What Are You Listening To?

[Dennie]

Nobody Left To Crown -- CD

Richie Havens

2008 Verve Forcast

Over 40 years after the release of his debut album, 1967's MIXED BAG, folk-rock master Richie Havens returns to his original label, Verve Records, for 2008's NOBODY LEFT TO CROWN. Although Havens's public image will forever be frozen as the impassioned singer and percussive guitarist whose improvised set at Woodstock made him a national star, he has not stopped performing or recording during the intervening decades. Along with several strong original songs, including the pointedly political "Hurricane Waters" and the title track, Havens transforms three well-known songs into his unique style: Jackson Browne's "Lives in the Balance," Peter, Paul and Mary's "The Great Mandala," and most surprisingly yet most effectively, the Who's powerhouse protest anthem "Won't Get Fooled Again."

1. Key, The
2. Say It Isn't So
3. Won't Get Fooled Again
4. Standing on the Water
5. Hurricane Waters
6. If I
7. Nobody Left to Crown
8. (Can't You Hear) Zeus's Anger Roar
9. Lives in the Balance
10. We All Know Now
11. Fates
12. Great Mandala, The (The Wheel of Life)
13. One More Day

 

[topper]

Who Else

..

 

[Dennie]

Today's work truck music...

Kamakiriad -- CD

Donald Fagen

1993 Reprise Records

Kilgore Trout meets Steely Dan! A masterwork, September 8, 1998
By rash67 (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Kamakiriad (Audio CD)

"Kamakiri", I have been told, means "Beatle" in Japanese. The "-ad" suffix as in Odyssiad, so it's journey of the beatle. The car is "not a freeway bullet or a bug with monster wheels, just a total bio-sphere." The logical extension of "Aja", "Gaucho" and other late Steely Dan. Exquisitely well thought out, cerebral, yet funky. The story of the journey of an improbable solar powered car with a vegetable garden inside! Full of clever Fagan lyrics. Rock, jazz, R&B, New age influences, impossible to classify.

A great stereo test record, spectacular recording quality!

Standout song is "Tomorrows Girls", a cautionary tale diseased about beautiful Party Girls from outer space who come to earth for a good time with Earth Guys. "A virus wearing pumps and pearls".

Listen for the fireworks when "some loser fires off a flare". Kamakiriad is chock full of lyrical, tongue-in-cheek songs, not a bad cut on the album.

Gentle non-abrasive music. A masterwork! The only thing wrong with this album is the length of time it took Donald Fagen to do it. Let's hope he does another album soon!

Kilgore Trout meets Steely Dan!

"Trans-Island Skyway" (Fagen) – 6:30
"Countermoon" (Fagen) – 5:05
"Springtime" (Fagen) – 5:06
"Snowbound" (Walter Becker, Fagen) – 7:08
"Tomorrow's Girls" (Fagen) – 6:17
"Florida Room" (Fagen, Libby Titus) – 6:02
"On the Dunes" (Fagen) – 8:07
"Teahouse on the Tracks" (Fagen) – 6:09

 

[Dennie]

Satchmo of The Ghetto -- CD

James Andrews featuring Dr. John & Allen Toussaint

1998 NYNO Records

A nice taste of Louis Armstrong-flavored New Orleans jazz that keeps Satchmo to the level of influence, avoiding any outright swipes. The music has a nicely laid-back feeling to it, making it sway nicely, and Andrews blows a nice trumpet, rather than a mean one - there are some pleasantly rough edges that provide engaging character. The NO r&b elements salted in throughout are a big plus, too - this is definitely music made for people who like to get up and dance. ~ Steven McDonald

Track Listing
1. Poop Ain't Gotta Scuffle No More
2. Last Night on the Back Porch
3. Latin Cats
4. Sweet Emma
5. Going for the Money
6. Got Me a New Love Thing
7. Banana Boogie
8. Catch the Willie
9. It's Only a Paper Moon
10. Your Mama Don't Dance
11. Old Rugged Cross, The

Personnel: James Andrews (vocals, trumpet); Scott Goudeau (guitar); Dr. John, Mac Rebennack (piano, organ, background vocals); Bernard "Bunchy" Johnson (drums, background vocals); Allen Toussaint (keyboard, background vocals).Audio Mixer: Sean Tauzier.Liner Note Author: Roger Hahn.Recording information: Sea-Saint Recording Studios, New Orleans, LA (09/1997-10/1997)

 

[heeman]

New John Mayer........

