What Are You Listening To?

swerve

jeff buckley - dream brother

heiney9

Otis Rush-So Many Roads (Live)

Wow, what a great set. Recorded live in Japan on July 20 and 29, 1975. Rush is backed by Jimmy Johnson (rhythm guitar); Sylvester Boines (bass); Tyrone Centuray (drums). This shows why Otis Rush is one of the blues masters. All the greats learned from him, including Clapton and Page.

There is a good deal of fascinating instrumental interplay, especially from Centuray and Boines. Still, there is little doubt that this is Rush's show. The southpaw's mastery of the fretboard is on full display as he tosses out tricks--fluid, vibrato-rich phrasing, crying and stinging high ends, sounds transformed with feedback and effects.

Rush's passionate vocals and the notoriously intense building-and-falling architecture of his solos get ample breathing room on these cuts, and the inspiration he draws from his appreciative audience is clear. This set is especially recommended for guitarists, who will find a veritable treasure trove of licks to study throughout.

EDIT: I should also add this is very open and dynamic recording. Extremely enjoyable to listen to. All the correct ambience cues are there as well as a solid bottom end. The recording really enhances the enjoyment of the set.



H9

ESavinon

Frank Sinatra Fly mr to the moon.
Excellent recording for sda speakers.

landry_p2000

T.i.---king

DAGLJAM6

Jean Michel Jarre-"Oxygene" earlier now up Led Zeppelin-"The Song Remains the Same" both NM vinyl while doing some rearranging 'round the house.

Pacdog

Nascar lane! Hey I'm a big Nascar fan!

Tour2ma

Classical Sunday here... bit of a Bach binge.

Orchesterwerke - Trevor Pinnock & The English Concert
Nice 4-disk set from Archiv Produktion (Germany) that includes all six Brandenburgs and four Overtures.
Just the thing for Sunday AM brunch...

Organ Works - George Richie on Cornerstone Church's Bediant Organ (Lincoln, Nebraska)
Outstanding recording on the little known Titanic label.

Tour2ma

ZZ Top - Tejas

Heard "Arrested For Driving While Blind" (track 2) today on XM's classic station and just had to drag this oldie out. Damn, but their old stuff is good. Much more bluesy than their later, more widely known releases.

If you don't own their older stuff, Six Pack gives you their first six LP's on three disks. Very economical way to correct that situation.

Tres Hombres is up next... Simply cannot spin ZZ without including their quintessential medley, "Waitin' for the Bus / Jesus just Left Chicago".

SCompRacer

Tour2ma wrote:

ZZ Top

+1 Loved going to their concerts. Always two shows, one on stage and the other was the diverse attendees.

Tour2ma

Sad to say that I've never seen them...

I took quite an audio journey tonite. Diggin into the drawer that the Z's are in took me placs I had not been in a while. Namely:

Music from the Soundtrack: Valley Girl and
Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Pump Up the Volume
The former is early Nicholas Cage. The latter is early Christian Slater. Both movies are among my guilty pleasures. Nice mish mashes of tunes from groups that fit into one of three categories:

• Ones I'll probably never buy a full CD of... The Pixies, Bad Brains with Henry Rollins, Liquid Jesus, Above the Law, Chagall Guevara, Sparks, Josie Cotton.
• Ones I might nab someday like Peter Murphy (just love his Pump Up contribution, "I've Got a Secret Miniature Camera"), Concrete Blonde, Ivan Neville, Sonic Youth, Psychedelic Furs, The Plimsouls, Payola$.
• Ones I have CD's from like Soundgarden, Cowboy Junkies, Pat Travers, Men at Work.

Good fun listens with Pump Up being the stronger set... TALK HARD!

Found an unopened copy of Neil Young's Mirror Ball that I spun next.
I can't say I recognized a single track, but I plan to get to know this disk a lot better in the coming weeks. Good, electric Neil.

After Neil I visited MJ's little sister, JJ... Rhythm Nation
As is the case with her older bro, the SQ is top notch. And I like the tunes to boot. CD only produced a bout a half-dozen hits for her.

Climbed out of the Z drawer to wrap up the nite with Sting's Fields of Gold: The Best of... 1984 - 1994
Another high SQ redbook. Some cuts are kind of schmaltzy, but most work.

DAGLJAM6

One to pull out if you've got it.....Stevie Wonder-"Innervisions"
just played the repressing and what an album. If you can find it get the cd or lp new ,old or whatever. You may have listened to it before but sit back and explore it again.

Tour2ma

Have that Stevie on vinyl here, Dave.

Tore into a bunch of cellophane here today (but not one PITA security seal)...

I spent the late afternoon with Mr Eric Clapton. A trio of new SACD's, one of which is going to generate some karma in the very near future, arrived recently filling, what I now know was, a significant gap in my classic rock collection.

After Layla I rushed out to my local watering hole to catch the end of happy hour, have a beer and visit a little. Five hours and a tad more than a beer later, I returned home on a mission. An ex-DJ bud (the good, radio station kind) had been feeding the jukebox and playing some fine blues by a fellow named Buddy Guy off an LP called Damn Right I've Got the Blues. Took me a moment, for some reason, but I ultimately remembered, "I own that." Thus the mission....

Damn right, it's great stuff... Also very, very nice SQ. Easily the high point of the night... and for that matter, the day as well.




Links in the pics will take you to AMG reviews with which I whole-heartedly agree. I'll just add that:

• the SQ on the SACD's is uniformly great;
• Layla still rules EC's discography; and
• Damn, Right... is a must own release.

A couple of others followed:
Billy Joel's River of Dreams - A somewhat different-from-the-rest Billy Joel effort, although not as different as intended. Catchy and well recorded, if you're a Billy Joel fan, check it out.

The Chambers Brothers' The Time has Come - Mixed bag here with about half covers that surprisingly don't work, and half original songs that just as surprisingly do work. And then there's the 9-minute "Time has Come"... If you are going to have only one hit, it might as well be as great as this one. Four mono bonus tracks round the disk out nicely. The SQ of this remastered issue is surprisingly good as well.

Jethro Tull's Original Masters - While it's no substitute for the full Aqualung or Thick as a Brick, it's the best Tull hits collection* out there. SQ varies some from track to track, but pretty good overall.
_______________________________________
*WARNING: Avoid 20 Years of Jethro Tull like the plague! All the tracks you'd know were recorded live way after the band was past its prime.

DAGLJAM6

Dropped by the local goodwill and on a roll here.....
excellent vinyl copies of:
Stevie Wonder-"Talking Book"
Taj Mahal-"The Natch'l Blues"

Played the S.W. next up Taj, Baby!

DAGLJAM6

Pix for those interested...

sda2mike

DAGLJAM6 wrote:

Dropped by the local goodwill and on a roll here.....
excellent vinyl copies of:
Stevie Wonder-"Talking Book"
Taj Mahal-"The Natch'l Blues"

Played the S.W. next up Taj, Baby!

I have a 3 disc retrospective of Taj Mahals's career, from 66 to 90 something. HE IS A BAAAD MAN! I remember a picture in a guitar book of Hendrix showing him something. He truly plays anything! He's still working today! To Google I go!!!!:D

audiobliss

Billy Joel - River of Dreams

A good song, indeed.

Zorac

nickelback - all the right reasons

audiobliss

Chris Isaak - Baja Sessions

Just picked it up tonight. So far I prefer Heart Shaped World.

