54 Musicians remember Levon Helm

Link to another tribute to Levon Helm from Paste Magazine.  Rest In Peace, Levon.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/04/54-musicians-remember-levon-helm.html

record collection revisited: Willie Nelson "Stardust"

Happy Birthday to the "redheaded stranger", Willie Nelson.  Willie was and still is a HUGE influence on me as far as finding an interest and respect for country music and ultimately, in picking up a guitar for the first time.  I saw him live in concert a decade ago at Northrop Auditorium, saw him playing his beat up old Martin guitar "Trigger" with the giant hole in the side, and said, "hey, I want to do that!"

When Willie Nelson recorded his now legendary album of standards of American music, "Stardust" in 1978, the executives at his record company (Columbia/CBS), thought he was crazy for undertaking such a project.  The result was a record that stayed on the country charts solidly for a decade.  The other significance of writing this blog today is that April 30th marks the birthday of the singer known as "the red headed stranger" after a title of a previous album he worked on in 1975.  "Stardust" is a rarity in terms of the country music realm because it's Nelson's take on standards.  It has less twang and more of a polished sound.

Nelson's full band was in on this one (the core group that performed with him for many, many years) including his sister Bobbie Nelson on piano, Jody Payne on guitar, Dan "Bee" Spears on bass, Mickey Raphael on harmonica, and two drummers (Paul English and Rex Ludwick).  Chris Etheridge also played additional bass.  For this record, Booker T. Jones was also brought in to play Hammond B3 organ in what was a rarity for country music back then but is commonplace today as some country artists in the modern era strive to add rock and roll and bluesy sounds to their music.

These were interpretations of these classic songs that Nelson likely grew up listening to and he didn't really care what CBS Records had to say about him recording these songs.  Nelson has always done things his own way.  What this album did do though was to broaden a listening audience to these classic staples of American music and that's why it still has an appeal nearly 35 years after it has been recorded.  Here's the track listing for Stardust.

The particular version I have in my collection contains two previously unreleased tracks which are also standards.  These are "Scarlet Ribbons" and "I Can See Clearly Now".  They were not on the original record.  "Georgia On My Mind" and "Blue Skies" both went to #1 on the country singles chart.
This is THE album that made me a Willie Nelson fan and that personally made me a country music fan.  In all honesty, (and I seriously say this), if it hadn't been for this record, I probably wouldn't have touched country music as a genre with a ten foot pole.  

 Here's the track listing with credits to the songwriters.

"Stardust"

1. Stardust                                 (Hoagy Carmichael & Mitchell Parish)
2. Georgia On My Mind            (Hoagy Carmichael & Stuart Gorrell)
3. Blue Skies                             (Irving Berlin)
4. All of Me                               (Seymour Simons & Gerald Marks)
5. Unchained Melody                 (Alex North & Hy Zarett)
6. September Song                     (Kurt Weill & Maxwell Anderson)
7. On The Sunny Side of the Street (Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields)
8. Moonlight In Vermont                 (Karl Suessdorf & John Blackburn)
9. Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Duke Ellington & Bob Russell)
10. Someone To Watch Over Me      (George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin)
11. Scarlet Ribbons                            (Evelyn Danzig & Jack Segal)
12. I Can See Clearly Now                (Johnny Nash)

Allman Brothers Band set lists Wanee Festival, Live Oak, Florida: April 20th & 21st, 2012

The Allman Brothers Band (along with several others) played two gigs during their Wanee music festival in Live Oak, Florida last Friday and Saturday night (April 20th and 21st).  Several guests sat in with the band for those shows once more.  Here are the set list details for both gigs.

