If you have an iPhone and are a music lover you could do a lot worse than drop $2.49 on the TuneIn Radio app, which streams radio stations from ... well, just about everywhere. I've only had it a couple of days and haven't explored beyond the USA but I've heard great things about the African, Caribbean, South American stations you can get. Was just tuning into some bluegrass show on the legendary WSM Nashville and then surfed to Cajun Radio 1290 out of Lafayette. Been very impressed with its reliability on 3G, trundling on the bus down George St didn't even upset it. I'm told the bandwidth usage is very reasonable too, so all in all four hoofs and a tail up for TuneIn Radio.
Good news for our friends west of the Blue Mountains, when she tours in March Mary Gauthier will be doing a gig in Bathurst. I'll be getting along to the show at Notes Alive in Newtown, a newish joint I've not been to before.
Marianne Faithfull at the Opera House the other night was a very satisfying affair in front of an engaged and appreciative audience. She went through most of Easy Come, Easy Go plus the old stand-bys "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", "Broken English", "As Tears Go By" and "Why'd You Do It."
The band mostly stayed out of the way and were good without being dazzling; they were a little heavy handed at times but I was in a box on the side so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that that was a function of the always loose acoustics in that room. There was a low musical point (for me) during "Sing Me Back Home" featuring a musical saw. We can finally answer the question, most robustly in the negative, whether a musical saw is any replacement for a pedal or lap steel. It's a party piece, comrades, not a musical instrument.
There's a fragment of "Broken English" here, questionable phone recording quality but evidence the old trooper is still in fine, passionate voice.
So Rogue's Gallery - Hal Wilner's star-studded sea shanties thing - at the Sydney festival is getting bagged from all quarters (lots of unhappy commenters there) which I can't say surprises me. The whole event had "underwhelming" written all over it from the start.
I did mildly enjoy the Leonard Cohen tribute a few years back, a Wilner and friends love-in along the same lines, but the concept does lend itself to self-indulgence and complacency. I thought this event offered all the pitfalls of Came So Far for Beauty (acts not learning the songs, lack of rehearsal etc) but with the added variables of uncertainty about outside acoustics, the weather and ambient noise of one of the country's busiest commuter and tourist hubs. The Opera House forecourt should be left to Australian Idol finales and triathlon finishing lines.
Despite Marianne Faithfull being singled out for a shellacking I'm still very excited about her solo show, it's hard to judge whether I would've felt so hostile to her performance. i don't really mind divas getting drunk and slurring out of tune, really, in fact I quite like it. I'll be sure to let you know Wednesday night.
As any Australian music fan (our kind of music, anyhoo) knows late March and April is always a busy time as we enjoy the spillover of acts brought out for Byron Bay. Sometimes you have to make the choice of two rarely seen (on our shores) highly regarded acts whose only local shows clash with each other.
Not Byron-related but kicking off the season in style is Marianne Faithfull only the week after next. Playing the Concert Hall at the Opera House -- ugh, I have a prejudice against it for popular music -- and I only have a seat at the back of one of the mezzanine boxes but still I can't wait.
"Solitude"
Then, Dan Sultan at the Factory on February 27th -- for a measly $20. For realsm his recent album of late 2009 -- Get Out While You Can -- is a gem of soul, rock and country. For twenty bucks you can't afford not to go.
The above dodgy but illustrative video of Dan was taken by me at the Blue Mountains Music Fest the year before last and that will be my next port of call, in March. As well as seeing two of the Bluesfest drawcards for me Chris Smither and Nanci Griffith, the rest of the line-up is superb. My posts from my previous visit. I'm sure there will be a number of new discoveries but I'm also looking forward to revisiting with the boys from Genticorum, who do fabulous traditional Quebec music.
As for the rest of the Byron folk, well The Flatlanders top the list but they haven't announced any sideshows yet. I'll be there when they do (they have to, right?) I've lined up to see Dr John and the Lower 911 at the Basement; seen him a few times before (but not for yonks) and I might have wavered but the opportunity for a show at a joint that size (real small) cannot be passed up. And ... that might be me tapped out for another year ...
Hat tip Tim. I read about Crazy Heart ages ago but never followed it up, now we have a soundtrack and a trailer.
Cool. Robert Duvall is mandatory for such a fillum. Sorta glad its fiction though, don't think this old world could cope with "a combination of Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard." Talk about never getting out of this world alive.
Was dubious about Colin Farrell's tracks but he's not half bad -- none of the above but pretty passable for the job.
If I Needed You is IMHO in TVZ's bottom half of songs buts its the most covered go figure.
I beg to differ with the writers of the "Goofs" section of IMDB for it though:
Revealing mistakes: When Tommy and Bad walk out of a restaurant supposedly in Phoenix, cars are shown with Arizona licence plates on their front bumpers. Arizona does not provide licence plates for front bumpers.
