7 of 9 Meets Jimmie Davis
I won't be the only one to have caught this, but for the record, Star Ship Voyager's Seven of Nine and Doc Hologram just performed "You Are My Sunshine" in perfect 2-part harmony, the first clear indication of the survival of twang for the next 400 years, and an early indication of interest in country music by cyborgs and projected image, unles you count..no, nevermind... (And I always thought that instrument Spock played was based on the Appalachian autoharp.) Barry
Wedding Marches. (was: Re: Bad Companye)
At the first of my first cousin's many weddings, this one held at the beautiful Paramus, New Jersey Steak Pit, the ceremony finished, the groom seemed to rush down the aisle, leaving her standing there. The fast thinking accordion player let loose with "What Now My Love, Now That You've Left Me". Actually, that would take 2 and a half years. Barry A great "Feel Like Makin' Love" moment: I went to a white trash wedding once where this was played as the bride walked down the aisle. No kidding. -Slim .. that's pretty impressive. I hesitate to imagine what other songs were played during the processional and concluding moments g. --junior
Re: NYC Willis/Robison
OK. Well, the highlight for me was probably the Bruce Kelly duet on that ol' Louvin brothers number, whose title I do not recall, but a version of their duet's on his CD "Wrapped'...Beyond that, I've been waiting for a chance to see Ms. Willis do a varioed, cross-her-whole career set, and that's what we got, so I had a good time with the music and was very pleased with what I heard--Kelly touched on country ballads, alt.country rock, some popabiloly post-rockabiloly like her buddy Monte Warden do, etc. For those who found what she was doing something of a letdown, I kind of understand that too; none of the moments in the very practiced, last date on the tour set, except maybe that duet, was as touching and heart-rending and sexy as what I saw her do at the SXSW songwriter's conference--if Jim Catalano's around he can back me up--but there, alone, she just plain sang with an acoustic guitar, from all of her parts, and that's,uh, an invigorating and memorable experience. Barry
Re: Floyd Tillman comp/ Jimmy Wakely
..and I in fact got hold of that new Collectoir's Music/Sony Tillman comp--and it's alredy set to be up there among the reissues of the year for me. Interesting side point: Floyd is an early practitioner of blues jazz vocal-influenced baroque folk singing...he regularly irregularly bends and breaks and takes notes in almost always interesting and affecting directions, and he usually does it in keeping with the rhythm of the produced number, not even strictly by the lyric meaningthat's part of what would someday be the mid-sixties Dylan singing approach. (And there HAS always been one!) Barry
Re: single most influential, and Tillman, cont.
I think that was one reason I loved Jimmy Day's steel so much- he played the steel like a voice, singing. Joe Gracey Which reminds me--besides the blues vocal tradition influence on the way Floyd Tillman would sin it struck me listening to the Columbia recordings since yesterday that he did the opposite of what Joe just said about Jimmy Day: Tillman slides around notes singing like a steel player playing--and must have been influenced by that sound. (Sometimes it's even kind of Hawaiian!) Barry ..
New York P2ers rise again!
I would have said "rule"--but nobody rules around here; this much we know! A new and shocking piece of information is that here in big bad Hew York City--OK metropolitan New York, but it works out that way: we now have one of the largest P2 contingents around. HERE! (Our problem is that such a large percentage are in busy bands that the rest of us rarely get to see them outside of their own gigs.) Last night, newer members Nina Melechen and Micah Raferty and Jason Lewis joined Mrs. and Mr. Hockeystick and me at that Kelly Willis/Bruce Robson show which was swell, but today I just want to talk about this gang. Nina and Micah are very knowledgeable hard core alt.country/country fans (and were much fun to hang with) so I trust we'll be hearing from them plenty on-list and otherwise . Jason is from the NYC alt.country band Star City; he slipped me this band's demo disc and they sound suprisingly southmidwestern, in the SV/Bottle Rocket/Blue Mt./Jim Roll vein. I think a lot of you'd go for them. New York area P2ers now include the following, in more or less order of P2 seniority, cause why not: Amy Haugesag Barry Mazor Ross Whitwam Jeff Jackolew Buddy Woodward Mike Hargreaces (Rockets) John Friedman (back now) Susan Kowal Elena Skye (Demolition expert) Long Island Mark M Jason Lewis (Star) Dan Rigney (Moths) Jed Boyar Nina Mechelen Micah Raferty ... and emeritus by frequent association: Melina Brown Jim Catalano People are known to show up here form Philadelphia, Connecticut, and even Boston too. They know who they are! I'm putting this out there so that if there are lurkers about wondering if there is an active contingent here (or if anyboidy likes twang in NYC...or if I've stupidly left somebody out) they'll speak up for future reference. Barry M.
Re: Floyd Tillman comp/ Jimmy Wakely
Jon Weisberger wrote: t the Collector's Choice Tillman CD that has a couple dozen of Floyd's Columbia records, is now available through regular retail channels. Oh, baby. So these would be all those key late-40s cuts missing from the Hall of Fame comp--and not just those 3 cuts I've had on the Columbia "Honky Tonk Heroies" comp? Oh Baby indeed. In a related area, I've also just been catching up with--and really admiring and liking--the smooth honky tonk of Jimmy Wakely. Got a hard-to-locate comp while in Austin called "Million Sellers" on the obscure but apparently legit "Country Legends/KRB" label... But the larger and recent Capitol Vintage comp seems to have disappeared as suddenly and quietly as it appeared, so I have to keep checking for that. Any other recommendations there? Barry
Attention Marie: How to Go Haute Hippie
The first sign of trouble was the proliferation of aging deadheads and
20-something-"I wasn't
even alive in the 60s, but all that free love and dope seems cool,
so I'll borrow my parents Lexus SUV to drive over to the mall, buy
a $75 designer tied-dye shirt and $120 pair of Calvin Klein
*weathered* cut-offs, and relive the summer of love while I'm
on spring break"-hippie-wannabes.
marie
And, on cue, from today's New York TImes (which always seems to know about
THESE things):
April 25, 1999
Feeling Groovy Doesn't Come Cheap
By ALEX WITCHEL
I like a a guy who says "nice to meet you" while he's kissing both your
cheeks. A guy who inventories his outfit -- "Karan pants and top, Gucci
belt, Prada shoes and overcoat" -- and answers the question "How much
do you cost?" with a hoot, declaring: "It's a fortune, darling. But after you
wear good clothing, it's so hard to go back."
Derek Khan, 41, knows from
good clothing. He is a top
music stylist who dresses
Lauryn Hill, Sean (Puffy)
Combs, Salt 'n' Pepa and
Monica. Now, I admit it had to
be explained to me that the
Monica in question was not she
of the Oval Office, but a
hip-hop artist Khan finds so
fabulous he says, "The minute I
saw her, I dropped on the floor
and kissed it." He was so
excited telling the story, I didn't
have the heart to ask what
hip-hop was. He already had his hands full with me.
We were setting off on a styling spree to achieve the latest fashion craze,
haute hippie. Yes, the very term is an oxymoron. Back in the days when I
was a baby hippie myself, all it took was a pair of bell-bottoms and a peasant
shirt bought at a "head shop" (rolling papers situated near the cash
register),
total cost about $30. But these days, the fashion world has determined that
ponchos and peasant blouses, beads and flowers are all back and better than
enough to feed a commune for a year.
Kelli Delaney, the senior fashion editor at Glamour magazine, says the hippie
trend "is a backlash to the almost masculine streamlined forms of spring" --
items like messenger bags and straight-leg suits with boxy jackets. "The '60s
hippie clothes are feminine, flowy, sexy," she says. "You feel groovy
wearing them, loose and unstructured. It's a relief to women to be sexy
again." Not to mention groovy. But looking groovy in the 1990s isn't the old
"anything goes" mentality of the '60s. Today's hippie look is more refined,
pardon the expression: better fabrics and expert tailoring, a nod to the past,
but modern. For this, I needed Khan.
Now, for the record, a stylist is not a personal
shopper limited to the
inventory of one store. A stylist has access to the
private showrooms and
collections of many designers and, as Khan says, "has
an eye and encourages
you." Khan's eye, by the way, costs $10,000 a day for
those without
recording contracts. When I shamefacedly admit that my
idea of a fashion
high is getting into bed with a catalog, he is
surprisingly nice about it. "My
clients are just like you," he assures me. "Most
artists are very understated.
The glamour is a persona."
Our first stab at glamour was Chanel. We would not be
going to Gucci, Khan
announced, because "they have too much press already."
Though Tom Ford,
Gucci's head designer, is a guiding force behind the
resurgence of the hippie
look, sewing feathers onto jeans and beads onto
blouses, Khan was adamant:
"The Daily News did a story on how to make the jeans
yourself. When it gets
to that point, honey, it's overdone."
At Chanel, Khan was greeted warmly by Anne Fahey, the
executive director
of fashion public relations. Neither she nor Khan
seemed to grasp the irony
of searching for hippie duds in the temple of the
pastel suit, which was
standard uniform for all those mothers bemoaning their
daughters'
bell-bottoms. ("Why do they have to drag on the
ground?" I remember, was
a popular refrain.)
Ms. Fahey led us into a suite of offices where Khan
flung open the closet
doors and started pulling clothes. "What do you think
of this?" he asked of a
knit skirt with thick horizontal stripes that looked
more librarian than hippie,
and not haute at all. I shook my head. He immediately
removed it. "I try to
Re: Crosby/Jolsen Cash/Dylan in Kansas City (was: Single MostInfluential)
Since these sorts of lists generally just give me a headache...the result of promiscuous musical attachmenets I guess...I've avoided comment on mopst of the interesting discussion. (No headache detected.) But a few late throw-in points: I think David C. is dead on in answering Tera's question about Jolsen. There was a REAL generational cut-off there; because Jolsen was absolutely worshipped by my grandparents' WWI East Coast kids' /flapper generation...(moreso in their case , I suspect, since they were Hebraic, and he was one of those rare sexy Jewish heroes--like Hank Greenburg later)... And that notion of sexiness really doesn't transcend time, does it! (Not unusual in the history of lust.)... But the stagey and overdone aspect David hit on is part of this--Jolsen's always "selling" the song..and that's a direct result of his history in turn of the century live town-by-town, one-shot only vaudeville and even minstelry..It was meant to be large, it was mant to be hot, it was meant to be seen live--it was FOR the stage, just once-- and he wasn't gonna let any new-fangle microphone (or talkie movie!) stand in the way of his style. Jerry Lee Lewis ALWAYS claims Jolsen as a predecessor, like Jimmie Rodgers, as a singing "stylist"...So here's the irony: It was exactly Jolsen's exhuberant overkill extroversion the 1918 generation found sexy--and the place where that would re-emerge for white folks e (then, as in Jolsen's time, as a crossing of the line into what was seen as a more black-like sexual openness) was in in rockabillies like Jerry Lee and Elvis! Bing Crosby's absolutely important and endlessly influential style went the opposite way--to the restraint and introverted personalness of up to the mike singing--which also led to his famous "laid back" standing in a golf sweater style of physical performance...From John McCormack stagey Irish tenor style to Bing American --now THERE's a birth of the "cool"!...Which is forever with usand is both influenced by and ON other trends in black vocals. In a way, Elvis had the ability, like s other full-range singers (see Sinatra, Brother Ray, etc.) , to marry and even play off the cool and hot things, the holding in and letting go... like the Spanish dance influence on the Texas 2-step. The restraint's the sexy point there. But in rock and roll the simmering volcano eventually must erupt! Meanwhile, "briefly", I've loved the music of Johnny Cash for over 30 years and will stanbd second to no one as an admirer of his...his influence on our little world of outlaw/alt.country is huge, on country at large, large but not endless, and on rock and roll minor at most. Bob Dylan has to make the top ten (but not above Bing or Armstrong or Elvis or T-Bone Walker (good call Joe) for the very notion of delivering POP music intended to have impact on the head as well as the heart and nether parts...in the course of doing that, he delivered the notion of presenting an ALBUM's worth of significant cuts, paving the way for the death of the single sensibility I was saluting here last week. This is of lasting impact. PS: You can't find your way to either Charlie Parker or Elvis Presley without going through those Kansas City territory bands...you wind up there looking for the birth of RB, which would be a key moment in 20th century American music history. You can say it's Louis Jordan's Tympany Five...but it's in some place in the Benny Moten/Count Basie world, where onee bunch of guys run off to form seriously cretaive, even classical and intellectual be bop/progressive jazz (after playing RB, usually!) and another set go off to build raucus RB dumb repeitive sax honking dance music god bless it... But who do you nominate? Count Basie? Big Joe Turner? (Find me a better rock and roll or shouting blues singer!).. Or do we ignore these St. Louis and Kansas City types and turn to Illinois Jacquet and Lionel Hampton in NYC?) I told you I wouldn't have much to say about this stuff. Now I have a headache. Barry M.
News flash: Swarb's not dead.
(But he still looks just like Joan Plowright...) April 21, 1999 Folk rocker's obituary makes one BIG MISTAKE LONDON (CNN) -- Dave Swarbrick, of the seminal folk-rock group Fairport Convention, was alive and chuckling, friends said Wednesday, after seeing a complimentary obituary published in a top British newspaper. The Daily Telegraph apologized for mistakenly reporting his death at the age of 58 and carrying the obituary on Tuesday. Swarbrick was still hospitalized Wednesday, recovering from a chest infection. His wife Jill told the Daily Mail, "This is really going to tickle him pink."
From updates to pumpskully to the Mercury Lounge
Boy. Ya go away for a week to the rural pleasures of Las Vegas, Nevada and you come back and there's this long give and take Update thread about what's alt.country or not and what lousy bands do if they come from Chicago and some long-absent voices reappear and it looks like things in this neighborhood are getting back where they need to. Briefly or at length. Excellent! PS: I will see as many of you suddenly and happily enlarging New York P2 contingent at the Mercury Lounge tomorrow night at 7 for drinks and probable food before that Kelly Willis/ Bruce Robison show. Now if we could only figure out who that 9PM opening act "John Walker" is. I believe I';ve tasted his whiskey, but I've never herad his voice. Barry M.
RE: Mandy B/Don't Forget
OK folks. This turns out to be too easy!
"Don't Forget to Cry" was a May '64 single recorded for WB by those
obscure singers of Bryants' songs, the Everly Brothers. It's readily
available on the 2-disc Walk Right Back Warner Brothers Best of... Glad to
be of assistance.
Barry M.
