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Thursday, 30 April 2020

Happy Hippy Chick Mix 5



Another happy week in lockdown and hopefully these three songs from the Happy Hippy Chick Mix will help you to get through it.
Probably the most famous person to feature today is former child actor and Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis. On the excellent 2006 album Rabbit Fur Coat, from which the song Happy is taken, she is joined by the Watson Twins.

According to Wiki Austin based Elizabeth McQueen is a jazz artist although she has been a member of the country band Asleep at the Wheel since 2005.Prior to that she had her own band The Firebrands who somewhat bizarely produced an album of covers of songs by British Pub Rock bands called Happy Doing What We Are Doing. The tittle track which was originally by Brinsley Schwarz features here.

I know very little about Tobi Lark  other that what I can glean from the sleevenotes of an album by Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers on the Kent label (see here) on which she contributes three songs Originally named Bessie Watson she started out as a jazz singer and changed her name to Tobi Lark as "she sang like a lark".
More potentially happy ditties soon

Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins - Happy

Elizabeth McQueen & the Firebrands- Happy Doing What We're Doing

Tobi Lark - Happiness is Here

Wednesday, 29 April 2020

Covers 16. R. B. Greaves does Procol Harum


George writes:
No one in their right mind would dispute that this is a damned famous song. And Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves knocks out a very fine, and soul-gospel-tinged reproduction.


I have read that R.B. Greaves’ best known song is Take A Letter To Maria, so I looked it out. Never knowingly heard it, and never knowingly going to play it again. Unlike today’s song.




A teacher colleague of mine bought me a Procol Harum album. He saw it in a junk shop, and gave it to me with words to the effect of “this is a terrible album I thought you would like it”. That album was Grand Hotel, and yes, it is truly terrible (you were right John).


About 43 years ago, I can remember walking, with a friend, to his house, carrying a few singles to play. Eddie, for he was the friend, was also carrying a record or two, one of which was an original 7-inch single of Whiter Shade of Pale on the Deram label. At the top of our cul-de-sac, we turned left (you can see where this going can’t you?), Eddie stumbled and dropped that single and it dropped straight down a drain. He did not tell his (rather strict) father what had happened.  It’s strange, the things we remember from our childhood.



And today’s Portuguese version, well, having read the accompanying lyrics, they are certainly not an attempt to translate them, I’m quite certain any attempt to try and reproduce them would (a) be meaningless to any Portuguese listeners, laughably so,  and (b) be impossible to scan with the music. Instead, they come up with what I would describe as a lyric intended to be reflective and thought-provoking. Which sounds really pretentious, but I’m going to keep it in. Unless CC edits it out or adds something even more inane. (I'll let it slide ...Ed)





Another very very famous song next week.

Tuesday, 28 April 2020

Foundlings


Just over a year ago Foundlings, a band who hail from South East London and Brighton released a 5 track  EP on the Last Night From Glasgow label
Here is a bit of information about them
I've seen them play at Stereo in Glasgow and they come across well with singer Amber Price having excellent stage presence
No word yet as to when the debut LP is scheduled for release.
In the meantime here is their debut single Enemy to keep you going.
The EP is available to purchase from the links above and it is well worth having

Foundlings - Enemy

Oh, and if you haven't already put your hand in your pocket for avery worthy cause can I give a shoutout for The Isolation Sessions


Monday, 27 April 2020

Heaven or Hell


I'm beginning to get a wee bit stuck for inspiration so am floating a potential new series by you.
A fairly simple concept -a song with heaven in the title versus one with hell in the title.

On the heaven side it is only fitting that we start with the recently sadly departed John Prine whose When I Get to Heaven makes the thought of dying a bit more palatable.
However if you haven't amassed enough Brownie points you may well end up going Staight to Hell. Don't say The Clash didn't warn you.

Heven or hell - which would you choose?

John Prine - When I Get to Heaven

The Clash - Staight to Hell (Single Edit)

Sunday, 26 April 2020

Curtis Will See Us Through


In these troubled times we should turn to Curtis Mayfield to see us through

People Get Ready as there is a New World Order coming.

