What Are You Listening To?

[Dennie]

I picked this one up today....

It is lost recordings circa 1970's, '80's and '90's and sounds great. Ray sounds full of life and although the recording are taken from different sessions, the sound quality is very good.

:bow-blue:

Rare Genius - The Undiscovered Masters -- CD

Ray Charles

2010 Concord Records (Import)

Concord Records is celebrating the 80th birthday of the legendary Ray Charles with a special gift for his legions of fans: Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters. This treasure trove of newly discovered recordings, highlighted by a duet with fellow icon Johnny Cash, will become available on October 26th, 2010.

Culled from four decades worth of demos and other previously unreleased material, Rare Genius showcases the remarkable artistic vision, stylistic range and emotionally rich vocals that crafted Charles enduring legacy. Listening to the ten gems from the '70s, '80s and '90s that comprise this CD, fans will have no trouble envisioning the late singer rocking back and forth at the piano as he effortlessly segues between R&B/soul, pop, country and gospel. "Ray would always get inside the meaning of a lyric and make the listener believe every word," says Concord Music Group Chief Creative Officer, John Burk. "His vocals carried incredible emotion and intensity, even on demo tapes. What we have here with Rare Genius is on par with some of his greatest works."

And that's crystal clear right from the album's sparkling opener, "Love's Gonna Bite You Back." The March 1980 session track features an upbeat horn arrangement behind what Rare Genius liner notes author Bill Dahl calls "a Charles vocal that's a signature mixture of sandpaper grit and heavenly goodness." Up next is the stunning ballad "It Hurts to Be in Love," which underscores the album's main thematic focus and one of Charles' favorite subjects: the ups and down of romance. Another compelling standout is the gospel-stirred Charles and Cash duet on Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me, Lord?" Discovered in the Sony vaults, the song was produced by Billy Sherrill in Nashville and recorded in 1981 for an anticipated release on a CBS album. For unknown reasons, that didn't come to pass. What's more important, however, is the emotional charge you get listening to these two powerful voices come together in this spirited and inspired pairing. Except for "Lord," the nine other Rare Genius tracks including the soul-drenched "I Don't Want No One But You," a blues-infused cover of songwriter Hank Cochran's country classic "A Little Bitty Tear" and the joyous "I'm Gonna Keep on Singin'" were found in the vault at Charles' R.P.M. International Studios in Los Angeles. Adding a little sweetening to some of the sparse, stripped-down tracks was a team of top-notch musicians and artists: guitarists Keb' Mo' and George Doering, organist Bobby Sparks, trumpeter Gray Grant, trombonist Alan Kaplan, bassists Trey Henry and Chuck Berghofer, drummers Gregg Field and Ray Brinker and background vocalist Eric Benet.

As with its Concord predecessor, 2004's Grammy-winning Album of the Year Genius Loves Company, Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters is another fitting tribute to Charles, who would have turned 80 on September 23, 2010. It's a fresh, vibrant reaffirmation of the music icon's unparalleled artistry and legacy.

"Love's Gonna Bite You Back" – 3:54
"It Hurts To Be In Love" (Dixson, Toombs) – 4:53
"Wheel Of Fortune" (Benjamin, Weiss) – 4:00
"I'm Gonna Keep On Singin'" – 5:30
"There'll Be Some Changes Made" (Blackstone, Overstreet) – 4:04
"Isn't It Wonderful" (Taylor, Webster) – 4:13
"I Don't Want No One But You" – 4:20
"A Little Bitty Tear" (Cochran) – 3:35
"She's Gone" – 3:10
"Why Me Lord?" (Kristofferson) – 3:57

 

[Dennie]

Today's work truck music....

Gaucho -- CD

Steely Dan

1980/2000 MCA Records

Amazon.com

The multiplatinum success of Aja made Steely Dan, the musical conceit of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, a household name. But that prosperity came bundled with a fateful triple-whammy for rock's dyspeptic duo: unrealistic commercial expectations, a critical backlash spawned by punk's nascent mewling, and the long-simmering meltdown of their artistic partnership. But the cool, perfect sheen of 1980's Gaucho tipped its hand to none of it. Ironically, those fashion victims who sniffed up their sleeves at Don and Walt's decadence-tinged Me Decade manifesto couldn't have had a clue that just maybe Gaucho's typically oblique protagonists had uncomfortably blurred from the third-person to the first this time 'round. At least that's what Becker and Fagen hint at in their smart-assed notes to this digitally remastered, definitive edition (all original artwork and printed lyrics restored) of the final album before their 20-year hiatus. Pristine and sonically polished (three years and seven studios worth), time has served Gaucho well. Even its sense of laconic detachment now seems but a logical bridge to the two-decade removed Dan of Two Against Nature. To their credit, Becker and Fagen didn't trash the first half of Steely Dan's legacy on Gaucho, they simply burnished it to oblivion. -Jerry McCulley