*Someone* here has to know who did the Boudleaux and Felice song
("Don't Forget To Cry"). ... That means we've managed to figure out the
sourcesfor all of her obscure covers, 'cept for that damn Boudleaux and
Felice tune. I thought it might be easy to track that one down, but then
I took
a look in the BMI on-line database at all the songs written by the Bryants
-- good god! I knew the Bryants were pretty damn prolific, but they were
songwriting machines!--don
Re: criminally underappreciated albums of the '90s
It was not a huge throng! ..I was out there too. Ryan and Eaglesmith. Both great that night. Both of those Weiss brothers were out there too and Corrie, if I remember right. Hot coffee was definitely replacing cold beer. It was very late--and VERY cold. I was thinking that was the Waterloo Brewing Parking Lot tradition--cause it was the same way at 1 AM with Whiskeytown and the Blood Oranges the year before! Barry M And I've twice seen Ryan live. He's was fantastic. I also froze seeing him at Waterloo brewing Co. at SXSW 98. Jim Fagan
Era of Perfect Singles
I have something very uninteresting to say about thsi threadwhich is that there were great rock and roll singles when they cared about having them. (yes; yes;m Im know there have been dance singles since, etc; blah blah... I wanna be clear) ...but a Perfect Single has a sort of obvious definition: It has to explode at you and grab your attention in low fidelity from AM radio while wind is blowing past your convertible. It does it a lot of times. It has to open up a new world in 3 notes. So the beginning, and sometimes the ending, is very important. By that definition, these were some great singles--and like somebody already said, if this gets you to put some of these on, and listen to any one of them just like you've never heard them before--well, you'll see. Uninteresting list really, because they did work with a lot of people when that was the point. I don't even have to name the artists! It has nothing to do with generations. But check out these mono singles' beginnings... Jailhouse Rock All Shook Up What'd I Say Roll Over Beethoven Tutti Frutti Be Bop a Lula She Said Yeah Wake Up Little Susie Peggy Sue Papa Got a Brand New Bag Higher and Higher Twist Shout Having a Party Quarter to Three The Wanderer On Broadway Rescue Me You Can't Hurry Love Be My Baby Uptown Help Me Rhonda I'll Take You There You Really Got a Hold on Me In the Midnight Hour My Girl Signed. Sealed, Delivered Like a Rolling Stone Satisfaction Out of Time Honky Tonk Women She's Not There You Really Got a Hold on Me Hold On I'm Comin Ticket to Ride Eight Days a Week Gloria You Really Got Me Gimme Some Lovin Wooly Bully Try a Little Tenderness and River Deep, Mountain High..and.. It's Over (some know how to end em too!) Barry M.
Re: Era of Perfect Singles
...the first splash of "Like A Rolling Stone" comes on the radio and I crank it up to speaker-cone shred volume, jam the car a gear lower, stomp it up to 85 and hold it way up there close to the redline and it feels like musical sex. This is what music is supposed to do to you. Joe Gracey Exactly; exactly, exactly, exactly. . With a great single you're far frot alone.. (Even for the new millenium, Linda!) (I notice these responses come from several othger P2 members who, based on previous converstaions, have reaosn to have experienced the Age of Perfect Singles.) PS: There's NEVER been an age of perfect albums! Barry
Re: Era of Perfect Singles
Like Linda, I wish barry's subject line was more prognostication than historical desctription. --david cantwell Well, hey--if they WANT to do that again, they will. And for all we know right now, an oncoming era of download quality stereo singles from the Net may do just that, given kids (and old farts) will be no doubt asembling their own downloaded DVD-ROM segues or something...The only question will be how to get everybody to HEAR 'em, with all those isolated ears so..atomized..and if they'll concentrate on the sound insteda of the look! The 70s cuts David just mentioned are just as good to me, too..And they ARE "in" just under the cut--'cept they often got to be heard in FM stereo! And the 8-track, right? Ms. Cline, as always, has reminded us just in time that there's uh, more than one way to skin a cat. Also just reminded me how much I like those Joe Ely cuts she's quivvered up...Does this mean something? Has anyone ever divided out "front seat" vs. "back seat" car songs? (Single entendre there, please--no anatomical references implied.) ... Does it matter? PS: I haven't counted, but I don't think ALL those "perfect single" candidates I reeled off play it hard and fast and build to a full White Rabbit. But they do start! PPS: Papa Was a Rolling Stone was remarkable in every way, including that opening, which was unprecedented for that genre. Whatever that genre is! It always brings me a peresonal visual: I was helping kids in a foster home north of New York with their homework nights at the time that came out, and the Temps showed up on a TV doing this live as the kids were finishing up one night ...There were soon 20 of 'em doing every move, and every note, unrehearsed, I think.. Of course, they're all about 36-37 now! Bet theey still know those moves. Barry
Re: Swingin' Doors, 4/15/99
Damn, Don, you're playing so much James Hand that I'm worried you'll be sick of his voice by the time the new album hits your mailbox. From what I saw of him at the Broken Spoken during SXSW, he'd be hard to get tired of! Now what was that town in Texas he'd spent all his time never leaving? It wasn't Paris...no--it was TOKYO, Texas! Well, he may just put the place on the map. Real deal there. Barry
Re: Western Swing book
The further I've gotten into the Jean Boyd "Southwestern Jazz" book, the more the attitude of the thing has made it unpleasantsometimes it does look simply like a "sticking to my thesis no matter what" problem, which was what I'd called it being charitable, but by the 38th time she praises musicians for wanting not to play "screechy" country fiddle or being "that" sort of musician but playing "real jazz, " you kind of have to get the prejudice! She even routinely and matter-of-factly refers to complex jazz chords as "better chords" than those played in country music.. ..and relegates country to a pure folk status; i.e., western swing can't be country music, because the term "country" has no meaning, she says, if it just becomes some sort of commercially defined category! (Well, we've been down that road on P2 lots of times, and have yet to find a moment in the past century when country wasn't commerciay defined and impacted--or in which jsuciains were in some forgotten holler unaffected by, uh, city music trends at al. In fact, Ms. Boyd is unstoppable; let Johnn Gimble, say, win a Grammy, obviously in a country category by the decscription, and she'll not name the category...and the more obviously country or even country-impacted the musician is (including Bob Wills BTW), the more likely she is to deem said western swinger unoriginal and not quite jazzzy enough...Wills gets credit for demanding his musicians be able to improvise, and not much else--because it was kind of understandable that sophisticated jazz musicians didn't want to hang around long with such a rural kind of guy. Better to work for Spade Cooley! (She actually says this stuff.) Well, I'm finishing it for the oral history interviews with Cliff Bruner, etc...It has its points until the author begins to speak! Barry "The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing" by Jean A. Boyd, ..was panned for doing just tha (being negative about country) by some western swing expert (Kevin Coffey? Cary Ginell?) in a recent issue of the Journal O fCountry Music.--don .. slammed to pieces for getting facts wrong, belittling country, etc. etc. Slammed hard, in fact. CK
Re: Covers:Don't Think Twice...(re:Mike Ness)
Didn't Charlie Rich record this also? Tera Maybe. I believe there are well over a hundred recordings of it, everyone from Andy Williams to that only Top Ten version, the reasonably hilarious joke Four Seasons self-parody falsetto version under the name of "the Wonder Who".. As far as more twang versions of "Don't Think Twice" go, they include these folks: John Anderson Bobby Bare Flatt Scruggs Merle Haggard Jerry Reed Marty Robbins Doc Watson Jonny Cash (live at least) ..and Elvis Presley
Re: Over here and overheated
ON the other hand, you've got some WAY better glossies going these days! There's just no equivalent of MOJO in the U Sof A...for a magazine willing to look and listen at big tent pop music. Profiles of Frank Sinatra and Gram Parsons and say, the Sex Pistols in the same magazine, uncondescendingly--and talking about how they've mattered and still do. JEESH; it's worth what we've got to pay fpor it over here. And there are I think things to like about the likes of VOX and SELECT, etc...from at least a big tent rock and roll perspective! And it will be no surprise to Iain, Stevie or others in the slightly far-flunbg British contingent that there's not all that much really provocative, good country reporting easy to find in print ANYwhere--especially when it walks up to rock and rolls doorstep and complicates matters!. They have, however, been found out and their circulations are plummeting, (while those of the glossies are rising Iain Noble
Re: Kiss Kiss Hug Hug
Now, Mr. Weiss. Jon knows, and a good number of us know, excatly what Mr. Riedie's hair looks like. It was a Twangfest bonus last time around. When you show up in St. Louis, as we all know you will, of course, you will get to see Riedie's hair too. Comes with the admission. Barry Why wait til St. Louis? Describe your hair to us so we can start making fun now. What else are friends for? NW
Re: No controversy here
Besides, Aretha could kick all their punk asses at once. --junior And I got pictures. Barry
Wynette News: Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad
Singer Tammy Wynette autopsied year after death April 14, 1999 Web posted at: 7:15 PM EDT (2315 GMT) NASHVILLE, Tennesse (Reuters) -- The body of country music star Tammy Wynette was removed from her tomb and autopsied Wednesday in an attempt to answer questions raised in the year since her death. The steps were taken a week after three of Wynette's daughters filed a wrongful-death suit against her doctor and her husband-manager, George Richey, claiming they were responsible for her death at the age of 55. Richey told a news conference he had requested the autopsy because of the allegations made against him in the suit. "I'm profoundly saddened her children are willing to drag their mother's closely guarded private life into the public, leaving me no choice but to respond," he said. "I'm saddened that out of frustration over financial matters, her daughters have been willing to work so hard to discredit their mother. ... I'm saddened that part of Tammy's legacy is this fiasco," he said. Richey said his late wife, known as the "first lady of country music," had not wanted to be autopsied or cremated. Her body was entombed at Woodlawn mausoleum in Nashville. "Tammy was a woman who knew what she wanted in life and in death," he said. Bruce Levy, Tennessee's chief medical examiner, said he had conducted the autopsy and would issue a report in four to six weeks. One week ago, three of Wynette's daughters -- Georgette Smith, Jackie Daley and Tina Jones -- sued Richey and Wynette's doctor, Wallis Marsh of Pittsburgh, in Davidson County Circuit Court for $50 million in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount in punitive damages. The suit alleged that Marsh was guilty of malpractice by giving the singer powerful narcotic drugs and Richey had "improperly and inappropriately maintained her narcotic addiction, improperly administered narcotics to her and failed to see that she would receive necessary medical treatment." Officials earlier this year asked the coroner for an autopsy, but he refused, saying he did not have sufficient evidence to seek a court order for the removal of her body from the tomb. Richey's request, he said Wednesday, allowed him to proceed. Wynette, who had long suffered from intestinal illness and other health problems, died April 6, 1998. At the time, her death was listed as due to natural causes, and Marsh said it had been caused by blood clots in her lungs.
Re: [hillbilly] Workin' Man Blues (book) and Western Swing book
I'm interested to hear about that too; I've not read it--but then, it's only out a couple of weeks. I do know that the writer is a professor with a lot of non-fiction under his belt concerning California, especially lives of working class Californians, and that he even wrote a story collection about the Okies While we're at it, I'd mention that what I AM reading right now, the book "The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing" by Jean A. Boyd, has become available in paperback at the same mega-onlines and elsewhere as the California book ... This author, as the title suggests, has much to say about how Western Swing is jazz at its root, underappreciated jazz, and maybe underplays the country side in saying so...but there are many interviewsm, and much thought on the topic... She's unrelated to any other Boyd BTW--and a musicologist from Baylor.. .. Barry M. Has anyone heard of a book called Workin' Man Blues by Gerald Haslam (University of California Press). Since no one on the hillbilly list has responded, I thought I'd see if anyone here has read it, and if so, how is it?--don
RE: [hillbilly] Workin' Man Blues (book) and Western Swing book
I only want to add that the effort has some value anyway--mainly by way of all those interviews lurking behind the "Oral History" part of the title. The tendency to avoid calling the country aspect of Western Swing country strikes me, in reading this, more on the lines of "I've gotta have an "original" thesis point, and this is mind, and bygard I'm gonna stick with it" than some serious preeejudice against country music...On the other hand. Ms. Boyd seems WAY more at home and familiar with naming, say, jazz violinists who may have influenced Wills or Bruner than country fiddlers; she just doesn't seem to have heard enough of those--or want to bring them up here. A worthwhile addition to the general, undercovered picture though, I think, if from a skewed point of view easily taken into account. Barry M. (Better include the M I guess; I've noticed some other Barrys around again!) "The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing" by Jean A. Boydhas much to say about how Western Swing is jazz at its root, underappreciated jazz, and maybe underplays the country side in saying so... And the book was panned for doing just that by some western swing expert (Kevin Coffey? Cary Ginell?) in a recent issue of (I think) the Journal Of Country Music. Coffey, in the most recent issue. Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
P2 Alert: 40-Acre Feud On the Web... Free!
I stumbled on the fact today that the rarely seen 85-minute feature film "Forty-Acre Feud", starring none other than George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Minnie Pearl and Skeeter Davis (and even more) is currently available for watching free of charge at broadcast.com. If you've never been there, you may have to register (just give your e-mail address) for free access--and it appears you never hear from them again. It will play in semi-living color and sound with either the Windows/Microsoft Media Player or Real Player, at 28.8 or 56 I will attempt to post the page link here, but if it doesn't work for you, you can go to broadcast.com, click on the video channel, then "movies", then Comedy. You'll see it right there for the watching, if you dare. The actual page is this: http://www.broadcast.com/video/BrowsePages/MoviesandFilm/Comedy/ Barry M.
Spinner to Add Music Item Auctions
Spinner.com queues up auctions By Beth Lipton Staff Writer, CNET News.com April 9, 1999, 3:55 p.m. PT Net radio firm Spinner.com next week will become the latest Web company to get auction fever. Spinner on Monday is planning to launch Spinner.com Auctions, where users can buy and sell music-related merchandise such as CDs, records, cassettes, audio equipment, and memorabilia, the company said. The auction feature is being offered through a partnership with consumer Net auction firm CityAuction. Auctions are all the rage on the Net of late, with all manner of sites--including portals such as Yahoo and e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com--getting into the game, with varying degrees of success. All are hoping to get a slice of the revenue and traffic enjoyed by auction firms such as eBay. Just today, eBay chief executive Margaret Whitman joined the ranks of Net billionaires as she exercised options to acquire the company's skyrocketing shares. For its part, Spinner has been busy signing distribution deals with sites such as Cyclone, the site by portal Snap that is designed for higher-speed Net connections. (Snap is a joint venture between NBC and CNET: The Computer Network, publisher of News.com.) Meanwhile, the Webcasting space overall is going through a number of changes; Spinner competitor Imagine Radio in February was acquired by Viacom, and Broadcast.com last week was bought by Yahoo. "Our partnership with CityAuction is a reflection of our move toward cobranded partnerships aimed at offering our listeners content-related commerce," Dave Samuel, Spinner.com's chief executive, said in a statement. "We bring music enthusiasts together to hear great music, get artist and CD information, buy CDs, and now buy and sell with one another." Under terms of the deal, Spinner.com carry CityAuction banner ads on its site and music players as well as running audio ads. It also will display links on various pages to CityAuction music categories.
