Archival experts The Numero Group have announced the label’s long-rumored and much anticipated Hüsker Dü box set. Scheduled for early November release, Savage Young Dü is a three-CD or four-LP set packaged in either tip-on jackets or die-cut sleeves and boxed in a linen-finished slipcase and including a 108pp or 144pp hardcover book with 40 previously unpublished photographs, a flyerography, a sessionography by Paul Hilcoff, and a 12,000 word essay by writer Erin Osmon.
Savage Young Dü features 69 songs, 47 of them previously unreleased, all of them remastered from the original analog tapes and including Everything Falls Apart, the band’s first studio album, and an alternative version of their live debut, Land Speed Record. Savage Young Dü is priced at $40 plus shipping for the three-CD version and $50 plus shipping for the CD box including a limited-edition 7” EP titled Extra Circus that is only available for mail order customers. Featuring five previously-unreleased songs from the January 1983 Metal Circus sessions, Extra Circus is packaged in a full-color sleeve designed by band member Grant Hart. The four-LP vinyl version of the box set has already sold out but, as of this writing, the four-LP box with the 7” EP is still available and priced at $95 plus shipping from the label.
Hüsker Dü was formed in 1979 in St. Paul, Minnesota by singer/guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer/singer Grant Hart. Initially known as a hardcore punk band, Hüsker Dü’s music eventually evolved into a more melodic yet aggressive sound that was fast and loud but offered intelligent, erudite lyrics courtesy of Mould and Hart. The band signed with Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn’s SST Records, releasing three groundbreaking albums for the label, including the classic 1984 double-LP set Zen Arcade. Subsequently signing with Warner Brothers Records, the band released a pair of critically-acclaimed studio albums in 1985 and 1986 before the band’s break-up; a live album featuring 1987 band performances was later released in 1994.
Hüsker Dü would become one of the most influential bands to emerge from the punk underground of the ‘80s, inspiring bands like Metallica, the Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana, among many others. Savage Young Dü offers an in-depth look into the band’s early, formative years, collecting original soundboard tapes, demos, and session masters recorded by Hüsker Dü between 1979 and 1983. Reasonably-priced even by the exaggerated standards of archive box sets, and a must-have for any Hüsker Dü fan’s collection, Savage Young Dü is available from The Numero Group website – get ‘em before they go!
Jesse Ed Davis was an extraordinarily-talented guitarist who parlayed his skills into a career as an in-demand session player and touring musician. Originally part of country legend Conway Twitty’s band, Davis switched gears when he became an integral part of root ‘n’ blues legend Taj Mahal’s band, playing on Mahal’s first three albums. Introduced to session work by Leon Russell in the late ‘60s, Davis would lend his talents to recordings by John Lee Hooker, Willie Nelson, Gene Clark (The Byrds), and many others.
Lesser-known – and tragically so – was Davis’s short-lived career as a solo artist. Launching his solo career with a self-titled release on the Atlantic Records subsidiary Atco, the guitarist’s debut featured high-profile musical guests like Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Gram Parsons, and Alan White (Yes). Two subsequent critically-acclaimed albums would quickly follow, 1972’s Ululu (also released by Atco Records) and 1973’s Keep Me Comin’ (recorded for CBS). None of his albums sold too well in spite of their inspired blend of rock, blues, jazz, and country sounds and Davis’s incredible guitarplay. Davis would retreat back into session work, performing on albums like Leonard Cohen’s Death of a Ladies’ Man and John Lennon’s Walls and Bridges as well as on albums by artists like Harry Nilsson, George Harrison, Donovan, and Tracy Nelson (Mother Earth).
Jesse Ed Davis’s Red Dirt Boogie
Real Gone Music’s Red Dirt Boogie: The Atco Recordings 1970-1972 offers every song from Davis’s two Atco albums, seventeen tunes in all, with the exception of his take on the traditional country jaunt “Oh, Susannah.” In its place, the label added a pair of studio outtakes in the form of the previously-unreleased basic track for “Rock N Roll Gypsies” and an unreleased instrumental, “Kiowa Teepee (Washita Love Child).” As the disc is squeezed for space at roughly 75 minutes, I personally might have dropped the former track and kept the latter and run both of Davis’s Atco albums in full in their original sequencing. For whatever reason, producers Gordon Anderson, Pat Thomas, and Mike Thomas chose to shake things up, and songs from both albums are intertwined, eliminating any sense of artistic evolution.
