Rickie Lee Jones - A Lucky Guy

From the jaunty tilt of her scarlet beret to her languid drawl, Rickie Lee Jones was the epitome of effortless cool in 1979. That winter, pop radio and the Billboard Top 100 was a hodgepodge: Rod Stewart rasping about his sexy quotient, the sleek glitter-ball grooves of disco, and the softballs of what's now kindly dubbed yacht rock.
On the more outer fringes of fanzines, downtown record stores, and adventurous FM, the choices were boundless, whether the insolent thrash of punk, the jagged riffs of Talking Heads, or the Sugar Hill Gang's seeds of hip hop. But Jones's jazzy shuffles, embroidering blithe, bluesy and savage tales of streetwise souls, strolled into all worlds: mainstream radio latched onto "Chuck E.'s in Love" (written for her L.A. compadre, the singer and songwriter Chuck E. Weiss) while everyone else swiftly picked up on tracks like "Young Blood," "Weasel and the White Boys Cool," and "Danny's All-Star Joint." The album's wistful jewel, "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963," even showed up on the soundtrack to 1980's "Little Darlings." (And improbably, "Chuck E.'s in Love" even made an appearance in a 2014 blind audition for NBC's "The Voice.")
The songs on Rickie Lee Jones, which turns 40 at this writing, were not so much sung as viscerally lived by Jones. There's an vibrant immediacy to the record that still feels fresh today, whether the elegiac "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963" or the street hustle of "Young Blood," with its sassy after-midnight strut. The desolate "The Last Chance Texaco" is a hundred Edward Hopper paintings tucked inside of a single song; never has anything that lonely sounded more beautiful.
When Jones appeared on "Saturday Night Live" in April 1979, singing "Chuck E.'s in Love" and the rueful, hushed "Coolsville," the aftermath was as seismic as Kate Bush's ethereal performance on the show a handful of months earlier. Each musician cast light on her unicorn-like uniqueness, unapologetically nonconformist and forthright in their femininity.
Jones's wild child mystery was both her superpower and her fortress in her early twenties. She won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1980, the only woman nominated in an ocean of testosterone (her fellow nominees were Dire Straits, Robin Williams, the Knack, and the Blues Brothers), but she remained skittish with her sudden surge of fame. In early interviews, she longed for her artistic authenticity to be acknowledged — she was not a schtick, beret be damned — and sometimes expressed her frustration with other musicians, like Joni Mitchell, who she felt didn't understand jazz or rough living as Jones did. In retrospect, it's curious to read the mystified description of Jones offered by her ex-lover Tom Waits in Rolling Stone, published the summer her debut album blew up on the charts.
”I love her madly in my own way — you’ll gather that our relationship wasn’t exactly like Mike Todd and Elizabeth Taylor — but she scares me to death," said Waits to writer Timothy White. "She is much older than I am in terms of street wisdom; sometimes she seems as ancient as dirt, and yet other times she’s so like a little girl.”
When asked about Waits's quote years later by The Guardian, and why she might have scared her then-boyfriend, Jones replied, "Well gee, I dunno. I know he loved me… but I probably wasn't the safest of personalities, you know? And I was a pirate."
Perhaps Jones's feral instinct, that pirate's bravado, saved her, enabling her to survive that jarring trampoline bounce to fame. While girlish insouciance flashes through some of Jones's songs on 1981's Pirates, her astonishing second album, it's a brilliantly mature work for such a young musician. Jones and producers Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman (who had also produced her debut) knew they likely couldn't match the runaway success of Rickie Lee Jones, so they freely experimented, restructuring the shape, terrain, and space of her songs and the nuances of her labile voice. Jones's lyrics not only excavated the pain of her breakup with Waits, but immortalized drug buddies and bad habits, as she explained to NPR back in 2017. "It's not possible to walk the footsteps I walked back then," she said.
Pirates opens not with a punch, but a full-throated plea via three songs of infinite contemplation: "We Belong Together," "Living it Up," and "Skeletons." Jones revels in her vocal versatility, track by track, relishing the brash scatting of "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" and surrending to gossamer gasps that barely hold "The Returns" together, before the song dissipates like morning mist.
If anything, Rickie Lee Jones and Pirates gave Jones the determination to be herself, a proud originality that followed on releases like the winding romantic vexation of the 1984's The Magazine and the exquisite dreamscape Flying Cowboys, produced by Walter Becker, which followed five years later. Jones smartly gathered dozens of like-minded collaborators along the way, like her longtime friend Sal Bernardi, Leo Kottke, Syd Straw, Dr. John, David Hildago, Alison Krauss, and Lyle Lovett. (Lovett and Jones's 1992 duet, "North Dakota," from Lovett's Joshua Judges Ruth, might be one of the prettiest songs ever recorded).  From: https://wfuv.org/content/rickie-lee-jones-3

The Four Tops - Bernadette

Today’s classic Motown song of the day is “Bernadette” by the Four Tops. It was released in February of 1967 and peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. “Bernadette” was a ground-breaking tune, especially for bass players. Motown legend James Jamerson played bass and showed all the other players out there what could be done on the instrument. 
Here’s what I’m talking about, in the form of Jamerson’s isolated bass line for “Bernadette.” Just listen to how he’s all over the fretboard, It’s not a normal root and fifth bass part, it’s full of passing tones, chromatics, and much, much more. This one song redefined the role of the bass player in rock and soul music. Every single bass part you liked from 1967 on started with James Jamerson on “Bernadette.” It is thrilling. 
James Jamerson was the bass player for the Motown sound. He played on all the big hits from Smokey Robinson’s “Way Over There” in 1959 through Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” in 1971. In all that time he never changed his bass strings (La Bella heavy-gauge flatwound), saying that “The dirt keeps the funk.” He played all those notes with a single index finger he called “The Hook.” His main instrument was a Fender Precision Bass, although he sometimes played upright bass. 
“Bernadette” was written and produced by the legendary team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. It’s one of their more dramatic compositions, with the band dropping out for lead singer Levi Stubbs to passionately exclaim, for all to hear, “Bernadette!” The secret to a lot of Four Tops songs, especially during the H-D-H era, was to put the melody right at the top of Levi Stubbs’ range. That caused him to almost shout out the lines, making the vocals more powerful. As fellow Top Duke Fakir recalls:
“Eddie [Holland] realized that when Levi hit the top of his vocal range, it sounded like someone hurting, so he made him sing right up there. Levi complained, but we knew he loved it. Every time they thought he was at the top, he would reach a little further until you could hear the tears in his voice.” With Levi Stubbs and the Four Tops, it was all about power and raw emotion. Nobody did it better.  From: https://classicsongoftheday.com/bernadette-the-four-tops/

