I Owe You An Explanation!

Indeed I do, since I started the Secret Santa's mystery song thing, and two and a half are possibly waiting for the solution. And I admit it upfront, the game was kind of rigged. It was almost impossible for you to find song and artist in question, unless you were really motivated, fired up Audacity and sped that sucker up, cranked to eleven). Either way, I hope you enjoyed the little (ahem) piece of music either way. The friends we made along the way etc. 

So this super secret surprise song came about like Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin - a total accident. I was working on my Fully Automated Version of Trans, mucking around with "Hold On To Your Love" on Audacity, trying out different filters and effects to make the song more, uh, Trans-ier. Results proved inconclusive to unsatisfying. Just before giving up I clicked on something called 'Paulstretch' - as Marc Cohn put it once in one of his great song intros 'life is pressing a button you never pressed before' - and immeditaley went 'uh oh', when the program announced it needed about 25 minutes to finish the task (though it probably ended up finishing earlier). Being in a 'let's see what it does when it wakes up' kind of mood, I wandered off, probably for something glamorous like loading the dishwasher, and color me surprised when I came back to my PC and Paulstretch had really stretched things. "Hold On To Your Love" went from going about three and a half minutes or so to lasting more than thirty! 

Yes, the ambient piece hiding in the Secret Santa's Mystery Box is nothing other than an extremely slowed down  - er, I mean paulstretched - version of Neil Young's "Hold On To Your Love". Well at least now I know how folks on Youtube create 'ambient' or 'meditation' versions of songs - a simple press of a button will do. Lazy bastards, the dirty lot of ya! Interesting though, how in one touch you can bring out your inner Vangelis...

As a prize for everyone playing along you'll get Johnny's Island, the kinda-sorta (mini) album Young recorded in Hawaii with a band dubbed - with usual Young-ish style - The Royal Pineapples, from which "Hold On To Your Love" originated, before it got mashed up with the Trans material. The sorta title song "Johnny" is the only one not with the band, a DIY home recording with Neil on synclavier and synthesizers, still somewhat in Trans mode before sliding into a mellower mood for the Island material. Includes the original version of "Silver & Gold". 

It's A Holiday Hootenanny, y'all, with the newest edition of them Bluegrass Chartbusters...

Some of your family members still around for their annual visit for the holidays? Any of 'em from Hicksville, Somewhere? (Let's not investigate blood relations here, shall we?) They all ready to prolong the festivities with a good ol' fashioned bluegrass hoedown hootenanny? 

Or do you have very refined urban hipster guests who still have a hard time finding the door? Who just might recoil in horror at the sound of a banjo, thinking someone might soon invite them to squeal like a pig? Well, turn up this hick music to send them running towards their microbreweries and organic soy drink shops!

You see, Bluegrass Chartbusters is the right series for any occasion involving your Christmas guests! 

Beware Of Cats!

This series just keeps chugging along, providing once more 20 perfectly lovely or interesting Bluegrass versions of rock and pop classics from yesteryear. Nothing much has changed, we're looking at a line-up that includes Pickin On... stalwarts Cornbread Red, Iron Horse, The Sidekicks and Brad Davis, as well as more recent additions Town Mountain and The Grass Cats (check out those cats above...), the latter with frankly fantastic renditions of, respectively, "I"m On Fire" and "I Shot The Sheriff".

A new arrival to the series is Hit & Run Bluegrass, a group led by Rebecca Frazier, and in this case produced by her husband John. It's second guitar player Mike Mickelson doing the lead vocals on their take on "Jessie's Girl", but Hit & Run Bluegrass will assuredly be back on future volumes. The same thing is true of fellow newcomers to this series, Craig Ferguson & Band, who cover Foo Fighters' "Times Like These (One Way Motorway)", also covered by Glen Campbell back on his modern standards album Meet Glen Campbell. 

No, OBG, no! Refrain yourself! No 'Hit & Run' jokes here, no, sir!!!

