Throwback Thursday Morning Shuffle – Boiling Butter Mix

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Fun-filled night at Coverbest at The Beast (The Basement East)… Terry Rickards always does a great job putting those events on… I really dug Matt Haeck doing Tom Waits,  Darrin Bradbury doing Modest Mouse, Sarah Potenza doing Gillian Welch, and Tesla Rossa doing Beck… plus lots of inspiring conversations about music and East Nashville and creativity….

Tonight, Fats Kaplin returns to his Thursday Night residency at The 5 Spot – the penultimate week of this month-long (sans St. Patrick’s Day) event…  I missed two weeks ago, and I do not want to miss this one…  It is guaranteed to be some of the best music around and highly entertaining, too.

Later tonight, Chris Scruggs and The Stone Fox Five are playing what I think is their second show since the club that gave them their name closed unexpectedly.  They will be at The Country with The Farmer and Adele opening.  I have heard a lot about The Farmer and Adele, but I have not seen them yet.

I am off work tomorrow.  I may try to do a Featured Friday Shuffle from home, but no promises… stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Thursday – means we throw it back like an undersized fish….

“Dead and Gone” by Blake Babies

Another from that live album recently released on Noisetrade. Blake Babies formed in Boston in 1986 and gave Juliana Hatfield her start. This recording is from a show for Emerson College on 5/9/1989.  The song itself was released on the band’s 1989 album Earwig.

“Summer’s Cauldron” by XTC

In the interesting timing category… This song is the opening song from XTC’s 1986 album, Skylarking which was produced by Todd Rundgren.  Apparently, Rundgren recently reignited a long standing “feud” with Andy Partridge about the album to which Partridge responded in long series of tweets…. anyway, I always liked the album… from this outsider perspective, it is an interesting bit of historical information. And anyway, I dig this song.

“Deacon Jones” by Louis Jordan

Disclosure time, my practice is to remove songs from my phone once I have featured them so I don’t have too many repeats – not to say a song may not reappear, but I try to avoid songs coming up again too soon after I featured them.  Sometime – as in this case, I fail to delete the song.  So – here is “Deacon Jones” which was featured two weeks ago (on another #TBT).  What the hell, it’s a great and fun song.   

“Gigantic” by Pixies

From Surfer Rosa (1988) – the band’s first solo album. And yeah – there is a bit of connection between this and a song later in the shuffle that I will not elaborate on…

“Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen

The year was 1975, the album was Born to Run, the song was Born to Run… a true American rock and roll anthem…

“Calinda” by Jim Smoak and the Louisiana Honeydrippers

Bluegrass music is not often associated with Louisiana, but Jim Smoak who was born in South Carolina and played with Bill Monroe early in his career – was living in the Bayou State when he put together the Louisiana Honeydrippers and recorded this music back in 1960.

“The Big Johnson” by Neighborhood Texture Jam

From Funeral Mountain…. Neighborhood Texture Jam were loud and wild and often highly inappropriate…  they also recorded some great songs (even songs like this one that you don’t always want to share in sensitive company)…  This song connects with a song from earlier in the shuffle for reasons  I will not elaborate on…

“Where Did All the Girls Come From” by Treat Her Right

From the fantastic self-titled debut from 1986 by Treat Her Right…  speaking of connections – Treat Her Right like Blake Babies were from Boston.  The album from which this song came was released in 1986 same as Skylarking (mentioned earlier). And on a personal note, this song asks the musical question that I often found myself asking in my reckless youth… #chickmagnet   😉 #ironichashtag #whyamIhashtagginginmyblogpost  #lame 

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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Wednesday Morning Music Shuffle – One and One is Two Mix

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It’s just Wednesday, isn’t it?  Here is the run down of artists I have seen live since Sunday:

Sunday Night (Mad Donna’s Loft):   Allen Thompson, Darrin Bradbury, and the legendary Don Schlitz.

Monday Night (Basement East): Darrin Bradbury, Erin Rae, and Kelsey Waldon and her band

Tuesday Night (Bluebird Cafe): a round with David Olney, Will Kimbrough, Brock Zeman, and Samantha Crain.

