Hotdiggity, Them Bluegrass Chartbusters Are Filling Up Them Airwaves Again...

Time for another hoedown with the series that combines the sound of the backwoods with the popular songs of yesteryear. I might have mentioned it in the write-up to the last volume, but this series is in constant reworking, though here I have, let's say stabilizd, the whole thing, with the next ten or so volumes ready to go. Yes you heard that right. What I initially thought would be about three volumes continued to grow and grow beyond all reasonable proportions, and after setting arbitrary limits to how much volumes the series should have I gave up on that. I wanted to top it at ten, then twelve, then fifteen and now gave up on setting a limit. As long as I keep finding worthwhile bluegrass covers of pop tunes, this series will continue, and so it does. 

What makes these volumes grow is of course also that I keep finding new cool covers or bands that fit the series' profile, wich I then try to weed into the existing, up-until-then-finished volumes, so that some artists that I recently found don't just show up on, like volume thirteen or whatever. So existing numbers get dropped off, then push into one of the next volumes, which then pushes other songs out etc. etc. 

A top notch addition to the roster is Love Canon, a group that focuses on covering songs from the 1980s (they bend the dates a little bit, for, say "Solsbury Hill", which will show up on the next volume). These guys have real chops, and, more importantly, don't treat the whole thing as an ironic hardy-fuckin'-har exercise. For these reasons you haven't seen folks like Hayseed Dixie or The Cleverlys show up in this series. No piss takes on the genre, or bluegrass lampooning of the originals. There's certainly a time and place for that, but not now and not here. A band that skirts with the 'funny bluegrass covers' label, but has just enough reverence for the originals and its tongue not so deeply in cheek that it theatens to push through the skin is the previously featured Steve'n'Seagulls, who with this volume are also gaining their access ticket to Bluegrass Chartbusters. Love Canon stick with Peter Gabriel in reworking "Sledgehammer", while Steve'n'Seagulls cover - of course AC/DC and "Moneytalks".

We also welcome some other newcomers that will also sow up on future volumes, such as The Brothers Comatose, joined on this volume by John Craigie for a take on Don Henley's classic "The Boys Of Summer". Now that is a song that is great, but Henley's really 80s sounding version is probably one of my least favorite takes on the song. Hell, I even prefer The Ataris with their punk rock version (and changing the "deadhead sticker on a cadillac" line to "a Black Flag sticker on a cadillac" is pretty genius. But I digress). Alos new to the series in one-offs (for now): Crazy Mule covering Bob Seger's 'on the road' classic "Turn The Page" and Southern Strings' take on the Doobies' "Listen To The Music", where the young female lead singers vocals bring something to the song that I really like. 

Other than that, we got the usual roster of Pickin' On...artists, and other assembled first choice artists (check out Dale Ann Bradley's smokin' double-time take on "I Won't Back Down"). Again, tons of fun to be had, with other artists being covered including, bt not limited to Madness, Cyndi Lauper, Def Leppard, The Dixie Chicks, The Guess Who, Kings Of Leon, The Beatles, and The Who. The songs we all love and remember!, says he in a smarmy TV salesman voice (from back when you could order fishy looking music boxsets on teleshopping channels). 

If you've been on board with this series for a couple of volumes, you'll know what to expect, and if you haven't - well, its never too late, to find your inner good ol' boy with a heart for classic radio. Plus you'll get some rather fetching cover art, if I migt say so, though I forgot where I picked this up. So, get ready to throw down for the hoedown...

Yes, Yes, We've Got Him Covered Again...That Starman, That Thin White Duke, That Blackstar...

 

While I'm waiting for inspiration for another Bowie project, here's another trip through the long corridors full of funhouse mirror versions of Bowie songs. I sure hope the anonymous person answering my question of what songs they want to see on one of these is still around, because while it took me a while to do it, here are versions of “Watch That Man” (going for the obvious, it's Lulu, produced and graced with unmistakable backgrouns vocals by Mr. Bowie himself, plus Ronno on killer guitar) and “The Width Of The Circle” (way harder to find, I finally found a version credited to Norman Ball & Back In NY).

The whole compilation actually plays out like this, alternating between big names (Blondie and their classic live cover of “Heroes”, Nirvana's equally classic live unplugged cover of “The Man Who Sold The World”, Duran Duran covering “Five Years”), known quantities (Big Country taking on “Cracked Actor”, Robbie Willliams covering “Kooks”, Rick Wakeman playing “Space Oddity” alone on piano in remembrance of Bowie) and a lot of lesser known folks. Of these, I really like Lazer Cake retro-futuristic cover of “Fame”, on the other side of the (noise) spectrum we have Alice Price's take on “Lazarus” and Hazel O'Connor's “Rock'n'Roll Suicide”.

In the somewhat known quantity department we have Bowie's long-time bass player and on-stage foil Gail Ann Dorsey again, as on Vol. 3 once more teaming up with Mathieu 'M' Chedid, here doing a full- band version of “Life On Mars?”. And Beck can probably safely be slotted somewhere in between big name and known quantity. The track “Sound And Vision (Second Vision” is indeed a sort-of-sequel to his cover on Vol. 1. The original 'reimagined' tracks was almost nine minutes long and without much flow, thus I cut two different versions, the first version more or less being the 'song part' version, while this 'Second Vision' is essentially composed of the original re-imagining's beginning and end. Call it an idiosyncratic spin on a classic, and you'll get the idea.

There's again some nice variety here: Caecilia Norby & Lars Danielsson take “Andy Warhol” on a jazz trip, while Seu Jorge continues to acoustically bossa nova his way through the Bowie catalogue, here with a warm, wonderful take on “Changes”. Hey, even the Spiders From Mars show up!