Re: Sir Doug Sahm: Alt.country Crazy Cajun
Mr. Gracey, you have the most interetsing friends--but then, so do they. Barry Doug Sahm(read original for this part) is literally a walking encyclopedia of American musical history. He and I became friends in Austin and he was a frequent visitor to my radio show, and I am indebted to him for many things. He is a force of nature. See him if you get a chance.-- Joe Gracey
Re: Crazy Cajun (was Sir Doug Sahm: Alt.)
Absolutely...they're all creeping their way into stores right about now too. The Collectors Choice catalogue is probaboy the one you're talking about, but I suspect lots of vendors and stores have them now. New Crazy Cajun discs include sets recorded in Texas or Louisiana by: Lowell Fulson Johnny Copeland Mickey Gilley Ronnie Milsap Delbert McClinton Moe Bandy Doug Kershaw And I believe you'll find a number of these guys on each others' sessions there; they played package shows together back when too; and the cuts tend to be ones NOT duplicateds elsewhere. UK Demon has these records back out. (I picked up the Sir Douglas when I was over in London.) Barr BTW, Barry, I discovered the disc you were talking about in a catalog where it was listed along with a bunch of other Crazy Cajun releases. The whole slew of releases was extrememly impressive, although the Sir Douglas is definitely what caught my eye. --junior
Re: Leon Payne Albums
There have been copies of that one on CD here in the beautiful East vil-lodge Amy--ssome of the smaller stores around St. Marks and even, I think, at Tower 4th Street. So you should be able to find it--with, I guess, the sound quality caveat that's been pointed out. I've nearly grabbed it more than once--so I guess I've seen it more than once! Barry the "George Jones Sings Leon Payne" release on Hollywood But you can't find that one either, or at least I haven't been able to in three or four years of trying. There's a record that's ripe for reissue, if ya ask me. --Amy
Re: This will get my ass to a large venue: Do they do it in COlu
I have friends, including my 30 years-worth best one, who were in Boston in the late sixties to very early seventies and saw and heard the BEFORE the first LP band, when they were called "The J. Geils Quartet" I believe, and I'm told they were even cooler... There used to be a poster at my friend's house of this "Quartet" opening for the 1969-Clarence style Byrds at the Boston Tea Party, I think... It wasn't much after that I was playing those memorable first LPs onn the radio...And I'll admit to likin 'em right up through the Love Stinks/Centerfold period...But yeha, those first blooz records were tops. Barry Lord yes, the original band (the first two albums) was incredible. "First I Look at the Purse," "Milk and Alcohol," etc Before they degenerated into goofiness, they were briefly one of the very best bands around. Yes, Viriginia, there was a time when Peter Wolf had hipster cred g --junior
Simon Zimmerman Tour
Tickets go on sale here in NYC on Monday...and I'm not at all sure it's worth a Madison Square Garden fuill of who will probably show up for this first-ever line-up to go! Maybe Jones Beach! I assume somebody else but his Bobness is the alleged World's Greatest Living Songwriter to Walk Out On, since he's not on tour now. Barry BOB DYLAN Co-Headlining with Paul Simon 06/06/99COLORADO SPRINGS, COBROADMOOR WORLD ARENA 06/07/99DENVER, CO MCNICHOLS SPORTS ARENA 06/09/99SALT LAKE CITY, UT DELTA CENTER, ARENA 06/11/99VANCOUVER GENERAL MOTORS PLACE 06/12/99PORTLAND, ORROSE GARDEN ARENA 06/13/99MC AFEE, NJ GREAT GORGE CONCERT PAVILLION 06/16/99SACRAMENTO, CA ARCO SPORTS COMPLEX, ARCO ARENA 06/18/99CONCORD, CA CONCORD PAVILLION 06/19/99MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA SHORELINE AMPHITHEATRE 06/20/99ANAHEIM, CA ANAHEIM ARENA/ARROWHEAD POND 06/22/99LOS ANGELES, CA HOLLYWOOD BOWL, STADIUM 06/25/99SAN DIEGO, CA COORS AMPHITHEATER 06/27/99PHOENIX, AZ BLOCKBUSTER DESERT SKY PAVILION 07/02/99MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, MNCANTERBURY PARK 07/03/99DULUTH, MN BAYSIDE PARK 07/04/99MILWAUKEE, WI MARCUS AMPHITHEATRE 07/07/99DETROIT, MI PINE KNOB MUSIC THEATRE 07/09/99CHICAGO, IL THE NEW WORLD MUSIC THEATRE 07/10/99ST. LOUIS, MO RIVERPORT AMPHITHEATER 07/14/99RALEIGH, NC WALNUT CREEK AMPHITHEATRE 07/16/99WASHINGTON, DC, VA NISSAN PAVILLION 07/17/99CAMDEN, NJ E. CENTER 07/18/99BURGETTSTOWN, PA COCA COLA STAR LAKE AMPHITHEATRE 07/22/99BOSTON, MA TWEETER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 07/23/99BOSTON, MA TWEETER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 07/24/99HARTFORD, CTTHE MEADOWS MUSIC THEATER 07/27/99NEW YORK, NYMADISON SQUARE GARDEN 07/28/99HOLMDEL, NJ PNC BANK/GARDEN STATE ARTS CENTER 07/30/99WANTAGH, NY JONES BEACH THEATRE 07/31/99WANTAGH, NY JONES BEACH THEATRE Two Dates TBA 6/26 Las Vegas TBA 7/11 TBA
Gram: Under Your Spell (was:Emmylou, Gram trib, Crow)
I know we shouldn't talk too much aboutn bootleg pressings of unreleased recordings by dead guys with drug problems, but I'll note in passing that the 2-disc Cd recording available in the odd place here in there under the above title is a feast for fan's of this late guy with some import around here and limitednreleased output. Among the highlights: a heratbreakting Gram and the Burritos version of "She Thinks I Still Care" recorded at he '69 Seattle Pop Festival...and versions of the likes oif "Another Place, Another Time" and "Buckaroo" and "High on a Hilltop" and Everyone LOves a Winner by same...and a set from London, 1968, with the Byrds, with Gram doing dead serious no-camp versions of The Christian Life and Under Your Spell Again--and the Byrds sound good--and he has to join in on the Eight Miles High/Space Odyssey numbers still in the set. There are also demo versions of key songs from his GP solo album and early duets with Ms. Harris and the Fallen Angels--even one in which they're more or less joined by Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt, on Close Up the Honky Tonks" at an appearance in Houston, 1973. But of coure, this is bootleg and unpaid for and nobody here would support this enterprise. I mention this purley for educational purposes. Barry OK. I paid cash.
Re: Gram: Under Your Spell (was:Emmylou, Gram trib, Crow)
With 44 cuts on 2 Cds, sound varies from passable to excellent...and the title is the title line. ( Gram Parsons: Under Your Spell Again)... It's on the same so-called "Colisseum" label as the "Yours Truly, Anonymous" GP boot I have a long interesting review of this new one by Mr. Sid Griffin, which appeared in a relatively obscure little rag called " Live! Music Review"--(the editor of which is no doubt a lurker member of P2 'cause I said that.) If I find some time to type it up, I'll post it here. Barry Barry Mazor wrote: I know we shouldn't talk too much aboutn bootleg pressings of unreleased recordings by dead guys with drug problems, but I'll note in passing that the 2-disc Cd recording available in the odd place here in there under the above title is a feast for fan's of this late guy with some import around here and limitednreleased output. and lots of mouth-watering details to boot (ouch). So what's the title? and is the sound quality passable? heck, I'm all frowns of disapproval too, of course, but this one sounds like it comes under the Dylan Albert Hall "essential and damn the legalities" category to me... Stevie
Up for Kelly Willis Bruce Robison NYC?
Well, I'm not only going to miss Merle Haggard Meets Mike Ireland while I'm out of town, I'll miss the Mike Ireland and Joe Pernice follow-up at the Mercury Lounge on the 20th too... On the other hand, Keely Willis Bruce Robison are at the Mercury Lounge NYC on Friday the 23rd AND Saturday the 24thI only saw enough of them at SXSW to want to see more. If others from these parts or elsewhere are planning to catch these one of those nights--let me know which! Barry M.
Johnny Cash Appears in NYC Tonight!
I knew nothing about his--or I wouldda tried to get it! There's good news in here about Johnny..some less than good news about Waylon--and notes on televising of this salute very soon. Barry --- He Walks The Line... to NYC An all-star tribute to Johnny Cash is bringing some big guns to town By BILL BELL Daily News Staff Writer Hold those obits ó the only place Johnny Cash is going anytime soon, it appears, is New York. In fact, barring the absolutely unexpected, the admittedly ailing Man in Black will be performing here April 6, at an all-star salute marking his first public appearance in nearly two years. Not only that, but Cash may even close the show, most likely by singing "Jackson" with wife June Carter Cash. It was a giant hit for them in 1967. The show, "An All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash," is just that ó a taped-for-TV special featuring Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, Lyle Lovett, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Trisha Yearwood, Chris Isaak, Wyclef Jean, Brooks Dunn, the Mavericks, daughter Roseanne Cash, ex-son-in-law Marty Stuart and, according to scuttlebutt, some neat surprises. It's a tremendous lineup, and the only songs anyone will sing are the ones Cash wrote. (This should not include "A Boy Named Sue," his biggest-selling pop song but one he did not write.) TNT will air it April 18 as part of its Masters Series, the last subject of which was Burt Bacharach. But, the big news is Cash's appearance. The reason is that for the past year or so, alarmed reports about Cash's health had him one step from the grave. "Cash Close to Death," a headline screamed last month in a British newspaper. The story said that his hair was white, his eyes dim, and his face bloated. He was described as a sad, almost unrecognizable sight. Newspaper dispatches aside, there's reason to worry: Cash, 67, is not in good shape. He spent a week in a Nashville hospital last fall with pneumonia, and 19 months ago, doctors said Cash was suffering from a rare neurological disease, Shy-Drager syndrome, a degenerative disorder that causes progressive damage to the nervous system. Its symptoms includes blackouts, tremors, stiff muscles and difficulty in moving. There is no cure. On the telephone the other day from their Nashville home, his wife said Johnny was feeling pretty good, and in the background, when he spoke, he did not sound nearly as enfeebled as reports suggested. "We're going to spend a few days in New York," said June. "Maybe see a few [Broadway] shows, do a little shopping, see a few friends." They spent the winter at their Jamaican hideaway, where June said Johnny played a lot of
Re: Fever query (was: covers)
As far as I know, Little Willie was the originator. Barry With all this talk about covers, Fever, etc. I relistened to Elvis and Little Willie John's versions last night and was wondering when and by whom the song was first recorded. Little Willie's is from 1956. Are there recordings before that? Curious, --junior
Re: Fever (was: good covers)
Hey, I like the song too. Little Willie John's version is *terrific*, imho, etc. --junio Yeah Ross-I'm on your side on this one too. I like Peggy Lee's...I love Little Willie John's--and I consider the Elvis version from the sensational "Elvis Is Back" post-Army LP, one of the better things he ever did...it's probably the best version! Barry reporting in from the kitschin
Re: Good covers (was: Kelly Willis calling the shots)
How about when Bob Dylan covers Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," but the arrangement of the song adheres pretty closely to the Dead's version? Is there a name for that? Isn't it Harmolodic Bifurcation? OR maybe I'm thinking of Caesarean Retrofication? Yeah, that's it. Lance . . . Oh, that's called "copying"... Barry
Trio, Louvins Country Harmony: Maynard in NYT
I never suspected THIS writer had ever even heard of country music! Ya never know. No inside reports from Salinger on how Franny sounded with Zooey though. From this morning's Sunday NY Times: April 4, 1999 The Lure of Same-Sex Harmony in Country By JOYCE MAYNARD From the days of the Carter Family and the Louvin Brothers, close melodic harmony singing has served as one of the defining elements of traditional country music. In the mining country of Appalachia or the hollers of Tennessee -- places where one might be lucky to own a washboard, a string bass or a Sears, Roebuck guitar -- the prettiest instrument a person had might well be her own voice, intermingled with one or two others, bringing forth gospel music or traditional ballads. The history of country is filled with stories of artists, raised in rural poverty, whose chief and perhaps only form of entertainment and joy growing up was church singing and gathering round the living room or the radio listening to the Grand Ole Opry and singing along. Sometimes, in country music, the combining of voices serves as a kind of musical dialogue between a man and a woman, low voice and high, as it does in the duets of George Jones and Tammy Wynnette or Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. Male-female harmony singing, in classics like Mr. Jones's and Ms. Wynette's "Golden Ring" or Mr. Porter's and Ms. Parton's "Oh, the Pain of Loving You," seems almost to use the contrast of two enormously different but compatible voices as a kind of metaphor for the continuing tension in relationships between men and women (sometimes playfully resolved, sometimes heartbreaking and irresolvable). But the purest examples of country harmonizing are probably still the ones practiced by singers of the same sex, in which the range of voices blended remains tantalizingly close. The Louvins are a prime example, but the lesser-known sound of Kieran Kane and Jamie O'Hara -- of the O'Kanes -- comes to mind as my own particular favorite of the male harmony-singing combinations. A reassuringly innocent, familial sense emerges when you listen to country harmony singers of the same sex -- not sexual tension but kinship. Because the hallmark of a great country harmony is the absence of a single, dominant voice, there tends to be a certain humility to the sound of country harmony: every voice raised in the service of the song. Though I've listened to Louvin Brothers music all my life, to this day I couldn't tell you which brother is which. The last 20 years have seen a proliferation of new and unexpected configurations of vocal talent, from the groundbreaking album "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" in the mid-70's to the brief and wonderful union that brought together the voices of Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison and Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys. The common element present in the best of these recordings is the sense that the artists have invested themselves not so much in their individual performance but rather in the joy of collaboration. "We've lost the feeling of the living room," Emmylou Harris is heard to say between cuts on one such get-together recording. "Today we got the living room back." It would be hard to imagine a more perfect assemblage of voices than those of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, brought together for the first time on "Trio" (1987), an album that remains for many one of the finest examples of traditional harmony singing produced in recent years. Now, more than a decade later, the much-anticipated sequel, "Trio 2" (Asylum, CD, 62275-2), has finally been released. Dolly Parton grew up singing traditional ballads and gospel songs with her 11 brothers and sisters. She brings to the mix not only one of the purest, cleanest sopranos in country music but also a talent for songwriting for which she has never been given her due. She can also put more authentic feeling into a single breath or a vibrato than some of the current crop of country hit makers deliver in a whole CD. She can sound suicidal one minute and amused the next, but what never fails to come across is her intelligence and heart. Emmylou Harris found country music somewhat later in life and began her own career harmonizing with Gram Parsons. After his death in 1973, she moved on to build a career in which she both continues to celebrate traditional music as well as to interpret the songs of artists as diverse as Paul Simon and Daniel Lanois. It's always difficult, listening to her deliver a heartbreak song, to separate the sound completely from the ethereal beauty of the woman producing it. Her voice conveys a rare combination of strength and fragility, and though she can belt out a lyric when called for, her greatest gift may be her willingness to pull back her solo vocal power to provide some of the prettiest backup tracks in country music. Linda Ronstadt came out of the Southwest, with a background in Mexican and Spanish music, and began her
RE: Trio, Louvins Country Harmony: Maynard in NYT
Right here on-list I'll say: Jon I figured you were going to have a little fun with this one! You did not let me down. I'd really encourage you to point out the errors here right to the grey ol Times themselves..since IMHO Ms. Maynard has been a creature they more or less invented as a "spokesman for her generayion: (it was when she was an uninteresting teenager, and despite much dubious work from her in the decades since, they have obviously turned to for this piece today because of the BoxOffice Byline. Yes, you'd think the Paper of Record would fact check somebody who's authority is an inability to tell Ira from Charlie--which ALSO could have been somewhat easily remedied if she'd, say, listening to a Charlie Louvin recording!. Suggest she buy one along with "Treasures"! But drop them a little note... Barry After confessing that she's unwilling or unable to distinguish one Louvin from the other after listening to them all her life, Ms. Maynard would have been well-advised to run a draft of her piece by someone with more of an inclination or ability to pay attention. That probably would have saved her from this embarrassing mistake; this "showpiece for Ms. Ronstadt" in fact features Dolly Parton's lead vocal Jon Weisberger
Re: Note-for-note
There'is a little classic of modern literature that takes on excatly this startling and provocative notion (and feeling)..of re-creating...with some provocative turns on i of its own--w the now famous story "Pierre Menard-Author of Don Quixote" by Jorge Luis BorgesIt tells (in the form of a literary essay, about a writer and work that, we might say don't exist..this "Menard" character ahd, we're told, done everything possible to recrate Cervantes exact situation, state of mind, etc. before writing Don Quixote--and then Menard proceeded to write the whole massive thing, all over again. I'm not gonna attempt to summarize all of the fun Borges has with this from that point--but I can tell you that it ain't all awe and excitement! The piece appears in several Borges collections, incluing "Labyrinths"... Barry Eddie Adcock, banjoist and flat-picking guitarist extraordinaire; in Willis's_America's Music: Bluegrass_: "...there is a neat thing that takes place in the mind - - when you hit upon that note exactly the way the guy intended to hit it the first time. Then you can get the idea and the feeling and the emotion that caused him to do it. They're not your emotions; you're working out of his brain even though he may be dead and gone. It does something for you that nothing can do... Jon Weisberger
Re: Corn stuff
Now refresh my memory..Did Homer Jethro do Kellogg's Corn Flakes commercials, or was it for that once heavily advertised but I think long-gone alt. brand " Country Cornflakes"--scorched in my memory with TV chickens finishing off the brand name--as in, "New Country Cornflakes, New Country Cornflakes, bock-bock-bock-buck, ba-bock-bock-buck"? I need to keep these things straight, ya know. Barry M ... but I believe Homer Jethro made use of the wor (cornfusion) in one or another of their pieces related to their Kellogg's Corn Flakes ads, and I'm pretty sure it was also used at least occasionally on Hee Haw. Jon Weisberger
Re: tea
Cherilyn asked: . Just tried to buy Bloomed and was told by Damon the Bane of my Existence that it's out of print. Is this true? Where can I get my Buckner? Mr. Weiss's Miles of Music has been listing Bloomed as available there; Look under "Hard to Find". Barry (PS: Someone was asking how to get hold of YOUR Madonna medley 7"--is Miles a place they can get it?)
