New Orleans 1 : Huey "Piano" Smith

I first became aware of Huey Smith when I bought Dr John's Gumbo album on a recommendation from Dave and Wynnis (sp?) from Everyman Records in Nelson.  The album was the good doctor's first tribute album to his hometown and contained a medley of Huey Smith songs.  20 years later, with the CD re-release boom in full swing I finally managed to get a copy of this greatest hits collection.

Some terrific old New Orleans' boogie on this including the hits High Blood Pressure and Don't you know Yockomo and Little Liza Jane.

Favourites : The Felice Brothers : The Felice Brothers

I first heard of The Felice Brothers when my friend Chris Mathieson played the song Mercy for me off their first album Tonight at the Arizona in his car one day.  I could not find that first album but did find their self titled their self titled album album shortly after and it has been a regularly played album ever since. 

From the Catskill Mountains near Woodstock the brothers come on like the bastard sons of The Band.  Two weeks ago Chris Rudge and I were in a bar/restaurant in Whitianga and the local librarian was playing a good mix of roots style music (Townes, GRam, Stones etc) and played covers of two songs off this album.  Frankie's Gun has the sound of an instant classic - sounds like a episode from Sons of Anarchy.  Whiskey in my Whiskey is another great murder ballad that, like the best songs from The Band, sounds like it has been around forever.  other highlights include Little Ann,Take this Bread, and Helen Fry are further examples of how good this band can be when on fire. 

In September we will be catching the brothers live in New Orleans.  It should be a good night!

Song of the Day 23 : Sam Cooke : A Change is Gonna Come

In the late 50's and early 60's a number of singers and songwriters had some prolific runs of not only hits but also songs that have embedded themselves in our collective conscience.  Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Sam Cooke spring to mind - not just one or two songs but whole albums of what are now quite rightfully considered classics.

Sam Cooke's 1964 hit A Change is Gonna Come  was originally only a B- Side but has proven to have a longer life than the A-Side Shake.  It quickly became the theme for the Civil Rights Movement and has been covered many times.  Over the years I have picked up versions by Graham Parker, the Neville Brothers, Dylan, the Band, and Otis Redding.

Song of the Day 22 : Summertime : George Gershwin

When Chris and I were driving around the Coromandel last weekend we played a great Sam Cooke compilation.  One of the tracks was his version of Summertime. Which prompted Chris to comment on how much he liked Fun Boy 3's version - which made me play that and that was how the subject of the last blog came about.

But Summertime deserves an entry in its own right.  I have lost count of how many versions of it I have. From the snippet of it Iggy sings on the anarchic Metallic KO live bootleg album (as he segues into a short version of I've Got A Cock in My Pocket), Cooke's, Miles Davis',  Billy Holiday, Janice Joplin and Sinatra.

My absolute favourite though is Ella and Louis' from their Porgy and Bess album (that haunting cornet at the opening really captures the emotion of the song). 

Journey Through the Past 42 : Waiting by Fun Boy 3

According to popular belief at the time Terry Hall was almost a passenger within The Specials.  His vocal approach bordered on almost non singing and at times appeared disinterested.   According to Jerry Dammers he had little input into the band itself.  So when The Specials folded no one expected much of him.

And yet Hall went on to  the most successful post Special's career of all the members.

First with Fun Boy 3, then The Colourfield, a few solo albums and interesting collaborations before coming full circle to rejoin The Specials (sans Dammers).  Jan and I saw the reformed Specials put on a good show in early 2012 in Singapore.

Last weekend driving around The Coromandel with Chris, after listening to Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly and a few others we started playing this one loud.  It had probably been ten years since I gave it a good listen,

Recorded in 1983 with David Byrne from Talking Heads at the production helm it is a real album with consistent themes and strong songs.  Hall had recently written Our Lips are Sealed with and for the Gogos but the now definitive version is here. I remember watching and being impressed by The More I See (the less I Believe) on Radio With Pictures and that being the main reason for me getting the album.  We're having all the fun explores the trials of early marriage, the sacrifices that need to be made and the resentments that can build.  Hall would explore this again in The Colourfield. While Farmyard Connection examines the mariajuana drug economy and its victims at the production end.

Very pleased we made the decision to play this on the drive and next time it wont be so long between plays.