Mary Jane - Eve

Mary Jane were formed in late autumn 1993 from a group of Southampton University students, mostly novice musicians whose prior experience consisted of short-lived The Magic Cat and scattered other appearances. Despite several lineup changes the group managed a record deal with the German label September Gurls on the strength of demos consisting of the traditional tune "She Moved Thro' the Fair", "Lagan Love" and the original "The Snow", penned by a friend of the band.
Founding member Peter Miln's departure led to an unplanned hiatus for the band, during which Jo Quinn and Paul Alan Taylor recorded a studio album under the name Zaney Janey and briefly joined the heavy blues-rock band Ultimate Blue Day, though Mary Jane continued to perform live and eventually released the EP 'Isle of Wight' and LP 'The Gates of Silent Memory' with yet another lineup. Nick Davies from their Ultimate Blue Day period returned in time to record with the band on their third studio album 'Tacit'. Three more albums followed in the ensuing years with continued personnel changes including an ongoing relationship with Arlen vocalist Lucy Rutherford. The band's most recent releases include the studio album 'Eve' in 2010 and a compilation titled 'Brigit's Daughter', both on the Talking Elephants label. The band also continues to perform live, primarily around the Southampton and Portsmouth areas.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7245 

Figueroa - Weather Girl

Amon Tobin announced a new electronic folk project called Figueroa, and will be releasing his debut album, The World As We Know It on July 31. The album will be released via Nomark Records, and will showcase Tobin’s shift in sound. Tobin worked with producer Sylvia Massy, who’s portfolio includes Tool, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more, on the album. Tobin had been working on the project for the past 10 years, going through periods of self-isolation in the northern California woods. For nearly a decade, he left the tracks to sit, unsure of what he wanted to do with them. Tobin utilized his electronic production expertise for the album, creating sounds of a guitar without playing one. He changes from his typical electronic sound to a psycho folk one, describing each song to be an experiment. Tobin frequently changes monikers for several projects, releasing several songs as Cujo, which had been his original moniker, last year. As Tobin, he recently teamed up with Thys, a member of the electronic group Noisia, to release the Ghostcards EP. His last album, Long Stories, was released last October. Tobin, who hails from Brazil, began working with production and electronic music in the mid-’90s. Tobin has also produced music scores for various motion pictures, including The Italian Job and 21.  From: https://music.mxdwn.com/2020/06/25/news/amon-tobin-has-a-new-electronic-folk-project-called-figueroa-announces-debut-album-for-july-2020-release/

Josie & The Pussycats (Kay Hanley) - Money (That's What I Want)

Usually a film soundtrack becomes a big seller for one of two reasons: because the disc features music that played an indelible role in a hit movie, or because it includes one or more hit singles. But then there’s the curious case of Josie and the Pussycats, a 2001 film whose box office totaled just $14 million and which featured no charting songs, yet whose soundtrack reached Number 16 on the Billboard album chart and sold well over half a million copies. So, what could possibly explain this anomaly, this rupture in the cinema-soundtrack continuum? Was it baby-boomer nostalgia at the prospect of hearing once more the theme from the animated Josie series of the early 1970s? Doubt it. Did the film’s trailer for some reason send viewers running for the record store rather than the movie theater? Probably not.
Perhaps untold thousands of record buyers discovered it the same way I did — on a listening post at a Virgin Megastore — and wound up making an impulse purchase of an album whose accompanying film they had no intention of seeing. Whatever else may have been going on, it certainly didn’t hurt that the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack rocks. It features 11 girl-power-pop classics, leavened with a couple of nifty parodies of the boy-band dreck that dominated the Hot 100 at the time of the film’s release. It was pulled together by executive-producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, with songwriting contributions from Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz, the Gigolo Aunts’ Dave Gibbs and Steve Hurley, once-and-future-Go-Go Jane Wiedlin, and Fountains of Wayne/”That Thing You Do!” tunesmith Adam Schlesinger.
But the key to Josie‘s success was Josie herself. Kay Hanley brought to the fictional band’s lead vocals the same balls-out propulsiveness that she gave Letters to Cleo’s hits during the 1990s, and her fiery delivery of such terrific tunes as “3 Small Words” and Duritz’s “Spin Around” lend them a credibility that the film itself sorely lacks. Hanley also provided on-set guidance to the film’s Pussycats, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson and Tara Reid, leading a “band camp” with the actresses and working with Cook in front of a mirror to help her figure out how to lip-sync and mime playing a guitar. Ironically, Hanley was brought onto the project to sing not as Josie, but as the Pussycats. “They already had a Josie when I signed on,” she says, “but by the time I got to L.A. they had let the original Josie go — not because she sucked, but because she was too good. Kenny had chosen somebody from his world, and it was like a woman’s voice coming out of Rachael Leigh Cook’s mouth. It just didn’t work.
“That left me in a position to swoop in and get the gig, but it didn’t happen immediately. They kept me hanging around for awhile, and to make a long, protracted story short, I eventually heard they were flying in Tracy Bonham to sing Josie’s part. So I quit! But Kenny brought me back, and it wound up being a very good thing that he did.”
Hanley’s husband, former Cleo guitarist Michael Eisenstein, wound up playing guitars and bass on the soundtrack’s songs. Meanwhile, Edmonds was helping Hanley overcome her insecurities. “This was my first gun-for-hire gig,” she says, “and there was a lot of trepidation going in. I had never considered myself much of a singer — I saw myself as a one-trick pony, and not a very good one at that. So to be asked to work on a project like this, specifically because of my qualities as a singer, was definitely weird for me.
“The songs had been written already [though Hanley and Eisenstein contributed the track “Shapeshifter”], and fortunately most of them were in a style I was at least vaguely comfortable with. But when they played me the demo for the ballad “You Don’t See Me,’ I said, “I can’t sing that!’ Kenny said, “Yes, you can,’ and he worked really patiently to boost my confidence. To this day, I can’t listen to that track without thinking, Wow, I can’t believe I did that.”
While Hanley, Edmonds and their colleagues conspired to create a soundtrack that could stand impressively on its own merits, the Josie film itself was a mess. Its ingredients were enticing enough — a trio of teen-comedy starlets as the Pussycats, indie-cinema darlings Parker Posey and Alan Cumming as a pair of loony-yet-conniving record-label execs, and a nice comic subplot involving teen consumerism, subliminal messages and mind control. Unfortunately, director/screenwriters Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan (also the purveyors of Can’t Hardly Wait and Made of Honor, among other non-classics) mashed those elements together in a jumble of spark-free dialogue and over-the-top sets and costumes that proved difficult to watch. “It’s a shame, because Harry and Deborah were really funny,” Hanley recalls. “I thought it was going to be a great film, but it ended up not being executed as well as anybody had hoped.”
Still, the music did manage to escape the shadow of the film’s failure, and Hanley wound up parleying the soundtrack’s success into a post-Cleo career encompassing a wide range of Hollywood projects as well as a series of terrific solo albums. “That [Josie] record was such a lucky break, in a lot of ways,” she says. “It sold more than all the Cleo records combined, and the money allowed us to create some savings for the first time in our lives, allowed us to buy a house in Boston and then another one in L.A. when we decided to move here. When I really think back on it, we turned that Josie money into our life. I’ll always be grateful for that.”  From: https://popdose.com/jesus-of-cool-kay-hanley-the-pussycats/