Polkersince85

Tommy Castro "Triple Trouble" excellent pelvic thumping blues. So much talent on this cd it oozes from your speakers, Tommy Castro, Jimmy Hall, Lloyd Jones,Reese Wynans,Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton.and Double Trouble as the rhythm section. First two tracks just warm your speakers up for "Be Careful with a Fool" Warning, if you're using SDA's, Take the pictures down from the walls and put the cat out.

heiney9

Jewel-Live in Milwaukee 7-10-04 (acoustic tour)
Instant Live Series

One of my favorite artists. I got to see her live during this tour and she is a fantastic performer. She tells lots of stories, cracks jokes and has audience members come up on stage and sing with her. A total class act who really enjoys interacting with her fans. It doesn't hurt that she's hot!

The true story of a stalker fan sending in a video of himself naked, covered in oil lip syncing to her songs had me cracking up. Jewel said she watched the whole video, she couldn't take her eyes off of "Meatloaf's" brother. (that's how she described what he looked like)

H9

Polkitup2

Here comes Peter cotton tail, hoppin down the bunny trail .... Good stuff

DAGLJAM6

On now-Robin Trower-"Twice removed from yesterday" fresh ,original ,unopened lp ('til now)
Next, may have to put on Roy Buchanan-"Livestock".:)

george daniel

J. Joplin, with BB&THC---SACD
'Cheap Thrills"

audiobliss

Brad Paisley - Part II

Little did I know it's actually a HDCD!

iworkfortweeter

Dimmu Borgir- Death Cult Armageddon

Tour2ma

sda2mike wrote:

I have a 3 disc retrospective of Taj Mahals's career, from 66 to 90 something.

Former co-worker loaned me a then new release of his back in 2002. Surprisingly good and much, much different than the toothless man in Woodstock. Very bluesy...

Took a 2nd run at Dream Theater's Scenes from a Memory. Tried it last year sometime and it left me cold. Got the same intial impression this go-round, namely Pink Floyd wannabees, but then it grabbed me... a little anyway.... at least enough to warrant a third listen sometime in the not too distant future. The SQ is way up there, that's for sure.

Took me a split session (due to other activiites), but I finally got through Lizzie West's Holy Road. Russ turned me onto this at the last micro-meet at his house, i.e., I stopped by... It's a keeper. She covers a range of styles... one track will sound like a folk festival, sound like some sweet little waife, then she'll hit you with a little driving rhythm tune and even get a little nasty, then country, then near "new age" and on and on... There's a couple cuts that you can't quite pigeon-hole. Quirky little voice with a hint of vibrato at times. She seems to remind of some different female vocalist every track without really sounding like someone else. You gotta know the SQ is great on this one, else it wouldn't be around Russ' long. RECOMMENDED

Near disaster of the night was my new Townes van Zandt, high, low and in between/ The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. I just wasn't prepared for how bad his voice was... and I have the LP of his '69, S/T release. Plus it's definitely in the "Country" category, but the boy could ink a tune. So I got over both the style and the voice. This is not a compilation, but a one disk combination of his two 1972 releases that solidly put him on the map. If you go here, prepare to wince now and then, but also prepare to be awed by the craftsmanship of this very full, 22-track disk.

Last up was the remastered, Carlos Santana/ John McLaughlin collaboration, Love Devotion Surrender. Depending on who you talk to this '73 release, arguably at the height of both their guitar prowess, is either brillaint or a train wreck. To my ear the marriage of these two widely divergent styles works, so I cast my lot with the crowd with the former view. Nice remastering job, and alternate takes of two tracks round out the disk nicely.

candyliquor35m

I pulled this out of the cd rack and listened to it today. Still sounds good. If you like ballads, check out 3. I miss you and 7. Ask me no questions. I should have done this on april fools day to see if anyone believed me but it's true.

starchaser

Vivaldi... Concerto for 4 Violins in E minor.

Tour2ma

I prefer the g sharp variation...

cl,
Not even closing time could make that lot look better.

Me? I'm stuck on Lizzie West right now. Been spinning her about every other CD today/ yesterday. And in between I demo'd her for a neighbor and bent shackdaddy's ear for about 15 minutes about her. See post 1628 for details.

I owe Russman bigtime for this one.

speakergeek

Italian Baroque Favorites.