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Monday 28 February 2022

Slava Ukraini

 


I'm stating the obvious here but it is a pretty worrying and dreadful state of affairs with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While the blame clearly at the door of the psychopathic thug Vladimar Putin, you could argue that the UK is also to a degree complicit given that London is the world's money laundering epicentre with Johnson and the British Government happy to prostiutute themselves for the oligarchs billions.

There are also maybe some slight glimmers of hope - the heroic resistance of the Ukranian people and the equally heroic Russians protesting in the streets. They are all much braver than I could ever be.

The other day Swiss Adam gave us the background to the band The Ukranians and their version of  the Pistols Pretty Vacant.

A track each from the band from three Cooking Vinyl samplers that I have with their take of songs by The Smiths and Velvet Underground

The Ukranians -Venus in Furs

The Ukranians -Chartez Richu, Cherez Hai

The Ukranians - Spivaye Solovey


Sunday 27 February 2022

No Depression #52 -Dave Alvin


  No Depression - The Bi-monthly Journal of Alt- Country


#52 -   July to August  2004

For the second issue running I have the album released  around the date of the edition's issue with the artist appearing on the cover.
Last week it was Loretta Lynn with Van Lear Rose, this week Dave Alvin with Ashgrove. If there was ever a shoe-in for the cover star of No Depression Dave Alvin is your man.

Ashgrove was released by Yep Roc on 15th June 2004 and is no stranger to these pages.Indeed it was one of the 50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die
Dave was a working class blue collar kid from Downey, California who along with brother Phil had a love of music and as very young teenagers they used to travel a few miles to the Ashgove nightclub in Hollywood to listen to the likes of Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins and the Reverend Gary Davis.
A musical education which held the brothers in good stead when they went on to form the Rock'n'Roll/Rockabilly Band The Blasters.Their show at the Renfrew Ferry in 2003 remains one of the top 10 gigs that I have ever been to 


I don't think that I have ever seen him solo but I did see see him at St Lukes in October 2019 alongside Jimmie Dale Gilmore in another terrific show.

I've posted songs from Ashgrove on a number of occasions before so I will restrict myself to the title track this time round along with the two tracks from the pre-order bonus CD which I got when I ordered the album from Yep Roc ( from the days when postage for overseas albums was still affordable)

Plenty of options this week from the One from the Top.I've gone for Dale Watson with Texas Boogie which as far as I am aware has never graced these pages before.




Saturday 26 February 2022

Seen at King Tuts - The Crockets

 


The Crocketts

Thursday 7th May 1998      £5.00               Ticket No  00014

I suspect that I went to see The Crocketts on the back of their single Flower Girl which I heard on the radio and subsequently bought. I can think of no other reason as up until now that's pretty much all I know about them.

T'internet tells me that they were a band from Aberystwyth who were active from 1996 -2002 during which time they released two albums both on  Blue Dog Records namely We May be Skinny & Wirey (1998) and The Great Brain Robbery (2000)

Although a Welsh band their lead singer Davey McManus was Irish with the guitarist Daniel Harris and bassist Richard Carter both English. Only drummer Owen Hopkin was actually Welsh. When they split in 2002 McManus and Hopkin went on to form the Crimea.

And I'm afraid that's it.

I've absolutely no recollection of the concert although I would imagine that my ears were ringing for a few days afterwards. Here are the four tracks from the CD single which in total last less than 10 minutes. They are pretty shouty in places something that when I was Skinny & Wirey I was not averse to but something that in general I try to avoid now.

The Crocketts - Flower Girl

The Crocketts -Mrs Donnelly

The Crocketts - Banana Breath Baby (Live)

The Crocketts - Three Lie (Instrumental)

Friday 25 February 2022

True Sadness

 



2022 Charity Shop Purchases #12 - The Avett Brothers - True Sadness

On last week's Saturday Snapshots at Rol's place I correctly guessed that the answer to number 6 was the Avett Brothers. Not because I recognised them from the picture but  because I worked out that their name is an anagram of Hotter Vest Bra. A piece of useful information to impress your friends, families and work colleagues with.

Step forward a few hours and there on the shelves of a Shawlands charity shop is True Sadness  theiir 9th album  from  2016 on Republic Records. It was produced by Rick Rubin given that Republic is a subsiduary of American Recordings.You do not ignore such synchronisity and it was duly purchased. It seemed foolish not too.

