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!

I did a 8tracks of a selection of the music here. 45 tracks! Click through or:

Country, Folk, Old Timey, Blues, Zydeco etc

Voice of the Spirit, Gospel of the South -- Various
Cherry picked this for the Cash, Crowell and Gill.

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!)

Jazz etc
Three Concord "Introductions to ..." discs: Soul Jazz, Jazz Vocals, Jazz Saxophone.

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.

Bluesy Burrell -- Kenny Burrell
Dexter Blows Hot and Cold -- Dexter Gordon
Sides of Blue -- Various
Misterioso -- Thelonious Monk
Blue Seven -- Shirley Scott

Lonely and Blue and Don't Go to Strangers -- Etta Jones
To Etta With Love -- Houston Person
Etta Jones is a favourite newly-discovered jazz vocalist now. Real cocktails after midnight stuff. Houston Pearson is her long time accompaniest (sax) and the third album is one he recoreded in tribute to her after her death.

In San Francisco -- Cannonball Adderley
Gene Ammons and Friends at Montreaux
I got this because I found this on YouTube.
The Chase -- Gene Ammons and Dexter Gordon
Tough 'Duff and Legends of Acid Jazz -- Jack McDuff
Mr Soul - John Wright
Black Coffee -- Johnny "Hammond" Smith
The New Scene of King Curtis
Bags's Groove -- Miles Davis
A Little New York Midtown Music -- Nat Adderley
Jam Miami: A Celebration of Latin Jazz - Chick Corea, Arturo Sandoval, Pete Escovedo, and Poncho Sanchez
The Great Jazz Piano of Phineas Newborn, Jr
Giants of the Organ Come Together -- Jimmy McGriff & Groove Holmes
This is duelling Hammond B3s (or whatever) and I think I prefer some sax or something in the mix more, one organ will be enough for me. It's good though.
March of the Jazz Guerillas -- Babatunde Lea
This is a really excellent album of Afro-Cuban type jazz. "Abuse of Reality Mambo" is a great song title, too.
I'm Thankful -- Spanky Wilson and the Quantic Soul Orchestra
One of my faves for the month. There have been a lot of songs about Hurricane Katrina,. "That's How it Was" has got to be the coolest.
Workin' -- Miles Davis
Quiet Kenny -- Kenny Dorham
Heading in the Right Direction: Soul / Jazz From Australia 1973-1977 -- Various
Brotherhood -- Various
Elemental Soul -- Marlena Shaw
Another jazz/soul songstress discovery.
Sides of Blue -- Various

Soul, Funk, R&B, Hip-Hop etc
The Cpt Theorem and The Compton Effect -- Greydon Square
Atheist hip-hop!

Rhythm'n Girls -- Various
Great collection of 50s/60s R&B, will be exploring more of the people on here.
Soul of a Man: Al Kooper Live
The Koopster is quite prolific and I enjoyed this double CD a lot.
Soul Explosion -- Daktaris
Wattstax: The Living Word -- Various

Funky Funky Houston -- Various
No link 'cos the whole label has disappeared. ;-(

The latest innertubes sensation! Started here, went a million places, Phineas sent it to me and now I give it to you:

"Jesus is My Friend" by Sonseed. Quite ... something.

The "Search for Sonseed" entries are worth a rainy Tuesday gander.

I volunteered to roadtest the new beta 8tracks uploader and it's the bees knees. So simple is it, I knocked up three playlists just now to try it out. You can listen embedded here or go to the page at 8tracks by clicking the titles.

Classic(ish) country:

Merle Haggard; Donnie Fritts; Waylon Jennings; Robbie Fulks; Lynn Anderson; Loretta Lynn; Daryle Singletary; Moot Davis; Merle Haggard & George Jones; Jerry Lee Lewis; Johnny Cash; Dwight Yoakam; New Riders of the Purple Sage, Faron Young.
Old Time Gospel:

Indian Bottom Association; Washington Phillips; Wynona Carr; Sam Cooke; Carrie Smith; Horton Barker; Old Regular Baptists; Sister Rosetta Tharpe; Rev. F. W McGee; Rev. Sister Mary Nelson; Mavis Staples.

Soul Jazz (mostly):

Babatunde Lea; Spanky Wilson and the Quantic Soul Orchestra; Jazz Co-Op; Shirley Scott; David Murray Black Saint Quartet w/ Cassandra Wilson; Cannonball Adderley; Jimmy McGriff & Groove Holmes; Sun Ra; Marlena Shaw; Ray Brown Trio; King Curtis; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis;Robert Rodriguez, Ed Calle And Steve Turre.

Listen to five of the new songs from Little Honey here.

Also:

But the bigger surprise might come two weeks later on the digital-only EP of protest songs Lu in '08--a live cover of Thievery Corporation's collaboration with The Flaming Lips, "March of the Hate Machine (Into the Sun)." Along with covers of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" and Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," she also recorded a live version of a new song she's written called "Bone of Contention."

A bit of soothing weekend music, via my 8tracks jazz vocal mix. I'm doing some country ones too, stay tuned.

Hat tip to Cat Politics for the much joyfully received news that Justin Townes Earle is touring in November. Yay!

Current dates:

11.23.08 Brisbane (AU) The Troubadour
11.25.08 Sydney (AU) Annandale Hotel (Ticket, I haz it)
11.26.08 Adelaide (AU) The Grace Emily
11.28.08 Hepburn Springs (AU) Palais
1.29.08 Meeniyan (AU) Meeniyan Town Hall
11.30.08 Melbourne (AU) Toff of the Town

JTE and "Ain't Glad I'm Leaving." Hope the cute mando dude is coming too.

And cos I'm in a Civil War mood, "Lone Pine Hill."

My new 8tracks mix of songs by people called Otis.

Paul Cashmere asks re: iTunes, "If it doesn`t work for Estelle or AC/DC or The Beatles or Kid Rock, then who is it working for?"

A: Um, consumers?

Let's ignore the questionable correlation=causation assumptions underlying the whole thing and the extrapolation way beyond the evidence (is it too obvious to point out that what applies to The Beatles applies to ... well, practically no one else?) Cashmere doesn't mention this section from the WSJ article: "This year, Kid Rock ... has had a massive radio hit with "All Summer Long." Ah yes, commercial, mainstream radio. Nothing at all corrupt or restrictive about that method of promoting music!

And AC/DC's new album which won't be on iTunes? Exclusive to WalMart in the USA. This is a paradigm-busting improvement, how? And who benefits?

Look, clearly there are issues with all the new methods of digital delivery and their impacts on artists and labels and whoever else are many and complex. And by nature I am an album buyer. But am I really supposed to feel sorry for the major labels because they've been outmaneuvered by another big company doing a better job at giving people what they want? Uh huh. The model is going to change again no doubt, but if it changes to what the labels are pushing, I really can't imagine it's people like me who will win.