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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 29, 2019 9:45:09 GMT -5
Leaving work a bit early tomorrow afternoon to go to Boise to see Junior Brown. Dude is 67 years old and doesn't play outside of Texas that often anymore, so there may not be that many more opportunities.
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Post by beccabear67 on Aug 31, 2019 17:08:46 GMT -5
Junior Brown is so cool! I could swear I saw him somewhere once before, maybe on PBS? Hope it was a great show.
I listened to a bunch of mid-'50s Louis Jordan the other day, remakes of some of his old hits with lead guitar added (but keeping the saxes). I had the one LP on Mercury/Wing but had gotten a bunch of other tracks from the same sessions I wanted to check out next to the ones I already knew. Some seem a bit faster/rushed compared to the classic originals, but he deserved some success after all those years and then Bill Haley and Elvis coming along, and I hope he got it (he starred in a couple of movies I've seen from the late '40s too). I am in a '50s state of mind watching the tv series Magic City for the first time (but it mostly has doo-wop in it's soundtrack).
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Post by berkley on Aug 31, 2019 20:51:45 GMT -5
Leaving work a bit early tomorrow afternoon to go to Boise to see Junior Brown. Dude is 67 years old and doesn't play outside of Texas that often anymore, so there may not be that many more opportunities. 67 years old?!! I've always thought of him as a youngish guy, as musicians go.
Well, I suppose he was - in the 90s, when I first heard his stuff.
How was the show? I've never seen him live.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 6, 2019 15:06:41 GMT -5
Junior Brown is so cool! I could swear I saw him somewhere once before, maybe on PBS? Hope it was a great show. I listened to a bunch of mid-'50s Louis Jordan the other day, remakes of some of his old hits with lead guitar added (but keeping the saxes). I had the one LP on Mercury/Wing but had gotten a bunch of other tracks from the same sessions I wanted to check out next to the ones I already knew. Some seem a bit faster/rushed compared to the classic originals, but he deserved some success after all those years and then Bill Haley and Elvis coming along, and I hope he got it (he starred in a couple of movies I've seen from the late '40s too). I am in a '50s state of mind watching the tv series Magic City for the first time (but it mostly has doo-wop in it's soundtrack). Leaving work a bit early tomorrow afternoon to go to Boise to see Junior Brown. Dude is 67 years old and doesn't play outside of Texas that often anymore, so there may not be that many more opportunities. 67 years old?!! I've always thought of him as a youngish guy, as musicians go.
Well, I suppose he was - in the 90s, when I first heard his stuff.
How was the show? I've never seen him live.
Sorry. I missed this. Great show. It's a pretty small venue and it was a big crowd for the show. He played a nice mix of stuff off his new album along with some of his bigger old stuff. He had enough shout out requests that he had to remind people that even though he wrote a ton of songs that doesn't mean he still remembers how to play all of them. Still a ton of energy for a guy who is pushing 70. I was pretty close. The following pics were just barely zoomed. I was about generally about four people back from the stage.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 6, 2019 15:30:52 GMT -5
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 12, 2019 10:17:44 GMT -5
So just about a week ago there was some discussion of the best singles of the decade of the 2010s. I mentioned that I listen to a ton of current music though most of those artists don't release singles as we would have known them 30+ years ago. So, since thwhtguardian asked, I'll list some of the albums and artists I have liked from 2010-2019 with a track from each album. I don't have the time to figure it out chronologically so it will skip around the decade and it's going to skew heavily to Alt-Country/Americana/Roots Music. First up with a bullet... Jason Isbell (and the 400 Unit). Isbell is in my opinion without a doubt the best songwriter working today. Isbell is a master lyricist and I'm constantly in awe of his use of words. Isbell supported himself as a songwriter before joining The Drive-By Truckers in 2001 and contributed to their next three albums before leaving to go solo in 2007. In the decade of the 2010s Isbell has released four albums either with The 400 Unit (his backing band) or (ostensibly) solo. Isbell grew up near Muscle Shoals, Alabama and that Muscle Shoals sound is usually in the background of his work somewhere. 