Got a few new 8tracks mixes up ...

This Week's Mix #41: I Must Live Until Morning from flopearedmule on 8tracks.

This Week's Mix #38: Throwing Good Love After Bad from flopearedmule on 8tracks.

Here is my most recent 8tracks. Also here, I shall talk about some of the folk on it. Isn't St. Gabriel kind of saucy looking in this depiction?

Ndidi Onukwulu
She's Canadian (now based in Paris), sings soul. I can't help but compare her voice to Winehouse but the band is not the punchy Daptone sound. A softer more folky sensibility but still very funky and cool for that. She has a new album out called The Escape under the name Ndidi O, which I think has been released in Europe and Australia but not North America yet.

Creole String Beans
On Twitter, New Orleans music mag Offbeat was listing its 2011 award recipients the other day, one of which was Creole String Beans for Best Roots Rock. I found thave been really enjoying the album Shrimp Boots and Vintage Suits. What this is, is good old fashioned SWAMP POP. What a great genre of music.

Baloji
The album is Kinshasa Succursale - African/hip-hop out of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Guy Clark tribute - This One's for Him
I generally pass on tribute albums for artists I really love, they are largely redundant to me. This one would ordinarily be no different. But it is different in feel though since most of these artists have a personal relationship with Guy, sometimes very close and going back decades and so the friends playing loving tribute to a friend vibe of it is nice and missing from the average star studded tribute which can be fairly sterile. For that reason I find it a very warm experience to listen to, because of that intimacy. Maybe my favourite moment though is Kris K's Hemingway story.

Jo-El Sonnier
One of the best indie labels going in any genre is Valcour which specialises in Cajun and Creole. An excellent thing they've done recently is digitise performances from Festival Arcadiens et Creoles from 2002 with promise of more to come.
Jo-El Sonnier is singing about Amédé Ardoin, father of both Cajun and Creole music (ie the "whiote" and "black" versions of the same music.) I recently picked up a digital copy of Tompkins Squares' Mama I'll Be Long Gone: The Complete Recordings of Amédé Ardoin , most which feature Cajun legend Dennis McGee on fiddle (for fans of the show Treme, in the episode with Davis and Annie at the Cajun mardis gras, the rituals started at McGee's grave) . His death in 1942 (November 3, remind me to post something on the 70th anniversary) was mysterious, violent and possibly racially motivated. I wish i knew what the lyrics to Sonnier's song are saying. Guess I'll have to learn French.

Rebirth Brass Band
It's almost Mardis Gras and the RBB have a new record out. It's really good, naturally.

A round up of stuff I've seen in the last few months.

Let's start with my friend JD Love's album launch supported by 49 Goodbyes in November at the Rose, Erskineville. JD is a bona fide rock star mix of Mose Allison meets Hank Williams. He has a new record out now called Two Days, the LP version of which was pressed at Abbey Road.

Here is JD with up and comer out of Melbourne Georgia Fields (also happens to be his daughter) in a particularly twang moment:

Opening for JD were 49 Goodbyes, and they are just great. They describe themselves as Gram and Emmylou except with two girls (and a guy on guitar). One of the leads is Emma Swift who has the excellent "In the Pines" Americana show on FBI Radio in Sydney every Tuesday night (you can listen online nationally.)

More of them later.

The next thing I went to see was Joe Pug and the Wagons at the Vanguard. I don't mind the Wagons or anything but I also wouldn't go far out of my way, but for Joe Pug I would ... willingly experience some inconvenience. He was only opening so it was a short set but divine as he always is. He came out in the encore of the Wagons (they have quite a following it was pretty packed for them) to do "Long Black Veil" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money", both of which I got videos of. I also got a photo. ;-)

Then, I went to see the mysterious Frank Fairfield at the Basement. But first, to my surprise 49 Goodbyes was the support act. Win. This is them doing "Wrecking Ball" (Emmylou Harris via Neil Young). 49 Goodbyes has an EP out, all the tracks are listenable to here. (I believe that is Emma's own YouTube page so it's artist-approved streaming.)

