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.

Favourites : Van Morrison : Wavelength

It is not fashionable amongst Van Morrison fans to say you like Wavelength.  While it is not may favourite Van album - that would be a hard choice between about three or four (or maybe five or six albums) Wavelength is up there for me.

There you go - I said it - a guilty pleasure. Sure his lyrics are not up to his best, sure the band sounds like session musicians waiting for their paycheck.  However the album just seems to bounce along and for that I am happy!

Standout tracks for me include Wavelength  (this is a nice version from a DVD I have), Kingdom Hall, Take it Where You Find It, Natalia, and Santa Fe/Beautiful Obsession which had been around for about 10 years before it was recorded - here is an early version.

Song of the Day 39 : Amphetamine : Steve Wynn

I first heard/saw Amphetamine on a late night music TV show.  It then came out on an Uncut CD sampler.  I was blown away by such a good driving rock song which I had thought had all but but become extinct by then (2003).  I ended up getting the album it came from and really enjoying that and going back and getting more of Steve Wynn's catalogue.

However it is this song that is always the touch stone.  What a great party song - it can even survive the Disney Treatment - almost

Favourites : Bill Mallonee and the Vigilantes of Love : Audible Sigh

I imported this Audible Sigh after hearing the track Resplendent on a compilation album.  An added bonus when it arrived was it came with an extra CD of demos and other songs.   As with a lot of music there were immediately a connection I had not expected with Buddy Miller producing.

Some very good songs  on the album including Nothing like a train, Goes without saying, She walks on roses, and Now as the Train Pulls Away



This is a very good album that deserved wider airing and recognition.  However that is the way of the music business.  I bought the follow up CD and was not that taken with it so have not really followed his career since - but a quick check on Amazon reveals he is still recording and releasing albums.  Should check him out again.

Favourites : Buddy and Julie Miller : Written in Chalk

I have been listening to Buddy Miller and his music since buying his  album Cruel Moon on the recommendation from a guy that ran, Allen's a small record store at the top of Plimmers Steps (Taking me back to those trips into Chelsea Records 40 years ago!).

Shortly after that I saw a short set by him when he was playing guitar in Emmylou Harris's band and also opening with a short 30 minute set.  I loved Emmylou that night but that short set from Buddy was the highlight for me.

It was while playing for Emmylou that Buddy started to get recognition after years of banging around Nashville.  He has since gone on to produce Robert Plant, Richard Thompson and Solomon Burke.  Its pretty cool when your record collection starts to talk to itself!

Written in Chalk in the second proper Buddy and Julie Miller album,  The first one did not grab me - maybe my expectations were too high. When it was released I had solo albums by both of them which frequently had jointly written and sung songs on them that were frequently the highlights.

When this album came out it got great reviews but I was still weary.  I did not have to be.  I think this is a modern country masterpiece.  From the opening two tracks Ellis County and Gasoline and Matches,  the almost title track Chalk and Everytime We Say Goodbye

Favourites : Paul Kelly Under The Sun

While the sprawling double lp Gossip was my introduction to Paul Kelly Under The Sun is the one I come back to the most.

Kelly is a very literate songwriter who ranks as one of the best of his generation.  One of those artists that you forget for a while and then you play a CD or album and go on a bit of a binge.  I think it happens because while the songwriting is such a uniformly high standard the delivery is such that binging eventually has you putting them to the side for a while.  Hiatt, Springsteen, Zevon and Waits are all in the same category as far as I am concerned.

I have managed to see him three times.  The most memorable at Sammy's in Dunedin about 20 years ago!!!

Under the Sun is crammed with outstanding songs.  The highlight to me is To Her Door a gentle song of relationship redemption.  Dumb Things and 40 Miles to Saturday Night are great party songs with the latter always bringing Jon's time "stranded" in the outback to mind.  The CD version of the album has the mighty Bradman on it - the best song about cricket ever.   I still have strong memories of the crowd that night singing along to it waving their arms in the air as he sang the "Pal,m of His Hands" lyric (and this was a NZ audience!)

Playing the album now - I feel a binge coming on.