Craig also gave me a run down on a couple of local Melbourne outfits you might want to check out, in person for Bleak City residents and cyberly for the rest of us.
Another band I recommend to you is "Because We Can" they are an acoustic country band originally from Ballarat but now live in Melbourne. They are fronted by two sisters one of them plays acoustic guitar the other plays mandolin, both of them sing. They are backed by bass, drums and fiddle. They write their own songs and do a small amount of covers including
"Rawhide" and "Jackson" (which they changed the name to "Frankston" for some funny reason). They are getting quite a following here in Melbourne. If they tour in Sydney please make sure you catch them.
Their websites:
Because We Can
My Space site
There are lots of songs of theirs to download on their main site.
Another band from Melbs I recommend is "The Bitter Sweets" a trio: Dave Doolan on Maton acoustic guitar, Jen Land on vocals and Chris Taylor on acoustic and electric guitars and banjo. They do a mixture of originals and covers of country and traditional folk tunes, including "A Bible and A Gun".
Monday, June 19, 2006
Monday
Tonight is the Balmain Ukulele Klub meeting, see gig guide, and also the Dylan meeting -- The Abercormbie, cnr Abercrombie and Broadway. In the beer garden.
Regular reader and commentator, muso Craig Pittendrigh has a new website where you can sample his wares and check out upcoming gigs around Melbourne.
World Cup Editorial: Happy with the Brazil result this morning, we had our chances but if you don't score you can't win. You especially don't win if you don't score with an open goal in front of you coughharrykewellcough. We had always factored in a loss to them and a decisive confrontation with Croatia in the third match. We need a draw and there's nothing scary about Croatia, except their check shirts on your eyesight. I'm not one of those who claims soccer is about to take over league and AFL as our tribal ball game of choice. Being a Winter game domestically and an unrivalled international programme, I reckon we can all co-exist happily. What annoys me in reading international comments about Aussies embracing the world game is that "rugby" (rugby union) is always included in the list of sports Australians care about more than soccer.
Like, so not.
Of all the football codes, yawnion has the most to lose and I would argue is already significantly behind soccer -- OK, its a shit game followed solely by toffs, we all know that. But look at it dispassionately, just on the numbers. In its first season Foxtel viewing figures for the A-League pretty much matched Super 14s. First season, big gamble. Same ratings as an established international competition. Hello?
The big word is potential. The first Australia-England rugby Test last week was played on a Sunday night to avoid the league/AFL and therefore hopefully get penetration into a non-traditional rugby market like Melbourne. What happened? Rated well in Sydney and Melbourne, as you'd expect. Rated poorly, as you'd expect, in Melbourne. The city that packed 90,000 into the MCG for the Aust-Greece match a couple of weeks before.
Rugby has already had its World Cup in Australia and its associated popularity bump. Where now is growth going to come from? Even in Sydney if people aren't already rah rahs, what's going to suddenly convert them? The Federal Govt is doing its best to up the demographics with all that private school funding but rugby has had its chance. Where is there for rugby to go? Nowhere. Support for rugby is static.
Soccer, on the other hand, has a million miles of blue skies ahead of it. Yes, the hype will die away after the Cup. But Australia has Asian Cup qualification ahead -- regular quality matches with high(ish) stakes which is something we've never had. A reborn domestic league which hasn't put a foot wrong. (Yet.) Huge junior participation across demographics, and with the A League a realistic route for those players to take to the big time. Of course this is Australian soccer we're talking about -- disaster is never far away but its really time to stop talking about it being a second class sport here.
Regular reader and commentator, muso Craig Pittendrigh has a new website where you can sample his wares and check out upcoming gigs around Melbourne.
World Cup Editorial: Happy with the Brazil result this morning, we had our chances but if you don't score you can't win. You especially don't win if you don't score with an open goal in front of you coughharrykewellcough. We had always factored in a loss to them and a decisive confrontation with Croatia in the third match. We need a draw and there's nothing scary about Croatia, except their check shirts on your eyesight. I'm not one of those who claims soccer is about to take over league and AFL as our tribal ball game of choice. Being a Winter game domestically and an unrivalled international programme, I reckon we can all co-exist happily. What annoys me in reading international comments about Aussies embracing the world game is that "rugby" (rugby union) is always included in the list of sports Australians care about more than soccer.
Like, so not.
Of all the football codes, yawnion has the most to lose and I would argue is already significantly behind soccer -- OK, its a shit game followed solely by toffs, we all know that. But look at it dispassionately, just on the numbers. In its first season Foxtel viewing figures for the A-League pretty much matched Super 14s. First season, big gamble. Same ratings as an established international competition. Hello?
The big word is potential. The first Australia-England rugby Test last week was played on a Sunday night to avoid the league/AFL and therefore hopefully get penetration into a non-traditional rugby market like Melbourne. What happened? Rated well in Sydney and Melbourne, as you'd expect. Rated poorly, as you'd expect, in Melbourne. The city that packed 90,000 into the MCG for the Aust-Greece match a couple of weeks before.
Rugby has already had its World Cup in Australia and its associated popularity bump. Where now is growth going to come from? Even in Sydney if people aren't already rah rahs, what's going to suddenly convert them? The Federal Govt is doing its best to up the demographics with all that private school funding but rugby has had its chance. Where is there for rugby to go? Nowhere. Support for rugby is static.
Soccer, on the other hand, has a million miles of blue skies ahead of it. Yes, the hype will die away after the Cup. But Australia has Asian Cup qualification ahead -- regular quality matches with high(ish) stakes which is something we've never had. A reborn domestic league which hasn't put a foot wrong. (Yet.) Huge junior participation across demographics, and with the A League a realistic route for those players to take to the big time. Of course this is Australian soccer we're talking about -- disaster is never far away but its really time to stop talking about it being a second class sport here.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Sydney = Perfect Honeymoon Destination
This will disappoint alot of people I know. Well, two anyway. Lucinda is getting married.
Let's hope this "Tom" person thinks touring Australia will be good for her career.
Let's hope this "Tom" person thinks touring Australia will be good for her career.
1AM
Hi, I'm Amanda. You might remember me from such blogs as Flop Eared Mule. No sooner had I stopped being absorbed by university, I started being absorbed by the World Cup. I blogged previously about my devotion to the Australian soccer team. And here we are, gearing up for the historic match against Brazil this time tomorrow. DEEP BREATH! It's 12.14am and Portugal vs Iran is on. I hate Iran, see previous link. I, however, do heart Martin Tyler. Luis Figo is old and slow but still a spunk. How shite are England. Verily yea, alot.You know. Australian soccer is like Johnny Cash, bandwagon wise. No one cared and suddenly .... Kochie and Mel are wearing 'roos scarves, there are 8 pages of soccer/football in the papers every day where previously
you were lucky to find a few paragraphs and everyone's an instant expert on midfield organisation and the jogo bonito. In a music shop the other day some women were browsing the Johnny section looking for things "with that chick, his girlfriend." Dear reader, was I wrong to want to punch them?
Anyway. I went to a function tonight -- on the other side of the bridge, where I never go -- and on the way back on the train I listened to Dylan's radio show on the topic of Jail. How busy have I been? So busy, I have the last four radio shows here but haven't listened to them. Bobby plays alot of old blues and stuff which is great but it is intriguing to hone in on the newer material. The post-Dylan material, in other words. In "Jail" he plays John Prine, "Christmas in Prison." Prine is of course one of the many dozens (hundreds??) of singer-songwriters named the "new Dylan." Re-listening to this early song it's actually not hard to see why, even though its a loathesome and lazy tag. Quite moving really, Bobby here paying tribute to those who came after him and who have quite a debt to him. Not in a crappy, shallow Voice of the Generation bestowing favours on the acolytes way, but a humble, serious, music nerd (Bob) to music nerd (me, you) way. Sweet.
He starts the show with Folsom Prison Blues and doesn't mention it but there's another historical touch -- Johnny Cash of course saved Bob's career. After his first album tanked at Columbia he was close to being let go but Cash, a bone fide star, fought for him and he stayed to write the songs that made him famous and to record Freewheelin'. On the Cash tribute he plays on he acknowledges this saying "thanks for standing up for me way back when." He also says on the radio show something about Kris Kristofferson not replying to his letters. I'll have to listen again, there must be a joke in there somewhere.
This week I've been listening to Dave Alvin's new one, West of the West. It's him covering his favourite California songs. As the website says: "West of the West mixes much loved songs by Merle Haggard, John Fogerty, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, Jerry Garcia, Kate Wolf, Robert Hunter and Los Lobos' David Hidalgo and Louis Perez, with unearthed gems from such previously overlooked talents as Blackie Farrell and Jim Ringer." It's Dave Alvin, I hardly think you need more recommendation.
I also got around to getting (from emusic) Dion's new album Bronx in Blue. Yes Dion. The 60s pop bloke. Top few releases of 2006 thus far. He has a bloody great voice, you know? And covering blues standards you can hardly go wrong. I'm loving it. Sean's review at HickoryWind back in March for more.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Oi x 3
Thoughts are squarely on Germany this week as the most important sporting event in the world kicks off. I'm excited, not least because Australia will be there for the first time in 32 years. To make it easier for heretical refusniks in the USA to understand I prepared a brief musical World Cup Guide. Feel free to add any of your own comparisons in comments.
Read the rest at HickoryWind.
Read the rest at HickoryWind.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Bet You Didn't Think it Could Do That
A word about the Balmain Ukulele Klub:
The first meeting had 26 people there and it was a lot of fun ... very social and we all learned a lot from Tony Larwood's great teaching skills. Each meeting you will get the opportunity to learn something new ... new tunes and techniques and some revision as well. If you haven't got an instrument you can pick up a Mahalo for about $20. There are also free handouts provided by the Guitar Factory @ Gladesville. There is no admission. Just turn up at the Gladstone Park Bowling club in the park alongside Balmain Hospital. The next meeting is Monday, June 19 2006. (always the "teen" Monday of the month).
To inspire you, a cool video (thanks to Michael).
While My Guitar Gently Weeps. In Central Park. On the ukulele.
This ain't no Tip Toe Through the Tulips ...
The first meeting had 26 people there and it was a lot of fun ... very social and we all learned a lot from Tony Larwood's great teaching skills. Each meeting you will get the opportunity to learn something new ... new tunes and techniques and some revision as well. If you haven't got an instrument you can pick up a Mahalo for about $20. There are also free handouts provided by the Guitar Factory @ Gladesville. There is no admission. Just turn up at the Gladstone Park Bowling club in the park alongside Balmain Hospital. The next meeting is Monday, June 19 2006. (always the "teen" Monday of the month).
To inspire you, a cool video (thanks to Michael).
While My Guitar Gently Weeps. In Central Park. On the ukulele.
This ain't no Tip Toe Through the Tulips ...
Me-ta
Hello to visitors from normblog, where Norm was desperate nice enough to include me in his series of blogger profiles. Thanks Norm. I've linked to these a few times before, but Norm also does a great series of "Momma 'n' Daddy" songs, lots of good stuff therein.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Every Time I Think I'm Out ...
... they pull me back in.
After whining yesterday about the lack of extras on the iTunes version of the new Bruce vs the store-bought one ...
A reliable source informs me that Springsteen's version of Pete Seeger's antiwar tune "Bring Them Home" (see the item below) will be released as a track on an expanded version of his recent Seeger Sessions album. And it will be available soon on iTunes.
Jeebus.
After whining yesterday about the lack of extras on the iTunes version of the new Bruce vs the store-bought one ...
A reliable source informs me that Springsteen's version of Pete Seeger's antiwar tune "Bring Them Home" (see the item below) will be released as a track on an expanded version of his recent Seeger Sessions album. And it will be available soon on iTunes.
Jeebus.
Michael Gray, blogger.
Points to anyone who finds a tenuous connection with an obscure Byron poem in any of the posts.
Heh - just a good natured jape, I do like that book , am looking forward to his forthcoming Dylan Encyclopedia and the blog looks promising. Do like the "Deleted photos" posts of things he couldn't fit in the new Encyclopedia. Big Publisha and blogging hand in hand! See comrades, it doesn't have to get ugly all the time.
UPDATE: Following a link there I came across 33 1/3 which has this competition if you know any music nerds under the age of 21.
Points to anyone who finds a tenuous connection with an obscure Byron poem in any of the posts.
Heh - just a good natured jape, I do like that book , am looking forward to his forthcoming Dylan Encyclopedia and the blog looks promising. Do like the "Deleted photos" posts of things he couldn't fit in the new Encyclopedia. Big Publisha and blogging hand in hand! See comrades, it doesn't have to get ugly all the time.
UPDATE: Following a link there I came across 33 1/3 which has this competition if you know any music nerds under the age of 21.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Love & Fear
Crossposted at HickoryWind.
This album comes courtesy of Yesterday and Today Records in Parramatta, go and spend alot of money there. Believe me, that is easy to do.