We've Got You Covered – David Bowie Vol. 4 continues to prove two things we've seen throughout the series: the breadth and depth of Mr. Bowie's catalogue, though obviously most cover artists stick to the more known songs here, and so do I, and the possibility to do interesting stuff with Bowie's music. So, hear some great classics in versions you might not have heard before, or haven't heard in a while...

When Albert Bouchard Launches Bombs Over Germany or What Imaginos Did On His Summer Vacation...

 

When last we checked in with Albert Bouchard, the man had finally realized his dream and putout Imaginos the way he wanted to...or at least as closely aspossible. His version of Imaginos was an interesting lesson in less is more and power through restriction. With the album being a low-budget production that Bouchard started with his music students, then mainly worked on it with David Hershfeld, plus an honest evaluation of the state of his never-that-great-to-begin-with-voice led him to reimagine Imaginos as a more relaxed liste than the hair metal extravaganza his old band ended up turning it into.

But of course, if luck favors the bold, hubris favors the successful. Re-Imaginos was not only a dream project come true, it was also a real success. Given the low front-end investment, it was – according to Bouchard – the first album that made him money, so of course he more or less immediately began work on a sequel. He had planned, or says now that he planned three double albums covering the adventures of Imaginos and incorporating most of Blue Öyster Cult's songs. That sounds like a lot, it also sounds a lot like bullshit.

Just saying : In the mid-to late 80s, no one was giving Albert Bouchard, fuck-up ex-drummer of Blue Öyster Cult - who themselves were swirling down in terms of record sales and critical esteem - that even that band didn't want back, money to record one double album, let alone three, all chronicling an impossible-to-follow storyline about an evil alien-created shapeshifter leading mankind to its doom. These albums only ever existed in Bouchard's mind, or maybe in fever dreams. But a funny thing happened in 2020. Buyoed by the succes of his Imaginos, Bouchard finally found himself in a position to make that crazy dream come true. Because, hey, who was going to stop him this time ? These Imaginos albums are essentially private press releases, all coming out on Bouchard's own Rockheart label. So, even with the most minute of sales, Bouchard will be in the Red And Black.

But here's the thing. Man, is Bouchard overegging the pudding, and that is before he really goes mad in part three. Ostensibly about how Imaginos influences Germany into starting World War One, Imaginos II starts to just put various Blue Öyster Cult songs seemingly at random in its purported storyline, but since that storyline is all but imposible to follow anyway, and the alien-powered title character can just more or less wave everything away with a 'it's magic/Alien/whathavewe' power, it's probably just as well. Except that the One Buck Guy will not stand for all this bloat. A song like “7 Screaming Diz-Busters”, with the diz being a part of the male anatomy (I let you guess which) has no discernible link to Sandy Pearlman's original Imaginos cycle, though since he might've sprinkled a line or two from his poetry epic into it, you can probably construct a very loose, very shaky case if you wanted to.

But I don't. I just look at the remakes of BÖC numbers and decide whether this new version brings something new or interesting to the song or not, and throw it off if the answer is no. And so Imaginos II goes from a slightly overstuffed 14 numbers to a vinyl-era album appropriate ten songs and 46 minute album length, with “OD'd On Life Itself”, “The Red And The Black” and “Cities On Flame (With Rock'n'Roll” being the survivors from the BÖC songs, plus “Quicklime Girl” from the pre-BÖC era. The original songs – like the singalong “Independence Day” or the surging (sub) title song, that Bouchard made sound as much like a lost BÖC tune as possible - are actually pretty neat.

There was also a major piece of surgery I performed. The opener “When War Comes” had some production problems and poorly recorded vocals, belying the modest production budget, and at sevn and a half minutes was not a great start to the program. So I did quite a bit of editing, mainly keeping the (faux) orchestral parts with foreboding military drum march and bits of the song ending, so that it will serve as an overture for the spectacle to come without overstaying its welcome. As is, the streamlined Imaginos II runs much smoother and better than the unwieldy (wait 'til we get to part three...) original. If you really want the whole shebang, you can do so at the usual sources, but as a primer on both the story and sound of this sequel, this should do nicely.

So, if you never bothered to ask what exactly happened to Imaginos once he quit the 19th Century, boy, does Albert Bouchard have some stories to tell you. Here's the slightly abridged second chapter...

Ok, Ok, I Know This Isn't Da Capo...

 

...much to the disappointment of some. I had thought about that album, because it came up in the thread on A-sides and B-sides, and a reader had already asked me to do an alternate, read : better version of Love's Da Capo, to which I can only say: I would if I could but I won't 'cause I can't. Other than a couple of single edits and b-sides, there is simply nothing in the can that can replace “Revelation”, which is exactly what everyone thought it was at the time: a cheap and easy way to fill a record side for a band that only had half an album's worth of songs, while also simultaneously proclaiming hipness Two birds with one stone, though the third bird, a pigeon, was the record buyer in this scenario. But unless someone finds an old cookie jar in Arthur Lee's estate with long-thought lost tapes from the period, Da Capo will probably have to stay as it is.

But there's another, less heralded album that has the exact same problem of Da Capo: A useless and seemingly neverending, tiresome long jam that takes up almost an entire record side. The band, as you have wildly guessed from seeing the above cover art is Poco, and the scene of the original crime was their second, self-titled album. The year before Poco had issued Pickin' Up The Pieces, their debut album that was not without drama, when controm freak Richie Furay pushed Randy Meisner out of the band. Recently relistening to Pickin' Up The Pieces, I can say that that album hasn't held up particularly well, it's very twee-sounding, with some cheesy 60s countrypolitan orchestration , the constant forced 'yee-haw's and laughter are grating and the band had not yet really figured out how to put the rock in country rock. The self-titled follow-up was supposed to change that, showing to the public a more hard-edged sound. And the best way that the band thought up to do so, was to record their own extended jam number.

