Saturday Lucky Dip

This week we change magazines and it is the turn of The Word with Now Hear This from August 2008.
Now I am unfamiliar with The Word and don't recall ever having purchased it.
Which is a shame as I have picked up a couple of their compilations recently and they are a fine eclectic mix.
They come in a cleverly designed cardboard sleeve with lovely artwork by Yuko Shimizu an example of whose work is featured above.

As the weather appears to have taken a turn for the better I have selected two tracks which I know nothing about but which have a distinctive summer vibe.
El Arbol is by LA artiste Ersi Arvizu from her 2008 album Friend For Life. Turns out she is lead singer of El Chicano who were on the previously featured Chavez Ravine album by Ry Cooder.
The Apples have certainly never featured before.They are a nine piece Israeli funk band with Upskirt appearing on their third album Buzzin' About from 2008.

Ersi Arvizu - El Arbol

The Apples - Upskirt

50.000 Fall Fan's Can't Be Wrong ....... Or Can They?

As George has alluded to on more than one occasion I am not the world's biggest Fall fan.
The only album of theirs I have is the compilation 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong.
I've yet to come across any of their albums second hand or in a Charity Shop and I would not really be tempted to pay full price for them.
I've seen them live twice at the Renfrew Ferry in Glasgow- the first time they were absolutely fantastic, the second time they kept everyone waiting for ages, were only on for about 20 minutes and were absolutely awful.
It has to be said that I probably like them more now than I did a few years ago and listen (and occasionally download) most of the tracks that the likes of George and Drew put on and find the majority of them ok.
Here are a couple from the compilation which I particularly enjoy.

The Fall -How I Wrote Elastic Man

The Fall -Eat Y'self Fitter

Starsky and Hutch

I was going to give Walter first refusal on this in the hope and expectation that he would post it in his That's What I Watched on TV Years Ago series
However as he is currently taking a  well deserved temporary break I have decided to post it myself and to dedicate it to him.
Some jazz funk from The James Taylor Quartet on their 1988 album Wait a Minute which I managed to get reduced in Oxfam from 99p to 50p - in the same shop who were not willing to consider an offer of £10 for 3 1960's Country albums on sale at £3.99 each. I may make the same offer next year as I suspect they may well still be there!

The James Taylor Quartet - Theme from Starsky and Hutch (Funky People mix)

The James Taylor Quartet - Say a Little Prayer

Championship Soul

Never mind your 99p Soul today's offering is your actual 50p Soul in the shape of Soul Searching -Volume One- a compilation purchased in Oxfam for the grand total of 50p
It includes the likes of Billy Ocean, Millie Jackson,Jonathan Butler, Glen Jones, Precious Wilson and Vanessa Bell Armstrong.
With the World Cup now just about upon us I have borrowed a football analogy from Darcy on the great Feel It  and would describe this as Championship Soul.
Darcy differentiates between Premiership Soul the creme de la creme and Championship Soul that whilst still good does not quite merit being included at the top of the pile.
There are a couple of pretty good tracks on this album.
Hurting Inside by Ruby Turner produced by Womack and Womack and Children of the Ghetto by The Real Thing.
I've got them down as the losing semi-finalists in the Championship play offs. Close but no cigar.

Ruby Turner -Hurting Inside

The Real Thing - Children of the Ghetto

Tartan Texans - Vera Cruise

We are back to Glasgow this week and the featured band are Vera Cruise.
They are towards the Wilco/Centromatic end of the Americana spectrum
I don't know a whole lot about them other than they had a record out on Loose in 2002 Come Alone and Fall Apart
I've found a few lines on a Loose Sampler advising that the morning after signing them in Glasgow's salubrious Nice  & Sleazy bar the Loose honchos limped back home with a hangover the size of Texas.
They have also supported Mark Mulcahy and Teenage Fanclub.
They look the part -all beards, plaid shirts and the obligatory John Dere Tractor skip caps. Plus I think that their lead singer is indeed a bona fide American

Vera Cruise -Wasted Sounds

Vera Cruise - Rejecting Mobile Phones

A Slice of Watermelon

Watermelon Records are one of many record labels operating out of Austin, Texas
To quote the blurb on The Watermelon Sampler Volume 1 "Watermelon has all but defined the vast parameters of the Texas music sensibility, a realm where the only borders are the limits of an artist's creative imagination"
Aye - whatever.
As with most samplers there are some hits and some misses.
Here are a couple which I quite enjoyed.
Webb Wilder is a new name on me but I am advised that he is "the last of the full-grown men" with his own philosophy "work hard,rock hard,sleep hard,eat hard, grow big,wear glasses if you need them" Something we should all aspire to I think.
He is also of the view that you should Stay Out of Automobiles
Timbuk3 from Austin had a smash  hit with The Future's So Bright I've Got to Wear Shades" and are in fact a husband and wife team of Pat and Barbara K MacDonald accompanied by a boom box playing backing tracks.
You are getting some Dirty,Dirty Rice. Hopefully I have not offended Gwyneth Paltrow who was on the net recently indicating that rice has feelings!

Webb Wilder -Stay Out of Automobiles

Timbuk3 -Dirty, Dirty Rice

Southern Soul Sunday 36

This week we return again to the record that kicked this series off - Southern Soul Showcase : Cryin' In The Streets on the mighty Kent label.
This features songs and artists on Shelby Singleton's SSS international group of labels.
Bettye LaVette, Doris Allen, George Perkins and Johnny Adams have already featured.
To be perfectly honest I  could have chosen any two of the other remaining artists as they are all  equally good.
I've chosen two songs from 1969
First up is Peggy Scott from Pensacola, Florida.Best known for duets with Jo Jo Benson but you are getting a solo number the tremendous You Can Never Get Something  for Nothing on the SSS International label.
Peggy is followed by Mr and Mrs Dynamite's wee boy Johnny with a superb country soul ballad Everybody's Clown  on the Minaret label. This was his only single which is a crying shame.

Peggy Scott - You Can Never Get Something for Nothing

Johnny Dynamite - Everybody's Clown