Tom Russell
Love and Fear
Tom Russell can be counted on to deliver you something different each time. The last few have been back and forth over the border with a harder edged putting-the-western-back-into-country-and-western sound. I've mentioned this before but despite his somewhat serious artist/tough guy persona he often injects a wide streak of sentiment and softness into his songs. One minute it will be a song spitting in the face of some hypocrite or about pillaging and robbing your way across 19th Century California, and next it will be about ponies or rocking horses, the soft glow of the moon and lost loves. He can pull it off, because he's a great songwriter who knows the line to walk and because his voice can crackle in these songs in a way you can't dismiss.
Putting aside the Bukowski bravado of the last few outings, Love and Fear is all about introversion and emotion. It's a 3AM album. Scotch, I think, would most likely be involved. The first songs act as a summary. "The Pugilist At 59", being a portrait of a heavyweight champeen getting on, all those "little devils of alcohol and caffeine" catching up with you. This here Blogger At 29 can sympathise. And "Beautiful Trouble", semi-spoken, which is haunted by desire, which he knows will probably work out badly. The ambient Lanois-esque echos I thought might be due to his recent parting with long time ace sideman Andrew Hardin, but he's listen on the album. "Stealing Electricity" is more upbeat but rather macacbre (some might think, too much so) take on the dangers of love. "Old Heart" is a rather jazzy torch song and closes the album on an appropriately melancholy note. I'm not overly convinced by one or two songs in between ("Four Chambered Heart" -- modern society is going to hell! Heard it all before brother) but for Russophiles it's an interesting look into the mind of an always intriguing artist.
The Road Diary at his website is always a good read too.
This album comes courtesy of Yesterday and Today Records in Parramatta, go and spend alot of money there. Believe me, that is easy to do.
Tom Russell
Love and Fear
Tom Russell can be counted on to deliver you something different each time. The last few have been back and forth over the border with a harder edged putting-the-western-back-into-country-and-western sound. I've mentioned this before but despite his somewhat serious artist/tough guy persona he often injects a wide streak of sentiment and softness into his songs. One minute it will be a song spitting in the face of some hypocrite or about pillaging and robbing your way across 19th Century California, and next it will be about ponies or rocking horses, the soft glow of the moon and lost loves. He can pull it off, because he's a great songwriter who knows the line to walk and because his voice can crackle in these songs in a way you can't dismiss.
Putting aside the Bukowski bravado of the last few outings, Love and Fear is all about introversion and emotion. It's a 3AM album. Scotch, I think, would most likely be involved. The first songs act as a summary. "The Pugilist At 59", being a portrait of a heavyweight champeen getting on, all those "little devils of alcohol and caffeine" catching up with you. This here Blogger At 29 can sympathise. And "Beautiful Trouble", semi-spoken, which is haunted by desire, which he knows will probably work out badly. The ambient Lanois-esque echos I thought might be due to his recent parting with long time ace sideman Andrew Hardin, but he's listen on the album. "Stealing Electricity" is more upbeat but rather macacbre (some might think, too much so) take on the dangers of love. "Old Heart" is a rather jazzy torch song and closes the album on an appropriately melancholy note. I'm not overly convinced by one or two songs in between ("Four Chambered Heart" -- modern society is going to hell! Heard it all before brother) but for Russophiles it's an interesting look into the mind of an always intriguing artist.
The Road Diary at his website is always a good read too.
We Shall Overpay
As an experiment I bought Bruce Springsteen We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions off iTunes. Just to see how I took to the experience. Not so well. It came with a "digital booklet" and one video, of the recording of O Mary Don't You Weep. For $16.99. In a shop you can buy the CD for $21 ($25 max) and not have to squint at a PDF if you want to know who played banjo on track 7. I don't think the black writing on orange background will print so well. And if I print it, what do I do with it? And the dual disc CD comes with FIVE videos. So ... duh. Now I have to go buy it again, for real this time.
I got over my initial underwhelmery with the album and am now thorough digging it. I don't suppose there is much hope of seeing the current hootenanny tour in the antipodes, but the experience as described by the Washington Post sure makes me hope ...
I got over my initial underwhelmery with the album and am now thorough digging it. I don't suppose there is much hope of seeing the current hootenanny tour in the antipodes, but the experience as described by the Washington Post sure makes me hope ...
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
In Lieu
I still have no thinking pace left over for blogging right now but am loving the new blog Australian literature and culture blog Sarsparilla. Many of my faves in one spot. Yay Australian literature and culture. Yay.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Friday Lazy Blogging and a Procrastinating Detour
Don't forget: Dylan Radio Marathon 2SER Saturday 27th from 8pm. See below post for details international times.
I had planned to have some actual blogging here today, about the newish Tom Russell CD. But the time today I set aside for "do Tom thing" was actually spent in "sleep." In the glorious tradition of our craft and following Rock and Roll Damnation, here's some lazy blogging. An iTunes random selection.
Minor Enough Wrinkle Neck Mules
The Way We Make a Broken Heart Rosanne Cash
Finders Keepers The Miller Sisters (Sun Hillbill compilation)
Goddamn HIV Mary Gauthier (Number of really good country songs about AIDS? Four by my count. Two on this album and two on Rodney Crowell's The Houston Kid)
Undercover of the Night The Rolling Stones
Orange Blossom Special Johnny Cash
This Wheel's on Fire The Band (Rock of Ages live album)
We Shall Overcome Bruce Springsteen (since last we met, I decided I really like this album)
Sin City Dwight Yoakam
Visit Me in Music City Bobby Bare, Jr
I don't do personal blogging as a rule (trust me, it would be even more boring than the normal stuff). But having exhausted all other avenues of procrastination and since I got a scanner this week, a little personal rambling is over the fold.
Instead of blogging I've been studying. I always joked I blog to kill time, believe me it is true. No time no blog. Anyway. Last year, I thought about my junior management dead-end job and what I was going to do about it.
And I thought: you know what would give me the edge in today's competitive global economy? Egyptology, that's what.
So here I am. (Here, actually) Doing two subjects at night, one of which is hieroglyphs. Here's my last hieroglyphs class test in which I make two idiot mistakes. It is entirely typical of me to get the complex things right and completely blank out the simplest part, which I completely know. In life generally. I have teh dumb! Still the marks are good enough I can relax about this part of the assessment. The real test though will be the major exam in a few weeks and the major assignment I am currently working on, in the second picture. Of course you can find translations of this online but ours needs to be strictly literal. It involves elephants, as you can see.
Click for bigger version.
Now, to essay I must go. I'll be back out though to watch the Knights on Friday Night Footy so maybe I'll get that Tom Russell thing done then. Ha!
I had planned to have some actual blogging here today, about the newish Tom Russell CD. But the time today I set aside for "do Tom thing" was actually spent in "sleep." In the glorious tradition of our craft and following Rock and Roll Damnation, here's some lazy blogging. An iTunes random selection.
Minor Enough Wrinkle Neck Mules
The Way We Make a Broken Heart Rosanne Cash
Finders Keepers The Miller Sisters (Sun Hillbill compilation)
Goddamn HIV Mary Gauthier (Number of really good country songs about AIDS? Four by my count. Two on this album and two on Rodney Crowell's The Houston Kid)
Undercover of the Night The Rolling Stones
Orange Blossom Special Johnny Cash
This Wheel's on Fire The Band (Rock of Ages live album)
We Shall Overcome Bruce Springsteen (since last we met, I decided I really like this album)
Sin City Dwight Yoakam
Visit Me in Music City Bobby Bare, Jr
I don't do personal blogging as a rule (trust me, it would be even more boring than the normal stuff). But having exhausted all other avenues of procrastination and since I got a scanner this week, a little personal rambling is over the fold.
Instead of blogging I've been studying. I always joked I blog to kill time, believe me it is true. No time no blog. Anyway. Last year, I thought about my junior management dead-end job and what I was going to do about it.
And I thought: you know what would give me the edge in today's competitive global economy? Egyptology, that's what.
So here I am. (Here, actually) Doing two subjects at night, one of which is hieroglyphs. Here's my last hieroglyphs class test in which I make two idiot mistakes. It is entirely typical of me to get the complex things right and completely blank out the simplest part, which I completely know. In life generally. I have teh dumb! Still the marks are good enough I can relax about this part of the assessment. The real test though will be the major exam in a few weeks and the major assignment I am currently working on, in the second picture. Of course you can find translations of this online but ours needs to be strictly literal. It involves elephants, as you can see.
Click for bigger version.
Now, to essay I must go. I'll be back out though to watch the Knights on Friday Night Footy so maybe I'll get that Tom Russell thing done then. Ha!
Monday, May 22, 2006
Bob Day
"The Laydeez Love Bob"So. The patron saint of this blog is 65 on Wednesday. Sixty five! I'm giving you a few days notice to plan your day.
As usual the Bob Dylan Birthday Marathon on 2SER is on this Saturday night from 8pm to 2am. In Sydney you can tune in at 107.3 FM. Also anyone can listen on the net. Follow the signs. 8pm Saturday here is 11am Saturday London time and 6am Saturday US EST. Do the math and listen in!
We take requests and have competitions so listen out for the phone number and give us a buzz. You might get real lucky and talk to me. If you were lucky, of course, you couldn't have helped it.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
grrrrrr (ANIAGW) #2: non-libellous this time
I can't believe for the second year in a row Jon Langford and Sally Timms are here and I can't go. Fug. At the Basement next week. Fug. And tickets are $15! Less than the cost of a beer at that place. $15! Can't go! Fug!
They are here in Melbourne on Saturday recording a live album and will be on the Coodabeen Champions radio show.
They are here in Melbourne on Saturday recording a live album and will be on the Coodabeen Champions radio show.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
grrrrrr (and not in a good way)
Off Topic Community Service Announcement
There is a company called Games Market.
They are supposedly in the business of selling software online. Am far too sober to get into the whole mess but let's just say they are highly reluctant to get into the spirit of the reciprocal nature of retailing. Like, I give you money and you give me ... what, Games Market? WHAT do you give me? Except MONTHS of grief? Huh? WHAT? They will fill your days -- MONTHS! MONTHS! -- with despair and your nights with pain. Plague. Avoid. Etc.
Tell all your friends.
There is a company called Games Market.
They are supposedly in the business of selling software online. Am far too sober to get into the whole mess but let's just say they are highly reluctant to get into the spirit of the reciprocal nature of retailing. Like, I give you money and you give me ... what, Games Market? WHAT do you give me? Except MONTHS of grief? Huh? WHAT? They will fill your days -- MONTHS! MONTHS! -- with despair and your nights with pain. Plague. Avoid. Etc.
Tell all your friends.
Monday, May 15, 2006
The Celestial Monochord does some awesome stuff. In my dreams I would love to be that blogger.
See recently: John Cohen and the Voyager Record and a follow up interview with John Cohen.
Cohen would be newly refamiliar to many after featuring in the Dylan doco No Direction Home, he's also got an exhibition just opened of early Dylan photos.
See recently: John Cohen and the Voyager Record and a follow up interview with John Cohen.
Cohen would be newly refamiliar to many after featuring in the Dylan doco No Direction Home, he's also got an exhibition just opened of early Dylan photos.
I Think He Moves Me
I am just beginning my exploration of the world of Chip Taylor. I first heard tell of duets with Lucinda Williams, sniffed them out, was blown away. Larry saw him and partner Carrie Rodriguez at Merlefest and pronounced them "not bad at all." I say: love it. I am intrigued by his voice, and the songs have really stuck in my head. More perhaps when I get a good listen to the albums.
Today I just want to recommend you check out his website. Chip has taken to the brave new world of teh internets with gusto -- including podcasts and song samples. I learnt something else tooling around that site: Chip Taylor wrote "Wild Thing." Yes, the Troggs song. That, I would never have guessed.
Today I just want to recommend you check out his website. Chip has taken to the brave new world of teh internets with gusto -- including podcasts and song samples. I learnt something else tooling around that site: Chip Taylor wrote "Wild Thing." Yes, the Troggs song. That, I would never have guessed.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Mother's Day
So the second Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host Bob Dylan has gone to air. Good Midwest boy with a sense of occasion, Bob chose a theme for Mother's Day.Bob's own mother Beatty was very dear to him and died several years ago. Her recipe for a Banana Choc Chip Loaf was published in the Detroit Free Press newspaper, since removed from there but archived here. I made it a few times and recommend.
As a deejay, like as a songwriter, can't help skewing things. Of Doughboy Tommy Duncan he says "his real name was Thomas Elmer Duncan" leaning on the middle name like a particularly revelatory punchline. Elmer, huh? That explains everything. He rolls out lines and lines of the lyrics of the songs he plays, placing the stress where no stress was meant to be. It's like, almost, he is playing with the 40 years of lyrical dissection handed out to him as Poet Laureate of Rock, the Voice of the Generation. Taking the piss (translation) by intoning You Are My Sunshine as if it were, well, as if it were Dylan.
