Whats playing on your system today?

The Continental Drifters were (are?) a fantastic band! They did a residency at an underground (literally---it was in a basement) club on Hollywood Blvd. in the early-to-mid 90’s, playing every Monday night (iirc) for a long time. Everybody in L.A. went to those shows, and guest artists would often join them onstage.

Besides the aforementioned Peter Holsapple (whose drummer in the dB’s, Will Rigby, is now working with Steve Earle. Small world!) and Susan Cowsill (at the time girlfriend of then-L.A. resident Dwight Twilley), members included Vicki Peterson of The Bangles, Dream Syndicate bassist (and major a-hole) Mark Walton, and incredibly good drummer (and singer) Carlo Nuccio, who played on Tori Amos’ first album. One of the best live bands I’ve ever seen; their albums are pretty good, too.

The Band’s Moondog Matinee was their reaction and response to the 50’s revival that was going on in the early 70’s. As The Hawks (both backing Ronnie Hawkins and on their own) from 1960 until Dylan hired them as his (heh) band for his 1966 European tour (Bob hired them away from their then-current employer, John Hammond Jr.), they were a working band playing in Canada, up and down the Eastern Seaboard, the Midwest and South in bars, lounges, dancehalls (including the one in Dallas owned by the man who shot JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby!)---dives of all types, performing hits and misses from the 50’s and first half of the 60’s. It’s the same material that what are now referred to by Rock ’n’ Roll historians as Frat Bands were playing on the West Coast (I was in one named The Squyres. Classic Frat Band name!). Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and other original Southern R & R, Rhythm & Blues, Country & Western, Pop classics, Brill Building Soul, instrumentals from movie soundtracks, novelty songs---you name it.

What The Band heard coming from Sha Na Na and the other nostalgia acts of the early 70’s was such an insult to the music they decided to do it themselves, correctly. Moondog Matinee is comprised of songs they actually performed on stage as The Hawks in their bar band days. Damn would I like to have seen them then! I have two friends who saw them live with Dylan in ’66, at The San Jose Civic Auditorium. I had yet to "get" Dylan, and passed :-(.

I started today with a collection by Chris Hillman & The Desert Rose Band. Chris was the bassist in The Byrds of course, and then went on to have a solo career, putting out a number of great Bluegrass (what he was playing before being recruited into The Byrds) albums on Sugar Hill Records (in excellent recorded sound quality, by the way). The members of The Desert Rose Band, a Country Super Group, are Chris’ now-current partner singer/songwriter/acoustic guitarist Herb Pedersen (who has made many fine albums on his own), Telecaster master John Jorgenson (later in The Hellecasters), and pedal steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness, the best in the business. Not a bad line-up! Chris & the boys were a very successful 90’s Country Group, back when there was still some Country that was actually Country, not Eagles flavored Rock!

The album (MCA 10018) is great from start to finish, but let me highlight three tracks:

"Hello Trouble": Very Buck Owens influenced, with Chris employing Buck’s phrasing to great effect. And John’s guitar playing is just dazzling, with an incredible solo. Steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness also plays up to his usual ridiculously high standards.

"Will This Be The Day": Very Byrds-ish, with electric 12-string playing the signature D-chord motif from The Byrds "Feel A Whole Lot Better" throughout the song. I absolutely adore how bassist Bill Bryson plays inversions starting on the second section of the second chorus. Bass inversions, my absolutely favorite thing in music, employed by many of the greats, from J.S. Bach to Brian Wilson.

"Price I Pay": Ridiculous guitar playing by John (who quotes George Harrison’s signature "I Feel Fine" guitar part in this song!) and Jay, with harmony vocals by the sublime EmmyLou Harris, one of the best singers in the world. What’s not to like?!

I can’t imagine being without the music on this, and all Desert Rose Band, album(s). Buy it!

Iris Dement's Lifeline album, in which she celebrates her Christian faith. Don't let that scare you off, non-believers! Remember how good Dylan's trio of Christian albums were? Audiophile favorite Alison Krauss does Gospel-influenced material, as do many other Bluegrass artists. And Elvis!

The Band's Music From Big Pink. Next year marks fifty years---50 years!---since it's 1968 release, and it hasn't dated one iota. What a breathe of fresh air is was in that year, swimming head-on against the tide of Psychedelia, lame British blues bands (Ten Years After? Oy vey!), show-off would-be-virtuoso improvisers, and album-side long "songs". MFBP is not only a great album musically, but it is a Master's Class in Rock 'n' Roll musicianship; everything you need to know to play the music is contained in the grooves of the album. It (heh) rocked the music world to it's core when it came out, changing and actually determining the musical path many songwriters, players, and singers took after fully absorbing it's brilliance and significance. Absolutely and by a considerable margin, the most extraordinary debut album of all time, and an all-time Top 10 record. The Band's follow-up---s/t, also known as the brown album, is equally great, some feel even better than MFBP. I love them both to death, each being in my own personal Top 10 album list.

