Saturday Shuffle 145

 

A cornucopia of genres for you today to ease you into the weekend

We start with some Glam Rock with Coz I Luv You courtesy of Wolverhampton's finest Slade.There music may be good which is more than you can say about their spelling. I only ever saw them once at the Glasgow Apollo  but sadly that was during their later rock phase.

Gregg Allman's entire career could probably be described as rock although Wiki lists Blues/Rock/Southern Rock/Gospel/Country to name but 6. All bases covered there I think, He was married 7 times, one being to Cher ,and had 5 kids. Midnight Rider seems an accurate descriptor.

To conclude we have the great Billie Holiday who effortlessly straddled the Jazz/Blues divide with songs such as Lover Man

More Glam Lovermen and Midnight Riders next Saturday.

Slade - Coz I Luv You

Gregg Allman - Midnight Rider

Billie Holiday -Lover Man (Where Can You Be ?)

The Boxing Mirror

 

The other day I pulled out The Boxing Mirror by Alejandro Escovedo for a long overdue listen.

I have a promo copy with a different cover (below), and I noticed that the release date for the album was 1st May 2006. That makes it just over 20 years old. How did that happen?

On the Back Porch label it was produced by John Cale who also contributes with guitar and keyboard.This might explain why Alejandro delves into the worlds of avant guard and post punk with only shades of Americana. Rest assured, however, that this in no way detracts from the quality of the album.

It was the last of his albums that I bought although I do have a couple of burns/downloads from later albums

Alejandro has experienced some significant health issues over the years including Hepatitis C and I'm happy to report that he appears to be going strong at the age of 75.

Alejandro Escovedo - Arizona

Alejandro Escovedo - Deer Head On The Wall

Alejandro Escovedo - Sacremento & Polk

The Blues Collection - Furry Lewis & Frank Stokes

 

Long suffering readers will remember thay my Blues Collection obsession began between Christmas and New Year in 2013 when I picked up two job lots in my sadly departed local charity shop

Thereafter over the years I would pick them up in dribs and drabs in various charity shops. These were usually the early numbers in the series which featured the most popular artists

These eventually dried up leaving me to find only one or two every year and then every couple of years. A new source was required and Missing Records duly stepped up to the plate with any they have selling for a pound or two. Prior to my latest haul I had 66 out of the 90 in the series

My 67th one is number 61 in the series Beale Street Blues featuring Furry Lewis (tracks 1-8) and Frank Stokes (tracks 9 -18) with a series of songs recorded in 1928 and 1929 when Frank Stokes was just over 40 with Furry Lewis in his mid 30's. Here Discogs gives details of the tracklist.

One each from Furry and  Frank where they give themselves name checks I think.

Stay tuned for some more from the Collection...

Furry Lewis - Furry's Blues

Frank Stokes' Dream

Blood on the Tracks - Acoustic Version

 

I know that most Dylan fans would say that Blood on the Tracks is their favourite album by Bob. Not me, I'm a Highway 61 Revisited man.

This might be in danger of changing after George forwarded me a copy of Blood on the Tracks the Acoustic Version which completely blew me away.

Some detective work was required to find out some more about it with this and this proving useful.

I'm still puzzled as to to whether this is an actual album, a bootleg, or merely a Uber fan throwing acoustic versions of the songs together.

Whatever it is, it is absolutely brilliant.

Any further informatiom would be gratefully received

Bob Dylan -Simple Twist of Fate (Acoustic)

Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind (Acoustic)

Bob Dylan - Shelter From the Storm (Acoustic)

i-Pod Playlist - Mind Yer Language

 

I'm not sure if any of you are unfortunate enough to remember the UK 70's sit-com Mind Your Language .The premise was a classroom with a British teacher trying to teach English to a group of foreign students. It is perhaps the most patronising and the most unfunny programme ever to grace the small screen.

It's only piece of usefulness is to provided the title to this the last I-Pod Playlist post.

To clean the palate let's start with the wonderful French artist Francoise Hardy and Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles which I'm sure most of you can have a stab at translating this one correctly.

Next we have The Ukrainians a spin off band of The Wedding Present led by Peter Solowka with Chertez Richu Cherez Hai

Patricia Vonne was born in San Antonio, Texas but like most of that city she is a English/Spanish speaker with Mexican roots as the song Guitarras y Castanuelas demonstrates

Finally who better to conclude with than Belgium's finest Plastic Bertrand with Ca  Plane Pour Moi

Well that's this series, which became a bit of a slog in places, finally concluded.

Thank You

Merci 

 Дякую

Gracias

Be dankt

Francoise Hardy -Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles

The Ukranians - Chertez Richku. Cherez Hai

Patricia Vonne - Guitarras y Castanuelas

Plastic Bertrand -Ca Plan Pour Moi

If It Ain't Stiff ....

 

For last week's Lene Lovich post I featured Say When which I sourced from the 2001 compilation If It Ain't Stiff (A Stiff Records Collection). This led me to listen to the album in its entirety for the first time in years.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought that it might be worth sharing with you over the next few weeks. There are 21 tracks on the album. Take away Lene and that neatly gives us four songs for today and each of the next four Mondays.

The first track on the album is a live version of Milk and Alcohol from Canvey Island pub rock band Dr Feelgood proving that Stiff were far more than just a punk label.

Lene was track 2 with Wreckless Eric next with Reconnez Cherie. Eric is followed by the late great Kirsty MacColl with Terry.

Finally, for this week we have Department S  with the French version of Is Vic There?

Just the way to kick off the week. Stay tuned for a further four next Monday.

Dr Feelgood - Milk & Alcohol (Live)

Wreckless Eric - Reconnez Cherie

Kirsty MacColl - Terry

Department S - Is Vic There? ( French Version)

Sounds of the New West

 

There are a plethora of Americana with Sounds of the New West or Old West out there and it can be a bit confusing to tell which is which.

This one is probably the earliest as it was attached to the September 1996 issue of Uncut. Also in my humble opinion it remains one of the best

By my calculations I have albums by 18 out of  the 20 artists on the CD ( the odd ones out being Vic Chestnut and Willard Grant Conspiracy) It's no exaggeration to say that it had a major influence on my Americana obsession.

The three artists I've opted for today are Hazeldine, Kate Campbell and The Handsome Family. The other seventeen would also have been equally worthy choices but you can have too much of a good thing.

Hazeldine - Tarmac

Kate Campbell - Crazy in Alabama

The Handsome Family - Weightless Again