Indigo Girls - Strange Fire - Live on Nightmusic 1989

I'm not aware of Amy Ray ever explaining the meaning of this song, but what I get from it is commentary on being gay and interacting with Christian churches. The phrase "strange fire" comes from a puzzling biblical passage theologians have often struggled to make sense of in a modern context. It describes two sons of Aaron who bring an offering to the altar, and their god not only rejects their offering, but kills them for it:
Leviticus 10:1 reads: And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. So what is this "strange fire"? Modern interpretations say that Nadab and Abihu brought incense that had been lit elsewhere, disobeying a rule that only incense lit at the altar itself could be offered.
Amy connects herself to the incense with "the incense of my soul is burned/by the fire in my blood." What's her offering? Her love. "I make an offering of love/I come to you with strange fire."
Yet, the church rejects it. It tells her she's brought the wrong kind of love. I'm interpreting here, but I think that she's probably referencing her sexuality - she offers up what's in her soul, and she's told it's wrong. She puts herself in the shoes of Nadab and Abihu here.
She goes on to condemn the preachers who've rejected her, with her "mercenaries of the shrine/now who are you to speak from god?" She ends in a place where self-love helps her get over the rejection "when you learn to love yourself/you will disolve all the stones that are cast." There she finds "a peace that will take you higher." And it doesn't come from rejecting her own sexuality, but embracing it. At the end of the song, she's still saying "I come to you with my offering/I bring you strange fire." So she's not adapting to the church's view that her offering, her love, is wrong. She's defiantly embracing it and challenging others to explain how they can possibly speak for god in rejecting it. It's a gorgeous, painful song, and my interpretation of it isn't based on anything I've ever heard Amy say.  From: https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858880503/

Tonic - Open Up Your Eyes

“If You Could Only See” was both the song that put Tonic on the map, and the one that put the bullet in their career.  If you’re over a certain age, you remember the powerful and tasteful ballad from when it hit the charts in 1997.  I had the album already.  I bought it when it first came out, after reading a glowing review in the local paper and seeing a used copy pop in at the Record Store.  Finding Jack Joseph Puig’s name in the producer credits got my attention too.
Tonic’s debut Lemon Parade is a great sounding CD, thanks to Puig and the richly arranged guitars of Emerson Hart and Jeff Russo.  When the guitars are center stage, all is well.  The opening duo of “Open Up Your Eyes” and “Casual Affair” have the punch that people don’t always associate with Tonic.  These guys could play.  “Casual Affair” in particular has angst and emotion ripping out of those six-strings.  When they get heavy, like on “Wicked Soldier”, there is always something bright and chiming going on with backing guitars.  Check out “Celtic Aggression” for a fine example of their guitar expertise. Emerson Hart has an emotive voice, whether rocking out or serenading the ballads.
It’s the ballads the people remember, and you have to admit that when you break it down, “If You Could Only See” is a fantastic song.  Layers of chiming, chugging and sliding guitars are right there beneath the core melodies.  On the mandolin-infused “Mountain”, plus “Soldier’s Daughter” and “Lemon Parade”, you can absolutely hear old-tyme southern influences creeping through.  Tonic have traits that sound as if from another era in many ways.  These are actually great songs, largely forgotten because of that one hit.  From: https://mikeladano.com/2017/06/07/review-tonic-lemon-parade-1996/

Odetta Hartman - Goldilocks

Perfection or personality? When it comes to music there's only one option for Odetta Hartman, the ballet of chance will always win out over metronomic precision. For her, the joy of music is found in the creases; in the crisp snapping rouse of a happy accident, in a misread map or in the impromptu sound of a misplaced hand or foot or word. Who needs precision, when you can capture something much more visceral and palpable than machinery.
Hartman's quest for the perfect imperfect includes Icelandic seagulls and kitchen utensils. Why use a drum, when a whisk will do the trick? Hartman is as much an inquisitor as she is a musician. Her songs are her accounts of her explorations. The sounds she collects are snapshots of feelings and textures and rhythms that resonate with her in a way a photograph never could. Here she takes her cues from the great American musicologist, Alan Lomax, but what she collects is very much the world through her own microphone.

<<GP>> The album features field recordings of seagulls in Iceland and construction workers in Mexico. You could've recorded seagulls or construction workers anywhere, what was it about those circumstances that made you think these seagulls, these labourers?

No matter where I go, I've gotten into the habit of recording snippets of soundscapes as a way to preserve memories of places & moments - sonic souvenirs, if you will. On this current Euro Tour, I've captured the sounds of a creaking swing next to the graffiti-ed remnants of the Berlin Wall, a group sing-a-long at a silent disco in Utrecht, and giggles in the back of the sprinter van with our tour mates. It has almost turned into a game, a treasure hunt of sorts.

<<GP>> Did your love of field recordings stem from your studies of Alan Lomax for your thesis or did your thesis on Alan Lomax stem from your love of field recordings?

My love of field recordings was definitely activated while working on my thesis & studying the Lomax archives - but it was my love for Jack Inslee, my partner & producer, that inspired the incorporation of field recordings into the album. His background is in digital production & our mutual obsession with field recordings linked his modernist tendencies with my old-timey interests.

<<GP>> Field recording have come a long way from a Presto to a Zoom H4N. Do you think Lomax would approve of what we've decided to record for posterity?

Lomax would likely be tickled by the ease with which anyone can record these days, whether on a zoom or even an iPhone - but I think what sets his legacy apart from those of other musicologists was his ability to hone in & highlight authentic, honest expression. Modern culture is over-saturated with content, so now we are faced with the greater curatorial challenge of parsing through the excess to find the truly unique gems.

<<GP>> The beats on your latest album were recorded in the kitchen, often utilising improvised instruments to get the sounds you wanted. Why did the kitchen become the rhythmic heartbeat of the album?

Old Rockhounds was recorded in our home studio & I literally wrote a bunch of the songs while Jack was cooking dinner. Our house provided a canvas and raw materials, which is why I think the album inherently has such an intimate vibe.

<<GP>> What types of objects did you use to create these beats and why did you opt to use these over conventional percussion instruments?

Our percussive experiments were born out of necessity for lack of having a drummer with us in the studio (except for "Freedom" which was morphed from a recording we made of my band mate Alex Friedman, playing kitchen bowls!)
The sonic vernacular that Jack & I developed was intent on maintaining organic sounds, even in a digital realm, which forced us to get creative with our sampling. Pepper grinders, scissors, steel mixing bowls, keys, metal scraps, de-tuned violins, bowed banjos & street sounds all played a part in creating the worlds for the songs.

<<GP>> It would be easy for a project that relies so heavily on melding the old and the new and the forgotten and the found to crumble in the rigid pursuit of perfection. How important are the imperfections and accidents, both good and bad, in giving the record a sense of substance?

Perfect is the enemy of good - and though we definitely slaved away on certain tracks (Sweet Teeth), a handful of songs from the album were actually one-take demos (Old Rockhounds & Honey). Determined to stay true to our authentic selves, Jack & I always preferred to run with raw takes over polished attempts at perfection. Mistakes are essential to my songwriting process: a wrong chord can lead to a new perspective and often inspires surprisingly new directions in a composition.

<<GP>> What are your favourite imperfect moments on the record?

Widow's Peak remains my favourite song from the record, thanks to a happy accident that triggered 40 violin tracks at once. The cacophony created a wall of sound that still stirs my heart every time I perform the tune.

<<GP>> The unconventional alignment of sounds allows you to tackle a large range of genres without jarring the listener's ear. You You and Smoke Break for instance could easily be R'n'B songs, what's your favourite curveball to date?

As an audiophile, I find inspiration in so many places, genres, histories... Smoke Break was casually recorded on the couch, jokingly singing my middle school principle's catchphrases over a beat Jack was working on. I love the song because it feels so free & fun!

<<GP>>  Moving away from the accidental stardust that permeates your work, the workhorse instrument throughout is the violin. What first attracted you to the violin and why did you decide to make it the linchpin of your creative process?

I started playing classical violin at age 4, inspired by my big brother's Suzuki studies & orchestra concerts. While I've been playing the violin almost as long as I've been walking, it wasn't until I started to collaborate with Jack (5 years ago) that I began to utilize it as a songwriting tool. Experimenting with digital multi-tracking liberated me from only being able to accompany myself on guitar/banjo/mandolin/ukulele etc and it has been so exhilarating to incorporate my most fluent instrument alongside my voice.

<<GP>> The violin is of course the main instrument in traditional Irish music. Do you have an affinity for the way Ireland has utilised the instrument? And are there any pieces or players in particular that resonate with you?

Absolutely! We spent our childhood summers at violin camp in Virginia, primarily focusing on classical music. However, the camp offered an elective of Irish Fiddling which was our favourite class - my brother, sister & I still bust out classics like The Irish Washerwoman & Lisdoonvarna at family gatherings. There is a direct connection between Celtic & Appalachian music and that shared lineage has heavily influenced my songs that have a more traditional bent.

