Not Yet A Review: Jazz Icons

I stopped by my library, as I mentioned, and I went to the videos section, hoping to find something useful. And boy, did I.

Jazz Icons is as of now three series of DVDs with live performances of jazz greats. I have the John Coltrane and Wes Montgomery. I haven't given these deep and full watchings, so I can't tell you that these things are as wonderful as I just know they have to be. There is a preview video available, which I couldn't get to work in Linux.

Listening Party: Dancing on Street Corners

picture from the OCMS website

First I heard of the Old Crow Medicine Show, it was a web show early in the decade when people really didn't do that yet. They kept up the OCMS show long after the others because they were so good. I saw the video and agreed. And found an MP3 of one of their songs.

As some of you might know, I used to live in St. Louis. My Mom was watching the games and waving the homer hankie as Ossie Smith and the Cardinals went for the World Series. I didn't follow the games closely, but that song tied into that period of my life, including the move to the South. I love that old version.

And, recently, on a blog, I found a new version.

Original Recipe
Extra Crispy

I put it to you, ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere: Which is the preferable version? Comment. Show your work.

And of course, support the OCMS by buying their albums and seeing their concerts.

Landing on Water, Landing on Sand

Years ago, Tom Petty had a band called Mudcrutch. They were a fairly big thing in Florida, but never made it to the next level. He moved to guitar from bass, moved from Florida to L.A., and started the Heartbreakers. Which, as it turns out, shared a guitar player and keyboard player with Mudcrutch. So, decades later, after making a career retrospective box set and movie, he called up the guys left in Florida and got the band back together.

The album is good. Mike Campbell is all about the B-Bender on this one, and there has never been a recording which the addition of Benmont Tench could not improve. Great take on "Lover of the Bayou". But my favorite, the song that electrified me, is "Bootleg Flyer". And the bit that got me is what I call the Allman Brothers Lick, because it sounds like something Duane and Dickey would do in unison.

Allman Brothers Lick

This is what I think is going on. (MIDI file)



That is roughly a three-octave pentatonic minor lick, going from the 6th string 3rd fret G to the 1st string 17th fret A. That was done in Finale Notepad, and here's my file.

I don't know a good way to get from near-the-nut G to near-the-pickups A. I can get the first two octaves staying around the third fret. I can get the second two at the fifteenth. But I'm sure they're sliding up as they go. Mike Campbell and Tom Leadon, I mean. I know that Mike tends to move up and down the neck; one of the first licks I learned is the opening lick "Breakdown", and that slides back.

I've been putting "learn the scales up and down the neck" in my practice-time list. I think getting this to speed will be interesting.

My Reaction to hearing some of Metallica's new album, Death Magnetic, on their website.

How long until we see "Unforgiven XXIV"?

Brothers from Another Genre

One is a pop country hit machine, writing and singing songs about love, pickup trucks and fishing.

One is a metal gun-for-hire with full sleeve tattoos, making instrumental shred albums with song titles inspired by serial killers.

Looking at Brad Paisley and John 5, you'd think they couldn't be further apart. And that might be right. But beyond all that, they're both fantastic guitarists, both worthy of the guitar mag covers they've gotten, and they're both Telecaster players. Which is where I get drawn in.

Brad Paisley, "Make A Mistake"
John 5, "Fiddlers"

That's two songs, ones that I think hit the point where they remind me of each other. They have the same musical sense of humor. Crossing genres, like a twanger going jazzy or a shredder gone country, is funny. Breaking the fourth wall, like "I don't hear any music" and the engineer saying "That's the wrong chord, guys", that's funny.

I really think they could do a great head-to-head version of "Devil Went Down To Georgia".

Except the wrong guy's named Johnny.

Rollin' In My Pontiac

Listen to the first part of this. Which is Adam Gussow schooling us on Sonny Boy Williamson.

Then listen to the beginning of this. You don't actually have to get more than ten seconds into it. Just the "Down Down Baby, Yo' Street in a Range Rover" part.

Nelly's rockin' the signature riff to "Pontiac Blues". Rockin' a different set of wheels, to be sure, but it's the same riff.

Nothin' new under the sun, I guess.

Don't Want To Buy It Twice

I have No Depression. I have Still Feel Gone. I have March 16-20, 1992. I have Anodyne. The first three are Rockville releases. The last one on Sire. I have the Legacy compilation, and I've found MP3s of some, not all, of the obscure stuff they tossed onto the end of the Legacy reissues.

Is it worth it to re-purchase the re-releases of all that Uncle Tupelo stuff?

Shouldn't Be Ashamed

First, I put up Gibson's list of essential Alt-Country, then opined that I prefer A.M. to Being There.

Then Jack Pribek (who happens to know people who were involved in Being There) posted a link to some Quicktime (I hate Quicktime) of Wilco's three-night stand in St. Louis. He commented:

I’ve had some recent discussions with some Wilco fans and a lot of them are more enamored of the earlier work. Whereas, I think they sound like a band that is currently at the peak of their form.

Really, I was just looking for some Alt-Twang that isn't old enough to go to Math Camp with my middle child! I have all the Wilco except Sky Blue Sky! I'm a good fan! Really!

But I kinda took that up as a challenge. So, today, instead of setting my playlist to just play things that Windows Media Player hasn't played for me (which should take several weeks), I queued up Wilco. I'm still early into A.M., my avowed favored territory. But I'll go through it all today, commenting as I go. (You're welcome to take the journey with me!)

In part because I very much doubt that the Quicktime stream will flow through the firewall at work. Nope.