It may be a wee while until we get Back to Living Again.

In the meantime Keep on Keeping On

The Impressions - People Get Ready

Curtis Mayfield - New World Order

Curtis Mayfield - Back to Living Again

Curtis Mayfield - Keep On Keeping On

To my American friends - please ignore the Toddler-in-Chief and don't drink bleach!

Saturday, 25 April 2020

50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die - Beneath the Country Underdog



Kelly Hogan made a cameo appearance a few weeks back in this series alongside Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys.
She is joined by another band The Pine Valley Cosmonauts on this week's offering Beneath the Country Underdog from 2000 and on the ever mighty Bloodshot label who describe the album as 39:49 minutes of sobbing, throbbing, balls-out, country soul 

For me Kelly Hogan has one of the greatest voices in Country, or indeed in any other genre. Her version of the Magnetic Fields song Papa Was a Rodeo would definitely be one of my choices in the unlikely event that I ever featured on Desert Island Discs. I heard it before the original and for me it remains the definitive version.
The album is mostly covers with three tunes that Kelly wrote with guitarist Andy Hopkins. I've gone for her versions  of Wild Mountain Berries and Johnny Paycheck's (It's a Mighty Thin Line) Between Love and Hate to show her versatilty.

Kelly has never had the career she deserves and has had  a variety of jobs over the years to help pay the bills.
Prior to this album she was a member of The Jody Grind and also the Rock*A*Teens.

She was part of Neko Case's band and has also collaborated with many artists including The Decemberists, Mavis Staples, the Mekons,Giant Sand, Alejandro Escovedo and the Drive- By Truckers. She is a member of The Flat Five who are currently on the Bloodshot roster

A true talent

Kelly Hogan & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts -Papa Was a Rodeo

Kelly Hogan &the Pine Valley Cosmonauts  - Wild Mountain Berries

Kelly Hogan & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts - (It's a Mighty Thin Line (Between Love and Hate)

Friday, 24 April 2020

Happy Hippy Chick Mix 4


Today's instalment sees us over halfway along the Happy Hippy Chick Mix trail as we feature tracks 10 to 12.

I'm not sure how well known it is but Lucinda Williams started out as a Blues singer. Her 1979 debum album Ramblin' on the Folkways label was an album primarily of Blues covers with a couple of  Country numbers thrown in for good measure. Happy Woman Blues, whose title track features here was her 1980  follow up of all original songs again on the Smithsonian Folkways label.
It would not be until 1988 until her self titled third album appeared that she  reinvented herself as an Americana artist.
I don't think anyone would have put money on Lucinda being the only artist to appear twice on a mix and series with happy in the title.

There was a time when the Glasgow band Travis were actually quite good and not just bland and insipid. Hard to believe I know but it's true. Their 1997 debut album Good Feeling was in fact not bad at all and included the very bouncy single Happy.

Blues/folk/gospel singer Ruthie Foster was an artist that I discovered on a trip to Austin, Texas and got to see a couple of times. She is worth checking out. Joy is the final track on her 2002 album Runaway Soul and is rather uplifting. Some hope for these troubling times.

Lucinda Williams - Happy Woman Blues

Travis - Happy

Ruthie Foster - Joy

Thursday, 23 April 2020

Hymn on the 45


About 18 months ago when charity shops were still a thing I picked up the eponoymous debut album by the band Allo Darlin' from back in 2010.
At the time I commented that it wasn't the first thing of theirs that I had as I picked up a digital copy of their single Hymn on the 45  from Bandcamp upon its release on 29th November 2016 again on the Fortuna Pop! label.
This was the final thing they released around the time of their short number of farewell gigs
So there you go the first album and the last single but I've nothing in between.
Here's their valediction before the wanderlust kicked in.
So long baby.

Allo Darlin' - Hymn on the 45

Allo Darlin' - Wanderlust

Wednesday, 22 April 2020

Covers 15. The Hilbenders do The Who

George writes:
A bluegrass version of a famous song. I prefer Elton John’s version to the original,  but I do like this one as well, , by The Hillbenders.