 

Kay Hanley

Cambrian Explosion - The Sun

They call themselves the cosmic sorcerers from Portland. Nori Lockhart, Ben Dorothy, Derrin Twiford and Archie Heald together form Cambrian Explosion and play a cool mix of stoner and psychedelic rock. After they released a brilliant debut EP called The Sun in 2013, The Moon EP is the logical second, but with it’s almost 40 minutes in length, The Moon is closer to a full length than the The Sun. In between the two they did a split with the band Foxy Lemon which was released in February last year. With the release of The Moon living up to the high expectations after The Sun, the band has really turned some heads in their direction, including mine.
Nori Lockhart seems to be the creative mind behind this masterpiece. He is the lead guitarist and singer of the band, but also the artist behind the beautiful cover art. His heavy riffs create a solid stoner rock sound while the clean, psychedelic melodies create a sound that has its roots closer to the 60’s. His guitar playing, but also the vocals and the percussion have oriental influences which make their sound unique and interesting. A roaring organ adds the extra layer to really rock out in some of the heavier parts and complement the fuzzy guitar riffs. All merged together with a groovy bass, tight drums, droning effects and hums, and you have the beautiful mix of sounds which can be called The Moon.  From: https://morefuzz.net/reviews/cambrian-explosion-the-moon-ep/

 

Hair - The Original Broadway Cast - White Boys

The saga of Hair, the self-proclaimed American tribal rock love musical, began at Joe Papp’s Shakespeare Festival off Broadway, then moved to a midtown club called Cheetah for a short spell, before opening with great fanfare and fracas on April 29, 1968 at the Biltmore Theatre, in the middle of the theatre district. The work of two “hippies,” James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and a staid Canadian composer, Galt MacDermot, the loosely constructed show benefited from the psychedelic vision of director Tom O’Horgan who organized the action, centering around one of the tribe’s members, Claude, being drafted into the Army and going to Vietnam, and who turned the musical into a media event. The catchy rock score yielded several hit songs including “Aquarius,” “Good Morning, Starshine,” and “Let The Sunshine In,” among them, which further added to the popularity of the show and ensured it would have a long run of 1,742 performances.  From: https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/music/hair-original-broadway-cast-recording-1968/ 

BoDeans - Something's Telling Me

The BoDeans made their best album since their debut by returning to the basic folk and rock elements that had always worked best for them. On their most acoustic outing, they also rediscovered themselves as songwriters, pursuing subjects unusually close at hand, whether sex, suicide, or the frustrations of the music business. No matter what the topic, they sounded like they meant it, and for once their eclecticism worked for them, providing them with a bagful of styles to evoke without overdoing it. Go Slow Down may have been the statement of a band that had been through a lot and reached a point of emotional exhaustion, but the BoDeans used their experience to craft their most deeply felt and satisfying music. Two-and-a-half years after the album's release, its leadoff track, "Closer to Free," became a hit after being made the theme song of the Party of Five TV series.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/go-slow-down-mw0000105733#review 

Danefae - Eden

Danefae formed in 2019 out of a common love for rock with a heavier edge during the members' studies at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium, the music conservatory in Aalborg, Denmark. Growing up in small towns in peripheral areas of Denmark, they share a common cultural background relying on communal singing and praise of historical roots that can be traced in their music often evolving from phrases from old Danish singalongs, folk songs and hymns.
Main composer and vocalist Anne Olesen, drummer Jonas Agerskov, bassist Carl Emil Tofte Jensen and guitarist, co-composer Anders Mogensen comprise the four-piece band sometimes augmented by an outside pianist. Their debut album "Tro" released October 7, 2022 showcases Olesen's eerie singing in Danish intersected by Mogensen's Meshuggah-like guitar riffs (he admits being inspired by Dream Theater and Haken) accompanied by the often dark setting provided by Agerskov and Jensen. In addition to the metal influences, prog folk and drops of post-rock and neo-prog find their way into the music.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=12335

Blood, Sweat & Tears - I Can't Quit Her

“I Can’t Quit Her” is a song from the 1968 album Child Is Father To The Man, the debut of the “rock with horns” band Blood Sweat & Tears. After the band The Blues Project disbanded, Al Kooper had this idea that he got from Chicago’s The Buckinghams, who had made a name for themselves by adding horns to their songs, such as “Kind Of A Drag,” “Susan,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” and “Don’t You Care.” He got with guitarist Steve Katz, who had been with Al in The Blues Project, and drummer Bobby Colomby, and gradually built an octet with a four-member horn section. “I Can’t Quit Her”, released in May 1968, was written by Kooper and Irwin Levine, who also wrote “Knock Three Times” and “Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Ole Oak Tree” for Tony Orlando and Dawn.  From: https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com/2025/05/04/song-lyric-sunday-blood-sweat-tears-i-cant-quit-her/

Another fabulous Curtis Mayfield-influenced ballad from the pen of Al Kooper, "I Can't Quit Her" was the pilot single from Blood, Sweat & Tears in early 1968. Although not a huge chart success, the song encapsulated the band's melting pot of soul, jazz, and rock perfectly. Led by a sterling upright piano riff from Kooper, the song quickly mutates into a Stan Kenton-influenced big band showcase for the BS&T horn section, along with their powerful, hard rock leanings. The lyrics are certainly derived from an old blues ballad but are brought into the late-'60s sensibility with class and an artless style.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/song/i-cant-quit-her-mt0011277056#review  

Xenia Rubinos - Live on KEXP 2013 / Rosslyn Jazz Festival 2017

 Xenia Rubinos - Live on KEXP 2013

 

Xenia Rubinos - Rosslyn Jazz Festival 2017 - Part 1

 

 Xenia Rubinos - Rosslyn Jazz Festival 2017 - Part 2

 

