Goodbye 2014

Ringing out the year about to expire, with a little Mule Variations by Tom Waits.

My introduction to Tom Waits may have been in 1977. My college roommate would play his Nighthawks At The Diner album. (Whenever he wasn't playing Todd Rundgren records). We had favorite lines of lyrics and spoken words from the record that we would go around quoting in our daily conversations whenever appropriate. We most likely stretched the meaning of "appropriate" a tiny bit back then.

Here I am now, almost forty years later, still enjoying his music.

Today's Record Store Find

If you like your Blues to be snarly and gritty and swampy and electric ....

All Music Guide Review

Nowhere, Massachusetts

The group, Black Prairie, initially seen when featured in a segment from the OPBS television program, Oregon Art Beat. Formed from four members of The Decemberists with a couple friends added. According to the feature, originally intended to play instrumental acoustic music. They are thinking of themselves as co-existing with The Decembrists and not only a side project.

Christmas Playlist

Just a few for the occasion. Time for some new seasonal standards! These are much preferred over the traditional sounds that you hear no matter where you go ......

• Bruce Cockburn - Mary Had A Baby
• Sufjan Stevens - That Was The Worst Christmas Ever
• The Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight
• Stan Rogers - First Christmas
• Bruce Cockburn - The Cry of a Tiny Babe
• Harry Nilsson - Remember (Christmas)
• Steve Earle & The Dukes - Christmas In Washington
• Ry Cooder - Christmas Time This Year
• Sufjan Stevens - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
• Loudon Wainwright III - Suddenly It's Christmas
• John Fahey - The New Possibilty (the entire album)

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And speaking of the need for new standards, My most disliked seasonal song playlist. You'll never see me out caroling if these tunes are part of the program. Includes pretty much all the secular classics. I've long wanted to express my opinion on this and have held back for fear of being accused of being a scrooge and of ruining someone's day. Here's my chance to speak my mind ......

• I'll Be Home For Christmas ..... Forget the lyrics. The single most depressing melody in the history of music. Not negotiable and without hesitation, it tops my list.
• Jingle Bells
• Jingle Bell Rock
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
• Silver Bells ..... Close second for most depressing melody.
• I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
• Frosty the Snowman

My Kind of Christmas Music

My preferred choice for Christmas music ..... John Fahey's, The New Possibility. Reverantly performed solo acoustic guitar covers of traditional Christmas tunes minus the vocals. First heard when broadcast on the radio in the late night hours, one quiet Christmas Eve many years ago. I love the use of acoustic slide guitar on Silent Night.

Another alternative type recording of Christmas music that distances itself from the seemingly thousands of standard tunes is Sufjan Stevens, Songs For Christmas. Five discs, traditionals mixed with originals. Several originals that should be traditionals. If you've ever wondered if the pairing of Christmas music and banjo would work, you'll find the answer here.

There's also the song, First Christmas, by the late Canadian Folk singer, Stan Rogers. Previously discussed here.

Today's Vinyl Finds

Just browsing through the bins in the record store looking for something to grab my attention.

Something a little familar. Some Classic rock from the 1960's. Previously unreleased songs. Some with vocals, some instrumentals. Lou Reed!

Also came across something totally unknown. I'm not even sure if it's Jazz or Blues? Or both? In the liner notes it mentions "Boogie Woogie" piano.

Liner notes are always a good thing!

Sliding With Sonny Landreth

I go through phases with music. I say this about a lot of instruments ..... There's nothing like the emotion behind a cello! There's nothing like the sound of a resonator guitar!! Nothing like a dobro!!!

But there really is nothing quite like the sound of a slide guitar and the genius of Sonny Landreth!!

First noticed him in the late 1980's on Saturday Night Live playing guitar for John Hiatt. He was'nt someone to just blend anonymously into the background of a band behind a great musician. He had a presence and made an impression.

Lost and Found ....Stan Rogers

Driving home late one Saturday afternoon from participating in a basketball tournament in Corvallis, Oregon, I heard one of the simply most achingly beautiful, plaintive songs come over the car radio. Verse after verse it seemed of people hurting and yearning for something they couldn't have. At the songs conclusion, as was far too often the norm with FM-radio in those days and stations that took pride in lengthy song sequences and lack of commercials, there was no identification of the song title or the musician. This was the early to mid-1980's. Still a ways from home and no cell phones to call the radio station with an inquiry. No internet to refer to for a stations playlist. All I had was a guess at the title ..... First Christmas, and I wasn't even positive about that. Several years passed and the song would often come to mind, vital in my mind but haunting me in its lack of identification. It must have been the late 1980's and I was on one of my pilgrimages to one of the Tower Records stores in the Portland area, specifically the Beaverton store, rummaging through bins in the Folk Music section and I came across a album with a song titled, First Christmas. My heart was actually racing, Was this the tune I had been hearing in my thoughts and hoping to physically stumble across for so long? Could I actually be so lucky to literally stumble across it? After purchasing, I still had a 45 minute drive home to confirm my suspicioans and hopes. The longest 45 minutes of my life. But well worth it. Not just for the discovery of the lost song but for turning me onto a great singer/songwriter, Stan Rogers! A Canadian Folk singer with a huge voice and great songs of storytelling and emotions. And later I was to discover his brother, Garnet Rogers equiped with a similar deep booming voice that causes the listener to stop and pay attention.

First Christmas is a song about people alone and far away from home for the first time at Christmas time. And of their yearning to be home. To me its much more meaningful and essential than any number of Jingle Bells or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer type of offerings. It's what Christmas music should be!!

New Music Discovery

Let it never be said that I am stuck exclusively on the music from my youth. Or that I refuse to give a chance to modern possibilities. I noticed this album listed on several Best Music of 2014 lists. It stood out as the common denominator between a group of serious music fans. Titled "Lost In The Dream" by The War On Drugs.

All Music Guide

After listening start to finish, it's likely my choice for album of the year.

Playlist For This Moment In Time

Mostly a quiet evening for a little reading and contemplation and looking back on the past. For remembering people and stories. Things forgotten for years. Too bad moments like this can't go on forever. Eventually the need for sleep will win out. 

• Red House Painters - Shadows
• Terry Tufts - Dirty Little War
• Eliza Gilkyson - Beauty Way
• Radical Face - Glory (Acoustic Version)
• Wendy Waldman - When I Rode Next To You
• Dave Matthews - #41
• Richard Shindell - I Am
• Pat Metheny Group - Dream Of the Return
• Joseph Arthur - Temporary People
• James Keelaghan - House of Cards
• David Nevue - Wandering the Night
• Loudon Wainwright III - Motel Blues
• U2 - Every Breaking Wave

Something Fine

Every one seems to have that one musician who was their favorite during their high school and college years. I grew up listening to Jackson Browne's music. His songs a fixture in my world since 1972. "Something Fine" is from his debut album. I mentioned his lyrics once in a paper I wrote for a college Literature class and the instructor returned a note raving about the imagery in his words. Apparently she was a huge fan also.

His records from the 1970's are all classics as far as I'm concerned. He's continued recording and just released a new record a couple months ago but it's the music from the 1970's through 1996 that I always return to.

My Jackson Browne top-ten songs list for this moment in time (Subject to daily changes and complete overhaul) ......

• The Barricades of Heaven
• Walking Slow .... Memories of walking along the sidewalk at Oregon State University and this song blaring from a dorm window.
• For a Dancer
• Rock Me On the Water .... The one that started it all. Or was it Doctor My Eyes?
• Linda Paloma .... Took me 20-30 years to appreciate. 
• These Days .... Written when he was sixteen years old!! To this day, I enjoy it a little more with each listen.
• Running On Empty
• Call It a Loan
• The Road and the Sky
• Something Fine