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.