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Thursday 31 October 2019

Bands/Artists Who Passed Me By


Following my recent Beastie Boys post regular Friday night commentator Spence advised that they were one of the bands he has missed out on.
He suggested that it would be a good idea for bloggers to feature such artists who passed them by.
On my part there are many that come into that category.
Some have been re-discovered or more realistically discovered thanks to my blogging colleagues.
Acts I missed when I was immersed in Americana, was put off for some reason  or just totally missed them altogher.
One such band which comes into the latter categories is lovable Welshmen  The Super Furry Animals.
I am however making up for lost time with Radiator, purchased recently on my first ever visit to Banchory where I also had a bacon roll in Morrisons and paid 7 quid to get my beard trimmed, being the third of their albums to grace the shelves along with a CD single of Hermann ♥'s Pauline which also features on the album.
Another benefit to coming across these acts at the cow's tail is that you can pick up stuff by them very cheaply in charity shops..

Super Furry Animals - Demons

Super Furry Animals - Chupacabras

Wednesday 30 October 2019

State of the Union - Kansas



George writes:
This week no music from the band named after this state will appear. But if Kansas’ first album, called Kansas, had a track on it called Kansas, well, I might have changed my mind. But Wichita is in Kansas, so here is this near-perfect pop song




It could have been a Glen Campbell double, but Galveston, the follow up single, and just as good, is in Texas. Kool and The Gang covered Wichita Lineman, and it is not nearly as good as this!!!!!!:






There are over 100 covers of the song, and I have listened to a plethora, but none try any re-interpretation but are simply bands’ and singers’ copies, it’s like listening to some sort of Witchita Lineman tribute act. The Simone Kopmajer version is, though,  pathetically tedious, yet somehow the Inger Marie Gundersen cover manages to be worse. I did get excited when I discovered a version by the Electric Light Orchestra. On re-reading it was by the Electronic Concept Orchestra, and they should not have bothered. King Harvest seem to be “a lineman for the counteeeeeeeeee-uh”. And Dennis “money in my pocket” Brown tries, but by the sounds of it, not too hard.


The Meters’ version is  rises above the others (German version above notwithstanding)


The state of Kansas produces a whole load of wheat, corn, soybeans (I assume that is the same as soya beans) and something called sorghum, a plant I had never heard of - it’s a type of grass, and I think it is grown in Kansas as fodder.


(Above is a picture of some sorghum)

Next song is by Josh Ritter who seems to be having an existential crisis in Lawrence, Kansas:


Last song (from me) is by Big Country, from Dunfermline not Kansas. I’m not sure there are too many similarities between industrial (or post-industrial) Fife and Kansas, but I am open to persuasion:


That place in a million westerns, Dodge City, actually exists, and it is in Kansas.

That’s Kansas, home to the two blokes who murdered the Clutter family (In Cold Blood).

That’s Kansas, where according to one website, the inert gas helium was discovered in 1905. This would be news to the Scottish chemist and the  two Swedish chemists who formally discovered it ten years earlier, as well as the astronomers who detected its existence 30 years before that. That Scottish chemist is Sir William Ramsay, who was awarded the nobel prize for his discovery of inert gases in air. A full year before those Americans “discovered” helium. Thus Sir William Ramsay in effect added the last column to the periodic table. To the non-chemists out there, helium is the “squeaky voice” gas.  Thanks to that lazy website I am unsure if Kansas really does have the world’s largest ball of string, the largest easel or if former president Dwight D. Eisenhower was actually born in Kansas.


Above: Nobel chemist Sir WIlliam Ramsay.

Another one next week,

CC writes
I'll spare you the Glen Gregory version of Wichita Lineman.
I also had Josh Ritter lined up.
So instead from the mighty Hollywood Town Hall here is yet another contribution to this series from The Jayhawks

The Jayhawks - Wichita




Tuesday 29 October 2019

Dave and Jimmie Dale



Back to what you would expect on these pages today after yesterday's post.
We are off to St Lukes tonight to see Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore and I am quite excited about it.
I'm not sure that I've ever seen Dave as a solo artist although I did see him as part of the Blasters at the Renfrew Ferry which was one of the best concerts that I've ever attended.
I've   definitely not seen Jimmie Dale  solo but I did see him performing with The Flatlanders at the Arches.

