Thursday Playlist on Friday AM #5

Yesterday morning was wild—a savage northwest wind sent rain rattling against the tin roof & the windows, & hurtling thru the willows. By the time I headed out to the car to begin the drive to Donnelly, the rain had turned to other things—ice, sleet, hail, snow—& highway 95 was transmogrified to a long narrow skating rink. By the time I started climbing to the higher elevations northeast of Council, the snow started to accumulate & conditions generally looked somewhat more somber & wintry than the freakish storm back in Indian Valley. It was a slow & nervy drive, but I reached Donnelly intact, & only a few minutes late for my 9:00 appointment.

Given the conditions, it’s perhaps best that I took a sharp turn in my playlist from the intensity of Son House & Buell Kazee—this week was just about fun music. In keeping with that, the sun was shining brilliantly for most of the drive home in the early afternoon.

Leon Redbone: From Branch to Branch (Atco)

1. (Mama’s Got a Baby Named) Tee-Na-Na
2. Hot Time (In The Old Town Tonight)
3. Sweet Mama Papa's Getting Mad
4. Step It Up And Go
5. Your Cheatin' Heart
6. Seduced
7. Why
8. My Blue Heaven
9. Extra Blues
10. When You Wish Upon A Star
11. Prairie Lullaby

All three cds I’ll talk about today have some similarities—they’re all (more or less) contemporary interpreters of old time material ranging from traditional blues & ragtime to tin pan alley & beyond. They all also have a knack for arranging this material in a way that makes it their own; & most importantly, none of them take the music too seriously—they all give the impression of having lots of fun.

Leon Redbone is probably the best known of the three artists/groups under consideration (certainly better known than the Heftones, & I believe Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band, tho popular in the 60s & early 70s, have fallen below the radar now). I’ve always admired Redbone on a few levels: his repertoire is enviable: the song list on From Branch to Branch is simply fantastic. The arrangements on his recordings are invariably interesting, & he gets some great sidemen—on this recording, I’d particularly point out the four different clarinet players (Jim Rothermel, Bobby Gordon, Victor Morosco & Jack Maheu), & tuba players Jonathon Dorn & Jim Self. I was actually surprised that two different producers worked on this album—seven tracks by Joel Dorn, four tracks by Beryl Handler (with Redbone’s assistance)—simply because the tracks all seem of a piece. They have a distinct & memorable sound.

Of course a big part of that sound is the one constant: Redbone’s quirky & oddly satisfying singing voice. It seems to me that Leon Redbone is one singer who has figured out very well what he does best & then proceeded to play to that strength consistently. The quality is hard to define: there’s a relaxed quality to his voice, & a playfulness—verging on wackiness at times. He also picks material that he can make his own, even tho “on paper” it might seem quirky: the old ragtime blues “Step It Up & Go,” the Hank Williams’ chestnut, “Your Cheating Heart” (with piano & tuba!) & the more contemporary “Seduced” running back-to-back? It works, as does the transition from “When You Wish Upon a Star” to Jimmie Rodgers’ “Prairie Lullaby.”

In fact, to my ear there aren’t any weak cuts on this album. If you don’t know Leon Redbone’s work, this is a great introductory album (as is also Warner Brothers’ On the Track).

The Fabulous Heftones: Moon June Spoon (Heftone Records)

1. When You Wore a Tulip
2. By the Light of the Silvery Moon
3. A Little Birch Canoe & You
4. Shine on Harvest Moon
5. Come Josephine in My Flying Machine
6. In the Moonlight
7. Ida Sweet as Apple Cider
8. When You Steal a Kiss or Two
9. In the Valley of the Moon
10. In the Starlight
11. When I Looked in Your Wonderful Eyes
12. Three O’Clock in the Morning
13. For Me & My Gal
14. Aba Daba Honeymoon
15. The Love Nest

For obvious reasons, Eberle & I have a fascination with duos—we love combos like the Darkwood Consort & the Great Auk for instance. But I suppose there’s an even deeper fascination with musical duos who are also a couple in the usual sense of the word, as is the case with Brian & Lynn Hefferan of the Fabulous Heftones.

The Fabulous Heftones are well known in the ukulele community, & sadly not too much anywhere else. You won’t find this cd in your run-of-the-mill cd emporium, & you won’t find it on some of the well-known online outlets. You can purchase it from the best music store I know of (for instruments & gear & a good cd selection, too) Elderly Instruments.

The Hefferans, like Redbone, know their strengths & play to them. Brian Hefferan is a talented uke picker (also a very good banjoist), while Lynn drives the songs using a unique instrument known as a Heftone—it’s a BIG bass banjo (see the video below). Both the Hefferans sing, & they bring a lot of enthusiasm & joy to performances of these lovely old tunes. I get a kick out of the album title, because it’s strikes me as playfully subversive—there was a time when “Moon June Spoon” was shorthand for all that was wrong with Tin Pan Alley music. We’ve moved thru a number of musical forms since, & now the Hefferans are back to capture all that’s right with this music: its verve, its humor & its tenderness. Their song selection is very good: they range from the most well-known of these old tunes (e.g., “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”) to some fairly obscure cuts. One thing that's fun even in the best known songs: the Heftones always sing the verse as well as the chorus; in the case of all these songs the verses have long since passed from popular memory, so that adds to the freshness of their presentation.

If you like uke playing or just really high-spirited & fun old time songs, this cd should be for you.

Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band: Jug Band Music (Vanguard)

1. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me
2. Jug Band Music
3. I'm A Woman
4. Morning Blues
5. Vamp Of New Orleans (Sadie Green)
7. Don't You Leave Me Here
8. Somebody Stole My Gal
9. K. C. Moan
10. Good Time Charlie
11. Jug Band Waltz
12. Whoa Mule Get Up In The Alley
13. Memphis
14. Ukulele Lady
15. Rag Mama

Speaking of good times & fresh takes on old tunes, you can’t get much better than Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band. This group came out of the Boston Area in the mid 60s & included banjoist Bill Keith, & both Geoff & Maria Muldaur (née Maria D’Amato). There’s just so much to like about this band: as with Redbone & the Heftones, the repertoire is fantastic, & there’s some marvelous playing—Keith on banjo, of course, Mel Lyman on harmonica, & Fritz Richmond blowing the jug (in Lyman’s words, “& I mean he can really blow a jug”) & plucking the washtub bass, & other folks blowing any number of kazoos. At their best, the arrangements are amazing—a tight mixture of voices & guitars & banjos & kazoos & percussion with the jug laying down a stomping beat—check out “Vamp of New Orleans” or “Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave to Me” (just two examples). There are a few quibbles one could make: primarily—if I were in a band with Maria Muldaur, I’d want her as lead vocalist on more than one song on a recording; but she does tear up the Leiber & Stoller number, “I’m A Woman” (ably assisted by Lyman’s harmonica). & there’s one song on the album I just never quite bought, which is Chuck Berry’s “Memphis”: interesting to do it as a jug band tune, & it’s true that in some sense Berry came out of a tradition that dated back to the jug bands, but to my ear at least it doesn’t quite come off. Otherwise there’s so much fun to be had here: the delightfully over-the-top “Ukulele Lady,” the beautiful “Jug Band Waltz,” the foot-stomping glee of “Somebody Stole My Gal,” & a personal favorite, “Whoa Mule Get Up in the Alley.”

If you’ve missed Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band over the years, do yourself a favor & give them a listen.

Thursday Playlist on Friday AM #4

I knew I just wasn’t firing on all cylinders—oversleeping a bit, a little groggy, a bit too hurried & distracted…. it was 18 degrees F outside—bitter, & all the glass on the car was solidly frosted. But I headed off in the gray cold morning for my round of appointments in the high country of Donnelly & McCall somewhat later than usual, “on schedule” to arrive on time, but without much time to spare.

About 12 miles down the road, as I neared the town of Council, it began to dawn on me that things just didn’t look right—everything had a fuzzy appearance; was it the gray early morning light? That didn’t make sense. I put my hand to face & discovered I’d left home without my glasses.

There was a short deliberation about how to address this situation. But I realized if I turned back, I may as well cancel my 9:00 a.m. appointment; & I was reasoned that since I’ve made this drive at least once a week since ’02, it wasn’t as if I needed to read the road signs. Still, the drive was surreal—even more surreal coming home in a snowstorm that increased in ferocity the lower I descended in elevation. By the time I came back thru Council, the flakes were about as big as they can be before turning to rain.

But I had some truly wonderful & inspiring music to listen to as I wended my fuzzy & foggy way thru the canyons—music that gave me a lot to think about in terms of how art communicates. Here are the albums:

Buell Kazee: Buell Kazee (June Appal)

1. Roll On, John
2. Jay Gould's Daughter
3. The Lady Gay
4. Steel A-Going Down
5. The Roving Cowboy
6. Banjo Medley: Blue-Eyed Gal, Rock Little Julie, What'll I Do With the Baby-O
7. Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road
8. Sporting Bachelors
9. The Orphan Girl
10. Black Jack Davy
11. The Blind Man
12. O, Thou in Whose Presence
13. Amazing Grace
14. Wexford Girl
15. Butcher's Boy
16. Wagoner's Lad
17. Short Life of Trouble
18. Shady Grove
19. East Virginia
20. Hook and Line

Buell Kazee is quite simply a legend of clawhammer banjo playing. On his most memorable tunes, the banjo is producing a lilting cavalcade of notes; the drive of his banjo frailing is simply remarkable. For those of you who weren’t around for the Clawhammer series here on Robert Frost’s Banjo (you can find the posts most easily here), frailing or clawhammer style of playing involves using the nail of either the index or the middle finger along with the thumb to play the banjo in a rather percussive manner; for reasons that may or may not seem obvious, it was also referred to in the Appalachians as “rapping” or “knocking” a banjo. The style is quite old, & is thought to be (like the banjo itself) African in origin; it was the style used in the old minstrel shows that spread the banjos popularity in the mid to late 19th century (there are some differences between the “minstrel stroke” & what’s known as “clawhammer” today, but these are relatively fine points for the general reader). The style is known for its propulsive energy, & was the preferred playing style for dances because of this.

Kazee had no problem generating propulsion; like so many good musicians, his playing always seems to be “pushing the envelope” of the beat, while actually remaining steadfast to the given tempo. This may seem contradictory, but it’s what gives his playing that remarkable drive.

As remarkable as Kazee’s banjo playing is, his voice is a match for his banjo. Bill Monroe talked about a “high lonesome sound” as being fundamental to old-time music—a sound that he sought to reproduce in an updated manner in his bluegrass band. Kazee has that high lonesome sound in spades—but with a soulful, haunteds quality that I don’t find in much bluegrass singing. Kazee’s voice comes from Greil Marcus’ “weird old America,” & in fact Kazee is featured on that most essential of Americana albums & the album Marcus was referring to with that term, Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. There is an immediacy in Kazee’s singing & playing that’s hard to achieve. This might spring in part from the naturalness with which he sang. Kazee said, “We just sang by nature. Everybody sang & nobody thought there was anything unusual about it.” Unfortunately, that attitude about singing isn’t as prevalent as it could be here in the US (that’s actually quite an understatement). It reminds me of an African proverb that’s meant a lot to me: “If you can talk you can sing; if you can walk you can dance.” So much of singing (also true of playing an instrument) is relaxation: relaxing to allow your voice to come thru, & relaxing enough to hear your voice. Relaxation isn’t given a high cultural value amongst us; I wonder as I listen to Kazee sing & play the banjo, how much that’s responsible for the cultural myth of tone deafness—which largely is a myth & not based on any actual physical condition (except, perhaps, in a very small percentage of cases).

Son House Delta Blues & Spirituals (Capitol Blues):

1. Monologue-The B-L-U-E-S
2. Between Midnight And Day
3. I Want To Go Home On The Morning Train
4. Levee Camp Moan
5. This Little Light Of Mine
6. Monologue-Thinkin' Strong
7. Death Letter Blues
8. How To Treat A Man
9. Grinnin' In Your Face
10. John The Revelator

Although this magnificent album appears to be out-of-print, it can still be found for a reasonable price, & it’s also available on LastFm; & magnificent is just one superlative that could be used to describe Son House’s singing & playing: “mind-boggling,” “stunning,” “amazing” all come to mind. There are some musicians whose music is visceral; when the music hits you, it goes straight to the body: the gut & the heart. It come from a musician who really inhabits the music or who allows the music to inhabit him/her. In cases like this, you don’t think: “oh, what a good singer,” or “wow, he can really play guitar”; these considerations are really quite secondary, because what the singer is about is the music: in a culture that places a high value on virtuosity, this type of immediacy can get overlooked. This is substance, not style.

Recently Citizen K. posted a video of Glen David Andrews & company playing a jazz-gospel version of “I’ll Fly Away.” I’d grown so used to hearing rather mediocore versions of this tune that it no longer struck me as “musical.” When I heard the music on that video, I was floored: these musicians brought so much life & so much presence to the song: they transformed it. & tho all the musicians involved in that recording are very talented & have clearly honed their skills, that’s not what I thought about as I heard the song: my thought was how incredibly moving this is.

I have that same experience with Son House. His voice is remarkable, his slide guitar playing is powerful. But I don’t think so much about the technique. Son House doesn’t use the song as a mediating force; it’s not something to come between him & his audience, something to be used to display his chops, either vocal or on his National guitar—it’s music. In his opening monologue, House talks about the connection between blues & the heart; once he launches into the roaring opening bars of “Between Midnight And Day,” (with excellent blues harp accompaniment by Alan Wilson) you begin to experience this. David Evans, in his liner notes to this album, describes a Son House show as follows: “We hadn’t just seen Son House; we had seen The Blues.”

Delta Blues & Spirituals was recorded live, at the 100 Club in London in 1970. The energy of that show explodes off the disc. When House closes the show with "John the Revelator” (done a capella, with audience participation—including the audience clapping in perfect time on the off beats), you realize this was the kind of show that could actually transform a listener. It’s not just a passive listening experience—the music gets inside you & moves you both physically &, I’d say, spiritually.

There aren’t that many musicians—or artists of any sort—who can be so consistently present & immediate in their work. I hear jazz great Rahasaan Roland Kirk this way; I think Janis Joplin at her best was like this, especially recorded live. César Vallejo’s poetry strikes me this way, too. I’m sure I could come up with other examples, but the quality is rare.

Son House is a tough act to follow. I listened to that cd again as soon as it was over. As someone who loves the old blues, & who plays them, this is like getting a lesson from a master: not about technique, but about how the music has to connect with your heart, how you have to be in the moment to play the blues.

Living in the moment—after a hurried, distracted morning, Son House showed me the way back to this. I definitely give both these artists high recommendation; & just because I think my words can only begin to convey House’s power, I’ve added a video of Son House performing his song “Forever on My Mind.” There are some other excellent videos of Son House on YouTube; it really was hard to choose. Hope you find this great artist moving & instructive, too.

Thursday Playlist on Friday A.M. #3

Yesterday morning out here in our little corner of paradise was, in a word (& a good New England word for weather at that) brutal: 4 degrees Fahrenheit, & thick fog at 7:30 a.m. when I headed up the road toward Donnelly. The temperature sank to –7 (still with thick fog) by the time I passed the Tamarack sawmill which stands beside the Little Salmon River. The small settlement of Tamarack bears no relationship to the Tamarack resort outside of Donnelly. Tho the latter establishment made national news when Bush visited there (the highlight was some hapless pilot who wandered into “forbidden airspace” & was escorted down to Council airport), the resort has now fallen into bankruptcy & receivership, a victim not only of the national economic disaster, but also of Idaho’s endemic boom & bust cycle. The mill on the other hand is still belching white smoke from its cogen furnace, surrounded by hills that turn golden with the tamarack needles themselves turning golden in the fall.

By the time I entered McCall (around 5,200 feet) the sun was glaring wildly off the snow—but this was short lived. The last leg found me in the fog again. It’s been that sort of January. Fortunately, I had some great tunes to listen to—lots of banjo & lots of kazoo, which ought to brighten anyone’s day.

