Mary Gauthier's PR people mass emailed me to implore me to plug her new album, The Foundling. If only they'd scrolled down the page a bit they'd have seen I already had.
But anyway they sent me an MP3 of "Sideshow" from the record, cleared for legal posting. So have at it and download without guilt.
As previously mentioned, the delectable Rosanne Cash has an album coming out shortly called The List, which is 12 songs chosen from a list of (I think) 100 country songs her father gave her, as comprising an education in that discipline.
I trust you shall agree this is a pretty good list.
1. "Miss the Mississippi and You"
2. "Motherless Children"
3. "Sea of Heartbreak" (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
4. "Take These Chains From My Heart"
5. "I'm Movin' On"
6. "She's Got You"
7. "Heartaches by the Number" (w/ Elvis Costello)
8. "500 Miles"
9. "Long Black Veil" (w/ Jeff Tweedy)
10. "Silver Wings" (w/ Rufus Wainwright)
11. "Girl From the North Country"
12. "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow"
I thought I would do my own. Also 12 songs, my own list if in a parallel universe I could sing. These are not meant to be an overview of the history of country music (there's nothing before the early 60s for a start) but just a solidish collection of songs I could listen to all day. I put the last two in brackets just because those are the versions I chose to include but could have used any number of other versions -- both "She's Got You" and "He Thinks I Still Care" have male and female pronoun versions so I chose one of each. It's hard, but on the other hand the top 10 or so really write themselves then the final two spots are tough to divide between about half a dozen tracks. "Sea of Heartbreak" gets brackets cos basically I'll love anyone singing that song. I cheated and gave myself a bonus disc ....
I Drink -- Mary Gauthier
All Her Lovers Want to Be the Hero -- Steve Young
Big River -- Johnny Cash
Once a Day -- Connie Smith
She's Got You -- Loretta Lynn
Pancho & Lefty -- Townes Van Zandt
Sing Me Back Home -- Merle Haggard
Choices -- George Jones
South of Cincinnati -- Dwight Yoakam
Goodbye -- Steve Earle
Sea of Heartbreak -- (Rosanne Cash feat. Bruce Springsteen)
The Lord Knows I'm Drinking -- Cal Smith
Bonus Disc:
Goodbye -- Steve Earle
Willin' -- (Linda Ronstadt)
He Thinks I Still Care -- (Patty Loveless)
Hm. It's not very ... upbeat, is it?
Under the bylaws of 8tracks you're not supposed to make a playlist anywhere (so it mimics internet radio) but ... eh, I hope I can be forgiven this one time. So here it is! (and a direct link)
Despite Sony Music Australia being on my Enemies List for wrecking eMusic, I've been trying out their download service bandit.fm. Only because they offer special promos each month that make it a good deal. Before I went to America they had a "buy your first album, get $20" deal so I exploited that with a couple of accounts.
Got some nice stuff, the Blind Faith record, some Ray Charles, a Flying Burrito Brothers set and cherry picked the new K'Naan (Somali-Canadian rapper) which is very good and a few other singles. In August they are having "buy an album and get $20 credit." So I bought Marianne Faithfull's Broken English for $10. With that, I got a Nine Simone box set which is thirty some dollars but the $20 made a nice discount.
Without these deals however and all other things being equal, I would stick to iTunes for the occasional purchases I normally make this way. The bandit.fm site is pretty and shiny but sometimes a pain to use. iTunes is not without its annoyances but at least the info is presented in a no frills style that makes scanning and picking easier. The artist pages at bandit.fm have too many giant graphics and too little easily accessiable information. You can click one extra time and get to a list of albums available, but that stuff should be right up front. There are also some technical issues. When you click on an album, a box pops up to listen to it and the rest of the screeen whites out until you close the box. Fine, except I sometimes get the whited out screen with no box and can't get out of it without shutting the tab and reopening the site entirely. The downloads are at 320kpb so audiophiles may applaud the quality but it also makes your average album a huge size in MBs. If you only have, say, a 1 or 2GB MP3 player who wants one album to take up 500MB. Don't need it, and would like a choice of formats.
So in short, the price is almost always the same as iTunes and there is no other reason to use it over iTunes - except for the special discounts each month, which is presumably why they offer them.
Here is my latest 8tracks, a semi-late Friday night and RIP Koko eight songs which clocks in at just over 30 minutes. There are a few mournful eMusic references tucked away in the lyrics too. ;-(
So, the eMusic issue. I didn't jump in and blog here about it for a few days because I wanted to be more measured in my response. It's entirely over the fold so as to not bump the Flatlanders down at the expense of a rant most people won't be interested in. It is long and rambly, assumes knowledge already of the eMu model and entirely about me, me, me. Fair warning...