It is pretty good - an amalgam of Americana, bluegrass and a tinge of gospel here and there. They are from Mount Pleasant, North California and  as you may have worked out the main protagonists are  brothers namely Scott (lead vocals, banjo and acoustic guitar ) and Seth (vocals, piano, bass, percussion) Avett alongside a further five musicians.

I may well have picked this up irrespective of Saturday Snapshots but clearly fate intervened.



Thursday 24 February 2022

Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers

 



2022 Charity Shop Purchases #11 - The National -Sad Songs For Dirty  Lovers.

No not Frank Sinatra's follow up to Songs for Swinging Lovers but the second album from The National from 2003 on the Brassland label.

At the weekend I was at a record fair in a pub in Shawlands a district in Glasgow's South side relatively near to CCM HQ.. Naturally, I made a few purchases which will feature here in due course. Equally naturally I also hit the charity shops and  came away with a mini haul of three purchases, this being  the first of them.

The National were a band that passed me back at the time but over the last couple of years  I have picked up  in (and featured here) their 3rd album Alligator (in August 2020) and their 4th  Boxer (November 2020)

That's 3 down  now and 5 to go. They are described as indie rock but I find that they fit relatively neatly onto my Americana shelves . I also have acquired a copy of singer Matt Berninger's excellent 2020 solo album Serpentine Prison.

There is a song on the album that I dare not feature for fear of tempting fate. A few of you may be able to work it out from the track list. Instead I have gone for the opening track Cardinal Song and track 9 Trophy Wife

The National - Cardinal Song

The National - Trophy Wife

Wednesday 23 February 2022

Streetcore

 


I had the great pleasure last week of meeting up with JC , the Vinyl Villian, for a  few drinks and a long overdue chatchup. Music, football, families and assorted nonsense were all duly discussed.

He had mentioned that he would be bringing me the CD of Rock Art and the X-Ray Style by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros to upgrade the burn that I featured here in early January Being the top bloke that he is he also threw in a copy of Streetcore the 3rd and final album by the band  which was released in October 2003 some nine months after the premature death of Joe at the age of 50.

The album received a generally positive critical reception and was seen by many as a return to form from Joe.

Allmusic wrote that the album sends Strummer into rock & roll heaven a roaring, laughing, snarling lion", calling the album "truly the finest, most cohesive work he did after London Calling.(they were clearly forgetting Combat Rock) whereas Mojo called Streetcore an amalgam of all that made Joe Strummer, the musician and the man, so great.

The section of the shelves containing Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros is now larger and considerably brighter so thanks again JC.

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Coma Girl

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Arms Aloft

Tuesday 22 February 2022

Constant Follower

 


I occassionally get promotional stuff sent to me but not as much as some other Bloggers I know.

Most of it gets deleted straight away or failing that gets a cursory read and/or listen. However I was quite taken with the recent stuff I received in respect of Scottish band Constant Follower.

Here is some of the blurb:

Self-described as soaring-ambient-dreampop-experimental-folk, Constant Follower is the band formed around Scottish songwriter Stephen McAll. As a teenager, McAll survived an attack by a gang that left him with a catastrophic head injury and every memory of his childhood gone. The next decade was spent in a cabin on Scotland’s Western coastline, where he eventually began composing again. The result is a childhood imagined against a backdrop that, like the sea, is as serene as it is wild; ever-changing, yet resolute.

Co-produced by McAll and renowned producer Kramer (Low, Galaxie 500, Will Oldham), their debut album ‘Neither Is, Nor Ever Was’, was released on the legendary Shimmy Disc imprint on October 1st 2021, and has been championed by KEXP, WFMU, BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio Scotland. "It's one of the most beautiful records I have ever been privileged to be a part of, filled to the very brim with moment after moment of poetic clarity, and not a moment too late." Kramer

“A gorgeous listen, full of bucolic melody and personal revelation, an album unafraid to speak its truth.” CLASH Magazine
“Instantly compelling, memorable and moving” Folk Radio UK
"Gorgeous atmospheric Folk" KEXP

The music is right up my street and I  think it will be of interest to fans of bands such as Admiral Fallow and Mt Doubt.

They are playing twice at SXSW in March and have a crowdfunder under way to help cover expenses. As a warm up they have gigs scheduled for 24th February in the Tollbooth, Stirling,  Glasgow's Stereo on 2nd March and Crew 2000 in Edinburgh on 3rd March.