2011 - Here We Rest - Jason Isbell and The 400 UnitI'm listening to this one as I type. The first half of this album is almost perfect. The first six tracks are all just gold. The second half is a little weaker which probably keeps it from being a completely classic album but it's still DAMN good. I'll put up the opening track "Alabama Pines" as the single off this one. It won the "Song of the Year" award in 2012 from the Americana Music Awards. I think it's a good mid-point between seriously dark Isbell (Yvette) and fun Isbell (Super 8). It's a great meditation on living on the road, be it as a musician, salesman, what have you, and just wanting to be home with your people. For those looking for a bit less country and some Muscle Shoals sound, Isbell does a great cover of Candi Staton's "Heart on a String" on this album.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 12, 2019 11:52:42 GMT -5
2013- Jason Isbell - Southeastern
I listened to this album on almost a continuous loop for about 18 months. It would easily make my top five albums of all time. Which is pretty good for an album that is mostly incredibly dark. Isbell wrote these songs after a long stint in rehab and it's largely informed by that experience and meditating on the dangers of dying young and what leads to it. Isbell writes with pathos and beauty about drug use, cancer, child abuse but is never maudlin. This one was really his breakthrough. It debuted at # 23 on the Billboard 200 and at #7 on the Rock Chart. Great numbers for an independent artist who was completely ignored by every radio format. Isbell mostly swept the Americana Awards in 2013 winning Album of the Year, Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for "Cover Me Up" (which is just an amazing song). But I'm going to put a video link to "Songs That She Sang in the Shower" because the opening lyrics make me weep that I can't write that well.
"On a lark On a whim I said there's two kinds of men in this world and you're neither of them
And his fist Cut the smoke I had an eighth of a second to wonder if he got the joke"
2015 - Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free
Another album another triumph. I liked this album when it came out, but didn't love it. Which was almost certainly not fair. It wasn't Southeastern. It wasn't trying to be. And I shouldn't have expected it to be. Upon further review and reflection and a lot of listens it's a great album with its own story. It's not top-to-bottom as strong as Southeastern but it's a very strong album that does its own thing. It also built on the commercial and critical success with a passel of awards (including Grammys) and stints at number one on the Country and Folk charts and a stay at number 6 on the Hot 200. I'm going to go with "24 Frames" as the single for this one. I didn't love this one at first listen. I liked it but didn't love it. But that was before I figured out what exactly was going on with the song. It's a meditation on movies, single mothers, the Athens indie scene...and life. And with a line like "“You thought God was an architect; now you know/He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow,” how could I pass?
2017 - Jason Ibell and the 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound
And one final excellent album. This one dropped and it just blew me away. That said, this album actually has the first track of the four that I actively dislike, "Cumberland Gap". But that's a small quibble because there are so many great tracks on this one that it's not an issue to skip over one. Isbell was in a different place when he wrote these songs. He'd been in a long-term relationship with Amanda Shires, had been sober for five years and had a (then) two year old daughter. "If We Were Vampires" is the big track off this one (Americana Song of the Year, Grammy for Best Roots Song) and it's an absolutely beautiful song about love and loss and the short time we have together (my wife adores it). But I'm going to go with "Molotov" instead. It just speaks to me about the compromises we make in life that mean we don't necessarily live the life we always thought we would.
"Time flies when you're making babies Do you miss your little black Mercedes Do you miss the girl you once had time to be When you said we had the same three wishes I hope you weren't being facetious And I hope you still see fire inside of me"
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 16, 2019 7:21:59 GMT -5
It's funny you introduced me to Isbell here as I was driving this morning they played him covering Hendrix's "Little Wing" on the classic rock station I usually listen to in the car.