Now in it's 25th year of broadcast, 2SER's Bob Dylan Birthday Marathon celebrates the 68th birthday of the rock and folk legend. We will be playing the choicest cuts from Bob's 50 year career and will feature the new album Togther Through Life as well as the recently released Tell Tale Signs. There will be a review of Bob's own Theme Time Radio Hour and selections from Patti Smith's authoritive audio biography of Bob, news, reviews and interviews - and ALL THE BOBSONGS THAT FIT!
Countryesque/Folkish/Rawk Hogtied Revisited by The White Buffalo
I bought The White Buffalo's first and only EP off iTunes in 2007 after reading about him in, of all places, MX (the freebie "newspaper" they give you on the train at peak hour) and this is his only recorded output since. So, prolific he is not. But he has an attention grabbing voice and and a nice sound and sometimes weird songs. The Last Pale Light In The West by Ben Nichols Lucky One by Raul Malo
A little bit country, a little bit croony, very pleasant listening. Desert Rose by Chris Hillman Brossa D'ahir by Pep Laguarda
Long lost Catalan 70s psych-folk. With harmonica! Five stars. Dans les airs by Le Vent du Nord
I saw Genticorum at the Blue Mountains music fest last year and enjoyed their traditional Quebec thig very much, Dans les airs do something similar and so I like them a lot too. I'm not at all into Celtic music generally in its more pure forms, and Quebec folk has a lot in common with that but has something else that makes it listenable and indeed compelling. I think it might be the tickity tackity tick percussion thing (technical term.) Dengue Fever Presents: Sleepwalking Through the Mekong by Jean-Marie Riachi
Jean-Marie Riachi is actually the director of Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, a doco about the band Dengue Fever and all the music on the album is by them and some other ungooglable Cambodian acts. Dengue Fever is a Californian band with singer Chhom Nimol who plays surf psych garage rock sung in Khmer. Me love. The new Dengue Fever songs on this are great, particularly "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula" which has a more greasy funked up type sound than previous records. AND it still makes me crave green chicken curry whenever I hear it.
Jazz/Soul Greatest Hits by Al Green Call Me by Al Green Shakti by David S. Ware Bad! Bossa Nova by Gene Ammons Afirika with Angelique Kidjo by Christian McBride 7 X 7" = Funk by Various Artists - P&P Records Five Peace Band Live by Chick Corea & John McLaughlin
I saw these guys at the Opera House, except with Brian Blade on drums instead of. (Brian Blade incidentally is the brother of Brady Blade, also a drummer, familiar from frequent work in the studio and touring bands of Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller and others.) I don't really get it but I like it. Like, when I read a pop sci book on physics and I sort of barely grasp what the sentence is saying while ever my eyes are locked on that sentence, but as soon as I blink, no hope. Good News From Africa by Dollar Brand / Abdullah Ibrahim Henry Stone's Hidden Treasures by Various Artists Night Hawk by Coleman Hawkins Soul in the Hole by Shawn Lee
Country/Folk/Rock/Blues Between the Whiskey and the Wine by Miss Leslie (Between the Whiskey and the Wine) 2008 release. Hard core honky tonking. Undone: A Musicfest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen by Various Artists - Right Ave Records (Corpus Christie Bay Darren Kozelsky) Listen to the original instead. It's not bad, quite pleasant but most tribs fall into the "listen to the originals" basket for me. A good new REK original performed by him though. Live at the Palladium in NYC, New Years '77 by Levon Helm and The RCO All Stars (Got My Mojo Working) Featuring Dr John, Paul Butterfield, Duck Dunn, Steve Cropper. Details here. It's a little ropey in a too-many-cooks sort of way but exuberant and definately worth checking out if you are a fan of that whole crew. Animal Party by The King Khan & BBQ Show (Animal Party) Haymaker! by The Gourds (All the Way to Jericho) This is very nice in a background kind of way, I don't know why the Gourds rarely stay long in my head but I enjoy it at time of listening. Broken Dreams by Eleven Hundred Springs Home by Delaney & Bonnie (It's Been a Long Time Coming and Just Plain Beautiful) On the occasion of Delaney Bramlett's death, Mojo online highlighted this 1969 disc (and it's on Stax, and thus on eMu) and it's my January download I probably listened to the most -- 56 times in whole or part according to last.fm, which doesn't include iPod time. It combines the sort of bouncy backporch jamming sound of The Band and that era's country-rock with the