<<GP>> What should Irish fans expect from your show?

After almost 6 weeks on the road with percussionist Alex Friedman, we'll be closing out our tour in Dublin! The show will likely surge with extra energy & excitement as it will be our grand finale. One can expect murder ballads, spell-casting sing-a-longs, banjo jokes, nerding out & stories from our travels - though we've been known to surprise everyone, even ourselves!

<<GP>> Will you be looking for found sounds in Ireland?

Definitely! We can't wait to explore Dublin & record snippets of the incredible local musicians as well as ambient city sounds. Feel free to share some adventurous recommendations!

From: https://www.goldenplec.com/featured/odetta-hartman-interview/

Gary Wright - Love Is Alive - Midnight Special 1976

Keyboardist Gary Wright was best known as leader of the U.K.-based band Spooky Tooth and the back-to-back 1976 solo hits “Dream Weaver” and “Love is Alive.” He also helped to popularize the synthesizer in the mid-1970s. Wright was born in the New York City suburb of Cresskill, N.J., on April 26, 1943. He worked as a child actor on Broadway and attended several U.S. universities when he decided to try his luck with rock in London. He joined an existing band that changed its name to Spooky Tooth and signed with Island Records, which released the band’s debut album, It’s All About, in 1968.
Spooky Two followed in 1969 (released on A&M in the United States), which marked the end of the original lineup. Wright’s last LP with the band was Ceremony, a 1969 collaboration with electronic composer Pierre Henry, and their billing subsequently changed to Spooky Tooth featuring Mike Harrison. Wright had already established a solo career concurrent with his involvement with Spooky Tooth, and released solo albums for A&M Records including 1970’s Extraction, with musicians that included bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White (later of Yes).
Voormann introduced Wright to George Harrison, who was about to record his debut solo album, All Things Must Pass. The two 27-year-olds hit it off and Wright subsequently played piano on much of the triple-LP opus, alongside the members of Derek and the Dominos (Eric Clapton, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon and fellow keyboardist Bobby Whitlock), and dozens of other top-notch musicians.
The relationship with Harrison blossomed and Wright continued to perform on the former Beatle’s solo albums. Wright also played piano on many other classic rock hits, including Harry Nilsson’s #1 single, “Without You,” and Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy” and “Back Off Boogaloo.” (Years later, he became a member of Ringo’s All-Starr Band.)
Wright’s own planned follow-up solo album, Ring of Changes, was cut with his band Wonderwheel, which also featured future Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones. Harrison makes a guest appearance on slide guitar. The album was produced by Wright and was one of the first albums to be recorded at the newly opened Apple Studios on Savile Row. But it went unreleased.
“I hadn’t listened to it in 40 years, but when I put it on, I thought to myself, ‘I can’t believe this was never released,'” said Wright in 2016, when Ring of Changes was finally issued. “It was more of a rock album than what I had done, but I think it stands up alongside anything that you might hear being played on classic rock radio around the world. I hope that people will be surprised by the material. I’m proud of it and I’m glad it’s finally coming out so everyone can hear what we did all those years ago.”
Following a brief Spooky Tooth reunion from 1972-74 with Mike Harrison, Wright signed a solo deal with Warner Bros. and returned to the U.S. The result was 1975’s The Dream Weaver, featuring what Wright describes as “the first-ever all keyboard/synthesizer band.” (The only guitar on the album is by Ronnie Montrose, on one song.)
The album was issued on June 15, 1975, and, as BCB reader “Big Mark” notes, its first single, “Love is Alive,” flopped initially. The spiritual follow-up, “Dream Weaver,” became an enormous hit, reaching #2 on the Hot 100 in 1976. “Love is Alive” was reissued and also reached #2, paving the way for The Dream Weaver to reach #7 on the sales chart, and helping to lead the way to popularize the synthesizer.  From: https://bestclassicbands.com/gary-wright-dream-weaver-4-26-18/

The Lucy Nation - Alright

An enigma of late-'90s major label meddling and ultimate inaction, this difficult to find album is unfortunately not all on par with its one terrific song, 'Alright'. Featured on the Austin Powers: Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, that tune is undoubtedly the only track most anyone will have heard by this duo, which consists of All About Eve's bassist and his partnership with vocalist Anna Nyström. In fact, it seems this album never officially "came out", existing only in its promo format and (more commonly) making the rounds as a bootleg download.
“On” was apparently first recorded in a very different format than what emerged from the board. The label brought in an outside producer to remix the album in accordance with a trip-hop aesthetic that they thought would sell better; the result is an album that is well-produced, perhaps even over-done, but is saved by some good songwriting and above all Nyström's pure, enchanting voice. Of course, for all that, the label sat on the release and only filtered the one song to the supremely spotty Austin Powers soundtrack, where it sits unassumingly near the end of the set.
For my money, this group's better than anything by All About Eve, in terms of synthesized dark 'n dreamy girl-pop. It was smart to place 'Alright' as the lead-off track, and granted the record loses a lot of steam afterwards. But lo and behold (lest you be tempted to tune out midway through) -- it picks back up later on and closes out with three great songs.  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_lucy_nation/on/

