Texas Troubadours from 2004 is a 14 track compilation from the Fab 14 label.
It is one of two Fab 14 compilations I have on burns and this is the first time that I can recall seeing the pretty basic cover
It is available from £4 to £12 on Discogs or £49 on Amazon if you are totally stupid and have money to burn. Amazon teases you with 9 of the tracks whereas Discogs gives you all 14.
The majority of the artists are no strangers to this Blog and indeed to this series
Encouragingly 6 of the 14 tracks are by female artists. 3 of the 6 namely Caroline Herring, Terri Hendrix and Angela Strehli have never graced these pages before so it is only fair that they are given an airing.
I shall return next Sunday with my other Fab 14 compilation
All three acts that feature today have graced the Shuffle before but with different songs.
We start with the Icelandic band Sugarcubes featuring a certain Björk Guðmundsdóttir OTF (Order of the Falcon) It's a Hit they proclaim and indeed it did reach number 1 on Billboards Modern Rock Tracks in the US and number 2 in the UK Indie Chart in early 1992
Jesus, Etc is a song taken from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot which many folk consider to be the best album by Wilco. They are wrong of course as that honour goes to Summerteeth
Last, but certainly not least we have the late, great American Soul Singer Wilson Pickett with In The Midnight Hour from 1965 which is possibly his finest song.
The Missing Records Blues Collection Haul continues with Drifting Blues by Charles Brown which is number 71 in the series.
Not to be confused with Snoopy's pal Tony Russell "Charles" Brown (September 13, 1922 – January 21, 1999) was an American singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced nightclub style influenced West Coast Blues in the 1940s and 1950s. Between 1949 and 1952, Brown had seven Top 10 hits in the U.S. Billboard R& B chart
The blurb on Drifting Blues reads Charles Brown has always remained consistent in his commitment to restrained classy Blues.His music has never fluctuated widely to suit fashion and has never failed to retain a basic dignity
This is borne out by these tracks which were recorded either side of his 70th birthday (1990-1994). Whether a fresh composition or an imaginative reworking of one of his old-time hits, he brings a degree of relish ti his work that few others could imagine after a lifetime in music.
I anticipated that Afghanistan would be tricky and so it proved. Kudos goes to the individual or individuals who managed to defy the Taliban and visit my humble blog.
It appears that in addition to having no time for human rights, women and education that the Taliban have no time for music. It just goes to prove that they are a dodgy lot.
To my surprise I was able to find a lot of Afghan music on You Tube. I was unable to convert the videos to MP3's which is my usual method for this series but fortunately I am able to share the videos.
Unfortunately, but perhaps understandably, I was unable to find any female singers
Farhad Darya is an Afghan singer, composer, music producer, and philanthropist. Active since the 1980s, Darya has been one of the most renowned and influential Afghan pop musicians of the modern era, contributing to establishing new wave in Afghanistan and blending urban and rural styles. Probably sensibly he left the country in 1990 and now lives in Hamburg, Germany.
Here he is with Hamesha Tanhaa
Ahmad Wali is an Afghan Ghazal singer. He began his career in the 1970s, becoming popular in his native country before he was forced to flee by political upheaval in Afghanistan. He continued his work after resettling in Germany, performing throughout Europe and North America.
Dr. Mohammad Sadiq Fitrat, born Sadiq Fitrat Habibi, known professionally as Nashenas, is one of the oldest surviving musicians from Afghanistan. His fame began in the late 1950s, and since then he has produced many albums consisting of Pashto, Persian, and Urdu songs. He is known as "the Afghan Saigal".
Jawad Ghaziyar is a popular Afghan singer. He is one of the 1980s era singers who took refuge in United States after the fall of Afghanistan government in 1992. Jawad was also a special judge in Season 8 of Afghan Star.
Again - apologies for the slightly different format and the lack of information and MP3s. I blame the Taliban.
We are off to the North Atlantic Ocean next time round.
James Edwyn & the Borrowed Band were an act which first came to my attention with the release of their album Highlights of Low Nights on Last Night From Glasgow in 2022. It wasn't on my allocated bunch of albums but it was one that I took a punt on.
