A new muxtape of female artists.

Under the Rug -- Nani Bregvadze Georgian singer big from 60s onwards in Soviet type places, lovely crisp but dramatic voice perfect for soppy Russian "romances." Here is my favourite song of hers, perhaps he most beloved but I don't have it on MP3: "Snegopad" ("Snowfall"). Fur coats and Aeroflot - so evocative!

Enta Omri -- Mahmoud Fadl with Salwa Abou Greisha Sudanese interpretations/hommages to the great Umm Kalthum. Enta Omri is "You Are My Life" in Arabic.

Stretch Out -- Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Marie Knight About 20 years earlier than the YouTube I posted earlier today but just as powerful.

Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out -- Carrie Smith Carrie is a bit of a more obscure blues shouter but does not at all deserve to be. This is from 1977.

A Grand Night for Swinging -- Mary Lou Williams Great jazz composer/arranger/pianist.

Pace, Pace mio Dio - La forza del destino -- Maria Callas I only got this the other day. It makes me want to have a bath in the dark and have this drift in from the other room. Just me? OK.

High on a Mountain -- Ola Belle Reed Classic mountain music, she was part of the folk revival phase in the 60s.

Osain -- Merceditas Valdes A great name in Afro-Cuban music. I was a bit suss about the flute or whatever at the beginning but once she started singing I was hooked. On YouTube.

Nibari (My Grandchild) -- Umalali, The Garifuna Women's Project The Garifuna are a community of descendants of African slaves shipwrecked in Belize. The sadly late Andy Palacio brought the music to the world with Watina and this is the follow up.

Working on Beale Street and Crying -- Denise LaSalle Her speciality is NSFW blues which go from the risque to the downright obscene. Sadly, "Lick It Before You Stick It" is not on YouTube. This one is pretty safe except for some straight talk at the end.

I'm Through Trying to Prove My Love To You -- Millie Jackson She is new to me, this is from her best known album of cheating songs (side A from the POV of the wive, side B is the other woman). She can also cuss like a cussing thing and makes a lot of those worst album covers ever lists.

Cansada De Esperar - Angelica Maria Dunno anything about her but this is a cover of The Kinks' "Tired of Waiting."

Combined June/July eMusic downloads list, over the fold.

Muxtape, World Youth Day edn.

Further: How awesome is it that Mick/Proddy doctrinal stoushes are back in the papers? Party like its 1953!

I mentioned before I'm liking "El Esquimal" the cover of Quinn the Eskimo by Los Chijuas. I knew they were Mexican but didn't know when it was recorded til I just went looking. 1968, turns out. It's on my muxtape and also an MP3 is here.

I got the rerelease off eMusic where it has this random fugly cover which gives you no idea of the era, the contents or anything else of consequence.

So after googling I find the original 1968 cover which was deemed too ... appropriate I guess for teh cutting edge of now. (Is that Peter Sellars????)

Bah. Shut up, Musart-Balboa. You might be a cheapie rerelease factory without even a website but surely you could find some other royalty free clip art? I hereby banish you from my Cover Flow!

PS, on eMu it's also on this "Mexi-delico" compilation which is very cool.

Via Phineas, I present this July 4th tribute to/for our American friends.

I'm back on the right side of the digital divide. To celebrate, I did a new muxtape just of stuff I listened to in my first couple of hours of plugging the thing in. The opening song is a Mexican cover of Quinn the Eskimo.

In absence of a home computer, I can't mux. ;-( But here are some good ones:

Shaun and and Phineas and Phineas' mixtape collective all have Jesus-themed comps.

I quite like this one from We Are Color.

Radio Milwaukee has a Mixwit of "black rock" for Black Music Month.

Randomly I found this from a French blog: "psychpopyéyésoul'njazz." "Better Change Your Mind" by William Onyeabor is on a Luaka Bop compilation of 70s African psychadelia/funk but only got to listen to once before computer death. Noice.

"Some Jazz #3: 1954-1964" with notes here.