When Xenia Rubinos took the stage at Brooklyn’s Public Records last week, she was moving through performance elements that only a true diva could channel. Arms flailing high above her frilly white dress, Rubinos sang “Ay Hombre,” a high drama anthem from her genre-defying album Una Rosa, with such conviction, it reverberated throughout the room. Minutes earlier, Puerto Rican drag queen Vena Cava had posed as Rubinos, performing her own rendition of songs from Una Rosa with a similarly urgent fervor. Cava, like the artifacts on display at the event, was among the album’s many inspirations.
A day before the show, Rubinos spoke about her recent obsession with high femme figures like drag queens and Ranchera singers. “Do you see that bra hanging up?” she asked over Zoom from her Brooklyn apartment, nodding to a white bra enshrined on the wall behind her. “I’m playing with a lot of movement and costume right now.” This sort of lively exploration is all over Una Rosa. A departure from Rubinos’ jazz and funk-infused albums, the album embeds ’90s R&B, bolero, and Caribbean rhythms like rumba and salsa within synth-heavy arrangements kissed with Auto-Tuned vocals, creating a richly textured soundscape. Whether it’s the rewriting of José Martí’s “Yo Soy Un Hombre Sincero” on “Who Shot Ya?” or the reimagining of traditional Puerto Rican Christmas songs on “Sacude,” these collage-like moments tell a multilayered tale about identity, memory, and loss.
Writing and recording Una Rosa was a kind of spiritual reckoning for Rubinos. After the critical success and touring behind 2016’s Black Terry Cat, many of the demons she had long pushed aside finally resurfaced. She was burned out and still processing her father’s passing, entering into what she called the deepest depression of her life. In early 2020, she reluctantly returned to the studio with her partner and longtime collaborator Marco Buccelli, disillusioned at first. “I was like a ghost, I was not there,” she said. That initial disconnection fueled her experimental side, and Rubinos eventually found her way back to music. “When I finished the takes on ‘Did My Best,’ the hairs on my arms and legs stood up,” she said. “And it just hit me like a flood, like, whoa! This is healing.”
Una Rosa was inspired initially by the images and sounds that have stuck with Rubinos throughout her life. She refers to her memory as a “magic box of things that changes throughout time,” and using these objects as a springboard, she mapped out the album’s narrative focus. The first half is rich and vibrant, while the latter is more introspective and lithe. Rubinos’ raw vocal cuts and sharp lyricism enliven characters like la diva tragica (tragic diva) on “Ay Hombre” and the working-class woman on “Working All the Time.” In this way, Una Rosa isn’t just about Rubinos but also strives to capture the complexities of the Latinx experience through a format reminiscent of a novela.  From: https://pitchfork.com/features/moodboard/xenia-rubinos-una-rosa-interview/

 

Salyu X Salyu - I Want to Talk to You

S(o)un(d)beams is one of the greatest albums you never heard from 2011: a collaboration between mainstream(ish) J-Pop singer Salyu – noted for her extraordinarily powerful upper register and her Quentin Tarantino connection – and avant-garde Japanese pop icon Cornelius. 
It’s a fun and imaginative investigation into the human voice: sampling, layering and looping Salyu’s voice and keyboards (mainly). At times, it recalls early 80s close harmony vocal trio The Roches, obscure noise minimalists Miu Mau and Ode To Joy (the Muppets version).
Surrounded by the colour and detritus of Goma’s Future Beauty Japanese fashion season, Cornelius (guitar) and Salyu (keys, vocals) – backed by a light jazz-pop troupe that includes Yumiko Ohno of Grand Royal act Buffalo Daughter – bring S(o)un(d)beams into glorious, vivid life.
It hardly matters half the crowd don’t understand the language: these songs are structured around vowel sounds and dissonant consonants, not words. The vocal acrobatica is skillfully played out in front of our disbelieving ears. The dissonance is offset by the beauty. The jazz licks merge with traditional Japanese wind chimes and a well-placed finger snaps
The opening song S(o)un(d)beams is six minutes of glorious ebb and flow: three voices, the left, right and centre channels switching and double backing upon one another with adroit confusion, drums and bass a low throb. Likewise, the more upbeat and mischievous YouTube cult hit Just Friends welcomed in by a metronomic pulse, taken over by handclaps and vocals.
There’s something almost childish in the pleasure that salyu x salyu derive from the constant interaction of voices, nicely offseting more solemn moments like Sailing Days – think slowly drifting spring landscapes – and the clearly clinical (yet often spontaneous) execution of songs like first encore, the ballad Hostile To Me. Let's Dance in Rain Boots is haunting and beautifully spaced, as is the unexpected and totally wonderful Roches cover (Robert Fripp’s guitar parts expertly covered by Cornelius).
Towards the end, the band step it up a pace and layer the funk on with the sound collage, with Slave and Mirror Neurotic. Cornelius cuts loose on the joyful and fat psychedelic guitar – sparking off the evening’s only serious bout of dancing from a couple of hardy souls down the front. A most extraordinary and invigorating evening. Shame she didn’t play her take on Heroes And Villains – she’d have totally brought the house down. Magical, nonetheless.  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/02/cornelius-presents-salyu-x-salyu-review

Yes - America (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

Wouldn’t it be strange if you discovered that back in early 1970s, Genesis had covered Bob Dylan? Or if Emerson, Lake & Palmer had recorded a Buffalo Springfield song? Progressive rock and folk rock may not seem like natural musical partners, but the English prog-rock outfit Yes had other ideas. Just six months after they released their biggest single to date, “Roundabout” in January 1972, they issued a single of their cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s 1968 song “America.” If you’ve ever heard Yes’ majestic, meandering take on this classic and been confused as to how it came to be, the reasons are actually straightforward. They may still be surprising to many of the band’s fans nonetheless.
Right around the same time that Yes was forming in London, Simon & Garfunkel released their fourth studio album Bookends. The duo had already established themselves as a marquee recording act, and the popularity of some of their songs, such as “Homeward Bound” and “I Am a Rock,” extended into the UK and continental Europe. The fourth single from Bookends, “Mrs. Robinson,” was a No. 1 hit in the U.S. and Simon & Garfunkel’s biggest hit to date in the UK, reaching No. 4.
Simon & Garfunkel’s trademark harmonies were an important part of the duo’s appeal, and they were a key factor in bringing the initial lineup of Yes together. Early in their work together, lead vocalist Jon Anderson and the late bassist Chris Squire bonded over their love of Simon & Garfunkel’s harmonizing. Simon & Garfunkel’s approach informed Yes’ vocal arrangements in their early years, as well as in the decades that followed.
It should hardly be surprising, then, that Yes featured “America” frequently in their early setlists. They were playing the song live before they released it as a standalone single in 1972, and they continued to include it in their live shows afterwards. As a result, “America” ranks as Yes’ 19th most-played song in live performances, according to setlist.fm, and it has been their most frequently performed cover song by a wide margin.
In a 2014 interview with Songfacts, Squire indicated he didn’t think there was anything strange or surprising about Yes doing their version of “America.” He said, “When Yes first formed, Simon & Garfunkel were very prevalent hitmakers at the time and both myself and Jon Anderson were big fans of them. That’s why we covered the song ‘America.’”
To be sure, Yes’ version has a distinctly different arrangement and feel than the original. Squire noted there was a strategic element to the band covering a familiar song and putting its own stamp on it. He told Songfacts, ”I always thought that was quite a good clue for audiences when we were starting: If you took somebody else’s material, and then put your own treatment to it, then the audience would recognize more what you did; what the style of the band was because they were already familiar with the tune from the original artist.” Part of what makes a song recognizably Yes are varied tempos and styles and longer run times. Whereas the original runs three-and-a-half minutes, the full version of Yes’ cover expands to 10-and-a-half minutes. Even the single edit clocks in at 4:12.
While their cover of “America” should have given Yes’ fans a strong hint they liked Simon & Garfunkel, a close listen also reveals that at least one member was also a big fan of a classic Broadway musical. At the 1:44 mark of Yes’ long version of “America,” Squire plays the melody from the chorus of the song “America” from West Side Story on his bass. At minimum, it’s a clever mashup of two well-known songs with the same name, but there may be more to Squires’ bass lick than just that. Yes recorded a cover of “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story and released it as a single in the Netherlands in 1972.  From: https://americansongwriter.com/the-story-behind-yes-remake-of-simon-garfunkels-late-1960s-classic-america/