These minor cavils aside, Red Dirt Boogie is an impressive collection overall, offering stellar musicianship and an inspired mix of original songs, traditional material, and well-chosen covers. Davis was the consummate root ‘n’ blues artist, equally conversant in several musical styles and their history, and his knowledge and skills show in the grooves. While “Every Night Is Saturday Night” is a lyrical trifle, an up-tempo party song with blasts of manic horns and a foot-shuffling rhythm, it does display some fierce guitar licks. “Washita Love Child” is much better, combining Davis’s Kiowa-Comanche Indian heritage with Okie soul and a gospel fervor with low-slung vocals, a driving rhythm, angelic backing vocals, and what sounds like a guitar battle between Davis and guest Eric Clapton.
Rock N Roll Gypsies
Davis’s original “Reno Street Incident” displays the guitarist’s not-inconsiderable skills as a songwriter, the lyrics showing a fine eye for detail, Davis’s laid-back, nuanced vocals telling a sordid tale while the band rambles on, the languid vibe punctured time-to-time by Davis’s razor-sharp fretwork. A version of George Harrison’s “Sue Me, Sue You Blues” was released before Harrison would record the song, Davis backed by a band that included Dr. John on keyboards and Stax Records legend Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass. Davis’s take on the song is more honky-tonk flavored than George’s, with twangy instrumentation and stinging guitarplay. A cover of Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love” strikes a low-down soulful groove that offers, perhaps, one of Davis’s best vocal performances, backed by gorgeous backing harmonies.
The title track from his sophomore album, Davis’s “Ululu” opens with shimmering guitar lines and ethereal vox before settling into a mid-tempo hippie ballad with a hearty bass line and Jim Keltner’s strong tho’ subtle percussion. A cover of Leon Russell’s “Alcatraz” offers a funky rhythmic backdrop for Davis’s passionate vocals, which are almost smothered by the mix, while a cover of Merle Haggard’s “White Line Fever” twangs-and-bangs with the best of them, Davis’s vocals more spoken than song, and accompanied by shards of nicely manic guitar.
“Golden Sun Goddess,” from Davis’s debut, is a delightfully wan slab of shiny cosmic pop with otherworldly harmonies, a subtle underlying bass line (Billy Rich?), and elegant guitar. The mid-tempo “Rock N Roll Gypsies” is a vintage sing-a-long with gang vocals, fiery guitar licks, and heavy drumbeats (Chuck Blackwell?) while “Kiowa Teepee (Washita Love Child)” is a tribute to Davis’s Native American ancestry, beginning with an Indian chant and rhythms before bursting into an infectious instrumental jam based on the melody of “Washita Love Child.” It’s a stunning performance and a great way to close out Red Dirt Boogie.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Tragically, by the end of the ‘70s, Davis’s personal demons would catch up with him and the guitarist spent much of the decade of the ‘80s battling addiction to drugs and alcohol before his death by overdose at the too-young age of 43 years old. Davis had resurfaced during the mid-‘80s, playing with Native American poet and activist John Trudell as part of the Graffiti Band, but his meager back catalog of solo work has gone in-and-out-of-print frequently through the years and has been hard to find by any measure.
Real Gone’s Red Dirt Boogie collection does a fine job of rescuing this underrated talent from obscurity, preserving Davis’s solo work and placing it in context with informative liner notes by noted writer and producer Pat Thomas. Davis wasn’t the most accomplished singer, his voice sounding like a cross between Leon Russell and Randy Newman – except grittier – but he did a fine job in conveying heart and soul in his material. While he also wasn’t the most gifted songwriter, Davis’s lyrics nevertheless told heartfelt stories forged from his personal experience. Where Jesse Ed really shined was with his phenomenal six-string skills, which provided energy and life to every performance. Davis is an artist worth rediscovery, Red Dirt Boogie an invaluable collection of ‘70s-era roots ‘n’ blues music. Grade: B (Real Gone Music, released June 9, 2017)
It should come as no surprise that we’re rather fond of singer/songwriter Peter Case ‘round the That Devil Music.com world HQ. The artist’s storied career has taken him from punk pioneers the Nerves to power-pop trailblazers the Plimsouls to a solo career featuring Case’s whip-smart songwriting and folk-rock sound that earned the artist a Grammy® nomination for his self-titled 1986 solo debut album.
As such, we’re always happy to hear of some new music from Case even if, in this case, it’s old music in a form that we haven’t yet heard. On October 27th, 2017 Omnivore Recordings will release Case’s On the Way Downtown: Recorded Live on FolkScene, the album featuring previously-unreleased performances from nearly 20 years ago.
Documenting a pair of live radio performances on the popular KPFK-FM syndicated radio program FolkScene, the eighteen-track album features nine songs from Case’s 1998 album Full Service, No Waiting, a full-band performance that includes such great tunes as “Spell of Wheels,” “See Through Eyes,” and “On the Way Downtown.” The second half of the new album features material from Case’s 2000 album Flying Saucer Blues as well as songs from earlier releases, material like “Paradise Etc,” “Walking Home Late,” and “Blue Distance” performed by Case and violinist David Perales. Both acoustic sets have remained unheard since their original radio broadcasts.
In the liner notes to the album, Case recalls “It felt like such an honor to play Howard and Roz Larman’s FolkScene. All the great people were on it, a Who’s Who of folk music. I’d loved the program for years. I listened in every week. Roz spun the coolest records, Howard deftly handled the interviews, and a key member of the team was Peter Cutler, their sound engineer. He tuned in great sound for each session. Live six-piece band with an hour soundcheck? No problem for Cutler.” On the Way Downtown should provide an appropriate companion to Case’s critically-acclaimed 2015 studio album for Omnivore, Hwy 62. Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Peter Case’s On the Way Downtown
Rolling Stone magazine and other outlets have reported the death of Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker at the age of 67 years after an undisclosed illness. The talented musician and songwriter will forever be yoked to Steely Dan and his longtime creative partner, Donald Fagen, the pair creating a back catalog of innovative music that was meager in numbers but over-sized in influence and creativity.
Becker and Fagen met at Bard College in upstate New York in the late ‘60s, forming a band that included comedian and actor Chevy Chase on drums. Becker left school before getting a degree, moving to Brooklyn, New York with Fagen where they worked towards a career as songwriters, which included a gig backing the pop band Jay & the Americans. They moved to Los Angeles in the early ‘70s and scored a gig as staff songwriters for ABC Dunhill Records and artists like the Grass Roots and Three Dog Night. When their material proved to be too complex for radio-friendly pop artists, they were encouraged to form their own band.
Steely Dan Years
As a result, Fagen and Becker put together Steely Dan with singer David Palmer, guitarists Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Denny Dias, and drummer Jim Hodder (with Becker playing bass). This is the band that recorded Steely Dan’s 1972 debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, which scored hits right out of the gate with “Do It Again” and “Reelin’ In The Years,” the album peaking at #17 on the charts. Although the following year’s Countdown to Ecstasy album brought the band universal critical acclaim, representing a huge step forward in terms of creativity, it was also a step backwards commercially, peaking at #35 on the albums chart and its two singles failing to reach the Top 40. Palmer had left the band and Fagen took over vocals, but neither he nor Becker were happy with the recording of the album, which was done in between tour dates.
Pretzel Logic, the band’s third album, fared much better due to the chart success of the single “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which peaked at #4 and pushed the album itself to #8 on the charts on its way to eventual Platinum™ sales status. After touring for several years, Fagen and Becker decided to stop touring and become a studio band, using session players to fill the roles of the former band members. Katy Lied, the band’s 1975 release, would be the first to feature Becker’s guitar skills; the pair were assisted in the studio by talented session musicians like guitarists Larry Carlton and Rick Derringer, and drummer Hal Blaine.
The Royal Scam, released in 1976, followed a similar musical blueprint (using many of the same musicians), and both albums would chart in the Top 20, in spite of the meager chart showing of their single releases, the band targeting AOR FM radio instead. Steely Dan would hit the big-time with their 1977 album Aja, which featured a jazzier sound, yielding Top 20 charting hit singles in “Peg” and the Classic Rock radio staple “Deacon Blues” while earning the band its first Platinum™ album (awarded before Pretzel Logic). Working with talents like guitarists Carlton, Lee Ritenour, and Jay Graydon; drummers Steve Gadd, Bernard Purdie, and Jim Keltner; and saxophonists Tom Scott and Wayne Shorter, around whose solo the title song was constructed, the album was a pioneering work of jazz-rock fusion.
The partnership between Becker and Fagen was strained by this point, partially due to Becker’s increased drug use. The pair took two years to record the 1980 release Gaucho, the two men obsessing over the sound of each performance, using better than 40 different musicians in the studio and spending far above the label’s studio budget. There was additional stress created by a fight between the band, MCA Records, and Warner Brothers Records over the rights to the album (their former label, ABC Dunhill, had been bought by MCA but the duo wanted to sign with Warner). In spite of its troubled creation, Gaucho would enjoy Platinum™ sales status, peaking at #9 on the charts on the strength of the Top Ten hit “Hey Nineteen.”
Walter Becker (left) and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan
Becker & Fagen Reunite
That would be it for Steely Dan for better than a decade, Fagen breaking up the band and Becker moving his family to Hawaii where he’d kick his addictions and slide into production work, most notably two albums for the British pop group China Crisis, which was heavily influenced by Steely Dan, and an album for singer Rickie Lee Jones. Becker and Fagen reunited to perform on a 1986 album by former model Rosie Vela, which led to a handful of songwriting sessions. Becker produced Fagen’s second solo album, Kamakiriad, in 1993 and the two would tour in support of the recording. A year later, MCA Records released the Citizen Steely Dan box set, and Becker released his solo debut album, 11 Tracks of Whack, with Fagen co-producing.
The two reassembled Steely Dan and toured in support of the box set, subsequently releasing a 1995 live CD Alive In America. The pair continued to tour, returning to the studio to record Two Against Nature, the band’s first album in nearly 20 years. Released in 2000, the Two Against Nature won the pair four Grammy® Awards while returning the band to their Platinum™ sales status. Steely Dan was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and released the critically-acclaimed Everything Must Go album in 2003. Becker released his second solo album, Circus Money, in 2008.
Becker and Fagen continued to tour as Steely Dan through the present day, Becker’s illness forcing him to miss the band’s recent east and west coast concert dates. In a statement about his longtime partner’s death, Fagen says “Walter Becker was my friend, my writing partner and my bandmate since we met as students at Bard College in 1967. He was smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter. He was cynical about human nature, including his own, and hysterically funny.”
Writer Roger Friedman has a great interview with Becker and Fagen from 2000 on his Showbiz411 website. Check it out!
Here’s a ‘gimme’ for your Christmas list…on September 22nd, 2017 Craft Recordings will release The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976), a four-disc, career-spanning retrospective of the great Isaac Hayes’ storied career. The set is packaged inside a 60-page hardcover book that includes a slew of rare photos and memorabilia, as well as an essay by one of my favorite music historians, Robert Gordon (no relation) that includes an interview with Stax Records founder Jim Stewart and contributions from Floyd Newman (member of original Stax session band the Mar-Keys) and Sam Moore (one half of soul legends Sam & Dave), among others. The set also includes a replica 7” vinyl single of “Laura, We're On Our Last Go-Round,” Hayes first commercially-released recording.
Hayes’ story is that of the American dream. Born in rural Covington, Tennessee near Memphis Hayes was the child of sharecroppers and he grew up working in the fields. He began singing in his local church at the age of five and would later teach himself to play piano and organ, flute, and saxophone. Hayes began his career by playing clubs and juke-joints at night while he worked at a meat-packing plant in Memphis by day. Hayes began his recording career as a session player for Stax Records, later hooking up with songwriting partner David Porter to write hit songs for artists like Johnnie Taylor, Carla Thomas and, most notably, Sam & Dave. Hayes and Porter also produced several Stax artists, the pair helping to define the “Memphis soul” sound.