It's a little more folk than his last, however is growing on me the more that I listen to it.

 

[Dennie]

New Orleans Piano -- CD

Professor Longhair

1972/1989 Atlantic Jazz

Professor Longhair is the fountainhead of New Orleans R&B, and NEW ORLEANS PIANO is one of the style's essential documents. It contains recordings 'Fess made for Atlantic in the late 1940s/early '50s, some of his finest sessions. This collection wasn't released until 1972, but it surely had a profound effect on every young pianist who heard it; on Longhair's signature song, "Tipitina," and others, the piano king's loose-limbed, rolling piano lines, organically polyrhythmic second-line grooves, and rough, quirky vocals add up to a jubilant, seamless style that's simultaneously vibrant and unhurried. 'Fess's trademark whistling atop the insistent piano figure of "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" remains one of the most vivid sonic evocations of party time in the Crescent City.

Track Listing
1. In the Night
2. Tipitina
3. Tipitina - (bonus track)
4. Ball the Wall
5. Who's Been Fooling You
6. Hey Now Baby
7. Mardi Gras in New Orleans - (previously unreleased)
8. bonus track) She Walks Right In - (previously unreleased
9. Hey Little Girl
10. Willie Mae
11. Walk Your Blues Away
12. Professor Longhair Blues
13. Boogie Woogie
14. Longhair's Blues-Rhumba
15. Mardi Gras in New Orleans - (bonus track)
16. She Walks Right In

Personnel: Professor Longhair (vocals, piano); Roy Byrd (vocals, piano); Charles Burbeck (saxophone, tenor saxophone); Alvin "Red" Tyler, Robert Palmer (saxophone); Robert Parker (alto saxophone); Lee Allen (tenor saxophone); Earl Palmer , John Woodrow, Al Miller (drums).Liner Note Author: Mike Leadbitter.Recording information: New Orleans, LA.

 

[Dennie]

Lyle Lovett -- CD

Lyle Lovett

1986 Curb/MCA Records

The mid-1980s were a dire period for country music. Rampant commercialism and watered-down country-pop had taken over Nashville, and honest country singers with substantive songs were thin on the ground. Fortunately, a new generation of progressive country artists emerged, including Dwight Yoakam, Rodney Crowell, and Lyle Lovett, the latter being the quirkiest and most artful of the crop. With his suit, pompadour, and lantern-jawed mug, Lovett looked like nothing country had seen before. His roots were in the Texas singer/songwriter school of Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, et al, but he bore a pronounced streak of wry wit and razor-sharp irony.Though he would soon expand musically, Lovett stayed within the conventions of the country template on his '86 debut album, but judiciously tweaked the format to suit his intentions. To wit, "God Will" sounds like a classic country cheating ballad until the chorus delivers a powerful lyrical twist. "The Waltzing Fool" fits into the aforementioned Clark/Van Zandt folk-country style, but with a unique poetic sensibility informing its imagery. "An Acceptable Level of Ecstacy (The Wedding Song)" is full of both the jazziness and humor upon which Lovett would expand in subsequent recordings, pointing the way to the future of both his own career and forward-looking country music.

Track Listing
1. Cowboy Man
2. God Will
3. Farther Down the Line
4. This Old Porch
5. Why I Don't Know
6. If I Were the Man You Wanted
7. You Can't Resist It
8. The Waltzing Fool
9. An (The Wedding Song) Acceptable Level of Ecstasy
10. Closing Time

Personnel: Lyle Lovett (vocals, acoustic guitar); Mac McAnally (acoustic guitar); Ray Herndon, Billy Williams, Vince Gill, Jon Goin (electric guitar); Tom Mortensen (steel guitar); Glen Duncan (fiddle); Steve Marsh (saxophone); Matt Rollings (piano); Mark Prentice (organ); John Jarvis (synthesizer); Matthew McKenzie, Emory Gordy, Jr. (bass); Jeff Boree, Bob Warren (drums); James Gilmer (percussion); J. David Sloan, Rosanne Cash, Francine Reed (background vocals).