Re: SXSW finally
Cherilyn diMond wrote: c) could someone please for the love of christ send me an album title suggestion that will beat Jo's "When Chickens Cry." And Joe G suggested: "When Chickens Hurl" See, now THAT's perfect. And I say that even though I'd tried to get Cherilyn to take "Special Meals" or "Sticking to Our Guns" or "When Cows Cry".. months ago..but I think maybe Jo didn't go for 'em Barry
Music Makers Relief Blues Artists
A chunk of my time at SXSW this year was spent on the blues side--and in that regard I enjoyed having the chance to see Clarence Gatemouth Brown, WC Clark, Lou Ann Barton, Alvin Youngblood Hart,and even Guy Forsyth (a little blues, some ego--and pretty good SAW within a couple of days. I was sorry I did not get to see the new documentary shown at the film fetsival about RL Burnside and Possum Records now, but hope it will pop up on TV or elsewhere. Meanwhile...here's the interetsting part-- In the Convention Hall I met the poeple who run what's called the Music Maker Relief Foundation...an organization which still seeks out, finds and then truly supports unknown blues musicians--with the likes of recording contracts with actual distribution somne promotion, and donation-backed tours...one of which is now ongoing, as the "Winston Blues Revival" They gave me a demo disc of a bunch of their artists, and there are some TRULY EXCELLENT discoveries here--including Piedmont Tradition (as in Pink Anderson, Blind Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller) songster-writer Cootie Stark, notable acoustic blues singer Neal Pattman, guitar men Mudcat and Guitar Gabriel--and that rarest of rarities, one ass-kicking electric guitar woman, Ms. Willa Mae Buckner, who is pretty definitely not Richard Buckner's sister. You can learn about these artists and their recordings at http://www.musicmaker.org And here are upcoming tour dates--at which Stark, Ms. Beverly "Guitar" Watkins (another one!), Pattman and Mudcat will be joined by Taj Mahal and surprise guests. $10 tickets are relaly donations--but the show should be memorable. This sort of thing doesn't happen every day any more. I will definitely catch one of the NYC Knitting Factory shows: Cleveland OH April 8 Fat Blue Fish Denver CO April 15 The Casino New York NY April 30/May 1 Knitting Factory If anybody else caught this tour earlier, in Texas, California, or New Orleans, tell us about it. Barry
Re: Joe Williams RIP
That's sad news. Mitch. The man had a way with a blues standard like "Every Day I Have the Blues" as well as the jazz standards, didn't he... And for the record, he's one of MY mother's all-time favorite singers too! Barry M The great jazz singer Joe Williams was found dead Monday night a few blocks from the hospital he was registered at. He was 80...s a great performer. He was one of my mother's favorite singers. Mitch Matthews Gravel Train/Sunken Road
RE: The F Word
Oh, what the hell; here we go again... I don't even get how people can NOT notice Ms. irwin's "slight" note-finding problem live--on disc it's a different story, seems to me..and I say this as someone who's always liked their "Old Paint" CD and still do--only now I'm aware of the 4800 takes it must surely have demanded till they arrived at ones with the notes pretty much hit! As I added on-list after that show Mrs. Haugesag just mentioned...some of my best-loved acts are not especially known for PRECISION and natural or trained VOCAL CLARITY , so I'm far from a stickler in this regard (The Sticklers are, of course, a highly practiced bluegrass family band from, uh, Northern Kentucky g)! What's more off-putting about Freakwater live (and this is not as noticeable on disc either, so maybe it's stagefright or something that overtakes the act) is that the singing was emotionally imprecise and unknowing Same said Ms. irwin holds notes and breaths when the meanings says clip...roars exactly when she orta shut tight, breaksoff and searches for some version of a "harmony" at moments more randomized than demanded by the lyric, etc etc etc c...so I have to figure she doesn't quite know what she's singing ABOUT. That's my definition of Bad Singing--bad performing of any sort really--and doing those same things right, maybe even especially if done unexpectedly right in many inventive ways, is a big part of why I can call a Bob Dylan, for instance, a great singer, or Steve Earle a damned good one-- with no irony intended AT ALL. For the record, I do think Jon W's always been RIGHT in pointing out around here that doing all of the technical thinks precisely does NOT automatically mean you've gone deadly, romantically challenged or mechanical either. Clarity and precision can be perfectly useful tools--but the highest point of their use too is still to deliver something soulful. Some artists arrive at that highpoint by slightly different means, from slightly different traditions. Rock and roll, bothering from strains in RB, and being, as Dave Alvin always says, a loud folk music itself, tends to be forgiving about precision. But that's no cover for the truly singing-challenged. Barry M.
RE: The F Word
Juzz one thing, meshel: We get these reports of the same "temporary" problem from shows all over the place, and for some timeIs this maybe--now let's not start any rumors unless we want to-- one of those, uh, recurring physical/mental problems not entirely unknown in the music industry, maybe--or maybe have you (and Chris too I guess!) just been lucky in the nights you've caught 'em? -Barry aha! ..t now I know what the problem is...when Barry and Amy caught Freakwater that night, Ms. Irvin must have just been having a bad night! because I've seen em a number of times, and they've always sounded terrific, and their CDs are great, even Barry likes em that way. meshel
This time, there's a REAL Net Virus warning...
March 27, 1999 E-Mail Virus Spreads on Internet, Could Tie Up Traffic if Unstopped By MARK BOSLET Dow Jones Newswires PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A computer virus that spread quickly across the Internet on Friday afternoon shut down e-mail servers at some companies and overloaded others with infected e-mail, industry executives said. Some executives fear the virus, which is dubbed Melissa and which preys on Microsoft Corp.'s Word software, could tie up traffic on the Internet on Monday if it is unstopped. The virus enters a computer in an e-mail message labeled "Important Message From." The message also includes the apparent sender's name. Melissa replicates itself when a computer user opens the e-mail and a Word-based attachment it contains. Once open and active, the virus sends infected e-mail to 50 new recipients it finds in the computer owner's address book. The virus shut down e-mail servers at Microsoft late Friday and hampered operations at other companies, such as Lucent Technologies Inc. said Eric Allman, chief technology officer at Send Mail Inc. Send Mail makes e-mail routing software used widely on the Internet. Representatives from Microsoft and Lucent could not be reached for comment. The body of the infected e-mail document reads: "Here's the document you asked for. Don't show it to anyone else." Mr. Allman said Send Mail came up with a program to prevent the virus' spread. It simply identifies an e-mail with the label "Important Message From" and returns it to the sender. The program is available for download from the Send Mail website. "Monday could be seriously painful for the Internet" if lots of users open and read e-mail messages infected with Melissa, Mr. Allman said. Copyright © 1999 Dow Jones Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Re: Fw: [RaB-HoF] Charlie Feathers
Jon, I haven't heard about this before. But if it's true that the Revenant compilation may be withdrawn, then buy all means order it now, cause I doubt a better collection will ever appear. It's a real gem and well worth having in any case. --junior Yeah, do that--but a reasonable alternative is the single disc 24-cut UK/Canadian Charley RB label comp "Charlie Feathers: Gone Gone Gone"--which has much of the same material and some other, from Sun, Redneck and King sessions, 1955-58 and a few from the early 60s... BTW--sorry I never got anywhere you were at Austin, Joonyuh... Barry M.
Re: Extra recommendations from SXSW
On Fri, 26 Mar 1999, Barry Mazor wrote: the former Miss Cowsill was surely the only one at SXSW with Top Ten Hits when she was five... You're forgettin' Bobby Bare Jr., Barry. He had a #2 country hit with his daddy at the age of five. (And yeah, he missed his showcase, but he played SXSW at some schmoozy Sony party.)--don This is absolutely true--and reasonably amazing that Don thought of it... (And I guess Bobby Bare should get extra points for putting that business on that record about "20 years from now he'll be sitting around stoned with his friends and he'll ant toi sue me for this!"--which, if memory serves, does not excatly have a counterpart on The Cowsills Greatest Hits! ) SOMEBODY from P2 told me they'd just seen Bare Jr. someplace in Austin...They may now speak up! Barry
Extra recommendations from SXSW
OK...just a few recommendations and bits of quiet good news from what I saw and heard dopwn there...People we OUGHT to get to hera more of, I think... Monte Warden. Big return week for him, as a cxloser with buddies the Robison bros and Kelly Willis at thge awards, and a strong set at the Broken Spoke Thursday night of SXSW with James Intveld on keyboards...I'd highly rcommend his new CD "A Stranger to Me Now" too...which is a brnad new 1959-60 post-rockabilly pop album...which is to say, in the tradition of Roy Orbison, Phil Everly and Buddy Hollymelodic and dramatic. Marshall Crenshaw fans will probably go for it too. Live, he also showed he could hit the rockabilly twanger with some slashing guitar dramatics--which, by my definition, you have to be able to do to do THIS brnad of non-rockabilly convincingly. Lonelyland. Caught these guys in the Convention Hall one afternoon. Led by Austin guy Bob Schneider, who'd appently has led a bunch of funk bands before, here comes up with a unique and engaging laid back-and grinning by the fishin' hole style that I certainly hope will find a recording home...A very modern twist on what I'd call the traditions of Hoagy Carmichael/Phil Harris singing...ya know, Rockin Chair's Got Me! Henhouse The all-star Austin women musical extravaganza (Rosie Flores, Marcia Ball, Cindy Cashdollar, etc.)...and boy, are they capable and roudy and ought to be a real ongoing group...Fronting Wanda Jackson--who basically sounds excatly like she did 40+ years ago at age 62, as roaring and growling as ever..they were maybe even stronger. Continental Drifters Saw their really strong set at the Music Hall and their appearance at the ND/Miles of Weisses Broken Spoke event--where they finished off with an exhuberant version of the Fairport Convention arrangement of Matty Groves...This is maybe the most talent almost utterly unheard bunch of folk rock pros (if I can use that term; it seems right) that ought to be stars again I can think of. They rock and they sing. And the former Miss Cowsill was surley the only one at SXSW with Top Tens Hits when she was five... Alvin Youngblood Hart Right up there among the very best young acoustic blue men around...he proved rather remote from the audience live--and then showed off what he coulkd do with some electricity in an absolutely rousing and rhythmically unforgettablke version of, of all things, John Fogerty's "Pagan Baby"...After it was all over, this one kept coming back into me head..anmd I hope he'll do an electric blues album now. Beaver Nelson OK..I thought he was David and Ricky's unknown little brother, The Beaver...but Corrie Weiss warned me he was really good ...and he was...really set the stage for the remarkable Mr. Cisco... I'll add my nod to the "hillbilly Idol" i a good band list...especially lie their songwriting...and to those who had nice things to say about Michael Hall and thre Brooders (best loud band I heard there, plus he looks like Lou Reed and Woody Guthrie's half brother!)...and while I only caughtn three Hank Dogs songs, I'd have to ay, on the other hand, they were very boring even briefly...Best unscheduled xtra good time was on that parking lot in South Austin where Doug Sahm and Johnny Bush joined Cornell Hurd and the Hollisters for some harder stuff in the morning...I am also now the owner of an officially endorsed Cornell Hurd Band Whoopee Cushion, and you can't have enough of those. Barry
Re: SXSW MOVIES of interest here
Mr. McConaughey was present--and played a large part in bringing the flick to Austin--Mr. Woody Harrelson, the noticeable Ms. Elizabeth Hurley, Ms. Ellen DeGeneres and pal Ms. Anne Heche, Mr. Martin Landau, director Ron Howard and (big applause in hall here), the irreplaceable Clint Howard. (Ms. Elfman was plugging the flick in NY). Interesting fact: I had a better seat than most of these people! Barry So Barry, what movie stahs did you see??? Was McConaughey (sp?) there for the EdTV thing? What about Elizabeth Hurley? Jenna Elfman? Did you invite any of them to Twangfest??? I need responses on this! dominick dan
Re: Tom Waits Meets Matt Cook at SXSW
Carl's no doubt right that for every one I've heard dismiss the Early Waits in this nabe (such is the East Village), there probably is somebody else out there who never got past the evolution/revolution (you call it) in the music over time. I've got a strong suspicion (and find it interesting BTW) that on P2 MOST of us would probably go for both ends of Waits'material, for the simple reason that the twang interest leads us to an interest in traditional songmaking--but the at least usually experimental openness around here leaves ears open to what's come up since. As to: " the dramatic move away from the piano as anything but an occasional (and even incidental) part of his sound"... that's part of what I was referring to, Carl, in how seeing his latest incarnation live show would tend to show the continuities in his efforts over the discontinuities...In fact, Waits performed a number of post-swordfish (guess that's the password!) songs solo at the piano now, complete with patter, in breaks from the very cool band stuff--and even "The Heart of Saturday Night" cause it was, after all, Saturday Night. I know it all added up to something excellent. Anyway..I hope lots of people get a chance to see and hear this this time--especially since so many--and not just those in their early 20s--seem never to have caught them like us lucky ones did. Barry M.
