Mighty musical Memorial Day weekend...

Lotsa great stuff for the ears and eyes this holiday weekend! Friday started off with a free concert by The Plateros at Ft. McDowell Community Center, just northeast of Phoenix. It'd been a coupla years since I'd seen them play. Bassist-Father-Buddha Murphy Platero has since stepped down as the band's bass player to oversee the band's business operations. Now Bronson Begay handles the bass playing duties and background vocals. The band still throws out a bunch of tasty blues and rock covers (including a ridiculous cover of ZZ Top's 'Just Got Paid', albeit via Joe Bonamassa) and mixes in some of their own stuff as well. They played a few brand new songs that showed a shift towards a funk-blues-rock direction, which should really help set them apart from a lotta blues bands out there now. It also is a bit of a relief to see them ease away from the heavy Los Lonely Boys influence that dominated their debut CD, "Hang On".

The following night, I began a project I've been meaning to get around to for some time; photgraphing my entire 12" vinyl collection. Starting around 9p Saturday, I took picture after picture until I finally reached the point of "you're not gonna get this done before sunrise" (which was only half way through) and went to bed at 4:30a. And what a great opportunity to listen to more vinyl! I usually went with whatever I just took a picture of at the time of the previous record finishing. Some of those are listed below. Anyways, more on that next time!

Albums listened to since last post; "Candy Man" (Mississippi John Hurt), "Surrealistic Pillow" (Jefferson Airplane), "Riptide" (Robert Palmer), "Strikes" (Blackfoot), "4 Way Street" (Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young), "Dog and Butterfly" (Heart), "Mike's Murder" (Joe Jackson), "Honky Dory", "Tonight" (David Bowie), "Laid Back" (Gregg Allman), "Wired" (Jeff Beck), "Sam Cooke", "Bob Dylan", "Great Moments with B.B. King", "I Robot" (Alan Parsons Project). Total listened to: 136. To go: 552 (214 days).

The Candy Man...

Hey, look! Another blog entry! With almost half the year gone (already?), I'm nowhere near half way through my albums. It's still not impossible to get through them all. Got a holiday weekend coming up! Anyways, today's video is from Mississippi John Hurt, an appearance he made on a show Pete Seger had. If there was a king of the Counrty Blues, it was Hurt. Dig on this one;



Albums listened to since last post; "Live" (Robin Trower), "Dreamboat Annie", "Little Queen" (Heart), "Ladies Invited", "Nightmares" (J. Geils Band), "The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt", "So Many Roads" (John Hammond), "Pryor Goes Foxx Hunting" (Redd Foxx & Richard Pryor), "The Cream" (John Lee Hooker), "Ralf & Florian" (Kraftwerk).Total listened to: 121. To go: 567 (228 days).

Record Store Day blues 2011

Ok, I didn't get the Blues as much as I brought home some Blues. Despite the date at the top of the post, today is Record Store Day 2011, April 16. I scanned the list of special releases coming out today and prepared my list. After synching up my CD and album lists with my Blackberry, I hit the road. First store was modestly packed and I was able to find one record on my list, the special reissue of John Hammond (Jr.)'s "So Many Roads". Sporting a stellar support cast of Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Mike Bloomfield (on piano!), and Charlie Musselwhite, I figured this belongs amongst my other pieces of great aural history. The next store was within walking distance and, after a short wait for them to open ("Don't they know this is a holiday?"), we all go in to find out the store didn't order any of the Record Store Day releases. Not cool. It's really a great record store (do NOT look behind the counter...) but this was bad form. I headed over to store #3 to complete my day's shopping. In the mix was a reissue of the fantastic "The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt" (Country Blues at it's best) and a CD reissue of "Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix". I was actually kinda fooled by a special release of a 3 song single, with 2 songs from the CD and an unreleased live version of Robert Randolph doing 'Purple Haze'. Funny that the CD I bought had an issue date of 2011, when the CD was originally issued in 2004. In any event, it's well worth picking up for Clapton's scorching version of 'Burning of the Midnight Lamp', Prince's 'Purple House', Santana's 'Spanish Castle Magic', and a ridiculous 'Power of Soul' by Bootsy Collins with help from George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars. These songs were playlist staples when I had NOTIMEWARP RADIO going. I also grabbed me a CD copy of John Lennon's "Walls and Bridges" and the DVD of "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones". Not a bad score, I think. Too bad the Pink Floyd, Live in London 66/67 disc wasn't still available. While I really dig the resurgence of vinyl, both records cost me (give or take a coupla) $20. I've never paid that much for a single piece of music before. I think the record companies still aren't getting it or they've just found another way to stick it to us. For an industry so panicked about people stealing music, they continue to put it out there at excessive costs. Dunno... in my book, it just encourages people to look for cheaper options, which, while the anger is directed at the record labels, it's the artist who gets screwed again. But, anyway, time to get the good vibes going with that John Hammond record, some BBQ beans, a burger, then the Rolling Stones when they were the absolute baddest mofos on the planet! Down in the grooves...


Albums listened to since last post; "Aja" (Steely Dan), "Harvest" (Neil Young), "Stampede" (Doobie Brothers), "Touchdown" (Bob James), "No Wave" (Various), "About Face" (David Gilmour), "Al Green's Greatest Hits", "In the Mood" (John Lee Hooker), "The Secret Value of Daydreaming" (Julian Lennon). Total listened to: 90. To go: 598.