 

[Dennie]

Back On Top -- CD

Van Morrison

1999 Exile/PointBlank Records

After a few stylistic divergences wherein he tackled jazz standards and the Mose Allison songbook, Morrison returns to solid R&B/pop with BACK ON TOP. His first album for Virgin's blues imprint Pointblank finds him back on the track of albums like THE HEALING GAME, but is curiously (for an album on a blues label) devoid of blues tunes. The notable exception is the up-tempo blues shuffle "Come Down Geneva" that opens the album and finds Van musing about, among other things, the historical relevance of obscure rockabilly singer Vince Taylor.Much of the rest of BACK ON TOP finds Morrison in a more pastoral, reflective mode, reveling in the natural wonders of the world around him without venturing into the spacey mysticism of his '80s albums. As is the case on several of Van's '90s albums, there's a song detailing the pitfalls of being a cog in the music business wheel; "New Biography" finds the notoriously private singer casting aspersions on the sources contacted for a book about his life. It wouldn't be classic Van if there weren't a little crankiness mixed in with the splendor.

Track Listing
1. Goin' Down Geneva
2. Philosopher's Stone
3. In the Midnight
4. Back on Top
5. When the Leaves Come Falling Down
6. High Summer
7. Reminds Me of You
8. New Biography
9. Precious Time
10. Golden Autumn Day

Personnel: Van Morrison (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica); Mick Green (acoustic & electric guitars); Pee Wee Ellis (soprano, tenor & baritone saxophones, background vocals); Matt Holland (trumpet); Geraint Watkins (piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Fiachra Trench (piano); Ian Jennings (acoustic bass); Liam Bradley (drums, percussion, background vocals); Bobby Irwin (drums); Brian Kennedy (background vocals).Recorded at The Wool Hall, Bath, England and Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland.

 

[Botch]

New John Mayer........

It's a little more folk than his last, however is growing on me the more that I listen to it.

Thanks for your comments; I was looking at this one but his last was almost too country/Americana for me, if this is even more folk it probably won't be for me.
Stunning musician/vocalist, nonetheless. :handgestures-thumbup:

 

[PaulyT]

^--- huh, that may be a reason that I would like it more - it being more folk. I'm totally un-thrilled with other earlier Mayer stuff, just doesn't resonate with me. But a few of the tracks heeman played from the release before this were pretty interesting, I just haven't been able to bring myself to buy it - yet.

 

[heeman]

^--- huh, that may be a reason that I would like it more - it being more folk. I'm totally un-thrilled with other earlier Mayer stuff, just doesn't resonate with me. But a few of the tracks heeman played from the release before this were pretty interesting, I just haven't been able to bring myself to buy it - yet.

If you liked his last one "Born and Raised" you will like this one............

I actually liked his older style much better, however find that his music, even the new stuff, very enjoyable, kink of like bourbon, or a few hefeweizen...................you know what I mean?

 

[Dennie]

Today's work truck music...

Turbulent Indigo -- CD

Joni Mitchell

1994 Reprise Records

Amazon.com

The 1996 Grammy winner for best pop album, Joni Mitchell's Turbulent Indigo is the singer's most distinctive and rewarding work since Wild Things Run Fast in 1982. Coproduced by Mitchell and her longtime collaborator and former husband Larry Klein, Turbulent Indigo is perhaps the only one of her '80s and '90s discs on which she isn't unduly hampered by studio technology. Whereas her rotten taste in synthesizers lent an automatically dated sound to 1988's Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm and 1998's Taming the Tiger, here the gadgetry is unobtrusive and enhances the power of Mitchell's voice and guitar playing. It also helps that this batch of songs is particularly evocative and well written, ranging from the graceful "How Do You Stop," on which she wonders how to stop "love from slipping away," to the wonderful vignette "Yvette in English," which describes a chance encounter between Picasso and a reluctant model. Paintings and painters are obviously a major theme on the disc--the cover is Mitchell's portrait of herself in the guise of Van Gogh--but more striking is her pessimistic view of humanity. "The Magdalene Laundries" describes the fate of girls left pregnant and abandoned in convent laundry rooms, "Not to Blame" details "the miseries made of love" for all the world's battered wives, and the title of "Sex Kills" is entirely self-explanatory. "The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)," the album's finale, is nothing less than the cries of the much-put-upon Job against a heartless God who makes "everything I dread and everything I fear come true." The plaintive beauty of the music helps sweeten the potential sourness of Mitchell's lyrics. Indeed, the contrast gives great force to Turbulent Indigo and confirms that Mitchell's intellectual prowess and willfully contrary outlook are two qualities sorely missing in the work of many of the contemporary songwriters who cite her as their godhead. --Jason Anderson

