Strawbs - Grave New World Promo Film 1972

Grave New World - the movie. Strawbs' epic album Grave New World was one of the first full-length rock videos, made in 1972, long before the ground-breaking "Bohemian Rhapsody" and latterly MTV made it essential for single releases to have videos to accompany them. The film was directed by Steve Turner and was recorded at Television International's studios in London in 1972. The video made intensive use of the then new technique of colour separation overlay, or chroma-keying as it is now known. The images generated at the Whitfield Street studio were recorded at Tvi's editing facility in Windmill Street. The film was edited by Barry Stevens who later edited the promo for Bohemian Rhapsody. The edited master was then transferred via an optical printed to 35mm film stock for projection at cinemas, a hugely expensive operation even today.
I saw it as a double bill some time after its initial release, coupled with either Emerson Lake & Palmer's Pictures At An Exhibition, or Pink Floyd Live In Pompeii. The Cousins/Hooper/Ford/Hudson/Weaver line-up perform most of the tracks from GNW, against a variety of settings - gogo dancers, swirling psychedelia, and most notably - in the case of the stunning "New World" - some powerful and frankly disturbing images of riots, wars and famine, which underline the song's relevance not just to the troubles in Northern Ireland which inspired it, but to all forms of human suffering.  From: https://www.strawbsweb.co.uk/video/tokyo/tokyo.asp

The Electric Crayon Set - Calling on the Cards

They wish it could 1967 again! But don’t we all? They even refer to XTC and Martin Newell as to their future, and therefore at the moment (of the imaginary 1967) non-existing influences, and as for their own “contemporary” ones, for an observer that’s in the know, the name of the band inspired by the fifth (dimension?) one of the Rubble series, featuring The (pre-Creation) Mark Four, The Poets, The Game, The Attack, Fire and the like, makes it all clear enough.
Both of the tracks from last year’s promo CD single Don’t Make Me Squeeze Yar Balls, Man … (reviewed elsewhere on these pages) are present, with the Blossom Toes kind of a Britsike quirk of Good Girl, now at least equalled if not bettered with the album’s opening title tune, put through an additional XTC filer, the same one that the popsike pair of Spacedust and Black Prince are being put through.
Likewise, the cockney-ish Britpop of the Small Faces-through-Modernlife-era-Blur kind, of the other single track These Nights Are Supernatural is being accompanied with Kitty Ruxpin, while there’s also some equally slightlydelic Drake-meets-Donovan-like folky stuff to be heard in Morning Of Magicians, as well as some upbeat blue-eyed soul in Key To The Sacred Pattern, with some “singing-bird-like” 12-string fills thrown in, just for the jangle of it... and also, I’d like to think that they seem to have been paying attention to my previous review, and therefore giving a much more serious thought to the artwork, here displaying their West Ham United admiration in spite of the several seas between them.  From: https://popdiggers.com/the-electric-crayon-set-what-a-rotter-of-a-day/

Poco - Make Me Smile

Can I be honest? I chose to review Poco’s 1969 debut Pickin’ Up the Pieces based solely on its cover. Sure it’s an excellent LP and pioneering work of country rock, but it’s the cover that truly matters to me because there’s a great story behind it. So here goes.
Seems bassist Randy Meisner–who would shortly thereafter become a founding member of the Eagles–quit the band in a royal snit after Richie Furay and Jim Messina (both formerly of Buffalo Springfield) excluded him from participating in the album’s final mix. This left Poco in a rather awkward position when it came to the painting of the band’s members meant to grace the album cover. Poco might have done any number of things to remedy this situation, the most obvious and simple one being to scrap the cover and come up with a new one. Instead they opted to air brush poor Randy from the cover Josef Stalin style–and replace him with a dog.
I’ve done a bit of research on said pooch, and he’s rather a mystery. I’ve had no luck contacting him through my many musician and record company connections, and I could find no evidence that he was paid for his role as stand-in. Nor was I able to determine if he actually played on the album. I hear no barking, which isn’t to say they buried him way back in the vocal mix. He may also have played bass. Should you happen to run into him tell him to give me a ring. I’d love to know how he’s doing.
Pickin’ Up the Pieces is often placed alongside The Byrds 1968 LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo as a seminal work of what would soon become known as country rock, but there are critical differences between the two. Sweetheart of the Rodeo included only two Byrds’ originals; Pickin’ Up the Pieces is composed solely of Poco originals. The Byrds sought inspiration from the past, paying homage to their country forebears, and it lends their music an old-timely hillbilly sound. Poco, on the other hand, were looking forward to a future that would include such studio slicks as the Eagles and Pure Prairie League.
Another key distinction between the two bands can only be called soul. Gram Parsons oozed the stuff, and it characterizes Sweetheart of the Rodeo every bit as much as The Byrd’s choice of traditional songs. Pickin’ Up the Pieces is a lot of things–nearly all of them good–but it’s light of weight and short on deep feeling.
Yet another difference in the two lies in purity of sound. The Byrds’ kept things redneck bar simple, the Poco of Pickin’ Up the Pieces less so. The musicians are top notch, the lush vocal harmonies give Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young a run for their money, and you get the typical array of traditional country instruments (pedal steel guitar, banjo, and dobro). But you also get horns (on “Nobody’s Fool and “Tomorrow”), strings (on the latter cut) and female backing vocalists on “Oh Yeah.” You’ll find no such fancy frills on Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Such caveats and dog aside, Pickin’ Up the Pieces offers up an excellent array of songs. Pickers and grinners include the sunny title track, the gimcrack instrumental “Grand Junction,” and a pair of who-cares-if-you-split numbers in “Consequently So Long” and“Just If It Happens, Yes Indeed,” The LP also comes with a pair of slow and mournful tunes. “Tomorrow” may fall short of The Byrds lovely beyond words “Hickory Wind” in the high and lonesome department but it’s a winner nonetheless, while “First Love” is a real tearjerker thanks in large part to Furay’s vocals. Pickin’ Up the Pieces also includes the electric numbers “Calico Lady” and the fuzz-guitar powered rocker “Short-Changed.”
In the end it doesn’t much matter whether Pickin’ Up the Pieces is less pure an example of what Gram Parsons’ dubbed Cosmic American Music than Sweetheart of the Rodeo. An LP should be judged on its merits, and Pickin’ Up the Pieces is a solid collection of well-constructed, perfectly executed country rockers. As I’m sure the dog on the cover would tell you if only he’d get in touch and agree to an interview.  From: https://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/graded-on-a-curve-poco-pickin-up-the-pieces-2/

