compared to what

Something cool for a hot day: start with some bass groove, add a little tune, let them go where they will. Sometimes the fewest ingredients yield the most satisfaction. My recommendation on this video: start it at the 1:13 mark and listen, then go back and listen to the beginning interview.

Esperanza Spalding, Cantora de Yala

Esperanza Spalding is another of my “heard it on the radio” discoveries from this past spring. Though she also plays bass guitar from time to time, there’s nothing like the sound of that wood. Much of her stuff has a more dense instrumental mix, but I like the simple mix the best. Like a musical creme brulee.

categories: music
tags: bass, Esperanza Spalding, jazz

I’ve added a new little thing to the side bar. —->>>>

Usually called “asides” or “miniposts”, these are small posts, usually just a link to some article elsewhere. I often run across something interesting, but don’t have much (or, really, anything) I want to add, so I don’t bother to post on it at all. Now, I’ll just toss them to the side, instead of tossing them to the curb.

Trying to be more clever than calling them asides, I started to call them bsides. Maybe I should have stuck with that, but I didn’t. I called them “elsewhat” (I’ve still got that “what” thing going, for some reason). Something tells me I won’t stick with that, but who knows.

EtA: yeah, the “elsewhat” had to go. It’s back to “bsides”. Maybe still too cute. Good thing about blogs: you can change just about anything.

categories: meta
tags: asides, miniposts

Is John Mayer really a celebrity?

Context is everything. Of course, Joshua Bell could have told him that. (Be sure and click both links and watch the videos.)

I started this post just because I think Mayer is usually pretty hilarious in his videos, and this one is no exception. But then I remembered the Bell article and got thinking about what people actually notice when they notice artists.

Now, it’s easy to see why people might not recognize either Mayer or Bell by their faces (fine looking men though they are), and Mayer didn’t give them much music to go on. But Bell’s music? You’d think they’d realize it wasn’t just some J. Random Busker.

There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.

Is it just about busy lives? Or do people need context to interpret what they see and hear? Or do we need it to tell us what’s good (cool/wholesome/whatever floats your boat), because we won’t or can’t trust our own ears?

(John Mayer Trio, Try!)

(Joshua Bell, Nocturne (Chopin))

categories: biz, music, oddities
tags: celebrity, John Mayer, Joshua Bell, TMZ, violin, Washington Post.

More from Buddy Guy on the occasion of his new release, Skin Deep (reviewed here):

on Muddy Waters:

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categories: music
tags: Buddy Guy, Chicago blues, Derek Trucks, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, overalls, Skin Deep, Susan Tedeschi

(or, who do you think you are?)

One of the more interesting music festival stories this summer, so far, was the story of Kanye West at Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo has made efforts over the past few years to bring in some artists, even mainstream artists, that you don’t typically think of in connection with these field-of-steam type mega music festivals. For example, the Police at last year’s festival were a huge hit with fans. For a variety of reasons, Kanye’s light show was not such a hit. The story has been all over, but if you’re not familiar with it, here are a couple of quick links from jambands.com

Click the link and scroll down to “Kanye West Screams”: Kanye West Screams

And for a balanced look at what happened, read Dean Budnick’s assessment: Kanye Was Doomed
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categories: biz
tags: Bonnaroo, Kanye West, meet and greets, Paul Thorn, taylor hicks

“This is the first time I really had more control,” Guy says. “Everything in here is new. Most of the other albums have been a few new songs and then back to the older stuff or the covers-which is fine, but you gotta be creative. I would talk to Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck when they were all making records, and they would tell me that they would go in the studio with the freedom to play what they wanted. This time, I had that.” Buddy Guy

Whether it’s booking his nightclub or picking touring partners, it’s clear that Buddy Guy is not just interested in playing the blues, but in giving the music he loves a life and a home. That’s what he sets out to do in his latest album, “Skin Deep”, which drops this coming Tuesday, July 22.
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categories: music
tags: blues, Buddy Guy, Derek Trucks, Eric Clapton, Quinn Sullivan, Robert Randolph, Skin Deep, Susan Tedeschi, Tom Hambridge

A second instance of “I heard it on the radio”:

I had to break away from the God I was supposed to believe in to find the God I could believe in.

This time, a flip to NPR hit me with this. The lyric begins “I know a woman” but does not go at all where I expected:

What Have You Done to Lift Somebody Up?


That, and the name of his record label, “Perpetual Obscurity”, were enough to hook me in. Paul Thorn’s music is drenched in such a swampy mix of spirituality and sensuality that his life story almost sounds cliched or redundant: ex-communicated son of a Pentacostal preacher, boxer, skydiver, bluesman.

There’s no shortage of people whose early exposure to gospel influences their very secular later music. And there’s also plenty who sooner or later re-visit a relatively conventional spirituality in their music. But in Thorn, there’s no separation. It’s all there together, body and soul, and no easy convention:
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categories: music
tags: blues, NPR, Paul Thorn, swamp, This I Believe, Tupelo

It’s hard to know just what to make of it when news leaks through such random places, but if the Mullet Wrapper has it right, this is very interesting news. In a long article, mostly about Taylor Hicks in Grease, the writer points to a collaboration with Delbert McClinton on Hicks’ next album:

Taylor’s second album, which features at least one collaboration with Delbert McClinton, is due out on a new label later this summer.
….
Hicks is now with Vanguard Records, and his next album, which will be cut on his own record label, Modern Whomp Records, features collaborations with Delbert McClinton among others.

Full article here.

It’s interesting to think about what this might be. McClinton is a fine songwriter, and some joint effort on that front would be very welcome. But I’d be even more interested in some performance collaboration. If you’re not familiar with McClinton, a good starting point is a post made right here by our reader, Robin, last fall.

But I have to say, before I get too invested in this idea, the first comment in the article gave me pause. The next album coming out by Hicks, the one being released this summer, is a reissue of his Early Works. So the summer reference in the MW article makes me wonder if the collaboration referred to is not with McClinton, but with his former sideman Billy Earl McClelland, who earlier played with Hicks, and does some really fine guitar work on “Georgia”, a track said to be on the up-coming Early Works album. It would be an easy mistake to make, but then, so would the album release date.

So, is this the true scoop, or a fish tale?

categories: music
tags: Billy Earl McClelland, Delbert McClinton, taylor hicks

Looking for one band called Paper Bird, I came across another. But it wasn’t the music that struck me, it was the paper:

ETA (7.20.08) - Karen sent along this audio response to the video. I’ll let her comment and tell about it. Thanks!

The Lonely Security Guard

categories: music, oddities
tags: origami, Paper Bird, Vienna

Last week, several unrelated events occured that got me wondering: what makes a song, a song. That is, when is that song, this song.

Event 1:
First, a singer hired to sing the National Anthem at the Denver state of the city address, sang the tune, but substituted the words to the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for the usual lyrics.

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categories: music, thought
tags: Dap Kings, George Gershwin, God Bless America, National Anthem, Rene Marie, Sharon Jones, This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie