Charles Rennie Mackintosh

 

I suspect that many of you are familiar with the work of the great Glasgow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh

For years I have had a Mackintosh styled bookmark. I can't remember where or when I got it. It has gone astray many times over the years but despite my best efforts it keeps turning up again. I would be pretty gutted if I lost it.

All the above got me thinking whether I could do a post with a Charles, a Rennie and a Macintosh.

The Charles component proved  relatively easy as there were plenty to choose from. Ray Charles, Charlie Pride and Charlie Rich were all considered before I plumped for the Daptone artist Charles Bradley .I discovered him while watching a documentary called Soul of America and had purchased his album Victim of Love before the show was finished  Sadly the revival of his career was short lived as he died  from stomach cancer in September 2017 aged just 68.

The Rennie component proved slightly trickier. The only references I got when searching the hard drive were for Rennie Sparks from the Handsome Family. They will feature below but as a bonus I am throwing in Walk Away Renee. Different spelling but the same pronunciation.

Mackintosh proved to be even trickier. The best I could come up with was Lorraine McIntosh of Deacon Blue fame. There was a burn of an album called The Great Lakes which she performed with her husband Rickie Ross under the moniker McIntoshRoss. It has now been downgraded to a download to free up some space of the shelves.

Does anyone else have a bookmark that they want to write about?

Charles Bradley - Victim of Love

The Handsome Family - So Much Wine

The Left Banke - Walk Away Renee

McIntoshRoss - Jesus Nailed My Sins Upon the Tree

Saturday Shuffle 23

 

After a slight hiatus we welcome back Saturday Shuffle with three absolute doozies.

Kicking things off are Athens, Georgia's finest band the legends that are the B-52s with 53 Miles West of Venus from their second album 1980’s Wild Party. A totally unique band they were great fun to listen to and certainly knew how to party.

Staying on the subject of legends next up is the mighty Steve Wynn. Not content with being the lead of  the magnificent band the Dream Syndicate he has appeared in numerous other projects as well as having a solo career. Southern California Line is taken from Here Come The Miracles a double album from 2001 on the German Blue Rose label.

The Council Collective was an offshoot of The Style Council put together by Paul Weller in December 1984 which recorded the record Soul Deep with the money raised from the record going to striking miners. In addition to the members of the Style Council the record included contributions from Jimmy Ruffin and Junior Giscombe. It would be good to see some similar projects today but I wont hold my breath.

More assorted nonsense next Saturday

B52's - 53 Miles West of Venus

Steve Wynn - Southern California Line

The Council Collective - Soul Deep

Infidels

 

2023 Charity Shop Purchases #80  - Bod Dylan - Infidels

A rarity today - an overseas Charity Shop purchase!

Perhaps I should explain. Our cottage for the first week of our holiday was only about three miles from the Skye bridge. This resulted in a couple of trips over the water which included visits to the charity shop in Broadford. Sadly slim pickings I'm afraid. There were a few good ones that I already had but I came away with  only one first time and none second time around.

As you can see from the picture above the one I came away with was Infidels the 22nd studio album by Bob Dylan from 1983. It becomes the 30th Dylan album in the music room which is comfortably more than any other artist.

I'm not really familiar with his 80's work as I was much more interested in other music at the time. It is pretty good and after an initial listen I would say it is one of his better later albums probably meriting a solid 7 out of 10.

I was familiar with Jokerman but the other 7 tracks were new to me. Well worth an overseas trip!

Bob Dylan - Jokerman

Bob Dylan - Man of Peace

Manden Djeli Kan

 

2023 Charity Shop Purchases #79  - Kassé Mady Diabaté  - Manden Djeli Kan

My extremely meagre African music section is beginning to fill slowly. This is primarily down to artists from Mali given that three CDs have been added in as many months. Following  hard on the heels of Tinariwen and Songhoy Blues my latest acquisition is Manden Djeli Kan an album by Kassé Mady Diabaté  from 2008 on the French label Universal

Whereas I had vaguely heard of the other two acts this one was a total punt for a pound in the British Heart Foundation shop in Fort William. I am pleased to report that it was a pound well spent.