The muxtape of Congo music I posted about before (from Extra Extra) is still there and still awesome

All the records on this late, lamented muxtape, except for the John Hiatt and Hayes Carll (will post about those this weekend at the latest). Listed here for completeness but notes o'er there. I put up a new muxtape of highlights from these acquisitions.

Country and Folk and Blues etc
Recapturing the Banjo-Otis Taylor
Creedence Country-CCR
Reunion Hill-Richard Shindell
Somewhere Near Patterson - Richard Shindell
From the Reach-Sonny Landreth The star studded (Eric Clapton, Dr John, Jimmy Buffet, Vince Gill, Robben Ford) new album from guitar hero sideman extraordinaire Landreth. I find it a bit generic. I mean, awesome guitar chops and all but it's just in that rock-blues groove that all sounds the same to me. You would think the track which features Dr John AND Jimmy Buffet (together at last!) would at least stand out with a distinctive style but it really doesn't. They're quite anonymous on it. It's perfectly pleasant background music and guitar nerds might get more out of it than me.
You Can Name It Yo Mamma If You Wanna-South Filthy
Hacienda Brothers-Hacienda Brothers RIP Chris Gaffney.
The Complete Sun Recordings-Little Junior Parker's Blue Flames I would say this is a must-have, so I don't know why it took me so long to get it. Historically important -- "Mystery Train" -- but also musically seven great cuts of rhythm and blues.
The Little Darlin' Sound of Jeannie C.Riley-Jeannie C.Riley Pre-"Harper Valley PTA" tracks finds Jeannie mining the sub-Loretta vein of country girl power. Nothing here matches Loretta output (goes without saying) but it's a very listenable collection of classic country. It's 60s but fewer strings and a little rawer than a lot of the Nashville sound. At least half the songs have Jeannie as the other woman, in the other half she's being dumped. Just how I like it! The album was originally released in 1968 as Sock Soul. "Sock Soul"? No, I can't imagine why either.
Now and Again-Daryle Singletary This is the third and last Singletary album there, a compilation of his mainstream hits or attempted hits (couple peaked at #2, another one in the top ten, the rest a fair way further back) back in the '90s. I really love the two later albums which are tradition hard core honky tonk, while still neo-traditional, this one doesn't quite have that edge. Still better than most anything I see when I turn on CMT though -- EXCEPT for the cover of that Bryan Adams Robin Hood song. Ufg. FAIL, Daryle.
Back to the Front-Bob Neuwirth I need to listen to this one more, he can be quite the intricate songwriter. Very good folk-country singer songwriter with a wry eye.
Afrissippi-Fulani Journey Guelel Kumba from Senegal (Fulani is the local lingo) hits the Delta with very fine results. Website. I'm gonna buy a t-shirt.

Rock and Indie etc
The Golden Hour-Firewater
The Monks-The Monks

Jazz etc
A Grand Night for Swinging-Mary Lou Williams
Roots and Grooves-Maceo Parker
Brilliant Corners-Thelonious Monk
Steamin' With the Miles Davis Quartet-Miles Davis
All Members-Don Sleet
The Sequel-Mulgrew Miller and Wingspan

African and Soul and Funk etc
Children-Famous L.Renfroe
Si, Para Usted - The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba Vol. 1-Various I've been listening a bit to the podcast of the radio show Waxing Deep (click on "Radio"), whose presenter Dan Zacks produced this set. I tried sampling a lot of the jazz/soul/funk/afrobeat podcasts and found a lot of cool stuff but I think this is my favourite. Again, the downside of downloading is the lack of liner notes which for a lovingly assembled and niche topic like this are pretty essential. I'd pay extra for them in cases like this. In the end Ithink I'll end up buying the hard copy of the CD from their website. Very reasonably priced (including intl. shipping) and it's nice to support folks like this. The Jan 26 2007 show has some tracks from it.
Nigeria 70, Lagos Stomp-Various
Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974-Kashmere Stage Band Not your mother's high school combo.
If Loving You is Wrong (I Don't Want to be Right)-Luther Ingram
African Rhymth and Blues-The Remixes-Mombassa I like these a lot, the "remixing" is done very sensitively.
Booiay!! A Compilation of West African Funk-Various Companian to The Danque!!! which I got last month. When I listened to the previews I liked that one more for some reason so I got it first but after listening to all of Booniay! it might be my favourite. You guys, I am so into African funk right now.