All tracks composed by Joni Mitchell; except where indicated

"Sunny Sunday" – 2:21
"Sex Kills" – 3:56
"How Do You Stop" – 4:09 (Charlie Midnight, Dan Hartman)
"Turbulent Indigo" – 3:34
"Last Chance Lost" – 3:14
"The Magdalene Laundries" – 4:02
"Not to Blame" – 4:18
"Borderline" – 4:48
"Yvette in English" – 5:16 (Mitchell, David Crosby)
"The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)" – 7:08

 

[Dennie]

Ultimate Collection -- CD

Quincy Jones

2002 Hip-O/A&M Records

Beautiful Music January 9, 2004
By M. Sojka
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a wonderful collection of great R&B music performed by the best singers and musicians in the business. Every song is produced to the exacting standards Quincy has become famous for in his long career.

Some of the outstanding songs include the duet with Ray Charles and Chaka performing I'll Be Good To You (my favorite), The Secret Garden with El DeBarge, Al B. Sure! and Barry White (bought the CD after hearing this on the radio), Mellow Madness sung by Paulette Williams, and You Put A Move On My Heart featuring Tania.

This CD will put a move on your heart and unless you are dead, your heart will respond to these songs done by the best in the business.

Buy this CD and your heart will sing and most probably your mouth will too when no one is looking or listening.

Track Listing
1. If I Ever Lose This Heaven - (featuring Minnie Riperton/Leon Ware/Al Jarreau)
2. Everything Must Change - (featuring Benard Ighner)
3. Body Heat - (featuring Leon Ware/Bruce Fisher)
4. Is It Love That We're Missing? - (featuring The Brothers Johnson)
5. Mellow Madness - (featuring Paulette McWilliams)
6. Stuff Like That - (featuring Nick Ashford/Valerie Simpson/Chaka Khan)
7. Ai No Corrida - (featuring Dune/Charles May)
8. Razzamatazz - (featuring Patti Austin)
9. Just Once - (featuring James Ingram)
10. Betcha' Wouldn't Hurt Me - (featuring Patti Austin)
11. One Hundred Ways - (featuring James Ingram)
12. Come to Me - (featuring Patti Austin/James Ingram) Baby
13. I'll Be Good to You - (featuring Ray Charles/Chaka Khan)
14. The (Sweet Seduction Suite) - (featuring El DeBarge/James Ingram/Al B. Sure!/Barry White) Secret Garden
15. Better Me) - (featuring Tevin Campbell) Tomorrow (A Better You
16. You Put a Move on My Heart - (featuring Tamia)
17. I'm Yours - (featuring Siedah Garrett/El DeBarge)
18. Everything - (featuring Tevin Campbell)

 

[Dennie]

Here We Go Again -- CD

Bobby Bland

1982/1990 MCA Records

Though Bobby "Blue" (which he dispenses with for this release) Bland is often celebrated for his '50s recordings, the fact is that he worked continuously for the rest of the century. He's in fine voice on 1982's HERE WE GO AGAIN, growling seductively on the slow ballads and emoting with confidence and vigor throughout.The album is full of high points, nicely orchestrated and luxuriously arranged and produced. "Never Let Me Go" matches Bland and his rhythm section with silky strings and a contrasting flute. And "Don't Go to Strangers" is a marvel of warmth and passion, complete with a soulful trombone solo. Strong material and sympathetic production make this overlooked release a quiet winner. It's as timeless as the blues can be, relevant and riveting in any decade.

Track Listing
1. Here We Go Again
2. Recess in Heaven
3. Never Let Me Go
4. Country Love
5. Where It's At Exactly
6. You're About to Win
7. Is This the Blues?
8. Don't Go to Strangers
9. We've Had a Good Time

 

[Botch]

My first instrumental album was purchased in 1979, Spiro Gyra's Morning Dance. The second, more fusion than smoove, was the debut album by the Jeff Lorber Fusion. I really dug them, Jeff eventually drifted into R&B, good R&B, but I eventually stopped following him.

