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.

Bingo!

I am a couple days late in posting this but the words still ring true.

As a longtime, long-suffering Cleveland sports fan, I find it very difficult to watch Cleveland teams playing in important games. There have been just too many letdowns. The Indians - Marlins World Series Mesa meltdown, The Browns repeated Bronco fiascos, the Cavs versus the Michael Jordan (the famous Jordan shot over Craig Ehlo was later used in a tv commercial; I've blocked out just what product it was for).

So it was with mixed emotions that I turned on games in the Cavs-Pistons series. But I kept reminding myself. Detroit's the experienced team. I will be good for the Cavs just to play in the finals. I didn't become anguished when they lost two close games in Detroit. They were competitive. They weren't getting embarrassed like Utah. Then they won their home games. Good for them. Game Five was unbelievable. In so many ways. I did watch the fourth quarter and first overtime. I didn't watch the second, not because it was too ulcer-making but because I had to put my daughter to bed. But did that win convince me that they were a team of destiny. No, I have had my heart broken too many times for that.

Then I watched the second half of Saturday night's game. The third quarter was tight but the Cavs were playing well without Labron scoring. always an encouraging sign. I missed the beginning of the fourth quarter and when I was watching again. they were up by ten. I couldn't believe it. they actually were going to win it. and not only did they extend their lead but they won convincingly. it was amazing.

Now I just have to readjust my emotions again for the Finals. The Spurs are the experienced team that is playing well. The Cavs are just Finals rookies. . .well, cocky Finals rookies.

So here's to Bingo Smith, Luke Witte, and all the other Wine & Gold-sters whose names have drifted out of my memory...

The Aristocrats vs. The Aristocats

Tivo is a wonderful thing. Well, I guess any dv-r is but we are a Tivo family. The easy ability to record and zip back and forward through shows is a marvel. But it does some interesting things – particularly when it tapes…er “records”…programs it thinks you would enjoy. Sometimes it records shows in channels we don’t receive or in languages we don’t understand.
Recently, however, it recorded the documentary The Aristocrats – a movie was I actually a little interested in watching. I started to watch some of it the other night. I was rather amusing in its telling and retelling of the warhorse of a filthy joke. The night reached the point where sleep was winning over my waking consciousness so I thought about saving the film with our other tivo’d shows. And then it hit me. We already had saved the old Disney film, The Aristocats, for our five year old daughter. And I could imagine that either myself or my wife, in our perpetually distracted parental mindstate, selecting the ‘crats and the not the ‘cats and having our daughter discover the most infamous joke in jokedom.
So the Aristocats ruled the day and remains among our saved programs - still unwatched I might add. Yes, it would have been a better story if our daughter had mistakenly watched some of the documentary but that's for some other parent to tell.
over n out, Michael B.

Honky tonkin' at the Mint

over the weekend, I saw two impressive acts playing around the corner at the Mint here in Los Angeles. First up was Elizabeth Cook, straight from Nashville. A sassy blonde whose dress was almost as long as her guitar, Cook played both sides of the Nashville fence – Music Row and East Nashville. The titular tune from her new album, "It Takes Balls to Be A Woman" is a feisty feminist-style anthem that Gretchen Wilson would have all over CMT (I actually did see Cook’s video on GAC). But she also does more alt.country stuff and certainly doesn’t fix into the typical Nashvegas stereotype. She broke out some clog dancing while her guitarist Tim Carroll (definitely check him out as well) did a number. She closed with a version of "Soap, Soup and Salvation" by Lone Justice, not even knowing that Lone Justice guitarist Ryan Hedgecock was in the crowd.
Following her was a local guy David Selby, whose set of old school, but rocking honky tonk scored a high grade too – even if he didn’t clog. If a musician can be judged by his backing band, Selby then is easy to recommend. His guitarist/producer is Ed Tree (Spencer Davis Group) while is bassist Taras Prodaniuk has played with Lucinda Williams and Dwight Yoakam. But Selby would have won me over even without his savvy veteran crew.

On a sadder note, I learned that Nancy Tannenbaum, who was known as Nancy Rideout when she played guitar in Moonshine Willy, was killed May 13 in a motorcycle accident in New York City. She apparently swerved her motorcycle to avoid hitting someone who strangely ran out onto the West Side Highway and she had a fatal crash. While Moonshine Willy wasn’t a particular favorite of mine, they were part of the early Bloodshot Record crew that captured my attention back in the ‘90s. She is the second member of the Bloodshot family to pass away this year. In February, Split Lip Rayfield’s Kirk Rundstrom succumbed to a long bout of cancer. Belated wishes of condolences go out to both families.

Michael B

The Second Best English Pop Tune From Sweden

Here's one more thing to cross off my list. While “Young Folks” by Peter, Bjorn and John has been getting a lot of buzz in the last couple months (yes, I know, they’re old news by now), I have wanting to toot my horn for another catchy pop tune from Sweden – Tobias Froberg’s When The Night Turns Cold. It could be called happy Nick Drake, with doesn’t quite nail it. There’s a great bongo beat to it but it’s not kitschy. You won’t get sick of it as fast as those whistle solos that permeate “Young Folks.” “When The Night” balances its melancholy with some ‘60s folk-rock and ‘00s bedroom pop.
The song was used somewhere in a Panasonic ad but hold that against it. There’s a lot of cool music coming out of Scandinavia (Norway's Ane Brun whose A Temporary Dive features a duet with Ron Sexsmith is another fave). But more on her and others at another time. For now, you can check out Mr. Forberg on Youtube.com here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUDS8XNix4Q

A few minutes on the Minutemen

I’ll fess up. I never got into the Minutemen when they were playing clubs and making records. And I’ll fess up. I never caught up with during the fIREHOSE years, and the subsequent years. It’s not that I even gave their music a good listen during all this time. But I noticed that their documentary We Jam Econo was on Sundance, IFC, one of those indie movie cable networks. I tivo’d it so I don’t really remember. But that’s besides the point. I watched the film and it was really mind-opening. I have always lumped the Minutemen in with the Southern California ‘80s punk scene. Black Flag, Descendents, and the whole SST scene. But I was surprised their sound, which is something like a cross of Wire post-punk with something much more American and earthy (they were Creedence fans). There was something arty yet primitive, skilled yet amateur about them. I got why they attracted such a loyal following and became such a mythic cult band. There was a great dynamic between D. Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurley both on stage and off. Not that I’m rushing out to buy Double Nickels on a Dime, 3-Way Tie (for Last) of What Makes A Man Start Fire? But it did spur me to jump belatedly on their bandwagon and sing (okay, type) their praises. Check them out.