July 28, 2006
Filed under: admin @ 3:20 am If you want to hear a pure voice in it’s highest state and just enjoy the ride, the lyricism in Gerak’s presentation will be enough to carry the day. A unique experience that many try to capture and fall short, this is the blue print for how to make such a difficult project look easy.( )COMPADRE
LET’S STEP OUTSIDE/various: Texas music from a Texas label with a title like this might make you think it’s about fussing and fighting, but it’s really a collection of “Great Country Songs About the Great Outdoors”, with a bunch of great Texans on board like Gary P.
Nunn, Jerry Jeff Walker, Pat Green, Guy Clark and others (even if it’s just Texas in their soul). I especially like this collection because it sounds pretty much like something I would have programmed myself, the only surprises being tracks I wasn’t familiar with—but these surprises were nice surprises. Fire up the bbq, quarter some iceberg heads with blue cheese and bring on the long necks, this is how they get the party started in that neighborhood.
RIPPINGTONS/20th Anniversary: Hot on the heals of Yellowjackets dropping a deluxe 25th anni package comes The Rippingtons pulling the same for their 20th anni. If you like smooth jazz, you know this crew and have probably been along fro a good part of the ride from their modest indy beginnings through their trip into the bigs and on into now. A cd/dvd package that has new stuff on the cd and a great journey through the past on the dvd.
Always a bunch of league leaders in their area, Russ Freeman has it all down but he isn’t coasting. You can tell from the sound here he’s looking forward tot he next 20 years as well. This is another helping of the sound that gave smooth jazz a good name.
DAVE INSLEY/Here With You Tonight: Don’t you just love a record that comes out of nowhere and makes you say ‘goddamn’? Without hype and buzz and all the usual mishagoss that goes with image making posturing, Insley just comes along with a driving set that genre splices Texas, roots, Americana, a few dashes of rock and a load of white boy soul and makes a set that make shim impressive debut look like last year’s news. This is the record that aspiring musician readers of “No Depression” wish they could make.
If you dig the genre, this is a tough set to beat.
JOHN JACOB NILES/I Wonder As I Wander: When you think of ground zero folk revival artists, you think of Pete Seeger and then draw a blank if you are a youngster trying to catch up. Niles was one of the seminal voices of the folk revival of the 50’s and this set covers some of the most ground zero repertoire of the time.
If he was putting on airs about being a wandering minstrel, he pulled off of helluva of put on. This fatly tracked set is about as authentic as it gets. While some people refer to some of the acts that came in Niles’ wake part of the folk music scare, this stuff is as real as it gets.
CAROLYN HESTER/The Tradition Years: Hester had some of the most impeccable folk credentials of the time and it’s a grand thing that fellow Texas, Nanci Griffith, has taken the time to bring her on tour and expose her to a whole new generation. An influence on everyone form Judy Collins to Nanci Griffith, this set comes from right before folkies became singer/songwriters and sounding older than your years was part of being authentic. A straight up folk set that gave others the blueprint to borrow from that has stood up well.
GLENN YARBROUGH/Come Sit by My Side: Bringing the same energy to “Waltzing Matilda” that he would later trademark on “Baby, The Rain Must Fall”, the likeable tenor who got his break by being Jac Holzman’s college roommate had the chops to take the opportunity and run. This was his second recording but the die was cast. A prime and essential late 50’s folk outing throughout.
JOHN JACOB NILES/An Evening With: While folklorists like the Lomax’s had a problem with claiming copyright on old songs they dug up, Niles took full credit for some of the deep folklore he unearthed and made his own. Why not? He wasn’t doing anything wrong and he added so much to his finds that stuff like “Lonesome Valley” is as striking now as he first brought it out 50 years ago.
This evening with Niles is truly a postcard from another time zone as his voice and interpretation here really get in your bones. This hared core folk set is almost as timeless as a Humphrey Bogart movie, the ones he made after he was a star.
OSCAR BRAND/Pie in the Sky and Other Folk Song Satires: Brand is simply the dean of American folk music, he’s never given a damn about sacred cows and to those in the know, this senior citizen is the bomb when it comes to the genre.
This set finds him deflating all the genre sacred cows and showing that there was fun in all this seriousness. From Wobblie fight songs to a program of originals, Brand is there to let the good times roil. Anyone able to enjoy his still running radio show will really get what going on here in this folk classic.
A great companion to his armed forces quadrilogy.
EWAN MacCOLL PEGGY SEEGER/Classic Scots Ballads: He would later write a classic pop evergreen but when this was made, he was just in the process of becoming Pete Seeger’s brother in law and being one of the most prominent folklorists in Scotland. While there’s some stuff here that would later be made famous by label mates, the Clancy Brothers, this is a deep folk record that doesn’t sound like it was unearthed from the folk crypt.
