This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Mississippi Fred McDowell performing' Going Down The River".
CD REVIEW
Here is a another of an old time blues artists. Mississippi Fred, as indicated in the headline, that did not perform rock 'n' roll. Okay?
The Best Of Mississippi Fred McDowell, Fred McDowell, Arhoolie records, 2002
Over the past year I have been doing a review of all the major country blues artists that I can get material on. High on that list would be the performer on this CD, the legendary Mississippi Fred McDowell. Before discussing this CD, however, let me put this blues man in context. I first heard Brother McDowell and his magnificent slide guitar riffs as a backup to some of “Big Mama” Thornton’s early blues numbers like "Little School Girl" and "The Red Rooster". I have note elsewhere that McDowell performed a very important service to the continuation of the country blues tradition when he provided mentorship to the great modern folk/country/blues singer songwriter Bonnie Raitt.
Ms. Raitt has profusely acknowledges his influence and just a peep her own work betrays that influence. Furthermore there is another place where McDowell demonstrated his vast influence. That is on The Rolling Stones. Their main blues influence might have been another Delta product, Muddy Waters, but The Stones did a cover of McDowell’s "You Got To Move" (and gave him the royalties for his cancer treatment) on their Stick Fingers album that has withstood the test of time. All these anecdotes are presented for one purpose- to show, if anyone needed showing that McDowell rightly takes his place with the likes of Bukka White, Skip James, Son House and Mississippi John Hurt as the legends of country blues.
For those not in the know theme of the country blues is about rural life, about picking cotton in the Delta (or hard scrabble farming elsewhere) and, most importantly, about those Saturday night bouts with booze, women and worked up passions that could go any which way, including jail. McDowell follows that tradition although on a number of cuts here, those accompanied by his wife’s singing along, he will also pay homage to the deeply religious roots of black existence at the turn of the 20th century South. The most famous exemplars of that tradition are of course Blind Willie Johnson and the Reverend Gary Davis but other, including McDowell have taken a turn at that end of the blues spectrum in order to sanctify “the devil’s music”. Needless to say you must listen to "You Got To Move", "61 Highway" and "Kokomo Blues" here.
When Women Played Rock And Roll For Keeps- The Music Of Bonnie Raiit
CD Review
By Zack James
Seth Garth and Jack Callahan who had been friends since highs school down in Carver after they returned from a whirlwind few months on the road on a magical mystery tour yellow brick road merry pranksters adventure out in California were sitting in Jack’s, the local hang-out bar in Cambridge where the drinks were cheap and the conversation interesting, when a young woman stepped up to the small stage preparing to sing. Jack mentioned to Seth that she looked familiar, that flaming red hair a giveaway, and asked him if he could place the face. Seth who was beginning his long career as a music critic just then for The Eye whom he had contracted with when he was out in California blurted out that didn’t Jack remember seeing her, seeing Bonnie Raitt, on the Boston Common before they had taken off for California where she blew away the crowd with a cover of Down Highway 61. Jack laughed and said that he was so stoned that night that he wasn’t sure who he had heard (Seth reminding him that it had been an afternoon concert.
Of course Seth as a budding music critic, expecting to ride the way from folk to folk rock to what was now being called “acid” rock with all the strobe lights and dipping into the drug bag to bring out the right mood had done some basic research on Bonnie as an up and coming star who was riding her own wave of the new trend in having female singers lead the bands they were in. Grace Slick, Amy Kline, Nicky Adams and then her. He had also found out that Bonnie had dropped out of Radcliffe a little earlier in order to pursue her musical career as a result of the success of the Boston Common concert. He also had found out that here budding virtuosity with the slide guitar had come from sitting at the feet of country blues legend Mississippi Fred McDowell. So she had a pedigree. Still she a was only starting out and grateful that Jack’s had allowed her up on the stage a couple of years earlier where she had begun to hone her skills both at presenting a professional musical veneer and connecting with the audience. So the night Seth and Jack were sitting there at the bar drinking and talking about everything under the sun Bonnie was doing “pay back.” Performing for the old crowd, performing for Jack.
She started her first set with Hound Dog Taylor’s The Sky Is Crying and McDowell’s Highway 61 and the rest would be history. A history which is well documented in this compilation from those classics to Richard Thompson’s The Dimming of the Day.
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raiit performing "I'm In The Mood For Love". WOW!
DVD Review-August 18, 2008
Come See About Me: John Lee Hooker-The Definitive DVD, Eagle Rock Productions, 1992
In a recent entry in this space on July 18, 2009 entitled, "The Boogie Chillen” Man- The Boogie Blues Of John Lee Hooker", I made the following comments about this seminal blues artist:
“I have poured out kudos to the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Skip James, Son House, Bukka White and an assortment of other legendary male acoustic and electric blues guitar players in this space. I have not, until now, mentioned the name of the legendary blues artist John Lee Hooker, although he belongs up there with those other above-mentioned names. Why? Well, frankly, it is a question of tastes. Other than an occasional song here or there John Lee Hooker does not “speak” to me, a term that means something to me in the blues context. Sure his guitar smokes when he is on. He always had more than enough black and white bands (Canned Heat, for one) clamoring to back him up and certainly his lyrics (with a few “politically incorrect” exceptions common to the genre) drove his message home. But we never connected at that “soul” level the way Wolf, Son House or the recently discovered (by me) Bukka White do. This happens. But I know enough about the blues to know that John Lee Hooker will “speak” to others. Legends are like that.