A rare clip of Django Reinhardt

Django explained - maybe

As luck would have it - catching John Murry live last night in Sydney

One of the VERY occasional benefits of travelling for work is that sometime you end up in the same town at the same time as someone you want to see and there are still tickets left and it is not impossible to get to.

Last night the stars aligned and I managed to catch John Murry live at The Basement in Sydney.  Murry's Graceless Age was on many people's best albums of 2013 lists so I persuaded a colleague to cross the bridge after our company dinner and catch him.

It was an interesting and deliberately sloppy acoustic show with many rambling introductions, stories and false starts.  His aggressive version of Little Coloured Balloons was a definite highlight.

It ended with great covers of John Prine's Paradise, Zevon's Carmelita and Van Zandt's Waiting Around to Die 

Songs of the Day 21 : Sunspot Stopwatch and Cinderella Backstreet

I always think of Sunspot Stopwatch and Cinderella Backstreet together as they form a magnificent close out to  Mary Lou Lord's impressive third ep The Martian Saints.  I never play one without playing the other.  One original and one cover.

Played them to Chris yesterday on our drive back from the Coromandel and got the not of approval.

Mary Lou Lord was known for her busking on The Red Line Subway in Boston and also a pre-fame friendship with Kurt Kobain.  In the late 90's she garnered some major label support but after two non startling albums seemed to just fade away.

Song of The Day 20 : Lowell George : 20 Million Things

Lowell George was the leader of Little Feat until he quit the band in 1978 because he felt he had lost control of his own group. 20 Million Things comes from what turned out to be his only solo album, Thanks I'll Eat it Here,  as he had died by the end of 1979.

While many people wrote off the album as overproduced I still really enjoy it and play it often.

Journey Through The Past 41 : Lee Clayton : Naked Child

I bought this record on the recommendation of Colin Morris from Colin Morris Records in 1980.  It has a big import sticker on it so that means that I paid over the odds for it.  Never mind because it is a bloody good record.  I still know bugger all about him but I play the album regularly.

Today I came across copies of the two other albums he recorded for Capitol after this, second hand, at prices probably less than I paid for Naked Child 34 years ago.  Happy Camper!!

I am looking forward to hearing them when I get back to Suva but in the meantime I thought I would share this gem.


There are a number of outstanding tracks including I Ride Alone, A little Cocaine, 1000 Years / Sexual Moon and Saturday Night Special.  That is just about the whole damned album.    

Favourites : Mavis Staples : You Are Not Alone

When music websites sites started discussing the fact that Mavis Staples was recording an album with Jeff Tweedy from Wilco producing and contributing a few songs I was more than a little skeptical.

The pairing of two people whose music I really enjoy but who seemed to come from completely different ends of the spectrum was not something many people would have picked.  

First Mavis Staples, one of gospel and soul's veterans having started on the road as a 12 or 13 year old on the 50s Gospel Circuit, who with her father, Pops and brothers and sisters.  The Stape Singers laid down some of the anthems for Civil Rights Movement in the 60s, then changed their name to The Staples and combined what they called message songs and the funk of Stax and Muscle Shoals for a successful run in the 70s.    She teamed with Jeff Tweedy whose band Uncle Tupelo embodied the resurrection of  Country music in the late 1980s and who now leads Wilco an alternative country band that frequently experiments with aggressive sonics.   The only thing they really seemed to have in common was that they lived in Chicago.

Early positive reviews for once have proven to be correct and You are Not Alone Alone adds another career high point to Mavis long career.  The title song, here in a great acoustic form, written by Tweedy is a superb example of what you can expect on the album.   There is also a great cover of Creedance's Wrote a Song for Everyone.  The album has some solid reworking of gospel classics and so successfully presents an old style of music in a new way that introduces music to a new group of potential fans.  Check out Only the Lord Knows and Too Close/On My Way to Heaven.



You are Not Alone

I'll Take you there 

Recent Additions : Parker Millsap - A great new country album

This album by Parker Millsap  recently popped up on Amazon as top of their recommendations list for me. The vinyl was not that expensive so I ordered it without hearing or even sampling it.

Very glad I did.   For those of you who remember Steve Forbert from about 1976 his voice is similar but his delivery is stronger.