Rosalie Cunningham - Strawberry Fields Forever (Beatles cover)

Rosalie Cunningham - Strawberry Fields Forever. Fun facts: this was something she did with her dad (you see them together in the cafe near the end). He’s a professional (folk?) musician and huge Beatles fan. He plays drums and made the vid (with lots of childhood footage of Rosalie), and she played essentially every other instrument and mixed it herself.  From: https://www.reddit.com/r/psychedelicrock/comments/yshs9o/rosalie_cunningham_strawberry_fields_forever/ 

Rosalie Cunningham’s intriguing career story began at the age of just 12 when she first picked up a guitar with serious intent. “Even before then,” she says, “I was picking out melodies on the piano and writing little songs, but developing a real interest in the guitar was the catalyst to forming my first band at school, Suzie’s Lip, when I reached 13.”
The eldest child of a musician/journalist father and yoga teacher mother, Rosalie grew up with her three siblings in an environment where music was constantly in the air. Fascinated by The Beatles, Slade, Syd-era Pink Floyd, Bowie, Small Faces, Genesis and Black Sabbath, her creativity first reached the wider public in 2007 when she founded her first professional band, the all-female, Gothic-psychedelic outfit Ipso Facto, releasing three singles and a mini album, supporting Magazine and The Last Shadow Puppets on tour, and becoming the new darlings of the UK and European festival circuit.
After Ipso Facto’s split, Cunningham immersed herself in the session world, guesting with numerous bands and artists, and appearing on TV programmes including ‘Later… With Jools Holland’, ‘BBC Electric Proms’ and NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ in the USA, however, the burning urge to cultivate her own music was never far away.
In 2011, wearing her psychedelic influences even more proudly, her next move was to launch the internationally acclaimed band Purson. Purson frequently toured the UK, Europe and North America – with the likes of Kiss, Ghost and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – and featured regularly on BBC 6 Music. 
After writing what became Purson’s posthumous single, ‘Chocolate Money’, Cunningham recorded and issued a 50th anniversary cover of The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ as a YouTube exclusive, with her father, Mark, and then entered a self-imposed “musical hibernation” before re-emerging with her eponymous album like the visionary solo artist she always was.  From: https://www.highresaudio.com/en/artist/view/b782dd28-2da1-4071-aaa5-932286b615d3/rosalie-cunningham

"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A-side single with "Penny Lane". It represented a departure from the group's previous singles and a novel listening experience for the contemporary pop audience. While the song initially divided and confused music critics and the group's fans, it proved highly influential on the emerging psychedelic genre. Its accompanying promotional film is similarly recognised as a pioneering work in the medium of music video.
Lennon based the song on his childhood memories of playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children's home in Liverpool. Starting in November 1966, the band spent 45 hours in the studio, spread over five weeks, creating three versions of the track. The final recording combined two of those versions, which were entirely different in tempo, mood and musical key. It features reverse-recorded instrumentation, Mellotron flute sounds, an Indian swarmandal, and a fade-out/fade-in coda, as well as a cello and brass arrangement by producer George Martin. For the promotional film, the band used experimental techniques such as reverse effects, jump-cuts and superimposition.
The song was the first track the Beatles recorded after completing Revolver and was intended for inclusion on their forthcoming (as yet untitled) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Instead, under pressure from their record company and management for new product, the group were forced to issue it as a single and they followed their usual practice of not including previously released singles on their albums.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Fields_Forever  

Hack-Poets Guild - Hemp & Flax

Hack-Poets Guild are a trio, but not in the traditional ‘folk’ sense. These three singers and creative minds have used their individual and unique knowledge of music and balladry to create a new experience in the British folk song canon. Teaming up with producer and musician Gerry Driver, they have created the 12-song album, Blackletter Garland, “twelve fascinating interpretations and original compositions that tell intricate tales of birth, love, conflict and death”, as their website boasts, consisting mainly of re-worked broadside ballads from the 17th and 19th century (plus a few very fitting originals). 
The trio could be considered a supergroup. Lisa Knapp has been popular since her highly esteemed debut, Wild & Undaunted, released in 2007. Having since performed with some of the biggest names in British folk, Lisa has achieved that pedestal herself and continued to release a mixture of original and reinterpreted traditional songs, often using modern production techniques to enhance some of the more esoteric material. 
Nathaniel Mann is a proper renaissance man in every sense of the term, his work spanning multimedia and genres. With experience in film, broadcast, research, production and curation, his most reminiscent work to that of Hack-Poets Guild is his group Dead Rat Orchestra, who perform traditional-style songs with custom-made resonant meat cleavers. Well worth checking out. 
Finally, Marry Waterson needs scant introduction. The daughter of Lal Waterson and co-creator of landmark albums, The Days That Shaped Me and Hidden, she has the sensibilities of folk singing coursing through her, and the ability to deliver sincerity and sharpness to anything she sings – traditional or original.
It’s not uncommon for albums by folk musicians to contain a variety of original and traditional material, however, the Hack-Poets Guild have found a perfectly balanced mix between the two, including songs with lyrics loosely based on the themes of the original texts, in some cases even blending both original and traditional lyrics in one song. With this approach, the different sources blend without friction and keep the album fresh and inviting with every progressive track.  From: https://tradfolk.co/music/reviews/blackletter-garland-hack-poets-guild/ 

Polly Panic - Losing Form

If you are here then you have at least some interest in Polly Panic's strain of cello art Rock. To introduce you a little more... I am Polly Panic, my normal name is Jenette Mackie, my Alter Ego is Polly Panic. She can say things that I can't, and she most certainly can do things that I can't. I have done Polly Panic on and off for 15 years. There was a period of about 2 years when I kind of gave up pursuing Polly Panic as a career and way of life. I was too overwhelmed and discouraged to keep going. What I thought was meant to be, was not panning out the way that I dreamed. The other part of it was that I had a hard road to travel in recovery from Alcoholism. It did paint the early years of Polly Panic... shows that I would not remember having played the next day, shows cancelled because I was too drunk to play. Unfortunately during this time I was not healthy, and I did not attract healthy people to be a part of Polly Panic either. Makes sense right? I was pretty sure that I could not do the laundry without alcohol, not to mention play shows and travel. Turns out shows are better when you are not blacked out!! Who would have thought? I finally quit drinking (It has been 11 years). Then you just have the problem of how to live without alcohol. I have spent quite a bit of time battling depression, in all its swampy fury. I am sad to think of how many years I lost to that deep sadness and inability to function. After I quit drinking and thought I had quit music, I moved to South America, thinking that I could find my real life in another place, with another way of life. Turns out life is life no matter where you are. BUT. I found myself dragging my cello around with me from bar to bar in Cotacachi, Ecuador, singing my heart out. The audience would always be completely involved, this gringa playing an instrument they did not know, singing in a language they didn't know either. I had some painful and deeply personal things happen, so I returned to the U.S. again... lost. But I keep playing and slowly built Polly Panic back up. Regardless of the results, THIS is what I am good at. It is what I do. I still get overwhelmed and mentally defeated at times. I do my best to battle it and take it easy on myself. And enjoy the actual act and art of music making. EVERY SINGLE person that listens to Polly Panic is precious to me. I try to be as honest and open as I am able, because I believe that is what is so needed in art and in life(especially now).  From: https://www.pollypanic.net/ 

