Tuesday Night Music Blog: Favorite Song of the Year, Part One

I thought I’d try something that I want to call the Tuesday night Music Blog. Not that I am such a fan of a certain S. Crow album but because I thought I’d try to do a regular Tuesday night blog. My apologies now if someone already has lassoed this name.
Anyway, on to the point of this. The song that currently stands as my favorite single song so far this year is Ari Hest’s “I’ll Be There (to Make You Miserable)”.
Yes, I am surprised too to state this. I know I had gotten Hest’s earlier album and I’m sure that I played it. But I recall very little of it, beyond that it just wasn’t that memorable to me. Probably solid but unexceptional singer/songwriter stuff. I didn’t bother to go back and dig it out to test my theory.
So when I got this new release, Songs from 52 (his goal is to record a song a week for the year) I didn’t get particularly excited. The first tune was okay but then the second one really knocked me out. “I’ll Be There” couples a wonderfully chimey melody with a darkly sardonic heart. It’s sounds like a cross between Richard Thompson and the Fountains of Wayne. As the title suggests, Heist is taking a jab at an ex-love but he sets it up as if he’s there to help (the “I’ll be there” part) before pulling out the rug (the “to make you miserable”). It makes for a terrific tune, the sweetest sounding of bitter songs.
Several other tunes on this 7-track EP also make a good impression. “Yes Man” is a rocker with a good sense of humor and “In A Rush” hits a nice bossa nova groove. The slower songs still don’t make a strong impact on me but they do benefit for the good wish the other songs engender.
So if you’re a fan or Hest’s or not, check out Songs from 52 at arihest.com and see if you can hunt down “I’ll Be There’ there.

Carlene Carter's comeback trail

The other night, I was able to catch Carlene Carter in concert. For those familiar with her music, you probably also could connect that Musical Shapes refers to one of her earlier albums. I am pleased to report that she was in fine form. Fiesty, rockin’, twangy but most of all honest, as a performer and a person. I never saw her back in the day but have now seen her twice while on the comeback trail and haven’t been disappointed either time. And it has been quite the comeback trail. She has survived more than her share of death around her (her mom June Carter, her stepdad Johnny Cash, her boyfriend Howie Epstein) as well as her own nearly fatal addictions. It would be a nice story that she’s simply alive, let alone in such fine form. And I couldn’t help but notice that there was a reserved table in front of the stage (for those keeping track, this was at the Mint in L.A.) with the name Lowe on the reservation card. It was for her daughter Tiffany, who Carlene had with Nick Lowe. Coincidentally, both now are on Yep Roc Records and both recently have come through town (Lowe put on a terrific, albeit lower key show with Robyn Hitchcock at L.A.’s El Rey Theater). Btw, Carter’s fine new album is entitled Stronger, a very aptly named album.

Hail, Hail the Ash Grove

Over this past weekend, UCLA hosted a big, old 50th anniversary tribute to the legendary local music club the Ash Grove. The Ash Grove was, in its 60s heyday, an epicenter for music and social consciousness in LA. Head Grover Ed Pearl booked a wide variety of what is now called roots music: folk, country, blues, etc, etc. His club, which was located in a less-than-trendy spot on Melrose Ave, was seen a special place by many, although others didn’t share this feeling (the club was firebombed several times). While its doors have long been closed (expect for a brief revival in a different location in the mid-90s), it is still fondly remembered.
While I didn’t go the big evening shows, I was able to make it over to the campus on Sunday morning and drop in on a couple of the closing free shows. Sunday morning started with a gospel concert that opened with Eddie Kendricks (the LA gospel pianoman not the late Temptations singer) leading some singers from his church in song. The fabled civil rights group The Freedom Singers then performed several stirring songs including We Shall Not Be Moved. Pharaoh Sanders vocalist Dwight Trible showed off his tremendous voice along with his uniquely expressive performance style. Then Michelle Shocked came out and did some songs, including a soulful rendition of the Band’s The Weight, along with telling some tales in her own humorous way.
I then slipped across the hall to another finale show in another auditorium. This early afternoon’s bill was topped by Taj Majal and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. I was hoping to catch one of them in the 90 minutes that I could stay. I was thrilled when Taj Mahal, resplendent in a white suit, came out first and performed some blues in his own unique style – starting with Baby, Please Don’t Go. After a nice little set by bassist Laura Love, out came Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. He certainly lived up to his name; he was quite rambling indeed. But in charming albeit irascible way. His brief set featured Louie Jordan’s Salt Pork, West Virginia and Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice it’s All Right.
It was interesting although not that surprising that the audience at these shows seemed like survivors from the Ash Grove’s era. It might have been nice to see a few more younger faces getting exposed to this historic event (maybe there were more youngsters at the nighttime shows). But maybe it all seemed too "kumbaya" for the kids.

