The Blaze Craze
February 1 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of local
singer-songwriter
Blaze Foley, who was killed while trying to help a friend whose Social
Security
and veteran's benefits checks were being stolen. That night there's a
free tribute
show at the Hole in the Wall (the last place Foley performed on stage,
opening for
his friends Timbuk3 less than a week before his death), and scheduled
performers include Ponty Bone, Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, Lost John
Casner, George Ensle, Sheri Frushay, Champ Hood, Cody Hubach, Pat
Mears, Rich Minus, Gurf Morlix, the Waddell Brothers, Mickey White,
J.T. Van Zandt, and several surprise guests. Music starts around 8pm,
but if you
can't make it (or even if you can), there's also a new Blaze tribute
album out which
features an equally impressive lineup including Pat Mears, Mandy Mercier,
Calvin Russell, Jubal Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Timbuk3 and other
worthies.
On another lost hero front, things may remain fuzzy regarding the box set, but
Sony is hardly ignoring their library of Stevie Ray Vaughan recordings.
A new
announcement calls for the catalog of SRV albums to be "expanded and
enhanced" almost immediately, with a first wave of five albums (four
reissues and
the new Real Deal: Greatest Hits Vol. 2) set for release March 23. The
new hits
package will be issued first as a Limited Edition with a foil embossed
cover and
includes a couple of "rarities" such as the version of "Pipeline" from the
hard-to-find Back to the Beach soundtrack (looks like it's time to sell
my 45).
The four reissues -- Couldn't Stand the Weather, Texas Flood, Soul to
Soul,and In Step -- fare a lot better for collectors, with five
previously unreleased
tracks added to each; Couldn't Stand looks most impressive on paper, as the
extra material consists entirely of studio outtakes from the album's
sessions. On
the other hand, budget-minded fans should take note that the original
issues of the
CDs have now been transferred to cutout bins to get them off the market.
...the album March
2, the same date as Rosie Flores' new Dance Hall Dreams.
You may have heard about an incident during the making of Jon Dee Graham's
new album wherein an ugly scene between the producers and the engineer
led to
co-producer/guitarist Mike Hardwick waking up to a lawnful of two-inch
recording tape strewn across his lawn. Rumors flew that though there was a
master DAT of the tape, any future access to the original tracks would
have to be
obtained via a Weedwacker, but fortunately, as I understand it, the
yard-art
turned out to be merely an effigy of Graham's reel, which itself
remains unharmed.
(The latest rumor to start up is that the ruined tape was actually the
lost third True
Believers album, and that a portion has been recovered, which when
playedbackwards, clearly states, "I buried Alejandro").Graham's album,
titled
Summerland, hits shelves in March (of course), and I hear the CD comes
with a
guarantee that if you don't like it, you can return it to the record
store and the
manager will take it and throw it on Hardwick's lawn...