Hayes released his debut album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, in 1968; when the jazz-flecked improvisational collection failed to chart, he radically changed musical directions, re-writing the book of soul in the process. Working with producer Marvell Thomas (brother of Carla, son of Memphis music legend Rufus Thomas) and backed by the Bar-Kays (guitarist Michael Toles, bassist James Alexander, and drummer Willie Hall), Hayes recorded one of the most influential albums of all time with 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul.
Featuring just four extended songs (two per side), including a twelve-minute cover of the Bacharach/David tune “Walk On By” and an eighteen-minute cover of Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” Hot Buttered Soul broke all the rules for “radio-friendly” content while still peaking at #8 on the pop charts (#1 R&B), Hayes contributing to the ushering in of AOR FM radio. Several hit albums would follow, including the equally-innovative and influential Top Ten 1971 release Black Moses and that year’s chart-topping soundtrack to the hit movie Shaft.
Isaac Hayes photo courtesy Stax Archives
Each disc of Hayes’ The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) documents a different facet of the artist’s lengthy career. The first disc documents his early work as a songwriter and producer for Stax, including songs by Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Mabel John, and even country legend Charlie Rich. The second disc showcases Hayes’ work as a solo artist with singles recorded for Stax subsidiaries Volt and Enterprise Records, including an early single as “Sir Isaac and the Do-Dads (“Blue Groove” b/w “The Big Dipper”). Disc two includes such Hayes’ classics as “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” “The Look of Love,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” and the smash hit “Theme From Shaft” (so ubiquitous in the early ‘70s that my high school had a “Shaft Gang”).
Disc three of The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) offers examples of Hayes’ uncanny ability to cover a song and make it entirely his own, including “Walk On By,” “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” and “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The third disc also includes six live tracks recorded at the Operation PUSH Black Expo in November 1972, half of which have never been previously released, including Hayes’ takes on “The Ten Commandments of Love” and “Stormy Monday.”
The fourth and final disc in the set is titled “Jam Master,” the disc featuring Hayes jamming in the studio on seven songs, five previously-unreleased including covers of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” the Shaft soundtrack outtake “Black Militant’s Place,” and a 33-minute psychedelic jam on “Do Your Thing” with the Bar-Kays. The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) is being released as part of Stax Records’ 60th anniversary celebration, the set the effort of a year’s work and coming hot-on-the-heels of the recent digital release of Hayes’ Enterprise albums, which were re-mastered from the original analog tapes by engineer Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters. Vinyl reissues cut from these new masters – including Hot Buttered Soul and Black Moses – will be released later this year.
There can be no debating that Isaac Hayes was one of the most influential and innovative artists in the history of soul music. Hayes’ songs have been sampled over 1,000 times by hip hop artists like 2Pac, Kanye West, Jay Z, and the Wu Tang Clan as well as by rockers like Portishead and Massive Attack. Hayes influence reached beyond the R&B chart to impact artists as diverse as Prince and Henry Rollins of Black Flag, among others. The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) is a landmark collection of great music created by a legendary artist.
For no good reason, a lot of people just don’t like Joe Bonamassa; for many good reasons, there are more people that do like the popular blues-rock guitarist. Haters gonna hate, I suppose, ‘cause there’s really quite a lot about Bonamassa’s career to admire. Young Joey B. was mentored by the late, great Danny Gatton and opened for the legendary B.B. King when he was only 13 years old. After a short-lived mid-‘90s stint with the blues-rock ‘supergroup’ Bloodline with the sons of Miles Davis, Berry Oakley (Allman Brothers Band), and Robby Krieger (The Doors), Bonamassa launched his career as a solo artist with the underrated major label album A New Day Yesterday in 2000.
In the seventeen years since, Bonamassa has established an extremely successful cottage industry that includes his own independent record label (J&R Adventures), which has released roughly three-dozen Bonamassa live and studio albums and concert videos as well as collaborations with singer Beth Hart and L.A. friends Rock Candy Funk Party. He’s part of the classic rock supergroup Black Country Communion with Glenn Hughes, Derek Sherinian, and Jason Bonham, and he’s played on stage with giants like Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and Warren Haynes, among others – none of which are likely to share the spotlight with just any old scrub. Bonamassa has lent his talents to recordings by a dozen or more artists, and he founded the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation to fund scholarships and music education resources to young musicians-to-be.
