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.