Mahalia Barnes & The Soul Mates - He Was a Big Freak (Betty Davis cover)

It’s one of life’s ironies that an artist as independent and ahead of her time as Betty Davis (Mabry) is today remembered mostly for her brief marriage to Miles Davis, and for having transformed the trumpeter in record time from Italian suited jazzer to psychedelically garbed imbiber of Bitches Brew. (Davis credited Betty with introducing him both to hip threads and the sounds of Hendrix, Sly Stone, and others.) Chump change indeed for a singer, songwriter, model/fashionista, and provocateur who was a Greenwich Village scene maker while still in her teens. She wrote “Uptown (To Harlem)” for the Chambers Brothers, and later went on to release three unheralded records of low-down ‘70s funk whose open sexual attitudes prefigured later, more commercially successful efforts by Rick James, Prince, and Madonna.
Raunchy, uncompromising and not really in the mood to take crap from anyone, it seems that Betty was a bit too much, even for the sleazy ’70s. Album covers which ruled out her being confused with Joni Mitchell and song titles with lyrics to match, such as “If I’m in Luck, I Might Get Picked Up” and “He’s a Big Freak”, got her on the wrong side of the Religious Right, the NAACP, and feminists. In some cases, she got banned from the airwaves. By 1979, her recording career was finished and until recently she was little more than a rock footnote.
Returning to life’s ironies, however, the legacy of a woman who sang so often of pleasures down under has received a boost from just that location. Teaming up with American blues guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa, Australian powerhouse vocalist Mahalia Barnes (daughter of Australian Rock legend Jimmy Barnes) and her ace band the Soul Mates have revisited 12 tracks culled from Davis’s three releases: her self-titled 1973 debut, They Say I’m Different from a year later, and 1975’s Nasty Gal. The project reportedly took flight after Barnes played some vintage Betty for producer Kevin Shirley while working with him on her Dad’s Hindsight record. Shirley dug what he heard, and with a producer’s smarts he likely saw a talented songwriter ripe for rediscovery. In a masterstroke, he then flew Bonamassa down to Sydney to lend a hand. Three days of recording later Ooh Yea! – The Betty Davis Songbook was good to go.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/190746-mahalia-barnes-the-soul-mates-featuring-joe-bonamassa-ooh-yea-the-be-2495559198.html

 

Nil Lara - Crawl

Nil Lara doesn't know where he is. He's not even quite sure what state he's in. "Nevada?" he screams into the phone when pressed for his exact location. "California?" This is what it's been like recently for Lara, who, it turns out, really doesn't know where he is during a midtour phone interview. Since putting the finishing touches on his self-titled major-label debut a few months ago, Miami's favorite son has been mapping new territory with a dive-bomb tour across the U.S. "I do know one thing," Lara says, his velvety voice suddenly turning devilish. "We're exactly 50 miles from the world's biggest roller coaster. Now that should be a blast."
It's an apt time to catch up with the 31-year-old dervish. If all goes as planned, the release next week of his new disc on Metro Blue, a start-up subsidiary of Blue Note Records that's distributed by Capitol, will put the singer/songwriter on the ultimate roller coaster: national, maybe international, fame. Although local fans have been swarming Lara's club shows for years, and area critics have long touted him as South Florida's artist most likely to succeed, Lara himself remains characteristically standoffish on the topic of fame and success. "If that happens, fine," he mutters. "But it's not something I'm reaching for. The music comes first. Everything else is shit."
That kind of artistic purism comes naturally to Lara, who spent much of his youth in Venezuela playing traditional South American music with his family and neighborhood friends, and giving little thought to pursuing a career in entertainment. While still in his teens, he and his Cuban-American parents and two brothers moved to Miami. In the mid-Eighties, Lara attended the University of Miami and fronted a rock band called K.R.U., which released two indie albums and relocated temporarily to New York City before disbanding. Upon his return to Miami, Lara formed Beluga Blue and released two independent discs: the 1994 album My First Child and a follow-up EP The Monkey.
A gushing February 1994 article in Billboard about My First Child triggered a scramble to sign Lara, whose fusion of Cuban and American pop and virtuosic voice has drawn comparisons to Elton John, Van Morrison, Billy Joel, and Paul Simon. No fewer than four labels began vying for his talents. "Once the article came out it was like everyone jumped on the bandwagon," Lara recalls. "They all wanted a piece of this new, bicultural thing that I'd been doing all my life." He took meetings with Miami music mogul Emilio Estefan, was schmoozed by honchos from Atlantic, and was courted by David Byrne, who flew to Miami in hope of signing Lara to his Warner Brothers imprimatur, Luaka Bop, a respected world-music label known for its eye-opening reissues as well as its contemporary releases by artists from Peru, Brazil, and Cuba. After all the wining and dining, Lara settled on Metro Blue. "They understood what I was about," he explains of his signing with the newcomer label. I told them, 'Look, I'm an artist and you've got to let me do my thing.' And their response was, 'Hey, that's why we want you.'"
The resulting disc, coproduced by Lara and Susan Rogers (whose previous credits include Byrne and Michael Penn), suggests the label made good on its word. It's his strongest work to date: The eleven songs showcase Lara's phenomenal ability to incorporate traditional Afro-Caribbean instruments and rhythms into accessible and instantly hummable pop. Six of the eleven songs appeared previously on Lara's Beluga Blue discs, but all of them -- save the lovely acoustic ballad "Vida Mas Simple" -- were re-recorded for his Metro Blue outing. And while the arrangements of these new versions have been pared down ("Strings and skins with no extra garbage" is how he describes the album), Lara has introduced a fleet of folkloric instruments into the mix. The layers of guitar that propelled his previous recording of the song "My First Child" are gone, replaced by spicy percussion generated by a half-dozen instruments, including the shaker, cabasa, beads, and a two-headed drum called the bata. The shimmering anthem "I Will Be Free" opens with the dulcet tones of Lara tickling a 1959 Philharmonic organ before building to a thunderous bata-fueled climax. The hypnotic organ sounds almost like a hurdy-gurdy on a smartly syncopated revamp of the mordant "Money Makes the Monkey Dance."
Lara himself plays more than a dozen instruments on the album, primarily the cautro (a four-stringed Venezuelan guitar Lara began strumming at age eight) and the tres, a Cuban guitar that he sometimes equips with bass strings for a more resonant sound. On "Fighting for My Love," Lara plays an instrument of his own invention: a National Triolian tres, basically a steel-bodied Dobro with tres strings, which adds an undulating zip to the song's jaunty tempo.
A second Dobro-tres hybrid -- with a wood, rather than a steel body -- appears on "Bar cents," Lara's mournful tribute to his late conguero, Florencio Bar cents. The song showcases Lara's expressive tenor, an instrument capable of leaping registers with grace and dipping low for throaty howls. His Spanish lyrics convey the debt he owes to Bar cents, Lara's spiritual mentor until he passed away in 1994: "La cara me queda fria/Tu sangre llena la mia" ("My face grows cold/Your blood fills mine").
With the exception of versatile drummer David Goodstein, Lara has parted ways, amicably, with the musicians who backed him in Beluga Blue (two of whom have toured recently with Jon Secada). Beluga guitarist Mark Vuksanovic, however, makes a delightful cameo on "Baby," turning in some bluesy Dobro slide work that chugs around Lara's gutsy belting. "Crawl," another new offering, is an oddly joyous ode to addiction that, like many Lara compositions, seamlessly combines English lyrics with a slangy Spanish refrain. Both songs draw from the rich tradition of Cuban son, the bedrock for nearly all of that nation's popular music. "Bleeding," a chiming mainstream rocker, essays the toll exacted by an unbalanced romance. The album closes with the primal-thumping "Mama's Chant," a Lara classic from his Miami nightclub days. Back then the song would often veer off into improv excursions that incorporated Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" and Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." The song has been streamlined here, yet it still tramples into a climactic riot of percussion, with Lara chanting in time to his own throbbing slide bass.
To help prepare American radio for Lara's Latin-rock fusion, Metro Blue has shipped a four-song sampler ("Bleeding," "Baby," "Money Makes the Monkey Dance," and "Fighting for My Love") to Adult Album Alternative stations. Their response will determine which of these cuts will be pitched as the album's first single. "They sent mostly stuff in English, so radio doesn't get misled and think we're just a Latin thing," Lara notes. "Obviously, we don't want to get labeled. I mean, in the end who cares where the fuck the music comes from?" Banking on crossover popularity in Spain and Latin America, Metro Blue will also be promoting a version of Lara's debut there that will feature two new Spanish-language cuts not included on the domestic edition: "Amor a Ti" and "Bonifacio," the latter dedicated to Lara's grandfather.  From: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/good-enough-for-mama-6361616

Red Sky July - Two Magicians

Red Sky July is the new project from three well-respected and lauded musicians. Consisting of husband and wife duo Ally McErlaine and Shelly Poole, and singer Charity Hair, Red Sky July is an entirely original debut album from a group with a phenomenal pedigree, all of whom have been steeped in music for as long as they can remember. With her sister Karen, Shelly Poole was one half of the million-selling duo Alisha’s Attic. The daughter of famed ‘60s artist Brian Poole, music was always around Shelly as a young child and she learned to read and compose music at a very early age. Since the band’s split in 2003 Shelly has gone on to become a successful songwriter for other artists, as well as releasing a solo album ‘Hard Time For The Dreamer.’
Ally McErlaine has had a guitar in his hand for most of his adult life. Sitting in his bedroom as a teenager and teaching himself how to play along to his favourite records, Ally joined Texas when he was just 17. He has been touring with them since 1988, selling over 15 million albums worldwide in the process. Ally and Shelly married in 2001.
Charity Hair hails from the small town of Plant City in Florida, and developed a love for playing music after being given a violin by her grandmother at the age of 8. Scouted by a modelling agency at the age of 18, Charity soon moved to London and ended up forming The Alice Band with two other girls she had met. It was during this time she first met Ally while performing on a TV show at the same time as Texas. Later she would become singer for The Ailerons, performing alongside drummer Dave Rowntree (Blur) – who had signed Shelly to his record label. Charity has previously performed at several of Shelly’s solo gigs, and the three have all kept in touch over the years, always wanting to work together but never quite finding the right moment or material until now.
Red Sky July came together to make music they love with no boundaries and expectations. It was set to be a 'soulfood' side project that would bring a few low key gigs and be a great contrast to their song writing day jobs. One day a week soon became five, and a group of songs with a hazy, folk-inflected sound soon found their way into shaping and becoming a whole album. The three of them then took these songs to Jazz Summers and Tim Parry at Big Life Management. With a roster of artists that includes Snow Patrol and The Verve, Summer and Parry were impressed and enlisted Rory Carlile to produce the entire album.
Yet there was a two-year break where the entire project was put on standby – Ally suffered a major brain aneurysm and was in a critical state for over a year. Finally reconvening last summer and drafting in new band member Mark Neary, Red Sky July were ready to resume where they left off. Relocating to Bristol, they recorded the album live to capture the sense of danger and fragility that playing together in the same room at the same time brings.
Red Sky July is an astonishingly assured debut album, born out of the pleasure and satisfaction of three like-minded souls creating exactly the music they hear in their heads. That such a project can touch universally only testifies to their creative spirit and abilities.  From: http://www.proper-records.co.uk/artists/red-sky-july/

Marillion - Lavender Blue

"Lavender" is a song by the British neo-prog band Marillion. It was released as the second single from their 1985 UK number one concept album Misplaced Childhood. The follow-up to the UK number two hit "Kayleigh", the song was their second Top Five UK hit. As with all Marillion albums and singles between 1982 and 1988, the cover art was created by Mark Wilkinson.
The song features a number of verses that are reminiscent of the folk song "Lavender's Blue". The song forms part of the concept of the Misplaced Childhood album. Like "Kayleigh" it is a love song, but whereas "Kayleigh" was about the failure of an adult relationship, "Lavender" recalls the innocence of childhood; The childhood theme also brought up the idea of utilising an old children's song and "Lavender" was an obvious contender as one of the original pop songs of its time. The opening lines "I was walking in the park dreaming of a spark, when I heard the sprinklers whisper, shimmer in the haze of summer lawns" deliberately recall the title track of Joni Mitchell's album The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
Unusually for a rock song from the mid-1980s, "Lavender" features a traditional grand piano rather than an electronic keyboard or electric piano. In the music video, keyboardist Mark Kelly is seen playing a Bechstein but the original sleeve notes of the Misplaced Childhood album state that a Bösendorfer was used for the recording.
On the album Misplaced Childhood, "Lavender" is a short track of barely two and a half minutes, forming part of a longer suite that continues into the likewise multi-portioned track "Bitter Suite", which repeats Lavender's musical motif at the end. In order to be suitable for a single release, the track therefore needed to be re-arranged and extended. As a result, the 7" version is significantly longer than the album version (3:40 as opposed to 2:27), whereas the 12" version – entitled "Lavender Blue" – is 4:18.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_(Marillion_song)  

June Rich - Wait It's U

WXPN will welcome June Rich to the Ardmore Music Hall on June 20th. The folk rock band was integral in the local music scene of the nineties, releasing two records and performing at the opening night of the Electric Factory in 1996.
The band’s list of accolades continued with a Philadelphia Magazine Best Band in Philadelphia award, a Folk Fest main stage slot (the only local band to fill that position in 1996), a performance on Mountain Stage and numerous other festival appearances. In anticipation of this reunion, which marks the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut LP, bassist Garry Lee, singer/guitarist Vanida Gail and guitarist Allen James looked back on the beginning of their career:
“Back in 1994-95, there was a burgeoning music scene that was centered around Manayunk and specifically the Grape Street Pub,” said Lee. “It was the center for a lot of up-and-coming singer-songwriters and for bands at the time.”
“Who can really say why anything catches fire? I have no idea,” added Gail. “I just know we were having a blast onstage, just singing together. The band was sounding great. We were all just having fun and maybe the audience felt that.” As for the idea of reuniting, James said “I’m totally looking forward to it” and added, “as far as I understand, there are going to be a couple of new tunes and it’s always good to have something new.”  From: https://xpn.org/2015/04/28/june-rich-reunion/

Crypt Trip - To Be Whole

For some in the music world, the sixties never really ended and this is especially true with Crypt Trip’s Haze Country. Both a throwback and refreshing, Haze Country (Heavy Psych Sounds) lets us sit back and relive the good old days of psychedelics, marijuana and hippie Shenanigans. Even from the album cover: the aesthetic and nostalgic tinged photograph of the band mounted on motorbikes, it really does feel like this record was lost in time and it’s only just been rediscovered in your Dad’s cupboard of old LPs.
What separates Crypt Trip from other nostalgia-tinged acts such as Greta Van Fleet is that Crypt Trip aren’t purely imitating past successful acts and hoping it sells today due to the listening publics forgetfulness of musical history: everything on Haze Country is genuine and, although clearly influenced by that era, it’s not a rip off by any stretch of the imagination.
With long sixties improvisational-inspired instrumental passages, timeless-sounding riffs, gruff raw vocals and genuine musicality, Crypt Trip are the real deal. Combining Southern Rock characteristics with a psychedelic-infused mentality, songs like ‘Hard Times’, ‘Free Rain’ and ‘Wordshot’, Haze Country balances between being Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Beatles at the same time which a dream-like combination especially when put together in such a unique package.
’16 Ounce Blues’ and ‘Pastures’ sound like they should be playing in an old western saloon perched in the middle of the desert as the sun slowly sets on the barren plains surrounding them. It’s idyllic, to say the least, and the band’s time machine is fully captivating especially within these two songs.
So, if you find yourself in an open top car in the middle of southern USA and you’re looking to have a soundtrack to your escape from your small town, let Crypt Trip’s Haze Country jump in the wagon, drive for hours and never look back.  From: https://ghostcultmag.com/album-review-crypt-trip-haze-country-heavy-psych-sounds/

Beausoleil - Austin City Limits 1990

 Beausoleil - Austin City Limits 1990 - Part 1

 

 Beausoleil - Austin City Limits 1990 - Part 2

 

Michael Doucet is a fiddle master. Doucet formed BeauSoleil in 1975. Michael recently wrote in to discuss how he became interested in playing the fiddle, his favorite Jazz Fest memories and his passion for Cajun music and culture.

Did you cone from a musical family? Were your parents musical?


All of my dad’s sisters sang but from my aunt Lena I learned many
 Cajun French ballads… from my uncle Ti Will Knight, I learned how to 
play fiddle (his fiddle is in the LA State Museum in Baton Rouge) from
 my mom’s side I learned to read music and play jazz.

How did you become interested in playing fiddle?


My uncle (above) played and took the time to show me a few songs. I 
wanted a guitar but the fiddle was so strange and intriguing to me; 
the way you had to use your hands were so different; bow arm and
fingering…I loved the diverse sounds you could make and the way it
 felt holding it….there were too many kid relatives so I never had a
 fiddle of my own until I was 21.

How did BeauSoleil first come together?


Just some friends from around Scott, LA who were interested in the the
 vanishing old Acadian French style of our heritage.  Kenneth Richard,
 Bessyl Duhon and I were the core of BeauSolel.  I was asked to perform 
for two weeks in France in 1976 and was asked for a group name.
 Remembering my childhood family reunion visits at BeauSoleil (the
house of Armand Broussard, Joeseph (BeauSoleil’s son) left a lasting 
impression of the continuing lineage of my Acadian roots.  While we
were in Paris, we were given the opportunity to record our first
 album, “BeauSoleil… la Nuit” for EMI, Pathe Marconi.  We’ve been touring, recording and teaching group of musicians ever since then.

You have played many classic sets at Jazz Fest. What do you love about
Jazz Fest?


In the 1970s, I loved the openness of the festival…..how you could 
walk to different stages, get a good seat, listen for a while then
 move on to something else.  I’ve always enjoyed playing there with
 BeauSoleil for the past thrity-six years as well as the Savoy-Doucet
 Cajun band and others. I also like the Heritage and the musician 
camaraderie aspect… seeing/meeting the greats like Dennis McGee, 
James Booker, Thelonius Monk, the Meters, traditional New Orleans Jazz
bands, Gospel, Doug Kershaw etc.

What have been some of your favorite memories of Jazz Fest?

Too many of those really… I’d say playing both weekends with
 Coteau in 1976, performing with Freeman Fontenot & Bois Sec Ardoin in
1980, having Richard Thompson and Sonny Landreth joining us in 2001,
 sitting in with Tab Benoit, Dr John etc and the Wetlands All stars a 
few years ago, playing the RayBand stage and getting free sunglasses,
 running into and chatting with David Hildago, Allen Toussaint, John 
Fogarty, hearing Sun Ra, Dr. Michael White, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell,
 and the list goes on…

What inspires you lyrically?


Silly puns.

How do you go about creating music?


I pick up an instrument and try to play what I’m hearing/feeling and 
inspired to say.


What are your hobbies outside of music?


Meditating, walking and enjoying the ever changing wonder of life.

You are passionate about spreading Cajun music and culture to as many
people as possible. What do you love about Cajun music and culture?


I love the fact that I grew up speaking French and being of Acadian 
decent from both sides of my family.  I grew up in the countryside on
a farm and had many friends and relatives nearby making my childhood 
ideal.  When at LSU in 1969, I found Irene Whitfield’s 1939
 dissertation on Acadian and Creole music which led me to do more 
research, making a lasting friendship with Irene, and fueling my 
desire to discover more and more the roots, power and creativity of
our music.  I was lucky to be around to learn from the Master
musicians who were born in the 1890s and were among the first Acadian 
artists to record in the 1920’s and 30’s. The Acadian story is quite 
unique and amazing and being a part of such a unique group and part of
 the world allows me to both follow my ancestors yet seek artistic 
development in the moment.

You’ve some a lot of research into the history of Cajun music and
studied with many of the great masters of Cajun music, such as Dennis
McGee. What do you feel is the most important advice you’ve learned
from these masters?


Simply, to be who you are…

Do you have a favorite quote or motto that you live by?


On vas les embéter! (We’re going to irritate them).

What do you feel is your place in music history?


I think I’ll wait until I’m dead to even approach that one… not quite
 dead yet! I was in the right place at the right time with the right intention to 
learn, document and share the origins of French Music in Louisiana

From: https://mcclainjohnson.com/michael-doucet-interview/

 

Teke-Teke - Gotoku Lemon

So many bands and artists are currently going for a blend of genres, very often those that seemingly don't go together. If such blends don't work out, you get a mish mash of disparate sounds that somehow don’t mesh. On the other hand, when such combinations work, you get a musical kaleidoscope that brings something new and fresh. Yet, for such a “musical trick”, if you will, to work, such a band or artist really have to know the genres they are combining down to a pat and truly want to involve themselves in the music they are creating.
TEKE::TEKE, Montreal's seven piece collective, are definitely a band (in true sense of that word) that have been trying to combine many genres together, often in a single song, since its inception (two albums and two singles ago), something that they bring to heady heights on Hagata, their latest. So, what have we got here? With their solid base in all forms of Japanese music - folk, quite felt in the opener “Garakuta,” to J-pop (“Onaji Heya”) and J-funky jazz (“Hoppe”). Throughout though, they garner their music with heavy doses of all forms of psych, garage, and surf, to brass rock and prog (“Me No Heya”).
Such a combination also requires some hefty, precise musicianship and Sei Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar, synth, percussion, additional vocals), Hidetaka Yoneyama (guitar, backing vocals), Mishka Stein (bass, synth, percussion, guitar, backing vocals), Ian Lettre (drums, percussion, synth, piano, backing vocals), Etienne Lebel (trombone, gaida, percussion, backing vocals), Yuki Isami (flute, shinobue, taisho koto, synth, backing vocals), Maya Kuroki (vocals, guitar) are at their best here. Kuroki's vocals lead the way, particularly prominent on the excellent title track/lead single. The sound TEKE::TEKE create on Hagata will take them everywhere.  From: http://post-trash.com/news/2023/6/8/teketeke-hagata-album-review

Nephila - Growing Down

Describe your sound – If you had to describe it, what’s your style, ethos or sound like? 


Intriguing, intricate… forest-rock?

How did you get together as a band?


That is a long and unfortunately not very cool or exciting story.

What are your career highlights so far?


Definitely the time we played at Hamnfesten. It’s a quite large Swedish festival, and even though we performed at the “small stage” it still felt huge. Our stage show is a perfect fit for that type of space, and it just felt right…also, we got some really great food and drinks and we’re NOT used to that type of luxury.

How has your sound evolved?


It’s more rock n’ roll now, it used to be even more psychedelic I would say.

What are your plans for 2021-22? Any live shows coming up?


Yeah, we actually do have a gig here in Sweden (Linköping, 4/8). Other than that, we’re mostly focusing on writing new music.

Do you have any band or individual preparations before you go on stage, to psych you up or get you in the zone? 


For me, makeup is quite a big thing. It’s not that I love makeup very much, most of the time it’s just an inconvenience to me. But when you’re about to step on stage it’s different because it helps with character. Nephila is a whole show you know? I couldn’t imagine pulling it off without that moment of sitting down and having a chat with Josephine while we transform into something else.

How do you energise the audience in a live show?


The work starts long before you actually start performing. You gotta (try to) make sure that your material has the nerve and the dynamic it takes to keep the audience on their toes I think. Not only the music; things such as lighting, props, setlist and talks play a part as well. A common misconception I think, is that a good musician has the talent to pull anything of at any time – creating magic without even thinking about it. But that’s not necessarily true. A lot of musicians are perfectionists and what might look natural and spontaneous on stage may actually be made possible by a lot of rehearsing, rethinking and practicing. The reward is that sweet sensation of being mentally kidnapped by a moment, along with the audience. Everything flows without distraction, and the excitement never fades.

How does the writing process work as a band? Is it a joint venture? Or does one person tend to do most of the writing? Is it lyrics first or music first? 


Music first most of the time. Usually, someone comes up with a riff or presents a basic idea that we try to make use of. Anyone is welcome to get involved and people contribute in their own way. But after a while, we usually split up so that me and Josephine can focus on lyrics and harmonies while the guys focus on developing and perfecting the song. We actually write quite a lot of lyrics together since we think alike in many ways.

How do you make sure you all feel comfortable with a new track?


We don’t go forth with stuff that a person doesn’t feel like they’re able to pull off. Sometimes we find a way around it and also, a lot of times people challenge themselves because they want to.

What inspires you most in writing music and/or lyrics?


I can’t speak for all of us, but I think Josephine and I are inspired by everything that feels important to us. It’s a lot easier writing lyrics when it’s something you really care about, because you know what it is that you want to say.

There are a lot of you, how would you describe your relationships within the band?


Quite Swedish. That’s up to you to interpret any way you like. Also, we joke around a whole lot. We all seem to have a shared sense of humour.

What role did music play in your childhood/ growing up?


A big part, as it does for all kids. Music is such a natural part of being a human I think, and kids are like the most “human” humans that you’ll ever meet.

Who do you most admire on the scene at the moment, and why?


I’ll be honest with you I’m not very good at name dropping… BUT, I do know that a beloved band amongst several of us is Rival Sons.

What advice would you give to someone just starting their own band?


You’re never gonna find people who think and act exactly like you. Let go of your ego, the important thing is not where you end up – it’s creating something of substance along the way.

Which decade had the best music? Do you all agree or is it mixed?


I bet it’s mixed, but I like everything 70’s and 80’s.

How do you balance the band, recording, touring and practice, with things like work and family? 

It’s all about being realistic and prioritizing I think. Sometimes you sacrifice something to focus on the band, sometimes it’s the opposite – and that’s fine. There’s no need to try and be some kind of superhuman, most of the time it just makes you annoying. There is a saying, I don’t remember the origin but it’s quite funny to me: “If you work as hard as you possibly can, and never give up – there are no limits as to how much you can exhaust yourself!”

From: https://mmhradio.co.uk/interview-with-nephila/

Tomorrow - My White Bicycle

"My White Bicycle" is a song written by Keith West and Ken Burgess. It was Tomorrow's debut single. According to Tomorrow drummer John 'Twink' Alder, the song was inspired by the Dutch Provos, an anarchist group in Amsterdam which instituted a bicycle-sharing system: "They had white bicycles in Amsterdam and they used to leave them around the town. And if you were going somewhere and you needed to use a bike, you'd just take the bike and you'd go somewhere and just leave it. Whoever needed the bikes would take them and leave them when they were done." The group recorded "My White Bicycle" in Abbey Road studio 1, at the same time as The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in studio 2, and John Lennon entered the studio while Tomorrow were recording. Lennon wrote in the British international music magazine Melody Maker that he considered the song to be the "psychedelic anthem", and the song subsequently became an underground hit. For the whistle on the track, the band went out into the street in front of Abbey Road Studios and asked a policeman to come in and blow his whistle into the microphone, despite the fact that the band members were all smoking illegal drugs during the session.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_White_Bicycle

Iris DeMent - Let The Mystery Be

Singer/Songwriter Iris DeMent’s song, “Let The Mystery Be” was recorded on her 1992 album “Infamous Angel.” The song, eerily enough, almost perfectly portrays the plot of the 2014 HBO drama “The Leftovers.” The TV show “The Leftovers” is based on the sudden disappearance of 2% of the world’s population, on October 14th, 2011. The following 3 seasons are based around how the remainder of the world adapts to living after 140 million people unexplainably disappeared. Since nobody can seem to figure out the true answer as to why the disappearances took place, it’d probably better that they just let the mystery be. The irony is the reason the producers of “The Leftovers” decided to make “Let The Mystery Be” the shows theme song for the second season.  From: https://genius.com/Iris-dement-let-the-mystery-be-lyrics

Born in Arkansas and raised in Los Angeles, Iris DeMent has a voice with a vibrato-infused twang that purrs and bucks, and her songcraft has always remained full of heart and earthly spirituality. This song, which opened her outstanding 1993 debut, Infamous Angel, is an object lesson, weighing ideas about heaven, purgatory, and the afterlife, then sensibly throwing up her hands: “No one knows for certain and so it’s all the same to me/I think I’ll just let the mystery be.” It launched a marvelously unconventional career that’s veered from gospel standards to protest songs to an LP inspired by Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (The Trackless Woods). “Let the Mystery Be” would become a standard of its own; one recent cover was delivered by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy on his Starship Casual Substack. From:  https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/the-200-greatest-country-songs-of-all-time-60414/luke-combs-beer-never-broke-my-heart-60427/

Fairport Convention - Polly On The Shore

Fairport Convention - Nine: This is actually one of Fairport's more "progressive" albums. The lineup included a really good singer, Trevor Lucas, whose mellow baritone is most suitable. The lineup also included American guitar whiz Jerry Donahue (later of the Hellecasters, not Hellacopters), who lays down some mind-blowing licks. Three tracks are proggy highlights: "Polly on the Shore", which contains a wicked wah wah violin solo, "Bring 'Em Down", a long original which has a very atmospheric extended middle section, and "To Althea From Prison" which is based on a historical letter and is a nice ballad which would not be out of place on any 70s prog album. The rest of the album contains the usual jiggy instrumentals, traditional songs, and an upbeat 50s-style rocker in "Possibly Parsons Green". Only "Big William" seems like a holdover from the horribly jaunty "Rosie" album. It's one of of the band's least folky albums, but one of their more stylistically experimental and definitely one of the best in a rather spotty, if always entertaining discography.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=10094