Joe Bonamassa’s Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening
Yeah, Bonamassa is merchandised to the hilt, and any old cheesy product you can dream up, you can probably buy it with JB’s logo or cartoon visage inked on the surface somewhere. But Joey B. also delivers value for his fans’ money with deluxe album and video packages, and he and his long-time manager Roy Weisman (along with producer Kevin Shirley, the third part of this mega-million trio) don’t skimp on filming concerts for video release, ponying up the bucks to provide the best multi-camera product possible. I suspect that it’s his ubiquitous success that has so many people denying Bonamassa the respect he so richly deserves, success that he’s earned onstage a couple hundred nights a year for a couple of decades now.
Bonamassa is neither a great singer nor songwriter, though he’s taken huge steps in improving his skills in both areas and, truthfully, he’s better at both than many of his contemporaries. He’s a traditionally-styled blues guitarist with great chops who typically stays in the groove but every now and then takes an inspired, imaginative flight of instrumental fancy. More to the point, Bonamassa is an adventurer, a capital ‘A’ Artist who continues to grow, evolve, and challenge himself in ways that few blues or rock musicians attempt these days. Case in point, Bonamassa’s recently-released Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening set, two discs capturing a sublime performance at yet another historic venue that JB can cross off his bucket list (along with Royal Albert Hall, the Beacon Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, and the Vienna Opera House).
Driving Towards the Daylight
It’s not the first time that the guitarist has waxed acoustic (there are at least a half-dozen other albums in Bonamassa’s rapidly-growing catalog that have been created sans electricity), nor is it the first time he’s taken to a legendary stage. It’s his efforts to re-contextualize his songs, to place them in a different light that is so admirable from an artistic perspective. More than merely performing his trademark electric blues with a beat-up old Martin guitar, Bonamassa re-imagines the material, sometimes in vastly different ways. To join him on the Carnegie Hall stage, the guitarist enlisted a multi-racial, multi-ethnic group of talented musicians like cellist Tina Guo (China), percussionist Hossam Ramzy (Egypt), and singers Gary Pinto, Juanita Tippins, and Mahalia Barnes (Australia) alongside longtime musical foils like pianist Reese Wynans and drummer Anton Fig along with multi-instrumentalist Eric Bazilian (The Hooters).
Although Bonamassa is center-stage here, he frequently shares the spotlight in service of the performance, especially with Bazilian’s nimble mandolin and Guo, who often looks like a woman possessed with her furious style of play. By fleshing out his original songs with unusual acoustic instrumentation alongside his nuanced fretwork, Bonamassa alchemically transforms songs like “This Train” – from his 2015 album Blues of Desperation – into entirely new works. With Wynans’ piano intro nicking a few licks from an old Jethro Tull song, “This Train” crystalizes into a country-flavored rustic rave-up with Guo’s cello sounding like a fiddle, Wynans’ honky-tonk piano-pounding accompanied by a choogling rhythm on top of which Bonamassa adds a bit of chicken pickin’ and the background singers sound like a church choir.
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
Joe Bonamassa photo by Robert Knight, Jr.
The magic is everywhere in these grooves – “Black Lung Heartache,” a bluesy dirge from 2011’s Dust Bowl album – is reimagined as a fierce, Delta blues death letter with exotic instrumental flourishes. “Driving Towards the Daylight,” from his 2012 album of the same name, is made even more wistful courtesy of Guo’s mournful cello and Bonamassa’s anguished vocal performance while “Mountain Time,” from way back on JB’s 2001 sophomore album So, It’s Like That, is afforded a lush, beautiful performance that showcases the various instrumentalists’ immense talents. There are only three cover tunes among the fifteen tracks on Live At Carnegie Hall, among them the Depression-era country ramble “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?,” which offers a blues vibe but is delivered with gospel fervor, bolstered by soaring solos from Mahalia Barnes, Juanita Tippins, and Gary Pinto, three very fine vocalists, indeed.
