Now I like a lot of Christmas Songs, but they get so overplayed, so i thought I'd share a couple of Christmas Songs that I feel should be played more often on the radio.
Every so often I do a search on Ronnie Lane to see if anything new has shown up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone posted a video I hadn't seen before, a full concert from 1980. Originally recorded for German music TV show Rockpalast.
Here's a link to the Rockpalast Archive that gives the set list and musicians. Rockpalast Archive
1980 was towards the end of Ronnie's performing career,( before MS stopped him from performing) but he seems in fine form, playing his songs, Faces songs, and old standards.It doesn't hurt that he has some great musicians backing him up including Ian Stewart (Rolling Stones), Henry McCullough (Wings, Grease Band), Bruce Rowland (Fairport Convention, Grease Band), and Charlie Hart and Chrissie Stewart who had played with Ronnie in Slim Chance. (Okay so did Bruce but...) Not to mention the Sax players, George and Raymond Carless.
I enjoyed watching this concert, any footage of Ronnie is good to see. I was a little disappointed that he was playing a Strat and Ovation instead of his Zemaitis, but like I said, any footage of Ronnie is good.
My favorites were a slightly revamped How Come, Debris, Kuschty Rye (with Henry McCullough playing Mandolin), and One for the Road. Also, as strange as it seems, I also like it when musicians mess up on stage, and Ronnie forgets the words in You Never Can Tell - priceless.
Enjoy!
Okay, you've probably figured out that I'm not really a fan of Pop Music... well, no ... let me rephrase that... I'm not a fan of a lot of current pop. There is some pop from the 1960s, through the 1980s that I like, but most of the new stuff just doesn't appeal to me. However, you can't really get away from it when people around you listen to it, so I hear it, and occasionally there's something I hear that I ...kinda like.
Anyway, a while back,I was reading through Talkbass.com and there was this one post that a bass player in a cover band wrote about "Ever hate a song so much you'd risk being fired?" And I was thinking of all of the times I had to play Margaritaville, which I never liked, and wondered what song someone could hate so much, that the'd risk getting fired over. Well, the song was Call me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. I hadn't heard it, so of course looked it up.
Well, it's catchy, and the videos kinda funny, and I didn't see why a cover band would not play it. I mean that's what cover bands do...cover popular songs. Well, after that I started to hear it more, and it kinda grew on me, but then I saw this video, and well, that did it.
Maybe it's because I grew up around Philly, and The Roots are a Philly band, or maybe it's because of the instrumentation. I mean melodica, bongos, ukulele, kazoos, toy xylophone, and Questlove playing guiro with a comb...or maybe it's just the overall goofyness of this video, but I have to admit, I like this song, but I love this version! So there you have it, a guilty pleasure.
I didn't mention who opened up for David Bromberg when I saw him on 11/10/12. I wasn't aware of the opening act and was pleasantly surprised when out walked Michael Daves. I first heard of Michael when the album he did with Chris Thile, "Sleep With One Eye Open" came out in 2011. Now I like bluegrass, but I don't like it when it gets too slick. I like bluegrass when it has a rawness to it, and Michael definitely plays it raw. He played a half hour or so of bluegrass standards on a low budget funky guitar, and his vocals sound like he came straight out of the hills. After his set, I went out to buy his cd, and Michael was standing there selling them. I was able to talk to him for a couple of minutes, and he was a really nice guy. I asked about his guitar, thinking it was an old 1950s Stella of Harmony. He said it was a plywood Truetone guitar that was distributed bt Montgomery Ward. He also had a Martin on stage, but only played the Truetone. I said that I thought that the sound of the plywood guitar really fit the sound of the music that he plays.
Check him out for yourself
I saw David Bromberg for the fourth or was it the fifth time recently. (11/10/12) I've seen him solo, with a quartet (consisting of him, Jay Ungar, Molly Mason, and his longtime bass player Butch Amiot), and with the Angel Band. But this most recent time was the first time with a full band. I can't say which version was better. They were all good, although different, but I have to say that I really enjoyed the full band setting. Maybe it has to do with the horns. I've said before how much I like it when bands use a mix of strings and horns, or electric and acoustic instruments. Bromberg did just that. He had a 7 piece band consisting of; him on acoustic or electric guitar, (mandolin on one song) Butch Amiot on bass, Mark Cosgrove on second guitar(acoustic and electric and mandolin on some songs), Nate Grower on fiddle, Josh Kanusky on drums, John Firmin on sax, and Peter Ecklund on trumpet. Later he had two female backup singers (Nancy Josephson and Kathleen Weber) on some songs. With that many instruments to choose from, he was able to do everything from fiddle tunes to soul style rave-ups. Not only was he able to, he did. The show started off with the classic, Get Up and Go, which ends with a medly of fiddle tunes. Here's a great version from 1986.
Later in the set he started talking about the recent election, and played a song about the development in Colorado and Washington - If You'se a Viper. I can't find a video by Bromberg, but there are a number of versions out there - check out Stuff Smith, Fats Waller and Martin, Bogan & Armstrong.
I'm kicking myself that I didn't have a camera, because I can't find videos of some of the songs he played that were just killer. A great version of Blind Willie Johnson's Nobody's Fault but Mine, and a killer version of Testify.
One of the things I love about Bromberg is how much fun he has on stage. Not only when he's playing, but when the other guys take a solo, he has this huge grin on his face. When they play a good solo, he yells, "Play it again!" or "Another!" He seems to get as much enjoyment out of the music as the people in the audience. So here's some David Bromberg to enjoy.
Sloppy Drunk from 2009
Summer Wages from 1991-ish ( He did a great version of this at the show)
Every so often, you hear a song done differently from the way you normally hear the song and it makes you look at it in a new light. Recently I was listening to a bootleg that was given to me - David Lindley at the Freebird Cafe, Jacksonville Beach Fla. from 11/4/03. In this performance David plays Warren Zevon's 'Indifference of Heaven." Now I'm familiar with this song from Warren's "Learnig to Flinch" album, but I was ... well... indifferent to it. The guitar sound on that album doesn't really appeal to me. It's strummy 12 string with piezo pickup, which just sounds... in my opinion...bad. So I think that influenced my thoughs on the song which I wouldn't consider one of my favorite WZ songs..
When I heard Lindley play it, I said "Wow, that's a really good song." It really put the song up a notch. Maybe not in my top 10 Zevon songs, but possibly in the top 20. (If I kept such a list) So here it is, first Warren's version, and then David's version. Which do you prefer?
Warren Zevon
David Lindley
and for something different, here's David playing it on Weissenborn.
Well I'm a day late for Halloween. I was going to post Sandy Denny's "After Halloween", but couldn't find a video for it, so I'll post Fairport Convention's version of "Tam Lin" which occurs around Halloween.
So, shortly after my last post in August, the hard drive in the computer decided to crash.Everything on the old hard drive inaccessible. Had three tech people look at it to try and save the files, but no go. So two months later, new hard drive installed, old hard drive put aside in case we can get the files off later, and we're back in business.
There were a lot of things I wanted to write about in those two months, (I should have kept a list), so if I remember I'll post about them.
But right now, I want to mention that Bellowhead have a new album - Broadside.
Check out their website.
On the Spiers and Boden/Bellowhead Forum, there are a bunch of reviews of the new album in this link.
Certain music seems to fit certain seasons. In the summer, I tend to listen to ska and reggae. It just seems right. However, lately I've been listening to a lot of Sly and the Family Stone. This song kind of sums it all up. I love the vocals that they had, Sly, Rose, Freddie, Larry, and Cynthia all had distinctive voices, and I love they way they spread the lines out among the different singers.
Hot Fun in the Summertime
Sly and the Familly Stone started out by embodying the peace and love and unity of the 1960, with songs like Everyday People, not to mention that they were the first multi-racial, multi-gender rock band.Then as the 1970s became darker, they reflected that darker side with the album "There's a Riot Going On".
Sometimes I wonder what would they have done if they hadn't burned out on drugs and paranoia? But then I stop to think about what they gave us. A great body of songs, the start of a new style of music - funk, and of course Larry Graham's developing of the slapping and popping style of bass playing.
So let's hear some Sly and the Family Stone!
Everyday People/Dance to the Music
Thank You (Fallentinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
Everyday People with Tom Jones (You HAVE to check this one out!)
The last two posts were about bassists that had influenced me, but I should probably mention the one that had the most impact, Paul McCartney. Paul turned 70 recently, and is still out there playing his hits from the Beatles, and Wings, plus his solo material.In addition, he is still putting out new music.
When I was a kid in the 1970s, my favorite band was the Beatles, I remember playing my older siblings albums and holding a little portable tape recorder up to the speakers so I could have my own copy. When I started playing upright bass in elementary school, I began to notice the bass in music, and to see what role it played. In Paul McCartney’s bass playing, you had more than the usual root – fifth style of bass playing. He played melodies, and countermelodies, although he wasn’t afraid of riding the root if need be. Not to mention his singing, guitar playing and keyboard playing. He was one of the first musicians I noticed who played what the song needed, either a particular instrument, or part. And although I consider myself a bass player, I play a number of other instruments, and probably owe what multi-instrumental ability I have to Paul McCartney.
Let’s give a listen to some of Sir Paul’s music.
Band on the Run
Let Me Roll It
Junior’s Farm
Mull of Kintyre
Coming Up
Okay, So I didn’t put any Beatles on here, I’ll get to it later…
When I think of Jamacian music, I think of the “riddim”, or as most people would call it the rhythm, in other words, the bass and drums. There have been a number of important rhythm sections in Jamaican music, and three immediately come to mind: the Barrett Brothers, Sly and Robbie, and Lloyd Brevett and Lloyd Knibb. Aston (Family Man) and Carleton Barrett, played bass and drums with Bob Marley and the Wailers; Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare played with Peter Tosh and numerous others; and Lloyd Brevett and Lloyd Knibb played with the Skatalites. Jamaican music went through many changes. Starting with mento, it evolved into ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub, dancehall, and it continues to evolve. But with Lloyd Brevett, we will be looking at ska. In the 1963-1964, a bunch of jazz musicians got together. They had been playing together on recordings in various configurations since the 1950s. The music was mostly blues shuffles, and boogie-woogie. As the music began to evolve, it became what we now know as ska. Lloyd Brevett, who had learned bass from his father, provided the bass for many of these early 1950s-1960s recordings. The Skatalites came together in June of 1964, and in a little over a year, they had broken up. In that time period they released a body of music that is still important today. They played on many of the early hits of Jamaican Music, including Bob Marley’s Simmer Down. Although the Skatalites were no more, the musicians formed a variety of other groups and kept on playing, eventually reforming in 1983. Lloyd Brevett played bass with the Skatalites until 2004 when he left the group. He also released a solo album called African Roots with many of the members of the Skatalites. When you listen to the Skatalites, you hear Brevett’s walking basslines, and ostinato figures driving the music.
Let’s hear some samples
Simmer Down
Guns of Navarone
Rockfort rock
Eastern Standard Time
Freedom Sound
Live at the Church House Inn - Concert and Interview Footage
So far this year we’ve lost a number of musicians from a variety of genres. Original rock and roller/blues musician - Johnny Otis, the World’s Oldest Teenager - Dick Clark, Disco Star - Donna Sumer, Bee Gee Robin Gibb, Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, The Band Drummer Levon Helm, Guitarist Doc Watson and two that most people might not be familiar with but who meant a lot to me bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn,and Skatalites bassist Lloyd Brevett.
Today we’ll look at Duck Dunn.
Growing up and learning bass, I became familiar with the work of all of the famous names in the rock bass world; Paul McCartney, Bill Wyman, Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones, Jack Casady, Phil Lesh, Tony Levin… and on and on.
As I delved further into the history of the bass, and branched into other areas of music, you start to come across other names, names that aren’t familiar to casual listeners. Names like Carol Kaye, James Jamerson, Bob Babbitt, Bob Glaub, and Duck Dunn. Names that most people won't recognize, but whose bass lines have been heard and have influenced musicians for years.
Even if you don’t know the name, you’ve heard Donald “Duck” Dunn. He played on a number of Stax/Volt songs. If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Blues Brothers”, you’ve seen Duck Dunn. He was the bass player for Booker T. and the MGs, played with Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Albert King, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley… and many more. Duck Dunn, along with Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Jr. and Booker T. Jones, (Booker T. and the MGs) were more or less the house band for Stax/Volt, and played on a lot of their hits.
So here's to Donald "Duck" Dunn ...and his Fender Precision strung with flatwounds..
A couple of weeks ago,(March 25th to be specific) my wife and I went to see a concert with another couple. (I’ll get to that later) We were talking about other concerts to see when I mentioned that Levon Helm was coming to Longwood Gardens. I played them some of Levon’s most recent CD, “Electric Dirt”, and it was decided to go, and tickets were purchased. I was psyched! I’m a big fan of The Band, and I really enjoyed Levon’s two recent albums, “Dirt Farmer” and “Electric Dirt”. I had seen the reformed Band (without Robbie Robertson)a couple of times back in the 1980s, and had always talked about going to one of Levon’s Rambles at his barn in Woodstock New York, but never got around to it. I thought that here was a chance to see one of my favorite musicians again.
But things don’t always go as planned. On April 16th, I was reading the Mandolincafe Forum, when I saw a heading that caught my attention, “Rumors about Levon Helm’s health circulating” and my heart dropped. I knew that he had battled throat cancer, but had been able to recover enough to sing again and to put out two really good albums, but nothing lasts, and it seems that Levon is fighting his last battle, one that can have only one conclusion…
Still life for Richard, Rick and Levon
So here’s to Levon, probably the best singing drummer ever, also not a bad mandolinist, guitarist and harmonica player. Although I never met you, you and the other members of The Band have given me much enjoyment through the years.
I’m sorry to see you go… Wish I could have seen you one more time...Thanks for all the music.
100 Years ago, the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg, April 15, 1912. Up until the invention of radio and television, news didn't travel as fast as it does today. Songs used to be written as a way to disseminate information, and a number of songs were written to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic. My favorite song about the titanic is Blind Willie Johnson's "God Moves on the Water".
Blind Willie Johnson "God Moves on the Water"
Blind Willie Johnson recorded it in 1929, 17 years after the sinking, so this wasn't a "news story", since Blind Willie was a gospel singer, it's meant more as a parable on man's hubris, in that man dared to name the ship after "the Gods", the Titans of Greek mthology. In flaunting their pride in the face of God, God had to put "man" in it's place.Whether you believe it or not, it's still a great song.
Now I'm not a religious person, but Blind Willie Johnson pretty much sums up what I'm feeling in this song.
Blind Willie can be a little hard to understand sometimes, so here are the lyrics.
Lord, I Just Can't Keep From Crying
Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimesLord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes
When my heart's full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears
Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes
My mother often told me, angels bonded your life away
She said I would accomplish, but trust in God and pray
I'm on the King's Highway, I'm travelin' everyday
'Cause I just can't keep from crying sometimes
Well, I just can't keep from crying sometimes
When my heart's full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears
Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes
My mother, she's in glory, thank God I'm on my way
Father, he's gone too, and sister she could not stay
I'm trusting Him everyday, to bear my burdens away
'Cause I just can't keep from crying sometimes
Well, I just can't keep from crying sometimes
When my heart's full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears
Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes
I thought when she first left me, I'd pray for a little while
Soon it all would be over, and I'd journey on with a smile
But the thought as I get older, I think of what I told her
And I just can't keep from crying sometimes
Well, I just can't keep from crying sometimes
When my heart's full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears
Lord, I just can't keep from crying sometimes
Recording wasn’t the only thing we did during our week in Georgia. Steve is tied in to the music scene in the area, so on one night we went out to see a cover band. Now I’m not a fan of cover bands, the main reason being that they usually play songs that were overplayed (for me) 10 years ago.That being said, I was a little hesitant to go see the band. Steve kept saying that the band was made up of monster players, and that they were worth seeing so, that made it a little easier.
The band was The Mike Veal Band, and they were most definitely monster players. All of the members had played with either regionally or nationally “famous” bands, including Wet Willie, Boss Tweed, Gregg Allman, Ted Nugent, Derek Trucks, The Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Sugarland.
That alone was impressive, but the proof as they say is in the pudding, and in this case the “pudding” would be the music, and these guys definitely knew what to put in the pudding. They have this “schtick” where people give them requests, and they try to play the song, whether they’ve played it before or not. The night that I saw them, they tried “The Age of Aquarius” from “Hair”, which they actually pulled off, and “Girl” by the Beatles, which sort of crashed and burned, but was still worth seeing.
Another sign of good musicianship is who comes out and sees them play, and if the night that I saw them was any indication, then they have fans in high places. They brought up some people in the audience to play and sing with them. They brought up a keyboard player who turned out to be Wayne Famous from the 1980s Atlanta band, The Producers. Then at one point, the singer Mike brought up a singer, whose name I didn’t catch, to sing a couple of songs. That singer did a good job, but the next singer Mike brought up was a landmark experience in my book. From the stage, the singer, Mike, says something along the lines of “It’s humbling to be only the sixth best singer in the bar,” and then invites up William Bell.
This, in my opinion, was a brush with greatness. William Bell is a singer-songwriter who has a long history in the music business. He has been described as one of the founders of the Stax-Volt sound, and while at Stax he wrote and recorded “You Don’t Miss Your Water”, and co-wrote (along with Booker T. Jones) “Born Under a Bad Sign”.
As I said, Steve is tied in to the music scene, and knows the guys in The Mike Veal Band. The guitar player, Barry, kept trying to get Steve to come up and play on a couple of songs, and the drummer, Sean, is putting drum tracks on some songs that Steve is recording. We got to meet these guys, and for a music fan like myself, it was a highlight of the trip.
The whole reason for the trip was to record some of Paul’s songs. Some of the songs we had played together a long time ago and some were new to me. My main instrument is bass and I think I have a pretty good feel for Paul’s music, so that was the easy part. But I also played slide guitar and mandolin for some of the songs, and what I tried to do for those parts was to play something that added musical accents, but didn’t overwhelm the lyrics and vocal parts. I tried playing a fiddle part on one of the songs, but didn’t feel that I would be able to pull it off.
If you’ve never recorded, the procedure goes something like this (or at least this is how we did it this time)… First the bass and guitar were recorded on two separate tracks. We played those together so we had the timing down, and didn’t have to use a click track. Since we were playing together, if one sped up or slowed down, then the other would follow.
Recording bass and guitar tracks
After we had a take that we liked, we would add the “musical accents.” I would either play a slide part or mandolin part while listening to the already recorded tracks in headphones. Once we had a good take of whatever incidentals were to be added, then Paul would put down a vocal. That’s pretty much it for recording. After that there’s mixing and mastering, but we only had time for a rough mix on the tracks. Well, that’s not entirely true, we had a friend of Steve’s come out and do a better mix on five of the songs, but since we didn’t have all of the recording finished, we couldn’t get them all mixed. It was fascinating to watch Steve’s friend Chase mix down the basic tracks using Logic Pro. Chase had previously done some work at Southern Tracks Studio, so he certainly knew what he was doing, and I was just amazed about how computerized it all is now. I remember doing some recording in the early 1990s and it was all analog with tape and faders, and trim pots. Now everything is digital, and you manipulate the sound by digitally adjusting the wave form (I think, I’m certainly no expert.)
Rough mix of "Could Anissa Have Been Saved" with random pictures from recording
So I just got back from spending a week in Marietta, Georgia. I was in Georgia to do some recording with a friend of mine.
Let me start at the beginning. Around the end of January, my friend Paul, who I’ve known since junior high, called me up asking if I’d like to go record some songs that he’d written. I didn’t have to think about it too long, and agreed. The recording was going to be done by Paul’s friend Steve, who lives in Georgia and has a small studio. After checking to see that my family was okay with it, and making sure I had enough vacation time, it was confirmed, and we were ready to go. Paul sent me a packet of song lyrics and chords, plus a copy of a cd that we had recorded of his songs from 12 years ago, plus some new demos that he had done. I gave them a quick listen and picked a number of instruments that I thought would work for the songs. Then on Feb. 18th after a 12-hour drive, Paul arrived at my house at 5:00 in the morning and we loaded up his car (except for the upright bass which didn’t fit) and headed south.
Paul with guitar
After another 11- to 12-hour car ride, we were in Georgia and ready to record. Paul writes his own songs in a style which could be best described as darkly humorous folk rock. They usually have a lot of words, and fairly intense vocals. Having played music with Paul, off and on for a number of years, I am familiar with his style, and I guess he likes what I bring to his music, because after meeting his friend Steve, and hearing how he plays, I said to Paul, “Why am I here? He can play everything I do, and better.” But Steve just wanted to set up the microphones and press the record button, so I had to play the music. Not that I minded.
Steve at the controls
We recorded 10 tracks of guitar and bass, and then I overdubbed some mandolin, slide guitar, and ukulele, and Paul of course did the vocals. We more or less finished 9 of the 10 songs. The 10th song was not finished because the vocal part was too tricky, and Paul’s voice—which had been giving him trouble all week—was just about shot.
Paul working on vocals
We wrapped everything up on Friday, and drove home Saturday. It was a fun week, and other than the recording we went out and saw a band, had a brush with greatness, and met some really cool people. I’ll write some more about that soon. Stay tuned.
So everybody is talking about this video of 5 people playing one guitar. I've seen it mentioned on various forums, and it's interesting the first time you see it, but it's not anything new. It's an old party trick.
The first time I saw it, I was thinking, "Hmmm, I've seen this before." Two other videos came to mind, the first one is fairly recent, and it's 4 people playing one electric cello.
Stringfever playing Ravel's Bolero on one Cello
But the other one that came to mind was a little older. Back in the late 1920s - early 1930s, the Cumberland Ridge Runners played a song where they switched instruments ... and well you just have to watch the video. Watch carefully around the 1:05 mark.
Cumberland Ridge Runners - Goofus
If you like this kind of stuff, especially the older video, there's a lot of really cool "novelty" stuff from the early part of the 20th century. Most of it was from Vaudeville, but a lot of it was just entertainers going for the "Wow" factor. Some of the people that come to mind are Roy Smeck and Willie Hall. I'm sure there were more, I'll try digging some up and posting it later on.
Okay, I found the quote that I was thinking of when I posted in “whatcha’ listening to. “It’s from the book “Early Downhome Blues” by Jeff Todd Titon. I haven’t read the book (yet). I found the quote on the Weenie Campbell forum.
When I asked Son House to listen to a particular line from a song by Charley Patton that I could not make out, House laughed.He said "You could sit at Charley's feet and not understand a word he sang."
To me that’s not a bad thing. In the 1980s, I was a big fan of R.E.M. and one of the things that I used to like about them was that you couldn’t understand their lyrics. I remember in college having long discussions about what Michael Stipe was saying. This was on the early albums, Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, and Life’s Rich Pageant. You could start to really hear the lyrics around Fables, but they were still hard to understand what he meant. However once you started to clearly hear the lyrics, some of the mystery went out of R.E.M.
R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe
But back to Charlie Patton, as stated, Charlie didn’t enunciate words, and to this day people still don’t know what he said on certain songs. In “Down the Dirt Road”, what does he say?
I’m goin’ away to a world unknown…to Illinois …to where I don’t know… to where I’m known
Charlie Patton - Down the Dirt Road Blues
Here’s a fairly lengthy discussion on Charlie Patton from Weenie Campbell.
I don’t know what he actually says, and to me that’s okay. You can put whatever meaning you like into the song, interpret it however you want. The more time you spend trying to figure out what the lyrics are, the more you get pulled in to the music. Music doesn’t need to be “perfect”, a little noise or mumbled lyrics might be just the thing to grab a listener. Sort of like how African Mbira (thumb piano) players put little pieces of metal or bottle caps on their instruments to add a buzz to their playing. Music that is too “polished” sometimes just doesn’t sound right to me. It lacks that human element. I’d much rather listen to Bob Dylan’s voice or Charlie Patton’s hard to decipher lyrics than any perfectly enunciated auto-tuned voice out there today.
Down the dirt road isn’t the only example of Charlie’s diction, or lack thereof. One of my favorite songs of his, “Some of these Days”, which was most likely loosely based on the early jazz song “Some of these Days” made famous by Sophie Tucker, it sounds like he’s saying “Lum of these days”, or sometimes “Yum of these days” and for me, that makes the song.
So other than listening to, talking and writing about music, I also read a lot about music. So here are some books that I’ve read recently, am currently reading or will be reading soon.
Just finished this one. This is Ken writing about his life, how he became an Alaskan Traveling Poet, and his life on the road. If you want to know what it's like to be a travelling musician, this is the book to read. It tells you the ins and outs of the music business from an independent fiddling poet.
Also just finished this one. This is the story of 1970 and the demise of the the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. The ups and downs of CSN&Y, and the rise of James Taylor and soft rock. I've been a Beatle fan for a long time, so the part about the end of the Beatles was familiar. The parts on CSN&Y were also familiar. I had heard about their problems long before reading this book. I hadn't read too much on Simon and Garfunkel or James Taylor, so it was interesting to read about how Simon and Garfunkel had their problems and how much of a junkie James Taylor was. One of the interesting things was how incestuous the rock world was at the time, Over the space of a couple of years, Graham Nash, David Crosby and James Taylor were all involved with the same woman...read the book to find out who.
Still reading this one. This is a collection of letters sent by Alan Lomax when he was out collecting songs for the LoC. It shows what life was like in the 1930s, and how "cheap" it was to live. $50 was enough to keep him on the road collecting songs for weeks.