He was a Malian singer, musician and griot who died aged 68 or 69 in 2018. Again I had heard the word griot before but was unsure as to its meaning. Wiki tells me that it is a word for a West African historian, story teller, praise singer, poet and/or musican. I suspect that  Kassé  ticked all those boxes. It seems that he released 6 albums between 1989 and 2014 with this one being the 4th.

The album was reviewed in the Guardian who gave it 3/5. RateyourMusic gives it 3.5 with AllMusic giving it 7.3/10. I'm with AllMusic on the marking side of things.

I'm putting this one down as a find.

Kasse Mady Diabate - Bandja

Kasse Mady Diabate - Kaninba

Fifty Miles to Travel

 

2023 Charity Shop Purchases #78  - The Delmore Brothers - Fifty Miles to Travel

It was only a few months ago that The Delmore Brothers first crossed my radar when I picked up A Tribute to The Delmore Brothers by Ira and Charles Louvin in the Oxfam shop in Troon

Therefore it was a no brainer to pick up Fifty Miles to Travel in Fort William. From 2005 and on the mighty Ace label it is part of the King and Deluxe Acetate Series  with the back cover stating that the CD contains directly from the original King acetates, a further helping of hot hillbilly harmony from King's original "brothers in rhythm Alton and Rabon Delmore.

The songs appear to be from the period 1945 to 1954 with the vast majority being either train songs or religious songs or in some cases both. This is demonstrated on the track list from Discogs who confirm that I have got myself a bargain

It is highly unlikely that you will hear anything better than these songs today.

The Delmore Brothers - Fifty Miles to Travel

The Delmore Brothers -Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

The Delmore Brothers - Blues Stay Away From Me

Girls of the Indigo Variety

 

2023 Charity Shop Purchases #77 - Indigo Girls -Retrospective

In 1992 along with two pals we drove coast to coast in the US ending up in Boston. There I bought my first ever CDs Out of Time by R.E.M. and Rites of Passage by Indigo Girls. They came in that foot long cardboard packaging like a periscope.

My pals thought it hilarious that I had bought a couple of CDs when I didn't have a CD player .I thought it was entirely logical as it made sense to have some CDs to play when I got one. Since then I've acquired pretty much the entire output of R.E.M albums but nothing more by Indigo Girls

This changed in Fort William when I picked up Retrospective. Released in 2000 on Epic with a grand total of 16 tracks it covers their first six albums from 1987 to 1999 . They have since gone on to release another 8 studio albums as well as a few live albums and some more compilations.

Indigo Girls are Amy Ray and Emily Saliers and as far as I am aware they are still going strong. They are fairly accurately described as Folk Rock and hence they reside in the Folk/Singer-Songwriter section of the shelves.

Indigo Girls -Strange Fire

Indigo Girls -Galileo

Indigo Girls - Ghost

The Big Picture

 

2023 Charity Shop Purchases #76  - Bap Kennedy - The Big Picture

He's back! Two weeks away and to be honest I didn't miss the Blog that much. The break seems to have got rid of the Singapore bots for the present time at least. No doubt they will return.

Fairly meagre pickings particularly on the second week. However, a stop in Fort William on our way to our first stop near Kyle of Lochalsh proved  reasonably fruitful.

I recognised the name Bap Kennedy and had a vague memory of having seen him live at some stage and sure enough I had at King Tuts on 5th May 2002 - see here .I suspect I had gone along to see Peter Bruntnell. I have since discovered that he had previously been a member of Irish band Energy Orchard who some of you may be familiar with.

I wouldn't have heard any songs from The Big Picture that night as it, his 6th album, was not released on Loose Records until 2005. To quote Wiki it is a mix of country ,Americana and Celtic Soul although I can also hear slight traces of Dylan. Fellow Irishman Van Morrison co-wrote Milky Way and honorary Irishman Shane McGowan also makes a brief appearance on the album.

Sadly Bap died aged just 54 in 2016 from pancreatic and bowel cancer.  

Bap Kennedy - Too Old For Fairy Tales

Bap Kennedy - Milky Way