The Black Country Communion tune “Song of Yesterday,” off the band’s 2010 self-titled debut, is shed of its classic rock bombast but made all the more powerful by the song’s sparse arrangement, which increases the ambient claustrophobia and allows the backing harmonies to shine above Guo’s melancholy cello and Bonamassa’s darkly elegant fretwork. A cover of the late Leon Russell’s classic “Hummingbird” benefits from Wynans’ skilled piano-play and while Bonamassa’s vox will never be mistaken for Russell’s soulful grittiness, he acquits himself well, providing an emotional foundation for the instrumentalists to build on. Better yet is the album-closing cover of Bette Midler’s hit “The Rose,” which provides a showcase for Bonamassa’s underrated vocals alongside Wynans’ lovely piano accompaniment with crescendos of gorgeous instrumentation and Barnes’ soul-drenched backing vocals.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Joe Bonamassa has built a large (and still-growing) worldwide audience precisely because of artistic gambles like Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening. It takes an artist willing to subsume their ego and share the spotlight with equally-talented instrumentalists to make great music, and in an effort to satisfy his wandering muse, Bonamassa is willing to risk alienating his fans to continue challenging himself by exploring different facets of his art. That so many people come along for the ride is a testament not only to Bonamassa’s skills but also to the honesty and reverence with which his music is imbued.
Inspired by guitarists like Eric Clapton and Rory Gallagher, Joey B. never strays far from the blues-rock sounds he grew up with. But with each new album and every fresh challenge he submits himself to; Joe Bonamassa not only expands his own musical palette but also quietly broadens the definition of blues music unlike all but a handful of his contemporaries. Love him or hate him, Joey B. is the stone cold real deal. Grade: A+ (J&R Adventures, released June 23, 2017)
Excitable Press and Rev. Gordon are happy to announce the publication of the first book in what will be an ongoing series of material from the good Reverend’s files. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume One: Southern Rockers is a budget-priced collection of ten artist interviews with the ‘90s generation of Southern rockers like Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites), the Cactus Brothers, Warren Haynes, Brent Best (Slobberbone), Kevn Kinney (Drivin’ ‘n’ Cryin’), Widespread Panic, the Kentucky Headhunters, Webb Wilder, and Jason Ringenberg and Warner Hodges as well as old school influence Charlie Daniels.
The “Reverend of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Rev. Keith A. Gordon has been writing
about music for 45+ years. A former contributor to the All Music Guide
books and website, and the former Blues Expert for About.com, Rev.
Gordon has written or edited nine previous music-related books,
including The Other Side of Nashville and Scorched Earth: A Jason &
the Scorchers Scrapbook.
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives, Volume One: Southern Rockers is a 54pp 5.5” x 8.5” paperback with B&W photos, priced at $5.99 retail with a $2.99 eBook version available with the same interviews. Get your copy through the handy Amazon links below:
The New Rhythm & Blues Quartet – better known to fans and friends alike as ‘NRBQ’ – enjoyed a banner year in 2016. Celebrating an amazing five decades of great music, Omnivore Recordings released the critically-acclaimed High Noon: A 50-Year History of NRBQ, a five-disc career-spanning box set that collected 106 of the band’s best and best-loved songs that helped introduce the ‘Q to a brand new audience.
The band has lost a few souls along the road over the past fifty years, most recently former member Bobby Lloyd Hicks, who passed away earlier this year. NRBQ keeps choogling along, tho’, the current line-up of founder Terry Adams, guitarist Scott Ligon, bassist Casey McDonough, and drummer John Perrin touring continuously and bringing the band’s unique blend of rock, pop, jazz, and blues to the audiences worldwide.
Never a band to rest on its considerable laurels, on October 20th, 2017 Omnivore Recordings will release Happy Talk, a new five-song EP by the fab foursome. Recorded at Harmonium Studio in Haydenville, Massachusetts Happy Talk features two new original songs along with three covers, including a spontaneous take on Roy Orbison’s classic “Only the Lonely” and the title track, taken from the 1949 Rogers & Hammerstein musical South Pacific.
Says Terry Adams in a press release for the EP, “I’ve been crazy about the song ‘Happy Talk’ since I was a kid; I bought every version I could find and still do. I’ve always wanted to record it. To get it right, you must realize that it’s in its own place that's entirely separate from any song ever written.” Our friends over at Blurt magazine posted a preview of the EP with the Adams’ song “Head On A Post.” Check it out, then get over to Amazon.com and order a copy of NRBQ’s Happy Talk!
