Re: Emmylou, Gram tribute, Crow the hack
Regarding the Gram tribute disc, Stevie Simkin wrote: Is there a release date yet for this? ICE Newsletter says June 15. TWM -- Tom Mohr usually here: [EMAIL PROTECTED] sometimes here: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kelly and Bruce
One view of the Kelly Willis show last Thursday: http://metromix.com/reviews/detail/1,1259,2500143,00.html (Warning -- skip his first paragraph if you have a low tolerance for big city writers trying to be clever about country music.) My view of the Friday show -- Kelly was real good, but Bruce Robison's thirty-five minute opening set was maybe a bit better. A well behaved crowd actually listened to his quiet little solo set. High point of the evening -- Kelly Willis suddenly standing next to me in the crowd, watching Bruce do a new song called "Just Married", then joining him on stage for "Angry All the Time". Second best line of the evening -- Kelly asking everyone to buy cd's and t-shirts, to help her pay for boarding her four cats (Baby, OJ, Francis and Twist). Best line of the evening -- see sigfile below. She and the band seemed a bit tentative all evening -- there seemed to be a lot of standing around between songs. And is it just me, or is Amy a bit offkey with her harmonies? Kelly played most of the new record, along with tunes from all her other records. And I think she played all four songs from the Fading Fast ep, which I wish someone would reissue so I don't have to pay forty bucks to buy it on ebay. A rollicking "Take It All Out On You." An intense "Not Long For This World." A perfect "What World Are You Living In." Regarding her version of "Time Has Told Me" -- my vote goes to the Nick-did-it-better side, as she and the band kind of trampled it. She's due back in June, for the Country Music Fest in Grant Park. I assume she'll be on the small stage rather than the giant stage. TWM -- "It was called 'I Didn't Take Your Fucking Baseball Glove' " -- Bruce Robison, on the first song he ever wrote about his brother Tom Mohr usually here: [EMAIL PROTECTED] sometimes here: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chicago (was Re: Steve 'n' Del)
Jon Weisberger referred to the city as: a cold, faraway, rock'n'rollin' kind of place that can barely support Special Consensus (though they've got some great polka). I think I'm going to send this to Mayor Daley and suggest this as the city's official motto. TWM np: Plastic People of the Universe -- Tom (59 degrees in the living room this a.m.) Mohr usually here: [EMAIL PROTECTED] sometimes here: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kelly Willis, for a mere $112.50
Could someone explain why the first Kelly Willis record has a high bid of $112.50 in this ebay auction? http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemitem=80858721 TWM np: Prairie Home Companion -- Tom Mohr usually here: [EMAIL PROTECTED] sometimes here: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
TV This Week
Tonight (Monday) -- Alison Krauss Union Station on Letterman (rerun from 1997) Wednesday -- Chieftains on Rosie, Chieftains on Conan Wednesday -- RR HOF ceremonies on VH1, with Bruce Springsteen, Bob Wills, Dusty Springfield, Curtis Mayfield, Paul McCartney, Joel Somebodyorother, etc. Friday -- Steve Earle and Del McCoury Band on Conan -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Steve Earle Borders Chicago
The Exit O Digest shows this: (March) 26CONFIRMED - IN-STORE PERFORMANCE at Borders, Chicago (Clark Street) 1:00 pm -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Kelly Willis (was Re: The Mountain (LONG w/1999 Reviews)
One more Kelly Willis note. If you have a copy of the Fading Fast ep that you're willing to part with, it's been going for over thirty bucks on ebay recently. http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemitem=75030986 -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Clip: Plastic People of the Universe