soul of Stax, and thus combines two of my favourite things. Most things I have in this ballpark are country-rock with some soul, whereas this is a soul album with those other things creeping round the edges. I like the term "prairie-funk" in that Mojo story. I need more prairie-funk! I'm pretty familiar with the "Further Listening" they list there, but they're not quite the same to my ears. Adam Carroll Live by Adam Carroll (Erroll's Song) Early Tracks Volume 1 by Howie Epstein (Simple Conversations) Collection of lofi bedroom demos from the early 1970s by the late muso who played with too many people to mention. Was my last download so I need more time but early listens promising. But you would expect nothing but quality from someone who played bass on Knocked Out Loaded. For The Love by Tracy Lawrence Shapes Of Things by Jeff Beck (Mr. You're A Better Man Than I) The presence of original 60s stuff like this is a bit patchy on eMu because they're mostly major label but there's a fair bit of quality early Yardbirds and this Jeff Beck collection which covers the essentials (not that I'm an expert.) This is sort of where you really miss the liner notes with digital downloads because I'm not at all sure what is what and where and when, the people at Amazon say its post-Yardbirds but "Mr You're a Better Man Than I" and "Heart Full of Soul" sure sound like the 'birds originals with Keith Relf on vocals to me so I don't know. None of which stops me enjoying listening to it. Tuva Rock by Yat Kha (Amdy Baryp and Khandagaity)
I have to thank Andre in comments for the tip on this one. I reaally love this album, a pretty perfect blend of Tuvan sounds -- the throat singing but also the other traditional musical streams and rock. The other Yat Kha album there is one of covers, including a Hank Williams song that sort of creeped me out. I want to get it but I have to psychologically work up to it. We Can Get Together by Sean Costello (Going Home) Sean Costello was a promising young Atlanta bluesman when he died suddenly last year. Drugs I think, silly boy. This is a tremendous album that I also listened to on high rotation this month -- blues-rock with a side of soul and gospel, he has a distinctive honey-and-whiskey kind of voice that appeals. Jazz/Funk/Eartha The Space Book by Booker Ervin Eartha Kitt in Person at the Plaza by Eartha Kitt (How Could You Believe Me?) Spiritual Jazz by Various (Paul's Ark, Morris Wilson Beau Bailey Quintet) The Best of Jazzman Records (Web Exclusive) by Various Artists (Send in the Clowns, Lorez Anderson) Fiyo At The Fillmore Volume 1 by The Meters Introducing The Tinh Nguyen Quartet by Thinh Nguyen Quartet Bach 2000 by David Matthews And The Manhattan Jazz Orchestra (Air on the G String) Jazz interpretation of Bach pieces. Why not? This Is What We Do by The New Mastersounds (The Tin Drum feat. Sam Bell) At The 5 Spot, Vol. 1 [ RVG ] by Eric Dolphy Sample My Funky Groove by Various Artists
Townes Van Zandt; Utah Phillips; Ray Wylie Hubbard; Hopeton Lewis; Miriam Makeba; Babatunde Lea, Greg Landau and John Greenham; Irene Kral; Jenny Scheinman; Asha Bhosle, Rahul Dev Burman; Pete Molinari; Anita O'Day; The Dirty Dozen Blues Band; Jakob Dylan
Forgot about the Kennedy assassination anniversary til I read this page at Shakesville. Tried and tried to find a legalish way to play my favourite song referencing such events. There should be a word for the feeling of embafflement and thwarted entitlement when teh internet fails (epically, natch) to provide exactly what you want, within 0.12 seconds. Like when there's something you just can't google up. Or when the song you want is not on YouTube. Not on YouTube! Anywhere! Heavens to Murgatroyd! I want a special word for that.
Thus I am forced to offer the MP3 (6.2MB) of said song, Bishop Allen's "The Bullet and Big D." I'll delete the file after a day or so -- and strongly encourage you to buy it. It's on the January EP available for a measly $4 (four) from their website.
Iris DeMent was my entree into Tom Russell. I loved her and her first three albums. This is was the late 90s. I then read she was featured on this album "The Man From God Knows Where" by Tom Russell, so I bought that, never having heard of him. Iris toured Australia in 1998, I was living on the empty fumes of Austudy but I went and saw her live at the Basement, but to do so I had to skip Steve Earle that same week. To even afford to see her I lived on the $1.90 hot dog and slurpee deal at the servo on Alison Rd in Randwick for weeks and walked to Bondi and back to pay my rent to my slumlord landlady who lived in a mansion on Edgecliff Rd, because I couldn't afford the $5 bus fare. A second $50 gig was out of the question, sorry Steve.