I went to Frank Fairfield with a friend who didn't know him (I have his albums -- which are on the great, eclectic Tompkins Square label -- but never seen him live) and we ended up having a deep not really sober conversation about Authenticity. We both basically hate the concept, so that helped. For Frank Fairfield is a creation of another age (turn of century - 20s folk tunes) and for sure "acts" the part, the clothes, the stage manner and such. I have mixed feelings about performers who attempt to "faithfully recreate" another era, the revivalists. There are some well known ones that leave me cold. I admit a lot of that comes down in the grey area of the Very Subjective. I love old time music, as should be obvious if you read this blog, but I also don't listen to music to get a high school play type presentation of The Cartoonish Past. (And I also feel uncomfortable with lifting cultural forms out of their context when that act is a form of white privilege blithely appropriating the culture of black or other colonised people. That's a much bigger issue .... ) I don't know, as I say a lot is very subjective but too much affectation is not conducive to good music, in my experience.

However, I really like Frank Fairfield. I think there is something just so resolutely anti-commercial about every thing he does that it can't be a marketing ploy (not that I object to artists using marketing, but you don't get to have it both ways). It is so studied, intense and internalised it kind of transcends the trend of revivalist retro. I think he's just basically weird, in the good sense, in the old weird America sense. I didn't even bother trying to get a video since he sits so far back from the microphone even to sing, there would be no point. I like that he makes the audience WORK to get their quota of hipster approved depression-era jollies, dammit.

Here is a short (1:22) video about him

He did consent to allowing the new fangled iPhoto-O-Matic 2000 to imprint his and his Civil War Moustache's visage on its devilishy digital mercury.

Then I guess the next thing was Hanggai, who are a Mongolian/Chinese band who play traditional Mongolian music with a distinct punk edge. They were also at the Basement and they were super amazing. The Basement was rocking and sweaty that night (and, vastly less Anglo than usual). I can't find anything on YouTube to really recreate that, most of the videos are from polite world music festivals. This one from Woodford last month is OK. Woodford has always had good music but the overall vibe of it always made me fear I'd have to smother a hippy within 20 minutes of being there and inviting the really quite evil anti-vaccination loon Meryl Dorey to speak this year really just turned me off it forever.

Anyway, Hanggai:

Hanggai get two videos because they are awesome. This is "Xiger, Xiger" (pronounced "Shigga Shigga") which is more traditional that the above but it gets stuck in my brain for days. I dare you not to get enthralled. I mean, check out Batubagen who is throat singing and playing the morin-khuur (Mongolian horse-headed "cello" type instrument). He'd sing, then another person would sing and I'd look around the band to see who the new singer was but ... it was Batubagen and that whole throat singing thing. And of course Ilchi , the bare-chested front man who IMHO joins a very select group of genuine, charismatic top tier front men. Amazing and ROCKING.

Then I went and saw Cambodian Space Project at the Vanguard. They are a Cambodian/"Western" fusion in the manner of the much better known Dengue Fever ie dudes with guitars backing a Khmer female singer. CSP are based in Phonm Pehn, though. I enjoyed it although I thought that the guitars were mixed up WAY too high, drowning out the singer Srey Thy who is quite great. (I also thought some of the between song banter was a bit condescending towards her.) Her voice is more than worthy of singing those classic Ros Sereysothea songs.

I mean, what's the point? If this band was just the indie rock dudes, no one (no offence) would care, it is the Cambodian aspect that is the reason they have the gig. I can listen to dude guitars anywhere. Still, they had cute t-shirts for sale. Here is how they are meant to sound:

And that is that!

Direct link here. Only 13 songs so some major culling but it'll do.

And who'd have thought, after all
Something so simple as rock'n'roll would save us all?

Lucinda Williams - Blessed
This is not from the album, it's her song from the The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams project which I forgot to include on these lists anywhere else.

Dennis Coffey - self-titled FUNK. (super name dropping in this vid, but he's earned it)

The Decemberists -- The King is Dead

Middle Brother -- self-titled

Deer Tick -- Divine, Providence

Country Cajun Revival -- The Real Thing

I snuck another into here which makes my top ten a top twelve.

