Crabb Bits: Bob Welch, CMT, Scott Walker, AZ 30?

Something to go with your morning cup of Joe:

But first, if things go as they have been, this month might see the most readers that I have ever had in here.  Maybe a chance to crack the 2,000 views for the first time ever.  Most of the views are going once again to the Brains Blog which has been skyrocketing big time for some reason   Over 135 views this past week so perhaps some dormant website with the link has started up again or maybe some of you out there are forwarding this to Andy McKaie's email address and set a fire under his ass to reissue The Brains LP.  Geezus, can you say limited edition to about 1,000 or 2,500 or even 5,000 Andy?  Sure in the fuck beats the overblown Icon crap series that Universal continues to puke out.  Everybody has the hits Andy, try something different.  Reissue the damn album and I might just die happy.

Suicide is not the answer but once again it claims another life.  Bob Welch, the link between Peter Green and Buckingham Nicks and made some great albums for the Mac and in frail health decided to end it all today.  Dead at 65.  He made five albums for the Mac, Future Games, with the 8 minute title track, Bare Trees to which the original Sentimental Lady can be found, Mystery To Me which might be the best album of the Welch era Mac, Penguin which is all over the place and the blah Heroes Are Hard To Find.  It's hard to say if leaving Fleetwood Mac had something to do with that, but Welch did form a short lived band with Tony and Hunt Sales and Glen Cornish of Jethro Tull called Paris and made two so so albums but then had a top ten hit with a remake of Sentimental  Lady featuring help from Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood but French Kiss also boasted another top 30 hit with Ebony Eyes and Hot Love Cold World.  The second album Three Hearts boasted another hit with Precious Love but then after that the hits stopped coming although he continued to make fine albums such as the underrated The Other One (why it bombed remains a mystery), Man Overboard and the S/T album he did for RCA.  Last time I heard from Bob was on the 2006 AAO Fleetwood Mac Years And Beyond Part 2 which was only sold at FYE and I still have my copy.  What stands out is Bob penned some hilarious and insightful liner notes. But he was a bit out there, if it still up and about his website can be found here http://www.bobwelch.com/index2.htm

By now you have known that Scott Walker, the embattled Governor of Wisconsin survived the recall election and of course the left and the Unions are not happy about it.  Even though Walker barely got in the first time, he got more votes the second time around.  And I'm sure that the liberals are going to get pissed at me for saying this but in my thinking, Walker should at least finish his term out.  I'm not the only one that thinks that way. http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/blogs/item/39592   I'm not too thrilled that the big spending GOP and Koch Brothers pumped up 30 million to keep Gov. Scott in but as I explained to a perplexed Martin Daniels the other day that Walker was elected by the majority of Wisconsin folk that got tired of Jim Doyle's antics and the logical thinking that the folks in Dane Country were running the show.  Not exactly, especially when Mr. Dunderbrains Scott Fitzgerald survived the recall but he's in Red country anyway and he one of the most sleezeballs in congress outside of Eric Cantor.  Then again money buys you a lot of things when you get tired of possessions. Just buy a politician.   But then again, the Democrats' bright idea was to get Tom Barrett to run again and during the debates he had nothing to offer outside of bashing Walker left and right.  And in the end Walker ran away with something like 55 percent of the vote to Barrett's 45.  To which the recall folks should have TCB in 2010 and got out to vote back then.  Scott Walker is in, and he should at least finish the term out.

There's something about the recall process that kinda rubbed me the wrong way and I think it went back to last year when on every street corner you would encounter a recall dude asking for signatures and they would be happy to chat with you and such but once you told them that you were out of state they would start running away from me, even though I tried to tell them I was supporting their efforts, they had this mentality that I was carrying an infectious disease.  And they would all do that and it made me really wonder if it was all about them and not the state itself.  Whatever the case it may be, Scott Walker becomes the first person ever to survive a recall election and hell he could even run for Mittens' Vice President if need be.  Who knows but it won't stop me from going up to Mad City for the summer festival of bargain hunting in July.

This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of yours truly going to Arizona for the first time in his life, thus beginning a 2 decade summertime run down there to spend a week or 10 days to relive the good times of hot weather, Route 66 and tons of record stores to frequent although the number of record stores down there have dwindled down about 15 or so decent ones.  Last year we did AZ 25, the 25 meaning of years ago that I actually moved down there for about 5 months till the money ran out and the bitchy old Aunt threw me out of the house.  Allegiant Airlanes the fee specialists that has non stop flights to Mesa or Vegas keeps sending me emails about daily deals but so far I have resisted temptation to fly down there, I just have gotten to the point that I hate to fly anymore it's a bigger pain in the ass than throw a suitcase in the car and go.  I really would love to spend two weeks down there and get to see everything and spend a couple hours at Crookton Pass and let the stress of the world fade away.  Sometimes I feel more at home at Kingman more than I did at Chandler.   For now I'm only thinking about AZ but AZ 30 would be Kingman and Crookton Pass to go with Mesa or Vegas.  Whichever is cheaper.  Crookton Pass is below.



