the band recorded after Lowell George's passing in the late 1970's which is about the time that I began paying attention to their sounds through a Jackson Browne bootleg album containing the song, "Long Distance Love."   

Sunday Evening Playlist

Two days of vacation away from work coming up. In a rootsy-Americana-bluegrass-newgrass-Zydeco kinda mood. Tonight's playlist .....

• Grateful Dead - Ripple
• Greensky Bluegrass - Old Barns / Into the Rafters ..... "You keep losing pieces that I just can't carry, I wish we'd all stop spinning, cause these words weigh nothing when you're too far away."
• Dry Branch Fire Squad - Golden Ring
• The Stanley Brothers - Angel Band
• Jesse McReynolds _ Standing On the Moon ..... "Standing on the moon with nothing left to do, a lovely view of heaven but I'd rather be with you." / Deep Elem Blues
• Herb Pedersen - The Hey Boys
• Bluerunners - Made Up My Mind
• Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett (from Little Feat) - Long Black Veil
• Tony Rice Unit - Nine Pound Hammer

Dust & Grooves

I ordered this book and it's scheduled to arrive in my snail mail by the middle of next week. If the postman knocked on my door tonight at midnight with book in hand, I'd be beyond excited, possibly requiring sedation.

Tons of photos, interviews and essays with vinyl record collecting geeks and nerds. I'm a longtime member of that club. Over half a century in fact.

Vinyl collectors showing off their records. Volume two. Hardcover, limited edition first pressing. I found a hardcover copy of volume one a few years ago. It sits on my coffee table and is opened, perused and enjoyed often. I drool over the photos of the various collections.

It's my current solo goal in life to live long enough to open up and leaf through the pages of volume two and admire it from closeup and afar alongside volume one. I may have to rearrange bookcases and devote an entire shelf to these two volumes and the photo cards that were an accessory to the first volume.

Such is the level of my vinyl mania. 😊 

Flashing Back (Again) Playlist

 Just some classic songs heard today and tonight. A flashing back playlist ....

• King Harvest - Dancing In the Moonlight (1973)
• Paul McCartney & Wings - Listen to What the Man Said (1975) ..... Everyone hoping still for the Beatles to reunite. There were still great songs to be heard.
• Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose - Too Late to Turn Back Now (1972) ..... If only we could return to those days for a few hours, once or twice a year. That's not asking for too much is it? 
• Harry Nilsson - Coconut (1972)
• Robert Palmer - One Last Look (1976) ..... Don't look at the year. But thinking back there's just something about the style and sound. I can't explain but this kind of marks a point of change for me from early 70's and high school to the mid and later 70's, college and beyond. I didn't realize it at the time, I thought there were other markers of change back then, but this has become my modern-day difference. I now need to hear it every month or two.
• Maria Muldaur - Midnight at the Oasis (1974)
• Todd Rundgren - Hello It's Me (1972) 
• Stealers Wheel (Gerry Rafferty) - Stuck In the Middle With You (1973)
• The Zombies - Time of the Season (1969) ..... Flashing even farther back. Autumn feels like the time to hear this song.
• Ace - How Long (1974) ..... Hated it back when it was a hit and all over the radio. Time has brought appreciation though. 

Joseph Arthur Playlist

I was in a Borders Books & Music on a Saturday night in 1996 or 1997. I recall it being 9:30 in the evening. The local act playing there that evening had just finished up and I wandered over to the compact discs, saw an interesting album cover at a listening station, noticed Peter Gabriel's very distinctive, Real World record label on the cd spine, slipped on the headphones and discovered the music of Joseph Arthur. 

• Big City Secret ..... The first song heard. I was instantly hooked.
• Enough to Get Away ..... From his Nuclear Daydream album. I listened to the album repeatedly when it was released in 2006. One of my desert island disc choices.
• Can't Exist 
• Even Tho
• Travel as Equals ..... I love the idea for the official video. Three musicians, short video clips with different poses.
• Saint of Impossible Causes .... The chorus stays with me.
• Echo Park
• Redemption's Son
• Mercedes .... Another of the songs I heard during that first listening experience.
• We Began to Dance Again
• In the Sun
• When I Was Running Out of Time ..... "You got a painted face and a body made of clay, you are my superstar."
• A Smile That Explodes

Half Century Ago Playlist

What I might have been listening to fifty years ago today, just starting out on my freshman year in college. Very emotional and transitional days in my world ..... 

