Shelter From The Storm

I never got into Poco. Which is very, very strange, as on paper they are a perfect group for me. I’m a huge fan of Buffalo Springfield, The Eagles, The Flying Burrito Brothers, CSNY, The Byrds, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons… well, you get the picture. I really l like the two Souther, Hillman, Furay albums released in the mid 70s. But, Poco, they just never did it for me. I tried. I picked up an album now and then, gave it some listens, nothing. I bought a double CD best of package titled The Forgotten Trail (1969-74) when it was issued on CD in 1990. I figured, OK, here’s two discs of nothing but the best stuff, this should get me going. Nothing. 

I recently read an excellent book titled Desperados: The Roots Of Country Rock by John Einarson. A really good read, outlining the birth of “country rock” and the LA scene in the mid to late 60s and early 70s. Poco was certainly a very integral part of that whole scene and they are covered in some depth in the book. So, I figured what the hell, let me pick up a few albums and see if I can finally get into them. Amazon had most of their early CDs for $7 or $8 so I ordered some. First I listened to Pickin’ Up The Pieces, their debut album. There’s some stuff on there that I like, but still, it’s not an album I see myself coming back to very often. So, now I’m listening to this, the 1970 self-titled follow up. Nope, it just doesn’t do anything for me. Sad but true. 

For whatever reason, this “branch” of the early country rock tree seems to leave me flat. I never listened to any Loggins & Messina or solo Richie Furay either. Something about these two guys misses the mark with me. I’ve got two or three more CDs that I still plan to give a couple of good listens to, maybe something will stand out on those.

Other Listens on May 30th:
The Carnegie Hall Concert by Carole King
Hank Williams, Jr. & Friends by Hank Williams, Jr.
Matthew & Son by Cat Stevens
Children Of The Future by Steve Miller Band 

Living in Nashville I had of course heard of Little Big Town. They put out a self-titled album on Monument in 2002 which went nowhere. But then they struck gold (and platinum) and had amazing success with their second album (The Road To Here), and on an independent label (Equity Music Group) no less.  That’s not an easy thing to do in Nashville, though times do seem to be changing. I have never heard The Road To Here, but I saw the band on the CMT show Crossroads with Lindsey Buckingham. Crossroads is a show that pairs up a “country” artist with a “rock” artist (for the most part): Bon Jovi and Sugarland, John Fogerty and Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson, etc. And I gotta say, these guys were rocking, especially on the Fleetwood Mac songs they did with Lindsey. In what universe this band would be considered a country band, I don’t know. Oh, this one I guess. So, anyway, I saw this record on sale at Best Buy for $8 and decided to give it a try.

Like I say, to me this is much more of a pop album than a country album, and a pretty good one at that. The Fleetwood Mac influences and comparisons are very obvious and front and center. I do find it very interesting that they are much more of vocal group than a real band. The two guys play acoustic guitar on only one track and one of the women plays tambourine on two tracks. Other than that it’s all studio and session players. And damn good ones at that. The production and musicianship on this are first rate. Wayne Kirkpatrick does a bang up job producing their music, getting the sound (and especially the vocals and harmonies) just right. This sounds great turned up real loud. They do, at least, write their own songs, having penned all but two.  ”Fine Line,” “That’s Where I’ll Be” and “I’m With The Band” are my favorite tracks.

I haven’t spent enough time with this album yet to really say much more on how I feel about it (this is just my third listen). I like it a lot so far though and will keep it in my “current favorites,” give it some more spins and let the music sink in. Maybe I’ll even go back and pick up their last CD.

My friend Torne White did the artwork for this CD and my friend Phil Madeira plays B3 on it. It’s also interesting to note that in April it was announced that the band was signing with Capitol and taking both their Equity records with them. This can’t be a good sign for Equity Music Group as this group and these two albums were by far their biggest successes, though A Place To Land doesn’t seem to be selling anywhere near as well as The Road To Here. I don’t think it’s even gone Gold yet.

Other Listens on May 29th:
My Tennessee Mountain Home by Dolly Parton
Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
Morrison Hotel by The Doors
Book Of Dreams by The Steve Miller Band
Young Brigham by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott 

The Byrds early material has been mined over and over again. It first began with Never Before, a great collection of unreleased outtakes and alternate versions first released in 1989. (Well, I guess it actually began with the original release of Preflyte in 1969, an attempt to capitalize on their mid-60s success.) Since then an amazing amount of unreleased material has seen the light of day including Live At The Fillmore West 1969, four volumes of the Sanctuary series, a 2 disc reissue of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, two box sets, numerous bonus tracks on the reissues of the catalog and more. What’s really amazing is that all of this stuff is worthwhile, some of it downright fantastic. The Preflyte Sessions is no exception.