They teamed up to produce the album Downey to Lubbock, Downey being Dave's Californian home town and Lubbock the Texan home of Jimmie.
I don't have the album yet but suspect that may well change come tonight.

Until then here are both of them with solo numbers.

Dave Alvin - Rio Grande

Jimmie Dave Gilmore - White Freightliner Blues




Monday 28 October 2019

Lorde Lorde


Melodrama from 2017 is the second album by Ella Marija Lani Yelich- O'Connor  the New Zealand artist better known as Lorde.
Out of curiosity I picked it up in a charity shop in Newtonmore between holiday destinations A and B along with a vintage corduroy shirt.

Regular readers may be surprised to see this feature here.I was not familiar with her music but was aware of the hype when she first came on the scene.
She was onlty 21 when this came out and has already sold in the region of five milion albums.

Verdict - not really my thing but I suspect it is one of the better records from the electropop genre .
Mrs CC quite like it. Not one I think I will play all that often but for the moment it is a keeper.

Lorde -Green Light

Lorde - Homemade Dynamite

Sunday 27 October 2019

Mother Nature's Kitchen




I knew that I didn't have Mother Nature's Kitchen the 1989 debut album by the Kevin McDermott Orchestra on the Festival Records label but I didn't know why I didn't have it .
To Scottish music lovers of a certain vintage it is pretty well known with the album cover being instantly recognisable.
I'm guessing that I've seen it countless times in charity shops but for some reason never pounced.
Betther late that never I  suppose.
It is fairly pleasant folk rock somewhat reminicent of Mike Scott, Justin Currie and Martin Stephenson (who I often confuse him with).
The S*n (don't buy it) listed it as number 37 in a list of the best Scottish albums ever. I'm not sure that I would go that far. It gets 4.6/5 from reviews on Amazon. I would give it a 3.5/5. Allmusic gave it 3/5.
It seems that he has released another 7 albums since  then none of which have ever crossed my radar.


I'm glad to have filled that particular gap in my musical education

Kevin McDermott Orchestra - Mother Nature's Kitchen

Kevin McDermot Orchestra - Suffocation Blues

Originally scheduled for Thursday before the spammers pounced.

Saturday 26 October 2019

Trojan Lovers 3


The third and final instalment from the Trojan Lovers Box Set and as per disc 1 I've gone for the covers again.

In the order that they appear on the disc the first up is Marcia Griffiths with her version of Ewan MacColl's classic The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.Very good but not on a par with the Roberta Flack version but then again nothing is .

Marcia is followed by The Inner Circle with their cover  of The Stylistic's You Make Me Feel Brand New.I've been listening to a bit of The Stylistics recently so this one was a no brainer

Finally The Uniques give us their version of You'll Lose a Precious Love a Smokey Robinson song but one best known thanks to the Temptations version.

Marcia Griffiths - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Inner Circle - You Make Me Feel Brand New

The Uniques - You'll Lose a Precious Love

Friday 25 October 2019

Fight For Your Right To Party


A cheap and nasty Beastie Boys compilation was part of a three for a pound deal on my recent Missing Records foray.
Prior to that there was nothong on the shelves by  the New York hip hop combo although I am pretty sure I had stuff by them on cassette many moons ago.
Of it's time ? Probably
Juvenile? Almost certainly.
But just the thing for a Friday night


Let's hear it for Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D

Aw, Mom, you're just jealous it's the Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys - No Sleep till Brooklyn

Beastie Boys -Fight For Your Right

Wednesday 23 October 2019

State of the Union - Alaska


George writes:

This week it’s Alaska. To me that means a huge freezing cold state covered in snow and pine trees, an abundance of oil, grizzly bears, salmon, bears eating salmon, that dangerous cretin Sarah Palin, and the TV series Northern Exposure, the boxed set of which we own and are probably the only people on the planet to have watched every single one of the 110 episodes. Still, it’s no Stargate. But I would rather re-watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer than re-watch Northern Exposure.