So given the above comments what is classic here, according to my tastes. Well, hell “Stella Mae” is one of those here or there songs Hooker songs I mentioned above that I liked. Others may like the much covered “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”. (This may be the best way to state my case- George Thorogood’s version “speaks” to me.) “Peace Lovin’ Man” and “I’m In The Mood” are exemplars of Hooker’s boogie guitar style.”
After viewing this DVD compilation (definitive or not, that after all is trade puffing) all I can say is oops, maybe I spoke just a little cavalierly above. Maybe it was because I viewed this DVD while we are having a heat wave here in the Northeast and his driving and sensuous blues riffs have come alive like in sultry old plantation and African roots days. Check out “I’m In The Mood For Love” in a duo with Bonnie Raitt to see what I mean. Or with Van Morrison on “Baby Please Don’t Go”. How about “Boom Boom”? Or “Hobo Blues" with the ubiquitous Ry Cooder. Or the masterpiece Hooker classic “Boogie Chillen” with Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones”. Most of this is mature work so maybe that counts for its appeal to me now. Let me just say-WOW!
"Baby Please Don’t Go"
Baby, please dont go Baby, please dont go Baby, please dont go Down to new orleans You know I love you so Baby please dont go
Baby, your mind done gone Well, your mind done gone Well, your mind done gone Left the county farm You had the shackles on Baby, please dont go
Before I be your dog Before I be your dog Before I be your dog To git you way down here I make you walk alone Baby, please dont go Hey
Baby, please dont go Baby, please dont go Baby, please dont go Down to new orleans You know I love you so Baby, please dont go
Before I be your dog Before I be your dog Before I be your dog Git you way down here Make you walk alone Baby, please dont go
Know how I feel right now My baby leavin, on that midnight train And Im cryin
Baby, please dont go Oh, baby please dont go Baby, please dont go Down to new orleans You know I love you so Baby, please dont go Lets go
Before I be your dog Before I be your dog Before I be your dog To git you way down here I make you walk alone Baby, please dont go, yeah
An Adieu (Until The 60th
Anniversary) To The Summer Of Love, 1967Under The Sign Of The Times When Women Played Rock And Roll For Keeps-
The Music Of Bonnie Raitt
By Zack James
[The world of on-line editors and
named bloggers is actually rather small when you consider what expansive
infinite cyberspace can allow the average ingenious citizen to do. Or
collective of citizens in this case, collective of people who in a previous age,
maybe twenty years ago would be found writing for hard-copy publications like Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and especially American
Film Gazette and the Folk Music
Review, the latter which actually covered more than folk music in its time,
but its name reflected where it had come from. Now they are writing for on-line
publications like this one and the on-line American
Film Gazette which like a lot of hard copy operations had fallen on revenue
hard times and to keep going had to flow with the times and go on-line. What
this new technology has allowed me to do which otherwise would have been a good
idea thrown in the office waste paper basket by any shrewd hard copy editor is
to do a series highlighting some of the conversations between long-time music
critic Seth Garth and some of his growing up in North Adamsville (that is in
Massachusetts south of Boston) friends as he/they discuss various older CDs
which reflect a certain period in their then young lives growing up in the late
1950s and early 1960s.
An important component of the series
of sketches is based on information that Seth has provided me has come under
the sign of the Summer of Love, 1967 out on the West Coast, especially in the
San Francisco and Bay area. Two periods stand out in these conversations as far
as the effect of musical trends among guys who came up in the Acre neighborhood
of North Adamsville and saw some relief from their “from hunger” lives as Si
Lannon, one of the corner boys put it. When hitting their teenage years the
explosion best explained by the rise of rock and roll on their radios, and
later at school and church dances, when the authorities, school and church,
tried to put a cap on their energy and keep them away from hard sexual
fantasies unleashed by the new dispensation. Above all the names of the king of
kings, Elvis, mad hatter Chuck Berry, wild and wooly Jerry Lee Lewis stand out.
The other, which is reflected in the title of this piece, is a second wave of
rock and roll, slightly different after the first stage had been exhausted and had
been replaced by what Seth called “bubble gum’ music very much connected with
the 1967 Summer of Love which hit Seth and his crew like a lightning bolt. Hit
so hard that through one means or another, one person or another, one personal
intervention or another that it drove the crowd out to the West to “see what
was going on.”A million other kids,
mostly high school and college kids, from places like Lima, Ohio, Bath Maine,
Boise, Idaho and of course Peoria, Illinois broke loose for a while and did the
same thing, looked for something new in “drug, sex, rock and roll” and whatever
else anybody could come up with to stem the flush of youth nation alienation
and angst. So guys like the Scribe, Seth, Si, Frank Jackman, and my oldest
brother, Alex, rode the wave, went out to “edge city” (Alex’s expression picked
up from somewhere), went “walking with the king” (an expression culled from
Doctor Gonzo the late Hunter S. Thompson) and mostly lived to tell the tale.
