sábado, 30 de março de 2019

Mike Baggetta, Jim Keltner & Mike Watt - Wall of Flowers


















Mike Baggetta, Jim Keltner & Mike Watt - Wall of Flowers  - 2019 

New York guitarist Mike Baggetta’s new album, Wall of Flowers, features bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, Iggy Pop and the Stooges) and drummer Jim Keltner (John Lennon, George Harrison, Gábor Szabó, etc.). (Stephen Hodges—who’s worked with Mavis Staples, Tom Waits, and David Lynch—sits in for the latter at this live gig.) That’s mucho firepower for a musician many probably haven’t heard of. The thing is, Wall of Flowers doesn’t really sound like any of the artists with whom Watt and company have played. Rather, the album’s eight tracks spangle, clang, and shimmer in the noirish-jazz/no-wave nexus where Joe Morris, Robert Quine, and Robert Fripp at his mellowest and most minimal dwell. What I mean is, there’s no way this won’t be great.

01. Hospital Song (Intro)
02. Hospital Song
03. Blue Velvet (Solo)
04. I Am Not a Data Point
05. Of Breads and Rivers
06. Dirty Smell of Dying
07. Blue Velvet
08. Wall of Flowers




+@320

segunda-feira, 25 de março de 2019

JD SIMO - Off At 11


















JD SIMO - Off At 11 - 2019

By Mike O’Cull
Guitarist/vocalist JD Simo has received a lot of well-deserved glory as of late for his soulful and energetic take on Second Generation blues/rock. Simo’s sound is based in the spirit of the late 60s but infused with the intensity of a rising star of today. His first solo album, Off At 11, out March 1, 2019, skillfully blends classic blues, rock, and psychedelic influences into songs and performances that are the equal of his inspirations. JD Simo stands on the shoulders of giants and takes his art to a whole new level. He has the grit and groove of Stevie Ray Vaughn at his best but folds in the improvisational spaciousness of the Dead, Allmans, and Butterfield’s East-West. The end result feels like a new giant walking the Earth in our present moment.

Off At 11 is only eight songs total but JD Simo demonstrates a masterful command of tone and phrasing on each one. His solos are duets with the open air and he never goes over the edge into the getting-paid-by-the-note power wanking that often occurs when blues and rock guitar collide. Instead, Simo has that Miles-type thing where the only notes he plays are the right ones and the silence between them matters more than the pitches themselves. This is still rock music but it’s the kind that hypnotizes, not the kind that attacks.

The set opens with a slow and heavy trip through Little Walter’s “Boom Boom Out Go The Lights.” Simo’s tone and vocals reveal the true threat of the lyrics in a dramatic way that’s much more pent-up than the party-down Pat Travers’ version most people are used to hearing. It’s evident from the first bar that this isn’t the typical power trio record. The title track, “Off At 11,” is up next and immediately launches into a full-on space jam situation that leaves the pentatonic boundaries of the blues behind, crashes through the Allman Brothers, and winds up hanging out in a bar somewhere with Jerry Garcia, John McLaughlin, and early Zeppelin. It’s the kind of cut that can only go down live and JD Simo, drummer Adam Abrashoff, and bassist Andraleia Buch delver it like flowing water. The three players make an able, flexible improvisational unit that’s a pleasure to behold.


01. Boom, Boom, Out Go The Lights
02. Off At 11
03. You Need Love
04. I Got Love If You Want It
05. Temptation
06. Mind Trouble
07. Sweet Little Angel
08. Accept

Simo - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Percussion, Bass (6)
Luke Easterling - Bass
Adam Abrashoff - Drums




+@320

sábado, 23 de março de 2019

Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady - Bear's Sonic Journals - Before We Were Them


















Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady - Bear's Sonic Journals - Before We Were Them - 2019

This live concert recording features recently discovered and previously unreleased music from Jefferson Airplane s fabled guitar and bass players before they became known as Hot Tuna. Jorma and  Jack are joined by Joey Covington on drums, and this intense, hard-driving muscle trio creates a ssonic landscape to rival Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. This is essential listening for fans of  Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane, with more than 70 minutes of music, including versions of the classic blues songs Rock Me Baby and Come Back Baby, as well as the familiar Airplane tune Star Track. 

Additionally, the set list includes 4 fully-formed, rare songs that were named by Jorma and Jack for the first time for this release.

01. Rock Me Baby (B.B. King)
02. Turnaround (Casady, Kaukonen)
03. Star Track (Kaukonen)
04. Through The Golden Gate (Casady, Kaukonen)
05. Come Back Baby (Walter Davis)
06. Through The Grove (Casady, Kaukonen)
07. Inspiration In The Hall Of Arrivals (Bonus Track June 27) (Casady, Kaukonen)

Jorma Kaukonen - Guitar, Vocals
Jack Casady - Bass
Joey Covington - Drums






+@320

quarta-feira, 20 de março de 2019

Gayle McCormick - Gayle McCormick (re-re-post)


















Gayle McCormick- Gayle McCormick- 1971

from wikipedia
Gayle McCormick was born in St. Louis on the 26th of November 1948 (Died March, 1, 2016). Gayle attended Pattonville High in St. Louis and sang high soprano with the Suburb Choir, a 150-voice unit that performed annually with the St. Louis Symphony. Her recording and performing career stretched from 1965 to 1976. McCormick had started her career singing songs by Tina Turner and Etta James.

In 1969 Smith was formed in Los Angeles, California, their first album entitled "A Group Called Smith," featured Gayle McCormick as the primary vocalist. Smith mainly played and recorded covers of pop and soul songs and made the top ten with a remake of "Baby It's You", a previous hit for The Shirelles, was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse film Death Proof.

After the group disbanded, McCormick went on to record three solo albums. In the fall of 1971, her performance of "It's A Cryin' Shame" charted at #44.

01. It's A Cryin' Shame
02. Superstar
03. C'est La Vie
04. Natural Woman
05. You Really Got A Hold On Me
06. Rescue Me
07. If Only You Believe
08. Save Me
09. Everyting Has Got To Be Free
10. Gonna Be Alright Now








+@320 (CD reissued 2008) *****


domingo, 17 de março de 2019

NRBQ - NRBQ (Repost)


















NRBQ - NRBQ - 1969

Often called "the world's greatest bar band," NRBQ are that rare group that's eclectic, stylistically innovative, and creatively ambitious while also sounding thoroughly unpretentious and accessible. At its best, NRBQ's music casually mixes up barrelhouse R&B, British Invasion pop, fourth-gear rockabilly, exploratory free jazz, and dozens of other flavors while giving it all a stomp-down rhythm that makes fans want to dance and expressing a sense of joy and easy good humor that comes straight from the heart. Over the course of a career that's lasted more than 40 years, the band has barely flirted with mainstream success, but has still earned a sizable, passionate cult of fans that includes Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt, Ira Kaplan, John Sebastian, and Dave Edmunds. 

NRBQ were formed in 1967 by pianist Terry Adams and guitarist Steve Ferguson, a pair of musicians from Louisville, Kentucky, and Joey Spampinato, a bassist who originally hailed from the Bronx. Adams and Ferguson were members of a group called the Mersey-Beats USA, who as the name suggests specialized in British Invasion covers, and they had relocated to Miami, Florida in search of steady gigs. In Miami, they met Spampinato (then using the stage name Jody St. Nicholas) and vocalist Frank Gadler, who were members of an R&B show band called the Seven of Us. Adams and Ferguson soon joined the Seven of Us, and after the addition of drummer Tom Staley, the revamped lineup changed its name to NRBQ (short for the New Rhythm and Blues Quintet), though the band was still a seven-piece when sax player Keith Spring and Donn Adams on trombone (Terry's brother), soon to be known as the Whole Wheat Horns, sat in. NRBQ left Florida and made their way to New Jersey, where they began playing New York City on a regular basis. The band landed a recording contract with Columbia Records, and in 1969 NRBQ released their self-titled debut; displaying a stylistic range that would become the band's hallmark, the first two tunes found them covering Eddie Cochran and Sun Ra, with numbers by Carla Bley, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and Bruce Channel popping up elsewhere alongside a handful of group originals. The album was well reviewed but sales were spotty, and for their second LP Columbia hoped to trade on a revival of interest in first-era rock & roll by pairing the band in the studio with rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins. Boppin' the Blues was an interesting experiment that didn't fare much better than NRBQ's debut, and they parted ways with Columbia.

In 1971, NRBQ landed a new record deal with Kama Sutra Records, and were breaking in a new guitarist; Steve Ferguson left the band, and Al Anderson, a former member of Connecticut white soul heroes the Wildweeds, took over on lead guitar for 1972's Scraps. Later the same year, Frank Gadler left the lineup, and from that point on Adams, Anderson, and Spampinato traded off on lead vocals. Released in 1973, Workshop featured a minor hit single in the topical novelty rocker "Get That Gasoline Blues," but it was also the band's last album for Kama Sutra due to disappointing sales. By the time they released another album, 1977's All Hopped Up, NRBQ had relocated to the Northeast, they were recording for their own Red Rooster label, and new drummer Tom Ardolino (a fan who impulsively hopped up on stage and sat in on the traps during an encore at a gig) had signed on, solidifying a lineup that would remain stable until 1994. One number from All Hopped Up, "Riding in My Car," attracted enough regional notice that Mercury signed the band and tacked the tune onto its next album, the marvelous NRBQ at Yankee Stadium (they didn't play there; they just sat in the stands). The Mercury signing proved to be a one-off, and Red Rooster struck up a distribution deal with the respected roots music label Rounder Records; outside of Grooves in Orbit, released by Bearsville Records in 1983 (shortly before they went out of business), Red Rooster/Rounder would be their home for the better part of 20 years as they released a steady stream of independent albums and played seemingly every club in the United States at one time or another, building a well-deserved reputation as a stellar and wildly unpredictable live act.

In 1989, NRBQ took one last chance with the major labels, signing with Virgin for the album Wild Weekend. The album fared better commercially than most of their LPs, but it was still well short of a hit, and their next disc was an archival live release for Rykodisc, 1992's Honest Dollar. In 1994, Rhino Records (who had previously compiled an excellent NRBQ anthology, Peek-A-Boo) released Message for the Mess Age, which proved to be Al Anderson's last album with NRBQ. Anderson was tired of NRBQ's busy touring schedule and left the group to work as a contract songwriter in Nashville, penning hits for Carlene Carter, Trisha Yearwood, the Mavericks, and LeAnn Rimes, among many others. (Anderson told a reporter he left NRBQ on good terms, adding "It was a great band before, and will be a great band after.") Johnny Spampinato, Joey's brother and a longtime member of the Incredible Casuals, took over as NRBQ's guitarist, and the band continued to record and tour at a steady pace. They also began popping up regularly on the popular television series The Simpsons; one of the show's top writers, Mike Scully, was a major fan, and he recruited them to record several numbers for the show, as well as appearing on the show in both animated and live-action form (they even wrote a tune specifically for The Simpsons, "Mayonnaise and Marmalade"). The band formed a new label, Edisun Records, to release 2002's Atsa My Band and 2004's Dummy, and in 2004, NRBQ staged a pair of 35th anniversary concerts in Northampton, Massachusetts, which featured appearances by every current and former member of the group.