Poco decided to re-record “Nobody's Fool” from their debut album, which would then lead into a quasi-sidelong jam (they squeezed in one number before it, but at 18 and a half minute that jam could have filled up its own side easily). Here's the thing: It's not even memorably dreadful, just dreadfully dull. Pure boredom for about fifteen minutes straight. They thought they had what it takes to pull that off, but they don't. There's no real musical ideas, no development, no musical themes or motifs that emerge. Just a steady, unchanging rhythm, then Messina noodles a bit on his guitar, then Rusty Young gets to make his pedal steel sound like an organ – which can be impressive for a short spurt, but grows tiresome very quickly, as everything else here – then George Grantham gets a short percussion solo, and then rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, snore, zzzzzzzzz, oh I'm sorry, did I miss something?

As indicated by the Spanish name for the jam section (“El Tonto De Nadie, Regressa”, or Nobody's Fool Revisted) Poco decided to style their jam after Santana. Terrible idea. Not only because they don't have the chops to do it, but why would you want to listen to these guys try that (and, inevitably, fail)? If I want to listen to Santana-style Latin guitar jams, I can just listen to Santana, I don't need a country rock band that has no business doing that kind of music doing a second rate imitation of it. So, “El Tonto De Nadie, regressa” is no bueno, and thus needs to go. Or almost. For this alternate version of Poco's second album I didn't have quite enough material to entirely say Adios to “El Tonto De Nadie, Regressa”. But I cut down that jam drastically, by about three quarters. Out goes almost all of the fake Santana stuff, and everything else is there in very small measures, including the little wordless vocalizing section that should have been the end of the jam, if they didn't had to akwardly go back to the Latin stuff, and then even more akwardly tack the refrain of “Nobody's Fool” onto the end, just to remind people that this was supposed to be the same song. If you think that even at four minutes the jam section drags a bit, imagine this being four times as long with no significant upgrade in interest.

Long-time readers will be familiar with a trope of my alt albums: The newly-minted title song as bookends, made easier by the Poco anthology The Forgotten Trail offering an acoustic version of “You Better Think Twice”. It probably annoyed the deathly jealous Richie Furay to no end that the sole Jim Messina-written number became the signature tune of this album, but there you go. It certainly wouldn't be the end of his frustrations. It also feels appropriate to name a sophomore effort You Better Think Twice, and just to amuse myself, instead of going the song & reprise route, both versions' titles are differentiated by their (Once) and (Twice) tags. Finally, there was an unused Rusty Young instrumental, “Last Call (Cold Enchilada)”, more country and much more sprightly than the “El Tonto” stuff. With that back in, it was all about balancing the longer, instrumental sections (of which the seven minute “Anyway Bye Bye” also has quite a bit) with the shorter and more succinct songs – et voilà, here's a way more listenable version of their second album minus the braindead jam deadweight.

Now, you should really think twice about leaving that album behind. It's not quite top notch Poco, but the pieces are not only picked up, but falling into place. The evolution of Poco will indeed be a topic worth following, as I have been on a bit of a Poco bender recently, so there will be another couple of albums of improved Poco coming your way in the next weeks. So, get on board right now with one of the most underrated bands of the 70s...

Get ready for the biggest, baddest All Pearls, No Swine Megapack ever...

 

Ha, promise upheld. Last week, a new reader (Hi Dave !) asked for an upload of the precedent All Pearls No Swine Megapacks. But instead of hiding those in the backpages of this blog, I'd say I put this up on the front page, so any other newbies, johnny-come-latelies or folks wanting to stuff holes in their collection can do so in one fell swoop. Yup, you read that right dear reader, for the same very very low price of nothing, you'll get not one, not two, but all three Megapacks, for the biggest and baddest All Pearls, No Swine Megapack ever.

This pack contains All Pearls, No Swine Volumes 1 – 30. That's 600 songs across tons of genres and five decades and change. Literally hundreds of songs to discover or rediscover, if you are just getting with the All Pearls, No Swine program. Fifty years of music that didn't bother the charts but hopefully find their way into your hearts. So, go and unpack the big All Pearls, No Swine Megapack and start discovering!

And for dessert, here's some completely gratuitous free cheesecake.

What If It's April's Fool's Day And Van Morrison Does The Fooling..?

 

George Ivan Morrison is not known to be a jolly good fellow, he's known - and has forever been known - to be a cranky, cantankerous old man, even when he was still a young man. So it takes a lot to get a guy like Van Morrison to do practical jokes. Like a recording contract that Morrison felt limited him brutally in his creativity for example. His contract with Them's former manager ans his new label BANG Records – despite netting him a top ten hit and the song most associated with him in “Brown Eyed Girl” - quickly became an albatross around his neck, when Berns issued eight tracks – that Van Morrison thought was going to be the a- and b-sides of four singles – without the artist's permission or even knowledge.

Morrison's fortune seemed to turn when Berns's turned bad, keeling over from a heart attack in late 67 at only 38 years old, belatedly victim of a chronic weakening of the heart as a child following a bout of rheumatic fever. Warner Brothers bought him out of his contract with Bang records, enforced by Berns' widow Ilene, who herself seemed to be a piece of work. Let's just say it certainly sounds shady when a record label does a buy-out in cash in an abandoned warehouse. So, Van Morrison was free to pursue the songs and recordings he had started before the whole BANG Records misadventure and that would shortly turn into the all-time classic Astral Weeks. All's well that ends well, right?

Except, except, except...in that infamous, and infamousy lopsided contract with Bang Records that Van the Man had, in true rock star fashion, failed to read entirely or in detail, called for a sort of 'severance fee' of no less than 36 songs still due to Berns' publishing company within a year. So, if you're Van Morrison, what do you do? Well, you take an out of tune guitar, make up a bunch of nonsense songs which are mostly extremely short doodles (the longest one clocks in at an amazing minute thirty three, the magnificent opus known as “The Big Royalty Check”) and often parodies of existing songs like “La Bamba”, “Twist And Shout” and “Hang On Sloopy”.

