General Comments for all Naweedna CDs

Will Moyle’s Jazz Alive, a locally produced master collection of classic jazz. The Will Moyle stuff is the best
collection of jazz I’ve ever heard. I taped it in the 80s from WXXI broadcasts.

FFUSA: Folk Festival USA, a nationally distributed collection of excerpts recorded live at various folk
festivals around the country – varying from traditional country to purely ethnic, to socio-political (one lesbian
festival, in fact). FFUSA is eclectic, and the live recordings often catch a lot of crowd noise as well as bad
microphone placement. Originally taped from WXXI in the 80s.

GTWG: The Glory That Was Grease, another locally produced broadcast that featured the formative years of
Rock and Roll from the 50s and 60s – my youth. The “Grease” may have been “Greece”, the Rochester suburb
where the program originated. The GTWG is marginal but good for reminding my generation of their teenage
years – if that can be considered a good thing. Originally taped from WXXI in the 80s.

BBGR: Big Band Go Round, yet another local program featuring … Big Band, but also including most anything
recorded from 20s to the 50s. The BBGR is so broad that it is unlikely to be duplicated anywhere. However,
you have to have a fondness for the crackle of scratchy old 78’s and an appetite for schmaltz to fully
appreciate it. Originally taped in the 80s.

PHC & PHC-D: Prairie Home Companion – the middle years. I didn’t get started with PHC until the 80s, so I
missed the early period, and I stopped taping when Garrison retired – for the first time. Remember the
unfortunate guy who took over the time slot from Garrison? Me, neither. AS IF anyone could do that – a
classic no-win situation. When Garrison un-retired (like Michael Jordan), the second version of the show was
based in NYC, and I didn’t care for it that much, so I didn’t tape it. A few years later I discovered that he
had gone back to the old format and was broadcasting from St Paul MN again. I’ve been digitizing those
programs in real time ever since, and they are designated as PHC-D. The PHC stuff contains the essence of
American music – in my not-so-humble opinion. The only nationally broadcast show that ever came close to
matching PHC for quality and variety was the TV show, Northern Exposure – go figure. I have two Northern
CDs; if there are more, I would like to know about them ASAP.

The dates represent the release date of the album or CD source. These dates are as accurate as I can obtain.
The dates for some tracks from compilations reflect the release date of the compilation.
As usual, my comments are in blue. The other information comes from www.allmusic.com. Additions and corrections
are welcome … encouraged, in fact.
In Memoriam … 2007:

Anita O’Day

James “Pookie” Hudson (of The Spaniels)

James Brown (actually died 12/06, but too late for Naweedna 2006)

Jay “Hootie” McShann

Joe Zawinul

Robert Lockwood Jr

Ruth Brown

Tommy Makem
The Playlist and Notes for Naweedna 2007
01
Corn Bread And Butter Beans – Carolina Chocolate Drops
PHC (2007)
I liked this from the get-go. It wasn’t much of a stretch to make it the lead track. As the bio shows,
these are young, talented musicians doing traditional stuff. I like it a lot … might actually buy some ;-)
Traditional music fans are abuzz about the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group of young African-American string
band musicians that have come to together to play the fiddle and banjo music of Carolina's Piedmont. Rhiannon
Giddens (banjo), who grew up in the Piedmont area, is an Oberlin Conservatory of music grad who fell in love with
old-time music. Justin Robinson (fiddle), from a musical family — his mother is an opera singer and cellist, his sister
a classical pianist, and his grandfather a harmonica player — played classical violin when he was a kid, but
traditional music recently won him over. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Dom Flemons (harmonica, jug, guitar)
has immersed himself in the sounds of yesterday — blues, country and string band traditions — and he branches
out into early jazz, rock and original material, too. Sule Greg Wilson (percussion) studied drumming back in his
Washington, D.C., school days. He is well versed in folkways from Bolivia to Belfast, Cape Town to the Crescent
City, and he has performed with musicians from Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji to banjoist Tony
Trischka to Malian Jali Cheikh Hamala Diabate. Together, these four are taking the string band scene by storm.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops' CD, Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind (Music Maker), was released last year.
02
Alaskan Nights – David Schwartz
Northern Exposure (1992)
Yep, another Northern Exposure track. I believe Schwarz was the musical genius behind this eclectic
collection. As I tell everyone, if you can only have two CDs, Northern and More Northern are the two to
have. Rest assured there will be more from this two CD set.
Northern Exposure
Album Title Northern Exposure
Date of Release 1992 (release)
AMG Rating 4 *
Time 42:31
1. Theme from Northern Exposure by David Schwartz - 3:04
2. Jolie Louise by Daniel Lanois - 2:39
3. Hip Hug-Her by Booker T. & the MG's - 2:24
4. At Last by Etta James - 2:59
5. Everybody Be Yoself by Chic Street Man - 3:06
6. Alaskan Nights by David Schwartz - 2:40
7. Don Quichotte by Magazine Sixty - 5:08
8. When I Grow Too Old to Dream by Cole, Nat King Trio - 3:30
9. Emabhaceni by Miriam Makeba - 2:39
10. Gimme Three Steps by Lynyrd Skynyrd - 4:27
11. Báilèro from Chants d' Auvergne by Frederica VonStade / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - 6:25
12. Medley: A Funeral in My Brain/Woody the... by David Schwartz - 3:30
More Music From Northern Exposure
1. Ojibway Square Dance (Love Song) – Georgia Wettlin-Larsen
2. Theme From Northern Exposure – David Schwartz
3. Stir It Up – Johnny Nash
4. Mambo Baby – Ruth Brown
5. Someone Loves You – Simon Bonney
6. The Ladder – David Schwartz
7. If You Take Me Back – Big Joe & His Washboard Band
8. Un Mariage Casse (A Broken Marriage) – Basin Brothers
9. There I Go Again -- Vinx
10. Lay My Love – Brian Eno & John Cale
11. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away) – Les Paul & Mary Ford
12. Mooseburger Stomp – David Schwartz
13. I May Want a Man – Joanne Shenandoah
03
Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog – Jane Siberry
Bound By The Beauty (1989)
Got this from Spollen. Don’t you just hate these sing-song things that stick in your head? Yeah, like I
hate beer. I didn’t care for it much on first listening, but second and third listening made it a clear
winner. While we were auditioning tracks, it became obvious this just had to be included. Hope you like it.
Hey, she’s Canadian, eh?
There is a glitch in the track, but it is also on the original I have so … can’t do anything about it. Sorry.
Mahoney looked up the actual lyrics, so here they are for those of you who might wonder what she is
actually saying.
everything reminds me of my dog
the guy in the store reminds me of my dog
telephones remind me of my dog...yoohoo
taxicabs remind me too
if you remind me of my dog
we'll probably git along little doggie
git along git along little doggie git a...
smiling at strangers reminds me of my dog
(better let them know you're friendly)
the way people dress reminds me too
pissing on their favourite tree
sad things remind me of my dog
cockroaches and other insects
remind me too, don't eat them
the blank expression of the little boy
with thick glasses who picks
himself up from the sidewalk
and stands there blinking in the sun
ho oh!
if you remind me of my dog
we'll probably git along little doggie
git along git along little doggie git a...
like the man on the subway
sitting across from me
and every time I looked at him he smiled
and by the time
I got to the end of the subway line
I 'd given him at least ...oh...25 cookies
guys in bars remind me of my dog
the way it takes you so long
to choose the perfect table
if you remind me of my dog
we'll probably git along little doggie
git along git along little doggie git a...
me and my ferocious dog
we're walking down the street
and everyone we meet says
"ach yer a goot doogie !...
"ach yer a goot doogie!..."
"ach yer a goot doogie!..."
except when we go for a walk
to get the Sunday paper
I stand there and read the headlines
he reads the wind
sometimes he hits a funny smell and laughs
I hate it when he does that- I feel so dumb
what? what? I say
everything reminds me of my dog
beautiful things
sunsets remind me of my dog
Gina go to your window
Einstein reminds me of me dog
I want to pat his fluffy head
this whole world reminds me of my dog
my dog reminds me of this whole world
do I remind you of a dog? (thump thump)
I do? (faster thump thump)
skyscrapers remind me of my dog
sitting in the tall grass waiting for a rabbit
guys in red cameros too
it's getting to be a habit
artists remind me of my dog
staking out their originality on the nearest tree
old folks remind me of my dog
my dog reminds old people of their dogs
(Barfy, Ruffo, Beanhead)
Gina says I remind her of the dog
the that way I just did that
golfers teeing off remind me of my dog
the way he sits by me and shifts on his front paws
what is it you want? look at it...
do you want to go for a walk? do you want a cookie?
do you want me to dial the number for you?
The idiosyncratic Canadian art-pop chanteuse Jane Siberry was born in Toronto, Ontario on October 12,
1955; after taking up the piano as a child, she began absorbing the classical and operatic inspirations
which later distinguished her professional work. While earning a degree in microbiology, Siberry began
performing at the local coffeehouse where she also worked as a waitress; ultimately, she used her tip
money to fund her 1981 self-titled debut LP, a spartan offering spotlighting her ethereal vocal
navigations through the eccentric rhythm changes and dramatic mood shifts which ornamented her
abstract, atmospheric sound.
Three years later, Siberry resurfaced with No Borders Here, a more assured, cinematic collection
highlighted by "Mimi on the Beach," an underground Canadian hit. The critical and commercial success of
1985's evocative The Speckless Sky brought her to the attention of Warner/Reprise for 1988's The
Walking, a bold major label bow comprised of dense, epic-length soundscapes and subtle, intricate
melodies. Despite considerable media acclaim, the album failed to dent the charts, and consequently
Siberry's next record, 1989's Bound By the Beauty, reflected more commercial concerns, focusing on
more direct production and succinct songwriting.
Siberry's next release was a 1992 career overview titled Summer in the Yukon; while comprised primarily
of older material, one new cut — a drastic remix of Bound By the Beauty's "The Life Is the Red Wagon"
— proved revelatory, its painless transformation into a club-ready dance track revealing the true
elasticity of the singer's music. As a result, 1993's When I Was a Boy, produced in part by Brian Eno and
Michael Brook, emerged as her most eclectic and ambitious work yet, while 1995's Maria found the singer
recording with a jazz quintet. After growing disenchanted with the compromises of remaining on a major
label, in May 1996 Siberry formed her own record company, dubbed Sheeba; Teenager, her first selfreleased effort, followed a month later. The live triology - Christmas: Music for the Christmas Season,
Trees :Music for Films and Forests, Lips: Music for Saying It - captured three nights at the Bottom Line
in New York and finally saw the light of day in 1999. The melodically beautiful Hush appeared the next
year, showcasing a brilliant collection of traditional American and Celtic compositions. City (2001) marked
rare material and collaborations with the likes of Joe Jackson, Nigel Kennedy, Ghostland and others.
Bound By the Beauty
Rating 3 *
Release Date Aug 1989
Recording Date 1989
Time 42:39
Rock
Siberry has by now mastered an ability to make her unorthodox song forms (changing time signatures,
surprising alterations of melody) work for her, and she's struck a balance between revealing too much and
too little in her lyrics, so that such songs as "The Life Is the Red Wagon" really do reveal all the levels
she's given it. And "Everything Reminds Me of My Dog" is one of the funniest and best songs of the year.
1 Bound by the Beauty Siberry 4:41
2 Something About Trains Siberry 3:44
3 Hockey Siberry 3:58
4 Everything Reminds Me of My Dog Siberry 4:17
5 The Valley Siberry 6:04
6 The Life Is the Red Wagon Siberry 4:12
7 Half Angel Half Eagle Siberry 3:55
8 La Jalouse Siberry 3:59
9 Miss Punta Blanca Siberry 1:38
10 Are We Dancing Now? (Map III) Siberry 6:11
04
I Got You – James Brown
CD of JB (1985)
Where do you start with James Brown? I’ve never been that big of a fan, but his collected works are
impressive. I auditioned several tracks and thought this one – although well known – was pretty
representative: the beginning scream, the driving beat, the message … things you expect from JB. This
track is from Steve Phillips.
"Soul Brother Number One," "the Godfather of Soul," "the Hardest Working Man in Show Business," "Mr.
Dynamite" — those are mighty titles, but no one can question that James Brown has earned them more
than any other performer. Other singers were more popular, others were equally skilled, but few other
African-American musicians have been so influential on the course of popular music. And no other
musician, pop or otherwise, put on a more exciting, exhilarating stage show; Brown's performances were
marvels of athletic stamina and split-second timing.
Through the gospel-impassioned fury of his vocals and the complex polyrhythms of his beats, Brown was a
crucial midwife in not just one, but two revolutions in American black music. He was one of the figures
most responsible for turning R&B into soul; he was, most would agree, the figure most responsible for
turning soul music into the funk of the late '60s and early '70s. Since the mid-'70s, he's done little more
than tread water artistically; his financial and drug problems eventually got him a controversial prison
sentence. Yet in a sense his music is now more influential than ever, as his voice and rhythms were
sampled on innumerable rap and hip-hop recordings, and critics have belatedly hailed his innovations as
among the most important in all of rock or soul.
Brown's rags-to-riches-to-rags story has heroic and tragic dimensions of mythic resonance. Born into
poverty in the South, he ran afoul of the law by the late '40s on an armed robbery conviction. With the
help of singer Bobby Byrd's family, Brown gained parole, and started a gospel group with Byrd, changing
their focus to R&B as the rock revolution gained steam. The Flames, as the Georgian group were known in
the mid-'50s, were signed by Federal/King, and had a huge R&B hit right off the bat with the wrenching,
churchy ballad "Please, Please, Please." By now the Flames had become James Brown & the Famous Flames,
the charisma, energy, and talent of Brown making him the natural star attraction.
All of Brown's singles over the next two years flopped, as he sought to establish his own style, recording
material that was obviously derivative of heroes like Roy Brown, Hank Ballard, Little Richard, and Ray
Charles. In retrospect, it can be seen that Brown was in the same position as dozens of other R&B oneshots; talented singers in need of better songs, or not fully on the road to a truly original sound. What
made Brown succeed where hundreds of others failed was his superhuman determination, working the
chitlin circuit to death, sharpening his band, and keeping an eye on new trends. He was on the verge of
being dropped from King in late 1958 when his perseverance finally paid off, as "Try Me" became a
number-one R&B (and small pop) hit, and several follow-ups established him as a regular visitor to the R&B
charts.
Brown's style of R&B got harder as the '60s began, as he added more complex, Latin- and jazz-influenced
rhythms on hits like "Good Good Lovin'," "I'll Go Crazy," "Think," and "Night Train," alternating these
with torturous ballads that featured some of the most frayed screaming to be heard outside of the
church. Black audiences already knew that Brown had the most exciting live act around, but he truly
started to become a phenomenon with the release of Live at the Apollo in 1963. Capturing a James Brown
concert in all its whirling-dervish energy and calculated spontaneity, it reached number two in the album
charts, an unprecedented feat for a hardcore R&B LP.
Live at the Apollo was recorded and released against the wishes of the King label. It was these kinds of
artistic standoffs that led Brown to seek better opportunities elsewhere. In 1964, he ignored his King
contract to record "Out of Sight" for Smash, igniting a lengthy legal battle that prevented him from
issuing vocal recordings for about a year. When he finally resumed recording for King in 1965, he had a
new contract that granted him far more artistic control over his releases.
Brown's new era had truly begun, however, with "Out of Sight," which topped the R&B charts and made
the pop Top 40. For some time, Brown had been moving toward more elemental lyrics which threw in as
many chants and screams as words, and more intricate beats and horn charts that took some of their
cues from the ensemble work of jazz outfits. "Out of Sight" wasn't called funk when it came out, but it
had most of the essential ingredients. These were amplified and perfected on 1965's "Papa's Got a Brand
New Bag," a monster that finally broke Brown to the white audience, reaching the Top Ten. The even
more adventurous follow-up, "I Got You (I Feel Good)," did even better, making number three.
These hits kicked off Brown's period of greatest commercial success and public visibility. From 1965 to
the end of the decade, he was rarely off the R&B charts, often on the pop listings, and all over the
concert circuit and national television, even meeting with Vice President Hubert Humphrey and other
important politicians as a representative of the black community. His music became even bolder and
funkier, as melody was dispensed with almost altogether in favor of chunky rhythms and magnetic
interplay between his vocals, horns, drums, and scratching electric guitar (heard to best advantage on
hits like "Cold Sweat," "I Got the Feelin'," and "There Was a Time"). The lyrics were now not so much
words as chanted, stream-of-consciousness slogans, often aligning themselves with black pride as well as
good old-fashioned (or new-fashioned) sex. Much of the credit for the sound he devised belonged to (and
has now been belatedly attributed) his top-notch supporting musicians, such as saxophonists Maceo
Parker, St. Clair Pinckney, and Pee Wee Ellis; guitarist Jimmy Nolen; backup singer and longtime loyal
associate Bobby Byrd; and drummer Clyde Stubblefield.
Brown was both a brilliant bandleader and a stern taskmaster, leading his band to walk out on him in late
1969. Amazingly, he turned the crisis to his advantage by recruiting a young Cincinnati outfit called the
Pacemakers, featuring guitarist Catfish Collins and bassist Bootsy Collins. Although they only stayed with
him for about a year, they were crucial to Brown's evolution into even harder funk, emphasizing the
rhythm and the bottom even more. The Collins brothers, for their part, put their apprenticeship to good
use, helping define '70s funk as members of the Parliament/Funkadelic axis.
In the early '70s, many of the most important members of Brown's late-'60s band returned to the fold,
to be billed as the J.B's (they also made records on their own). Brown continued to score heavily on the
R&B charts throughout the first half of the 1970s, the music becoming even more and more elemental
and beat-driven. At the same time, he was retreating from the white audience he had cultivated during
the mid- to late '60s; records like "Make It Funky," "Hot Pants," "Get on the Good Foot," and "The
Payback" were huge soul sellers, but only modest pop ones. Critics charged, with some justification, that
the Godfather was starting to repeat and recycle himself too many times. It must be remembered,
though, that these songs were made for the singles-radio-jukebox market and not meant to be played one
after the other on CD compilations (as they are today).
By the mid-'70s, Brown was beginning to burn out artistically. He seemed shorn of new ideas, was being
out-gunned on the charts by disco, and was running into problems with the IRS and his financial empire.
There were sporadic hits, and he could always count on enthusiastic live audiences, but by the 1980s, he
didn't have a label. With the explosion of rap, however, which frequently sampled vintage JB records,
Brown was now hipper than ever. He collaborated with Afrika Bambaataa on the critical smash single
"Unity," and re-entered the Top Ten in 1986 with "Living in America." Rock critics, who had always ranked
Brown considerably below Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin in the soul canon, began to reevaluate his
output, particularly his funk years, sometimes anointing him not just as Soul Brother Number One, but as
the most important black musician of the rock era.
In 1988, Brown's personal life came crashing down in a well-publicized incident in which he was accused by
his wife of assault and battery. After a year skirting hazy legal and personal troubles, he led the police
on an interstate car chase after allegedly threatening people with a handgun. The episode ended in a sixyear prison sentence that many felt excessive; he was paroled after serving two years.
It's probably safe to assume that Brown will not make any more important recordings, although he
continues to perform and release new material like 1998's I'm Back. Yet his music is probably more
popular in the American mainstream today than it has been since the 1970s, and not just among young
rappers and samplers. For a long time his cumbersome, byzantine discography was mostly out of print,
with pieces available only on skimpy greatest-hits collections. A series of exceptionally well-packaged
reissues on PolyGram has changed the situation; the Star Time box set is the best overview, with other
superb compilations devoted to specific phases of his lengthy career, from '50s R&B to '70s funk.
The CD of JB
Rating 4.5 Stars
Release Date 1985
Recording Date Feb 4, 1956-Aug 4, 1973
Time 54:50
Polydor Records put a tentative toe into the emerging CD stream in 1985 and enjoyed surprising
commercial success with this 56-minute, 18-song James Brown sampler. Rather than taking the standard
greatest-hits approach, compiler Cliff White mixed familiar hits with rarities and even unreleased
material, a shortened version of the later boxed-set formula. So, along with number one R&B hits like
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," "Super Bad," and "Mother Popcorn," one heard a previously unreleased
version of "It's a Man's World," two years older than the better-known one, and "I Got You," an early
version of "I Got You (I Feel Good)," culled from the withdrawn Out of Sight LP. The effect, especially
for a first-time listener, was to whet the appetite for more, though The CD of JB was more a highlights
disc than a thorough anthology.
1 Doing It to Death
Brown
5:23
2 Super Bad
Brown
2:59
3 Soul Power
Brown
3:01
4 Think Pauling 3:13
5 It's a Man's Man's Man's World
Brown, Newsome
6 Try Me
Brown
2:29
7 Bewildered
Powell, Whitcup
2:23
8 Out of Sight
Wright 2:22
9 I Got You
Wright 2:26
10 Prisoner of Love
Columbo, Gaskill, Robin
11 I Got the Feelin'
Brown
2:40
12 Maybe the Last Time
Wright 3:00
3:14
2:27
13
14
15
16
17
18
05
Licking Stick-Licking Stick
Brown, Byrd, Ellis 2:47
Mother Popcorn
Brown, Ellis
3:11
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
Brown
2:06
Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine Brown, Byrd, Lenhoff
The Payback
Brown, Starks, Wesley
3:21
Please, Please, Please
Brown, Terry
2:44
5:04
A Place In The Choir – Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy
The Makem & Clancy Collection (1986)
Tommy Makem – what can you say about Tommy. I think JenM’s Uncle Dennis (AKA Peter) said it all …
“The most use the basement gets these days is on the rare occasions I go down there to
exercise. I was down there just a while ago and thought I'd like to hear some "old music" while
I worked out. So, I went looking in the stack of vinyl from the 50's and 60's I still have and
came across an album of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Isn't it Grand Boys say the
words in green on the jacket next to the headline announcing The Clancy Brothers and Tommy
Makem. And there are the lads directly below in their youth and glory. Tommy, Lord have mercy
on him, on the left blond and slim, with his grand smile on his face, as they all have, God love
them. It was one of the albums that Sheila Marie Welby, also of very happy memory, brought
with her as dowry to our house long years ago.
The disc came to my hand first from the pack of about 200 I still have in boxes in another part
of the basement. Tommy Makem is only a week in the grave I thought, and it's fitting I play
some of the music I loved when I was younger than he and the lads were in the picture on the
album jacket. And so I did. The first song was Nancy Whiskey and I stopped doing what I was
doing to listen to their music and remember back forty and more years to the nights and days
when I, too, fell in love with Nancy, and the Boys. Oh I still love, Nancy, you know, but with less
fever for her kiss and more deep appreciation for her soul.
I listened to the whole first side, trying to get through my workout and not doing very well.
But it was the last song on side one, the title of the album, Isn't It Grand Boys, which stopped
me in my tracks so to speak. "Look at the coffin...," the song begins. How many times had I
heard it, and sung it myself at the top of my lungs along with my pals, a glass in my hand at some
drinkery in New York City, or in other watering holes across the wide, wide world. It was years
since I heard it last, but it might have been a minute ago, do you know. I began to sing the
chorus after the first verse. I got through the first four words, "Isn't it grand boys," before
my voice broke, and I croaked and whispered the next line, "To be bloody well dead!"
I smiled at myself, great fool weeping there to a song flung in the face of our common end,
celebrating and mocking it at once in what can only be an Irish way of looking at life. And I
smiled at the memories as the room filled with them, and the places and voices crowded in, all,
always with room for more, growing into God knows what, a great hall of living and dead, there in
my mind and not there, there in spirit and really there, outside and inside. I remembered most
the ones who sang with me, and the ones I held in love, whose arms were around my shoulders or
whose hands held mine, and the ones I fought with and reconciled with as soon as the last punch
was thrown, old friends but not old, wife and parents and uncles and aunts, in-laws and outlaws,
and I danced in the basement to the slow steady waltz with the grand and the bloody well dead.
I danced in Toolan's under the rattle of trains on cold nights and hot ones, Joe in his apron
behind the bar, whimsically smiling at our roaring life, and his father of the white hair, both of
them I guess at that lake of beer in heaven with Brigid herself. I danced at Angie's on the
corner where my father would have to be dragged home after having spent his pay once again. I
danced at the Audubon Ballroom, the one where Malcolm X was shot a few years later. I danced
with all the boys who would be men and dance slowly or not at all. I danced along Broadway with
a thousand fellows coming home on a thousand early mornings before the sun rose, and along
Bailey Avenue where I lived, and on beaches and playgrounds, at wakes, and weddings and, yes,
funerals.
As the last chorus faded out from the gift of an old man and a young woman I couldn't stop
crying and smiling. I walked to the old man’s turntable and the young woman’s gift and placed
the needle in the groove and played it again.
Those of you around when I’ve become bloody well dead may wish to raise a jar some day and
sing, along with Tommy and the lads, “Isn’t it grand boys…” I’ll join in.”
This is a track from the Wilkinson’s collection.
The Clancy Brothers are a family of singing Irish expatriates who have been important figures in repopularizing their native music in North America and are still among the most internationally renowned
Irish folk bands. Some even credit the band as important figures in starting the folk revival of the '50s
and '60s.
The Clancys, Tom, Pat and Liam were born in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tiperrary, Ireland to a family of
nine, all of whom were musically inclined. Tom and Pat emigrated to New York around the early '50s to
become actors. Liam and his friend Tommy Makem, born in Keady, County Armagh the son of noted
balladeer Sarah Makem, came to the U.S. in 1956. Before Liam emigrated, he had founded a dramatic
society and had put on a play taking over the direction, producing and set design himself. He had also
acted at the famed Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. Both he and Makem also hoped to have acting careers in
New York. The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem (as they were first billed) came together to sing
fund-raising concerts for the Cherry Lane Theater and at the Guthrie benefits. Forgoing the
stereotypical maudlin Irish ballads in favor of lusty party songs, traditional American and Irish folk songs
and even protest tunes sung in close harmony and performed most theatrically, the Clancys soon became
popular folk performers around Greenwich Village. In the mid-'50s, Pat founded Tradition Records so the
Clancys and Makem could begin recording. Early recordings include "The Rising of the Moon" and "Come
Fill Your Glass with Me."
By recording and touring often, the Clancys continued to become more and more popular in Eastern and
Midwestern clubs, but it was their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1961 that brought them national
exposure. Originally scheduled to only play three minutes, they ended up playing for 16 minutes and
became an instant national sensation and soon signed a major contract with Columbia Records. The Clancys
continued recording and performing together through 1969. That year Makem left to pursue his solo
career. In 1975, Liam departed; he and Makem were replaced by brother Bobby Clancy and their nephew
Robbie O'Connell. Since then, the original members have occasionally regrouped for reunion concerts. Tom
Clancy died in 1990 but the band continues on.
06
Confessin' The Blues – Jay “Hootie” McShann
1941-1943 (1941-43)
Ah, “Hootie”; I love Hootie. I have about 30 Hootie tracks; 20 of ‘em rated Very Good or higher. Yeah, I
like Hootie. I managed to narrow his selections to a meager 3, but picking one of them is most difficult.
The three I picked are: Hands Off, Once Upon A Time, and Confessin’ The Blues. Hands Off is a clear
winner, but it is sung by an unknown female, not Hootie. Once Upon A Time is really, really good, but very,
very slow. I had two versions of Confessin’ The Blues: both with Hootie on vocal; one with violin; the other
with more traditional jazz instruments. I opted for the live version with the violin. It has Hootie’s typical
rolling beat with his piano lead and features his more youthful voice. Ah, but the other two will show up on
future Naweedna compilations. This live version of Confessin’ The Blues was downloaded.
McShann’s “Hold ‘Em Hootie” was on Naweedna 2002 A.
The great veteran pianist Jay McShann (also known as Hootie) has had a long career and it is unfair to
primarily think of him as merely the leader of an orchestra that featured a young Charlie Parker. He was
mostly self-taught as a pianist, worked with Don Byas as early as 1931 and played throughout the Midwest
before settling in Kansas City in 1936. McShann formed his own sextet the following year and by 1939
had his own big band. In 1940 at a radio station in Wichita, KS, McShann and an octet out of his
orchestra recorded eight songs that were not released commercially until the 1970s; those rank among
the earliest of all Charlie Parker records (he is brilliant on "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Lady Be Good") and
also feature the strong rhythm-section team McShann had with bassist Gene Ramey and drummer Gus
Johnson. The full orchestra recorded for Decca on two occasions during 1941-42 but they were typecast
as a blues band and did not get to record many of their more challenging charts (although very rare
broadcasts have since surfaced and been released on CD by Vintage Jazz Classics). In addition to Bird
(who had a few short solos), the main stars were trumpeter Bernard Anderson, the rhythm section and
singer Walter Brown. McShann and his band arrived in New York in February 1942 and made a strong
impression but World War II made it difficult for any new orchestras to catch on. There was a final
session in December 1943 without Parker but McShann was soon drafted and the band broke up. After
being discharged later in 1944, McShann briefly reformed his group but soon moved to Los Angeles where
he led combos for the next few years; his main attraction was the young singer Jimmy Witherspoon.
McShann was in obscurity for the next two decades, making few records and mostly playing in Kansas
City. In 1969 he was rediscovered and McShann (who had first sung on records in 1966) was soon a
popular pianist/vocalist. Sometimes featuring violinist Claude Williams, he has toured constantly,
recorded frequently and appeared at many jazz festivals since then, being active into the mid-'90s. Jay
McShann, who has recorded through the years for Onyx (the 1940 radio transcriptions), Decca, Capitol,
Aladdin, Mercury, Black Lion, EmArcy, Vee Jay, Black & Blue, Master Jazz, Sackville, Sonet, Storyville,
Atlantic, Swingtime and Music Masters among others, is a vital pianist and an effective blues vocalist who
keeps a classic style alive.
Jay McShann - 1941-1943
Jay McShann & His Orchestra
1941-1943
Release Nov 19, 1996 inprint
AMG Rating 4.5 *
Jazz
Time 60:12
Twenty-one sides cut by Jay McShann and His Orchestra and the Jay McShann Quartet for Decca
Records between 1941 and 1943, with Charlie Parker on about half of what's here, and stretching out on a
handful of cuts. The highlight is the group's recording of "Confessin' the Blues," which was a huge hit and
resulted in their recording of more than half a dozen similar vocal blues numbers, featuring Walter Brown
(who wrote "Confessin'") on vocals. The material here is pretty much weighted to jump blues and boogiewoogie-style numbers, all of it hot and extraordinarily well-played. The pity is, between Decca's
insistence on more songs like "Confessin' the Blues" (which was later covered by Chuck Berry and the
Rolling Stones, among others) and the 1942 recordings band, not much of McShann's repertory or
Parker's more outstanding material from the period was laid down. What is here, however, is
extraordinary, some of the tighted, bluesiest jazz you'll ever here, all in excellent sound as well, and
Parker does soar on a large handful of these tracks. - Bruce Eder
1. Swingmatism (McShann) - 2:36
2. Hootie Blues (Brown/McShann) - 2:53
3. Dexter Blues (McShann) - 2:53
4. Vine Street Boogie (McShann) - 2:34
5. Confessin' the Blues (Little Walter/McShann) - 2:50
6. Hold 'Em Hootie (McShann) - 2:37
7. One Woman's Man (Brown/McShann/Tums) - 3:01
8. 'fore Day Rider (Brown/McShann) - 2:53
9. So You Won't Jump (McShann/Ramey) - 2:36
10. New Confessin' the Blues (Brown/McShann) - 3:04
11. Red River Blues (Nelson) - 2:53
12. Baby Heart Blues (Brown/McShann) - 2:44
13. Cryin' Won't Make Me Stay (Williams) - 2:29
14. Hootie's Ignorant Oil (Anderson/McShann) - 2:41
15. Lonely Boy Blues (Brown/McShann) - 2:54
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
07
Get Me on Your Mind (Johnson/Tums) - 3:01
The Jumpin' Blues (McShann) - 2:59
Sepian Bounce (Hall/McShann) - 3:06
Say Forward, I'll March (Hall/McShann/Ramey) - 3:06
Wrong Neighborhood (Hall/McShann/Merrill) - 3:18
Hometown Blues (Brown/McShann) - 3:04
Goin' Nowhere - Chris Isaak
Forever Blue (1995)
Got this from both Spollen & Heisig. Paul’s CD didn’t have it attributed, so we played it for Mahoney:
“Sounds like Chris Isaak.” Sure enough, I checked Joe’s stuff and found this very track. Okay, so Joe,
Paul, and Bob like it and so do we. It was an easy choice.
Chris Isaak clearly loves the reverb-laden rockabilly and country of Sun Studios. In particular, he
transfers the sweeping melancholy of Roy Orbison's classic Monument singles ("Crying," "Oh, Pretty
Woman," "In Dreams") to the more stripped-down, rootsy sound of Sun. His stylized take on '50s and
'60s rock & roll eventually made him into a star in the early '90s, thanks to the hit single "Wicked Game."
Isaak began performing after he graduated from college, forming the rockabilly band Silvertone. The
group, which featured guitarist James Calvin Wilsey, bassist Rowland Salley, and drummer Kenney Dale
Johnson, would become the singer/guitarist's permanent supporting band. Isaak released his first album,
Silvertone, on Warner Bros. in 1985. It was critically well received, yet it didn't sell. Two years later, he
released Chris Isaak, which managed to scrape into the Top 200 album charts. After its release, the
singer began an acting career with a bit part in Jonathan Demme's 1988 film Married to the Mob; he
would later have parts in Wild at Heart, The Silence of the Lambs, and A Dirty Shame, as well as starring
in his own situation comedy series for the Showtime cable network.
Released in 1989, Heart Shaped World initially sold more than Chris Isaak, yet it didn't manage to break
big until late 1990, when the single "Wicked Game" was featured in David Lynch's Wild at Heart. Soon,
the single became a Top Ten hit; the album also made it into the Top Ten and sold over a million copies.
Both 1993's San Francisco Days and 1995's Forever Blue mined essentially the same vein as Heart
Shaped World, yet both went gold and spawned a handful of hits. In 1996, Isaak released The Baja
Sessions; Speak of the Devil followed two years later. Isaak's busy touring schedule and growing visibility
as an actor kept him out of the recording studio until 2002, when he released Always Got Tonight, though
in 2004 he did find time to cut his first seasonal album, Chris Isaak Christmas, which featured five new
Yuletide tunes along with a batch of holiday favorites.
08
Hey Negress (Cajun Patois For Best Girl) – Queen Ida
Zydeco (1976)
I’ve wanted to include a Cajun track from the beginning. What one? I settled on Queen Ida for historical
reasons: my first Cajun album was Queen Ida’s Zydeco ’76. I now have an extensive Cajun collection and,
once I’d settled on Queen Ida, it was equally difficult to decide which of her tracks to include. I picked
Hey Negress because it has always been a favorite, she’s done it a couple times on PHC, and it represents
her style. However, another Zydeco piece from PHC is also very good … maybe next time ;-)
ZYDECO is an expression exercised at Cajun/Creole dances in Louisiana used much in the manner as we
might hear: ‘Let’s get down’, “Let’s boogie’, at American dance functions today — LET’s ZYDECOl! Zydeco
is Bayou patois for haricot which is French for string bean.
The Zydeco music is of Cajun origin and brought to Louisiana from French Canada by the Acadians. (The
word Cajun is a corruption of “Acadian.”) The Creoles adopted the music and added their cultural flavor
making Zydeco a Cajun/Creole multi-cultural music. The term Zydeco has come to identify the music
which is played at these dances.
Vocally Zydeco lyrics are usually expressed in French, primarily because the music is French based, and
secondly because of the staccato melodies created by the choppy push-pull action of the diatonic
accordion. The translation into English is most difficult and somewhat alters the expression of the
melody. Originally the lead instrument was the German made Hohner diatonic (push-pull) accordion. The
percussion instruments that accompanied it were either or both the rub-board and the triangle.
Queen Ida was the first female accordion player to lead a zydeco band. Favoring a 31-button accordion,
she is noted for her melodic playing, and for focusing on the treble side of her instrument, which makes
her style similar to Mexican playing styles. Though like many other zydeco artists of the '80s, her music
was well grounded in Creole traditions, she also integrates Caribbean, Cajun (with the addition of a fiddle
to her Bon Temps Zydeco Band), blues and other genres. She came to music rather late in life.
Born Ida Guillory to a musically talented family in Lake Charles, LA, she learned to play accordion from
her mother after she spent a few years learning the piano. Her family moved to Beaumont, TX, when she
was ten and eight years later moved to San Francisco. Her first language is French, and wherever they
went, took their Creole culture and music with them. But while music was important to Guillory, during her
young adult years while busy raising her family, she only performed for social occasions. She briefly
attended nursing school but left during her first pregnancy. When her children were all school-aged, she
became a part-time bus driver. As they grew, Guillory's friends began more strongly encouraging her to
perform publicly.
In the early '70s, she began performing with Barbary Coast Band and with the Playboys. She was in
demand, not only because of her talent, but also because female accordion players were a rarity. She got
her stage name in 1975 during a Mardis Gras celebration in the Bay Area. There she was formally
crowned "Queen of the Zydeco Accordion and Queen of Zydeco Music." The following year she and her
band played at the Monterey Jazz and Blues Festival. She also signed to GNP/Crescendo Records, a Los
Angeles-based jazz label.
Despite her popularity, Queen Ida never felt music was stable enough to support her children and so
continued bus driving until her youngest daughter went to school. After that Ida began touring more
frequently. In 1978, John Ullman became her agent. He helped make her internationally known. In 1979
she was nominated for a Bay Area Music Award. Though Taj Mahal won it, he arranged a two-week
European tour for her. She continued recording and touring through the 1980s. Because she feels she and
the band sound best live, most of her albums are recorded while she tours.
In 1988, Queen Ida toured Japan, becoming the first zydeco artist to do so. She toured Africa the
following year for the State Department and in 1990 went to Australia and New Zealand. Queen Ida has
appeared in one feature film, Rumblefish, and a documentary about Louisiana music, J'ai Ete au Bal. She
has also performed on television shows ranging from Austin City Limits to Saturday Night Live. For many,
Queen Ida is not only an excellent musician, she is also a fine example of how a determined middle-aged
woman can still find success in a youth-obsessed culture.
09
I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me - Jimmy Rushing & Count Basie
The Essential (1939-41)
I just love Rushing’s “I Can’t Believe U In Love With Me” refrain. This is a great multiple-disc set I got
from Milne. It is the best of the big band Basie stuff. However, the KC series (KC 3, 5, 6 & 7 – the
numbers refer to the sidemen on the set) is the best Basie I have. There will be more Rushing (Mr 5x5)
in the future.
Count Basie was among the most important bandleaders of the swing era. With the exception of a brief
period in the early '50s, he led a big band from 1935 until his death almost 50 years later, and the band
continued to perform after he died. Basie's orchestra was characterized by a light, swinging rhythm
section that he led from the piano, lively ensemble work, and generous soloing. Basie was not a composer
like Duke Ellington or an important soloist like Benny Goodman. His instrument was his band, which was
considered the epitome of swing and became broadly influential on jazz.
Both of Basie's parents were musicians; his father, Harvie Basie, played the mellophone, and his mother,
Lillian (Childs) Basie, was a pianist who gave her son his earliest lessons. Basie also learned from Harlem
stride pianists, particularly Fats Waller. His first professional work came accompanying vaudeville
performers, and he was part of a troupe that broke up in Kansas City in 1927, leaving him stranded there.
He stayed in the Midwestern city, at first working in a silent movie house and then joining Walter Page's
Blue Devils in July 1928. The band's vocalist was Jimmy Rushing. Basie left in early 1929 to play with
other bands, eventually settling into one led by Bennie Moten. Upon Moten's untimely death on April 2,
1935, Basie worked as a soloist before leading a band initially called the Barons of Rhythm. Many former
members of the Moten band joined this nine-piece outfit, among them Walter Page (bass), Freddie Green
(guitar), Jo Jones (drums), and Lester Young (tenor saxophone). Jimmy Rushing became the singer. The
band gained a residency at the Reno Club in Kansas City and began broadcasting on the radio, an
announcer dubbing the pianist "Count" Basie.
Basie got his big break when one of his broadcasts was heard by journalist and record producer John
Hammond, who touted him to agents and record companies. As a result, the band was able to leave Kansas
City in the fall of 1936 and take up an engagement at the Grand Terrace in Chicago, followed by a date in
Buffalo, NY, before coming into Roseland in New York City in December. It made its recording debut on
Decca Records in January 1937. Undergoing expansion and personnel changes, it returned to Chicago,
then to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Boston. Meanwhile, its recording of "One O'Clock Jump" became its
first chart entry in September 1937. The tune became the band's theme song and it was later inducted
into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Basie returned to New York for an extended engagement at the small club the Famous Door in 1938 that
really established the band as a success. "Stop Beatin' Round the Mulberry Bush," with Rushing on vocals,
became a Top Ten hit in the fall of 1938. Basie spent the first half of 1939 in Chicago, meanwhile
switching from Decca to Columbia Records, then went to the West Coast in the fall. He spent the early
'40s touring extensively, but after the U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941 and the onset of
the recording ban in August 1942, His travel was restricted. While on the West Coast, he and the band
appeared in five films, all released within a matter of months in 1943: Hit Parade of 1943, Reveille with
Beverly, Stage Door Canteen, Top Man, and Crazy House. He also scored a series of Top Ten hits on the
pop and R&B charts, including "I Didn't Know About You" (pop, winter 1945); "Red Bank Blues" (R&B,
winter 1945); "Rusty Dusty Blues" (R&B, spring 1945); "Jimmy's Blues" (pop and R&B, summer/fall 1945);
and "Blue Skies" (pop, summer 1946). Switching to RCA Victor Records, he topped the charts in February
1947 with "Open the Door, Richard!," followed by three more Top Ten pop hits in 1947: "Free Eats," "One
O'Clock Boogie," and "I Ain't Mad at You (You Ain't Mad at Me)."
The big bands' decline in popularity in the late '40s hit Basie as it did his peers, and he broke up his
orchestra at the end of the decade, opting to lead smaller units for the next couple of years. But he was
able to reform the big band in 1952, responding to increased opportunities for touring. For example, he
went overseas for the first time to play in Scandinavia in 1954, and thereafter international touring
played a large part in his schedule. An important addition to the band in late 1954 was vocalist Joe
Williams. The orchestra was re-established commercially by the 1955 album Count Basie Swings - Joe
Williams Sings (released on Clef Records), particularly by the single "Every Day (I Have the Blues),"
which reached the Top Five of the R&B charts and was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Another key recording of this period was an instrumental reading of "April in Paris" that made the pop
Top 40 and the R&B Top Ten in early 1956; it also was enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame. These hits
made what Albert Murray (co-author of Basie's autobiography, Good Morning Blues) called the "new
testament" edition of the Basie band a major success. Williams remained with Basie until 1960, and even
after his departure, the band continued to prosper.
At the first Grammy Awards ceremony, Basie won the 1958 awards for Best Performance by a Dance
Band and Best Jazz Performance, Group, for his Roulette Records LP Basie. Breakfast Dance and
Barbecue was nominated in the dance band category for 1959, and Basie won in the category in 1960 for
Dance with Basie, earning nominations the same year for Best Performance by an Orchestra and Best
Jazz Performance, Large Group, for The Count Basie Story. There were further nominations for best
jazz performance for Basie at Birdland in 1961 and The Legend in 1962. None of these albums attracted
much commercial attention, however, and in 1962, Basie switched to Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records in a
bid to sell more records. Sinatra-Basie satisfied that desire, reaching the Top Five in early 1963. It was
followed by This Time by Basie! Hits of the 50's and 60's, which reached the Top 20 and won the 1963
Grammy Award for Best Performance by an Orchestra for Dancing.
This initiated a period largely deplored by jazz fans that ran through the rest of the 1960s, when Basie
teamed with various vocalists for a series of chart albums including Ella Fitzgerald (Ella and Basie!, 1963);
Sinatra again (the Top 20 album It Might as Well Be Swing, 1964); Sammy Davis, Jr. (Our Shining Hour,
1965); the Mills Brothers (The Board of Directors, 1968); and Jackie Wilson (Manufacturers of Soul,
1968). He also reached the charts with an album of show tunes, Broadway Basie's ... Way (1966).
By the end of the 1960s, Basie had returned to more of a jazz format. His album Standing Ovation
earned a 1969 Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Large Group or Soloist
with Large Group (Eight or More), and in 1970, with Oliver Nelson as arranger/conductor, he recorded
Afrique, an experimental, avant-garde album that earned a 1971 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz
Performance by a Big Band. By this time, the band performed largely on the jazz festival circuit and on
cruise ships. In the early 1970s, after a series of short-term affiliations, Basie signed to Pablo Records,
with which he recorded for the rest of his life. Pablo recorded Basie prolifically in a variety of settings,
resulting in a series of well-received albums: Basie Jam earned a 1975 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz
Performance by a Group; Basie and Zoot was nominated in the same category in 1976 and won the Grammy
for Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist; Prime Time won the 1977 Grammy for Best Jazz Performance by
a Big Band; and The Gifted Ones by Basie and Dizzy Gillespie was nominated for a 1979 Grammy for Best
Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Group. Thereafter, Basie competed in the category of Best Jazz
Instrumental Performance by a Big Band, winning the Grammy in 1980 for On the Road and in 1982 for
Warm Breeze, earning a nomination for Farmer's Market Barbecue in 1983, and winning a final time, for
his ninth career Grammy, in 1984 for 88 Basie Street.
Basie's health gradually deteriorated during the last eight years of his life. He suffered a heart attack
in 1976 that put him out of commission for several months. He was back in the hospital in 1981, and when
he returned to action, he was driving an electric wheel chair onto the stage. He died of cancer at 79.
Count Basie was admired as much by musicians as by listeners, and he displayed a remarkable consistency
in a bandleading career that lasted long after swing became an archival style of music. After his death,
his was one of the livelier ghost bands, led in turn by Thad Jones, Frank Foster, and Grover Mitchell. His
lengthy career resulted in a large discography spread across all of the major labels and quite a few minor
ones as well.
Count Basie - The Essential
Release Date Aug 22, 1995
Recording Date Jun 1943
Time 114:17
Rather than release all of Count Basie's studio recordings (as Decca recently has or as French Columbia
did in two large LP sets over a decade ago), CBS has put together three samplers that contain some (but
not all) of the essential Basie recordings from the 1939-41 period. This first volume has Lester Young's
great solo on 1936's "Lady Be Good, " and the classics "Rock-A-Bye Basie" and "Taxi War Dance, " and
fine examples of the Basie orchestra throughout 1939.
1 One O'Clock Jump Basie 1:59
2 Five O'Clock in the Morning Blues Williams 2:18
3 Flight of the Foo Birds Hefti 2:39
4 Dance of the Gremlins Basie 4:15
5 You for Me Hefti 3:15
6 Cherry Point Hefti 3:03
7 That Kind of Woman Williams 1:51
8 Corner Pocket Basie 4:12
9 Chestnut Street Ramble (Vine Street Ramble) Carter 2:11
10 Dinah Akst, Lewis, Young 2:05
11 Baby Won't You Please Come Home Warfield, Williams 1:31
12 Basie Boogie Basie, Ebbins 2:05
13 Rock-A-Bye Basie Basie, Young 4:46
14 Call Me Darling (Call Me Sweetheart, Call Me Dear) Dick, Fryberg, Marbet ... 4:00
15 One O'Clock Jump Basie 2:38
16 Blues (I Still Think of Her) Basie, Rushing 3:48
17 Indian Summer Dubin, Herbert 3:14
18 Who, Me? Basie 4:26
19 Jumpin' at the Woodside Basie 4:15
20 Baby All the Time Rodney 2:56
21 Little Pony Hefti 2:44
22 Ol' Man River Hammerstein, Kern 5:36
23 One O'Clock Jump Basie 3:24
24 6:39
25 Spring Is Here Hart, Rodgers 3:35
26 Fantail Hefti 2:49
27 Teddy the Toad Hefti 2:56
28 Pensive Miss Hefti 2:56
29 Corner Pocket Basie 5:10
30 Scoot Hefti 2:54
31 Sweety Cake Basie 4:15
32 Cute Hefti 3:48
33 Lil' Darlin' Hefti 3:59
34 Low Life Mandel 2:05
Count Basie - Organ, Piano, Leader
Buck Clayton - Trumpet, Arranger
Harry "Sweets" Edison - Trumpet
Freddie Green - Guitar
Helen Humes - Vocals
Jo Jones - Drums
Jimmy Rushing - Vocals
Buddy Tate - Saxophone, Sax (Tenor)
Lester Young - Clarinet, Sax (Tenor)
Andy Gibson - Arranger
Benny Morton - Trombone
Jimmy Mundy - Arranger
Walter Page - Bass, String Bass
Mike Berniker - Coordination
Shad Collins - Trumpet
Edward Lewis - Trumpet
Dan Minor - Trombone
Earle Warren - Sax (Alto)
Jack Washington - Sax (Alto), Sax (Baritone)
Dicky Wells - Trombone
Ed Lewis - Trumpet
Carl Smith - Trumpet
10
Positive Friction – Donna The Buffalo
Positive Friction (2000)
I first heard Donna The Buffalo on a Sheldon compilation. Later, I got the whole CD from Spollen. I like
their stuff, but this is my favorite – it kinda sticks in your head.
Rootsy folk-rock sextet Donna the Buffalo formed in 1987 in Ithaca, NY. The group's three vocalists —
Tara Nevins, who also plays fiddle, guitar, and accordion; guitarist Jeb Puryear; and keyboardist Joe
Thrift — add another layer of diversity to the group's eclectic and often socially conscious sound.
Guitarist Jim Miller, drummer Tom Gilbert, and bassist Jed Greenberg complete the ensemble.
Almost immediately after forming the band, Donna the Buffalo started touring, which they continue to do
extensively. Not only is Donna the Buffalo a regular attraction at festivals like Merlefest and Telluride,
the group has also shared the stage with like-minded artists such as 10,000 Maniacs, Los Lobos, and
Rusted Root.
Almost as soon as the band started touring, Donna the Buffalo began releasing albums. Their debut,
1989's The White Tape, was recorded and released by the band themselves; for their following album,
The Red Tape, they enlisted their friend Mitch Easter to produce. Finding time to record when their busy
touring schedule allowed, Donna the Buffalo released a self-titled album in 1993, following it with 1996's
The Ones You Love, 1998's Rockin' in the Weary Land, and 2000's Positive Friction. Nevins also released
a solo album, Mule to Ride, in 1999.
Donna the Buffalo
Positive Friction
Rating 3 *
Jun 20, 2000
Rock Bluegrass
Dealing out grooves from Cajun, reggae, and rock, this fun band creates a laid-back, enjoyable concoction
that will appeal to fans of Hot Tuna, the Grateful Dead, and Little Feet. The mixture of Jeb Puyear's
nasal tenor, Tara Nevens' high-flown soprano, and the tie-dyed lyrics might strike some as a little
precocious, but the band's heart is in the right place and it's evident throughout the album.
1 No Place Like the Right Time Nevins 4:22
2 Movin' On Puryear 2:54
3 Yonder Nevins 4:00
4 Riddle of the Universe Puryear 4:58
5 Front Porch Nevins 3:47
6 In Another World Puryear 6:26
7 Revolution Puryear 2:31
8 Family Picture Nevins 3:43
9 Positive Friction Puryear 4:06
10 Man of Constant Sorrow Traditional 4:45
11 I Wish You Love Nevins 4:35
12 Arrows Pointing Sideways Puryear 3:58
13 Your Way Home Nevins, Puryear 3:18
11
Queen Bee - Taj Mahal, Ramatou Diakite & Toumani Diabate
Kulanjan (1999)
Okay, I expect everyone has a version of Taj’s Queen Bee. However, I don’t think the Kulajan CD was
especially popular, so maybe you haven’t heard this version with Toumani Diabate & Ramatou Diakite. In
this version, Ramatou improvises her own lyrics around the theme of love & singing, in Wasulunke:
“We love each other
I’m going to see my lover
When I go to sleep at night, I think of you …
To which Taj replies:
“Sweeter than a honey bee, baby been sweet on me
Sweeter than a honey bee, my queen bee
Rock me to my soul, love me to my soul, my soul …”
I’m a fool for Ramatou’s sweet, clearly ethnic female vocal – I’ve sought others like it.
Toumani Diabate
A master of the kora (21 string West African harp), Diabate has brought the traditional music of his
native Mali to the attention of an international audience with a series of well received solo albums, and
some unlikely, but acclaimed, collaborations. Although he came from a family of musicians, Diabate (born
August 10, 1965) taught himself to play the kora from an early age, as his father, who also played the
instrument, was often away, touring. He developed a style of playing which, whilst being strongly rooted in
the Malian tradition, is also open to a wide range of other influences, such as jazz and flamenco. He has
subsequently sought out other musicians from around the world who are willing to experiment with him,
even performing a concert in Amsterdam with a classical harpist. His 1989 debut, Kaira, made history as
the first ever solo kora album to be released. Stark, haunting, and full of breath-taking improvisational
flourishes, it made him a star in his home land and an in demand performer internationally. In the same
year Songhai, a highly acclaimed collaboration between Diabate, the Spanish flamenco group Ketama, and
British jazz-folk bassist Danny Thompson, also released their acclaimed debut. Over the next six years
Diabate performed at festivals and concerts all over the globe, doing much to broaden the appeal of the
music of Mali, in general, and the kora, in particular. In 1995, a second Songhai album was released, as
well as Djelika, on which he led a group of musicians featuring Keletigui Diabate, (a veteran master of the
xylophone-like balafon and no relation to Toumani) and ngoni (a miniature guitar-like stringed instrument)
player Basekou Kouyate. He concentrated on performing in Mali over the next few years, before releasing
New Ancient Strings, his 1999 collaboration with fellow new generation kora master Ballake Sissoko. The
album was a tribute to their fathers who, nearly 30 years earlier, had released an album of kora duets
called Ancient Strings. In the same year, the very highly acclaimed Kulanjan was released. This featured
Diabate, Sissoko, and other fellow Malians, including singer Kasse Mady Diabate in a 'West Africa meets
the blues' collaboration with US guitarist Taj Mahal. To promote the album, these musicians toured
internationally at the end of 1999. In 2000, Diabate performed and recorded with Blur frontman Damon
Albarn, when the latter visited Mali as part of an OXFAM project.
Ramatou Diakite
With her solo release “Artistes” in 1996, Ramatou showcased her modernized Wassoulou style and was a
huge success in Mali. She made frequent appearances on Malian TV, and as a result, Salif Keita invited her
to join his band with which she toured in 1997. Unlike most Wassoulou singers, Ramatou is able to sing in
many different styles, and is a student of music fro all over the world. She has been singing with Toumani
Diabate’s ground informally for the past year and a half.
Taj Mahal
Since the mid-'60s, Taj Mahal has played a vital role in the preservation of traditional blues and AfricanAmerican roots music. He is a singer, songwriter, composer and noted musicologist who through intensive
research creates authentic, rootsy compositions that, while remaining true to tradition, are still relevant
to modern audiences and always bear his own unique stamp. Although he frequently ventures into
different genres, Mahal's heart and soul belongs to the old-time country blues.
Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks in New York City (but raised in Springfield, MA) to a gospel-singing
South Carolina schoolteacher and a piano-playing West Indian jazz arranger, his passion for the blues
began while he was attending the University of Massachusetts in the early '60s. He fell in love with the
music of such performers as T-Bone Walker, in which he saw an important African musical tradition that
represented for every aspect of life. By keeping the music alive, he would be preserving the African
heritage he cherished. In addition to his regular studies, Mahal began to delve into blues history, which
led him to explore other forms of Black folk music as well, including West African music, Caribbean, and
zydeco, in addition to R&B, rock and jazz. He already knew how to play the bass, but soon also learned to
play the instruments used by old-time musicians, including piano, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin,
dulcimer, harmonica and assorted flutes. Armed with new knowledge, he began playing the Boston folk
circuit.
Following graduation with a BA in Agriculture in 1964, Mahal went to Los Angeles and teamed up with
guitarist Ry Cooder to form the Rising Sons, but the band released just one single before breaking up,
although more than 20 tracks recorded by the group surfaced on CD in the 1990s. Mahal made his own
recording debut for Columbia in 1968 with a self-titled album. He recorded several more albums for the
label through the early '70s and at the same time established himself as a popular, charismatic, yet
laidback performer, known for his adventurousness, gentle wit and intelligence. As the years have passed,
Mahal has become known as a musical chameleon, changing and mixing up genres to suit his current
interests. He has even recorded children's albums that are anything but childish in their content. Many
albums, such as Like Never Before (1991) contain an eclectic assortment of styles covering both old songs
and his new compositions.
In addition to performing and album work, Mahal has also composed movie soundtracks (Sounder and
Sounder II) and television scores for such shows as The Man Who Broke a Thousand Chains and Brer
Rabbit. In 1991, he composed authentic music for the Broadway production of Mule Bone, a Langston
Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play that had been lost since the mid-'30s. As the '90s progressed, Mahal
continued to contribute and add to his discography; in 1998 he was honored with a three-CD box set, In
Progress & In Motion 1965-1998. The '90s compilation Blue Light Boogie appeared a year later.
Kulanjan
Artist Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate
Album Title Kulanjan
Date of Release Aug 3, 1999 inprint
AMG Rating 4 *
Genre Blues
Tones Reverent, Spiritual, Organic, Amiable/Good-Natured, Sophisticated
Styles Contemporary Blues, Kora
Time 58:43
Library View Click here to see this album in MARC format
Product Purchase Click here to buy this album
This informal collaboration between veteran American bluesman Mahal and Malian kora (it's a 21-stringed
lute-like instrument) master Diabate was recorded in an Athens, GA, studio with a sextet of West
African string instrumentalists and vocalists. It sounds like a half a world away, with the two mixed
cultures merging to create traditional blues based on non-traditional musical values. Mahal's gruff, weary
voice is soothed by the Malian crew's sweet tones; conversely, the leaders' picking styles sound as if they
were harvested from the same land. Natural, unpretentious, and occasionally sensual, Kulanjan is classy
world music without the stuffy undertones. — Michael Gallucci
1. Queen Bee (Mahal) - 5:04
2. Tunkaranke (Diabate/Mahal) - 6:31
3. Ol' Georgie Buck (Mahal) - 4:13
4. Kulanjan (Diabate) - 4:35
5. Fanta (Diabate/Mahal) - 4:41
6. Guede Man Na (Diabate) - 6:09
7. Catfish Blues (Mahal) - 5:29
8. K'an Ben (Diabate) - 4:59
9. Take This Hammer (Mahal) - 5:01
10. Atlanta Kaira (Diabate/Mahal) - 4:59
11. Mississippi-Mali Blues (Diabate/Mahal) - 3:17
12. Sahara (Mahal) - 3:58
12
Mercy Mercy Mercy - Cannonball Adderley
At The Club (1965)
Mercy Mercy Mercy was written by Joe Zawinul and this is a tribute to his contributions. Joe frequently
played with the Adderley brothers, and it is his piano you hear in this track, which I downloaded before
retiring. Joe just happens to be one of Mahoney’s favorite artists and I agree with him. Little did I know
he played such an instrumental (no pun) role with the Adderley’s, who happen to be among my favorites.
Joe Zawinul - Piano
Joe Zawinul belongs in a category unto himself -- a European from the heartland of the classical music
tradition (Vienna) who learned to swing as freely as any American jazzer, and whose appetite for growth
and change remains insatiable. Zawinul's curiosity and openness to all kinds of sounds made him one of the
driving forces behind the electronic jazz-rock revolution of the late '60s and '70s -- and later, he would
be almost alone in exploring fusions between jazz-rock and ethnic music from all over the globe. He is one
of a bare handful of synthesizer players who actually learned how to play the instrument, to make it an
expressive, swinging part of his arsenal. Prior to the invention of the portable synthesizer, Zawinul's
example helped bring the Wurlitzer and Fender Rhodes electric pianos into the jazz mainstream. Zawinul
also has became a significant composer, ranging (like his idol Duke Ellington) from soulful hit tunes to
large-scale symphonic jazz canvases. Yet despite his classical background, he now prefers to improvise
compositions spontaneously onto tape, not write them out on paper.
At six, Josef Erich Zawinul started to play the accordion in his native Austria, and studies in classical
piano and composition at the Vienna Conservatory soon followed. His interest in jazz piano, initially
influenced by George Shearing and Erroll Garner, led to jobs with Austrian saxophonist Hans Koller in
1952 and gigs with his own trio in France and Germany. He emigrated to the United States in late 1958
after winning a scholarship to Berklee, yet after just one week in class, he left to join Maynard
Ferguson's band for eight months, where Miles Davis first took notice of him. Following a brief stay with
Slide Hampton, Zawinul became Dinah Washington's pianist from 1959 to 1961, and then spent a month
with Harry "Sweets" Edison before Cannonball Adderley picked him to fill the piano chair in his quintet.
There Zawinul stayed and blossomed for nine years, contributing several compositions to the Adderley
band book -- among them the major pop hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," "Walk Tall," and "Country Preacher" - and ultimately helping to steer the Adderley group into the electronic era. While with Adderley, Zawinul
evolved from a hard bop pianist to a soul-jazz performer heavily steeped in the blues, and ultimately a
jazz-rock explorer on the electric piano. Toward the end of his Adderley gig (1969-1970), he was right in
the thick of the new jazz-rock scene, recording several pioneering records with Miles Davis, contributing
the title tune of Davis' In a Silent Way album.
After recording a self-titled solo album, Zawinul left Adderley to form Weather Report with Wayne
Shorter and Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous in November 1970. Weather Report gave the increasingly selfconfident Zawinul a platform to evolve even further as his interest in propulsive grooves and music from
Africa and the Middle East ignited and developed. He gradually dropped the electric piano in favor of a
series of ever more sophisticated synthesizers, which he mastered to levels never thought possible by
those who derided the instruments as sterile, unfeeling machines. Weather Report eventually became a
popular group that appealed to audiences beyond jazz and progressive rock, thanks in no small part to
Zawinul's hit song "Birdland."
When Zawinul and Shorter finally came to a parting of ways in 1985, Zawinul started to tour all by
himself, surrounded by keyboards and rhythm machines, but resurfaced the following year with a shortlived extension of Weather Report called Weather Update (which did not leave any recordings). Weather
Update quickly evolved into another group, the Zawinul Syndicate, which over the span of a decade tilted
increasingly toward groove-oriented world music influences. Zawinul has showed renewed interest in his
European roots, collaborating with fellow Viennese classical pianist Friedrich Gulda from 1987 to 1994,
producing a full-blown classically based symphony, Stories of the Danube, in 1993, and following the neardisastrous Malibu fires of 1994, moving from California to New York City in order to be closer to Europe.
In 2002 he released Faces & Places, his first studio album in several years and one that boasted an
international roster of supporting musicians. Since that time he has released a handful of albums
including Midnight Jam in 2005 and Brown Street in 2007.
Though he continues to explore new musical paths at an age when most jazzers are long set in their ways,
Zawinul's influence upon jazz has waned in recent years due to the jazz mainstream's retreat from
electronics back to acoustic post-bop. But Zawinul's uplifting, still-invigorating later music may make him
a prophet again if global music infiltrates the jazz world.
Cannonball Adderley
One of the great alto saxophonists, Cannonball Adderley had an exuberant and happy sound (as opposed
to many of the more serious stylists of his generation) that communicated immediately to listeners. His
intelligent presentation of his music (often explaining what he and his musicians were going to play)
helped make him one of the most popular of all jazzmen.
Adderley already had an established career as a high school band director in Florida when, during a 1955
visit to New York, he was persuaded to sit in with Oscar Pettiford's group at the Cafe Bohemia. His
playing created such a sensation that he was soon signed to Savoy and persuaded to play jazz full-time in
New York. With his younger brother, cornetist Nat, Cannonball formed a quintet that struggled until its
breakup in 1957. Adderley then joined Miles Davis, forming part of his super sextet with John Coltrane
and participating on such classic recordings as Milestones and Kind of Blue. Adderley's second attempt to
form a quintet with his brother was much more successful for, in 1959, with pianist Bobby Timmons, he
had a hit recording of "This Here." From then on, Cannonball always was able to work steadily with his
band.
During its Riverside years (1959-1963), the Adderley Quintet primarily played soulful renditions of hard
bop and Cannonball really excelled in the straight-ahead settings. During 1962-1963, Yusef Lateef made
the group a sextet and pianist Joe Zawinul was an important new member. The collapse of Riverside
resulted in Adderley signing with Capitol and his recordings became gradually more commercial. Charles
Lloyd was in Lateef's place for a year (with less success) and then with his departure the group went
back to being a quintet. Zawinul's 1966 composition "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" was a huge hit for the group,
Adderley started doubling on soprano, and the quintet's later recordings emphasized long melody
statements, funky rhythms, and electronics. However, during his last year, Cannonball Adderley was
revisiting the past a bit and on Phenix he recorded new versions of many of his earlier numbers. But
before he could evolve his music any further, Cannonball Adderley died suddenly from a stroke.
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club'
Rating
5 Stars
Recording Date Oct 20, 1966
Time 41:07
Cannonball Adderley's most popular album, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy wasn't actually recorded "Live at 'The
Club'," as its subtitle says. The hoax was meant to publicize a friend's nightclub venture in Chicago, but
Adderley actually recorded the album in Los Angeles, where producer David Axelrod set up a club in the
Capitol studios and furnished free drinks to an invitation-only audience. Naturally, the crowd is in an
extremely good mood, and Adderley's quintet, feeding off the energy in the room, gives them something
to shout about. By this point, Adderley had perfected a unique blend of earthy soul-jazz and modern,
subtly advanced post-bop; very rarely did some of these harmonies and rhythms pop up in jazz so
saturated with blues and gospel feeling. Those latter influences are the main inspiration for
acoustic/electric pianist Joe Zawinul's legendary title cut, a genuine Top 40 pop hit that bears a passing
resemblance to the Southern soul instrumentals of the mid-'60s, but works a looser, more laid-back
groove (without much improvisation). The deep, moaning quality and spacy texture of "Mercy, Mercy,
Mercy" stand in contrast to the remainder of the record, though; Nat Adderley contributes two upbeat
and challenging originals in "Fun" and "Games," while Zawinul's second piece, "Hippodelphia," is on the
same level of sophistication. The leader's two selections -- the gospel-inflected "Sticks" and the hardswinging, bluesy bop of "Sack O' Woe" (the latter of which became a staple of his repertoire) -- are
terrific as well, letting the group really dig into its roots. Adderley's irrepressible exuberance was a
major part of his popularity, and no document captures that quality as well -- or with such tremendous
musical rewards -- as Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.
1
2
3
4
5
6
13
Fun
Adderley
8:26
Games
Adderley
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Zawinul
Sticks Adderley
3:54
Hippodelphia
Zawinul 5:49
Sack O' Woe
Adderley
7:19
5:10
10:29
How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away - Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
Original Recordings (1969)
I’ve been wanting to include more Hicks. So far I’ve only included Garden In The Rain (Naweedna 2002 A),
which really isn’t typical Hicks. How Can I Miss You … is much more typical of his almost jazzy, humorous
style. I’ve got several more Hicks tracks in the hopper: I Scare Myself, Boogaloo Plays Guitar, Collard
Blues & Vinnie’s Looking Good. Yep, they will be sprinkled throughout future Naweedna CDs. Hope you like
‘em as much as we do.
How Can I Miss You … is taken from our Original Recordings CDs.
Throughout his decades-long career, Dan Hicks stood as one of contemporary music's true eccentrics.
While steeped in folk, his acoustic sound knew few musical boundaries, drawing on country, call-andresponse vocals, jazz phrasing and no small amount of humor to create a distinctive, albeit sporadic, body
of work which earned him a devoted cult following.
Hicks was born December 9, 1941 to a military family then living in Arkansas, and grew up in California,
where he was a drummer in a number of high school bands. He attended college in San Francisco, where
he switched to guitar and began playing folk music. He returned to the drums, however, when he joined
the Charlatans, one of the Bay City's first psychedelic bands. Although the Charlatans were short-lived they issued only one single during their existence - they proved influential throughout the San Francisco
musical community, and were one of the first acts the play the legendary Family Dog.
Hicks had formed the acoustic group Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks in 1968 as an opener for the
Charlatans, but soon the new band became his primary project. After adding a pair of female backing
vocalists - "the Lickettes" - the group issued its debut LP Original Recordings in 1969. After a pair of
1971 records, Where's the Money? and Striking It Rich, they issued 1973's Last Train to Hicksville,
which proved to be the Hot Licks most successful album yet. At the peak of the group's popularity,
however, Hicks dissolved the band, and did not resurface until 1978, releasing the solo LP It Happened
One Bite, the soundtrack to an uncompleted feature by animator Ralph Bakshi. He then phased in and out
of the music industry for more than a decade, and did not issue another major recording until 1994's
Shootin' Straight, a live recording cut with a new band, the Acoustic Warriors In 2000, over two decades
after the group's dissolution, Hicks reformed the Hot Licks and issued Beatin' The Heat. Alive and
Lickin' arrived a year later.
Original Recordings
Rating
4 Stars
Release Date 1991
Recording Date Jan 20, 1969 - Jan 1969
Time 40:58
Sometimes this sextet spreads their sound so thin that they sound like the world's largest populated duo,
and not every aspect of what made for an exotic, intriguing, or just plain freaky band in the late '60s still
holds one's undivided attention years down the line. Nonetheless, leader Dan Hicks, later to dub himself
an "acoustic music warrior," made a good case for himself on this, his debut recording as a bandleader and
one that certainly helped put this band on the map, although at the time part of their popularity had to
do with the wispy appearance of vocalists Sherry Snow and Christina Viola Gancher. Their contributions
tend to sound weak upon repeated listening. Sometimes they are just plain out of tune with each other, a
trait that one might forgive if their Western swing gambits paid off a little better. Violinist Sid Page
plays just great on this record, though, and the efforts of bassist Jaime Leopold are in the right spot.
The five-minute "I Scare Myself" is here in all its glory, one of this outfit's definite triumphs. The string
players make a huge addition, but inevitably this is Hicks' show, with the leader often taking over half
the rhythm section by overdubbing himself on drums. The presence of a dozen original tunes, all witty and
stylistically expressive, and a few downright classics, speaks well for Hicks. Still, he doesn't seem to have
figured out a good way to use his vocal sidekicks all the time, other than as scenery.
1 Canned Music
Hicks
4:03
2 How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away?
3 I Scare Myself Hicks
5:17
4 Shorty Takes a Dive
Hicks
3:09
5 Evenin' Breeze Hicks
3:53
6 Waiting for the 103
Hicks
3:42
7 Shorty Falls in Love
Hicks
3:21
8 Milk Shakin' Mama
Hicks
4:07
9 Slow Movin'
Hicks
3:08
10 It's Bad Grammar, Baby Hicks
2:30
Hicks
2:37
11 Jukies' Ball
14
Hicks
5:11
Sweet Baby Of Mine – Ruth Brown
Classics (1954-55)
I remember Ruth Brown from my youth. She was one of the early R’n’R artists – back when black R&B
artists started being accepted into traditionally white rock. Before that time, most of the good R&B
stuff was just covered by white artists, e.g., Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti covered by none other than Pat
Boone. I narrowed Ruth Brown’s selections down to: Daddy Daddy, Mambo Baby, Oh What A Dream, That
Train Don’t Stop Here, and Sweet Baby Of Mine.




Mambo Baby is really very good, but I rejected it because it wasn’t that representative of Brown’s
work.
Daddy Daddy was a bit like Mambo Baby, so it got rejected, too.
Oh What A Dream was the first Ruth Brown I remember, but it sounded a bit, oh, shall we say, old.
That Train Don’t Stop Here was a strong contender but got rejected because it sorta trailed off at
the end.
That left Sweet Baby Of Mine, which I think represents Ruth’s work very well. Hope you agree. This
track was another download before retirement.
They called Atlantic Records "the house that Ruth built" during the 1950s, and they weren't referring to
the Sultan of Swat. Ruth Brown's regal hitmaking reign from 1949 to the close of the '50s helped
tremendously to establish the New York label's predominance in the R&B field. Later, the business all but
forgot her — she was forced to toil as domestic help for a time — but she returned to the top, her
status as a postwar R&B pioneer (and tireless advocate for the rights and royalties of her peers)
recognized worldwide.
Young Ruth Weston was inspired initially by jazz chanteuses Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Dinah
Washington. She ran away from her Portsmouth home in 1945 to hit the road with trumpeter Jimmy
Brown, whom she soon married. A month with bandleader Lucky Millinder's orchestra in 1947 ended
abruptly in Washington, D.C., when she was canned for delivering a round of drinks to members of the
band. Cab Calloway's sister Blanche gave Ruth a gig at her Crystal Caverns nightclub and assumed a
managerial role in the young singer's life. DJ Willis Conover dug Brown's act and recommended her to
Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, bosses of a fledgling imprint named Atlantic.
Unfortunately, Brown's debut session for the firm was delayed by a nine-month hospital stay caused by a
serious auto accident en route to New York that badly injured her leg. When she finally made it to her
first date in May of 1949, she made up for lost time by waxing the torch ballad "So Long" (backed by
guitarist Eddie Condon's band), which proved to be her first hit.
Brown's seductive vocal delivery shone incandescently on her Atlantic smashes "Teardrops in My Eyes"
(an R&B chart-topper for 11 weeks in 1950), "I'll Wait for You" and "I Know" in 1951, 1952's "5-10-15
Hours" (another number-one rocker), the seminal "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" in 1953, and a
tender Chuck Willis-penned "Oh What a Dream" and the timely "Mambo Baby" the next year. Along the
way, Frankie Laine tagged her "Miss Rhythm" during an engagement in Philly. Brown belted a series of her
hits on the groundbreaking TV program Showtime at the Apollo in 1955, exhibiting delicious comic timing
while trading sly one-liners with MC Willie Bryant (ironically, ex-husband Jimmy Brown was a member of
the show's house band).
After an even two-dozen R&B chart appearances for Atlantic that ended in 1960 with "Don't Deceive Me"
(many of them featuring hell-raising tenor sax solos by Willis "Gator" Jackson, who many mistakenly
believed to be Brown's husband), Brown faded from view. After raising her two sons and working a nineto-five job, Brown began to rebuild her musical career in the mid-'70s. Her comedic sense served her well
during a TV sitcom stint co-starring with McLean Stevenson in Hello, Larry, in a meaty role in director
John Waters' 1985 sock-hop satire film Hairspray, and during her 1989 Broadway starring turn in Black
and Blue (which won her a Tony Award).
There were more records for Fantasy in the '80s and '90s (notably 1991's jumping Fine and Mellow), and
a lengthy tenure as host of National Public Radio's "Harlem Hit Parade" and "BluesStage." Brown's nineyear ordeal to recoup her share of royalties from all those Atlantic platters led to the formation of the
nonprofit Rhythm & Blues Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping others in the same frustrating
situation.
Factor in all those time-consuming activities, and it's a wonder Ruth Brown has time to sing anymore. But
she does (quite royally, too), her pipes mellowed but not frayed by the ensuing decades that have seen
her rise to stardom not once, but twice.
The Best of Ruth Brown [Rhino]
Artist Ruth Brown
Date of Release May 25, 1949 - May 1959 inprint
AMG Rating 5* Selected
For those who want a cheaper and more concise collection of her best Atlantic cuts than the two-CD Miss
Rhythm, this superb 23-track CD has the cream of her '50s work, including no less than 19 Top Ten R&B
singles. Charting her evolution from her jazzy debut, "So Long, " through jump blues and early rock'n'roll,
it also adds a bonus of two previously unissued live cuts from 1959. — Richie Unterberger
1. So Long (Harris/Melsher/Morgan)
2. Teardrops from My Eyes (Toombs)
3. I'll Wait for You (Toombs)
4. I Know (Abramson/Ertegun/Toombs)
5. Shine on (Bright Moon Shine On) (Whittaker)
6. 5-10-15 Hours (Toombs)
7. Daddy Daddy (Toombs)
8. (Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean (Lance/Singleton/Wallace)
9. Wild, Wild Young Men (Ertegun)
10. Mend Your Ways (Chase/Kirkland)
11. Oh, What a Dream (Willis)
12. Mambo Baby (McCoy/Singleton)
13. I Can See Everybody's Baby (Kirkland/Thomas)
14. As Long as I'm Movin' (Calhoun)
15. It's Love Baby (24 Hours of the Day) (Jarrett)
16. Love Has Joined Us Together (James/Smith)
17. I Want to Do More (Leiber/Stoller)
18. Sweet Baby of Mine (Sharp)
19. Lucky Lips (Leiber/Stoller)
20. This Little Girl's Gone Rockin' (Curtis/Darin)
21. I Don't Know (Benton/Stevenson)
22. (Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean [live] (Lance/Singleton/Wallace)
23. Oh, What a Dream [live] (Willis)
Clyde McPhatter - Performer
Ruth Brown - Vocals
King Curtis - Saxophone
15
The Usual Thing - Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw (1982)
I don’t know how popular this track is (was), but I do know it is popular in this house. We both fell in love
with it on first hearing. I got it from “Music Man’ Mahoney – thanks Bob. It is one of several new-to-me
tracks that I try to include on each Naweedna CD. I’ve got a few more to salt into future compilations.
Hope you all don’t find them too trite or over-played.
Singer/songwriter Marshall Crenshaw has built up an impressive body of work over the course of his
career, showing a fine craft for everything he approaches while stubbornly following his own creative
muse to reach that end. To say that Crenshaw has had an interesting career so far would be putting it
mildly. He's been in the movies and he's been in the road-show version of Beatlemania. His songs have
been plastered all over the soundtracks to several hit movies and covered by artists as diverse as Robert
Gordon, Bette Midler, Kelly Willis, Marti Jones and the Gin Blossoms. He got a bunch of his like-minded
show business acquaintances together and put out a book on all the great and lousy rock & roll movies in
existence called Hollywood Rock & Roll. He's put together comps of his own for record companies (most
notably Hillbilly Music, Thank God! for the short lived Bug Music label) and has contributed chapters to
books on vintage guitar collecting. Crenshaw is a true rock & roll renaissance man while still remaining the
everyman.
Born in Detroit and raised in the surrounding area, Marshall played ina number of different bands in high
school, eventually landing in his first professional combo, ASTIGAFA (an acronym for "A Splendid Time
Is Guaranteed for All," cribbed from the back of Sgt. Pepper). Although nothing releasable came of this
venture, it surely cemented the basic ingredients of his style that would surface full bloom at the dawn
of his solo career. According to Crenshaw, "That band really didn't have a high profile in Detroit, but I
was using that time, working alone, woodshedding, gathering information. Around '73, I just stopped
listening to the radio and just became immersed listening to old 45s from the '50s and early '60s. It
seemed to me that there was more immediacy in those records than the stuff that was on the radio at
that time." But just as his ears learned to love echoey mono '50s records, his songwriting influences went
in an opposite direction: "One batch of stuff that I really feel that I was strongly influenced by was a lot
of the R&B-pop kind of stuff that was around in the early '70s. I just love that romantic kind of R&B kind
of sound, all those chord changes in those tunes."
But Detroit was not a musical hotbed by the late '70s, so Crenshaw responded to an ad in Rolling Stone
and auditioned for the Broadway musical Beatlemania. Hired as a John Lennon understudy, Crenshaw
moved to New York City and quickly found himself in a heady, competitive situation. After serving a sixmonth "Beatle boot camp" training, he appeared with the show for six months in Hollywood and San
Francisco, then finished up his last six months with the production on the road. Though he found the
show creatively stifling, it made him sit down and figure out what kind of music he wanted to do and
eventually — after buying a four-track recorder — started making demos whenever he was home.
Soon Marshall was armed both with demos galore — dropping them off to any show business connection
that might listen — and his younger brother was playing drums in his trio, which was starting to plug into
New York City's burgeoning new wave club scene. About that time Crenshaw hooked up with local
scenester Alan Betrock, who had recently started his own label, Shake Records. It was Crenshaw's debut
single "Something's Gonna Happen" on Betrock's label that kicked up enough noise to bring major label
interest knocking at his door. Signing with Warner Brothers in 1982, Marshall recorded five superbly
crafted studio albums before parting ways seven years later to sign with MCA for one album, Life's Too
Short. During this flurry of activity, Crenshaw also flexed his acting muscles, portraying a high-school
bandleader in Peggy Sue Got Married, Buddy Holly in La Bamba and a guest appearance on the
Nickelodeon series Pete and Pete. Emerging from a three-year hiatus, Marshall signed with the
independent label Razor & Tie label, released a live album (Live: My Truck Is My Home) in 1994 and in
1996, released a new studio effort, Miracle of Science. The 9 Volt Years, a collection of demos and home
recordings, followed in 1998, and a year later Crenshaw returned with a new studio effort, #447.
Marshall Crenshaw [1982]
Artist Marshall Crenshaw
Date of Release Apr 28, 1982 (release)
AMG Rating 5 * checked
Genre Rock
Time 33:28
On the cover of his self-titled LP, Marshall Crenshaw — complete with crew-cut, thick glasses and
unfashionable suit — looks like nothing so much as the second coming of Buddy Holly, or possibly an
Americanized Elvis Costello; listening to the record itself does little to alter those first impressions, and
even if his subsequent LPs failed to live up to such immense promise, there's no doubting this debut
release's enduring greatness. Working without any kind of smoke or mirrors, Crenshaw delivers simple,
straightforward pop music invested with remarkable melodic ingenuity; his material is timeless and fresh
— gems like "Someday, Someway," "She Can't Dance," and "Not for Me," are the kinds of songs which
would fit like a glove on both oldies radio and contemporary Top 40 play lists in any era. Witty, assured,
and utterly infectious, Marshall Crenshaw remains among the finest debuts of its day. [Rhino reissued
Marshall Crenshaw in 2000 with nine bonus tracks, including demos, live cuts, and non-LP B-sides.] —
Jason Ankeny
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8.
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11.
12.
16
There She Goes Again (Crenshaw) - 2:39
Someday, Someway (Crenshaw) - 2:53
Girls (Crenshaw) - 3:04
I'll Do Anything (Crenshaw) - 3:03
Rockin' Around in N.Y.C. (Crenshaw) - 3:10
The Usual Thing (Crenshaw) - 3:06
She Can't Dance (Cioffi/Crenshaw/Todd) - 2:47
Cynical Girl (Crenshaw) - 2:37
Mary Anne (Crenshaw) - 2:57
Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms) (Cason/Moon) - 2:39
Not for Me (Crenshaw) - 2:38
Brand New Lover (Crenshaw) - 2:39
Camptown – Joe Craven
Camptown (1996)
We got this Camptown CD from Kurt a few years ago. Every time one of Craven’s tracks pop up, we take
notice. They stand out as unique musical entrées that we enjoy greatly. In fact, I’ve asked most
everybody if there are any more and the answer usually comes back ‘no’. However, in researching the bio
info below, I discovered there are TWO more Joe Craven CDs. Let’s get ‘em.
I thought the ‘Camptown Races’ theme was a little trite, but there is enough other stuff going on in this
track to more than make up for any thematic issues. I especially like the whistle and bird-like sounds in
the background.
Camptown
Artist Joe Craven
Date of Release 1996
AMG Rating 4 *
Genre Rock
Time 59:47
Versatility is the dominating word to describe this disc. Multi-instrumentalist hardly begins to describe
Joe Craven. Perhaps he is best known for his performances with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman and his band
Psychograss. On this CD he steps dramatically to the forefront. He plays upwards of 30 instruments;
predominately known for his mandolin and fiddle playing, he strides to the center on a number of other
stringed instruments such as the banjolin and ukulele, while providing most of the percussion on a
astounding variety of instruments. The number of instruments played well is complemented by the
plethora of styles he plays in. This is music that encircles the world; all aboard for Australia, India,
Japan, Ireland and South Africa to name five of the stops on this journey of 14 songs in as many musical
styles. All are done with an exhilarating love for the music which shines through. Why did I give it eight
and not nine stars if I love it this much? It sometimes shifts styles just a bit too abruptly for my mind. I
would prefer to make the journey in two or three discs. But that is personal. This is a journey not to be
missed on any account. — Bob Gottlieb
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Soldiers of Joy (Public Domain [1]) - 4:58
Uke Pick Waltz (Public Domain [1]) - 3:32
Camp Town (Public Domain [1]) - 3:37
Rites of Man (Public Domain [1]) - 4:48
Hot Turkey (Public Domain [1]) - 3:39
Shake in the Barley (Public Domain [1]) - 3:25
Star of the Country Down (Traditional) - 5:55
8. Liberte (Public Domain [1]) - 3:29
9. The New Iberians (Public Domain [1]) - 3:46
10. Combole (Public Domain [1]) - 6:07
11. The Fez of Abu (Public Domain [1]) - 3:33
12. Old Joe's Delhi (Public Domain [1]) - 4:02
13. Kitchen Girl (Traditional) - 4:31
14. Bonaparte (Public Domain [1]) - 4:25
17
It's Wonderful & They Can't Take That Away From Me – Anita O’Day
Jazz Club Vocals (??)
We lost Anita this year … another great female jazz voice has been silenced. I got this track from one of
Jason’s CDs. I can’t seem to find the exact CD now, so I can’t find a release date for this particular Jazz
Club compilation CD. A little Internet research revealed that this is one of her signature tracks, so I
think I made a pretty good choice. Goodbye, Anita, you will be missed.
Few female singers matched the hard-swinging and equally hard-living Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance
and talent in all areas of jazz vocals. Though three or four outshone her in pure quality of voice, her
splendid improvising, wide dynamic tone and innate sense of rhythm made her the most enjoyable singer
of the age. O'Day's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female
vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading
with Roy Eldridge on the Gene Krupa recording "Let Me Off Uptown." After making her solo debut in the
mid-'40s, she began incorporating bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best
vocal LPs of the era for Verve during the 1950s and '60s. Though hampered by heavy drinking and later,
drug addiction, during her peak period, she made a comeback and continued singing into the 1990s.
Born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, she was raised largely by her mother, and entered her first marathondance contest while barely a teenager. She spent time on the road and occasionally back at home, later
moving from dancing to singing at the contests. After bad experiences amid brief tenures with Benny
Goodman and even Raymond Scott, O'Day earned a place in Gene Krupa's band in 1941. Several weeks
later, Krupa also hired trumpeter Roy Eldridge, and the trio combined to become an effective force
displayed on hits like "Let Me Off Uptown," "Boogie Blues" and "Just a Little Bit South of North
Carolina." She spent a brief period away from Krupa with Woody Herman, but returned to the band, only
to have it break up by 1943. After moving to Stan Kenton, she starred on Kenton's first big hit, 1944's
"And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine." Another stint with Krupa presaged her solo debut in 1946, and with
drummer John Poole as her accompanist, she recorded a moderate hit one year later with the novelty "Hi
Ho Trailus Boot Whip."
Her career really ignited after her first album (and the first LP ever released by Verve), 1955's Anita
(also known as This Is Anita). Much more successful in the jazz world than she was in its pop equivalent,
she performed at jazz festivals and jazz-oriented concerts, appearing with figures including Louis
Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, and George Shearing. Her performance at 1958's Newport Jazz Festival
made her fame worldwide after being released on film titled Jazz on a Summer's Day.
O'Day's series of almost twenty Verve LPs during the '50s and '60s proved her to be one of the most
distinctive, trend-setting, and successful vocal artists of the time, arguably surpassed only by Frank
Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. She worked with a variety of arrangers and in many different settings,
including a hard-swinging Billy May collaboration (Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May), an
excellent, intimate set with the Oscar Peterson Quartet (Anita Sings the Most), several with the
mainstream Buddy Bregman Orchestra (Pick Yourself Up, Anita), one with the cool-toned Jimmy Giuffre
(Cool Heat), and a Latin date with Cal Tjader (Time for Two) as well as a collaborative LP with the Blue
Note instrumental trio the Three Sounds. Even by the early '60s however, her ebullient voice had begun
sounding tired; the cumulative effects of heroin addiction, its resulting lifestyle, and a non-stop concert
schedule forced her into a physical collapse by 1967.
18
Going Back To Okinawa - Ry Cooder
Get Rhythm (1987)
This is the fourth Cooder to be included on a Naweedna CD. The other three are Cherry Ball Blues
(2002A), See You In Hell Blind Boy (2002B), and Chloe (2003). There will be more.
Okinawa came from a tape of a vinyl Kilbury bought and gave to me to record. We used to go to Buzzo’s
and each buy an album to share – back in the day. Okinawa is one of those tunes that grows on you with
repeated listenings. It has particular relevance for us because Janie spent her formative years in
Okinawa where her father was stationed.
Whether serving as a session musician, solo artist, or soundtrack composer, Ry Cooder's chameleon-like
fretted instrument virtuosity, songwriting, and choices of material encompass an incredibly eclectic range
of North American musical styles, including rock & roll, blues, reggae, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Dixieland jazz,
country, folk, R&B, gospel, and vaudeville. The 16-year-old Cooder began his career in 1963 in a blues band
with Jackie DeShannon and then formed the short-lived Rising Sons in 1965 with Taj Mahal and Spirit
drummer Ed Cassidy. Cooder met producer Terry Melcher through the Rising Sons and was invited to
perform at several sessions with Paul Revere and the Raiders. During his subsequent career as a session
musician, Cooder's trademark slide guitar work graced the recordings of such artists as Captain
Beefheart (Safe As Milk), Randy Newman, Little Feat, Van Dyke Parks, the Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed,
Sticky Fingers), Taj Mahal, and Gordon Lightfoot. He also appeared on the soundtracks of Candy and
Performance.
Cooder made his debut as a solo artist in 1970 with a self-titled album featuring songs by Leadbelly, Blind
Willie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, and Woody Guthrie. The follow-up, Into the Purple Valley, introduced
longtime cohorts Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Dickinson on bass, and it and Boomer's Story largely
repeated and refined the syncopated style and mood of the first. In 1974, Cooder produced what is
generally regarded as his best album, Paradise and Lunch, and its follow-up, Chicken Skin Music,
showcased a potent blend of Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, gospel, and soul music, and featured contributions from
Flaco Jimenez and Gabby Pahinui. In 1979, Bop Till You Drop was the first major-label album to be
recorded digitally. In the early '80s, Cooder began to augment his solo output with soundtrack work on
such films as Blue Collar, The Long Riders, and The Border; he has gone on to compose music for Southern
Comfort, Goin' South, Paris, Texas, Streets of Fire, Bay, Blue City, Crossroads, Cocktail, Johnny
Handsome, Steel Magnolias, and Geronimo. Music By Ry Cooder (1995) compiled two discs' worth of
highlights from Cooder's film work.
In 1992, Cooder joined Keltner, John Hiatt, and renowned British tunesmith Nick Lowe, all of whom had
played on Hiatt's Bring the Family, to form Little Village, which toured and recorded one album. Cooder
next turned his attention to world music, recording the album A Meeting by the River with Indian
musician V.M. Bhatt. Cooder's next project, a duet album with renowned African guitarist Ali Farka Toure
titled Talking Timbuktu, won the 1994 Grammy for Best World Music Recording.
Get Rhythm
Rating 3 Stars
Release Date 1987
Time 40:43
"The Musician's Musician." "The Master of the Eclectic." There are probably a dozen more titles by which
this "guitar player" is known. To even refer to him as a guitar player is probably a gross mislabeling of
this musician. He defies any sort of categorization; this is his greatest strength and for some his
weakness. The theme for these nine cuts is rhythm of all different ilk. I won't even give the parameters
because he seems to have none. I wondered how many different instruments he played on this album (I
thought I counted five different types of guitar); it only says guitar and vocal for his credits. Listen to
his version of "All Shook Up," more bop and rhythm than Elvis could put into four of his songs. It seems
musicians line up to play with him, and they feel he did them a favor by letting them play on his albums.
He always gives them plenty of space to do what they do. This CD will make the dead start tapping their
toes.
01-Get Rhythm (Johnny Cash)
02-Low-Commotion (Cooder-Keltner)
03-Going Back To Okinawa (Cooder)
04-13 Question Method (Chuck Berry)
05-Women Will Rule The World (Raymond Quevedo)
06-All Shook Up (Otis Blackwell-Elvis Presley)
07-I Can Tell By The Way You Smell (Walter Davis)
08-Across The Border Line (Cooder-Dickinson-Hiatt)
09-Let's Have A Ball (Bunn)
19
Love In Vain - Robert Lockwood, Jr
Folk Masters (1933)
I didn’t have many Lockwood tracks to pick from. Love In Vain & Sweet Woman From Maine were the
clear choices. He wrote Sweet Woman From Maine, but I though Love In Vain was a better
representative piece, given his connection to Robert Johnson. This particular track came from a
Smithsonian compilation I found in Milne. Robert Lockwood Jr is dead, but his music lives on.
Robert Lockwood, Jr., learned his blues firsthand from an unimpeachable source: the immortal Robert
Johnson. Lockwood was capable of conjuring up the bone-chilling Johnson sound whenever he desired, but
he was never one to linger in the past for long -- which accounts for the jazzy swing he often brought to
the licks he played on his 12-string electric guitar.
Born in 1915, Lockwood was one of the last living links to the glorious Johnson legacy. When Lockwood's
mother became romantically involved with the charismatic rambler in Helena, AR, the quiet teenager
suddenly gained a role model and a close friend -- so close that Lockwood considered himself Johnson's
stepson. Robert Jr. learned how to play guitar very quickly with Johnson's expert help, assimilating
Johnson's technique inside and out.
Following Johnson's tragic murder in 1938, Lockwood embarked on his own intriguing musical journey. He
was among the first bluesmen to score an electric guitar in 1938 and eventually made his way to Chicago,
where he cut four seminal tracks for Bluebird. Jazz elements steadily crept into Lockwood's dazzling
fretwork, although his role as Sonny Boy Williamson's musical partner on the fabled KFFA King Biscuit
Time radio broadcasts during the early '40s out of Helena, AR, probably didn't emphasize that side of his
dexterity all that much.
Settling in Chicago in 1950, Lockwood swiftly gained a reputation as a versatile in-demand studio sideman,
recording behind harp genius Little Walter, piano masters Sunnyland Slim and Eddie Boyd, and plenty
more. Solo recording opportunities were scarce, though Lockwood did cut fine singles in 1951 for Mercury
("I'm Gonna Dig Myself a Hole" and a very early "Dust My Broom") and in 1955 for JOB ("Sweet Woman
from Maine"/"Aw Aw Baby").
Lockwood's best modern work as a leader was done for Pete Lowry's Trix label, including some startling
workouts on the 12-string axe (which he daringly added to his arsenal in 1965). He later joined forces
with fellow Johnson disciple Johnny Shines for two eclectic early-'80s Rounder albums. He also recorded
a Robert Johnson tribute album and founded his own label, Lockwood. In 1998, he signed to Verve for the
Grammy-nominated album I Got to Find Me a Woman, which featured sit-in guests including B.B. King and
Joe Louis Walker. He was still working a weekly gig in Cleveland until early November 2006, when he
suffered a brain aneurysm. He died on November 21.
Folk Masters
Rating 3 Stars
Release Date 1993
Recording Date Apr 1, 1992-Apr 8, 1992
Smithsonian Folkways
Time 2:40
This 22-cut sampler culled from the Folk Masters radio show series reflects the program's openness -bluegrass, klezmer, classic gospel, Western swing, mountain music, blues, Cajun, and traditional jazz are
represented, as well as international styles and conjunto. It is a quick musical education and one that
should forever shatter stereotyped notions about what does and does not constitute folk music.
1 Last Goodbye Johnson Mountain Boys 2:33
2 Orphan's Waltz Dewey Balfa ... 3:31
3 Jolie Catin Boozoo Chavis & Mag ... 2:39
4 Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio Jimenez, Santiago Jr. 3:10
5 Aguinaldo Jibaro Familia Colón 3:41
6 Wai O Ke Aniani Daapana, Ledward 3:52
7 Gray Eagle Wayne Henderson 3:41
8 Black Cat on the Line John Cephas, Phil Wiggins 4:50
9 Love in Vain Lockwood, Robert Jr. 2:58
10 St. James Infirmary Michael White 5:50
11 Ot Azoy Klezmer Plus 3:58
12 Zagrebcani Smo Mi Tamburitza Ensemble 2:56
13 El Rascapetate Marimba Chiapas 2:39
14 Zuni Rainbow Dance Cellicion Family Singers 2:46
15 Adam Picking up Leaves McIntosh County Shouters 2:46
16 Bucket Drums and Rap CJ & Five Galllons Of Fun 5:10
17 It's Gonna Rain Birmingham Sunlights 3:08
18 This Little Light of Mine Fontella Bass 2:32
19 Red River Valley Sun Rhythm Section 2:09
20 Big Ball's in Cowtown Texas Playboys 3:01
21 Smooth Sailing Claude Williams 2:47
22 When the Saints Go Marching In Kings Of Harmony Br ... 2:03
20
There Goes My Love - BR5-49
Big Backyard Beat Show (1998)
Okay, BR5-49 is a great group doing really good things – they occasionally appear on PHC, so they are still
big on the scene, in my opinion. Mahoney introduced us to their stuff, so we dutifully bought the Backyard
Beat Show CD and have been enjoying it ever since. There are other worthy tracks on this CD – maybe
they will show up in future Naweedna CDs, who knows ;-)
Blending rock and country with a vigorous energy, BR5-49 became one of the most critically acclaimed
country-rock bands of the mid-'90s. For the first half of the decade, the group carved out a dedicated
following in Nashville's downtown district on Lower Broadway, playing for a variety of music fans, ranging
from honky tonkers to punk rockers. Eventually, the group landed a record contract with Arista Records.
Their first release was a live EP, appropriately called Live at Robert's, which was released in the spring
of 1996. It was followed later that fall with an eponymous full-length record that was greeted with
overwhelmingly positive reviews in both the country and rock press. In 1998, BR5-49 returned with Big
Backyard Beat Show; Coast to Coast followed two years later. The year 2001 brought another whirlwind
tour across the US, all in support of This is BR5-49. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Big Backyard Beat Show
Date of Release Jul 14, 1998
AMG Rating 4 *
Time 41:10
When BR5-49 was first signed by a Nashville major, eyebrows were raised on both sides of the country
music border. Traditionalists wondered how and what it would cost the hillbilly boys who gained fame
while playing in the window of Robert's Western Wear on Lower Broad in Music City. On the other side of
the fence, the cats in the suits were shaking their heads, predicting that BR5-49 would be a short-lived
novelty act. With some moderate success, no thanks to country-pop radio, and several years on the road,
BR5-49 has endured. This, their third release, shows a maturing quintet ready to come into their own.
With their integrity intact, the boys have learned a thing or two about writing songs, and display their
own material proudly. Sandwiched between a Buck Owens' cover, "There Goes My Love" and ending with
Billy Joe Shaver's forever powerful, "Georgia on a Fast Train," Gary Bennett and Chuck Mead provide the
band with some worthy tunes. "Storybook Endings (If You Stop Believin')," "My Name Is Mudd," "You Are
Never Nice to Me" and "Change the Way I Look" all score big. "Goodbye Maria" is the band's effective
salute to the Tex-Mex sound of C&W music. They even present listeners with a fast-moving truck drivin'
song, "18 Wheels and a Crowbar."
With Don Herron's magnificent musicanship providing steel, fiddle, dobro, mandolin and almost anything
else that is required, BR5-49 deserve more than just a modicum of respect for hanging in there despite
predictions. If the infinitely listenable Big Backyard Beat Show is any indication of their future, they
should be around for a long time.
1. There Goes My Love (Owens) - 2:10
2. Wild One (Greenan/OKeefe/Owens) - 2:34
3. Hurtin' Song (Regan/Sewell) - 2:42
4. Out of Habit (Mead) - 2:28
5. Storybook Endings (If You Stop Believin') (Bennett) - 3:18
6. 18 Wheels and a Crowbar (Mead/Wilson) - 4:57
7. Pain, Pain Go Away (Bennett) - 2:24
8. You Are Never Nice to Me (Bennett) - 2:45
9. Goodbye, Maria (Mead) - 3:45
10. Seven Nights to Rock (Innis/Trail) - 2:48
11. My Name Is Mudd (Mead) - 3:14
12. You Flew the Coop (Bennett) - 2:23
13. Change the Way I Look (Mead) - 2:39
14. Georgia on a Fast Train (Shaver) - 3:03
Santiago Jimenez, Jr. - Accordion
Jerry Dale McFadden - Piano
Catherine Styron - Piano
Gary Bennett - Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals, Harmony Vocals
Shaw "Hawk Shaw" Wilson - Percussion, Drums, Harmony Vocals
Chuck Mead - Bass, Guitar (Electric), Vocals, Harmony Vocals
Don Herron - Guitar (Acoustic), Dobro, Fiddle, Mandolin, Cello, Guitar (Steel), Guitar (Electric Tenor)
Smilin' Jay McDowell - Bass (Upright)
21
What Was It You Wanted - Willie Nelson
Across The Borderline (1993)
I have two versions of this track: one from Across The Borderline (from Mahoney); the other from a
Tribute to Bob Dylan (from Steve Phillips). They sound pretty much the same, so I’m attributing the
track to what I believe to be the original source: Across The Borderline – which is a bit confusing
because Cooder has a track with the same title – two, actually. Anyway, this Willie Nelson track caught
my ear on first hearing. I compared it to Dylan’s version, and Willies was the clear winner – for us.
As a songwriter and a performer, Willie Nelson played a vital role in post-rock & roll country music.
Although he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s, Nelson spent the '60s writing songs that became
hits for stars like Ray Price ("Night Life"), Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Faron Young ("Hello Walls"), and Billy
Walker ("Funny How Time Slips Away") as well as releasing a series of records on Liberty and RCA that
earned him a small, but devoted, cult following. During the early '70s, Willie aligned himself with Waylon
Jennings and the burgeoning outlaw country movement which made him into a star in 1975. Following the
crossover success of that year's The Red Headed Stranger and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," Nelson
was a genuine star, as recognizable in pop circles as he was to the country audience; in addition to
recording, he also launched an acting career in the early '80s. Even when he was a star, Willie never
played it safe musically. Instead, he borrowed from a wide variety of styles, including traditional pop,
Western swing, jazz, traditional country, cowboy songs, honky tonk, rock & roll, folk, and the blues,
creating a distinctive, elastic hybrid. Nelson remained at the top of the country charts until the mid'80s, when his lifestyle - which had always been close to the outlaw clichés his music flirted with - began
to spiral out of control, culminating in an infamous battle with the IRS in the late '80s. During the '90s,
Nelson's sales never reached the heights that he experienced a decade earlier, but he remained a vital
icon in country music, having greatly influenced the new country, new traditionalist, and alternative
country movements of the '80s and '90s as well as leaving behind a legacy of classic songs and recordings.
Nelson began performing music as a child growing up in Abbott, TX. After his father died and his mother
ran away, Nelson and his sister Bobbie were raised by their grandparents, who encouraged both children
to play instruments. Willie picked up the guitar, and by the time he was seven, he was already writing
songs. Bobbie learned to play piano, eventually meeting - and later marrying - fiddler Bud Fletcher, who
invited both of the siblings to join his band. Nelson had already played with Raychecks' Polka Band, but
with Fletcher, he acted as the group's frontman. Willie stayed with Fletcher throughout high school.
Upon his graduation, he joined the Air Force but had to leave shortly afterward, when he became plagued
by back problems. Following his disenrollment from the service, he began looking for full-time work. After
he worked several part-time jobs, he landed a job as a country DJ at Fort Worth's KCNC in 1954. Nelson
continued to sing in honky tonks as he worked as a DJ, deciding to make a stab at recording career by
1956. That year, he headed to Vancouver, WA, where he recorded Leon Payne's "Lumberjack." At that
time, Payne was a DJ and he plugged "Lumberjack" on the air, which eventually resulted in sales of 3,000 a respectable figure for an independent single, but not enough to gain much attention. For the next few
years, Willie continued to DJ and sing in clubs. During this time, he sold "Family Bible" to a guitar
instructor for 50 dollars, and when the song became a hit for Claude Gray in 1960, Nelson decided to
move to Nashville the following year to try his luck. Though his nasal voice and jazzy, off-center phrasing
didn't win him many friends - several demos were made and then rejected by various labels - his
songwriting ability didn't go unnoticed, and soon Hank Cochran helped Willie land a publishing contract at
Pamper Music. Ray Price, who co-owned Pamper Music, recorded Nelson's "Night Life" and invited him to
join his touring band, the Cherokee Cowboys, as a bassist.
Arriving at the beginning of 1961, Price's invitation began a watershed year for Nelson. Not only did he
play with Price - eventually taking members of the Cherokee Cowboys to form his own touring band - but
his songs also provided major hits for several other artists. Faron Young took "Hello Walls" to number
one for nine weeks, Billy Walker made "Funny How Time Slips Away" into a Top 40 country smash, and
Patsy Cline made "Crazy" into a Top Ten pop crossover hit. Earlier in the year, he signed a contract with
Liberty Records and began releasing a series of singles that were usually drenched in strings. "Willingly,"
a duet with his then-wife Shirley Collie, became a Top Ten hit for Nelson early in 1962, and it was
followed by another Top Ten single, "Touch Me," later that year. Both singles made it seem like Nelson
was primed to become a star, but his career stalled just as quickly as it had taken off, and he was soon
charting in the lower regions of the Top 40. Liberty closed its country division in 1964, the same year Roy
Orbison had a hit with "Pretty Paper."
When the Monument recordings failed to become hits, Nelson moved to RCA Records in 1965, the same
year he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Over the next seven years, Willie had a steady stream
of minor hits, highlighted by the number 13 hit "Bring Me Sunshine" in 1969. Toward the end of his stint
with RCA, he had grown frustrated with the label, who had continually tried to shoehorn him into the
heavily produced Nashville sound. By 1972, he wasn't even able to reach the country Top 40. Discouraged
by his lack of success, Nelson decided to retire from country music, moving back to Austin, TX, after a
brief and disastrous sojourn into pig farming. Once he arrived in Austin, Nelson realized that many young
rock fans were listening to country music along with the traditional honky tonk audience. Spotting an
opportunity, Willie began performing again, scrapping his pop-oriented Nashville sound and image for a
rock- and folk-influenced redneck outlaw image. Soon, he earned a contract with Atlantic Records.
Shotgun Willie (1973), Nelson's first album for Atlantic, was evidence of the shift of his musical style,
and although it initially didn't sell well, it earned good reviews and cultivated a dedicated cult following.
By the fall of 1973, his version of Bob Wills' "Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)" had cracked the
country Top 40. The following year, he delivered the concept album Phases and Stages, which increased
his following even more with the hit singles "Bloody Mary Morning" and "After the Fire Is Gone." But the
real commercial breakthrough didn't arrive until 1975, when he severed ties with Atlantic and signed to
Columbia Records, who gave him complete creative control of his records. Willie's first album for
Columbia, The Red Headed Stranger, was a spare concept album about a preacher, featuring only his
guitar and his sister's piano. The label was reluctant to release with such stark arrangements, but they
relented and it became a huge hit, thanks to Nelson's understated cover of Roy Acuff's "Blue Eyes
Crying in the Rain."
Following the breakthrough success of The Red Headed Stranger as well as Waylon Jennings'
simultaneous success, outlaw country - so named because it worked outside of the confines of the
Nashville industry - became a sensation, and RCA compiled the various-artists album Wanted: The
Outlaws!, using material Nelson, Jennings, Tompall Glaser, and Jessi Colter had previously recorded for
the label. The compilation boasted a number one single in the form of the newly recorded Jennings and
Nelson duet "Good Hearted Woman," which was also named the Country Music Association's single of the
year. For the next five years, Nelson consistently charted on both the country and pop charts, with
"Remember Me," "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time," and "Uncloudy Day" becoming Top Ten
country singles in 1976; "I Love You a Thousand Ways" and the Mary Kay Place duet "Something to Brag
About" were Top Ten country singles the following year.
Nelson enjoyed his most successful year to date in 1978, as he charted with two very dissimilar albums.
Waylon and Willie, his first duet album with Jennings, was a major success early in the year, spawning the
signature song "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." Later in the year, he released
Stardust, a string-augmented collection of pop standards produced by Booker T. Jones. Most observers
believed that the unconventional album would derail Nelson's career, but it unexpectedly became one of
the most successful records in his catalog, spending almost ten years in the country charts and eventually
selling over four million copies. After the success of Stardust, Willie branched out into film, appearing in
the Robert Redford movie The Electric Horseman in 1979 and starring in Honeysuckle Rose the following
year. The latter spawned the hit "On the Road Again," which became another one of Nelson's signature
songs.
Willie continued to have hits throughout the early '80s, when he had a major crossover success in 1982
with a cover of Elvis Presley's hit "Always on My Mind." The single spent two weeks at number one and
crossed over to number five on the pop charts, sending the album of the same name to number two on the
pop charts as well as quadruple-platinum status. Over the next two years, he had hit duet albums with
Merle Haggard (1983's Poncho & Lefty) and Jennings (1982's WWII and 1983's Take It to the Limit),
while "To All the Girls I've Loved Before," a duet with Latin pop star Julio Iglesias, became another
major crossover success in 1984, peaking at number five on the pop charts and number one on the singles
chart.
Following a string of number one singles in early 1985, including "Highwayman," the first single from the
Highwaymen, a supergroup he formed with Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, Nelson's
popularity gradually began to erode. A new generation of artists had captured the attention of the
country audience, which began to drastically cut into his own audience. For the remainder of the decade,
he recorded less frequently and remained on the road; he also continued to do charity work, most notably
Farm Aid, an annual concert that he founded in 1985 designed to provide aid to ailing farmers. While he
career was declining, an old demon began to creep up on Willie - the IRS. In November of 1990, he was
given a bill for 16.7 million dollars in back taxes. During the following year, almost all of his assets including several houses, studios, farms, and various properties - were taken away, and to help pay his bill,
he released the double-album The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?. Originally released as two
separate albums, the records were marketed through television commercials, and all the profits were
directed to the IRS. By 1993 - the year he turned 60 - his debts had been paid off, and he relaunched
his recording career with Across the Borderline, an ambitious album produced by Don Was and featuring
cameos by Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Sinead O'Connor, David Crosby, and Kris Kristofferson.
The record received strong reviews and became his first solo album to appear in the pop charts since
1985.
After the release of Across the Borderline, Nelson continued to work steadily, releasing at least one
album a year and touring constantly. In 1993, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, but by
that time, he had already become a living legend for all country music fans across the world. Signing to
Island for 1996's Spirit, he resurfaced two years later with the critically acclaimed Teatro, produced by
Daniel Lanois. Nelson followed up that success with the instrumental-oriented Night and Day a year later;
Me and the Drummer and Milk Cow Blues followed in 2000. The Rainbow Connection, which featured an
eclectic selection of old-time country favorites, appeared in spring 2001.
Across the Borderline
Artist Willie Nelson
Album Title Across the Borderline
Date of Release 1993 (release)
AMG Rating 4 *
Genre Country
If ever there were doubts about the breadth and depth of Willie Nelson's ambitions and talents, Across
the Borderline should put them to rest. Nelson surveys roughly two decades of popular music, tackling
songs by writers as varied as Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Willie Dixon, and Lyle Lovett. That Nelson covers
such a variety shouldn't really come as such a surprise: the songs on Across the Borderline simply
consolidate the range of material he's covered previously, from the Bing Crosby-inspired pop standards
albums Stardust to the folk-rock of "City of New Orleans." Nelson, along with producer Don Was,
assembled a stellar cast of musicians for the album. Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, and Mose Allison all guest,
and a rock band is Nelson's backup unit for most of the tracks. Of course, country music is at the center
of Nelson's vast repertoire, and the two Lyle Lovett compositions he chose to cover for Across the
Borderline are wonderfully done, with the accompaniment of Nelson's regular backing band. There are
also Nelson's own songs, both new ("Valentine") and old (the rather gloomy "She's Not for You"), as well
as a writing and singing collaboration with Bob Dylan ("Heartland"). For all the strengths of the other 13
tracks, the most stunning song on the album is Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up." The parts originally sung
by Kate Bush on Gabriel's So album are sung here by Sinead O'Connor, a brilliant piece of casting. Nelson
and O'Connor's rendition is quietly triumphant and every bit as powerful as Gabriel and Bush's original.
The result of the apparently scattershot song selection and numerous musicians is an album that
possesses a quiet majesty, further establishing Willie Nelson as one of the most important writers and
interpreters of the last half of the 20th century. - Martin Monkman
1. American Tune (Simon) - 4:20
2. Getting over You (Bruton) - 4:04
3. Most Unoriginal Sin (Hiatt) - 4:49
4. Don't Give Up performed by Nelson / Sinead OConnor - 6:59
5. Heartland (Dylan/Nelson) - 4:34
6. Across the Borderline (Cooder/Dickinson/Hiatt) - 4:40
7. Graceland (Simon) - 4:45
8. Farther Down the Line (Lovett) - 3:14
9. Valentine (Nelson) - 3:38
10. What Was It You Wanted (Dylan) - 5:24
11. I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I... (Dixon) - 3:09
12. If I Were the Man You Wanted (Lovett) - 3:38
13. She's Not for You (Nelson) - 3:15
14. Still Is Still Moving to Me (Nelson) - 3:30
22
Close Your Eyes (Shut Yo' Mouth) - Slam Stewart & Major Holley
Shut Yo' Mouth! (1981)
Slam Stewart is a musical god – well, at least a ‘superior’ musician as stated in the bio. I got this CD from
Milne and every track is worthy of note. I especially like the ‘Tomorrow’ track – the gruffness of Stewart
& Holley doing a song usually sung by a little girl is just too good. I believe Major Holley is a disciple of
Stewart’s. His vocalization is a little higher and his voice is clearly more youthful than Slam’s. Anyway,
this is one of Slam’s signature pieces and it tends to show up frequently on best-of-traditional-jazz
compilations. Hope it hasn’t been too overused.
Slam Stewart
Slam Stewart was a superior swing-oriented bassist whose ability to bow the bass and hum an octave
apart made him famous in the jazz world. He had thought of the idea while studying at Boston
Conservatory when he heard Ray Perry singing along with his violin. In 1936, Stewart was with Peanuts
Holland's group and the following year he started playing regularly with guitarist/singer/comedian Slim
Gaillard in a group logically dubbed "Slim and Slam." "Flat Foot Floogie" became a huge hit and kept the
group working through the early '40s. After leaving Gaillard, Stewart was in great demand. He played
with Art Tatum's trio, was featured on records with the Benny Goodman Sextet, Red Norvo (a famous
session with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie), and Lester Young (a classic rendition of "Sometimes I'm
Happy"), and led his own group which for a period featured the up-and-coming pianist Erroll Garner.
Stewart performed a couple of stunning duets with tenor saxophonist Don Byas at a 1945 Town Hall
concert and later worked with Billy Taylor, Roy Eldridge, Bucky Pizzarelli, the Newport All-Stars, and a
countless number of other jazz greats. He even recorded two albums with bassist Major Holley (who also
bowed and hummed but in unison). Up until the end, Slam Stewart occupied his own unique niche in jazz.
Major Holley
Major Holley was best known for using the Slam Stewart trademark of singing along with his bowed bass
solos, although he sang in unison while Stewart vocalized an octave above his bass. Otherwise, Major
Holley (known as "Mule") was a fine supportive bassist. He originally played violin and tuba, but switched
to bass while playing in Navy bands. He played with Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald in
the mid- to late '40s, and in 1950 did a series of duet recordings (never reissued) with Oscar Peterson.
After a period working for the BBC in England, he toured with Woody Herman (1958), played with the Al
Cohn-Zoot Sims quintet (1959-1960), and worked in the studios, in addition to appearing on some jazz
recordings and having a stint with Duke Ellington (1964). Major Holley taught at Berklee (1967-1970),
freelanced in New York, and recorded with everyone from Roy Eldridge and the Lee Konitz Nonet, to
Quincy Jones; he even met up on two records with Slam Stewart.
Shut Yo' Mouth!
Rating 3 Stars
Release Date Dec 6, 1981
Time 39:19
Briefly available as an LP on the PM label shortly before it went out of business, this fun date featuring
two bassists best known for singing and playing bass simultaneously, Slam Stewart an octave above and
Major Holley in unison with his bass. Both their humor and great playing are readily apparent throughout
this release, especially on classics such as "Misty" and "Undecided." The big surprise is "Tomorrow," the
obnoxious song from the musical Annie; its amusing facelift makes it tolerable at last. The title track is a
takeoff on "Close Your Eyes." Versatile pianist Dick Hyman and solid drummer Oliver Jackson round out
this enjoyable session, one of the last jazz albums on Delos before they returned to classical music
exclusively.
1 Tomorrow
Charnin, Strause 3:00
2 Close Your Eyes (Shut Yo' Mouth) Petkere 3:30
3 Undecided
Robin, Shavers
3:35
4 Misty Burke, Garner
5:00
5 I Love You
Archer, Thompson 6:07
6 Would You Like to Take a Walk?
Dixon, Rose, Warren
4:45
7 Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away) Barris, Koehler, Moll
8 Side by Side
Woods 5:29
9 My Blue Heaven Donaldson, Whiting
4:09
23
3:44
Girls Lie Too - Terri Clark
Greatest Hits (04)
Got this from Mare – along with a bunch of other really good stuff. Her comment about not including
enough female artists has sensitized me to that issue, so I have a special ‘Female’ category that I try to
populate with Naweedna Possibles during the year. This is one of ‘em. The very first time I heard this, I
knew it was Naweedna possible, so it went directly into the ‘Female’ folder. A good companion to this
piece would be ‘ESPN’ by David Buskin & Robin Batteau and from PHC wherein they sing “ESPN, you’re the
reason I’m single again.” Yeah, I think they would go well together, don’t you?
Like her contemporary, Shania Twain, Terri Clark came storming out of Canada and captured the
attention of America's country music industry in the mid-'90s. Where Twain incorporated more rock &
roll into her music, Clark pretty much stayed close to her country roots, even if those roots were more
new country than hardcore honky tonk.
Raised in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, Terri Clark (born in Montreal, Canada, August 5, 1968) was born
into a musical family. Her grandparents, Ray and Betty Gauthier, were country stars in Canada, opening
shows for stars like George Jones and Little Jimmy Dickens, while her mother sang folk songs in local
coffeehouses. As a child, Terri listened to her grandparents' country records and taught herself how to
play guitar. Throughout her adolescence, Clark sang, played, and listened to country music; she was
particularly inspired by female artists like Reba McEntire, the Judds, and Linda Ronstadt.
Following her high-school graduation in 1987, she moved to Nashville. Upon her arrival, she wandered into
Tootsie's Orchid Lounge unannounced and asked if she could sing. Surprisingly, she impressed the
management and landed a job as the club's house singer. Though her initial arrival in Nashville was
successful, it took Clark quite a long time to work her way into the actual industry. For the next seven
years, she sang at clubs and worked odd jobs, all the while trying to land a record contract. During this
time, she met and married a fiddler named Ted Stevenson.
In 1994, she landed an audition for Mercury Records. After seeing a live performance by Clark, the
label's president signed the singer. Clark's eponymous debut album was released in the summer of 1995.
Terri Clark was a hit upon its release, spawning the Top Ten hits "Better Things to Do," "When Boy Meets
Girl," and "If I Were You," as well as going gold. Clark supported the album with a tour opening for
George Strait.
In 1996, she was nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award, as well as the Academy
of Country Music Awards' Best New Female Vocalist. She won a bevy of Canadian Country Music Awards
in 1996, including Album of the Year and Single of the Year; she was also named the Top New Female
Country Artist of 1995 by Billboard magazine. Her second album, Just the Same, was released in the fall
of 1996, preceded by the hit single "Poor Poor Pitiful Me." How I Feel followed in 1998. Fearless brought
the country chart single "A Little Gasoline" in fall 2000, and Pain to Kill was released in 2003. Mercury
unleashed Clark's Greatest Hits 1994-2004 the next year, followed by Life Goes On in 2005.
Terri Clark
Greatest Hits 1994-2004
Rating 4 * checked
Release Date Jul 27, 2004
Recording Date Sep 26, 2003
Country
Canadian singer Terri Clark is often compared to Shania Twain mainly because the two are Canadian,
started around the same time, and began their careers in country music. But while Twain went on to uber
status with a mainstream merging of country and pop and rock, Clark slowly built her career on
Nashville's Music Row and its contemporary yet safe country sound. This collection featuring her better
moments starts with "Better Things to Do," a standard country-pop tune that has the singer opening up
vocally from the onset. The only thing that perhaps sets it apart is her ability to pull off the song
effortlessly, as if she was born to do these songs. "When Boy Meets Girl" isn't all that different,
although Clark carries it equally strong with the country-tinted Brooks & Dunn-like melody.
Unfortunately, some of the tunes that are radio-friendly aren't always the greatest. This is true of the
slower play-by-numbers country ballad "If I Were You" that is accented by the pedal steel guitar. But
this is followed by a terrific cover of the late Warren Zevon's "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" that suits her
Western Canadian twang to a tee. The ebb and flow of the album takes another downturn with the poppy,
up-tempo but rather bland "Emotional Girl," which sounds somewhat like a Carlene Carter B-side. Just
when you think it's heading downhill she dusts herself off with the tight and catchy "You're Easy on the
Eyes" and "I Wanna Do It All," both of which bring Mary Chapin Carpenter's early days to mind. This song
takes on a roots groove as does "Everytime I Cry" which is introduced with a mandolin. Clark's niche is
radio-friendly country music that never pushes the envelope judging by "I Just Wanna Be Mad" that falls
alongside Toby Keith's material. The collection concludes with a well-crafted "Girls Lie Too" and a live
version of "No Fear." It's the first of perhaps several good collections to come.
1 Better Things to Do Clark, Shapiro, Waters 3:08
2 When Boy Meets Girl Clark, Shapiro, Waters 3:02
3 If I Were You Clark 3:56
4 Poor, Poor Pitiful Me Zevon 3:11
5 Emotional Girl Bowles, Clark, Waters 3:09
6 Now That I Found You Begaud, Corish, Martin 3:39
7 You're Easy on the Eyes Clark, Shapiro, Waters 3:33
8 Everytime I Cry Regan, Staley 3:48
9 A Little Gasoline Miller, Rogers 3:09
10 I Just Wanna Be Mad Lovelace, Miller 3:26
11 I Wanna Do It All Giles, Godard, Nichols 2:54
12 Girls Lie Too Harrington, Lovelace ... 3:35
13 One of the Guys Clark, Godard, Nichols 3:13
14 No Fear [live] Carpenter, Clark 4:08
24
Goodnight Sweetheart, It's Time To Go - The Spaniels
1954-55 TL Rock'n'Roll Era (1954-55)
When I read that James “Pookie” Hudson of The Spaniels died, I thought, “The Spaniels, they sound
familiar. What did they do? Oh yeah, Goodnight Sweetheart – that would make a great ending piece for
Naweedna 2007.” So it was done and here it is. I still like the Doo Wop sound and can easily visualize a
group of young men huddled around a streetlight doing their acappella stuff – accompanied only by finger
snapping and occasional hambone slapping. This track comes from the Time-Life Rock’n’Roll Era series CDs
we bought way back when CDs were new. It’s a great collection for those of us who grew up with such
music. The T-L Blues series is good, too – but I only got one CD from that group (hint, hint).
The Spaniels
The Spaniels are best known for their massive 1954 hit, "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight" (number
five R&B). They were the first successful Midwestern R&B group, coming from Gary, IN, by way of
Chicago. Lead vocalist James "Pookie" Hudson was a graceful lead singer who influenced many who came
after him, most notably Aaron Neville. They were also one of the first (if not the first) R&B groups to
perform with the lead singer on one microphone and the rest of the group sharing another, and initiated a
trend toward using tap dance routines in live shows. Their often a cappella recordings showcase the purity
of a sound and style uniquely their own. It was also the Spaniels who partially brought about the
formation of one of R&B's legendary labels, Vee-Jay, which became one of the most successful blackowned record companies in the country.
The story of how the Spaniels came to prominence begins in late 1952, when lead singer Hudson was
convinced by four of his Roosevelt High classmates -- Ernest Warren (first tenor), Opal Courtney, Jr.
(baritone), Willie Jackson (second tenor), and Gerald Gregory (bass) to join them for a school talent
show. They had debuted as Pookie Hudson and the Hudsonaires for the Christmas show and fared so well
they decided to continue. Not wanting to join the bird group club (Orioles, Ravens, etc.), they decided on
the name Spaniels.
The Rock 'N' Roll Era: 1954-1955
Release Date 1988
Label Time Life Music
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Rock Around the Clock
Haley, Bill & The Comets
Honey Love
Clyde McPhatter 2:27
Sincerely
Moonglows
3:13
Speedo Cadillacs 2:21
Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
2:31
Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight
Spaniels 2:46
Shake, Rattle and Roll
Joe Turner
3:02
The Great Pretender
Platters 2:41
I Hear You Knocking
Smiley Lewis
2:47
Work With Me Annie
Midnighters
2:51
Earth Angel
Penguins 3:00
Maybellene
Chuck Berry
2:22
2:13
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Tutti-Frutti
Little Richard
2:26
Tweedle Dee
LaVern Baker
3:10
Ain't That a Shame
Fats Domino
Hearts of Stone Charms 2:36
Pledging My Love Johnny Ace
2:31
Sh-Boom Chords 2:26
I Got a Woman
Ray Charles
2:55
Oh What a Dream Ruth Brown
2:55
The Wallflower
Etta James
3:02
Gee
Crows
2:11
2:28