Alaska can supply plenty of songs e.g. Anchorage by Michelle Shocked, there’s a John Denver song, and Johnny “Honky Tonk Man” Horton has two songs about Alaska, the Bee Gees, in 1972, had a song called Road To Alaska (which includes the idiotic lines of I’m on the road to Alaska, it’s nowhere near Nebraska, and the music contrives to be even worse than that inanity suggests), there’s one by Wanda Jackson, and Jethro Tull and Joe Walsh both have songs with Alaska in the title. So here are two songs, the first one has some fine fluting, so it has to be The Tull:


And some fine bendy, twangy guitar in this cover version by Dwight Yoakam, far far superior to the Johnny Horton version:


There is an album by a bloke called Andy Miller, from Juneau, Alaska, called 15 Juneau Songs. Lots of out-of-tune plaintive wailing and whining,accompanied by a piano: It has not joined the collection.

It comes as no surprise to me that are no famous people born in Alaska. 

And that’s it. Another one next week.

CC writes:
Short and sweet this week from George for a pleasant change. I have the two Johnny Horton songs and Anchorage and this track from the If Looks Could Kill single:

Camera Obscura - Alaska

No blog tomorrow in attempt to get rid of the spammers
.

Tuesday 22 October 2019

Mama Needs a Margarita


If Zoe Muth had done nothing more than written and sung  If I Can't Trust You With a Quarter (How Can I Trust You With My Heart?) her place on the shelves would  still be assured.
Happily she has come up with the goods again with Mama Needs a Margarita from her 2014 album on the Signature Sounds label World of Strangers.
This one appears to be attributed to her alone as opposed to with the Lost High Rollers who were namechecked on Starlight Motel  the 2011 album on which IICTYWAQ(HCITYWMH) appears.

The above two albums appear to constitute half of the Texan Americana singer's output, the others being the self titled Zoe Muth & the Lost High Rollers and Old Gold (a 6 track EP).
I can't see anything after 2014 so I'm not sure if she is still on the go. Let's hope so.

Zoe Muth - Mama Needs A Margarita

Zoe Muth - Too Shiny

Monday 21 October 2019

Stereo and Mono


No not the two Glasgow vegan bars and music venues but rather two albums by former Replacements  front man Paul Westerberg  from 2002 on Vagrant Records.

I've had Stereo for over a week and have only just discovered that it also contains Mono which is recorded under his altar ego Grandpaboy.

Recorded in his own basement studio in his own words cut mostly live in the middle of the night,no effort was made to fix what some may deem as mistakes,tape running out,fluffed lyrics, flat notes,extraneous noises etc.Many were written (or born if you will)as the tape rolled.
Unprofessional? Perhaps. Real? Unquestionably.

All of which explains why some songs stop rather abruptly and means that I can now feature the rather good Dirt to Mud which I wasn't going to until I read the sleevenotes.

Both songs from Stereo given that I've just stumbled across the Mono disc and haven't had time to listen to it yet.

Paul Westerberg - Baby Learns to Crawl

Paul Westerberg - Dirt to Mud

Sunday 20 October 2019

Trojan Lovers 2


Yesterday Tamla Motown yesterday and Trojan Records today! And both purchased in the same St Andrew's charity shop.
Two Ruffins yesterday and two Andys on today's vist to the Trojan Lovers Box Set. In this case hoiwvever they are not related.
Horace Andy , when went on to perform with Massive Attack, was born Horace Hines whereas Bob Andy is actually officially  Keith Anderson.
Even Susan Cadogan gets in on the act as her given name is Alison Anne Cadogan.She worked as a librarian when she wasn't chucking out reggae numbers.
Here she provides the Mandatory Reggae Version (© Ernie Goggins from his Single Song Sunday series) with her version of the much covered Fever which was originally recorded by Little Willie John

The third and final instlment next Sunday.

Horace Andy - Riding For a Fall

Bob Andy - One Woman

Susan Cadogan - Fever

Saturday 19 October 2019

Ruffin It


On my visit to St Andrews I picked up a Tamla Motown compilation Big Hits and Hard to Find Classics - 1 to join Volume 4 on the shelves.
The format of the first in the series is different from the latter as, as the title suggests, for most acts it features two songs,  one a big hit and the other less well known.
Not quite sure why Kim Weston and Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers only feature once.

