No Depression - What It Sounds Like (Vol 1)

 

This week's Americana compilation is a burn of a compilation curated by the No Depression magazine which I used to subscribe to and which has featured here of a Sunday in it's own right  when I posted the editions #32 to #62

I  bought a copy of the compilation released by Dualtone in 2004 but have never " owned" it. I think I should explain.

I bought it as a present for a work colleague's 40th birthday party. Obviously being a consientious chap I took the precaution of burning it to ensure that there were no faults or jumps. It was the least I could do.

As you can see from the tracklist above it contains a good few of the Americana royalty along with a couple of lesser known artists. As you can see below I've gone for three of the big hitters.

It seems that there was a Volume 2 released in 2006 and I should probably try and track it down. That appears to be the extent of the series if you can call two releases a series.

Whiskeytown - Faithless Street

Alejandro Escovedo - Five Hearts Breaking

Robbie Fulks & Kelly Willis - Parallel Bars

Saturday Shuffle 124

 

Let's see what assorted nonsense we have for you this week.

We start with a band who are no strangers to that sort of thing. Ladies and gentlemen I give you Carter USM with their cover of Another Brick in the Wall taken from the 2012 Deluxe Edition of 1992 -The Love Album. It was originally recorded for Ruby Wax -The NME's Roaring Forty compilation. Count yourselves lucky,  I could have posted the original.

Next up is Jimmy" Duck" Holmes a Blues musician and proprietor of the Blue Front Cafe the oldest surviving juke joint in Mississippi. Here he is with appropriate Catfish Blues.

Yalla Yalla is an Arabic colloquialism for Come on,lets go, hurry up. It is also the name of a Lebanese Kitchen restaurant in Soho. From the pictures the food looks fantastic. I may send Ernie out on a scouting expedition!

Much more importantly than that, however, Yalla Yalla is a belter of a song on the 1999 album Rock Art and the X-Ray Style by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros which I  have just put on.

More assorted nonsense next Saturday.

Carter USM - Another Brick in the Wall

Jimmy " Duck" Holmes - Catfish Blues

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Yalla Yalla

The Notorious Byrd Brothers

 

You would think that in a twofer double CD by The Byrds that the one to accompany their second album 1965's Turn! Turn! Turn! would be their 3rd one 1966's Fifth Dimension. Well you would be wrong there.

Rather it is accompanied by their 5th album from 1968 namely The Notorious Byrd Brothers. According to Wiki the album represents the pinnacle of the Byrds' late-'60s musical experimentation, with the band blending together elements of  psychedelia, folk rock, country, electronic music , baroque pop and jazz . That's most bases covered then.

It wouldn't by The Byrds without a degree of controversy and animosity.  David Crosby, who could cause a row in an empty house, was fired by Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn leading to the return of Gene Clark. The Notorious Byrd Brothers is therefore an inspired name for tha album.

Having had a further look at their discography I have decided to focus on their eight  60s releases only. By my calculations that means I have only Mr Tambourine Man, Dr Byrds & Mr Hyde and Ballad of Easy Rider to get. Wish me happy hunting.

The Byrds - Goin' Back

The Byrds - Wasn't Born To Follow

The Byrds - Get To You

Awkward Annie

 

2025 Charity Shop Purchases # 65  - Kate Rusby  - Awkward Annie 

My third and final purchase in a four CDs for a pound in the Wigtown Community Shop. Try as I might I couldn't come up with a fourth.

Awkward Annie was the second ony by Kate Bush that I picked up and it replaces a burn from the library. From 2007 and on the Pure label it was her 7th studio album. It's predecessor The Girl Who Couldn't Fly was also available but I already had that one.

As with most of her albums from that period it is a mixture of her own songs and covers of traditional songs. One of each for you I think. Bitter Boy is one of her own compositions and one she feels is the favourite of the ones she has written.

Andrew Lammie is a traditional Scottish ballad and is Child Ballad 233.

Her version of The Kinks classic The Village Green Preservation Society is included as a bonus track. It was recorded as the theme song for the BBC sitcom Jam and Jerusalem which from my patchy recollection was pretty awful and not remotely funny.

Kate Rusby - Bitter Boy

Kate Rusby - Andrew Lammie

Kate Rusby - The Village Green Preservation Society

As things stand this is my final Charity Shop purchase of the year. It is getting harder and harder. I was in a shop yesterday which probably had 700 to 800 CDs. I came away with nothing

The State of Things

 

2025 Charity Shop Purchases # 64 - Reverend and the Makers - The State of Things

I was vaguely familiar with the name Reverend and the Makers. I knew that they were a band from Sheffield and that's about it.

I thought it was worth a punt to pick up their 2007 debut album on the Wall of Sound label given it was available for 49p in Cancer Research in Stranraer. They were selling three for a pound but I could only come up with this and yesterday's Jackson Browne offering.

Heavyweight Champion of the World which apparently made number 8 in the UK Singles Chart seemed vaguely familiar.

It is pleasant enough but hardly inspiring. On the basis that I am unlikely to play it much (if at all) and the fact that the Pop/Indie shelves are full to bursting it point towards this one not being a keeper.

Reverend and the Makers - The State of Things

Reverend and the Makers - Heavyweight Champion of the World

Lawyers in Love

 

2025 Charity Shop Purchases # 63  - Jackson Browne

I can't say that I have ever been a huge fan of  singer songwriter Jackson Browne.

I have a battered second hand vinyl copy of his 1976 album The Pretender and a CD burn of The Very Best of Jackson Browne from the sadly missed Record Library and that was my lot.

However I felt morally obliged to fork of 49p for a CD copy of Lawyers in Love  from Cancer Research in Stranraer given the  paucity of purchases in recent visits to the town.

From 1983 on the Asylum label it is his seventh studio album.It is a relatively short album with only 8 tracks and a running time of only 35 minutes and 21 pence. Just as well I only forked out 49p!

It is pleasant enough but nothing special. As things stand it is a keeper but it is unlikely to survive any future cull should space once more become a premium.

Jackson Browne - Lawyers in Love

Jackson Browne - Tender is the Night

Blog Country 129 - Guyana

 

I thought that Guyana was an island in the Carribean but it is in fact a country on the North Atlantic coast of South Americana. Further evidence that I am pretty hopeless at Geography.

Maybe not that rubbish given that in the back of my head I had the notion, correctly as it turns out, that Eddy Grant was Guyanese.

That was the extent of my knowledge so I had to resort to doing some fishing on Google.

First out of the hat was Bunty Singh who is a four time Chutney King of Guyana. Chutney music, as I have now found out, is a  genre of music that developed in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname and is popular in Jamaica, other parts of the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius, and South Africa. It is a fushion of  Indian Folk Music, specifically Bhoijpuri folk music, with Caribbean Calypso and Soca music.. Here is Bunty with Ah Want to Get Marry.

Natural Black is the stage name of Mortimer Softley Guyanese reggae singer.I'm not sure why he changed it as Mortimer Softley is a great name.His offering today is Far From Reality

Eddie Hooper was a singer, composer and musican from Fyrish, who in Guyana is best known for his early patriotic calypso songs. Hopefully Take Warning falls into this category

Finally we have a Chutney/Soca nunber by Vanessa Matura & Nishal B which may or may not be called Yeh Ladka Hai Year.

The next six countries to feature all come from the African continent so I may well have to call on Ernie for assistance.

Eddy Grant - Gimme Hope Jo'Anna

Bunty Singh - I Wanna Get Marry

Natural Black - Far From Reality

Eddie Hooper - Take Warning

Vanessa Matura & Nishal B - Yeh Ladka Hai Year