Todaro's Music

 

Whenever anyone asks me about buying an instrument, I always recommend Todaro's Music in Lansdowne, PA. Especially if it's a slightly offbeat instrument. Every music store has guitars and basses, and now everyone has ukuleles. You can even buy them online, but trying to find someone who knows something about instruments from off the beaten path, well... good luck. 

 Just check out Joe's selection, he's got Eastern European Instruments like the tamburitza, Middle Eastern instruments like the oud, and the baglama. If you want instruments from South America, well then Todaro's Music is the only place to go. He's got charangos, ronrocos, quenas, zamponas, bombos...the list could go on and on... (Disclaimer- I went to Bolivia on instrument buying trips with Joe a couple of times) And when I say he knows the instruments, well when we were in Bolivia, he took charango lessons from several Bolivian musicians.

Did I mention ukuleles? Well Joe has his own line of ukes made in Bolivia by the same craftsmen that make the charangos that he sells in his store. Check them out here.

 

 

Anyway, I was asked about a folk  harp once, the person wanted to see them, not just pictures on the web. Who had a couple in stock? Todaro's.

My nephew needed a tuba or sousaphone for band, who had one at a reasonable price? I'll let you figure that out. 

 

 

 

 

Nephew with Waldorf Sousaphone

 

 

Any store has your basic guitars, but if you want something a little funky, well you have a couple of options, Pawn Shops, or Todaro's Music. Check out some of the things hanging on his wall.



 



Fender Coronado (if this was a bass I would have bought it, not that the thought didn't cross my mind, but...empty wallet)

 

Possibly Japanese made, maybe a Teisco in between a Gibson, and a Strat style

Japanese Decca (Made by Teisco)in between a pointy shred guitar and a Harmony (possibly an Archtone H1214)

Check out this little beauty. a turn of the century, Bruno guitar, what is today called a parlor guitar.

 

Check out those tuners and headstock overlay!

Bruno stamp on back of headstock

Just look at that back!!

 

Another nifty item that caught my eye, a Ditson mandolin.

Martin Guitars made some instruments for Ditson.

 

Ditson mandolin in front of some middle eastern percussion

 

Ditson stamp on back of headstock.

 

Here's a view of one of the walls of instruments, you'll see some of what's in stock including classical guitars, mandolins, and electric and acoustic guitars.

Another view of the Harmony, next to a Jackson.

 

 

Here's a cool little guitar, possibly a Kay. It looks similar to one I've seen in a pic of Lightning Hopkins see here.

Cool old Bass Drum

 

Old Silvertone Mandolin

 

 

Here's some more stuff

Loar and Recording King

Palatino Electric Upright and Ashbory Bass plus banjo

 

 

Anyway, I didn't get any shots of the exotic Latin American, Eastern European or Middle Eastern Instruments, maybe on my next trip to Todaro's Music.

Ain't it funny how time slips away?

 

Time sure moves fast when you don't pay attention to it. I just realized I haven't posted anything for a while, and was wondering where the time went. I have some things in the works including a visit to Todaro's Music, a trip to the Scottish Highland Games and an album release with John Paul Spencer, so keep an eye out for them. In the meantime, here's Willie Nelson with "Funny How Time Slips Away"

 

 

Happy Birthday Ronnie

 

 

I don't usually remember musicians birthdays, (or anyone's really) but here's one I do...April 1st is Ronnie Lane's Birthday, (April 1, 1946 - June 4, 1997) so here's 43 minutes of Ronnie with the Faces from 1972 in celebration of his life and music.

  

How about some Ronnie with the Small Faces? Here's "All of Nothing"

 

 

 

How about "Sha La La La Lee"

 

 

 "You Better Believe It"

 

Ronnie and Pete - "Catmelody"



 

"Heart to Hang Onto"



Happy Birthday Ronnie!

Hound Dog

Well, since we recently got a new dog, I though I'd bring up my favorite dog related music/musician.

 

The new dog

 No, not Elvis and his cover of Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog", no not Rufus Thomas and "Walkin' the Dog", no, not Snoop Dogg, nor George Clinton's "Atomic Dog", not Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog" not even The Beatles "Hey Bulldog" or "Martha my Dear".

Who I want to talk about is the guy who said, "When I die, they'll say, 'he couldn't play shit, but he sure made it sound good!' "

Of course that means the late, great, polydactyl slide guitar player, Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor.

