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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 24, 2019 13:50:31 GMT -5
Sweeden sure is an interesting country.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 28, 2019 11:57:15 GMT -5
So October has pretty much been a time suck at work and personally. And I haven't had much time to think about music. But, getting back to the better albums of the 2010s. The late great Merle Haggard put out some very solid albums in the 2010s. The Hag will always have an incredibly special place in my heart. He's near the top of my personal pantheon of musical greats and getting to see him live with my son Nathan was a very special experience. There's been something of classic country stars going through a late-life renaissance. Johnny Cash is the classic example. Bobby Bare has done somewhat the same. Both Porter Wagoner and Glen Campbell put out incredible albums right before their deaths. Hag never really had to do that. Though he didn't churn out albums with the regularity of Willie Nelson (at least not since the 60s) Hag never stopped recording and while he had doldrums, he never hit the lows that Cash or Bare hit. 2010 - I Am What I Am I'm pretty sure that this is the last new CD I bought before going digital. While it doesn't hit the heights that Haggard reached at this peak this album is a great distillation of what made Hag such an incredible musicians. It runs the gamut from honky-tonkers to ballads giving homage to his many and varied influences. Most of the songs on the album are written by Haggard and while he recognizes that his time will soon be past the songs and the album never get bogged down or maudlin. It's a meditation on a life well lived and and the things that made that life. I'm not sure there's a "stand-out" song here. It's just such a strong line-up. The opener "I've Seen it Go Away" could almost be the lament of an old codger but in Hag's hands it transcends that. "Oil Tanker Train" is an homage to both the train songs he grew up on and the influence of trains in the lives of people of his age. But I'm going to pick "Mexican Bands" because it shows that Hag's influences and musical tastes were varied and that is what lead him to be the amazing artist he was. 2011 - Working in TennesseeMaybe not quite as strong as his previous outing, Hag's last solo album was still a solid album that again had him running over his varied influences, reflecting on growing old and cutting (and re-cutting) some old favorites. The single here, "Laugh it Off" written by Hag with his wife and with keyboardist Doug Colosio, is about letting the things slide and moving on...even if it takes a little toke of mary jane to be able to do so. "To Much Boogie Woogie" is the obligatory grouchy old man cut. But I really like the opener, "Working in Tennessee." This is Hag having some fun and channeling the huge influence that Bob Wills had on him. 2015 - Django and Jimmie32 years after Pancho and Lefty Merle and Willie teamed up for another album which would ultimately be Merle's last studio album. Clearly mortality was on their minds. This is a mixture of songs, some written by some of the better current country song-writers (Buddy Cannon, Jamey Johnson, Jimmy Melton) some by Willie and Merle. The opener and title track is a meditation on two of their early heroes Django Reinhardt and Jimmie Rodgers. They welcome Bobby Bare on the Haggard penned "Missing Ol' Johnny Cash." They revisit a few classics and it's there that they get to what I think may be the stand-out track here with a cover of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (a song that has become a country standard)." While it might have been more satisfying to see Hag go out on a super strong solo album to cap a legendary career going out with a strong album with his good pal Willie is a good alternative.
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Post by berkley on Oct 30, 2019 1:37:10 GMT -5
Not sure this is the best place to put this, because for all I know a lot people who might want to know about it don't look at the Music thread, but I just found out that BBC Radio has a series called Paperback Writers, where writers play DJ and spin some of their favourite tunes or just play music that's important to them. Of the 4 episodes available at the moment, all four are comics writers - Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Hannah Berry, and Warren Ellis. (Warning: only 4 days left to listen to the Alan Moore one).
(edit: just noticed that the series is subtitled "Graphic Content", so it's no coincidence that they're all comics writers)
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 5, 2019 15:23:32 GMT -5
For those of you who Spotify, Spotify Wrapped is up. It tells you your 100 most listened too songs of the year, your top artists and some other data. This year they also gave the top song and artist of each year of the 2010s and the artist of the decade. It's kind of fun and I'll likely use it as a building block for some music posting. Whether anyone wants me to or not.
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Post by berkley on Dec 5, 2019 17:05:01 GMT -5
Huh, I just clicked on that and found I do have a Spotify account but don't seem to have any history on it, that I can tell - at least when I go to the wrapped thing all that comes up is a general list of most popular this and that for 2019, nothing about what I might have listened to myself. I must have created it at some point and forgotten all about it.