Follow-up on Buddy & Julie Miller:

I hadn't listened to their Written In Chalk album (their 2nd, from 2009) in a while, but did last night. Wow, it may be even better than their 1st! Great, great songs (most written by Julie), fantastic production by Buddy (the living room of their Nashville home is his studio), stellar singing (Julie, Buddy, Patty Griffin, Robert Plant, and Emmylou Harris) and musicianship (Buddy---a superb guitarist, Larry Campbell, Jay Bellerose, Gurf Morlix---Lucinda Williams' original guitarist and producer, Stuart Duncan, and other lesser-knowns). And, the album is available on LP.

The depth and breadth of Buddy's knowledge of American music is unparalleled (with the exception of Dylan, and perhaps T Bone Burnett), and is an absolutely fantastic producer, guitarist and bandleader (in which capacity he works for Emmylou Harris), and makes music as good as is currently being made. Written In Chalk is fantastic---just buy it!

@reubent, isn’t Geraint wonderful?! "Turn That Chicken Down" is a fantastic blend of "Field Holler Blues" and modern Trip Hop. His reimagining of Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks’ "Heroes And Villains" (into a Jump Blues!) is absolutely brilliant!

Geraint is a major player in the UK Blues/Rock ’n’ Roll/Rockabilly scene, and was in Dave Edmunds’ band on a couple of shows I attended. He was also in Pearl Harbour’s band when she was based in England, touring with The Clash, Costello, Rockpile, etc. I was in one of her bands after she returned from England (her marriage with Clash bassist Paul Simonon crashed and burned), and she was quite impressed that I knew of Geraint. He has a new album I haven’t yet heard.

Fun is an apt adjective; I can see Geraint winking at us as he sings. Nick Lowe says he's his favorite English pianist, and others apparently agree. Geraint has worked with Nick, Dave Edmunds, Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, Mark Knopfler, Bill Wyman, buncha others.

Every time I've seen him live, he looks as if he's been drinking for a few hours, his hair a mess, clothes askew, smiling and laughing, having a ball. Again, fun!

Aw yeah slaw, Pontiac---great album. But no, Robyn Ludwick is a name new to me, so I’ll add her to my "check out" list.

Speaking of Lucinda, yesterday on the TAS site I read a review of her newish release of This Sweet Old World, her re-recording of the Sweet Old World album, which was released between her s/t Rough Trade album (her first with a band, her first two on Folkways being true solo albums) and her breakthrough Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album. Apparently, Lucinda was never happy with the recordings, and went in to get it right this time.

The review inspired me last night listen to every album of hers I possess (I cooled off on her in the mid-2000’s, a couple of albums---World Without Tears and West---having waaay too many slow songs) in order of release. My appreciation of her singing has been deepened, and my interest in her renewed! How we perceive music---vocals especially---is greatly influenced by our own state of mind, and right now I seem to be in a receptive mood for Lucinda. She’s a "Fall" kind of artist ;-). There are three of her albums I now have to get asap---This Sweet Old World, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, and The Ghosts Of Highway 20. As is evident, I haven’t kept up with her new releases after losing interest back in them in the mid-2000’s.

I saw Lucinda live quite a few times in L.A. (from a pizza parlor to The Troubadour), from the time of the Rough Trade album (1988) through the Car Wheels tour (late 90’s). Most of those times she had her original L.A. band, with David Lindley on drums and her then-producer Gurf Morlix on guitar. The recording of the Rough Trade album, Sweet Old World, and Car Wheels were painful affairs, Lucinda having a very hard time getting on tape the sound she was after. Sweet Old World was recorded three times, over four years! The Car Wheels album also took a few years, it’s release date pushed back time after time.

