Great Music, Great Friends

  The other night, I received a rather serendipitous email from a close friend of Jim's. It tells the story behind a Gold Coast Bluenote post that dates back to 2005. I thought it would nice to share the story as a post on it's own, complete with links to the original post, as well as to the music of Alison Krauss, who's beautiful voice inspired it.

It's funny how our lives weave together disparate elements, and make them inseparable. I was listening to some tunes last night. The music got me thinking about Jim, and GCB, and that in turn made me think of you.

Here's the back story behind an old post on GCB:(http://goldcoastbluenote.blogspot.com/2006/12/all-my-answers-turned-out-to-be.html). Alison Krauss and Union Station were scheduled to play Lakeland in Dec 2005. I wanted Jim to go see them, and to cover the concert for GCB.

Why? Union Station is the tightest band I have ever seen. Every member is a master musician. Some bands sound great on an album, but just so-so live. Union Station delivers the goods live, every time. Alison Krauss was then (is still) one of the best singers in the world. And she also has the instrumental chops to play with Union Station. Jim had never seen them; I wanted to fix that.

I knew Jim was a bit tight on funds, so I bought him a ticket. As we exchanged emails, it dawned on me that he had no way to get from Tampa to Lakeland and back. In for a dime, in for a dollar. I bought another concert ticket, and a plane ticket, and arranged to fly in from NC so that Jim and I could see the show together. One of the best nights of my life, by the way.

As Jim put it

First timers think they are just going to a concert; but after they listen to these musician’s musicians, they leave the show, just having found that Yahweh cuts us sinners a break now and again.

Digging around on youtube I found a great concert recording of AK/US. It's about three years before the show we went to, but has a quite a bit of overlap with the show we attended. I saw this 2002 tour in Durham NC, and it made me a fan for life. Sometime when you have an hour or so, read Jim's post, open a cold one, and give this a spin: http://youtu.be/HKgTra0QldE

Just one thing though. The concert Jim and I went to had a different encore, as mentioned on GCB. It gave me chills. Here it is, as performed on the Leno Show:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5gmVzbjxwl4.

later bro,
drc

An Event that Changed America on April 4, 1968: "Shot rings out in the Memphis sky"

At 6:01 p.m., April 4, 1968, a shot rang out as [Reverend Dr. Martin Luther] King stood on the second-floor balcony of the [Memphis motel where he was staying while he supported] black sanitary public works employees ... who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages, [pay equity with white employees] and better treatment. From the Wikipedia Contributors on Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Reverend King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee -- the wreath marks the spot where King fell, mortally wounded. 

___________________________________________

One man come in the name of love
One man come and go
One man come, he to justify
One man to overthrow

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed on an empty beach.
One man betrayed with a kiss

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

(nobody like you...)

Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love 
...
(U2, Pride (In the Name of Love), The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

50 years ago .... "A Change is Gonna Come"

Fifty years ago today, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it his way. At that same event on the Mall in DC, Bob Dylan said it his way. But if Dylan isn't your cup of tea, how about this 1963 track from Sam Cooke.

Rory Block, "Twelve Gates to the City" (2012)

This tune opened up more avenues of exploration than I can count. I know right now is I've got brush up on my Rev. Gary Davis, learn some more about Jerusalem and definitely keep an eye on this country blues guitar master.
As the AllMusic.com guide put it, "[S]he does a remarkable job of channeling the basics of her subject's technique and grafting it onto her own inimitable style."

Solomon Burke: "I Gotta Be With You" (2010)

Solomon Burke was preaching in his family church by the time he was seven years old. And all these years later, you can still here the proof in his music. That early preaching was back in the late 1940s, as Burke turns 72 this month. 

Happy Birthday, Mr. Burke.

Happy Birthday, Bob!

Yesterday America's greatest living poet, Bob Dylan, turned 71. For all he's given me, for all he's helped our generation give the world, here's a little birthday wish: from The Band's Last Waltz (Concert, 1976; Scorsese's film, 1978), here Bob, Robbie & Co. performing Forever Young.

Jimmy Cliff: "Many Rivers To Cross" (1972)

Here's the incomparable Jimmy Cliff performing a definitive studio version of his classic Many Rivers to Cross, from the soundtrack album of the reggae break-out film The Harder They Come (1972).

The soundtrack album changed my life in more ways than one. When I dragged my first wife to see the film, I loved it and she hated it. You can't changed your taste, but wives, well, let's just say I still love the album and she's long gone.

So here's Many Rivers to Cross, a heavily gospel influenced song Cliff wrote in 1969.

"U2": "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" ("Rattle and Hum" film, 1988)

In my heart I always knew this was a gospel song. Here's the proof, but Edge tells it better than I ever could. This recording is only used in the film Rattle and Hum (1988) -- a different live version is used on the companion album. That version doesn't touch this one.

Billy Preston at the Concert for Bangladesh: "That's The Way God Planned It"

Three performances that most shaped where my musical tastes would wander are all from one concert film and album -- the first rock superstar benefit concert of its kind -- The Concert for Bangladesh (1972). Those performances were from Bob Dylan, Leon Russell and Billy Preston. Here's a little taste, Preston's song for the two Madison Square Garden shows in the summer of 1971.

Preston, the keyboard power behind the Beatles (at the very end) and the early seventies Stones, shows his gospel roots on this one, with all the hip rockers thinking they are in heaven. For me, when the movie finally did hit town, I was in heaven too.

From the Bruce Springsteen with Seeger Sessions Band Tour, "When The Saints Go Marching In"

There is one reason New Orleans can never die, no matter how much oil BP spills around it or Army Corp. of Engineers mistakes flood the region: the spirit of its music.

The concert footage above leaves out a verse Bruce wrote for the end of the song when they played it at Jazzfest in New Orleans four years ago -- when the city was still in the early stages of recovery from the post-Katrina disaster:

Some say this world of trouble
Is the only world we'll ever see
But I'm waiting for that morning
When the new world is revealed

Ray Charles: In Tribute

I saw the late Ray Charles live twice -- sequential gigs on a tour in the late seventies. Both show were great, but they couldn't have been more different. The first show was in Mobile, Alabama and Ray was playing to -- what can I call it -- his "commercial" audience. This show was designed to entertain anybody with even the smallest appreciation for his talent. He was playing to a mostly white audience, and entertain he did. He blew me away.

But I didn't know what was to come. The next show was at the New Orleans Performing Arts Center. Here he played a completely different set, this time to take serious jazz fans and blow their socks off. Striped down, improvisational, personal; I was awestruck by both his polished talent as an artist and also charisma as a showman.

I hear the recent film Ray is a good one, but I intentionally haven't seen it. I'm still savoring my memories of those two live show more than a generation ago. Ray, your genius will always live on in my heart and my soul.

Yo! China -- Either Lay Off Tibet or ....!

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Channeling Sacred Fire in 1978

The force-of-nature pop music professor, whiteray, at Echoes in the Wind, found this YouTube clip. I note below both his take on it, and then mine, (both entries below reposted from his blog (link supra), on Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's 1978 tour. The YouTube clip and the show I saw were less that two months apart. Wanna know why Jon Landau said, "I have seen the future of rock and roll ...", check this out.
*****


Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Channeling Sacred Fire, on "The Darkness on Edge of Town" Tour (1978)
*****
whiteray: "....And here’s a black-and-white clip of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performing “The Promised Land” at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, on September 19, 1978. The visuals are a little grainy, but the music is excellent. ...."

Me: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band were on the "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour during the show in the clip -- I saw their St. Petersburg, FL gig in August, very soon befor this clip was shot.

Bruce was burning up with an inferno of inspired passion, of sacred prophet fire that I do not believe, until The Rising, his 9/11 album.

Live Darkness beats families turning to pink dust in the New York sky ever time.

Guitars wailed through the night like "singing winds and crying beasts." And then, you enter, Candy's Room .... 'Yea, I'll pay the price, and I'll be there on time.'

"We are born into this life payin', for the sins of somebody else's past."

Are you down with that?
*****

Essential Albums: the Rolling Stones' "Beggars Banquet"

Mick and Keith

(photo (c) Annie Leibovitz circa 1975)

Beggars Banquet

In an earlier post, I recommended a greatest hits album as an introduction to the late sixties Rolling Stones' music. Now file that one away and get your hands on -- and ears into -- the real deal, 1968's Beggars Banquet.

This is a "transition-back" record -- back that is from the musical disarray of Her Satanic Majesty's Request -- to their adopted American roots: blues, country, and straight ahead Keith-driven rock and roll. And not coincidentally, the Stones hiring Jimmy Miller as producer in '68 to give the band some much need direction; it was from Miller that the Glimmer Twins learned their craft. The result, in the view of many -- I'm an Exile on Main Street man myself -- is the best album the Stones ever released.

The final touch was adding Nicky Hopkins on piano. As Jean-Luc Godard's film Sympathy for the Devil (titled One Plus One in its European release) clearly shows from extensive documentary footage of the song Sympathy for the Devil evolving in the studio, it was Hopkins on piano and Richards on bass that formed the core tracks around which the band and company built the haunting cut the song became. Further, the Godard film shows and the song gave us an aural portrait of the maddening chaos of North America in 1968. As Wikipedia put it, "[t]he dissolution of Stone Brian Jones is vividly portrayed, and the tragic chaos of 1968 is made clear when a line referring to the killing of (John F.) Kennedy is heard changed to the plural after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June [1968]." As a lyric/poet, Jagger has never been better than on Sympathy.

There is, truly, not a bad cut on Beggars Banquet.

Take Street Fighting Man, for example. I listened to this song for years before I tore the chorus lyrics out of it, but it didn't matter. Keith and the band deliver all the revolution you can take without you ever knowing that Jagger's telling us, in the chorus, "But what can a poor boy do, but to sing for a rock and roll band? 'Cause in sleepy London town there's just no place for a Street Fightin' Man."

Further, Jagger and Richards never made the "sum greater than the parts" better than on the vocal/acoustic guitar masterpiece Back Street Girl.

And Beggars Banquet would be the last time -- despite ongoing lack of credit to certain musicians who played on their later albums -- that they failed to give song writing credit as was due. One of the gems of this record is the acoustic parable Prodigal Son, written by but uncredited to The Reverend Robert Wilkins.

The lessons of this record are simple: give credit where credit is due; if you get lost in a psychedelic haze, get back to your roots; and, foremost, if you are unfamiliar with the deep album cuts that I fail to mention above, you simply cannot understand where much of today's "adult alternative" music comes from.

Oh yea, and watch out for those Stray Cat Blues!

**********

A Sermon -- Johnny Cash style

A while back, I wrote in some detail about the American Recordings, produced by Rick Rubin, that Johnny Cash made in the last years of his life. While listening to some of these songs last Sunday, I reflected on Cash's message and the hollow sermons given in churches these days. It hit me that somebody ought to piece together a great sermon based on Cash's end-of-the-trail lyrics. Here's my humble attempt:
______________________________

Unchained

I have been ungrateful
And I have been unwise
Restless from the cradle
But now I realize
It's so hard to see the rainbow
Through glasses dark as these
Maybe I'll be able from down on my knees

Oh I am weak
Oh I know I am vain
Take this weight from me
Let my spirit be unchained

Old man swearin' at the sidewalk
And I am overcome
Seems that we've both forgotten
Forgotten to go home
Have I seen an angel
Or have I seen a ghost
Where's that Rock of Ages
When you need it most

It's so hard to see the rainbow
Through glasses dark as these
Maybe I'll be able
From down on my knees

*****

from When The Man Comes Around

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder:
One of the four beasts saying: "Come and see."
And I saw.
And behold, a white horse
There's a Man goin' 'round takin' names
An' He decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same
There'll be a golden ladder reaching down

When the Man comes around
The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup'
For you partake of that last offered cup,
Or disappear into the potter's ground.
When the Man comes around.

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singin'
Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum.
Voices callin', voices cryin'
Some are born an' some are dyin'.
It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come.

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks
'Till Armageddon, no Shalam, no Shalom
Then the Father hen will call his chickens home.

The wise men will bow down before the throne.
And at His feet they'll cast their golden crown,
When the Man comes around.

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still.
Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still.
Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still.
Listen to the words long written down,
When the Man comes around.

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
When The Man Comes Around ....

******

from Redemption

From the hands it came down
From the side it came down
From the feet it came down
And ran to the ground.

Between heaven and hell
A teardrop fell
In the deep crimson dew
The tree of life grew

And the blood gave life
To the branches of the tree
And the blood was the price
That set the captives free
And the numbers that came
Through the fire and the flood
Clung to the tree
And were redeemed by the blood.

