New Year's Eve w/ The Sadies, Pow Wows, Duende @ The Horseshoe, Saturday

Say farewell to another year with The Sadies, Pow Wows & Duende with DJ Chico spinning yer faves between sets.

Nick's Birthday w/ Simply Saucer, Dave Howard Singers, Processor @ The Garrison, Friday

If Santa didn't bring you the new Simply Saucer book Heavy Metalloid Music, grab it from Jesse Locke at the show.

Happy Birthday Frank Motley!

Remembering Toronto soul scene star Frank Motley and pal Curley Bridges with Cryin' All Alone.

One For The Weekend: Terry Manning

Check out Terry's swank version of The Beatles' Savoy Truffle from his 1970 album Home Sweet Home (Enterprise).

Golden Country Classics @ Cameron House, Wednesday

Doug Paisley, Bazil Donovan, Mike Belitsky play your faves from 6 pm to 8 pm. Check out Doug in Chicago below.

RIP Alphonse Mouzon, 1948-2016

Remembering master percussionist Alphonse Mouzon with his performances alongside McCoy Tyner and Doug Carn. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Shin Joong Hyun

Here are a couple of typically brilliant performances by South Korean psych-rock legend Shin Joong Hyun.

Watch 90s T.O. hip hop doc Make Some Noise

Have a Merry Intoxica Christmas with Howie Pyro!

Here's the big big Intoxica 2016 Xmas show with your host Howie Pyro. Sez Howie: "It's Xmas time and I gotta do a Xmas show as horrible as this year has been...I don't know what else to do! Lotsa new demented and/or rockin killer 45s to rock yer egg noggins!!! So grab your Xmas drool cup, plug in your holiday iTard, strap yourself in the spinning (and sometimes talking) Santa chair, and join me"...

Do the Santa Claus Boogie with Hasil Adkins

Listen to Santa Claus Boogie by Hasil Adkins from Norton's Wild Sounds of Christmas available here.

A Christmas wish from Calexico

Here's Joey Burns performing Gift X-Change off Calexico's Aerocalexico tour CD from 2001.

Darlene Shrugg, Tough Age, HSY @ Bovine Sex Club, Thursday

Don't miss Darlene Shrugg's rare appearance at the Bovine tonight – check out "First World Blues" and "Wah Wah" below. 

Have a Groovy Christmas with Houghas Sorowonko

Golden Country Classics @ The Cameron House, tonight

Doug Paisley, Bazil Donovan, Mike Belitsky & pals play your country faves tonight from 6pm-8pm.

Whaddya mean you don't know the Beat Buddies

Here's a Nederbeat classic from Thijs de Graaf, Henny van Pinksteren, Wolfgang Noske & Charles van de Pol.

Watch Jake Fussell play a living room concert

Durham, North Carolina singer and guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell grew up in Columbus, Georgia, son of Fred C. Fussell, a folklorist, curator, and photographer who hails from across the river in Phenix City, Alabama (once known as “The Wickedest City in America” for its rampant vice, corruption, and crime.) Fred’s fieldwork took him, often with young Jake in tow, across the Southeast documenting traditional vernacular culture, which included  recording blues and old-time musicians with fellow folklorists and recordists George Mitchell and Art Rosenbaum.

As a teenager Jake began playing and studying with elder musicians in the Chattahoochee Valley, apprenticing with Piedmont blues legend Precious Bryant (“Georgia Buck”), with whom he toured and recorded, and riding wild with Alabama bluesman, black rodeo rider, rye whiskey distiller, and master dowser George Daniel (“Rabbit on a Log”). He joined a Phenix City country band who were students of Jimmie Tarlton of Darby and Tarlton; he accompanied Etta Baker in North Carolina; he moved to Berkeley, where he hung with genius documentary filmmaker Les Blank and learned from Haight folkies like Will Scarlett (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Brownie McGhee) and cult fingerstyle guitarist Steve Mann (“Push Boat”); he appeared on A Prairie Home Companion. He did a whole lot of listening, gradually honing his prodigious guitar skills, singing, and repertoire.