If on the last volume we could almost lament a short supply of Cornbread Red, but here you can feast on them doing Barenaked Ladies' "One Week", Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and Def Leppard's "Let's Get Rocked". Family band The Petersens are also back, here with a rare lead vocal performance of family friend and dobro master Emmet Franz on a slowed-down version of the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way", as well as a sibling duet on Coldplay's "The Scientist". 

Songs covered run a large spectrum, from Brad Davis' take on 1968's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to 2014's "Shake It Off" by the one and only Taylor Swift of course. Along the way we check in with versions of "Walk Like An Egyptian", Nirvana's "Come As You Are" and, perhaps most surprisinly, Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train", the latter two taken care of by old pros Iron Horse. I also particularly like instrumental closer "No Surprises", an instantly recognizable version of the Radiohead classic by Old School Freight Train. 

The Christmas Hootenanny is on with these twenty fun and occasionally innovative covers of beloved favorites from almost fifty years of popular music. Yeehaw and Ho-Ho-Ho!

Have You Been Naughty Or Nice? Hmmm? The One Buck Guy Is Both Naughtier And Nicer...

Ho! Ho! Ho! And by that I do mean the scantily clad women hanging around in a photogenic manner in this thread's various visual supports. It's Christmas time again, folks, and here at One Buck Records that can only mean two things: women in various state of Holiday-themed skimpy outfits and a specially compiled Christmas compilation for my very favorite readers - which is all of you, obviously. 

You might have noticed on the last two volumes (which are also re-upped, gotta keep that Christmas music comin'....) that I keep the irreverent and snotty limited. Yes, these Christmas collections are supposed to be fun and not entirely traditional, but big ol' sentimental me also enjoys a genuine take on a Christmas carol by a favorite artist, so there's also quite a bit of those from perennial OBG faves like Tift Merrit, Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin. This doesn't stop me, obviously, from opening proceedings with Cheap Trick kickin' down Santa's door with "Come On Christmas". Power pop fans will be served on this volume, as we also have Christmas Carols from the likes of Chris Stamey, Del Lords and Fountains Of Wayne, while genre-adjacent Marshall Crenshaw's DIY contribution is a little more subdued (dig the 80s Casio groove, friends..).

Oh, hello there, lady...is there something for me in there..?

And then there's the ones that split the difference between the genuine and...the genuinely weird. Hear Nat King Cole fight his way through a phonetic cheat sheet while wrestling the original German language version of "O Tannenbaum" to a draw! Witness the improbable once-in-a-lifetime dream team of David Bowie and Bing Crosby (or, as Bowie recalls him at his advanced senior age, looking like 'an orange sitting on a stool') with the improbably beautiful "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy". These are unironically two of my favorite Christmas tunes! I'll leave it to the listener to judge whether the group vocals during the second half of Chris Stamey's "Christmas Song" are genuine and charming or willingly amateur and a send up. If you do want lovely group vocals, don't go further than The Wondermints doing their loveliest Beach Boys impression on "Santa's Beard"!

We also have slightly jazzy takes from the likes of Ray Charles and Don Dixon! Further vets like Jose Féliciano and John Hiatt! Wisenheimers like Nick Lowe and Sufjan Stevens! Truly a cornucopia of Holiday tunages, accompanied, as ever, by the One Buck Records Elvettes coming up right underneath..

So, have yourself a merry little Christmas, everybody...

P.S.: While uploading this comp I've just learned that Chris Rea died this week. Not a huge fan, but considering tha radio proclivities of my parents, I couldn't escape the man. Here's his Christmas classic "Driving Home For Christmas"

R.I.P. Christopher Anton Rea, 1951-2025

 

Breezy Beach Christmas Cheer...

 

 

Out of the corner of my eye I've seen a couple of you rummaging in the original Bambu thread, alas without the music. So as an addendum to the underrated singer-songwriter back pages thread, and an early Christmas present for some of you, here's Dennis' beautiful Bambu again...