At the Glasgow event they are co-headlining with the afore-mentioned Mt Doubt. My ticket has been purchased.

Constant Follower -I Can't Wake You

Mt Doubt - Caravans

Monday 21 February 2022

Dallas Good R.I.P.


 I was sad to read over the weekend of the death of Dallas Wood singer and guitarist of the great Canadian band The Sadies. He was only 48 and it seems that he died of natural causes while under doctor’s care for a coronary illness discovered earlier last week.

The Sadies are ( and sadly maybe now were) a  rock'n'roll/surf guitar/alternative country band from Toronto. (described by Allmusic as playing a signature stew of surf,soul and country).They have been on the go since 1998 and are fairly prolific releasing around 20 albums since then.

I have some of their earlier stuff mainly from the Bloodshot era. They are a band who were centred around Dallas and his brother Travis. I've seen them a couple of times and they always put on a blistering show with some tremdous guitar work from Dallas.

By way of tribute here are a song each from  Tremendous Efforts (Bloodshot, 2001), Mayors of the Moon by Jon Langford and his Sadies (Bloodshot, 2002) and Favourite Colours (Yep Roc 2004).

Rest easy Dallas

The Sadies - Pass the Chutney

Jon Langord & his Sadies - What Makes Johnny Run?

The Sadies - 1000 Cities Falling (Part 1)



Sunday 20 February 2022

No Depression # 51 -Loretta Lynn


 No Depression - The Bi-monthly Journal of Alt- Country


#51 -   May to June 2004

I suspect that this may well have been the first time that an artist's forty second solo album has featured on the front cover of No Depression.
Obviously this was primarily because the album in question Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn was released on 27th April 2004 on the Interscope label just prior to the release of this issue.All the songs were written by Loretta and were essentially captured in single performances caught in two sets of sessions at a simple 8-track studio in a big old house in East Nashville (Barry Mazor)

Not only that it was produced by Jack White of the White Stripes who were probably the most famous band on the planet at the time. This led to the strap line  the black & white & red all over alt.country (whatever that means) bimonthly.
The album was released to great critical acclaim and was something of a crossover reaching number 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums and number 24 in the Billboard 200 with the track Portland, Oregon being rated by Pitchfork as the 305th best song of the 2000's

Jack met Loretta after the White Stripes version of Rated X and the hit it off. There are even rumours as to a romantic dalliance. Jack and Meg White spent some time with Loretta including appearing together in concert.

You are getting the first two tracks from the album and one of her earlier Country classics. For the One from the Top I've gone for Steve Forbert as he is the only one that I have anything by (except Wilco) and one I saw live once in Edinburgh.






Saturday 19 February 2022

Seen at King Tuts: Green on Red

 


Green on Red

Monday 4th September  2006      £15.00               Ticket No  GA2 34

There was a genuine buzz of excitement amongst the Glasgow Americana community when news broke that Green on Red who had recently re-formed were going to play King Tuts. My late pal Harry in particular was beside himself.

Most of us had seen Chuck Prophet on a number of occassions but the opportunity to see the iconic band of which he was a member was not to be missed even although the price of the tickets was considerably higher than usual.

Green on Red were associated with the Los Angeles Paisley Underground scene and were active from 1979 -1992 prior to briefly reforming from 2005 -2006 so it was a short window to capture them live.

The line up for the reunion was singer Dan Stuart, the afore-mentioned Chuck Prophet,  Chris Cacavas and Jack Waterson.

From memory they put on a great show with all the classic songs featuring including their brilliant version of Willie Nelson's (Gee Ain't it Funny How) Time Slips Away from the 1985 No Free Lunch EP, Hair of the Dog from 1986's Gas Food Lodging and Pills and Booze from 1989's This Time Around.

One of those shows that I can proudly boast - I was there

Green on Red - (Gee Ain't it Funny How) Time Slips Away

Green on Red - Hair of the Dog

Green on Red - Pills and Booze

Friday 18 February 2022

First Flower

 


I picked up Please Be Mine the 2017 debut album by Americana/Indie artist Molly Burch when it first came out and jolly good it is too. It has featured here before
I gave it it's first listen in a while recently and it got me thinking that I was not familiar with anything else she had released since. First Flower the 2018 follow up, also on Captured Tracks seemed a good place to start.

In a generally positive review on Pitchfork the author Vrinda Jagota writes On her debut, last year’s Please Be Mine, Burch focused on the tribulations of romantic love. The songs were polished and luxurious, buoyed by jazzy instrumentals and her characteristically smoky vocals. On First Flower, it is clear that her range and control have improved. She deftly pivots from a husky smolder to billowing vibrato to the airiness of tulle blowing in the wind. The subjects of her songs have diversified, too: While she still writes about romance, she also turns inward, exploring what she desires from relationships and how her anxieties affect her interactions with other people.

Mike Vinti from Loud and Quiet writes "it’s not that this is any less personal than that first outing, but more that Burch has embraced the parts of her craft that set her apart, most obviously her unmistakable voice. 

I must admit that I found it a bit challenging on  the first listen. To me it is a bit more intense than the debut but I may feel different after a couple more listens.

Molly Burch - Wild

Molly Burch - To the Boy

Thursday 17 February 2022

Hogwash Farm

 

2022 Charity Shop Purchases #10  Dawn of the Replicants - Hogwash Farm (The Diesel Hands EP)

Dawn of the Replicants were an indie band from Galashiels in the Scottish Borders who were championed by John Peel and Mark Radcliffe. For some reason I have been under the erroneous impression that they were one of the many bands fronted by Davy Henderson whereas their members for the featutured record were actually Donald Kyle, Grant Pringle, Mike Small and Paul Vickers.

This EP is the follow up to their 1998 debut album One Head, Two Arms , Two Legs.
This EP also marks their debut on these pages despite me having owned their second album from 1999 Wrong Town, Wrong Planet, Three Hours Late for many years. All three records were released by East West Records a subsidiary of  Warner Brothers 

Hogwash Farm reached number 65 in the UK singles charts in 1998 with the band playing both Glastonbury and Reading.
All four songs are excellent with my current favourite being Night Train to  Lichtenstein.


I think that the album  requires a long overdue listen.





Wednesday 16 February 2022

The Pain Inside

 


2022 Charity Shop Purchases #9 - Cosmic Rough Riders -The Pain Inside (CD single)

One look at the cover of The Pain Inside is enough to confirm that it was taken from the majestic 2000 album Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine by Cosmic Rough Riders. It was also on the album Panorama given that most of the tracks on ETMS were taken from their first two self- released albums Deliverance and  the afore- mentioned Panorama.

Release by Poptones in 2001 it has the same distinctive artwork as ETMS. I'm a bit surprised that it was released as a single. Not because it isn't good - it is - but because there were so many great songs to choose from.

I have the vinyl reissue of Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine on order to compliment the CD version so shortly I will have three copies of this song. It is the first time that I have had the other two songs in my possession. They both appear on the deluxe version of the album which I don't have.

This one is a keeper












Tuesday 15 February 2022

Happy Birthday Revolution

 


2022 Charity Shop Purchases # 8  -Levellers - Happy Birthday Revolution (CD Single)

On Saturday I went to Firhill to see Dundee United play Partick Thistle in the Scottish Cup. It was a poor game on a dreadful pitch which United, perhaps undeservedly, won 1-0.

My bus got in slightly early so I popped into Barnardos on Great Western Road near toWintersgills our pre-match hostelry of choice. I came
 away with three CD singles

One was Happy Birthday Revolution a track from Hello Pig the 6th studio album from the Levellers on China Records.
The only other  thing of theirs that I have is their crusty debut album A Weapon Called the World released 10 years previously. This track couldn't sound less crusty. If I was unaware of the artist and had to guess the first name that I would come up with would be John Lennon. That is not necessarily a good thing. The album was produced by Mark Wallis who had previously worked with Oasis. Again, not necessarily a good thing.
Not convinced that this one is a keeper.







Monday 14 February 2022

The Flipside of Al Green

 



2022 Charity Shop Purchases # 7  - The Flipside of  Al Green 

Apolgies if Al Green is not your thing. Picked up in the same St Andrews charity shop at the same time as the Call Me/Livin' For You double header and almost certainly handed in by the same person.This compilation was released on Cream/Hi Records in 1993

Apologies also that there are no splendid trousers on display. As the name suggests this is primarily an album of B-sides to his singles, this being the case for 23 out of the 24 tracks.

As you may suspect the earlier ones are the best and they get somewhat ropier as time progresses. What Am I Gonna to do With Myself is the first track on the album and was the B-side to I Want to Hold Your Hand from 1969. I would take this one over the A-side every time.It is also on the Green is Blues album

All Because I'm a Foolish One is from 1970 and is the B-Side to Right Now Right Now and features onthe album Al Green Gets Next to You. From 1978 To Sir With Love is the solitary A-Side on the album.