Bei Bei and Shawn Lee -- Into the Wind
Another "world fusion" offering that works, this time with guzheng (Chinese stringed thingy) and doofy doofy beats.

Buddy Miller -- The Majestic Silver Strings 'Surple" still makes me laugh.

Lydia Loveless -- Indestructible Machine She's 21 or something ridonkulous.

The Sweetback Sisters -- Looking For a Fight The Sweetback Sisters are quite hilarious, as well as lovely to listen to. My favourite song on the album is "Too Many Experts" because it basically sums up the entire Internet. (this video is not that)

Brennen Leigh -- The Box Just super good country music, we still like that round here.

Tedeschi Trucks Band -- Revelator Susan and Derek, bluesing it all up in you.

December 2011! Time for some favourites from the year, I guess.
Starting with these ....

The Singing Mailman Delivers - John Prine Double CD of demos and live from 1970, a year before his first studio release. If you know Prine you'll find it worthwhile and if you don't it's actually a great place to start.

Late Late Party 1965-67 - Charles "Packy" Axton Anthology of cuts from the various bands of this Memphis sax player. Largely instrumental, just super funky in a smooth sort of way.

Beautiful Rivers and Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound of South Korea's Shin Joong Hyun 1958-1974 - Shin Joong Hyun The "Godfather of Korean Rock", absorbing the music of the US troops, and adding elements of Korean music, jazz and soul until being "unpatriotic" got him banned from music.

Joe Pug and Randy Newman both put out live albums (and accompanying DVD in Randy's case) in the last few weeks, I hardly think I need to spruik them given how much of that I've done in this forum. I will however say, once again, Joe Pug's Live at Lincoln Hall is only $5 to download and is sensational.

Tickets for Byron players' side shows have started going on sale, and so the Easter bottleneck shuffle has begun.

I haven't experienced any great angst with my schedule the last couple of years but in 2012 Lucinda Williams and John Hiatt are playing Sydney the same night, Tuesday 3rd April. What to Do!!!???

Actually the dilemma was not a big one in the end. My devotion to both is equal, really I can't split them. I've seen both live in the last couple of years and neither seem likely to give up touring or recording in the foreseeable future. So it comes then down to the venue, and that is, as the young folk say, "a no brainer." John is playing the Metro and Lucinda the State. The Metro: smallish, general admission where you can get up the front with a bit of rock and roll in the air versus the State where your only option is to sit and clap politely. Lucinda's ads say "One Show Only" so that is sad but man I am looking forward to "Walk On", "Slow Turning", "Tennessee Plates" etc etc in that venue.

Speaking of no-brainers Justin Townes Earle is at the Factory the night after. Never miss him live.

Steve Earle is going solo at the Factory the following week, through an early offer I got some front row seats and Steve solo is still a worthwhile proposition despite my mostly indifference to his last decade of output.

Also at the Factory in March is Charles Bradley, the latest retro soul revelation from Daptone.

I gather Trombone Shorty is also playing at the Metro but tickets aren't on sale yet. I'll also check out Bettye Lavette and Nick Lowe sideshows to see if I can fit them in.

Before all that in January I'll be seeing the Cambodian Space Project at the Vanguard and Hanggai at the Basement. Cambodian Space Project traverse the same general territory combining Khmer pop and western rock as the better known Dengue Fever. although CSP are actually based in Phnom Penh.

Hanggai play Mongolian folk music with electric guitars and a punk attitude. I find them quite enthralling.

Phew.

Selections from The Sound of Siam: Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz & Molam 1964 - 1975, The Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychadelic, Progressive Rock and Funk 1970-1978, Dengue Fever Presents Electric Cambodia, Thai Beat A Go Go Vol. 1, Dengue Fever Presents Sleepwalking Through the Mekong and Let's A Go-Go! Singapore and Southeast Asian Pop Scene 1964-69

Neglectful as I've been, I've accumulated a lot of music worth mentioning. So, here they are from the first 4 months of 2011. I've done an accompanying 8tracks of selected tracks. I'll do some more ... later. (I started the draft of this on March 18th, gimme a break.) All of them I recommend - I wouldn't mention if I didn't - but if I had to pick a couple to particularly force on you it'd be Colin Gilmore, Buddy Miller and representing non-country/folk Justin Adams.