 If anybody is interested, more historic info about Seligman/Crookton Pass Line From BNSF http://www.trainweb.org/brettrw/maps/seligmansub/yamp_bell.html
 

Finally, the ACM isn't high on my list to watch.  Academy of Crappy Music awards, All Carrie Music...Oops it's CMT awards  Crappy Music Tripe,  Carrie's Music Trash,  Farce The Music had a pretty funny timeline of all the happenings and you can read it all here.  http://www.farcethemusic.com/2012/06/cmt-awards-2012-twitter-snark-recap.html

We have too many awards shows as it stands and CMT hasn't shown much country videos since Viacom bought them out from CBS Inc so basically I boycotted and really didn't give a flying fuck of the whole thing which was basically geared toward the teen crowd and rednecks, white socks and blue ribbon beer to quote the late great Johnny Russell.   Seems to be a lot of hate going on for Carrie Underwood who pretty much goes looking for people that don't like her on Twitter or Facebook.  And Carrie Nation loves her singing on just about everything but even the foolhearts out there know that she was a pop diva made up for the country crowd and then when things got right, start moving her over to pop music.  Her new album is more pop than country anyway.    Miranda Lambert continues to get more popular and glad to see that happening, she's the best songwriter to ever come out of Nashville Star (anybody remember Buddy Jewell?) and American Idol for that matter.   Carrie has better PR people at 19 Records, the label with the eye on the 19 crowd.  And anything released under 19 Records isn't worth my time or effort to even slam them.  Life is too short for that but if you want to see the results of the lesser artists on 19 Records are advised to count them in the budget bins at HP books or Goodwill.   Carrie's latest album cover reveals she's going for the pop crowd.  But then again what is real country music anymore?  Everytime I turn on 99.3 and when I hear the first two lines of a song talk about Boom Boom Speakers or going Fishing in a Truck, the button is pushed to the overplayed classic rock station that CCC owns.  However I did get talked into hearing the new Alan Jackson which critics are calling his best in years and we shall see the end result of that.  The CMTs basically is a popularity contest  since Carrie took home the best video.  In the end nobody is going to remember the CMT Awards anyway.

Joe Bonamassa-Racing Toward The Daylight (J R Adventures)

I hate reviewing Joe's stuff because I can never spell his name right whatsoever.  It's more of a chore trying his name out than hearing his music and Racing Toward The Daylight is his 13th album in a decade.  Joe continues to stay busy with his solo albums as well as helping out Beth Hart or lending his talents to Black Country Communion, the supergroup featuring Jason Bonham and lead screamer Glenn Hughes.  Joe continues to sing the blues and he sounds a cross between Paul Rodgers and more Gary Moore to which like Moore, Bonamassa has half part classic rock and half part blues, seemly outdated in this day and age and I like it fine despite it being no airplay whatsoever.  He got some guest stars, Brad Whitford on seven (count em)  tracks, forgotten screamer Jimmy Barnes (guess Hughes wasn't available) on the throwaway Too Much Ain't Enough Love and it seems Joe is more comfortable letting somebody else sing while he wails away on the guitar.  But for myself I still prefer and enjoy his nice take on Who's Been Talking (including a beyond the grave appearance from Chester Burnett) and the Robert Johnson cover of Stones In My Passway.  And of course if you want classic rock there's always Dislocated Boy.  Too bad Joe wasn't around during the album rock years, he'd be right up there with the legends.  He still remains a cult favorite but word gets around and he gets outstanding session help too.  Take away a couple of the slower blues numbers and  this will be would be a little bit better but that's nitpicking.  I'm sure Joe already progressing on number 14 as we speak and just recently issued a live Black Country Communion album to which I have no use for, I'm just not a huge Glenn Hughes fan. Racing...to me just might be the best album that Joe Bonamassa has done although he would differ.  At least Joe is keeping the rock and blues alive better than most of what's out there.  I'm sure Gary Moore would be proud.

Grade B+

Since we basically keep continuing to get the barrage of porn spam in the comments sections we have upgraded to that Godawful Captcha shit from here on out.  I welcome comments, just not the shit that takes you to porn sites or adds a virus to your computer.  This remains a music and news and views site, and we intend to keep it that way.  For your protection with love with the Crabb Security Department.