All Music gives the album 3 out of 5 which is probably fair. I think I might have liked it a bit better had I heard it in isolation as opposed to being up against the two other excellent albums previously featured.

Nothing more from the Reverend for a wee while - promise!

The last of the purchases from our jaunt to Fife.

Al Green -What Am I Gonna Do With Myself

Al Green -All Because I'm a Foolish One

Al Green - To Sir With Love


Sunday 13 February 2022

No Depression # 50 - Patty Griffin

 


No Depression - The Bi-monthly Journal of Alt- Country

#50 -   March -April 2004

Patty Griffin is one of those artists who seem to straddle the invisible barrier between mainstream and alternative Country. Hers was a name that I had been familiar with for a while but the only thing of hers I have is her 2015 ablum Servant of Love from the charity shop in Ullapool a few years back. All of today's tracks are from there.

Obviously that one didn't feature in  the 2004 article and it is her 2004 album Impossible Dream on ATO which Wiki describes as Contemporay Folk that they concentrate on. In addition to a potted history of her career to date it appears to be a bit of a fashion shoot given that it is the only time I have seen the hair and make -up artisted credited alongside the photographer.

To the potted history. She is originally from Old Town, Maine and cut her teeth in the clubs of Boston. Thereafter she moved to Texas. She has toured with Emmylou HarrisBuddy Miller, Gillian Welsh and Dave Rawlings as part of the Sweet Harmony Traveling Review.There are distinct similarities with Emmylou  in places which let's face it is no bad thing. Also Emmylou is one of many artists to have covered Patty's  songs.
She also featured on Robert Plant's Band of Joy  album, toured with and was in a relationship with him for a few years thereafter.

Shawn Colvin describes how she is painfully shy but yet she'd get out there and just kill ya. Both Shawn and Emmylou use the term  fully formed  to descibe their initial reaction to her music.

I was going to select BR5-49 as the One from the Top but seeing as how it is the non-hyphenised version you are getting the great Iron and Wine instead.Not exactly a poor substitute.






Saturday 12 February 2022

Seen at King Tuts - Jack Ingram

 



Jack Ingram

Tuesday 28th October 1997      £7.00               Ticket No  00021


Texan Americana artist Jack Ingram only very briefly popped up on my radar. In addition to seeing him at King Tuts I have his third album Livn' or Dyin' released earlier in 1997 on Rising Tide Records.I'm afraid that I can't remember whether I attended the concert on the back of the album or whether I bought the album at the concert. The former, I suspect as I have a signed postcard by him and if I bought the CD on the night I would have got him to sign it.

I have no recollection of the Beat Up Ford Gang whom I assume were his backing band but I do remember that he put on a really good show despite a pretty small crowd. My pals and I had a fairly long chat with him at the end, hence the postcard (see below)



It seems that he has gone on to enjoy a fairly successful career having released 11 studio albums, an EP, 6 live albums and 19 singles.It looks like his output has become more mainstream country (perhaps it always was) including a number one in the Billboard Country chart, releasing an album with Miranda Lambert and Jon Randell 

Jack Ingram - Nothin' Wrong With That

Jack Ingram - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud.Loud Music)

Jack Ingram - Airways Motel

Friday 11 February 2022

Funky Friday

 



Definitions of funk in the dictionary include the state of being unhappy and without hope and a strong, usually unpleasant smell. A funk can also be a coward or avoiding  something through fear.

Study.com describes Funk music is a style of popular music that emerged in the late 1960s as an outgrowth of R&B (rhythm and blues). African-American musicians created it by combining elements of soul and jazz with R&B and amping up the moving beat. Funk features strong bass lines, or music lines played by low-pitched instruments and has a heavy syncopated beat, meaning a beat with emphasis changed from strong beats to off beats and accents. Funk music also possesses a distinctive groove, or sense of rhythmic movement that makes you want to get up and dance.

However the best definition is from Ripple an American funk band from Michegan namely I Don't Know What it is but it Sure is Funky.

Enough of the heavy stuff. It's Friday so let's get down and funk. Ripple are joined by Wild Cherry with Play That Funky Music, Maceo and All the King's Men with some Funky Women and The Soul Lifters who get Hot, Funky and Sweaty in an instrumental sort of a way.