And if you do NOTHING ELSE, even if you don’t play the above track, I can’t recommend this video highly enough, I cannot urge you strongly enough to play this, it is absolutely bloody brilliant




Talvez mais uma versão proxima semana. Talvez não.


CC writes:
I went to check whether I had a download of the Elton John version and I found I had a copy of this

Mudgrass - Pinball Prison Blues




Tuesday, 21 April 2020

Babble










One of the records that I was playing over the weekend was the 10 inch single of Big Decision by Derry's second greatest band That Petrol Emotion. That's one for the blog I thought although I had a sneaking suspicion that it had featured here before. I was right, way back in November 2013 to be precise. A reference to an old blog that didn't last the pace in there.


Next best thing then was to feature the album version from Babble their second album from 1987 and their only proper chart success reaching number 30 in the UK album charts.


Good though it undoubtedly is it may even be overshadowed by the final teack on the album the brilliant Creeping to the Cross.
Jingle jangle indeed


That Petrol Emotion - Big Decision


That Petrol Emotion - Creeping to the Cross

Sod it - here's the extended version

That Petrol Emotion - Big Decision (Extended Version)



Monday, 20 April 2020

Life Stiffs


I'm not quite sure how the subject came up but on Saturday night's Zoom session with my pals we ended up talking about Stiff Records and Life Stiffs.
I got very excited and dug out the above album from the 1977 Bunch of Stiffs tour and presented it to the camera.
An impressive cast.
Elvis Costello is joined by the classic Attractions line up of Steve Neive, Pete Thomas and Bruce Thomas
Ian Dury is joined by the New Boots and Panties Blockheads line up of  Chaz Jankel, Norman Watt-Roy and Charley Charles together with John Turnbull, Davey Payne and Mickey Gallagher.

In the order that they appear of the sleeve the other acts featured are Wreckless Eric & the New Rockets,Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Soup and Larry Walls' Psychedelic Rowdies.
They don't name bands like that any more!


Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Miracle Man

Ian Dury & the Blockheads - Wake Up and Make Love With Me

Sunday, 19 April 2020

Happy Hippy Chick Mix 3


Like everything else my brain is currently in lockdown. Therefore it is helpful to have a series on the shelf which can be drawn down to save the old grey matter.
So for your listening pleasure I give you Happy Hippy Chick Mix 3.
This time round we start with Happy by The Rolling Stones from their Exile on Main St. album They need a love to keep them happy. Don't we all?
Meanwhile over in Cork Andy Jones drives a bus for the lonely. He cheers up everyone everyday. Andy, we salute you.
Finally we have the Sons of the Pioneers from a Bloodshot Revival Sampler who are happy roving cowboys.
More soon.

The Rolling Stones - Happy

The Frank and Walters -Happy Busman

Sons of the Pioneers - Happy Cowboy

Saturday, 18 April 2020

50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die - Ballad of a Thin Line Man


When I first drew up the list of albums to feature in this series back in November the first 40 or so were absolute no brainers which would have featured any time I carried out a similar exercise.
The final 10 or so were a bit more fluid and may have been replaced by something else were I to redo the list.
Ballad of a Thin Line Man by Giant Sand is probably one of those which would have come into that category although having an Americana  list that did not feature the Tuscon desert rock of Howe Gelb  would be pretty strange indeed.
From 1986 and originally on the Zippo label it is their second album from 1986. I have it on a 2 albums on 1 CD along with their debut Valley of Rain.
It gets the nod primarily because of the brilliant version of the  Johnny Thunders song You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory. That, and the fact that it has the better cover (these things are important).
2000's Chore of Enchantment and Howe Gelb's 2006 solo album 'Sno Angel Like You are also on the shelves (right beside each other) and also came into consideration.

The line up is Howe Gelb on vocals, guitar and piano, Scott Garber on bass, Paula Jean Brown on vocals and guitar and Tom Larkins on drums.
John Convertino and Joey Burns did not come along until later but who knows they may yet feature!