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Post by berkley on Dec 6, 2019 18:01:47 GMT -5
Anyone have any Gary Moore recommendations? Every time I hear something I think it sounds great but I never seem to catch a title.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 7, 2019 12:06:01 GMT -5
Spotify wrapped did a different thing where it showed your top song and artist of each year of the past decade. Since I started on Spotify on 2011 I didn't have anything for the first year, but lucky you are going to get to see what happened in each of the subsequent years.
Top song of 2011 was For the Good Times by Kris Kristofferson. I wouldn't have necessarily expected this song, but it's not super surprising. One of Kris' great tracks from his debut album it went on to be a number one hit for Ray Price and established Kristofferson as one of the top song-writers in Nashville. The song went on to be covered by almost everyone. A great song about the end of a love affair with all the sadness and longing that entails.
2011's artist of the year was Dale Watson. No surprise there at all. Like zero. Can pretty much guarantee that I was listening to this one.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2019 10:59:52 GMT -5
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,411
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Post by Confessor on Dec 19, 2019 2:40:12 GMT -5
I'm on a massive Allman Brothers' Band kick at the moment. I've been a fan of the band since the early '90s, but this last week I've been reading Alan Paul's oral history of the band, One Way Out, and that's really put me in an ABB frame of mind... The book is not really a traditional biography, being that it mostly consists of interview snippets from the surviving band members, road crew, managers, record company people and producers. These interview fragments cover the story of the band in chronological order, with only occasional scene setting and context from Paul himself. But it's certainly very readable, although it's also a little lightweight at the same time. Still, I've learned an awful lot of things about the band that I didn't know before, and it's got me back into listening to them, to the point where I'm currently mainlining a diet of 100% Allman Brothers' Band. Here they are doing "Whipping Post" at the Fillmore East ( Phil Maurice ??) in 1970 with Duane Allman..,
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Post by berkley on Dec 19, 2019 6:15:58 GMT -5
A band I was very aware of, as a kid in the early 70s, from reading my older brother's music magazines but to this day I still only know radio staples like Ramblin Man and that famous instrumental that I could hum for you at the drop of a hat (do-do-do-dut-do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do, do-do) but can never recall the title of.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,411
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Post by Confessor on Dec 19, 2019 10:12:09 GMT -5
A band I was very aware of, as a kid in the early 70s, from reading my older brother's music magazines but to this day I still only know radio staples like Ramblin Man and that famous instrumental that I could hum for you at the drop of a hat (do-do-do-dut-do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do, do-do) but can never recall the title of. "Jessica".
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Post by Rob Allen on Dec 19, 2019 13:41:34 GMT -5
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,411
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Post by Confessor on Dec 19, 2019 20:29:26 GMT -5
Thanks, Rob. Yeah, I'm familiar with the Tedeschi Trucks Band because the lead guitarist in one of my duos is a huge fan of them. I like them fine, and Derek Trucks is a hell of a guitar player, but they don't blow me away. I don't know exactly what it is about them...they're maybe a little too "slick" for my tastes? Plus, although they have the country and blues feel down, they lack the groove that the Allman Brothers' Band had. The ABB's rhythm section could play hot R&B/proto-funk when they wanted to. That's what I like about them: they have blues passion, country melody, but you can also dance to a lot of the ABB's output. As for the Allman-Betts Band, someone at Muscle Shoals Studio recommended them to me when I was in Alabama back in October, but I've yet to check them out.
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Post by brianf on Dec 20, 2019 20:44:24 GMT -5
Anyone have any Gary Moore recommendations? Every time I hear something I think it sounds great but I never seem to catch a title. I just saw this - I dunno which era you mean, but I'm a fan of his political metal stuff - here's a play list I made on youtube - My favorite album by Gary Moore is Victims Of The Future
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 7, 2020 16:25:19 GMT -5
So Spotify does this thing where it tells you your top 100 songs for the year. I did a countdown last year and I'm doing one again this year (like anyone cares). And I'm starting late because December and January have been crazy so far.
#100 - Jason Isbell - "Cover Me Up."
The only surprise here is that the song is this low. I've made it no secret that I consider Isbell to be the best song-writer currently working (particularly since the passing of Guy Clark).
This song is just gorgeous. So much so that it was my #1 song in 2016 (Isbell was my #1 artist that year).
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