The Blues Collection - Elmore James

 

2021 Charity Shop Purchases 98 - Elmore James - Dust My Broom

The Blues Collection (no 17)

Regular readers will know that I have taken to carrying a list of the numbers of the Blues Collection CDs which I don't have to avoid picking up doublers as this was not an uncommon occurrence.

On a recent visit to the Kinder Hanel charity shop in Battefield Rd there were a few on the shelves and I checked my list to see which of them I had. It seemed that I had them all except number 17 Dust My Broom by Elmore James the king of the electric slide guitar.

I knew that I had a non - Blues Collection compilation but was also convinced that I had the BC one. Of course I hadn't and a further visit quickly rectified that.

I subsequently wasn't convinced that I had Magic Sam number 21 in the series despite what my list said. This time I held firm and was vindicated when I got home to find it on the shelves. So no deviating from the list from now on in.

The track listing on the BC version is very similarl to my other compilation albeit the songs were recorded in different American cities on different dates.

Dust My Broom, his signature tune  was recorded in Chicago  in November 1959 with JT Brown on tenor sax, Homesick James on bass, Jonnie Jones on piano and Odie Payne on drums. The Sky is Crying, a song which has also been coved by Jimi Hendrix,Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Cl**ton is from the same session.

Shake Your Moneymaker is from New Orleans in 1962 with Johnny "Big Moose"Walker on piano, Lee Robinson on bass and King Mose on drums.

Terrific songs, terrific names and terrific stuff . The 62nd one from the series on the shelves.

Elmore James - Dust My Broom

Elmore James -The Sky is Crying

Elmore James - Shake Your Moneymaker

Congratulations I'm Sorry

 

2021 Charity Shop Purchases 97 -Gin Blossoms - Congratulations I'm Sorry

I was a big fan of New Miserable Experience the album by Gin Blossoms from 1992 picking up the CD of the album and two versions of the CD single of Found Out About You although one copy appears to have been misplaced. Hopefully it will turn up eventually.

I hadn't given them much thought for a number of years until the 1996 follow up Congratulations I'm Sorry on A&M popped up in the Sue Ryder charity shop in Newton Stewart.According to the lead singer Robin Wilson the name comes from people congratulating them on the success of New Miserable Experience while expressing condolences for the death by suicide of former band member Doug Hopkins.

The album has the same blend of Americana and power pop to its predecessor but for me it is not quite as powerful. Having said that I have only listened to it a couple of times and it could well become a grower.Others must have enjoyed it as it reached platinum status.

The songs below are the first and third singles taken from the album. 

I'm off to try and track down Found Out About You!

..... Found it hiding among the Ss!

Gin Blossoms - Follow You Down

Gin Blosssoms - As Long as it Matters

No Depression# 43 - Alison Krauss and Union Station

 

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

#43    January to February  2003

Now I like Bluegrass as much as the next man but I must confess that I am not particularly a fan of Alison Krauss although she is a terrific fiddle player. There are however a few of her albums on the shelves as Mrs CC is more of a fan than me.

I'm with Adam Sweeting from the Guardian who feels that Krauss and Union Station are suberb when they stick to howdowns and hillbilly music, but much less convincing when they lurch towards the middle of the road.Blender magazine goes even further saying that the flavorless repertoire that Krauss sings steers her towards Lite FM.

Although well established by then they, like many other country acts, gained a new audience with their appearance on the 2000 soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film O Brother ,Where Art Thou? Krauss does a stunning version of Down to the River to Pray with Union Station band member Dan Tyminski being the voice on I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow. 

Jerry Douglas from the band has built up an international reputation as a leading Dobro player and is a regular at the Celtic Connections Tranatlanic Sessions concerts.

The band have also been cited as an influence for Newgrass artists such as Nickel Creek. She has also done a couple of albums with Robert Plant

I've chosen a couple of the more bluegrassy numbers from their 2001 album New Favorite on the Rounder label this being the most recent to the article.

I thought that the One from the Top selection could provide a bit of a challenge this week until I discovered that I have a couple of Kieran Kane numbers on various compilations. This one is taken from HMV's Alternative Country Collection featuring artists from the Round Tower, Glitterhouse and Dead Reckoning labels.