I'm following the track order for a little bit of Ruffin magic.
Tracks 4 and 5 feature older brother Jimmy. If you don't recognize the first song there is something far wrong. You may be less familiar with the second.
Tracks 6 and 7 are courtesy of younger brother David.The first of these two songs from 1975 is probably his best known solo number. The second from 1969 was his first solo single after leaving The Temptations.

I think there are only 4 volumes and  I've discivered that you can pick up Volumes 1-3 as a box set. Something to ponder.



Jimmy Ruffin - What Becomes of the Broken Hearted

Jimmy Ruffin - I've Passed This Way Before

David Ruffin - Walk Away From Love

David Ruffin - My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)

Friday 18 October 2019

Peel Acres


On Saturday I visited the new Missing Records shop in Glasgow's Oswald St (which has replaced the one under the Hielanman's Umbrella) where I picked up a good few CDs including some second hand Americana stuff that you rarely find in charity shops.
One such purchase was The Other Side - Music from East Nashville  a compilation from 2006 on Red Beet Records  which benefitted the Martha O'Bryan Center in East Nashville which offers employment and education to local residents.

I recognised about a quarter to a third of the 31 artists who appear and that was good enough for me.

I am familiar with the two below who both pay tribute to the late John Peel.A brief poem from Jon Langford followed by a song from Paul Burch which tells of a visit to Peel Acres.

Any of you who are fortunate enough to meet our dear friend Dirk will be blown away by his story of the time he visited Peel Acres.
It is the stuff of legend.

Jon Lanford - Poem, John Peel

Paul Burch - John Peel

Thursday 17 October 2019

Oceans Apart


A few weeks ago our good friend the Swede (that's NOT him pictured!) sent a missive out offering someone the opportunity to receive a copy of Oceans Apart by The Go -Betweens as he had two copies.
Imagine inadvertantly acquiring two copies of an album.It would never happen here.

Most folk responded to thank him for the offer but to say that being discerning individuals they already had it. I somewhat embarrassingly confessed to not having it. I was not that embarrassed though to happily take it off his hands.

Their 8th and final studio album from 1985 on LO-MAX records it now joins my only other Go-Betweens album the Bellavista Terrace compilation on the shelves. Clearly I have a fair bit of catching up to do.
Not an act that you tend to find in charity shops.
Much obliged Swede.

Now I'm off to read some Dostoevsky.


The Go-Betweens - Here Comes a City

The Go-Betweens - Born to a Family



Wednesday 16 October 2019

State of the Union - Connecticut



George writes:

Week 41 This week, it’s the birthplace of Karen and Richard Carpenter, the state of Connecticut. And if that isn’t exciting enough I am delighted to learn, and you will be now, dear reader, that MICHAEL BOLTON was born in Connecticut, in New Haven. Although his music is terrible. Mr Bolotin (his real name) is an amusing and all-round sound man. Apart from those god-awful songs. 




Apart from those musical giants and that annoying berk Moby no others from Connecticut.

First song,and it’s not the singer from Eindhoven, who styles himself Sidewalk, it’s not Schwerpunkt of Hobart, Australia, and unfortunately the song with this astounding lyric will not feature: “I’ll go boil the water while you protect the sheep. There is no right of re-entry 
once you've been out in the street”  but you do get this cheery upbeat track by Steph Barrak:


Did you know that two of the three species of New World flying squirrels are found in this state? The Northern Flying Squirrel and……….yes……….the Southern Flying Squirrel.  And this is even better, there are two species of Jumping Mice found in Connecticut, the Meadow Jumping Mouse and the Woodland Jumping Mouse. The meadow mouse can jump over 6 feet in the air, which is astounding for a beastie that is from 180 to 240mm long and weighs about 25g (that’s approximately the same as a normal packet of crisps).


And I thought this state was going to be really tedious. I discovered a song by Tom Robinson (yes, that Tom Robinson) called Connecticut. Now THAT song was tedious.

There are 27 Bridgeports in the USA so the use of the biggest city of Connecticut is abandoned., but further Connecticut-ing on Bandcamp led me to a rather splendid gothic-americana track by In The Circuit Of The Sun but I was not spending €10 on the album. Thankfully, the city of Danbury can provide the second track, by Spinning Lucy:



(Our dog Lucy, and Billy the farm cat)

I checked the references in the lyrics, and this is the Danbury of Connecticut, not any other Danbury.