The latter two are of course no coincidence, rather an example that Morrison's humor could be quite sharp and cutting – not above mocking a dead man, the two are Bert Berns co-compositions. Man, when Van gets a chance to twist the knife in...(into a dead man's body, that is). George Ivan Morrison secetly – or not so secretly – is the Hulk: you better not make him angry, you wouldn't like him when he's angry. And he is probably angry most of the time.

This is hilariously, viciously uncommercial stuff that of course Ilene Berns could never use, at least officially. (The jury is still out when this showed up on bootlegs and gray market releases whether these were stolen or let go for a small fee). But it's indefinitely more listenable, than, say, Machine Metal Music, and for what is essentially a send up, he didn't charge people any money like Neil Young did with Everybody's Rockin'.

So, what to do with this stuff, that you astute readers have surmised will be an April's Fool's Day-approved One Buck Record of the day? Well, I don't expect this to be anyone's favorite Van Morrison album anytime soon. Or ever. But it's fun while it lasts, and everyone should hear it once, just to acknowledge that the Vanster does have a sense of humour, twisted as it may be. Some even claim they have seen Van smile once or twice, but those reports have been unconfirmed. Actually, listen to him crack himself up with the completely ridiculous nonsense vocalizing of “Chickee Choo”.

Anyway, if you're mentally and physically ready to hear Morrison masterpieces such as his two part epic “Blow In Your Nose”/”Nose In Your Blow”, “Want A Danish”, “The Wobble” or “You Say 'France' And I Whistle”, well here is your chance.So, check this out, maybe your new favorite Van Morrison song is just a click away (I wouldn't put money on it). Approached with the right state of mind, this should bring a smile to your face, as you listen to Van Morrison gleefully piss all over the concept of contractual obligation.

The One Buck Guy Has Some Cheap Tricks To Lure You...

 ...as well as some old ploys and a bunch of shenanigans. Joe Ely on thursday was a good start, but I thought to myself, "Gee, OBG, it's been a while that you had some really crunchy music on here", and who can provide more crunch, plus more knowing ridiculousness, plus one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time, than Rockwood, Illinois's finest? 

And since me and you and everyone we know own already all the Cheap Trick classics - ok, maybe you don't, but we all know you should - today's One Buck Records is obviously something a little different, which hopefully has even the Cheap Trick connoisseur have his ears perk up. Because, as it should, this is an exclusive comp that you won't find in stores or elsewhere, collecting most of Cheap Trick's rare material from their heyday - I didn't bother with stuff from the last years (ok, decades now). What you get is the Cheap Trick we all know and love from the mid-70s to the late 90s. 

I'm also throwing in a couple of rare Robin Zander solo tracks, because why the hell not. Who's gonna stop me, right?! Also, as said, one of the finest voices in rock'n'roll, and he doesn't always get his due (Zander solo tracks are nos. 13,14,17 and 19 on disc two). Most of the tracks here are sourced from their box set Sex, America, Cheap Trick, that offered a huge amount of alternative versions, demos and live cuts. This was of course to lure in the collector, as well as not devaluing entirely the original albums. (Whether that really worked is another question for another day) Having all these albums brought me to the idea of collecting only these rarities in one place, aided and abetted by another dozen cuts of outtakes, live or bonus tracks.

And that is that. Old Ploys, Cheap Tricks & Other Shenanigans is the rare anthology that I sequenced chronologically, mainly because their music didn't change much over the twente years and change this set covers. Disc One presents music from 1977 to 1982, though to have a kick-ass opener (or, say, a more kick-ass opener), the single version of "Southern Girls" is presented slightly out of order.

You also get such Cheap Trick classics as "High Roller" and "Everything Works If You Let It" in different versions, as well as such unexpected treasures like their live medley take on Velvet Underground – not an obvious inspiration for the band – with "Waiting For The Man/Heroin". These four years were arguably the high point of the band, and even this alternate history gives you a good impression of how and why.

Disc Two covers more ground, going from 1982 to 1999, from one of their last indisputable classics in "If You Want My Love" to "That 70s Song", their reworked version of Big Star's "In The Streets" for modern sitcom classic That 70s Show, brought the band back to mind, if not into a huge spotlight. Quality is arguably and admittedly slightly spottier, kind of like the band's career itself. Of course, if you want to complete your collection of rarities, be sure to check out the re-upped Cheap Trick – Ruckus At The Movies, that collects all their original soundtrack contributions in one tidy package.

Et voilà, that is a bunch of old ploys, cheap tricks and shenanigans to immerse yourself in, full of trademark Rick riffage, Zander zounds, and the rock-solid support of the band's rhytm section (Beauty and The Beast?). Get your airguitar poses ready, ladies and gentlemen, Cheap Trick are going to rock the house...(and not with domestic problems, fingers crossed !).

That Mr. Ely, He Was One Of A Kind...Here's More Proof

When I posted Easy Street in December to honor the then recently deceased Joe Ely, I mentioned that the outtakes from his MCA sessions in the mid-80s were split into two for more reasonably timed and balanced albums. So here is the promised part two, One Of A Kind. Which he was. As with Easy Street, the sound is indeed very mid-80s, though maybe a touch less so than on the first album. One Of A Kind is a record that puts the rock into roots rock, starting straight off with three uptempo rockers, only slowing down for (imaginary) side closer "They Sing Of Her Beauty". a trademark beautiful country ballad. 

And then it's pedal to the medal again with the newly minted title song and "Back To My Molehill", a Zydeco-styled number that reminds us that Ely was an Americana artist in the truest sense, mixing different music styles into his music that isn't bound by the sometimes rigid style codes of the alt country crowd he influenced.  This is also abundantly clear with expansive album closer "Take Me Down", which has some reasonably avant garde keyboard sequences mixed in (New Wave oblige?). 

Like Easy Street, One Of A Kind's eight tracks show a performer who has a unique take on the genre, and these tracks should have been issued a lot earlier (as in, ever). For some fine music that brings to mind folks like The Mavericks or even Los Lobos (on "Molehill"), switch lanes from Easy Street and listen to the one and only Joe Ely, truly One Of A Kind...

Edit: I wanted to set a link to Easy Street and reup that one, but initially forgot. Both is now done, in case you want the double shot of Mr. Ely...

No Cleaning Required: All Pearls, No Swine Still Shine...

Even if the gaps in between volumes of the OG of this blog are getting wider, this isn't part of my spring cleaning program. You'll get your fill of All Pearls, No Swine at least once a month, so with Volume 37 we're back on schedule, with another volue harking back to its roots, i.e. it's set in the 1970's, birthplace of some of the greatest hidden gems in this series. and there's no reason why this volume wouldn't add to that list. Take the opening track, for example, an exquisite version of "Drift Away", recorded shortly after English actor and former teen idol Mike Berry cut the first version for his vet-goes-country routine that almost every early rock'n'roll star did at the time, but a year before Dobie Gray made it a hit. John Henry Kurtz ony ever recorded one album, but I think his version of "Drift Away" might be my favorite, more soulful than Berry's, but a little more rocking than Gray's, it really is the best of both worlds. 

Speaking of: This volume carries a number of songs that are genre-hybrids with a vague soul or funk influence, as shown by the horn sections used: Johnny Jenkins' swampy "I Walk On Gilded Splinters", Jack Bonus's southern-fried, soulful "Chicago Wind", Danny McBride's "Believe In Me" and The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood's uptempo "Martha's Madman". There's also some oddities on here, such as the remains of The Flying Burrito Brothers hiring (or rather, lending) a new lead singer and trying their hand at discofied soft rock. Really, guys? I selected "She's The Tall One" as a historical curio, sung by the drummer, which makes it better than the ones with nominal lead singer Bobby Cochran, it's also pretty much the only decent cut from that (mis-)adventure. 

Ugh, Rhinestone Cowboys? Disco Inferno? Sign Of The Times For Sure...

As usual, we also have our share of sensitive singer/songwriter stuff and some Americana/country rock  (plus some crunchy new wave/power pop courtesy of The Tearjerkers). We're not gonna change a winning combination now, are we? The somewhat sightly akwardly named Fishbaugh, Fishbaugh and Zorn (doen't quite roll of the tongue like Crosby, Stills & Nash, does it?) are back with the beautiful "Stuck In The Fog In London". as is Huckle with the lovely "Hello Sunshine". and Tom Eslick with "Girl by The River". Oh, Heartwood have definitely shown up, with their rustic country rock, too. There might be some other APNS alumni in there, but over twenty volumes is a lot to browse just to check so I'll leave that task for...no one in particular, probably, but feel free, folks.

Oh, I almost forgot: in between the collection of unknown or little remembered folks like Doug McArthur, Jim Spencer, Marc Jonson, James McCarthy or David Mattson, one name sticks out: Why, it's good ol' Paul Simon with the demo of the classic "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard". So now we can still wonder together what i is that mama pajama saw that was against the law. Rhymin' Simon, indeed. 

That's some bad hat hood, Harry Paul. 

So, folks, another day here at One Buck Records; another volume of All Pearls, No Swine; another seventy minutes and change of fine music from the 1970s, with guaranted original vinyl crackle from back in the day for the vintage experience! Dig into All Pearl, No Swine Volume 37 and see what you'll find...

...And He Just Keeps On Truckin': The Ballad Of Will Beeley

In my very first post of music here on One Buck Records, Will Beeley was there, as part of the line-up of the very first All Pearls No Swine more than two a,d a half years ago. And as said in that APNS write-up, I planned to post more of some of the folks on it, with the first APNS being both a teaser for the series itself, as for the type of music and artists that would end up here on One Buck Records. So it was planned from the beginning that I would post a Will Beeley compilation titled So Many Miles Down The Road - The Music Of Will Beeley which incidentally was ready at the time this blog started, and then got pre-empted, and passed over for something else, again and again, and left waiting in the shadows. Kind of like Will Beeley himself. 

It's maybe fitting, in a bittersweet way, that even my mission of redicovering Beeley got waylaid in the same way that the man's music career has. Beeley had three bites at the apple, but many years, even decades apart. And, when those bites didn't stick, Beeley went back to join the workforce. Something's got to bring the bacon home, and if it can't be music, it'll be something else. Like long-haul trucking. Little Feat's Lowell George might have been the king of the truck driving song ("Willin'", "Truck Stop Girl", "Six Feet Of Snow"), but he never hauled ass in a big rig down some highway. Will Beeley did, and happily so, after his music career repeatedly stalled out. Though most websites get it wrong, having him hit the highway in the early 80s after his music career as a performer stalled out.  

Beeley wouldn't haul ass and liquid gases across highways for another twenty years,  taying with the music business, but not necessarily as planned. After a career as a record store owner ended unceremoniously after only a couple of months, Beeley got hired as DJ in a club in San Antonio, then a ouple of years later moved to Albuquerque to work in talent relations & acquisitions for The Midnight Rodeo fpr 13 years. But in 2002, at age 51, he found himself aged out of the job and finally started getting into long-haul trucking, where he and his wife would split the miles between them, transporting cryogenic frozen liquids across the country. 