From the tree streamed a light
That started the fight
'Round the tree grew a vine
On whose fruit I could dine

My old friend Lucifer came
Fought to keep me in chains
But I saw through the tricks
Of six-sixty-six

And the blood gave life
To the branches of the tree
And the blood was the price
That set the captives free
And the numbers that came
Through the fire and the flood
Clung to the tree
And were redeemed by the blood. ...

*****

from "Why Me Lord"

Why me Lord, what have I ever done?
To deserve even one
Of the pleasures I've known
Tell me Lord, what did I ever do?
That was worth loving You
Or the kindness You've shown.

Lord help me Jesus, I've wasted it so
Help me Jesus
I know what I am
Now that I know that I've need You so
Help me Jesus, my soul's in Your hand.

Tell me Lord, if You think there's a way
I can try to repay
All I've taken from You?
Maybe Lord, I can show someone else
What I've been through myself
On my way back to You. ...

*****
from Personal Jesus

.... Reach out and touch faith.

*****

Amen.
______________________________

Venus in Black and Blue

".... She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe
'I thought you'd never say hello,' she said
'You look like the silent type.'
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul, from me to you,
Tangled up in blue. ...."

(-- Bob Dylan, from Tangled Up in Blue,
Copyright (c) 1974 Ram's Horn Music)

I realize now why I had to wait until I was 50 -and it took me three weeks of listening write this -- to merit this album. Until this year, I wouldn't have been ready for Lucinda Williams' stunning Live at the Fillmore (2003); for a "into-posts" to this one, see Desire is the Root of All Suffering and The Truth on the Spirituality of Love.

The stellar band members on these three magic nights at the renovated Fillmore [West] are Lucinda Williams (vocals, acoustic and electric guitar), Doug Pettibone (lead guitar, pedal and lap steel guitars, mandolin, harmonica and background vocals), Taras Prodaniuk (bass guitar and background vocals) and Jim Christie (drums, percussion, and keys). All songs written by Lucinda Williams.

* * * * *

Perfect Roots

Ever the humble auteur, Eric Clapton once spoke of Duane Allman as having "perfect roots". Indeed, while both men excelled and focused on American blues, focusing on the roots-blues, Eric was playing catch-up. Clapton is from Ripley, Surrey, England. Duane was born in Nashville, Tennessee; he moved to Daytona Beach, Florida when he was 11 years old.

Lucinda Williams also has perfect roots. Born in Southwest Louisiana, specifically Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish, she grew up in a world swirling with the music of Clifton Chenier, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams, Sr., to give you just a taste of the gumbo of her musical environment. And to top those roots off, her father is acclaimed poet Miller Williams, best known for his poem The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina.

```````````````````````````````````````````

Lucinda's Fillmore Tracks:

As there is not one weak track on either of these two compact discs.

The following notes on the album tracks are modeled after similar ones in the liner notes to The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991 [BOX SET] by Bob Dylan.

(Italicised song titles start each track entry below; all songs are Lucinda Williams compositions -- lyric quotes are her lyric-poetry unless otherwise noted.)

Disc One: From a Heartache to a Wildfire
________

Ventura

This set opener is a three-quarter time C&W acoustic blues lullaby -- a prayer to get ".... her power back to drown this unholiness ...".

The chorus is:

"... I wanna watch the ocean bend
The edges of the sundown
I wanna get swallowed up
In an ocean of love ....".

Doug Pettibone's pedal steel guitar fills are forebodingly superb.

* * * * *
Reason to Cry

Another touching Country & Western poetic gem; Doug apparently adds a little distortion to his pedal steel work -- a tricky but well executed innovation.

* * * * *
Fruits of My Labor

And here she comes -- more "hard bark" in her vocal than a Marine hittin' a hot LZ (i.e. landing zone) in Nam.

And Lucinda Williams, unlike Bob Dylan, has some vocal range to her melodies.

It's rapidly becoming apparent, as Lucinda says, later, after Essence, talkin' 'bout the band, that 'they got their Mojo workin' tonight'.

* * * * *
Out of Touch

Another hint of things to come: this one's a can't-help-but-tap-your-foot slow rocker.

* * * * *
Sweet Side

4 stars -- this one is so deep, so rich, that even my preacher neighbor across the hall, who listens to nothing but classical and gospel music, came out his door with a smile singin' along with the record blasting in our hall "... you don't always show your sweet side....". Her voice has turned from "hard bark" to angry lover. But no lyric poetry or instrumentation spoilers from me -- for that you gotta check out this track for yourself, or it's your loss, baby.

* * * * *
Lonely Girls

Easin' back on the throttle. Another three-quarter time acoustic sad, sweet lament, but this one a poetic shot of dry, sweet, sad Old Grand Dad.

Her song writing pattern is starting to emerge: one-summation-line repeated choruses and then, using Dylan's theory -- every line thereafter has got to be as good as the first one.

"Heavy blankets Cover Lonely Girls ...."

She takes a simple descriptive phrase and kick-starts your imagination with poetic imagery. Which is what all great singer-songwriters do, even the ones deliverin' pizzas in Nashville and Austin.

* * * * *
Overtime

Not unlike Emmylou Harris' album Wrecking Ball, not only will it take me a year to plum the depths of this one, but also, now, I've got school-boy crushes on three of my teachers: Joni Mitchell, Emmylou, and Lucinda Williams.

And I'll never be worthy to Court and Spark any of them. I'll be a lonely boy the rest of my days.

* * * * *
Blue

"Go find the Jukebox, and
See what a quarter will do
I don't wanna talk
I just wanna, go back to blue ...."

Picture yourself slow-dancin' in a smokey East Texas bar-room with your soon-to-be-next-ex-lover. And you're there.

* * * * *
Changed the Locks

5 stars with a bullet!

"Out of the blue"
"and into the black",
(-- Neil Young)
'[A] woman's wolf'-growl can be heard at that drunken fool that "he has trashed her life for the last time".'

This is the version of the tune that sent me from the cable Music Choice Americana channel to Amazon.com to buy my first Lucinda Williams album, after countless years of wanting one.

From Ms. Williams' repertoire, this song is the functional equivalent of Keith Richards' (Don't You) Take It So Hard.

* * * * *

Atonement

A Biblical / Punk Slash and Burn -- shades of Patti Smith.

"....Come on, Come on, Come on
Kill the rats in the gutter
Sings the voice in the choir
Bring your Father and your Mother
Sing it higher and higher"

"Shake the clammy hand
Repeat the 23rd psalm
Make you understand
Where it was you went wrong"

"Voices from tapes
Shouting with twisted tongues
Emotional rape
Hell fire scorched lungs ....
[Emphasis added.]"
_______

Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff— they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.

While Ms. Williams mixes in a heavy dose of C&W blue lullaby, Lucinda ends Disc One of Live at the Fillmore with Atonement, a Dylan-gone-electric-and-violent from 1966 rocker, with multi-instrumentalist Doug Pettibone doin' a couple mean SRV-esqe guitar solos. Poetry on fire, slashin' and burning your spiritual farm:
Tom Joad's family ".... tractored out by the 'Cats'" (.i.e. Caterpillar Tractors;
lyric by Woody Guthrie based on the John Ford film of the John Steinbeck novel The Grapes of Wrath).

* * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *

Disc Two: The Blaze is too Intense to Fight Now, Then Charred Calm

* * * * *
I Lost It

Five star lyrics and vocal from Lucinda -- my life, again, but younger:

".... I just wanna live the life I please
I don't want no enemies
I don't want nothin if I have to fake it
Never take nothin don't belong to me
Everything's paid for, nothin's free
If I give my heart, will you promise not to break it? ..."

* * * * *
Pineola

".... Sonny shot hisself with a .44 ...." -- the flip-side suicide ballad to her Sweet Old World. A pure plea to the Other Side about This Side -- 'the look in the eyes, of her mother and her sister, in Pineola, where the narrator's brother killed himself.'

Brutal for anyone who's been there.

* * * * *
Righteously

Perfect, subtle wah-wah fills and more wild-fire-in-a-canyou electric solos from Doug.

RIGHTEOUSLY
by Lucinda Williams

"You don't have to prove
Your manhood to me constantly
I know you're the man can't you see
I love you Righteously

Why you wanna dis' me
After the way you been kissin' me
After those pretty things you say
And the love we made today?

Why you run your hand
All up and run it back down my leg
Get excited and bite my neck
Get me all worked up like that?

Think this through
I laid it down for you everytime
Respect me I give you what's mine
You're entirely way too fine

Arms around my waist
You get a taste of how good this can be
Be the man you ought to, tenderly
Stand up for me

Flirt with me don't keep hurtin' me
Don't cause me pain
Be my lover don't play no game
Just play me John Coltrane."

* * * * *
Joy

"You took my joy, and I want it back!"

Each bandmember raises his or her own level through their live interaction. Much as Slowhand, Skydog and Bobby did on The Layla Sessions.

* * * * *
Essence

More slow, electric ember-fire-of-love"
'the embers lasting longer than the flame'
(--Shades this time of Leon Russell's additional verse when he covers Wild Horses (Stones.)

The song closes with a medium-lenth jam that caresses Lucinda's last verse closing; this tune's a rhapsody.

* * * * *
Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings

Here Lucinda out-does what Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders create with Mystery Achievement.

Indeed, that Pretenders disc referred to above was cut about the same time as a real life story on topic: bassist's Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads, Tom-Tom Club) was playing CBGB's in NYC until very late one night. On stage, Tina's fingers began to bleed down the neck of her Fender bass because they had played so long -- the crowd: they thought it was part of the punk show and loved it.

Five stars with a bullet!

* * * * *
Are You Down (With That?)

Straight up jazz blues -- DougPettibone doin' Larry Carlton.

" ... Can't force the river upstream
When it flows south
Know what I meeean?
Nothin' will make me take you back
Are you down, baby,
Down with thaaat? ..."

He's gone -- quickly 'driftin' down that road'; 'resting' only so 'he can get up' and 'drift farther along. (Thanks to W. Guthrie and John Entwhistle)

* * * * *
Those Three Days
_______________________
Don't send your kids to this graduate seminar on a love-eternal that lasts just Those Three Days (i.e. Parental Advisory on lyrics).
_______________________

More slow, electric, coal-fire burn of love --shades again of Leon Russell.

* * * * *
American Dream

A classic "needle and the damage done" nightmare come to life -- "The Man in Black" is smilin' down on Lucinda.

* * * * *
World Without Tears

And we circle back to where the set started: a three-quarter time acoustic quartet -- straight from her mind and vocals to your heart.

* * * * *
Bus to Baton Rouge

Her hometown of Lake Charles being just a little piece of delta to the southwest of the capital, Lucinda would know -- this one is about that ache of love-lost-and-gone forever.; and now I've learned that Williams and Willie Nelson covered this turf from similar perspectives.

Ms. Williams and Willie Nelson ramble similar roads about 200 miles from each other. And that's just about how wide, culturally, the Southwest Louisiana / East Texas border is. Willie's song I Just Drove By tells the same story with different poetic facts.

* * * * *
World's Fell

"... with the silence of the roses."

".... Everything is wrong, Everything is wrong."

A perfect set closer. Soft, sad lullaby settlin' down the crowd and helpin' the band decompress. Pedal steel by Doug that will steal your heart --Texas blues that are the yin to Janis' yang.

* * * * *

Outtro

Taken as a whole, the three nights of gigs from which this album is culled, I'm sure, was note-perfect. Everything on the two discs discussed -- the writing, singin', pickin', arrangements, rhythm, everything -- is Just Like Heaven.

Bottom line: the two best touring bands, right now, in the world: for gospel and dobro, it's Allison Krauss and Union Station.

For it all in one package -- Joni to Chrissie, with world class lead guitar -- Lucinda Williams, Dougie, T., and Jimmy are the best touring band on the planet.

".... Are you down with that? ...."

5 stars with 6 bullets from a Magnum Force side arm
(Empty, shell casings -- hot and smelling of powder)

The Truth on the Spirituality of Love

I received my copy of Lucinda Williams' superlative Lucinda Williams Live at the Fillmore (2003) a week ago today. It is taking far more than "just a spin or two" to do this double CD set justice in a review. But here's a "sweet taste" of my spin on one of the top 5 singer songwriter's alive today:

