Category: Bruce Cockburn

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – Cosmo and Seventeen Mix

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PRESENTING THE  1st Annual E2TG Awards – “The Earies”  (The Earies – it sounds kind of strange, but not really). 

Well, it is December, and as I promised, we will begin our month long celebration of all things E2TG.  Welcome to the first annual E2TG awards.  Our red carpet welcome had to be cancelled due to rain in the Nashville area, plus we don’t have a red carpet, and someone forgot to book the Ryman.  So, this will be an on-line awards show this year… 

I thought long and hard about how to begin this award month, but finally it seemed fitting and proper to begin the 2015 awards with the artist who closed out 2014 by being named the Artist of the Year.

Presenting the first award for 2015 is ….. me…   Thanks, Joe.  The first award to be presented is the Flattery Will Get You Everywhere Award.  It recognizes the artist or artists who have realized that the blog host is basically a big ball of insecurities and self-doubt and that a little bit of flattery (even somewhat dubious flattery) goes a long way.

This artist not only routinely dedicates one of his signature songs to me, but he also included my likeness on the album cover of his most recent release.  I think “Bob” is a pretty handsome guy, even if I would not say that he is short or tall.     The 1st ever “Earie” goes to Darrin Bradbury.  Darrin is currently on tour out West, so I will accept the award on his behalf.  Also, we don’t have actual
statues.  Maybe next year.  



Stay tuned all month for more awards….

On to the shuffle:

“Rules of Change” by Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Neil Young has been making music for over 50 years.  About the only thing you can say for certain is that he has never settled into a comfortable place and sound, but has instead embraced and followed stylist changes and political movements while maintaining a pretty high level of integrity and consistently marching to his own beat.  His latest album The Monsanto Years – addresses contemporary food industry issues and features Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah plus Lukas’ bandmates Promise of the Real.

“My Name is the Same” by Los Microwaves

This is another track from the 13 O’clock compilation of early and rare New Wave songs put out by Atlanta Label PPNW Records.  Los Microwaves are a San Francisco band, and I believe this song was recorded sometime around 1980.  I have really been digging hearing this music – most of which I missed out on the first time around.

“To Love Is to Fly” by Jonathan Tyler (feat. Nikki Lane)

I grabbed this song – from Jonathan Tyler’s latest album, Holy Smokes – after seeing Jonathan perform at “The Beast” at the beginning of Americana week. Nikki Lane joined him that night, and I am going to say that they sang this song together (until and unless someone corrects me). It was awesome, and it was good to hear it again this morning.  Not a typo and not the Townes Van Zandt song.

“Read About Love” by Richard Thompson

The opening song and one of my favorites from Rumor and Sigh.  I can relate all too well, and that is all I am going to say.

“Ice Forms on the Tips of Her Wings” by Smokey the Firebear

Our first (but not our last) appearance by Smokey the Firebear. Smokey the Firebear is Cade Williams another of those talented kids from Connecticut.  I really don’t know what they put in the water in that state???  I just grabbed his entire and remarkably extensive discography for really cheap on Bandcamp. What I heard was actually the very brief reprise of the opening track of Smokey the Firebear’s Ohm Atlanta album.  The video playlist has the entire opening song.

“Outta My Head” by Blake Babies

The fine folks at Noisetrade not only offer a great way to discover new artists, but they also occasionally put out some cool older releases.  Recently, I downloaded a live album by the 80s-90s band Blake Babies called Live 5-9-89.  Blake Babies was the band that gave Juliana Hatfield her start.  This is the opening track for the live album. The song was on the band’s 1989 second album Earwig.

“AquaLung” by KATO

This song has been hanging around the playlist for awhile. This is another brief track – the last on KATO’s EP, A Summer in Space Beach.

“High Winds White Sky” by Bruce Cockburn

We go way back to Bruce Cockburn’s 1971 second album. This is the title track.  An early listen to one of the most talented living songwriters.

“North Side Gal” by JD McPherson

Oklahoma singer-songwriter JD McPherson keeps the shuffle moving with a rave up, and the opening track of his 2012 Signs and Signifiers album.

“GTO” by Kevin Gordon

We revisit one of my favorite albums of the year – Long Gone Time (as I boldly proclaimed in my review) may well be Kevin Gordon’s best album yet.  Revisiting and expounding on the locales and themes of his previous album Gloryland. GTO is a solid, toe-tapping rocker that slides in references to the complicated racial climate of the Deep South.

“Stoned” by Macy Gray

This recording came from the World Café Session mega-download I got a while back. The always amazing Macy Gray with a song that appeared her 2014 eight studio album The Way.

“Celestial Dance” by Cletus Kennelly and Lori Kelley

And we close out the shuffle with another song from popular DC area duo Cletus and Lori’s album, Lotus. Lori Kelley now resides in East Nashville and is making a name for herself on the local songwriting scene.   I got to see the duo perform together earlier this year at Bobby’s Idle Hour.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Cold Start Mix

Well here we are.  It’s a new year. 2014 is shaping up to be a good one with new music promised from The Foresters, Humming House, The Lucky Jukebox Brigade, and Taco Land just to name a few off the top of my head.

I haven’t finished adding new music to our playlist, but we have some sweet music – new and old already queued up so let’s jump to it.

“Drunken Hearts” by Wallpaper

“Tusk” (Fleetwood Mac Cover) by Kopecky Family Band

“Black Star” (Radiohead Cover) by Gillian Welch

“Lie Awake” by Angel Snow

“No Exchange” by Minutemen

“The Best I Can Do (Is Love You)” by Mr. Kind

“Desperate” by Solardrive (feat. David Gould)

“Your Majesty” by Slack Armada

“Wrecking Ball” by Swear and Shake

“Street Hassle: Waltzing Matilda” by Lou Reed

“F(e)ar O(f)f Place” (Home Demo) by Black Doctor Jr.

“On a Night Like This” by Bob Dylan

“Southern Seamstress” by Humming House

“Urethane” by Grounded

“Lady Stardust” by David Bowie

“The Hungry Wolf” by X

“Happy Good Morning Blues” by Bruce Cockburn

“Themselves” by Minutemen

NOTES:

Wallpaper are from Oakland.  I think we grabbed this from Amazon. Dig it.

A couple of really cool covers. Kopecky Family Band covering the Fleetwood Mac classic, and the incredible Gillian Welch covering Radiohead.

Angel Snow wrote “Lie Awake” with Viktor Krauss and it was included on Victor’s sister’s 2011 album Paper Airplane. Viktor’s sister is Allison Krauss.  Here’s Angel doing the song herself from her self-titled album. 

The great thing about featuring Double Nickels on the Dime by The Minutemen is that it has so many songs, the featured posts carry on for a while.  The Minutemen are always a great way to start the day.

Another from Mr. Kind‘s self-titled release.

Solardrive is the new band/project from Balthazar Getty and this track features David Gould who is bassist in the band Mother Tongue.

We also have some cool music from Slack Armada out of Chicago, Swear and Shake out of Brookyln, Humming House from Nashville, and Grounded from Florida.

The Home Demo we feature from Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen artist Black Doctor, Jr. is pretty damn awesome.

Starting 2014 with a classic Lou Reed epic is a statement of the endless and timeless quality of his music.  This song brings together two of the artists who had a huge influence on my early musical taste and development (via a spoken word bit by Bruce Springsteen).

Great classic music from Bob Dylan, David Bowie, X, and Bruce Cockburn round out this excellent beginning to what is promising to be a great year.

SHOP

 

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Thursday Morning Music Shuffle -Unlicensed Gondolier Mix


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This was my view when I reached the top of the hill this morning…


 Now the playlist:

By 1991, Sam Phillips had already released five albums.  The first four being on a Contemporary Christian Music label.  By this point, she was married to Producer extraordinaire T-Bone Burnett (they would later divorce), and Burnett had produced two of her albums.  They worked together again on the album Cruel Inventions. From that album, we have the lead track called Lying.

  A Fan-Made video of Lying…

k.d. lang’s first release in the States was called Angel with a Lariat which was released in 1987.  I think I totally wore out my cassette tape copy of this one.  Diet of Strange Places is a great jumping in point for this album (which still sounds great, some 25 years down the road).

I can’t believe no video found for Diet… here’s the title track to the album…

Bruce Cockburn’s album Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws was released in 1979 and produced one of this most popular songs (in fact his only song to hit the Top 40 in the US – not that we care about that).  Wondering Where the Lions Are is a great song which has stood the test of time and remains one of my favorites.


 

1979 was a good year for music.  Coincidentally, we have the second song in a row from an album released in 1979.  That year, British/American rock icons, The Pretenders released their self-titled debut album.  We have an instrumental track from that record. Space Invader contains actually sounds from the classic arcade game Space Invaders.

 
Husker Du’s entire recorded output was released within an approximately four year period, but they were, are and forever shall be one of the most influential bands ever (IMNSHO). Turn on the News from their second album, Zen Arcade, stands as one of the band’s best.

 
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Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle – Eerily Familiar Mix



Are you scared yet?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!  A little frost on the pumpkin here in Nashville.

What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?

We aren’t doing a theme today, but the shuffle is scary good.


Montreal-based Michael Silver records under the name CFCF.  He teams up here with fellow Montreal Electronic band Austra with a song from the brand new Paper Bag Records album cover compilation Paper Bag Records vs. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.  They do Soul Love.  Check it…

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We continue to delve into the musical treasure trove that is Marvin Country! by Marvin Etzioni.  We pick up today with Gram Revisited which features some sampled talking by the song’s subject – the late Gram Parsons. 

 
Here’s different, but still excellent song off Marvin Country!

And here is Gram Parson with The Flying Burrito Brothers

Blind Willie Johnson, the early 20th Century Texas Blues/Gospel musician wrote and recorded Soul of a Man. It was released in 1930.  


 
One of my favorite covers of the song

Memphis alternative rockers Sore Eyes reported back in July that they were at work on a new album.  Until then, we have a Bonus Track we culled from ReverbNation.  Check out Let It Go:

Here is a different Sore Eyes song via Youtube.

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Thursday Morning Music Shuffle – Arithmetic Mix

Due to circumstance beyond my control, I didn’t have to walk up the hill to work today, so I didn’t get to listen to my Morning Shuffle.  I decided to do a hypothetical shuffle of some of my favorite songs.

First up.  Canadian singer, songwriter has been active musically since 1967.  His first studio album was released 42 years ago. Our song today is If I Had a Rocket Launcher from 1984’s Stealin’ Fire.  By the way, during a 2009 trip to Afghanistan to visit Canadian troops including his brother, Cockburn performed this song and was temporarily presented with a real rocket launcher. No sonofabitch died.

 

Next, we have a song which dates from the time of Mr. Cockburn’s first album.  The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by the late poet, artist, author Gil Scott-Heron reflects the turmoil of the times and despite some dated references is still relevant today.

Next, we take a one-song break from political posts to feature a song from 1969.  The most famous version was recorded during Johnny Cash’s February  1969 performance San Quentin prison.  A Boy Named Sue was Cash’s biggest hit on the Pop Charts spending three weeks at #2.



And finally, we have the hip-hop classic from 1982 – The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (Featuring Melle Mel and Duke Bootee).  “Don’t push me ’cause I’m close to the edge…” try not to get that legendary line stuck in your head.  I distinctly remember hearing this song on the radio while on a family trip during the summer of 1982, and it was a transitory experience.  There is a chance it was not the summer of 82 (which would have been very shortly after the song was released), but I know I heard it during a summer family trip.

Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Stealing Fire Mix

Easter Monday – Are you hopped up on sugar or is your blood sugar crashing today?

Reminder to vote – the poll is on the sidebar – Band of the Month for March.  At last review, the kids from Illinois Northbrook Garage have a slight lead, but as we’ve learned in previous months, anything can happen.  Remember, if you don’t vote, you can’t complain about the results (well technically you can complain but no one has to listen to you complain.

See above for the Amazon pages for the albums containing today’s songs.

SONG #1 – Damn These Vampires is a track from The Mountain Goats 2011 Album, All Eternal Deck.  The Mountain Goats have a new one set to be released this year.

SONG #2 – Peggy’s Kitchen Wall is from Bruck Cockburn’s 1984 masterpiece Stealing Fire which also includes If I Had a Rocket Launcher and Lovers in a Dangerous Time.

SONG #3 – Nashville Cat’s is a cover of a Lovin’ Spoonful song by Flatt and Scruggs which was released as a single in 1967.

BONUS SONG:  Visite Du Vigile by Miles Davis comes from the Soundtrack to the 1958 Louis Malle film, the title of which can be translated as Elevator to the Gallows.   Miles Davis recorded the album in Paris in 1957 – mostly improvised after a screening of the film.

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Afflilated Links:

Mountain Goats Mountain Goats
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Creation Dream: The Songs of Bruce Cockburn Creation Dream: The Songs of Bruce Cockburn
With this release, jazz guitarist Occhipinti tackled the songs of Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn. Cockburn himself has had jazz composition training and many of his songs have jazz textures and complex arrangements. This lays a firm groundwork

Flatt and Scruggs: The Best of the Flatt and Scruggs Show, Vol. 9 Flatt and Scruggs: The Best of the Flatt and Scruggs Show, Vol. 9
Relive the glory days of one of bluegrass music’s most influential duos in this 9th volume of great live performances from their 1950s-1960s TV show! Lester Flatt brings the traditional sounds and Earl Scruggs mixes in some contemporary banjo pickin’ using his three-finger method to this long-lost collection of great television moments with the Foggy Mountain Boys. 1961-1962/b&w/60 min/NR/fullscreen.

3 Films By Louis Malle [4 Discs] [Criterion Collection] 3 Films By Louis Malle [4 Discs] [Criterion Collection]
Few directors have portrayed the agonies and epiphanies of growing up as poetically and scandalously as Louis Malle. Laced with autobiographical details, Murmur of the Heart; Lacombe, Lucien; and Au revoir les enfants tell stories of youth, set against th

Monday Music Shuffle – Not Morning, Not at All Mix

Quick and easy – taking  a day off so no morning walk and therefore no morning shuffle, but I offer up a Wintry  Mix of Music for your comfort and joy….




Bruce Cockburn is legend wait for it…. ary.   Cry of a Tiny Babe came from his Nothing But a Burning Light Album.  


(click on picture to download a 1995 release from the Columbia Records Radio Hour featuring Bruce along with Lou Reed, Rosanne Cash and Rob Wasserman)




The Who perform Christmas from the rock opera, Tommy. “And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is…”




(Click on album cover to buy the Deluxe Edition of Tommy by the Who)

And finally, more from The Walla Recovery’s A Star, A Star Vol. 3 – it’s the Christmas staple Angels We Have Heard on High.



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Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Bowl of Cherries Mix

So, I tuned into the AMA’s last night, and I have to say, I was confused… until I realized that  it was not the Americana Music Awards. But, I pressed on because I heard that KMFDM was doing to close the show, and that seemed such a weird left field kind of thing that I had to watch.  Needless to say, I need to pay more attention to what I hear….
Rainy Monday here in Nashville. I overslept, came home after dropping my daughter off and decided to nap because I had a dentist appointment at 8:00.  Set my phone alarm for 7:26p.m. and my wife woke me up at 7:55. Got to my 8:00 appointment at 8:15.

Got to the work parking lot around 9:40 – had to park in the far lot – which I expected and by this time, I was in serious need of good music.  I shuffled a quick and dirty and random playlist I had created last week and once again randomness paid off…

First off was Something I Don’t Know by Band of the Week alumnus Simon Fagan.

(Click on album cover to purchase and download the song)
Next up, the shuffle spit out the lovely A Beautiful Girl by the ubiquitious Band of the Week alumni Ubiquity Machine. Check out and download the song below.


https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F20447329 01 A Beautiful Girl by Ubiquity Machine

Song #3 comes from the our neighbors to the North. Bruce Cockburn has been making music for a long time, and Wondering Where the Lions Are is one of this best.
(Click on album cover to purchase and download the song)

The final song comes from Nashville, TN based super-couple Buddy and Julie Miller. God’s Wing’ed Horse is a heavenly bit of music.
(click on album cover to purchase and download the song)

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Bruce Cockburn has issued numerous live recordings, and thus far all of them have been band offerings during the various periods of his 40-plus-year career. While the acoustic element has always been a primary part of his stage persona, fans — and the me

Buddy & Julie Miller Buddy & Julie Miller
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