Giant Sand - Thin Line Man

Giant Sand - You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory

Friday, 17 April 2020

boygenius


1987 gave us Trio an album by  a supergroup of three female singers namely Dolly Parton, Emmylou Parton and Linda Rondstandt who were all successful in their own right

Step forward 31 years and we have another supergroup trio of female singer songwriters in the shape of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus collectively known as boygenius. To date they have only released one self-titled 20 minute  6 track EP on the Matador label which was recorded in four days at Sound City Studio in Los Angeles and released on 26th October 2018.

Julien Baker is from Bartlett, Tennessee, Phoebe Bridgers from Los Angeles and Lucy Dacus from Norfolk, Virginia.
None of them therefore hail from Ketchum in Blaine County, Idaho a city (although probably should be a town or village) with a population of less than 3000 which is seemingly famous for its skiing


boygenius - Ketchum,ID

Thursday, 16 April 2020

Under the Covers


Over the years Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs have enjoyed a successful partnership recording covers of famous pop songs.
There were three Under the Covers albums released between 2006 and 2013 followed by  a 4 CD/6 LP Box Set Completely Under the Covers compilation and now a more affordable  2CD or 2LP The Best of Under the Covers.
Fairly faithful covers with one or other taking the lead, some pleasant harmonies and just a little hint of the power pop that Matthew is famous for.

All of which begs the question: why was the previously featured Susannah Hoffs album When You're a Boy and in particular her cover of Bowie's Boys Keep Swinging so godamm awful?

Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs - You're My Favorite Waste of Time

Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs - You're So Vain

Wednesday, 15 April 2020

Covers 14. Al Green does The Box Tops

George writes:

Once again playing fast and loose with the concept of “very very famous”, but the original will be a song that all 23 readers will be familiar with. And this cover, on a very early Al Green album, is brilliant, and far superior to the original, which is itself a perfectly decent song. But this version, it’s sublime:


After many hours minutes of searching I can find no Portuguese or Brazilian cover, or any cover in any other language, or any other cover that is worth listening to. So that’s your lot this week.

Another one next week. Maybe.

CC writes:
Short but sweet this week George.
As you point out the original is not as well known as most of the others in this series, so on the off chance that there may be a 24th reader out there here is the original:




Tuesday, 14 April 2020

The Clash in the Middle 2


Whereas it was the Waco Brothers who inspired that I Fought the Law post it was Wayne Hancock who was the catalyst for Brand New Cadillac given that it popped up on his That's What Daddy Wants album which recently featured on my current Saturday series.

The original was written and recorded by British rock'n'roller Vince Taylor in 1959. Incredibly it was released as the b-side to a song called Pledgin' My Love.
A version called Cadillac by British beatband The Renegades did very well in Finland leading to it also being recorded by Swedish bands Hep Stars and Shamrock who both enjoyed success with it across Europe with Taylor eventually successfully suing for copywright.

It reached a whole new and wider audience as track 2, side 1 of London Calling  the classic double album from The Clash in 1979 it being the first song recorded  for the album.

Then we have Wayne's version from 1997 leaving The Clash once more in the middle

There are also versions out there by The Brian Setzer Orchestra and The Fall out there which I don't have - hint, hint ..

Vince Taylor - Brand New Cadillac

The Clash - Brand New Cadillac

Wayne Hancock - Brand New Cadillac

Monday, 13 April 2020

Happy Hippy Chick Mix 2


It was pointed out by George and Rol, who found to his surprise that he was agreeing with George, that Hope Your Happy Now by Elvis Costello is NOT a happy song.

I agree. The original rationale of the mix was to include songs with the word Happy in the title. This proved to be harder than you would think and I ended up sneaking in a couple with Joy in the title.
Hence one of today's offering Joy by Lucinda Williams is not a particularly happy song. Let's face it though, when you think of Lucinda happy is not the first adjective that springs to mind.

