| |
Sahm, Doug: Juke Box Music/last Real Tex
Sir Doug has been a treasured figure in both country-rock and Texas blues for decades. These 1989 and 1994 albums show that the man just kept getting better and better as the years went by; these are a blast: 'I Won’t Cry; Hey Little Girl; Crazy Baby; Buzz Buzz Buzz; Reconsider Baby; Bad Boy; Home at Last; Honky Tonk; T-Bone Shuffle', and more on 2 CDs!
$ 17.98
buy
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
Doug Sahm
Return Of Wayne Douglas
Personnel: Doug Sahm (vocals, acoustic, electric & 12-string guitars); Tommy Detamore (acoustic & steel guitars); Clay Baker (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Bill Kirchen (electric guitar); Bobby Flores (fiddle, background vocals); Augie Meyer (piano, organ); Ronnie Huckaby (piano); David Carroll (upright bass); Dan Dreeben (drums); Shawn Sahm (background vocals).
Recorded at Cherry Ridge Studios, Floresville, Texas. Includes liner notes by James "Big Boy" Medlin.
Personnel: Doug Sahm (vocals, acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, electric guitar, electric 12-string guitar, background vocals); Clay Baker, Clay Blaker (vocals, acoustic guitar); Tommy Detamore (acoustic guitar, steel guitar); Bill Kirchen (electric guitar); Bobby Flores (fiddle, background vocals); Augie Meyers (piano, organ); Ronnie Huckaby (piano); David Carroll (upright bass); Dan Dreeben (drums); Shawn Sahm (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Tommy Detamore.
Liner Note Author: Alan Robinson.
Recording information: Cherry Ridge Studios, Floresville, TX.
Photographer: Dennis Keeley.
Unknown Contributor Role: Larry Hardy.
Arranger: Doug Sahm.
The Return of Wayne Douglas -- the title comes from one of the aliases Doug Sahm used during country music gigs around Austin, TX -- turned out to be Sahm's final studio album. It was recorded just before his heart gave out in a Taos, NM, motel room on November 18, 1999, but released posthumously in late 2000 by Tornado Records, a division of Birdman Recordings. Sahm's band -- which includes fellow Texas Tornado organist Augie Meyers, Bill Kirchen (Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airman) on guitar, Tommy Detamore (Moe Bandy, Ronnie Milsap) on steel guitar, Bobby Flores (Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys) on fiddle, and son Shawn Sahm on background vocals -- are the perfect support group, giving this "country as chicken-fried steak" material the stripped-down and soulful touch it requires. The album is almost an homage to the state of Texas. In addition to new songs like "I Can't Go Back to Austin" and "Cowboy Peyton Place" -- his paean to an Austin that existed 25 years earlier -- there are country-style arrangements of Sir Doug classics: "Dallas Alice" and the album's last track, "Texas Me," written in California during a bout of homesickness some 30 years earlier. "I wonder what happened to that man inside," Sahm moans in his gravel-hewn, throaty manner, "the real old Texas me." There are also two covers. Bob Dylan's "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" is sent up Sahm-style with great aplomb. Leon Payne's "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me" tells a little story about the time Sahm and his father paid a visit to Payne at the "Blind Balladeer"'s home in Bandera, TX. Sahm was reportedly surprised at how easily Payne seemed to be able to move around inside his house without stumbling over furniture. The liner notes by James "Big Boy" Medlin say it best: "Doug was a tornado. A true force of nature. I'll think of him every time I see a west Texas dust devil. Every time I drink a longneck. Every time I order a taco. Every time I see the skyline of Manhattan." Well, that's what they say. ~ Bryan Thomas
As one of the pioneers in Tex-Mex music, Doug Sahm fused rock & roll, R&B, conjunto, and country. This posthumous release, containing some of the last recordings made before his death, finds Sahm focusing on the country part of that equation. As this disc makes plain, country music was a major part of Sahm's life and music, and these tracks are pure, dyed-in-the-wool honky-tonk in the grand old style. Most are original tunes, and "Oh No! Not Another One" shows Sahm's feelings about country by humorously expressing his dismay at the way pop posers have taken over the country music scene. "Texas Me" is an old Sahm staple, but it's given new life in this context.
Of the two cover tunes, Bob Dylan's "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" gets a fresher coat of paint than most of the Dylan homages cluttering up tribute albums. Leon Payne's "They'll Never Take Her Love from Me" is a lovingly rendered piece of honky-tonk history followed by a spoken aside from Sahm, who takes pains to reiterate Payne's importance. What might be a cheesy moment in another context rings completely sincere when tucked into this honky-tonk love letter.
ON SALE!
$ 16.98
$ 11.98
buy
|
|
|
 |
|
Ernie K-Doe
Here Come The Girls! [pa] *
Only the most dogged collectors of New Orleans R&B have tracked down copies of this 1970 LP produced and co-written by Allen Toussaint. A UK TV commercial and a Sugababes sample introduced millions of new listeners to the title cut, which joins 'I’m Only Human; Hotcha Mama; Back Street Lover', and more!
$ 11.98
buy
|
|
|
 |
|
Tim Hinkley
A Litle Bit Of Soul *
The superlative organist of prog-rockers Jody Grind and later a member of Vinegar Joe, Tim has been one of England’s most lauded keyboardists for decades. Produced by Dan Penn and featuring Spooner Oldham and Alvin Lee, this 2002 LP finally sees a worldwide release: 'Walk on Water; Follow the Path; Foolin’ with My Heart'; the title tune, and more!
$ 17.98
buy
|
|
|
 |
|
Southside Johnny
Jukes: The New Jersey Collection [Box] [pa] *
Through much of his career, Southside Johnny Lyon seemed to be a success despite rather than because of his record companies; while he made three good-to-brilliant albums for Columbia in the late '70s, they didn't seem to know how to market him outside the East Coast, and many of the records he cut after that suffered from various forms of interference and poor judgment on the part of his corporate sponsors. After the crushing indignity of 1991's Better Days, a superb comeback album that fell off the charts when the label that released it went bust a few weeks after its release, Southside Johnny beat a retreat from the music biz for a while, and many fans assumed he simply stopped making records altogether. But in 2000, encouraged by Garry Tallent, Lyon launched his own record label, Leroy Records, and took his latest edition of the Asbury Jukes back into the studio. The result was one of the strongest albums of Lyon's career, Messin' with the Blues, and if it seemed like a fluke to the loyal fans who bought the album at shows, online, or through mail order, the two records that followed -- 2002's Going to Jukesville and 2006's Into the Harbour -- offered solid proof that Lyon had hit a new stride in the studio. Now the British Acadia label has reissued these albums together in a three-disc box set, and Jukes: The New Jersey Collection makes this music more easily available than it has been in the past. Messin' with the Blues is the closest thing to a pure blues album Southside Johnny has ever made, and while it veers off into a number of music directions over the course of 14 songs (it does open with a Tom Waits number), the music taps into Lyon's primal influences to superb effect, and his vocals and harmonica work rank with the best of his career.
Going to Jukesville isn't as immediately impressive, but if the album is a throwback to the bar band R&B sound of his classic period, it shows Lyon has lost none of his power and authority as a singer, and this lineup of the Asbury Jukes is tight and forceful. Going to Jukesville also showed that Lyon's time away from the road had allowed him to sharpen his skills as a songwriter, with a number of strong original tunes on board, and he covers Alejandro Escovedo's "Tired Skin" with a masterful touch. And Into the Harbour built on the strength of Going to Jukesville, encompassing tough rock & roll, thoughtful ballads, and hard-charging R&B and sounding vital, intelligent, and mature at each turn. By the time Into the Harbour comes to a close, it becomes obvious that Southside Johnny and his band have a far better idea of how to make a great record than most of the folks they've had to work with over the years, and if the prospect of three self-released albums from a guy whose biggest brush with fame came a couple decades ago sounds a bit grim, Jukes: The New Jersey Collection confirms that while practically no one was looking, Southside Johnny Lyon was making some of the best and most personal music of his life; taken together, these albums are little short of revelatory. If you think you outgrew Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes or that time passed them by, give The New Jersey Collection a spin and find out just how wrong you've been. ~ Mark Deming
ON SALE!
$ 28.98
$ 21.98
buy
|
|
|
 |
|
Spirit
Blues From The Soul [pa]
Spirit And Randy California includes: Randy California (vocals, guitar); Ed Cassidy (drums).
Spirit: Ed Cassidy.
This is the third in a series of posthumous albums of previously unreleased recordings by Randy California and Spirit, drawn from California's archives and assembled by Mick Skidmore. As Skidmore explains in his detailed liner notes, California put together an album called Blues From the Soul around 1995, and even copyrighted its contents; but later opted to use some of the material on the final album he released with Spirit, California Blues, prior to his accidental death by drowning in January 1997. Other tracks from the proposed album were culled for the first posthumous release, Cosmic Smile. Skidmore has included all 13 of the songs California had intended to use on his version of Blues From the Soul, though he has substituted alternate takes or live recordings of tracks already issued. Of course, the album also has been vastly expanded to include 35 selections for a running time of two-and-a-half hours. But the basic concept remains the same, and that is to present a collection of folk and blues recordings. California's family owned The Ash Grove nightclub when he was a child, and that brought him into contact with the many veteran acoustic blues musicians who toured during the folk revival of the early 1960s. Their influence on him is apparent here, as he resurrects songs by Mance Lipscomb, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Blind Willie Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, and Howlin' Wolf. Many songs are done with an acoustic guitar, but they all feature California's distinctive playing and singing. The lengthy set allows room for other material, including a 24-minute improvisation, "Down and Dirty Blues." Skidmore is less concerned with strictly adhering to the album's concept than he is to giving listeners more of California's music, and it's hard to argue with that. ~ William Ruhlmann
$ 17.98
buy
|
|
|
 |
|
McGuinn, Clark & Hillman
The Capitol Collection *
As three-quarters of the arguably greatest American rock band of all time, the Byrds, anticipation was feverish for these reunion albums of the late 1970s and early `80s on Capitol. Dashing fans' hopes, however, McGuinn, Clark, & Hillman's output revealed that while the band members had been instrumental in inventing the sound of California folk and country rock, by 1979 they were following the leads of their musical offspring the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and Emmylou Harris. These are slick studio recordings very much of their time period--flanged guitars, horn charts, and disco beats all make appearances--sounding very little like the band that made them famous.