Tom Waits Meets Matt Cook at SXSW
Thought that title would get your attention.. Yes--I saw Tom Waits, as did Matt Cook, Slim Chance Kelly (as he's told ya), Jim Catalano and Tony Renner..there may have been more P2ers in there some place...Mr. Roy Kasten. making a completely unexpected appearance at SXSW, offered me 40 bucks and a Bob Dylan cigarette lighter for the Waits ticket, but I don't have any Bob Dylan cigarettes, so it was no go... Rather than repeat the well-desreved raves posted..I'll offer up .some impressions and thoughts on the Waits show..which sure did become the topic of the week. The man has proven to have a tremendous cross-generational pull! I seemed to be the only one I could find anywhere who'd actually seen him perform before--on the Penn campus in Philadelphia some 25 years ago, opening for Maria Muldaur and the Benny Carter big band...and he was singing Ol' 55 and Shiver Me Timbers, with just the first two still semi-obscure albums out...Wait's self-imposed concert exile at 8 years minus a charity appearance or two is in fact now as long as Dylan's '66-'74 stretch--so I know well what it's like for fans who've come along without any chance to see him. I think this show also proves that it's generated some myths--the biggest being that Waits' extraordinary music had some drastic sea change when he shifted labels, which puts him in a sort of gravelly post-modern and hiphop mode which makes him one OK "boomer' performer for the alt. generation. Only thing is--this performance was extraordinarily LIKE what he's always done--mopey to bizarre to heartrending songs, broken up by deadpan beatnik comedy raps, and all terribly endearing and unique and rhythmic. Those who dismiss the "Asylum Years" work oughta listen again--cause it strikes me more than ever now as one continuing, growing body of work that's often brilliant. What did evolve over the years--partly cause he uses a swell band rather than sticking with the pure piano/lounge singer approach (he still did that too Saturday night)--is pay a whole lot more attention to the snippets of sounds in a line and the sound of the words rather than their conventional, literal meaning... Now he bends half way down to the floor, punches the rhythm with his lil fist till they get in the groove, and starts to go--the words are often incantations, not narratives Did I mention that in the audience I spotted The Gourds (Matt Cook, who apparently likes the Gourds somewhat, ihad just come back with them from shooting video of their appearance in the Park)..The Silos, and Alejandro Escovedo were on hand too. I'm sure there are other performers there, but it's interesting to see..isn't it... that THESE folks see something vital to attend in this Waits show..I just bet that Beck gets this guy too. I'd suggests that somebody like Smilin' Jim (known not to love those Gourds but asking what it IS with them to a fan like me) would find a way into their often amazing music--as shown on their very good new disc-- by considering that Tom Waits connection...the sounds of the words matter, as Lucinda might say, the rhythm and the blues of 'em, the bits and pieces constructed for emotional meaning and body thumping meaning--something far removed, of course, from lyrics in a good twang song. It's something else. As I was saying, I heard and saw an amazing continuity in Tom Waits show, laughs, smiles and tears...and if that goes all the way back to his first hits, as delivered by those very un-alt Eagles and Bette Midler fergodsake, so be it. ...I hope he'll take up the audience's challenge to get the heck back on tour so you can see and hear this too. Even if there's no twang content! So whooa,, that's more than enough now...more on SXSW in general when I get the chance and see what others report wiothout my help! (including being stuck outside the door of the Continental, watching James Inteveld in the downpour..just before then police showed up to break up the fire law busting crowd waiting to see Social Distortion's Mike Ness perform rockabillyI saw an electrifying Wanda Jackson with Rosie Flores, Marcia Ball and more instead, avoding the 2-hour Ness wait!) Thans to all the P2ers there for being so nice...as always. Barry M.
Repost: Elvis and Other Books
I posted this some weeks ago, but since Mr. Purcell asked--I have this chance to post two overlong pieces on the same day withoiut writitng so mucyh... Can't pass that up, eh? Barry Has anyone read volume II of Guralnick's bio yet? I keep meaning to go get a copy --junior Sure have. And what a long sad trip this one is! First off, IMHO, Guralncik needs some sort of special award for entering a field in which there is already a vast array of lousy, speculative book and interpretations of very little info-and doing the hard homework to assemble the facts. In the wake of all those Biblical interpretations, recipe books, memoirs by people who once cut his dog's hair, and even Greil Marcus, the 2 volumes of this epic really were much needed. That said, the facts of the matter--not the author-- make Vol 2 (Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley) a sometimes difficult long read. Guralnick's theory is simple, elegant, and, I think, unassailable. Having made the case so well in Vol 1. (Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley) that Elvis was a serious, deliberate, hard-working artist very much in control of his work when it was at its best (and far from a pawn of Col. Parker or anyone else)...he has to show the all-too-careless unwinding in this second part. Volukme One was Elvis taking control; Volume two is losing it. And he loses it, surely, because of elements of his own nature as key as those that made him what he'd first become. That's what the books about--and, by the way--it also shows how ongoing life events that bring, force or let Elvis take charge of his music again, and to some degree, his life...momentarily, produced all of the first-rate or even second-rate moments in the post-Army, longest, part of his career. The Comeback Specials begin in his head. You'll wnat to read this if you care. but it's hard stuff. While you're at it: Everly Bros Book. Available in paper now (The Elvis is not in paperback yet) is Roger White's "The Everly Brothers: Walk Right Back"--which fits here nicely, since, as the title suggests, it's the story of how THAT popwerful duo repeatedly renewed themselves and kept coming back...even when they weren't speaking.. Also notable for much detail on matters of interest here--such as the relation of their father Ike's career to theirs, his to Chet Atkins' et al, placinmg these boys firmly in a "rock out of Kentucky" tradition. One side benefit for me: it led me to pick up their often forgotten return-to-Nashville comeback album "Pass the Chicken and Listen", produced by Atkins in 1972. It includes THEIR version of the Bryants' "Rocky Top," and John Prine's "Paradise" and, finally, Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away"--all memorable, and pretty well forgotten. Read the book--and you cna find the disc. (On "One Way Records/BMG"). And also, speaking of latter day comebacks, I've recently read and recommen: "Go Cat Go: Rockabilly Music and Its Makers" by Craig Morrison. This is in that great and generally authoritative series "MUSIC IN AMERICAN LIFE" from the University of Illinois Press--same place as the Rosenberg Bluegrass history and the best-known Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills bios. This shouldn't be confused with the Carl Perkins book with the same main title BTW--but it's a good solid discussion of what rockabilly is (accoridng to various arguers!), where it's been, and how it managed to come back. Only in hard back so far, but a must for rockabillies--who never originally were or wanted to be called that! Barry All typos guaranteed.
Re: Bramletts
Delaney and Bonnie does anyone else out there think db's elektra and atco lps, only one in the former case, were among the best rootsy records of the late '60s and early '70s? motel shot, in particular, captured a rural southern vibe that goes back quite a ways. bill f-w Those WERE great soulful albumsthere was a time, that time, when Delaney and Bonnie (and "friends" were about the ultra of the ultra...on tour with Clapton (as Mr./ Wall put it before he takes ;eave of us "before he sucked")..and the Crickets, and George Harrison.. all on a neverending infamous road tour, sometimes overlapping and joining he same-time never-ending "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour of Joe Cocker and Leon Russell...I'm sure the entire gang can be dismissed in half a breath as f. hippies now...and some will, but boy, they also made some music amidst al of that out-of-favor behavior. (Trivia memory: The Delaney and Bonnie Friends LP with the Rolls Royce on the cover and boots sticking out...That was Albert Grossman's Rolls and Mr. Bob Dylan's feetDid I mention that the cover of the Stone's "Get Yer Ya Yas Out" from same frantic 1970 period features another Dylan salute--- jewels and binoculars hang from the head of that mule!) Barry..
Re: Bramletts
PS: So Damon ain't related to anybody neither? It's all so confusing. Barry
Re: SXSW update II
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: At the request of Barry Mazor, who's leaving shortly for his all expense-paid(etc.) must be some kinda well-known workin' weasel! Linda Naw..in my case, more like an unknown workin weasel,...you know, one more runna-the-mill ink-stained wretch with no bylines in music any more Of course, "wease"l is the highest known compliment on P2...right...? Barry Kind of liking this typing in the wee hours thing. Less typos.
Re:Lindley benfit SXSW (was: Shania Spam )
..., who else will be playing at that Saturday night Donald Lindley benefit at the Texas Union Ballroom. You mentioned Jimmy Dale and Kimmie. I do believe I'll be there. Thanks, --junior And is there more than one event, or has the night and venue cxhanged? Mistuh Corder noted the copy below the other day-- for SUNDAY night, opposite the Escovedo event--but besides being worthwhile (helping the family), it would more than arguably the best show going Saturday night, if that's when it is now I also would want to know what you have to do to sign up, if you still can... (I'd otherwise been thinking about some Saturday night "running around town" combo like Alvin Youngblood Hart to Damon Bramlett to Kelly Willis, to the tail end of Robbie Fulks maybe and the Bottle Rockets/Meat Puppets finishBut considering there's that breakfast deal you scoped out Junior, and the afternoon with the No Depression/Miles of Weisses party it's already set to be one long great day..the Texas Union Ballroom, even with possible seats, turned out to be a good way to end it last year! So if it's Saturday, does the line-up below still apply--plus the Church of Kimmie revival...and what do you have to do, Joe or somebody? Barry M. Jerald had said: There is a benefit for Donald Lindley's family Sunday night, March 21 at Stubbs with Lucinda, Joe Ely, Terry Allen, Rosie Flores, Will and Charlie Sexton and more. You will have to pay for this event, no badges or wristbands get you in.
Paul Simon on Joe DiMaggio NYT
The passing of Joe DiMaggio is understandably being taken hard in the streets of New York City, consuming conversations here, and, I bet, elsewhere. This man strikes a deep chord around these parts. He was the perfect symbol of the best of my father's WWII generation, a man who maintained that grace--and remote silence-- of his, in the wake of his accomplishments... and personal turmoil. With the WWII generation passing, in this year that the world's gone nostalgic for the 40s (perhaps too much so) and been wanting to salute the Joe DiMaggios, Private Ryan's captain, and "swing music"...I'd also point out that the sons who knew them best, in some ways, have also had some points to make about the chill of that silence, which maybe we can give its due while not forgetting either that getting past that silence was also one of the accomplishments of the so-called sixties. Because grace is a fine thing but it's not the only thing. Our hero would beee the anything but silent Muhhamud Ali--who, by the way, lists DiMaggio as a personal; hero in any case. But we have complicated relationships with those aging fathers. So did the women, those Mrs. Robinsons, who knew they didn't make them like that any more--and had mixed feelings about it too. Paul Simon, who knew some things about what silence sounded like, had this to say in the NY Times this morning; what's interetsing about it to me is the indication that the very smart DiMaggio understood some of this--that there was BOTH yearning and some ironic comment in the Joltin Joe reference of that song. March 9, 1999 The Silent Superstar By PAUL SIMON My opinions regarding the baseball legend Joe DiMaggio would be of no particular interest to the general public were it not for the fact that 30 years ago I wrote the song "Mrs. Robinson," whose lyric "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you" alluded to and in turn probably enhanced DiMaggio's stature in the American iconographic landscape. A few years after "Mrs. Robinson" rose to No. 1 on the pop charts, I found myself dining at an Italian restaurant where DiMaggio was seated with a party of friends. I'd heard a rumor that he was upset with the song and had considered a lawsuit, so it was with some trepidation that I walked over and introduced myself as its composer. I needn't have worried: he was perfectly cordial and invited me to sit down, whereupon we immediately fell into conversation about the only subject we had in common. "What I don't understand," he said, "is why you ask where I've gone. I just did a Mr. Coffee commercial, I'm a spokesman for the Bowery Savings Bank and I haven't gone anywhere." I said that I didn't mean the lines literally, that I thought of him as an American hero and that genuine heroes were in short supply. He accepted the explanation and thanked me. We shook hands and said good night. Now, in the shadow of his passing, I find myself wondering about that explanation. Yes, he was a cultural icon, a hero if you will, but not of my generation. He belonged to my father's youth: he was a World War II guy whose career began in the days of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and ended with the arrival of the youthful Mickey Mantle (who was, in truth, my favorite ballplayer). In the 50's and 60's, it was fashionable to refer to baseball as a metaphor for America, and DiMaggio represented the values of that America: excellence and fulfillment of duty (he often played in pain), combined with a grace that implied a purity of spirit, an off-the-field dignity and a jealously guarded private life. It was said that he still grieved for his former wife, Marilyn Monroe, and sent fresh flowers to her grave every week. Yet as a man who married one of America's most famous and famously neurotic women, he never spoke of her in public or in print. He understood the power of silence. He was the antithesis of the iconoclastic, mind-expanding, authority-defying 60's, which is why I think he suspected a hidden meaning in my lyrics. The fact that the lines were sincere and that they've been embraced over the years as a yearning for heroes and heroism speaks to the subconscious desires of the culture. We need heroes, and we search for candidates to be anointed. Why do we do this even as we know the attribution of heroic characteristics is almost always a distortion? Deconstructed and scrutinized, the hero turns out to be as petty and ego-driven as you and I. We know, but still we anoint. We deify, though we know the deification often kills, as in the cases of Elvis Presley, Princess Diana and John Lennon. Even when the recipient's life is spared, the fame and idolatry poison and injure. There is no doubt in my mind that DiMaggio suffered for being DiMaggio. We inflict this damage without malice because we are enthralled by myths, stories and allegories. The son of Italian immigrants, the father a
Re: Tweedy quote/alt.country
stuart wrote: I happened to catch Man in the Sand (the film about making Mermaid Avenue) on BBC, Whoa. Is this available anywhere here in the US? Off-list replies are fine if y'all discussed this to death while I was hiding. Dave Purcell I happened to be in England the same time as Stuart--and caught most of that same show late at night, wide awake post-jet lag...and yeah, it certainly showed pieces of antagonism (and apparent reconciliation) between the Bragg and Tweedy camps--and there seem to have been camps.. I know this has been shown nowhere in the US yet, Senor Purcell--but I got the impression from the credits (was it one of those Channel 4/AE coproductions?) that there were some Yanks involved in the thing, and that it would almost cerrainly show up here. I'd guess you can watch for it on big city PBS stations (and then others) during Rich Lefty Pledge Week; they've finally got something to show besides that Weavers film! Barry
Re: Tweedy quote/alt.country (REAL LONG)
Terry Smith: nr(reading). Great novel. So, was J. Stalin worse than Hitler? Well, Stalin liked sports; Hitler liked music. It bent these men a little, positively bent them. Barry (These are the wages of synthesis.)
Exec: Country needs New York station
If this causes any mirth--when WHN AM was all country here in the 70s, it was the number one country station in the country. (And the distinction between "trendy" and "fashionable" leaves me a lil mirthful myself!) Barry NY Daily News 3/9/97 Record Exec: Country Music Has Gotta Get a Station in N.Y. By DAVID HINCKLEY Daily News Staff Writer If country music wants to reverse the decline in its radio listening audience, says a top country marketing executive, it has to get a station into the heart of New York. This suggestion by Pat Quigley, president of Capitol Records in Nashville, echoes the feeling about New York radio by executives from networks as diverse as Radio Disney, Radio Unica and One-on-One Sports: To make it, you have to be a player in New York. Even if you're not a top-10 station, the visibility is critical and even the 25th-ranked station here has more listeners than the top station in most other markets. Recent data from the trade mag the M Street Journal shows about 765 country stations in the major markets, down from 846 in 1994. The average percentage of the audience listening to country in major markets was 12.7% in 1994. It's 9.8% now. That percentage rises a little when you add in small rural markets, but the trend is still down. People in the country music biz suggest the music has stagnated, that all the hatacts and hot chicks are repeating themselves. No new Garth Brooks has surfaced, and Shania Twain shows up at the Grammys singing hard rock. But Quigley tells the trade mag Radio Ink that reinvigorating country radio would energize the music ó and "the first step is to tell [radio goliaths] CBS or Chancellor to put a country station in New York." The biggest country station here now is independent WYNY (Y-107, 107.1 FM), a quadrocast from four suburban stations ringing the city. WYNY averages 400,000 listeners a week ó the fifth highest country listenership in America, trailing only stations in Chicago, L.A., Dallas and Atlanta. It has major-league deejays like Jim Kerr and Ray Rossi, and it recently raised $700,000 for St. Jude's in Memphis. Still, there's a perception in the all-important advertising community that WYNY isn't a city station ó and that's what Quigley thinks needs to change. Someone must plant the flag here, he says, then promote it ferociously. Country labels must support it with ads and bring artists to town. If New York embraces it, he says, "Country will be fashionable, not trendy." Neither CBS nor Chancellor, by the way, has shown any inclination to consider country in New York. Country stations here have always made money, but they're too sedate for media giants, who boost their profile and stock price by selling flash and glamor.
Re: Joe Henry - Fuse Billy Bob was: over the wall post)
Personally, I don't know how to talk on-list to people not on the list especially since it's hard just to keep up with everybody who DOES hang around..so I won't try... One thing you get with Joe Henry's excellent new disc (IMHO), which I haven't seen reported yet, is some fairly hilarious video. It's an enhanced CD (the copy I got is--and apparently they all are)..and besides two CD-ROM playable numbers from the recent Sessions at West 54th show, it's got Billy Bob Thornton in a lengthy interview appearing as Joe Henry, sitting on a sofa, and offering up key commentary like: " My key influences are T-Bone Walker and Jonathan Winters records...I have NEVER exploited my relationship with Madonna to further my career...I don't like movies and believe there shoud be no music in them..." etc. And then you get this new musical recording (with virtually no twang content, as expected, but much to bite into, I say) for free. Hoping to catch him at SXSW, officially or less officially. He's scheduled for Liberty Lunch Thursday night after those revamped Backsliders--and of course, opposite Doug Sahm, John Dee Graham,...sigh He'll no doubt be around at daytime events and appearances too. So it goes. Barry
Sunday NYTimes: Earle Willis
NYT March 7, 1999 Chroniclers of Wayward Souls By ANN POWERS Country has long been packaged as the classical music of simple American folks. The transformation of hillbilly entertainment into an official repository of our national traditions has extended from the fancy naming of the Grand Ole Opry in 1927 to the appointment of William Ivey, the director of the Country Music Hall of Fame, to the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998. Not only Nashville's music industry, but also the "alternative" country made by rock- and folk-schooled rebels can be discouragingly orthodox, its vintage trappings turning cultural preservation into historical tourism. Yet country music is also grounded in dislocation -- in the stories of people facing upheaval in their home towns, their families, their daily life. This is a modern music, tied like the blues to the journeys of working people across America and the encroachment of the city on rural life. The poor wayfaring stranger is as much a honky-tonk cliche as Mama making cornbread, and as country's patina grows ever more nostalgic, even that character's vagrancy becomes strangely fixed. Exile has become another form of home in country, invoked with a warm glow. Country music finds its power in the tension between nostalgia and the need for change, a contradiction mined on two new albums by established iconoclasts. "The Mountain," by Steve Earle with the Del McCoury Band, investigates country's most classical form, bluegrass. "What I Deserve," by Kelly Willis, is more eclectic. Both Earle and Ms. Willis succeed where many of their contemporaries fail by keeping their focus on restlessness. "The Mountain" (E Squared, CD, CD 1063-2) is an art project in denim and work boots, a self-conscious effort by Earle to pay homage to the bluegrass pantheon if not enter it. "My primary motive in writing these songs was both selfish and ambitious -- immortality," he writes in the album's liner notes, and on some songs he has achieved an almost eerie timelessness. It's hard to believe that the murder ballad "Carrie Brown" or the funeral hymn "Pilgrim" hasn't been sung by anonymous town criers for a century, but it's also easy to forget that the plaintive form of "country jazz" that Earle is reproducing emerged a mere half century ago. Working with the virtuoso ensemble the Del McCoury Band, Earle matches venerable themes of heartbreak and war, workingman's struggles and outlaw romance to his casually expert compositions. His patented rocker's snarl meshes with Del McCoury's unearthly wail to form a link across the generations of country renegades. The album's musicianship is notable; its guest roster features many of bluegrass' finest players plus the alternative-country stars Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and Iris DeMent. But Earle's songs make "The Mountain" more than a fine generic exercise as they trace a path of displacement throughout American history. Earle has often chronicled the violence of modernization; his early forays into country-rock updated that theme with a Southernized Springsteen sound and a countercultural attitude. Like those early albums, "The Mountain" uses its musical focus to further a strong social agenda. Earle seeks a common voice grounded not in wistful memory but in thorny reality; his ramblers are the former high school football heroes, drug dealers, gas station attendants and homeless people of the New South. "The Mountain" finds counterparts for those characters in Civil War tales and corny love songs. The album begins with "Texas Eagle," an ode to
Re: Tweedy generations - cont'd again
Gen X cynicism is a hand-me-down albeit more intensified and "what about me" attitude from the Baby Boom generation. Tera Then why didn't the Velvet Underground sell more records?? Lance . . . A good and rarely made point from Tera--as far as it goes--and a reasonable question from Lance. First off-the Velvets were on a label unprepared to sell anything to anybody in the entire rock and roll arena (they couldn't sell people like the Stonemans in country either)--but also, no doubt about it, the STYLE in which the Velvets expressed the. uh, dark side, certainly was out of keeping with the moment on the broad level. A few Eastern cranks (like myself for one) might have bought those records--and even played some of 'em on the same radio programs as Gram Parsons (I'm, uh, guilty there too!)...but the style so broadly beloved later was largely against the grain. So point proven, right--the audience of 1969 were therefore all spoiled fuckin hippies obnoxious Pollyana sunshiney fake "love" promoters with irony deficiency anemia, who knew nothing about life--unlike the generation to follow who would be born with natural perspective , hard knocks realism, and louder speaker banks. But NO! You have to be able to see irony in places where it's not dog-marked with today's style, and therefore obvious in retrospect; you have to deal with a time and place that actually were different, and styles that reflected that difference--and maybe explore it as an interesting undiscovered country. We've been through this on P2 before--with post '82 hardcore punkers automatically offering the expected opinions about that awful "hippie" Jefferson Airplane, for instance--cause that's the take now, influenced by that truly awful latter-day Starship which had nothing to do with them at all. Get past the labels and listen with fresh ears--and you can rediscover that they, sticking with the example, were the dark, intellectual and cynical band of the tim, --though those attributes did NOT then prevent anybody from suggesting the possibilities of either politics or even some hard-won love. It was 1969, not 1999, and there were smart people and shallow ones afoot then too. White Rabbit is not a hippie song about bunnies, as someone here actually once called it--but one that begins "When the truth is found to be LIES..and all of the joy, inside you DIES..." And they'd really smash those chords, and the clashing harmonies that resulted --obvious on certain cuts of "After Bathing at Baxters" that followed just months later--are absolutely the pattern built on by X some years later. So the unpleasant truth for boomers and X'ers and Y'ers alike is that evolution keeps on evolving--and the radical breaks each of these groups imagine are their "accomplishment" are often not that radical in retrospect.--whether that's pleasant to swallow or not. I've come to a firm belief that Boomer Bashing is surviving now as the nostalgia of today's 30 somethings. Who are getting a little long in the tooth for it themselves! And basically--who gives a damn what they call alt.country--which I believe has been there as long as country has. Barry M.
Re: Tweedy generations - cont'd again. correction
Yeah, yeah, I know. I quoed "Somebody to Love"... Typing too fast at one point. Meant to say: White Rabbit is not "a hippie song about bunnies", as someone here actually once called it--but one by a band and author that also says "When the truth is found to be LIES..and all of the joy, inside you DIES..." Barry M.
Re: Velvets and irony (was: Tweedy generations - cont'd again)
And since we're on the subject--I've been wondering for awhile about the Velvet's "Who Loves the Sun." I can't decide if this song is Lou Reed's concession to the "peace and love" demographic, a send-up/parody of that same demographic, or both. s on this one are encouraged. Lance . . . Well, the Velvets are ALSO of their time and place...IMHO, in the case of that song...remember that it's point is "Who Loves the Sun?...no, Not everyone!". (take that Paul McCartney... .The cut is deliberately ironic, exploiting uh "cheese" before we had the word. (Actually we did, we just called it "plastic".) I'd say the way to understand that song is as a send-up of the way the mainstream would attempt to TALK TO the so-called "peace and love demographic" in shampoo ads and sitcoms and soundtracks. It's no concession to anything--though they might have hoped that it could be a hit by mistake! (very Andy Warhol, all that is--was Warhol saluting the Campbell Soup demographic?) The sound of Who Loves the Sun is pure "something for the kids" Hollywood soundtrack style of that year--(references--Check out: Themes and soundtracks from, say, "Goodbye Columbus" or "I Love You Alice B Toklas ") with ultra-white "bah-bah-bahs" courtesy of the Association, Spanky and Our Gang and the Mamas and Papas. But the point of the words is how this stuff does NOT apply to the singer. Which reminds me: Another place to check out irony 60s style: much of the best writing of "Papa" John Phillips--who is talked about as a sort of ultimate mid-60s hippoid now...was in this vein. (No pun originally intended--but a song like "Straight Shooter" shows how the darker his lyrics would get, the more he'd lay on the sort of "catchy" melodies you're hearing in "Who Loves the Sun" too...That's how it would be done. Randy Newman started doing the same thing right about then--nastier the news, sweeter the sound. And John Phillips would soon write one of the first good country rock hits BTW, influenced by Creedence, "Mississippi" (As a longtime resident of the East Village who can still see Mr. Reed walk by here every now and then..I thought I'd take this argument all the way by using California examples!) Meanwhile: the Velvets simply were not a cynical band. You were supposed to be able to take all the hard news possible and STILL FUNCTION. It was not about nihilism. As best stated in that lil ditty that follows "Here Comes the Sun""there are even some evil mothers, who think that life is just dirt..."
Re: A progressive Question [Extremely LONG]
On Sun, 7 Mar 1999, Joe Gracey wrote: In 1971 we started looking for a name for it and the best we could do was "Progressive Country", which was decent enough but somehow unsatisfying. Gee, right around that same time people were looking for a name for the kind of overworked poppyclassicojazzrock hodgepodge played by people like Yes and ELP and they came up with the name "progressive rock." The idea of there being any link between these two, even if only by an adjective, gives me the heebie jeebies. Will Miner And the pre=newwgrass bands of that same time were called "Progressive Bluegrass" if that helps! Remember, "progressive jazz" was a term already over a decade old then. (In 1961, Progressive Jazz means something like, say, Maynard Fergusonand I guess they'd even used it before that for Brubeck etc...Even then it meant a well-intentioned middle class intellectual watering down of something harder!) Joe could fill in more detail, but in '71 the "progressive rock" label was not being born, but horribly transmorgified into what Will just described. It had been used since the advent of FM album-playing rock stations in '66-'67--and the stations themselves were usually called "free form" or "progressive"...so anything over 2 minutes and 8 seconds on a single was progressive rock! Part of me still feels we were better off with the 2 minutes 8 seconds, and I say this as a known Dylan fan. Barry
Re: RIP Stanley Kubrick
. Three P2ers, three classic films, three memorials. Who'll go for four? b.s. I'm Spartacus!... Honey, I'm home! .. h; that smarts!... Now close the pod bay doors, Hal. But you can't quote the lighting in Barry Lyndon. Barry not Lyndon. We'll meet again. Don't know where; don't know when.