It seems that this was their third album. I was suitably impressed enought to track down their secend album High Fences released by Dead Records Collective from 2017. This label also released their debut album The Tower back in 2014
Americana UK describe Highlights as a record that single handedly destroys the myth of the difficult third album;possibly forever and the blog Blabber'n' Smoke also waxes lyrical about this album.
Sadly I can find nothing new about the band since 2022 so I suspect the they may have faded into the ether which is a shame.
I would be delighted if anyone could tell me differently.
I once wrote to Bloodshot Records proclaiming that they were the best label in the world. They replied thanking me and saying that Tamla Motown, Chess and Stiff Records were better
By way of proof here are the next four tracks on the compilation album If It Ain't Stiff...
We start with the Welsh legend that is Dave Edmunds. At 82 years of age he has now retired from the songwriting , guitar playing and record producing game. His contribution to the compilation(try saying that without you teeth in) is a cover of the Chuck Berry song Jo Jo Gunne.
Next up is actress cum comedian cum singer Tracey Ullman with the song My Guy a cover of the Madness song My Girl with suitably altered lyrics.
Who will you always find in the kitchen at paries? Yup Jona Lewie is up next!
The final contribution this week comes from Theatre of Hate with the brilliant Do You Believe In The Westworld?
Welcome to the 35th Sunday Americana compilation. We shall easily achieve 40 but 50 may prove to be a bit of a stretch.We shall see.
As you can see from the picture above this compilation came courtesy of Uncut magazine from August 2004.
The tracklist gives you details of the 15 tracks and if they float your boat you can probably pick it up for just over a quid should you be so inclined.
For me Americana was beginning to peak around then.There are still plenty of songs and artists on it that I like but there is a sense that the guards are changing.
Jim White had long been a favourite of mine with Static On The Radio being taken from his 2004 album Drill a Hole in the Substrate and Tell Me What You See a title that trips lightly off the tongue!
Richmond Fontaine were another favourite but I don't have the album Winnemucca from where the song Western Skyline is taken .
I do however have the 2004 album Oh ,My Girl by Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter on the Fargo label from which the haunting The Dreaming Dead is taken
I'm afraid that you are too late to receive a fantastic CD by The Cure which was on offer to anyone subscribing to the magazine for £9.99 every 3 months. A single monthly magazine would now set you back 11 quid!
A cornucopia of genres for you today to ease you into the weekend
We start with some Glam Rock with Coz I Luv You courtesy of Wolverhampton's finest Slade.There music may be good which is more than you can say about their spelling. I only ever saw them once at the Glasgow Apollo but sadly that was during their later rock phase.
Gregg Allman's entire career could probably be described as rock although Wiki lists Blues/Rock/Southern Rock/Gospel/Country to name but 6. All bases covered there I think, He was married 7 times, one being to Cher ,and had 5 kids. Midnight Rider seems an accurate descriptor.
To conclude we have the great Billie Holiday who effortlessly straddled the Jazz/Blues divide with songs such as Lover Man
More Glam Lovermen and Midnight Riders next Saturday.
The other day I pulled out The Boxing Mirror by Alejandro Escovedo for a long overdue listen.
I have a promo copy with a different cover (below), and I noticed that the release date for the album was 1st May 2006. That makes it just over 20 years old. How did that happen?
On the Back Porch label it was produced by John Cale who also contributes with guitar and keyboard.This might explain why Alejandro delves into the worlds of avant guard and post punk with only shades of Americana. Rest assured, however, that this in no way detracts from the quality of the album.
It was the last of his albums that I bought although I do have a couple of burns/downloads from later albums
Alejandro has experienced some significant health issues over the years including Hepatitis C and I'm happy to report that he appears to be going strong at the age of 75.
Long suffering readers will remember thay my Blues Collection obsession began between Christmas and New Year in 2013 when I picked up two job lots in my sadly departed local charity shop
Thereafter over the years I would pick them up in dribs and drabs in various charity shops. These were usually the early numbers in the series which featured the most popular artists
These eventually dried up leaving me to find only one or two every year and then every couple of years. A new source was required and Missing Records duly stepped up to the plate with any they have selling for a pound or two. Prior to my latest haul I had 66 out of the 90 in the series
My 67th one is number 61 in the series Beale Street Blues featuring Furry Lewis (tracks 1-8) and Frank Stokes (tracks 9 -18) with a series of songs recorded in 1928 and 1929 when Frank Stokes was just over 40 with Furry Lewis in his mid 30's. Here Discogs gives details of the tracklist.