Producer Morlix grew weary of the whole thing during the recording of the Car Wheels album, quit her band, and moved to Austin, where he remains. Drummer Lindley died, and Lucinda has been through many drummers and guitarists since. On the Car Wheels tour she had Kenny Vaughan, now in The Fabulous Superlatives, Marty Stuart’s band, playing guitar. Listening last night to the later Essence and Little Honey albums, and having heard snippets of The Ghosts Of Highway 20 albums, I believe she has been able to get what she was after in the early days (hence the new recording of the Sweet Old World album)---a more rural, "roadhouse" band sound, less pop. The snare drum on her albums is now lower in the mix, and tuned lower. Gurf’s Telecaster twang has been replaced by the snarl of what sounds like a Les Paul Jr., and it suits her music and voice better. I’m diggin’ Lucindy again!

reubent, I like when an artist has his or her backing band be the show opener, as is I believe the situation with Lucinda and Buick 6. I haven’t seen them yet, but she has always had a great band. I saw her at The Wiltern Theater (a great room) on the Car Wheels tour, and she had Jim Lauderdale open for her. He then remained on stage for her set, playing acoustic rhythm guitar and singing harmony. She had Jim Christie on drums, who quit Dwight Yoakam (no one likes working for him) when she offered him a job. On guitar were Kenny Vaughan and Doug Pettibone. What a band! I just realized why the drumming is so good on the Essence album---it’s Jim Keltner!

I just read that Bill Frisell plays guitar on the Spirit and Ghosts albums, and am looking forward to hearing how that worked out. I saw Lucinda on TV a few weeks back (she looked like h*ll !), singing with Steve Earle. Steve’s road band was backing and they were fantastic, especially the drummer. Steve is a harsh critic, but he, like I, is a huge fan of Buddy Miller, whom I mentioned above. Steve proclaimed Buddy’s 1995 Your Love And Other Lies the Country album of the decade! I sure wish Lucinda would have Buddy produce her---right now he’s the best.

@slaw, thanks for the report on the new version. And thanks to you, reubent and all other Lucinda fans for getting me back into her. I loved her from the first time I heard her s/t Rough Trade album in 1988 (damn, 30 years ago!), through Sweet Old World, and into her breakout album, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. I would go see and hear her every time she played live in SoCal, and considered her one of my very favorite singer/songwriters, sort of my female John Hiatt.

But her next two albums, Essence and World Without Tears, didn't grab me. I listened to little snippets of each song on both albums, and was put off by the slow, undynamic nature of the performances. As I often do in situations like this, I essentially wrote her off, considering her no longer of interest to me. I therefore didn't even look into her subsequent albums.

Geez did I miss some fantastic music! Ya'll inspired me to catch up with what she has been doing, and to give Essence and World Without Tears another chance. And I am deeply, madly in love with her again. I started with those two albums, and now can't believe their worth escaped me at the time of their release. I have been listening to nothing but Lucinda for the past month, loving every album she has made since Car Wheels.

Right now I'm on Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, and am absolutely flabbergasted by what a great singer she has become. I haven't gotten to the new version of SOW yet, her singing on it getting pretty harsh criticism from some. I do hear the lack of articulation and enunciation in her current singing that some listeners don't care for, but I find myself loving it. She now sounds like the Country Blues singer she has always wanted to be.

Her writing too has grown deeper. Lyrics aren't necessarily important to me; when they're great, it's a nice bonus. Lucinda's are now really interesting, and her delivery of them absolutely thrilling. Her musicians are creating a thick, swampy stew of sound, about as "rural" as I've ever heard. The deep groove her players create seems to be allowing Lu to really let go, to bring things up from way down inside. I am SO happy for her---she has achieved greatness. 

Ooh, good one @david_ten! Their version of "Baby Please Don't Go" is SO tough.

Here's another: Down To The Well by Kevin Gordon. I heard about Kevin from Lucinda Williams, who makes a guest appearance on the album. Anyone who likes John Hiatt will like Kevin.

Yeah pops, Springsteen’s heart is in the right place. I just wish he (and Elvis Costello, whose vibrato is WAAAY out of control) would calm the Hell down. Bruce is just "trying" to sing way too hard---his throat all tight, squeezing the lyrics through clenched teeth and jaw. I’m usually just ambivalent about him, but actively disliked him when he just couldn’t help himself during the all-star tribute show to Roy Orbison, behaving like he was the star of the show. Bruce, dude, this isn’t about you. Show some respect, stay back where you belong, as part of Roy’s accompaniment.

As a songwriter, there’s not much to say. Pedestrian chord sequences, not much in the way of melodies, very little harmony singing. His songs have verses and choruses, but rarely a bridge/middle 8. Yawn.

His band on the 1st and 2nd albums was just awful, especially drummer Vini Lopez. What a sloppy, amateur mess. After that it was only mediocre. THE most boring, stock drum and keyboard playing of any band achieving their level of success I’ve heard. No character, no style, no personality. No imagination, no creativity, no humor, no nuthin’.

As I said, I don’t get it.