Their later Vietnam War experiences and returns to the “real world” would not
be so gentle.
I am a bit too young by about a
decade to have had anything but a nodding acquaintance with the Summer of Love
experience. That era’s music did not form the basis for my musical interests
although I heard it around the house from older siblings but rather the music
of the 1970s which when I get a little bored with book reviews or general
cultural pieces I write about for various publications including this one I
write some music reviews. Knowing that let me take a step back so that you will
understand why I made that statement about the review world is really a small
place.
As I said earlier I was a little too
young to appreciate the music of the Summer of Love first- hand but my eldest
brother Alex was not. Had in fact gone out to the West Coast from our growing
up neighborhood the Acre section of North Adamsville that summer along with a
bunch of other guys that he had hung around with since highs school. He wound
up staying in that area, delving into every imaginable cultural experience from
drugs to sex to music, for a couple of years before heading back to his big
career expectations-the law, being a lawyer. The original idea to head west
that summer was not his but that of his closest friend, the late Peter Paul
Markin forever known in town and by me as the Scribe (how he got that is a long
story and not germane to the Seth sage). The Scribe had dropped out of college
in Boston earlier in 1967 when he sensed that what Alex said he had been
yakking about weekly for years that a “new breeze,” his, the Scribe’s term, was
going to take youth nation (and maybe the whole nation) by a storm and headed
west. A couple of months later he came back and dragged Alex and about six
others back west with him. And the rest is history.
I mean that “rest is history” part
literally since earlier this year (2017) Alex, now for many years a big
high-priced lawyer after sowing his wild oats and get “smartened up” as he
called it once the bloom of the counter-culture they were trying to create
faded had gone to a business conference out in San Francisco and while there
had seen on a passing bus an advertisement for something called the Summer of Love Experience at the de
Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. He flipped out, maybe some latent recoil from
those long- ago drugs and spend one “hooky” afternoon mesmerized by the exhibit
of poster art, hippie clothing, photographs and music. That was not all though.
When he got back to Boston he contacted all the old neighborhood guys still
standing who had gone out there in 1967 to put a small memoir book together.
One night they all agreed to do the project, do the project in honor of the
late Scribe who had pushed them out there in some cases kicking and screaming
(not Alex at the time). That is when Alex, knowing that I have had plenty of
experience doing such projects contacted me to edit and get the thing
published. Which I did without too much trouble.
The publication and distribution of
that book while not extensive got around to plenty of people who were involved
in the Summer of Love, or who knew the Scribe. And that is where Seth Garth
comes in. While he was not an integral part of the Summer of Love experience,
having stayed out there only through the summer, he did drift out west after
college to break with his Riverdale growing up home in the early 1970s. As a
writer he looked for work among the various alternative presses out there and
wound up working first as a free-lancer and then as staff as a music critic for
the now long defunct The Eye which
operated out of Oakland then. Guess who also was working as a free-lancer there
as well after he got out of the Army. Yes, the Scribe who was doing a series of
articles on guys like him who had come back from Vietnam and couldn’t relate to
the “real world” and had established what amounted to alternative communities
along the railroad tracks and under the bridges of Southern California. So yeah
it is a small world in the writing for money racket. Here is what Seth has to
say right now. Zack James]
A lot of the musical
switch-over from what is now termed classic rock and the later, let’s for
convenience sake, call it acid rock although that is too narrow a term for what
really went on was a shift in the role of women in the latter scene, as lead
singers and as instrumentalists in their own right. In the earlier period women’s
rock, girl music as it was called then centered on doo wop, do lang harmony of
small groups of three or four women, many black but certainly not exclusively so.
Somebody from mystical Tin Pan Alley would write the music and lyrics and the
doo wop would flow. Mostly girl/teen anguish/alienation and boy trouble stuff.
Great now in re-hearing according to Seth and the guys but then iffy. The point
Seth made was that latter gals like Alcie Frye, Grace Slick, Harley Devine,
Janis Joplin, and many others broke into the hard male world of rock and roll
on their own terms-mainly. Led groups, featured, played instruments and made it
safer for women to crack that crazy doped-up world.
The subject of this piece,
Bonny Raitt, fit that same mold even if she did not lead any famous bands like Jefferson
Airplane or Big Brother and the Holding Company. She honed her craft, learned
to play slide guitar under the tutelage of one Mississippi Fred McDowell the max
daddy
of country blues where
it counted down in the Jim Crow Delta country. Learned how to keep the crowd interested,
how to go through her paces, hang onto the quest for the high white note every musician
dreams big dreams at night about. Seth had met her at Jack’s over in Cambridge
just after he had gotten back from San Francisco and saw what potential she
had, saw how she could work like seven dervishes just like the guys. Sat and
watched her, sat and drank hard whiskies with her and saw the rising star up
close and personal. A little later he would be backstage on the Boston Common, the
year 1968, when she broke through in a concert series the City of Boston was
running to keep a lid, or try to keep a lid on, the new age of rock and roll
which they totally could not comprehend having stopped their rock around Elvis before
the Army time. What more needs to be said fifty years later she still rocks.