The Bombay Royale - Mauja

The Bombay Royale are an Australian 11-piece musical powerhouse who have taken the themes and soundtracks from Bollywood films and have infused them with all the colour, production and energy one would expect from a four-plus hour Bollywood movie. The Bombay Royale had first set down to do strictly covers from the gilded ‘60s era of Bollywood, but soon evolved into writing their own material. Their debut album, You Me Bullets Love, was released just last month – and it is a corker.
Parvyn Singh, one of the two singers in this bombastic Bollywood/surf/psychedelic band, was on hand recently to speak with us about the band, the album and the awe-inspiring madness of Bollywood films in general. But first, we must learn how to do the Bollywood dance.
“People say, ‘Oh, I don’t know how to do the Bollywood dance,’” Singh laughs, “but it’s very easy! You put your hands in the air and pretend you’re screwing in a light bulb! That’s what it’s about!”
The Bombay Royale was founded by Andy Williamson, a saxophonist and Bollywood aficionado who was driven by the fact that no one in Melbourne seemed to be performing that type of music live. “Williamson’s always had a great interest in that style of music,” Singh reveals. “He sat down and scored some great cover tunes from the ‘60s era, and got some great people together – it started as an instrumental thing, but when it was coming together, they put the feelers out for a singer, and then my name came up, cause I’ve been performing with my dad since I was really young.
“I went down and saw these guys, there were in a tiny studio in the Hope Street Warehouse in Brunswick where we did our initial rehearsals. So there I was in this tiny room with all these white guys, and they were doing all these songs from my childhood, like I grew up with all this stuff!” Singh laughs loudly at the recollection. “I started singing and we found Shourov [Bhattacharya, the male singer] later and it all came together and – voila! – here we are!”
One aspect of The Bombay Royale one may notice right off the bat – besides the fact that there are 11 of them onstage – is that they don’t just play music. Hell, these cats are so much more than that – they put on a full-blown stage production, complete with intensely intricate orchestrations, secret agents, plot twists and bandit masks. How the hell, I ask, do they keep things so organised? The secret, Singh tells me, is everyone knowing his or her place in the band. “We’ve got all the characters that really help us maintain that personae as a full group, so with the band you have The Skipper, who’s Andy, the leader of ‘the bad guys;’ he’s the leader of this big gang of thugs, which is all the musicians, and so we have The Jewel Thief [Josh Bennett, guitar and sitar] and The Railway Mogul [Tom Martin, guitar] and The Kung-Fu Dentist [Ros Jones, trombones] – and so he’s in charge of them!” she gushes.
“Shourov and I are the secret agents – we’ve got this whole backstory that we present onstage, and so throughout our performance and throughout our songs there’s always the characters in the back of our minds. It really helps create tension and the right vibe, and the orchestration is really rehearsed, and we make sure we know who’s meant to be doing what when!” What’s important to Singh and the band is showcasing brilliant music from incredible musicians. “[The musicians] feel it really well. At the moment, what we’re doing is we’re able to see the individual talent of all the musicians who are in the band; it’s slowly coming out and every once in a while you will get a great keyboard solo or guitar solo or horn solo. As we go along, I think the story’s developing, and the characters will have leading roles to play. So it’s really like this never-ending movie that we’re creating within the band!”
Which prompts this scribe’s next question – are they planning on creating their very own Bollywood movie? “That’s definitely something we would love to do!” she exclaims. “Obviously we need the budget and the right people who would get behind it. There’s some talk about a film director in the UK who would love to work with us, and a couple members of the band are really into script-writing, so there’s so much possibility with the band, which is exciting! But slow and steady I think!
Now that You Me Bullets Love has been released to glowing reviews, it’s high time for The Bombay Royale to celebrate its release with an album launch at The Hi-Fi. What can the punters expect? Singh promises that it’s going to be huge. “It’s a cinematic experience, so we’ve got two big screens on the side of the stage, and we’ve got a film guy who’d going to do some video footage of Bollywood movie scenes, superimposing Bombay Royale footage into it and doing all this really cool video art as well; it’s going to be an overload in every sense possible!” Hell, just listening to her describe it makes me excited. “I’m getting more and more excited the more I think about it, too!” she laughs.  From: https://beat.com.au/the-bombay-royale-2/

