more favorites from the past year
Wild Flag, live, SXSW (Austin, Texas), 3/11
“Romance” (Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop)
***
“Future Crimes” (IFC Crossroads House)
Someday an all-female band will seem no more remarkable than an all-male one.
(Originally posted 10/24/11.)
*****
She’s going to be a big star someday.
Nneka, live
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 2/15/11.)
It’s our lucky day. Down on the corner there’s a guy with a little guitar amp who just finished setting up. Let’s listen.
Rev. Billy H. Grady, “Holy Rock” (1965)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Going too fast for myself I missed
more than I think I can rememberalmost everything it seems sometimes
and yet there are chances that come backthat I did not notice when they stood
where I could have reached out and touched themthis morning the black shepherd dog
still young looking up and sayingAre you ready this time
—W. S. Merwin, “Turning”
only rock ’n roll
Happy Refugees, “What’s Your Appeal”
Live, New York (Cake Shop), 12/10/11
More? These guys recently did a live studio performance at WFMU-FM (The Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T), which can be heard here.
**********
lagniappe
art beat: Tuesday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)
George Inness (1825-1894), Early Morning, Tarpon Springs (1892)
two takes
Rock ’n roll, like blues, is for old folks too.
Dick Dale (guitar, 1937-), “Nitro”
Live (radio broadcast, KEXP-FM [Seattle]), 12/11/09
***
Recording and Video, 1993
**********
lagniappe
I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality. It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That’s what music does.
Janis Joplin, “Get It While You Can” (J. Ragovoy)
Live, TV broadcast (The Dick Cavett Show), 1970
If she had lived, what would she sound like, at 68, today?
**********
lagniappe
reading table
We shall not ever meet them bearded in heaven,
Nor sunning themselves among the bald of hell;
If anywhere, in the deserted schoolyard at twilight,
Forming a ring, perhaps, or joining hands
In games whose very names we have forgotten.
Come, memory, let us seek them there in the shadows.—Donald Justice, “On the Death of Friends in Childhood”
What a treat to hear a guitar-led group that sounds so fresh.
Nels Cline (guitar) and Friends play the music of Andrew Hill
Live, New York (Jazz Standard), 2007
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion, the more one will see that it is all music.
passings
Hubert Sumlin, guitar player, November 16, 1931-December 4, 2011
*****
Howlin’ Wolf, with Hubert Sumlin (guitar)
“Smokestack Lightning” (AKA “Smoke Stack Lightning”; rec. 1956, Chicago)
In a country that paid proper respect to its cultural heritage, this would be played for children in school, as part of their cultural education. Instead kids encounter it, if at all, on TV—the soundtrack to a Viagra commercial.
***
“Back Door Man” (rec. 1960, Chicago)
***
“Wang Dang Doodle” (rec. 1960, Chicago)
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
I started listening to people like Hubert Sumlin and trying to deal with a less muscular way of reaching people . . .
*****
random thoughts
Rankin, Loda, Cissna Park, Schwer, Gilmer, Watseka: the world is filled with places we’ve never even heard of (many less than 150 miles away), as I was reminded yesterday driving home from Danville, Illinois, where I’d gone to see clients at the prison.
funeral service and second line for Snooks Eaglin
9/27/09, New Orleans
Irma Thomas, “Singin’ Hallelujah”
*****
Charmaine Neville, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Allen Toussaint, et al.
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
***
“Hush, Somebody’s Calling My Name”
three takes
“N’teri”
Habib Koité, live, c. 2007
*****
Regina Carter (violin), Yacouba Sissoko (kora), Will Holshouser (accordion)
Live, radio broadcast (KPLU-FM), 2011
Kora, violin, accordion—even the names of these instruments sound good together. You have, in succession, words of two, three, and four syllables. Consonants repeat (k/c, r, n), as do vowels (o, a). The last word (“accordion”) echoes both syllables of the first (“kora”), reversing them, as well as the end of the second (“violin”). What does any of this mean? Nothing—it’s simply, for me, a small source of additional pleasure.
*****
Habib Koité, recording, 2007
Has Monday ever sounded better?
Snooks Eaglin (with George Porter, Jr., bass; Kenneth Blevins, drums)
Live, New York (Lone Star Roadhouse), early ’90s
“I Just Cried Oh”
***
“Baby Please”
***
“Lipstick Traces”
***
“You Don’t Have To Go”
***
“Young Girl”
***
“Red Beans” (with Jon Cleary, piano)
***
Great guitar players don’t play notes—they play sounds.
music clip of the day 