 

Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom

Elton John: “In America, I’ve got ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ going up the charts again. I wish the bloody thing would piss off. I can see why people get sick and tired of me. In America, I get sick and tired of hearing myself on AM radio. It’s embarrassing.”
Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to most of Elton John’s songs, but Elton would occasionally suggest titles. Elton requested a song with the title “Philadelphia Freedom” in honor of his friend, the tennis player Billie Jean King. At the time, there was a professional tennis league in America called World Team Tennis, and in 1974 King coached a team called the Philadelphia Freedoms, becoming one of the first women ever to coach men. Taupin had no obligation to write lyrics about King, and he didn’t – the song was inspired by the Philadelphia Soul sound of groups like The O’Jays and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, and also the American bicentennial; in 1976 the US celebrated 200 years of independence.
Elton John and Billie Jean King became good friends after meeting at a party. Elton tried to attend as many of her matches as he could, and he promised King a song after she gave him a customized track suit. Elton and Billie Jean King would become icons of the gay and lesbian community, but at the time, they were both still in the closet, since athletes and entertainers faced a backlash if they revealed their homosexuality. Elton was often answering questions about why he hadn’t settled down with a girl, and King avoided the subject as best she could, but was forced to come out in 1981 when a former lover sued her for palimony. King was married to a man up until her outing, and Elton was married to a woman from 1984-1988. On the single, it said this song was dedicated to “B.J.K.” (Billie Jean King) and “The Soulful Sounds Of Philadelphia.”
This song was a huge hit in America, following up another #1 single from Elton John, his cover of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.” Elton dominated the charts at this time, but it didn’t always make him happy, as he felt he was being overexposed. Running 5:21, this was one of the longest dance hits of the ’70s. A few months earlier, a national radio programmer declared that he would no longer play any Elton John song over 4 minutes long because they were screwing up his playlists (Program directors liked short songs because they could play more of them. Elton’s opuses like “Daniel” and “Funeral For A Friend” had a way of screwing up the “14 Hits In A Row” format). Elton knew this would be a hit, and was happy to screw the programmer by making it long, knowing he would have to play it anyway. Elton said this was “one of the only times I tried to deliberately write a hit single.”
On May 17, 1975, Elton become one of the first white performers to appear on the TV show Soul Train, which was an honor for him. He performed this song and “Bennie And The Jets.” Depending on where he was performing, Elton would sometimes alter the lyrics of the song, swapping “Philadelphia” for his present location. He would only do it if he could make it fit, so “Cincinnati Freedom” was a go, but Cleveland didn’t get customized.  From: https://powerpop.blog/2020/03/26/elton-john-philadelphia-freedom/

Far From Alaska - About Knives

Following their 2012 EP Stereochrome, Brazilian band Far From Alaska have released a first studio album, modeHuman. The band are made up of experienced names from the music scene in Natal (north-east Brazil) and although they have been together for only a couple years, they have already played at the Planeta Terra Festival in São Paulo and the FIFA Fanfest for the 2014 World Cup. Their music is a punky hybrid of grunge, stoner rock and garage rock with vocals in English by Emmily Barreto, and no Samba to be found.
The album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, produced by Pedro Garcia (former drummer of the rap-rock musical group Planet Hemp) and mastered in Seattle by Chris Hanzsek, who has previously worked with Soundgarden. Although funk music is blossoming in the favelas, modeHuman is a slab of approachable and energetic hard rock. “Politiks”, for example, has some scorching guitar playing (Rafael Brasil) and an interesting use of technology. Possibly what differentiates Far From Alaska from lots of other heavy rock bands is their willingness to experiment: “About Knives” and “The New Heal” have some surprising synth work; “Dino vs. Dino” has a frightening electro break about halfway through; and “modeHuman, Pt 1” and “Monochrome” use electronics to broadly consider machine humanisation.
The band are also definitively versatile, with lap steel (Cris Botarelli) on “Rolling Dice”, and “Mama” even tries out some Wurlitzer piano. “Rainbows” suddenly transforms itself from hard rock into pop. At times they sound like a female-fronted metal version of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, so perhaps funk is a distant influence after all — in particular, “Communication” has some distinctive bass (Edu Filgueira). Far From Alaska clearly appreciate rocking out with abandon, and it seems likely that the band excel in live performance. “Tiny Eyes” and the excitable “Deadman” have some great drumming courtesy of Lauro Kirsch, “Another Round” builds its own mayhem around a very feminine vocal, and “Thievery” has a determined, catchy chorus. This is an ambitious and interesting debut.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/189445-far-from-alaska-modehuman-2495573852.html

 

The Luck of Eden Hall - Metropolis

Gregory Curvey, co-founder of psych-rock stars The Luck of Eden Hall has helped produce a sensational string of releases for over 20 years. Jason Barnard speaks to Curvey as he is about to embark on a pioneering tour of the UK:

You and the band have many fans over here in the UK, helped by the great support from Keith at Fruits de Mer. How does your following compare on both sides of the Atlantic?

It’s hard for me to keep track of. The only tools I have to work with are Facebook and Bandcamp, and I know there are a lot more people out there. Reverbnation had a world map of fan’s locations, but I cancelled my account when they tried to charge me money for a service I didn’t ask for. There are way too many sites out there that claim to help bands, but really don’t, and the last thing you want to do is join their Pro version and bleed more money every month. I think it’s best to put that money into more product and albums.
I’m forever in debt to Keith at Fruits de Mer. He’s really given TLoEH a lot of exposure over the past seven years. Good god, almost a decade already. Mega Dodo, Shindig and Prog magazines, radio and all of the blogs like Strange Brew have been pivotal in keeping the buzz going as well, and I thank you very much for your valuable support. It’s harder in the States, but we have some very solid support here too. Just, no label support, which makes a big difference. Not only do I work with Fruits de Mer and Mega Dodo Records in the U.K., but Headspin Records in the Netherlands is responsible for putting out those really high quality LPs and now Vincebus Eruptum in Italy will be releasing Make Way For The Mighty Machines as one side of their Psychedelic Battle Vol 4 LP this October. I wouldn’t mind getting something going in Germany too. I’ve approached a few labels in the States, but everyone’s usually already booked way into the future, or broke. It certainly would be a lot easier to tour here at home and I hope I can get the right connections to make that happen. We’ll see what the future holds.