In 2005 he moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where he enrolled in the Southern Studies department at Ole Miss, recorded and toured with Rev. John Wilkins, and, last year, met up with acclaimed artist William Tyler to begin recording his first solo album for North Carolina's Paradise of Bachelors label with help from Nashville session vets Chris Scruggs (lap steel, bass, mandolin: Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marty Stuart), Brian Kotzur (drums: Silver Jews), and Hoot Hester (fiddle Bill Monroe, Ray Charles). You can check out that recording right here after watching the Jake's living room concert below.



Jake isn’t just a rare bird, he’s the professor you always wished you had, the friend you never get tired of epic hangs with, the human jukebox, the guitar player and singer who makes any band that he’s in better. He’s a southern scholar and gentleman in the tradition of Jim Dickinson, George Mitchell, and Les Blank. He’s a Dave Van Ronk for SEC country.  – William Tyler

Jake is one helluva bluesman: my favorite of his generation, in fact; and, in my opinion, the best young traditional blues artist performing today.   – George Mitchell

Jake X. Fussell is certainly one of America’s finest young tradition-based songsters and guitar pickers. He had an ideal start: as a kid traveling the back roads of Georgia, Alabama, and even out to the Indian regions of Oklahoma with his folklorist dad, hearing and absorbing not only the vocal styles and guitar licks of such greats as Precious Bryant, but also developing a sure sense of the expressive core of Southern roots music. From Georgia’s Sea Islands and Chattahoochie Valley to the Mississippi Delta to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Jake is still listening and learning, and coming up with music that takes us to a deep place in the American spirit.   – Art Rosenbaum

sunn o))) @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre, March 14

Tickets go on sale Friday 10 am at ticketweb and Rotate This. Find out what's in Greg Anderson's shopping bag below.

The Sueves have a Wish List

Just in time for Christmas, Chicago crushers The Sueves have a new sampler Change Your Life out on HoZac. 

A Christmas wish from The Chamber Strings

Remembering the great Kevin Junior with the lovely Everyday Is Christmas from 1999.

Happy Birthday Blaze Foley!

Remembering Austin icon Blaze Foley on his day with Kevin Triplett's fab 2011 documentary Duct Tape Messiah. 

Duct Tape Messiah: Blaze Foleyby Kevin Triplett

Kelly Haigh vs. Jimmy Patton

Vancouver's own Kelly Haigh knocks out a sweet version of Jimmy Patton's 1964 gem Keeper Of The Key. 

Howe Gelb unveils "Severe Season" just in time for Christmas

"Severe Season" is off Howe Gelb's new Future Standards album out January 27th on Fire Records.

For those celebrated guys who hit on the standards – Monk, Cohen, Bacharach, even Merle Haggard, Howe Gelb is creating new tunes with cathartic one-liners and malleable melodies that suggest any singer could interpret these dozen American piano ballads and take his offbeat worldview and make it their own.

Future Standards by The Howe Gelb Piano Trio takes an outsider view of early gospel and rhythm and blues both part of the American musical socialization that he touched on with 2006’s ‘Sno Angel’. Now he’s on a jazz-tinged trip, bending the genre, taking it back to his shack, giving an innovative fine tune in the lean-to garage.

Future Standards is released in North America January 27th on Fire Records. There will also be a co-headline tour with Mark Eitzel in early 2017. Check out "Severe Season" followed by a list of upcoming tour dates below.



HOWE GELB ON TOUR
1/22 - Tucson, AZ - Tucson Jazz Festival - Supporting The Bird and The Bee
1/26 – Los Angeles, CA - The Resident - Co-Headline w/ Mark Eitzel
1/27 – Sacramento, CA – Old Ironsides – Co-Headline w/ Mark Eitzel
1/28 – San Francisco, CA - Bottom of The Hill - Co-Headline w/ Mark Eitzel
2/3 - Seattle, WA - Triple Door - Co-Headline w/ Mark Eitzel
2/4 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios - Co-Headline w/ Mark Eitzel

Darlene Love's epic final Christmas performance on The Late Show with David Letterman

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at David Letterman's Christmas tradition with Darlene Love and why it won't be topped.

Walter Ruttmann creates perfect video for Simply Saucer's Mole Machine – 53 years early!

Simply Saucer's Mole Machine works remarkably well with Walter Ruttmann's 1925 abstract gem "Lichtspiel Opus IV"

Alex Pangman joins Foggy Hogtown Boys for A Very Foggy Christmas @ Silver Dollar, Friday

Alex will be accompanied by her partner Col. Tom Parker for a few yuletide faves tonight at the Silver Dollar.

The Sadies team up with Kurt Vile for "It's Easy (Like Walking)"

"It's Easy (Like Walking)" is off The Sadies' forthcoming Northern Passages album.

The Sadies will release their 10th studio album, Northern Passages (Dine Alone/Yep Roc) on February 10th with a pre-order available here.

As the light swirled with each album The Sadies have made over the past two decades, the overall picture took on more defined colours. On top of that is an incredible list of collaborations—Neko Case, R&B legend Andre Williams, The Mekons’ Jon Langford, Jon Spencer, Robyn Hitchcock, John Doe, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Gord Downie, Neil Young—each artist pushing their sound into new, unmapped territory. Eventually, more time was taken in between albums as focus shifted to their original songwriting, and what was once the best live band in Canada became the best band in Canada, period.

Recorded in the basement of Dallas and Travis’ parents’ home north of Toronto over the winter of 2015, the familiar surroundings and lack of distractions resulted in a consistent feel, despite the eclecticism at the heart of The Sadies’ sound. The psych-folk flourishes on tracks such as “Riverview Fog” are no mere homage; this is the sound of our inscrutable world, and how we manage to survive in it.

The Sadies are a band that fans cling to like a closely guarded secret, with each new release fulfilling the promise to reach further, for all of our sakes, not just their own. With Northern Passages, the time has come to make room for more on this wild acid-folk-country-punk trip, and we’ll be better off because of it.

The band will be heading on a Canadian Ontario and East Coast tour supporting Blue Rodeo kicking off in Toronto on February 2 following The Sadies' annual New Year's Eve gig at The Horseshoe with Duende and Pow Wows on December 31.  See below for a full list of 2017 tour dates.

THE SADIES' 2017 tour with BLUE RODEO

Feb 02 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall*

Feb 08 – Montreal, QC – Place des Arts*

Feb 09 – Kingston, ON – Rogers K-Rock Centre*

Feb 10 – Barrie, ON – Barrie Molson Centre*

Feb 11 – Oshawa, ON – GM Centre*

Feb 14 – London, ON – Budweiser Gardens*

Feb 16 – Hamilton, ON – Hamilton Place*

Feb 17 – Hamilton, ON – Hamilton Place*

Feb 18 – Ottawa, ON – National Arts Centre (Southam Hall)*

Feb 19 – Ottawa, ON – National Arts Centre (Southam Hall)*

Feb 21 – Woodstock, NB – AYR Motor Centre*

Feb 23 – St. John’s, NL – Mile One Centre*

Feb 25 – Halifax, NS – Scotiabank Centre*

Feb 26 – Moncton, NB – The Molson CDN Centre at Casino NB*

Feb 28 – Kitchener, ON – Centre In The Square*

* supporting Blue Rodeo

Norman Blake @ Tiny Record Shop, Friday

Since Norman's playing a free in-store today, in the spirit of giving, here are a couple of the Fannies yuletide classics.

One For The Weekend: Jerome Richardson

Check out Jerome Richardson's epic version of Juan Tizol's Caravan off 1958's Midnight Oil album.

MF Doom & Madlib return w/ new single and figure!

Madvillain figure with Avalanche 7-inch by MF Doom & Madlib is due in Feb, 2017. Hear Avalanche below. 