Lauderdale, Louvin, Lucinda and Kathleen Edwards too

So I got to partake in a little post-Grammy partying last night at the Americana Music Association party at the Mint. The highlight - something well worth staying up late for - was when newly minted Grammy winner Jim Lauderdale (who won in the bluegrass category) brought onto the stage his old pal Lucinda Williams and bluegrass living legend Charlie Louvin. Louvin and Lucinda first did a rendition of "When I Stop Dreaming" and then Louvin and Lauderdale teamed up for See The Big Man Cry and I Still Miss Somebody. The 80 year old Louvin was in fine voice, all things considered.
speaking of in fine voice, I started to listen to the new Kathleen Edwards disc today. I found two standouts in the first five tracks alone: the rocking The Cheapest Key and just as tart I Make the Dough, You Get The Glory (which she rhymes with onetime NHL player Marty McSorley - and makes it work). The album isn't out yet but look for it when it does.
that's all for now.

In My Mind, I'm Going To...The Troubadour

Recently James Taylor and Carole King performed at the L.A.’s fabled club, the Troubadour. They had performed there back in 1970 (this is the club’s 50th anniversary) back when they were both fresh young faces. While the show undoubtedly was a study in nostalgia, it did succeed in making my mind go wandering (“in my mind, I’m going…”).
Although it might not be hip to admit nowadays, I was a fan of James Taylor back in the day. Had most of his Warner Brother albums on 8-track (yes, those were the days). I even picked up a probably not quite legal copy of his Original Flying Machine album (also on 8 track) that had a number of charming tunes many of which later resurfaced on his Apple album. I vividly remember Taylor being on the cover of Time magazine (it was March, 1971, according to a Google search).
While I read the story, what I reminded most (and retained for years) was a psychedelicishly drawn “family tree” of folk-rock. Maybe that was a nascent sign of my interest in music criticism/writing/etc. Maybe it fueled the same part of my brain that also liked to memorize the facts on the back of baseball cards.
The other interesting thing about the show was that the backing band was the same band that backed them in 1970. Guitarist Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel. It’s sort of amazing that all of these guys are still around and playing. Any fan of the ‘70s SoCal singer/songwriter scene will recognize these names from the liner notes of albums of by Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne...oh the list is probably endless.
Anyway, it must have been quite a night, not that I was there

happy holidays,

Michael B

Sitting by a doc(umentary)

I went last night to a screening of Dreams To Remember, an upcoming dvd doc on the great soul singer Otis Redding. It’s a fine, affectionate look at this king of soul, who died tragically young at the age of 26 in a place crash. Just before the release of his most successful song, the classic Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay.
The doc contains some terrific archival footage, but also some of it comes off as dated. Performance clips from Dick Clark’s Where The Action Is program show some disinterested teens standing around half-heartedly clapping to the energetic, although lip-synching Redding. Also in the background is a member of Paul Revere’s Raiders, in his Raiders costume, which made a young woman next to me say, “look there’s a Pirate”. I, like it or not, am old enough to have watched the show (I believe it was on in the afternoons and I watched it after school, but my memory could be faulty). There also were clips from a Cleveland, OH tv performance shot the day before he died. I knew immediately it was the Upbeat Show, a wonderful (Okay, an often wonderful) local music show that I also watched as a kid.
Anyway, fans of soul, R&B or just simply American music will enjoy this doc. It also pairs up nicely with another recent doc Respect Yourself that looks at the history of Stax Records, Reddings’ label.

Emmylou Does the Derby

The highlight of the week was getting to go see Emmylou Harris tape a special for BBC TV. Tied in with her new retrospective Songbird, it’s going to be called something like the Ten Commandments of Country. Harris used this concept – she preferred the term “suggestions’ to Commandments – to perform selections from this new boxset. Some of her “commandments” were (and I probably don’t have all the phrasing right, but you’ll get the idea): Help Yourself to Tradition, Love Hurts, Write What You Know, Always Do A Waltz, Do lots of harmonizing, Death Comes To Us All and Always Have A Number to Go Out On. She covered songs by Merle Haggard, the Beatles, Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe. My personal highlights were her renditions of the Gram Parsons/Chris Hillman classic Sin City and Lucinda Williams’ Sweet Old World. I had seen Emmylou earlier this month join Lucinda on stage – another highlight of this month. Like that show, this one had several song false starts and do-overs. Unlike the Lucinda show, she had no guests play with her. Although she had a fine acoustic band backing her which featured two Seldom Scene founders, bassist Tom Gray and dobro wiz Mike Auldridge. The acoustic band gave her “country” songs a bit of a Bluegrass edge. Also, differing from Lucinda’s show was the presence of Emmylou’s personal hairstylist, who came out and fixed her hair several times between songs. This was strictly because it was being taped for TV. I have no idea when this will run on the BBC. But hopefully it was always be telecasted on BBC America. Overall, it was a night of sublime Americana music performed by one of the living icons of the scene.