Saturday Lucky Dip

M

CCM briefly went viral recently with a phenomenal response to The Theme to Happy Valley post featuring the music of young master Bugg.
Things seem now to be getting gradually back to normal.
However it seems as though some of the new viewers have stuck with us as the viewing numbers appear to have increased.
So if you are new welcome. Relax, sit back and enjoy the show.
If you are one of the usual suspects then you know what to expect.

This week's Saturday Lucky Dip is another Uncut compilation this time from August 2001 with no fancy title - just 19-Track guide to the month's best music.
It features a lot of Americana which to me is no bad thing
I have selected two artists whose names I am familiar with but whom I do not have anything from apart from the occasional track here and there. On the strength of these two tracks this clearly needs to change
M Ward (Matthew to his mum) is from Portland, Oregon and has been on the go for a wee while .He is the Him in She and Him, the She being actress Zooey Deschanel.
Tim Buckley I suspect needs little or no introduction. 60s and 70s folk singer, dad of Jeff and dead of a heroin overdose at the age of 28

Tim

Two terrific songs. Enjoy

M Ward - Carolina

Tim Buckley - Falling Timber

War Ina Babylon

It's Friday reggae time again and this time up it is the great Max Romeo and the Upsetters with 1976's War Ina Babylon on the Island label.
Produced by the mad professor that is Lee "Scratch" Perry and part of the Black Ark holy trinity of records along with the previously featured Police and Thieves by Junior Murvin and also Party Time by The Heptones which has now gone to the top of the reggae wanted list following this acquisition.
Can I just apologise in advance to all your friends and loved ones as I just know that you will be singing these songs all weekend and annoying them intensely!
It is impossible not to

Max Romeo & the Upsetters - I Chase the Devil

Max Romeo &the Upsetters - War Ina Babylon

Sipping Jack Daniels in Third World Bars

I purchased Modern Times by Latin Quarter on e-bay a few years ago from Germany and had a devil of a job paying for it.
For some reason paying by Paypal was not an option.
I ended up in prolonged e-mail correspondence with the seller in Germany with English on my part and German on theirs.
At the time I was blissfully unaware of the translator function so was forwarding e-mails to friends in Germany to translate.
It was all finally and very amicably resolved by me posting off 10 Euros to my new friend in Germany.
The on -line encyclopedia describes their music as pop, rock, reggae and folk.I would argue that it has more of a jazz feel about it.
Their songs are well written with a political hue about them particularly the two featured below.
However I can't say I play it all that often these days but it was nice to dust it down and to have a listen for the first time in a long while

Latin Quarter - America For Beginners

Latin Quarter -Radio Africa

Chavez Ravine

Chavez Ravine is a concept album by Ry Cooder which tells the story of a Mexican American community demolished in the 1950's supposedly to make way for public housing
This being America and in the 50's the project ground to a halt given fear of communism and  the belief that  public housing  somehow equalled  socialism.
Meanwhile the majority of the residents had been relocated thus destroying a community.
The LA Dodgers baseball team subsequently built the Dodgers stadium on this site with  the help of public money and some political skullduggery.
I assume that  you are re-assured that something similar would never happen in your town or city ........ right?

Ry Cooder - Corrido de Boxeo

Ry Cooder - It's Just Work For Me

And yes, before anyone asks, that is indeed the mighty Flaco Jiminez on the accordion on the first track

An Empty Bottle, A Broken Heart and You're Still on My Mind

When I finally pop my clogs the three songs I would like played at my funeral are the previously featured Satisfied Mind by the Walkabouts, Green Fields of France by The Men They Couldn't Hang and You're Still on My Mind by The Byrds
It is taken from their 1968 album Sweetheart of The Rodeo.
This was probably one of the least commercially successful albums of their career and few if any of the tracks feature in  most Best of compilations.
However to me, and many others, it is one of the most important and seminal albums of all time.
It is attributed as starting both the Country Rock movement and further down the line the whole alternative country scene.
The catalyst was of course the influence of Gram Parsons who was not credited as a full member due to contractual problems. Indeed on the album he is only credited on guitar with some of his lead vocals having being replaced by Roger McGuinn.
However he is still at the helm on these two quite magnificent songs

The jukebox is playin'
A honky-tonk song
"One more," I keep sayin'
"And then I'll go home"
What good will it do me
I know what I'll find
An empty bottle, a broken heart
And you're still on my mind


The Byrds - You're Still on My Mind

The Byrds - Hickory Wind

Girl Power

I seem to be going through a phase at the moment of buying cheap and cheerful compilations of 60's girl groups.
A couple of months ago it was Boyfriends and Love - Girl Groups of the 60's. This time around it is Girl Power - The First Ladies of Rock'n'Roll
You should be familiar with most of the bands and tracks, As you would expect the queens of this sub genre The Shangri-Las and The Crystals both feature along with Betty Everett, Mary Wells, Lesley Gore and The Angels with the obvious songs you would expect.
Detroit's The Chiffons are also present and whereas the terrific Sweet Talkin' Guy features I am going for the slightly less well known One Fine Day

This is followed up by probably the only track on the album that I was unfamiliar with You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry.

It is by The Caravelles an English duo namely Lois Wilkinson and Andrea Simpson and it is pretty good

The Chiffons - One Fine Day

The Caravelles - You Don't Have to be a Baby to Cry

Southern Soul Sunday 35

It's instrumental week on Southern Soul Sunday featuring the house band(s) from the legendary Stax label.
The Mar-Keys were an all white band who evolved from the Royal Spades who included Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn and Packy Axton son of Stax co-founder Estelle Axton among their nuumber
However when the million selling Last Night was recorded some members were deemed not good enough and were replaced by mainly black session musicians
The Mar-Keys in turn evolved into Booker T and the MGs. The young Booker T Jones was a constant feature at the Stax Studios and record shop in the former Capitol Picture House in East McLemore, Memphis.
Unusually for the time in the segregated South the band boasted both black and white members in their midst with the classic line up pictures above
Duck Dunn on bass, Booker T on organ and piano, Steve Cropper on guitar and Al Jackson on drums.
As well as their own instrumental numbers they played on hundreds of other records by artists from the Stax stable.
I got to see them many years later as Neil Young's backing band at the SECC in Glasgow

The Mar-Keys - Last Night

Booker T & The MG's - My Sweet Potato

Booker T & The MG's - Zippity Doo Dah