Classical and Shatner
Brahms: Sonate Für Klarinette Und Klavier Es-Dur, Op. 120 Nr. 2: II. - Peter Daum, Dieter Klöcker, Josef Suk & Werner Genuit
Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts- William Shatner Dude, it's the Shat reading from the Bible. As if I wasn't gonna get it.
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra & Tod Und Verklarung-Andre Previn and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra I had two credits left and this was two credits (for 60 minutes of music.) I don' think I can take Also Sprach Zarathustra seriously really, or at least the famous 2001 refrain but Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) sounds promisingly moody.

Taking my cue from Phineas and feeling like I need to impose some order on my acquisitions, here is about everything I downloaded from eMusic this month. It looks like a lot all listed out like that, and it is a lot but I found myself with 125 extra credits this month so it's rather more bloated than usual. I actually don't have much trouble giving everything a good listen. The jazz, say, I don't need to sit and intently listen to every track -- I just don't have the technical knowledge to make that worthwhile. But I know what I like, and I often have my jazz playlist on in the background at home, and if something stands out I can explore it further. Actually if I'm doing something that requires special attention I prefer instrumental sounds because lyrics totally distract me. And I've started making my iTunes playlists work for me, keeping them neat and updated so everything is close at hand and I can efficiently and enjoyably cycle through my new and old stuff. Basically all this cost me the price of a couple of new CDs.

Country/Blues/Rock
Straight from the Heart -- Daryle Singletary This month I did some exploration of the contemporary, mainstreamy country catalogue. Since eMusic doesn't have the major labels represented, these are the guys who've found themselves punted from the big boys and end up on small labels. I mentioned Daryle before, a very Merle Haggard voice.
That's Why I Sing This Way -- Daryle Singletary Mostly classic country covers with some cool harmony/duets including Dwight Yoakam and Rhonda Vincent. There's one more album of his there which I will definately be getting.
Different Things: The Acoustic Mixes -- Tracy Byrd On the slick side but the acoustic thing keeps it lean. "Cheapest Motel" is my fave, for all your stern sermonising needs.
Rollin' With the Flow -- Mark Chestnut The only thing here I wouldn't recommend. I love the song but Chesnut just recreates the Charlie Rich version without an ounce of the Silver Fox's swing or swagger. Only a single though, not an album, so only cost me one download to find out.
Coal -- Kathy Mattea Enjoyable new collection of coal mining songs in a roosty folk-country style.
Testifying -- Country Soul Revue I don't know about the "revue" part, just seems like a various compilation rather than a single project but can hardly go wrong with Tony Joe White, Dan Penn, Bonnie Bramlett, Donnie Fritts ...
Blues with a Message -- Various Phineas recommended this and it's a great collection, as you'd expect from the too-good-too-be-true annals of Arhoolie.
The Good Life -- Justin Townes Earle Still going strong, one of the most satisfactory albums of this year no doubt.
Blues de Musicien -- Pine Leaf Boys Energetic new Cajun.
On Your Sleeve -- Jesse Malin Covers of classic rock/pop songs. Nice enough.
Boris Grebenshikov: Russian Songwriter Grebenshikov was the lead singer/writer for Akuarium, one of the biggest underground rock bands in the Soviet Union. After the Fall, was a bit fashionable in the West for a brief moment (recorded an album with Dave Stewart or somesuch). Saw him and the band a few times in Moscow. BG has a very seductive voice and this is a very intersting and varied collection, but makes me sad my Russian is so hopeless.
"I'm A Lonesome Fugitive" from Bird Doggin': The Complete Challenge Sessions -- Gene Vincent Only this one track for now but may revisit for more (its a double album.)
Blues & Boogie Explosion -- Bob Hall, George Green and Ian Stewart Hot jams, lots of fun. Apparently a bit obscure which is strange, but Prof. Google gives up little info. I think I read somewhere Ginger Baker is also playing on it. Or was it Jack Bruce?

