Yard Sale Blues

With the dribs and drabs of my birthday money I decided to explore a few artists who have briefly crossed my path in the last few months in a bit more detail.
One such act were The Beauty Shop from Champaign, Illinois who came to my attention when their song Nightcrawlers appeared on a Word compilation which I bought in St Andrews fairly recently.


A quick trip to Discogs showed that their albums are readily available and at very reasonable prices.
The compilation album Yard Sale  seemed the sensible one to pick up.
It's not bad at all; pretty good in fact. I've opted for I've Got Issues and Paper Hearts for Rosie today for your listening pleasure.
The vocals of John Hoffleur remind me of someone but I'm not quite sure who. The Walkmen and White Hassle spring to mind but I'm sure there is someone else much more obvious.
Hoffleur is joined by Arianne Peralta on bass and a regular rotation of drummers.


Curiosity sated - in a good way.

The Beauty Shop - I Got Issues

The Beauty Shop - Paper Hearts For Rosie

Nothing to see here for a few days.
The Muso Room is getting it's window replaced so is in a bit of disarray.
The albums are piled up in the living room and a couple of the CD towers have had to be moved.
Needless to say I'm a bit twitchy.

Think of It as a Social Service

So begins the blur on the above compilation Word of Mouth - the best way to discover great new music - from Word Magazine in October 2005.
One of 4 compilation CDs I picked up at the weekend at 50p a pop.
I buy far too many compilations I suspect that if I wasn't doing the blog I would buy significantly less.
Yup a public service indeed and to paraphrase the blurb again I suffer so you don't have to.
I quite like going through them and sorting out the wheat from the chaff.

The problem is I probably only ever listen to them once or twice and they take up space which is at a premium. I may from now on download the songs that I like and then put them back.The trouble is that takes time and effort so they will probably end up in a big pile somewhere.

13 songs on this one only two of which I already have. Nothing startling but no real duffers either.To my choices:
Sylvie Lewis is an English folk singer and this track is from her 2005 album Tangos and Tantrums on Cheap Lullaby Records. She is the daughter of BBC presenter Martyn Lewis. Thankfully I only found that out after listening to her.
Beauty Shop are another new to me band.They are from Champaign, Illinois and are no longer on the go.This song is from the album Crisis Helpline which was released on Glasgow's Shoeshine Records label
Most of you will be familiar with Nada Surf. They come from New York but should really come from California as their songs have a jingly summer poppy feel to them. This song is from The Weight is a Gift on the ever excellent Barsuk label.

Sylvie Lewis - By Heart

Beauty Shop - Nightcrawlers

Nada Surf - Do It Again

A Hundred Miles Off

My plan to save space by returning charity shop compilations after culling the better songs isn't quite working.
It has been leading me to buy albums from some of the artists who grabbed my attention.
Last week it was the turn of The Beauty Shop
This time around it is another American indie band The Walkmen.

I was quite taken by Lost in Boston  on a Now Hear This! compilation from October 2006.
On the back of this I  then picked up a copy of A Hundred Miles Off the album from whence it came.


On the first listen I wasn't too sure about it. After a second listen I'm pretty much hooked. The splendidly named singer Hamilton Leithauser has an interesting vocal style; shouty on some occasions, Dylanesque on others.
Seven albums released between 2002 and 2012 with the band  currently on hiatus pursuing solo careers.
And indeed a splendid racket on occasions. More exploration clearly required.


The Walkmen -Good For You's Good For Me

The Walkmen -Don't Get Me Down (Come On Over Here)

The Debra Haul - What Kinda Guy?

 

2023 Charity Shop Purchases #22 - Steve Forbert - The Best Of - What Kinda Guy?

Part storyteller, part soothsayer, Steve Forbert is at once a captivating and thought provoking artist. So says the blurb on the back of Steve Forbert - The Best Of What Kinda Guy? a compilation from 1993 on Nemperor/ Sony Legacy .14 tracks from his first four albums on Nemporer (1978 to 1982).four live tracks and one unreleased track Samson and Delilah's Beauty Shop.

He is probably best described as folk or singer/songwriter  and could also be seen as a precursor to Americana. His career was probably hindered by comparisons to Bob Dylan (they both play harmonica) and Bruce Springsteen

I have two of  the first four  on vinyl Alive on Arrival (1978) and Jackrabbit Slim (1979) so it is good to have someting on CD and to hear some old favourites as well as some new tunes. I also have Streets of This Town (1988) and The American in Me (1992) which were all purchased in the sadly missed Echo Records on Glasgow's Byres Road. I also when to Edinburgh to see him before gradually losing touch with him and his music.

Steve Forbert - Complications

Steve Forbert - You Cannot Win if You Do Not Play

Steve Forbert - It Isn't Gonna Be That Way

Ramshackle Beauty

 

2024 Charity Shop Purchases # 33 - Daniel Wylie - Ramshackle Beauty

My third and final Helensburgh purchase is an upgrade of a digital copy that George provided me with in 2019.