Being Nashville, the list of artists who play around town that I did not see is equally impressive.  And the week goes on….

“Juley Calhoun” by David Schnaufer

Some wonderful Instrumental Appalachian music to start the morning off from the late great Dulcimer master.  (In the video playlist, a clip of Schnaufer backing the great Emmylou Harris).

“Well I Wonder” by The Smiths

“Nowhere Fast” by The Smiths

How about a randomly generated two-fer from Meat is Murder? Why not?

“Cold Hands” by Carl Anderson

Seriously, I don’t really do top ten lists of anything, but if I was one to do those, this would be an excellent early mid year candidate for my list of best albums of 2015.  Just saying.

“Train” by Jeremiah Tall

If I had a top ten list of music, I “discovered” in 2015, Jeremiah Tall would be on that list.  Thanks to Noisetrade for “introducing” me to his music.  Were those “quotation marks” really necessary?  I’m not “sure”…

“Kill the Messenger” by John Wesley Harding

The opening track to the 1992 album, Why We Fight…  hearing the opening notes of this song feels me with the same level of excitement as it did 23 or so years ago.  A great record, a great song.

“Cast in Faith” by Storm Chronicles

Storm Chronicles are from Seattle.  This song is from their 2013 debut album, Looking Backward.  I am grateful that I can still discover new music directly from artists reaching out.  I get music from a variety of sources, and the volume of submissions has increased which makes it difficult to hear everything that is sent my way (a wonderful problem to have), but I hope I never stop discovering music this way.

“Released” by Ricky Mirage

And sometimes, I discover music just by someone I know and respect posting something on social media…  I know next to nothing about Ricky Mirage except that it is non de plume of Nick Harris about which I know equally little except that a friend I respect said the music was rad, and I checked it out, and it was rad. 

 “I think I’ll sing a new song
one with several long angelic
choruses with voices
in happy harmony”


I couldn’t find any video… so here is a widget to hear this song (from the album pop goes the sun)’

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=593283634/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1530157716/transparent=true/

 

“Looking for Heroin” by Neighborhood Texture Jam

And we close out the daily shuffle with one from the Funeral Mountain album by Memphis cult band, Neighborhood Texture Jam, and a song about searching for a female hero… oh wait… never mind…

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – Among the Lost and Found Mix

As I alluded to yesterday, I am heading out, and so I leave you with a shuffle and a related Video Playlist (with the songs or other songs by the same artist if the exact song could not be found on You Tube)….  Enjoy…. see you next week!

“Heart of Darkness” by Syd Straw

“Sliver” by Dead in 5

“Family Flesh Garden” by The Ghoul Goes West

“Shop it Around” by Jason and the Scorchers

“Mall Boutique” by Neighborhood Texture Jam

“Paper Thin” by John Hiatt

“Drug Mule” by the transcendents

“Our Lady of the Highway” by Tim Lee 3

“Dead Man’s Song” by Joe Nolan

“Lost in the Supermarket” by The Clash

VIDEO PLAYLIST


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Thursday Morning Music Shuffle – Kilos, Ounces, and Pounds Mix

I’m back!  And rushed again… let’s get this done….

“Short Songs” by Dead Kennedys

Sort of the title track from the latest Feel Bad for You compilation.  Recorded live. 32 seconds or so. First appeared on the Bay Area compilation Can you Hear Me? Music from the Deaf Club.  Later included on the DK compilation Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death.

“In Nowheres” by The Twilight Sad

The Scottish Indie band with a song from their album Nobody Wants to Be Here Nobody Wants to Leave.

“All Over But the Cryin'” by The Georgia Satellites

Another great song from In the Land of Salvation and Sin – the last Satellite’s album to include Dan Baird.

“Southern Grammar” by Hiss Golden Messenger

The title track from the latest EP from the North Carolina Folk Duo…

“Runnin From Miami” by Neighborhood Texture Jam

Another awesome song from the Funeral Mountain album.  The video playlist includes some bits from a 2013 reunion show in Memphis.