Re: Tweedy quote /generations
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The older folks, the ones with jobs and largely without .EDU at the end of the e-mail account, are more into the music. and less into the bands? wait. . .I'm confused. This often happens at the brink of a cosmic insight. Please keep going with this train of thought until I can catch up. Seriously. Linda Jeff's on a roll today, Linda (on the fluff list too)..and I think he IS getting at something true here too..as only somebody able to track actual record buyers responses would be! To those who for the latest thing is the First Fire, there is that throwing themselves into the thing they've heard, and they want to just breath in every ounce of it..(this accidental metaphor has got to go!)..But as wee get to having been around a little, and been through, uh, repeated incidents, the ol perspective starts to kick in, inevitably...and you get careful in a way that would only seem "tired" to the spanking new...careful to look for what's live and lasting in that music, wherever and from whenever you find it. For most listeners, life, omey and this tendency is going to rule out the full musical "perv" on anybody brand new in particular. I think that;s what Jeff's talking about--but I'd just add one special case asterisk here: for anybody crazed enoigh to be on P2 for long, these rules don't apply--.exactly. See, as WE get older, we do look around more broadly--but then termite right in obsessively on whoever turns out to grab us anyway. Lotsa times. Good for discussions--and good for record company and mail order sales, if w pay cash and don't still happen to be well-known working reviewer weasel types. Barry M.
Re: Townes
Tthe famous alleged Townes box (assuming you mean the one in which he performs duets with lots and lots of people) has still not been given any release date I've ever heard...The Charley 2-CD set is all culled from his albums, but it happens to have more of his cuts in their original form on it than anything previously, and makes a good intro, IMHO. (I do vaguely recall friends of Mrs. Van Zandt pointing out that the family isgetting no royalties from the Charley rereleases however, so unless I'm corrected about that, you can take that info for what it is and isn't worth. I picked up the new Charley 2-CD "Live at the Old Quarter" while I was over in London recebtly, anyway, cause I ust hadda have it.) Barry Can anyone tell me about this Charly comp? Does it have any non-LP tracks, outtakes, demos, and that sort of thing, or is it a collection of previously released material? And since I'm on the subject, does anyone know what the status is of the Townes boxed-set. Is it a career-spanner? How many CDs? And does there figure to be overlap with the Charly comp? That's more than enough questions for now. Thanks. Lance . . .
Re: Cheryl's answer to Question [Extremely LONG]
Amen. It's keep on coming and it keeps on coming back. Witn the health of the music that exactly fits the "tiny tent" alt.country definition at least questionable now--the bigger picture ought to feel like good news to anybody who's really connected with ALL THIS. What Cheryl said was the five-ring circus Big Tent truth... Put as only Ms. Cline can put it--whenever she happens to get so in-Clined. Barry Who kinda stepped into the pool as a small kid in the rockabilly 50s..appreciated the positive side of the folk scare..and has been in whole hog thgru the twists and turns since the Byrd-in-the-Burrito country rock non-boomlet. (Also trying to figure how Mr. Cantwell's new "what you hgeard at age ten" rule applies to me--cause 1960 was kind of a slimn year between some fat periods!)
Re: Townes
I picked up the new Charley 2-CD "Live at the Old Quarter" while I was over in London recently, anyway, cause I just hadda have it. Barry Yeah, what's the deal with this one? Is the second disc really just the CD-version of the double vinyl with the extra songs? Or is there a whole 'nother 60 minutes or so? Lance It's exactly the same as the complete vinyl album...and sounds good. Barry
SXSW Music '99: Advice from the Sponsor
Two weeks remain until we start handing out badges and the fun begins throughout Austin. South By Southwest is going to happen again, like it or not. Planning for conference this year has been greatly enhanced by new services available at www.sxsw.com. Keeping track of who's playing where and when is a lot easier with our searchable bands database. We've also included simple text files of our music fest schedule for ease of printing, cutting and pasting. Here's a tip on arriving in Austin prepared: Print out your music fest information at the last possible moment. We're updating our band information several times daily and you'll want to have the most accurate list to plan from. We've finalized details for our panels and tradeshow, those are posted in our website and on the way to the printer for the analog version of the website we call the program book. We've got some great new speakers and exhibitors coming along with some old favorites. To those of you who are already registered, we're looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks. We've worked our tails off to plan this thing, and we truly hope you find it valuable and entertaining. If you haven't registered yet, you may register online until March 8, after that walk up registration will at the Austin Convention Center Ballroom A, beginning March 17 at noon. P.S. If you're flying in, this is the last SXSW for the Robert Mueller Airport! Say goodbye to our tiny crowded field and get ready for Austin Bergstrom Airport for SXSW '00.
Re: 1st half-ironic cover? (was sucking in the 70s)
Considering R. McG. ended up doing 700 Club commercials for Pat Robertson I now wonder if there was ever any irony in it. jb Well, the ironies really pile on here. The one who was taking the song reasonably seriously at THAT time was almost surely future drug casualty Gram Parsons, who brought it up, and was certainly at least serious about wanting to take the radical step of saluting the Louvins' sincerity about these matters...It's almost impossible to see how startling Parsons' country meets rock mission was in 1968 without taking these cultural facts of that moment into account. THAT seriousness about the song--the serious suggestion that it had something to tell us in its unabshed sincerity, was certainly lost in the recording--and I don't recall anybody taking it straight. People who'd cover that version live virtually always did it ironically--lacking the scruples Junior mentioned to NOT do it as an offense to the seriously Christian. (And it's also useful to remember; when country artists attempted to speak to the rock and rollers after Gram, coming from The Other Side, they'd generally do it with vague or specific references to drug use, sex etcI guess this is what we meant by meteing half way. Thgere really was a kind of truce among those in these alt.country circles for a while there. Rock topics with country sounds and country topics with rock sounds are still pretty much among the alt.country staples, no? ) ..Meanwhile, back at the rodeo: .'Christian Life" was one of the Sweetheart cuts replaced by a McGuinn version, and ol' Roger was years away from that Christian Conversion at that time...The song SOUNDS tongue-in-cheek as McGuinn sings it on the released version, always has--and is difficult to hear any other way. (The Gram version has since become available for comparison.) Here are the comments of Johnny Rogan in His Byrds book Timeless Flight, after pointing out that Chris Hillman had brought in "I Am a Pilgrim", which he of course new from his bluegrass background: "The Christian Life" continued to stress the religious theme, and to hear the Byrds celebrating the virtues of godliness seemed, to many listeners, almost ironic. This was one of the tracks that had to be reerecorded with McGuinn replacing Parsons on lead vocal. Roger clearly attempts to imitate Parsons' vocal style and the entire effect is bizarre. What is, presumably, meant to be a serious song, in celebration of the Christian faith, comes across as unintentionally parodic; with McGuinn sounding as though he's mimicking rather than imitating Parsons' vocal phrasing." That McGuinn would later get all-so-serious about these matters just goes to show that ironic training wheels sometimes get dropped... I guess the kind of arguments that have been had here over "ironic" rock takes on twang culture did not start with P2, eh! Barry
Re: Esther ???
I believe she's the woman who played the main female character in Jim Jarmusch's "Stranger Than Paradise." I think I remember reading something about her father being a jazz musician, but I could have been halucinating. I also seem to remember reading something about her releasing a CD. Jamie D., who is absolutely positive she's at work right now, but not of much else Jamie's got that exactly right. Mrs. Hockestix and I actually saw Ms. Bolint open for Freakwater some months ago; you can see it made for an, uh, interesting evening. Esther'ss still a resident of the same East Village she sludged through to the dulcet tones of Screamin' Jay Hawkins in my old friend Mr. Jarmusch's picture. Her music was DEFINITELY in the stolen by gypsies vein--but wanted at times to have a sort of twang twinge...(There's a new genre for ya--Twinge)... Screamin Jay, unfortunately, did not attend. Barry M.
Re: Sunrise (was: RE: Playlist: The Boudin Barndance - 2/18/99)
Unfortunately, Jon, from the perspective of just about anybody'd who care, you're absolutely rightThere's much good music and a lot of interets in getting to hear how that sound was arrived at--and some of the alternate versions hold their own anyway, some of which are the ones they keep on Sunrise, apparently--but you lose the process, which is worth preserving. I just don't GET what they're doing with the Sun sessions any more., The most complete version yet released was still that double vuinyl LP from the 80s--reduced to the first Sun sessions CD. Then they let go of those "I recorded these for my mama Gladys" cuts in pieces==and I think a lot of Elvis fans will know that the live cuts they've added here are from the much-released already Louisiana Hayride performances--which are sometimes joined by the "return to Memphis from RCA" version of Hound Dog. (Not on this disc though, I believe.) If you're gonna pull the Sun Sessions together--from from a rock and roll and rockabilly perspective, and arguably, country too, you need to--why not just do it. Personally, I have the basic takes and outtakes already on that very necessary 50s Elvis box, the first box--so the justification for this would be to give it the full treatment. But I suppose they'll do that in another three years and try to sell me this stuff for, if I can keep count, the seventh time! Barry Unfortunately, at least from my perspective, there are a couple of outtakes/alternate takes on The Sun Sessions that don't appear on Sunrise, so a completist will want to hang onto the former (is this a new strategy to reduce the traffic in used copies of The Sun Sessions that might otherwise result?). Jon
Re:Elena review--and her CD
"Similarly, Elena Skye got her professional start in the wild world of New Jersey and New York punk rock before the rediscovery of bluegrass music led her to turn down the volume and form her traditional country-influenced but cowpunk-driven quartet, Elena Skye and the Demolition String Band". So they had it in Richmond and often do in reviews, it seems--but as Ms. Ske has pointed out right here mnore than once--and as is very true, the Demolitions are not exactly a bluegrass band, and don't say they are. They are an unmitigated String Band--as much or more influenced by jazz and blues and jug as bluegrass and country, and Ms. Skye's strong vocals handles all of this tough stuff with adeptness and style--and so does that whole band. I suspect that, exactly like the Bad Livers, they'll always be called a bluegrass band by those who don't quite have their music straight and don't know what the great white and black string band traditions were. So it goes; sigh. But what you need to do, if they haven't yet offered you the very rela pleasure of playiong in front of your very face, is to pick up this new El;ena Ske The Demolition String Band: one dog town disc--which here in the wilds of New York at least, has been readily available at even Tower Records (North Hollow Rexords). The Greg Garing-produced disc does capture the sound as it is--inlcuding a licve Alphabet City Opry take, and even, after I've said all this, even some pretty good bluegrass, to my city ears. Get it. And personally, I hope we'll have them at Twangfest. Barry M.
RE: Robbie Fulks and covers
Slonedog says: Or perhaps it's because the artists actually like the songs. I for one love "Dancing Queen", "Jet" and "I Will Survive". They're not "guilty pleasures", they're just fun songs. I don't like to do the "But that's what I said in the firts place" thing--but I did--before those, uh, social decsriptions. Robbie Fulks did those songs in dead earnest and they were swell--and I never said I didn't like 'em for their own sake in the firts place. What we were looking at is the reason for the seemingly out of proportion response to 'em compared to the rest of a terrific set of his own stuff. That's all. Barry
Re: very long piece on Replacements and Covers (was fulks andcovers)
Jake--can I call ya Jake-- That's as good a dissection of the issue Dina's question raised as I've seen anywhere. And also something of an excellent defense of something which probably SHOULDN'T have needed to be defended--an audience's recation to what it herad, the way it heard it. Now, I'll wager (hope!) you won't feel generationally pressured or doubt my word if I say that, tho born in 1950, right dab in the middle of those years you corrcetly identify as core "boomer" -I think I was always enough of an ironic type not to fall into the sorts of traps you note many of about my age have. (At least, I've done a reasonable job of resisting the impulse.) I also happen to despise the word boomer--even moreso when used all smiley cuddley beaming with daisies by somebody who is of that post-war generation themselves BTW --and just want to note that damn few people my age have ever felt or had reason to feel that we're arrived at power let alone hegemony over much of anything. As many of us as there are, and as intimidating and annoying as the sheer fact of us must often seem, those sheer numbers have largely reduced the power of most of us as individuals--and even opportunities. But enough of that morose stuff. Part of the beauty of all this is that none of us at all have to abide by the reductive, too dismissive, and often media-constructed notions of who we're supposed to be based ond when (or where, BTW) we were born and raised. In many ways--a lot of us around here seem to avoid falling into sociological stereotypes--one of the charms of P2--with members from--what did that report just say--18 to 65? Thanks for some original thinking and unusually potent writing. This sort of stuff is what made Postcard2 BTW, even if it's almost forgotten now. Somehow iIt figures that Mr. Cantweell was one of those who got to see this stuff early. He's no opponent of "Really Long". Fortunately. Yet Sometimes I also just want to say about our "generations"--"to hell with all of 'em."There are real differences in experiences, of course--bu tas for these capital G Generations monumentalized in stone. sometimes, for the individual, I think they mean about as much as decadesdo --not so much in the larger scheme of things.. Ol' Barry M. Peeping out from behind the hegemonies.
Re: Sunrise (was: RE: Playlist: The Boudin Barndance - 2/18/99)
Basically yeah--the Hayride tapes (and in no all THAT bad quality BTW)--are readily available on gray market discs, and somebody repackages them every year... Two around in stores now are from the UK--"Elvis Presley: The Legend Begins" has some 19 cuts. It adds early TV appearances and an interview. Another UK disc out at the moment combines the Louisiana Hayride tapes with a pretty decent collection of covers of Elvis songs. The other live show from this period--Sun years and very eraly RCA--is that Mississippi Farm Show appearance--which only is found on thhat otherwise strange "gold" Elvis box. Barry I recently lucked into a copy of a 1982 LP, "Elvis: The First Live Recordings." There are 5 recordings from the Hayride, all from 1955 and 1956 (obviously). Anyway, the songs are "Baby, Let's Play House," "Maybelline," "Tweedle Dee," "That's All Right (Mama)," and "Hound Dog." Perchance are these the same songs from Sunrise? This stuff isn't very well recorded, but it's muy historical and E sounds great. The only reason I'd buy sunrise is to hear early live stuff, but I ain't gonna get if I've already got it. Lance . . .
