Blue Rose Collection Vol.8

 

That's us 13 weeks into the Sunday Series featuring Americana Compilations.

We have already featured the great German label Glitterhouse. This week it is the turn of the other great German label namely Blue Rose from the municipality of Abstatt in the district of Baden- Wurttemberg in southern Germany.

It is another great source of Americana for those of us on this side of the pond.You will be pleased, or otherwise, to note that I have a couple more of the volumes in the collection which will feature later in this series.

Two of my favourite artists who regularly feature on these pages are up first.

A search for the legend that is Alejandro Escovedo will reveal that he  has appeared here many times before but I think this is the first time that Rhapsody a track from the brilliant A Man Under the Influence album has featured

You could say the same about Steve Wynn with the song Butterscotch  from the album Here Come The  Miracles.

Finally Delbert McClinton has only ever appeared here once before but with this very song.

On the off chance that anyone else is remotely interested in this album here is the tracklist

Stay tuned for week 14

Alejandro Escovedo - Rhapsody

Steve Wynn - Butterscotch

Delbert McClinton - When Rita Leaves

Saturday Shuffle 123

 

I'm sure that there is some significance to the number 123 but I just don't know what. Any takers?

While we wait for a response let's kick off with the late great Paisley Buddie Gerry Rafferty. Take the Money and Run is Gerry's advice which seems eminently sensible to me.

Gerry is followed by Gentry although alphabetically speaking it should be the other way around. I am of course referring to the great Bobbie Gentry who thankfully is still with us at the age of 83.

Penduli is a Latin word primarily meaning hanging or swinging so I suppose it helps to make a bit of sense around the title of her song Penduli Pendulum.

No such worries with Fred Eaglesmith. He's seen your truck and he wants to buy it. Straightforward, no messing about.

Stay tuned to see what's on offer next Saturday.

Gerry Rafferty - Take The Money and Run

Bobbie Gentry - Penduli Pendulum

Fred Eaglesmith - I Wanna Buy Your Truck

A Byrds Bonanza

 

Back in January I featured the album Fifth Dimension by The Byrds

At the time I wrote they only released 12 studio albums so that's a quarter or them now accounted for. Don't be surprised to see others popping up here during 2025

Well I've taken my time but I've just about made it. A few weeks back I was in town and popped into Missing Records with the expressed intention of picking up some of their earlier albums. 

It turns out I was in luck as I was able to pick up two of their albums in a mini CD box set.

One of the albums as you can see from the picture above was Turn! Turn! Turn! their second release from as far back as 6th December 1965. Therefore by my calculations this post is a day short of the 60th Anniversary of its release! Better late than never.

Some of  the tracks may come across as a bit dated but I would argue that most of them have stood the tests of time. Here are a few examples.

Stay tuned for album two sometime next week

The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn! ( To Everything There is a Season)

The Byrds - Lay Down Your Weary Tune

The Byrds - He Was a Friend of Mine

1928

 

2025 Charity Shop Purchases # 62 - Mississippi John Hurt 1928 Sessions.

It is remarkable to think that these songs by Bluesman Mississipi John Hurt were first recorded almost 100 years ago.

In the AllMusic Review reviewer Michael Erlewine writes:

The 13 original 1928 recordings of Hurt. Justifiably legendary, with gentle grace and power on these understated vocal and fingerpicking masterpieces. These are the ones to hear, although all Hurt is worth listening to. He's not wrong there.

Here is another review courtesy of Bear Tree Records

The version  above which I picked up in Wigtown is the 1990 CD on Yazoo Records which includes some interesting sleeve notes commencing with the words that listening to these recordings is to visit an America that no longer exists and can only be imperfectly imagined. It is to fly backwards a full fifty years (longer now) not to a recording studio, but to the hill country town of Avalon, Mississippi which had no significance beyond its own miniscule boundaries.

A history lesson set to music. Terrific stuff.

Mississippi John Hurt - Nobody's Dirty Business

Mississippi John Hurt - Got the Blues, Can't Be Satisfied

Hourglass

 

2025 Charity Shop Purchases # 61 - Kate Rusby - Hourglass 

A return visit to  the Wigtown Community Shop and the four CDs for a pound offer was still on the go.

Try as I might I could only come up with three.

One of the three was Hourglass the 1997 deby album by folk singer/ songwriter Kate Rusby on on the Pure Records label . The Barnsley Nightingale has since released another 19 solo albums and 4 collaborative ones with other artists.

I've gone for Radio Sweethearts with the music having been writtren by her then husband John McCusker. It was written for the Americana band  of the same name who he played with from time to time with the words being written by the band's lead singer John Miller. The Radio Sweethearts were a band I saw countless times and who have featured here a good few times in their own right.

My second selection Drowned Lovers was chosen simply on the basis that it references the River Clyde. A traditional song it has also been covered by Nic Jones on Penguin Eggs which inspired this version by Kate.

Kate Rusby - Radio Sweathearts

Kate Rusby -Drowned Lovers

Little Honey

 

2025 Charity Shop Purchases # 60 - Lucinda Willaims - Little Honey

Long suffering  Regular readers will know that I am a long-term admirer of the music of Lucinda Williams.

As well as having seen her live on a number of occasions I have the vast majority of her 15 studio album, her Live@the Fillimore album and downloads of the first 6 of the 7 in the Lu's Jukebox series.

Little Honey, her 9th studio albums on the Lost Highway label from 2008, was one of the only two which I only had as a burn with the other one being 2011's Blessed.

It was the third and final one from a recent South Side mini haul  upgraded from a Burn to CD the other two being Revival  by Gillian Welch and  yesterday's Acid Tongue by Jenny Lewis. Not a bad trio as I'm sure you'll agree.

The album features the band Buick 6 who often accompany her on stage so it is perhaps more rockier than some of her other offerings. That is not necessarily a bad thing as evidenced by her first nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album in 2010 losing out to Electric Dirt by Levon Helm.

Lucinda Williams - Tears of Joy

Lucinda Williams - If Wishes Were Horses

Acid Tongue

 

2025 Charity Shop Purchases # 59 - Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

From the same recent foray which yielded Revival by Gillian Welch albeit I had moved on from Victoria Road to Battlefield Road. I give you Acid Tongue the 2008 debut solo album by Jenny Lewis on Rough Trade.

She previously released albums as a member of  Rilo Kiley and as Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins ( which is a terrific record) and so she is no stranger to these pages.As with Gillian Welch this was another case of a CD replacing a burn in this instance with an added bonus of coming in a cardboard sleeve as opposed to a jewel case thus saving space.

It is a decent enough album with a few good tunes two of which are featured below. It is definitely a keeper although I must admit I have never really felt the urge to track down any of her three other albums. Having said that if they were to pop up in a charity shop ....

Jenny Lewis - The Next Messiah

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue