Boogie Into The New Year with Peter, John, Dick and The Gang

Being a GenXer rather than a Baby Boomer, I came to The J. Geils Band quite belatedly, and basically only knew the one song that was a hit in my neck of the woods, the Seth Justman-penned and unusually New Wave-y "Centerfold". Little did I know that by the time they made it big in Europe with that song, they already were for a decade and a half a proud institution as America's premier party band and the other bad boys from Boston. Frontman Peter Wolf's show man antics, Magic Dick's harp as a lead instrument and John Geils' guitar playing as well as the choice covers of obscure R&B, Doo-Wop and Soul songs that the band infused with irrepressible Rock'n'Roll energy make the group the ultimate barroom boogie band writ large - something they would probably, and rightfully - be proud of. No hidden agenda or underlying subtle concepts with this band: You better get your ass up and shake it when these guys take the stage...

A monster live group, The J. Geils Band also made monster live albums. "Live" Full House, their first live album from 1972 is a pure blast of energy, capturing what the early R&B-based band sounded like. The single LP means that the band gets their shit in, gets everybody to dance and then leave them wanting for more, leaving the dance party after a scant 35 minutes. 1976's Blow Your Face Out - Live, its very worthwhile successor more than doubles that running time and feels more like an entire gig by the band. I'm not engaging in the whole 'best live shows/records of all time' debate and whether the records should capture what it's like to have the best of a show or rather the feel of a whole concert or yadda yadda yadda. All I'm saying is, if someone were to propose one or both of these albums to join that list, I wouldn't protest. 

And since the One Buck Guy likes his grooves hot, his drinks cold and his ladies...erm, hold that thought, the wife's around. So, anyway, since I don't want to play the 'which one's better' card and there is almost no overlap in track list you, dear One Buck Head, are the winner because you get both records for the same consistently low low price of...nothing. Great, hot, rock'n'roll record to get groovin' into the new year...or get going in 2025 on New Year's morning with some top notch energy...

So, have a great end to 2024, y'all, and an even better beginning to 2025! Upward and onward, excelsior!

All Pearls, No Swine: The Return!

Woah, it's been a while since I pulled out one of these, but no year here on One Buck Records should end without a visit of our flagship series, All Pearls, No Swine. It's also in classic mode, taking us back into the 70s with yet another batch of unknown and little known tunes from unknown to little known folks. 

This volume features the return of some cool APNS alumni like Jim Wise & Sky High, Dennis Linde (both previously featured on the most excellent Volume 11) on the high energy opener "Keep My Feet On The Ground" or West Virginia folkrockers Kiddog (who showed up on Volume 15). It is also, as should be, just slathered in a sound that only the early-to-mid 70s have, from the flute that weaves through Rick Neufeld's "Nothing Changes But The Season to the organ that somewhat messily accompanies Michael Behnan's chronicle of "Night Shift Life" or the brass that has James Taylor's "Country Road" seemingly lead right into New Orleans, courtesy of Al Kooper. It reaches from the art/prog sound of Trees to the country rock of Country Weather to the acoustic fingerpicking of Joseph Brunelle and Tom Rush to the husky folk rock of Mary Asquith's take on "Man Of Constant Sorrow". 

Tom Rush covers Wayne Berry's minor classic "Indian Woman From Wichita", and while the string arangement on his version is almost MOR and can't ever compete with the eerie strings on the original, it's another chance to hear a really good song. Rush, Jansch and Kooper are probably the most high-profile names around here, but that of course doesn't reflect on the contributions from lesser knwon folks like Dan Lewis, Doug Day or Michaels & Hack. One personal highlight for me is Brent Titcomb's beautiful "Flow On The River". 

Really, the same thing I've said about the other 70s-bound volumes in this series still hold true, and will continue to hold true in 2025. So while away the last days of 2024 with some very fine, lovingly crafted music from the 70s...

Ryan Adams' Gold Standard

There is, I don't think, another artist I fell in love with as hard as Ryan Adams, only to fall out of love with him pretty hard later in the decade. Whiskeytown had pretty much passed me by and were history by the time I got interested in Americana and then in Adams. I first heard "To Be Young (To Be Sad, To Be High" and read a glowing review of Heartbreaker, immediately bought that album and then picked up the Whiskeytown back catalogue in short order. But, really, my Adas fvorite at the time was Adams' sophomore effort, Gold. It was, and still is, a great record, the gold standard, so to speak. Gold has everything that's great about Adams - the effortless, winsome melodies, the warm vocals, impeccable production by new bff Ethan Johns - with little to none of the uglier side of him: No super lazy lyrics with foul language just for the hell of it, no filler, and just the inklings of the patsiche problem to come. It was obvious even on Gold that Adams was a pastiche artist, but the effect on Gold is different than what happened on the following albums. Here, it sounds like Adams had ingested a jukebox chock full of great tunes from about the late 1950s to the late 19970s and was now regurgitating the best of those dacades' music. 

Maybe not the best metaphor, though considering what was to come - both in quality and quantity of output - a probably fitting one, but on Gold it all came together. Sometimes the idols being worshipped shone through quite obviously - "Nobody Girl' is only nine minutes long because it would have been had it been a Neil Young tune and "Tina Toledo's Streetwalking Blues" is one of the weaker numbers on here, since it is so obviously a Rolling Stones pastiche. But elsewhere, the 'great classic American music vibe' shines through in better, subtler ways. "Touch, Feel And Lose" manages to both nod to (reference? steal from?) Prince's "Purple Rain" and Otis Redding. Songs like "La Cienega Just Smiled" or "Answering Bell" are superior examples of Adams' patented midtempo country rock, while "Gonna Make you Love Me" is modern rockabilly. And Gold of course shows Adams' gift for balladry, even though I find it weird that "When The Stars Go Blue" was chosen as the torch song that a bunch of other artists, including Bono, The Corrs and Tim McGraw, would cover. 

Gold is already a modern classic in its normal form, but amazingly Adams still had great songs to spare. Five of them got published as a special bonus disc entitled Side 4, so as to make Gold a true full-fledged double album (and Adams later claimed that's the way he wanted to publish the record), instead of just a reasonably long CD album. Except, of course,- and no matter what Adams later claimed -  just tacking these extra tracks on to the end doesn't work for an album that sounds like it should end with original album closer "Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard", not "Canonball Days" or have the two slowest songs of the project (which Is why I didn't use those two) in such close proximity. Sorry, Ryan, if that really was the original sequencing, its no bueno. But, as ever, the One Buck Guy is willing to give a helping hand and turn Gold into a real 2 LP music extravaganza with a logical sequencing and natural flow. For this, three tracks from Side 4 were reincorporated into the album, with the Black Crowes-sounding "Rosalie Come And Go" serving as the imaginay B-side opener for LP 1, while the aforementioned "Cannonball Days" has the exact same function on LP 2. Finally, the banjo-picked, old-timey sounding "Sweet Black Magic" found a place right before the end. 

This version is, I think, a richer version of a very good album without denaturing what Adams' work set out to do. As a matter of fact, the sequencing of Gold's opening was pretty much perfect as is, so I left what would be side a of LP 1 it in its original running order. From there, there's some minor changes here and there, but if you loved this album already you will hopefully share the sentiment that these changes are to the record's benefit, breaking up a short lull in the middle of the original album and giving Gold even more of variety and quality. And if you have never heard Gold before, then it is of course about time you change that...

Ho!Ho!Ho! Sightings...

Ho!Ho!Ho! And by that I don't mean the scantily clad women...wait, what's that you say? I made the same joke last year? Ah, we're gonna make that an inofficial Christmas tradition then, here at One Buck Records, together with the mandatory Christmas compilation. We will beat it into the ground until it is super annoying and then beat it some more until it becomes awesome again. Unless if it never was awesome in the first place, but we're not gonna entertain that notion. So. Hos. Lots of them. Yelled by an overweight fella in suspicious red attire. It's that time of the year again...

If you don't like Christmas music, like, at all (U A H8R BRO?), this isn't for you, but if you like Christmas music with a twist (mostly), then it is. There are a couple of straightforward classic Christmas carols here, mostly by soul artists such as The Jackson 5, The Rotary Connection and the Supremes, as well as a relatively traditionalist take on "Joy To The World" by neo-trad folkies Cawlings, but of course half the fun is having non-traditional Christmas songs getting their due, like house favorite Ron Sexsmith wondering, if "Maybe This Christmas" will mean something more. We have Christmas-adjacent songs from Michael Kamen and The Cowsills. We have humorous takes on Christmas songs by The Doobie Brothers, The Goo Goo Dolls and Alabama. 

Is she wrapping or unwrapping..? And does it really matter?

We have power-poppy Christmas tunes from The Weeklings and Mike Daly and an uptempo raver from The Mavericks. And speaking of uptempo: House favorites Jimmy Eat World give us a sped up, non ironic take on Wham's cheesy "Last Christmas", arguably improving it. Cheap Trick, as always bring the noise on the short, energetic "Christmas Christmas". And then, as the album fades into the (holy) night, we slow things down with Michael McDonald wishing for us to have a merry little Christmas and Brandi Carlisle celebrating "O Holy Night". 

X-tremely X-cellent X-Mas (or XXX, but I'm still workshopping the acronym there) has, as you can see, a bit of everything and hopefully a thing or two for you. If you were good this year, that is...

So, folks, merry Christmas, happy hanukah or whatever other good reason you can find to be merry and with friends or family these days...

Let's Get Covered In Some Funky Groovy Music Again...

The first volume of this series did come with a bit of surprising backstage shenanigans. Having received a bunch of Little Feat covers from, so I was told, "an unknown source", it turned out the very last second - I was just retagging the files right before uploading them - that the author wasn't that unknown. It was your dear blog pal and mine, Jonder, who compiled the majority of these songs firs, but it was late and I was tired and just wanted to get the whole shebang uploaded, so couldn't include more than a fleeting mention. So yeah, thanks to Jonder for doing a lot of the grunt work on this one. He also right afterwards compiled a fabulous sequel that you should check out. He reused three of the tracks from his older comp, so these will show up here as well, but nothing like hearing a good song twice rather than never, am I right?! 

So, adding to the usual suspects already present on Vol. 1 (Robert Palmer, Linda Ronstadt, Nicolette Larson), we have Lowell's old duet partner (and song co-writer) Valerie Carter on her version of "Heartache", gospel queen Oleta Adams' take on "Long Distance Love" or Bob Weir's take on "Easy To Slip". OBG additions to the playlist this time around include the dark lord of mainstream country that ruled the 90s - let's call him Darth Crooks, shall we? - with a surprisingly credible funky take on "Dixie Chicken", Eddie Money calling up the "Rock'n'Roll Doctor", good ol' Randy Newman tackling "Sailing Shoes" and - fresh outta the press - Pure Prairie League's fun take on "Six Feet Of Snow", one of Lowell's most underrated tunes. 

That song also proudly fits into Lowell's collection of truck driving songs, the first of which was of course "Truck Stop Girl". The Byrds covered that one before it even came out on Little Feat's debut, but Clarence White's take was a strangely nasal take that made some of the lyrics almost unintelligable. So I decided to switch this out for a live track from the Byrds' England tour in 1971. Other additions are Joey Landreth's "All That You Dream" and Jason Dotson's take on "Lafayette Railroad". So that's seven tracks that weren't on the old Little Feat Covered playlist, so I'd highly recommend you pick this up as well. 

As with volume one, there is a ton of variety on these tracks, all coming back to how great these songs are in the first place. So, let's get groovin' with these fine artists and these very fine songs...

A girl with a guitar...but not any girl with a guitar...

I don't remember how I stumbled over Maren Morris, probably an article that mentioned “My Church”. Listening to that song, I was reminded of Kacey Musgraves who I discovered a little earlier. Especially the slighly blasphemous to a certain type of audience lyrics showed a similarity to Mrs. Musgraves' “take no shit/give no shit” attitude to what's usually acceptable in the confines of the country genre. But let's be clear here: On her major label records, Maren Morris doesn't do country. Not really. Nashville has churned out stuff that isn't country in any appreciable sense in what, 40, 50 years? But even the roots pop of yesteryear isn't quite as audacious as Morris' music on 2016's Hero. She mixes pop, soul, hip-hop beats and really only the tiniest hint of country flavoring together in a way none of the Nashville acts do.