Brad Bechtel wrote: Plastic People Power Czech band that helped spawn revolution comes to San Francisco URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/03/07/PK80634.DTLtype=music which included: The tunes are hard-edged, crunching rockers with a metallic throb and pile-driving beat. The numbers are also characterized by a jamming vibe, with young guitarist Joe Kararfiat (a new Plastic member) serving up funky, fiery psychedelic riffs and Brabenec soaring into free-jazz saxophone excursions. That's a good description of what the Plastic People sounded like on Friday in Chicago, playing to a packed house at the Empty Bottle. First time I've ever been to a show where audience members called out requests in Czech. and, quoting sax player Vratislav Brabenec: ``Democracy is a long ways off. People are looking for freedom and what it means. I'm still trying to figure that out for myself.'' They did a pretty amazing show, which to me was even more amazing since I had never imagined I would see them play live. Local writer Jim DeRogatis said: Would the music be quite so gripping if you didn't know the history and the conviction behind it? I think so, but it's hard to separate these factors. Kind of like seeing a Velvet Underground reunion, if Nixon had thrown them in jail back in 1968. If you have any interest in free jazz / avant garde / progressive rock, then don't miss the remainder of this tour. 7 Winnipeg, MB; 8 Calgary, AB; 9 Vancouver, BC, at Richard's on Richards; 10 Seattle, WA. at Sit And Spin; 11 Portland, OR, at The Satyricon; 12 San Francisco, CA, at The Bottom of the Hill; 13 Los Angeles, CA, at Spaceland; 14 San Diego, CA, at The Casbah. Tickets available at Ticketmaster outlets. For more info, call (212) 780-0287, or visit: www.tamizdat.org. http://www.czech.cz/washington/cult/eventemb.htm#plastici http://www.suntimes.com/output/rock/05live1.html -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chicago Cultural Center
From their website: Freakwater Thursday, March 25, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Randolph Cafe Freakwater, a band comprised of two acoustic guitars, a stand-up bass and a fiddle, has a performance style which has been described as straight off the front porch, with singers voices that put the band on the hard-edged end of the country scale. and Spend your lunch hour celebrating artists, writers, dancers, musicians, and other cultural icons in Birthdays at the Cultural Center. Youll be dazzled by programs ranging from folk, blues, and classical to jazz, tap dance, and opera. Goody bags are available for all guests celebrating their birthday. Tuesday, March 16: Acoustic blues trio Devil in a Woodpile honors blues mandolin player Yank Rachell (born this day in 1908, near Brownsville, TN). Monday, March 29: Singer Jane Baxter Miller of the Texas Rubies is joined by Kent Kessler on bass in tribute to country singer Reba McIntire (born March 28, 1955, in Chockie, OK). http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Tourism/CulturalCenter/March/Programs/9903thursday.html http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Tourism/CulturalCenter/March/Programs/9903birthdays.html -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kelly Willis Review from Salon
aiting around
for her to get caught in their grip. And they don't
sound as if they'll be dissipating any time soon. Not
every song here is a sad song, but Willis has made
the slow, easy roll of "I Got a Feelin' For Ya" feel of
a piece with the heartbreak of "Wrapped," made us
hear the potential for sadness lurking inside every
happiness. The entire album is shot through with the
fatalism that's particular to country. "You hold me
close in your arms/And I feel the cold," she sings in
the album's closer, "Not Long For This World," a
song that lives up to the Fassbinder title: Love Is
Colder than Death. Throughout "What I Deserve,"
Willis sings as if to ward off that chill.
"What I Deserve" was recorded in Austin, which has
emerged as the anti-Nashville. But it doesn't wallow
in the glumness that makes some alterna-country
easier to admire than love. Willis may feel the
shudder of mortality, but her delivery is palpably
flesh-and-blood. She's never so hooked on misery
that her timing and phrasing get dragged down into
the atmospherics of a song. There's an essentially
engaged quality to her singing. The title track is an
admission of defeat that climaxes with the line "Hell,
I've walked a long way just to find the end of my
rope," that's as beaten-up and as specific as the
scratches and cigarette scars on a barroom counter.
Listening to "What I Deserve" brought home, for
me, why I've never been able to join in the
accolades that are regularly laid at the feet of
Lucinda Williams. The heartache in Williams' songs
finally counts for nothing because it's so unvaried,
so wallowed in. Put it this way: Who can be
bothered to care about the trials of a singer who
sounds as if she doesn't have the energy to get
through the goddamn verse?