Jazz etc
West Side Story -- Andre Previn Where's my martini?
Charles Mingus Presents -- Charles Mingus No idea really, but it's a fun trip.
Fine and Mellow: Ella Fitzgerald Jams. I have quite a bit of swoonful Ella but what I'm really digging about this one is the real solid bluesy vibe at times. The whole thing is perfect.
The Song is You -- Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Jack DeJohnette
Gimcracks and Gewgaws -- Mose Allison Mose is a strange trip and I need to be in the right mood.
Live at the Village Vanguard -- Mary Stallings I've had "You're Sensational" from this for a while but went back for the rest. Jazz after midnight type stuff, which is according to the review " by far her best recording because she is at the height of her musical powers, four-octave range, and is singing songs that are intimate to her but speak to the soul in everyone."

African Most of these come from the songs on the African muxtapes I linked to earlier, plus browsing from those starting points. One of the interesting threads is how American musical forms with their roots in African music, are fed back into contemporary African music and reinterpreted. Wheels within wheels!
Succes Des Annees 50/60, Vol. 1 -- Grand Kalle & l'African Jazz
20eme Anniversaire - 6 juin 1956 - 6 juin 1976 vol.1 -- Franco Sounds like a Spanish name and indeed there are a lot of Latin flavours here.
"Osain" from Cafe Cantane -- 10pm
Congo Life -- Kékélé Where's my mojito?
Bookor Beats -- Bookor Band The muxtape I discovered these guys on mentioned their unusual use of harmonica as a lead instrument and it certainly lends the whole sound a wonderful and distinctive driving qualilty.
African Troubadour: Best of African Singer-Songwriters. This is quite an amazing collection, and a number of the artists are earmarked for full album downlaods.
The Danque!!! -- Various Heavy African funk sourced from obscure vinyl.
Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-76 -- Various
10 ans de succès - Bembeya Jazz National

Soul/Funk etc
Melting Pot -- Booker T and the MG's Pretty damn perfect. If you only get one Booker T and the MG's disk, this should probably be it.
With A Little Help From My Friends -- Steve Cropper The man who can make me disappointed I missed the last Guy Sebastian tour.
Soul Masters: My Aborable One -- Percy Sledge This is labeled "re-recordings". Maybe they are but they are phenomenal nonetheless. I just love his version of "I Still Miss Someone" which is on my current muxtape.
Searching For Soul: Rare And Classic Soul, Funk And Jazz From Michigan, 1968-1980 -- Various Still need to listen closely to this compilation and the New Orleans one below to draw out the individual songs but on cursory listening there's a lot to love. Funk has taken longer to grow on me but I think I'm getting it. I like the kind of funk that has screaming horns rather than the types that's just the wah wah bass thing.
An Introduction To New Orleans R and B -- Various Old skool. Haven't worked oout if and how New Orleans soul is different from Chicago or wherever soul. The piano?
Live at the Olympia -- Ray Charles
Protest Anthology -- Nina Simone Didn't get the whole album because a lot of it is interview tracks but it's NINA so I'll probably go back for those. I will tell you this though : the versions of "Nobody", "I Wish I Knew How It Felt to Be Free" and "Strange Fruit" are mind-blowing.

The African muxtape I raved about yesterday is gone. Such is the poignant fragility of the mux, mirroring perhaps our own fugacious existence in this vale of tears.

Same dude has a new mux though, of "contemporary rock songs from Houston."

Update: But. Here's an equally good one of Congolese music. Very informative notes here.

The best muxtape I have found randomly is this one of African and African diaspora music from the group blog Houstoned Rocks. The rest of that blog is worth reading too (including this report from the frontline of Broooce. Sigh. Come back, Broooce!) He has also annotated his selections with comments and some YouTube. Over the past year I've really been digging into various forms of music from the African continent, and I've already tracked down to buy some of songs here. The opening one "Osain" starts off a bit pan-pipey for me but once the singing starts after the minute and a half mark I fall in love. The piano on that one was a terrific surprise. Vusi Mahlasela was advertised to be at the Blue Mountains Music Fest but wasn't there, he still made Byron. I also love the Bookor Band and their harmonica, the Franco and Super Jazz Des Juenes tracks. I love it all.

