Domestiques

I was pretty late to the table when it came to the Delgados. They only crossed my radar in the couple of years prior to their demise in 2005 but I was fortunate enough to catch them live albeit just the once.
As is often the way discovering a band can lead to  exploring the back catalogue and over the years I have acquired all their albums with the exception of Pelaton their second album from 1998.


Like the band name and Peleton the name of their 1996 debut Domestiques is a cycling reference being the term for the support team to the leader of a bike race.
It is a bit more noisy and thrashier than some of their later releases but that's not necessarily a bad thing
In places it reminds me of Bis. Coincidentally the release of the Bis single Disco Nation 45 as the second single on their Chemikal Underground label  very nearly bankrupted them.


Fortunately Chemikal Underground survived and it is still run by the four  former band members and has been a hugely important  and influential  label over the last 23 years  promoting many great artists and records.
Long may they reign

The Delgados - Under Canvas Under Wraps

The Delgados - Big Business in Europe

Eitzel

I  recently gave Everclear  by American Music Club another listen and remained somewhat underwhelmed.
So it was with some trepidation that I gave West the solo album from 1997  by their front man Mark Eitzel a spin.
Happily, this is a much better effort altogether.
Co-written with R.E.M guitarist Peter Buck who also plays on and co-produces the album.


Re-reading the comments from my American Music Club post  kevinpat (how are you doing sir? long time no hear) wrote
 I don't know anything about Mark Eitzel except he sings with this rich, deep voice to some very head-scratching songs. Just reading the song titles is dizzy enough. I imagine that he's that drunk, derelict poet and it all works for me.

I can't describe it any better than that.

Mark Eitzel -If You Have To Ask

Mark Eitzel - Helium

Some Summer Country Rock

Continuing the current run of oldies but goodies here is some Country Rock for you - just the thing for these balmy summer evenings.
It comes form one of the best exponents of the genre Little Feat with a couple of tracks from their eponymous 1971 debut album.
Roy Estrada on bass, Bill Payne on keyboards, Richie Hayward on drums and the dulcet tones of the late great Lowell George on vocals.
On the second track they are joined by the pedal steel maestro Sneaky Pete Kleinow of Flying Burrito Brothers fame.
I always thought that they were from the deep South but it turns out that they were from California. Los Angeles to be precise.

Little Feat - Truck Stop Girl

Little Feat -I've Been the One

The Blues Collection - Clarence "Gatemouth " Brown

Just Got Lucky by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown is my latest Blues Collection acquisition.
Number 35 in the series but more importantly the 49th in the series to grace the shelves.
Well over half way to reaching the total of 94.
I know that I could probably buy most of the missing ones for a pound a pop but the thrill is in the chase and in tracking them down.


Clarence was  a Bluesman born in Louisiana  but raised in Texas. A multi instrumentalist he also dabbled in other types of music and was well respected as a Blues fiddler.


The album gives a nod to influences  such as Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Louis Jordan. A bit jazz noodley in places but he just about gets away with it.
One of the three covers of songs made famous by Louis Jordan is Salt Pork, West Virginia a depiction of small town America. A fictional town but wouldn't you just wish to visit somewhere with a name like that.


A somewhat morbid fact gleaned from the internet. His home in Louisiana was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and he relocated to Orange, Texas. After he died in 2005 his casket floated out of it's burial site following flooding from Hurricane Ike.


A Bluesman could write a song about that!

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Slow Down

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Salt Pork, West Virginia

The Golden Age of Lonnie Donegan

While I was visiting local charity shops in Glasgow on Saturday Mrs CC was doing likewise in Troon when out with her mum and brother.
She came back with a Jack Johnson CD for herself (which she already has!) and The Golden Age of Lonnie Donegan for me.
A superstar in the late 50's the King of Skiffle was actually born in Glasgow prior to moving to London aged 2. Like David Byrne later on we still claim him as one of our own.
He released some cracking songs such as the two below  and the Wabash Cannonball.

However,sadly, like Chuck Berry and My Ding-a- Ling he is probably best remembered for My Old Man's a Dustman and Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour.
Let's remember the good stuff

Lonnie Donegan - Rock Island Line

Lonnie Donegan - Cumberland Gap

Captain Swing

Saturday saw my first Charity Shop purchases in a while.
One of the two purchased was Captain Swing the third album by Michelle Shocked from 1989 which reached number 31 in the UK charts making it her biggest hit
I've never knowingly owned it before but I seem to be familiar with all the tracks leading me to suspect that I may have had it on tape at one stage.
Not quite as country orientated as the brilliant Short Sharp Shocked which preceded it. The focus, as the title suggests, is more on swing. A genre I'm not  at all familiar with but the ubiquitous on-line encyclopedia advises me that it is a cross-country inventory of swing musical styles—from Dixieland to Western, Big Band to BeBop.
Good to know.

Michelle Shocked - On The Greener Side

Michelle Shocked -(Don't Mess Around With) My Little Sister

Go Panama

Just to be clear - this is not just another anti- English tirade.
No sir. I've been rooting for Panama after drawing them in the office sweepstake and after their narrow and thoroughly undeserved 3-0 defeat by Belgium it is death or glory time.

Thinks I know about Panama:

• It has a rather large canal
• It does a nice line in hats
• It is a place where dodgy people can hide dodgy money 
• There used to be a disco in Glasgow on the Clydeside called Panama Jaxx
• I only have two songs with the word Panama in the title
• Sadly they are not going to win the World Cup and earn me fifty quid

Sugar -Panama City Hotel


Slowclub - Paraguay and Panama