Cannon’s Jug Stompers: The Best of Cannon’s Jug Stompers (Yazoo)

1. Feather Bed
2. Last Chance Blues
3. Big Railroad Blues
4. Going To Germany
5. Minglewood Blues
6. Mule Get Up In The Alley
7. Viola Lee Blues
8. Walk Right In
9. Noah's Blues
10. Wolf River Blues
11. Riley's Wagon
13. Madison Street Rag
14. Bring It With You When You Come
15. The Rooster's Crowing Blues
16. Pig Ankle
17. Money Never Runs Out
18. Heart Breakin' Blues
19. Springdale Blues
20. Jonestown Blues
21. Prison Wall Blues
22. Ripley Blues
23. Tired Chicken Blues
24.Pretty Mama Blues

Greil Marcus coined the term “weird old America” when he wrote about Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music; the Jug Stompers (who appear on the Anthology doing their wild rendition of “Minglewood Blues”) certainly come from this musically mythic place. The instrumentation: banjo, guitar, harmonica, kazoo, & jug; the vocals are often haunting.

Gus Cannon was a man who grew up in the late 19th century & who assimilated the string band music of his youth. It’s interesting to consider that this man who played a type of music often imitated by various folk & old-time revivalists was himself a revivalist of sorts when he & the Jug Stompers were playing in the ‘teens & 1920s. Although Cannon played several instruments, he concentrated on banjo & the jug with the Jug Stompers. The jug is a singular musicmaker—"homemade," of course, & with all the baggage of not being a “real instrument” that it shares with such wondrous devices as tissue paper & comb (or even the “store-bought” version of same, the kazoo), the washboard & the washtub bass. In fact, the prejudice toward high-end, manufactured instruments (& hey, we like those kind of instruments, too!) obscures the fact that in capable hands the jug or kazoo, etc. all are capable of making wonderful music. As evidence of both jug & kazoo: check out the cut “Whoa Mule, Get Up in the Alley” on this album. The jug itself is omnipresent & provides an amazing bass.

Cannon hooked up with ferociously melodic harp player Noah Lewis, who also sang some (e.g., “Big Railroad Blues”); Cannon & Lewis started playing with singer/guitarist Ashley Thompson, & this became the original line-up for Cannon’s Jug Stompers. Thompson was later replaced, first by Elijah Avery & then by Hosea Woods.

Along with the Memphis Jug Band, the Jug Stompers are probably the best-known of the early jug bands; they were an inspiration to later practitioners of this weird & wonderful music like Jim Kweskin’s Jug Band (a fun & recommended band, also noteworthy for featuring Maria Muldaur back when she was Maria D’Amato). Cannon’s Jug Stompers also were an inspiration to the Grateful Dead, who covered the earlier band’s “Viola Lee Blues” (a close musical cousin to “Joliet Bound”) & “Big Railroad Blues.” In fact, if you’re running a Google search on Cannon’s Jug Stompers the first site that comes up is a Dead Head page discussing not only the earlier band, but also various Grateful Dead versions of these two songs. Say what you will about the Grateful Dead (I haven’t listened to them in years myself): they had fantastic taste in old music. Finally, many of us decidedly middle-aged types will recall the Rooftop Singers’ cover of the Jug Stompers “Walk Right In.”

This is a fantastic album—a look into a style of music that was a vital part of the roots of much that we know in popular music today, & even of styles we think of as themselves “roots” or “old-time.” This is the blues, but it’s not the blues of Muddy Waters or B.B. King. It is the “weird old America.”

R.D. Lunceford: Cotton Blossom (Ceilidh Brothers Music)


1. Green Corn/Sandy Boys
2. Alabama Joe/Jenny Get Your Hoecake Done
3. Where You Goin’ Rabbit?/Rye Straw
4. The Battle of Waterloo
5. Nellie Gray/When You & I Were Young Maggie
6. Jim Along, Josie/Polly Put the Kettle On
7. Old Stepstone
8. Run Rabbit Run/John Bowlin’s Walkaround/Cornstalk Fiddle
9. Old Jim Wren
10. Cripple Creek/Sourwood Mountain
11. West Virginia Gals
12. Last Chance
13. Charleston Girls/Grapevine Twist
14. Greensleeves
15. Bee Gum Road/Old Jimmy Sutton
16. Unsworth’s New Jig/There Was an Old Soldier
17. The Yellow Rose of Texas/Dixie
18. Over the Mountain
19. Needlecase/Liberty
20. Lonesome John/Texas
21. The Minstrel Boy

Banjo Newsletter editor & gifted banjo frailer has issued two albums of clawhammer tunes, Cotton Blossom & Drop Thumb. For you non-banjoists out there, the latter title doesn’t refer to some medical condition, but to a technique used in old-time banjo styles allowing the thumb to produce melody notes. Cotton Blossom is the album I was listening to yesterday, however, & a real treat it was, too. The repertoire Lunceford presents ranges from very familiar old-time tunes such as “Cripple Creek” & “Needlecase” to more obscure selections such as “Bee Gum Reel” & “Old Stepstone, & even includes two tunes not associated with the banjo: “Greensleeves” & “The Minstrel Boy.”

Lunceford’s frailing is vigorous, with a lot of rhythmic drive. To my ear at least, his rhythm is a bit more straight-ahead than Mary Z Cox’s (whose Secret Life of Banjo was on the playlist a couple of weeks ago), but his playing would easily propel dancers. One thing that really struck me about Lunceford: you can tell he’s a “purty good” player (as he describes himself at the Banjo Hangout—in fact, a very good player), with lots of technique at his disposal, but he uses that technique to put the tune across—too often, some talented players do the opposite, which is never pleasing to my ear. I think the initial reaction to Lunceford’s playing is “What a great song that was,” because he doesn’t force you to think about his playing technique apart from the song itself.