• Gregg Allman - Multicolored Lady
• Bob Dylan - You're a Big Girl Now .... Every song from the record became a classic for me but this one stands apart from the others. 
• Jackson Browne - Late For the Sky / Walking Slow
• James Taylor - Mud Slide Slim .... Falling in love for the first time. I'd been listening to this all summer just prior to the Dylan and Browne albums being released.
• Steely Dan - Rikki Don't Lose That Number
• Neil Young - Sugar Mountain .... My buddy from grade school and high school had a bootleg version where I first heard the song.
• Cat Stevens - But I Might Die Tonight
• Country Joe McDonald - Drug Store Truck Driving Man .... From the Woodstock album. My vinyl collecting mentor introduced me to this tune.
• Stephen Stills and Manassas - Down the Road
• The Eagles - Doolin' Dalton
• Poco - A Good Feeling to Know
• Stevie Wonder - You Are the Sunshine of My Life
• Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On the Run .... I didn't become a Beatle fan until much later in life but I loved the Band On the Run album.

Operation Northwoods

I've been avidly seeking different directions in jazz for two or three years now. I discovered PJCE Records .... Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, dedicated to the music of Portland area artists. 'The Bureau of Fiction' by Operation Northwoods is the latest find. From 2013.

Recorded on February 4th of both 2011 and 2013. Chamber jazz sounds with bits of avant-garde.

A couple of the band members are also part of the group, The Ocular Concern, also recording for PJCE and also recently added to my collection.

Son Volt Day

At work this afternoon, had the office mostly to myself and all I could think to play was Son Volt. A short playlist ......

• Creosote .... I usually don't care for the pedal steel sound but it sounds perfect here.
• Drown .... Had to turn up the volume just a little. 😉
• Medicine Hat .... Singing along here.
• Rex's Blues
• Back Into Your World .... This was my personal anthem for a while.
• Looking At the World Through a Windshield
• Route .... Again, nudged up the volume.
• Right On Through
• While Rome Burns
• Underground Dream .... You know how a single line of lyric can spark the thought of someone special? Well, that happened.
• Like a Hurricane .... Jay Farrar covering Neil Young's classic. "I wanna Love you but I'm getting blown away."

Middle of the Week Playlist

Just a middle-of-the-week, later evening playlist of somewhat random and hopefully not too obscure but if so maybe that's a good thing, jazz offerings. Because this is how I'm leaning tonight. If I could be so allowed ..... 

• Jared Schonig - Tig Mack
• Arve Henriksen - Lament
• Horace Parlan - Headin' South
• Avishai Cohen & Big Vicious - The Things You Tell Me .... There's two Avishai Cohens working the same general genre of jazz so if you decide to seek out more, make sure you get the right one. This one plays the trumpet, the other is a bassist. .... or just listen to both!!
• Danny Green Trio - Katabasis
• Gabor Szabo - Half the Day Is the Night
• Hugh Masekela - Jungle Jim
• Lisa Hilton - Adventures and Alibis
• Chet Baker & Paul Bley - Diana
• Jean-Luc Ponty - In the Kingdom of Peace
• Ambrose Akinmusire - Piano Sketch (Beyond Enclosure) / Purple
• John Surman - Slanted Sky
• Christian Scott - Litany Against Fear

Bonus Track ....

• Oliver Schroer - The Tears of Mary .... Not Jazz. Maybe modern classical. Solo cello piece. A good ending to the day. 

The Folk Implosion

On the turntable today ....

I was excited to discover a week or two ago, the news about this release. It just took a few days and it was waiting on my doorstep. 'Walk Thru Me' by The Folk Implosion.

Primarily Lou Barlow and John Davis. They apparently had some ups and downs between them over the years and went different ways but have gotten back together for this recording. I'm hoping for more collaborations in the future. A quirky, Indie-Rock sound.  

GoGo Penguin

These days, I listen to GoGo Penguin as much if not more than any other group. Piano, acoustic bass and drums. Soaring musical ideas. 

I don't know what the Jazz snobs would think of them .... if they would think their music repetitive and simplistic. I think they are creative, innovative, melodic ..... Their music generates visual images of places I've never known.

A short playlist in case you feel the urge to check them out .... and LISTEN:

• Raven .... I see a raven soaring through a dark sky approaching an incoming storm.
• Wave Decay
• You're Stronger Than You Think
• Window
• Everything Is Going to Be OK
• Parasite
• Ascent
• Last Words .... I love this title for a song.
• Saturnine
• Kamaloka

I've discovered several other bands and new sounds because of their music. Mammal Hands, Portico Quartet, Robohands, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Phi-Psonics, Vega Trails .... all part of my searching for alternative jazz sounds.

Mandolin Orange

While journaling this evening, heard the song 'A Thousand Amen' by Mandolin Orange and had to listen again .... and again .... and again. And after all that, one or two more times. A lonesome melody played on guitar and fiddle with two voices.

Funny how sometimes the perfect music for a moment and the mood just arrives. Almost like it was waiting for years to be heard by this set of ears. 

"Water froze our bones

You'd swear it froze our minds

To some it's all they'd known

Not raised the quiten kind."