Happy Halloween from Betty Boop

Here's Max Fleischer's classic animated short "Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party" from 1933.

Bloodshot Bill's spooky Halloween Tricks and Treats

Here are a couple of Halloween ready chiller thrillers about aliens, monsters and haunted graveyards from Bloodshot Bill.

Smash It Up: Y in Dub listening party @ The Piston, Sunday

DJ/Zine maven Nick Smash will spin some records at 7 pm followed by The Pop Group's Y in Dub at 9 pm at The Piston on Sunday

Copies of The Pop Group's Y in Dub will be available for $20 cash only along with a special edition of Nick's "Smash It Up!" zine.

Happy Birthday Errol Parker!

Remembering French jazz pianist/drummer Errol Parker, aka Raphaël Schecroun with a couple of gems. 

Watch The Budos Band & Sugarman 3 live at The Apollo

See the Budos Band rip through "The Sticks" followed by The Sugarman 3 doing "Witch's Boogaloo" below. 

The Daptone Super Soul Revue: Live at The Apollo 3LP is available right here. 

90s Nostalgia: The Mummies

Check out The Mummies live 'n' wild in San Francisco back in 1991.  

Memphis ace Alicja Trout previews new Howlin' album

Alicja Trout (aka Alicja-Pop) of Lost Sounds and River City Tanlines releases her new Howlin' album on November 12th. 

Here's the scoop from Black & Wyatt Records... 

Alicja Trout (Alicja-pop) first became infatuated with songwriting at 16 years old when she heard a tape by a classmate’s older brother Tim Feleppa. Tim made music on a 4-track cassette recorder in his little NYC apartment. It was like nothing she ever heard on the radio, and she wanted to make some too. Several of her friends were really into this tape of great poppy lo-fi songs, experimental drones, and cool sound effects.  Several years later she got her own recording set-up and was trading ideas and tapes with musical friends. She was a part of the “4-trackers” who were making songs at home with headphones and whatever weird cheap or discarded gear they could get their hands on. This was Alicja’s biggest influence and inspiration for Alicja-pop.  Even though her musical style can manifest as rough and dark, Prince was always a mainstream influence because of his diverse catalog and the fact that he wrote and recorded it all.  

Each song on this new Alicja-pop album explores a different style and theme.  Howlin’ is a collection of several years of songs. Some tracks are minimal with one instrument, some are studio recordings with layers of vocal harmonies and instrument overdubs.  Some tracks fall in between. Each song included on Howlin’ is crafted with catchy hooks and easy flowing chord progressions.  Alicja-pop is both a solo endeavor and a group venture.  Alicja-pop performs as a live band currently featuring Lori McStay, Jared McStay, and Andrew Geraci.  Alicja Trout also performs with River City Tanlines, Mouserocket, and Sweet Knives (ex-Lost Sounds).  

Get a copy of Alicja's new Howlin' album via Bandcamp right here. Check out "Incandescent Time Continuum" below. 

 

R.I.P. Willie Cobbs, 1932-2021

Sadly blues great Willie Cobbs, best known for his oft-covered 1960 gem "You Don't Love Me," has passed away at the age of 89.

Happy Birthday James Williamson!

Cheers to guitarist and silicon valley exec James Williamson. Check out his interview with collaborator Deniz Tek. 

One For The Weekend: Pete Drake

Here's steel guitar great Pete Drake with his delightfully demented "The Spook" on Starday from 1962. 

 

Happy Birthday Andy Bey!

Celebrating Andy Bey's birthday with his fantastic William S. Fischer-produced Experience and Judgement album from 1974. 

Hurray For The Riff Raff preview new album with "Rhododendron"

"Rhododendron" is off Hurray For The Riff Raff's highly anticipated Life On Earth album out February 18 via Nonesuch Records. 

Monster Magnet vs. Poobah

Here's Monster Magnet's trippy version of Poobah's "Mr. Destroyer" followed by Jim Gustafson's 1972 original. Check 'em out. 

Saigon 60s surf and twist recordings of Phương Tâm resurface

The 25-track anthology of Phương Tâm's largely overlooked recordings is out now on CD from Sublime Frequencies. 

Here's the scoop...

Sublime Frequencies is honoured to present the first ever retrospective of Phương Tâm, the groundbreaking Saigon teenager who became one of the first singers to perform and record rock and roll in 1960s Vietnam. 

By chance in early 2020, Hannah Hà (USA) learned that her mother, Phương Tâm, had once been a famous young singer, performer and recording artist at the heart of Saigon’s music scene in the early 1960s. The family had heard some mention of their mom as a singer at the time, but the extent of her legacy and the many songs she had recorded came as a big surprise. Check out the story from Hannah's perspective as reported on November 9th by CBC's As It Happens right here. 

Further investigations soon led Hannah to producer Mark Gergis, compiler of Saigon Rock and Soul (2010, Sublime Frequencies), enlisting him to join her on a journey of discovery and recovery. The result is this essential document of Phuong Tam’s brief but prolific career, and at the same time, reuniting the long-lost music with its singer. 

The unique strengths and qualities of Phương Tâm’s voice, coupled with her commanding stage presence, had swiftly elevated her to top billings on Saigon’s nightclub stages. Parallel to the brutality and uncertainty of an already protracted war, South Vietnam’s music and recording industry were developing at a rapid pace in the early 1960s. Globally, musical trends with wild, ephemeral dance crazes were being thought up weekly; the twist, hully gully, the mashed potato – none of them a problem for Phương Tâm. She soon caught the attention of Saigon’s leading recording companies and composers (Y Vân, Khánh Băng, Trường Hải, Thanh Sơn, Y Vũ and Mặc Thế Nhân, among others). Her energy translated unsurprisingly well in the studio, backed by electric guitars, contrabass, drums, lush brass sections, saxophone, piano, organ and rich backing vocals. 

Between 1964-1966, Phương Tâm would record almost 30 known tracks, released by the three main record companies in Saigon. The teenage starlet became a vital centerpiece of pop music of the time, and one of the very first singers to perform and record rock and roll (known locally as nhạc kích động, or, action music) – though as you’ll hear, she could also transform a jazz ballad into something otherworldly. While these musical styles were undeniably influenced by contemporary trends worldwide, the musicians and composers worked to localize the sounds, incorporating linguistic adaptations, lyrical content and past artistic traditions into something all their own. 

In 1966, as Saigon’s music scene continued to evolve and escalate, Phương Tâm walked away from her singing career without looking back – marrying the man she loved and beginning the next rich chapter of her life. But her recorded output had laid the stylistic groundwork for the following generations of singers, and many of the songs she first sang would later be further popularized by others. Her impactful, but short- spanning career has seen her legacy remain historically understated until now. 

Due to the lack of master tapes or documentation from pre-1975 Vietnam, and the scarcity of records and tapes that had survived the war, it was difficult to grasp the extent of Phương Tâm’s discography. A collective effort was required in sourcing materials and information to compile this record, involving key collectors and producers internationally (Jan Hagenkötter - Saigon Supersound, Cường Phạm, Adam Fargason, Khoa Hà – granddaughter of composer Y Vân, and researcher Jason Gibbs). As the veils of history were slowly lifted, the genuine thrill was witnessing Phương Tâm herself, hearing these songs for the first time in over 50 years – sometimes since the day she recorded them. 

At the heart of this project is a family story – Hannah Hà’s dedication to recovering and sharing her mother’s musical legacy is helping put Phương Tâm back on center stage after 55 years. But it is also a story that adds critical context to the fragmented understanding of Vietnamese popular culture during the 20th century, particularly after so much has been lost to war and dislocation. 

25 tracks spanning Phương Tâm’s recording career: early rock and roll, surf, twist, soul, blues and jazz ballads recorded in Saigon between 1964-1966, featuring electric guitars, contrabass, lush brass, saxophone, drums and organ, and rich backing vocal arrangements. Restored and remastered from original records and reel tapes. 

Deluxe CD release comes housed in a 6-panel digipak, with two 32-page booklets in English and Vietnamese, featuring extensive liner notes by Hannah Hà and Mark Gergis, exclusive photos, album and sheet music art, original magazine and newspaper extracts, nightclub advertisements + more. Digital version is accompanied by a 41-page pdf booklet. Vinyl release forthcoming in 2022. 

Get a copy of Phương Tâm's Musical Nights anthology via Bandcamp right here. Check out a few tracks below. 

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Elvis Costello shares pleasantly pounding "Magnificent Hurt"

Check out Elvis Costello's snarling Attractions-style swinger "Magnificent Hurt" off The Boy Named If due in January. 

Portland's Møtrik share "Particle Maze" clip, announce tour dates

"Particle Maze" is off Møtrik's forthcoming album MØØN: The Cosmic Electrics of MØTRIK. Check the tour dates below. 

Midweek Mixdown: Ed Motta's City Pop

Musician/collector Ed Motta created a mix of his fave Japanese 'City Pop' easy listening tunes for Wax Poetics. Check the link.

Here's the scoop...

City Pop is a sub-genre of J-Pop (Japanese Pop), but it’s more specific with a soulful element and influences from West Coast pop and soft rock, starting in the mid-’70s with the first groups formed by Tatsuro Yamashita and Haruomi Hosono. City Pop is really AOR and soft rock but with some funk and boogie too. Because when you hear funkier City Pop tunes, you hear not only the influence, but in some parts they steal from groups like Skyy, BB&Q Band, and those kinda American boogie and funk groups.

The first thing I got into was Tatsuro Yamashita that I got from Carlinhos’s store in São Paulo, Disco 7. I was expecting a Japanese jazz album. I was heavily collecting Japanese jazz at this time in the early 2000s. I liked it a lot—the songwriting. I started to buy these kind of albums from some of the dealers from whom I used buy Japanese jazz and things. Hajimi Yamada and Kenichi Ozaki, these two guys, they’re my City Pop teachers, and these books: Japanese City Pop, Disc Collection: Japanese City Pop, Light Mellow Special, and one with a title in Japanese just focusing on female musicians of City Pop.

Check out Ed Motta's City Pop mix for Wax Poetics right here. 

Song notes by Ed Motta:

1. Char – かげろう (1976)

Japan’s guitar hero, and his first album with a strong soul influence.

2. Buzz – “Garasu-Mado” (1974)

A lovely reggae feel here and kinda Donovan-style vibrato.

3. Chu Kosaka – “Ryusei Toshi” (1975)

Great songwriter, and this is his album with Haruomi Hosono, who later joined Yellow Magic Orchestra.

4. Haruko Kuwana – “Akogareno Sundown” (1978)

Produced by the Hawaiian artist Mackey Feary with his typical bass synth sound.

5. Yoshino Fujimal – “Who Are You?” (1982)

One of the best City Pop albums—very much influenced by the genre’s king Tatsuro Yamashita.

6. Hitomi “Penny” Tohyama – “Love Is the Competition” (1983)

Reminds me Leon Sylvers III productions for Solar label, like Whispers, Dynasty, or Lakeside.

7. Yasuhiro Abe – “Irene”  (1984)

My favourite song on this mix, a classic AOR shuffle in a Donald Fagen/Ivan Lins vein.

8. Hi-Fi Set – “Two in the Party” (1979)

Great synth and clavinet sounds and the track’s treatment is so sweet.

9. Junko Ohashi – “Telephone Number” (1984)

An example of the City Pop sound excellence, always very well recorded and arranged: strings, horns, rhythm track, everything is very tight.

10. Spectrum – “Paradise” (1981)

This band reminds me of the funkier tracks from Toto or the Brazilian band Roupa Nova’s early albums.

11. Michihiro Kobayashi – “Giniro No Ame” (1980)

Sounds pretty much like a Jay Graydon–produced tune to me, very polished and compressed.

12. Yukari Ito – “Mariko” (1982)

This mid-tempo funky/AOR tune is very traditional inside City Pop, like EW&F, Al Jarreau etc. In Japan, they also call it “Mellow Groove.”

13. Toshiki Kadomatsu – “If You…” (1984)

Classic ’80s funk/boogie—a must-have in any City Pop collection.

14. Bread & Butter – “Paradoxical Love” (1980)

The most famous AOR/City Pop group in Japan; they have many albums.

15. Tetsuji Hayashi – “Silly Girl” (1980)

That AOR sound, West Coast vibe, almost seems like Jeff Porcaro playing. It’s not just imitation, to me; there’s a strong Japanese identity here.

16. Ken Tamura – “A Little Bit Easier” (1982)

That clean sound that I love, not too much bass frequency, not too much high frequency. Things sounds more flat, that’s heaven to me.

17. Time Five – “Megurikuru Kisetsu” (1979)

Famous vocal group in Japan, this is from one of their funkier albums.

18. Hiroyuki Nanba – “The Door into Summer” (1979)

Again a strong Tatsuro Yamashita influence here. I am always impressed how well recorded these songs are.

19. Gingi Ito – こぬか雨 (1977)

One of the City Pop holy grails arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto that’s been a genius since the beginning.

20. Kazuhito Murata – “So Long, Mrs.” (1983)

After I completed this mix, Kazuhito unfortunately passed away. This is another City Pop holy grail for the collectors.

Happy Birthday Philip Cathérine

Cheers to guitar great Philip Cathérine who can be heard ripping on Rolf Kühn's Total Space album from 1975.

Bruce Springsteen and his favourite guitar on The Late Show

Bruce Springsteen brought along his 50s Fender Telecaster/Esquire for show and tell but doesn't use it to perform "The River".  

You can find out more about Bruce Springsteen & Barack Obama's book Renegades and get a copy right here. 

Rare 1961 live recording by Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers due in December

First Flight To Tokyo features the great Art Blakey with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons & Jymie Merritt. 

Here's the scoop from Blue Note...

On December 10, Blue Note Records will release First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings, a thrilling previously unreleased live recording of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers captured at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo on January 14, 1961 during the band’s first-ever tour of Japan. The Jazz Messengers were among the first modern jazz groups to tour the country, and adoring Japanese audiences were enthralled by one of the band’s all-time great line-ups featuring the legendary drummer with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Bobby Timmons on piano, and Jymie Merritt on bass. The concert featured soaring performances of well-known jazz staples including Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia,” Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time,” Thelonious Monk’s “’Round About Midnight,” and Jazz Messenger hits including “Blues March,” “Dat Dere,” and “Moanin’.”

First Flight to Tokyo was co-produced by Zev Feldman and David Weiss and will be released in deluxe 2-LP vinyl and 2-CD editions, both of which come with elaborate booklets featuring rare photos by Japanese photographers Shunji Okura and Hozumi Nakadaira; an historical essay by acclaimed jazz critic Bob Blumenthal; plus new interviews with Wayne Shorter, celebrated saxophonists Lou Donaldson and Donald Harrison, Japanese jazz star Sadao Watanabe, renowned Japanese music critic Reiko Yukawa, Blakey’s son Takashi Blakey, and a trio of drum greats: Louis Hayes, Billy Hart and Cindy Blackman Santana. Audio was newly transferred from the original ¼” tape reels, and the vinyl edition was mastered by Bernie Grundman and pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI).

“The performances were captured at the end of a tour that resulted after Blakey was crowned in a Japanese magazine poll as the American musician that the country’s jazz fans were most eager to experience in person,” writes Blumenthal in the liner notes. “Over the first two weeks of January 1961 the Messengers performed in several major Japanese cities and were received as artistic heroes wherever they appeared. This outpouring by the Japanese public, plus the concert and broadcast settings in which the band was presented, were a far cry from the treatment and working conditions commonplace in the USA and made a great impact on Blakey, who responded with a keen appreciation of his newfound role as international representative of his art form. If the Blakey/[Horace] Silver partnership had established the Jazz Messengers style, and the tour [Benny] Golson’s edition undertook at the end of 1958 introduced the band to European audiences, then this first visit to Japan made the Messengers a worldwide phenomenon and cemented what would prove to be its most loyal fan base.”

Pre-order Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers' First Flight to Tokyo right here. Listen to a clip of "A Night In Tunisia" after the track listing below. 

First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings track listing:

Side 1 

Now’s the Time (22:34)

Side 2

Moanin’ (13:33)

Blues March (11:45)

The Theme (00:33)

Side 3

Dat Dere (12:14)

‘Round About Midnight (13:29)

Side 4

Now’s the Time – Version 2 (17:15)

A Night in Tunisia (11:12)

The Theme – Version 2 (00:30)

Happy 70th Birthday Bootsy Collins!

Celebrating the 70th birthday of bass boss Bootsy Collins with his 1971 appearance with James Brown on Italian television. 

Lonesome Ace String Band releasing new Lively Times album in November

John Showman, Max Malone & Chris Coole are putting out a 14-song live album recorded at Vancouver's Anza Club back in 2019. 

Here's the scoop...

"Lively Times - Live at the Anza Club – out November 26 – is a collection of 14 songs and tunes taken from a show we did in Vancouver in November 2019 for The Pacific Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Society Community Group. We had the show filmed by Approach Media, and luckily, we got Andrew Smith at Vancouver Live Sound to multi-track record the show so we had some mixing capability. 

"We weren't planning to do a live album and had sort of forgotten about the show until earlier this year. When we did get back to it, we loved what we heard and realized we'd captured a special night. We choose our favourite tracks from the two sets, John Showman mixed them, then Andrew Collins mastered the whole deal. Now, we have an album that we're really proud of, and we think you're going to like!

"The 14 tracks cover some of our favorite songs from our first 4 albums. Over the next 6 weeks we will release 6 videos of tracks from the album as they were played the night we recorded it!"

You can listen to a preview, read the liners, and pre-order the digital download here: https://lonesomeace.com/pre-order-lively-times. Check the track listing below. 

Lively Times: Live at the Anza Club 

1. The Hills of Mexico – We’ve been playing this tune since the very beginning. In fact, it’s the very first tune on our first album. There are many versions of this classic folk song, but this version owes its roots to the great KY banjo picker and singer Roscoe Holcomb. We first heard it on a recording by The Renegades which featured the wonderful singing of Carol Elizabeth Jones.

2. Laketown Blues - Richard Inman is one of Canada’s great contemporary songwriters. Everyone in the band is a big fan. Laketown Blues is just one in a vast catalogue of moving songs he’s written.  

3. Long Hot Summer Days – John Hartford’s style of stringband music, especially his “windows approach” has had a very big influence on the way we play as a band. We also love his songs, which has prompted us to record quite a few of them. Although Coole was utterly aghast to have flubbed one of the first words of this song (“towboats” should be “empties”), we thought the crazy spirit of the performance more than made up for it! Watch a performance of "Long Hot Summer Days" below.

4. The Only Other Person in the Room – Who says you can’t honky-tonk with just a banjo, fiddle, and bass? This song comes from the great Texas duo Noel Mckay and Brennen Leigh. It may not be that old, but it’s already a classic to be sure.

5. Black Lung – A moving piece from the great W.V. songwriter and singer Hazel Dickens about the trials and tribulations of life in the coal mines. This piece was originally recorded (by Hazel) as acapella, but we have taken some liberties and interpreted some chords. Watch a performance below.

6. Cluck Old Hen – This version is based on the playing of the great KY (or WV, depending on who you talk to) fiddler Ed Haley.

7. Stone Walls and Steel Bars – Originally recorded by The Stanley Brothers, this song was written by  Ray Pennington and Roy Marcum. We’ve changes the chords here a bit from the Stanley’s version to make it even more dark sounding. This is a great example of a song that paints a vivid picture with very few words! Watch a performance below. 

8. Highlander’s Farewell/Monroe’s Farewell to Long Hollow – The first tune in this medley comes from fiddler Emmet Lundy (1864-1953) from Galax, Virginia. The second tune is one that Bill Monroe wrote but never got around to recording. Thankfully, James Bryan save this amazing piece from obscurity by putting it on his album “Lookout Blues” back in the early 80s.

9. Damned Old Piney Mountain - Craig Johnson was an amazing fiddler and banjo player who performed with The Double Decker Stringband in the 80's and early 90's. He was obviously also a great songwriter as he wrote this song based on a conversation he had with an old logger he met in West Virginia. 

10. Going to German – This song comes from the repertoire of Gus Cannon who recorded widely in the 20s and 30s with his band “The Jug Stompers”. Apparently, the German in this song was referring to a prison.

11. Big Iron – It’s easy to overlook what an amazing songwriter Marty Robbins was. Even if he’d never sung a note, his catalogue of songs would still immortalize him. This is one from his classic 1959 album “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs”.

12. Too Much Water – Speaking of great songwriters whose singing overshadowed their songwriting ability, this under-known honky-tonk classic comes from George Jones.

13. Cherry River Live/Gauley Junction – The song in this medley comes from West Virginia banjo picker and singer Jenes Cottrell. Fun fact - apart from being a powerful singer and player, Mr. Cottrell was known for making banjo rims using the aluminum torque converter rings from 1956 Buicks. The second tune in the medley was written by John and named for the beautiful confluence of The Gauley River and the New River in Fayette County, West Virginia.

14. Mississippi Dew – We wind things up with another great John Hartford song played in high-gear!

Alejandro Escovedo inducted into Austin City Limits Hall of Fame on Thursday

Congrats to Alejandro on the ACL honour, it's just surprising that the Austin icon wasn't in already. 

Here's the scoop on the event from Austin City Limits...

Austin City Limits is proud to announce the newest class of Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inductees, recognizing a pioneering trio of music’s great live acts: Alejandro Escovedo, Lucinda Williams and Wilco. Music greats Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Doe, Sheila E., Lenny Kaye, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner, Rosanne Cash, Bill Callahan, Terry Allen and Del Castillo’s Alex Ruiz will take part in saluting the newest class of inductees with one-of-a-kind music performances and tributes.

The 2021 Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inductees will be saluted at a star-studded ceremony to be held October 28th, 2021 at ACL's studio home, ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Musical highlights and inductions from the ceremony will air as a special on PBS stations across the country in January 2022.

Alejandro Escovedo

Called a “rock and punk godfather” by Rolling Stone, Alejandro Escovedo first debuted on Austin City Limits in 1983 with his seminal band Rank and File, and has made five indelible appearances. The San Antonio-born, California-raised trailblazer has been a punk of the rebel kind in early band The Nuns, a cowpunk of the non-Western variety in Rank and File, commander of a guitar army in The True Believers, an orchestral conductor in his solo work, and a sensitive boy who has outrun death, demons, lust, and lost love in his songs. Crossing borders, jumping barriers, taking risks, betting it all: that’s the path Alejandro Escovedo has taken in his lifelong search for the heart of rock ‘n’ roll. No Depression magazine declared him the Artist of the Decade at the onset of the millennium. His 12th studio album, 2018’s The Crossing, is a testament to his enduring power as a uniquely talented artist and collaborator. Escovedo has appeared on ACL five times - in 1983 (as part of Rank and File), 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2017.

Lucinda Williams

Louisiana-born Lucinda Williams has traveled a long road since her 1979 debut, Ramblin’ on My Mind, followed by Happy Woman Blues, her first album of originals released over forty years ago in 1980. (She says that she’s still “the same girl” except that now “I have a bigger fan base and I can afford to stay at better hotels.”) Over the course of fourteen remarkable albums, three Grammy awards, and countless accolades, including Time’s Songwriter of the Year of 2001, Williams is one of music’s most revered artists, beloved for her singular vocals and extraordinary songs. In 2018, she celebrated the 20th Anniversary of her watershed Americana album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road with a sold-out milestone tour. The pioneering artist returned to the gritty blues foundation that first inspired her as a young singer-songwriter in the late 1970s, releasing a career highlight, 2020’s Good Souls Better Angels, to critical raves and a pair of Grammy nominations, hailed “one of the most searing, potent and passionate albums you’ll hear” by American Songwriter. Williams has appeared on Austin City Limits four times, in 1990, 1992 (as part of a songwriters special), 1999 and 2008.

Wilco

In their over two-plus decades as a band, Wilco has won multiple Grammy Awards, released 11 studio albums, as well as a trio of acclaimed albums with Billy Bragg penning music to lyrics by Woody Guthrie. Led, as always by singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy, the influential Chicago band have founded their own record label (dBpm Records) and festival (Solid Sound). Wilco continue to be regarded as a live powerhouse, as described by NPR, “To see Wilco on stage is to hear the best of the best.” Rolling Stone hails their most recent album, Ode to Joy, “Their best in years, a beautiful exercise in downhearted uplift,” while New York Magazine raved “[Ode to Joy] is Wilco’s best album in over a decade, and solid proof there’s room for bands to grow even when they’re already ten albums in.” Wilco has appeared on the ACL stage four times, in 2000, 2005, 2007 and 2012.

Austin City Limits 2021 Hall of Fame Induction & Celebration

Thursday, October 28, 2021

ACL Live at The Moody Theater

310 W Willie Nelson Blvd, Austin, TX 78701

6:00 pm gates and will call open

6:45 pm doors open

7:30 pm showtime

VIP Party Begins at 6:00 pm

Get tickets right here. Watch Alejandro Escovedo perform "Johnny Volume" with Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Kurt Bloch which wasn't originally televised as part of the ACL broadcast. 

 

Chicago soul great Renaldo Domino sounds better than ever

Windy City soul legend Renaldo Domino seems to be just hitting his stride. Check his update of the classic "Not Too Cool To Cry" 

Happy Birthday Earl Palmer!

Remembering drumming dynamo Earl Palmer with an Ernie Fields Orchestra swinger "Workin' Out"

Keith Hudson's Flesh Of My Skin reissued with bonus tracks

VP Records has just put out Keith Hudson's 1974 roots gem Flesh of My Skin, Blood Of My Blood. Hear "Fight Your Revolution"

Here's the scoop...

Flesh Of My Skin, Blood Of My Blood, Hudson’s fourth LP, was released in 1974 to critical reception in London, paving the way for his future success and setting a foundation for his creative legacy, which was cut tragically short when he died from cancer in 1984. Hudson’s original records are to this day some of the most sought after by reggae vinyl collectors. 

In Jamaica, Hudson is best known known for his standout hit record with Big Youth, “Ace Niney Skank” and his debut production with singer Ken Boothe “Old Fashioned Way.” From there, Hudson’s output maximized the use of remix and versions that were the hallmark of early dancehall and sound system culture. 

VP’s meticulous remaster of the original Mamba pressing of Flesh Of My Skin, Blood Of My Blood includes three tracks not on that original, plus extensive liner notes from Hudson biographer Vincent Ellis, combining to make this the definitive release of an obscure reggae classic. 

The track "Fight Your Revolution" is avant-guarde reggae from one of the genre’s most innovative producers. 

Given an original animated visual treatment from graphic artist and illustrator Costantinos Pissourios, the song features guitars (and a bass) panned into full stereo, with Hudson and his harmony singers imploring “black man, fight your revolution.” The statement of black empowerment is enhanced by the dignified portrayal of Hudson mixed with psychedelic Afrocentric iconography. Watch the video below. 

Get Keith Hudson's Flesh Of My Skin, Blood of My Blood right here. 

 

Happy Birthday Sonny Terry!

Toasting harp hero Sonny Terry with a couple of house-rockers cut for Groove with 'Sticks' McGhee, Milt Hinton & Gene Brooks.  

Charles McPherson talks about the alto saxophone, Johnny Hodges, Bird and more

Joplin, Missouri-born, Detroit-raised jazz great Charles McPherson talks about his music, inspirations and education. 

Billy Joe Shaver & Kinky Friedman Live Down Under

Without any fanfare, Omnivore just issued a 21-track live set of Billy Joe Shaver & Kinky Friedman in Sydney back in 2002.

Here's the scoop from Omnivore...

Before Billy Joe Shaver’s death in 2020, Willie Nelson called Shaver the greatest living songwriter. That isn’t out of line, as Billy Joe is a member of the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and winner of the Academy of Country Music’s Poet’s Award. Aside from his own recordings, his songs have been covered by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Patty Loveless, and more, and even featured in Academy Award winning films like Crazy Heart.

Kinky Friedman is another singer, songwriter, novelist, and satirist. He holds the distinction of being the only artist who was recorded for Austin City Limits, but the show was never aired due to fears of the content being too controversial. He even ran for the office of Governor of Texas in 2006. His spiritual advisor for that campaign? Billy Joe Shaver. But, that wasn’t the first time they worked together.

“Ladies and gentlemen, two Texas legends, Billy Joe Shaver and Kinky Friedman!” announced Jeff “Little Jewford” Shelby before the nightly coin toss to decide who in this dynamic double-bill, quadruple heart bypass contender Billy Joe or singing crime novelist Kinky would go first. The spotlight then passed back and forth between the duo, supported in Vaudevillian fashion by guitarist Jesse Taylor, Washington Ratso and of course Little Jewford.

Depending on how you look at it or who’s talking, the Live Down Under tour probably shouldn’t have happened or it was the best thing that could’ve happened. Either way, it was a minor miracle most would say and now a thing of myth and legend.

It started when Shaver, still recovering from the loss of his mother, wife and son was lured out of mourning in 2001 by the Kinkster to do their “Two For Texas” tour that ended with Billy Joe unexpectedly suffering a heart attack at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas that August. Angioplasty was performed but Shaver, fearing the risks, was resisting medical advice to have quadruple heart by-pass surgery taking karmic instruction from Willie (Nelson) to get out and stay active. Soon commitments to bring the tour to Australia were made.

Kinky Friedman: “The doctors wanted him to have the surgery but he said no. And they didn’t want him going to Australia with Kinky. That it was the wrong thing to do. But Billy Joe was in a dark place; the recent family tragedies, the health concerns. Staying home with the curtains drawn and all its temptations seemed as risky as going. Willie and I both agreed, the best therapy he could have was to get out and have a good time.”

And it was.

Billy Joe performed every night like his life depended on it. And it did. And it pushed everyone to the same level of intensity. Featuring hits like ”Honky Tonk Heroes,” “You Asked Me To,” ”Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed,” “Sold American” and more, showcasing some of the best material from both writers’ storied careers, and delivered in a way that only these best friends and odd couple could. So put on Live Down Under, sit back, listen and perhaps come to appreciate these two unique artists in a way you hadn’t before. A one-of-a-kind experience.

Get a copy of Billy Joe Shaver & Kinky Friedman's Live Down Under from Omnivore right here. Check out their live version of Kinky's classic "Sold American" after the track listing. 

 

Billy Joe Shaver & Kinky Friedman - Live Down Under

INTRO COIN TOSS

GEORGIA ON A FAST TRAIN

WESTERN UNION WIRE

STAR IN MY HEART

RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA

OLD CHUNK OF COAL

SOLD AMERICAN

RIDE ME DOWN EASY

WILD MAN FROM BORNEO

WHEN THE FALLEN ANGELS FLY

MARILYN AND JOE

YOU ASKED ME TO

BEFORE ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE

HONKY TONK HEROES

GET YOUR BISCUITS IN THE OVEN AND YOUR BUNS IN THE BED

LIVE FOREVER

YOU WOULDN’T KNOW LOVE (IF YOU FELL IN IT)

RIDE ‘EM JEWBOY

OLD FIVE AND DIMERS LIKE ME

KEEP ON THE SUNNY SIDE

TRY AND TRY AGAIN

OUTRO THANKS AND GOOBYE!

Happy Birthday Nick Tosches

Listen to late great author Nick Tosches (left) try to get a word in with podcaster Marc Maron starting at 13:30.  

Watch Phil Woods with Daniel Humair & Henri Texier in Paris, 1969

Saxophonist Phil Woods was tearing it up with his European Rhythm Machine back in 1969. Here they are in a Paris studio.

Happy Birthday Jane Bunnett!

Cheers to Toronto jazz saxophonist/flautist – and sculptor – Jane Bunnett. Watch a Maqueque performance from 2018 below.  

That time they tried a jazz score for TV western Shotgun Slade

Stanley Wilson's unusual Jazz Score from Shotgun Slade, issued by Mercury in 1960, is an overlooked gem worth checking.   

Here's the scoop...

When crime jazz enthusiasts discuss their favourite offbeat TV scores from the late 50s and early 60s golden era, the conversation rarely includes Stanley Wilson & Gerald Fried's work on the short-lived Shotgun Slade series. 

It's not difficult to see why the Shotgun Slade soundtrack fell between the cracks. You wouldn't expect the music accompanying a late 50s television western about a Stetsoned sleuth on horseback to have any connection at all to what you typically hear backing hard-boiled detective dramas set in the smoky nightclubs on the wrong side of the big city. 

The whole notion of someone square-pegging a crime jazz score into a western scenario might seem completely ridiculous unless you know that the creative team behind Shotgun Slade's music – Stanley Wilson and his composer/arranger pal Gerald Fried – had just come off a hugely successful run using swinging modern jazz cues for M Squad and they were up for a new challenge. 

Both Wilson and the Julliard-schooled Fried were already Hollywood music scene vets when they got the pitch for Shotgun Slade.  Wilson got his start at MGM, creating the musical accompaniment for Republic's Westerns and serials from 1945 right through the early 50s. In 1953, he joined Revue Studios (which later became Universal Studios) where he was in charge of all the studio's music production – hiring the composers, arrangers, conductors and orchestrators. Wilson proved he not only had an ear for rising talent, he had the wisdom to allow creative artists like Elmer Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, John Williams, Quincy Jones, Esquivel, Oliver Nelson and Jerry Goldsmith to take risks in the pursuit of something new and exciting. 

Wilson first connected with Fried in the late 50s while working on the jazz-noir music for the popular NBC-TV crime drama M Squad, a star-making vehicle for Lee Marvin who played Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger heading up a special unit of the Chicago police force battling organized crime and corruption. Fried was no stranger to scoring for the dark side, having launched his career in film music working on Stanley Kubrick's early films Fear and Desire ('53), Killer's Kiss ('55), The Killing ('56) and Paths Of Glory ('57), Roger Corman's Machine-Gun Kelly and I, Mobster ('58) as well drive-in classics like The Cry Baby Killer, Return of Dracula, I Bury The Living, Curse of The Faceless Man, before hitting real paydirt on television in 1965 scoring 39 episodes of Gilligan's Island,  45 episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., 22 episodes of It's About Time, five episodes of Star Trek and six episodes of Mission: Impossible. 

When Wilson got the call for Frank Gruber's TV western Shotgun Slade, he was already into the second season as musical director of M Squad, having received a Grammy for his groundbreaking work on the first season. With all of those moonlighting jazz musicians on hand, it's not hard to see how Wilson and Fried hit on the idea of applying their crime-jazz concept to Shotgun Slade which is basically a private eye scenario in western duds. Hey, it was worth a shot. So using M Squad's sonic blueprint – with composer/arranger Fried dropping in some home-on-the-range embellishments – they went at it during the fall of '59 with very much the same core group of first-call West Coast session aces, namely pianist John Williams, bassist Red Mitchell, trumpeters Pete Candoli, Don Fagerquist with Joe Howard, Milt Bernhart, Pete Carpenter and Lloyd Ulyate on trombones along with Dick Nash and George Roberts on bass trombones. Alvin Stoller shared his drumming duties with Shelly Manne while Abe Most played clarinet with Gus Bivona who doubled on alto saxophone. Tony Rizzi added guitar with Al Hendrickson and Bill Pittman. 