Betty Davis - Talkin' Trash

The sexual revolution of the 1960s grew louder in the next decade. Pop culture in the 1970s became sexier, signified by one of the biggest songs of 1973 being Marvin Gaye’s timeless ode to procreation ‘Let’s Get It On’. And that very same year saw the release of the brilliant self-titled debut album by raunchy funk-queen Betty Davis. While the stigma around sex appeared to be in decline, the burial of Davis’ album showed that some expressions of sexual desire weren’t welcome, especially those as revolutionary as hers. Like many celebrity women of the ’70s, Davis was dismissed by men. Born Betty Mabry, Davis is mostly known for her short-lived marriage to jazz legend Miles Davis. She introduced him to new fashions and new sounds, inspiring the 1970 album that revived his waning career, Bitches Brew (the title was her idea).
Unfortunately, their relationship was plagued by Miles’ jealousy and violent temper, culminating in him divorcing her after a year of marriage. She barely registered in Davis’ 1990 autobiography, praising her as “a free spirit” and “talented as a motherfucker”, but dismissed her as a “high-class groupie”. Upon escaping Miles’ tyranny, she explored her sexuality and created her own unique sound.
Betty Davis’ self-titled debut is a colossal slab of erotically-charged funk. Her vocals are passionate, raw and untamed, and they practically overpower professional backing-singers and future stars The Pointer Sisters and Sylvester on ‘Game Is My Middle Name’. But her lyrics reveal progressive insights into sexuality and male-and-female relations that, at the time, shocked listeners.
While songs like ‘Let’s Get It On’ express the virtues of free love, the male-dominated point-of-view of the time expected women to be faithful while men continued their sexual conquests. When women did this, they were accused of cruelty and reducing their significant-other to tears, as Gaye did in ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’. Davis explored this double-standard on ‘Your Man My Man’, where rather than confronting a romantic rival she suggests they share this lothario and use him like the sexual object like he does to them. After all, as she sings, “It’s all the same”.
Through her lyrics, Davis strongly asserts her sexuality and fights against objectification. As she sings on ‘If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up’, even though she’s “wiggling my fanny” it doesn’t give anyone the right to harass her. “This is my night out,” she defiantly sings, “So all you lady haters don’t be cruel to me”; significantly contrasting her lyrics to hits like ‘He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)’ by The Crystals. Her strongest ‘no-means-no’ statement is ‘Anti Love Song’, where she tells a past lover, “No, I don’t want to love you because I know how you are,” revealing a toxicity in the relationship. “I know how you like to be in charge, but with me you know you couldn’t control me,” she later sings, her old flame unable to cope with her boldness. It’s one of the few songs she refrains from screaming, instead calmly purring and displaying complete control over the situation.
Betty Davis was well-aware of how much society feared a strong black woman, paying tribute to one on ‘Steppin’ In Her I. Miller Shoes’, dedicated to the late Devon Wilson. Wilson was Hendrix’ girlfriend and muse, inspiring songs “some sad, some sweet, some said were very mean”. Unfortunately, as Davis recounts in the song, “she was used and abused by many men”. It was a fate Davis suffered through her own career. Radio stations that played her sexually explicit music were picketed by religious groups, with one receiving a bomb threat. Patrons walked out of her raucous live shows; they were so famously wild that Kiss reneged her support slot, fearing she’d steal the show. “I’m very aggressive on stage, and men usually don’t like aggressive women,” she told Jet Magazine. “They usually like submissive women, or women who pretend to be submissive.”
The one that hurt most was the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), who suggested she was a disgrace to her race for ingraining prejudices about ‘loose black women’; “I’m coloured and they’re trying to stop my advancement,” she retorted.
Despite the backlash, Davis continued recording and performing, including releasing a third on major label Island Records. After that album’s failure, Island demanded she cover her skin and relinquish control to other producers and writers. Dismayed, she walked away and disappeared, refusing to perform again. In her absence, Davis has inspired the next generation. Reissues of her albums and documentaries have seen her reappraised. Artists like Peaches and Joi have praised Davis’ influence, and Prince said of her music, “This is what we aim for”. Betty Davis’ sexual politics were too much for the ’70s, but the world has finally caught up.  From: https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/betty-davis-sexual-revolution/