You and the band have recorded a 23 minute epic ‘Make Way For The Mighty Machines’. Your last album ‘The Acceleration of Time’ had shorter rockier psych tracks. Is the long form a new direction for the group?

Yeah, that track was specifically composed for the Vincebus Eruptum release. Last August I moved from Chicago to Detroit, and the initial due date to submit the track was in January. I was freaking out because not only did I have to tear down and pack my studio then set it back up, but I had to get my new house ready to move in to, and it needed a lot of work just to be a livable space for my family. I also had to paint and tile a room in our new basement just to have a temporary space for recording. All of that work took a couple months, which left me four weeks to work on the track. Then my recording studio computer had a melt down and my ancient recording software refused to work anymore, which meant I had to buy a new computer and recording software a couple weeks before Christmas. Those were stressful times. Anyway, I had hummed a bunch of ideas into my phone’s recorder, but hadn’t done anything else. Since the rest of the guys were still over three hundred miles away in Chicago, and I didn’t have any time to waste, I dove in and started recording as soon as the studio was up and running, which ended up being in mid January. None of the ideas I’d hummed into the recorder blossomed, but in between all of the mental weeds I found a flower, which developed into Mighty Machines. In February Davide at Vincebus Eruptum told me the release date had been moved back and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. The track had been recorded, but the extra time gave me a chance to produce it properly. I’ve been going back to Chicago to rehearse for TLoEH’s gig at the Kaleidoscope Eye Music Festival in September and Lofgren told me he has a few songs ready for our next album. I definitely have enough songs for an album.

How many songs have you already written for the next The Luck of Eden Hall album and what sound/themes do they have?

I probably have fifteen songs, a handful of which have lyrics. One’s about a pretty girl on a motorcycle. One’s about a lady that gives candy to the neighborhood children. One’s about white trash. One’s about the struggle of making it to tomorrow. I’m a music man and lyrics are hard work, so I tend to wait until a song’s nearly finished to complete the lyrics, but those four songs are done. As for the overall sound, it’ll be more of the same sounds and production that I’ve been developing. Mellotron for certain, and I’ve climbed up another rung on the guitar playing ladder this past year, so maybe I’ll highlight some more solos, I don’t know. We’ll see where it all goes once we start laying down tracks. The Acceleration of Time is going to be hard to follow up.

What projects should we look out for you and The Luck of Eden Hall?

Keith at FdM has asked TLoEH to contribute a song for a 2018 release he has planned. I plan on submitting versions of Elected by Alice Cooper and maybe As You Said by Cream. I hope one of them will make the grade. Plus, I’m hitching up with Icarus Peel and Crystal Jaqueline for a couple of days during my stay in the U.K. and who knows, maybe we’ll get a little recording in. We recently worked on a track together that I composed titled Empyrean House. Also, I recently got my hands on and restored an old Harmonium, which has been really inspiring, and I’m thinking about doing an acoustic, electricity free project including Harmonium, Double Bass, Guitar and Drums. My friend Tom Negovan has an old Edison recorder and it would be really fun to record a track on it. I’m not sure if I can get him to come to Detroit from California, but we’ll see. Either way, the Harmonium project will happen in one form or another.
Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to set up in a park, without any amplification, and play a TLoEH set? I think about packaging waste and environmental issues a lot and hate the thought of making more landfill. I remember coming back home after spending some time in India, where people lived happily in small homes made out of cow dung with banana tree leaves for a roof, and realizing how much stuff we all have and how much of a burden it all can be. I actually sold my Marshall half stack and a bunch of guitars when I returned, and up to that point in my life, I had held on to every guitar and instrument I’d ever owned. In time we have to let go of everything, but I still really love making music and I don’t want to stop. Making music makes me happy and I’m truly honored that my music makes you happy too. 

From: https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/interviews/curvey-the-luck-of-eden-hall/

Indigo Girls - Live Foxboro, MA 1991 / Live Mountain View, CA 1994

 Indigo Girls - Live Foxboro, MA 1991

 

 Indigo Girls - Live Mountain View, CA 1994

 

Indigo Girls became the preeminent group to come out of the neo folk movement of the late 1980’s and became staples on college radio while also becoming critical darlings and having a degree of mainstream commercial success.  The years 1987-1993 are the peak years for the Indigo Girls commercial success, especially with the mainstream.  These years are also when the Indigo Girls stuck closest to the traditional folk rock framework they were so obviously inspired by, although they increasingly grew experimental within those confines even during these early years.  Another note about the list is that Indigo Girls has a pretty devoted fan base and often the “fan favorites” are not the same as the official singles released by the group, so for the purpose of this list I have chosen to exclude the official singles and use some of those fan favorites and deeper album tracks.  So, if the Indigo Girls you know best from 1987-1993 are songs like “Closer To Fine”, “Tried To Be True”, “Galileo” and “Ghost”, here are ten to hear again:

1. “Welcome Me” – From the album Nomads Indians Saints
“Welcome Me” takes the traditional folk, alt rock flourishes and beautiful vocal harmonies of their hit eponymous album and infuses it with a sense of dusty, lonely desert nights.  You can almost see the blazing stars spinning overhead as the days and years come and go as the song’s protagonist deals with the trials of life.  Whether the hardships are that of a young Native man on a rite of passage to be accepted into adulthood or a pioneer woman at the end of her life waiting for the embrace of death to ease to her burdens or some other story altogether is up to the listener, but regardless the song has a stark beauty and emotional power.

2. “Jonas & Ezekiel” – From the album Rites of Passage
“Jonas & Ezekiel” is a punky folk rocker that draws from both Biblical imagery and Native American lore to raise the question of how to right past wrongs and addresses how the ghosts of the past can inhabit the problems of the present.  The way the Indigo Girls weave together various musical and narrative influences into a unique and seamless work makes “Jonas & Ezekiel” an underrated classic.

3. “Prince of Darkness” – From the album Indigo Girls
A plea to a higher power for strength to rise above the darkness and evil of this world and a defiant declaration to be a light to others and an agent for change.  Few pop/rock groups so directly address such a positive religious sentiment.  Indigo Girls not only address it, but they seem sincere in their intentions and lack the preachiness and self-righteousness that often accompanies such attempts.  “Prince of Darkness” is a statement to the titular character that his reign over their life is over; that they will be a force for good in the world but it plays like an excellent addition to the folk rock canon.

4. “You and Me of the 10,000 Wars” – From the album Nomads Indians Saints
Gentle and intimate, Emily Saliers’ “You and Me of the 10,000 Wars” is a reflection back on all of the good and bad times experienced in a committed relationship.  The genius of the song is that it could be the relationship between lovers, a parent and child, old friends or a person and their God (which the Biblical allusions within the song seem to hint at).  However, in the end it doesn’t matter who the song is about because the message of reconciliation and commitment comes through regardless.