Hound Dog with Dog



Hound Dog's Polydactyl Hand

 

What's that you say, you're not familiar with Hound Dog Taylor? Well, get with the program man!

 Do you like blues? No I don't mean "blooze", that overproduced "Blueshammer" crap, I mean raw blues, blues played on a cheap guitar through a cheap amp using a slide sawed off of a kitchen chair leg. Don't have a bass player? Don't need one, the second guitar can play the bass parts. Drummer, sure, drumkit, well only the most basic three piece set. The sound... well great gosh 'a mighty, can you say pure unadulterated blues played with undeniable joy and rocking harder than many rock bands. All produced by three men; Hound Dog, Brewer Phillips, and Ted Harvey, playing on minimal equipment... which just shows you that it's not what you play, but how you play it.

 

 

 Complicated, well not really, original, well that depends on how you look at it, the music not so much, but Hound Dog was a complete original. Hound Dog's influences were, well...Elmore James, but he took that music and played it with passion and joy, not perfection, and when you listen to it, you can't help but get a smile on your face.
 

Hound Dog died in 1975, and only released two albums during his life, but his music still holds up today. J.B. Hutto who played a similar Elmore James style of music "inherited" Hound Dog's band The Houserockers, Hutto's nephew Lil' Ed (and the Blues Imperials) plays in a similar style. George Thorogood, who drove Hound Dog to gigs on some east coast tours, was directly influenced by Hound Dog (check out this interview), and The Black Keys also cite him as an influence. Not to mention that Alligator records was formed for the sole purpose of recording Hound Dog.

For more information on Hound Dog, check out this site
http://www.keno.org/hound_dog_taylor/hdhomepage.htm

I could keep writing the stories about Hound Dog, that he cut off the sixth finger of his right hand one drunk night, that he would wake up his bandmates with the command, "wake up and argue" that he shot Brewer Phillips during an argument... but I wasn't there, so check out some of those stories here and here, from Bruce Iglauer who was.


So let's check out some music videos...

Give Me Back My Wig

 

 

It Hurts Me Too

Talk To My Baby

The Sun Is Shining

Hound Dog with Little Walter and Koko Taylor

Hound Dog and Little Walter

 

 

Roll Your Moneymaker

 Check this out...two live sets from 1972

Enjoy!!!

Country Music

One of the good things about recorded music is that you can go back and hear things that were recorded before you were born, or that you can discover music that you missed the first time around. I listen to a lot of music that's before my time. Everything from Bach or Beethoven, to Django Reinhardt, to Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens, to Charley Patton,  to Glenn Miller, to Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, or even The Beatles. Okay, I was 4 when the Beatles broke up, but that puts it in the "missed the first time around" category.
 If you were to ask me what types of music I listen to, Country wouldn't be the first thing out of my mouth, but there is a lot of country music I like. Most of it falls into two categories, "early country", and what I call "fringe country." Early country for me is Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family,  Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and the like. Fringe country would be people like Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, and the like. Not to mention people like Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. As you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of current country music, but there is a band that I've been listening to lately that I missed when they were in their recording heyday in the late 1990s- early 2000s. BR5-49. I remember reading about them when they first came out in the late 1990s, but at the time I was on a big ska and reggae kick, so a revivalist country band didn't hold much interest for me. Recently though,for some reason, I was reading an article about Bettie Page, and the article stated that there were a number of songs written about her, and that her favorite was by BR5-49. So of course I looked it up, and was instantly hooked.

Bettie Bettie

I then started to explore their back catalog and found out that I had missed a great band. They were as I stated earlier, a "revivalist" country band in that they favored a more traditional sound - honky-tonk with elements of western swing, as opposed to more modern, singer-songwriter, rock influenced country, which in the 1990s would have been ...Garth Brooks.

I must of heard some of their stuff, because when I heard Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts), I could have sworn I had heard the line "traded in her Doc's for kicker boots" before.

Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts)

Not only could they write catchy tunes, but they played classic country and western,covering songs by Bob Wills, Ray Price, Moon Mullican, Webb Pierce, Buck Owens, Billy Joe Shaver, and Gram Parsons. So let's hear some music.

Crazy Arms

Baby Are You Gettin Tired of Me

 

 

Even if it's Wrong

 



 

 

Cherokee Boogie

Me 'n' Opie (Down by the Duck Pond)

The band members changed over the years, and they appear to have gone their seperate ways. Chuck Mead and Gary Bennett have released solo albums, Don Herron is playing with Bob Dylan. In 2012, the original lineup played a few shows, so I'm hoping they do a tour or record some more music.