(By the way as is the way
with these old time North Adamsville corner boys including my brother they
still like to tout the “big score,” the sexual conquest really related to this
or that event. In the case of the Bonnie Raitt concert he was able to bring his
new girlfriend of the time backstage with him and she was so thrilled that later
that night she let him have his way with her, no sweat. Whether that was true
or not since most corner boys lied like crazy about sexual conquests I don’t
know but I am passing this on as information from Seth)
Happy Birthday Mississippi John Hurt-When Women Play Rock 'N' Roll For Keeps-On The Road With Bonnie Raitt
DVD Review
Bonnie Raitt-Road Tested, Bonnie Raitt and various artists, Capitol Records, 1997
Let us take a trip down memory lane to the Boston Common in the summer of that fateful year, 1968. A bunch of us were sitting (on the ground, no less) fairly far back in that locale and then suddenly a woman’s voice came booming through the air. Moreover, she was playing not the female de rigueur acoustic guitar but an electric one. Just like the guys! That, my friends was my introduction to Bonnie Raitt and she has been rockin’, bluesin’ and folkin’ ever since. This San Francisco concert from 1995 brings all those trends together. For Bonnie Raitt fans, or just the casual blues/folk/rock fan this is a treat. When I occasionally call back memories of the 1960’s and say that that was a time when men (and women) played Rock ‘n’ Roll for keeps it is Bonnie that I have in mind as one of the women.
Honestly, after that early introduction to Bonnie on that long ago summer day I did not follow her career that closely for a time although I knew she learned here craft later at the feet of Mississippi Fred McDowell and would catch her at various Cambridge night spots. However, this concert brings all that back. Not only that but the added attractions of Jackson Browne and the legendary blues singer Ruth Brown (a favorite of mine from way back) round out a very nice concert. What’s good here: John Prine’s "Angel From Montgomery"; "Never Make Your Move Too Soon" (with Brown); Chris Smither’s "Love Me Like A Man" and Rock Steady. Nice stuff, well performed with her band and guest artists.
Lyrics to I Ain't Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again :
There ain't no use in me trying to tell you how I feel 'Cause what I feel ain't what you're feeling I don't know what we did wrong I just know if you come home I ain't gonna let you break my heart again
There ain't no use in me trying to find out where you've been Where you've been ain't where I'm going 'Cause if I ask you where you've been The hurting starts and it don't end So I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no o
Tears don't become me Pain ain't my friend It seems like you enjoy my crying , baby You always said that I was strong But I believe that you were wrong Lately , God knows , I have been trying
There ain't no use in you trying to kiss away the hurt , baby 'Cause it hurts where it's deep down inside of me and it's hiding If you decide you're coming home You walk in , it won't be like before 'Cause I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no Ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no no
Lyrics to No Way To Treat A Lady :
You can tease me You can sweet-talk and lead me on But believe me Won't be long till I'm catchin' on
Now you left me here with nothin' And you put my love on hold Well there must be somethin' behind those eyes Cuz I believed every lie you told
That ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love That ain't no way to treat a lady I coulda sworn that you'd had enough
So you'd leave me When I'm lonely and in despair It intrigues me How you don't really seem to care
Well I ain't here for nothin' And my love doesn't come that cheap I would hold you to all your promises If I could find one you meant to keep
That ain't ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love That ain't ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love
You can tease me You can sweet-talk and lead me on But believe me Won't be long till I'm catchin' on
Cuz I ain't here for nothin' And my love doesn't come that cheap And I would hold you to all your promises If I could find one you meant to keep
That ain't ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love That ain't ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love
Happy Birthday Mississippi John Hurt-When Women Play Rock 'N' Roll For Keeps-On The Road With Bonnie Raitt
DVD Review
Bonnie Raitt-Road Tested, Bonnie Raitt and various artists, Capitol Records, 1997
Let us take a trip down memory lane to the Boston Common in the summer of that fateful year, 1968. A bunch of us were sitting (on the ground, no less) fairly far back in that locale and then suddenly a woman’s voice came booming through the air. Moreover, she was playing not the female de rigueur acoustic guitar but an electric one. Just like the guys! That, my friends was my introduction to Bonnie Raitt and she has been rockin’, bluesin’ and folkin’ ever since. This San Francisco concert from 1995 brings all those trends together. For Bonnie Raitt fans, or just the casual blues/folk/rock fan this is a treat. When I occasionally call back memories of the 1960’s and say that that was a time when men (and women) played Rock ‘n’ Roll for keeps it is Bonnie that I have in mind as one of the women.
Honestly, after that early introduction to Bonnie on that long ago summer day I did not follow her career that closely for a time although I knew she learned here craft later at the feet of Mississippi Fred McDowell and would catch her at various Cambridge night spots. However, this concert brings all that back. Not only that but the added attractions of Jackson Browne and the legendary blues singer Ruth Brown (a favorite of mine from way back) round out a very nice concert. What’s good here: John Prine’s "Angel From Montgomery"; "Never Make Your Move Too Soon" (with Brown); Chris Smither’s "Love Me Like A Man" and Rock Steady. Nice stuff, well performed with her band and guest artists.
Lyrics to I Ain't Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again :
There ain't no use in me trying to tell you how I feel 'Cause what I feel ain't what you're feeling I don't know what we did wrong I just know if you come home I ain't gonna let you break my heart again
There ain't no use in me trying to find out where you've been Where you've been ain't where I'm going 'Cause if I ask you where you've been The hurting starts and it don't end So I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no o
Tears don't become me Pain ain't my friend It seems like you enjoy my crying , baby You always said that I was strong But I believe that you were wrong Lately , God knows , I have been trying
There ain't no use in you trying to kiss away the hurt , baby 'Cause it hurts where it's deep down inside of me and it's hiding If you decide you're coming home You walk in , it won't be like before 'Cause I ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no Ain't gonna let you break my heart again , no no
Lyrics to No Way To Treat A Lady :
You can tease me You can sweet-talk and lead me on But believe me Won't be long till I'm catchin' on
Now you left me here with nothin' And you put my love on hold Well there must be somethin' behind those eyes Cuz I believed every lie you told
That ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love That ain't no way to treat a lady I coulda sworn that you'd had enough
So you'd leave me When I'm lonely and in despair It intrigues me How you don't really seem to care
Well I ain't here for nothin' And my love doesn't come that cheap I would hold you to all your promises If I could find one you meant to keep
That ain't ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love That ain't ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love
You can tease me You can sweet-talk and lead me on But believe me Won't be long till I'm catchin' on
Cuz I ain't here for nothin' And my love doesn't come that cheap And I would hold you to all your promises If I could find one you meant to keep
That ain't ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love That ain't ain't no way to treat a lady That ain't no way to treat a woman in love
James Taylor Live At The Beacon Theater, James Taylor and various artists, Columbia Music Video, 1998
Strangely, as a youth caught up in the fervor of the early 1960's folk revival and its aftermath James Taylor the subject of this review was never on my personal radar. I knew the name, knew people who knew him, and had many chances to hear him perform in the old days. I passed. And with the exception of a couple of songs here that remains true. Somehow he is, however, the perfect performer for aging `baby boomers' who have lost the taste for hard-driving, edgy music but still love the old tunes-and memories. Moreover, Taylor is the perfect performer for Public Broadcasting System fundraisers. The PBS fundraising moguls know their demographics.
Oh yes, I listened to Fire and Rain and You Can't Close Your Eyes back in the days like everyone else. That is not the question. I listened to tons of stuff in those days (and now, as well). However, those songs lacked pathos for me then and off of Taylor's performance here at New York's Beacon Theater in 1998 that condition still prevails. Moreover, the covers here like Jimmy Jones' Handy man and Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away point to my problem with Taylor's work. Generally, good workmanlike performances but no "soul". And to these eyes and ears no real stage presence despite the blurb accolades that accompanied the DVD to the contrary. Unless you are a die hard Taylor fan pass this by.
Bonnie Raitt-Road Tested, Bonnie Raitt and various artists, Capitol Records, 1997
Let us take a trip down memory lane to the Boston Common in the summer of that fateful year, 1968. A bunch of us were sitting (on the ground, no less) fairly far back in that locale and then suddenly a woman’s voice came booming through the air. Moreover, she was playing not the female de rigueur acoustic guitar but an electric one. Just like the guys! That, my friends was my introduction to Bonnie Raitt and she has been rockin’, bluesin’ and folkin’ ever since. This San Francisco concert from 1995 brings all those trends together. For Bonnie Raitt fans, or just the casual blues/folk/rock fan this is a treat. When I occasionally call back memories of the 1960’s and say that that was a time when men (and women) played Rock ‘n’ Roll for keeps it is Bonnie that I have in mind as one of the women.
Honestly, after that early introduction to Bonnie on that long ago summer day I did not follow her career that closely for a time although I knew she learned here craft later at the feet of Mississippi Fred McDowell and would catch her at various Cambridge night spots. However, this concert brings all that back. Not only that but the added attractions of Jackson Browne and the legendary blues singer Ruth Brown (a favorite of mine from way back) round out a very nice concert. What’s good here: John Prine’s Angel From Montgomery; Never Make Your Move Too Soon (with Brown); Chris Smither’s Love Me Like A Man and Rock Steady. Nice stuff, well performed with her band and guest artists.
John Prine At Sessions At West 54th, John Prine with Iris Dement and various artists, OnBoy Records, 2001
Over the last several months I have done more musically-oriented reviews that I had expected. One of the themes that keep cropping up is that for some folk/blues-oriented musical artists like Bob Dylan my attachment was immediate, long time and on-going. For other artists like John Prine it has been more of a recently acquired taste. I had, obviously, heard Bonnie Raitt do his Angel From Montgomery but I never associated his name with that song. Then a couple of years ago I happened to listen to his Hello In There and Sam Stone. Yes, this guy has something to say that I wanted to (on some songs, needed to) hear.