CAPITOL COLLECTION compiles all three albums the project released--although Gene Clark was only strongly involved in the first one--and despite the music's lack of originality, these guys are consummate pros and they knew how to harmonize, write, and arrange with the best of their `70s peers. The highlights are many--McGuinn's spunky "Don't Write Her Off," Clark's tender "Won't Let You Down," and Hillman's Eagles-esque "Sad Boy" among them--and fans will easily get over the `70s sheen to find the musicians they fell in love with in the first place.
McGuinn, Clark & Hillman were one of a series of post-Byrds linkups between the original members that fizzled after a lot of initial promise. They were greeted with great enthusiasm in the rock press in early 1977, but -- as with the self-titled Byrds reunion album on Asylum four years earlier -- never lived up to the promise of the talents involved. Possibly it was too much to expect that they would succeed, given the shakiness of some of the personalities involved (specifically, Gene Clark, arguably the most talented songwriter of the three, who pulled out early on) and the music environment of the time, which had just sworn itself off of prog rock, burned itself out on punk rock, and worn out a fixation on disco. Absent a trio willing to make a committed effort by all three parties, which never fully happened after the debut album, they were always a day late and a dollar short in terms of getting much more than sympathetic enthusiasm from the press and attracting the loyalty of unreformed early-'70s hippies (the audience that would hang on Crosby, Stills & Nash's periodic reunions). What this double-CD set reminds listeners, however, is that there was some very fine, if not brilliant or groundbreaking, music generated by these guys, at least on their first two albums, when they were still more or less a trio. No, the songs -- with the exception of Clark's contributions -- weren't the finest ever written, but they were mostly catchy and had good hooks; though why is it that one feels that, say, Chris Hillman's "Stopping Traffic" would have worked better as an acoustic number by the trio? The set ends with a pair of acoustic Roger McGuinn demos that are almost worth the price of admission by themselves -- if the group could have sounded as simple and adorned in its official releases as McGuinn sounds here, it might just have had a commercial future, even as a duo. Given the on-again, off-again availability of the group's catalog on CD since the early '90s, the quality of this set is excellent, from the artwork and packaging to the sound quality, which is a significant improvement on the original LPs. They still don't sound much like the Byrds, but Byrds completists should definitely own this double-CD set, and fans of the actual trio will discover a lot that is worthwhile as well. ~ Bruce Eder
ON SALE!
$ 28.98
$ 23.18
buy
|
|
|
 |
|
Johnny Jenkins
Ton-Ton Macoute!
Personnel: Johnny Jenkins (vocals, guitar, harmonica, foot tapping); Duane Allman (guitar, slide guitar, dobro); Paul Hornsby (guitar, piano, Wurlitzer piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Pete Carr (electric & acoustic guitar); Jimmy Nalls (guitar); Robert "Pops" Popwell (bass, timbales, shaker, woodblocks); Berry Oakley (bass); Butch Trucks, Johnny Sandlin (drums); Johnny Wyker (shaker, woodblocks); Jaimoe (timbales); Eddie Hinton (cowbell); Tippy Armstrong (cabasa); Southern Comfort, Ella Brown (background vocals).
Engineers: Johnny Sandlin, Jim Hawkins, Tommy Compton, Jimmy Johnson, Larry Hamby, Terry Manning, Rick Hall.
Recorded at Capricorn Studios, Macon, Georgia; Fame Studio B, Muscle Shoals, Alabama between 1969-70. Originally released on Capricorn Record Series/Atco SD 33-331. Includes liner notes by Johnny Sandlin.
All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
What a fine bowl of Southern gumbo this Johnny Jenkins disc is. Aided and abetted by the likes of Duane Allman (this started as an Allman solo disc, but when he formed the Allman Brothers Band, Jenkins put his vocals over the tracks best suited), Dickey Betts, and those great guys from Muscle Shoals, Jenkins cooks on such cuts as "Down Along the Covell" from the pen of Bob Dylan, and Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone." But it is Dr. John's "I Walk On Guilded Splinters" which shines here and is the one which folks will recognize as the basis for Beck's hit "Loser." On the slippery "Blind Bats & Swamp Rats" you can almost feel the heat and humidity rolling out of the bayou. This reissue also includes the mighty fine bonus cuts "I Don't Want No Woman" and "My Love Will Never Die." Great Southern funk n' roll for the discerning listener. It even includes educational linear notes which tell the tale behind each cut. ~ James Chrispell
ON SALE!
$ 17.98
$ 14.74
buy
|
|
|
|
|