Willis never forgets that she has to put a song
across. There are surges and sudden husky swoops
in her normal, almost nasal, register. She's got
wonderful taste in songwriters, here covering Nick
Drake's "Time Has Told Me" and Paul Westerberg's
"They're Blind." (The truest test for any artist's
grasp of the genre they work in is what it can be
made to encompass.) There's even a nod to the
Beatles in her version of Paul Kelly's "Cradle of
Love" ("Seems like you been workin'/Eight days a
week"). The song itself is a particularly sweet
example of solace as seduction. Willis might be the
woman the singer in "A Hard Day's Night" dreams
of coming home to, knowing the things that she does
"will make him feel all right." And she's blessed
throughout with wonderful musicians. On "Not
Forgotten You," the beat slowly gathers itself behind
Willis, unobtrusively propelling the music, so that by
the time she gets to the image "Hail the Western
bound/With its black tail flying" the music has
become a song match for it.
The album seems defined by "Happy Like That,"
written by Willis and Gary Louris. All of the
discontent of the album seems to gather itself into
this number, and Willis sings it with the sound of
someone bringing bad news that we know is
undeniable before we can even question it. It's the
sound of a sort of a doomed -- but not foolish --
persistence. By the end of the final lines, Willis'
voice, soaring at their start, has been tamped down.
But the persistence of "What I Deserve" is equally
undeniable. Six years (broken only by one EP) is
three lifetimes in pop music. Willis was right to hold
out until she found a label to release the music she
wanted to make. "What I Deserve" is the album
she's been working toward since her debut.
Whatever its commercial fate, she's likely to be
around for a while. Willis has found a way to
navigate the emotional vapors while sounding too
real, too strong to make us think she's in danger of
disappearing into them.
SALON | Feb. 24, 1999
--
Tom Mohr
at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Bookstore gig question
Joe Gracey wrote: Second, when we do in-stores it is generally for free since it is to promote a record. sometimes at Borders they give us each a gift certificate, but I think this is at the whim of the person running the promotion. Covivant and I were in the Borders in OakBrook IL this morning, and I happened to notice a sign taped up by the cash register, which read something like this: Attention All Cashiers Performers are contractually entitled to free coffee, tea, and soft drinks. NO FOOD. -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] np: ringing in my ears after last night's rather loud performance by Dave Alvin The Guilty Men (don't know if they had to pay for the Budweiser they were drinking)
Re: Chicago Calendar
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (the perpetually useful Chicago Calendar) Pollstar added this today: Neil Young 04/30/99 Rosemont IL Rosemont Theatre 05/01/99 Rosemont IL Rosemont Theatre I read somewhere that he'll also be touring with Crosby/Stills/Nash this summer. -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] np: The Inner Flame -- A Rainer Ptacek Tribute
Re: Chicago Calendar
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: WH! Lookit all the new *s this week! Note that the Calendar has a contributing editor this week: P2er Tom Mohr. Keep filling in the blanks, thanks! Well, I 'umbly offer a few additions to Linda's cast of thousands... The Empty Bottle ad includes the most important band in history: Friday, March 5 at 10:00 PM, Plastic People of the Universe, $7.00 (USD). Here's one more for the Cultural Center: The Cath Carroll Band Saturday, February 6, 5 - 6:30 p.m., Randolph Cafe A semi-acoustical performance by the English vocalist of mostly original works from past and pending compact discs that blends ambient grooves, non-strident vocal and varied instrumentation. Pollstar lists this for Lyle Lovett 03/20/99 Joliet IL Rialto Square Theatre And http://www.kellywillis.com includes this: April 1999 All shows with Bruce Robison Thursday, April 1, Chicago, IL at Schuba's. Friday, April 2, Chicago, IL at Schuba's. And anyone in the Western suburbs should check out the schedules for Fermilab (including The Jazz Passengers with Deborah Harry, March 6) and College of DuPage (including Natalie MacMaster -- Apr. 17, and Leo Kottke -- June 5). And the Chicago Bulls, with 1999 NBA-leading scorer Toni Kukoc, open their season this weekend. Non-stridently yours, -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (on vacation till 2-8) at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mountain Stage Schedule
From the Mountain Stage newsletter: FEBRUARY Feed date Guests 02/05/99GOLDEN SMOG TRISH MURPHY DUKE DANIELS GREG TROOPER 02/12/99STEVE RILEY MAMOU PLAYBOYS TINA B-SIDES CHRIS THOMAS KING AMY WATKINS 02/19/99LAURA LOVE BAND EDDIE FROM OHIO JULIE GOLD CHUCK BRODSKY THE PAPERBOYS 02/26/99Encore MARK O'CONNOR MAURA O'CONNELL GUY CLARK JULES SHEAR MARCH 1999 03/05/99CRY CRY CRY with DAR WILLIAMS LUCY KAPLANSKY RICHARD SHINDELL JAY UNGAR MOLLY MASON GENGHIS ANGUS JULIE BUDDY MILLER O3/12/99Encore RICKY SKAGSS KENTUCKY THUNDER LOUDON WAINWRIGHT GREG GREENWAY KEVIN JOHNSON 03/19/99Encore BETH NEILSEN CHAPMAN RADNEY FOSTER ANDY BEY MATTHEW RYAN RICHARD GOLDMAN DON DIXON 03/26/99Encore ALTAN WHISKEYTOWN SIXTEEN HORSEPOWER JOHN HAMMOND -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (on vacation till 2-8) at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Neil Young news
Stevie Simkin wrote, quoting from sonic net newsflash: Originally due March 23, the new album is on hold until Young completes work on two new tracks. Among those who have contributed to the recording are: bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, pedal-steel guitarist/producer Ben Keith, star session drummer Jim Keltner and keyboardist/songwriter Spooner Oldham. This is from the Emmylou Online newsletter: * * NEW MOON RISING * * According to The LA Times EmmyLou and Linda Ronstadt have been up at Neil Young's ranch in Northern California singing background vocals on some new Neil songs. Young's soon to be released new album(with a tenative March 23rd release date) is reportably in the same vein as Harvest Moon. At this time the track selection is not known. Young reportably has recorded some 15 to 20 songs and it is not known if the tracks with EmmyLou will be part of the new record. We can only hope! (Aquarian Resourses) -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (on vacation till 2-8) at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Robbie at Goose Island every Wed. in Feb
AJM wrote: Robbie rawked hard last night at Fitzgeralds. No Jet, but got most of the new album, the Egg song, a cool duet with Tim Carroll who is excellent BTW and lot's of rockers. A long set, over 2 hours straight. And a cool cover (with crowd singalong) of Abba's "Dancing Queen". And he brought his wife up onstage for one of the encores -- "I feel like Lucy", she said as he kissed her and pushed her towards backstage. Was informed that he will be playing Goose Island Brewery every Wed. in February starting next week. I dont know where he is gonna set up to play in there, but its a pretty cool place. I will be there for sure if I can. Robbie is also playing the Chicago Cultural Center on Feb. 25, as part of their alternative country series. And Freakwater plays there March 25. -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (on vacation till 2-8) at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] np: Bruce Springsteen, _Deep Down In the Vaults_
Chicago Shows (was Re: Empty Calendar?)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (the supremely useful Chicago Calendar) Couple more things for next weekend: *2/5: Sally Timms sings Black Sabbath at the Chicago Cultural Center, 7 p.m. Jon Langford is doing a show at 12:30 that afternoon, at the Chicago Cultural Center, with Cath Carroll, and (I think -- I can't find my flier) it'll be live on WNUR. And Jonboy is playing that evening, with Skull Orchard, right after Sally's show. 2/6 Sara Hickman and Tish Hinojosa at the Old Town School, with Kelly Kessler And the new FitzGerald's schedule lists James McMurtry on 2/23, and Fred Eaglesmith first week of March. -- Tom Mohr at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (on vacation till 2-8) at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Alejandro and Flaco at FitzGeraldo's
From the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot reviews Friday's show.
My comments on last night's show, which ended (yawn) about
seven hours ago, are tacked on at the end.
http://metromix.com/reviews/detail/1,1259,228,00.html
OVERNIGHT REVIEWS
Music review,
Flaco Jimenez and
Alejandro
Escovedo at
FitzGerald's
By Greg Kot
TRIBUNE ROCK CRITIC
Sunday, January 17, 1999
We needed this one. With winter
imprisoning Chicago like a
white-coated warden,
FitzGerald's threw a two-night
Texas-style roadhouse party
over the weekend that gave off
enough steam to melt the worst
case of cabin fever.
