Here's a little something by a friend of ours, Alex Martin. He's quite the fan of old blues and while on the phone yesterday we were discussing Bo Diddley. Anyway, he sent me a little selection of some of his favourites, so here they are. _____ I’ve always liked listening to original versions of songs made more famous by covers. All these songs have been made more famous by the likes of Rolling Stones, Hendrix and, err, Canned Heat. Oh and then there’s a gem from Ray Charles (a [...]
"I´m a plumb fool ´bout Ida Red..." One more eclectic, hand picked six pack for your to chew on. Bob Wills swings Western with his Playboys, New York´s Marbles take the powerpop route, while former Japan frontman David Sylvian weaves a red dreamscape. Henry Thomas whistles the blues, my fave Aussies the Triffids deal in horses, and Canadian punks the Diodes cover the Cyrkle. Like what you hear? Buy the featured albums for further exploration. Can´t be beat. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Ida Red MP3 Marbles - [...]
Blind Lemon Jefferson : Matchbox Blues [ purchase ] Robert Johnson : Stop Breaking Down Blues [ purchase ] Henry Thomas : Bull Doze Blues [ purchase ] Tom Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster : Rising Sun Blues [ purchase ] Robert Johnson : Crossroads Blues [...]
Tasked with concluding the SUMMER VS. series, Lewi has outdone himself and come back with another beast entirely that I thought deserved a title all it's own. It does have aspects of summer, as he discusses below, but don't expect no stereotypical shit y'all. PODCAST PLAYLIST Subscribe via iTunes The Notorious B.I.G. - Things Done Changed Henry Thomas - Red River Blues (DJ Yoda Remix) Fucked Up - Baiting the Public Blakroc - Stay Off the Fuckin' Flowers (Feat. Raekwon) Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo [...]
Tasked with concluding the SUMMER VS. series, Lewi has outdone himself and come back with another beast entirely that I thought deserved a title all it's own. It does have aspects of summer, as he discusses below, but don't expect no stereotypical shit y'all. PODCAST PLAYLIST Subscribe via iTunes The Notorious B.I.G. - Things Done Changed Henry Thomas - Red River Blues (DJ Yoda Remix) Fucked Up - Baiting the Public Blakroc - Stay Off the Fuckin' Flowers (Feat. Raekwon) Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo [...]
Henry Thomas - Bull Doze Blues ( buy ) (1928) Henry Thomas - Fishin' Blues ( buy ) (1928) Henry Thomas, aka "Ragtime Texas" was one of the oldest Black folk musicians to ever record. Born in Big Sandy, Tx, in 1874, he recorded in 1928-89 when he was in his fifties. The 23 songs he left us (available on the Yazoo compilation Texas Worried Blues ) are a great document on the music that was there before the blues. Henry [...]
This should be familiar to anyone with a radio - it got covered. And while the resultant track might not be my favorite from Canned Heat, the Henry Thomas version has a weird ghostly feel to it unmatched by other players.
Flutes or pipes are not very common in blues recordings, because in the 1920s they were already part of the past, and had been replaced by the harmonica. In the blues, there are of two sorts : The quills Everybody with an interest in music should read Land Where The Blues Began by Alan Lomax. When Alan Lomax came first to the hill country near Senatobian, in northern Misssissippi, in 1942, he met Sid Hemphill, a multi-instrumentist, born around 1876. Hemphill showed him the quills, "a set of hollow canes [...]
Does a body good. Welcome to the third and final installment of our humble series on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music . For those of you who've missed the previous installments, please scroll down to our two previous posts. Volume 3 of the Anthology , Songs, features blues and non-narrative songs, many mysterious in origin. The strangest and most otherworldly tunes are found on the Songs discs. More importantly, Songs is where Harry Smith's skill as an editor and compiler is to be admired. Essentially, Smith was putting together a [...]
Date: August 13, 2008 Venue: The Tranzac I've heralded Henry Svec 's Boy from ET project quite a bit over the last few months ( here and here ). More than just the usually cliched blog hyperbole, this has been one project that I really felt I could get behind. Not only has Svec crafted a beautifully ridiculous concept by taking on the character of Henry Thomas (the actual boy who played "Elliott" in ET ), but he's also merged excellent [...]
It's not often that I do a post that is entirely dedicated to soliciting a single show, but this is a special occasion. Henry Svec has just announced that he'll be doing a final show as The Boy from ET , about whom you can read here , at The Tranzac on Wednesday, August 13 . You can bet that I'll be there, as not only are the songs on The Boy from ET's Lives the Part great, but the storytelling concept is one that definitely lends itself to [...]
FYI - Sadie Hawkins Day is NOT February 29 , so all the bachelors out there should be safe for a while longer. TGIF - Today's selections bring some eighties synthpop , the amazing bluesman Henry Thomas and his quills ( this site explains why it sounds so pleasing), late Dance Hall queen Natasja Saad , James Brown, live at the Olympia, Paris, 1971, with two drummers, a teenage Bootsy Collins and his best horn section ever, finalizing with the Clinton that *did* inhale - I don't think he ever [...]
Photo courtesty of CCPhotos CPD (Creative Commons, Attribution 2.5) Wednesday. The middle of the workweek. Last weekend seems a distant memory and the coming weekend a far off goal. There are over twenty six miles of railroad tracks at the industrial wasteland where I spend my workdays. I often watch as long lines of freight cars are assembled into trains bound for places far away. Trains can stir a nostalgic yearning for the freedom of the open country. The great hobo era of the Depression and Dust Bowl holds a certain [...]
Safety, Fun & Learning
For The Sake Of The Song
Star Maker Machine
Real Horrorshow Tunes, Droogies!
River's Invitation
Chewing Pine
So Well Remembered
Wolves, Hawks and Kites
snuhthing/anything
Old Blue Bus
L.A.M.P. “Springtime” [mp3]
The Voice of Italy la semifinale del 23 maggio in diretta su Rai Due: Timothy Cavicchini, How You Remind Me (Team Pelù)
Disclosure - 'When A Fire Starts To Burn' [Listen]