No way to tell how long he'll keep it up but I hope a bit longer so you can all enjoy it. I might have to do an "international" muxtape next myself.

Thanks to Phineas I have leapt aboard the Muxtape bandwagon. Muxtape is bringing the mixtape (with a Kiwi accent, apparently) into the digital age. You can't download the songs -- which is good. Buy the records -- but you can listen. I slapped together a really very random collection of things I've listened to recently. I just got Justin Townes Earle's record today -- yes, that's Steve boy and it is completely wonderful. A non-disappointing Earle album in the '00s! Who'd a thought? More on it later.

My muxtape.

I highly recommend Phineas' muxtape too, particularly the Roosevelt song and the Dengue Fever song. Dengue Fever are a LA band who combine garage/surf rock with Cambodian pop and I've been listening to their album Venus on Earth a lot. It made me hungry for Red Curry Chicken, but I realise that's Thai. Would you believe there are only two Cambodian restaurants in Sydney? I simply don't, but nontheless that's what the innertubes say. That simply can't be right.

Where is all the Byron Bluesfest info? I remember when the Herald use to do daily reviews (didn't they?) Can't find no blogs, Google News chucks up nowt, the papers are bereft, the official bulletin board has a few posts but that's it.

Anyway, in my search I discovered the excellent Music Show on Radio National has a book out of transcripts -- Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz - 170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show. Check out all those included. Yikes.

Listen to the show from March 15th featuring two of my faves from the Blue Mountains fest Ruthie Foster and Genticorum and one I would love to see this tour but going to miss out on, Jon Cleary.

The Brewster bit is the blokes from The Angels, and the others are Jim Conway and rhythm section Paul Robert Burton. In the way of old rockers they play tasteful rootish rock for adults. I could be convinced but it was a bit languid, I wondered if it would translate to my life outside of a sunny Sunday morning chilling at a folk fest in the Blue Mountains. Some music and vids from the website. It did make me feel a bit ashamed I could only name on Angels song though (no prizes for guessing ... ) Oh, also nice cover of Just Like a Woman.

The next performer on the schedule, Irish singer Eleanor McEvoy (Eleanor has a blog!) came out for a song with them, and they came back for a song with her.

I'd never heard of her but apparently she's a Bit of A Name. She played guitar, fiddle and that Oirish drum thing and sang some nice folk/pop songs.

Eleanor on YouTube.

I didn't know anything about Eddi Reader before I saw here except she was on in the big marquee before Ruthie Foster and Loudon Wainwright III and I wanted a good seat for them so I early. I quickly learnt she's the chick in Fairground Attraction bopping about on the barge singing "Perfect." HA! Took me right back to being 13 and drunken karaoke a time or two since. She had a hilarious Glasweigan sense of humour and turn of phrase and I liked her a lot. I might even have to buy a record she did of Robbie Burns songs -- like Ae Fond Kiss.

Genticorum is not want you need to convene a meeting of old people (although it was a folk festival so we well and truly had the numbers.) It is three totally edible men playing traditional Québécois music.

They were really fantastic, exciting and fresh and joyous in the way that born musos ripping it up on stage for the sake of it can be. Lots of variety in styles -- including that close harmony a cappella which always gives me the chills, very funny stage patter, and totally sweet accents. At the after party latish on Sunday night Alex the flute guy and Pascal the fiddle and foot stomping guy were just sitting round the pub jamming with some locals. Got some video of it which I might upload. The joint was probably too loud for it to come out but it was awesome.

Also? CUTE.

They playing a few other festivals in Australia, plus single gigs like at the Harp next week. They plugged that gig on stage and the way they pronounced "Tempe" in the French way was lovely. And they are playing Bathurst, I hope Bathurst is grateful.

This is a good YouTube of one of my favourite songs they played : Le tic-Tac du Moulin.