This concert represents a small selection of some of his work, although with the exception of Sam Stone, Lake Marie and Hello in There not much in the way of classics, at least that I am familiar with. This concert would thus only rate as a pretty fair performance except that on a few songs like When Two World Collide he is accompanied by Iris Dement (wife of the folksinger/songwriter Greg Brown). Iris is also a recent acquisition. I would travel very far to hear that voice of hers (and have done so). Incidentally, I have seen both these performers in person over the past couple of years- they still have it. Still this is not the DVD that YOU need to understand either talent, but you may want it.
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Les Sampou Doing "Home Again".
CD Review
Borrowed And Blue, Les Sampou, McNando Records, 2001
The substance of this review was originally used in the review of Les Sampou’s “Borrowed And Blue” album. I have revised that review and most of the points made apply to the other three CD’s reviewed in this space as well.
The name Les Sampou most recently came up in this space, in passing, as part of a review of blues/folk stylist/ songwriter Rory Block’s work. I made the point there that Rory (and Les, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur and precious few others) were performing a great service by keeping the female blue singer tradition alive (and, for that matter, male-witness the songs covered by all four). And along the way doing the same for the more amorphous contemporary folk tradition with their own fair share of masterful songwriting efforts. Since I placed Les Sampou in such august company it was, thus, only a matter of time before I got around to giving her a few kudos of her own. The following paragraph from the Rory Block review can serve here for Les as well:
“But more than that, thanks for this great album of country blues classics some famous, some a little obscure and known only to serious aficionados but all well worth placing in the album with the quirky little Rory Block treatment that makes many of the songs her own. Oh, did I also mention her virtuoso strong guitar playing. Well, that too. I have gone on and on elsewhere in this space about the old time women blues singers, mostly black, like Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey and Ida Cox. I have also spilled some ink on more modern, mainly white, women blues singers like Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur and a local talent here in Boston, Les Sampou, and their admirable (and necessary) efforts to carry on this proud tradition. Rory belongs right up there with these women.”
As For “Borrowed And Blue” here is the ‘skinny’:
Yes, indeed Les Sampou can take pride in this album. Mississippi Fred McDowell lives. Her incredibly strong slide guitar playing makes some of Les's old classics like “Chinatown” and “Sweet Perfume” just jump out of the album. She also does a nice job on Blind Willie McTell's “Statesboro Blues” and Mississippi John Hurt’s “Richland Women Blues”. I could go n but I hope you get the drift. Les can DO the blues. Just think of this. What if Les had had the opportunity, like Bonnie Raitt, to learn and travel with the old master McDowell? Wow. Definitely Les's best album. How about doing McDowell's classic “You've Got To Move” on the next album? (An album, by the way, that is supposed to come out in the Fall of 2009. Watch for it.)
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Les Sampou.
CD Review
Les Sampou, Les Sampou, Rounder Records 1993
The substance of this review was originally used in the review of Les Sampou’s “Borrowed And Blue” album. I have revised that review and most of the points made apply to the other three CD’s reviewed in this space as well.
The name Les Sampou most recently came up in this space, in passing, as part of a review of blues/folk stylist/ songwriter Rory Block’s work. I made the point there that Rory (and Les, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur and precious few others) were performing a great service by keeping the female blue singer tradition alive (and, for that matter, male-witness the songs covered by all four). And along the way doing the same for the more amorphous contemporary folk tradition with their own fair share of masterful songwriting efforts. Since I placed Les Sampou in such august company it was, thus, only a matter of time before I got around to giving her a few kudos of her own. The following paragraph from the Rory Block review can serve here for Les as well:
“But more than that, thanks for this great album of country blues classics some famous, some a little obscure and known only to serious aficionados but all well worth placing in the album with the quirky little Rory Block treatment that makes many of the songs her own. Oh, did I also mention her virtuoso strong guitar playing. Well, that too. I have gone on and on elsewhere in this space about the old time women blues singers, mostly black, like Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey and Ida Cox. I have also spilled some ink on more modern, mainly white, women blues singers like Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur and a local talent here in Boston, Les Sampou, and their admirable (and necessary) efforts to carry on this proud tradition. Rory belongs right up there with these women.”
As For “Les Sampou” here is the ‘skinny’:
There are a lot of ways to be “in” the contemporary folk scene. One way is to write some topical songs of love, longings for love, maybe, a little politics thrown in and maybe some snappy thing about the vacuity of modern life. Yes, that is the easy stuff and Les can, if the occasion calls for it, summon up some very powerful lyrics to make those points. Witness “Broken Pieces” and the almost self-explanatory “Hanging By A Thread”. But, something more is going on here. This is a woman who has been through the emotional wringer, and survived. Listen to the heartrending “Happy Anniversary” and the slightly, just slightly, more hopeful “Same Fine Line”. You can’t fake that stuff.
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip On Les Sampou.
CD Review
Fall From Grace, Les Sampou, Flying Fish CD, Rounder Records, 1996
The substance of this review was originally used in the review of Les Sampou’s “Borrowed And Blue” album. I have revised that review and most of the points made apply to the other three CD’s reviewed in this space as well.