Re: Robbie Fulks and covers
Wait. . .I've never heard Robbie do this particular cover. Are you referring to that cheesy rock song Suffragette by the Beatles? curious, Linda That's Jet all right, Linda--but it was by Wings. OK, OK, finally I just have to ask "WHY?!!!" I just don't get it. Why do people love for country or alt.country bands or so-called alt.country bands to do covers of godawful cheesy rock songs? Why do people respond to these more than they do to the, OK, I'm going to say it, "real" songs? Dina Two reasons I think. 1. If you do like the twang--then these covers arrive as an incongruous SURPRISE. You get a response. 2. For those at these alt.country shows who DON'T actually like twang but only the tiniest rock and roll allusions to it (and they're always afoot), it gives them something they actually relate to. So why WOULDN'T those add up to what sounds like more response! And bonus 3: It is a passing peculiarity of the late 90s that it passes for ultrahip to celebrate the most addlebrained and plain dull pop pablum of years gone by, at the deliberate expense of what somebody's older brother with taste liked. So you scream for Karen Carpenter and ABBA, natch, and explain why Jimi Hendrix was the plague and the Beatles overrated. These choices prove you are most-definitely alternatively, dude. THIS WILL PASS. And watch this lil hipster wannabees: in 15 years someone will announce that Son Volt, Nirvana, and say...Beck..were pretentious 90s shits, and the embarrassing lunkheads of that time never saw the genius of Shania Twain...just passing them by...and, of course, that great, unheralded Norman Fibber Hall. How could those idiots have missed HIM? Barry
Re: Damnations again (revisited)
When I hear a band that sounds this fine, I wish they would do more covers. Will Miner When you see them, Will, you get to hear those covers--which happen to be some of their most dynamic numbers, and are probably the cause of some of the comments about the Damnations that might seem confusing if all you've heard is this album as released. The "Live Set" limited edition contains several of they key covers I'm talking about--sweet and tough vocalized versions of "Copper Kettle" and "John Hardy" that seem like brand new hundred year old records--and the best, most electric, rhythmic, close harmonizing version of Lucinda's "Happy Woman Blues" I've heard anybody do, period. I will admit, now, to being slighgtly disappointed with the released CD--and I say this as an unmitigated fan. From what you hear from the Damnations live, to what was chosen for the record, to the version they mixed a year ago, to the version just put out, seems to me to have worked out in practice as a series of steps away from the original turns from the-traditional country and blues based sounds they'd featured. And you have to think this was done in hopes of commercial success (entirely their business, surely, but it's also mine not to be that excited by the choice.) You'd have to think that because they still sound different live, at least, last time I heard 'em. (ONe of the Austin folks--Slim?--Smilin' Jim?) suggested yesterday that they're already PAST the sound of this record, but will know doubt have to push it for now! Some of that "stolen by gypsies/Euro-ambient" sound shows up, which for reasons obscure to me ( continuing odd sense of catching a wave!?) has sometimes been the l mark of bands running like hell from alt.country...but, by design, I'd figure, none of those very Americana covers mentioned above made the release. It may be as hard to decsribe why this band was "alt.coiuntry" someday as it was to make that clear about Lone Justice...but the ballgame's far from over, with this much talent afoot. Now I do like the songs written for the CD...and I like the CD, all things considered..but I I've been telling friends the Damnations are "the best unrecorded band in the US" for 2 years nowand I think they still are. Barry M.
Re: Mr. Earle Strikes Yet Again
No offense dude, but if you plan on sending a butload of mail to the lists could you do it at once? I stopped reading them after number five. No offense, Mr. Dude, but Phil's postings of the key ongoing alt.country news have been a much-loved part of this list for years--and it's only lately he's resoreted to doing them once a week instead of every day. here's an idea--live with it. Barry M.
Re: Bingo , Alvin, Fulks and the Hollies (was:TheCountrypolitans)
A word of caution here: I've found all of the alt-country releases eminating out of Portland to be less than pleasing. Sorry, Golden Delicious, nor Bingo... Jerry Jerry- The one time I saw those Bingo kids here in NYC they struck me and I think other P2ers on hand as at least having potential...yeah, they'd been listening to their Son Volt and Golden Smog real, real close...but some pleasing musical sounds were popping out (even after a long road trip to get here)...and I thought they at least had potential if the songwriting started to take off... You've probably seen them more often thougg. Nothin doing'? Anybody else have anything to report on 'em? BTW: Dave Alvin just plain shook the packed Bowery Ballroom here last night--and Robbie Fulks joined in at the end, plus there was a surprise little Motown cowboy set from Chris Gaffney...Fulks is till doing the acoustic thing...but the current Guilty Men (half Skeletons, on drums and keyboards) joined him for a few numbers at the end of the set. We have now heard Robbie Fulks perform Dancing Queen and the Hollie's ol' "On a Carousel" electric. In dead earnest. I knew you'd all want to know. Barry
Re: Is It or Is It Not?
This is such an amusing case of horseraces in the making. Like it or don't, but don't hang this on a question of definitions. Somebody's gotta see at least some irony in the apparebtly inevitable bluegrass purist discussion of whether Earle's voice is "right" for their form--considering that I can recall grassers (or maybe, "semi-grassers") saying they've never been able to stand Del's voice itself! It should be easy to understand how he'd be generous about differences. He's got his own (wonderful. I think) idiosyncrasies, and has also made a contribution in being probably the most blues-friendly bluegrass star in some time. And I don't mean that the contribution's not in the friendliness--the openness to that other strain, in itself--but in the often memorable RESULTS (what counts) in all those "blue" songs and discs. And that's the point for a natural born anti-purist like me: If the Earle/McCourys combo works in this case--and that disc seems like something of a longtime keeper classic in the making to me, in part for the interplay of the harsher rock from old time/heroin-in-the-hills voice with the sweet sounds of this band. As I type this, the West 54th Street session with these guys is on TV--and Del just got finished telling us all how exactly he enjoyed this collaboration--and also complimented Earle as a musician, by the way. (as a rhythm guitarist--but fair enough.) The duet with Iris is just a plain good country song, I'd say--and there's some Texas Western Swing influenced stuff too. Why not! Viva a new synthesis with a value of its own. And I hope Steve E gets his wish that some outright bluegrass bands will pick up on some of these songs. Barry M. PS: The "Mickey Mouse" opening of the record reminds me of the laughing fit start without a band of Bob Dylan's 115th Dream on "Bringing It All Back Home"--the songs have some pattern similarities out of similar traditional sources, too. And I suspect it's no accident.
Re: 1998 P2 SURVEY
Should we recruit Aries people?. Perhaps they're the ones that contributed the unusable responses... Rams can't twang. Not even standing up. Or while wearing glasses. Barry M. (This being P2, I'm sure a catalog of twanger Aries types will follow!) Seriously-- thanks to Stacey , Pete and everyone involved for the effort; this is interesting stuff...I know there are more from Canada and overseas than those few, but even there, the percentage would probably prove about right. Now, do we start marketing ourselves as an undepressed demographic group?
Re: The Eradication Game (Re: Grammyszzzzzzzzz....)
How old were you when "Ahab the Arab" came out? I was a kid/teen and it was cooler than shit to us. It is a distortion to lump his later junk in with his earlier hits because he eventually ran out of gas and began to repeat himself and become tiresome and clownish. Joe Gracey Yeah, exactly, as per usual. Besides, if we start letting people judge us by the way we are once we begin to repeat ourselves, run out of gas and become tiresome and clownish, we'll all be in trouble. Well--at least those of us in the upper end of the demographic... Besides, if we start letting peop[le judge us by the way we are once we begin to repeat ourselves, run out of gas and become tiresome and clownish, we'll all be in trouble. Well--at least those of us in the upper end of the demographic... Besides, if we start letting peop[le judge us by the way we are once we begin to repeat ourselves, run out of gas and become tiresome and clownish, we'll all be in trouble. Well--at least those of us in the upper end of the demographic... Besides... Barry M.
Re: Damn This Old LA Town
The sorry thing, Neal, is we all blame this kind of behavior on our own towns (easy enough to do here in downtown hipper-than-thousville, too) but it's getting to be too damn common everywhere across the U.S.--and maybe beyond. The worst mistake is supposed to be to say anything about this rudeness or to try to hush it..Yoiu become an instant heavy. Unless you're Linda Ray, if I remember right. She shuts 'em up real good! I can report on who talked through Dave Alvin and Robbie Fulks here tonight-tomorrow! Barry M. There they were, playing their plucky banjo-fied songs to a crowd at the half-full Viper Room that was so so so so chatty that I kept hoping the band would give up on the quieter acoustic stuff and crank up the loud stuff again, just to mask the noise. It fucking pisses me off when people show up and then just talk over the music, especially when they're on the li Neal Weiss
Re: Vegas?
Does anybody have any inkling of anything interesting going on in Las Vegas between April 18th and 22nd? Dina Hey Dina--if that, as I think it is, is the week of the NAB Broadcasters convention, (which as of the moment at least I'm scheduled to be at too BTW)...the answer to "what's going on?", as with COMDEX week is usually... not much! With 150,000 people in town they don't usually have to add great acts. On the other hand, caught Ray Charles there one year that week--George Carlin another time...and (maybe even better at this point) the reunion of Keeley Smith with Sam Butera and the Witnesses (i.e., the Louis Prima Band) doing all the original stuff as a lounge act yet--it was packed! But even Sigfried and Roy tend to leave town that week! Get to know you're slot machine and gin. Barry M.
Re: Vegas?
Oh, Barry! I caught Sam Butera last time I was in Vegas and he was *great*. Some extremely jumpin' RB, wow. He lives in Vegas and so is always something to look for when you're passing through. Also The Treniers, another old RB act, kick ass out -junior The Treniers are an all-time favorite of mine, and should be of everybody else's too--still remember 'em down on the floor and flopping a flyin standup bass between the knees when I was a kid...plus they made great records. In Philadelphia! If what's left of 'em ever plays when I'm in Las Vegas..I'm there! Twang content kinda: when I caught that Sam Butera/Keely Smith reunion (at the Desert Inn, just outside the Chinese reastuarant).. among those in the stand-up crowd was none other than the King of the Sidekicks--Mr. Pat Butram. I'd just had to explain to 20 somethings who Louis Prima was (this was well before the advent of Gap commercials, although after the revival of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" by a party who will remain nameless)..so "first Italian/American Indian singing comedy team, before Sonny and Cher, and o yeah, they really rocked)...now I had to go back to the days of erial anbd 50s TV cowboys to explain why I was fauninbg over this ol' man (I was not alone)... Barry M.
Re: The Eradication Game (Re: Grammyszzzzzzzzz....)
(I think I'd leave the Dead alone just to keep the NOT live Workingmans/American Beauty..but they did add much to the noodling disease...) Never having been a metal fan, there are days, in retrospect, I'd put the hit on Led Zep to stamp out not so much them but a lotta what they done wrought..like the notion that endless volume noddling and macho posturing are all that interesting either.but I don't think I could give up the history of Jimmie Page before that, so I'll pass. I'm pretty sure just raising this suggestion will piss off some people though--which is the point of this game, ain't it? And if you're gonna zap somebody-- you gotta keep it pivotal. Hmmm...David Crosby?... Who put out the first record that kept the ending going on and repeating forever to turn a 2:33 single into a modern bore?...Nominees? Barry M. NP: Kelly Willis
Re: The Eradication Game (Re: Grammyszzzzzzzzz....)
Ray Stevens.. I , have never liked him, and particularly hate his novelty songs... By throwing his name out, I *want* to hear defenses of his work. Give me a reason to appreciate him Carl Z. Cause everything is beautiful in its own way? Barry (BTW, did that number make Stevens another, uh, " fuckin hippie'? )
Re: The Eradication Game . . . Ray Earth Daddy Stevens
And, oh yeah, Robert Plant should be eradicated. Lance . . That would take care of my save Jimmy Page but blot out later spin-offs of Led Zeppelin problem... Excellent move. ...even now I can see him fading on up that stairway to... Barry
SXS: Film for the Undead
(From Film Threat Weekly) SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST UNDEAD FILM FESTIVAL INVADES AUSTIN An alternative to the upcoming South By Southwest Film Festival has reared its ugly head. To be held in Austin, Texas, members of SlowKid Productions have formed their own film fest. This year, the first annual South By Southwest Undead Film Festival will be held concurrently with the South By Southwest Film Festival during the days of March 19-20th at yet to be disclosed venues in and around Austin. Nathan McGinty, organizer of the SXSW Undead Film Festival for Slowkid Productions, has already confirmed a number of unpretentious choices for films, making their premiere including: "Zombie Like Me", which explores the discrimination that Zombies experience in a world dominated by Mummys, "The Naked and the Undead" a WWII era film chronicling the struggles of a group of undead GI's working to defeat the Japanese in the pacific theater and, "The Collegians Are Go!!", filmed locally in Austin and a recent finalist in the United States Super 8mm Film Festival. "We just couldn't believe the blatant 'pro-life' bias that the South By Southwest Film Festival held against films featuring certain members of the undead. We feel it's time that mummys and zombies - undead people everywhere - banded together to be heard," Chuck Collegian, one of the festival's participants, says, "That's exactly what the festival here is seeking to do by helping this much maligned and misunderstood demographic establish it's own unique voice in the grand tradition of the American cinema." Mr. McGinty made a special point of including the Collegian's production in the festival, "For months now, I've been listening to Dr. (Dean) Collegian and Chuck Collegian talk about how their film has been censored by the major film festivals, including South By Southwest. Now, at least they've got some proof." Recently, The Collegians have made public on their web site a Freedom of Information Act Request letter from the CIA in which they address the censorship issue (http://www.flojo.com). Because the Undead Festival was organized on such short notice, final screening times and locations have yet to be determined. "We've still got a lot of work to do, but, hopefully we'll be able to pull it together. There are a lot of filmmakers really ticked off at South By Southwest." Mr. McGinty notes. "We've got plenty of volunteers." Entries should be sent to: SXSW Undead Film Fest, 912A W. Elizabeth, Austin, TX 78704. E-mail the gang at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.flojo.com/undeadfest Read more about SXSW Undead on the site...
Re: SXSW query: Broken Spoke??
And meanwhie, besides the Saturday SXSW line-up there, culminating with Walser-Hancock-Watson, there's the "now I know I'm really in town" Wednesday night line-up at the Broken Spoke--which includes James Hand, Charlie Burton and the Texas 2 Steppers, Ted Roddy's Tearjoint Troubadors, and Cordell Hurd. This sounds like the probable best best for that Wednesday night start-- though I don't know who've they got lined up between speeches at those Austin Music Awards... If you're inclined, Mr. Jeff Beck will also be at La Zona Rosa! And yeah--Lullaby for the Working Class,, Mount Pilot and (is this right?) Jim Roll at Liberty Lunch...or Jo Carol Pierce and Fred Eaglesmith at the Hole in the Wall... on it goes--but I bet I get to the Broken Spoke for at least the later part of Wednesday. Barry M.
Re: Merle/Dale
Kate - No, Merle didn't play with Dale at Tramps. I know Dale would have thought he had died and went to heaven if Merle had. Let me know what you can about the Paradise - thanks. Off the see the Ghosts Rockets at the Rodeo Bar in NYC tonight. e ya later, Kat For the record--Merle and Dale did play together at Tramps last year. And Dale was in heaven, with good re ason--as were a lot of us lucky enough to be there. Barry M. Looking doubtful for being at our list friends Rodeo Bar date tonight.