Let's join them. Shake your funky stuff.







Thursday 10 February 2022

Bessie Smith

 


A good few months ago I got Bessie Smith by Scottish poet and former Makar (poet laureate) Jackie Kay out of the library. I meant to do a post at the time but never quite got round to it.

In anticipation of posting I took a photo of the blurb on the inner jacket which I feel is worth sharing in full:

Bessie Smith was born in Tennessee in 1894. Orphaned by the age of nine,she sang on street corners before becoming a big name in travelling shows.In 1923 she made her first recording for a new start up called Columbia Records.It sold 780,000 copies and made her a star. Smith's life was notoriously difficult:she drank pints of "bathtub" gin, got into violent fist fights, spent huge sums of money  and had passionate love affairs with men and women. She once single - handedly fought off a cohort of the Ku Klux Klan.

As a young black girl growing up in Glasgow (Bishopbriggs) , Jackie Kay found in Bessie someone with whom she could identify and who she could idolise. In this remarkable book Kay mixes biography,fiction,poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life.

Well worth a read and a listen.

Bessie Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

Bessie Smith - There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight

Bessie Smith - Need a Little Sugar in my Bowl


Wednesday 9 February 2022

The Coral

 


A few weeks ago Mrs CC came in with a bundle of CDs that she had picked up for a pound. Most of them were not up my street but the 2002  self-titled debut album by The Coral  on the Deltasonic label caught my eye.

It was one that I already had so back to charity it went. However, it was also one that I hadn't listened to for ages and one which it appears has never featured on these pages. Both of these embarrassing  situations have now been rectified.
I'm offering up the two singles from the album Goodbye and Dreaming of You today for your listening pleasure.
They are a band that I never really kept up with.I think I bought this one and I then picked up the 2003 follow up Magic and Medicine and the 2004 mini -album Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker from charity shops. Thereafter nothing.
I believe that last year's Coral Island was well received and listed by many as their best yet. I must get round to giving it a listen.





Tuesday 8 February 2022

Songs of False Hope and High Values


Since my recent post of Cowboy Sally's Twilight Laments for Lost Buckaroos Ernie Goggins and I have been busy setting up a Sally Timms Appreciation Society. It will run in tandem alongside our long established Kelly Hogan one. Requests to join welcome.It looks as though Walter has already subscribed. Hardly surprising as he is a man of impeccable taste.

One requirement for anyone considering taking this step will be an appreciation  of Songs of False Hope and High Values a 2000 Bloodshot mini CD album that Sally recorded with fellow ex-Mekon Jon Langford
It was a limited edition of 2000 copies.Mine is number 1523.

I think it only fair that we have a song featuring them both together followed by one from Sally then one from Jon.

Sally Timms & Jon Langford - I Picked UpThe Pieces

Sally Timms -Down From Dover

Jon Langford - Joshua Gone Barbados

Monday 7 February 2022

Some More From The Reverend

 


2022 Charity Shop Purchases # 6  Al Green - Livin' For You

The second part of the recently acquired Al Green 2 albums on 1 CD in St Andrews

Last week it was the classic Call Me his 6th album from 1973. Today we have the follow up Livin' For You also from 1973 and hardly surprisingly also on the Hi label. Maybe not in the same league as Call Me (very few albums are) but nevertheless it made #1 on the Soul charts and certified as a gold disc

Producer Willie Mitchell recalls stopping by Al's office on Thanksgiving Day  with the idea for the title track, and the two of them knocking it out in the hour before dinner. His memory may not be what it was as the song was actually released three days before Thanksgiving!

Another fun fact had Green's band had there way the album would've had a whole new sound namely reggae.Willie Mitchell's Hi Rhythm Section suggested a trip to the Bahamas to get a feel forthe emerging sounds of the islands, but the trip never happened.

The Reggae Reverend has an interesting ring to it.

Nice pair of Dan Dares on the album cover.

Al Green - Livin' For You

Al Green - Lets Get Married Tonight

Al Green - My God is Real


Sunday 6 February 2022

No Depression #49 - T-Bone Burnett

 


No Depression - The Bi-monthly Journal of Alt- Country

#49 -   January-February 2004

The first edition of No Depression in 2004 went for something a bit different. Instead of featuring an artist on the cover and the main article this time round they have gone for a producer - namely the legendary T-Bone Burnett.