Side one

"Babylon Sisters" – 5:49
"Hey Nineteen" – 5:06
"Glamour Profession" – 7:28

Side two

"Gaucho" (Becker, Fagen, Keith Jarrett) – 5:30
"Time Out of Mind" – 4:11
"My Rival" – 4:30
"Third World Man" – 5:18

 

[heeman]

This was a lot harder rock than I thought that it would be? I need to give it a couple more listenings............Thanks Paul!

Giving this one a second listen on the way to work today......it is growing on me!!

 

[PaulyT]

Giving this one a second listen on the way to work today......it is growing on me!!

:handgestures-thumbup:

 

[Botch]

This was a lot harder rock than I thought that it would be? I need to give it a couple more listenings............Thanks Paul!

Giving this one a second listen on the way to work today......it is growing on me!!

Had it in the car all week. One of the vocalists sounds a little too much like Bon Scott, otherwise me likey! :music-rockout:

 

[heeman]

Botch,

Listen to some of the older Deep Purple albums with Coverdale and Hughes (MK 3).

Hughes sings back up with Coverdale and lead on some of the songs.

I have always been a huge fan of Glen Hughes!!

 

[PaulyT]

Had it in the car all week. One of the vocalists sounds a little too much like Bon Scott, otherwise me likey! :music-rockout:

I have no idea who Bon Scott is, but there are only two vocalists AFAIK - Hughes and Bonamassa. Hughes does most of it, but Joe sings more on some of the tracks that he primarily wrote (like Ordinary Son).

 

[Dennie]

Had it in the car all week. One of the vocalists sounds a little too much like Bon Scott, otherwise me likey! :music-rockout:

I have no idea who Bon Scott is,

:scared-eek:

Sometimes you scare me Pauly! :text-lol:

Bon Scott was the Lead singer of AC/DC. They are a Rock-n-Roll Band from the 70's!

From Wiki:
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980.[1] He was born in Forfar, Scotland, and moved to Melbourne, Australia with his family in 1952 at the age of six.


Dennie

 

[Dennie]

Happy 4th of July Weekend Everyone! :flags-usa:

The Nightfly

Donald Fagen

1982 Warner Bros. Records

Donald Fagen's 1982 solo debut extends the sleek, smart pop craft of his work with Steely Dan into the realm of the concept album, taking the Dan's penchant for intricate plotting, evocative narrative voices, and allusive imagery to the logical next step. Fagen's connective thread is futurist nostalgia for the "New Frontier" as anticipated from the prosperous vantage point of late-'50s America. He romanticizes a brave new world of technology in the sultry diorama of "I.G.Y.," celebrating the coming glories of the Atomic Age. He then filters that view through his own suburban adolescence--a would-be seduction in a fallout shelter, the siren song of a graveyard-shift jazz DJ, a not-quite-hard-boiled noir adventure ("The Goodbye Look") that borrows its title from an early '60s Ross MacDonald mystery. Song for song, the set's a stunner and stands apart from Steely Dan thanks to a unique, poignant romanticism embodied in Fagen's yearning "Maxine" and a creamy update of Dion & the Belmonts' "Ruby Baby." --Sam Sutherland


"I.G.Y." – 6:05
"Green Flower Street" – 3:40
"Ruby Baby" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller), Arranged by Donald Fagen – 5:38
"Maxine" – 3:50
"New Frontier" – 6:23
"The Nightfly" – 5:45
"The Goodbye Look" – 4:47
"Walk Between Raindrops" – 2:38

 

[PaulyT]

Had it in the car all week. One of the vocalists sounds a little too much like Bon Scott, otherwise me likey! :music-rockout:

I have no idea who Bon Scott is,

:scared-eek:

Sometimes you scare me Pauly! :text-lol:

Bon Scott was the Lead singer of AC/DC. They are a Rock-n-Roll Band from the 70's!

Oh no wonder, I despise AC/DC, so I never would have thought to look up their names...

But with that info, must be Hughes who Botch is talking about (more of the classic old hard rock style), since Joe sounds nothing like that.

