Gonna Be A Darkness / True Blue

Jayhawks time!!! I've had this song bouncing around in my head for the past three or four days. And likely will tomorrow as well.

"There's gonna be a darkness, maybe colder than you guessed."

And before that there was this ….

Doesn't get much more beautiful than that!! Not a bad way to spend the evening …. listening to Jayhawks tunes.

Traveling Tune

So I'm driving up I-5 yesterday headed to Portland with the radio on the Jazz station and the volume at an acceptable level for hearing safety, then this little tune comes on and all hearing precautions suddenly go out the window. (Pun intended.) And I suddenly don't give a rats azzz if the whole world can hear me helping out with the background vocals.

This Weeks Playlist

• Richard Thompson - Don't Renege On Our Love
• John Lee Hooker - Canal Street Blues
• Neil Young - Southern Man
• Sarah Harmer - Basement Apt.
• Peter Gabriel - Burn You Up, Burn You Down
• Greg Greenway - Highway 4AM
• Mark Knopfler - Romeo and Juliet
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Even The Losers
• Richard Buckner - Ed's Song

Jason Molina

I've become fascinated lately by the music given to us by Jason Molina. Either under his own name or via the groups, "Magnolia Electric Co." and "Songs: Ohia." Just recently discovered and then thrilled to find a huge catalog of recordings to seek out.

I love it when that happens!!

Though I've never seen anything in record stores I frequent. Like I've said before …. the physical records and compact discs are preferred but there's also a place for iTunes and downloads.

He passed away in 2013 but was extremely prolific in his years releasing music. How do I describe his sound? Americana? Indie Folk-Rock? Singer/Songwriter? All of the above perhaps? There's one album that has an obvious Neil Young/Crazy Horse influence!! I mean that in a good way. Doesn't seem to have ever been an issue with writer's block. I can't help but wonder what may have been created had there been another ten or twenty years?

This darkly melodic and brooding stuff is what I love!! How is it that I was never exposed to this music years ago?

OPB Playlist

From OPB Music .... It seems like there's always a great amount of cool tunes played after midnight. Or maybe we're just better prepared for listening when away from the activity of the daylight hours.

• LUMP - Curse of the Contemporary
• The National - Secret Meeting ..... "I'm sorry I missed you, I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain."
• John Doe & Kathleen Edwards - The Golden State
• The Rosebuds - Night of the Furies
• Petal - Better Than You
• Blind Pilot - One Red Thread
• Horse Feathers - Without Applause
• Courtney Barnett - Sunday Roast ..... The title taking me back years, reminding of my mom's Sunday meals. Usually something special.
• Yo La Tengo - Shades of Blue *****
• Elbow - Magnificent (She Says) *****
• Emma Pollock - Don't Make Me Wait
• Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over ..... Actually being July 6th, this years dog days  haven't started yet.

Late night OPB Playlist, Part 2 .....................

• XTC - Earn Enough For Us ..... The mention of XTC always brings to mind their song, "Dear God."
• Horse Feathers - Faultline Wail
• Silver Jews - Suffering Jukebox
• Ramona Falls - In the Wake
• John Vanderslice - White Dove
• Yo La Tengo - Ohm ..... My favorite Yo La Tengo song, especially when the song melts into total electric fuzz and static.
• Paul Simon - Wristband ..... Seems odd to hear one of the all-time classic greats on this program. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just that it seems like he's from a different genre and period of time.
• Nurses - Caterpillar Playground
• No Kind Of Rider - Dark Ice
• Yeasayer - Sunrise 

Jazz Playlist

Heard in between making the rounds at work. From the Portland Jazz radio station, KMHD-fm's, overnight stream of sounds. New Jazz, Soul leanings, occasional Latin influences .....