5. “Chickenman” – From the album Rites of Passage
If there is such a thing as folk/punk then the Amy Ray written “Chickenman” is a prime example of it.  Full of the bluster, roar and energy of her beloved Husker Dü, while having the busk and scratch of a classic barnyard stomp “Chickenman” is both unusual and great.

6. “Southland In The Springtime” – From the album Nomads Indians Saints
Hailing from Athens, Georgia, Indigo Girls have always have always had an open love affair with the beauty, culture and conflicted history of the American south and “Southland In The Springtime” is their love letter to their home.  Warm, pastoral and nostalgic, “Southland In The Springtime” is a minor gem.  I’ve always loved the line: “When God made me born a Yankee he was teasing/There’s no place like home and none more pleasing/Than the southland in the springtime”.

7. “Nashville” – From the album Rites of Passage
“Nashville” has long been a crossroad between the north and south, the east and the west; a key point for the railroads, the armies of the Civil War, and modern country music.  “Nashville” is a place where dreams are born and die, where hopes rise and fall, and the Indigo Girls capture the emotional push and pull of the city well on this warm, but slightly sad, ode to the city.

8. “I Don’t Wanna Know” – From the album Strange Fire
Indigo Girls’ Strange Fire is their actual debut album but was not given a full American release until after the success of their eponymous second album.  “I Don’t Wanna Know” is one of the standout tracks from it, written by Amy Ray with local folk and blues musician Michelle Malone; one of very few Indigo Girls songs that are not covers that have an outside songwriting credit.  “I Don’t Wanna Know” is an interesting song in that it doesn’t sound all that different from a lot of songs that Amy Ray would write for Indigo Girls on later albums, but it does have more grit and blues influence than almost anything else that is written by Amy Ray on Strange Fire.  Whether that is a coincidence or it is because of the influence of Malone is up for debate, but either way “I Don’t Wanna Know” is an early gem and a blueprint for the direction Ray would often take her songs.

9. “Secure Yourself” – From the album Indigo Girls
In a real sense Indigo Girls have spent much of their career serving as a spiritual and religious center for the liberal left, championing a love of God through a love of others that is inclusive and is shown through action.  However, this quest for improvement and rightness with a Higher Power is a real thing for them and begins within themselves.  Thus, a beautiful, searching song like “Secure Yourself” is about getting yourself right with God first.  It’s because of this understanding that changes in the world have to start within one’s self that makes the message of much of the Indigo Girls music so honest, powerful and heartfelt.  A message made more divine because of the perfect, near angelic harmonies between Ray and Saliers on this song.

10. “Kid Fears” – From the album Indigo Girls
“Kid Fears” is a brooding and meditative number about growing up and the loss of innocence.  It begins somber and understated, allowing room for the excellent interplay between the voices of Ray and Saliers.  As the song builds the tension increases, until “Kid Fears” reaches it cathartic climax when the Indigo Girls are joined by Michael Stipe of R.E.M., who provides an excellent counterpoint vocal that serves to help cut the tension and find release.  It is a subtly powerful song that shows that Indigo Girls were superb singer and songwriters almost from the beginning.

From: https://alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/ten-to-hear-again-indigo-girls-1987-1993/

 

Gary Wright - Extraction - Side 2

01 The Wrong Time
02 Over You Now
03 Too Late To Cry
04 I've Got A Story

Gary Wright, former keyboardist/songwriter/vocalist for Spooky Tooth, released two fine albums in succession after the initial breakup of the band, with `Extraction' coming out in 1971 and `Footprint' the next year. While critically acclaimed, they were not commercial successes at the time, in spite of the quality of the material. They now get a second chance, and fans of great rock music have reason to rejoice.
Wright formed a touring band in the wake of Spooky Tooth's demise, calling it `Wright's Wonderwheel' (which featured, among others, future Tooth and Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones). Most of that band played on 'Extraction', although the name Wonderwheel was not credited (however,they did release a single called 'I Know', and recorded an unreleased album). `Extraction' differed markedly from the trademark Spooky Tooth sound; the songs were generally more up-tempo, with more focus on lead guitar than the heavy organ sound of his previous band. In addition, the production was very bright and clean, with individual instruments very discreet and well separated. It was sonically impressive on vinyl back then , and remains even more so on CD today. Featuring some truly outstanding songs such as Get on the Right Road, I Know a Place, Too Late to Cry and his own, more rocking version of The Wrong Time, which was also covered on the Wright-less Spooky Tooth Album `The Last Puff'. To me, this and `Footprint' feature Gary's most powerful vocal performances, largely devoid of the falsetto often used in Spooky Tooth recordings.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Gary-Wrights-Extraction-Wright/dp/B07VPRTRY9 

Whippersnapper - John Gaudie

Whippersnapper were a four-piece acoustic band formed by Dave Swarbrick, Chris Leslie, Kevin Dempsey, and Martin Jenkins in Northamptonshire during 1983. Although none of the others could quite compare with Swarbrick's long experience or near-legendary status, each of the others brought something substantial to the table at the outset of the group's history -- Chris Leslie was a musical instrument maker as well as an experienced violinist (who had Swarbrick's playing as a model); guitarist, singer, and percussionist Kevin Dempsey had played in Dando Shaft, and had experience with Latin music as well as Celtic and English folk repertory; and multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins had played with Matthews Southern Comfort and was also an ex-member of Dando Shaft, as well as a Bert Jansch alumnus. As a result, the group's work was highly anticipated by folk enthusiasts, as a unique all-acoustic supergroup. The group made its debut in January of 1984 at the Burnt Post in Coventry and subsequently played the Cambridge Folk Festival, a performance that was captured on video as well.
Their music was a deceptively complex brand of progressive folk, driven by the presence of four full-fledged virtuoso players. Whippersnapper spent most of their first year honing their sound and repertory, which started out fully formed, drawing on the songbags of all four members. As a result, their debut album, when it came time to do it -- recorded for their own Whippersnapper label -- came together very quickly. The Promises long-player was recorded in December of 1984 and in stores just about eight weeks later, and well received by fans and critics. A second LP, Tsubo, didn't appear until 1987, and it was similar in form and structure to the first. A third studio album was intended, but in the interim the quartet issued These Foolish Strings, a compilation of four years' worth of live recordings. The fourth album, Fortune, was released in early 1990, and also marked the end of Swarbrick's involvement with the group. The group continued as a trio of Leslie, Dempsey, and Jenkins, and Leslie and Dempsey recorded the LP Always with You, released in 1996. Dempsey eventually teamed up with Swarbrick anew, while Leslie joined one of the latter-day lineups of Fairport Convention.  From: https://www.parsifal.be/product/cd/world-folk/whippersnapper-promises/