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."

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke - 12 String Blues: Live at the Scholar Coffeehouse. On the Oblivion Recording Company label. From 1969.

Found today at my old record stores booth at an antique mall. An original copy. One of only a thousand that were printed. It's never been re-printed or reissued on compact disc so there's not a lot of copies to be found. 

Six and twelve string acoustic guitar with vocals. Three songs are instrumentals.

I saw Leo Kottke in concert in Corvallis, Oregon sometime around 1975-1977. Amazing performance. I used to say that it sounded like there were two or three guitarists on stage that night. 

Midwest Gospel Radio

 

Heard tonight for the first time and it's been on repeat since. 'Midwest Gospel Radio' by Yonder Mountain String Band. 

A short instrumental banjo powered piece that has the power of inspiring memories and flashbacks. So how is it that I'm just hearing it tonight?

Angry Red Planet

I've been attempting to populate and grow a punk rock collection. This makes number three in the collection, all on vinyl .... unless you consider The Ramones as punk (I don't). And maybe this is closer to post-punk or garage rock? 

'Give 'Em Enough Dope' by Angry Red Planet. From 1989. A decade after what I've always thought were the Punk Years.

One side was recorded in studio and the other side is live.

I don't pretend to be knowledgeable on the history of punk rock. Since I don't know much, I tend to look for interesting cover art and obscure bands that I've never heard of. A certain mood is required to sit still and listen. I just sit quietly without judging, taking in the sounds and the energy. 

Found on Record Store Day 2024. 

Rikki Don't Lose That Number

As I get older this song becomes more vital to me. I struggle to explain. The song, the lyrics, the melody bring back such powerful torrents of memories of that time, those days, and moments passing by, places, emotions, moods, sensations, relationships, friends, teachers, school days, endings, beginnings, things I haven't known since ..... what else is there? 

It represents a time in my life that I occasionally yearn to return to. And the realization that much of what I'd known to that point was ending and that things were about to change. Transitions to a something different that I was far from eager to see take place.

Much of those days are a blur now. The song provides pieces or fragments of clarity. 

A few years ago, I met one of the persons this song reminds me of. I only knew her back then by seeing her around high school. I was far too shy and terrified to ever dare saying hello. Then one day, decades later, I crossed paths with her in the grocery store and it was her that recognized me. Then shortly later I attended a small 'fish fry' at the house of a mutual friend. She was there. I wasn't going to go as I was worn out after a day at work but she got on the phone and asked me to show up. So I did and it was so wonderful getting to know her. I even confessed (and in front of her husband) to having a high school crush for her. 

Rikki wasn't even my favorite at the time but over time it has become so meaningful for me.