There really aren’t any weak tracks on this album. The medley form works well in Lunceford’s playing; the transitions are seamless, but the tunes are each given a distinct & recognizable feel. Of course, Lunceford is capable of delightful variations, & he puts those to effective use throughout. For those who are interested in such things, Lunceford has issued a tab book to accompany this cd (& also one to accompany Drop Thumb). Although I haven’t seen either of these books, I suspect you’d learn a lot about arranging, & about these songs in general if you gave them a look.

The one moment that I balk at is “Dixie.” I realize there’s a movement amongst the old-time music set to resurrect this song; folks point out, for instance, that it was a favorite of Lincoln’s. I don’t say this to disparage Mr Lunceford in any way, & I certainly believe his motives in including the song are righteous enough—but as the song was playing, I drove past a trailer house where the mailbox was painted with the Confederate stars & bars. At the risk of offending readers from the South (which I don't intend to do—I lived in Virginia for several years & like the region) I’m not convinced this song can ever be separated from some of its negative connections….

But otherwise, the cd is fantastic (& the playing per se on “Dixie” is certainly fine). The version of “Greensleeves” & “The Minstrel Boy” are both very good, & far from “oh wow” novelties. In fact, Lunceford’s “The Minstrel Boy” would make a fine track at a St. Patrick’s Day party (for you out there with a bit of green blood in your veins). "Greensleeves" is quite lovely, & brings out some of the harpsichord-like tone of the banjo.

Red McKenzie: Red McKenzie, Vol. 1 (Sensation Records)

1. Arkansa Blues
2. Blue Blues
3. San
4. Red Hot!
5. Barb Wire Blues
6. You Ain't Got Nothin' I Want
7. Tiger Rag
8. Deep Second Street Blues
9. When My Sugar Walks Down the Street
10. Panama
11. Best Black
12. Stretch It, Boy
13. Gettin' Told
14. Play Me Slow
15. Wigwam Blues
16. Blues in F
17. The Morning After Blues
18. Happy Children Blues
19. Hot Honey
20. If You Never Come Back
21. What Do I Care If Somebody Said
22. Nervous Puppies

OK, we brought up kazoos & tissue paper & comb briefly in discussing Cannon’s Jug Stompers. Now we have the king of tissue paper & comb (your basic homemade kazoo), Red McKenzie. Because McKenzie’s music has to be heard to be believed, I’ve included a YouTube video of “Arkansa Blues,” one of McKenzie’s earliest sides. This song showcases McKenzie’s Mound City Blowers at their most “basic”—McKenzie on tissue paper & comb, Dick Slevin on kazoo & Jack Bland on tenor banjo. It’s a glorious hot jazz tune, & I love the liner notes to this cd in which James Kidd compares the ensemble to a “garage band.” It’s got that kind of élan & vitality.

But the Mound City Blowers were more than a novelty act. They recorded with renowned saxophonist Frank Trumbauer & also with early jazz guitar legend Eddie Lang (both Trumbauer & Lang appear on this album—the latter actually plays on at least a dozen cuts). Famed jazz banjoist Harry Reser also sat in with the Mound City Blowers. The selection on this album ranges from obscure tunes to hot jazz standards like “Tiger Rag,” “San” & “Panama.” The interplay with Trumbauer’s sax on “San” is a real treat, & the Blowers also do a fine “Tiger Rag” with Lang on guitar.

I know it takes some convincing to get folks to believe that instruments such as the humble kazoo or even humbler tissue paper & comb are truly “musical,” but they are. Just as Hezzie Trietsch could make amazing music on the slide whistle with the Hoosier Hot Shots or Gus Cannon could provide unforgettable bass lines on the jug, so too could McKenzie & Slevin create swinging & inventive melodies on their instruments of choice. & because the kazoo is near to our heart, I’ll be providing some background on this instrument in a post on Sunday. I hope you take that as an intriguing invitation, but if not, at least you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

As always, hope these selections may direct some of you to some new sounds.

Thursday’s Playlist on Friday A.M. #2

Yesterday morning was the weekly trek to Donnelly—a bitterly cold morning at that, with frozen fog down here in the valley & overcast at the higher elevations.

& a mentally foggy drive for yours truly, as my old companion insomnia paid me a call in the wee hours of Thursday morning—first time in quite a while—& that does put one in a state of somewhat forced focus while navigating the canyon roads. The January landscape has become sober in these parts, too—a lot of grays, the eerie sight of the fog crystals frozen on the skeletal limbs of sagebrush &, at higher elevations, the fog frozen in clumps on the lodgepoles & ponderosas. McCall & Donnelly were both cloudy with the raw promise of snow moving in the air—at 5,000 feet, these towns were above the inversion, but the clouds hung low & heavy.

My mind was scattered & my heart somewhat heavy with childhood recollections, & more recent memories as well: Charlottesville, VA; San Francisco…. I felt the need for a guitar, just as I felt the need for a piano in my adolescence. Hard to drive & play, tho. Later, yesterday evening, I could sit down & work on some material: Mississippi John Hurt’s version of “See See Rider,” which has the lovely line about “Ain’t no more potatoes, the frost has killed the vine,” & “Make Me a Pallet,” & Kansas Joe McCoy’s “Joliet Bound.” During the drive, I did have some wonderful music to listen to & meditate upon, however.