However unlikely, Shotgun Slade's strange amalgam works remarkably well, thanks to Fried's clever arrangements and the superb performances by the all-star cast of musicians, many of whom could be seen trading fours at popular nightspots of the era like The Lighthouse and the Manne Hole. Perhaps if Mercury had the foresight to credit them on the back of the 1960 album, The Original Jazz Score from Shotgun Slade, they might've actually sold a few copies. 

Sharp-eyed jazz fans will recognize the commercial artist responsible for the striking Shotgun Slade album artwork is Emmett McBain who created snazzy sleeves for other notable Mercury, Argo and United Artists releases of the period by  Max Roach, Cannoball Adderley, Sarah Vaughan, Art Farmer, Ahmad Jamal and many others. The Chicago-based McBain admirably eschewed the conventional wagon wheels, driftwood, pistols and rope images typically associated with western-themed releases for a more contemporary use of clean typography with a simple striking graphic image which became his signature style during the late 50s and early 60s.  

Sadly, the swinging selection of modern jazz themes with a western twist was greeted with a shrug by the record buying public. It didn't have the familiar guitar twang of popular TV westerns like David Rose's Bonanza theme nor the catchy riffs of the popular private-eye scores like Mancini's unforgettable Peter Gunn theme. Moreover, younger viewers were increasingly more attuned to the sound of rock 'n' roll. Very soon surf and spy themes would be all the rage and copies of the Shotgun Slade soundtrack were relegated to bargain bins. The fact that reruns of Shotgun Slade were rarely ever seen on television following its initial two season run didn't help to grow the fan base despite the aggressive merchandise marketing campaign which involved toy shotguns for kids and a Shotgun Slade game from Milton Bradley. 

After decades of being out of print, the Shotgun Slade score was finally released digitally in Spain by Fresh Sounds' Jazz in the Movies subsidiary as a two-fer CD along with the Snuff Garrett-produced 1964 soundtrack for Burke's Law for some reason. Fans of golden-era crime jazz looking for something a bit different will find the well-written and deftly executed music of Shotgun Slade a surprising delight. Best of all, you can still turn up original vinyl copies in second-hand shops for under $10 because none of the tracks have turned up on crime jazz compilations over the years.      

Aside from the hard-swingin' musical backdrop, Shotgun Slade didn't have a lot going for it beyond the protagonist's novel double-barrel shootin' iron which fired a .32 caliber rifle round on top for accuracy and 12-gauge round below for stopping power. While it caught the interest of firearms enthusiasts, the series failed to connect with a larger television audience who by 1959, had already seen way too many westerns for the subtle distinction of this one being centred around a private detective rather than a sheriff to make much difference. And even by television western standards, the writing just wasn't up to scratch. 

The title role was played by Scott Brady – the Brooklyn-born younger brother of silver screen tough guy Lawrence Tierney – who first broke out in 1954 opposite Joan Crawford in Nicholas Ray's 1954 cult western Johnny Guitar before playing the lead role of William Bonney in William Castle's The Law vs. Billy The Kid. Brady seemed like a good choice for Shotgun Slade part. His numerous appearances in low-budget westerns throughout the 50s like Budd Boetticher's Bronco Buster, The Storm Rider, The Maverick Queen, Untamed Frontier and Montana Belle demonstrated he could handle both a gun and a horse. Furthermore, Brady's starring role in 1958's Ambush at Cimarron Pass must've convinced the producers that he was television leading man material despite the film doing poorly at the box office. 

The now largely forgotten flop was directed by B-movie vet Jodie Copelan (who made his rep as a film editor on Night Of The Blood Beast, Kronos, The Snow Creature) notably included a third-billed Clint Eastwood as a young civil war vet who hates northerners. Eastwood later described his early outing as "probably the lousiest western ever made" and later recalled seeing the completed film in a theatre for the first time left him so depressed that he seriously considered seeking another line of work. Instead he joined the cast of the much more popular Rawhide series before hooking up with Sergio Leone in 1964 for his star making turn in Fistful of Dollars. 

The role of Shotgun Slade in conjunction with his early dues-paying jobs left Brady somewhat typecast. After the series ended in 1961 after 78 episodes, he went on to appear in numerous western films (Arizona Bushwackers, Five Bloody Grames, Red Tomahawk, Fort Utah, Black Spurs, etc) and television shows like High Chapparal, The Virginian, Lancer, Dirty Sally and Gunsmoke with a brief detour into the world of biker flicks including Satan's Sadists, The Cycle Savages, Hell's Bloody Devils and The Loners In 1976, Brady famously turned down the role of Archie Bunker on All In The Family but went on to play Joe Foley in four episodes. 

More brief TV appearances followed in Police Story, Laverne & Shirley (playing Shirley's estranged sailor father Jack Feeney), Baretta, The Rockford Files, Taxi, Charlie's Angels, McClain's Law, Matt Houston and many other lesser known shows. Brady's final role was playing the befuddled head of the Kingston Falls police Sheriff Frank Reilly in 1984's Gremlins. The following year, Brady died of respiratory failure at the age of 60. He remains best remembered as the rifle-weilding Shotgun Slade. Check out the clips below.