Last track on Disc One:

Atonement

A Biblical / Punk Slash and Burn -- shades of Patti Smith.

....Come on, Come on, Come on
Kill the rats in the gutter
Sings the voice in the choir
Bring your Father and your Mother
Sing it higher and higher

Shake the clammy hand
Repeat the 23rd psalm
Make you understand
Where it was you went wrong

Voices from tapes
Shouting with twisted tongues
Emotional rape
Hell fire scorched lungs ....
[Emphasis added.]
_______

Psalm 23

A Psalm of David.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters;
He restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff—
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.

While she mixes in a heavy dose of C&W blue lullaby, Lucinda ends Disc One of Live at the Fillmore with Atonement, a Dylan-gone-electric-and-violent from 1966 with multi-instrumentalist Doug Pettibone doin' a couple mean SRV guitar solos. Poetry on fire, slashin' and burning your spiritual farm; Tom Joad's family ".... tractored out by the Cats (i.e. Catepillar Tractors). ....."

* * * * *
(To be continued, humbly, by your Gold Cost Bluenote staff writer, editor, and typist.)

All My Answers Turned Out to be Questions

Posted by Paco Malo at Carnal Reasoning on December 14th, 2005 at 10:31 pm (music)

On December 8, 2005, in Lakeland Florida, Alison Krauss and Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas demonstrated that the gumbo of Southern Appalachian bluegrass, cross-over country rock, gospel, and pure acoustic instrumental perfection is alive, well, and currently touring America.

The closest thing to an explanation of their gig — right down to the Conway Twitty finger twirl and hip roll the band taught the crowd, and Alison’s reminiscences about homemade yeast biscuits — is offered in an interview buried deep in Martin Scorsese’s film of The Band’s last concert, entitled “The Last Waltz”. Drummer, singer, songwriter, and southern music historian Levon Helm explains:


… Near Memphis – cotton country, rice country – the most interesting thing is probably the music. … That’s kinda the middle of the country, you know, back there, so, bluegrass, or country music, you know, if it comes down to that area, and if it mixes there with that rhythm, and if it dances, then you’ve got a combination of those different kinds of music: country, bluegrass, blues music. [Robbie Robertson, off camera, adds, “A melting pot.”] Scorsese then asks Helm, “And what’s it called then?” Helm answers with assurance, “Rock n’ Roll.”

Alison and her train station crew don’t play rock and roll. But their show is an Appalachian stew executed with such grace, and demonstrating so much talent, that they bring converts to all the musical forms in their set list. First timers think they are just going to a concert; but after they listen to these musician’s musicians, they leave the show, just having found that Yahweh cuts us sinners a break now and again.

For me, dobro maestro Jerry Douglas adding Duane Allman’s instrumental composition “Little Martha” to his solo medley was a special treat. He speeded it up, robbing it of some of the nuance Allman gave his recording of the song, but overall the medley was clear evidence that Douglas is unsurpassed on slide guitar. Jerry Douglas, you da man!

Band leader Dan Taminski was the glue that held it all together. Taminski, rather than demonstrating the flat-top guitar pyrotechnics he had demonstrated on Austin City Limits this summer, anchored the “guitar/mandolin/bass harmonies” behind Krauss’ lead vocal. Generally, as a conductor would, Dan pulled all the virtuosos around him together to create musical magic.

Every musician on stage, whether plucking an acoustic string instrument or sparingly hitting a snare drum with a brush, seemed to have one goal: to showcase Alison Krauss’ luminescent voice.

Alison’s voice, my God, Alison’s voice. On three songs in particular on this special night, she demonstrated a gift that’s a blessing to hear. The literal and figurative show stopper of these songs I’ll get to shortly. From the main set, she and the band performing “Gravity” made me cry and God smile. “Lucky One” rang out like a church bell and made the hall and everyone in it glow.

Add it all up, and this could be the finest band – and one completely unaffected in their presentation (no stage antics here) – on the road today.

I’ll close with the lyrics of the song they leave the stage with, just before the house lights come up, and we have to go back to out lives – “A Living Prayer”:


In this world, I walk alone,
With no place to call my home.
But there’s One who holds my hand,
The rugged road through barren lands.

The way is dark, the road is steep.
But He’s become my eyes to see.
The strength to climb, my griefs to bear,
The Savior lives inside me there.

In Your love I find release,
A haven from my unbelief.
Take my life and let me be
A living prayer, my God, to thee.

In these trials of life I find
Another voice inside my mind.
He comforts me and bids me live
Inside the love the Father gives.

In Your love I find release,
A haven from my unbelief.
Take my life and let me be
A living prayer, my God, to thee.

Take my life and let me be
A living prayer, my God, to thee…

Nuff said. Amen.