I usually like the covers segment on the morning show but this was my favorite in a while, he stayed true to Hendrix's guitar playing but kept the soulful sound to his voice as you illustrated in the songs above and it fit really well. I guess at the same set he covered Fleetwood Mac as well but they didn't play it on air so I might need to look for that.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 16, 2019 10:21:04 GMT -5
Switching gears a bit in the best of the 2010s (according to Slam) we give you, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Jones and the Daps are, at their heart, a retro soul/funk band. However, they aren't derivative but feel as fresh as the soul sounds of the 60s and 70s that they're channeling. Part of that is that Jones was as good a front-woman as we've seen in a long time and part is that the band and bassist/primary songwriter were a solid group that, together, could channel a variety of different varieties of soul, r&b and funk without missing a beat or sounding like poseurs. Unfortunately Ms. Jones lost a battle with cancer in late 2016. But she and the Dap-Kings made the first half of the decade incredibly soulful. 2010 - I Learned the Hard WayThe groups fourth album dropped in 2010. It debuted at #15 on the Billboard 200, respectable for an album from an independent label that isn't in what would be considered a hot genre. The album crosses soul and funk influences from the Curis Mayfield influenced "I Heard the Hard Way" to the Philly sound to some pure funk. I'm pulling "I Heard the Hard Way" as a stand-out track on this one. 2014 - Give the People What They WantSharon and the Dap-Kings again run the gamut of soul, R&B and funk influences in an album that feels like it could have been ripped right out of 1966 (including the 33 minute run time. The opener gives the feel of The Supremes, to horn heavy dance songs to a bit of southern swamp soul. The hand-clapping slow burn of "Long Time, Wrong Time" is just fantastic. 2017 - Soul of a WomanSoul of a Woman was released posthumously in 2017 and continues the amazing retro soul that Jones had worked so hard to be able to bring to her audience. This isn't a career retrospective album like you might expect from someone recording around cancer treatment sessions. Jones comes in and blows the doors off with a super solid soul album that simply moves her brand of cross-sectional soul one more step forward. The album opener is a beautiful send off to an amazing performer that is at once timeless while still evoking a feeling that this song would have been completely at home as an anthem for the late 60s Civil Rights movement. R.I.P. Ms. Jones.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 16, 2019 10:52:38 GMT -5
It's funny you introduced me to Isbell here as I was driving this morning they played him covering Hendrix's "Little Wing" on the classic rock station I usually listen to in the car. I usually like the covers segment on the morning show but this was my favorite in a while, he stayed true to Hendrix's guitar playing but kept the soulful sound to his voice as you illustrated in the songs above and it fit really well. I guess at the same set he covered Fleetwood Mac as well but they didn't play it on air so I might need to look for that. I know he plays Little Wing live now and then but as far as I know he hasn't cut it, so I've had to catch it on YouTube. He does a good job of respecting the past while still being himself when he does covers (he doesn't do that many). He's the real deal.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 16, 2019 12:46:46 GMT -5
It's funny you introduced me to Isbell here as I was driving this morning they played him covering Hendrix's "Little Wing" on the classic rock station I usually listen to in the car. I usually like the covers segment on the morning show but this was my favorite in a while, he stayed true to Hendrix's guitar playing but kept the soulful sound to his voice as you illustrated in the songs above and it fit really well. I guess at the same set he covered Fleetwood Mac as well but they didn't play it on air so I might need to look for that. I know he plays Little Wing live now and then but as far as I know he hasn't cut it, so I've had to catch it on YouTube. He does a good job of respecting the past while still being himself when he does covers (he doesn't do that many). He's the real deal. He certainly seems like it, I've liked what you've posted
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 18, 2019 12:32:54 GMT -5
The next one is a little bit similar to the last. While Sharon Jones did retro-soul, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, were a modern old-time string band. The band originated when the three primary members met at the first Black Banjo Gathering, held in Boone, North Carolina, in April 2005. They released three independent albums before their 2010 release Genuine Negro Jig on Nonesuch (a division of Warner Records) broke out in a big way. I've heard tell that old-time bands are redundant in the 21st Century because so much of the original recorded old-time music is now available (it wasn't for decades). And while it's true that you can certainly listen to the likes of Fiddlin' John Carson and Dock Boggs as well as the field recordings by people like Alan Lomax I don't think that takes away from the joy of a good modern interpretation of traditional music. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are all very talented musicians as well as being scholars of old-time music. Their mix of traditional tunes along with new works that extend those tradition are perfect for the back porch with a cold adult beverage.