This year there have been quite a few exceptional new albums by artists that are either new or at least new to me. Gives me confidence in the future!

Mr Millsap has perhaps invented a a new style of country music - Fire and Brimstone Country.  Truck Stop Gospel perhaps being the best example.

Jan does not always "notice"  new music when I play it but this really pricked her ears the other night when I played it.  Dissappear, Quite Contrary and Forgive Me are other strong songs on an album that really is quality all the way through.

Road Trip Planning - All Suggestions Welcome

Jan and I are heading to the US for three weeks in September.  The flights to and from have been booked and I have almost a week of work in and around Boulder first (may even drive by Mork and Mindy's house (RIP Robin Williams).  We will be arriving on a Friday night and on the Saturday heading to the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater to catch the likes of Anders Osbourne whom I blogged about here and Robert Cray. After a week of work we head up the I-70 to Beaver Creek for another festival and this time catch Dawes, Patty Griffin and Jason Isbell whom I blogged about here. 

From there we are heading south to the homes of blues, country and soul music.  We will go to the Crossroads in Clarkesdate, Tipitinas in New Orleans, Stax Studios in Memphis and Fame and Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama, The Ryman in Nashville and if we can make it work a few nights in Austin and hopefully catch one of Billy Joe Shaver's 75th annivesary gigs.

All the time driving with an appropriate playlist.

It's a trip I have always wanted to make - still some organising to do - but it is coming together - there will be some blogs.

Song of the Day 19 : LA Freeway Guy Clark

LA Freeway comes from Clark's fine debut album Old No 1.  I did not come across Clark until the early 90s when a friend raved so much about his Dublin Blues album - I just had to check him out.  I am now lucky enough to have his first four albums on almost perfect vinyl.  Clark is the consummate craftsman songwriter bringing the care and attention he also takes to his boat building and guitarmaking.  LA Freeway is a great early example of that craft.



If you like this then check out the great DVD of Clark, Towns Van Zandt and others Heartworn Highway.

Pack up all your dishes. 
Make note of all good wishes. 
Say goodbye to the landlord for me. 
That son of a bitch has always bored me. 
Throw out them LA papers 
And that moldy box of vanilla wafers. 
Adios to all this concrete. 
Gonna get me some dirt road back street 

Chorus 
If I can just get off of this LA freeway 
Without getting killed or caught 
I'd be down that road in a cloud of smoke 
For some land that I ain't bought bought bought 

Here's to you old skinny Dennis 
Only one I think I will miss 
I can hear that old bass singing 
Sweet and low like a gift you're bringin' 
Play it for me just one more time now 
Got to give it all we can now 
I beleive everything your saying 
Just keep on, keep on playing 

Chorus 

And you put the pink card in the mailbox 
Leave the key in the old front door lock 
They will find it likely as not 
I'm sure there's somethin' we have forgot 
Oh Susanna, don't you cry, babe 
Love's a gift that's surely handmade 
We've got something to believe in 
Dontcha' think it's time we're leavin' 

Song of the Day 18 : Foreign Affair : Tom Waits

Foreign Affair will be the first of many Songs of the Day by Tom Waits. He is one of my favourite songwriters and singers.

Most  song lyrics do not add up to much when read separately, gaps in logic, poor English (masquerading as poetic license) and plenty of just plain gibberish.  I am not saying that that is problem.  It's not - when tied to music correctly all can be forgiven.

However there are a small collection of writers where you get the feeling that, when they are on song so to speak, every word is carefully chosen and they use a full range of poetic tricks, alliteration, metaphors, simile and consistent imagery to make their point.  Tom Waits is one of those writers and Foreign Affair is one of the best examples of that.  The mood is set, some nice imagery mid song around police and crime and the story in complete.

It is worth reading and listening to how simple he can make superb songwriting seem.

"Foreign Affair"

when travelling abroad in the continental style
it's my belief one must attempt to be discreet
and subsequently bear in mind your transient position
allows you a perspective that's unique
though you'll find your itinerary's a blessing and a curse
your wanderlust won't let you settle down
and you'll wonder how you ever fathomed that you'd be content
to stay within the city limits of a small midwestern town
most vagabonds i know don't ever want to find the culprit
that remains the object of their long relentless quest
the obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending
the pursuit you see and never the arrest

without fear of contradiction bon voyage is always hollered
in conjunction with a handkerchief from shore
by a girl that drives a rambler and furthermore
is overly concerned that she won't see him anymore
planes and trains and boats and buses
characteristically evoke a common attitude of blue
unless you have a suitcase and a ticket and a passport
and the cargo that they're carrying is you
a foreign affair juxtaposed with a stateside
and domestically approved romantic fancy
is mysteriously attractive due to circumstances knowing
it will only be parlayed into a memory

As I said there will be a few more Songs of the Day by Poor Old Tom.

Song of the Day 17 : Pecan Pie - Jeff Tweedy and Golden Smog

Pecan Pie. Sometimes I think about "pie" all day.  What can he really be thinking about?

Song of the Day 16 : This Masquerade : Leon Russell

Like most people I first heard This Masquerade as recorded by George Benson in 1976.  It is now recognised as a classic song - up there with the best of the American Songbook.   It has of course now been covered by The Carpenters, Ella, Willie Nelson and others. It was years later I heard a shortened version of the original version on a Leon Russell's Greatest Hits collection.  It was not until I tracked down Russell's interesting Carney album that I heard the full original with the full instrumental introduction. 

Journey Through The Past 40 : R.E.M : New Adventures in Hifi

I first heard REM when they released their debut album Murmur when it was released in 1983.  I had friends and workmates who raved about it but I could not work out what the fuss was about.  Over the next few years I heard bits and pieces but was generally underwhelmed.  And then I bought Document in 1987.  I really enjoyed that album and from then on bought most of their albums for a bit. I held out on buying the mega selling Automatic for the People for a while and when I did - I decided I was right to have done so (I tried to play it recently and found all but Man on the Moon were pretty dreadful.

So I decided to stop buying R.E.M

Until a friend said - you should listen to New Adventures in HiFi - he was right.  This is a great album - no longer  reaching for stardom but laying down some great songs and experimenting a bit at the same time. Highlights to me are Electrolite; E Bow the Letter and How the West Was won and where it got us.

In my opinion the band did little of merit after this not being able to move forward without becoming almost a parody of themselves.

I know this is not a popular choice by me as best R.E.M album but that's personal taste I suppose. Other R.E.M I still like are Life's Rich Pageant and Green. 

Journey Through The Past 39 : Til Tuesday : Everythings Different Now

I first heard Aimee Mann when she released her debut solo Whatever in 1993. That was a great album which I will write about later.  The album was good enough for me to do a bit of research and learn she was lead singer in 80's synth pop band Til' Tuesday who had a hit in the states with Voices Carry.

In New Zealand Til Tuesday's albums were not that easy to find (but when you did they were usually very cheap!).  However Everything's Different Now was impossible to find and I eventually picked up a copy on a trip to the US.   If anything it is better than her impressive solo debut but it covers much the same ground. Breakup of both band and relationships.

It also includes a couple of impressive songwriter collaborations with the gem of a title track with Matthew Sweet and The Other End of the Telescope with Elvis Costello.  However that is not to undermine the quality of the remaining Aimee songs - all uniformly of a high standard. Particularly good are J for Jules written about her breakup with Jules Shear from the band, and Limits to Love and (Believed you were) Lucky.

While the album is still drenched in 80's keyboards the strength of the songwriting comes through and you can hear a few more guitars coming through.

Aimee Mann has had a solid career since releasing many good albums but it is this one I keep coming back to.

As an added bonus here is a nice clip of Aimee and Sarah McLachlan moonlighting together doing housecleaning and yardwork for obnoxious yuppies in Portland.  It starts about 2 minutes in - but the whole clip is worthwhile

Song of the Day 15 : Bitch : The Rolling Stones

I really love the music the Stones made between 1968 and 1973.  Great albums and great songs.  However I do not think they ever topped BITCH (I really love this version  from the 1972 tour - they were never the same after Mick Taylor left).

Bitch has the great mix of dumb rock lyrics with one of their finest and most driving rhythms and riffs.

I have never been sure why this song is not held in the same esteem as some of their other songs.  It is also definitely the best use of horns they ever had as well.