The name Les Sampou most recently came up in this space, in passing, as part of a review of blues/folk stylist/ songwriter Rory Block’s work. I made the point there that Rory (and Les, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur and precious few others) were performing a great service by keeping the female blue singer tradition alive (and, for that matter, male-witness the songs covered by all four). And along the way doing the same for the more amorphous contemporary folk tradition with their own fair share of masterful songwriting efforts. Since I placed Les Sampou in such august company it was, thus, only a matter of time before I got around to giving her a few kudos of her own. The following paragraph from the Rory Block review can serve here for Les as well:
“But more than that, thanks for this great album of country blues classics some famous, some a little obscure and known only to serious aficionados but all well worth placing in the album with the quirky little Rory Block treatment that makes many of the songs her own. Oh, did I also mention her virtuoso strong guitar playing. Well, that too. I have gone on and on elsewhere in this space about the old time women blues singers, mostly black, like Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey and Ida Cox. I have also spilled some ink on more modern, mainly white, women blues singers like Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur and a local talent here in Boston, Les Sampou, and their admirable (and necessary) efforts to carry on this proud tradition. Rory belongs right up there with these women.”
As For “Fall From Grace” here is the ‘skinny’:
I will make the same point I made in reviewing the “Les Sampou” album because that same spirit pervades this effort. There are a lot of way to be “in” the contemporary folk scene. One way is to write some topical songs of love, longings for love, maybe, a little politics thrown in and maybe some snappy thing about the vacuity of modern life. Yes, that is the easy stuff and Les can, if the occasion calls for it, summon up some very powerful lyrics to make those points. Witness “Holy Land ” and “Home Again”. But, something more is going on here. This is a woman who has been through the emotional wringer, and survived. Listen to the heartrending “Weather Vane” and the slightly, just slightly, more hopeful “Ride The Line”. An extraordinary track is “Flesh And Blood” about the all too real traumas of youthful sexual identity. You can’t fake that stuff.
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Les Sampou Doing "Oil And Water Don't Mix".
CD Review
Sweet Perfume, Rounder Records, 1993
The substance of this review was originally used in the review of Les Sampou's "Borrowed And Blue" album. I have revised that review and most of the points made apply to the other three CD's reviewed in this space as well.
The name Les Sampou most recently came up in this space, in passing, as part of a review of blues/folk stylist/ songwriter Rory Block's work. I made the point there that Rory (and Les, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur and precious few others) were performing a great service by keeping the female blue singer tradition alive (and, for that matter, male-witness the songs covered by all four). And along the way doing the same for the more amorphous contemporary folk tradition with their own fair share of masterful songwriting efforts. Since I placed Les Sampou in such august company it was, thus, only a matter of time before I got around to giving her a few kudos of her own. The following paragraph from the Rory Block review can serve here for Les as well:
"But more than that, thanks for this great album of country blues classics some famous, some a little obscure and known only to serious aficionados but all well worth placing in the album with the quirky little Rory Block treatment that makes many of the songs her own. Oh, did I also mention her virtuoso strong guitar playing. Well, that too. I have gone on and on elsewhere in this space about the old time women blues singers, mostly black, like Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey and Ida Cox. I have also spilled some ink on more modern, mainly white, women blues singers like Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur and a local talent here in Boston, Les Sampou, and their admirable (and necessary) efforts to carry on this proud tradition. Rory belongs right up there with these women."
As For "Sweet Perfume" here is the `skinny':
I will make the same point I made in reviewing the "Les Sampou" album because that same spirit pervades this effort. There are a lot of way to be "in" the contemporary folk scene. One way is to write some topical songs of love, longings for love, maybe, a little politics thrown in and maybe some snappy thing about the vacuity of modern life. Yes, that is the easy stuff and Les can, if the occasion calls for it, summon up some very powerful lyrics to make those points. Witness "Holy Land " and "String Of Pearls". But, something more is going on here. This is a woman who has been through the emotional wringer, and survived. Listen to "Chinatown" and "Sweet Perfume". You can't fake that stuff.
Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Sippie Wallace performing her classic, Women Be Wise (also covered by Bonnie Raitt and Maria Muldaur among others). Markin comment:
Well I will just let Sippie tell it like it is for once. Truth. Without further comment. Okay. lol in cyber-slang. ****** Wallace Sippi
Women Be Wise
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut Don't advertise your man Don't sit around gossiping Explaining what he really can do Some women now days Lord they ain't no good They will laugh in your face They'll try to steal your man from you
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut Don't advertise your man
Your best girlfriend Oh she might be a highbrow Changes clothes three time a day But what do you think she's doing now While you're so far away? You know she's lovin your man In your own damn bed... You better call for the doctor Try to investigate your head
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut Don't advertise your man
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut Don't advertise your man Now don't sit around girls Telling all your secrets Telling all those good things he really can do Cause if you talk about your baby Yeah you tell me he's so fine Honey I might just sneak up And try to make him mine
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut Don't advertise your man -- Don't be no fool! Don't advertise your man Baby don't do it!