Thesis the perfect started set for people who want to know what good folk music was like before bands like Kingston Trio, Clancy Bros and Limelighters brought it to the masses.
MUSIC AND SONG FROM GERMANY: Remember the scene in “European Vacation” where Chevy Chase tries to get into doing a community dance a German town fair? Before there was the Nonesuch Explorer series taking you to Bali, there was the Tradition Travel Series taking you to more mainstream foreign stops.
This audio snapshot of the Chevy Chase mishap in on display here and if you have any affinity for German festivals, this set is simply made for enjoying the a stout lager and pretending you are there anytime you need a sweet, little audio getaway. Fun stuff as timeless as a well made coo coo clock.
FIONA BOYS/Lucky 13: So, let’s say your glad Bonnie Raitt dropped her bad habits, for her sake–you like her, you like her music, but you really miss the highway to hell sound she was full of before her comeback.
This girl from Oz is just what you are looking for, she sounds like Raitt’s evil twin, and that’s really a good thing. With a first class bunch of Austin blues players on board and some first class guests like Marcia and Bob Margolin dropping by, dis is da blooz! Infectious, insane fun that sounds like it came out of Woodstock in the early 70 s without record company pressure for a single, Boys is simply a riot well deserving of all the accolades she’s been racking up.
This is a gem just waiting for you to pick up.
KELLY RICHEY/Speechless: First, women are outnumbering men in college, now they are taking over all the slots as guitar slingers in the front line. Hot blues rocker Richer continues to fly under the radar, but she does it with real style.
A pro since was in her teens, she’s been honing her chops as she goes along until you get the feeling she could step into Stevie Ray Vaughn’s shoes at a moments notice if called to. Hot stuff guitar slinger fans are sure to love.
JPP/Artology: There’s been a bunch of fiddling, family bands that have tried to go the distance but have fallen short.
JPP has been at it quite a while and has yet to miss the mark. Acoustic/folk music that finds it’s roots in Finland, but is more than ethnic or world beat, it’s got worldwide appeal that gives it that something extra. Other than calling it fiddle or acoustic music, it actually defies easy labeling and just wants you to enjoy it while JPP does all the work.
Tasty throughout and delightfully ear opening.
FELONIOUS BOSCH/New Dark Ages: Former Lilith inmate Katy Thomasberg reinvents herself as a quasi-mystic probably headed for hell as she genre splices ancient sounding melodies from many cultures with dark lyrics sung by her soaring voice. A delightfully schizoid recording that shakes you up with it’s light seeming sound floating through the heart of darkness.
What self-absorbed college kid wouldn’t love this? This is almost punchy enough to wake today’s crop of parents out of their jaded coke sleep long enough to wonder what the hell their kids are up to. A set of delightful insanity that anti-trend kids will cotton to easily.
WILL HOLSHOUSER TRIO/Singing to a Bee: It would be fun to say that Holshouser is the best thing to happen to accordion since Leon Sash, but that would discount the contributions of Astor Piazzolla and Chifton Chenier, and this cat can swing between those two extremes and make it all sound right. A downtown jazzbo to the core, Holshouser has more to offer and puts than on display here. Recorded in Portugal as part of a tour, this date finds him and his crew flying high with a bunch of unique originals that are all ear openers.
If you have a taste of something different and aren’t scared off by accordion, give this a spin.
WILSON PICKETT/Definitive Collection: And after Collectables goes through al that trouble to bring out a bunch of original Atlantic sets comes this generously loaded twofer where him and Steve Cropper tear it up on everything from “Midnight Hour” to “Sugar Sugar”. Pulling tracks from his 11 albums for Atlantic that often if not always found him in the best musical company the South had to offer, he earned and lived up to his name as “Wicked Pickett”.
He brought a lot of soul to the ‘60 s and this is concise distillation of it. Check it out.
ARETHA FRANKLIN/Live at the Fillmore West: This break out album has been released in several configurations, most recently as a limited edition Rhino Handmade, but this one goers all out to kick ass and show just how much sweat was poured into Jerry Wexler’s vision of making Franklin hit the mass market.
A wild frenzy of a performances for hippies that were just crossing the color line getting used to Redding and Hendrix and seeing past musical divisions that were sanitized for their parents, Franklin just tears it up on songs white kids would know but had never know those songs could be taken to church. One of those dates that simply transcends everything and stands as an icon all it’s own, this beats the test of time and simply qualifies as a contemporary classic.
KING CURTIS/Live at the Fillmore West: Originally part of the recent Rhino Handmade collection of the Aretha at Fillmore sets, this was also a stand alone set that has gone through several permutations to get where it is now.
Curtis was Franklin’s opening act and back up band for the Fillmore stand and his sets were strong enough to merit their own release. A set of definitive performances that made Curtis’s legend as a killer soul blower, this is simply first class party music that gets your blood boiling, in a good way. Covering soul, rock, country, folk and hippies in one mighty blast, Curtis delivered on this night as a musician and an entertainer.
