What Are You Listening To?

BlueMDPicker

Lonnie Brooks - Hot Shot
1983, Alligator - AL 4731 Stereo LP



Lonnie had the best band I've ever heard behind him at this moment in time: Dion Payton on lead (who played with and then headed John Lee Hooker's band after his death), Ken Sajdak on keyboards (one of Chicago's very finest roadhouse organ sylists), and Abb Locke on tenor sax (a long-time personal acquaintence who has toured with about every big name rock and blues act around.) This album has a really live gig vibe. Side B opens with "I Want All My Money Back" which is a signature tune and showcases Lonnie's style to the 9s. Good stuff!

DAGLJAM6

"Speechless"- Bruce Cockburn B.C. doing straight up instrumentals acoustic guitar always sounds so good through tubes...

heiney9

Eric Clapton-Blues

Not a huge fan of Clapton. But this 1999 release is a good listen, especially the 2nd disc which is live from various places; it's mostly from Crossroads vol. 2. Perfect for a Sunday where here in Northwest Illinois we are getting snow once again and have a winter weather advisory. Just staring out the window listening to some blues, very pretty and calm.



H9

audiobliss

jack johnson. on and on

BlueMDPicker

Matt Schofield - Siftin Thru Ashes
2005, MSI Music (import), UPC: 689076976428



If you haven't heard of him, now you have. If you haven't heard him (and you enjoy blues), you will. The absolute best blues guitarist/singer/songwriter to emerge in the UK in decades.

DAGLJAM6

BlueMDPicker wrote:

Matt Schofield - Siftin Thru Ashes
2005, MSI Music (import), UPC: 689076976428



If you haven't heard of him, now you have. If you haven't heard him (and you enjoy blues), you will. The absolute best blues guitarist/singer/songwriter to emerge in the UK in decades.

I'll look for it tomorrow at the local record store.(Or order it)
Thanks for the heads up!

shack

ZZ Top - Tres Hombres



At some point these guys quit getting props as a "Kick ****" rock and roll band. I'm not sure why...especially when you listen to Tres Hombres. Maybe it was the overexposure on MTV (Back when they actually showed music videos), maybe they started getting to formulamatic...whatever...back in the early 70s this was the party R & R and is still good stuff today. Some of the later stuff may be dated...but not this album. La Grange still leads the way but the rest of the album is not far behind.

Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill



What can I say...Was... and still is...one of my alltime favorite albums. This was my "Demo" music anytime I bought new gear. There are many that will say "Countdown To Ecstacy" or "Pretzel Logic" or "Katie Lied" are better albums (and they are all good) but for me this is the quintessential Steely Dam album...right from the lead in of "Do It Again" which happens to be one of the best rock lead-ins...right there with Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing".

dorokusai

Mexican Radio.

TroyD

Emmylou Harris - Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town MFSL LP

BDT

audiobliss

Emmylou...now there's a great voice. Slow Surprises is one of my favorite songs by her.

shack

The Eagles - On The Border



Still one of my favorite groups. I like the fact that they still do a reunion from time to time.....but not as a characture of their former selves. They get on stage and play music...showcasing how their skills have matured...rather than trying to act like they never have (matured that is). Refreshing in a time where 50 year old rockers try to act like they did when they were 20 something. They've actually held up pretty well...unlike some others (see the Eddie Van Halen thread )

heiney9

The Cure-Disintegration

Classic Cure line-up. These guys are very underated, Certainly relegated to the New Wave catagory in the 80's, the music has held up well over the last 15 years or so. Haven't listened to this in over a year and it's still very satisfying. Expanding the latent arena rock sensibilities that peppered Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me by slowing them down and stretching them to the breaking point, the Cure reached the peak of their popularity with the crawling, darkly seductive Disintegration. It's a hypnotic, mesmerizing record, comprised almost entirely of epics like the soaring, icy "Pictures of You." The handful of pop songs, like the concise and utterly charming "Love Song," don't alleviate the doom-laden atmosphere. The Cure's gloomy soundscapes have rarely sounded so alluring, however, and the songs -- from the pulsating, ominous "Fascination Street" to the eerie, string-laced "Lullaby" -- have rarely been so well-constructed and memorable. It's fitting that Disintegration was their commercial breakthrough, since, in many ways, the album is the culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s.