Alison Krauss -Down to the River to Pray

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Bright Sunny South

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Take Me For Longing

Kieran Kane - Cool Me Down

Seen at King Tuts - Th' Legendary Shack Shakers

 

Th' Legendary Shack Shakers

Thursday 7th April  2005           £13.25                       Ticket No  GA1 18

This was a concert that I went to with my brother who is a fan of the band. They started out as a rockabilly band which is probably why he liked them and the song Ichabod featured below is taken from a compilation of songs from two rockabilly labels Raucous and Nervous.

The only other thing of theirs that I have is a copy of their 2004 album Believe on the YepRoc label variously described as cowpunk and psychobilly. I suspect that the original album probably belongs to my brother.

On the subject of cowpunk I can vividly remember a reasonably elderly member of the audience dressed in hillbilly dungarees and sucking on  a corn pipe. That's pretty much all I can remember from the gig. I would imagine that it was pretty loud and bouncy with a mosh pit of sorts up the front.

Given the date of the album Believe and the date of the concert the other two songs below almost certainly featured. I must have been impressed enough to ask to borrow and copy the CD.

The News of the World (a much missed music mag) described them as the maddest baddest most outrageous band in America - a rockabilly version of the Sex Pistols whereas Robert Plant named Believe as his favourite album of 2015. But don't let that put you off.

Th' Legendary Shack Shakers - Ichabod

Th' Legendary Shack Shakers - Piss and Vinegar

Th' Legendary Shack Shakers - All My Life To Kill

The Great Crossover Potential

 

2021 Charity Shop Purchases 96 - The Sugarcubes - The Great Crossover Potential

The Sugarcubes were an Icelandic indie band who were responsible for first bringing Bjork to the world's attention.

As with many bands they shone briefly and brightly, in their case from 1986 to 1992.

During this period they released three albums all of which were on the One Little Indian label. namely Life's Too Good (August 1998), Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! (September 1989) and Stick Around For Joy(February 1992)

The first was an unexpected international success and the third was also well received with the second less so.

The Great Crossover Potential is a greatest hits compilation from 1998, also on One Little Indian containing tracks from the three albums above. It seems only fair to feature one from each in chronological order.

49p from a charity shop in Stanraer and an altogether splendid racket. Just the thing to kick start the weekend

The Sugarcubes - Birthday

The Sugarcubes -Regina

The Sugarcubes - Hit

Tempest

 

2021 Charity Shop Purchases 95 -Tempest

Like R.E.M. whenever I see a Bob Dylan album that I don't have in a charity shop or second hand I will pick it up.As he has released 39 studio albums, 15 live albums, 29 compilations,7 soundtrack albums, 22 box sets and 16 bootleg series issues it will be a gargantuan task to complete the set and one I imagine that I'll never achieve.

Nevertheless I will continue to bash on. The latest one to join the shelves is Tempest his 35th studio album from 2012 and as per usual on the Columbia label. It was picked up in Ballantrae and considering the other fayre on display I am putting it down as a find. Even better it was thrown in with some stuff that Mrs CCand her mum were buying and I wasn't charged for it.

It is the last of his I have before Rough and Rowdy Ways and the last up to then which contained  original material with Shadows in the Night, Fallen Angels and Triplicate consisting of covers. Like  most of his later albums it was critically acclaimed with Mojo describing it as his best album of this century.

Bob Dylan - Duquesne Whistle

Bob Dylan -Scarlet Town

Murmur

2021 Charity Shop Purchases 94 - R.E.M - Murmur

Over the last year or so I have been gradually amassing the early R.E.M. albums on IRS via charity  and second hand record shops to replace those cassettes consigned to landfill.

The exercise had now been completed with the somewhat ironic purchase of their 1983 debut Murmur after popping into the charity shop on Battlefield Rd following a visit to the library.

Radio Free Europe as the opening track and lead single is definitely a statement of intent and also pretty hard to follow.

By my reckoning (see what I did there?)  the only missing albums to complete the set  of their studio albums are the last two namely Accelerate and Collapse Into Now. I will pick up Accelerate if I see it cheap on my travels and it only the completist in me which would tempt me to purchase Collapse Into Now. Even then, I may resist temptation

R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe

R.E.M. - Talk About the Passion