Cocteau Twins - Lorelei

The former members of Cocteau Twins have been on their own longer than the prolific sixteen years they were together as a band. They went from being scrappy teenage runaways from small-town Scotland to heavy rotation on the BBC’s coveted John Peel Show in mere months. Within a few years they were among the most beloved post-punk indie bands in the UK, with a growing international following and a music press that couldn’t quite find the words, and really never did. The twist was they could barely pin it down themselves, much to the frustration of just about every journalist who tried to interview them. They never claimed to be waiting for a muse to inspire them, and disavowed any idea of a grand design, concept, or intention behind their music. Questions of relevance seemed lost on them, too. Relevance, as far as Cocteau Twins’ music goes, is truly in the ear of the beholder: It’s what the listener makes of it, whatever the time or place. In most ways, their music remains unmoored from such things — as if they’d lived sealed off from the rest of the world, sending out the occasional musical missive. They existed in a category by themselves — one they created.
Others have tried to reproduce or capture their sound, with limited success. The few artists who have succeeded sound mostly unlike them, but have managed to convey an essence: inspiration without imitation (think Beach House, Goldfrapp, Sigur Rós, or even M83). Cocteau Twins were a foundational influence for whole categories of music, notably dream-pop and shoegaze — forms that have themselves found new 21st-century audiences. Given their association with 4AD’s early crop of bands like The Birthday Party and Bauhaus (and the comparisons to Siouxsie & the Banshees), they also became and continue to be a staple of goth, though they mostly eschewed goth’s trappings.
Years later, in a world exploding with musical creativity, output, and listening sources, the Cocteaus’ music brings its own kind of relevance — again, if that means anything anymore — as they are rediscovered by people, mostly of a younger generation, yearning for something seminal or transcendent. (The song “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” played an important role in the novel and young adult film, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” as recently as 2012; in 2020 Heaven or Las Vegas was ranked among the most important albums of all time by more than one media outlet.) It is a testament to the timelessness of their sound and production quality that many new fans don’t even know that the story actually started in 1979, or that the trio formerly known as Cocteau Twins long ago moved on to new endeavours. Even now, younger fans enquire regularly about “the next album” or “upcoming live shows.”  From: https://cocteautwins.com/introduction.html

Wolf People - Night Witch

AD 2016 and England is in flux. This bastard island is divided, shot through with doubt and self-loathing, ruled by the feverish egos of passing power hungry dilettantes, two-bit aristocrats and smiling psychopaths. Swathes of the country have been sold off, paved over, neon-lit. England is at war with itself and this time the enemy is in the mirror. The people require a new narrative. A new soundtrack. They need to feel the pull of history and navigate a new path through the morass of misinformation. Emerging from the woodlands, river-banks and the dales like the grizzled ‘green men’ resistance fighters of the post-Norman invasions, the spirit-raising purveyors of pagan folk psyche prog Wolf People return to provide exactly just that.
Ruins is their new album, and its over-riding theme is that of nature reclaiming the land. The transcendence of life over politics, plants over people. It asks: where are we going and what comes next? If culture is history’s narration, then Wolf People are custodians and conduits; electrified sages, if you will. Through them runs a time-line of a nation rising from bloody glory to existentialist confusion. Yet within Ruins, their album proper, lies a spirit of hope too, it is a reminder that society is no match for the mighty power of music and nature working in perfect symbiosis. Wolf People are time travelers, their tools mythology, history, hauntology, big riffs, bigger beats, electricity.
“It’s not a concept album, but a lot of the songs consider what the world might be like without humans,” says singer/guitarist Jack Sharp. “The title refers to the ruins of civilisation. I suppose like many people – especially now – we’re constantly veering towards complete frustration with the human race one moment, and celebrating all the positive things about humanity the next. The aim was to try and portray that without sounding too trite or preachy.”
Lyrically Ruins imagines how the planet might appear when society has finally fallen to dust and ash, and the creeping vines and nettles have reclaimed the land. It is the product of letting go of conceit, contrivance and, indeed, a career plan. For following the release of 2013’s acclaimed Fain, and a tough year for all concerned, frontman Jack Sharp considered giving up. Out of this doubt came a wellspring of new ideas that could only be recorded by Wolf People. The universe had spoken. It was written in the runes.  From: https://jagjaguwar.com/artist/wolfpeople/ 

Jefferson Airplane - Wally Heider Studios 1970

Jefferson Airplane - Wally Heider Studios 1970 - Part 1

 

 Jefferson Airplane - Wally Heider Studios 1970 - Part 2

Today (October 30), marks the legendary Grace Slick’s 80th birthday. While she is best known for her work as a vocalist in the seminal San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, Grace got her start in Bay Area group The Great Society in 1965. Somewhat frustrated with the lack of direction in The Great Society, Slick would soon replace singer Signe Toly Anderson in Jefferson Airplane.
Jefferson Airplane would go on to score two Top 10 hits with songs that Slick originally penned while she was in The Great Society: “White Rabbit” and “Someone To Love.” These songs and others made Grace’s powerful mezzo-soprano voice iconic in rock history. Slick and the Airplane were also involved in the socio-political activism of the time and their 1969 album, Volunteers, showcased their revolutionary spirit.
Renowned sound engineer Wally Heider, who was integral in capturing the sound of a number of late ’60s San Francisco bands, recorded Volunteers at his state-of-the-art studio. Among guests appearing on the album are Jerry Garcia, Stephen Stills, David Crosby and famed session pianist Nicky Hopkins (The Rolling Stones).
After the album’s release in November of 1969, Airplane returned to Heider’s studio in early 1970 to capture a number of the songs from Volunteers live on film including “We Can Be Together,” the title track and the Paul Kantner/ Crosby/Stills co-write “Wooden Ships.” The live performance includes classics like “Somebody To Love,” “Plastic Fantastic Lover” and more. The band also chats about the heady times they found themselves in.  From: https://www.jambase.com/article/jefferson-airplane-wally-heiders-studio-1970