Drinking with Lucinda! I met her only once, at a Long Ryders' show in the mid-80's at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd. I didn't know it at the time, but she was married to LR drummer Greg Sowders. I was slightly acquainted with their manager, whom I bumped into on the floor in front of the stage. After our salutations, he introduced me to the provocative yet shy, lanky blonde who was standing with him, saying to me "This is Lucinda, she's a singer too". I also didn't know she had already recorded two albums that had been put out on the Folkways label, performing traditional Folk Blues material, nor that she was about to start on what would turn out to be her s/t Rough Trade album. Her marriage to Greg was the first of many; she's on about her fifth, I believe. Good for songwriting material ;-).

Joan Osborne: Pretty Little Stranger. Two thumbs way up!

Joan Osborne: Songs Of Bob Dylan. Sorry JO, don’t care for it. Yet. I’ll give it a few more spins.

Lee Ann Womack: The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone. Lee described it’s Genesis as her wanting to make an album having a rural, back-to-her Texas roots quality to it. So I gave her the benefit of my doubt, and bought a copy. My doubts were confirmed; over-produced, showbizzy slick, very non-rural. It’s what an Americana-style songwriter I worked with in the 90’s (Steve Tagliere, himself now back in Texas) calls Housewife Country.

Lucinda Williams: Her entire catalog. One of the couple of greatest living artists, she’s the real deal. I can’t believe how many songs she’s written in the past 30 years, nor what a great singer she has grown into. Yes, I hear what some others have complained of in her singing---the inarticulate, slurred delivery. To me, she sometimes kind of sounds like her tongue is maybe slightly swollen. She delivers the lyrics in a rather laconic, very relaxed manner. I dig it! But beyond that, she sings them with an honest, heartfelt quality, like she has lived every word. I’m absolutely in awe of her talent.

@slaw, speaking of Buddy Miller, he and Emmylou Harris have been singing (ha) the praises of a guy named Doug Seegers, whose Going Down To The River album they both appear on. And oh man, is Doug the real deal! A true blue hillbilly, a real Country/Western (as it used to be called) singer. I hear a lot of Hank Williams and a little of Merle Haggard in his singing, and a similarity to newer guys like Wayne Hancock (my former-bandmate Paul Skelton played on his early albums, and then Evan Johns, with whom I recorded one album, played guitar in his road band---small world!) and Hank's grandson, Hank III. He sounds like a man, not a boy, unlike many pseudo-Country singers today---those raised on Rock, but now wanting in on the Country action. I hear that in far too many of the "Americana" bands and solo artists. They haven't lived it, how they gonna sing it?

Some not-really-Country music lovers may be put off by the sound of Doug's voice---it has the nasally/twangy character of hardcore Country singers from the South, heard in a lot of Bluegrass music. The band is the traditional Country/Western lineup---pedal steel, Telecaster guitar, honkytonk piano, fiddle, mandolin, and occasional dobro and banjo, with Doug playing acoustic guitar. For lovers of real Country/Western music only!

Iris Dement: "Living In The Wasteland Of The Free"

Roger McGuinn and Marty Stuart: "My Back Pages" (on You Tube)

Marty Stuart: "Country Boy Rock & Roll" (live on Letterman) 

Up The Line by The Gary Smith Blues Band. Gary switched from drums to blues harp and vocals in 1969, the year I worked with him in a San Jose band. Later that year he joined The Charles Ford Blues Band, who had just moved down from Ukiah, CA. The band’s guitarist was Robben Ford, who ended up moving to L.A. and playing with Miles Davis (!), George Harrison (!), Joni Mitchell, L.A. Express, and many others. Before he did, The CFBB recorded two albums each with Charlie Musselwhite and Jimmy Witherspoon. Gary was mentored by Musselwhite and Paul Butterfield, both of them living in the Bay Area. He also studied the recordings of Little Walter, James Cotton, Sonny Boy Williamson, and all the other greats.

By the time of this 1991 album, Gary had become a GREAT harp player and band leader, and his bands on the album (one on each side of the album) are SO fine. Very few white bands really understand how to play Blues well (Sonny Boy Williamson to The Hawks’ Robbie Robertson in 1965, shortly after returning from a UK tour on which he was provided bands comprised of local players, including Eric Clapton: "They [the UK musicians] want to play the Blues so bad. And that’s just how they play it." ;-), as can be verified by listening to the likes of Canned Heat and Blues Traveler (shudder). Gary’s two bands on Up The Line are comprised of excellent Blues players, and his harp playing is absolutely world-class. Guesting on the album are Nick Gravenites (The Electric Flag, with Mike Bloomfield) and Musselwhite. Up The Line is a really, really good Blues album.