Washington Bullets

 

"I'm a bit stuck for inspiration" I said to Mrs CC followed by " I'm going out to bring in the washing"

That's it I thought Washing Songs! However the only one  I could come up with was Washing Line by The Hanging Stars.

However there were enough Washingtons for two posts so here goes with Part 1

The first one to raise his head over the parapet was Gino Washington with the Ram Jam Band and the song I've Been Hurt.

Next was the great Jazz/Blues singer Ella Washington with Rich Man's Blues.

Ella is followed by Jerry Washington with Right Here is Where You Belong from Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures Volume 5 

Washington as a band name? Yes we can do that too courtesy of  Glasgow Indie Rock band Washington Irving with a cover of Hot Chip's Boy From School.

Who is the most Presidential?

More Washington's to follow ...

The Hanging Stars - Washing Line

Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band - I've Been Hurt

Ella Washington - Rich Man Blues

Jerry Washington - Right Here Is Where You Belong

Washington Irving - Boy From School (Hot Chip Cover)

Wrong Side of Memphis

 

2024 Charity Shop Purchases # 62 - Johnny Dowd - Wrong Side of Memphis

George was in town over the weekend. We had arranged to go for a meal and as everybody else was running late I was charged to get there on time to ensure that we did not loose our table.

However I am happy to report that as I got off the bus I found a little bit of time to quickly scan the two rows of CDs in Barnardos. Among the usual detritus I was amazed to see Wrong Side of Memphis the 1998 debut album by Johnny Dowd on the Dutch Munich label.It was snapped up

Helpfully the CD back cover includes some blurb which saves me having to search for something to write:

A moving man from Ithaca, New York, embarks on the scariest ride of the year in this homemade work of genius - Top Ten Release of 1997  Chris Morris , Billboard

.. dark, telegraphically visual songs that come off like a fusion of Johnny Cash and Lou Reed stepping out of the pages of a Charles Burns graphic novel .. Top Ten Release of 1997  Jackson Griffith, Tower Records/Pulse!

The jaw-dropping intensity of his dark, twisted country blues makes Johnny Dowd an outright godsend. This exquisite debut is proof that not every story has been told - Top Ten Indie Release of 1997  David Sprague, Request

The intense description is apt as the only time I saw Johnny play (in the Barfly in Glasgow)  he was so intense that my pal Big Pete had to retire upstairs to the bar (that's his excuse anyway).

Shame that second track wasn't available to me back in the Transport Tuesday days.

Johnny Dowd - Ft. Worth, Texas

Johnny Dowd - John Deere Yeller

Laughing Len Sunday - Songs From a Room

 

2024 Charity Shop Purchases # 61 - Leonard Cohen - Songs From a Room

All good things sadly come to an end and sadly today sees the fifth and final Leonard Cohen album recently purchased in the Wigtown Community Shop. It shares  a jewel case with last weeks New Skin From The Old Ceremony

For those of you who are bereft  worry not as this his second album from 1969 is probably the best of the bunch It is one that I also have on vinyl and in what can only be described as a remarkable coincidence it was also purchased in Wigtown but in the Book Shop as opposed to the Community Shop.

It actually reached number 2 in the UK albums charts. Wiki writes like his debut LP, it received mixed reviews from critics, who were put off by his unusual singing voice but intrigued by the songs

And therein lies the rub.

You know what might be a better idea? Get Johnny Cash to record the songs!

That's us all Lenned out and as things stand Charity Shop Purchases out. I shall try and rectify the second one sooner rather than later.

Leonard Cohen - Bird on the Wire

Leonard Cohen - The Old Revolution

Johnny Cash - Bird on a Wire

Saturday Shuffle 69

 

We start this week’s shuffle with the band who were probably my favourite band on the planet around the mid 1990’s From the great 1995 album Tomorrow the Green Grass here are The Jayhawks with track 9 namely Nothing Left to Borrow. I saw them a few times around then and this was a big live favourite.

The Jayhawks are followed by a band that sadly I never saw live. Back from when John Lydon was still relevant here are Public Image Limited with their 1986 album imaginatively titled Album and track 6 Rise. 

Anger is an energy.

We take it down a notch or three for the magnificent Zimbabwean band The Four Brothers. Here is Uchandifunga  from their 1998 album Makoroto on  the Cooking Vinyl label . They were a band championed by Andy Kershaw who provided the photographs for the album cover.

I may be right, I may be wrong but the Saturday Shuffle will reappear here next Saturday for its 70th iteration.

The Jayhawks - Nothing Left to Borrow

Public Image Ltd - Rise

The Four Brothers - Uchandifunga

I Like Birds 10 - The Owl

 

There are five resident species of owl within the British Isles - four native species the barn, tawny, long eared and short eared and the little owl which was introduced in the 1800s,  There is also the occasional eagle owl kicking about but they are not listed as a native species. I have no idea as to whether the one pictured above is one of them. I'm not sure that I've ever seen an owl

Owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees and twist them nearly upside down which let's face it is a pretty neat party trick and surely worthy of a vole or two.

To the music. Stephanie Dosen an American singer songwriter, knitwear designer (under the brand Tiny Owls Knit) and member of the band Snowbird. She is a new name to me.

The late great Paisley Buddy Gerry Rafferty surely needs no introduction and appears today courtesy of the title song to his 1999n third solo album Night Owl

We go from Night Owl to Nite Owl  a song by Tony Allen and the Champs from as far back as 1955 with the crackles to prove it. 

We conclude the Owl title  songs  with the appropriately  named An Owl Song by Canned Heat.

Eagle owls got a brief mention above ,There is also a lo-fi/indie folk band from Edinburgh called Eagleowl whose lead singer is coincidentally or otherwise  called Bartholemew Owl who also performs as part of Broken Chanter.

More birds who don't have tilted heads and/or haven't played with Broken Chanter next week

Stephanie Dosen - Owl in the Dark

Gerry Rafferty -Night Owl

Tony Allen and the Champs - Nite Owl

Canned Heat - An Owl Song

Eagleowl - For the Thoughts You Never Had

The Soul Queen of New Orleans

 

It is not just Blues which has been neglected here of late. Posts featuring Soul music have also have also recently been scarcer than hen's teeth.

In an effort to compensate for this I shut my eyes and pointed a finger at the music folders on the screen and it landed at Irma Thomas who is also known as the Soul Queen of New Orleans.

She has graced these pages  on a few occasions, as a search will illustrate, but not since November 2018. I feel quite guilty about that particularly as she is still going strong at the age of 83 having appeared on stage with the Rolling Stones as recently as May this year when she duetted with Mick Jagger on Time is On My Side a song that she recorded prior to the Stones better known version.

A true talent. Long may time remain on her side.

Irma Thomas - I Done Got Over It

Irma Thomas - Time is on My Side

Irma Thomas - I'm Your Puppet

Burnside Blues

 

It has been a while since the Blues appeared on these pages so by way of compensation here are some Burnside Blues.

No not music from the most affluent part of Rutherglen but rather the Mississippi Bluesman R.L. Burnside who enjoyed some belated fame on the Fat Possum label in the 90's with his stripped down North Mississippi Hill Country Blues alongside fellow Mississippian Junior Kimbrough a style which was to influence the likes of The Black Keys. ( long sentence!)

After a heart attack in 2001 his doctors advised him to stop drinking which he did but he reported that this change left him unable to play!

He popped up on the MP3 player at the gym the other day and I felt that he merited a further airing.

Great stuff but I suspect that it will not do much for my dwindling figures.

RL Burnside -Going Down South

RL Burnside - Jumper Hanging on the Line

RL Burnside - Miss Maybelle