Oaxaca: When The Blue Öyster Cult Became The Grateful Dead...For A Psychedelic Minute...Or Two

Some rock bands are born fully formed, but most aren't. A ton of them flail around for a couple of years, in terms of finding their proper style, their finalized line-up, hell, ven their band name. Blue Öyster Cult did all this, cycling through band names, band members and decidedly different styles from the dumb-but-smart hard rock that defined the band from at least Secret Treaties (1973) onwards. Even the band's first two albums, the self-titled debut and Tyranny And Mutation, show the band still finding themselves, with the debut still closer to their roots as a psych-folk outfit, while Tyranny shows them making major strides towards their sugnature sound from Secret Treaties on. But for years the future Cult was searching for the right fit in sound and style, leaving some interesting artifacts behind. Hey, folks, anyone up for some acid rock from the future Blue Öyster Cult? 

First off, the name: Oaxaca was the band's name when they recorded these demos, so we'll stick with it - not to mention it sounds way more psychedelic than The Stalk-Forrest Group ('By the way, which one's Forrest?'), under which these demos were finally issued in 2001. Having started out as White Soft Underbelly, the band had recently lost original lead singer Les Braunstein, to be replaced internally by Eric Bloom - and recorded the songs on this album as Oaxaca, essentially rerecording these tracks, as a first recording was done with Braunstein. Oaxaca - still with Andrew Winters on bass instead of Joe Bouchard - then went into the Elektra studios in Los Angeles to lay down a ten track demo. This is that, plus the short track "John L. Sullivan" that is from around the same time, and was issued on the BÖC Rarities album, which itself quickly became a rarity, in an ironic twist the band would surely appreciate. 

Overall, this is a fascinating look at the Cult and the road not taken. A year later they remixed or re-recorded some of these a year later in New York to nudge them closer into their burgeoning hard rock direction, by that time the band had been the Stalk-Forrest Group for a while. These are the original recordings of the proto-Blue Öyster Cult, as a full-fledged, Grateful Dead-inspired acid rock/ psych rock band. If you go into another fascinating direction, go the whole way. 

Some of the Imaginos stuff is already rearing its head in this very early stage: "Curse Of The Hidden Mirrors" - the opening track here - later gave an otherwise unrelated BÖC album its name, and Albert Bouchard integrated it into its own take on the Imaginos myth, while "Gil Blanco Country" was left off the album in 1987, much to Bouchard's unhappiness, and he put it onto ReImaginos. There is also a very early version of "I'm On The Lamb".

Bloom's lead vocals on these tracks are much more subtle, and in many ways sweeter, than his showman growling on later Cult numbers. So we get the sweet psych folk-rock of the aforementioned "Gil Blanco Country" and during the opening of "St. Cecilia", which then turns into a Gateful Dead-type acid rock instrumental workout. You can almost guess the sound of later BÖC in the driving "Donovan's Monkey", on which Bloom approaches his later vocal stylings. "Arthur Comics" mixes acid/garage rock with blues licks, while "Bonomo's Turkish Raffy", which they dropped from the new demo/album configuration a year later is pure psych guitar pop. Very far from real BÖC, and all the better for it. 

Some of it sounds well of its time. "Raggamuffin Dumplin'" with lines like "I'm the magic man with the magic plan" for example, or the weirdness of "Quicksand", which unwisely was a year later chosen as a try-out single that unsurprisingly stiffed. And in some ways, while this is interesting mimicry, the future for these New York area-wise asses didn't lie in Southern Californian acid rock, even if they give it their all, as in fully psyched-out closer "A Fact About Sneakers". But this is not only interesting for historical purposes, ior as a piece of juvenilia from a band that would go on to be bigger and better, it's a genuinely good listen if you're into late 60s acid rock. Which I'm normally not, but I'm digging this, and so should fans of the genre. 

So, didn't think you'd ever hear Blue Öyster Cult dress up as The Grateful Dead and doing a good job of it? Then think again and hear what Oaxaca is all about...and dig it, maaaaaaaan!