The pairing was a natural--Flaco
Jimenez and Alejandro
Escovedo--though, oddly, these
Texas musical ambassadors
had never met, let alone shared
a stage, before Friday's concert.
That historical glitch was
corrected when Jimenez, the
opening act, joined Escovedo
onstage for an encore of Mick
Jagger's "Evening Gown" and
Escovedo's "Broken Bottle."
Bottles were indeed broken,
figuratively at least, as Jimenez
joined the crowd in a
beer-swilling blowout that made
musicality an afterthought during
his two-hour set. "Cheers,
amigos!" Jimenez bellowed,
hoisting another long-neck to the
ceiling, before imbibing heartily.
After a relatively tight and
focused 60 minutes on stage,
Jimenez and his band began
pumping out the conjunto party
numbers with slap-dash fervor,
the leader embroidering every
verse with his baroque
accordion runs while the rhythm
section held fast to a single
unvarying dance groove, led by
the leader's son, drummer David
Jimenez, and Max Baca on the
bajo sexto, a 12-string bass
guitar.
San Antonio's Jimenez, a
three-time Grammy winner, is
the biggest crossover star in
conjunto, a border music that
fuses string-band
instrumentation with polka
beats, and he's far from a purist.
His vocalist, Nunie Rubio, is a
young crooner in the mold of the
Mavericks' Raul Malo, but his
smoothness at times clashed
with a groove that reeked of
sawdust and whiskey. Still,
Jimenez's feel-good repertoire
was revelry incarnate, from "De
Bolon Pin Pon" and "La
Felicidad" (everybody sing:
"ha-ha-ha-ha . . . ho-ho-ho-ho")
to "(Hey Baby) Que Paso" and,
of course, the "Sweet Home
Chicago" of Latin rock, "La
Bamba."
Following this increasingly
raucous and sloppy keg party,
Escovedo appeared to be at a
disadvantage, with his
five-piece band wielding
acoustic instruments. But the
slender Austin resident rose to
the occasion, turning violin and
cello into a fierce rhythm section
on a cover of the Stooges'
"Loose" and his own "Pyramid
of Tears." A handful of
unreleased songs suggested an
even more adventurous, almost
dissonant, approach to
string-arranging, as Escovedo
continues to give expression to
a musical sensibility in which T.
Rex, Mott the Hoople, Bela
Bartok and Charles Ives swap
melodies and arranging ideas.
Still, Escovedo did not forget to
investigate the quietest corners
of his repertoire as well: "Wave,"
"Baby's Got New Plans" and a
richly plaintive version of the
Velvet Underground's "Pale
Blue Eyes" with guest vocalist
Kelly Hogan.
While Jimenez and his crew
came to party, and blurred into
the moment, Escovedo wanted
it all: to keep the adrenaline
flowing after Jimenez left the
stage, and to create an
impression that lingered beyond
the next morning's hangover.
Improbably, he succeeded.
Comments -- Flaco was pretty great. The crowd, which looked
to be over half Latino, loved him and sang along with all
the hits. His singer, though, should stop shouting
"Chicago, lemme hear you say 'hell yeah'" every few minutes.
Re: Alejandro -- the very good news is that he recorded an
ep at FitzGerald's yesterday afternoon. It should include
concert faves "Evening Gown" (a Mick Jagger song) and "I Was
Drunk".
Last night's set was more electric than Friday's. He looked
just a bit tired ("I had a birthday -- I turned fifty-eight
on January 10th"), and his ninety-minute set was shorter
than his usual FitzGerald's marathon. He played a bunch of
new stuff (hope he includes "Sad and Dreamy / The Big 1-0"
on the ep) and a handful of covers (the Jagger song, "Like a
Hurricane", "Hot Legs").
Alejandro played one encore and then left the stage, leaving
his band to play with Flaco and his band for thirty minutes
of slightly inebriated jamming, including about fifteen
minutes of "La Bamba".
TWM
--
Happy Birthday, MLK
Tom Mohr
at the office: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
at the home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