CC writes:
George shares his birthday with Michael Bolton something that he is inordinately proud of.
A tough one this week. I could only manage to find two songs of which this is probably the better:



Tuesday 15 October 2019

Wall of Death



The second CD single I bought in the Aberfeldy Thrift Shop was E-Bow the Letter by R.E.M.
It was the first in a series of CD singles released from their last great album New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
Each single contained three extra tracks compiled exclusively for the single releases and to be honest they interested me more than E-Bow
The first is Tricycle taken from a St Louis soundcheck with another soundcheck this time from Rome of the song  Departure.
Finally is a version of Wall of Death recorded at an Athens Studio.
I immediately recognised  it as a Richard Thompson song and went to the shelves to track it down.
It is from Shoot Out the Lights  his final album with his then wife Linda.
I was surprised to find out that I don't have it .... yet.



R.E.M. - Tricycle (St Louis Soundtrack)

R.E.M. - Departure (Rome Soundcheck)

R.E.M. - Wall of Death

Richard & Linda Thompson - Wall of Death



Monday 14 October 2019

Heidi In Love & Light


We've been fortunate enough to have seen Irish folk singer Heidi Talbot twice at Paisley Arts Centre and at Glasgow's Mitchell Theatre as part of Celtic Connections.
She is married to fiddle John McCusker and now resides in Scotland.

From 2008 In Love & Light is either her 2nd or 3rd solo album dependant on which source you read.
It is the only CD I picked up on the first week of our holidays in Fort William en route to Kinlochmoidart in the Ardamurchan peninsula. We were staying in a cottage in the grounds of Kinlochmoidart House with no phone signal or internet access. Bliss.
The only other place within miles where CDs were available was the Fisherman's Mission in Mallaig but none there took my fancy.

A combination of traditional folk songs plus some singer/songwriter tunes delivered in a Celtic stylee and all delivered wonderfully by Heidi and her stellar backing crew (Boo Hewerdine, McCusker,Eddi Reader, Kris Drever and many others).
Oh, and Heidi unleashes her inner Don Estelle with a version of Whispering Grass.Unbelievably the song by two characters from the racist and xenophobic alleged comedy TV show  It Ain't Half Hot Mum reached number 1 in the UK singles charts in 1975. Some of the stuff on TV in the 70's and which is portayed as comedy is quite toe curling.
Heidi does her best to repair the damage.

Heidi Talbot - If You Stay

Heidi Talbot - Whispering Grass


Sunday 13 October 2019

Trojan Lovers


I very nealy missed the Trojan Lovers Box Set in a charity shop in St Andrews a month or so ago.
The reason?Given it was a boxset it was not filed with the other CDs. I had bought a CD and then decided to have another look.
Just as well really as otherwise you wouln't be getting this for the next three Sundays.
From 1999 it is one of the many,many Trojan boxsets on the go. 50 tracks over 3 CDs. I paid 3 quid. The going rate seems to be just north of 8 quid although some chancer is looking for 35 quid on e-bay.

Realistically I could have chosen any of the 17 songs of disc 1 as they all are of a very high standard.
I've gone for three songs that you will recognise although perhaps not by the artists listed below.

Derrick Harriott - Have You Seen Her

B.B.Seaton - Thin Line Between Love and Hate

The Fab Five Inc. - Love Me For a Reason


Saturday 12 October 2019

Aberfeldy Woo Hoo


If you are ever in the area the small Perthshire town of Aberfeldy is well worth a visit.
The birthplace of  the actor Alan Cummings it has a small community run cinema called The Birks.
There is also an excellent bookshop and cafe the Watemill

There is,as far as I am aware, only one charity shop namely the Thrift Shop which is in an old church building.
The volunteers are very frienly with one offering to sell me a kilo of CDs. The problem is they were all rubbish!
I felt obliged to buy something (Mrs CC bought a framed picture of Loch Tay for a pound) and  I came away with two CD singles
One was Woo Hoo by the 5.6.7.8's. I've featured this before from my burn of the album Bomb the Rocks.. The "b" side Guitar Date is also  on the album and didn't feature last time round.