A bumper month or so , yeah even more than usual, over the fold. My normal account splus an extra 300 downloads courtesy of cheap promo cards picked up in the US for me by CCRGMac from the eMu boards -- thanks! If anyone was wondering when I would reach the outer limit of my physical ability to consume music every month, I might have done it. I was feeling full to bursting but also light headed at the same time for a while there. I regret nothing!
Recovery -- Loudon Wainwright III
Re-recordings of old songs. A welcome revisit to the songs and Joe Henry's production it all the right notes.
The Half Ain't Never Been Told - Early American Rural Religious Music Vol. 2 -- Various
Excellent collection of spooky and rough old time stuff. Some tracks a bit scratchy but all listenable. Danny and the Champion of the World -- Danny George Wilson
Don't think this is quite up there with The Famous Mad Mile but I need to give it more time. Put it In the Alley -- The Kilborn Alley Blues Band
Another good collection of swaggering blues rock with very tasty soul leanings. Bogalusa Boogie -- Clifton Chenier
The essential zydeco album. Right weather for it too at the mo. Everybody's Got a Song -- Donnie Fritts
Funky Donnie Fritts is a familiar sideman. He's not got the greatest voice, but he duets on his solo album with Waylon Jennings, Lucinda Williams, Delbert McClinton and others and it's fun enough. Ontinuous Performance -- Stone the Crows
Jock rock! I had vaguely heard of Stone the Crows in various edns of Unut or Mojo or whatever on account of their lead guitarist electrocuting himself on stage. Mary Bell really does sound like Janis Joplin and with the 70s rock/blues sound of the band it's just like having another Janis record, which is A-OK by me. Also good summer music. Dylanblob -- John Wesley Harding
I like some of his stuff very, very much but nothing here really has me reaching for the repeat button. They are the kind of songs that grow on you though. The High Lonesome Sound -- Roscoe Holcombe
"High Lonesome Sound" about covers it. If you were describing it to people you'd say "O Brother music" but in terms of polish makes that stuff sound like the Three Tenors. Roscoe rocks the banjo, no doubt. The 10 minute "Little Bessie" is his "Nessun Dorma." Sex and Gasoline -- Rodney Crowell
Most of my extra tracks this month went on "soul jazz" and various other varieties of post-bebop noodling. Which I love, but at the tail end of the month I felt a great need to turn away from the complex layers of organ and sax and listen to the most elemental blues I could fine. So I augmented my collection with the following, all of which are quite essential. Pure Religion and Bad Company -- Rev. Gary Davis Praise God I'm Satisfied -- Blind Willie Johnson Sun Recordings -- Howlin' Wolf Free and Equal Blues -- Josh White
Jos White doesn't really qualify on the raw blues scale, he's really very smooth and a folk/pop crossover natural. Blind Lemon Jefferson Vol. 2 (1927)
Protest! American Protest Songs 1928--1953 -- Various
Interesting collection of old timey protest songs from big names like Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy to more obscure gems, like Texas Jim Robertson's jaunty "The Last Page of Mein Kampf." (which just says PWND!)
Sacred Ground -- David Murray Black Saint Quartet
I got this because this bloke is playing at the Basement later in the year and is apparently the generations greatest tenor sax dudes or something. I like it a lot so will probably go.
The Skeptic Zone podcast -- a relaunched version of the previous Skeptic Tank and put together by friends of mine -- is now out and about. I'm part of the "Think Tank" team, where we will be gathering with alcohol to drunkenly rant have serious discussions about the news of the day. I missed the last recording session but will be there from the next one. If you are inclined to be interested in such topics, I have also started a new blog with one of the other Tankers, The Sceptics' Book of Pooh-Pooh, although there isn't anything really there yet. I won't be mentioning it here again -- non-overlapping magisterium! -- so bookmark if you want.
Update: I hadn't had a chance to see a paper copy of the Herald til now. Of course I'm always gratified when our paper of record takes up more than half three-quarters of the front page with a c.1987 picture of Bob Dylan, but I can't help wondering if this download was really the story of greatest domestic and/or global import today. Colour me .... puzzled.
The Mississippi track is also available at the SMH and Amazon and who knows where else besides, so they're really putting it out there.
Note to Herald subbies: it is not "long-lost." It was recorded in 1997! And at no point in the intervening 11 years was it "lost." Turn up an unheard Robert Johnson track and you can call it "long-lost." Turn up Bob singing "Love is Just a Four Letter Word" from 1967 and I'll let it pass.
it's nice they got Richard Jinman to write an original blurb for it though, although there are some weird lines in it.
Recent Comments