Saturday, 5/19/12
Michael Burks (7/30/57-5/6/12), “Twenty-Four Hour Blues”
Live, Belgium (Zingem), 5/5/12
One day he makes these sounds, the next no sound at all—not the world I would have designed.
More? Here.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: blues
2012
2012
Tuesday, 5/8/12
passings
Michael Burks, singer, guitar player, songwriter
July 30, 1957-May 6, 2012
Here’s what I wrote when I first posted this clip (2/28/11):
When something is this lyrical, this convincing, there’s only one thing I want to do when it ends—hear it again.
“Empty Promises”
Live, Falls Church, Virginia, 8/21/09
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Michael came to Alligator Records long after I left. But a few years ago I did some legal work for him and got to know him. Soft-spoken, gentle, warm: these are the words that come to mind. He collapsed at the Atlanta airport after returning from a European tour—heart attack.
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“Fire and Water”
Live, Denmark (Frederikshavn), 2010
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“Since I’ve Been Loving You”
Live, Jacksonville Beach, Florida, 2010
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“House of the Rising Sun”
Live, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, 2008
2012
Monday, 5/7/12
Muddy Waters with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, et al., “Mannish Boy,” live, Chicago (Checkerboard Lounge), 1981
Keith and Ronnie understand something many rockers don’t: the importance, in blues, of restraint. They also understand that when you’re a guest you don’t try to upstage the host. Mick, meanwhile, hasn’t got a clue.
2012
Saturday, 5/5/12
Happy Birthday, Blind Willie and Tammy!
Blind Willie McTell (5/5/1898-8/19/59), “Dying Crapshooter’s Blues” (1940)
*****
Tammy Wynette (5/5/42-4/6/98), medley (“Apartment No. 9,” “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” “Stand By Your Man”), TV show
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Imagine what this country would be like if everything were as fine as the music.
2012
Saturday, 4/28/12
James Blood Ulmer, “Are You Glad to Be in America?”
Live, 2008
Imagine this with bass and drums. Can’t? Me, neither. That’s one sign of a great solo performance: accompaniment is unimaginable.
2012
Sunday, 3/4/12
going back home
Davis Sisters, “I Believe I’ll Go Back Home”
TV Gospel Time (introduced by Brother Joe May), early 1960s
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lagniappe
Here’s a secular take.
John Lee Hooker, “I Believe I’ll Go Back Home” (That’s My Story: John Lee Hooker Sings The Blues, 1960)
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reading table
Home is never what you think it is.
Meaning lies in meaning’s absence. The mist
Is always just about to lift.—J. Allyn Rosser, “Sugar Dada” (excerpt)
2012
Friday, 2/17/12
Blues is a big tent. Over here is Slim Harpo (“I’m A King Bee,” 2:18-). And over there are the Stooges (“I Wanna Be Your Dog,” 4:48-).
Alejandro Escovedo, live, Austin (Continental Club), 11/29/11
With guests Marc Ribot & David Hidalgo (guitars)
More Alejandro Escovedo? Here. And here.
Marc Ribot? Here. And here. And here. And here. And here.
David Hidalgo? Here.
2012
Monday, 2/13/12
There are all kinds of love songs.
Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller), “Your Funeral and My Trial,” live, Europe, 1960s
More? Here.
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lagniappe
reading table
Moonlight in the kitchen is a sign of God.
—Anne Carson, “God’s Work” (excerpt)
2012
Saturday, 2/4/12
lighter than air, funkier than dirt
Otha Turner (1907-2003) and the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band (with guest Luther Dickinson, guitar), “My Babe,” live, Memphis, 1990s
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lagniappe
art beat: more from Wednesday’s stop at the Art Institute of Chicago
Vincent van Gogh, The Poet’s Garden (1888)
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musical thoughts
Last night, at the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall, I heard what may be the finest encore I’ve ever heard. After devoting the second half of his concert to Beethoven’s mammoth Diabelli Variations, pianist Peter Serkin, following several trips offstage to rapturous applause, sat down and played, slowly, meditatively, the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. As the last note was fading, if someone had turned to me and said, with the kind of confidence one often encounters in Hyde Park, that the greatest achievements in the history of humanity can be heard at the piano, I couldn’t have done anything other than agree.