My Back Pages #1 - Unknown & underrated singer-songwriters

 

A suggestion in the thread of Barbara Keith's album posted last weekend suggested a spotlight on underrated or too little known songwriters as a worthy endeavor. Well, I like to think that One Buck Records has already done its part in that department, either through the One Album Wonders series or some regular posts. And since I was thinking of doing something with the ever-growing back catalogue of this blog that may have passed a bunch of people by, I'll just launch what will be a semi-regular feature. My Back Pages will essentially a little reminder of what great music lies in the back pages of this blog, and I will just post a couple of links to the line-ups with renewed links for the albums in question.

Since the topic was underrated or unknown songwriters,

how about checking out Michael Johnson's fabulous debut album in a slightly reworked form? 

or take a trip further up north and

join Luke Gibson for another perfect day of perfect 70s stoner singer-songwriter stuff

You could also move to the mystic kingdom Of Fife

and listen intently to Jackie Leven's Songs Of The Forbidden West

or go and visit the two Bobs who are not that Bob, 

first Bob Burchill with another unknown country rock classic from the 70s

and then fellow canuck 

Bob Carpenter and his mostly unknown Americana classic Silent Passage

or, if you are in a somber winter mood, 

revisit the music of Jay Bolotin that should be much wider known

Now there. That should do it. I take it y'all have already the music I posted of the late, great Neal Casal for whom I will never not stan...

...and of course, be back this weekend for new music coming to One Buck Records...

Exit On Easy Street: Sayin' Goodbye To The Lord Of The Highway

Joe Ely died earlier this week. Now, unlike some other folks that have dies in recent years, I don't have a particularly strong connection to Ely, despite him working in Americana, so music that should be right up my alley. But somehow I never stumbled over any of his albums, so he mainly stayed in my conscience as a guy that many of the Americana and Alt Country artists that I like idolized and namechecked. As a matter of fact, for years the only Joe Ely song in my collection was the cover of "Are You Sure Hand Done It This Way?" with Uncle Tupelo. Ely had been sick for a while it seems, and announced in Spetember that he had dementia and Parkinson's, so you figured he wouldn't be very long for this world. Still, another one of the old heroes gone. It's starting to get mighty thin in the ranks for a certain type of country-folk singer-songwriter. Having recently posted the second album of my Willie & Waylon Outlaws series, I'm thinking that Willie Nelson is immortal, but he will definitely be the last one left.

Anyway, just because I'm not the world's biggest Ely fan, mainly out of ignorance, doesn't mean that I won't mark his passing with a bit of his music. Because the only Ely music I have I put aside a while ago to maybe do something with for this blog. And now that Ely is gone, I did. So these tracks that make up Easy Street and a second album to come up later were recorded by Joe Ely in the mid-80s, in 1985 or early 1986 to be precise, for a follow-up to 1984's Hi-Res. However, his relationship with RCA, the label he was with for eight years and five albums was starting to get rocky, and MCA decided against releasing an album from these sessions, finally dropping Ely from the label. He recorded two albums for Hightone Records before fianlly going back top MCA for the 90s. 

The music that is on Easy Street is proof of Ely's all-encompassing approach to his music. It's rooted in country, but Ely's music is as much rock, while also dipping into honky tonk, mariachi music, and even reggae, as on "Up A Tree", while kick-ass opener "Baby Needs A New Pair Of Shoes" is almost new wave. He's also pretty good with country ballads, as on "A Thousand Miles From Home" and "Heart And Soul". This is all pretty good stuff, and eminently worth of being released. Fair warning, though; This is music from the mid-80s and boy does it sound like it. Drums like gunshots, an overly bright and very likely digital sheen - this isn't a roots record in the traditional sense, or at least it doesn't sound like one. But it does sound pretty good, even if it does sound of its time. 

So here's part one of unreleased Joe Ely, which we more or less discover together. Next stop: Easy Street...

R.I.P. Earle Rewell "Joe" Ely, 1947 - 2025