• Christian Scott - Of A New Cool *****
• Abdullah Ibrahim - Did You Hear That Sound
• Fiction Trio - My Name Is *****
• Tribe - Livin' In A New Day
• Jukka Eskola - Martha's New Moment
• Ocote Soul Sounds - Primavera
• Blundetto - Final Goodbye *****
• Sure Fire Soul Ensemble - Balboa Park
• DJ Cam Quartet - Raise Up *****
• Joe Cuba Sextet - Do You Feel It
• Roy Ayers - Red, Black and Green
• Donald Byrd - Places and Spaces
• Gary Bartz - Music Is My Sanctuary
• Menahan Street Band - Going The Distance

Several names I've never heard of previously. With Jazz especially, I'm very guilty of just paying attention to recordings from half a century ago. I don't know much (or anything actually) about the directions it's gone in the current century. So there's a huge learning curve involved. The selections marked with ***** are songs that I found particular interest in. Worthy of additional listening and research. Not that the others don't belong in that category. But I can't check out everything .... Or can I?

More Vic Chesnutt

Checking out more of his music. His early recordings are haunting and at the same time, full of beauty. How did I overlook this music for all this time?

If you happen to find yourself led to purchase his music, look for the recent remasters that are plentiful in bonus tracks.

All Music Guide

Vic Chesnutt

Singer/Songwriter from Georgia. His third album from 1993 with additional tracks added when remastered last year on New West Records. Unique voice and style. Haunting in spots, funny in other moments.

My introduction to his music was several years ago on the "Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation" benefit recording of various musicians covering his songs.

One of the bonus tracks on this record is a cover of Bob Dylan's, "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine."

Highly recommended!!!

Lost and Found Gene Clark

I love these old, lost recordings from 1967. Re-discovered and released  for the first time, just a few days ago. For myself …. the evolution of the Singer/Songwriter, Folk/Rock style of music. And such a great, plaintive voice carrying these songs. It would have been a sin for these recordings to remain lost.

It's fascinating to read about the musicians from this time, who were exploring new territory opened up by The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Now days these names are considered as greats but most were just starting out back then. How they joined up with, worked with and split from each other and then reforming with other musicians in various working arrangements and creating even more new music. And then the even newer names coming up behind them, continuing on. Just reading about it all you get the sense that it was a process played out over a decade when it was actually just a few years.

Is there anything or anyone comparable to that now? Or was that era something unique that could have only happened when it did, with it's surrounding events and circumstances?

Country Joe & The Fish

Found this past weekend while rummaging through the used vinyl bins, "new arrivals," of my local record store. Psychedelic-Country-Folk sounds from the 1960's. (That's a style?) A genre/era that I'd like to expand in my collection.

People actually give this kind of classic and historic stuff up? There should be a voice in their head that tells them not to let it go.

Maybe it has special meaning to me because I lived through those years? Listening mostly though to the top-40 hits on AM-radio. Now at age 62 I find myself catching up with sounds I missed out on back then.

I did have a record collecting mentor in the early 70's that introduced me to Country Joe McDonald and specifically "The Fish Cheer" through the Woodstock Records. Rod Robinson, the older brother of one of my friends. I wonder what he used to think of me, this naive and goofy looking kid who he had three or four years of life and music listening experience on. I was like an attentive student eager to take in whatever he was willing to play for me. Eric Burden and The Animals, The Guess Who, Neil Young, Iron Butterfly, The Beatles and their later albums, Creedence, CSNY and much more. New sounds for me. A new type of education. Those memories have always stayed close. He also introduced me to FM-radio.

Short Playlist

Sunday evening playlist …..

• Son Volt - Driving The View
• The Sadies - It's Easy (Like Walking)
• Richard Buckner - Town
• Hiss Golden Messenger - John The Gun
• Colin Linden - George Chuvalo
• The War On Drugs - Pain

Starting when I was a teenager in the early 1970's, I've tended to have a ever changing list of musicians that I overdose on for a period of time. Richard Buckner and Hiss Golden Messenger seem to be those choices for the last year or two. Taking the places of Colin Linden, Joseph Arthur and Son Volt/Jay Farrar.

Others who have spent time with that status ….. Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Warren Zevon, Peter Gabriel, U2, a return of Jackson Browne in the 1990's, The Subdudes, Yo La Tengo ….. Just a few that come to mind. 

First Day Of June Morning Sounds

Sometimes it takes most of a lifetime to appreciate some things. In this case Jazz/Blues vocals from a 1961 recording sounding like the songs are actually from a decade or two earlier. I suppose I could go read the album's liner notes but I'd rather just stay in my chair and enjoy the sounds.

While during my teenage years it might not have been seen as cool among my friends this music is actually the definition of "cool."