So Many Miles Down The Road was a nod to that job, as well as how long his sporadixc music career had lasted without taking off. And then, as hinted above, something funny - or not - happened on the way to finally posting that Beeley comp in January. I was surprised, delighted and slightly aghast (for the just started write-up on this blog) when I realizd that he had published an album of demos from 1970 that I had missed when I compiled my compilation. So, Will Beeley got pushed into the waiting queue again as I scouted those 1970s demos, found they were all good to excellent and then went back to the drawing board on that compilation.     

As has recently happened with Bob Welch, the readjustments changed the proposition entirely. What was for years a 24-track single disc compilation called So Many Miles Down The Road is now a gargantuan, 40-track two-disc anthology called A Highway Ain't A Home after one of those newly added demos. Of course, for the last twenty plus years, the highway was Will Beeley's home, but that he couldn't have known back in 1970. 

Uh-oh. We're five paragraphs into what was supposed to be a simple write-up and haven't even talked about the music yet. Beeley is, at his heart, a folk-singer, with clear country influences creeping in over time. His private press debut Gallivantin' - only 200 copies were pressed, and the packaging is ultra-low budget - has him covering Bob Dylan and Buffy St. Marie, but his work at tims also recalls fellow Texan Townes Van Zandt or John Prine. The Allmusic review for his sophomore album Passing Dream wants to position that album as close to Outlaw country and even the alt country of the 90s, but a much closer point of comparison is Gordon Lightfoot, especially on that album. By the late 70s both Lightfoot and Beeley had done some hard living (Lightfoot was still in the throes of alcoholism), and that had put some strain on their voices, which really sound a lot alike on the songs from that album. And Lightfoot of course also let more and more country and pop influences infiltrate his folk during the 70's, much like Beeley here.

Okay, you got a friendly folk-country-pop record, at times closing in on soft rock, to sell. 

aybe don't make it look like a heavy metal album with a weird psycho on the cover? 

jusr sayin'...

Except of course, Lightfoot did it over the course of severeal albums, so you can follow the evolution of his music in real time. With only Gallivantin' in 1971 and Passing Dream in 1979 (barely) issued, the same can't be said for Beeley. His third album, Highways & Heart Attacks is another story altogether. When speialist label Tompkins Square asked to re-issue Beeley's more-or-less forgotten albums, much to its author's surprise, he hadn't counted on the idea, that dece,t sales and write-ups - not to mention the whole trucker angle that almost all articles used - resulted in Tompkins Square proposing to foot the bill for a third album. Highways & Heart Attacks is half songs from the eraly to mid-80s, half written in the 2010s. 

As a result, Beley's three periods of recording activity (1970, 1977 for Passing Dream, and 2018 for Highways & Heart Attacks) are quite distinct from each other - the clear-voiced folkie of the early 70s, the slightly rougher edged folk-pop and country crooner of the late 70s and the grizzled vet from the 2010s, whose voice is now equally grizzled. As such, it is easy to distinguish the songs and you will easily be able to identify which songs is from which epoch. For reasons of variety and flow I decided to mix songs from all eras. 

Whether you like pure folk rock, or its roots-inflected permutations, you should find lots of things to like in here. Will Beeley had three stabs, and even if he couldn't make a career out of his music, but he made each of those stabs count. Join the singing trucker on his trails with A Highway's Not A Home - A Will Beeley Anthology... 

Spring Cleaning, Part.2: Hey, Remember These Chicks?

Ol' OBG continues his spring cleaning. And well, the Jimmy Eat World Bleed American project wasn't the only trilogy I never completed. When I initially posted Fly, the Thriller of mainstream country albums back in May 2024, the idea was that I'd post its two equally good follow-ups in the next weeks, maybe months. And then it took me ten months to post Home, and now it's been a year since I posted that one. What is this, James Cameron's Avatar movies? The album title turned out prophetically, Taking The Long Way indeed. But now that the spring cleaning crew (i.e. me) has found the Chicks' 2006 bounce back album, time to complete one of the best album trilogies by any artist or band, ever. 

"Forgive ? Sounds good. Forget? I'm not sure I could / they say time heals everything, but I'm still waiting..."

Of course, Taking The Long Way wasn't just an album, it was an event, for reasons both obvious and really, truly fucked up beyond repair. The backlash and blackballinng of the Chicks after Natalie Maines' off the cuff comments about George W. Bush at a London concert was some truly shameful shit. It looked already absolutely atrocious at the time, but it looks even worse in hindsight. Looking back on it, it's pretty clear that the outrage and outright banning of the Chicks Of course, Taking The Long Way wasn't just an album, it was an event, for reasins both obvious and really, truly fucked up beyond repair. The backlash and blackballinng of the Chicks after Natalie Maines' off the cuff comments about George W. Bush at a London concert was some truly shameful shit. It looked already absolutely atrocious at the time, but it looks even worse in hindsight Looking back on it, it's pretty clear that the outrage and outright banning of the Chicks had as much to do with misogyny as t did did with (fake, fabricated) ill-advised patriotism. The Chicks, but really mainly lead siner Natalie Maines was an opinionated youg woman. She had a mouth on her, something not everybody in the country music industry loved, but had to put up with considering the Chicks' drawing power for the five preceding years. So when there was an opportunity to shut Maines and her bandmates up and 'put these women into their place', boy, did they ever.

Well, let's talk about the music for a bit, shall we? Because while it's nice to become, somewhat against their own will, unlikely symbols of free speech, you still gotta have something to say. And the Chicks do.
This is their first album in which all three Chicks are credited on all songs, usually with a veteran quality songwriter to put these songs in shape: Semisonic's Dan Wilson, The Jayhawks' Gary Louris, Neil Finn, Mike Campbell, Sheryl Crow, and on the lasr track,  the previously issued charity single "I Hope" ,Keb' Mo. But it's clear tht the Chicks are in control pf this album - "six strong hands on the steering wheel' as Maines intones on the opener and title song.

