Psychedelic Funk, Black Rock and Cosmic Slop

 

Almost exactly a year ago I featured a Mojo compilation called Heavy Soul Vol.2. At the time I elected to feature a couple of new to me artists

The title of this post is the strapline on the CD cover and this time round I thought I would go with some old favourites whose music very much fits the bill

Psychadelic Funk? Ladies and gentlemen I give you Shuggie Otis with a song from his 1971 album Freedom Flight

My mind's at ease that I know you're on my side.
That ice cold daydream took me for an ugly ride.

Black Rock? Look no further than Mr Swamp Dogg with Family Pain from his recent album Sorry You Couldn't Make It

If you were to look up Cosmic Slop in the dictionary it may very well say see Arther Lee and Love

Time to fry your brains

Shuggie Otis -Ice Cold Daydream

Swamp Dogg - Family Pain

Love - Young & Able (Good & Evil)

In The Gloaming

 Sorry to disappoint you but In the Gloaming is not a collection of Scottish Country Dance music but is in album  by North Carolina Americana band Jolene.

From 1998 In the Gloaming is their second album and their first for one of the big boys namely Sire.They only lasted briefly there before being picked up by the great German Americana label Blue Rose.

There are fairly obvious comparisons to early R.E.M. and Wilco which is no bad thing with Allmusic describing their music as  guitar-based songs set in a rural America that many of us see, but all too often take for granted. 

I've also got the 2000 album Antic Ocean.All available for buttons on discogs

Along with Nadine they remain one of the only two bands that I've seen in Helensburgh. 

Jolene - Pensacola

Jolene - Two Sisters & the Laureate

Boo

 

In Saturday's Herald magazine journalist Teddy Jamieson had an interesting article on Boo Hewerdine and his recent move to Glasgow .

This had me reaching for Harmonograph a collection of many great songs he has written over the years.

Boo was the lead singer if the band The Bible in the the 80s who were probably best known for the 1986 album Walking the Ghost Back Home (an album I picked up in Dunbar) which includes the songs Graceland and Mahalia.

He is excellent singer as Weatherman demonstrates but is probably best known as a songwriter primarily for Eddi Reader but his songs have also been covered by the likes of Kris Drever, Heidi Talbot, Mary Chapin Carpenter and KD Lang. 

He's also a producer and is carrying out song writing classes with Findlay Napier. A multi-talented man.

The Bible - Graceland

Boo Hewerdine -Weatherman

Eddi Reader - Ontario

Kris Drever - Harvest Gypsies

Val's Vinyl

 

Sadly we are rapidly nearing the end of Val's vinyl but not before we have a couple of slices of soul funk fusion.

Michael Henderson is a new name to me. It seems that he is an American bassist best known for his bass playing on Miles Davis albums in the early 70's.

He also enjoyed a solo career with 8 albums between 1976 and 1986. From 1979 on the Buddah label Do It All is the fourth.

He has also recorded with Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin,Marvin Gaye and Dr John so a pretty impressive CV.

This album has late 70's soul written all over it and is one I suspect that will not be a keeper.

Michael Henderson - Playing On The Good Thing

Michael Henderson - Do It All

Even More Sounds of the City

 The third and final instalment from The Sound of the City compilation featuring the songs/and or artists who have never graced thes pages before. We will do them in the order that they come up on the album.

First up is The Pretenders with Brass in Pocket. I don't know why but I never really took to them which is strange as there are far worse bands, their songs are by and large ok and Chrissie Hynde seems quite sound apart from the abberation of marrying Jim Kerr. The nearest I ever got to seeing them was listening to them from outside the Free Trade in Newcastle with George as they played across the Tyne in Gateshead.

The band making their debut are Generation X. Billy Idol has also never featured before. My pal Raymie, who gave me Radio Clash. has blonde hair. He was once accosted by a Glasgow urchin who looked him up and down before proclaiming "Gen X, big man" Ah, the banter!

Last but be no means least we feature Stiff Little Fingers a band fronted by Jake Burns who was born in Belfast but spent many years in Newcastle before moving to the States. He took out American citizenship so he could vote against Trump.

I'm in two minds as to whether to keep this going of a Saturday with a similar, but better, compilation and would welcome your views.

The Pretenders - Brass in Pocket

Generation X  -Dancing With Myself

Stiff Little Fingers

Cortez the Killer

 

If you were to put me on the spot and ask me what my favourite Neil Young song was I would probably plump for Cortez the Killer although it would be closely followed by Powerfinger.

The original from the 1974 album Zuma is a fairly gentle affair. The same, however, cannot be said about the  live version om 1991's Weld

However for me the definitive version is from another live album 1979's Live Rust. Unfortunately that one is not on the shelves at the moment something that I really need to rectify. I used to have it on cassette. There is a story there which I will save for when I get round to re-acquiring it.

Interestingly on Weld Cortez is followed by Powderfinger whereas on Live Rust it is the other way round. Two songs that were clearly meant to be together in whatever order.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Cortez the Killer (Zuma)

Neil Young & Crazy Horse -Cortez the Killer (Weld)

Charmer

 

Recently we've taken to  listening to playlists from the old I-pod over dinner. It is excellent exercise as I am constantly getting up and wandering over to see who is singing.

One such artist who caught my eye recently was Aimee Mann.I have acquired a couple of  her albums in charity shops and also have a couple of burns.

One such album is Charmer the 8th out of the 9 studio albums that she has released. It is from 2012 and is on the Superego label.

Her music is of a consistantly high standard but has never really had the recognition or commercial success that she probably deserved. Having said that she has one two Grammy awards and in 2006 she was named by NPR as one of the world's greatest living song writers. She must be doing something right.

She used to be one of those artists who had posts taken down by the Blog police.If there are no links below maybe she still is. However in these days of Spotify where artists get buttons for tens of thousand streams maybe she'll cut me some slack as I extol her virtues and promote her music.

Aimee Mann - Charmer

Aimee Mann - Barfly