One each from Furry and Frank where they give themselves name checks I think.
I'm not sure if any of you are unfortunate enough to remember the UK 70's sit-com Mind Your Language .The premise was a classroom with a British teacher trying to teach English to a group of foreign students. It is perhaps the most patronising and the most unfunny programme ever to grace the small screen.
It's only piece of usefulness is to provided the title to this the last I-Pod Playlist post.
To clean the palate let's start with the wonderful French artist Francoise Hardy and Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles which I'm sure most of you can have a stab at translating this one correctly.
Next we have The Ukrainians a spin off band of The Wedding Present led by Peter Solowka with Chertez Richu Cherez Hai
Patricia Vonne was born in San Antonio, Texas but like most of that city she is a English/Spanish speaker with Mexican roots as the song Guitarras y Castanuelas demonstrates
Finally who better to conclude with than Belgium's finest Plastic Bertrand with Ca Plane Pour Moi
Well that's this series, which became a bit of a slog in places, finally concluded.
For last week's Lene Lovich post I featured Say When which I sourced from the 2001 compilation If It Ain't Stiff (A Stiff Records Collection). This led me to listen to the album in its entirety for the first time in years.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought that it might be worth sharing with you over the next few weeks. There are 21 tracks on the album. Take away Lene and that neatly gives us four songs for today and each of the next four Mondays.
The first track on the album is a live version of Milk and Alcohol from Canvey Island pub rock band Dr Feelgood proving that Stiff were far more than just a punk label.
Lene was track 2 with Wreckless Eric next with Reconnez Cherie. Eric is followed by the late great Kirsty MacColl with Terry.
Finally, for this week we have Department S with the French version of Is Vic There?
Just the way to kick off the week. Stay tuned for a further four next Monday.
There are a plethora of Americana with Sounds of the New West or Old West out there and it can be a bit confusing to tell which is which.
This one is probably the earliest as it was attached to the September 1996 issue of Uncut. Also in my humble opinion it remains one of the best
By my calculations I have albums by 18 out of the 20 artists on the CD ( the odd ones out being Vic Chestnut and Willard Grant Conspiracy) It's no exaggeration to say that it had a major influence on my Americana obsession.
The three artists I've opted for today are Hazeldine, Kate Campbell and The Handsome Family. The other seventeen would also have been equally worthy choices but you can have too much of a good thing.
Blondie just made it to the Shuffle at 11:59. Another 1 minutes and they would have been into Sunday Compilation territory
Not that they would be particularly bothered unlike Martha Ffion who is Someone Who Cares
Primal Scream next with Bobby Gillespie proclaiming that he's Gonna Cry Myself Blind.
I very nearly included Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young and Crazy Horse as a search revealed that it had never appeared before on the Shuffle or indeed the Blog for that matter. It turns out I was spelling it wrong and it has previously been on both
No spelling mistakes or previously included songs will be forthcoming on SS145
Unlike the Colorblind James ExperiencehereLena Lovich did not have her music featured in the I-Pod Playlist Lucky Numbers in addition to her picture.
This was primarily because I don't have her song Lucky Numbers. I have since rectified that. It charted on 17th February 1979 and was in the charts for 11 weeks peaking at number 3.
She subsequently had another 5 chart entries up until the end of 1982 all of which were released on Stiff
Her second song Say When was the best of the rest. I have a copy of that from the album If It Ain't Stiff'...
My pal Donald got chucked out of his house for wearing that badge and ended up staying with his sister's boyfriend. When you see the quality of the music they were churning out it was probably worth it.
I felt a little bit guilty yesterday when I teased you with the above picture but offered no music by the band Colourblind James Experience here.
Time to make amends.
Originally from Rochester, New York and laterly San Francisco the band led by Chuck Cuminale (aka Colorblind James) were active from 1978 to 2001
They shot to prominence in the UK in October 1998 when the preformed sessions for both John Peel and Andy Kershaw and for a while their song Considering a Move to Memphis was everywhere in Indie circles.
