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.
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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.

Playlist For .....

A playlist for a specific person, wherever she may be tonight because I'm remembering that night long ago where I played songs for you and you smiled, you laughed and you cried and told me your stories and for that evening, everything was new and nothing else mattered. And I've never forgotten and if I live to be one hundred, or older, I never will ......

• Peter Case - Until The Next Time .... Live version. 
• Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day .... "And He takes and He takes and He takes"
• David Rawlings - Cumberland Gap
• Son Volt - Back Into Your World
• Sun Kil Moon - Among the Leaves
• The War On Drugs - You Don't Have To Go
• Damien Jurado - Matinee
• Counting Crows - A Long December
• Lisa Piccirillo - Tell Her
• The Beatles - You've Got to Hide Your Love Away

Vermont Sounds .... Almost Wish I Was There

I've always loved picking up compilation and sampler recordings, but while flipping through a box of $1 compact discs, I never would have guessed that I'd come across one from 2014 by various musicians from Vermont. There's some Singer/Songwriter and Contemporary Folk Music gems on here. If I didn't love Oregon so much, I might well be tempted to pick up and run off to Vermont and experience the New England Autumn represented on the cover art.

Continued

Last nights playlist continued tonight. Because I fell asleep last night sitting, listening and typing and I'm having trouble falling asleep tonight so maybe there will be a repeat effect. Not to imply that the music bores me in any way.

• The Apples In Stereo - Strawberryfire .... Obvious Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever influence in the sound.
• The Verner Pantons - Penelope Pinwheel
• Cloud Nothings - Internal World .... "I'm not the one who's always right."
• The Black Angels - I'd Kill For Her
• Reigning Sound - North Cackalacky Girl .... Where is North Cackalacky? And is there a South Cackalacky?
• Heartless Bastards - Sway
• They Might Be Giants - Lucky Ball and Chain
• Filthy Friends - Editions of You
• Aztec Camera - Oblivious .... Among all these bands that I've never heard of, one finally emerges from the early morning fog bearing a known name from the early 1980's.
• Big Thief - Haley 

Tuesday Night Playlist

Tuesday night playlist via OPB Music radio. Always introducing me to new names and new sounds. Expanding my appreciation.

• M. Ward - Rave On
• Julia Jacklin - Coming of Age
• Craig Finn - Ninety Bucks
• Kelli Schaefer - Underground
• Crocodiles - She Splits Me Up
• Korgy and Bass - Bitter Horizon .... This is Rap that I can enjoy. Meshing Rap and singing.
• Black Prairie - How Do You Ruin Me? ..... Portland band. A side project of two or three members of The Decemberists. Has a French cabaret feel. Of course I've never been to a cabaret in France.
• Elbow - The Bones of You
• Offa Rex - Blackleg Miner

Sooner and Later

Jazz from the ECM Records label. A piano trio with the 'out-to-sea' (my term) double bass sound that I love.

Contemporary Jazz sounds with ECM signature explorations of the edges.

Flashback Playlist

An imagined playlist that I might have been listening to on this day in 1974. Maybe a potential mix-tape made for a girl I met that summer. My 'reasons to believe.' I was a three or four year veteran of record collecting by then. The year of being eighteen years old. Graduating from high school. Old friends suddenly going off in different directions. My first summer job, first time being away from home and living with my aunt and uncle on the Oregon Coast ..... Going off to college .... Falling in love and having my heart broken. Quite a bit of sudden transition in a period of a few months for a unsuspecting and unprepared teenager. A crash course introduction to advanced life lessons!! Bittersweet days, now somewhat scary to reflect upon. I wouldn't accept money to do it all again. Music was needed to help a shy and geeky kid get through it all.