Cynthia Sayer: Attractions (with Bucky Pizzarelli) (Plunk Records)

1. Viper Man
2. Half as Much
3. Banjo Tango
4. Shakin’ the Blues Away
5. Over the Rainbow
6. El Choclo
7. The Gift
8. Romance without Finance
9. Dark Eyes
10. You Are My Sunshine
11. Swing De Paris
12. Abba Dabba Honeymoon
13. Hungarian Rhapsody No 2

This album has been my introduction to plectrum banjo wiz Cynthia Sayer (the banjoist in Woody Allen’s dixieland ensemble), & I’d call it a good listen. Sayer’s voice has personality, & she does some interesting melodic & rhythmic improvisations while singing some old standbys, as well as her composition, “The Gift.” In fact, her rather bouncy interpretation of “Over the Rainbow” is quite fresh, & she does a bang-up job on the old novelty tune “Abba Dabba Honeymoon.”

To my ear, tho, we’re listening to Sayer’s banjo first & her voice second. She’s at her best when she’s trading licks with the magnificent Bucky Pizzarelli, & the two of them, as well as violinist Sara Caswell, really cook on several cuts: “Banjo Tango” (Sayer's own composition), “El Choclo,” “Swing de Paris,” & “Abba Dabba Honeymoon” (I kid you not on the latter) are standouts. Sayer also proves in spectacular fashion that she can really burn up the fretboard going solo too—her version of “Hungarian Rhapsody No 2”—just her & her banjo—is a tour de force.

I have a few quibbles with the album, mostly at the level of production & arrangement. Both “Half as Much” & “You Are My Sunshine” seem to lag a bit below the overall level. “Half as Much” seems a trifle desultory during the break; I just can’t make much sense of what Sayers intended in a banjo solo that seems a tad aimless. I do think she had a fresh take on the vocal, tho. “You Are My Sunshine” also never seems to quite get off the ground, & then it’s marred (to my ear, but this may just be a quirk of mine) by the dreaded half-step modulation (this also occurs at the end of “Dark Eyes,” which I find a trifle annoying, but the playing on “Dark Eyes” is pretty strong overall). For you non-musician types out there, the half-step modulation (also called the “truck driver’s gear change”) consists of taking the song up a half step in key, usually toward the end of the song; if the body of the song is in C, the band & singer take it up to C# as a flourish toward the end. Besides the fact that it’s the same interval as the sound a truck makes when shifting gears, it also seems to say: “We have no more ideas in the original key, so let’s make it sound like we’re doing something by modulating." I admit this is done habitually by some pretty great musicians (as well as in some truly horrific pop songs)—Patsy Cline & the Beatles both were notorious practicioners of the truck driver’s gear change, & I forgive them. So I forgive Sayer & Co. too. This album really is worth a listen—Sayer’s tone & technique on the plectrum banjo (a rather unusual instrument these days—I wrote about it in an early post here) are both superb, & Pizzarelli is his usual masterful self on the 7-string guitar. The addition of Caswell’s violin makes the ensemble recall the hot jazz days, & the horn section of Scott Robinson, Randy Sandke & Jim Fryer is first-rate.

Bill Evans Trio: Waltz for Debby (Riverside)

1. My Foolish Heart
2. Waltz for Debby
3. Detour Ahead
4. My Romance
5. Some Other Time
6. Milestones
7. Waltz for Debby (alt. take)
8. Detour Ahead (alt. take)
9. My Romance (alt. take)
10. Porgy (I Loves You, Porgy)

This album, along with its companion Sunday at the Village Vanguard, are masterpieces of the piano-bass-drum trio format. The music was recorded in June 1961 during a week-long run at the Vanguard; the trio played both a matinee & an evening show over the weekend. Unfortunately, these were the last recordings made by this trio, because bassist Scott LeFaro was killed not long afterwards in a highway accident.

In addition to the even greater tragedy of a young life ended in such an untimely way, the loss of LeFaro's music was itself a tragedy. LeFaro’s bass lines, both as a back-up player & as a soloist were stunning; he has been compared to Mingus, & this doesn’t strike me as hyperbole. Some have said his bass solos sound as if they were played on a huge guitar—this also seems true: they have the melodic flow of a guitar, but with the unforgettable bass timbre. Fortunately, LeFaro gives his instrument a real work out on this album, so his playing really can be appreciated.

Evans is of course acknowldged as a master of jazz piano. As I listened yesterday, I was struck again by how much feeling & beauty he was able to convey in a simple phrase—even at times in a single note or chord. The very rubato opening of the old piano lounge standard “My Foolish Heart” shows this; his transformation of the tune into a Debussy-like melody is stunning, as is the grace he displays on his own standard, “Waltz for Debby,” or the rich darkness he brings to Miles Davis’ “Milestones.” Evans was a player who could communicate clearly on an emotional level, & he used his considerable technique to serve this—just as LeFaro used his technique to serve the song, & not vice-versa. Throughout the album the light & sure-handed drumming of Paul Motian provides a solid background for the two great improvisers; Motian is able to convey the shimmering undercurrent of the ballads, & is also able to swing, as in the upbeat 4/4 section of “Waltz for Debby.”

There are literally hundreds of jazz albums that could be categorized as “must listen.” This is not the least amongst those.