Whatever the music was, it was going to be sublime. And he distributes nuggets of biographical and musical info, confiding in us as fellow music fans. "Here's one by Little Junior Parker ... I don't know if you need Little and Junior. His real name was Herman Parker, Junior. I guess I'd call myself Little Junior Parker too."
Bobby's love for the various forms is well known of course, no surprise the first song of the first show was Muddy Waters, "one of the ancients by now, whom all moderns prize." Current touring buddy Merle Haggard is an obvious choice with Mama Tried. Interestingly, the Rolling Stones (Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?) are the only act over the two shows not to get a background spiel. But it isn't all blues, country, pre war oddities and obvious influences and peers like Jimi Hendrix. Randy Newman's Mama Told Me Not to Come ("An exhilirated (?) performer ... Randy's better known as a songwriter, an eclectic one. But nevetheless, one.") got a spin in the Mother show, as did LL Cool J's Mama Said Knock You Out. In a future show on Drinking Mary Gauthier's I Drink -- a stone cold modern classic for mine -- is scheduled.
One thing that surprised even me a bit, is how warm and friendly Bob sounds. A great voice for radio, and a musical generosity which shines though. And wildly funny, which is something casual fans or the unconverted need convincing of but the rest of us know for sure.
Bob plays songs and wheels out his typically corntastic jokes about mothers-in-law and the "mamas" in the song titles are sometimes wayward girlfriends but he comes back to the ideal of mothers. There are, he says, 82.5 million mothers in the USA which may be true, or it might be one of those sly little things Bobby just makes up. And he reads a poem, you're allowed to be cheesy on Mother's Day:
M is for the many things she gave me
O is for the other things she gave me
T is for the things she gave me
H is for her things, which she gave me
E is for everything she gave me
R is for the rest of the things she gave me
He closes with the stern instruction: "Go call your mothers!"
Good advice, Bobby.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
It's surely been a good month without a stoush over a random Best Of list. Sean at HickoryWind has hopped into the muddy waters Paste stirred up with its 100 Greatest Living Songwriters. I don't do "greatest" but I do "my favourite" which I left in comments over there.
Acquisitions
Ebay goodness.
Earl Thomas Conley -- Treadin' Water I read somewhere recommending this bloke -- "thinking man's country" which sounds faintly horrible. All Music gives this album only two stars although they are positive overall. Produced by Randy Scruggs. He looks like a Miami Vice extra on the front cover.
Odetta -- And the Blues
Amazing Rhthym Aces -- How the Hell
Little Milton -- Guitar Man
Heather Myles -- Sweet Talk and Good Lies
Junior Wells -- Live Around the World
Earl Thomas Conley -- Treadin' Water I read somewhere recommending this bloke -- "thinking man's country" which sounds faintly horrible. All Music gives this album only two stars although they are positive overall. Produced by Randy Scruggs. He looks like a Miami Vice extra on the front cover.
Odetta -- And the Blues
Amazing Rhthym Aces -- How the Hell
Little Milton -- Guitar Man
Heather Myles -- Sweet Talk and Good Lies
Junior Wells -- Live Around the World
But, what does the "mailtrain" really signify?
I hate blogs that aren't updated, don't you? Unless things fall in my lap at the moment they don't get done, or they get half done or thought about or half thought about. But they don't get done.
This fell in my lap this week.
Students talking HSTY1076 American History from Lincoln to Clinton at Sydney University can answer this essay question. 1750 words. PFFFT! Kids these days have it so easy.
21. What does Bob Dylan’s album, Highway 61 Revisited, released in 1965, reveal about politics in the 1960s?
Sir, is the answer "absolutely nothing"?
Seriously, curious. The earlier acoustic albums, OK. Folk music as part of popular progressive movements addressing the issues of the day. OK. Highway 61 Revisited though?
Of course you might talk about the negative reaction from the folkniks to Bob's new direction, although that would be more relevant to Another Side Of ... and Bringing It All Back Home I would think, or the reaction to the live performances of H61 but that just takes us away from the album itself. I haven't read Greil Marcus' book on Like a Rolling Stone but I can see him airily spinning out the connections (but in, like, 17,500,000 words) but not perhaps a template I would recommend for a first year history essay.
So really, this is not a question I would even attempt to answer. Kids, do the one about FDR's letters and the Cold War or race relations in Chicago post World War I, at least then you know what they want you to say.
UPDATE: Thanks to Cletis for the link to this Bob article at The Nation. The gender stuff on page three is very interesting and I might have something to say about it another time. Until then, that's what the comments box is for!
This fell in my lap this week.
Students talking HSTY1076 American History from Lincoln to Clinton at Sydney University can answer this essay question. 1750 words. PFFFT! Kids these days have it so easy.
21. What does Bob Dylan’s album, Highway 61 Revisited, released in 1965, reveal about politics in the 1960s?
Sir, is the answer "absolutely nothing"?
Seriously, curious. The earlier acoustic albums, OK. Folk music as part of popular progressive movements addressing the issues of the day. OK. Highway 61 Revisited though?
Of course you might talk about the negative reaction from the folkniks to Bob's new direction, although that would be more relevant to Another Side Of ... and Bringing It All Back Home I would think, or the reaction to the live performances of H61 but that just takes us away from the album itself. I haven't read Greil Marcus' book on Like a Rolling Stone but I can see him airily spinning out the connections (but in, like, 17,500,000 words) but not perhaps a template I would recommend for a first year history essay.
So really, this is not a question I would even attempt to answer. Kids, do the one about FDR's letters and the Cold War or race relations in Chicago post World War I, at least then you know what they want you to say.
UPDATE: Thanks to Cletis for the link to this Bob article at The Nation. The gender stuff on page three is very interesting and I might have something to say about it another time. Until then, that's what the comments box is for!
Friday, May 05, 2006
Ramblin' Jack: He Stands Alone, Apparently
File under: another hip rehab of old timey dude.
My friends at Punknews.org report Ramblin' Jack Elliott:
... will be releasing his Anti debut and first new record in a decade on July 11th, 2006. The album, titled I Stand Alone will feature a variety of musicians including Flea, Lucinda Williams, Nels Cline, David Hidalgo, Corin Tucker, DJ Bonebrake.
The track list appears to be trad. "Mr Garfield" is written by Jack, but I only know the Johnny Cash version. DJ Bonebrake (drummer) is a name I haven't heard in a while, of X fame (fame-ish) and then The Knitters. His website notes he has "private instruction lessons to sincere students." I wish X would tour here. What does Costa Mesa, CA. have that I don't have?
For my sisters' benefit I will note that X singer Exene Cervenka is Viggo Mortensen's ex and mother of his child, the child who convinced him to do Lord of the Rings so in a way part of those Oscars belongs to a scruffy Los Angeles country punk outfit.
Jack has been here in the last few years, but I didn't see him. Apparently the old adage "they don't call him "ramblin'" because he travels alot" was proved true.
ALSO: What is up with Keith? I don't know and so wouldn't post about it but in case you were concerned about yesterday's brain surgery story (please note: a story which first appeared in the UK Sun), read this. Of course PR flaks are just as (more) capable of fibbing but at least it squares the ledger back to: chill, we still have no idea.
My friends at Punknews.org report Ramblin' Jack Elliott:
... will be releasing his Anti debut and first new record in a decade on July 11th, 2006. The album, titled I Stand Alone will feature a variety of musicians including Flea, Lucinda Williams, Nels Cline, David Hidalgo, Corin Tucker, DJ Bonebrake.
The track list appears to be trad. "Mr Garfield" is written by Jack, but I only know the Johnny Cash version. DJ Bonebrake (drummer) is a name I haven't heard in a while, of X fame (fame-ish) and then The Knitters. His website notes he has "private instruction lessons to sincere students." I wish X would tour here. What does Costa Mesa, CA. have that I don't have?
For my sisters' benefit I will note that X singer Exene Cervenka is Viggo Mortensen's ex and mother of his child, the child who convinced him to do Lord of the Rings so in a way part of those Oscars belongs to a scruffy Los Angeles country punk outfit.
Jack has been here in the last few years, but I didn't see him. Apparently the old adage "they don't call him "ramblin'" because he travels alot" was proved true.
ALSO: What is up with Keith? I don't know and so wouldn't post about it but in case you were concerned about yesterday's brain surgery story (please note: a story which first appeared in the UK Sun), read this. Of course PR flaks are just as (more) capable of fibbing but at least it squares the ledger back to: chill, we still have no idea.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Flat out. I've had Springsteen's new album for a week or so now and I am conflicted. I don't think I like it and yet it is Bruce. Hence, confliction.
Late notice on this, thanks muchly to Brian for the heads up.
At the Metro TONIGHT:
On stage 10:30pm Gleny Rae Virus
& The Tamworth Playboys
9:35pm-10:10pm Bow Campbells Bloody Hell
8:30pm-9:15pm Texas Tea
$10
Late notice on this, thanks muchly to Brian for the heads up.
At the Metro TONIGHT:
On stage 10:30pm Gleny Rae Virus
& The Tamworth Playboys
9:35pm-10:10pm Bow Campbells Bloody Hell
8:30pm-9:15pm Texas Tea
$10
Monday, May 01, 2006
I Dub Today "Intense Jealousy Monday"
Larry from HickoryWind is at MerleFest (Merle as in Watson), an annual pilgrimige for music fans. He's been madly updating with pictures, go over there and scroll down for all the updates.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Friday 20
Not much for you this week, which is why god invented memes. This comes courtesy of my new 1GB ipod, on account of: my other piece of junk died and the warranty papers proved elsuive. Curses.
A Long Way Home Dwight Yoakam
New Morning Bob Dylan
The Big Payback Bruce Springsteen
Where Did You Sleep Last Night Leadbelly
Things That I Used to Do Guitar Slim
Where Will I Be Emmylou
Not Fade Away Rolling Stones
Born to Run Bruce Springsteen (live acoustic from the Chimes of Freedom single. I used to collect Bruce singles and CD oddities, then they all got stolen. This is one that survived)
Stormy Monday T-Bone Walker
Sign on the Window Bob Dylan
Day of the Locusts Bob Dylan
On My Knees Charlie Rich
Sail Away Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry (thanks to FX for reminding me of it ...)
Pay Me My Money Down Bruce Springsteen Has anyone else heard the new Bruce, The Seeger Sessions? I have ... still trying to understand if I like it or not. This song is pretty infectious though.
Barbara Allen Bob Dylan (Gaslight Tapes)
I Walk the Line (Revisited) Rodney Crowell
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry Bob Dylan (Concert for Bangladesh)
Human Touch Bruce Springsteen
Down by the Riverside/When the Saints Go Marching In Elvis
Jacob's Ladder Bruce Springsteen
A Long Way Home Dwight Yoakam
New Morning Bob Dylan
The Big Payback Bruce Springsteen
Where Did You Sleep Last Night Leadbelly
Things That I Used to Do Guitar Slim
Where Will I Be Emmylou
Not Fade Away Rolling Stones
Born to Run Bruce Springsteen (live acoustic from the Chimes of Freedom single. I used to collect Bruce singles and CD oddities, then they all got stolen. This is one that survived)
Stormy Monday T-Bone Walker
Sign on the Window Bob Dylan
Day of the Locusts Bob Dylan
On My Knees Charlie Rich
Sail Away Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry (thanks to FX for reminding me of it ...)
Pay Me My Money Down Bruce Springsteen Has anyone else heard the new Bruce, The Seeger Sessions? I have ... still trying to understand if I like it or not. This song is pretty infectious though.
Barbara Allen Bob Dylan (Gaslight Tapes)
I Walk the Line (Revisited) Rodney Crowell
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry Bob Dylan (Concert for Bangladesh)
Human Touch Bruce Springsteen
Down by the Riverside/When the Saints Go Marching In Elvis
Jacob's Ladder Bruce Springsteen
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Review
All The Roadrunning
Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris
Universal
This album is really boring.
That is all.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
The Herald has a Buddy review which agrees with mine though he hated Robbie. And:
Oh, and whoever hit on the idea of a mosh pit in front of the seating for this concert needs their head read.
Hardly a mosh pit. A pit maybe. Pit-esque. No moshing. It's called having fun. Cope.
Also: Via Expecting Rain, Lee Abrams' blog, the radio guru behind Bob at XM.
Oh, and whoever hit on the idea of a mosh pit in front of the seating for this concert needs their head read.
Hardly a mosh pit. A pit maybe. Pit-esque. No moshing. It's called having fun. Cope.
Also: Via Expecting Rain, Lee Abrams' blog, the radio guru behind Bob at XM.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Thanks to the Tonker for heads up on the Balmain Acoustica festival this Sunday, including the tasty opportunity to see a rare appearance of Jim Conway's Big Wheel.
ACOUSTICA
BALMAIN'S URBAN FOLK AND ACOUSTIC FESTIVAL RETURNS TO THE PENINSULAR THIS SUNDAY.
Just back from Byron East Coast Blues Festival and want more? Too little time or money to go traipsing off around the country to experience the excitement and fun of a world-class music festival? Don't worry, the festival has come to you and it's free!
On next Sunday, April 23 2006, the Balmain Acoustica festival will once again take place at Birchgrove oval in Sydney's inner west suburb of Balmain.
After the knock out success of last year's Balmain Acoustica Festival, this year's event promises to be better than ever! Along with a strong line-up of favourites such as the nationally acclaimed Backsliders, Big Wheel, The National Junk Band, master of the ukulele, Azo Bell and Kate McLurkin, this year's festival will also showcase the talents of highly respected Australian musicians such as Charlie McMahon (Gondwana), Jimmy Little and internationally respected world music exponents Mara. Singer songwriters Mitch Granger and Tamlin Tregonning will show just what the new crop of 'Balmain Boys' can do.
Like any great music festival, it's not only about the music. The ambience provided by a wonderful waterside location at Birchgrove oval, fabulous food stalls, carnival rides, roving performers provided by Circus Unique, jugglers and fire-eaters makes this a fun day for people of all ages.
So bring a picnic rug and settle in to enjoy one of the most exciting musical events to hit the peninsula.
WHERE : Birchgrove Oval, off Grove Street, Birchgrove
WHEN: Sunday 23 April, 12.00 pm to 9pm
COST: FREE
HOW TO GET THERE: Birchgrove Oval overlooks Snail Bay & is next to Grove Street, Birchgrove. The 441 & 432 buses travel from the city to Grove Street & ferries from Circular Quay travel to Snail Bay Wharf.
ACOUSTICA
BALMAIN'S URBAN FOLK AND ACOUSTIC FESTIVAL RETURNS TO THE PENINSULAR THIS SUNDAY.
Just back from Byron East Coast Blues Festival and want more? Too little time or money to go traipsing off around the country to experience the excitement and fun of a world-class music festival? Don't worry, the festival has come to you and it's free!
On next Sunday, April 23 2006, the Balmain Acoustica festival will once again take place at Birchgrove oval in Sydney's inner west suburb of Balmain.
After the knock out success of last year's Balmain Acoustica Festival, this year's event promises to be better than ever! Along with a strong line-up of favourites such as the nationally acclaimed Backsliders, Big Wheel, The National Junk Band, master of the ukulele, Azo Bell and Kate McLurkin, this year's festival will also showcase the talents of highly respected Australian musicians such as Charlie McMahon (Gondwana), Jimmy Little and internationally respected world music exponents Mara. Singer songwriters Mitch Granger and Tamlin Tregonning will show just what the new crop of 'Balmain Boys' can do.
Like any great music festival, it's not only about the music. The ambience provided by a wonderful waterside location at Birchgrove oval, fabulous food stalls, carnival rides, roving performers provided by Circus Unique, jugglers and fire-eaters makes this a fun day for people of all ages.
So bring a picnic rug and settle in to enjoy one of the most exciting musical events to hit the peninsula.
WHERE : Birchgrove Oval, off Grove Street, Birchgrove
WHEN: Sunday 23 April, 12.00 pm to 9pm
COST: FREE
HOW TO GET THERE: Birchgrove Oval overlooks Snail Bay & is next to Grove Street, Birchgrove. The 441 & 432 buses travel from the city to Grove Street & ferries from Circular Quay travel to Snail Bay Wharf.
Weatherman
Update: Go here to hear an XM promo with Ol' Golden Microphone Bobby himself (right at the end) inviting us to listen ... Daggy, yet thrilling!
The May 3rd date for Bob Dylan's debut as a disc jockey on XM Satellite Radio draws near and more info arrives.
I have signed up for the USD$8 a month subscription. XM's marketing peple deserve a pay rise. We Dylan tragics are such easy marks.
The theme of the first show is "weather."
Greil Marcus has heard a preview:
“He sounds like he’s been doing it for years,” rock critic and Dylan expert Greil Marcus said in an interview. “In his head he probably has.”
Many of these recordings are quite obscure. Marcus ... enthused that some of the records were new even to him.
A press release with show details and ...
Fans also can e-mail their questions and music requests directly to Bob Dylan at bobdylan@xmradio.com.
Heh.
Song lists for future episodes will be built around themes such as "cars," "dance," "police," and "whiskey."
The show is on at various times the first being 10am US EST Wednesday May 3rd and is repeated several times. Inevitably it will turn up else where on the web but as a fully paid up legitimate subscriber I cannot encourage freeloading ...
Mixed Up Confusion
On account of the pub being closed for the public holiday the Dylan get together didn't happen Monday. Didn't happen for me anyway, maybe you all were laffing it up somewhere else. I left a note and sat in the Agincourt staring forlornly at the video jukebox for an hour.
Anyway, a few of us thought it would be a nice idea to try and get together this Monday. It would be good to have one and Tuesday is a public holiday (although of course we should all go to the dawn service .... )
So. This Monday 24th April. Same place -- Bar Abercrombie, cnr Abercrombie and Broadway. Out in the beer garden. 7pm-ish.
Anyway, a few of us thought it would be a nice idea to try and get together this Monday. It would be good to have one and Tuesday is a public holiday (although of course we should all go to the dawn service .... )
So. This Monday 24th April. Same place -- Bar Abercrombie, cnr Abercrombie and Broadway. Out in the beer garden. 7pm-ish.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
I Met the Blues
My arms just above the elbow have that lovely bruised feeling which makes it impossible to rest them on anything today. This means one thing.
Yes, folks. I was on the rail last night.
After enduring the trials of mid-stadium obscurity at the Stones and stuck in a back corner at Daniel Lanois, last night I came home. Interestingly, the sound for Robert Cray was what you expect that close to the stage, pretty tinny and echo-y. You accept that for the pleasure and privilege of being so close to the people you've come to see. But the sound for Buddy Guy in exactly the same spot was rich and glorious.
The crowd was big and mixed, from the crusty old blues guys to young hispters in Hendrix shirts to ... me. Quite a number of young teenagers there too, a boy who looked about 14 was next to me on the rail. In a Led Zep t-shirt and clutching a Terrance Dicks Doctor Who novel, he was like the little brother I never had. Twice Buddy came up and personally gave him his guitar pick, which was great -- even if I was hoping he was headed this way to give it to me. ;-)
Robert Cray and band opened the show. Cray, if you don't know, is a super guitarist, exciting soul/blues singer and about 37 different shades of utterly hot. I don't think most of his original songs are quite classics but he played a couple of my favourites "Strong Persuader" and "Phone Booth". Some chick kept shrieking for "Mr Cray" to do "Foul Play" which alas he did not. He has his guitars slung quite high and the microphone was set quite low, so he leaned into it in a way that seemed awkward to me at first but accentuated the genuine emotion on his face while singing and playing.
Do not ask me about his guitars, he had about eight different ones, all Fenders and all very shiny but maybe some guitar geek will turn up in comments with the deets. "Strong Persuader" was the funky centre of the set and special mention of Jim Pugh on organ who let rip with some mighty solos. Next up for Robert and the boys is Melbourne tonight, then NZ and then touring with Eric Clapton.
The tough thing for Robbie is that no matter how good-unbelievable-transcendant-awesome you are ... it's just that, Buddy Guy is on next and there's not much competing with that. In my Buddy post below there is some chat about aspects of Buddy's act termed "goofing off." If you google for show reviews (or see Wikipedia -- Heh. "The neutrality of this article is disputed" -- Flop Eared Mule's new motto) you'll see talk of playing some of the show from the theatre bath room, playing with teeth, comic stop-starting of songs and general all round mugging and tomfoolery. The complaint is that this mucking about replaces the real music. Perhaps the awesome influence of F.E.M is such Buddy cut us a break or maybe my definition of goofing is different or maybe ... whatever.
Whatever. Awesome Spine Tingling Life Changing Jaw Drop Making Deity Praising Just To Be Allowed To Be Here Blues: 100% Distracting Larking: 0%
OK, yes he played the guitar with his teeth once, with a drumstick, with the front of his shirt, one handed, under handed but for only seconds at a time and if you closed your eyes it sounded like awesome blues to me. He certainly engaged the crowd, I laughed alot. And some showboating went on but I don't see any of that as inconsistent with the tradition he's from, the natural instincts of a performer and the oft-expressed blues desire to have a good time.
How can you be singing "Love Her With a Feeling" and not be having a damn good time?
As if you would close your eyes, though, when Buddy Guy is a freakin' foot away playing "Hoochie Coochie Man." There was one part where the lights went down except for one on Buddy and he picked out a classic blues riff. He's wearing a garish polka dot shirt and clutching a polka dotted guitar but for a few seconds in that soft white light he looked young and like the old footage you see of bluesmen from the 40s and 50s. I shivered.
He did his traditional walk through of the theatre, right through the stage floor, into the foyer and up into the mezzanine level. Again, this could be gimmicky but while he's doing this he's also pounding out a phenomenal Muddy Waters song. The second guitarist was playing rhythm back on stage so that was all Buddy and it was exhilirating music first, and happened to be giving the crowd a huge thrill at the same time. From the stage a number of times he told us we were here to hear the real blues, and the crowd roared its approval. There were any number of heart breaking riffs and exhilirating Buddy Guy guitar explosions. Hightlights which still have me buzzing would be "Hoochie Coochie Man", a sublime "Fever" and the infectious "Damn Right I've Got the Blues" and "Someone Else is Slippin' In." Paying tribute to the influence of John Lee Hooker, the opening of "Boom Boom" just about brought the joint down.
One of my best nights in a long time.
Yes, folks. I was on the rail last night.
After enduring the trials of mid-stadium obscurity at the Stones and stuck in a back corner at Daniel Lanois, last night I came home. Interestingly, the sound for Robert Cray was what you expect that close to the stage, pretty tinny and echo-y. You accept that for the pleasure and privilege of being so close to the people you've come to see. But the sound for Buddy Guy in exactly the same spot was rich and glorious.
The crowd was big and mixed, from the crusty old blues guys to young hispters in Hendrix shirts to ... me. Quite a number of young teenagers there too, a boy who looked about 14 was next to me on the rail. In a Led Zep t-shirt and clutching a Terrance Dicks Doctor Who novel, he was like the little brother I never had. Twice Buddy came up and personally gave him his guitar pick, which was great -- even if I was hoping he was headed this way to give it to me. ;-)
Robert Cray and band opened the show. Cray, if you don't know, is a super guitarist, exciting soul/blues singer and about 37 different shades of utterly hot. I don't think most of his original songs are quite classics but he played a couple of my favourites "Strong Persuader" and "Phone Booth". Some chick kept shrieking for "Mr Cray" to do "Foul Play" which alas he did not. He has his guitars slung quite high and the microphone was set quite low, so he leaned into it in a way that seemed awkward to me at first but accentuated the genuine emotion on his face while singing and playing.
Do not ask me about his guitars, he had about eight different ones, all Fenders and all very shiny but maybe some guitar geek will turn up in comments with the deets. "Strong Persuader" was the funky centre of the set and special mention of Jim Pugh on organ who let rip with some mighty solos. Next up for Robert and the boys is Melbourne tonight, then NZ and then touring with Eric Clapton.
The tough thing for Robbie is that no matter how good-unbelievable-transcendant-awesome you are ... it's just that, Buddy Guy is on next and there's not much competing with that. In my Buddy post below there is some chat about aspects of Buddy's act termed "goofing off." If you google for show reviews (or see Wikipedia -- Heh. "The neutrality of this article is disputed" -- Flop Eared Mule's new motto) you'll see talk of playing some of the show from the theatre bath room, playing with teeth, comic stop-starting of songs and general all round mugging and tomfoolery. The complaint is that this mucking about replaces the real music. Perhaps the awesome influence of F.E.M is such Buddy cut us a break or maybe my definition of goofing is different or maybe ... whatever.
Whatever. Awesome Spine Tingling Life Changing Jaw Drop Making Deity Praising Just To Be Allowed To Be Here Blues: 100% Distracting Larking: 0%
OK, yes he played the guitar with his teeth once, with a drumstick, with the front of his shirt, one handed, under handed but for only seconds at a time and if you closed your eyes it sounded like awesome blues to me. He certainly engaged the crowd, I laughed alot. And some showboating went on but I don't see any of that as inconsistent with the tradition he's from, the natural instincts of a performer and the oft-expressed blues desire to have a good time.
How can you be singing "Love Her With a Feeling" and not be having a damn good time?
As if you would close your eyes, though, when Buddy Guy is a freakin' foot away playing "Hoochie Coochie Man." There was one part where the lights went down except for one on Buddy and he picked out a classic blues riff. He's wearing a garish polka dot shirt and clutching a polka dotted guitar but for a few seconds in that soft white light he looked young and like the old footage you see of bluesmen from the 40s and 50s. I shivered.
He did his traditional walk through of the theatre, right through the stage floor, into the foyer and up into the mezzanine level. Again, this could be gimmicky but while he's doing this he's also pounding out a phenomenal Muddy Waters song. The second guitarist was playing rhythm back on stage so that was all Buddy and it was exhilirating music first, and happened to be giving the crowd a huge thrill at the same time. From the stage a number of times he told us we were here to hear the real blues, and the crowd roared its approval. There were any number of heart breaking riffs and exhilirating Buddy Guy guitar explosions. Hightlights which still have me buzzing would be "Hoochie Coochie Man", a sublime "Fever" and the infectious "Damn Right I've Got the Blues" and "Someone Else is Slippin' In." Paying tribute to the influence of John Lee Hooker, the opening of "Boom Boom" just about brought the joint down.
One of my best nights in a long time.
I have had a heap of Google referrals this morning already for people wanting "buddy guy enmore 2006 review" or the like. Chill! Although I understand your excitement. Today sometime.
Meanwhile, check out Boney Earnest for some truly exciting news about another favourite god of mine: Solomon Burke. Recording a country album with Gillian and David, Emmylou and Buddy Miller!!!!!! Solomon had some crossover country hits in the early 60s, he some amusing stories about being booked to play KKK events which I will try and find.
Meanwhile, check out Boney Earnest for some truly exciting news about another favourite god of mine: Solomon Burke. Recording a country album with Gillian and David, Emmylou and Buddy Miller!!!!!! Solomon had some crossover country hits in the early 60s, he some amusing stories about being booked to play KKK events which I will try and find.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Dying to know what key the Stones played Angie in at Telstra Stadium last week? Wonder no more. Go here and click on the top left hand picture.
Found that site via the music links page at news.com.au, who have also linked to me, bless.
From the list I've also been checking out Miles Ago (good resource for details about Aussie bands and artists) and 1-94 Bar.
Found that site via the music links page at news.com.au, who have also linked to me, bless.
From the list I've also been checking out Miles Ago (good resource for details about Aussie bands and artists) and 1-94 Bar.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Out of Sight
Stones Week ends, Buddy Week begins. Buddy Guy, that is, with Robert Cray at the Enmore Theatre this Wednesday night. Sure, I've heard tell of erratic idiosyncratic live performances leaving fans baffled and disappointed bemused and the ticket prices make the Stones look positively charitable but a) it's Buddy Guy and b) I'm late to this legends-seeing game. When you're 29 you take every opportunity you have to see these guys. Ain't none of us got the luxury of picking and choosing.
I recently got a hold of a DVD, The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1969 Volume Three. I'll definitely be getting Vols 1,2 and 4. And 5 and 6 and 7 if they exist.
The series is billed as "a rare collection of performances by America's premiere bluesmen at the peak of their artistry." These are the tours cited over and over again as major influences on that whole generation of English folky, bluesy, rocky types and Robert Plant, Eric Clapton and others recall the impact in the liner notes, which are excellent. The quality of the black and white film is gorgeous (better than my screenshots), being recorded in TV studios, mostly in Germany. So many highlights I think I'll have to make a series of it.
Buddy makes an appearance on the first number, guitarorising on Hound Dog with Big Mama Thornton. The notes record that "many in the audience for the AFBF tour that fall were surprised by Guy's full-on attack and his take no prisoners guitar pyrotechnics."
He didn't make so much of an impression on others however,
He had visited the United Kingdom earlier in the year, appearing on the British television show Ready Steady Go! in February where he was mistakenly introduced by the host, Cathy McGowan, as Chuck Berry. When McGowan apologized for her mistake later on in the programme, she unbelievably referred to Guy as Chubby Checker.
Track 3 is Buddy on "Out of Sight."
Playing both the rhythm and horn riffs on his guitar, he moved in ways which foreshadowed Jimi Hendrix. The kinetic energy is contagious.
Blues player? Doing a James Brown soul number? Quelle horreur! "I was here in Chicago," Guy explains, "and every joint we played in had a jukebox and if you couldn't play those Top 10 numbers on the jukebox, you wasn't gonna play in this club! So, that's what had me doing the James Brown. I didn't know what the fuck is going on in Europe. I've never been there before. Didn't nobody come up and tell me, 'Hey man, you gotta play blues!"
After Buddy cottoned on to the fact that the Europeans didn't appreciate their blues artists playing soul music, "Out of Sight" was removed from his repetoire and, for the rest of the tour, Guy played nothing but straight 12-bar blues.
I recently got a hold of a DVD, The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1969 Volume Three. I'll definitely be getting Vols 1,2 and 4. And 5 and 6 and 7 if they exist.
The series is billed as "a rare collection of performances by America's premiere bluesmen at the peak of their artistry." These are the tours cited over and over again as major influences on that whole generation of English folky, bluesy, rocky types and Robert Plant, Eric Clapton and others recall the impact in the liner notes, which are excellent. The quality of the black and white film is gorgeous (better than my screenshots), being recorded in TV studios, mostly in Germany. So many highlights I think I'll have to make a series of it.
Buddy makes an appearance on the first number, guitarorising on Hound Dog with Big Mama Thornton. The notes record that "many in the audience for the AFBF tour that fall were surprised by Guy's full-on attack and his take no prisoners guitar pyrotechnics."
He didn't make so much of an impression on others however,
He had visited the United Kingdom earlier in the year, appearing on the British television show Ready Steady Go! in February where he was mistakenly introduced by the host, Cathy McGowan, as Chuck Berry. When McGowan apologized for her mistake later on in the programme, she unbelievably referred to Guy as Chubby Checker.
Track 3 is Buddy on "Out of Sight."
Playing both the rhythm and horn riffs on his guitar, he moved in ways which foreshadowed Jimi Hendrix. The kinetic energy is contagious.
Blues player? Doing a James Brown soul number? Quelle horreur! "I was here in Chicago," Guy explains, "and every joint we played in had a jukebox and if you couldn't play those Top 10 numbers on the jukebox, you wasn't gonna play in this club! So, that's what had me doing the James Brown. I didn't know what the fuck is going on in Europe. I've never been there before. Didn't nobody come up and tell me, 'Hey man, you gotta play blues!"
After Buddy cottoned on to the fact that the Europeans didn't appreciate their blues artists playing soul music, "Out of Sight" was removed from his repetoire and, for the rest of the tour, Guy played nothing but straight 12-bar blues.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
The Dylan folks will be hanging out again tomorrow night Monday 17th. Bar Abercrombie (is that's what is it called now? It used to be The Australian) corner Broadway and Abercrombie 7ish onwards in the beer garden out the back. Feel free to drop in and have a beer.
UPDATE: And to get you in the mood, memories of Bob in Australia 1966.
UPDATE: And to get you in the mood, memories of Bob in Australia 1966.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Easter Eight
Worked up another podcast, not so much "casting" as such. All music, none of me stumbling over my script. Special bootleg edition.
Download here. 40 minutes. 37MB.
Song details over the fold.
Bob Dylan
Mr Tambourine Man
Birmingham, AL 2/4/95
Just beautiful.
Keef
Please Please Me
studio, 1993
"I coulda written it better." Heh.
Buck Owens
Cryin' Time
Santa Monica Pier 1998
Rick Danko and Paul Butterfield
Java Blues
Blue Note Boulder Colorado December 13 1979
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings with Emmylou Harris, Old Crow Medicine Show & Chris Thile The Weight
32nd Telluride Bluegrass Festival
Town Park, Telluride, CO
18th June 2005
Had to fade out the end a bit quick because there's skipping which ruins the effect.
Guy Clark
Desperados Waiting for a Train
BBC Radio 2 2005
Irma Thomas and The Las Vegas Connection
Cry On
Roy LaRoccaÃs Showboat Lounge
Fat City, Metairie, Louisiana
December 26, 1977
Buck Owens
Folsom Prison Blues and
Streets of Bakersfield
as above
Download here. 40 minutes. 37MB.
Song details over the fold.
Bob Dylan
Mr Tambourine Man
Birmingham, AL 2/4/95
Just beautiful.
Keef
Please Please Me
studio, 1993
"I coulda written it better." Heh.
Buck Owens
Cryin' Time
Santa Monica Pier 1998
Rick Danko and Paul Butterfield
Java Blues
Blue Note Boulder Colorado December 13 1979
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings with Emmylou Harris, Old Crow Medicine Show & Chris Thile The Weight
32nd Telluride Bluegrass Festival
Town Park, Telluride, CO
18th June 2005
Had to fade out the end a bit quick because there's skipping which ruins the effect.
Guy Clark
Desperados Waiting for a Train
BBC Radio 2 2005
Irma Thomas and The Las Vegas Connection
Cry On
Roy LaRoccaÃs Showboat Lounge
Fat City, Metairie, Louisiana
December 26, 1977
Buck Owens
Folsom Prison Blues and
Streets of Bakersfield
as above
What A Drag It Is to See You
If I were Larissa Dubecki I would be truly embarrassed. Even if you think the age of Stones any way actually important,
don't
you
realise
how
truly and utterly
boring and jaw droppingly unoriginal it is to bang on about it?
You're only about the 1,8653,86847th person in newspapers alone and just during the last seven days to say exactly the same thing.
It's like a best man reading crude "telegrams"in a wedding reception speech, or a Rove monologue. You want to sink into the ground with mortification on their behalf.
Boring!!
memo to self: bookmark this post so during the next Dylan tour (with "can't sing" for "old") I can just cut and paste it to save time.
don't
you
realise
how
truly and utterly
boring and jaw droppingly unoriginal it is to bang on about it?
You're only about the 1,8653,86847th person in newspapers alone and just during the last seven days to say exactly the same thing.
It's like a best man reading crude "telegrams"in a wedding reception speech, or a Rove monologue. You want to sink into the ground with mortification on their behalf.
Boring!!
memo to self: bookmark this post so during the next Dylan tour (with "can't sing" for "old") I can just cut and paste it to save time.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Insurgent Albertan Corb Lund was a late addition to Byron and he's on at the Sandringham in Newtown tomorrow night, $15. With Karl Broadie. Strongly recommended.
-1 Sleep
I do lead up better than aftermath and post mortem. It was great, they rock. Woot! I'll pass you over to Flutey and cs for details.
UPDATE: This morning I felt a bit fuzzy and not too interested in doing a wrap up. I never know what to say -- other than "It was great. They rock. Woot!" but since Flutey asked so nicely in comments ...
Rock is a jealous god. There are rules, and if you break the rules you get punished, as is only right and proper.
The most goldenest of golden rules is this: be up the bloody front.
I transgressed. Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.
I was in the middle which was good, half way back just behind the most expensive tickets which seemed like it would be OK. On the arena floor, which turned out to be bad. On tip toes all night I barely saw anything on the stage itself. A few glimpses of Mick has he careered insanely around, an odd spotting of Keith and Ronnie weaving it together, which I desperately wanted to see.
It was short notice between when ticketing arrangements were announced and when they went on sale. The only way to really get the seats I want is to queue up but I really couldn't take the day off work to do it. Last night, I was thinking "I should have quit my frigging job entirely to get that ticket!" It would have been worth it!
So I made do, and lied myself into believing it would be OK. I have sinned in thought, word and deed.
So I felt a bit down about it for the first third of the gig (set list )-- although the music was hawt, especially You Got Me Rocking. Oh, and Dead Flowers! That was a treat. And It's Only Rock 'n' Roll. And Tumbling Dice, and Nightime with Lisa Fischer having the entire stadiuim in the palm of her hand. Oh, OK. So the entire first third was bloody brilliant rock and roll.
But, I saw as through a glass darkly. Indeed, I saw not at all. My heart was heavy, the spirit of rock was wrestling in the garden of my soul with the serpent of sucky seats.
During Keith's two songs alot of people inexplicably sat down -- the god of rock won't let those trangressors off scot-free either, mark.
But as the heads parted, I saw I had been given a second chance. The heads parted and I could see Keef, perfect and alone in the spotlight.
I could see! I could see! Verifuckingly, I could see.
Miss You just wouldn't quit and I've been possessed by it all day today. There were some annoying girlie girls next to me and I thought I might have kicked over their Bundies and coke so I looked down for a few seconds.
When I raised my eyes -- a vision! The small stage had worked its way to the centre, still too far away but at least I could make out human figures and even some detail.
I have read the scriptures and I know Honky Tonk Woman is often played on the small stage and I was not disappointed. With that the switch was well and truly flicked and the rest of the night was ecstatically wonderful. One moment of transcendance was all that I needed, lifted out of myself and my seat -- I was delivered.
Special mention of Paint it Black -- aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! The first Stones song that ever entered my life and shook me up, lo almost a score of years ago, and I didn't even know it was the Stones who did it. Mysterious ways.
The god of rock has given me much. But it was not given to me to have a sense of rhythm. With Mick and crowd clapping I can keep time, just about. As soon as it is just me I lose it entirely and flap about randomly. I am, truly, the Anti-Charlie Watts.
UPDATE: This morning I felt a bit fuzzy and not too interested in doing a wrap up. I never know what to say -- other than "It was great. They rock. Woot!" but since Flutey asked so nicely in comments ...
Rock is a jealous god. There are rules, and if you break the rules you get punished, as is only right and proper.
The most goldenest of golden rules is this: be up the bloody front.
I transgressed. Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.
I was in the middle which was good, half way back just behind the most expensive tickets which seemed like it would be OK. On the arena floor, which turned out to be bad. On tip toes all night I barely saw anything on the stage itself. A few glimpses of Mick has he careered insanely around, an odd spotting of Keith and Ronnie weaving it together, which I desperately wanted to see.
It was short notice between when ticketing arrangements were announced and when they went on sale. The only way to really get the seats I want is to queue up but I really couldn't take the day off work to do it. Last night, I was thinking "I should have quit my frigging job entirely to get that ticket!" It would have been worth it!
So I made do, and lied myself into believing it would be OK. I have sinned in thought, word and deed.
So I felt a bit down about it for the first third of the gig (set list )-- although the music was hawt, especially You Got Me Rocking. Oh, and Dead Flowers! That was a treat. And It's Only Rock 'n' Roll. And Tumbling Dice, and Nightime with Lisa Fischer having the entire stadiuim in the palm of her hand. Oh, OK. So the entire first third was bloody brilliant rock and roll.
But, I saw as through a glass darkly. Indeed, I saw not at all. My heart was heavy, the spirit of rock was wrestling in the garden of my soul with the serpent of sucky seats.
During Keith's two songs alot of people inexplicably sat down -- the god of rock won't let those trangressors off scot-free either, mark.
But as the heads parted, I saw I had been given a second chance. The heads parted and I could see Keef, perfect and alone in the spotlight.
I could see! I could see! Verifuckingly, I could see.
Miss You just wouldn't quit and I've been possessed by it all day today. There were some annoying girlie girls next to me and I thought I might have kicked over their Bundies and coke so I looked down for a few seconds.
When I raised my eyes -- a vision! The small stage had worked its way to the centre, still too far away but at least I could make out human figures and even some detail.
I have read the scriptures and I know Honky Tonk Woman is often played on the small stage and I was not disappointed. With that the switch was well and truly flicked and the rest of the night was ecstatically wonderful. One moment of transcendance was all that I needed, lifted out of myself and my seat -- I was delivered.
Special mention of Paint it Black -- aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! The first Stones song that ever entered my life and shook me up, lo almost a score of years ago, and I didn't even know it was the Stones who did it. Mysterious ways.
The god of rock has given me much. But it was not given to me to have a sense of rhythm. With Mick and crowd clapping I can keep time, just about. As soon as it is just me I lose it entirely and flap about randomly. I am, truly, the Anti-Charlie Watts.
Monday, April 10, 2006
One Sleep
No one better try make me sit down. I agree with whoever said, if you're name is Charlie Watts, you can sit down. Everyone else UP!
?
What do you call the effect on a song where the singer sounds like he's on a dodgy radio, far away.
For instance, Steve Earle -- "Ashes to Ashes", right at the beginning. Or the chorus of "NYC" from El Corazon. He does it elsewhere too but I'm not motivated enough to listen to those last couple of silly albums of his to remind me on which songs.
In my mind it is "stupid idiot studio trickery bullshit" but there must be a more precise term ...
For instance, Steve Earle -- "Ashes to Ashes", right at the beginning. Or the chorus of "NYC" from El Corazon. He does it elsewhere too but I'm not motivated enough to listen to those last couple of silly albums of his to remind me on which songs.
In my mind it is "stupid idiot studio trickery bullshit" but there must be a more precise term ...
Friday, April 07, 2006
Honky Tonk Highway (good to have you back!) has the lowdown on the cancellation of Hunter and Suzy's Balmain gig. Another one bites the dust but hopefully a window will open elsewhere ...
Also, 4 sleeps ...
The Rolling Stones One On One
Time: 10.30
Channel: 9
Duration: 60 Minutes
Ellen Fanning's exclusive interview with the Rolling Stones, who are in Japan on their A Bigger Bang world tour and are about to arrive in Australia to sell-out concerts.
Music
Also, 4 sleeps ...
The Rolling Stones One On One
Time: 10.30
Channel: 9
Duration: 60 Minutes
Ellen Fanning's exclusive interview with the Rolling Stones, who are in Japan on their A Bigger Bang world tour and are about to arrive in Australia to sell-out concerts.
Music
Weekend
Get there early to see Rev J.D ...
And Sunday the Toe Sucking Cowgirls make a rare (last?) trip to town:
Melbourne! Don't forget about the Bastards ...
And Sunday the Toe Sucking Cowgirls make a rare (last?) trip to town:
Then on Sunday night we'll be heading back to one of our favourite haunts in Sydney, the Botany View Hotel from 6.30-9.30pm. Mike Vidale will be joining us on bass and Paul Dunn on drums, two guys that were there at the very beginning of the Cowgirls. We don't know when we'll be back in Sydney again, and as Gleny has decided to call it quits and move onto greener pastures, it could very well be our last gig ever!
Melbourne! Don't forget about the Bastards ...
Thursday, April 06, 2006
5 Sleeps
Had occasion to listen to Vega FM this morning. They are giving away Stones tickets (only Gold though -- pretty stingy.) The winner said she was not really a Stones fan because she was "too young," but her parents listened to them.
She was 41.
They might not have many listeners, but they're all quality.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Sail Away
Like Dylan, I think alot of Randy Newman songs are virtually uncoverable. They require a certain voice, and require almost straight mimicry to pull off. Exceptions noted of course. Guilty, sublime in the hands of Bonnie or whoever. You Can Leave Your Hat On confirms the rule, the original is sly and uncomfortable, far away from the Tom Jones/Joe Cocker straight ahead sex bomb versions. Sure you can listen to that version and enjoy it, but its only casually related to the original, and 10% of its reward.
Intrigued then by this Sugar Hill May release a First XI line up of "roots" artists:
Sail Away: The Songs of Randy Newman
Various Artists
1. Tim O’Brien, Sail Away
2. Sonny Landreth, Louisiana 1927
3. The Del McCoury Band, Birmingham
4. Reckless Kelly & Joe Ely, Rider In The Rain
5. Allison Moorer, Marie
6. Steve Earle, Rednecks
7. Béla Fleck , Burn On
8. Sam Bush, Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man)
9. Guster, Memo To My Son
10. The Duhks, Political Science
11. Marc Broussard, You Can Leave Your Hat On
12. Kim Richey, Texas Girl At The Funeral Of Her Father
Steve Earle doing Rednecks??
Intrigued, I say again. Damn intrigued.
Intrigued then by this Sugar Hill May release a First XI line up of "roots" artists:
Sail Away: The Songs of Randy Newman
Various Artists
1. Tim O’Brien, Sail Away
2. Sonny Landreth, Louisiana 1927
3. The Del McCoury Band, Birmingham
4. Reckless Kelly & Joe Ely, Rider In The Rain
5. Allison Moorer, Marie
6. Steve Earle, Rednecks
7. Béla Fleck , Burn On
8. Sam Bush, Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man)
9. Guster, Memo To My Son
10. The Duhks, Political Science
11. Marc Broussard, You Can Leave Your Hat On
12. Kim Richey, Texas Girl At The Funeral Of Her Father
Steve Earle doing Rednecks??
Intrigued, I say again. Damn intrigued.
"Levon is a Saab afficionado"
"During the 1990s, Volkswagen sponsored three high-profile rock bands' European tours, and issued special-editions of the Rabbit (or the Golf, as the model is called in Europe), with distinctive exterior markings, for each: the 1994 Pink Floyd Edition, the 1995 Golf Rolling Stones Edition, and the 1996 Bon Jovi Edition. Now Saab is doing the same with a new limited edition 9-3 convertible named after the pink house in West Saugerties where Bob Dylan and The Band recorded the legendary Basement Tapes in the late '60s."
A belated April Fool's, but it kind of made me think for a few seconds ...
Monday, April 03, 2006
The Dog Ate It
Too busy at the moment to do much of any substance. Of any length anyway. In the meantime I renew my invitation to anyone who wants to contribute - rant, review of CD, concert, whatever, memories, anything.
I have a fair bit half done or half thought of. Charlie Rich retrospective; Be Here To Love Me, the Townes Van Zandt film; the new Tom Russell which I haven't even had time to go buy yet, American Folk Blues Festival DVD, must also get the Walk the Line DVD and check out the extras, another podcast. Gigs in the next week to report on: Eugene Hideaway Bridges, Stones, Buddy Guy/Robert Cray, Daniel Lanois. I'm sure Shaun will tell us about Los Lobos. It's Bluesfest bottleneck time and I'm going to miss them.
I have a fair bit half done or half thought of. Charlie Rich retrospective; Be Here To Love Me, the Townes Van Zandt film; the new Tom Russell which I haven't even had time to go buy yet, American Folk Blues Festival DVD, must also get the Walk the Line DVD and check out the extras, another podcast. Gigs in the next week to report on: Eugene Hideaway Bridges, Stones, Buddy Guy/Robert Cray, Daniel Lanois. I'm sure Shaun will tell us about Los Lobos. It's Bluesfest bottleneck time and I'm going to miss them.
The paper comments on the fact there are still seats left for the Rolling Stones at Telstra Stadium next (!) week (!). I can't agree the price would be putting people off, $90 (or $150) is hardly over the odds for a big show these days. Except for Rio and the Superbowl this will be their biggest show since October last year, so if you're up the back it might be a bit spacious but down in the thick of it ... well, I can hardly wait.
Having checked a week or so ago, after a new release of tickets and these remaining seats are mostly in the far outer with a few of the most expensive Diamond level ones, which should be long gone by now. I already have a ticket but I haven't (quite) given up getting one in my prefered spot so keep going back in case they release more. Cutting it a bit fine now.
I expect the Ticketek allotment to sell out before the day but the poor scalpers have been caught a bit short as I note on eBay that many tickets are now being sold for half face value.
See recent setlists and reviews here.
Having checked a week or so ago, after a new release of tickets and these remaining seats are mostly in the far outer with a few of the most expensive Diamond level ones, which should be long gone by now. I already have a ticket but I haven't (quite) given up getting one in my prefered spot so keep going back in case they release more. Cutting it a bit fine now.
I expect the Ticketek allotment to sell out before the day but the poor scalpers have been caught a bit short as I note on eBay that many tickets are now being sold for half face value.
See recent setlists and reviews here.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Friday, March 31, 2006
Lawsy Sez ...
This is the top 10 country albums in Australia this week. Note Van at number 9. It isn't yet gold (350,000 units) but still, how many non-greatest hits would Van normally shift? Will this be his biggest selling album? (eta: in Australia)
You Van fans have one man to thank.
There is one reason for this surge: John Laws has been flogging the album mercilessly. There Stands the Glass has been getting a spin daily, sometimes more than once. Back to back.
1 1 8 1 WALK THE LINE Soundtrack
2 2 73 1 THE ESSENTIAL JOHNNY CASH Johnny Cash
3 3 17 2 RING OF FIRE: THE LEGEND OF Johnny Cash
4 4 5 4 AT SAN QUENTIN / AT FOLSOM PRISON Johnny Cash
5 6 2 5 SLIM DUSTY LIVE Slim Dusty
6 7 79 1 BE HERE Keith Urban
7 5 5 5 DUETS Johnny Cash
8 10 9 8 THE VERY BEST OF JOHNNY CASH Johnny Cash
9 8 2 8 PAY THE DEVIL Van Morrison
10 9 10 1 THE WINNERS 2006 Various
Update: Incidentally. Whatever else you think of him (and you're probably right), I reckon Laws is just about the best interviewer I've ever heard. Seriously. Yeah, he's got an ego the size of your average contintenal shelf but when he's interested in the topic, particularly with musical guests, he's really good. I still recall a joyous talk he had with k.d lang about six years ago. You can hear him wtih Kris Kristoffersosn and Neil Diamond here, two I'd recommend.
You Van fans have one man to thank.
There is one reason for this surge: John Laws has been flogging the album mercilessly. There Stands the Glass has been getting a spin daily, sometimes more than once. Back to back.
1 1 8 1 WALK THE LINE Soundtrack
2 2 73 1 THE ESSENTIAL JOHNNY CASH Johnny Cash
3 3 17 2 RING OF FIRE: THE LEGEND OF Johnny Cash
4 4 5 4 AT SAN QUENTIN / AT FOLSOM PRISON Johnny Cash
5 6 2 5 SLIM DUSTY LIVE Slim Dusty
6 7 79 1 BE HERE Keith Urban
7 5 5 5 DUETS Johnny Cash
8 10 9 8 THE VERY BEST OF JOHNNY CASH Johnny Cash
9 8 2 8 PAY THE DEVIL Van Morrison
10 9 10 1 THE WINNERS 2006 Various
Update: Incidentally. Whatever else you think of him (and you're probably right), I reckon Laws is just about the best interviewer I've ever heard. Seriously. Yeah, he's got an ego the size of your average contintenal shelf but when he's interested in the topic, particularly with musical guests, he's really good. I still recall a joyous talk he had with k.d lang about six years ago. You can hear him wtih Kris Kristoffersosn and Neil Diamond here, two I'd recommend.
Billboard Sez ...
Gillian Welch is currently in the studio hashing out her fourth solo set. The effort, which is as-yet-untitled, will likely be released by the end of the year.
What "fourth solo set" means I do not know. It will be her fifth album, all with David.
Other welcome releases news: Guy Clark Workbench Songs due out in August. His first for Dualtone.
What "fourth solo set" means I do not know. It will be her fifth album, all with David.
Other welcome releases news: Guy Clark Workbench Songs due out in August. His first for Dualtone.
Melbourne, Do Yourself a Favour
Rob Luckey and the Lucky Bastards do Melbourne. For all your honky tonking needs. New album Hungry Man out now.
Fri 6th Lomond Hotel, Brunswick, Melbourne 8:30 pm
Sat 7th Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy, Melbourne 8:30 pm
Sun 8th St Kilda Bowling Club, Melbourne 5:30 pm
Fri 6th Lomond Hotel, Brunswick, Melbourne 8:30 pm
Sat 7th Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy, Melbourne 8:30 pm
Sun 8th St Kilda Bowling Club, Melbourne 5:30 pm
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Another Buck Story
Just hours before he died, Owens was on stage Friday night with the Buckaroos singing at his $5-million Bakersfield nightclub and restaurant, Buck Owens' Crystal Palace, something he'd done routinely since opening it almost 10 years ago.
"He had come to the club early and had a chicken-fried steak dinner and bragged that it's his favorite meal," Shaw said. After dinner, Owens told band members he didn't feel up to performing and decided to drive home. On his way to his car, fans on their way in told him that they had come from Bend, Ore., and that they were really looking forward to hearing him sing. Owens turned around and did the show.
"He mentioned that onstage: 'If somebody's come all that way, I'm gonna do the show and give it my best shot. I might groan and squeak, but I'll see what I can do,' " Shaw said. "He died in his sleep — they figure it was about 4:30 [a.m.] — probably of heart failure. So he had his favorite meal, played a show and died in his sleep. We thought, that's not too bad."
LA Times
"He had come to the club early and had a chicken-fried steak dinner and bragged that it's his favorite meal," Shaw said. After dinner, Owens told band members he didn't feel up to performing and decided to drive home. On his way to his car, fans on their way in told him that they had come from Bend, Ore., and that they were really looking forward to hearing him sing. Owens turned around and did the show.
"He mentioned that onstage: 'If somebody's come all that way, I'm gonna do the show and give it my best shot. I might groan and squeak, but I'll see what I can do,' " Shaw said. "He died in his sleep — they figure it was about 4:30 [a.m.] — probably of heart failure. So he had his favorite meal, played a show and died in his sleep. We thought, that's not too bad."
LA Times
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Bingo with Bob
A new Dylan tour starts in three days which means a new Dylan Pool starts in three days. If you're not familiar it's simple: each Dylan song is given a number of points based on how likely it is to be played -- Highway 61 Revisited, 1 point. Dear Landlord, 18 points -- and they are divided into groups. You pick one song from each group and if he plays it you get the points. At the end of the tour there are prizes for the highest totals and lots of other prizes for other random things.
It's fun. I always do appallingly, I pick too much on sentiment. I took part in the first one back in 2001 and it has grown heaps since then. Think you've got about three days to sign up.
My picks are over the fold. I'm "dotball" at the pool, look me up.
Sing Me Back Home is a little indulgence since half the tour he will be appearing with Merle Haggard and the Strangers.
Song Group 1: Tomorrow is a Long Time (17 points)
Song Group 2: Knockin' on Heaven's Door (14 points)
Song Group 3: Shooting Star (9 points)
Song Group 4: The Times They Are A-Changin' (4 points)
Song Group 5: Highway 61 Revisited (1 point)
Song Group 6: The Wicked Messenger (12 points)
Song Group 7: Down Along the Cove (4 points)
Song Group 8: Desolation Row (10 points)
Song Group 9: High Water (For Charley Patton) (4 points)
Song Group 10: Every Grain of Sand (9 points)
Song Group 11: Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) (8 points)
Song Group 12: Drifter's Escape (4 points)
Song Group 13: Masters of War (6 points)
Song Group 14: Man in the Long Black Coat (10 points)
Song Group 15: Simple Twist of Fate (16 points)
Song Group 16: Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (3 points)
Song Group 17: Lay, Lady, Lay (3 points)
Song Group 18: Blowin' in the Wind (14 points)
Song Group 19: Sing Me Back Home (18 points)
Song Group 20: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (3 points)
Song Group 21: Summer Days (1 point)
Song Group 22: Pancho and Lefty (18 points)
Album Group 1: Blonde on Blonde (1 point per song)
Album Group 2: Nashville Skyline (1 point per song)
Album Group 3: Oh Mercy (4 points per song)
It's fun. I always do appallingly, I pick too much on sentiment. I took part in the first one back in 2001 and it has grown heaps since then. Think you've got about three days to sign up.
My picks are over the fold. I'm "dotball" at the pool, look me up.
Sing Me Back Home is a little indulgence since half the tour he will be appearing with Merle Haggard and the Strangers.
Song Group 1: Tomorrow is a Long Time (17 points)
Song Group 2: Knockin' on Heaven's Door (14 points)
Song Group 3: Shooting Star (9 points)
Song Group 4: The Times They Are A-Changin' (4 points)
Song Group 5: Highway 61 Revisited (1 point)
Song Group 6: The Wicked Messenger (12 points)
Song Group 7: Down Along the Cove (4 points)
Song Group 8: Desolation Row (10 points)
Song Group 9: High Water (For Charley Patton) (4 points)
Song Group 10: Every Grain of Sand (9 points)
Song Group 11: Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) (8 points)
Song Group 12: Drifter's Escape (4 points)
Song Group 13: Masters of War (6 points)
Song Group 14: Man in the Long Black Coat (10 points)
Song Group 15: Simple Twist of Fate (16 points)
Song Group 16: Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (3 points)
Song Group 17: Lay, Lady, Lay (3 points)
Song Group 18: Blowin' in the Wind (14 points)
Song Group 19: Sing Me Back Home (18 points)
Song Group 20: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (3 points)
Song Group 21: Summer Days (1 point)
Song Group 22: Pancho and Lefty (18 points)
Album Group 1: Blonde on Blonde (1 point per song)
Album Group 2: Nashville Skyline (1 point per song)
Album Group 3: Oh Mercy (4 points per song)
Monday, March 27, 2006
Don't Touch that Dial
One way to get country radio to play your songs. Own the station.
[Buck] Owens had made smart investments in real estate, music publishing and management, a recording studio and television station -- as well as a pair of radio stations, one in his adopted home. Problem was, listeners were calling and asking those stations to "play less Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr. and other artists like that," Owens recalled with glee during his 1989 stop here. Apparently those listeners had no idea who owned the stations.
So, Owens asked, "Do I play raucous honky-tonk music, raw with that edge and gusto, or do I take the edge off, soften up the songs, change the instrumentation and be something that I ain't?"
For the man whose first No. 1 had been the insistent "Act Naturally," to be something he "ain't" was never an option. "We ought to get those people rockin' chairs, put 'em out back with some old Eddy Arnold records and say, 'Here you are, baby, now turn my radio station off. Don't be listening to me. I don't want to play for you.' "
[Buck] Owens had made smart investments in real estate, music publishing and management, a recording studio and television station -- as well as a pair of radio stations, one in his adopted home. Problem was, listeners were calling and asking those stations to "play less Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr. and other artists like that," Owens recalled with glee during his 1989 stop here. Apparently those listeners had no idea who owned the stations.
So, Owens asked, "Do I play raucous honky-tonk music, raw with that edge and gusto, or do I take the edge off, soften up the songs, change the instrumentation and be something that I ain't?"
For the man whose first No. 1 had been the insistent "Act Naturally," to be something he "ain't" was never an option. "We ought to get those people rockin' chairs, put 'em out back with some old Eddy Arnold records and say, 'Here you are, baby, now turn my radio station off. Don't be listening to me. I don't want to play for you.' "
For relaxation I like to read books about killing people, one of my favourite authors is Val McDermid. Just finished reading her new one The Grave Tattoo which was a bit on the disappointing side actually but then, I did have very high hopes. The bit where that bloke did that thing, I couldn't buy it. Anyway, at her website I came across this from February:
Coolness. It will be out in September apparently.
This is Val left, here with the rather delicious Robson Green from Wire in the Blood.
(For excellent book reviews, visit Fuschia Reads!)
Later this year, Poisoned Pen Press will be publishing an anthology with a difference. A Merry Band of Murderers is a collection of short stories which are all inspired by a song. And accompanying the book will be a CD where each of the writers performs the song in question. I'm doing The Long Black Veil, which has been recorded by an eye-watering range of artists from Johnny Cash to the Rolling Stones. Try not to get killed in the rush to buy this excellent product!
Coolness. It will be out in September apparently.
This is Val left, here with the rather delicious Robson Green from Wire in the Blood.
(For excellent book reviews, visit Fuschia Reads!)
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Sad news, Buck Owens passed away yesterday.
Update: This pic was posted at the Dylan Pool. Bob, Merle, Buck.
Friday, March 24, 2006
May, My New Favourite Month
A few weeks ago there was a story about "The Hendersonville Tapes", home recordings by Johnny Cash in the '70s dug up by John Carter-Cash when they were clearing out the house for sale. The Man, Chet Flippo at CMT has details now, it's being released in May as Johnny Cash:Personal File which sounds like a '60s detective show to me. In the Tennessee criminal justice system there are two seperate, yet equally important groups. The country singers, and the ostriches who kick their asses. These are their stories.
Anyway. It sounds as amazing as we might have hoped.
Walk the Line was released in February here so it's still at the cinema. In my office I am (annoyingly) placed to hear conversations from all over the room and have involuntarily heard three different ones recently about people seeing it, thinking it was awesome. All people who had no interest in the topic before. Just this morning some random guy who sits behind me said he knew nothing about Johnny Cash before seeing the movie last night but he was a quote genuine badass unquote and was speechless when his cubicle mate informed him they actors were not lipsynching. He liked the music, but I could tell he was still struggling to come to terms with liking something "country." Cash compilations in the Top 10 charts next to James Blunt and ... um, who ever else is in the Top 10. Never thought I'd see it. Quite a development. They also made some inaccurate statements about the chronology vis a vis Elvis but I was a good anonymous office drone and stared straight ahead and said nowt.
I can't find a convenient link for the ostrich thing, the info is always buried pars down in an article. Google if you wish.
Anyway. It sounds as amazing as we might have hoped.
Apparently at the time he recorded them, he thought no one would be interested in such a stripped-down sound. When he later cut his first CD for the American Recordings label with producer Rick Rubin (1994's American Recordings), he remarked that he had made a similar record in the 1970s but could interest no labels in it.
Walk the Line was released in February here so it's still at the cinema. In my office I am (annoyingly) placed to hear conversations from all over the room and have involuntarily heard three different ones recently about people seeing it, thinking it was awesome. All people who had no interest in the topic before. Just this morning some random guy who sits behind me said he knew nothing about Johnny Cash before seeing the movie last night but he was a quote genuine badass unquote and was speechless when his cubicle mate informed him they actors were not lipsynching. He liked the music, but I could tell he was still struggling to come to terms with liking something "country." Cash compilations in the Top 10 charts next to James Blunt and ... um, who ever else is in the Top 10. Never thought I'd see it. Quite a development. They also made some inaccurate statements about the chronology vis a vis Elvis but I was a good anonymous office drone and stared straight ahead and said nowt.
I can't find a convenient link for the ostrich thing, the info is always buried pars down in an article. Google if you wish.
Latest Hickory Wind podcast, this one dealing with the iconic Heartworn Highways DVD and the newly released soundtrack CD. If you're not familar with the film and have any interest at all in what is now called alt.country/americana it's an essential document. Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Steve Young, right back where it all started. One of the places it started anyhow.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
I was at Gleebooks for a function last night and noted they had a copy of Rednecks and Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music by Chris Willman. I've read very good things about it. There were alot of aging Trots between me and it so I left it on the shelf, but I may have to go back. (first: check Borders who, if they have it, will have it alot cheaper. My apologies Independent Australian Book Retailers but I still have Stones concert merchandise to save up for. I'm sure you understand.)
Back to Billy
Reading this article in the Chicago Tribune (requires registration, alas) about Billy Bragg and Richard Thompson (connection: both "veteran singer songwriters", both "fellow countrymen" and both have box sets out). I was a Billy Bragg freak for a time, but I must confess hadn't listened to him for years until a few weeks ago when an old track was included on an Uncut Cd. It sounds simplistic to say I drifted from Billy when I discovered Dylan but, uh, that's kinda exactly how it happened. But I loved hearing that song again (embarrassingly, I've gone blank on which one it was) and will dig out Talking to the Taxman ... again. I also had a bootleg tape of a gig he did at the Mean Fiddler in London on the night of the 1997 Labour election victory, with the and the crowd reacting to the results on a big screen. Stirring stuff at the time but, oh, seems so long ago now ....I had a Billy tour shirt with the Woody picture right on it. I loved that shirt. I left it at Moscow's Sherementova-1 Airport in 2003 in circumstances too traumatic to recall here.
That concert incidentally was locally memorable for other reasons. I was inside the Enmore Theatre all night, preserving my place in the front row and so blocked off from the world. On the taxi home down Anzac Pde to Randwick I looked idly at the three foot of water we were travelling through and thought "Hmmm. Looked like I missed a bit of a shower." It was the night of The Hail Storm.
New(ish) diary entry at Tom Russell's place ... he has a new album out which I have not heard but I don't need to to tell you it is brilliant and you should buy it.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Blogging Ennui Ends Here!
Seriously. I'm going to dedicate the rest of my afternoon to thinking of something to say. All I can think of it that today I'm having a minor medical procedure to clear up a problem which I'm told has caused "minor deafness." Perhaps this is why I've been so wrong about Van Morrison, but I don't think so.
Lazy blogging stand-by of filching news from Expecting Rain turned up this about Lucinda Williams and her father, Miller. Miller has a beer drinking soul.
Lu has recently been doing almost-solo shows, just her and sideman Doug Pettibone. Doing a bunch of new songs. Usually I would add "gee, I hope we get to see her here soon. That would so rock." But I've given up on that. She's not coming, y'hear? NEVER!
Lazy blogging stand-by of filching news from Expecting Rain turned up this about Lucinda Williams and her father, Miller. Miller has a beer drinking soul.
Lu has recently been doing almost-solo shows, just her and sideman Doug Pettibone. Doing a bunch of new songs. Usually I would add "gee, I hope we get to see her here soon. That would so rock." But I've given up on that. She's not coming, y'hear? NEVER!
Friday, March 10, 2006
Sunday
Pleased to tell you that Cletis Carr is starting a hopefully long lived residency at the Merton Estate in Rozelle from this Sunday. He'll be joined by various special guests, this week it's Val Gray. A very satisfying addition to the scene. Go Cletis!
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Brucenanny
I must say when I heard The Boss's new album was going to be covers of (or songs "inspired by") Pete Seeger I was a little underwhelemed. Brucie doing trad folk in his own way, very cool. But ... Pete Seeger? Not my first choice.
But this Backstreets report (second story down) makes me just a little bit excited. The listening party was at B.B King's in NYC where, incidentally, I saw the Del McCoury Band in 2001.
It's a party, folks. Played with traditional instruments like banjo and fiddle, the sounds on Bruce Springsteen's upcoming Columbia Records release, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, conjur images of an old-fashioned hootenanny. Sound-wise, think more along the lines of The Band and the collaboration between Wilco and Billy Bragg for the two volumes of Woody Guthrie compositions rather than Springsteen's contribution for the covers of Seeger songs in 1998. At a March 7 advance listening party for the album, Springsteen said the songs are equal parts "street corner, parlor, church, and gutter."
Out Anzac Day.
But this Backstreets report (second story down) makes me just a little bit excited. The listening party was at B.B King's in NYC where, incidentally, I saw the Del McCoury Band in 2001.
It's a party, folks. Played with traditional instruments like banjo and fiddle, the sounds on Bruce Springsteen's upcoming Columbia Records release, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, conjur images of an old-fashioned hootenanny. Sound-wise, think more along the lines of The Band and the collaboration between Wilco and Billy Bragg for the two volumes of Woody Guthrie compositions rather than Springsteen's contribution for the covers of Seeger songs in 1998. At a March 7 advance listening party for the album, Springsteen said the songs are equal parts "street corner, parlor, church, and gutter."
Out Anzac Day.
Monday, March 06, 2006
"Heroes Happen When You Need Them"
Crossposted at HickoryWind.
It was a very great privilege and pleasure last year to see Kris Kristofferson live last year. He’s not exactly kept up a hectic pace of touring, North American gigs are rare enough let alone antipodean ones. But --mirabile dictu! – he came. He brought the kids and had a family holiday, stayed for more than a month and played some out of the way places. The press was uniformly positive, genuinely warm and respectful which made me unutterably happy. The bloke deserves it and is was so nice to see.
And a new album of original material, This Old Road. And it’s very good. Don Was is probably my least favourite producer ever, but happily he has kept his everything-he-touches-turns-to-banal mitts off the thing, and it’s the voice and a ringing guitar that dominates. A bit of mandolin and harp here and there, some harmony vocals. Jim Keltner and Stephen Bruton are in the band.
I heard Kris speaking somewhere on the interwebs recently, recalling Johnny Cash and he told a story. He was sitting next to Johnny at June’s funeral, some random came up to give his condolences and he also told Kris he thought he was a great singer. After he left, Johnny leant over and said, “Well, that makes one.” A lovely story about Cash – wheelchair-bound, physically tormented and full of grief, but still up to a jab at his old mate. And also a self-deprecating apology for his own voice, which would make Pro Tools crash if they tried to “correct” his dodgy notes. But that’s why we love it. He is a great singer, in all the ways that really count.
Kris’s political leanings are no secret. Despite (or perhaps, because of) loving music and being political, I don’t much care for “political songs.” Even (or perhaps, especially) when it echoes my own view, which most of them do. It has to be a good song first, second and only. Otherwise, you might as well just get a blog. They are on the same page politically, but it’s Kris’s poetic sensibility I think which makes his “message songs” much better than, say, Steve Earle’s. He can do sloganeering, but can’t stay there for too long before he brings it back home. “In the News” is the most speechifying (Burnin' up the atmosphere and cuttin’ down the trees/A billion dollar bombin' of a nation on its knees/Anyone not marchin' to their tune they call it treason,) but it starts and ends with a single act of domestic violence: the Lacy Peterson murder. The words Kris has returned to most over his whole career are justice, mercy and beauty, with perhaps mercy the greatest of these.
There are some affecting personal songs too, as befits a man nearing 70, he’s looking back and looking around and is grateful for what he sees. “The lonely singer in a world turned deaf and blind” is the big hero of This Old Road. On “Wild American” (a variation on the “To Beat the Devil” theme) he namechecks Earle, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, later on “Final Attraction” he urges the singer to “go break a heart” in the name of Hank and Johnny, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Harlan Howard . . .
Value folks like this while they’re still around, people.
It was a very great privilege and pleasure last year to see Kris Kristofferson live last year. He’s not exactly kept up a hectic pace of touring, North American gigs are rare enough let alone antipodean ones. But --mirabile dictu! – he came. He brought the kids and had a family holiday, stayed for more than a month and played some out of the way places. The press was uniformly positive, genuinely warm and respectful which made me unutterably happy. The bloke deserves it and is was so nice to see.
And a new album of original material, This Old Road. And it’s very good. Don Was is probably my least favourite producer ever, but happily he has kept his everything-he-touches-turns-to-banal mitts off the thing, and it’s the voice and a ringing guitar that dominates. A bit of mandolin and harp here and there, some harmony vocals. Jim Keltner and Stephen Bruton are in the band.
I heard Kris speaking somewhere on the interwebs recently, recalling Johnny Cash and he told a story. He was sitting next to Johnny at June’s funeral, some random came up to give his condolences and he also told Kris he thought he was a great singer. After he left, Johnny leant over and said, “Well, that makes one.” A lovely story about Cash – wheelchair-bound, physically tormented and full of grief, but still up to a jab at his old mate. And also a self-deprecating apology for his own voice, which would make Pro Tools crash if they tried to “correct” his dodgy notes. But that’s why we love it. He is a great singer, in all the ways that really count.
Kris’s political leanings are no secret. Despite (or perhaps, because of) loving music and being political, I don’t much care for “political songs.” Even (or perhaps, especially) when it echoes my own view, which most of them do. It has to be a good song first, second and only. Otherwise, you might as well just get a blog. They are on the same page politically, but it’s Kris’s poetic sensibility I think which makes his “message songs” much better than, say, Steve Earle’s. He can do sloganeering, but can’t stay there for too long before he brings it back home. “In the News” is the most speechifying (Burnin' up the atmosphere and cuttin’ down the trees/A billion dollar bombin' of a nation on its knees/Anyone not marchin' to their tune they call it treason,) but it starts and ends with a single act of domestic violence: the Lacy Peterson murder. The words Kris has returned to most over his whole career are justice, mercy and beauty, with perhaps mercy the greatest of these.
There are some affecting personal songs too, as befits a man nearing 70, he’s looking back and looking around and is grateful for what he sees. “The lonely singer in a world turned deaf and blind” is the big hero of This Old Road. On “Wild American” (a variation on the “To Beat the Devil” theme) he namechecks Earle, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, later on “Final Attraction” he urges the singer to “go break a heart” in the name of Hank and Johnny, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Harlan Howard . . .
Value folks like this while they’re still around, people.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Unfortunately I couldn't make John McEuen at the Bluegrass Soc event, had to work. But Woodshed Willie was there lucky thing and you can read about it here.
This Is A Test
Inspired by Shaun and my amigos at Hickory Wind my procrastination of choice today was recording a podcast. It's rough and rushed (dashing out in a minute for the A League grand final). The voice is a bit low because I don't have an external mic, just the one in the computer but I don't think its too bad. I should learn about things like equalising the volume between my voice and the song so one is not ten times louder than the other but ... another day. Also, more fading in and out but that got a bit fiddly and it was taking longer than I expected.
It's in MP3 because that's the smallest I could get it but I suspect there's a better way.
15MB. Goes for about 17 mins.
Downloadable at You Send It.
Oh, and a minor explicit language warning since I had to refer to this Stones bootleg.
It's in MP3 because that's the smallest I could get it but I suspect there's a better way.
15MB. Goes for about 17 mins.
Downloadable at You Send It.
Oh, and a minor explicit language warning since I had to refer to this Stones bootleg.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Shortest.Concert.Ever.
"Stones forced to axe sexually explicit songs for China concert"
What on earth are they going to do? A tribute to John Cage's 4'33?
What on earth are they going to do? A tribute to John Cage's 4'33?
Andy
One for the Melbournites. Many of you will already know about the Andy Baylor Benefit Night on this Saturday. Beloved genius musician and gentleman of the Australian scene for years, Andy's been undergoing treatment for cancer recently causing us to miss him greatly at Tamworth. Scroll down on the front page for the unbelievable line up, 12 solid hours in three rooms and all for $10.
Noise Bar
291 Albert St Brunswick 1pm-1am
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Gram Wednesday
BBC Radio feature this weekend -- 9.30am Sunday Sydney time. Is it likely to be archived for later listening?
Bob Harris presents an hour long exploration of the life, the music and the influence of Gram Parsons. Includes a previously unheard interview with Parsons himself.
(thanks Chris)
Exceprt of new Parsons bio at CMT. Lord knows the world needs another, this one is Polly-Approved and reads rather clunky.
The Flop Eared Mule Politburo canrecommend this one instead.
Bob Harris presents an hour long exploration of the life, the music and the influence of Gram Parsons. Includes a previously unheard interview with Parsons himself.
(thanks Chris)
Exceprt of new Parsons bio at CMT. Lord knows the world needs another, this one is Polly-Approved and reads rather clunky.
But it was obvious to both him and Nancy that their love had become a small sad thing between them, fading into nothing as they watched, each of them helpless to stop its diminishing. One night in bed, Nancy turned, her arms outstretched to hold Gram, and he flinched when she touched him, his skin pulling away from the warmth of her hand. In that moment, that last loose link between them snapped, and Nancy knew with cold clarity that it was over between them, that Gram didn't love her anymore.;-(
The Flop Eared Mule Politburo canrecommend this one instead.
I Hope They Don't Mind "Non-Playing Gawkers"
Rather cool news from Bluegrass Australia:
The Sydney bluegrass society kicks off with a roar this month! Visiting will be founding member of the world-famous Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John McEuen! He's going to be joining us to pick some, jam some, and share some of his 30-plus years of knowledge of the roots music business.
If you're in Sydney on Saturday 4th March come and join the Bluegrass and Traditional Country Music Society
Where: Annandale Neighbourhood Centre, 79 Johnson St, Annandale
When: Beginner's workshop 7pm, open mic concert 8.30pm, jamming all evening till late
How much?: Our normal rate: $5 for members of the BTCMSA and $7 for others
Members only?: No, everyone's welcome. Bring an instrument to jam or play in the open mic concert if you want
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