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of John Prine performing "Hello, In There".
DVD Review
John Prine At Sessions At West 54th, John Prine with Iris Dement and various artists, OnBoy Records, 2001
Over the last several months I have done more musically-oriented reviews that I had expected. One of the themes that keep cropping up is that for some folk/blues-oriented musical artists like Bob Dylan my attachment was immediate, long time and on-going. For other artists like John Prine it has been more of a recently acquired taste. I had, obviously, heard Bonnie Raitt do his "Angel From Montgomery" but I never associated his name with that song. Then a couple of years ago I happened to listen to his "Hello In There" and "Sam Stone". Yes, this guy has something to say that I wanted to (on some songs, needed to) hear.
This concert represents a small selection of some of his work, although with the exception of "Sam Stone", "Lake Marie" and "Hello In There" not much in the way of classics, at least that I am familiar with. This concert would thus only rate as a pretty fair performance except that on a few songs like "When Two World Collide" he is accompanied by Iris Dement (wife of the folksinger/songwriter Greg Brown). Iris is also a recent acquisition. I would travel very far to hear that voice of hers (and have done so). Incidentally, I have seen both these performers in person over the past couple of years- they still have it. Still this is not the DVD that YOU need to understand either talent, but you may want it.
John Prine, Hello in There Lyrics
We had an apartment in the city, Me and Loretta liked living there. Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown, A life of their own left us alone. John and Linda live in Omaha, And Joe is somewhere on the road. We lost Davy in the Korean war, And I still don't know what for, don't matter anymore.
Chorus: Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger, And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day. Old people just grow lonesome Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello."
Me and Loretta, we don't talk much more, She sits and stares through the back door screen. And all the news just repeats itself Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen. Someday I'll go and call up Rudy, We worked together at the factory. But what could I say if asks "What's new?" "Nothing, what's with you? Nothing much to do."
Repeat Chorus:
So if you're walking down the street sometime And spot some hollow ancient eyes, Please don't just pass 'em by and stare As if you didn't care, say, "Hello in there, hello."
John Prine, Sam Stone Lyrics
Sam Stone came home, To his wife and family After serving in the conflict overseas. And the time that he served, Had shattered all his nerves, And left a little shrapnel in his knee. But the morphine eased the pain, And the grass grew round his brain, And gave him all the confidence he lacked, With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.
Chorus: There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes, Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose. Little pitchers have big ears, Don't stop to count the years, Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios. Mmm....
Sam Stone's welcome home Didn't last too long. He went to work when he'd spent his last dime And Sammy took to stealing When he got that empty feeling For a hundred dollar habit without overtime. And the gold rolled through his veins Like a thousand railroad trains, And eased his mind in the hours that he chose, While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...
Repeat Chorus:
Sam Stone was alone When he popped his last balloon Climbing walls while sitting in a chair Well, he played his last request While the room smelled just like death With an overdose hovering in the air But life had lost its fun And there was nothing to be done But trade his house that he bought on the G, I. Bill For a flag draped casket on a local heroes' hill
Repeat Chorus
John Prine, Angel from Montgomery Lyrics
I am an old woman named after my mother My old man is another child that's grown old If dreams were lightning thunder was desire This old house would have burnt down a long time ago
Chorus: Make me an angel that flies from montgom'ry Make me a poster of an old rodeo Just give me one thing that I can hold on to To believe in this living is just a hard way to go
When I was a young girl well, I had me a cowboy He weren't much to look at, just free rambling man But that was a long time and no matter how I try The years just flow by like a broken down dam.
Repeat chorus:
There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzing And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today. How the hell can a person go to work in the morning And come home in the evening and have nothing to say.
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Rory Block In Concert.
Have Mercy, Rory
Angel Of Mercy, Rory Block, Rounder Records, 1994
I recently, in reviewing Rory Block’s fine “Gone Woman’s Blues CD, noted that I owed her one. Here is why. During the recently completed misbegotten presidential campaign season I took more heat that one could shake a stick at for using the title of one of country blues master Skip James’ “I’d Rather Be A Devil That To Be That Woman’s Man” for some political blogs that I wrote in regard to the Hillary Clinton’s Democratic Party candidacy. For months I took it on the chin from my feminist friends as exhibiting some form of latent hostility to women, especially woman candidates for president. (By the way, that was a totally false accusation. I would have been more than willing to vote for Victoria Woodhull on the Woman’s Equality ticket in 1872.) There one day I remembered through the mist of time singer/songwriter Rory Block’s rendition of the James’ classic and which forms the headline to this entry. Thanks, Rory.
But thanks and kudos can only go so far. The present CD, “Angel Of Mercy”, leaves me cold. Rory, I believe, has always had two speeds. The natural blues one and the contemporary folk stylist one. That latter style is on display here and not to her benefit. Probably, and here I may get back into “hot water” politically, the main problem is that the lyrics of these songs do not “speak” to me. It could be age, it could be gender, it could be the wayward subjects but they just do not resonant with me. Not to worry though there are other Rory CDs that do “speak” to me and will get more a more positive review like the one given to “Gone Woman Blues”.