Billy Eli - Hell Yeah
Texas country-rock on the looser side of Steve Earle circa 1990 which is fine since I haven't dug much ol Steve's done since 1990 (the new record is OK but dull, I might have more to say once I've settled on that as my response). Got into them when I heard "Cheese Enchiladas" on Freight Train Boogie, that's a fun song.
Video of Tore Down in Texas

Colin Gilmore Goodnight Lane
Quote from Sylvie Simmons's four-star Mojo review quote on website:

I've described him before as a West Texan Nick Lowe for his songs structures and their instant sing-along quality (Circles In The Yard; Goodnight Lane; Hand Close To Mine). But deep Texan roots show here on the fine Llano, a mature piece of country songwriting.

I'd say the Texas roots show through it all but yeah.

Bit of a children of other people whose CDs I have theme to this list. Colin is Jimmie Dale's son.
Video of Running Circles in the Yard and Black Vines

Lukas Nelson Promise of the Real
This guy's dad is named Wiliie, you've probably heard of him. Heck, given the number of collaborations the Red Headed Stranger pumps out you've probably done a duet with him. Lukas, like Colin, is making his way playing in dad's band but also striking out with this own thing. His voice can be kind if startling, undeniably you can hear Willie in there but it's a funhouse mirror version or the slight differences that catch you out with a twin. But anyway, it's a very good album in its own right.
Here's a video of Four Letter Word but you know me, I love the ballads and I LOVE LOVE LOVE "Want Me Around" so here it is: Want Me Around.

Yvette Landry Should Have Known
Yvette Landry is part of the most excellent all-female Cajun outfit Bonsoir Caitin and this is her first solo album of excellent country, cajun influenced for sure but more straight ahead country singer songwriter sound. Her crisp voice has the ability to be both sweet and worldy, like an old friend but one you know will cut you down if you need it. The songs are all terrific, as is the accompaniment, as you'd expect since she's quite a hot player herself.

Very professionally shot "Can't See Me Without You" (so wish the sound was better), ditto Too Tired More upbeat is 120 Proof. This is kinda a dodgy video (people: use your iPhone HORIZONTALLY when videoing for Bob's sake) but I have to draw attention to it since it features not only Bil Kirchen but my favourite recent songs on his of the great, great "Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods" album of a few years ago.

Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara Tell No Lies
Another cross-cultural excursion that gets it right. Lots of good vids at the above link. I think what really hooked me was the righteous Bo Diddley beat snaking through the thing without sounding like a forced "hey I know! Let's put traditional African and African American music together, hey cool." It works on a higher level on from novelty, and has melodies you can't argue with.

Bei Bei and Shawn Lee Into the Wind
Another for the "world fusion" fans. Shawn Lee is a doof doof guy who did an album of christmas carol remixes which I like to pull out that time of the year. Bei Bei is "an internationally acclaimed Gu Zheng (Chinese Zither) performer." Its got that late night SBS movie soundtrack cool thing and like the combination. Video of "Into the Wind" and "The Master Room"

Buddy Miller Majestic Silver Strings
This was one of the Big League of Americana discs due out this year along with Steve, Emmylou and LUcinda (I like the latter two quite a lot) and it doesn't disappoint. It's sort of redundant with Buddy Miller and that line up to have to do much spruiking. The high point for me is the mesmeric "Dang Me" - I've become quite obsesed with the word "surple."

Georgette Jones Slightly Used Woman No prizes for guessing her father, Tammy Wynette is her mother. Even without the pedigree, being on Heart of Texas record label (Amber Digby, Justin Trevino) you'd know she was selling a solid traditional style of country. And so it is. All eyes will be on "You And Me And Time", a duet with dad and it is a poignant country confessional, and the rest is, well, solid traditional country.