“Come Together” by Stacy Mitchhart

A very cool Beatles’ cover from the album Live My Life by the Nashville Blues great.

“Crazy Mother Fucker from Shelby Ohio” by Tim Easton

A stand out track from Tim Easton’s Not Cool album.  The song was written by J.P. Olsen who was an early inspiration for Easton’s songwriting.

“You Wear it Well” by Rod Stewart

From the album, Never a Dull Moment.  I picked up the early period Rod Stewart compilation, Sing it Again, Rod at Goodwill a while back, and this song is included on that album.

“Soul Stroll” by Stacy Mitchhart

Our second track from Live My Life is an instrumental.

“Forest Gum” by New Madrid

From the latest album by the Athens, GA band. The album Sunswimmer was released about a year ago.

“Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone” by Matt Prater

From the new album Tables and Chairs by Alabama Country purist Matt Prater.  This is just flat out a great song.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

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Friday Morning Music Shuffle – Heck of F-f-friend Mix

After Tennessee’s Icepocalypse kept me in for most the week, I ventured out into the cold last evening to check out a new consignment store called Hang the Moon in East Nashville and to hear some of my favorite people play music. I just caught the tail end of the set by Tim Carroll and Luella Wood but what I heard was (as usual) awesome.  The Western Shore were next delivering an awesome set of their unique style of Americana music, and the night wrapped up with the super-duo of Lindsay Ellyn and Taylor Alexander doing a set of some of Lindsay’s great songs augmented by some classic country songs.  These two voices are amazing together.

Meanwhile, more snow and ice are on tap followed by heavy rain tomorrow… joy!  What the hey, we have music to present!

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Oh good, Environmental Song – we should expect acoustic folk guitar and songs about trees and… wait, it’s by Neighborhood Texture Jam – never mind.  I wish could have found a video of this song, and if I had it would have been NSFW for language.  Oh, who am I kidding, the video I picked is probably NSWF, too. From Funeral Mountain.

“Psykick Espionage” by Joanna Gruesome

How about some psyched out punk rock music from Joanna Gruesome off the album Peanut Butter?  Okay!

“Kim” by Ryan Adams

An awesome song from Ryan Adam’s most recent and self-titled album. 

“The God You Serve” by Sean Watkins

Another cool song from All I Do is Lie. 

“Train Hop Flop” by David Dondero

One of America’s best songwriters with a song from his first album The Pity Party.  So excited that Dondero will be in Nashville in a couple of weeks and Darrin Bradbury is on the bill for that show.  Will be an great night of music.

“Gods of the West” by American Scarecrows

Minneapolis Americana band American Scarecrows with a fantastic song from their 2014 album Yesteryear.  I grabbed this music from Noisetrade, and you should, too.

“Rastabilly” by The Dead Milkmen

Another song that should have been on that Short Song compilation I was talking about yesterday.  One of my favorites from Big Lizard…  Source of today’s subtitle.

“Hard Work and Clean Living” by Matt Prater

Real and Pure Country music from Alabama.  From Matt Prater’s new album Tables and Chairs.  Great song!

“Signal” (live) by Tim Lee 3

Heralding in the dawning of the Vinyl Anniversary (33 1/3) of Tim and Susan Lee – we have some new music and new recordings from our favorite Knoxville trio including this live version of one of my favorite songs on their last album Devil’s Rope.  This is from a Live album called Live from Armory Sound: Boston.  Look for this, the new studio album 33 1/3, and an EP from TL3 offshoot Bark coming your way in March!  And listen for more TL3 and related stuff on E2TG.

“Heartless People” by Dean Wareham

From the Self-titled album by Galaxie 500 founder Dean Wareham.  A great song which happens to be the only one not written by Wareham (it was written by Michael Holland).