They then disappeared about as quickly as they had appeared
I have four songs by them in my Music folder including the one mentioned above and here they are:
Today's post was supposed to be the last in the I- Pod Playlist series. That was until I had discovered that I had missed one off my list
Colorblind James Experience is the title of a Playlist featuring colours. Therefore there will only be a picture of the band but no music by them.Sorry.
Still there were plenty of good ones to choose from.
Let's start with a catchall namely All My Colours by Echo and the Bunnymen.
You could say the some for The Men They Couldn't Hang and The Colours but they restrict themselves to the Red, the Blue and the White.
The album Young America by The Poems was first released in 2006. Drew raved about it on Across the Kitchen Table but it was only on the re-release by Past Night From Glasgow that I was able to appreciate it in all it's glory. The vocals on Blue Eyes Coming come courtesy of Kerry Polwart, sister of Karine.
Contact in Red Square is a track on Blondie's second album 1978's Plastic Letters. I've only ever had it on vinyl so had to source a digital copy. Not sure if Blondie counts as a colour.
The 18th and final Playlist Mind Your Language will feature next time round.
In yesterday's Surinamese post I commented that one of the songs selected had a passing resemblance to the traditional Irish folk song Danny Boy.
This in turn had me going down a Danny related rabbit hole.
There are probably hundreds if not thousands of recordings of the folk song Danny Boy which I have just discovered was written by an Englishman Frederic Wetherly as opposed to an Irishman. Few if any will better the version by Johnny Cash on American IV:The Man Comes Around.
The first musical Danny which sprung to mind was the Dundee band Danny Wilson who contribute The Second Summer of Love to this post.
Not to be outdone The Ramones pitch in with Danny Says. You can't go surfing if it's twenty below. Fact.
Daniel Wylie was the lead singer of the Cosmic Rough Riders. He has also recorded some solo albums and Make Love to the World is the opening track on Ramshackle Beauty.
Tracyanne Campbell (Camera Obscura) and Danny O'Keefe (Crybaby) got together in 2018 to record the imaginatively titled album Tracyanne & Danny. I think that O'Keefe is may favourite song from the album.
I'll spare you anything from our cover star. Kneel and say an Ave there for me!
Similar to Blog Country 140 ArubaSuriname is a former Dutch colony .Under Dutch rule it was subjected to slavery to harvest the sugar plantation.It is the smallest country in South America in terms of both population (632,638) and territory It gained independence in 1975
Right, now that's out of the way let's have some music.
Lets start with Saramaccan Sound who are duo of brothers namely Dwight Sampie and Robert Jabini – who write and perform flowing acoustic songs sung in Saramaccan, the language from the Americas with the most African elements.
There song is Some Kind of New Beginning which sounds not unlike Danny Boy.
Dropati is considered by many to be the mother of modern day Baithak Gana a form of music originating in Suriname described as a mix of Hindustani folk music with further Caribbean influences. Manikdar Jhabeeya is such a song
I can't find much about Kater Kerma other than he is 37 and his genre(s) are hip hop and rap .Don't let that put you of as Paana is not unpleasant
John Eduard Touwslager (December 21, 1968 – June 9, 2005), better known as Papa Touwtjie, was a Surinamese reggae artist and rapper. He is considered one of the most influential reggae artists in Suriname.As a result of a family dispute, he was shot by his brother and died of his wounds in June 2005. Here he is with Santa Boma
Conchita Leeflang is the daughter of Frank Leeflang who was the Minister of Internal Affairs and Justice and temporary Prime Minister of Suriname. Even stranger she had a relationship with Kid Rock which lasted about a year. Now she is mostly based in the Netherlands .Her offering is I Brake.
This one turned out to be much harder than I first thought. The next one is likely to be even more tricky .
From 2004 Por Vida is a 20 track 2x CD on Or Music and is a tribute to the songs of Alejandro Escovedo.
It is essentially a fundraiser following his collapse from Hepatitis C complications in 2003 with health insurance not affordable to the majority of ordinary people in the US.
Alejandro is a universally respected Americana singer song writer as the stellar tracklist highlights with the great and the good lining up pay their respects.
Here is the blurb from the Americana bible No Depression.
I've gone for three of my particular favourites - Lucinda Williams, The Jayhawks and Son Volt
I'm pleased to say that the great man is still going strong as his discography demonstrates.
Firstly apologies for my no show yesterday. Real life got in the way followed by a dose of the dreaded lurgy.
We start this week's Shuffle with Thorns the final track on Weirdo the third album by Carla J Easton from 2020. We parted company around then as her music was getting too poppy for my liking.
A band you could never get tired of are The Cramps. They have graced the Shuffle a few times previously but never with Can Your Pussy Do the Dog.
Likewise XTC are no strangers to this place who produced consistently good songs such as Generals and Majors
They will only be happy if the Saturday Shuffle retuns next week
Every couple of years or so I feel that I have a moral obligation to point you in the right direction when it comes to the music of Dwight Yoakam.
As you can see from his discography he has released 17 studio albums from 1986 to 2024. That's a lot to get your teeth into.
I'll make it more easy for you. You only really need the first five albums all of which are absolutely essential. You do not require to go beyond 1993 There may be the occasional semi decent ones here and there thereafter which are worth a listen, but not many .
For further proof I refer you to my ICA from JC's place back in April 2018.
I think a track from each of the five is in order.
I will return in a couple of years to repeat this message. Think of it as a public service.
The Von Bondies were a four piece Garage Band from Detroit who were active from 1997 - 2001 with the obligatory reunion from 2020 to date. Lead singer and guitarist Jason Stollsteimer has been the only constant member followed closely by drummer Don Blum.
They released three albums - Lack of Communication (2001, Sympathy for the Record Industry), Pawn Shoppe Heart (2004, Sire) and Love, Hate and Then There's You (2009, Majorodomo)
I have burns of the first two (via the much missed Record library perhaps).I've not listened to them in an age so I have decided to downgrade from a Burn to a Download to free up space on the shelves
I have just had a listen to the title tracks of the first two albums and feel vindicated with this decision. See what you think
I was shocked and quite frankly appalled to find out that I don't have a copy of the song by Lene Lovich which inspired the title of this the penultimate I-Pod Playlist post. The only consolation is that there are many more great songs to choose from the 104 on the list. Oh, and I'm giving you 5 songs instead of four.
I'll try to give you them in numerical order even though there is a sticky start given there are two starting with the number 2 namely Song 2 by Blur and 2-4-6-8 by the Tom Robinson Band.
We then jump to number 9 with Dave Alvin and Nine Volt Heart..
Next we have Strawberry Letter 23 by Shuggie Otis and finally 54-46 the prison number of Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals fame.
We conclude this series next time round with Mind Yer Language.
It's amazing where inspiration for Post themes come from.
Often they are fairly random. For instance, I was in the shower yesterday and I thought I should post some farm related songs. And no, I wasn't covered in slurry.
It makes sense to start with The Farm and Groovy Train. Alternately I could have started with The Farmer's Boys and In the Country.
Not to be outdone here are The Housemartins with Me and the Farmer or perhaps XTC and Love On a Farmer's Wages .
Bob Dylan's Maggie's Farm took on a whole new meaning in the 80's courtesy of the Evil Witch
There may be a subsequent farmyard visit in due course.
Feel free to don your wellies and pitch in with any thoughts.
My baby brother turns 60 today. Hopefully he has recovered from his surprise party last night.
As some of the readers of this Blog will be aware his music of choice is Rockabilly and Psychobilly. He's just about hanging onto that quiff but not for much longer I suspect!
Here are a few tunes he will hopefully like to help blow away the cobwebs.
Welcome to the 142nd Saturday Shuffle and the first for the second quarter of 2026 - How did that happen?
First up are Alabama 3 with U Don't Danse to Tekno Anymore a track from their 1997 debut album Exile on Coldharbour Lane which quite frankly is the only one of their albums worth having.
Next we are going back over 60 years. It's Mannfred Mann making their debut on these pageswith If You Gotta Go Go Now taken from Jon Savages 1965 - The Year the Sixties Ignited.
Stay With Me as we conclude in 1972 with today's cover stars and fellow debutants Blue Mink .
It's the 1st of May today - the start of Spring and hopefully of good weather.
If you can take yourself away from the Maypole I have some mainly folky and pastorial songs for you today.
In years past I sometimes featured Imelda May on this day but I thought I would go for something more gentle as you could do yourself a mischief dancing around a maypole to her songs.
