Journey Through The Past : John Mayall - A Hard Road and the Beginning of Fleetwood Mac

To many this record marks the beginning of Fleetwood Mac.  Peter Green replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and meets John McVie - (Mac).

A Hard Road was the first album and points the way to the first blues laden Mac albums. John Mayall being suitably pissed off when Green took McVie away and he lost his secondary guitarist in two years.  It was to happen again when he would lose Mick Taylor to the Stones two years later.

Similar but different to Mayall's earlier album it is dominated by Green's guitar lyrical work and occasional soulful singing.  More originals than the earlier Bluesbreakers with Green contributing two. Highlights to me are Green's The Supernatural and Skip James' Dust My Broom.

Here's the whole album - enjoy!

Favourites : Ernie Payne : Coercion Street

I read a review of Coercion Street on line somewhere.  I thought it was in Graham Reid's excellent Elsewhere site but can not find it there any more.  Not that that matters where ever I read it it said enough, made enough connections to music I liked that I sought it out.

Pleased I did.  

If you like the more bluesy and soulful side of John Hiatt then you may well like this.  Released in 2007 it got quite an underground following in the UK after it was plugged by Andy Kershaw on his radio show.  Some great tracks including Curse of Hamm, Mother's Uncle, Ancient Eyes and the title track.



He had actually recorded an album way back in 1973 - I found a copy on line - and its winging it way to me now!  

Recent Additions : Chuck Prophet : Night Surfer

After a few mail delays I finally received my copy of Chuck Prophet's new album Night Surfer a few weeks ago -  that Fiji Mail can be a real pain.

Chuck is an artist that appeals to the whole family and over Christmas Sam said he had bought the CD and was not overly impressed.  Not as good as usual he said as he recommended the new Daft Punk and Ryan Adams (another family favourite).

I have now listened to the album and think Sam needs to give it a few more goes.  I remember being underwhelmed by some of Chuck's other albums on first play but now there is only one that I think does not meet his normal standards.

This one does and I am confident I will still be reaching for this in years to come.  I particularly like Wish Me Luck,   Guilty as a Saint and Laughing on the Inside

Song of the Day 43 : James Carr - Pouring Water on a Drowning Man

Many people consider James Carr the greatest soul singer of all time, eclipsing Otis, Sam Cooke and Marvin.  It's always a bit ridiculous to even postulate things like that when there is no effective way to measure and calibrate things like that.  Regardless of where he may be in that pantheon he is a bloody good soul singer who through a sad series of personal circumstances never received the recognition he deserved and led a troubled life and he struggled with both physical and mental health issues.  His definitive versions of both Dark End of The Street and Pouring Water on a Drowning Man - may be my all time favourite soul songs.  Here is the original and here is James on stage shortly before his death. 

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 6 : Joe South's Greatest Hits

I picked this one up for $2 - great buy.  Joe had bigger hits when other people sang his songs - I hope he had the copyright sorted out.

The copy I bought was the NZ version of this album which has two extra songs on each side (including the critical Rose Garden) and a tackier cover.  But the extra music makes it well worth having.

Some great songs, Games People Play (won the Grammy for Song of the year when it was released), Hush (more soulful than any of the other versions including those by Russell Morris, Billy Joe Royal and of course Deep Purple), Walk a Mile in My Shoes, Down in the Boondocks and Rose Garden.

But there is not a bad song on this album - Great Buy!!!

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 5 : Fleetwood Mac Rumours (and comments on Mick's autobiography)

I got two copies of Mick Fleetwood's autobiography for Christmas. I have always had a passing interest in The Mac, have a few of the early Peter Green led blues albums and love The Green Manalishi and Oh Well but the later period (which has now been going for almost 40 years as opposed to the first ten years of the Peter Green period has not interested me that much.  I do love the song Tusk.

In the biography Mick claimed to have learned from his mistakes but proved over and over again that he had not and is in fact a bit of a plonker - I suppose that may be his drumming style "plonking".

Anyway I never owned this, never wanted to. But at $2 ........ Oh Well as Peter Green would say.

The copy has a scratch across one track fortunately not Go Your Own Way and having played the album I will probably never play it again all the way through.  What was everyone thinking in 1977 when they bought it in droves - some sort of mass hypnotism or even invasion of the body snatchers??

But when Chris comes to visit I am sure we will play Go your Own Way at maximum volume.

Song of The Day 42 : The Swingers - Counting The Beat (b/w One Good Reason)

Counting The Beat should have been a world wide hit then the whole world would now be overlooking its brilliance due to it being overplayed,  like we are in NZ.

Pity on both counts. 

Journey Through The Past : Bob Dylan : Blood On the Tracks

Blood on The Tracks, while not held in particularly high regard at the time of its release is now routinely placed in the top 3 Dylan albums, along with Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited (and that means it is in the top albums of all time by my reckoning).

The album was apparently already to release covers printed etc when Dylan decided he wanted to record the whole thing again.  I have heard many of the original tracks and I have to agree with Dylan - the original versions lack the vibrancy of the final ones. The originals are generally played slower and as such have an added poignancy however it is the album versions that I play most often.  Ironically it is the once impossible to find original versions that are easiest to find on Youtube and so the links below are to those versions.

I also remember when it came out in 1975 DJs on 2ZM (Lloyd Scott and Paul Holmes in particular) used to play Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts (Original Version). I think being the "rebels" they were (ha!) they liked the fact it was so long.  I remember how I thought it was so clever at the time and it was for that song that I eventually bought a second hand copy in 1979.  It was on one of our flat forays to The Mousetrap - a great little second hand record story on Bealey Ave at Carlton Corner.

I still have that copy I bought then and play it every 2-3 months - pleased to say it is still in good nick.  I always play it all the way through - however ironically every time I think about skipping Lily's story.  There are gems aplenty on the album and many lines I quote when the occasion seems right.   If you see her say hello is one of my all time favourite songs and Tangled up in Blue is not far behind. Other highlights basically include the rest of the album (bar Lily)  but Idiot Wind does stand out - this original acoustic version is somber rather than vitriolic!!

I hope that this being the 40th anniversary year that it will get the Bob Dylan Bootleg version and we will get both album versions together (I already have a poorly transferred bootleg and some of the tracks on other releases). 

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 4 : Hot August Night

When I was in the third form - everyone's parents seemed to have this.  In fact at the time it was claimed that there was a copy of Hot August Night in every NZ home.  Not true - but Terry had a copy so that is saying something!!!

It is easy to dislike Neil Diamond on principle. However he has written a lot of great simple rock/pop songs that deserve the revered status they get.  After slipping into a MOR rut from the mid seventies to now it looked like he would be stuck into just redoing progressively cooler and cooler August night shows.

However he seems to be having a late period of creative resurgence as his last few albums have received generally good reviews from a once dismissive music press.

I have not quite been brave enough to dip my toes back in (maybe I need to wait until I see them for $2 like this one)- but I am not unhappy to have this in my collection now.  

Song of the Day 41 : David Bowie I'm Afraid of Americans

At the time I thought of this as a late career highlight - I suppose now I have to call it a mid career highlight - 

Great Video as well and so pleased he played it in Wellington when I saw him last time.

I'm Afraid of Americans 

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 3 : Beggars Banquet and Black and Blue

To get these two, with the Vinyl in great condition for a total of $4 is a real find.  The copy I found is an original NZ release judging by the white cover (as opposed to the toilet seat cover), the thickness of the vinyl and the orange Decca label.  The cover shows 45 years wear but the record plays perfectly and sounds amazing.

I first heard Beggars Banquet when a school friend Jeremy Wilkins lent it to me in what was probably the 5th form (40 years ago!). At the time it did not grab me.  Now to me it really signifies the start proper of The Stones as a rock and album band as opposed to a singles band.  While they had put out other serious albums prior to this (Satanic Majesties and Aftermath) in particular - this is the first time they really pulled it off. Of course the next three albums really grew that reputation but this to me is where The Stones (as opposed to The Rolling Stones) started.  Hard to pick a highlight from this album - Jan would say Street Fighting Man, I would probably go for the now obvious Sympathy for The Devil - a less obvious highlight would be No Expectations.

Black and Blue is quite a different album. A band trying to work out where to go and how to replace Mick Taylor who while he did not look the part is THE  Stones Second Guitarist as it was with him that they recorded their best work.  Three separate guitarist were tried on the album (Wayne Perkins, Harvey Mandell and of course Ronnie Wood who could obviously look and act the part - even if he would never in my opinion make the creative input that Mick made).  While the guitarwork floundered a bit Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston made this perhaps the only Stones keyboard driven album

Not a much loved Stones' album but there are always tracks worth listening to with Memory Motel and Fool to Cry standing out to me. 

Song of the Day 40 : Christmas in Nevada : Willard Grant Conspiracy

These guys kept cropping up on Alternative Country Compilations - eventually started buying a few of their CDs as their songs were never more than interesting- Christmas in Nevada is not only one of their best songs but a great song by any standards

Christmas in Nevada

Flip the switch

And let the gamblers roll

I'm headed up from old Mexico

The border towns

All look the same

Brand new suit

And a bankers roll

Switchblade knife

And no place to go

Except where I might find

The next game

Lights go on across the town

Children's choir sings

Auld lang syne

The black jack dealers

Take their toll

I look up

From this beat park bench

Into an ocean

Of discontent

I can't wait to buy a ticket to anywhere

But home

Washing dishes

Behind the casino grill

Ain't no way

To make a kill

But on the winter nights

The water keeps me warm

I'll take my pay

And buy a gun

Steal a car

And hope it runs

Find a place

To make my name

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 2 : Benny Goodman : Classics in Jazz

I bought this rather cool piece of 10" vinyl at the Salvation Army Shop in Petone.  I was not going to buy it until the attendant said all records half price.  $2 became $1 and I thought yep I have that one.

I was only familiar with St Louis Blues in terms of the tracks  on the record (and that is a great track that I probably have half a dozen versions of).  I have no other Benny Goodman (and first really heard of him when Bowie announced that "A Benny Goodman Fan painted holes in his hands so Shakey hung him up to dry" on Watch that Man back in 1973

I also have not got many 10" eps, Mum and Dad had a few (Mantovani and Mario Lanza I recall).    This was released in 1954 so it is now 60 years old and in pretty good nick.  Sounds great and his clarinet has got great tone.  I am glad I splashed out.  

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 1 : Kenny Rogers and the First Edition Greatest Hits

As I mentioned in my first blog of the year over the last month or so I have dine a fair bit of bargain hunting in Junk Shops and the <$5 bins in record stores (some of which then even had half price).   In those circumstances it is nothing for me to walk out of a store with ten or more records for $30-$40.

The immediate concern is then "shit - how am I going to get those back on the plane under my 23Kg weight limit?"  I have developed a few techniques and tactics and have always managed to get it through - I am also now a very good judge of when a bag weighs 23kg but that has been helped with Jan's Christmas present to me - a portable luggage scale!!!

Recently I have found some gems and some records that many will be surprised found their way to my collection - some I bought for sheer nostalgia, some as they have always been guilty pleasures and some because one track redeems the whole record.

This record more or less falls into that last category. While it has all the big hits - Reuben James, Ruby, Don't Take your love to town and Somethings Burning.  One song took me over the line in the decision to fork out the $2 necessary and add it to my weight problem.

It is not much of a secret that Chris's and my favourite movie is The Big Lebowski.  One of the great attractions of the The Dude is is his eclectic and irreverent taste in music.  He does not care what is cool - he likes what he likes and so no arty farty metrosexual music in his collection - Creedence and this song.  All fans of the movie love this song and this sequence.



What condition is your condition in?  The record was in pretty good condition actually.

Favourites : Golden Smog : Down by the Old Mainstream

I bought Down by the Old Mainstream based on a review in Uncut.  It mentioned that this was the first full length album by the Alt Country Supergroup with members from Big Star, Wilco, The Jayhawks and Soul Asylum.  I then found a cheap copy at a record store in Manners Street (the one opposite where Chelsea Records ended its days for those of you from Wellington).

I was immediately impressed with the quality and consistency of the songs - having a little more edge than the then current Jayhawks and a little more straight up rock'n'roll than Wilco at the time.  Not a bad thing and for a while I preferred this album to new music at the time from both bands.


Pecan Pie, He's a Dick, V, Ill fated, Radio King and their great cover of The Faces' Glad and Sorry.

I went on to buy their subsequent albums, and their debut ep and while Jan really loved the follow up Weird Tales this remains my favourite

Best of 2014

I started to write this in December thinking about the good and the bad for the year.  then I just started getting a bit busy and now I am only just now getting around to review it

Albums from this year that I am sure I will be listening to in ten year's time.

• Roseanne Cash : The River and The Thread
• War on Drugs : Lost in the Dream
• Drive By Truckers : English Oceans :  While I agree with most that The Big To Do was a low
  point in their career I personally thought that Go Go Boots was one of their best.  English Oceans is just another great album.  
• Then in the middle of the year I started listening to a string of country tinged singer songwriter albums that all showed great albums can still be made and bend genres

• Robert Ellis : The Lights from The Chemical Plant : 
• John Fullbright : Songs
• Patrker Millsap : Parker Millsap : One of those albums where you have to forgiove the preaching because the music is so good.
• Jamestown Revival : Utah
• Sturgill Simpson : Metamodern Sounds in Country Music - it took a few listens but I do like this.  
• Pokey Lafarge
• Lake Street Dive's Bad Self Portraits, ooking forward to seeing them at WOMAD next year.
• Hiss Golden Messenger : Lateness of Dancers
• Hurray for the Riff Raff : Small Town Heroes
• The Felice Brothers : Favourite Waitress - a real return to form and nice to see them in New Orleans when we were there.  
• Old 97's - Most Messed Up - Another great party album - celebrating 23 years together 
• J Mascis : Tied to a Star -  while many claimed it to be a step up from his last solo album I have to admit it felt like (confident) treading water to me.
• Dirk Hamilton : More Songs from my cool life - always been a fan and its nice to now be communicating with the odd email - hoping one day we will catch up  for that beer.  This is is a great reflective collection of well written songs as usual.
• Billy Joe Shaver : Long in the tooth
• Robert Plant : Lullaby and the ceaseless roar
• Damien Jurado : Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son

Albums from 2013 that I am only just now getting into;

• John Murry : The Graceless Age  - it helped seeing him in Sydney in a small bar.  Enjoyed the show and was pleased to finally pick up a copy of the CD.  Have even managed to track down one of only 500 slabs of vinyl made!
• Shovels and Rope : O Be Joyful - and it is
• Willie Nile : American Ride

Best Vinyl Reissues

• Bob Carpenter's Silent Passage
• Jim White's The Mysterious Tale of how I shouted wrong eyed Jesus
• Matthew Sweet : Girlfriend
• Steve Earle : Train A Coming
• Blue Note's 75th anniversary series

Biggest Disappointments : 

• Ray LaMontagne's  new album was a sad let down after consistent quality for the last few years
• The Hold Steady's Teeth Dreams was not a bad album but showed that they need to rethink and grow (but not as much as Ray' please)
• Aimee Mann's album The Both - some raved - but I found this album to be forgettable and after giving it a few tries (especially after reading a positive review) and trying to work out what I was missing I doubt I will play it again.  I did pick up a copy of Til Tuesday's Welcome Home album on vinyl and while not up with their final album I know I will play it more than The Both. 

Best Music Documentary : Muscle Shoals - could I have said anything else?

Best Buys - During the year I spent a bit of time in second hand record stores searching out some lost gems

• The Youngbloods : Elephant Mountain
• Stan Getz : Jazz Samba and Getz/Gilberto both in Mono
• Billy Joe Shaver's debut album on monument
• Lulu's New Routes - a great muscle shoals album - I can almost forgive her for what she did to Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World and Watch That Man!
• Cher's 3614 Jackson Highway
• The first two Preservation Hall Jazz Band Albums
• Freddie King's Getting Ready - finally on vinyl 

Best Rediscoveries - stuff I had forgotten about but which I was reminded of for some reason or other and so went back and rediscovered just how good it was....

• Howlin' Wolf's first two albums
• Nancy and Lee : Nancy and Lee
• Dinosaur Jr's  back catalogue (or at least 5 I have)
• Buddy and Julie Miller : Written in Chalk
• Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend - on vinyl (less three tracks sadly)
• Waylon Jennings Dreaming My Dreams and Honky Tonk Heroes - does country get any better?
• Ann Peebles : I Can't Stand The Rain
• Mink DeVille : Cabretta (some call it just Mink Deville 
• John Hiatt : That late 80's purple patch - I count this as being everything from Riding with The King through to Perfectly Good Guitar.  This year through some astute buying I have managed to get some of these in near perfect condition on Vinyl.  
• Shelby Lynne : I am Shelby Lynne - great re-release package with a contemporary DVD of her first live show in LA
• Anders Osborne : His whole back catalogue - oh for some vinyl of it. 

Jazz I enjoyed most

• Stan Getz : Getz Gilberto and Jazz Samba (both in mono)
• Grant Green : Green Street
• Jimmy Smith : Dot Com Blues and Back at the Chicken Shack
• Jonathan Crayford : Dark Light - An old school friend's younger brother producing a New Zealand Classic
• Frank Sinatra : Where are you?
• Horace Silver : Song for my father  - it was sad to read of Horace Silver's passing but it was a good excuse to drag this out again 
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band

And there is nothing like a trip to Memphis and The Crossroads to rekindle a love of the blues and a few obscure fat possum releases;

• Asie Paton
• Rober Belfour,  
• Junior Kimbrough
• RL Burnside

All in all a pretty good year but a worry that what I considered the best new material was all pretty much in  and around one genre - country soul or country folk. 

Favourites : Matthew Sweet : Girlfriend

I bought Girlfriend when it was released after seeing  and being captivated by this Japanese anime influenced video for the title track on a TV music show.  Wow I thought.  It sounded and looked amazing.  We were living in Taupo at the time and I had to wait for a business trip to Hamilton to get a copy of the CD.  Wow again.


A collection of 70's sounding US powerpop a la Big Star, The Raspberries and The Plimsouls but with perhaps even better songwriting. It is one of a number of albums that, over the years when I see a cheap copy I snap it up and then give it to friends I think will appreciate it.




One of the standout things about the album  though is the stunning musicianship - Sweet managed to pull together an incredible mix of talent including Robert Quine and Richard Lloyd on guitars (perhaps the best pairing since Lloyd and Verlaine), Fred Maher and Greg Leisz - amazing for pretty  much an unknown.

The original album had 15 tracks and the quality just did not let up.  From the opening Divine Intervention, through Girlfriend, Looking at the Sun, Winona, Day for Night, Does She talk and Holy War this is just a startling and sparkling album that jumps out of whatever you are playing it on.

Last year a truncated vinyl edition was released and while it sounds amazing I would have happily paid double if they had added the last three tracks and maybe some of the Goodfriend disc as well. Nevertheless it does sound stunning.

The good thing is there was better to come!

Welcome to 2015 - Three Great Muscle Shoals Additions (including Cher!)

It's been a while since I last posted.  Since then there has been Christmas and a couple of trips to New Zealand where I managed to bit of bargain hunting, some good finds on the internet and some interesting new releases.

Some albums I just have to have for a combination of history and curiosity.  Since becoming fascinated with the Muscle Shoals story (well before the excellent documentary last year) I have been always been on the lookout with Shoals related releases.  However in the last year I have unashamedly on a bit of Muscle Shoals kick. I have picked up some interesting albums from the early 70s that never quite made it but on which you can almost hear the studio and band growing in confidence.  For a while they were also graced with two distinctive and important guitarists in Duanne Allman (before the Allman Brothers Band) and Eddie Hinton.

I have long been been intrigued by the first album recorded after The Swampers defected from Fame Studios to create their own studio around the corner at 3614 Jackson Highway.  In 1969 Jerry Wexler took Cher down to Alabama to record an album he hoped would kick start her solo career after a few unsucessful solo records.  It didn't, it bombed and could have meant the end to the studio (as it was a while before Wexler brought anyone back) and Cher. Of course both went on to greater things (I suppose it's a matter of taste in Cher's case) in the end.

If you ever have a chance to visit the studio they have a copy of the original album on display and will tell you it is pretty hard to get hold of now. They don't accept offers for their copy!

The also tell you that when the photo was taken the 3614  Jackson Highway banner was not painted on the building - but when they saw it on the album cover they liked it so much the studio added it to the actual building.

Muscle Shoals 27 September 2014

I had been keeping my eye out for the record for a few years (in record stores, junk shops and on
line).  A lot of the online copies go for in excess of $US100 so when I manage to get hold of a copy for about $NZ30 I was pretty stoked.  It was a US pressing with a fold out cover and in OK condition. Then, on the last day of our Christmas holiday in NZ I then found another copy (this one a Canadian one in much better condition) I decided that maybe having two copies would be a good investment. So now I have two copies.

Listening to the album now it is quite easy to see why it did not sell.  The boys just do not seem to have the groove yet and Cher does not sound that interested and sounds she is trying to channel Bonnie Bramlett.  There is great song selection though, with three Dylan songs, two Dan Penn numbers, Otis Redding  and Stephen Stills also throw in some songs.  Favourites are Dr John's I Walk on Gilded Splinters, Dylan's I Threw it All Away and Dan Penn's Cry Like a Baby.

I never thought I would own an album by Cher but I am glad I do.

Two other artists that recorded at the new studio are Boz Scaggs and Lulu (yes that Lulu).  Again it was Wexler who brought them down (no matter what he was like as a person he sure had good taste and a lasting influence on popular music).

Boz Scaggs went down to The Shoals to record his first album after leaving the Steve Miller Band.

Boz Scaggs is often considered his debut album but the truth is he recorded an album 3 years earlier in Sweden which if you have spare $700 you can pick up.  Fans of Duanne Allman often cite his work on the 12 minute Loan Me A Dime as an early career highlight and in truth it is pretty fucking amazing and worth buying the album for that track alone.  other standout tracks for me are his playful cover of Jimmie Rogers' Waiting for a Train and his own Now You're Gone.  People looking for his distinctive vocal style and funk attack of Silk Degrees will be confounded by this album. More country blues than anything else by him I have heard (even his latest Memhis album).


I confess to having a bit of a crush on Lulu when I was about 13 (and looking at the back cover photo of her Rural Routes album with her standing in the Tennessee River I see I had pretty good taste).

However until recently the only songs of hers I owned until recently were two tracks she recorded with David Bowie.

These were the pretty excruciating versions of The Man Who Sold the World and Watch That Man!. But I have been keeping a watchful eye out for Rural Routes for some time and when I saw a copy for $10 it was a no brainer that I would pick it up.  I have to admit off the three albums this would be my pick. Again great song selection, restrained but funky playing and Lulu sounds like she was born in the South.  The highlight for me is the great Where's Eddie, recently covered by The Drive By Truckers.  I also enjoy her cover of The Bee Gees Marley Purt Drive (at the time she was married to Maurice) and Mac Davis Dirty Old Man.

One of the interesting things about these three albums is that none of them are that impressive on first listening - but each time I play them I am drawn in more and more to their gentle funkiness.