Continuing with their obsession with O' Brother Where Art Thou? the article focusses on his next soundtrack which was from the 2003 film Cold Mountain.
This was a film which completely passed me by and to save me wittering on about something of which I know nothing here is the Wiki link. I know, I can hear the cries of "that's never stopped you before"!

Similarly I am not familiar with the Soundtrack and here again is a link. The main protagonists seem to be Jack White and Alison Krauss and I have tracked down a track by each of them. I'm also throwing in a song by the man himself.

Although he has recorded a few albums T-Bone is much better known as one of the go to producers.Cue yet another link. If you bother to click onto this link I'm sure you will agree that this list is pretty impressive. This has also given me the idea for another series which I think would be far more interesting from what I am subjecting you to today.

For the One from the Top I have gone for Mark Erelli an artist who used to offer up a free monthly download. I've got pretty much all of them from April 2001 through to March 2006. I've gone for one from the period covered by this edition so from February 2004 here he is with a cover of Johnny Cash's Straight A's in Love





Saturday 5 February 2022

Seen at King Tuts - Nic Armstrong & the Thieves

 


Nic Armstrong & the Thieves

Sunday 23rd April 2005        £8.50                    Ticket No  00024

I'm not quite sure what made me and ny pal Goggs go to see Nic Armstrong & the Thieves. It could have been just for something to do on a Friday night or more probably because I had heard one of their tracks on the radio - most probably Down Home Girl.

Whatever the recent they were absolutely fantastic. I've gone back to a previous post where I described it  60's throwback stuff with more than a passing nod to the blues. The band were on fire.

On the back of the concert I purchased The Greatest White Liar an album attributed to just Nic Armstrong and released by One Little Indian . Unfortunately it did not come close to matching their live sound.

We subsequently went to see them again on their next visit to Glasgow this time at Barfly and came away quite disappointed. I think that we must have caught them at a moment in time when all the stars aligned.

I was going to say that I never bothered picking up any of their other stuff but from what I can ascertain they have  never released anything since. There were a couple of EPs /CD singles which preceded the album.

Another small star in the musical galaxy.

Nic Armstrong - I Can't Stand It

Nic Armstrong -In Your Arms On My Mind

Nic Armstrong - Down Home Girl

Friday 4 February 2022

The Sharon Shannon Quartet

 


My first gig of the year tonight as we are off to the New Auditorium at the Glasgow Concert Hall  to see Irish accordionist Sharon Shannon and to celebrate the birthday of another Irish lady namely Mrs CC's mum. It is part of Celtic Connections which was badly hit by the Omicron sub-variant of the virus leading to many shows being cancelled. Fortunately, this one  being one of the later shows is going ahead..

 I've seen her a couple of times before. The first time was at King Tuts in the early 90's. My pal Bill was so  impressed that he announced that he wanted her to play at his wedding. It didn't happen - her playing that is, not the wedding.
Mrs CC, her mum and I then saw her at the Mitchell Theatre in 2014 as part of that year's Celtic Connections.  So that will be three times in three different decades.

She has played solo, in bands and was a member of the Waterboys for about eighteen months, something I was unaware of. She has also recorded with the likes of Jackson Browne, Damian Dempsey, Steve Earle and the late great Kirsty MacColl.
When it comes to the Galway Girl forget that nonsense by Ed Sheeran. The song with the same title by Steve Earle, and the one which came first, beats it hands down. Absolute no contest.

Hopefully it should be a good one.




Thursday 3 February 2022

A Creature I Don't Know

 



2022 Charity Shop Purchases # 5 Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know

Laura Marling is on of those (many) artists that I probably would never consider buying anything new by but would always pick up anything by either second hand or via a charity shop.

A Creature I Don't Know is her third album from 2011 on Virgin and joins its two predecessors on the shelves. It was purchased alongside yesterday's First Aid offering and quite probably handed in by the same person.

She is the darling of what has been described as the Nu Folk scene which was very popular around 10 years ago  with artists such as Noah and the Whale and Mumford and Sons. Come back! She is much better than them.

I've previously written that her songs can be both sparse and  intense and  yet also somewhat quirky at the same time.I quite like it but it is definitely not something you could listen to all the time.For me it is more music to dip in and out of.

Salinas was inspired by a book about John Steinbeck rather than where Kris Kristofferson let Bobby McGee slip away. According to Wiki literature is one of the theses of the album alongside "love, rage, desire, family, devils, angels, devotion, betrayal and the roles women play". That's most bases covered then.