Let's Just Stay Here - Carolyn Mark and N.Q Arbuckle - released in January 2009 but only discovered by me in December in the few weeks I've had it has rapidly climbed into my Most Played list. Carolyn Mark is a Canadian country-folk singer and N.Q Arbuckle is a Canadian country band, neither of whom I'd heard of but who are apparently well established in the (alt) country circuit of the far north. The gruff twang lead vocals of N.Q Arbuckle come courtesy of Neville Quinlan and Mark was formally in an outfit with Neko Case and indeed before I knew that fact that's who she sort of reminded me of. The songs really are uncommonly good, full of winning little details and fun dashes of wry humour. Must have!
Best Dylan Album -- Equal winners: Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart (I'm with Tom Russell on this gem)
Best Non-Dylan Albums:
I think if you looked at my most played album released in 2009 it would be Leonard Cohen: Live in London but I'm gonna exclude live recordings, reissues and compilations from this ...
1. Easy Come Easy Go - Marianne Faithfull. I got this back in January and here it still is, top of the list.
2. Blood and Candle Smoke - Tom Russell. Typically full-bore TR effort of weaving biography and myth, now with mariachi horns
3. The Bright Mississippi - Allen Toussaint. Refreshing, transfixing, dreamy masterclass
4. Midnight at the Movies - Justin Townes Earle. No sophomore nerves here, proving the first album was not a fluke.
5. Hills and Valleys - The Flatlanders. Slipped a little in list over time but still an album of a grade Americana song to song
6. Traditions in Transition - Quantic and his Combo Barbaro. Genre tinkering with respect and passion, Latin on the wild side
7. One to the Head, One to the Heart - Gretchen Peters. What I said at the time
8. A Friend of a Friend - David Rawlings Machine. Should be higher really, but couldn't drop anything.
9. Mountain Soul II - Patty Loveless. Infectious bluegrassy country, highly polished but full of affection
10. Get Out While You Can - Dan Sultan. Well now, I only got this yesterday so given a few more days it could have really shot up the charts. Brilliant collection of soul, country and blues and heaps more soul. Dan is a star, no doubt.
11. Potato Hole - Booker T From the show in April
12. What Have You Done My Brother? - Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. Preach it, sister
13. Dirt Town City Limits - Mat d and the Profane Saints. See Jim's great review.
14 Today, Tomorrow and Forever - Pete Molinari feat. The Jordanaires. Only an EP, but a perfectly formed one.
15. For the Mission Baby -- Malcolm Holcombe.
16. Ready for the Flood - Gary Louris and Mark Olsen. Was rather "meh" on it for eight of the last nine months but sort of started to grow on me ....
17. Animals in the Dark - William Elliott Whitmore. Should be higher also, what can you do? Lists are stupid. Hat tip Phineas, some very cathartic tracks on here believe me.
18. Cotton - Sam Baker. Also needs more time but exceptional story songs and that kind of creaky Texas voice I love.
19. Lucky One - Raul Malo A little bit country, a little bit croony, very pleasant listening.
20. The Soul of Black John - John Black
Update: Bah I forgot about Shemekia Copeland's Never Going Back. Bah! Should be in the top 10, if the top ten could have 15 places.
This is tremendous news. Someone has written a full length book on one of my favourite records and, in my view, one of the most significant and interesting records of popular music.
That someone, Antonino D'Ambrosio, has an article in Salon which covers the ground much more briefly but is a must-read. I'm glad he hits upon the point of Cash being a folk singer as much as a country singer, that's a song I've been singing for years and is the only way you can appreciate him in full.
Cash demanded that the industry explain its resistance to his single. "I had to fight back when I realized that so many stations are afraid of Ira Hayes. Just one question: WHY???" And then Cash answered for them. "'Ira Hayes' is strong medicine ... So is Rochester, Harlem, Birmingham and Vietnam."
This is a great video I hadn't seen before, Cash doing "Apache Tears" live in 1988.
I can't disagree a public library should quietly cull it from their 2009 collection but I'd hope they'd at least sell it for 50c so I could buy it .... And then frame every single page.
Here's some latter day Charlie, playing out his jazzbo streak which honestly fit more easily than the awkward pseudo Elvis rockabilly thing of the 60s. Pictures and Paintings is a great album you should consider adding to your collection, and if you already have: play it again tonight! Although my favourite song is really probably "Rolling With the Flow."
The Flatlanders -- YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr John & the Lower 911
Lyle Lovett
Béla Fleck and Oumou Sangaré
Buddy Guy
Jeff Beck
Robert Gordon
Peter Green & friends
Justin Townes Earle
I'll keep an eye out for the Sydney show/s of Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club too but they'll probably play somewhere horrible like the Opera House so I'll stay home and listen to Bebo Valdes records.
Justin Townes Earle during encores at the Annandale. Very similar to last year's gig, which is to say, excellent. Some random YouTubes here.