The new figure was conceived and created by the same team behind the Madvillain figure by Kid Robot, including James Reitano, illustrator/animator/director of “All Caps.” Reitano also illustrated the figure’s box and the 7” jacket and labels. The figure was designed and sculpted by Charlie Becker then manufactured by Blitzway, the South Korean toy manufacturer who manufactured the J Dilla figures, on behalf of Madlib Invazion.

The figure is 8-inches tall and stands freely at 8-inches deep with one arm which articulates. It comes in a custom designed box by James Reitano that can be disassembled as a diorama for the figure. The figure comes with a clamshell case inside the box. The 7” record is inserted into a custom space in the clamshell. Pre-order from Rappcats right here.

Madlib & Doom 45 track list:
A1. Avalanche
B1. Avalanche (Instrumental)

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Sun Ra and friends

Unfamous: The Works of Gary Taxali opening reception @ FCP Gallery, Thursday

Bobby Rush gets down in a winery

Bobby performs Porcupine Meat, Garbage Man and I Don't Want Nobody Hanging Around at City Winery. 

LINKS
Bobby Rush plays Acoustic Guitar Session

Whaddya mean you don't know Brett Smiley

Andrew Loog Oldham seemed convinced Brett Smiley was destined for stardom. 

LINKS
NY Times The Man Who Fell From Fame
H(ear) An Interview with Brett Smiley
Dangerous Minds The Prettiest Star: Meet Obscure Glam Rocker Brett Smiley

RIP Bob Washington, voice of K-Tel

Winnipeg's CKRC DJ Bob Washington, who voiced numerous K-Tel spots, died Dec10, 2016 at 82. 

Watch Nick Waterhouse's new video for It's Time

"It's Time" is off the latest Nick Waterhouse album Never Twice which you should already own.

Happy Birthday DeFord Bailey!

Remembering harmonica playing Grand Ole Opry star DeFord Bailey with a couple of rippin' performances.

Heidi Happy's ready for Christmas

The ever-fabulous Heidi Happy sings a couple of yuletide gems with Ephrem Lüchinger and the Monotales.  

Cold Cave DJ set @ Velvet Underground, Friday

Expect to hear some Bochum Welt, Tronics and loads of minimal synth gems when Wes Eisold presses play. 

Happy Birthday Wayne Bennett!

Remembering guitar slinger deluxe Wayne Bennett with his version of the Ruby Andrews classic Casanova. 

Watch Tami Neilson's new Loco Mama video

"Loco Mama" is off Tami Neilson's Don't Be Afraid album out now on Outside Music. 

Happy Birthday Manu Dibango!

Raising a glass to Manu with a couple of his stellar recordings including the twist gem Hallelouia circa 1962.

Patti Smith salutes Bob Dylan at Nobel Tribute

Patti Smith toughed her way through Bob's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall. Read Dylan's acceptance speech below.

Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize banquet speech

Good evening, everyone. I extend my warmest greetings to the members of the Swedish Academy and to all of the other distinguished guests in attendance tonight.

I'm sorry I can't be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize. Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an early age, I've been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction: Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway. These giants of literature whose works are taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression. That I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words.

I don't know if these men and women ever thought of the Nobel honor for themselves, but I suppose that anyone writing a book, or a poem, or a play anywhere in the world might harbor that secret dream deep down inside. It's probably buried so deep that they don't even know it's there.

If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I'd have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact, during the year I was born and for a few years after, there wasn't anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least.

I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. I began to think about William Shakespeare, the great literary figure. I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist. The thought that he was writing literature couldn't have entered his head. His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken not read. When he was writing Hamlet, I'm sure he was thinking about a lot of different things: "Who're the right actors for these roles?" "How should this be staged?" "Do I really want to set this in Denmark?" His creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind, but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with. "Is the financing in place?" "Are there enough good seats for my patrons?" "Where am I going to get a human skull?" I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare's mind was the question "Is this literature?"

When I started writing songs as a teenager, and even as I started to achieve some renown for my abilities, my aspirations for these songs only went so far. I thought they could be heard in coffee houses or bars, maybe later in places like Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium. If I was really dreaming big, maybe I could imagine getting to make a record and then hearing my songs on the radio. That was really the big prize in my mind. Making records and hearing your songs on the radio meant that you were reaching a big audience and that you might get to keep doing what you had set out to do.