H9

danger boy

heiney9 wrote:

The Cure-Disintegration

Classic Cure line-up. These guys are very underated, Certainly relegated to the New Wave catagory in the 80's, the music has held up well over the last 15 years or so. Haven't listened to this in over a year and it's still very satisfying. Expanding the latent arena rock sensibilities that peppered Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me by slowing them down and stretching them to the breaking point, the Cure reached the peak of their popularity with the crawling, darkly seductive Disintegration. It's a hypnotic, mesmerizing record, comprised almost entirely of epics like the soaring, icy "Pictures of You." The handful of pop songs, like the concise and utterly charming "Love Song," don't alleviate the doom-laden atmosphere. The Cure's gloomy soundscapes have rarely sounded so alluring, however, and the songs -- from the pulsating, ominous "Fascination Street" to the eerie, string-laced "Lullaby" -- have rarely been so well-constructed and memorable. It's fitting that Disintegration was their commercial breakthrough, since, in many ways, the album is the culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s.



H9

Nice H9 good choice.. for some reason I never get tired of listening to the Cure.

DAGLJAM6

Levon Helm and the RCO All-stars-"S/T"
followed by:
Stephen Stills-"Manassas"

Picked up the Helm LP at this past years Pfest. (thanks for the recommendation Jesse)

Today was also the second listen to Gilmour's-"On an island" haven't decided about that one yet, even though i really enjoy all of his previous solo outtings
this one isn't jumping out at me yet.

shack

DAGLJAM6 wrote:

followed by:

Stephen Stills-"Manassas"

Excellent!

DAGLJAM6

shack wrote:

Excellent!

Yes, yes it is.:) i've gotta dig up his first somewhere in all these LP's.....

DAGLJAM6

And for the finale' of the eveningThe Who- "Quadrophenia" side 4 of a freshly cleaned 2lp set...absolutely my favorite coupla'three Who tracks.

billbillw

Today I've listened to several great vinyls that my brother sent me (his extras)
before work: Talking Head: Speaking In Tounges (I was amazed at how good this sounded, very clean)
After work: Pink Floyd: Welcome To the Machine
Now: The Cars self titled album (still my favorite)

shack

Going through the stack of vinyl that I haven't listened to in a very long time.

Credence Clearwater Revival - Green River




Green River, Commotion, Lodi, Bad Moon Rising and more. Very short LP (30 min.) but good stuff.

Tour2ma

See all the "free" music your little TT investment has given you, shack?

Spent last night with some disks. For the most part they were sounding so good, I could not break away to post. Don't you just hate that?

Nick Lowe - Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe
If I had to categorize Nick, and it'd be difficult, I'd have to create one called "Pop Punk". It's clear from the track credits that Nick spent a lot of time working with Dave Edmunds who produced the likes of k.d. lang, The Fabulous T-Birds and the Everly Brothers.

I did a bit of track skipping here, including the two opening singles, as several of the 25 on this generous compilation disk just don't work for me. However, about half of them are stunners, both from the composition and the SQ standpoints. Only one you are likely to know is "Cruel to be Kind", and it's far from the best here.

Argent - The Argent Anthology
Struggled a bit with the SQ here, but hearing both "Hold Your Head Up" and "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" for the first time in a long time, and Rod's lesser known "It's Only Money Part 1" was worth it.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - ELP: The Atlantic Years
Received a full body, ELP/ CA/ Sunfire massage to wrap up the night. Standing waves in abundance, but no recording SQ issues here... However, the neighbors might have had a different view around 02:00 AM.

For me this was a watershed ELP listen. I'd never noticed the pronounced jazz influences in many of ELP's tracks before. Some is there on their S/T release, but it's almost in your face starting with Tarkus.

SIDE NOTE: In my search for the ELP album cover I found this site: Progressive Archives.com. Seems like a fun one to explore.

Tour2ma

Twas a grey morning in SE Tejas today, perfect for this AM's line-up. Crackin' and unwrappin' a bunch of new CD's of varying age...

Buddy Guy - Damn Right I've Got the Blues

AMG is luke-warm on it, not pure enough for their reviewer's taste, but Whoa... hot stuff here to my ear. Plenty of guest artists dropping in here (Clapton) and there (Beck) and there (Knopfler). And, FWIW, it won a Grammy...

Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues Singers

This is old school blues ala Mississippi Fred McDowell (I Do Not Play No Rock'n'Roll). While it's a decent salvaging of of RJ material (many tracks were re-recorded off of original 78's released in 1936 and '37), it sounds like that was the source much of the time.

In spite of the drawbacks, it's a very serviceable recording of some great music from a Blues legend when you're in a mood that only an old-time blues' fix will satisfy.

Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour

This GG recommendation has been sitting on the shelf for a couple years unopened... my bad. It will not be long before it spins again. And there's a DVD of the concert that I just may have to buy.