R.E.M. are  happy enough and given that Shirley Manson of Garbage is Scottish she will be happy more often than not given our weather

R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People

Garbage - Only Happy When it Rains

Lucinda Williams - Joy

Sunday, 12 April 2020

A Soldier's Sad Story


Twice recently, following the sad deaths of Bill Withers and John Prine, I've found myself reaching for A Soldier's Sad Story  - Vietnam Through the Eyes of Black America 1966 -73 a terrific compilaton of the ever excellent Kent Label.
From this I featured Bill Withers with I Can't Write Left Handed and Swamp Dogg's haunting version of John Prine's Sam Stone.
I subseqently gave the whole album a listen

The album is sub-titled - the anticipation,action and aftermath of the years of the Vietnam War, as seen through the eyes of Black America
A quote from the sleevenotes tells us Of the 240,00 men recruited under Project 100,000 (the draft) between October 1966 and June 1969 41% were black, although black Americans represented only 11% of the US population. Something, I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise to anyone reading this.

There are 24 tracks of the CD all of which could easily grace these pages. Here are three more:

The Players - He'll Be Back

Jimmy Holiday - I'm Gonna Help Hurry My Brothers Home

James Carr - Let's Face Facts



Saturday, 11 April 2020

50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die - Can You Fly


This week's offering is Can You Fly by Freedy Johnston, his second album from 1992, which was released on Bar/None Records.
I can't remember how it crossed my radar but at the time I was mildly obsessed with it. I played it constantly and We Will Shine featured on any CD compilation I made around then.

Wiki states that his songs are  often about troubled loners, and cover topics like heartbreak, alienation, and disappointment, So ideal for this series then.I mean who else has released a song about The Mortician's Daughter?

I read that Freedy has released 13 albums as well as one with Jon Dee Graham as the Hobart Brothers and another with Jon Dee and Susan Cowsill as the Hobart Brothers and L'il Sister Hobert .
Strangely, for me, I have never felt the urge to track down any of his other records. I'm not sure why given the quality of Can You Fly. Having said that in the unlikely event of one popping up in a charity shop I would certainly pounce.

Get your red dress on, we'll go out tonight

Freedy Johnston - In The New Sunshine

Freedy Johnston - We Will Shine

Freedy Johnston - The Mortician's Daughter


Friday, 10 April 2020

The Clash In The Middle


I was recently listenin to RESIST! by the Waco Brothers which features protest songs they have recorded over their 25 years on the Bloodshot label

One of the songs featured is I Fought the Law made famous  by The Clash  but which was written by Sonny Curtis of The Crickets  and which was recorded by the Bobby Fuller Four as far back as 1966

So I now have three versions of this song and if I post them chronologically The Clash are in the middle hence the title of the post.See what I did there?

What's more I have another similar example which I will feature shortly.You can thank me later

Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law

The Clash - I Fought The War

Waco Brothers - I Fought the Law

Thursday, 9 April 2020

Look Sharp!


There was a post on Twitter the other day when someone was seeking opinions as to which was the better of two Joe Jackson albums, namely his 1979 debut Look Sharp!  or 1982's Night and Day.
The picture above gives a clue as to where my vote went and I  subsequently dusted it down for it's first airing in a long time.

Joe Jackson was probably one of those artists who was tagged as New Wave when he really wasn't . Indeed you can hear some tinkling of the ivories  here and there on Look Sharp! However by 1982  he had already recorded his Joe Jackson's Jumping Jive album and his music was moving in a completely different direction to what I was listening to at the time.

When he started out there were comparisons with Elvis Costello and Graham Parker both in terms of his songs and his song writing.
I was going to say that I've featured the two big hits from the album but Fools in Love didn't chart and Is She Really Going Out With Him? only reached number 13 second time round after not charting first time.

Despite him hating the album cover it was ranked at 22 in Rolling Stone's 100 greatest album covers of all time.

Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?

Joe Jackson - Fools in Love

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

Speed of the Sound of Loneliness



When you said you’d never heard of John Prine
Well I knew right away you weren’t worth my time
Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers - If I can't Trust You With a Quarter (How Can I Trust You With My Heart?)