4/20/12 set list

1. Don't Want You No More
2. It's Not My Cross To Bear
3. Midnight Rider
4. Blue Sky
5. Worried Down With The Blues
6. Egypt (instrumental, feat. Kofi Burbridge: B3 organ)
7. Stand Back (feat. Susan Tedeschi: vocals & Kofi Burbridge: B3 organ)
8. It Makes No Difference (The Band, cover, in honor of Levon Helm) (feat. Susan Tedeschi, Mike Mattison & Mark Rivers: vocals: the TTB Horns, Danny Louis: keys, Bob Weir: guitar & vocals), Danny Louis & Kofi Burbridge, keys)
9. Blind Willie McTell (Bob Dylan cover, feat. Danny Louis: keys)
10. The Weight (The Band, cover, in honor of Levon Helm) (feat. same guest lineup as above, minus Kofi Burbridge on keys, plus Danny Louis on keys)
11. It Makes No Difference (reprise: w/same band lineup as above)
12. Dreams
13. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (feat. TTB Horns & Kofi Burbridge: B3 organ)

Encore:

14. No One To Run With

Stage left keyboards were played by Bruce Katz, keyboardist w/the Gregg Allman Band.
TTB horn section = Kebbi Williams: saxophone, Rashawn Ross: trumpet, & Lemar Guillary: trombone

4/21/12 set list

1. Jessica
2. Come & Go Blues
3. I Walk on Gilded Splinters (feat. Luther Dickinson: guitar) *Luther Dickinson is guitarist for the North Mississippi Allstars & The Black Crowes
4. The Sky Is Crying
5. Hot 'Lanta
6. All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover)
7. Hot 'Lanta (feat. Reggie Pittman: trumpet) *this is a medley
8. Rocking Horse
9. She Caught The Katy (Taj Mahal cover), (feat. Jimmy Hall: harmonica & vocals)
10. Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell cover), (feat. Jimmy Hall: harmonica & vocals)
11. Into The Mystic (Van Morrison cover) (feat. Reggie Pittman: trumpet, & Chris Jensen: saxophone)
12. You Don't Love Me (feat. Junior Mack: guitar & vocals, & James van de Bogert: drums)
13. Moutain Jam >
14. Smokestack Lightning (Howlin' Wolf cover) >
15. Mountain Jam (reprise) (feat. Jimmy Hall: harmonica, & Danny Louis: keys)

Encore:

16. Needle & The Damage Done (Neil Young cover) (Gregg, Warren & Derek)
17. Southbound (feat. Roosevelt Collier: pedal steel guitar, Jackie Green: guitar, Danny Louis: keys, Jimmy Hall: harmonica, & James van de Bogert: drums)

*Bruce Katz: stage left keys for entire show except "Mountain Jam"
*Kofi Burbridge: B3 between song eight, Rocking Horse & song thirteen, Mountain Jam)

In memoriam: Levon Helm

American music has lost another hero.  Levon Helm, the drummer for The Band, died last week after battling cancer for the last few years.  Helm was a fixture in The Band which started out as Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks back in 1959.  After separating from Hawkins, Helm, along with guitarist Robbie Robertson, organist & saxophonist Garth Hudson, pianist Richard Manuel and bassist Rick Danko became, The Band.  They recorded a number of albums through their eight year career between 1968 and 1976.  

The Band reunited sans Robertson in the 1990s with Helm, Hudson, Danko, and guitarist Jim Weider.  They released an album titled “Jericho” in 1994.  For a few more years, this lineup carried on.  In later years, Helm started his own band, the Levon Helm Band with several members including vocalists and a full horn section.  Core members were Helm on drums, Larry Campbell on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo, a rotation for second guitarist between Jim Weider and Jimmy Vivino, Brian Mitchell on keyboards, Teresa Williams on guitar and vocals, Amy Helm on vocals, and Byron Isaacs on bass.  The band also included blues legend Little Sammy Davis on harmonica.

Helm played many old blues, country and roots music standards, plus songs from his time with The Band including “Ophelia”, “Chest Fever”, and, “The Weight”.  Special guest artists from many genres would sit in with his band either on tour or for his legendary ramble concerts at his barn studio in Woodstock, New York.  Those shows took place regularly at the barn from 2007 right up until Helm’s passing.  Helm’s music blended so many great elements of every American genre from blues to jazz to country and rock and roll.

There were no barriers and the genres blended and cross pollinated well with The Band and Levon Helm’s own work.  He will be remembered for his singing (which in later years was weakened somewhat when helm dealt with and overcame throat cancer), his drumming, mandolin playing, and, songwriting.  His legacy as an ambassador of American roots music has indeed firmly been cemented.

Rest In Peace, Levon Helm.

Grinderswitch "Ashes and Stone"

Another Grinderswitch track for your enjoyment, from their last original album, or what could very well have been the last one.  The album (from 1981) is "Have Band Will Travel" and the tune is titled "Ashes and Stone".

record collection revisited: Grinderswitch "Red Wing"

Grinderswitch (as documented) released the bulk of their recordings between 1974 and 1981.  The particular focus of this entry is on "Red Wing", their record from 1977.  These guys were a good time R&B boogie band, and "Red Wing" proves it on all the tracks which clearly had blues, R&B and even some country influence.  ...And, the soaring guitars of Dru Lombar and Larry Howard are, well, icing on the cake.  It's a shame Grinderswitch never got the recognition of some of the more mainstream boogie rock bands like the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the the Charlie Daniels Band.  These guys definitely had the talent and the musicianship.  One listen to the "Red Wing" record, cements that. 

All the tracks are worth a listen.  But, the notables definitely are the title cut "Red Wing" that opens the album, (a song about a beautiful woman that is somehow symbolized by a flying bird).  The poignant line in the song is "I wish that red wing and my baby would come home."  There are other boogie love songs that take up the middle of the record such as a joyful romp called "You And Me" that has a definite pop vibe, "That Special Woman" (a bluesier piece), "Taste of Love" (which has a haunting, minor key melody and resembles a Flamenco tune in it's rhythms), a rollicking road anthem simply titled "This Road" (which was featured a few postings ago), and reminds me a lot of a Marshall Tucker Band song, and a cool, slide guitar drenched cover of Harlan Howard's song "Watermelon Time In Georgia", that I first heard on a Lefty Frizzell recording.

Grinderswitch has a lot of cool arrangements on this record and each song offers a different taste of what they were all about.  The ending track, "Faster and Faster" is somewhat trite.  But, it shows in song, a woman's love for her man, slipping away quickly, and sounds like a cross between polka and Western swing.  I do enjoy Dru Lombar's voice and guitar work on this record particularly, and co-lead guitarist Larry Howard, along with keyboardist Paul Hornsby (who was a Capricorn Records producer, and also worked with the Marshall Tucker Band), Joe Dan Petty on bass (who was also a roadie for the Allman Brothers), and drummer, Rick Burnett.

Ironically, on their first album "Honest To Goodness" (some of the tracks from that record have been posted here), Dickey Betts and Jaimoe from the Allman Brothers, were guest artists.  Grinderswitch is a neat and unique band.  It's just that not many of their recordings exist on CD or perhaps even on vinyl anymore and are quite rare.  So, they are fortuitous finds indeed.  Later on, Dru Lombar had another band (as highlighted in that Swampland.com profile), called Dr. Hector & The Groove Injectors). 

Here's the full track listing for "Red Wing"

1. Redwing
2. You And Me
3. That Special Woman
4. Taste of Love
5. This Road
6. Wings of an Angel
7. Watermelon Time In Georgia
8. I Bought All The Lies
9. Faster and Faster

In memoriam: Andrew Love

Andrew Love, (saxophonist for The Memphis Horns, along with trombonist Wayne Jackson), has passed away.  Rest In Peace.  Here is the article from the Memphis Commercial Appeal.  The Memphis Horns were recognized back in February with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.  Here's the link to the article.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/apr/13/memphis-horns-saxophonist-andrew-love-dies/

Grinderswitch "This Road"

Check out another Grinderswitch track.  I am LOVING this band.  The tune is called "This Road" off the "Red Wing" album circa 1977.  A review of that record will be coming to this blog soon.  Stay tuned.  When listening to the tune, check out another awesome guitar duo in Dru Lombar and fellow axe man, Larry Howard, plus, keyboardist Paul Hornsby.  Hornsby was a session player for Capricorn Records in Macon, Georgia.  He also played with the Marshall Tucker Band and produced a number of albums for the Charlie Daniels Band.