 

[Dennie]

(Ingredients in a) Recipe for Soul

Ray Charles

1963 ABC Paramount Records

Although it was a big commercial success, reaching number two on the LP charts, this record would typify the erratic nature of much of Charles' '60s output. It's too eclectic for its own good, really, encompassing pop standards, lowdown blues, Mel Tormé songs, and after-hours ballads. The high points are very high -- "Busted," his hit reworking of a composition by country songwriter Harlan Howard, is jazzy and tough, and one of his best early-'60s singles. And the low points are pretty low, especially when he adds the snow-white backup vocals of the Jack Halloran Singers to "Over the Rainbow" and "Ol' Man River." A number of the remaining cuts are pretty respectable, like the tight big band arrangement of "Ol' Man Time" and the ominously urbane "Where Can I Go?." In 1997, it was paired with the 1964 LP Have a Smile With Me on a two-for-one CD reissue on Rhino, with the addition of historical liner notes.
all music guide ~ Richie Unterberger

01 Busted
02 Where Can I Go
03 Born To Be Blue
04 That Lucky Old Sun
05 Ol' Man River
06 In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down)
07 A Stranger In Town
08 Ol' Man Time
09 Over The Rainbow
10 You'll Never Walk Alone


13610

 

[Botch]

:bow-blue: :bow-blue: :bow-blue:

 

[Dennie]

Workingman's Dead

Grateful Dead

1970 Warner Bros. Records

Just wow..., February 5, 2011
By Edd - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Workingman's Dead (Audio CD)

I am extremely surprised, I myself am a huge metal head. My friend gave me a heads up about these guys and I was like cool I'll check it out. When it arrived I started reading through it and was kinda upset that my friend said they were more rock and it was saying it had more of a blues feel to it. So I put it in expecting the worst and to my amazement I listened through the whole album and loved every moment of it. It's a very smooth feeling album, to the point of refreshing to what is out there now. Highly recommended to anyone that's a fan of ANY kind of music.

Side one

"Uncle John's Band" – 4:42
"High Time" – 5:12
"Dire Wolf" – 3:11
"New Speedway Boogie" – 4:01

Side two

"Cumberland Blues" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh) – 3:14
"Black Peter" – 5:41
"Easy Wind" (Hunter) – 4:57
"Casey Jones" – 4:24

 

[Dennie]

:bow-blue: :bow-blue: :bow-blue:

Great Choice! It is one of my favorites! :bow-blue:



Dennie

 

[Dennie]

I'm really enjoying Sarah..... :text-bravo:

Follow Me Down -- CD

Sarah Jarosz

2011 Sugar Hill Records

Excellent listening music, June 27, 2011
By Rob Greene (Colorado Springs, Co) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Follow Me Down (MP3 Download)

This is just enjoyable music. The sound resides somewhere between folk and bluegrass with a nice voice singing. Based on the strength of a Amazon freebe on the Annabelle Lee single, I bought the album and I've not regretted that decision.

1. Run Away
2. Come Around
3. Annabelle Lee
4. Ring Them Bells
5. My Muse
6. Floating In The Balance
7. Old Smitty
8. The Tourist
9. Here Nor There
10. Gypsy
11. Peace

 

[Dennie]

My last one for the evening...

Yola -- CD

Eleanor McEvoy

2002 Blue Dandelion Records

A Truly Wonderful Album, February 20, 2002
By "profpop" (Malibu, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Yola (Audio CD)

I first heard of Eleanor McEvoy through her enchanting song "Wisper a Prayer to the Moon" featured in the often played on cable movie "The Nephew." I tracked down her 1996 album "What's Following Me" (which featured that song) and found it to be excellent -- a combination of moving lyrics and haunting music.

I quickly purchased her 1999 album release "Snapshots" only to be quite disappointed -- a very "pop" synthetic sound that seemed totally removed from the previous work.

Yola, her current album and the subject of this review, is a return to the style that made her so appealing in the first place. This is a truly great album that outshines even the best of her prior works. I have yet to tire of this mix of wonderful lyrics and music. This album is an easy "five stars" and I can't understand why she is not more well-known.