• Bob Dylan - Stuck Inside of Mobile With Those Memphis Blues Again .... I loved how Dylan would write songs with what seemed like an infinite number of verses and words.
• Cat Stevens - Father and Son
• Jackson Browne - Rock Me On the Water .... I've always thought of this as a gospel song. Probably because of the imagery it sends out. 
• Neil Young - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
• James Taylor - Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon .... I played this almost every damn night that summer. It must have been saying something to me!!
• The Eagles - Peaceful Easy Feeling
• Poco - A Good Feeling to Know
• Pink Floyd - Us and Them
• Arlo Guthrie - Shackles and Chains .... About as 'Country' as I ever got. 
• Carole King - Come Down Easy
• Country Joe McDonald - Drugstore Truck Drving Man .... From the Woodstock soundtrack. For some reason I've always associated it with Ronald Reagan. Maybe there's something in the introduction to the song?
• The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday
• Gordon Lightfoot - Circle of Steel .... I've always felt this as a winter song. Chills and lonely. It just has that 'feel' to it in my mind. 

The Sadies - Northern Passages

The Sadies are a "Indie Rock" band from Canada. Their tenth record but I'm just now discovering their sounds. My current album of the year for 2017.

It feels like there's something from a forgotten past life lurking somewhere in the background on several of these songs. Then followed by a more traditional rocker.

I hadn't listened since my initial experience when it came out in February. The disc has been loaded on my cd player since then and suddenly started playing today .... with each song I was asking myself, "What the hell is this?" I had to eject the disc to learn the answer. Sometimes the sudden spontaneous accidental second listen, six months after the first, is the one that reveals the most. You have no expectations and the sounds just strike you more clearly.

Monks - Hamburg Recordings

Simply Monks .... Not even "The Monks." Lost and recently found recordings from fifty years ago. Only five songs but what great tunes they are!!! 1960's, garage rock. the music you might expect as the soundtrack to a movie about teenage punks terrorizing pretty boy surfer dudes. That's what it sounds like to my ears. And one of the cooler looking album covers. It just makes my entire collection look that much more hipster.

Always keeping my eyes and ears open for new (and older) sounds and possibilities. One thing leads to another ..... I ordered it on vinyl a month ago from Third Man Records after happening upon one of the songs on their website, after seeing a feature of the record company on CBS This Morning. It feels like I've been waiting several months since, for its official release. There's always something exciting about seeing new music in your mailbox.

Scandalize My Name

Listening to history on this Memorial Day. Powerful, booming and passionate bass voice singing old spirituals, folk music and protest songs from a past century.

I found this three record box set, several years ago in a local cramped, stuffy used bookstore ..... climb up a rickety spiral staircase in a dimly lit, dusty corner of the store. The sort of sounds that I just can't imagine listening to on compact disc.

Paul Robeson was an actor, college football player, activist and singer who was blacklisted in the 1950's during the McCarthy era.

Sunday Morning Listening to Bert Jansch

The older I get the more I appreciate recordings from half a century ago. It's historical documentation!!

From 1966 and on vinyl. Covering traditional English folk tunes with incredible acoustic guitar playing by Jansch and John Renbourn. The only additional thing that could be asked for ..... liner notes explaining the origins of these songs.

And following up with more Bert Jansch on vinyl ..... His 1971 "Rosemary Lane" record!!! Found this many years ago in a used record store in Portland with a $2.00 sticker on it. A knowledgable person would be crazy to pass that up.

Buried In Vinyl

This could be me at various points in my life. I've had spaces that closely resemble this. I mean, you try to keep things neat and organized but it's just not always possible. One thing will lead to another and soon you have blissful clutter.

But to this day .... and thousands of records, tapes and discs into a lifetime of collecting, I still know where almost everything is located. occasionally you can spend a day (or week) searching for an Elvis Costello vinyl record that you eventually realize you probably sold in your Mother's garage sale in 1988 but for the most part I know where things are.

I just wish that I could recall what was the exact record that initially hooked me into this lifestyle choice.

Just One More Late Night Radio Playlist ..... Yeah Right!