Not long after the anniversary concerts, NRBQ quietly broke up, with Adams forming a new group, the Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet, and releasing a number of albums through his own label,  
Clang Records; he also recorded and toured with Steve Ferguson, and played Scandinavia with Tom Staley's band the Hot Shots. Founding member Ferguson died of cancer at his home in Louisville on October 7, 2009 at the age of 60. Adams also struggled with health problems; he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2004, though in 2011 he announced he was free from the illness. Joey and Johnny, meanwhile, hit the road as the Spampinato Brothers and released a fine album, 2010's Pie in the Sky. In the spring of 2011, Adams announced that the Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet had been renamed NRBQ, and they released an album under their new moniker, Keep This Love Goin', in May of that year. Longtime drummer Tom Ardolino appeared on two tracks and drew the album's cover art, but health problems prevented him from touring; he died on January 6, 2012 in Springfield, Massachusetts at the age of 56. Ardolino's final recordings with the new edition of NRBQ appeared on 2012's We Travel the Spaceways, with the bandmembers once again indulging their fondness for Sun Ra on the title cut. Adams' NRBQ returned to action in 2014 with the album Brass Tacks. In 2016, NRBQ hit the road for a well-received tour in tandem with masked instrumental rockers Los Straitjackets. Later that same year, Omnivore commemorated NRBQ's golden anniversary with a five-disc, career-spanning box set, High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective. Adams and NRBQ teamed with Omnivore again in 2017 to release a five-song EP, Happy Talk.

01. C'mon Everybody   
02. Rocket Number 9   
03. Kentucky Slop Song   
04. Ida   
05. C'mon If You're Comin'   
06. You Can't Hide   
07. I Didn't Know Myself   
08. Stomp   
09. Fergie's Prayer   
10. Mama Get Down Those Rock And Roll Shoes   
11. Hymn Number 5   
12. Hey! Baby   
13. Liza Jane   
14. Stay With Me

Terry Adams - Keyboards, Vocals, Harmonica
Steve Ferguson - Lead Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
Frank Gadler - Vocals, Tambourine
Joey Spampinato (aka Jody St. Nicholas) - Vocals, Bass
Tom Staley - Drums, Percussion


+@192

terça-feira, 5 de março de 2019

VA - Midnight Rider - A Tribute To The Allman Brothers Band


















VA - Midnight Rider - A Tribute To The Allman Brothers Band - 2014

from AMG
This 12-song collection, helmed and herded by Florida guitarist John Wesley, features new performances of some of the band’s classic songs, including “Midnight Rider,” “Statesboro Blues,” “Ramblin’ Man,” and “Whippin’ Post” done by a host of guitarists and singers, Ronnie Earl, Debbie Davies, Eli Cook, Eric Gales, Pat Travers, among them. It's fine as a tribute, but only underscores how influential and unique the Allman Brothers Band always was. Nothing tops the ABB versions of these songs, which really should come as no big surprise to anybody.

01. Midnight Rider - Pat Travers
02. Ramblin` Man - The Oak Ridge Boys, Tinsley Ellis & Kevin McKendree
03. Melissa - Molly Hatchet
04. Blue Sky - Artimus Pyle Band
05. Whipping Post - Jimmy Hall & Steve Morse
06. Jessica - Jim Eshelman, Roy Rogers & John Wesley
07. One Way Out - Robben Ford & Martin Gerschwitz
08. Soulshine - Debbie Davis & Melvin Seals
09. Statesboro Blues - Eli Cook
10. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed - Eric Gales
11. Southbound - Commander Cody, Sonny Landreth
12. I'm No Angel - Ronnie Earl, Leon Russell & Reese Wynans




+@320

sexta-feira, 1 de março de 2019

Arthur Lee and Love - Live In Paris (Re-Post)



















Arthur Lee and Love - Live In Paris - 1992

Recorded in Paris at the Theater L'Européen on April 27, 1992, this live album is a testimony of the return of Arthur Lee (Frontman of the legendary Love of Los Angeles in the 60s and 70s) on the front of the stage at the beginning of the 90s.

01. A House is Not a Motel
02. Alone Again
03. Stephanie Knows
04. Orange Skies
05. She Comes in Colours
06. Signed D.C
07. My Little Red Book
08. Seven & Seven is
09. Passing By
10. The Daily Planet
11. Your Mind And We Belong Together
12. Hey Joe

Arthur Lee - Vocals, Guitar
John Head - Guitar (2)
Michael Head - Guitar
Peter Wilkinson - Bass
Ian Templeton - Drums


+@192