You have to keep in mind that this is very early Byrds material, recorded before their first album Mr. Tambourine Man. They were still finding their way, looking for their “sound” and coming together as a band. Even so this material is quite good. The 40 songs spread across two discs provide a clear picture of the band at this point in time. It’s amazing how great a songwriter Gene Clark was even then, writing almost perfect little pop songs (”The Reason Why,” “You Won’t Have To Cry,” “You Movin’,”She Has A Way,” etc.). Clark wrote or co-wrote almost every track on this collection. The two versions of “Mr. Tambourine Man” are quite different than the official version which would be recorded with some studio musicians at a later date. Also of real interest are the four early David Crosby related tracks. Two from the rare Early L.A. album and two unreleased, including a great version of “Get Together.”

Some of the songs are represented with multiple versions and/or takes but it never seems redundant. Almost half of the 40 songs are previously unreleased. The others come from the original Preflyte, Early L.A. and In The Beginning (another collection of early material on Rhino). It’s really great to have all this material together in one place.

McGuinn has turned loose of the tapes to another unreleased live album, Live At Royal Albert Hall 1971, and while this later incarnation of the Byrds is not my favorite I’ve got in on pre-order at amazon.com (put something I want on sale for $9.99 and I’ll almost always buy it). You can’t go wrong with anything that Clarence White is on. 

Other Listens on May 28th:
Jolene by Dolly Parton

Jackson Browne is one of the only artists to ever release a live album of completely “new” material, Running On Empty. The most famous other example is Neil Young’s Time Fades Away (still not available on CD!). Emmylou Harris did something almost the same with Last Date (the songs weren’t “new” though she had not recorded them before). Most artists take the opportunity to release live albums as a kind of “greatest hits” package. It takes a lot of courage to put out a live album with songs your audience has never heard previously. Yet for Jackson and Neil it paid off quite well. Running On Empty is one of Jackson’s best loved albums and Time Fades Away is a classic, though not as popular with Neil’s mainstream following as it is with the die hard fans. Jackson, either solo, with David Lindley as a duet, or with a full band, is a great performer. (I have an absolutely fantastic four disc bootleg of various live performances from 1973 to 1997 of just Jackson and David titled For Everyfan. Drop me an email if you’d like a copy, I’m always happy to share this kind of stuff.) I first saw him live with the Pretender band in 1977 in Austin, Texas at the old Palmer Auditorium (it’s gone now).

Solo Acoustic Vol. 1, released in 2005, was a treasure trove of intimate Jackson Browne performances. Jackson as a unique rapport with his audiences. They love him. He can pretty much do nothing wrong as far as they are concerned. Check out the customer reviews of Solo Acoustic Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 on amazon.com: 88 of the 121 reviews are 5 star with another 22 coming in at 4 star. Vol. 1 featured a well balanced selection of some of his most popular songs from throughout his career (though mostly featuring songs from the 70s and 80s albums). “These Days,” dates back to the very beginning of his career (famously covered by Nico on her album Chelsea Girl in 1967). It was clear from the title (Vol. 1) that more was to come, and now we have Vol. 2. It’s a perfect companion to the first volume though not quite as fulfilling due to the song selection. Vol. 2 concentrates more on the later half of his recorded output (only two of the songs date back to his classic 70s albums). Every artist has their own idea of what constitutes their best material and Jackson may well have had specific reasons for including some of the songs on this one, but he has many far, far better songs in his catalog that some of those represented here. Still, it’s a welcome collection and there aren’t really any bad songs on the disc.

The solo acoustic versions of “Never Stop,” “The Night Inside Me” and “My Stunning Mystery Companion” actually renewed my interest in his latest album, The Naked Ride Home, which didn’t have that big of an impact on me when it was originally released in 2002. But hearing those three songs in this intimate setting opened them up to me and made me give the album another chance.

OK, it’s been 6 years since The Naked Ride Home and now we’ve had two CDs worth of acoustic, live performances. I’m ready for a new studio album now. It’s way overdue.

Other Listens on May 27th:
Fillmore East: The Lost Concert Tapes 12/13/68 by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield

It took a long time for this album to reveal itself to me. More than 30 years. I’ve always been a very big CSNY fan. And a big fan of all the various incarnations and solo careers. The first concert I ever saw was Stephen Stills at the LA Forum. I think it was 1971. Neil Young is one of my all time favorite artists. In addition to Crosby, Stills & Nash, Deja Vu and 4 Way Street, Graham Nash’s first album, Songs For Beginners, had a huge impact on me. I love the first collaboration between Graham and David, Graham Nash & David Crosby (which for some unknown reason is still not available on CD in the US, though import copies are easy to find and reasonably priced). I bought If I Could Only Remember My Name…. when it was first released, but I never listened to it very much. It was a difficult album for me to find my way into. This is a different kind of music, especially for someone like me who is anchored in typical “pop” music and song structure. These are not typical pop songs. They’re not even typical “David Crosby” songs. Crosby has always had a very distinctive, unconventional songwriting style, even back in his days with the Byrds. The songs on If I Could Only Remember My Name… really took everything to a new dimension for him. “Laughing” was probably the only song I could really remember after I’d played the album. Everything else just kind of blended together into one long piece of music.

I probably didn’t listen to this album for 25 years or so. Occasionally I’d read a review or article which referenced it as one of the great albums from the 70s. I never saw it that way. Finally, I started giving it another chance, throwing it on occasionally. Gradually (and slowly) it began to open up to me. Or I began to open up to it. A remastered, expanded version was released in 2006 which contains both a CD version and advanced resolution stereo and surround sound versions on DVD. I picked this up and began listening even to it even more. Now it’s one of my favorite albums to listen to. 

It’s funny how that works. There are some albums that hit me the first time I listen to them and become all time favorites. Darkness On The Edge Of Town was like that. Blood On The Tracks is my very favorite album of all time, and though I loved it from the beginning, it took several years before it really found its way to that place. Sometimes it really takes time and repeated listening for me to find my way into certain albums and pieces of music. Which is why reviews that appear as soon as an album is released always need to be taken with a grain of salt. Other times no amount of repeated listenings will bring an album into my favor. There are certain albums I’ve tried and tried to find the magic in that some others see so clearly and I just can’t. And sometimes it just takes 30 years.

Other Listens on May 26th:
Hurry Sundown by The Outlaws
Live In Europe by Otis Redding
Self Portrait by Bob Dylan
Gimme Back My Bullets by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez
Young Brigham by Ramblin’ Rack Elliott 

Cat Stevens was one of the first “singer-songwriters” I fell in love with. Tea For The Tillerman was an important album for me. I listened to it a lot when it was first released. I saw Stevens at the Greek Theatre in November 1971. I remember Tom Jans and Mimi Farina opened the show. (Tom Jans is one of the great unheard singer-songwriters of the 70s. I’ll blog one of these days about his Eyes Of An Only Child, one of my favorite albums.) Teaser And The Firecat followed, and while not quite as good as Tea For The Tillerman, it too was a great album. I saw the movie Harold And Maude around this time which featured a lot of music from Mona Bone Jakon and so went “backwards” and picked up that album which has some great songs on it.  Just recently I finally picked up import copies of his first two albums on CD (expanded with lots of bonus tracks), Matthew & Son and New Masters. I decided to put together a comprehensive iTunes playlist of all his music. So I began listening to each album one after another. I had most of them, including the box set, on CD, but I was missing the last three CDs (from his “Cat Stevens” career), Numbers, Izitso and Back To Earth. I found them all at Amazon pretty cheap. For some reason Izitso must be out of print in the US now, as it took them a long time to ship me a copy and when it finally came it was a UK printing.

Well, there was a reason I hadn’t gotten around to buying those three albums on CD (I have old vinyl copies). They’re just not that good. A far, far cry from his best work. It’s really just the material. His voice is still in fine shape, there’s nothing wrong with the production or sound. It’s just the songs. They aren’t that good. The only thing that will make it onto my iTunes playlist from this is “(Remember The Days Of The) Old Schoolyard,” and that just barely. Well, I might also include “(I Never Wanted) To Be A Star” which has a certain charm to it though his “gimmicky” use of earlier song titles tends to annoy me. The rest of the songs are all adequate, but they aren’t songs that stick with me. They aren’t songs that I want to hear over and over again. They’re not “bad.” They’re just not memorable. The two instrumentals do next to nothing for me.

By the way, I was very pleasantly surprised with his newest album, released in 2006 under the name Yusuf, An Other Cup. It’s really pretty good and I’ve listened to it repeatedly. I recently picked up a DVD titled Yusuf’s Cafe Session but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. I know there are a few “Yusuf Islam” CDs out there and as much of a collector as I am and as much of a fan of Cat Stevens as I am, I doubt I’ll ever get around to picking those up. There’s just too much other stuff, and as I keep realizing as I get older, not near enough time to listen to it all.

Other Listens on May 24th:
Rhymes & Reasons by Carole King
Tumbleweed Collection by Elton John (bootleg)
Drifter’s Escape by Various Artists (an Uncut Magazine giveaway)

Copperhead Road was never my favorite early period Steve Earle album. With Steve, I, like many others, tend to divide his recorded output into pre-jail/post-jail. Of the five albums he released before getting clean, I’d have to go with Guitar Town and then Exit 0. The Hard Way and Shut Up And Die Like An Aviator almost never get any listens from me these days. I can understand why Universal chose Copperhead Road for the Deluxe Edition treatment, but it would not have been my choice. The songs just aren’t that strong.

With all due respect to Chris Morris (who wrote the liner notes and is a great music writer) the songs on this album are just not that strong. It may be Earle’s only platinum album but it’s far from his best. If I was putting together a Steve Earle playlist for my iPod, only two songs from this album would find their way into it: the title track and “The Devil’s Right Hand.” And maybe not even “The Devil’s Right Hand” as I might go with the version off Early Tracks. Yeah, I probably would. The rest are just not up to par with his best songwriting. A lot has been made of the production on this album, the big “Springsteen-ish” rock sound. To me it works better on paper. This album has always sounded flat and dense to me. I don’t buy the Springsteen sound comparison. I’ve never cared much for the sound of this album. Everything is buried in dark layers and seems as if it’s being filtered through a thick coat of “rock” production. “Nothing But A Child” is a much better song than it appears. There’s no intimacy, no immediateness in the production and presentation. If this song had appeared on one of Earle’s late 90’s albums it would probably stand out a lot more than it does here.

The bonus disc of 17 live cuts (11 previously unreleased) from 1987 through 1989 is the reason I bought this Deluxe Edition. And I hate to say it, but it’s a little disappointing. The 11 unreleased songs from Raleigh, North Carolina in 1987 are a nice snapshot of Earle live shortly before Copperhead Road was recorded. A decent selection of early songs is marred by the sound quality, which is muddy, undfefned and thick. Still, with so little live Steve Earle available commercially from this time period it’s a welcome addition. One welcome surprise is an previously unheard (at least to these ears) Rodney Crowell song, “Brown And Root.” I jusst find it hard to believe someone couldn’t have come up with a better recorded show from this time period. The other six tracks were all collected from various b-sides and bonus tracks released around the same time as Copperhead Road. Unfortunately, the sound quality is not a whole lot better on these tracks either. I’ve got Steve Earle bootlegs with better sound that this.

I came to Tommy rather late in the game. I don’t know why. Just too many other things got in the way. Who’s Next was always my favorite Who album. I remember listening to it’s debut on FM radio when I was in High School. I was at my girlfriend’s house in Palmdale, California late one night and they played the entire album from start to finish. I connected with it immediately. I’d heard other Who songs and albums, but Who’s Next was the first one I actually bought and listened to over and over. I bought other Who albums over the years, but none of them really stuck with me like Who’s Next.

Of course, I’ve always been familiar with the “hits” from Tommy: “Pinball Wizard, “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” “See Me Feel Me/Listening To You” and the other classic staples of FM radio. But I’d never purchased the LP or CD. I have over 5,000 LPs and even more CDs. It just slipped through the cracks. But I’m a huge fan of the “Deluxe Edition” double CDs that Universal Chronicles puts out. I think I saw this on sale at Amazon awhile back and decided to get it. I’ve been listening to it quite a bit in the last few weeks and it’s really opening up to me. I think I’d always been slightly “put off” by the “concept” aspect of it. Somewhere inside of me, fairly or not, it just seemed if you wrote songs specifically to tell one long story, some of them just weren’t going to be that great, because to a certain extent they were being forced. I love the feel of this music. The texture, the soundscape. Not all of the songs work for me as individual songs, but when I take the whole thing in as one big piece it’s quite amazing. The Who began work on it 40 years ago this fall, but it feels very fresh and alive to me, not dated in the least. I’m enjoying getting to know this album finally.

I must say Disc Two is somewhat of a let down to me and not quite up to what I’ve come to expect from the Deluxe Edition series. The Out-Takes and Demos are not particularly illuminating and don’t really add much to the experience. The Stereo Only Demos are nice, but again, they don’t really add much to the experience. I’d have much rather had a full, unreleased complete live version for the album from that time period.

Other listens on May 23rd:
Did She Mention My Name? by Gordon Lightfoot
Drunk And Crazy…Plus by Bobby Bare
Beautiful Loser by Bob Seger
Your Songs by Elton John