Nothing hits the spot, sometimes, like a homicidal love song. The Handsome Family, “My Beautiful Bride” Live, Australia (Sydney), 2010 More? Here. ********** lagniappe art beat: Monday at the Art Institute of Chicago Utagawe Hiroshige, Autumn Moon over Tama River (from the series Eight Views of the Environs of Edo), 1837-38
Archive for the ‘banjo’ category
Wednesday, 5/2/12
05/02/2012Thursday, 4/5/12
04/04/2012passings Earl Scruggs, banjo player, January 6, 1924-March 28, 2012 With Doc Watson (vocals, guitar) and their sons (Merle Watson, Randy & Steve Scruggs), live, 1971, Deep Gap, North Carolina (Doc’s home)
Monday, 12/12/11
12/11/2011Maybe everything in your life would be better—or at least seem better— if only you had more banjo. Sam Amidon, “As I Roved Out” (trad.), live, Austin (SXSW), 2011
Sunday, 9/18/11
09/18/2011passings Wade Mainer, singer, banjo player, April 21, 1907-September 12, 2011 “I’ll Be a Friend to Jesus” (1936) ***** Singing, playing, talking (c. 2004) Part 1 *** Part 2 *** Part 3 ***** lagniappe What we was playin’ in the ’30s was true country music—no electric instruments, no copyrights. Something’d happen and someone’d write a [...]
Sunday, 7/17/11
07/16/2011The right music, heard at the right moment, can change your whole day. The Staple Singers, “I’m Coming Home” (Vee-Jay), 1959 ********** lagniappe Happy Birthday, Lionel! Today trumpet player Lionel Ferbos, who was born when William Howard Taft was president and tonight can be heard at New Orleans’ Palm Court Jazz Cafe, turns 100. The [...]
Monday, 12/6/10
12/06/2010Here’s more from the city that does death like no other. Funeral for Juanita Brooks, New Orleans, 2009 ********** lagniappe Here’s a taste of the Syl Johnson show I recently saw. Syl Johnson, “Same Kind of Thing,” live, Chicago, 11/27/10
Friday, 11/5/10
11/05/2010Time travel’s easy on the net. With this guy we started, the other day, with music he made just last month. Then we headed back to the ’70s. Today we go back even farther—to the ’60s. Leon Russell, Shindig! (TV) “Hi-Heel Sneakers,” 10/28/1964 *** “Roll Over Beethoven,” 11/18/1964 *** “Jambalaya,” 2/3/1965 (Yeah, the guy in [...]
Monday, 10/4/10
10/04/2010Anyone can make English sound like English. Tom Waits, live, California (Mountain View), 1999 Part 1 *** Part 2 Want more? Here.
Monday, 9/6/10
09/06/2010Morocco—it’s just a click away. Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway, excerpts (2007)
Monday, 8/16/10
08/16/2010Suppose Blind Willie McTell, who died in 1959, came back to life for a day. How would you explain this to him—a video clip of a pop icon singing a song about him, during a recent concert in Slovenia, captured by a cell-phone camera then uploaded onto the ’net for anyone, anywhere in the world, [...]