2010 - Genuine Negro Jig
Their break-out album was a hit both commercially and critically topping the Bluegrass Charts and winning awards. The album was prominently featured on NPR and is really a great meditation on Piedmont string band traditions and black string bands in particular. The album is just a great mix of traditional folk music, covers of race records and originals written by group members. I'm not sure that "Cornbread and Butterbeans" is the best track on the album, in fact I'm pretty sure it's not. But it makes me happy and makes my foot tap and that's really what matters. Well...and I just love Dom Flemons playing the jug here.
2012 - Leaving Eden
While the band hasn't officially broken up, Dom Flemons left in the end of 2013 to pursue solo projects and there hasn't been a new album by the Chocolate Drops since Leaving Eden. Rhiannon Giddens has since released multiple albums along with a number of collaborative efforts. So this seems to be the end of the line. This is a great album. Producer Buddy Miller recorded the band live in a single room and it really gives the album a house party feel that is completely appropriate for a band that was always viewed as being a better live than studio band. "Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man?" is just a great track that absolutely pulls you back in time to a backwoods jook joint or rent party.
Great appearance on Wisconsin Public Television. Great kazoo work in the opener.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 22, 2019 12:56:54 GMT -5
Although not terribly similar(He has more of a big band sound) your latest entry none the less put me in the mood for some Nathaniel Rateliff who I haven't listened to in a while. Probably best known for "Son of a Bitch" I discovered today he's put out more albums since then that'll be tracking down for sure.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 23, 2019 11:52:29 GMT -5
Although not terribly similar(He has more of a big band sound) your latest entry none the less put me in the mood for some Nathaniel Rateliff who I haven't listened to in a while. Probably best known for "Son of a Bitch" I discovered today he's put out more albums since then that'll be tracking down for sure. That's good stuff. I really like that first one. Now I'm trying to figure out how I missed him all these years.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 24, 2019 10:26:08 GMT -5
Speaking of Spotify (yeah it's in a different thread) it was Spotify's suggestions that led me to The Country Side of Harmonica Sam. If you'd told me five years ago that one of the absolute best retro-honky tonk bands in the world would be from Sweden I'd have told you you were nuts. But here we are. Because The Country Side of Harmonica Sam is absolutely one of the best honky-tonk bands there is. This is authentic old-school honky tonk, heavy on the steel guitar and the heartache. The band puts me in mind of Wynn Stewart at his absolute best so I guess it's appropriate that one of the best tracks off their first album is a cover of "It's Such a Pretty World Today." 2015 - Open Letter to the BluesAs best I can tell this is their first album and it's a doozy. There's nothing here that wouldn't have sounded perfect being played on the Louisiana Hayride or on the back of a flatbed truck outside a honky-tonk in the early 1960s. At the same time it doesn't feel dated...more timeless. There are a number of great tracks, but I'm going to go with their cover of Stewart's "It's Such a Pretty World Today." 2017 - A Drink After MidnightThis was the one that I first came across and as strong as their first album is...this one just blows me out of the water. Both the title track and "Unjust Friends" written by the criminally underrated Dan Englund are incredible honky tonk songs. And the band takes Coy Jackson's forgotten 1966 single "Lookout Heart" and resurrects it as a single that would have been perfect on the Country charts six decades ago. These guys are just pure retro sweetness.
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