Best-known as a longtime buddy of both Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt, “Southside” Johnny Lyon and the Asbury Jukes enjoyed a couple of minor hits in the late 1970s and early ‘80s before sinking below the pop culture radar. It hasn’t stopped the crew from cranking out new music, however, and save for a few years during the 1990s sitting on the sidelines in Nashville (recharging his batteries), Southside and his gang of rhythm and blues true believers have continued to deliver Memphis soul, Chicago blues, and old-school rock ‘n’ roll with the fervor of a traveling R&B revue, the band just as likely to kick up some dust with a vintage Willie Dixon number as they are to belt out a custom-fit Springsteen song.
Exhibit A for the defense is this nifty lil’ two-disc import set Cadillac Jacks Number One Son, brought to our attention by our friends at Secret Records in the U.K. and containing a red-hot 22-song performance from a sold-out November 2002 show at The Opera House in Newcastle upon Tyne in jolly ole England. Originally released on DVD back in the early-oughts, as well as on CD as From Southside to Tyneside four years ago, its subsequent re-birth on compact disc is a boon for we original Jukes fanatics, and if you’ve ever loved Southside Johnny’s soulful howl of a voice, you’re going to want to beg, borrow, or steal a copy of Cadillac Jacks Number One Son for yourself. It has just about everything you could ask for from Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes on a live disc, an exciting mix of old and new, rhythm and blues, and all the blue-eyed soul your hungry ears can handle.
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes' Cadillac Jacks Number One Son
Cadillac Jacks Number One Son finds the band performing with a renewed vigor thanks to the addition of longtime Jersey cohort Bobby Bandiera on guitar and keyboardist Jeff Kazee. The set includes a handful of tunes from the band’s then-current release, 2000’s Messin’ With The Blues, Lyon’s furthest sojourn onto blues turf on record, and songs like the horn-driven big-band rave-up “Baby Don’t Lie” or the Albert King doppelganger “Living With The Blues” (which offers up some incredible Southside vox and meaty Bandiera solos reminiscent of you-know-who) are barely-controlled wildfires. A cover of Tom Waits’ “Gin Soaked Boy” is cranked-up-and-tight like a Little Walter joint, with greasy git licks from Bobby B and flaming harp tones from Lyon’s capable hands.
The performance doesn’t eschew the old crowd favorites though, and several of the best and brightest from the Jukes’ 1970s-era releases shine famously in this new light. The Little Steven-penned “This Time Baby’s Gone For Good” (from 1978’s Hearts of Stone) is a lush heartbreaker worthy of Otis Redding while the bittersweet “Some Things Just Don’t Change” (from 1977’s This Time It’s For Real) is simply, eternally divine. Southside has probably performed the title track to his 1976 debut, “I Don’t Want To Go Home,” literally thousands of times, but he refuses to phone it in, imbuing the song with the same lonesome heartache that he did some 25 years earlier, while the romance-gone-bad finality of “Hearts of Stone” will induce tears from all but the most emotionally-choked listener. Van Zandt’s blissfully wonderful “All I Needed Was You” (from 1991’s comeback LP Better Days) is reminiscent of everything you ever loved about 1950s-and-60s-era rock ‘n’ soul music, while the band’s lively cover of the Willie Dixon-penned, Sonny Boy Williamson gem “Help Me” is a slice of blues heaven.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Altogether, getting a promotional copy of Cadillac Jacks Number One Son in my mailbox was like getting an early Christmas present...it’s just that damn good! If you love rhythm and blues and want to hear it from one of the funkiest, tightest, blue-eyed soul bands that’s ever been, you owe it to yourself to track down Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes’ overlooked but perfectly-cooked Cadillac Jacks Number One Son and have your bad self a house party! Grade: A (Secret Records U.K., released September 13, 2012)
![Walter Becker photo by Arielinson (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-FSXvKJv7a0EG4FgWBrPWLIY5jogh922YR7zAk7zhqNreD9ZjCHSBL51fmpXJmDDo9TN0q-eChEjReHQC8fNN8qMqVB0uc7GA-XbSBsl6GqSShDm3ZIibHjdFna8Qc7zCRwZNqFMdCc/s1600/Walter-Becker.jpg)
