Last month we set another record for viewers in the month with over 2300 and over a thousand for the Brains blog which continue to get more readers or perhaps more paddlers to pad on the big lead it has over the Brian Howe Bad Company blog to which Mr. Howe and his Bad Company band will be playing in Waterloo at the National Cattle Congress with the no original members left of Molly Hatchet (unless Dave Hlubek is still there since he's the last remaining original member left in the Bobby Ingram led band). Labor Day also gave us Night Ranger and Boston playing at the Casino at Tama/Toledo but I didn't go to that, going instead to watch the Cedar Rapids Kernels conclude their season with a 10-3 blowout by Clinton Lumberkings who hit 5 HRs today.
Sunday was spent down at the New Bo Festival watching a band called Revival doing a pretty good job doing jam songs and the big guy doing some scatting (or rapping) to music. They later came back with two women and calling themselves something else and played way till after the sun went down. I spent time going to and from across the street at Chrome Horse listening to Lipstick Trace some chick hair metal led band playing loud and noisy and then it was Free Fall, a Tom Petty Tribute band to which the band did a good job creating the old Petty hits but the Petty wannabe singer had a cold and didn't exactly sound like Petty. After three songs I moved on to other things. http://www.newbofest.com/
Hard to believe that this is the last official weekend of summer, although it seems like I did more this year than in previous years. From Los Lobos, to REO/Micky Thomas, Kentucky Headhunters and assorted free shows around the area I managed to get out to enjoy. I did miss out on Tommy Roe in Dubuque and didn't get much notice on the Boston/Kansas show in St Louis but maybe next time I'll make an attempt to see them next summer.
In the meantime, Arizona 30 is coming in a couple weeks and I'm still working on details on where I'll be going but it looks like a trip to Las Vegas for the first time since 2006, with stops in Kingman, Lake Havasu City and perhaps Flagstaff although Tucson won't be the place of destination since it's further south.
You couch potatoes in the Anamosa neighborhood will be happy to know that Divorce Court has returned to the 11 30 AM slot after Judge Alex and at noon Judge Joe Brown takes over that spot over Swift Justice which got canceled as far as I know. You get two hours of the People's Court before Steve Wilkos which slides into Maury. By then it's either Judge Judy or better yet moving on to other things or for my case at work. Ricki Lake returns on the other channel if anybody gives a shit. Some do.
Link of the day: http://www.themortonreport.com/features/new-music-for-old-people/ Al Kooper, former wonder producer writes his own top ten on the Morton Report with a more eclectic collection of music than myself. He knows a few things.
I'll be working on a couple things before taking a break but if I plan them out right, it will look like I haven't missed a beat. And I'm still rocking out the Top Ten Of The Week. Hopefully it will be worth about 25 visits from my devoted faithful following.
1, Travelin Man-Lynyrd Skynyrd 1997 Through the magic of tape and might we get the last recording of Ronnie Van Zant singing with Johnnie which turns out the be the highlight of the forgotten Twenty album. I'm not sure if Ronnie, had he lived would be very comfortable working the Tea Party Politics that the Skynyrd dudes are into today but still their latest Last Of A Dyin Breed is good listening, if the politics don't taint the music if you're a flaming liberal (like me).
2. I'll Fly Away-The Konnoy Sisters & Erik Darling 1956 Folk music that got a big boost when this track was used for O Brother Where Art Thou movie although John Henry aka T Bone Burnette got Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch to redo it for the soundtrack and bluegrass was once again in style for a few years. Rykodisc quietly put out the Konnoy Sisters/Erik Darling album without much fanfare.
3. Don't Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock And Roll-John Baldry 1971 This month's guilty pleasure comes from this song from It Ain't Easy, an album that side 1 was produced by Rod Stewart and the second side by Elton John. Baldry was a journeyman blues player that had a minor hit with Let The Heartaches Begin which was more pop based than blues. Back then, Stewart had a great band backing him up, Ronnie Wood on guitar and Mickey Waller playing drums, a very unappreciated drummer who throws a sloppy beat and Wood adding drunken slide guitar and Madeline Bell screaming them out on backing vocals. Beaker Street used to play this song a lot but I was more familiar with the one by Crow that had a regional hit in 1970.
4. Willie The Wimp-Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble 1986 You hardly hear this on the radio anymore but it remains one of my fave SRV songs ever made. Jimmy Vaughan guest stars on guitar.
5. I Know I'm Losing You-Rare Earth 1970 There are three different variations to this song, one is the well known 3:38 single version that we all grew up with, the second was the 11 minute freakout version that made it to Ecology album and the other night I played the 14 minute version to which woke my brother up. Norman Whitfield may have been one of the more ingenious producers Motown ever produced but I think he never got more metallic than this tune for Rare Earth.
6. Why Don't Cha-West, Bruce & Laing 1973 Or Mountain with Jack Bruce filling in for Felix, WBL was the offshoot of Mountain and made two albums of varying degree, the first being the better of the two although I never heard the second album at all.
7. Miss You-Dani Wilde 2010 From the Ruf label of Blues Ladies, Dani Wilde is the more wild singer, playing more like Susan Techesdi hot (rather than Janis) to Samantha Fish's Bonnie Raitt cool and getting old time blues vet Mike Vernon to produce her 2010 album Shine an album that was in the racks at Half Priced Books for so long and they couldn't sell it so they threw it in the two dollar bins. This is her cover of the Rolling Stones 1978 hit. Dani tends to not vary her voice all that much on Shine and the album kinda blurs around the edges. In the end, not bad but not something that would be in heavy rotation here.
8. Quinn The Eskimo-Bob Dylan 1970 Ah Self Portrait, an album that critics have called the worst Dylan album ever till The Budokan Fiasco came out 9 years later. Myself, I actually liked the album a bit more than Blonde On Blonde (!) but then again I always liked it when Dylan threw curves. Vocalwise I'm thinking it came around Nashville Skyline and he had the band backing him up on this song. Backlash was so damn strong that Dylan turned around and gave us New Morning. But then again Bob Dylan does things his own way, that's why I always look forward to the next project or bootleg series. New album next week kiddies. Look for a comment about that whenever I get a copy.
9. Cold Sweat-The Boneshakers 1997 Sweet Pea Atkinson hooks up with guitarist Randy Jacobs on a cover of James Brown in a way that Stevie Ray Vaughan would have tackled it. Atkinson is better known as one of the singers for Was (not was) and formed the Boneshakers while Don Was was doing production and David Was taking time out. Made two albums for the Virgin Blues based Pointblank label. Looking at this list I didn't intend this top ten to be so blues based but that's how it turned out this week. Who knows what is planned for next week.
(new picture replaced the original) 10. The Way I Walk-Jack Scott 1959 Jack hardly gets any credit for the development of rock and roll in the late 50s, better known as doing the heartbreak ballads like Burning Bridges or What's In The World Come Over You or My True Love but to me Scott absolutely kills it on the rockabilly rock outs. I don't he ever topped this song in terms of toughness, and even The Cramps covered Way I Walk. But as they say always imitated but never duplicated this was and still remains Jack Scott. Bow down Jann Wanner.
Five more that are so good that I had to repost them again (they appeared on previous top tens)
Black Metallic-Catherine Wheel 1991
Wrong-Train Hits Truck 1994
Cold Gin-KISS 1974
She's 22-Norah Jones 2012
Christmas Lights-John Moreland & The Red Dirt Souls 2012
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