Bruce Springsteen, The Promise This is truly beautiful stuff. Also essential is watching the HBO documentary of the making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, with amazing footage of inside the studio and lots of real insights into the artistic process. Darkness was actually the first Springsteen album I owned so I've always had a soft spot for it, seeing the album or mores worth of great material from those sessions gives a better understanding of what the album is, on relistening, as well as adding 20 odd quality tracks to our collections. It is a case of what the album could have been but was not, by deliberate choice. And it's not often we really get that level of stickybeaking into creation. Even people not into Bruce would benefit from seeing the doco, it's a real close examination of the artistic process.

Bob Dylan, The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 9) Well it's Bob and lots of good stuff but not as essential as the Bruce for the reasons above. Recently I have been obsessing over some gospel era live shows and those are my personal pick for Bootleg Series 10. I know that at least for April 20, 1980 Massey Hall Toronto gig there is an officially recorded by Sony audio and video record. Bob's ambivalence or otherwise about the era is unknowable of course, but I'd love to see something new added to the official record. Of course, the unofficial record has been ahead of the curve for decades, this article is worth reading for that, "the wisdom of bootleggers over gatekeepers"

Riley, Grandma's Roadhouse As this Nashville Scene article says "long lost country rock gem" featuring Gary Stewart.

Everything from Soundway To wit, The World Ends: Afro Rock and Psychadelia in 1970s Nigeria, Nigeria Special, Volume 2: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6 and The Sound of Siam : Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz and Molam from Thailand 1964 - 1975

Next Stop .... Soweto Volumes 2 and 3 series from Strut. Free tracks, info and sounds at the Volume 2 and Volume 3 microsites. I'll single out Vol. 3 Vol. 3: Giants, Ministers and Makers: Jazz in South Africa 1963-1978 since the rock, funk soul crate digging comps are a dime a dizen these days so I really loved hearing the jazz side of things.

Crazy Heart, The Soundtrack See here.

Kris Kristofferson, Please Don't tell Me How the Story Ends, The Publishing Demos 1868 - 1972

Keith Richards, Vintage Vinos - Tres cool collection of Keef's non-Stones work, solo and with the X-Pensive Winos.

A short (16 songs, just over an hour) selection of tracks:

And in no order the final list of the records covered in the previous six posts, which are all here.

Marshall Chapman, Big Lonesome
Buddy Guy, Living Proof
The Fabulous Ginn Sisters, You Can't Take a Bad Girl Home
Phosphorescent, Here's To Taking it Easy
Sharon Jones & the DapKings - I Learned the Hard Way
Aloe Blacc, Good Things
The Secret Sisters, The Secret Sisters
American Graveyard, Hallelujahland
Whitey Morgan and the 78s, Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels
Hellbound Glory, Scumbag Country
Joe Pug, Messenger
Chris Altmann, Que Paso
Mary Gauthier, The Foundling
Tom Jones, Praise & Blame
Marty Stuart, Ghost Train
Justin Townes Earle, Harlem River Blue
Shelby Lynne, Tears, Lies & Alibis
Cotton Jones, Tall Hours in the Glowstream
Ray Wiley Hubbard, A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment Hint There is no C
Lil Band O Gold, The Promised Land
Raul Malo, Saints & Sinners
Los Lobos, Tin Can Trust
The Tallest Man on Earth, the Wild Hunt
Chelsea Crowell, self-titled (honorary 2009 ring-in)
Huun-Huur-Tur, Ancestor's Call
Gregory Porter, Water
Lucky Peterson, You Can Always Turn Around
The Carter Family III, Past & Present
Elizabeth Cook, Welder
Mike Stinson, The Jukebox in Your Heart
Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole, Creole Moon: Live at the Blue Moon Saloon

Mike Stinson, The Jukebox in Your Heart
Mike Stinson is sort of a John Prine meets Dwight Yoakam, with some Tom T. Hall and he is ace. This is one of my very, very favourites of the year. "Square with the World" is an instant choice for the songs you want at your funeral, "Walk Away" is a heartbreaking ode to big decisions and there area bunch of wry drinking songs besides. It rocks.

