Today’s show is dedicated to one of the greatest songwriters ever – Jackie DeShannon. There is no particular reason for this celebration of her talent, I just felt like I needed some of her music. Back in the sixties it wasn’t so easy to be a female singer-songwriter. Somehow, musical industry at the time saw women either as performers or songwriters. So, women that wanted to do both at the same time had hard time breaking through these barriers. For example, Carole King had to wait for the entire decade to be over until she was given an opportunity to record her own songs properly. Jackie DeShannon was making albums and successful singles through the decade, but typically made hits with other people’s songs (Needles and Pins, What The World Needs Now). Her own songs she very often recorded just as simple acetate demos and passed over to other artists. These recordings are not easy to find these days, but some of these recordings surfaced. Today we have a concept where we play versions of Jackie’s demos and studio versions recorded by other artists that actually made charts. But most of all, it’s a chance to hear gorgeous Jackie’s tunes in her own inspired interpretation. Slight asperity of her voice is unmistakable and paired with her perfect songs, they stand as some of the most beautiful recordings laid on tape… umm acetate.
The Searchers – When You Walk In The Room;
Jackie DeShannon – When You Walk In The Room;
Cher – Come And Stay With Me;
Jackie DeShannon – Come And Stay With Me;
Diana Dawn – Back Street Girl;
Jackie DeShannon – Back Street Girl;
The Fashionettes – Daydreamin’ Of You;
Jackie DeShannon – Daydreamin’ Of You;
Dick Lory – There’s Gonna Be A Fight;
Jackie DeShannon – There’s Gonna Be A Fight;
Jackie DeShannon – Don’t Doubt Yourself, Babe;
The Byrds – Don’t Doubt Yourself, Babe;
Jackie DeShannon And The Byrds – Splendor In The Grass;
The Boys – Splendor In The Grass;
Jackie DeShannon – Splendor In The Grass;
Wynona Carr – Carrying A Torch;
Jackie DeShannon – Carrying A Torch;
Dobie Gray – Blue Ribbons;
Jackie DeShannon – Blue Ribbons;
The Bandits – I Remember The Girl;
Jackie DeShannon – I Remember The Boy;
Jackie DeShannon – Bette Davis Eyes;
Kim Carnes – Bette Davis Eyes.
I finally saw Gentleman Jesse live and I loved the show. A snippet from that show is in today’s episode. Jesse played in Cleveland his new song Word Gets Around and a cover of King Tuff’s Connection. King Tuff is a new band for me, so we check out also their own version of Connection and we introduce them to the Little Lighthouse. Inspired by the new Obits version of Milk Cow Blues, we explore the history of this great song by hearing four different versions of it. Brimstone Howl has a new 45 out, they cover Neil Diamond’s song Solitary Man. New names for today’s show are Palmyra Delran – a powerpop singer-songwriter from New York City, Mark And The Spies, a powerpop band from Netherlands. Also we have DV Nikt art-rocker from Philadelphia and The Guilty Hearts, garage rockers from California. We finish things up with wonderful last year’s Boz Scaggs jazz standards album Speak Low. We caught it as it was slipping thorough the cracks of my forgetfulness.
We have several new artists for the first time at The Little Lighthouse in today’s show. Justin Townes Earle is Steve Earle’s son and he covers The Replacements’ Can’t Hardly Wait. The Buttshakers from Lyon, France cover Brenton Wood’s Gimme Little Sign. Camera Obscura is a fancy new band from Scotland and Ean Eraser is a mysterious new artists with a great new 45″ record. It’s also great to see Joe Dee Graham from True Believers and Scrappy Newcomb from Ian McLagan’s Bump Band in their Austin city supergroup – The Resentments. By the way, I also played a nice bootleg from last week’s Bump Band’s live performance in Cleveland.
Today we examine what’s rock’n’roll and what’s not and what we like about it and what not… at least in first two songs, as Outrageous Cherry paraphrase Stones in one of the standout tracks on the new album Universal Malcontents. We also check out the new album for The Obits called I Blame You. We know the Obits from the 45 that they had earlier this year. We also have new album for Neko Case called Middle Cyclone. Neko’s songwriting is really in shape on this one, it’s a truly exciting new record. Dan Auerbach, the most famous rock’n’roll Ohioan today also has a new record entitled Keep It Hid. Another, less famous Ohioan, but well known to the regular listeners of this show, Derek Deprator has a new band called Ravenscroft and we check them out as the new demos are crawling out of the studio. And at last, we finish out with two new Homestead reissues – Big Dipper and Volcano Suns.