A post that sadly we knew was coming as we've lost the legend that is John Prine to Covid -19.
Another great gone. It's fast becoming 2016 all over again.

A true legend and a genius songwriter who operated slightly under the radar.I came across his solo work gradually but when I eventually  did I realised that I was familiar with many of his great songs.

Sam Stone, Speed of the Sound of Loneliness, Angel From Montgomery , and the list goes on. Other singers were queueing up to cover them with much of the public totally oblivious as to the genius who wrote them

A few years ago Mrs CC and I won tickets to see him at the Glasgow Concert Hall. He was extremely late coming on stage and the audience were becoming increasingly restless.
When he eventually did come on he was genuinely apologetic and embarassed  and produced a concert of absolutely awesome brilliance.

note from his record company and his wife
One of the good guys.
Rest easy John

John Prine - Speed of the Sound of Loneliness

Bonnie Raitt - Angel From Montgomery

John Prine - They'll Never Take Her Love From Me

Swamp Dogg - Sam Stone



Covers 13. Sheryl does Guns n Roses.


George writes:
I’m struggling to find some decent country covers of famous songs. In fact, struggling to find half-decent country covers. Actually, struggling to find any country covers of famous non-country songs. But I have got this one for you this week, and it ranks somewhere between half-decent and decent (cue “three-quarters decent” from CC?). (nt biting .... Ed)




I hasten to add that there is absolutely nothing at all by Guns n. Roses in the music room, not even on any of the Download series (nil here also .... Ed)


And for those who are interested, here’s The Kira Justice’s take on the original, where the singer tells us of his “sweet child”




And here’s their acoustic take:





If anyone can read Portuguese AND is familiar with the lyrics of the original they can tell the rest of us (ie me and CC himself) if the translation is faithful after watching the second video.

More next week.

Tuesday, 7 April 2020

Happy Hippy Chick Mix



A new series inspired by Rol's Positve Songs for Negative Times and other Bloggers who are trying to accentuate the positive at the moment with a view to keeping us sane.

In the early days of our relationship I made a mixtape (or CD to be precise) for Mrs CC of happy songs entitled Happy Hppy Chick Mix. Given that I have a large number of country songs with a focus on sadness and misery  this proved to be a harder task than I first thought.


Nevertheless I managed to fill a CD with 21 tracks - so 7 posts with 3 songs each in the order the appear on the CD seems a rather neat feat.

Here are the first three for  your listening pleasure

Buzzcocks - Everybody's Happy Nowadays

Elvis Costello - Hope You're Happy Now

Nada Surf - Happy Kid

Monday, 6 April 2020

Hello Mary Lou


Last weekend on his brilliant Saturday Snapshots series the answer to one of Rol's conundrums  was the song Some Jingle Jangle Morning by Mary Lou Lord.
I got the answer right but only after FBCB had down some of the legwork.

After listening to the song I thought I would track it down with a view to acquiring it only to discover that I already had it. This is not an uncommon occurance.

I only appear to have two more of her songs. One is a cover of Richard Thompson's wonderful Beeswing
Mary Lou started out as a busker doing acoustic covers such as this before attracting a degree of internet interest. This may have been because at the time she was dating Kurt Cobain just as Nirvana were achieving international fame, something that I was blissfully unaware of until now.
I would hazard a guess that he may well have been the inspiration for the final song featured below

Mary Lou Lord - Some Jingle Jangle Morning

Mary Lou Lord - Beeswing

Mary Lou Lord - His Indie World

Sunday, 5 April 2020

Ain't No Sunshine


It was sad to read of the death of Bill Withers at the age of 81
I am not a fan of Lovely Day and that put me off exploring his music for a while.
Then I picked up a Best Of in a Record Library sale to find out that he had a lot of songs much better than that one.
The best of them all is I Can't Write Left Handed  which I have on A Soldier's Sad Story - Vietnam through the eyes of Black America 1966-73 a brilliant compilation on the Kent label which you should try and get your hands on.