“Tomorrow” by The Roots featuring Raheem DeVaughn window.amznpubstudioTag = “eartothegro00-20”; http://ps-us.amazon-adsystem.com/domains/eartothegro00-20_3dcd3a52-1a1a-4afe-a2fd-aaba8e251afc.js 

The week in shuffles closes out with some soulful music that pairs Tonight Show house band, The Roots with D.C. R&B, Neo Soul singer Raheem DeVaughn.  From The Roots’ 11th album called … And Then You Shoot Your Cousin.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

Monday Evening Music Shuffle – Iced In Mix

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No work today due to President’s Day.  Didn’t leave home today due to Nashville Ice Storm 2015.  Got bored this evening due to cabin fever, and so I’m doing a rare evening shuffle for you and for me…

“Blue Rondo a la Turk” by The Dave Brubeck Quartet

I hit shuffle, and I don’t know what will come up.  When Jazz comes up, I am happy. Dave Brubeck Quartet from Time Out – 1959.

“Walkin’ With the King” by Joe Nolan

Joe Nolan back in the shuffle.  I really dig this song. The video is from his appearance at the East Side Invasion at Bobby’s Idle Hour a couple of weeks back.  I was there. From his EP called King.

“Crazy” by Georgia Satellites

Old school Georgia Satellites.  Released on In the Land of Salvation and Sin.  

“Old Vinyl and Innocence” by Two Mule Blues

Really love this song. The video is from Couch by Couchwest 2014.  Couch by Couchwest 2015 will be here sooner than you know.  Get cracking.

“Circle Unit Document” by The Transcendents

People send me music.  I hope I never get too blase and cynical about that.  People from New Zealand send me really cool music.  So, I write about it. Check out this band. Their self-titled album is available on Bandcamp.

“Old South” by Neighborhood Texture Jam

Memphis Tennessee in the late 80s was a pretty weird place. I speak from experience. Well, it was weird for me, but there was some cool music happening. Like Neighborhood Texture Jam. Off of Funeral Mountain.

“This Ol’ World” by Young America

I’ve gotten to know the two of the members of Young America who are currently residing in Nashville.  Taylor and Drew are great songwriters in their own right, and I really love it when they sing together.  This is the first single from the forthcoming Young America album.  

“Everything Has Proven to be Futile” by The Transcendents

Another from The Transcendents self-titled album.  

“Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” by Willie Nelson et. al.

Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Jamey Johnson, and Snoop Dogg.  What?

“American Haikus” by Jack Kerouac

Close things out with Kerouac, Al Cohn, and Zoot Sims and ten minutes of American Haikus and Jack cracking himself up on a couple of occasions.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

Monday Morning Music Shuffle – Big Opportunity Mix

At press time, No Depression is featuring my latest live review on the front page of their site.  Check it out.

Meanwhile, we kick off the week with a morning shuffle that does not feature any dancing sharks…

“Big Lizard” by The Dead Milkmen

The almost title track from Big Lizard in My Backyard.

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A modern arrangement of a traditional tune from Fisherman’s Blues.

“Ordinary World” by Heather Powell

Heather Powell’s next album “A Haze of Grays and Blues” is due out at the end of this month, and what I’ve heard of it is stunning.  The song featured today is a stand out track from her 2012 album Believe it to Life.

“Voodoo Doll” by Stacy Mitchhart

From his album Live My Life which was recorded at Fry Pharmacy an all analog studio here in Nashville, Voodoo Doll is the kind of no holds barred Blues that you will hear on the latest album from this Nashville legend.

“Follow Me Down” by Science!

Science! are from Seattle! and they play Music!  Why am I so excited?  Give a listen and find out.  Alcoves and Alleyways is out now.  If you want, you can check out a sampler from the album via Noisetrade and then once convinced, pick up the whole thing at the usual spots.  They’ve been on Couch by Couchwest which makes them good eggs in my book….

“I Really Don’t Want to Know” by Jason and the Scorchers

More classic Jason and the Scorchers – this one is from Lost and Found.

“Opportunity” by Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Elvis Costello was and is a songwriting genius. Opportunity has always been a favorite of mine off of Get Happy!!

“Don’t Get Loud With Me Bitch” by Neighborhood Texture Jam

A song about Far East foreign policy in the latter part of the 1980s served up by this unique and awesome band from Memphis. From their album, Funeral Mountain.

“The New American Dream” by Grant Peeples and the Peeples Republik

Our last taste of the fantastic Grant Peeples’ album Punishing the Myth. I got this CD when I met Grant after he played the Wild Ponies party during Americana week – at The Building in East Nashville.

VIDEO PLAYLIST

Tuesday Morning Music Shuffle – Stumps Mix

A great Monday night at The Basement with Sadler Vaden opening for American Aquarium.

Sadler Vaden has a great gig – playing guitar for Jason Isbell, and he makes some pretty awesome music on his own, too.  Opening for American Aquarium at The Basement in Nashville, Vaden was backed by a fellow Isbell bandmate on keyboards, Steelism’s drummer, and the bass player for Sheryl Crow, and they heated up a cold, dreary Monday night.

Headliners, American Aquarium were the artist with most tour dates in 2014 according to Bandsintown app.  I understand they are expected to play even more dates in 2015.  They have a new album, Wolves, due out in February, and they treated a sold out Nashville crowd with a healthy dose of their signature high energy Alt-Country/Rock and sad songs.  If this ends up being the last live music I see in 2014, it was a heck of a way to end the year!

This year seems to be winding down.  It has been a year of changes and challenges and growth of the kind I thought I was incapable of experiencing let alone surviving.  I have good feelings about 2015, and I hope you will join me for what is sure to be an interesting year.  There are tons of new albums on the immediate horizon and as always new and old music to be discovered/rediscovered. This is the last proper shuffle of 2014, but I think maybe the year isn’t over yet.  There may be a surprise shuffle and maybe even a “Band of the Year” post coming up.  Peace!

“5ive Gears in Reverse” by Elvis Costello and the Attractions

When Elvis says, Get Happy!…

“Trope” by Charles Rosen

Pianist Charles Rosen takes on French composer Pierre Boulez in pretty nifty example of 20th Century “classical” music.  Trope is from Boulez’s 3rd Piano Sonata which was first performed in 1958.  Charles Rosen died in 2012 at the age of 85.  Besides his career as a pianist, Rosen was also known for his writings on music.  And with that I’ve reached the limits of my time to look up stuff on Wikipedia.  I may not know much about this type of music, but I know I like it.

“Ain’t That Tough” by Soul Asylum
“Lone Rider” by Soul Asylum

A couple more from the Soul Asylum album Made to be Broken. Made me remember one of the best shows I ever saw.  Soul Asylum, fIREHOSE, and Nashville band Clockhammer at 328 in the early 90s (probably 1991). Good times…

“Brownsville Girl” by Bob Dylan

Only seven songs in the shuffle today, and here is the main reason for that… from Dylan’s 1986 album Knocked Out Loaded.  “Brownsville Girl” clocks in at 11+ minutes, and was co-written by playwright Sam Shepard.  What a great 11 minutes of music. 

“Killer Angel” by J.R. Wyatt

Another cool song from The Empty Room Sessions… kind of a nice follow up to the Dylan song and for good measure, since I couldn’t find the video for this song, I included a video of Wyatt doing a Dylan cover.

“Torsos of Murdered People” by Neighborhood Texture Jam!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);

I honestly can’t remember what lead me to pick the CD of Funeral Mountain when I found it in a used CD store in the early 90s. I’m not sure if I had read about them or if the cover intrigued me, or if I made the purchase based upon the song titles. The latter reason is a bit disturbing but entirely possible… I was young what can I say.  Neighborhood Texture Jam were abrasive, offensive, and pretty darn brilliant.  Definitely not for the faint of heart, but if you can deal with subject matter… I’m not sure what it says about me… don’t answer that! But, I loved this album at first listen and 20 some years later, I still dig it just fine.  It isn’t punk per se or metal exactly… the album has some pretty catchy tunes that just happen to be about some pretty subversive topics.  (I couldn’t find a video for this song, and I haven’t heard the song that I included).

VIDEO PLAYLIST


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