Vinyl Memories: Those Great Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders

There was a time, youngsters, when unless you had friends with deep pockets or access to some really good radio stations, a lot of great music went unheard. There was no Interweb where you could instantly track down practically every song ever recorded --- and I'll thank you to GET OFF MY LAWN!!

Sorry, where was I? In the very late '60s through some of the '80s, Warner Brothers/Reprise Records released nearly a dozen of so single and double LP sets with selected tracks from their new releases, only available by mail for -- get this -- $2 for each 2 LP set! These records were such a varied cornucopia, where you'd have bubbling-under emerging artists like James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Jethro Tull or Seals and Crofts rub elbows with more obscure (at the time) artists like Little Feat, Tim Buckley and Van Dyke Parks. And they were good songs, not junk, because of course the whole idea of a loss leader is to get you spend money further down the road on more albums. My favorite juxtaposition was probably one from 1977 or so that had new material from Seals & Crofts, and on the flip side, something named the Sex Pistols. What a hoot!

I naturally spent lots of money tracking down the albums featured, and I don't think I was ever disappointed, but oddly enough, I'd still listen to the the loss leaders because they were sequenced very well and really held up as a listening experience. Liner notes by Barry (Dr. Demento) Hansen were also a big plus.

Other labels followed suit, but with varied results, and usually with cheaper packaging and single LPS only. I remember samplers from A&M (very good), a jazz sampler from CBS (all over the map), and later when I discovered import albums, good stuff from Island, Antilles and Virgin.

These days, British pop magazines like Mojo, Q  and Uncut all come with sampler CDs (though Mojo seems to focus on the same back catalog over and over), and of course, better blogs than mine let you hear new music samples all the time. But there was something about taking a chance with your two bucks and getting a package in the mail 6 weeks later. It was like the record company was your pal, and they thought you had taste so they wanted to share their treasures with you. Marketing has come light years from that primitive model, but there's still money to be made by making that emotional connection, and the best companies (and stores) still do that.

This year's Christmas find

 

Kate Rusby's "Sweet Bells" is a few years old, but I only discovered it recently. This is a collection of mostly traditional Christmas/wintery songs, but as often in traditional circles, many of the songs have been spliced onto a different melody than is commonly used. Kate's pure silvery voice, combined with guitar, accordion, fiddle and the occassional brass band makes for a wonderful musical experience. Check out the YouTube clip below to hear a sample. Cheers!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwyOnLeyk6I

Sing a Song of London

Can't remember where I found this, advertised in a catalog I think. The subtitle is "A Vintage Portrait" because it features recordings from 1916 through 1953. I don't know much about British Music Hall, so many of the performers are new to me, but I did recognize Noel Coward, Eric Coates (British light music composer), and Vera Lynn, plus Duke Ellington, the Mills Brothers -- no, they're not British but the music is -- each song reflects either a place in London or an aspect of London life. And "Forty Fahsend Fevvers on a Frush" sounds like it could have been recorded by Ian Dury with its great Cockney rhyming slang.

Lots of great fun here: "If It Wasn't for the 'Ouses in Between" (great view of the Thames, if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between), "Underneath the Arches", "The Changing of the Guard", "Christopher Robin at Buckingham Palace", "London by Night" -- 53 songs on 2 CDs.

This is a collection done right, and the ASV label deserves kudos for taking the time. The songs betray their origins a bit, but they've been spiffed up enough so it's not distracting.

Recording the Soundtrack of Nature

 

 

Gordon Hempton records nature sounds; "Soundtracker" is a DVD that shows him in action.Gordon's nature CDs are some of the best around (I'm a sound effects dweeb), along with the "Solitudes" series and some of the "Nature Recordings" series distributed by World Disc Productions out of Friday Harbor. Good luck finding any of these, I'm sure they're long out of print. And a WARNING: avoid at all costs any of the CDs that combine nature sounds with Mozart or tinkly piano -- you get the idea. It's not good for the nature and it's not good for the music.

Like I said, "Soundtracker" follows Gordon as he attempts to record nature sounds before they disappear. He travels -- a lot -- and the conversations with his college-age kids (and none with his ex-wife) reveal the price paid for his single-minded devotion to his craft. Plus there's the increasing frustration with the sounds of civilization encroaching more and more into previously remote locations. Gordon will set up his microphones, wait patiently for whatever bird or animal he's been tracking -- and then a plane flies overhead and ruins the take, a plane that hadn't registered its flight path.

There's a great sequence near the end where Gordon tries to set up a "sound event" by recording a particular bird singing during the approach of a train. Yes, he could just record them separately and layer them, but he's adamant about recording real events in real time.

And now I'm gonna have to track down some train recordings -- is that a geezer move or what?

RIP Kathi McDonald

Kathi McDonald passed away on October 3rd. Who? you might be asking. Kathi was the Northwest's own link with ROCK in a big, big way, but I doubt if any of the rock mags mentioned her passing.

Kathi was a member of Leon Russell's circus troupe that supported Joe Cocker on his Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, she sang with the Stones on the "Exile on Main Street" album, she sat in the Janis Joplin chair with Big Brother and the Holding Company on some of their post-Janis albums --- and much, much more, as they say. She continued recording and performing here in the Northwest, still plugging away at it.

I think there's a fascinating story to be told of performers who were part of the earlier rock 'scene' who managed to continue their careers long after their early peak. I remember talking to a rep from a great (at the time) LP distributor in California and realizing "Crap, I was just on the phone with somebody who was in Big Brother!" or their resident Gram Parsons expert who went on to form his own band AND write a biography of Gram. These guys and so many like them managed to continue to work somehow in the industry they loved, certainly not at the same level as in their youth, but still.

So a tip of the hat to Kathi and the many more like her that had their brief shing moment and carried on. Rock and roll never dies, but sometimes it gets paid by the hour.

Last of the Summer Whine

Great summer ? Not so much for me, but, oh, those "golden autumn days", as Van said. The last few weeks were wonderful, so I managed to get in the last few spins of my favorite 'say goodbye to summer' albums, just before I dig out the Nick Drake and Sandy Denny.

So, four exhibits:

 

 

 

Exhibit One: "The Turning Point" by John Mayall. John's not a great vocalist, but what a band, what a langorous, stretched-out feel to "So Hard to Share", "California" and "Thoughts About Roxanne". Open the front door, open the back door, share the music with the neighbors...

Exhibit Two: "Hot Tuna" . For some reason, I play this when it's really hot (although when it's 'don't move a muscle' hot, it's time for the flutes, tablas and sitars). I know, white rich people play acoustic county blues. Politically, I should hate it, but I enjoy it too much.

One thing that ties the last two CDs together is that they both have bonus tracks -- no surprise in CD vs LP time -- but the bonus tracks are really good, and would have fit well on the LPs had vinyl been able to handle the 60+ minutes.




Exhibit Three: new Van Morrison! "Born to Sing: No Plan B". There's a reason this is #3, if you know anything about dramatic tension. This is the yes/no before the final thumbs up, just around the corner...
Bottom line: Van's assembled a crack band for this one. No, they're not even close to the Pee-Wee Ellis or Georgie Fame  bands, but they might be close enough, and they may expand in live performance. My dear wife and I underpacked our CD selections for our overnight trip to Concrete, so we heard this one A LOT. A few times through, we're sharing first impressions: a few 6-minute plus tracks work, lyrics hmm plowing the same furrows. But...there's a big media/promotion push -- Van's first studio album since 2003's "Keep It Simple"...and crap, librarian alert, there are a few major typos. Jeez, Van, can't pay a proofreader? It smacks of "here you go, I'm an artist, I don't care about marketing" -- but they got YOUR OWN LYRICS WRONG -- and they misquoted them in the fawning liner notes.

Finally, my latest summer favorite: the soundtrack to "The Descendants", and I haven't even seen the movie, so I'm not listening with some film scene in my mind. I know next to nothing about Hawaiian music, other than the Alfred Apaka LP my parents had (shrink-wrap bound and played never, except by me).

It's a very well selected collection, some instrumental slack-key guitar, some vocal, all of it seamless. It's not the tourist-centric music you may be familiar with, and for that I'm grateful to be able to hear a part of native culture I was totally unaware of. Great job!

Random Thoughts Part 2

I'll admit it -- I can be pretty slow on the uptake sometimes. Here's a recent example:

I read "Nile-ism" about the band The Blue Nile a few weeks back (oh, great pun in the title), mostly because I was curious -- how does a band that only releases albums every seven or eight years make enough to eat? I love The Blue Nile (as I mentioned in an earlier post, oh faithful reader) so I was naturally curious. Turns out that some of the band members (of which there are usually 3) eke out a living performing film scores, (and with the band apparently on permanent hiatus, I guess that's how it will stay.) But songwriter/singer Paul Buchanan said he survives because some big names have recorded his songs. Clue #1.

A friend of my wife is in a band, a band you'd probably recognize if I told you their name. She's recently had to stop performing for a while, and she revealed what a hardship it was. "People think because I'm in a successful band that I'm rich. But I have no health insurance, touring is expensive and I have to pay for it, and if I don't perform, I don't get paid. We don't write our own material ---THAT'S where the money is." Hmm, and she's recorded a song by the above-mentioned Paul Buchanan. Clue #2.

Finally I was reading an article about the late Levon Helm, former drummer/vocalist with The Band. This article focused on his post-Band work, his cancer, his recovery and lastly, his final bout with a return of his illness. I recalled earlier interview with Levon where her took Robbie Robertson (The Band's guitarist and main songwriter) to task. There was some deep bitterness there, and finally things began to line up for me.

Put the case, as the Beedle said in "Great Expectations" (I'm merely suggesting, I admit nothing) -- put the case that you're in a band. Another band member comes to rehearsal with a song they've sketched out. You work it over, tease it out, the bass player comes up with a killer lick, the piano player suggests a different spin on the chorus, and after a few hours, with a lot of hard work, a hit is born. Put the case that later an album is released, and all of the songwriting credits list 1 band member. Would you be pissed? And as it continues from album to album, do you think you might become bitter? And when the publishing royalties make the 'songwriter' very wealthy but you're basically paid as a musician for hire, what then? Do you think the remnants of bands now performing state and county fairs are doing it because they love touring?

Some bands credit the whole band for songwriting to deal with this problem, and then if you're not carrying your weight (drugs, whatever), you get booted, Fair enough, at least you have a portion of the song publishing to keep you somewhat solvent.

I know this is a gross simplification, and I don't know 90% of what's really going on, but I'm a little closer to understanding how bandmates can turn into enemies. Money's at the root; 'twas ever thus. 

Random Thoughts, Part 1

Listening to the radio on the way to work Saturday, heard one of my favorite shows - "The Big Bandstand" on KSER (90.7). Music of the '20s, '30s, and '40s. (Then I find that it's on the same time as the reggae show on another station. Curse you, programming gods!) So I bounce back and forth, and let me tell you, THAT'S a mash-up you won't believe!

I wondered, why does big band music still have the ability to keep me entertained? It's rhythmically stilted, sentimental, and completely out of sync with our current time. I mean, there's so much junk on the airwaves now, and yet the big band era shines -- what's up with that?

I think it boils down to math and history, two of my worst subjects. Nobody knows what's going to be a hit, so the record companies throw as much as they can against the wall to see what sticks. Working at record stores I'd see so many new releases that couldn't possibly make it onto the charts, a mixture of mimicry (sounds like another band that's a hit!) and test-tube experimentation (let's mix hip-hop with metal and see what happens...) and sometimes it works. Who knows? (I ignored the cynical American Idol machine.)

History (mostly) sifts through the chaff and leaves us with the wheat. I think the reason why big band music sounds so good is because time has let the crap fall by the wayside. I mean, the radio show covers the '20s, '30s and '40s -- 30 years and we usually draw from, what, 300 or so tunes?

"Not so fast, smartypants", you're thinking, "following your line of reasoning, that would mean that classical music would now be boiled down to the best of the best of the best." Well, yes, you might think so, but composers relied on selling their music to publishers, who then sold the sheet music to performers. Let's just say, they wrote more than they sold, they wrote like machines to give the public more of what they liked, and earnest scholars dig through dusty libraries to unearth hidden "gems", as yet unrecorded. Well buddy, there's a reason they should remain unrecorded....

More on publishing and why many of your favorite bands members hate each other next time!

Old Dogs, Revisited

Well, here's a different kettle of fish -- new albums (sorta) from The Beach Boys and Jethro Tull (or more properly, "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson"), 50 years on for The Boys, 40 years on from the original Thick As A Brick (TAAB), and I think 45 years or so from JT's first album.

The good news: not terrible in either case.

Let's face it, nobody expected anything from The Beach Boys. Name their last good album, then count how many albums they managed to squeeze out since then. Product, product, product, with no sense of quality control. Then there's the whole inter-band strife (troubled genius Brian vs talent-free egomaniac Mike Love is the USA Today/pap digest version). Oh, and a few of the Wilson Brothers died. So now what? Once again, Brian is writing to a deadline (the tour starts tomorrow!! Where are the songs!!) And the results are...surprise! Mixed!

"That's Why God Made the Radio" relies a lot on Brian Wilson's touring band, so they know how to give a good approximation of those golden Beach Boy harmonies. Add Mike Love's nasal whine, but cushioned with pillows of background vocals, plus he's miked pretty close, so not much straining -- and we have, well, this year's version of The Beach Boys. There are 12 songs, 4 of which are really good, 2 aren't terrible, and the rest are not bad. Yeah, I know -- but this could have been a total wipeout! There are cute touches: we hear some of Brian's favorite sounds in the mix (tack piano, bass harmonica, bicycle bell), but the predominate theme is nostalgia and the sunset of our lives. Several of the lyrics refer to "can we just go back" (remember "Do It Again"?)

Most of The Beach Boy albums were suffused with melancholy; it was couched in 'summer is so short and the sun's going down', but us sensitive types figured it out. On "That's Why God Made the Radio", I'm not sure if The Beach Boys are underlining this theme for the rubes, or if they're just figuring it out themselves: "Hey, summer's gone -- it's a freakin' metaphor for life!!"

That said, I really enjoy the 'single', "That's Why God Made the Radio", though why it sounds like "Theme from Midnight Cowboy" confuses me. And the last 3 songs are really good; "Summer's Gone" is one of Brian's best songs, hampered by the too-too much arrangement, but the opening wind-chimes, and the fade-out wind-chimes/ocean surf -- if that's Brian's last production, he can go out a champ.

Then we have "Thick As A Brick 2". I've listened to this in bits, so I'll just give first impressions. But, some background first: the "Aqualung" album broke Jethro Tull big time, follow-up "Thick As A Brick"?: one 'song' spread over 2 sides of an LP. Parody of prog-rock excess or Ian's ego exercise? Discuss. In any case, it was a massive hit. 40 years on, why a sequel? The critics will have a field day! (Umm, a critic hasn't written about Jethro Tull since  Johnny Rotten was in short pants.) 

First, this isn't really a sequel; it follows the life story (or rather, the options) of the 'author' of the original -- oh hell, why am I writing this? If you got this far, you know the story. Here's my first impression: Ian looks back musically, trains a new crew to  approximate the JT sound, and he writes his musical version of Joyce's "Ulysses", via Dickens and BBC kitchen-sink dramas. Heck no, it's not that profound, but Ian's hidden so many musical clues (not just Jethro Tull songs, but Fairport Convention-ish folk appropriations and classical motifs), that it entertains strictly on the whole Spot-the-Clue entertainment aspect.

Sound-wise, this will be a major disappointment if you jump from TAAB to this 'sequel", but if you've followed Tull through the years, you might find this a fun crossword-puzzle of past glories and more recent album tracks. As Ian sang many years ago, "it's only solitaire", and he's done a great job of entertaining us with his own one-upmanship.

   

Serendipity?

I continue at my Sisyphus-like task of paying off credit card debt, but sometimes theres a silver (ha!) lining -- turns out I've earned 'bonus points' which I get to redeem for stuff. Woo-hoo!  

Part 2: I've mentioned this before, but there are suggestions (libraries are debating how to handle this)  that CDs are headed for the dustbin (are there still dustbins?) within the next 5-10 years. So...I snap up what I can when I can before the oasis dries up.

Back to Paragraph One: turns out that Best Buy will accept my bonus points! Online, the catalog is a mess: postage stamp graphics, no track listings, just a tiny picture -- good luck!

But I found Peter Lang's first Takoma album "The Thing at the Nursery Room Window" and was reminded how good it was. Under the shadow of Leo Kottke and John Fahey, Peter's work wasn't as popular as it should have been, so I was happy to get a copy again. And, surprise, surprise, there was a Skillet Lickers album available too! Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers recorded in the '30s, and were a major influence on the '60s old-time music revival.

And here's the thing -- Best Buy would NEVER carry these in their stores. Heck, the Skillet Lickers album is on Document Records, which is like this dry, dusty "released in chronological order" label that we library types get all excited about.

And...Part 3: Found Disc One of "The Leroy Anderson Collection" at Community Thrift in Mount Vernon for $2.49. Yeah, I know!! Leroy Anderson wrote entertaining pop-classical tunes like "Fiddle-Faddle", "Plink. Plank, Plunk", "The Syncopated Clock" and "The Typewriter". If I could insert music files here, you might recognize them -- my generation's first exposure to "light classical".  (You'll most likely know him from that Christmas perennial "Sleigh Ride" -- heck, even Phil Spector covered it!)

Of course, you take your chances with thrift stores -- turns out that the Leroy Anderson disc is only part 1 of a 2-disc set. I'm sure it's orphan brother is far, far away, but that won't stop me from testing my luck again.

RIP, Andy Griffith (Goober says "Hey!")

"The Andy Griffith Show" ("starring Andy Griffith!") many times gets lumped into the low-brow TV fare of its day that included "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Petticoat Junction" and all the TV crap that portrayed the South as full of hicks and hayseeds. And that may have been true in the early days of "TAGS" (Andy, mouth full of teeth and cornpone cliches), but soon the show found its rhythm. I sincerely think that there are several seasons (1962-1964)
of "The Andy Griffith Show" that can stand with the best of television.

Those would be the Don Knotts/Barney Fife years. Yes, yes, Don was wonderful in the role, but the way that Andy the actor stepped back and let Don take the spotlight was a great lesson in putting the writing first. My favorite bits seemed improvised -- after dinner, on the porch, Andy strumming his guitar while he and Barney seem to do the southern version of "Waiting for Godot". Gonna watch TV with Thelma Lou, maybe going to the pictures to see "The Monster from Outta Town" -- great, great stuff, played so relaxed and unhurried.

So many favorites, one of which is "Opie the Birdman". Opie, playing with his new slingshot, accidentally kills a bird, her babies now without a mother. Opie insists on taking the place of the mother, Andy implies this may not work out so well... but Opie persists, feeding the babies before leaving for school. Eventually, the caged birds must be freed, and Opie turns to his pa, saying "The cage seems pretty empty", while Andy responds with the classic line "Yeah, but don't the trees sound nice and full" (Apologies if my memory fudges the exact lines.) 


Andy, Barn and Goober have gone to that ol' fishin' hole in the sky, God bless 'em. Thanks so much, guys.

"Retromania"

Recently read "Retromania" by Simon Reynolds, subtitled "Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past". As an official card-carrying geezer, this is familiar territory to me. Listening to radio, I thunder like an Old Testament prophet: "There is nothing new under the sun!" (I may have mentioned it before, but there was an old National Lampoon article that revealed, there only being so many musical notes and only so many combinations, the last new song would have been written in the late '80s.) Reynolds rails (nice, eh?) against the laziness of pop music: find a hit, repeat the formula ad nauseam... Even lesser bands that have nothing to lose by taking a chance couch their music in familiar patterns. It's like I described current popular country music to someone: it already sounds familiar the first time you hear it. Sampling, remakes, tributes -- all of pop music comes under Reynold's withering gaze and comes up wanting. He does, however, have a glimmer of hope: for him, the '60s was groundbreaking, the '70s not so much...he feels newness is cyclical, and we have bright days ahead, eventually. As depressing as I found "Retromania", I did get a great album recommend: "Music Has the Right to Children" by Boards of Canada. It was one of the albums that set Radiohead on their pilgrimage after "Ok Computer" into the wilds of "Kid A". The Boards album came out in 1998, and it was an electronic album that rejected the cold android feel of then-popular electronic pop and instead took a cue from Eno's '70s work. Short vignettes drift across the soundscape, make their statement and move on. These aren't 'songs, but visual events captured in sound. My feeling is that Radiohead learned from this approach and raised it to a whole new level, but I was fascinated to hear some of the compost that Radiohead used to fertilize their new music.

Behind the Scenes

I began buying records in the Beatles era, and in that pre-internet, pre-Rolling Stone time, you had to parse whatever information you could from the LP credits themselves, not always the best source, it turns out. Jump ahead to the '70s: liner notes include musician credits. Many of the same names crop up over and over again, and that's when I learned about studio musicians, professionals hired by the hour to deliver whatever the songs needed. (Later, the "professional" part became the problem for many bands -- too slick for rock and roll? And yet, Steely Dan treasured just that professional slickness to add that sonic sheen they desired so much. Go figure.) As rock bands decided they were indeed bands, the ground shifted. The band members played their own instruments and wrote their own songs. (Here's that Beatles thing again -- oh, and yes, the evolution of the Monkees.) The studio musicians from the Phil Spector/early Beach Boy era were no longer in demand, and there was another crop of long-haired, more 'hip' musicians ready to take their place. "The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret" by Kent Hartman is about the earlier bunch, guys (and Carol Kaye on bass!) who performed the 'band' functions on Phil Spector sessions, plus records by the Beach Boys, Gary and the Playboys, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, the Turtles...really, the list goes on and on.

You might hear the same approaches on different sessions -- "She's Just My Style" by Gary Lewis and the Playboys owes a lot to the Beach Boys sound -- because the same musicians played both sessions.

And it wasn't only the musicians; there were songwriting factories (like the Brill Building, home to Neil Sedaka, Carole King, etc.) So what? Well, the book either ignores the elephant in the room, or just leaves the reader to discover it themselves. Here's my take: when the Wrecking Crew played on Phil Spector sessions, we never thought there was a 'band' -- we heard the vocalists plus musicians, as you would a big band or an orchestra. Fine. But when as a pre-teen thirsty for knowledge I pored over those Gary Lewis and the Playboy albums -- they portrayed the photogenic band member playing the bass --which he didn't!??! Example: all these '60s bands mime to backing tracks on Ed Sullivan, say, but they're faking not only that they are playing live, but that they ever played that music at all. Ever. Concert tour sound at that time was so crappy and the venues so ill-suited for amplified music that audiences never noticed that they were getting a poor approximation of the songs they knew from radio.

That was then, right? The whole "band as contained unit" lasted a while, but then MTV arrived, and suddenly you didn't need talent if you looked good. Now we were inundated with photogenic puppets. The session musicians were replaced by studio technology and computer techs, but they still needed songs. The Brill Building was gone, but there were more songwriters just waiting for their turn at the trough. The more things change...

Bluegrass Across the Years

A pair of fairly recent DVDs that show two very different views of the bluegrass world. "Bluegrass Country Soul" was filmed at a bluegrass festival in 1971, and it shows a genre in flux. "Traditional" bluegrass was flummoxed by the popular long-hair culture -- how do we keep current without betraying our roots? I'm sure at the time some of the crossover song choices were considered radical (John Denver! Elton John!!) and it's weird seeing Earl Scruggs in short hair and short sleeves playing with his far more hirsute offspring. We also get to see Ralph Stanley (long before "O Death" but still every inch the patriarch), J.D. Crowe (with a young chubby-faced Tony Rice -- who doesn't even get to solo!), Chubby Wise playing his trademark "Orange Blossom Special" with the biggest grin on his face, and Bluegrass 45, a band of young Japanese men that elicits one of the biggest responses from the crowd. But my favorite has to be the Stanley Brothers. They play like they could do it in their sleep, but I never felt they were phoning it in -- and "Ruby" still has all those hill-holler piercing high notes. Jump ahead 30 years, and you get "Bluegrass Journey", recorded at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in 2000. We get to see performers from "Bluegrass Country Soul" like Del McCoury and Tony Rice, but this DVD includes the full festival experience, which by now includes the special instrumental workshops and the crazy jamming through the night at the official hotel (I REALLY need to get to Wintergrass in Bellevue next year). Highlights for me: Peter Rowan performing "The Hobo Song" that he recorded with Old & In the Way which featured Jerry Garcia and started me on the road to bluegrass, Nickel Creek stretching the boundaries with "Old Cold Coffee On the Dashboard" (oh, wait, it's just a variation on what David Grisman was doing in, umm, 1976, but okay, I still like it), and yes, you guessed it, Tony Rice performing his medley of "Shenandoah" and "Danny Boy". I also love the energy in the hotel, from the lobby where old friends meet again to the hallways and rooms where all the jam sessions happen. The scenes from the International Bluegrass Music Association's "World of Bluegrass" (the bluegrass Grammys) show we're a long way from 1971. Two DVDs, two very different looks at a fascinating culture. And RIP, Earl. His performance in "Bluegrass Country Soul" shows a gracious, humble man, performing with so many of the people he influenced. Priceless.

And the EBTG reissues begin

An Unlikely Pairing

"Folk Roots, New Routes" by Davy Graham and Shirley Collins is one of the cornerstones of the British folk movement, and I've only just recently managed to get a copy. Davy is THE major influence on Bert Jansch, Paul Simon, Donovan and many more in the burgeoning British folk scene of the '60s. Davy was a bit erratic, though, and fairly uninterested in the music business; Bert Jansch refined Davy's style and more importantly, kept playing and touring, so that he (Bert) is far better known, and probably a bigger influence on later generations of guitarists. Davy added jazz repertoire and other cultural influences (Moroccan, Indian) to folk guitar. Shirley Collins was one of the First Ladies of British folk, and "Folk Roots, New Routes" (released in 1964) influenced the Pentangles and the Fairports and the Steeleye Spans that came later. I had to get used to Shirley's voice. Many British women folkies have a high nasal pinched quality, but Shirley's tone is broad, doesn't hit the notes spot-on but in the general area. She reminds me of some British auntie after a few gin and tonics. The combination of Shirley and Davy shouldn't work but it does, admirably. Which brings me to more than 30 years and many miles away: "The Moon and the Banana Tree: New Guitar Music from Madagascar", released in 1996. No, the vocals (about half the album) don't sound anything like Shirley, and most times the guitar playing doesn't sound like Davy. But to my ears, there's a common theme of absorbing outside influences (mostly African, in this case) and reinterpreting a native folk music with a multicultural blend. And considering Davy's exotic travels, I wouldn't be surprised if he absorbed some of the Madagascar culture and reflected it in "Folk Roots, New Routes".

Where Did You Hear That? (Or: Oh Really? I Never Guessed You Work in a Library)

The Internet has certainly made it easier to discover new (or old) music, but I still rely on traditional channels: sometimes the radio, mostly reviews in the music press (Uncut and Mojo, primarily) and more often, music reference books (latest treasure trove is "The Great Folk Discography", Volumes 1 & 2 by Martin C Strong). Also very valuable: "1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die" by Tom Moon, the various Rough Guides {"Reggae: The Rough Guide" by Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, and "The Rough Guide to Rock" -- though be prepared for a British bias -- they feature many third-tier Brit bands you've -- rightly -- never heard of.)
Recently, I've enjoyed "The Best Music You've Never Heard" (another Rough Guide).

Umm, I sometimes refer to both the red and blue Rolling Stone guides, and the All Music Guide -- but they're really a last resort, mostly just repeating inaccurate information and third-hand reviews.

And I don't have a book source for jazz or classical. My son gave me "The Penguin Guide to Jazz", but do you really want a Brit to tell you about jazz? And classical music I just hunt and peck my way along. More about that later.

KSER at 90.7 is a life-saver. Sundays, there's the great double bill of Bluegrass Express at 11AM, followed by String Band Theory (traditional and acoustic music) at 1PM. Saturdays, I can usually listen to Juke Joint during my lunch break (show starts at 1PM) and then Dusties (R&B from the '40s through the '70s) on the way home from 5-7. This last Saturday, I had to drive to Coupeville for a family dinner, so I listened to Dusties all the way, and now I'm on the trail of late seventies funk bands like Mandrill and Cymande. These groups fall through the cracks of most music history complilations; listening to some of these shows, it's like there's an alternate universe of music, a whole parallel dimension outside the playlists we grew up with.

KING is our best classical choice, since CBC decided that kids these days don't listen to classical music unless it "rocks their world". Really? Is your market research department that lame? I try to listen to "Deep Roots" on Friday or Saturday, but there's a LOT of repeats, and TOM POWER repeats his name 45 times each hour!! KILL ME NOW!!!

Sorry. Back to KING. Great on-air talent, essential programs ("Northwest Focus" plays music to be performed locally. My heart leaps with hopeful anticipation.)

We have access to hundreds, if not thousands, of years of music. What's the point of sticking to some current commercially-driven pink slime when there are other worlds to discover? (Wait a minute, didn't Captain Kirk already say that?) Oh hell, I admit it; my credo is also from Star Trek, courtesy Jean Luc Picard: "Let's see what's out there!"

Shine On, You Crazy Barrett

This is not what I expected to post on Number 100. But I just finished dipping into a recent bio of Syd ("A Very Irregular Head" by Rob Chapman) and went back to the solo albums... and here I am! So, Syd Barrett 101: Pink Floyd guitarist, wrote most of the first PF album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", songs about gnomes, underwear thieves, lots of dipping into the British children's literature canon for lyrical fodder, took way too much LSD which either a: drove him mad, or b: unbalanced an already wavering psychotic, bandmates boot the liability and eventually become the Pink Floyd that conquers the world and sparks the Sex Pistols to spit on the bloated corpse of rock 'n roll. That's quite the resume to attribute to anyone, let alone a fragile talent who shattered under the pressure of being in a groundbreaking pop group.

David Gilmour, who replaced Syd as the functioning guitarist in Floyd (and who eventually wrested control from original member Roger Waters -- is this Dickensian or what?) worked with Syd to wring a solo album out of song sketches and ephemera. So much of the solo albums feel like demo or even sub-demo material, but there's a morbid fascination with hearing a looner in the studio. The problem is that, though Gilmour is sympathetic to Syd's illness and he comes across as earnest in his desire to help capture something useable, the album's producer submitted a final release including false starts that portray Syd as rambling, incoherent and tuneless. Reality TV years ahead of its time on an LP, exploitative and cruel. (The aforementioned bio paints David Gilmour as a true gentleman, who saw that Syd received the financial royalties due him. And wow, turns out you get big big bucks if you write songs for a group like Pink Floyd.)

Yet there are some good songs to be found on "The Madcap Laughs", the first of 2 'official' Syd solo releases. Same with "Barrett", the one recorded under even more dire cirumstances, but still worth hearing. And finally there's "Opel", the leftovers, or rather, songs that if polished could truly have been great. It's heartbreaking to hear the title track and realize that with some fleshing out, it could have been a real Pink Floyd song. It's the kind of reveal that makes this listener get just a hint of how we as a culture (and the record companies as an industry) nurture our geniuses just up to the point where we can eat them and suck their bones dry (see Brian Wilson for another example.)

Peter Bergman, RIP

Peter Bergman founded the Firesign Theatre, and I owe him thanks for hours upon hours of laughter. So glad I got to see the boys at the Paramount years ago, a great chance to meet other Firesign fans and show the love.

New York Times obit here.

Renbourn Roundup Redux

Back in Bellingham again, I snagged 3 more John Renbourn CDs. What's up with this rampant consumerism? Well, there was an internet rumor flying around last year that record companies were shifting all their efforts to downloads, and that 2012 would be the last year they'd manufacture and distribute physical compact discs. THAT turned out to be false, but a recent Rolling Stone article suggests it's not that far off. It may not happen in 2012, but 2015 as the target date doesn't seem too far-fetched. All you have to do is check the aisles of Best Buy -- CDs (and even DVDs) continue to shrink as they make more room for games and Blu-Ray discs.

So I finally sat down with my notebooks (yes, plural) of CD wish-lists and listening suggestions and managed to whittle it down to maybe a dozen titles, and even that will shrink, I'm sure. So when I DO find something I'm looking for, no more hesitation, I'll snap it up.

Which brings me to the last round of Renbourn. These are late '80s, early '90s Shanachie reissues, so they don't have any bonus tracks, though true to Shanachie's nature, "The Hermit" features guitar tablature (which was a nice feature in the LP era, but for CDs makes the booklet a little chubbier than usual.) "The Hermit" was John's first album after Pentangle broke up, and it's a grab-bag of styles similar to his previous solo albums. "The Black Balloon" sticks mostly to traditional early music and Celtic tunes, very much in the vein of his earlier "The Lady and the Unicorn". "Snap a Little Owl" is a duet album with Stefan Grossman, so add a little ragtime and jug band influence. It's also a 'best-of', drawn from their two late-'70s recordings.

Next: my autographed Michael Hurley CD arrives! (I hope...)

The Lonely Forest, Big Time

The Lonely Forest come from Anacortes, just a short drive from where I live, but I'd never heard them before this album, just released. Yes, me listening to an album from THE CURRENT YEAR!! Quick take from just a few listens: skip the first track, and the last track, but otherwise you get a U2/Coldplay thing filtered through the Death Cab for Cutie Northwest semi-emo over-earnest vocal style, yet performed without lasers or smoke bombs. Wow, I wrote that and I barely know what I mean... Unfortunately, the CD booklet was already missing, so I can't supply any more information (produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab??)

Anyway, thumbs up from this geezer!

Tony Rice and 58957

I've written before about how much I love the music of Tony Rice, and when I saw the library bought copies of this, his latest, I was pretty jazzed. Turns out it's not really new; the subtitle is "The Bluegrass Guitar Collection", an instrumental best-of focusing on Tony's strictly (more on that later) bluegrass stuff -- and it came out in 2003?!?

A quick look at the official Tony Rice website reveals a 2012 release of Bill Monroe tunes -- again, a compilation of older tracks. There's a news item about a recent family tragedy, and there've been stories about Tony having carpal tunnel issues, and it's reported that he no longer sings in concert due to voice problems. But his calendar still shows Spring concert dates on the East Coast, so...?

But enough of the bad news -- how's this collection hold up? Well you have to understand this is maybe an indication of 25% of Tony's work. There's his singer/songwriter stuff interpretations, the 'jazzgrass' albums, and his outside-the-canon collaborations with Jerry Garcia, etc. That being said, it's a great introduction to Tony's guitar work, with informative liner notes (mostly by Tony himself, and he's not shy about suggesting that Bill Monroe may have attached his name to many a song he never actually wrote) and a rich overview of a stellar career. Again, it's not indicative of Tony's albums, so it's focused on the high-speed picking rather than a mix of styles. Featuring performers Norman Blake, Doc Watson, Bela Fleck, David Grisman (and many more)-- this is like a bluegrass all-star team.

Earlier I mentioned Tony's "strictly bluegrass" picking -- check out Track 18 "Cherokee" for an illustration of what I love, absolutely LOVE about Tony's playing. He throws into a bluegrass setting whatever strikes his fancy, his magpie instincts sprinkling jazz licks, whatever, into his solos, in this case, Middle Eastern licks in a bluegrass tune. Genius!

Finally, the title "58957" refers to the number of the Clarence White guitar that Tony now plays, Clarence White being the 'father of bluegrass guitar'. Tony has done Clarence proud, and this album is a great, though limited, resume.

Smile, At Last

The best reissue of 2011? Well, actually, it was most likely the best new album of 2011. Huh? Okay, the Beach Boys' "Smile" album was, until 2011, the most famous unreleased album ever. Recorded in pieces in 1967, this was supposed to be Brian Wilson's ultimate check and mate to the Beatles. But Brian's shattered confidence, his drug use and the sheer complexity of his vision for the album took its toll; "Smile" was shelved, the Beatles released "Sgt. Peppers", and the rest is history. Shards of "Smile" appeared over the years as some reworked tracks were sprinkled throughout later albums. But then in 2009, Brian revisited the "Smile" tracks, and re-recorded his version with his new band...

Finally, a blueprint for the REAL "Smile"! (Brian's new version is okay, but we all wanted to hear those gorgeous original Beach Boy vocals, especially because Brian's voice hasn't aged well...) So I figured it'd be a matter of months while the record company guys slapped together all the "Smile" snippets already released into a complete package. Nope, they did this one right. "Good Vibrations" is here intact, and other tracks were released as part of the "Good Vibrations" box set a number of years back as unfinished tidbits, but most versions here on "Smile" are subtly different than what's been previously released. Ah, those BB harmonies intact!

So, bottom line: if "Smile" had been released as originally planned in 1967, would it have stopped "Sgt. Pepper's" in its tracks? Hard to say, since the good Sgt. has had a 45-year head start staking a claim on popular culture. Here's my spin: "Sgt. Pepper's" has been maligned as "the death of rock", mainly because the ornate arrangements and overdubs were the antithesis of 'rock & roll' -- who knows, this may have been the primordial genesis of the latent punk movement! -- but if "Smile" came out first, those same arguments would then have been aimed Brian's way. Finally I think that "Sgt. Pepper's" is the better album experience, but that the best songs on "Smile" kick the Sgt. to the curb. "Cabin Essence", "Surf's Up" and "Good Vibrations" win, hands down. Jeez,"Cabin Essence" and "Surf's Up" give me goosebumps just typing the titles -- take that, "A Day In the Life"!

Faces, Small and Otherwise

The Small Faces (with singer Steve Marriott) and later version of the band The Faces (with Rod Stewart) are to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, and that news sent me back to reaquaint myself with their music.

Still haven't heard much of The Small Faces, other than "Itchykoo Park", their '60s hit (and one of rock's first uses of phasing.) For starters, there's a great Faces best-of CD titled "Good Boys...When They're Asleep", but I eventually went all in for the 4CD box set "Five Guys Walk Into a Bar...". Great, great collection, all the best songs, plus live versions, b-sides and studio tracks from their last recording session. The box tracks were selected by Ian McLagan, the band's keyboard player, and he does a masterful job of juggling the track listings. Even in their final days, they sounded just fine (Rod dissed the last proper album "Ooh La La" as mediocre, but I disagree, and so apparently does Ian, because the box features 9 of that album's 10 tracks.) And here's the sad part: I'm keeping my copy of said album for that one instrumental track (it's excellent in a Booker T/BarKays way) because it's worth more to me as 1 track than I'd get trading it in. Ah, the market...

So, in a nutshell, the Faces were a rag-tag r&b outfit, tossed with some Stax/Motown sounds, and then an added dose of acoustic singer-songwriter-ish heartfelt soul. As much as they flouted their lad-ish-ness, they so often wore their hearts on their sleeves. They gave Rod Stewart a platform to practice, then launch his stellar career (which grew more successful but less heartfelt as he strayed from his Faces roots.) Ooh la la, indeed! Cheers,lads.

Oh, and just to show off their sense of humor, their box set plays off the band's lack of height by packaging the set in a shorter box -- very clever!

Rummaging Around the Used CD Bins...

A few weeks ago, spent some time scouting out used CDs in Bellingham, something I haven't done in way too long. (Spent more money than I should have, which is probably why it's been a while...)

First stop, The Archives in Fairhaven, which has an 'eclectic mix' (or just random, depending on your point of view...). Picked up "Birth of the Cool" by Miles Davis (finally), the latest Wilco, a double-disc import of Al Green producer Willie Mitchell, a disc featuring "Children's Corner Suite" by Debussy, Beethoven's Third Symphony in a fine original-instrument recording, and the first India Arie disc for my wife.

Then on to Henderson's Books while my wife scavenged in Michael's Books. (Neither store has a website, though there is a Michael's Books site that had a big red warning banner.) My wife likes the ramshackle, funky nature of Michael's, but I prefer Henderson's because it's well-stocked, well-organized, and well-lit (do I sound like a geezer?)

Yes, Henderson's carries used CDs, but previously, they were in a locked cabinet and really hard to look at, but now that CDs appear to be losing their value (!), the cabinet is open for browsing.

Struck gold there -- found 3 John Renbourn imports!







His first & second LPs from the mid-60s, and "Faro Annie" from about 5 years later. The first is mostly guitar instrumentals, with a few rough vocals, more vocals on the second "Another Monday", and mostly vocals on "Faro Annie". I was never much of a fan of John's singing, probably because I always heard it in context with Bert Jansch in Pentangle, and I always preferred Bert's voice. But the John discs really opened my ears to what he was trying to put across, almost like 'chamber blues', very soft-spoken and subtle. We're all familiar with the British blooze singers that try to out-Ray-Charles each other, but John took the opposite approach, and now after hearing the CDs, I'm a big fan. Just because he performs from a different aspect of the blues doesn't mean his style is invalid, and I for one am glad I finally figured that out!





Also snagged the two-disc Time-Life bluegrass collection (great, basic classic bluegrass, and a bargain used; I used to buy Time-Life CDs for the library because they were good anthologies with fine liner notes, but they charged way too much -- this bluegrass collection only had 20 songs on 2 CDs -- could have fit almost 40 -- and new it would have been $24.95 or higher from Time-Life. Get it used if you can, otherwise, don't bother.) Also picked up a nice Strauss waltz collection, and some Vivaldi flute concertos.

Topped it off with pizza at Cicchitti's, a nice family run business that we've been going to since college. Heck, by now, the original owner's grandkids are working shifts there! It's East Coast style pizza, and sadly, consistency has been a problem lately, but when they're good, there's nobody better. Ciao!