And
Just borrowed this and haven’t started reading it yet. I read Woody's Bound for Glory years ago, so I think this will offer a new perspective on the man.
Nowadays I find it hard to listen to music like when I was younger. I used to always be on the lookout for new music. I had friends who were also into music, and we’d always be talking about new bands.This was back before the internet, and you had to go out of your way to find new stuff. You’d read all of the mainstream music magazines, read the ‘zines for the underground bands, listen to college radio to be exposed to unknown bands, or trade mix tapes with your friends. I’d listen to music all of the time but now I don’t have time to do all of that. If I listen to music now, it’s usually in the car, so here’s what I currently have in my car,
Ry’s done a lot of good stuff. This was the first album of his that I bought, and it’s still my favorite. I prefer Ry's earlier albums, up to about the album Borderline. To me that is what Ry was all about, playing and exploring traditional music. Some of his mid period albums are okay, but I hear that his most recent couple of albums are really good. I haven't bought any of them yet, so I can't say.
It’s hard to pick a favorite blues singer, but Charlie is definitely up there. His playing is still causing people to say " How is he doing that?" Not to mention his vocals. There's a great quote from Son House, when asked in the 1960s to decipher what Charlie was singing on an old record, Son says that he couldn't understand what he was saying when he was sitting next to him in the 1930s. (When I find the actual quote, I'll post about it.)
The last album by Uncle Tupelo before they split up to form Wilco and Son Volt. When I first heard this, It didn't really do anything for me, so I put it on the shelf. A couple of months later, I gave it another try and I couldn't understand why I didn't like it the first time. It became one of my favorite albums of the mid 1990s.
When I played in the Munier Mandolin Orchestra, I always enjoyed playing Vesti La Giubba, especially when we had a singer. To me opera has what I like in music. It tells a story, and touches on basic human emotions.
This is my favorite time period of the Grateful Dead, They still had the energy from the early days, and hadn’t yet become too spacey. Also Pigpen was still in top form with his raps. On this album, you can still hear them trying to find their way from the psychedelic music of the 1960s to the more folksy American Beauty/Workingman's Dead period. On this, they cover songs as far apart as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles "I second that emotion", to Merle Haggard's "Sing me back home."
I hate news like this, the other day, my wife asks me if I had heard anything about the drummer from NRBQ dying. I was like Tom Ardolino? No way! But it was true, Tom Ardolino had passed away at 56 … I was just introducing my nephew to their music over the New Year’s holiday, and didn’t expect to hear this.
I first heard NRBQ from a cassette tape that I found at my parent’s house. It probably belonged to one of my older brothers, but was left when they had moved out.
I had read about this band for years, but never actually heard them. When I first played the tape, I was hooked, by the catchy originals, great covers, and sense of humor, all topped off with fabulous musicianship. There was Terry’s unique keyboard style, Big Al’s guitar, and the rock steady rhythm section of Joey’s Danelectro bass and Tommy’s drums holding it all together. Now I know there were other members before, and after, but for me, that IS the NRBQ lineup.They never made it big because they were too hard to pigeonhole. I mean how do you market a band that covers Johnny Cash AND Sun Ra, that play songs like” Howard Johnson’s got his Ho-Jo working”, or “R.C. Cola and a Moon Pie”? They’ve been called “The World’s Greatest Bar Band”, and they sure earned the title, playing rock and roll, blues, jazz, pop, rockabilly, and everything in between for more than 40 years (20 years with my favorite lineup), and never having a hit or making it big.
A couple of years ago, I was looking for NRBQ videos on the Internet, and there wasn’t a whole lot, now there’s some great stuff out there. Where to start with all of this music, well how about we let the boys introduce themselves,
Here Comes Terry
I Got a Rocket in my Pocket
Ridin’ in My Car
Little Floater
Get Rhythm
Me and the Boys
Late 1980s band interview Part 1
Late 1980s band interview Part 2
This little post doesn’t even mention some of the other things that they did like having wrestler Captain Lou Albano as a manager, blowing up a New Kids on the Block album, exploding Cabbage Patch Kids on stage, and writing songs for Spongebob Squarepants.
When I watch those videos, it looks like they were having a lot of fun on stage, and I just love watching them play. Check out how Tom holds his sticks when he plays, (Rocket in my Pocket around 3:47 -3:54, Get Rhythm at 2:23)
Although Tom’s gone, Terry is still touring with a new revamped NRBQ.
