The Horse Whisperer

 

There is perhaps a bit  of controversy around this appearing on my Sunday Americana series.

Firstly it is Songs From and Inspired By The Motion Picture The Horse Whisperer here as opposed to the Original Score

The Horse Whisperer is a 1998 American  neo- western drama film directed by and starring Robert Redford, based on the 1995 novel  The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans. I think that I would rather have pins stuck in my eyes than watch the film.

I picked this up from a charity shop some years back as the songs looked interesting. This in turn has led to two further controversies.

Up until now the CD has been filed along with further soundtracks and the like a fair distance from the Americana shelves.Also it seems to be a mixture of mainstream Country and Americana so which genre should it be filed under?

Also is there enough Americana to justify inclusion in this series. Just about, I think, but there is probably also an strong argument that it isn't

Surely though, anything which has tracks by The Flatlanders, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and Steve Earle is worthy of inclusion?

The jurys out.

The Flatlanders - South Wind of Summer

Lucinda Williams - Still I Long For Your Kiss

Gillian Welch - Leaving Train

Steve Earle - Me And The Eagle

Apologies I've just realised that these are MP4 as opposed to MP3 files. I hope that doesn't cause too much inconvenience.

Saturday Shuffle 149

 

Let's kick of with The Temptations who in this picture look like they have just about mastered The Slosh. They maybe have a wee bit more work to do as they are Too Busy Thinking About My Baby.

Hill County Review were a band formed by North Mississippi Allstars  member Cody Dickinson and as this article in Vintage Guitar states rock 'n' roll doesn't get much grittier. You want proof? Here is Make a Move

From one extreme to another  here is the Glasgow based American singer/songwriter A Wesley Chung with Helen from his excellent Neon Coast album.

In a remarkable coincidence two of the three acts today also appeared on Saturday Shuffle 94

Stay tuned for the century and a half Shuffle next Saturday.

The Temptations -Too Busy Thinking About My Baby

Hill County Review -Make a Move

A Wesley Chung - Helen

World's Gone Wrong

 World's Gone Wrong - Ain't that the truth?

Fortunately we are still blessed to have Lucinda Williams to put her view on things.

World's Gone Wrong is her 16th studio album and was released towards the end of January (23rd to be precise) on her own Highway 20 label.Like the rest of us she is dispairing at the state of things but being Lucinda she is willing to share her tuppence worth.

Jim Beaugez in the Oxford American writes World’s Gone Wrong articulates the anger, hope, and inspiration she’s carried since the protests of her youth, with songs that explore the struggles of race, poverty, and trauma that continue to shadow America today."

John Amen of Beats Per Minute writes that Lucinda  "examines the 'dark age' we’re currently traversing but refuses to surrender to despair". 

The world would surely be a better and safer place were Lucinda occupying the Oval Office (with Mavis as Vice President). There would be no cage fighting on the lawn, that's for sure.

Lucinda Williams -How Much Did You Get For Your Soul

Lucinda Williams (ft Mavis Staples) So Much Trouble In The World

Coral Riffs

 

Swiss Adam recently featured a post on 388 the most recent album by The Coral. His enthusiasm and eloquence were enough for me to download it for a listen and very good it is too.

I have their first three albums from the early part of the century but after that, apart from the odd song here and there, they gradually slipped off my radar.

I've just given their eponymously 2002 debut album a listen for the first time in forever. It was rightly critically well received and as Alexis Petridis wrote in The Guardian it was a  mass of remarkable contradictions", with the band "exploring 1960s rock's extremities, areas too strange for Britpop's crowd-pleasing conformity". 

Don't be surprised if Magic and Medicine (2003) and Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker (2004) appear here in due course

The Coral - I Remember When

The Coral - Dreaming Of You

The Coral - Skeleton Key

The Blues Collection - Phillip Walker

 

Spoiler alert - The Blues Collection is likely to feature more regularly than  it has been over the last few years. This is because I have probably exhausted the most popular ones which occasionally feature in Charity shops but have found a new source in the appropriately titled Missing Records.

Steppin' Up In Class is number 77 in the Blues Collection featuring recordings from1969 to 1984.

Phillip Walker (1937 -2010) was an American electric blues guitarist most noted for his 1959 hit single Hello My Darling.

The blurb on the inset reads Material from some of the greatest -ever Blues song-writers jostle for position against Phillip Walker's own compositions and joint-compositions. He makes everything his own, though, bending and shaping the notes to fit his version of how the blues should be played.

Whether stretching out a slow blues, getting into a high-speed groove or accommodating a set of horns, Walker has the ability to stamp his own identity on the music. It's an identity that has made him one of the most distinctive voices in modern blues.

More to follow shortly.

Phillip Walker - If My Tears Must Fall

Phillip Walker - Steppin' Up In Class

If It Ain't Stiff 5 ....

 

The fifth and final installment of the tracks from If It Ain't Stiff (A Stiff Records Collection) released in 2001 and covering the period 1976 to 1986.

I've been struck by the variety of the music on the label run by Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera, something I didn't appreciate at the time. Plus when you look at the list of artists who graced the label you could easily justify some more compilations. Indeed A Bunch of Stiffs and Hits Greatest Stiffs require further exploration.

That's for another time as it's time to concentrate on the final four tracks. The Equators are a Ska and Reggae band from Birmingham who are still going strong. You should all recognise Baby Come Back a cover of the song written by Eddy Grant and originally recorded by The Equals.

Dirty Looks were an American power-pop trio from Staten Island, New York who signed for Stiff in 1979. Dirty Looks was the title from the first of the two albums they recorded for Stiff and it includes the track Let Go.

Max Wall was an English actor, music hall singer and comedian.Here he covers the Ian Dury song England's Glory.

Finally we conclude with a live version by Dr Feelgood and their song Back In The Night.It is appropriate that the album began and ended with a live number by Canvey Island's finest.

The Equators - Baby Come Back

Dirty Looks - Let Go

Max Wall - England's Glory

Dr Feelgood - Back In The Night (Live)

Outlaw Country

 

Apologies - this should have appeared here last Sunday but technical problems got in the way.

Outlaw Country is the second burn compilation I have from Fab 14 records after Texas Troubadours. Again it the first time I've ever seen the cover. It seems that these are two of many budget compilations from the label

Here is the tracklist courtesy of Discogs. I'm pretty surprised that it is fetching up to 6 quid 

When it comes to Outlaw Country your first thoughts should by Waylon and Willie but most,if not all, of the artists are from a later era. I am probably familiar with, and have music by, about half of the 14 artists Two out of the three Flatlanders make an appearance with Butch Hancock missing out.

I've gone for three artists that I am familiar with, the latter two of whom I've seen live and who graced my Friday Three Names series back in 2016/17.

Heather Myles - Sweet Talk and Good Lies

Jimmie Dale Gilmore - Georgia Rose

Ray Wylie Hubbard - If Heaven Is Not a Place To Go