Really. really late, Thursday night, or if you prefer, really, really early Friday morning OPB Radio playlist. Because that's always been the best hours to listen to the radio. Sometimes you wish that your local record store was open at 3:00am. It's just too bad (and sad) that an aging wannabe hipster person eventually needs to get some sleep ....

• The Builders and The Butchers - Black Dresses .... A local band!! Heard of them and I have one of their records. (I think).
• Loch Lomond - Made of Ink
• Run On Sentence - Run To You .... Ever wonder where new bands get their names? I do. Was there just a instant where they all looked at each other and said: "That's it!!" Heck for all I know this band may have been around for fifteen years.
• Young Fathers - 27 ..... I was thinking that this was The Shins for the first sixty seconds of the song. Then I glanced at the online playlist.
• Animal Collective - Derek
• The Ponys - Deathbed
• Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel the Illinoise .... I prefer him with his banjo. There's no detectable banjo on this one.
• Murder By Death - I Shot An Arrow
• Asgeir - Unbound .... It's like they set the drum machine and keyboards to make various five to ten second segments of random combinations of notes and sounds and then stirred it all up with a kitchen counter mixer and added the vocals. Different but interesting.
• Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears - Sexual Tension

Late Night Indie Radio Playlist

Late Sunday night, OPB Radio playlist. Remembering late evenings long ago, listening to 1960's radio, while everyone else slept. This could be a short playlist because these days, I just can't hang in there at odd hours like I could in the 60's. ....

• Midlake - Head Home
• Madness - That Close
• Goldfrapp - Anymore .... This sure isn't the music of my youth. But for tonight anyway, that's perfectly OK.
• The Ghost Ease - Gemini Rise
• Say Hi - Elouise .... A band that I have in my collection!! Though not this song. A different sound. Is it possible that there's two groups named Say Hi?
• BrakesBrakesBrakes - Hey Hey .... The 'British Invasion' band.
• Cloud Nothings - Internal World .... "I'm not the one who's always right."
• Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks - Baltimore .... The title of their album, Real Emotional Trash, cause for a chuckle.
• Frightened Rabbit - Good Arms vs. Bad Arms

Zevon Live Again!!

Found in the record store filed under used vinyl recent arrivals. The question must be asked: Who would part with a Zevon recording?

I've been hooked since hearing those first piano notes of Frank and Jesse James as he opened a show for Jackson Browne in 1976. Unknown to me at the time, I went out the very next day and bought his self titled album. This bootleg recording of a radio broadcast brings back memories of that night forty years ago. For a nostalgic Zevon fan, very bittersweet since those days of youth and Warren Zevon are long gone. Though still wanting to keep the music alive!!

New Releases

Listening to new albums by a couple old favorites: "In Between" by The Feelies and "Notes of Blue" by Son Volt. It's always a heightened period of discovery when one of my favorites releases a set of new music. As in the pre-internet days, I try to keep the new sounds a mystery going into the first listen. It feels more like a highly anticipated big occasion that way. A feeling that I had begun to miss in recent years with postings of early songs releases and album samples that are so common these days.

Best of 2016

My choices for the best new releases from 2016 ......

• Anders Osborne - Flower Box
• Avishai Cohen - Into the Silence
• Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like a Levee
• Tony Joe White - Rain Crow
• Richmond Fontaine - You Can't Go Back If There's Nothing To Go Back To
• Tim Buckley - Lady, Give Me Your Key: The Unissued 1967 Solo Acoustic Sessions
• The Subdudes - 4 On The Floor
• The Jayhawks - Paging Mr. Proust
• Grant-Lee Phillips - The Narrows
• Gillian Welch - Boots No. 1
• Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1967-1972

And my album of the year judging from the one that's received the most listening time here at home, in my car or on the media player at work ....  and that I often find myself singing along to (like they could use my assistance on the harmony vocals) would be The Jayhawks new record. A very close second place to Heart Like a Levee by Hiss Golden Messenger. On any given day, it might be my number one.