My only complaint really is making me listen repeatedly (as that is how I listen to The Jukebox in Your Heart) to a song called "Ashes II" with the line "still the same old nightmares come around." ;-(

Cedric Watson et Bijou Créole, Creole Moon: Live from the Blue Moon Saloon

Cedric Watson has been a rising star in cajun/zydeco for a few years now with some very fine records but I really like the energy a live set (deep in the heart of Arcadia in Lafayette) brings to it so I've it over the studio album he put out his year L'esprit Créole (but you should get that too if you like this sort of stuff.)

Ray Wylie Hubbard, A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C)
I don't think I rate any of RWH's albums as anything less than excellent (though sadly I don't have any of his 70s albums, they're hard to get) and a new collection of his cosmic Texas grooves is a joyful addition to the world. Hard to pick a standout, all the songs are.

Elizabeth Cook, Welder
Nothing so breakout as "Balls" her previous album, but worthy album of country rockers, ballads, a leftfield cover of Faron Young's "Blackland Farmer" and a double helping of sass.

Huun-Huur-Tur, Ancestor's Call
Yes, I hear you say, this list has had lots of country and folk and some blues, some New Orleans and Texas sounds, some this and some that. But where? Is the Tuvan throat singing? Gotcha covered right here. Had Huun-Huur-Tur's previous album in my year end a couple of years ago and Ancestor's Call is in much the same vein so needs a spot to. Despite the reputation and undoubted strangeness to non-Steppes ears I find this music comforting for some reason. The clip clop of the horses seems to underpin the whole flow; see here for some insights into what they're actually singing.
There aren't really any live YouTubes that do it justice for mine so if you're interested track down the music as recorded.

Gregory Porter, Water
Time for some vocal jazz! Cool guy, hot voice - a voice very much in the traditional crooner mould (he's performed on Broadway & does a Nat King Cole tribute show which gives you an idea) but, while certainly colouring between the lines, the album has also an effortless modern touch and style. This is his first album, an up and comer. (Of course I can't say or think his name without adding "The only thing I knew about Gregory Porter was that his name wasn't Gregory Porter.")

Lucky Peterson, You Can Always Turn Around
I want to say "traditional blues" but there are enough other elements to not make that quite accurate, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" swings and the opening to "I'm New Here" is as fine folk-country picking as you'll hear, "Trampled Rose" is, i dunno, some gypsy-Arabic thing happening. But he pulls it off, complemented by the fine vocals of Tamara Peterson.

The Carter Family III, Past & Present
The Carter Family III is Dale Jett (A.P and Sarah Carter's grandson), John Carter Cash and his wife Sarah. and is "just" a really fine collection of old timey tracks in the (surprise) Carter Family style. Not much by way of video for this ... but here's John Carter and Dale Jett (autoharp) on a Carter track together, plus bonus Tom T Hall.

This is the fourth instalment in my 2010 retrospective. They are in no order, I just made a list then took the first five for the first post, next five or six for the next and so on. I might comment on some that they are a cut above the pack but otherwise there is no ranking at all.

Lil Band O Gold, The Promised Land
Wrote up the gig with videos here.

Raul Malo, Saints & Sinners
Raul's fourth album in five years, the others have made my year ending list too. Raul is not those who favour mumbling, ironic alt.country; they are soaring songs from an old fashioned school of pop craft. He's also had five record labels in ten years solo post-Mavericks so I hope at Fantasy he finds what he's looking for and we get more, please.

Chelsea Crowell, self-titled
ACTUALLY, this is a 2009 release (but November, c'mon) but I didn't realise that til I was googling links to write this, so it stays. All complaints should be directed to the Federal Minister for Arts. This is a very charming and catchy collection of folk-pop-country (I particularly like "Tremelo Trees", "Where the Hell is Robert E Lee" and "I Want My Seven years Back") which is worth listening to for itself and as a very promising debut so you can say you knew her way back when. You are welcome.
Plus her Twitter background is Robocop riding a unicorn. Case closed.

UM WHAT there are no videos ANYWHERE for her. But there are couple of songs on the above linked website. Give 'em a whirl.

Los Lobos, Tin Can Trust
Hard to go past Los Lobos for musical talent per square member, or consistency over a couple of decades. Tin Can Trust offers a familiar formula of thoughful Tex-Mex bar rock - um, OK that might not actually be it's own actual formula. But if it is, they invented it. I also today picked up La Pistola Y El Corozan from 1988, because what else would you follow up a gigantic smash hit number 1 ("La Bamba") with but an album of traditional Mexican folk songs?