Well, I've been doing what I set out to do for a long time, now. I've made dozens of records and played thousands of concerts all around the world. But it's my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do. They seemed to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures and I'm grateful for that.

But there's one thing I must say. As a performer I've played for 50,000 people and I've played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50. Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto themselves. They can perceive things more clearly. Your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried. The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.

But, like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life's mundane matters. "Who are the best musicians for these songs?" "Am I recording in the right studio?" "Is this song in the right key?" Some things never change, even in 400 years.

Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, "Are my songs literature?"

So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.

My best wishes to you all, 

Bob Dylan

Banquet speech by Bob Dylan given by the United States Ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji, at the Nobel Banquet, 10 December 2016.

Edgar Breau plays Simply Saucer book launch @ Monarch Tavern, Sunday

Heavy Metalloid Music: The Story of Simply Saucer is out now. Watch a short Simply Saucer doc below. 

James Chance & The Contortions @ The Rivoli, Saturday

NYC no wave icon James Chance has a new album, The Flesh Is Weak. Watch two versions of "Melt Yourself Down."

Watch James White & The Blacks perform "Melt Yourself Down" at Hurrah in 1980

River Records owner Jerry Gibson killed during robbery

Sadly beloved record dealer Jerry Gibson was killed Thursday night at River Records in Memphis. 

According to Action News 5, gregarious Memphis record dealer Jerry Gibson was shot and killed around closing time last night at River Records on South Highland, apparently the victim of a robbery. Police are currently looking for witnesses and combing through security camera footage to identify possible suspects. Anyone with information should call CrimeStoppers in Memphis at (901) 528-CASH.

Today music fans everywhere are mourning the loss of Gibson, the outgoing and uproariously funny music man who ran the popular collectibles shop packed tight with vinyl curios for decades. Longtime River Records customer Greg Cartwright (of Reining Sound) is paying tribute to Gibson by playing the music Jerry loved on 103.3 Asheville FM's "In The Box" from 11am to 1pm this afternoon which you can stream here.

Wrote Cartwright:
Today's show is dedicated to legendary record shop owner Jerry Gibson who died tragically yesterday during a robbery at his store in Memphis, TN. My home town. Perhaps legendary seems too grand an adjective for a man who ran a record store, but he was known the world over. On a personal note, he afforded me the pleasure of sharpening my ear and my taste for music on the best collection of used inventory I've ever had the pleasure of digging through. To this day, the best. Thanks Jerry. 
There are two themes for today's show. Part 1 will be Teen 45's from the late 50's and early 60's. Part two will be bubblegum pop from the late 60's and early 70's.

Much like Cartwright who now lives in North Carolina but would still stop by River Records whenever he was back home, just about every serious digger I've known who has passed through Memphis over the last 25 years has made a point of visiting Jerry at River Records. And after crawling on hands and knees for hours sifting through thousands of unpriced, unsorted soul, R&B, funk and gospel 45s piled floor to ceiling, they would then have to deal with store's wisecracking owner.

Jerry would astutely size up his customers and their prized discoveries to arrive at a price based on current market value and his own personality assessment using key information gleaned from his checkout interview. Your chat with Jerry could last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour beginning with a discussion of your place of origin, employment status, family situation, travel plans or the weather and ending with why you're interested in the records you've brought to the front desk. "Well, well, well, I can't say this one looks familiar to me," Gibson would chuckle, "but since you've got four more copies here, you must think pretty highly of it, son!"

For all those who scored big at River Records over the years, there's a way to give back.
Regular River Records customer and Gibson pal Parker Hays has started a Go Fund Me campaign to help out Jerry Gibson's family during this very difficult time. Jerry had no life insurance so any contribution would help with funeral costs.   

LINKS
Commercial Appeal River Records Owner Killed Thursday
WMC Action News 5 Beloved business man killed inside Memphis record store