Rory Block: Gone Woman Blues (Rounder)

1. Big Road Blues
2. Preaching Blues
3. Joliet Bound
4. Maggie Campbell
5. Hellhound on My Trail
6. Bye Bye Blues
7. Gone Woman Blues
8. Peavine Blues
9. Rolling Log Blues
10. I Let My Daddy Do That
11. Tallahatchie Blues
12. Tain’t Long Fo Day
13. Terraplane Blues
14. Come On In My Kitchen
15. Be Ready When He Comes
16. Cypress Grove
17. Railroadin’ Some
18. Hawkins Blues
19. Cool Drink of Water
20. Do Your Duty
21. Rowdy Blues
22. On the Wall
23. Devil Got My Man
24. Take My Heart Again

I’ll admit it had been quite some time since I’d listened in any thorough way to Rory Block before I compiled the fingerstyle list for Michelle Lemon (& y’all) last week. Since then I’ve listened to this album a few times, & I continue to be blown away by the passion of Block’s singing & her guitar playing. I tend to be less than enthusiatic about latter day blues interpretations by famous white musicians—as just one example, if I want to hear "Crossroads Blues,” I prefer Robert Johnson’s original a good bit over the version Eric Clapton did with Cream. But Block is the real deal. Her playing generally packs a wallop, but she can also come up with some lovely riffs, as at the beginning of “Rolling Log Blues.” Her slide work is also fantastic—a startling accent, not overbearing or intrusive.

The album is a “greatest hits” compilation, tho it’s clear that Rory Block is all about making the music she loves in the best way possible, & not necessarily worrying about churning out hit records in the usual sense. The tracks are drawn from her 1991 Mama’s Blues; her 1995 When a Woman Gets the Blues; 1992’s Ain’t I a Woman; the 1996 release Tornado; & her 1989 High Heeled Blues. All of these albums were issued by Rounder.

In addition to showcasing Block’s considerable playing & singing skills, this album also has a wide range of material—from the boisterousness of “Big Road Blues” to the eerie “Hellhound On My Trail” (Block does a fine job on all the Robert Johnson covers) to the joyful sexuality of “I Let My Daddy Do That” & “Do Your Duty” to the rollicking gospel of “Be Ready When He Comes.” Block is capable of conveying all these moods effectively & with great feeling. It would be difficult to pick favorites: I do like her take on the Johnson songs, & “Peavine Blues” is wonderfully moody. Block also does a wonderful job with “Joliet Blues,” a favorite of mine from the Kansas Joe McCoy/Memphis Minnie version.

While I try to encourage folks to go back to the source with country blues & listen to the likes of Mississippi John Hurt & Robert Johnson & all their amazing counterparts, this is a truly inspired album that very much deserves a listen—& more than one listen, too.

Thursday’s Playlist on Friday A.M. #1

As I mentioned once upon a time late last summer, I have occasion to drive about 140 miles roundtrip to Donnelly, ID (via McCall) once a week. It’s a gorgeous drive in the summer & fall as long as you keep your eyes peeled for critters—I’ve seen all of the following on the road itself: black bear (2), many deer, an elk, a mountain lion & 2 beef cattle. Now there are a lot of reasons in addition to my soft spot for animals why I wouldn’t want to hit any of these with a car. Eberle & I were driving back from Lake Fork once ages ago & a black bear ran right in front of us in the canyon coming out of McCall. They can really move when they put their mind to it—& he/she had, which was a good thing, because I was thinking, “What would do if you did hit a bear? You couldn’t get out of the car….”

This time of year, the drive can be a bit less pleasant because other things besides the wild kingdom come into play, namely ice & snow. But I make the trek anyway, & it’s my main time for listening to music. So as an ongoing feature for a while at least, I’m going to post Thursday’s Playlist on Friday A.M. Here it is, with comments:

The Hoosier Hot Shots: Havin Fun with the Hoosier Hot Shots (Collector’s Choice Music)

1. No Romance In Your Soul
2. My Blue Heaven
3. Toot Toot Tootsie
4. Sweet Georgia Brown
5. Someday
6. Wabash Charleston
7. Wah-Hoo
8. Them Hillbillies Are Mountain Willies Now
9. I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones)
10. Meet Me By The Ice House, Lizzie!
11. What Can I Say, Dear (after I Say I'm Sorry)
12. Washboard Stomp
13. Tiger Rag

OK, I’ll admit I’m kind of obsessed with these guys right now—what more can you ask for than a slide whistle virtuoso (who doubles on Wabash Washboard), a singer who plays tenor guitar, great vocal harmonies & a rock solid band that really swings; Eberle also has pointed out how good the clarinet player Gabe Ward is at interacting with the slide whistle, an instrument that’s difficult to play as well as Hezzie Trietsch could, but also is a bit of a challenge for other musicians to play with. The self-proclaimed inventors of “Rural Midwestern Jazz,” there’s no one quite like the Hoosier Hot Shots.

I’m not really big on the concept of “favorites” in music, or poetry, etc., but I can relate a few things that struck me yesterday: 1. As compelling as Hezzie Trietsch’s slide whistle is on the upbeat numbers, it’s even more remarkable when he solos on the lyrical “Blue Heaven” or the ballad “Someday.” 2. Ken Trietsch is a very good tenor guitar player—a lot of these songs are moving at lightning speed & he’s throwing in jazz guitar riffs on that tenor in every direction. 3. Don’t miss “Wabash Stomp,” which begins with a truly unbelievable solo by Hezzie on the Wabash Washboard—there are so many bells & scrapes & dings—punctuated with bicycle horns—that I can’t keep them straight; & when Gabe Ward enters, he briefly makes his clarinet sound almost like a bicycle horn before he launches into a wonderful lead.

Mary Z. Cox: A Secret Life of Banjo (Mary Z Cox)

1. Swannanoa Tunnel
2. Golden Slippers
3. Andrew Jackson, Go Back Home
4. Old Town Band
5. Snake Charmer's Daughter
6. Old Molly Hare
7. Sandy Boys
8. Sally in the Garden
9. Soldiers Joy 3:13
10. All Through the Night
11. Hunchback Whiskey
12. Wayfaring Stranger
13. Cock-A-Doodle-Do
14. Pikes Peak
15. Angeline

First, don’t let the fact that this album was self-produced give you any hesitation. Mary Z Cox is the real deal when it comes to playing clawhammer banjo, & the recording quality is great. Cox is playing solo here, tho she does have two banjo tracks on a couple of songs, “Golden Slippers” & “Angeline” (AKA “Angelina Baker,” or sometimes in a slightly different form, “Angeline the Baker”). Both of the duet cuts are remarkable, because she creates an almost fugal texture. “Angeline” is also remarkable for its easy-going pace. While it’s true that banjos like to be played fast, sometimes it seems we all get caught up in how fast we can go. Cox shows that the banjo, in capable hands, can create music at a somewhat more modest pace. Her cuts using the fretless Hunchback Wunder Banjo, a reproduction of an early slave banjo tuned down a 4th from contemporary banjo tuning, are also remarkable. At times during her composition “Andrew Jackson, Go Back Home,” & “Hunchback Whiskey” the music sounds almost Middle Eastern with the lower drone string. Cox also reminds us that clawhammer was & is the favored old-time banjo playing style for dances—she has rock steady rhythm, but within that, there’s a real lilt to her playing, so you can hardly help but move to the music—even in a Subaru!

Dr. John: Gumbo (ATCO)
1. Iko Iko
2. Blow Wind Blow
3. Big Chief
4. Somebody Changed the Lock
5. Mess Around
6. Let the Good Times Roll
7. Junko Partner
8. Stack-a-Lee
9. Tipitina
10. Those Lonely Lonely Nights
11. Huey Smith Medley: High Blood Pressure/Don't You Just Know It/Well I'll Be John Brown
12. Little Liza Jane

Speaking of music that makes you move—how about one of the masters of NoLa music, Mac Rebennack, AKA Dr John. This is the good Dr paying tribute to New Orleans legends like Professor Longhair, Huey Smith & Earl King. But tho it’s a tribute album looking back to older material, & tho the album itself was released just a few years shy of 40 years back (wait, it can’t be that long ago, can it?…), there’s nothing precious or dated here. Dr. John roars thru these dozen tracks with his soulful howl, & pounding out lovely & rollicking music on the 88s (on 10 of the 12 tracks—he plays guitar on “Let the Good Times Roll” & only sings on “Big Chief”). The backing musicians are tremendous: great sax work by the likes of Lee Allen, & superb trombone by someone credited only as “Streamline” on Dr John’s own composition, “Somebody Changed the Lock.” I love that track for a lot of reasons; love Dr John’s version of the great parade song “Iko Iko,” & his piano playing on “Mess Around”—well, let’s just say he’s either not messing around, or he’s really messing around, depending on how you look at it; & his version of the old ragtime/blues “Stack-a-Lee” really caught my attention on this listen. But really, there are no weak tracks on this classic album.

Jimmie Rodgers: The Essential Jimmie Rodgers (RCA)

1. Away Out On The Mountain
2. Blue Yodel No. 1 (T For Texas)
3. Daddy And Home
4. Dear Old Sunny South By The Sea
5. In The Jailhouse Now
6. Memphis Yodel
7. My Old Pal
8. Blue Yodel No. 2 (Lovin' Gal Lucille)
9. Sleep Baby, Sleep
10. The Brakeman's Blues (Yodeling The Blues Away)
11. The Sailor's Pleas
12. My Little Old Home Down In New Orleans
13. Never No Mo' Blues
14. Blue Yodel No. 4 (California Blues)
15. I'm Lonely And Blue
16. Waiting For A Train
17. Frankie And Johnny
18. Pistol Packin' Papa
19. Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues)
20. T.B. Blues

& finally, speaking of classics, they don’t get much more classic than the Singing Brakeman. An “old pal of mine,” poebiz friend Jonah Winter (also a good musician & a Jimmie Rodgers fan) used to talk about the “sincere blue skies” in some western town he’d traveled thru—can’t recall where now, but it might have been in New Mexico. For some reason yesterday Rodgers’ music, & especially his singing voice, reminded me of this phrase. There’s something so open, so genuine about his voice. At first listen, Rodgers’ voice may seem somewhat plain (well, at least until he yodels), but there’s a real emotionality & humor that always come thru. & man, could he yodel. Between the range of his regular singing voice & the range of notes he could hit yodeling…amazing. I also noticed in the strangely delightful “Away Out on the Mountain” that during a certain yodeling figure he’s hitting notes of almost flute-like purity—I kid you not; I was kind of shocked to hear them.

As an “essential” album such as this has lots of obvious choices: “Waiting for a Train,” “T for Texas,” “In the Jailhouse.” But there are some less well known cuts, too, like “Memphis Yodel,” “My Little Old Home Down In New Orleans,” & one I’m working on myself these days, “T.B. Blues” (though I’ll never even try to get those vocal jumps on “T-ee, B-ee Blu-es”).

Finally, Jimmie Rodgers wasn’t a guitar virtuoso, but he had plenty of rhythm & he developed an unmistakable playing style.

Hope you get some listening ideas. All these albums are readily available.