From what I've read since his passing it looks as though he was a sound bloke.

Rest easy Bill

Bill Withers - Lonely Town, Lonely Street

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine

Bill Withers - Who Is He (And What Is He to You?)

Bill Withers - I Can't Write Left Handed

Saturday, 4 April 2020

50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die - That's What Daddy Wants


According to his website Wayne "the Train" Hancock is the undesputed king of Juke Joint Swing -that alchemists dream of honky-tonk,western swing,blues, Texas rockabilly and big band

That's What Daddy Wants on the Ark label is his second album which was released in 1997.
Recorded live as it's easier to sing with a band that's in the groove rather than one that's recorded already, live material captures the emotion and high energy of  the music and it's quicker and cheaper.
From the mix of genres and sub genres described above this one ticks the honky-tonk and rockabilly boxes. Highay 54 couldn't be anything other than a country song and a great one at that. Heartache, betrayal and death - three great country staples; they are all there. Johnny Law has more of a rockabilly vibe about it.

I don't have any of his other records although I have a number of his later songs on compilations when he signed on at Bloodshot. They are certainly more Juke Joint Swing than his earlier stuff

I  once saw him play in the former Virgin Megastore on Glasgow's Buchanan Street  in the middle of the afternoon playing a couple of songs to largely uninterested passers by (and me!)




Friday, 3 April 2020

Heavy Soul Volume 2


Is it just me or does the cover picure of George Clinton on Mojo's Heavy Soul Vol.2 look a bit like the Coronavirus? Or, maybe things are beginning to get on top of me
Is association with their feature piece on Jimi Hendrix Mojo are offering up 15 hits of Psychedilic funk, Black Rock and Cosmic Slop ...
You won't be surprised to hear that the likes of Funkadelic, Shuggie Otis, the Last Poets and Love appear as well as Hendrix featuring with Lightnin' Rod

I've gone for Mrs Miles Davis. Betty Davis was briefly married to him when she was 23 and him 42 before his violence led to a swift seperation. She had previously met Hendrix and is purportably the subject of his song Dolly Dagger.

Leon's Creation were a San Francisco band led by Leon Portillo with some fairly obvious comparisons to Sly and the Family Stone.

Get down and get with it

Betty Davis - Walkin' Up the Road

Leon's Creation - This is the Beginning


Thursday, 2 April 2020

String Quintet Time


Wait! Come back!
Don't panic - I have only gone semi-classical on you.
I give you Alejandro Escovedo String Quintet  with Room of Songs from 2005 a fanclub release  on the More Miles than Money label. Recorded at the Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas on February 28 and March 1, 2005
Featuring two acoustic guitars (Alejandro and David Pulkingham), two cellos (Matt Fish and Brian Standefer) and Susan Votz on violin and backing vocals

As punkviper says on his/her review on Amazon   as if the songs in their original format aren't enough to get yer motor runnin', the lush string arrangements here add color & depth to prove that Escovedo's talent runs deep.
Let's face it, where else today are you going to get a strings version of  The Gun Club's Sex Beat?

Alejandro Escovedo String Quintet - Everybody Loves Me

Alejandro Escovedo String Quintet - Sex Beat

Wednesday, 1 April 2020

Covers 12. WiIson and Lee do Hendrix.


George writes:
Can you guess what it is yet?


I think we can assume that the above Joe wasn’t going to shoot his partner after catching them in a compromising situation. Two covers today of the song made famous by Hendrix, both rather splendid. You will all be familiar with Mr Pickett so the fact that he gives a good meaty version should come as no surprise.




What might surprise you is this, by Lee Moses, a sort of psychedelic soul version, which is well worth putting on your listening ears for:




Lee Moses made one album, Time and Place, in 1971, and  did not seem to do much else musically thereafter. But that 8 track album is an absolute belter.


And here’s a Brasilian reggae version which is surprisingly splendid as well





The lyrics are not a faithful translation but they still convey the same sentiment as the original. I think.


Another one next week