LP\s
The Best Of Sandy Posey (MGM)
What A Life!-Jimmy Smith (Verve)
Cds
Clarke/Duke Project (Epic)
Joni Mitchell-Blue (Reprise)
Brandy Clark 12 Stories (Warner)
Pentangle-So Early In The Spring (Green Linnet)
Renaissance-Novella (Wounded Bird)
Count Basie With Joe Williams-Joe Sings, Basie Swings (Verve)
Charlie Daniels-Fire On The Mountain (Epic)
The Jackie Wilson Story (Epic)
An Iowa City/Coralville bargain hunt. Housewerks, last time I was there, they had some student closing up shop before five, this time, a second chance and was rewarded with a lot of out of print stuff. I could have a decent Steeleye Span collection of their albums from the 70s on Chrysalis (reissued through Shananice). The Stanley Clarke/George Duke Project came from Goodwill IC, Brandy Clark's 12 stories from Crowded Closet and the rest from Housewerks. The albums did come from Goodwill IC. The Jimmy Smith album is fairly good, his version of Big Boss Man and Mission Impossible Theme are the highlights of this album. The Sandy Posey best of, disappoints with meddling forgotten singles but she'll be forever known for Born A Woman and Single Girl. I Take It Back is also a highlight, but Posey couldn't decide to go for a Lesley Gore sound, nor Skeeter Davis
The Pentangle album is from a 1988 album, the third of five albums featuring Bert Jaunch on guitar helping Jaqui McShee and the first including Gerry Conway (Fairport Convention/Jethro Tull) on drums Conway's bull in a china shop drumming sinks the album to the point of unlistenablity. And Conway didn't do Fairport much favors either with this over the top playing. The next Pentangle album, Conway did show more restraint, but if one person could ruin a album, he certainly did that.
Fire On The Mountain is one of the best albums from Charlie Daniels with hits Long Hair Country Boy and The South's Gonna Do It Again, one of the early tribute songs about southern rock. CDB could really hold their own, even showing their Allman Brothers influenced on No Place To Go, which falls apart at the end with a bombastic ending. But Orange Blossom Special rocks.
The Basie/Joe Williams is a classic album of jazz swing music, basically Williams has always owned Everyday I Have The Blues. Williams would later go more towards ballads which I lost interest.
The Jackie Wilson Story is a flawed overview of his Brunswick Recording that Epic ended up putting out. Wilson was never served best by Dick Jacobs' banal arrangement and productions and this tends to focus more on the ballads. In the Mid 60s, Carl Davis managed to update Wilson to a Chicago R and B sound with Higher And Higher and Whispers (Getting Louder). I did have this on LP years ago and didn't listen to it much, perhaps a revisit might be in order to hear one of the more dynamic voices in R and B. 40 years later on, it's the best introduction to Mr. Excitement. But I still can't stand Danny Boy. The Brandy Clark was on the wish list ever since I heard Big Day In A Small Town, the majority of folk say 12 Stories is her best. Probably because Jay Joyce didn't produced it.
For the most part, Joni Mitchell's Blue is considered her best overall album, which is false, Court And Spark is my go to Joni album, but this does have her This Flight Tonight to which Nazareth covered it. The Renaissance album might be the least of this collection found, it was issued on Sire, when Sire was going away from odd ball British Music and into punk rock with Ramones, Talking Heads, etc etc etc.
Somebody did finally buy the Roots And Blues Box set at the pawn shop but this I C trip, I didn't bother to stop at Record Collector, tho I could have found a parking spot. In years past, this would have been the Iowa City Folk Festival, to where I saw Los Lobos, Richard Thompson and Steve Earle in years past but COVID has kept that festival from going. Alas, Stuff Etc in both locations of IC Coralville had nothing of note, as well as Goodwill Coralville. Perhaps in the end, Housewerks has gotten back into my good graces once again as they had a very big CD selection and reasonably priced (4 dollars for all). Granted, the Iowa City finds at Goodwill were varied, I didn't really need Abbey Road from The Beatles (which was in great shape for a Apple 2nd generation reissue) or Hall And Oates Greatest Hits Live.
The Franklin Finds is dedicated to Franklin, my girlfriend's lonely dog who I promised her that I would visit and check up on him if I was in the area. Of course, he was always and remains happy to see me, tho he does miss his mom, who is visiting relatives for a few days.