Websites
Chuck Mead
Gary Bennett
Chris Scruggs (Chris took over guitar and vocals after Gary left the band)
Wiki article on BR5-49
Article on History of BR5-49


Some Info on Bettie Page
Wiki Article
Official Site (run by whoever owns her rights)
Obit
Documentary

Johnny Shines and Robert Johnson

There's been a lot of discussion on the Blues Forums about a photo showing a supposodly young Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines. For example, a discussion at Weenie Campbell, one at Woody Mann's Guitar Seminars, and one at Michael Messer's Forum. Now I like Robert Johnson's music, and I understand his importance in the "Blues Pantheon", but I can't get all excited about a picture that may or may not be Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines. (Personally I don't think it is) Not to mention all of the discussion about whether or not the recordings were sped up,why RJ faced the wall while recording, or any of the other legends that have grown up around him since his death in  1938 at the age of 27. For me it's all about the music, and that's what's important. Sure Robert was only a marginal figure in the blues when he was alive, and only had one minor regional hit with "Terraplane Blues", but his influence on rock musicians since the 1960s is undeniable.

Groups that have covered his songs include,  Elmore James, (Dust My Broom), The Rolling Stones, (Love in Vain), Led Zeppelin, (Traveling Riverside Blues), Cream, (Crossroads Blues), George Thorogood, (Kind Hearted Woman Blues), David Bromberg, (Come on in my Kitchen), and of course everyone and his brother covering Sweet Home Chicago.

Now everyone likes a mystery, so I understand why there is so much interest in RJ, but what I never understood is,  "Why not more respect for Johnny Shines?" Here's a guy who traveled with RJ, could play Johnson's songs as good as - if not better, had a more powerful voice, and played into the 1990s. When musicians like RJ die young, under mysterious circumstances, an  iconic persona develops around them, while a musician who lives into his 70s, and hasn't sold his soul to the devil, just becomes an old man who has outlived his time, and I feel that's wrong. So let's give some respect to Johnny Shines, sit back and enjoy the man and his music.

The aforementioned "Sweet Home Chicago", You can't tell me this isn't as good as RJ.

 

 

"You Got to Pay the Cost" - Just listen to that vocal intro!!! Great Stuff!

"Ramblin' " on electric

 

"Ramblin' " on acoustic. Actually a variation on "Walking Blues"

 



 

 

"They Call me the Little Wolf" - Johnny Shines and Robert Jr. Lockwood.  Both contemporaries of RJ

 

 

Johnny Shines, Honeyboy Edwards and Walter Horton

 

 

"Hey Ba Ba Re Bop" (oiginally written and performed by Lionel Hampton)

 

 

Thrift and Pawn #2

More songs about buildings and food thrift and pawn stores

It's funny how the mind works, well at least how mine works. I was trying to remember a song with thrift stores in the lyrics, or about thrift stores, and something in the back of my mind kept saying, "What about The Dead Milkmen? Didn't they have one about thrift stores?" And I kept telling myself, "No, that was about South Street, it mentions Zipperheads, but not thrift stores."

But then my brain said, "No, I vaguely remember a line about a thrift store in one of their songs. I know it's been a long time since we've listened to them, but go back and take a look."
Well, whatta ya know, my brain was right, from "Quality of Death"

"The man who spoke at graduation

said "life doesn't come with a manual"

but one week later I found one

in that Thrift Store on Second and Samuel"

So there's another one that mentions thrift stores. I'm sure my brain will keep trying to think of others.

But my brain didn't stop there. It said, "You know, there's another one, it's not about thrift stores, but it's about people selling stuff on the street. You know sort of like in Ronnie Lane's Debris." I said, 'What are you talking about?'

It said, "You know, the one about the guy buying back his thing from some street vendor."

"Thing, what thing?" I said.

"You know, his thing!"  my brain said.

"Oh", I said, that song. "Yeah, that sort of relates. I'll post that one."

So here it is, it sort of ties in with Thrift Stores and Pawn Shops, well not really, but it is about a guy buying back his penis from a guy selling stuff from a blanket on a street in New York. ( Funny how my brain wouldn't come right out and say penis)

 Without further ado, King Missile with "Detachable Penis"

 



Or if you want the uncensored version.