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.
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| 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.
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