Note to guitar nerds, that is Henry Wagons' guitar as he broke some strings (for the second time) on his own just before encore. Well, he does have thumbs like sledgehammers, as Guy Clark said!
I bought this postcard at a souvenir shop on Beale St, Memphis in late July this year. I have it magnet-ed on my fridge. Mary Lou Williams, legendary jazz musician. I have a lot of her material, she started playing professionally at age 6 : one of those amazing creatures who were absorbing the rhythm from birth and went from there.
I just love this picture. I mean, Beale St is one of the few places on earth you will find a postcard of Mary Lou Williams so I love the fact I could get it anywhere. That discovery was special. But apart from that, it is just such a fun, carefree picture. Fun but with her virtuoso music career right there. The woman and her piano. She played with Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakely, Dizzy Gillespie and everyone else. She was a formidable arranger and composer. And her solo work is unique -- not that I'm claiming to be omniscient about jazz but Black Christ of the Andes has got to be a part of its own thing. There are fewer than a dozen solo releases in almost 40 years, I've read a lot of the stuff online but I'd like to read something more substantial about the religious reasons she had for going in and out of the business that way. Duke University has a Centre for Black Culture named after her. She is buried in Pittsburgh.
As quoted on Wikipedia:
""I did it, didn't I? Through muck and mud."
The Buddha did not say it better. What more can you ask of life?
According to the back of the postcard, this picture was taken by Chester Higgins Jr in 1975.
Here is an MP3 of a Mary Lou Williams interview from the "A Grand Night For Swinging." It's only the interview, not the music.
PS. As well as She Ain't Going Nowhere by Guy Clark I can't believe I left THIS song off my fave country songs list. I SUCK! The dreaded "embedding disabled by request" but GO HERE. I love that whole rekkid those three did together. WHERE IS IT? I own it. WHERE IS IT??
Well here's Guy now, which cannot make up for my shameful omission. Like for reals this song is only pipped by If You See Her Say Hello as my my favourite song ever so how did I blank it that night? Neuroplasticity, how you mock me.
It's not the whole song but it includes my favourite bit of hillbilly haiku:
Well the wind had a way with her hair
And the blues had a way with her smile
And she had a way of her own
Like prisoners have a way with a file
PPS While we (I) are (am) on a YouTube kick -- Dublin Blues by Guy Clark is also a perfect song. The perfect essence of a song, all Platonic like.
Forgive me all my anger
Forgive me all my faults
There's no need to forgive me
For thinking what I thought
I often think this quatrain should be my next tattoo.
As previously mentioned, the delectable Rosanne Cash has an album coming out shortly called The List, which is 12 songs chosen from a list of (I think) 100 country songs her father gave her, as comprising an education in that discipline.
I trust you shall agree this is a pretty good list.
1. "Miss the Mississippi and You"
2. "Motherless Children"
3. "Sea of Heartbreak" (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
4. "Take These Chains From My Heart"
5. "I'm Movin' On"
6. "She's Got You"
7. "Heartaches by the Number" (w/ Elvis Costello)
8. "500 Miles"
9. "Long Black Veil" (w/ Jeff Tweedy)
10. "Silver Wings" (w/ Rufus Wainwright)
11. "Girl From the North Country"
12. "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow"
I thought I would do my own. Also 12 songs, my own list if in a parallel universe I could sing. These are not meant to be an overview of the history of country music (there's nothing before the early 60s for a start) but just a solidish collection of songs I could listen to all day. I put the last two in brackets just because those are the versions I chose to include but could have used any number of other versions -- both "She's Got You" and "He Thinks I Still Care" have male and female pronoun versions so I chose one of each. It's hard, but on the other hand the top 10 or so really write themselves then the final two spots are tough to divide between about half a dozen tracks. "Sea of Heartbreak" gets brackets cos basically I'll love anyone singing that song. I cheated and gave myself a bonus disc ....
I Drink -- Mary Gauthier
All Her Lovers Want to Be the Hero -- Steve Young
Big River -- Johnny Cash
Once a Day -- Connie Smith
She's Got You -- Loretta Lynn
Pancho & Lefty -- Townes Van Zandt
Sing Me Back Home -- Merle Haggard
Choices -- George Jones
South of Cincinnati -- Dwight Yoakam
Goodbye -- Steve Earle
Sea of Heartbreak -- (Rosanne Cash feat. Bruce Springsteen)
The Lord Knows I'm Drinking -- Cal Smith
Bonus Disc:
Goodbye -- Steve Earle
Willin' -- (Linda Ronstadt)
He Thinks I Still Care -- (Patty Loveless)
Hm. It's not very ... upbeat, is it?
Under the bylaws of 8tracks you're not supposed to make a playlist anywhere (so it mimics internet radio) but ... eh, I hope I can be forgiven this one time. So here it is! (and a direct link)
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