The Tallest Man on Earth, the Wild Hunt
This dude is a Swedish dude and is quite the hot young thing in singer-songwriter world. For more than that I'm gonna link to Tim and James. (Hey, finding something to write about a million bloody albums every December is hard, walk a mile in my shoes.)

The vid is a cover of "Graceland" (NB: Not on the album)

This Thursday, the Factory. Pretty excited about this. They were out here at Byron time but didn't play Sydney. Should be a ripper. Below is some footage from Melbourne in March.

My new 8 Tracks mix (9 songs, 35 minutes) is pretty much inspired by Treme, the new show on HBO by David Simon, brains behind The Wire. I hagiographied The Wire here before. Treme is set in New Orleans a few months after Hurricane Katrina, I've only seen 2 episodes so far but it's shaping up as not disappointing my sky high expectations. It's a very sad fact I think Channel Nein has the rights to it in Australia, y'all ain't never gonna get to see it if you wait for them.

If you have an iPhone and are a music lover you could do a lot worse than drop $2.49 on the TuneIn Radio app, which streams radio stations from ... well, just about everywhere. I've only had it a couple of days and haven't explored beyond the USA but I've heard great things about the African, Caribbean, South American stations you can get. Was just tuning into some bluegrass show on the legendary WSM Nashville and then surfed to Cajun Radio 1290 out of Lafayette. Been very impressed with its reliability on 3G, trundling on the bus down George St didn't even upset it. I'm told the bandwidth usage is very reasonable too, so all in all four hoofs and a tail up for TuneIn Radio.

Best Dylan Album -- Equal winners: Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart (I'm with Tom Russell on this gem)

Best Non-Dylan Albums:
I think if you looked at my most played album released in 2009 it would be Leonard Cohen: Live in London but I'm gonna exclude live recordings, reissues and compilations from this ...

1. Easy Come Easy Go - Marianne Faithfull. I got this back in January and here it still is, top of the list.
2. Blood and Candle Smoke - Tom Russell. Typically full-bore TR effort of weaving biography and myth, now with mariachi horns
3. The Bright Mississippi - Allen Toussaint. Refreshing, transfixing, dreamy masterclass
4. Midnight at the Movies - Justin Townes Earle. No sophomore nerves here, proving the first album was not a fluke.
5. Hills and Valleys - The Flatlanders. Slipped a little in list over time but still an album of a grade Americana song to song
6. Traditions in Transition - Quantic and his Combo Barbaro. Genre tinkering with respect and passion, Latin on the wild side
7. One to the Head, One to the Heart - Gretchen Peters. What I said at the time
8. A Friend of a Friend - David Rawlings Machine. Should be higher really, but couldn't drop anything.
9. Mountain Soul II - Patty Loveless. Infectious bluegrassy country, highly polished but full of affection
10. Get Out While You Can - Dan Sultan. Well now, I only got this yesterday so given a few more days it could have really shot up the charts. Brilliant collection of soul, country and blues and heaps more soul. Dan is a star, no doubt.
11. Potato Hole - Booker T From the show in April
12. What Have You Done My Brother? - Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. Preach it, sister
13. Dirt Town City Limits - Mat d and the Profane Saints. See Jim's great review.
14 Today, Tomorrow and Forever - Pete Molinari feat. The Jordanaires. Only an EP, but a perfectly formed one.
15. For the Mission Baby -- Malcolm Holcombe.
16. Ready for the Flood - Gary Louris and Mark Olsen. Was rather "meh" on it for eight of the last nine months but sort of started to grow on me ....
17. Animals in the Dark - William Elliott Whitmore. Should be higher also, what can you do? Lists are stupid. Hat tip Phineas, some very cathartic tracks on here believe me.
18. Cotton - Sam Baker. Also needs more time but exceptional story songs and that kind of creaky Texas voice I love.
19. Lucky One - Raul Malo A little bit country, a little bit croony, very pleasant listening.
20. The Soul of Black John - John Black