By 2019's Girl, she didn't even feel like pretending to cater to a country audience anymore, it's a big, shiny, ultramodern and sophisticated pop production. What can go amiss amidst the impeccable glimmer and shine of the production are some of the songs, as both records flirt with overkill. All or most of it is so steeped in cool grooves, production flourishes and ass-kicker attitude that it can be a bit much to take in. Kind of like a dessert buffet, where after tasting all the treats your tummy is aching and what sounded like a good idea at first turned out...well, not to be that. That's especially true of Girl, whose production can get a little exhausting, but even on Hero you have a bunch of numbers that sound very samey, in a number of assorted styles.

However, Morris' music is not style over substance, the songs came and come first. This comes out best when she does them in an acoustic format, where no amount of fancy production will save or sink a song. Not to mention that that is how Morris started out, as yet another songwriter with a guitar.

Some of the songs on today's little compilation are her big hits stripped down to their basics ("My Church", "The Middle", "Rich", "Dear Hate"). Some come from her independent self-published records phase where to promote them she simply went out with her acoustic guitar. All of them show that Mrs. Morris is more than just glitz and sass. Includes a fab cover of John Prine's “Angel Of Montgomery”, the rest are originals. And there's a fabulous bonus track in the form of a medley I created out of three songs from her appearance on CMT Crossroads with Alicia Keys, where he tackles two of Keys' songs. (Another track on the comp is a rehearsal with Keys on Morris' own "Once"). 

So, yeah, if you don't know Maren Morris yet, go and check this out. And if you do know Ms. Morris, then check this out, too, because you'll hear her here like you rarely heard her. So, let's listen to a girl with a guitar...but not any girl with a guitar...

The Legend Of Ragnarok - Kiwi Psych Space Prog Rock, Anyone?

Ragnarok definitely defied the odds during their existence. That a bar band touring the backwater bar circuit of the North Island would become New Zealand's premier prog rock outfit, all while losing their co-lead vocalist halfway through doesn't sound like a receipe for success. And real, palpable success wasn't forthcomung for the remaining Rangarok quartet, so after a third album failed to take shape, the band called it quits. But for five years and two albums following back to back in 1975 and 1976 Ragnarok were the premier space rock band from New Zealand, having a repertoire ranging from repetitive drones to harder edged rock, incorporating psychedelic elements. During their bar band days they played faithful Led Zeppelin, Yes and Pink Floyd covers, while slowly developing their owwn compoistions, all the while upping the stakes in the make-up and costumes department to somewhat profit from the popular glam rock stylings of the day. 

Female lead singer Lea Maalfrid had a powerful voice, but I generally prefer the lead vocals of her male colleagues. Nothing chauvinist about that, but her voice sometimes has this showtune belting thing to it that I'm not fond of. I generally prefer the fuzzy, floating Ragnarok with equally fuzzy and floating (sometimes bordering on lazy-sounding) vocals from Ramon York. I really like "Fenris", their debut album's opener, though, where Maalfrid sounds menacing and eerie rather than showboating, the same is true for her second vocal appearance on "Fire On Sky". The incessant touring got to,Maalfrid, so she left after the debut album, with the remaining quartet completing Nooks. 

Simple but effective: the great cover art for their first album

A trio of songs from Nooks - "The Volsung", "Semolina" and "Paths Of Remembrance" - remind me of  the peaceful, friendly Pink Floyd of Obscured By Clouds - my favorite Floyd - having the same mellow, drifting vibe and acoustic backbone. Speaking of the Floyd: Ragnarok harken back to their old days as a cover band with a 16 minute+ medley of essentially the entire second side of The Dark Side Of The Moon. I dubbed that track "Dark Side Too", and the mimicry of the band is astounding, they really come quite close to the real thing. The other cover taken from a live recording is a Rory Erickson tune, with the lively "I Fall Apart" reminding people that these guys started out as a bar band called Sweetfeet.

Long form tracks "Dream", "Raga", "Nooks" and "Rainbow Bridge" have been edited for this collection, which splits pretty evenly between the self-titled debut and Nooks, plus the two live tracks. This is probably all the Ragnarok you need, or at the very least a really nice teaser to let you check out this fascinating little band. So get ready, folks, for the twilight of the gods... 

Glitter, make-up, fancy costumes...sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...