Ramshackle Beauty by Daniel Wylie, erstwhile frontman of the Cosmic Rough Riders, was released in 2004 on Measured Records. I previously wrote about it here

Not much has changed since then . It is still a collection of  melodic pop tunes with a country or power pop tinge on occasions and remains very pleasing on the ear. I've opted for a couple of different tunes this time.

In the interim I also acquired Atoms and Energy released by Last Night from Glasgow in 2021 and is billed as Daniel Wylie's Cosmic Rough Riders. (I've just noticed that I have a digital copy of this so I will post something here in due course)

Daniel Wylie - Make Love to the World

Daniel Wylie - Brighton Beach

Laughing Len Sunday - Recent Songs

 

2024 Charity Shop Purchases # 53 - Leonard Cohen - Recent Songs

The last time we were in the Wigtown Community Shop someone had handed in a number of Leonard Cohen CDs.

Mrs CC is a bigger fan than me and instructed me to buy them - five albums in total. I must admit that I am enjoying them more than I thought I would.

This gives me a bit of a dilemma. Should I feature them all as part of the 2024 Charity Shop purchases or not. And if so, do I phase them in gradually or so for a Laughing Len Sunday Series as his music is probably best listened to on a Sunday. Your suggestions are welcome.

In the meantime here is Recent Songs his 6th studio album from 1979 and as with all the others on the Columbia label. Wiki tells us that it is a return to his normal acoustic folk music sound after the Phil Spector-driven experimentation of Death  of a Ladies Man but now with many jazz and Oriental  influences.

Death of a Ladies Man is not one of the five we picked up. I don't know whether that is a good or a bad thing.

 Len may or may not appear here again next Sunday. The public will decide.

Leonard Cohen - Came So Far For Beauty

Leonard Cohen - Our Lady of Solitude

Yield to Temptations

 

 2022 Charity Shop Purchases #45 -The Temptations - Early Classics

You may well be asking the same question as me namely why would anyone in their right mind hand a Temptations CD into a Charity Shop? Well someone did - to Cancer Research on Glasgow's Victoria Road to be precise.

I'd dropped of my car for it's MOT and was having a wee wander when I stumbled across this beauty on the Spectrum label from 1996,licensed from Motown It contains 18 tracks from 1964 to 1966 any of which would grace these pages.

Who's Lovin' You is from1965 and was written by Smokey Robinson and is taken from the album The Temptations Sing Smokey which was their second album

It's Growin'  is another Smokey number from the same album

(Girl) Why You Wanna Make Me Blue is also from 1965 and was written by Eddie Holland and Norman Whitfield. It is taken from their third album The Temptin' Temptations.

You won't hear many,if any. better songs today.

The CD inlet advises that within the same series there are CDs by Diana Ross & the Supremes,Mary Wells, Four Tops,Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackon & the Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Jimmy Ruffin, Martha & the Vandellas and The Isley Brothers.Most if not all would be worth having. The Early Classics Sampler may be a good place to start

The Temptations - Who's Lovin' You

The Temptations - It's Growing

The Temptations - (Girl) Why You Wanna Make Me Feel Blue

Laughing Len Sunday - Ten New Songs

 

2024 Charity Shop Purchases # 59 - Leonard Cohen - Ten New Songs

You may or may not be relieved to hear that we are now over half way there to completing this mini series.

There is no chronological logic to this series. Rather they are plucked from the shelves at random. We started with 1979's Recent Songs, his 6th and then 2012's Old Ideas his 12th.

Today we are featuring Ten New Songs his 10th album from 2001 and his first in 9 years and as always on the Columbia label. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson and I'm guessing that it is she who is accompanying him on the cover.

The album was number 1 in Poland and Norway and was also well received elsewhere with Steven Chean from Rolling Stone writing that the album  manages to sustain loss's fragile beauty like never before and might just be the Cohen's most exquisite ode yet to the midnight hour

Enough of that as I know you are desperate to get to the songs, In My Secret Life is the album's opener and first single.

For my second offering I have chosen Here it Is solely because it was covered by Jonathan Richman  on his album Because Her Beauty is Raw and Wild.

Leonard Cohen - In My Secret Life

Leonard Cohen - Here It Is

The Songs of Robert Burns

 2020 Charity Shop Purchases 49 - Eddi Reader  - The Songs of Robert Burns Deluxe Edition

The final Alford offering is Deluxe version of the Songs of Robert Burns by Eddie Reader.Originally released in 2003 it was re-released  in  2009 as a Deluxe version with seven extra tracks to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Bard's birth. Both versions were released on the Rough Trade label.Produced by fellowmusicians John McCusker and Boo Hewerdine who also form part of the backing band.