I Got You to See Me Through
Isn't It a Little Late?
Did I Hurt You?
Seasoned Love
The Rain Falls
Dreaming of Leaving
Easy in Love
Last Seen October 9
I Hear You Breathing In
Something So Wonderful

 

[Dennie]

Harvest -- CD

Neil Young

1972/1990 Reprise Records

Amazon.com essential recording

Proclaiming his intentions with "Are You Ready for the Country?" Young detoured briefly to the Nashville mainstream. On this No. 1 1972 album, even the singer's acquired-taste voice comes across smooth and beautiful--the smash "Heart of Gold," with steel guitars and Linda Ronstadt's backup vocals, is by far Young's most commercial-sounding song. His usual dissonant touches, like the otherworldly guitar in "Out on the Weekend," are less spooky in this new context. The last two tracks, the deceptively gentle "The Needle and the Damage Done" and the hypnotic rocker "Words (Between the Lines of Age)," predict "Tonight's the Night," Young's haunted 1975 classic. --Steve Knopper

Side one

"Out on the Weekend" – 4:34
Neil Young - guitar, harmonica, vocal; Ben Keith - pedal steel guitar; Tim Drummond - bass; Kenny Buttrey - drums
"Harvest" – 3:11
Young - guitar, vocal; Keith - pedal steel guitar; John Harris - piano; Drummond - bass; Buttrey - drums
"A Man Needs a Maid" – 4:05
Young - piano, vocal; with the London Symphony Orchestra
"Heart of Gold" – 3:07
Young - guitar, harmonica, vocal; Teddy Irwin - guitar; Keith - pedal steel guitar; Drummond - bass; Buttrey - drums; Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor - backing vocals
"Are You Ready for the Country?" – 3:23
Young - piano, vocal; Keith - pedal steel guitar; Jack Nitzsche - lap steel guitar; Drummond - bass; Buttrey - drums; David Crosby, Graham Nash - backing vocals

Side two

"Old Man" – 3:24
Young - guitar, vocal; Keith - pedal steel guitar; Taylor - banjo guitar, backing vocal; James McMahon - piano; Drummond - bass; Buttrey - drums; Ronstadt - backing vocal
"There's a World" – 2:59
Young - piano, vocal; with the London Symphony Orchestra
"Alabama" – 4:02
Young - electric guitar, vocal; Keith - pedal steel guitar; Nitzsche - piano; Drummond - bass; Buttrey - drums; Crosby, Stephen Stills - backing vocals
"The Needle and the Damage Done" – 2:03 (recorded in concert January 30, 1971)
Young - guitar, vocal
"Words (Between the Lines of Age)" – 6:40
Young - electric guitar, vocal; Keith - pedal steel guitar; Nitzsche - piano; Drummond - bass; Buttrey - drums; Stills, Nash - backing vocals

 

[heeman]

Side A

1."Behind the Lines" (Lyrics Mike Rutherford) – 5:31
2."Duchess" (Lyrics Tony Banks) – 6:26
3."Guide Vocal" (Banks) – 1:35
4."Man of Our Times" (Rutherford) – 5:34
5."Misunderstanding" (Collins) – 3:13
6."Heathaze" (Banks) – 4:59

Side B

1."Turn It On Again" (Lyrics Mike Rutherford) – 3:50
2."Alone Tonight" (Rutherford) – 3:56
3."Cul-de-sac" (Banks) – 5:05
4."Please Don't Ask" (Collins) – 4:01
5."Duke's Travels" (Lyrics Tony Banks) – 8:40
6."Duke's End" – 2:08

 

[heeman]

1989 Right Down the Line: The Best Of Gerry Rafferty

Could not find a link for the album art!

I've got your back, Heeman! bscene-drinkingcheers:

Dennie :handgestures-thumbup:

Listening to this one right now!

 

[Dennie]

Come On In This House SACD

Junior Wells

1996 Telarc Records

This SACD has it all, January 24, 2010
By Timur F. Oguz (Turkey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Come on in This House (Audio CD)

This SACD has it all:
-One of the greats of blues accompanied by some very good players.
-Excellent choice of songs.
-A (relatively) new, top-notch master recording with amazingly warm and natural sound.
-Probably one of the best multi-channel sounds ever produced.
If you would like to invite Junior Wells and his friend in your living room for a private performance, just buy this SACD!

01. What My Momma Told Me/That's All Right
02. Why Are People Like That?
03. Trust My Baby
04. Million Years Blues
05. Give Me One Reason
06. Ships on the Ocean
07. She Wants to Sell My Monkey
08. So Glad You're Mine
09. Mystery Train
10. I'm Gonna Move to Kansas City
11. Kingfish Blues
12. You Better Watch Yourself
13. Come on in This House
14. Goat