One of the essential building blocks of any soul collection.
ERICH KUNZEL/Round Up: One of the classics from Telarc’s early days has long been a request item for SACD but the request was denied because of the way it was recorded in early cd audiophile days. Technique has caught up with the rolling waves of time and tide and the SACD in now here.
In what was a sweet date to start with, hearing the originally well recorded western classic in surround demands you get this new edition if you were an original fan or that you hear now if you didn’t know it then. Once you get past the audio geek rhapsodies about how great it sounds, well, it sounds great. With nary a dash of Copeland in the cross hairs, this is a pop classical date in which the orchestra tackles tv and movie themes, chestnuts you sang as a kid and more.
A wonderful, non-mainstream set that found an audience by being on target throughout.
ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY/Blues in the Night: If you are a long time Callaway fan, you will notice a subtle shift in her work but one that sends big ripples. Bringing in Diana Krall’s original wrecking crew and backing them with Sherrie Maricle’s Diva Orchestra, Callaway dips her toe in the classic song bag without being the usual suspects to death.
While her talent is undeniable, this feels like a long over due break out record that moves her from boite spotlight into the mass success she has continually delivered for others. Tossing in a few well written originals and wrapping it up in her special vibe, Callaway has another winner here, but look for this to be a big winner.
MARIA MULDAUR/Heart of Mine: You really don’t think of Bob Dylan when you think of love songs, but he’s written some nice ones, and Vanguard has done a nice job of focusing the classic Joan Baez interpretations on some well done anthologies.
Muldaur wins an uphill battle by picking less obvious choices, rounding up the old Woodstock gang and digging into this material the way she’s been digging into the blues the last few seasons. Even people that don’t generally like covers records will know this is the real deal by one who was there in real time. The staunchest Dylan fans will give this the high sign.
ESSENTIAL DICKENSON UNABRIDGED (read by Julie Harris): Who better than the Tony winning “Belle of Amherst” herself to read the works of Dickenson? Interspersed throughout her poetry, there’s an infusion of Dickenson’s personal correspondence and you get a fully rounded look at the celebrated poet. A tasty treat for heavy duty lit fans.
PAULO COELHO (read by Linda Emond)/Devil Miss Prym: Ah, Falstaff has many faces. He we find the devil making a bargain with a poor barmaid in a small village. Under the hand of an international best selling writer, he transforms the tale to well written chick lit and offers something for a new generation to ponder.
Written with the kind of crispness much of our literature once had, I guess we’re outsourcing everything these days.
LAWRENCE BLOCK/Hit Parade: The new entry in Block new “Keller series”, the new breed of mystery master puts his mastery on fine display. An unabridged run through the elements that made them all from Marlowe to McBain so great, Block picks up the torch and runs with it.
Dandy tale, well told by the author in unabridged form is sure to give mystery fans hope for a brighter tomorrow as we keep losing more of the old masters.
ENTOURAGE Complete Second Season: As much as we love HBO for “The Sopranos”, we also love them for their ability to put out snarky behind-the-scenes comedies. “Entourage” is right in the pocket of “Arliss” and other earlier shows that filled with same pipe line with a different flavor.
This season two collection finds that cast of Queens buddies that he’s taken west as he rises to the top of the Hollywood heap of flavor of the monthdom. With real Hollywood guests adding spice, whether real thing or wanna be and Debi Mazur and Jeremy Piven bringing their underrated and considerable chops to the fore in hefty supporting roles, this is a grand Hollywood insider comedy that flyovers can enjoy too. The entire season runs 7 hours and once again we see how complete season tv on DVD is the new literature.
TRACEY TAKES ON season two: How could this witty, English chameleon not be Peter Sellers illegitimate child? Where did she get these genes? Finding a home on HBO after the Fox audience didn’t fully appreciate her humor, Ullman let’s her freak flag fly as she drifts in and out of characters offering their views on whatever the topic of the week was.
Whatever it was, it was always hilarious. And they say we don’t get British humor? With 90 minutes of bonus extras for the uber fan, Tracey Ullman is not an acquired taste, she’s a full on laugh riot.
This set is the proof.
AWESOME; I FUCKIN’ SHOT THAT: In case you were wondering how a bunch of 40 year old Jews can hold sway over the rap audience for over 20 years, this rockumentary shows you why. The Beastie Boys gave out 50 video cameras at a concert venue and told the donees to shoot and shoot and shoot.
And they did. The Boys did the editing to make sure they got the look and feel they wanted to end up with, but involving the fan like this gives them something to believe in, even if their parents were fans originally. Continuing to run ahead of the curve, the Beasties Boys just reinvented themselves for a new generation and have become hip all over again.
Perhaps they can become the Grateful Dead of rap. This is a concert pic like you’ve never seen.
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