Shades of Ernie's excellent Sazanami Saturday series and JC's recent Say Sue Me ICA


The 5.6.7.8's - Woo Hoo

The 5.6.7.8s - Guitar Date

Friday 11 October 2019

Django Django


I picked up Django Django the 2012 debut album by the band of the same name in a St Andrews charity shot.
I had it in my head that they were from Edinburgh and that they played jingly jangly pop music.I got it about a third right.
They did indeed meet at Edinburgh College of Art but only formed the band after moving to that London.
I got the jingly jangly bit totally wrong.
Apparantly they are an Art rock band. No, me neither. I am told that Art rock is
is a sub genre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist,experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an artistic statement, opting for a more experimental and conceptual outlook on music. Influences may be drawn from genres such as experimental rock,avant-garde music, classical music and jazz

Avant-garde? Check  me!
Sounds more electronica to me with synths and drum machines to the fore.
Not normally the kind of stuff I go for and after a first listen I was ready to offload it. I've mellowed slightly after a second listen

Django Django - Hail Bop

Django Django - Skies Over Cairo

Thursday 10 October 2019

Letting Off The Happiness


I was pleasantly surprised to find Letting Off the Happiness the second album by Bright Eyes from 1998 on the Saddle Creek label in a St Andrews charity shop and eagerly snapped it up

The NME described it thus:
As album titles go, ‘Letting Off The Happiness’, is as blackly ironic as they get. By track two, old Bright Eyes himself, Conor Oberst, has got drunk, buried his brother, considered suicide and ruminated on a dreamless coma.

So clearly not a laugh a minute then.
I'm an admirer of Mr Oberst. Indeed his latest album with Phoebe Bridgers as Better Oblivion Community Center is a strong contender for my album of the year.
However I feel that on occasions he doesn't always get it right. Sometimes his voice verges from the quirky to the irritating and some of his songs are all over the place or just plain weird. There are a good few on this album.
When he gets it right though with his ballads there are few better.

Bright Eyes - The Difference in the Shades

Bright Eyes - June in the Shade

Wednesday 9 October 2019

State of the Union - Nebraska


George writes
The previous week’s state was not inspiring, so I checked my list to see if this week’s state could somehow inspire me, get the creative juices flowing with it’s many interesting cities, landscapes and references. And I recall that Penny from  the Big Bang Theory is from Nebraska. It’s a start. There is also an album called Nebraska, surely that can yield a suitable and good song???


A powder called Kool-Aid was invented in Hastings, Nebraska. You add water to it and get a fruit-flavoured drink. I’ve never seen it in the UK, not that I’ve ever looked for it. It sounds something like Creamola Foam (middle-aged Scottish people will be familiar with that disgusting stuff). I think some Weegies liked to mix vodka with their Creamola Foam. Made a change from Buckie and Eldorado, I suppose.


Also from Nebraska, and more famous in the UK certainly than Kool-Aid (or Creamola Foam) are Henry Fonda and Nick Nolte. And Marg Helgenberger (original CSI). And Fred Astaire. The website furnishing the above four did not think Marlon Brando (born in Omaha) was sufficiently famous to be included on their precious list. It also excluded de facto president of the USA from 2001-09 Dick Cheney. Also excluded were ex-President Gerald Ford, and Malcolm Little (Malcolm X), Montgomery Clift and James Coburn. And, again one for the middle-aged, Bosley of Charley’s Angels was born in Omaha. He appeared in every episode, all 110 of them. He was born David Doyle. That Ranker website, it’s not the greatest at this “famous people” thing, is it? 


And after all those blethers about Omaha-ans, here’s a track called……….Omaha………


And Omaha is going to supply the second song as well, by Sonny “Young Love” James, with a great banjo interlude half way through.


Arbor Day in the USA began in Nebraska in 1872, when one million trees were planted.

That’s Nebraska, where in Blue Hill, a woman wearing a hat that might scare a timid person can not be seen eating onions in public.

That’s Nebraska, where Prague allegedly holds the world’s largest kolache festival. Kolache, that’s a Czech fruit flan.

Over to CC for his tune. And another one next week.

CC writes:
In his first paragraph George alludes to one of the the greatest albums ever made.Here Andrew and Peter collectively known as The Cash Brothers pay hommage: