Song of the Day 44 : Jon Dee Graham $100 Bill

To me $100 Bill by Jon Dee Graham really captures the pride of being a father and how it can come in little and unexpected ways. 

Recorded in 1997, his son is now in his own band and only last night played a father son set to celebrate Jon Dee's birthday.

Lost Gems : True Believers : True Believers

I did not know anything about this band until well after they had broken up.  I never even knew they existed until I started listening to two of the band's guitarists as solo artists and then reading their background.  Back in mid 80s they were apparently the kings of the young Austin band scene. Everyone thought they would be the next big thing.  They released this self titled album, recorded a follow up and then went their separate ways.

A sound very much consistent with their time, with the same general vibe as early Los Lobos, Blasters and the Paisley Underground bands like The Dream Syndicate and Green on Red. There is even en some R.E.M in there.

The two guitarists I mentioned are the mighty Alejandro Escovedo and Jon Dee Graham.  The former had a brief stint in Rank & File before he went onto a celebrated solo career and Jon Dee has been a respected session guitarist and working muso in Austin for the last 20 years.

After having a CD compilation of this and the unreleased second album for a few years I came across the album in a second hand shop a few years ago.  Great condition and good price.

The album is packed full of great songs from the opening Tell Her, Rebel Kind, Lucky Moon, Hard Road, Sleep Enough to Dream and the closing The Rain Won't Help You When it's Over.  

Recent Additions : Jim White vs The Packhandle Band

I have already written how I am a huge Jim White fan.  It has been a few years since a full release and his last did not grab me like earlier ones however he is back with Take it Like a Man a collaboration with the Packway Handle Band (what could be described as an alternative bluegrass band from Athens).

Jim is producing and writing credits are shared. Jim kicks things off well with another great tornado song

Not A Song is almost pure Packway  Handle and Blood on  The Fiddle shows their dedication to their muse in much the same way as Ringo's immortal "I've Got Blisters on My Fingers" does.

Corn Pone Refugee is what happens when Jim's songs get revved up.  Sorrow's Shine is becoming a favourite Jim White and leaves you wondering why he has not gone bluegrass earlier.  You can forgive its almost REMness.

And then the great remake of Wordmule where its absurdity is nicely exaggerated!!!

Favourites : Lowell George ; Thanks I'll Eat it Here

Thanks I'll Eat it Here was a hugely anticipated album when it was released.  More than a year in the making and Little Feat fans were anxious that their hero would do good.  When it was eventually released it was greeted with a fair degree of disappointment.

I was not a big Little Feat fan at the time - that came much later (a late bloomer so to speak) and in fact this was the Lowell George/Little Feat album I picked up a cassette in a sale for 50c or so.  Maybe for that reason it is to this day that I now  the album as often as I would Dixie Chicken and Waiting For Columbus - my two favourite Feat albums.

More polished and perhaps just a little less funky than the band albums - I think there are 6 standout songs.  Perhaps most dissappinting is that there is only one classic new Lowell George written song - the startling 20 Million Things .

Side one is a killer - What Do You Want the Girl to Do, Honest Man, a cover of his own Two Trains and the a superb version of Ann Peebles' Can't Stand The Rain.  Side Two really only reaches the same heights on the aforementioned 20 Million Things and Rickie Lee Jones' Easy Money (here in a contemporary live setting).

But that artwork on the cover.......... it's appalling and enough to put anyone off.

Recent Additions : Hurray for the Riff Raff : Small Town Heroes

I have actually had Small Town Heroes for about 6 months now - so I guess it is not that recent. Not sure why it's taken so long to write about it.

Maybe because a small pressing flaw means that I am a bit grumpy with the record itself.  One of the problems with me buying on line or in visits to NZ is that by the time I get to listen to anything, any scratches etc are not able to be returned.  So I am learning to live with my disability....

Anyway it's a bit unfair for me to let a small blip get in the way of listening to, reviewing and recommending this record.

It's bloody good!! AND ITS GOT A GREAT COVER

A great slice American County Folk Blues more or less the brainchild of Alynda Lee Segarra. Her voice, Her Songs and Her Guitar playing - augmented with some nice subtle acoustic arrangements.

I prefer side two over side one but maybe that is because it does not have that blemish! Standout songs I know it's wrong (But that's alright), No One Else and the title track Small Town Heroes.  But Side one is pretty good as well.

Highly Recommended

Journey Through The Past : XTC : Skylarking

I always thought of XTC as a kind of New Wave version of the Beatles.  With the melodic invention of Colin Moulding and the angular more pointed songs of Andy Partridge.  Like The Beatles they also eventually became a studio only band after Andy Partridge developed severe stage fright and could not tour.

Skylarking was a late period XTC album and is considered by many to be their zenith. Recorded under the direction of  Todd Rundgren with much fractiousness, as he drove to make the band more commercial.  When release the band distanced themselves a bit from but but now with time having distanced them from the tensions, acknowledge that what as achieved was pretty special.


The Double A Single Grass / Dear God was a success with Dear God being added to the US version of the album. Add tracks like The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul and Mermaid Smiled and you have a pretty impressive album. 

Junk Shop and Sale Bin Finds 24 : Jimmie Rogers : Train Whistle Blow

Train Whistle Blow is a great collection of Jimmie Rogers songs.  I reckon all (good) country music can be traced back to the twin parents of Jimmie Rogers and The Carter Family.  Jimmie was only around for a few years but in that time he lay the blueprint for many to come and was an inspiration to Johnny Cash and Hank Williams amongst others.

For $5 this is a great introduction to his music (of which I had only heard snippets on music documentaries and also a few clips on You Tube - including this great clip of Waiting For A Train -  a song I have at least half a dozen different versions of.



While Rodgers can be credited/blamed for popularising the yodel into country music, what stands out the most to me is that Rodgers really bridges the gap between blues and country better than anyone else.  I am pleased I have this album and know I will play it many more times - and it will probably be the catalyst for me  to try and find an album with more of his hits.  Notably Blue Yodel No 1, Frankie and Johnny and In The Jailhouse Now.

Journey Through The Past : The Temptations : Cloud Nine

While Marvin Gaye often gets the credit for giving Tamla Motown its political soul the truth is that the Temptations really started that journey two years earlier in 1969 with Cloud Nine.  While it boasts the forgotten original of I heard it through the Grapevine its core songs are the other two that grapevine shares with it on side one.  The title track Cloud Nine is really a forerunner of both Stevie Wonder's Living for the City and The Temptations own Papa Was a Rolling Stone. It is a tremendous track.  Side one closes out with the 9 minutes of Runaway Child (Running Wild) are as good as urban soul ever got. 

Hidden Gem : Ben Atkins : Patchouli

I came across Ben Atkins' Patchouli researching records which featured any of The Swampers on them.

Atkins was apparently the first white signed to the Stax offshoot label Enterprise.  He only recorded this one album from what I gather and it sank without a trace.

The joys of internet shopping means that it is not impossible to track many of these lost gems down and not always prohibitively expensive to get them.  In fact I managed to get this beauty for about $15.  A Bargain.

Side One features The Swampers augmented by Wayne Perkins (considered as a potential replacement for Mick Taylor in the Stones and was featured on some of Black and Blue) and ems to have been recorded at 3614 Jackson Highway, Side Two features one of the best rhythm sections of all time with Al Jackson Jr on drums and Duck Dunn on bass and was recorded at Stax Studios.  So you can not argue with the musicianship.

The album opens with a lost Dan Penn Song - I Love this Songs but the standard of songs does not let up Cross My Mind, Good Times are Coming, That Brings Me Down standing out for me.

When I started writing this blog I mentioned how who is successful and who is not does not appear to be based on talent so much as luck.  It is hard to understand why this album was not more successful but finding it is one of the reasons I collect music.  Search it out - listen, you will not be dissappointed.

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 19 : Fats Domino's Greatest hits

Fats played an often overlooked but crucial roll in the development of rock.  He and his writing partner Dave Bartholomew took the New Orlean's rolling jazz piano style and brought and its associated rhythm into rock.

Testimony to the songwriting ability of the two only four songs on His 20 Greatest Hits weren't written by either or both of them.

Blueberry Hill being one of the obvious exceptions being a remake of a 1940's hit for Glenn Miller.

My  Favourites on this collection, Walking to New Orleans (written with what would have been a very young Bobby Charles) , Going Home and I'm Walking. 

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 15 : The Best of the Loving Spoonful

Now this is a really great album.  Have a similar collection on CD but seeing this for $4 at Real Groovy on their original label with the records in top condition meant any easy decision.

Lovin' Spoonful were a band that for about 2 years were in the premium league of American Pop bands. Troubles with marijuana busts and supposed shopping of their supplier blew their credibility a bit and they never recovered.

John Sebastian was one of the MC's at Woodstock and had a hit with the theme from Welcome Back Kotter in the mid 70s.

Just read the history of Elektra Records and Sebastian gets credit as a kind of unpaid scout for Jac Holzman who regretted not signing them.

This has all the great hits Do You Believe In Magic, Did you Ever have to make up your mind, Summer in The City, You Didn't Have to be So Nice (Introduced by Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits and my personal favourite  Darling Be Home Soon (well covered by Joe Cocker - but this is the one for me.    

Favourites : Steve Wynn : Static Transmission

Steve Wynn was originally in the 80's LA "Paisley Underground" Band Dream Syndicate.   I missed a lot of that movement at the time - probably because we were busy with babies and nappies at that stage and not that focussed on new music.  So while I had heard them in the day - I did not really connect with them and never explored their (and other bands like Green on Red) music until much later. The biggest criticism of/ compliment for The Dream Syndicate at the time was that they were too derivative of The Velvet Underground.

Amphetamine was my introduction to this great album and like a lot of albums at the time it came with a bonus CD that is also worth having.

But the main course is as good a rock album as you could hope for.  Wynn is still exploring his Lou Reed fascination but putting much more of his own personality on it.  Standout tracks other than Amphetamine include California Style, The Ambassador of Soul, What Comes After, A Fond Farewell and then you have to stay around for the great hidden track If It Was Easy (Everybody Would Do It)

Recent Additions : Hiss Golden Messenger : The Lateness of Dancers

The Lateness of Dancers was on many people's top albums of 2014 lists.  It is easy to see why - a good mix of Dylan and other Alternative Country influences in a package that does somehow bring something new to that overworked mix.   Check out this funky version of Southern Grammar from Letterman.

Then there is the gentle acoustic folk of Saturday's Song and the title track.  There is a general consistency to this album that is appealing and encourages you to flip the record over.

Good Stuff and Recommended

Recent Additions : Hozier : Hozier

I bought Hozier without listening to any songs (I do that occasionally) partly because I liked the cover and partly because it made so many best of 2014 lists and was apparently soul (which I love).   I also found a copy online that was reasonably priced after shipping.

It took a while for it to arrive and by the time it did Hozier was everywhere.  A friend in Sydney has told me that Hozier is inescapable.

I have now listened to it a few times and yesterday Jan and I listened to it again driving from Suva to Nadi.  While there are some good songs that immediately stake their place as potential hits, there is a sameness that makes getting through the whole album hard work.


That is not to say that I do not like the album or rate the guy.  He has a great voice and there are some very good songs like Jackie and Wilson, Someone New and In a Week.  On the latter I thought he sounded a bit like Robert Plant (around Houses of Holy) so felt a little vindicated with that assessment when a friend posted this great cover of Zep's Whole Lotta Love on Facebook.  From that clip I explored a number of acoustic sessions and it was there he really impressed.

I think he will get better and better as long as he follows his muse and does not get too distracted by his current success.

Junk Shop and Sale Bin Finds 22 : Frank Sinatra : Only The Lonely

In the last 3 or four years I have been slowly acquiring a few Sinatra records.  All of them second hand, all but one in great condition and most original pressings more than 50 years old.  Prior to this wave of purchases I had had a best of CD for years that never really got played.  Something did not click.  

But I find myself playing Sinatra, late at night and early in the morning more and more often. What the albums I have now have that the greatest hits did not have is a flow and thematic consistency.  It is therefore not surprising to me that Frank's In The Wee Small Hours is considered the first really consistently themed album.

I bought Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely a month or so ago for about $5.  A UK pressing. Great Condition   Another great morose themed album (I kind of think of In the Wee Small Hours, Where are you? and this as a triptych of  despair).  The highlight for me is his great reading of Blues in The Night

Recent Additions : Spoon - They want my soul

The first Spoon album I bought was the excellent Kill the Moonlight in 2002.  I have bought most of their albums since then and even managed to see them with Chris on a trip to Sydney a while ago.

They Want My Soul was released last year but it took a while for me to decide to and then grab a copy.  Not sure why I waited so long.

The cover alone should have been enough for me to buy it.  If it was released in the 70's I am sure it could have become as in iconic image as Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, or Dark Side of the Moon.

With this album Spoon remain one of the most interesting and creative bands of the last 15 years, displaying the right mix of both commercial nous and intelligence. Keyboards now flesh out the trademark "spikey" guitarwork.  Check out Inside Out and Outlier.  Not sure I would call them Alt Country though as some do - but I do have a DVD of them playing with fellow Texan Willie Nelson.

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 11 : The Very Best of Eddy Cochran

There are always a lot of seemingly good greatest hits collections junk shop record bins.

That was true when I was in Petone before Christmas.  They were all in good condition but with some of the packages you do not know how good they will be (in terms of real sound not condition)  until you get them home (unless they are marked with that consumer warning K-Tel.  Always avoid those - just bloody awful.  20 greatest hits is a another good warning.  Either of those and you need to be careful not to waste your $2 - both and you just gotta run.  So I passed a few and picked up  a few. All well transferred with good sound and good condition



This one only has 10 tracks (always a good sign soundwise) and may be the best of them all.  All essential Cochran songs and the LP was in good condition.

Summertime Blues (Covered by The Who), Cut Across Shorty (Rod Stewart), 20 Flight Rock (Everybody), C'mon Everybody and Something Else (The Sex Pistols).

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 10 : Rocky Horror Show - London Cast

When the movie came out in 1976 it was a big hit in my 6th form class.   There were some who saw it 3 or 4 times in that first run and quickly took to taking newspapers to cover their head for when it rained in the theatre, were ready with some of the quotes "Do We Have to Brad?"   It then went on to become the cult classic it is now.

So here it is - where it all began - not Hamilton but on the London Stage version complete with Tim Curry.

$2, ok condition, put in the bag with all the others.

Good buy

It was a great show 2 : Tom Waits 1981 Wellington Town Hall

This show was the day after my 21st (and for those that remember those yard glass drinking days two days after the party which was held on Dad's 55th birthday).

I was enthralled with Waits at the time (as I still am) but I was pretty much alone in that amongst my friends.  So I cajoled my friend Peter Zwart to come along with me.  I really do not think he knew what he was in for.  He had been made to listen to The Piano Has Been Drinking at late night pool playing sessions (when the pool players had been drinking) but I am pretty sure he had no real interest in coming along.  But that's what mates do right. Of course now that Waits is a legend whose shows are now few and far between and sell out worldwide in minutes - Peter can actually say that he saw one. There are probably plenty of people who claim they have seem him and never have.




He had a few props on the stage - a street lamp an sign and came slinking out on stage to (I think) either Mr Siegal or Heart Attack and Vine and then went through a great selection of songs from all his albums to that point.  There were of course great stories and repartee - and one particularly obnoxious heckler was put in his place when Waits directed the spot light to him and said calmly "Everyone,,,,,,,, That's what you get when cousins marry"

I had a clear memory of him playing a couple of tracks (I distinctly remember Broken Bicycles) from the yet to be released soundtrack "One from the Heart"  so was pleased when I found a track list from the concert he did the previous night in Christchurch (below) and there it was.

Some where in the lockup I still have the program for the night.

disc one:
01 step right up
02 intro
03 $29
04 jitterbug boy
05 annie's back in town
06 i wish i was in new orleans / when the saints
07 heartattack & vine
08 the piano has been drinking
09 new coat of paint
10 christmas card from a hooker in minneapolis
11 romeo is bleeding
12 intro
13 broken bicycles
14 the tango
15 i beg your pardon
disc two:
01 red shoes
02 bad liver & a broken heart
03 the one that got away
04 shiver me timbers
05 mr. siegal
06 the heart of saturday night
07 jersey girl
08 pasties & a g-string
09 muriel
10 band intro
11 small change
12 tom traubert's blues

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 9 : Bobby Gentry's Greatest Hits

Bobby Gentry has got a distinctive country voice - at the time she was like a more commercially successful female version of Tony Joe White.  Her songs covered similar  territory of backwoods Louisiana or Southern Alabama.  Great storytelling with interesting and sometimes eccentric characters and never straight forward.

Ode to Billy Joe will always remain her peak but songs from Mississippi Delta to  Fancy and a series of duets with Glen Campbell are all worth checking out.

This was in the same bin as Joe South, Fats Domino and Eddie Cochran so I reckon someone with pretty good taste had either died, shifted or traded down to CD.   The cover has a rip across it but the vinyl is excellent.

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 8 : Rod Stewart, Atlantic Crossing

I remember when this album came out in 1975.

It was everywhere and the hit Sailing was what lifted Rod from a rocker with some good songs to a certified megastar.  For the record I can not stand Sailing - and the only reason I bought this was really that half of it was recorded in Muscle Shoals.

I already had I Don't Want To Talk About It on the great storyteller collection.  However I like his takes on This Old Heart of Mine and Drift Away (although Dobie Gray's is still the best).

So for $2 - a good buy

Favourites : Solomon Burke : Don't Give Up on Me

Don't Give Up on Me is one of the great comeback albums of all time.  Sure it did not sell mega sales but it did sell enough to rejuvenate Solomon Burke's career in last ten years of his life.

I am not sure many people would have picked a late career resurgence for the big man.  It had been more than 30 years since he had troubled the charts and while there were no hits on this album - the album sold well and he recorded another 2 or three solid albums before he died in 2010.

He as an early Atlantic soul artist whose early career was guided by the production and occasional songwriting of Bert Berns he retired a few times to follow his other career as a preacher.  He was enticed to try again by Joe Henry a recording artist in his own right but also a producer sought out by many artists including Mary Gauthier, Elvis Costello, Carolina Chocolate Drops and Over the Rhine.

Using a template others would follow Doe collected specifically written songs from some terrific writers Van Morrison, Nick Lowe, Tom Waits, Dan Penn and Dylan as the foundation for this album.  Highlights for me are the classic Waits' song (Always Keep a) Diamond on Your Mind, Morrison's Fast Train and Dan Penn's title track Don't Give Up on Me.  To me the cornerstones of what should be considered an essential soul album of the last 20 years.

It was a great show 1 : Graham Parker and The Rumour 1978 Wellington Town Hall

One of the first "new wave" acts to hit NZ shores was Graham Parker on the back of the release of his Stick to Me album.  It was the tour down under where he ended up "Squeezing Out Sparks down at Luna Park" and he was debuting a few songs from that next album that night.

I remember my ears ringing on the train home and four encores. The last of which was a solo acoustic  song either "Not if it pleases me" "You've Got to be Kidding" (from memory) with the houselights on.  

He came back a year later (and I did not get there that time and the show was marked by a collapse of the balcony.

When asked what the best show I have seen is and I suggest this one - I am met with blank faces - Graham who? still recall this as one of the best concerts I have ever seen.  However this was a band on top of their game,  At the time they were rated along with Springsteen's E Street Band as probably the best live band around.  There were also great songs like Heat Treatment, Watch the Moon Come Down, White Honey, (Hey Lord) Don't ask me Questions and I remember he also debuted Protection (which the support act, the much under-rated New Zealand Band - Citizen Band recorded and released with Parker's blessing even before Parker's version released).

A few years ago I came across this DVD of two concerts recorded in Germany in 1978 and 1980 and the 78 show is pretty much the show that I saw (without some of the Squeezing Out Sparks tracks) and I glad I found it.  An added bonus is that the boys stumbled across it and liked it.  

Favourites : Willard Grant Conspiracy : There but for the Grace of God

Most of the greatest hits albums I have and really enjoy are from artists making music before the LP became an Album around the mid 60s and artists were known for for single songs than collective works.  I predict that with the iTunes and digital age we will start to see (and are probably already seeing) a return to those days as most music buying public are now picking singles songs up off spotify etc rather than pay attention to whole albums.  I believe the Artists are aiding and abetting this by generally releasing overlong albums with too much filler simply because a CD can hold 75 minutes of music.

As I have mentioned earlier I have a few albums by the Willard Grant Conspiracy but to be honest with most of them I find myself focusing on one or two exceptional songs.  In their case I do not think that it is because the other songs are bad - but just that their good songs are so fucking good.  It was generally those songs that found their way onto all the Americana compilations and that the band brought together onto the exceptional collection There But For The Grace of God.

Like all the great best of albums it seems to flow right and introduces a few songs that I missed.  Rainbirds, Right on Time, Evening Mass, Christmas in Nevada, Work Song and Dig a Hole stand out for me but the album as a hole flows nicely and when I do dig it out I tend to play it two or three times in a row.  I would love to have it on vinyl (partly because the cover is so good) but I do not think that will happen.

Connections 9 : Bert Berns : From Bowie, to the McCoys, Van Morrison and Solomon Burke

Not many people have heard of Bert Berns but from the late 50's to the late 60's he was an influential writer and producer in the development of popular rock music. Last year I read this interesting biography of the man.  It was a frustrating but fascinating look into the development of the soul and R'n'B music that came out of New York.

Songs he wrote and produced include The Isley Brothers' Twist and Shout, The McCoys Hang on Sloopy, Them's Here Comes The Night, Solomon Burke's Cry to Me and Every Body Needs Somebody to Love among others that most people interested in music would or SHOULD be aware of.

I first came across the name on one of the first records I ever owned. Bowie's Pin Ups had a cover of  Here Comes The Night and I noted at the time it was written by Berns.  Interestingly he also produced the first version of Sorrow on that album (not by the Merseys as known by Bowie at the time but by the McCoys) Later I remember reading about how the same Bert Berns had an acrimonious break up of the relationship with Van Morrison after Brown Eyed Girl and had discovered Neil Diamond.

When reading this book I was initially irritated by the fact that Selvin would take large tangents seemingly (and frequently actually) not directly related to Bert.  But they were always fascinating tales of the times that Berns contributed to, especially the close relationship between many of the New York record labels and The Mob.

It is also apparent that without the one two punch of signing up Stax Records and co-opting Berns as a producer in the early 60's Atlantic Records would have remained a small New York label and not the key corner of the WEA empire it became.

As a casual observer it is hard to recognise the contribution that he made as for a variety of business and contractual (and at that time it may have meant Mob related) reasons he wrote and produced under a variety of aliases including his own name, Bert Russell and Russell Byrd among others. Selvin has done a great job of tracing all the clues - a great bit of detective work.

As is usual with a good music book it added a few more records for me to track down.

Recent Additions : Matthew Ryan - Boxers

Way back in 2000 I read an article about Matthew Ryan in the now defunct No Depression magazine. His music sounded interesting and worth checking out so I filed the name away and eventually picked up a copy of his then current album East Autumn Grin.  I really enjoyed that album and suitably impressed I have over the years picked up copies of his quickly growing catalogue,   However they have not always grabbed me.

I then forgot about him for a while until someone recommended his album vs The Silver State 8 years later.  That is simply a fantastic album and in my opinion a career peak.

Once again he dropped off my radar until the end of last year when playing vs The Silver State I wondered what he had been up to.  A few clicks on the internet told me he had released a few albums since 2008 and was on the verge of releasing a new album, Boxers.  So before I knew it I had hit the buy button and had pre-ordered a signed copy of the album on vinyl (with a CD) but had to wait  until mid January for it to arrive.  Really enjoying the whole album at the moment.

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds 7 : Til Tuesday Welcome Home

I missed Til Tuesday when they existing and only came to know them after starting to explore Aimee Mann's back catalogue after buying her excellent Whatever in 1995 (deserves a blog of its own).  Aimee is a terrific writer who is the exception that proves the rule that Americans don't get irony.  While I think that Til Tuesday went out on a high with Everything's Different Now Welcome Home has some solid songwriting buried in 80's production.

Check out the 80's hair on these few songs - On Sunday, What About Love,  and Coming Up Close