 

Dru Lombar profile/interview

Here is a link from the great southern music website Swampland.com to an interview with Grinderswitch lead singer and guitarist, Dru Lombar.  The interview was done in 2001.  Lombar passed away in 2005 of course.  Check it out.  Finding out more and more interesting things about Grinderswitch all the time.  Stay tuned for more songs from them, and a review of their "Red Wing" album, coming soon.

http://swampland.com/articles/view/title:dru_lombar

Willie Nelson "Hello Walls", "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Crazy", "Night Life" medley

Before Willie Nelson became the outspoken, outlaw character singer-songwriter that he's known as, he was a successful writer who just couldn't hit the big time in Nashville because his sound was not at all what the country music establishment wanted to hear.  His phrasing is a lot like a jazz singer and Nashville just didn't seem ready at the time for someone who was so far outside the mold of what country music could or should be.  Nonetheless, here's a good performance of his hits medley circa 1965.  All these songs have now become standards of American music and Willie Nelson is indeed an American treasure.

bringing the funk

Checking out more funk music.  LOVE the stuff.  Something about having a good groove on a song that just makes it better.  Any band can play funk as long as you've got the 2/4 groove going on.  But, some do it better than others.  Here's an example.  This is The Brothers Johnson performing "Get Da Funk Outta Ma Face".

Allman Brothers Band "Come & Go Blues" (2000s version)

Here's the modern take on "Come & Go Blues" feat. Warren Haynes & Derek Trucks on guitars.  Pay attention in the video to the section between 2:26 and 3:14 when Gregg's B3 and the guitars kick in right together.  That part is INSANE!

Allman Brothers Band "Come & Go Blues"

OK, OK.  I confess.  There are some individual songs that just floor me over and over again no matter how many times I hear them.  The Allman Brothers "Come & Go Blues" is no exception.  I heard them play that tune live in 2007 at the Minnesota State Fair just out of the blue.  I was a bit superstitious, crossing my fingers it would be in the set, and... it was!  There's something about the melodic structure of this song and how Gregg Allman on B3 and the guitar section (Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks in the modern lineup, and, Dickey Betts, along with Chuck Leavell's piano on the original cut), meld together. 

It's just a killer tune in all aspects.  So, I am going to post the two versions.  First up, original cut circa 1973 on "Brothers & Sisters"

Bobby Bland "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City"

This is one of my favorite songs.  I first heard it done by The Allman Brothers, even though Bobby "Blue" Bland is the original artist who performed it.  The song was written by Michael Price and Dan Walsh.  Many rock and R&B bands have covered the tune, including Paul Carrack, country singer Crystal Gayle, and reggae singer Al Brown, among others.  Here is the Bobby Bland version.  Check it out.

In memoriam: Dr. Jim Marshall

Jim Marshall, the inventor of the 100 watt electric guitar amplifier, passed away yesterday at age 88.  Marshall's amps are instantly recognizable for their large sound and high volume capability that took rock and roll into the stratosphere during the 1960s and '70s.  Many bands I have come to know and love like Eric Clapton, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and The Allman Brothers, relied upon Marshall's amps for their sound.  There have been other companies to make and market successfully, 100 watt guitar amps.  But none of them have the aura of a Marshall. 

Some bands used a wall of them which in reality, were unloaded speaker cabinets.  Marshall is quoted as saying it would be a dumb idea to use more than three amplifiers and cabinets at a time.  I recall seeing in a documentary film about the band Cream (Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker), Marshall had said about his amps, "if an artist wears earplugs while they play, they will not go deaf.  I have listened to the amplification for a long time and it has not done more damage to my ears than my years of drumming did."

Marshall was also a drummer.  Now, the loudness of these amps is debatable.  As a guitarist, I would play through a Marshall if I ever have the chance to, albeit, while making absolutely sure I play through said amp at a comfortable volume setting, depending on the size of the room.  Nonetheless, the sound of these amps equate to what rock and roll is all about in all it's power, majesty and fury.  

Here (for those who may not be familiar), is a picture of a typical Marshall amplifier with the 4x12 cabinet, and, the 100 watt amp "head" which contains the mechanical inner workings of the amp (i.e. it's power vacuum tubes and circuitry).  Check out the image.  Dr. Jim Marshall, may you Rest In Peace.