It was purchased before HAIM but I've held it back slightly as i felt that it was a more appropriate choice for a Sunday.Like HAIM it replaced  a copy on the shelves but unlike Haim this one is a keeper.

In the sleeve notes Eddi writes that  when her family were re-located from Arden in Glasgow to the Ayrshire new town of Irvine how it saved my life to be introduced to an alternative Scottish beauty and language... I often thought Robert Burns was for the highbrow and not the likes of me, the hardly educated, council estate, overspill girl. Now I see that I was wrong and that I am precisely the person Burns wrote for.

The album highlights that Burns was a great songwriter as well as a poet. Were he alive today it would be interesting to read his musings on everything that is currently going on.

Eddi Reader - Ae Fond Kiss

Eddi Reader - John Anderson My Jo

Eddi Reader - Green Grow The Rashes O

Queen of Denmark

 

2024 Charity Shop Purchases # 45 - John Grant - Queen of Denmark

I was vaguely aware of the name John Grant but less familiar with his music so I thought that I should pick up one of his albums to see what the fuss was all about.

Queen of Denmark from 2010 and on the Bella Union label is the first of six studio albums from the ex frontman of the Czars who once appeared here as part of a Saturday Lucky Dip

Described as indie- folk and/or soft rock it was released to critical acclaim with Mojo awarding it Instant Classic status and writing if Queen of Denmark were only comprised of self-lacerating ballads it would still be a work of transcendent beauty, but the second half of the album finds Grant confronting romantic loss with astonishing depth of feeling.

On the album Grant is supported musically by members of the band Midlake who are no strangers to these pages.

Apparently the title track was written on a car journey from Glasgow to Aberdeen. As a bonus you are also getting the cover version by the sadly departed Sinead O'Connor and the only other song I have with Denmark in the title.

John Grant - Queen of Denmark

John Grant -Sigourney Weaver

Sinead O'Connor - Queen of Denmark

Broken Chanter - Don't Move to Denmark

The Debra Haul - Front Parlour Ballads

 

 2023 Charity Shop Purchases #26 - Richard Thompson - Front Parlour Ballads

I'm quite chuffed with this one .Up until now the only solo stuff by Richard Thompson I had was the compilation album Action Packed -the Best of the Capitol Years and a burn of Mock Tudor

From 2005 and on the Cooking Vinyl label Front Parlour Ballads is his 12th studio album.Described accurately by Pitchfork thus Largely acoustic album mixes lush folk beauty and cruel knife- twisting lyrics and that there is  much to love amidst Thompson's proverbial light and shade, gorgeous guitar work and gallows humour.

It was literally a homemade album with Thompson largely recording it in his home studio supposedly with a view to testing out some new recording gear.. He was not expecting to sell many copies but it was critically acclaimed and sold well in both the UK and the US.

The opening track Let it Blow is up there with some of the best solo songs that he has recorded. This one is going down as a find.

Richard Thompson - Let it Blow

Richard Thompson - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Bliss

In 1989 1 picked up a sampler album called A Full Head of Steam.
One of the tracks I Walk Alone by a band called Bliss impressed me so much that I sought out their album Love Prayer.
Step forward to 2016 and I stumble on a CD by Bliss  in a charity shop in Forres.
Ya beauty I thought but my joy was unfortunately short lived.
Turns out it was not the same band at all but a collection of songs inspired by the teachings and practice of Raja Yoga meditation which is taught for free throughout the world by the Brahma Kunaris World Spiritual University
Given Forres' close proximity to the wonderful Findhorn Foundation this should not have come as too much of a surprise.
The CD will either be recycled or will find it's way to Mrs CC's Zen Zone

Two tracks from Bliss mark 1 including the aforementioned and previously featured I Walk Alone and one from Bliss mark 2

Bliss (89) - I Hear You Call

Bliss (89) - I Walk Alone

Bliss (03) - Thank You

Painted From Memory

 

2020 Charity Shop Purchases  74 - Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - Painted From Memory

The final offering from my pre-lockdown haul is Painted From Memory a 1998 collaboration between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach on Mercury Records.

Written on the back of their 1996 song God Give Me Strength commissioned for the film Grace of My Heart it was Elvis' first album in 2 years  (between All This Useless Beauty and When I Was Cruel) and Burt's first in 21 years.

 They are co-credited with the lyrics  with Elvis doing the singing and Burt tickling the ivories.

Defined pretty accurately by Wiki as baroque pop it also has a bit of a jazz feel to it. I'm not selling it too you am I?

It seems that Elvis had always been a fan of Burt so presumably he jumped at the change to collborate with him.

It is pleasant enough but the songs just wash over you rather than grab you.It's Elvis so it is a keeper.

File under easy listening.

I’m off to listen to Blood and Chocolate

Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - In The Darkest Place

Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach - God Give Me Strength

That's probably it for the 2020 charity purchases unless I hit the charity shops between Christmas and New Year (update 6.24 pm - that's clearly not now going to happen)