That song, "Taking The Long Way" deliberately recalls (and references) Home's opener "Long Time Gone", functioning as a sort of sequel, thematizing the Chicks' choices along the way. "Wouldn't kiss all the asses they told me to / but I could never follow" after a quick breather with wonderful ballad "Easy Silence", Maines & Co. put the war paint on with "Not Ready To Make Nice", the single that details their ordeal and the defiant stance they took, or were forced to take. Wilson had come in with, as Maines recalls, "an idea that was some sort of concession, like a 'can't we all get along?' and I said nope, I can't say that, I can't do that". And so Wilson's idea, initially tentatively titled "United" became the Chicks' big, therapeutic fuck off to their detractors. You don't need to know the back story to feel the song's power, but it helps if you do.

Whether the song is an acknowledgment of their new-found notoriety like "Everybody Knows" or a simple old-fashioned barn burner like "Lubbock Or Leave It",  the Chicks are in control throughout the 14 track album, which runs maybe two tracks too long, but is objectively the third killer album in a row. It won four Grammies in what was widely considered a political gesture, of the pop world embracing the Chicks after the country world burned them so badly. But it deserves those Grammies, including song of the year for "Not Ready To Make Nice", and I say that as someone who, like any real music fan, is highly suspicious of these folks and their decision-making.

Sadly, things wouldn't turn out okay, despite the brave faces the Chicks put on here. They couldn' get over it and they are still waiting on full healing. So the band went on hiatus for a decade. Maines especially was so disgusted by the way the country music scene had treated her that she made a rock'n' roll solo album far away from Nashville in 2013, otherwise raising her family. The remaining Chicks, sisters Emily and Marti meanwhile formed acoustic country-bluegrass  duo Court Yard Hounds. Gaslighter, the Chicks' 2020 comeback album, heavily influenced by Maines' bitter divorce from actor Adrian Pasdar, is a pretty good pop album, though not a patch on the Chicks' trilogy from 1998 to 2006. 

The real loss, one could argue, is to mainstream country music, which is a lot poorer without the Chicks in it. With Home they had pushed a stealth trad country/progressive bluegrass album over into the mainstream, and while that probably wasn't sustainable, it showed an interest in country roots that have been waxed  over by barely disguised stadium rock and soft pop with a steel guitar flourish, in a scene subsequently dominated by boorish country bros. The MAGA-fication of the Nashville country scene was a bit hesitant during the first term of Donny the Disgraceful, but - like its leader - has been less shameless in the last years. If my reaction at the time was 'Fuck the Nasgville music complex and their minions', I can't say that my opinion has changed positively in the meantime...

Writing about this album as another dubiously timed and even more dubiously planned US-started war rages reminds us how history can repeat itself, and how we'll always need people who are not ready to make nice - in the entertainment industry, and everywhere else., especially as a crackdown on dissident voices is in full effect. In the meantime, play Taking The Long Way, enjoy some top notch country rock and keep sane, everybody...

Of Saints & Sinners - A Kick Ass Movie With A Killer Soundtrack

 

A couple of weeks ago Sinners made history by becoming the first film to ever be nominated for 16 Academy Awards (a.k.a. the Oscars). Even if we discount a new category this year (Best Casting Ensemble), it would still have beaten out former record holders. This alone should give you a good idea what an achievement the movie is on a purely technical level alone. First of: it's an absolute joy to watch. In this ear of shoddily assembled blockbusters with awful CGI, that is not Marvel-ous at all, Sinners clearly stands out. Set Design, Production Design, Costume Design, Photography - everything here is absolutely top notch. 

This movie also literally looks like no other. When I saw the first scene, I scrambled for the blue ray cover, frantically checking for information on the film's aspect ratio that wasn't there. I was sure that the movie was in scope, but the first scenes were not. In fact, director Ryan Coogler elected to film with the loud and unwieldy I-MAX cameras to allow a fluent change between different aspect ratios, sometimes within the same shot (where the black bars on the top and the bottom slowly disappear). Now, all of these technical achievements would be laudable, but for naught, if the movie wouldn't be any good. But it is, great even, if you keep an open mind. If you haven't seen Sinners yet, do so as quickly as possible, and then get back to this write-up. From here on, there be spoilers !

During it's first hour it's not entirely clear where Coogler's film wants to go, taking it's sweet time to set up its story of two twin brothers trying to create a juke joint from nothing in the 1930's Mississippi Delta. Then the movie pulls off the old From Dust Till Down-gambit going from one type of movie to a complete differently one in its second half, and like the former also somewhat surprisingly becoming a vampire movie. This abrupt swerve into genre fare turned out divisive, to say the least. I, as a horror film fan, loved it, but some viewers caught up in the descriptions of the hard life for black folks in the 1930's obviously expected something different. Still, you have to admire the huge and confident swings Coogler takes with this movie.

A movie about a juke joint better have some great music to really sell its premise, and boy, does Sinners deliver.  It features both a fantastic score by Coogler's frequent musical collaborator Ludwig Göransson and an equally brilliant selection of songs on its soundtrack album. However, there is a lot of music to go through, perhaps too much. Both albums taken together run up to almost 150 minutes of music, which is just overkill in one sitting. Enter the One Buck Guy. As with my previous reworked soundtracks for Dick Tracy and Donnie Darko I combined songs and score cues from the film in chronological fashion, to give the Sinners a real sense of how the film develops musically. The word Edit in OBG is to be taken quite seriously: I edited the absolute hell out of this one, shortening almost every score track, throwing off songs which were not featured in the movie, stitching and medley-ing together, and so on and so forth. Now the 150 minutes behemoth is a much more listenable sub-70 minutes compilation.