I think I was expecting rock when I spun it, and there's a little here, but mostly it's Blues. Predominately electric, but enough acoustic, steel guitar work to make one think an old-time, delta man is at the controls.

Nice SQ, great for a live concert... Superb guitar work... Adequate vocals... As a performer, you'd have to know you did something right when at the end of the evening the crowd starts chanting your name... in this case it's in that British Isles sing-song style heard at football and boxing matches.

Irish Tour is Highly recommended... and not just due to Rory's use of my name...

seo

Diana Krall - The Look of Love

Listening in my office, on my laptop w/ cheap computer speakers.

Note to self. Need to work on the office rig.

Ron-P

DAGLJAM6

A new CD/Artist for me- Sarah Harmer- "I'm a Mountain" her new release. Heard while looking through the used vinyl bins at the local music store. (Good stuff here Reeltrouble, Shack folky but....) The last track-"How deep in the valley" is worth the price of the disc alone. Weird that at the store when this track started a few of us (customers) all looked up and had to ask who that was. (Exceptional vocals)

DAGLJAM6

Tour2ma wrote:

Buddy Guy - Damn Right I've Got the Blues
Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues Singers

Both excellent whatever the format.

I've been on a Rory kick since picking up a couple of albums recently. Man did i miss the boat on this guy up 'til recently too!

BlueMDPicker

DAGLJAM6 wrote:

I've been on a Rory kick since picking up a couple of albums recently. Man did i miss the boat on this guy up 'til recently too!

Another one who left us far too early. I was never a fan of his vocals, but his guitar work will stand the test of time.

DAGLJAM6

BlueMDPicker wrote:

I was never a fan of his vocals, but his guitar work will stand the test of time.

I'll agree on that point and luckily his "live" shows are some of the best for guitar work. Not often has any artist's live shows showcased their singing in the best light.(There are exceptions of course.) This is usually overcome on Rory's live albums by the sheer raw emotion of the show. Funny how the vocals are so wrapped up in true "blues" presentation, look at the greats; Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters, Son Seal (at their best) your focus will tend to be on the delivery of lines ,emphasis being added by guitar. One thing is universal really great blues players play the audience as well or better than there chosen instrument, that i believe makes or breaks a bluesman.

TroyD

Got some Elvis going on tonight, picked up two still sealed albums today. Pure Gold (which is an awful recording other than the spectacular Kentucky Rain) and Moody Blue.

Right now, spinning Traffic's Low Spark of High Heeled Boys....one of my faves

BDT

audiobliss

IWas over at a friend's house this evening, and he started playing music on his laptop. I immediately recognized Eric Clapton's Tears In Heaven, My Father's Eyes, and Layla. Then Cocaine came on. Again, I immediately recognized the song (though I didn't remember the name), and I very suredly said it was Eric Clapton again, since I recognized the song from my The Cream of Clapton CD and the voice sounded just like Eric Clapton. My friend said his computer said it was Jimi Hendrix, but I maintained that it was Eric Clapton because of his voice. I'm not at all familiar with Jimi Hendrix and his work, so I allowed that Jimi Hendrix might have done it originally, but I still maintained (quite adamantly) that it was Eric Clapton singing on his computer. Well, he (somehow) went online and found Eric Clapton's version and played it back to back with the 'Jimi Hendrix' version. The guitar was obviously different, but I *thought* I remembered the version on my CD having the guitar like on his 'Jimi Hendrix' version, and both voices sounded like Eric Clapton to me at this point. When he turned his laptop around to face me and turned up the volume, I began to question whether or not it really was Eric Clapton. On some of the higher notes I realized it didn't really sound like Eric Clapton.

So at any rate, I'm sitting here at my computer and remember this, so I pull out my The Cream of Clapton CD and play Cocaine. Oops. It is most definitely the Eric Clapton version that my friend pulled up and not the 'Jemi Hendrix' version he originally played.

And now that I've told my story, I fail to see its point; but I still told it! I guess I've just been away from Eric Clapton for too long. One thing this little 'experience' has led to, is now I want to explore Jimi Hendrix's work some. Besides Cocaine, I can't say as I know of any of his work.

heiney9

TroyD wrote:

Got some Elvis going on tonight, picked up two still sealed albums today. Pure Gold (which is an awful recording other than the spectacular Kentucky Rain) and Moody Blue.

Right now, spinning Traffic's Low Spark of High Heeled Boys....one of my faves

BDT

Man.......Elvis is so overlooked. I didn't really care for his gospel period...but holy crap....it's ELVIS.

H9