 

The Rolling Stones - Hide Your Love

Hide Your Love: Mick Jagger was playing piano between sessions when engineer Andy Johns encouraged him to record what he was working on, and that became the basic track. The Stones recorded the song in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at De Doelen, a concert hall rather than a studio proper. Jagger's voice bleeds through from when he was singing on the piano track. You can hear it with headphones. The album this song is from, Goat's Head Soup, is considered by some fans to be the very last album of the Stones' "golden age." While most critics liked it, the immortal Lester Bangs spoke of the sadness that hung about the Stones, coming from when you "measure not just one album, but the whole sense they're putting across now against what they once meant." It was also the first album the Stones had recorded with only all-new original material in six years.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-rolling-stones/hide-your-love

Kontiki Suite - Bring Our Empire Down

At a time when music is marketed as merely something to be consumed, like tins of beans, it seems that great songs, played and recorded with warmth and emotion are overlooked. So it is great to see the many very positive reviews, in the UK and internationally, that Kontiki Suite’s On Sunset Lake has gathered. My enjoyment of the CD led me to the bands website, where the experience is enhanced by the visual impact of the videos which impeccably reflect and enhance the songs.
I was determined to find out more about the Kontiki Suite and how they created this musical gem. Happily for me Craig [Craig Bright – keyboards & percussion] and Jonny [Jonny Singh – guitars, lap steel & backing vocals] from the band gave me some of their time to chat about the creation of the CD and how they achieved a warmth and clarity that is both vintage and modern. Something not often heard in contemporary recordings.

Firstly, I want to say how much I enjoyed the album.

Jonny: Thanks for the kind words. We’ve been absolutely blown away by the response we’ve had. It’s weird, we really never knew how folks would respond to it, but it really seems to have been embraced by like-minded music lovers.

My particular favourite song is Magic Carpet Ride, both the original and remix versions are great. It achieves that rare feat of being both familiar and new at the same time. There is some great guitar on Magic Carpet Ride. However, it is the longest track on the album. What was the reason for choosing it as the single? Hollywood, for example, struck me as being a more likely candidate for a single and may have wider appeal.

Jonny: We’ve been ending our live sets with Carpet Ride since, pretty much, the beginning and it quickly became a live favourite. It was usually the track that most people would be buzzing about after gigs. I think its crossover potential helped us out on occasion too if we were playing showcase type gigs to a varied audience. I think the track has got longer and longer over the years. I’m sure we’ve even clocked in a 20 minute version on occasion but managed to restrain ourselves to under 9 minutes for the album.
I don’t recall there ever being a discussion about singles, as I’m not really sure if we ever planned to release one as such. If there was then this was made easy for us anyway as Richard Norris had produced a great remix of it and kindly released it as a double A side on his 5D record label.

Craig: Jonny is right, in that there was no conscious decision to release a single, let alone for it to be Magic Carpet Ride. I guess I understood that in order to make any waves in a music world increasingly awash with all types of self-released music, good and bad, we had to make a statement from the get go. To do so, asking a well-respected DJ in Richard Norris to put his stamp on our 9 minute set closer was an obvious choice. As contrary to the norm as that is.
Richard, as one half of Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve with Erol Alkan, had given me some memorable nights at Glastonbury spinning their take on 60s psych and garage tunes as well as great re-edits of more recent folkier stuff by Midlake and Findlay Brown. The decision to release it as a double AA side 12″ was, again, the obvious thing to do because we wanted DJs out there to pick up on the ‘dancier’ mix by Richard and be able to play it at its best, on vinyl.

I felt that Magic Carpet Ride had a bit of a Madchester vibe going on. How did you come to write it?

Jonny: I wrote the track when I was living in Manchester and back when I was only really a part-time member of the band, if I recall correctly. I’d only recently finished producing the first Kontiki demos, so it must have been 2007. I think even from the moment of strumming the chords on the acoustic, I knew what sound I wanted from it. It came from an appreciation of what Ben [Ben Singh lead vocals and guitar] had already been writing for the band and our more obvious 60s influences. It also came from our, or really ‘my’, less obvious influences from early 90s shoegaze bands like Ride, Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine. I’d also been spinning Notorious Byrd Brothers heavily at the time, which all helped the trippy swirling grooves and harmonies of Carpet Ride just fall into place, even in the first demo I put together of it. In fact, that demo is probably more psychedelic than the proper version.

Where and how did you record the album? Was it a local studio and if so do you think familiar surroundings contributed to the warm feel of the album? The production is very supportive of the songs. Did you get involved or if a producer was used, were they known to you before recording? 
 
Jonny: We recorded the album ourselves between our rehearsal room and my basement studio, so really recording technique decisions were kind of made easy by what equipment I had. The number of available mics and inputs was usually the main factor. Having our own studio was a huge benefit to achieving the right sound. It allowed us to take our time to get it all just how we wanted it. Although, sometimes this luxury can lead to too much time being taken.

Did you record any of the songs as a band, with overdubs as required or did you all lay down your parts individually? I feel some of the warmth that comes through in the songs is not just the recording techniques but also to do with closeness of the band.

Jonny: Initial tracking was generally performed as a 3 or 4 piece to get the drums down at the right tempo and groove. Everything else was then tracked individually to get the best performances down. We are generally a well-rehearsed band anyway so I think that adds to capturing that “closeness” sound that you mention. A lot of recording techniques went into it too. I experimented with “vintage” mic’ing techniques, for want of a better description, such as only mic’ing up the kit in mono with 3 mics, which I think adds a lot to the sound of the album.

From: https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/interviews/kontiki-suite-the-north-west-coast-sound/