The music of Sinners is not only great, it also tells its own story, which this added subsequently tries to retrace as well. As the first hour of the film establishes the twins' recruitment of personal for their juke joint, the first half of soundtrack & score is very heavy on blues licks, both from Göransson and special guests like Bobby Rush. Just before the film's big thematic set piece of all timelines and musical eras falling and folding  together, set to Miles Caton's "I Lied To You", there is the first apparition of what I call the vampire theme - you know it when you hear it. 

The appearance of the initial trio of vampires also changes the musical landscape, heavily influenced by lead vampire Remmick's background as an Irish immigrant, trading the predominant blues music for a folk/bluegrass mix of traditional tunes. Their version of the old Irish folk standard "Will Ye Go, Lassie Go ?" (better known as "Wild Mountain Thyme") is not only one of the finest version of this oft-covered tune, but has haunted me for days after seing the movie. A bit (o.k., a lot) earlier I mentioned Ryan Coogler's big swings, and I think none is bigger than the big musical set piece of dozens of vampires, including most of the turned black folks, singing and dancing to classic Irish folk tune "Rocky Road To Dublin", with head vampire Remmick performing Irish stepdancing like a deranged lord of the dance. This was clearly the point of no return for some movie watchers, but again, I absolutely loved the pure chutzpah of it.

In its back third the film's music becomes heavier in support of its action set pieces and show downs (and makes ample use of the aforementioned vampire theme), with Göransson drafting in Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell, Metallica's Lars Ulrich and blues power guitar player Eric Gales, before culminating in the double climax of Miles Caton's wordless vocalizing in "Free for a Day" and the film closing song "Last Time (I Seen the Sun)", a duet between Caton and Alice Smith. Like those vampires, it's been a good long while since I've seen the sun in all its splendor, and like for those vamps, music pulls me through.

You might guess from the unusually long write up that this Sinners project is really heartfelt for me. I think this alternate album edit is one of my best editing job and I am very proud of it. I hope you will enjoy this musical journey through the back country of Sinners as much as I've enjoyed making it.Take this write-up as my endorsement of Sinners for tomorrow's Academy Awards, although I don't think it will win the big one. The Academy might have changed quite a bit since the peak Oscar bait years, but 'audacious vampire musical with a mostly Black cast' doesn't necessarily scream Best Film winner, and One Battle After Another seems to have an insurmountable lead. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though. 

In the meantime, enjoy this killer piece of music I have vampired Frankensteined together. It truly has something for everyone: Whether you like Blues, Country, Gospel, Bluegrass, Soul, Folk, Heavy Rock, even Hip Hop...you'll find something to like, or love, here. Or just tick 'all of the above' and  take in that big-ass bad ass musical gumbo that is Sinners - Movie Soundtrack & Score - The OBG Edit, as the gods and ol' OBG intended...

Spring Cleaning, Part I : Hey, Remember These Guys ?

Having finally finished my project on the transitional period of Fleetwood Mac with the compilations on Bob Welch and Danny Kirwan a mere year after starting it, I decided to go through the One Buck Records archives to see what other follow-ups I might have missed. And guess what ? I fell on the third and final part of my Jimmy Eat World Bleed American project. Maybe this oversight is for the best, as after two posts on the album you were maybe a bit burned out on these guys and these songs, after a couple of months off you will hopefully enjoy some cool crunchy powerpop once more.

So here is Trophy Shelf, which raps up all the loose ends from that era. With this compilation you get another batch of alternative versions of the Bleed American songs including a great acoustic version of "The Middle", which approches a Byrds-ian jingle-jangle sound. You will also find a couple of outtakes, including the excellent "(Splash) Turn Twist". Somewhat unrelated, there is also their great, moody cover of The Prodigy's "Firestarter", which they recorded for a charity compilation for the New Musical Express.

So, folks, nothing much to say besides wishing you a good time with about 35 minutes of music from Mesa, Arizona's finest to lively up your day ... 

Enter The Crown Prince Of EYMSSM : All Hail Mark Kozelek

I recently talked about earnest young men's sad sack music, somewhat unfairly attaching these thoughts to a peace on Travis, who only partly indulged in EYMSSM. Time to meet one of the stalwarts of this type of music : Mark Kozelek, the figure head behind Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon.

I've encountered Kozelek around the same time as a musician and an actor. I'm not sure whether I picked up the last Red House Painters' album Old Ramon first, or whether I first saw him as idiot bass player Larry in Cameron Crowe's fantastic Almost Famous. I liked Old Ramon well enough, than dipped deeper into their catalogue when I picked up the two-disc Retrospective, a really well done career compilation, that showcased Kozelek's and by proxy Red House Painters' typical music : very slow, very moody, very sad, sometimes with drowning guitares mixed in, sometimes not. There is a real hypnotic draw to Kozelek's songs, which flow into each other weightlessly.

Famously 4AD-founder Ivo Watts-Russell not only gave Red House Painters their first record contract, but also decided to simply release selected highlights from their demo tape, rather than having the band rerecord these songs. Down Colorful Hill was great proof of talent for a band that had already found their signature sound, shortly followed up by two eponymous albums that cemented Red House Painters as an indie band to reckon with. After toiling away for the better part of the decade and losing their last band album - the aforementioned Old Ramon - to a messy label merger, Kozelek decided to retire the Red House Painters name and restart interests in his group as Sun Kil Moon.

Our One Buck Record of the day is a variation of Down Colorful Hill, but if you have very good eyes you'll see a little + behind the title, as I added some additional demos from around the same time (not sure, if they are from the same demo tape), which I feel make the album slightly sprightlier, and also resequenced the entire album for a better flow, as per usual on this blog. As an introduction to Kozelek's brand of earnest young men's sad sack music this version of Down Colorful Hill should do just fine and remind you of what a major talent Kozelek was, before he started to turn his songs into a weird deformed mirror version of his life as a touring musician.

So, take a tumble Down Colorful Hill with this magnificent songs ...