The Man in the Brown Shorts™ just delivered this:

...and I'm digging him again! The recording isn't quite as pristine as I'd like, but the playing, so far, is ferocious! Looks like the core of his reformed band is Eric Marienthal (horns, Chick Corea Elektric Band) and Jimmie Haslip (bass, Yellowjackets). The big names playing on the disk as guests are killer!
If you're a fusion fan, this is Highly Recommended. I now need to hit Wikipedia and get caught up on Mr. Lorber's recent history. Oh, cool, violin solo just came on, Jean Luc Ponty!

 

[Dennie]

Today's work truck music...

Never Die Young -- CD

James Taylor

1988 Columbia Records

Another Number One Album For Old "JT"!, August 25, 2000
By Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Never Die Young (Audio CD)

James Taylor has given us so many wonderful albums over the last couple of decades (Gee, is it thirty years already?) that it is truly surprising to see him come up with yet another blockbuster of a song as "Never Die Young" along with a wonderful song cycle as he's produced here. From the opening bars of "Never Die Young", a wry but dreamy recollection of a couple destined to rise above the level of the ordinary humdrum of small town mentality to the thoughtful and well-arranged "T-Bone" to the reflective "Baby Boom Baby" to the rollicking "Sweet Potato Pie", there isn't a pooch in the passel. As always, this is an eclectic mixture of folk ballads like "Never Die Young" and the pensive and soulful "First Of May", which is my personal favorite here. What we have here, folks, is a guarantee of an entertaining, superbly rendered, and always memorable music by one of the old masters of popular folk-rock. After all, "JT" has now successfully negotiated the fifty-year mark, and like the rest of us boomers, shows no sign of slowing down or repeating himself. Enjoy!

All songs were written by James Taylor, except where noted.

"Never Die Young" – 4:24
"T-Bone" (Bill Payne, Taylor) – 3:47
"Baby Boom Baby" (Taylor, Zachary Wiesner) – 4:59
"Runaway Boy" – 4:18
"Valentine's Day" – 2:35
"Sun on the Moon" – 4:09
"Sweet Potato Pie" – 3:30
"Home by Another Way" (Timothy Mayer, Taylor) – 3:50
"Letter in the Mail" – 4:41
"First of May" – 4:01

 

[Botch]

Allman Brothers, Eat a Peach

How come no one told me this classic was available on 5.1 SACD??

 

[Zing]

How come no one told me this classic was available on 5.1 SACD??

I can't speak for anyone else but I apparently missed the post where you asked. :teasing-neener:

 

[Dennie]

Rest In Peace, Marian.... ray:

Live at Storyville/ at The Hickory House -- CD

Marian McPartland

1993/1998 Jazz Heritage - Nippon/Columbia (Import Japan)

 

[Dennie]

The Lady's In Love WIth You -- CD

Maxine Sullivan Sings the music of Burton Lane

1998 Harbinger/Koch Records

On this project, Maxine Sullivan (already a top jazz vocalist for 48 years) sings tasteful versions of 16 songs written by the underrated but very talented composer Burton Lane. Best-known among the tunes (which feature Sullivan accompanied by pianist Keith Ingham and such fine players as trumpeter Glenn Zottola, Phil Bodner on clarient and alto, and guitarist Marty Grosz) are "The Lady's in Love With You," "Everything I Have Is Yours," "On a Clear Day" and "I Hear Music," but even the obscurities are superior. by Scott Yanow

THE LADY'S IN LOVE WITH YOU (2:57)
HOW'DJA LIKE TO LOVE ME? (2:55)
EVFERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS (3:12)
SAYS MY HEART (2:45)
'TAIN'T NO USE (3:43)
ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (2:02)
POOR YOU (3:30)
HOW ARE THINGS IN GLOCCA MORRA? (4:45)
COME BACK TO ME (3:24)
DANCING ON A DIME (2:41)
TOO LATE NOW (3:51)
HAVE FEET WILL DANCE (1:58)
STOP! YOU'RE BREAKIN' MY HEART (2:58)
HOW ABOUT YOU? (2:44)
WHERE HAVE I SEEN YOUR FACE BEFORE? (3:18)
I HEAR MUSIC (2:35)