Our show today brings the new music from Mitski, Kate Maki and duet of Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle. We introduce the new band out of Boston Sandwich Police, that features Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, who made a surprise Cleveland show recently. Starling Electric from Ann Arbor is another new band introduced in today’s show. We also hear newly surfaced recording of Allen Toussaint which were made shortly before him passing away this year. Another tribute today is to Chips Moman, a legendary producer and songwriter in Memphis, who sadly passed away on June 13. Mojo magazine put together an interesting compilation that covers Bob Dylan’s album Blonde on Blonde song by song and we check out the contribution from Seattle’s Night Beats.
Jackie DeShannon – Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right;
Blaak Heat – Anatolia;
Mitski – Dan the Dancer;
Webb Wilder – Yard Dog;
Kate Maki – Message Delivered;
Kate Maki – Keep Right;
Colvin & Earle – Come What May;
Dan Penn – The dark end of the street;
Aretha Franklin – Dark End Of The Street;
Elvis Presley – Suspicios Minds;
Otis Clay – Do Right Woman, Do Right Man;
Allen Toussaint – Southern Nights;
Night Beats – Obviously 5 Believers;
Bob Dylan- Obviously 5 Believers;
The Miamis – I Want a Girlfriend;
The Sandwich Police – Hard Drive (Live in CLE);
Starling Electric – (Save Me From This) Amy.
Today’s show is dedicated to Clarence Clemons, the original saxophonist of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. We start with three E Street songs in which I think Clarence particularly shined. We also have new albums for the Serbian band Eva Braun and college rock legends The Silos. Their new album is an unusually shiny summer deal and it’s call Florizona – obviously a name that connects Florida and Arizona. Talking about Arizona, Howe Gelb also has a new album called Snarl Some Piano. It’s mostly a piano record, and we check it out today as well. We hear, Tommy Stinson is about to finish up recording the new record and some of the songs that will appear on this album were beautifully showcased on Minnesota Public Radio. The one that I picked for today has a part co-written with Paul Westerberg. And finally, we introduce a new name at the Little Lighthouse, his name is Frederick Squire and he has a new single with Kate Maki. The last song on the playlist is an old underground hit for the Cleveland band Death of Samantha. They had a brief reunion last weekend when Doug Gillard, their original guitarist, returned to town.
More bad news this week… Steve Popovich, rock maverick from Cleveland who indebted the world with many great records died last week in Tennessee at the age of 68. Steve was a musical promoter and record label owner in the golden age of ’70s when he helped manage careers of Bruce Springsteen, Cheap Trick, Boz Scaggs, Joe Grushecky, Southside Johnny, Ronnie Spector, Meat Loaf, Johnny Cash – just to name a few. He was a rare breed, a promoter who truly cared for the music he was promoting, someone who believed in what he liked, even if there was no conventional logic for pushing what he pushed. In that way, he is a true inspiration. We also say goodbye to Benny Spellman, a New Orleans singer who also died last week in his hometown at the age of 79. He left behind exciting early rock songs such as Fortune Teller and Lipstick Traces On A Cigarette, both written by Allen Toussaint. We also throw in a few new records. We introduce Dead Rock West from LA, a band clearly influenced by X. Also, we have new albums for Kate Maki and John Paul Keith. Mama Rosin, zydeco band from Switzerland is also back with a collaboration with Hipbone Slim.
Kate Maki is the most interesting female songwriter that emerges silently and slowly out of Canada. Her records are gentle reminder that one does not need to blast out loudly to say something, it will still get where it needs to be. She gets a lot of support from Howe Gelb, who guest stars on this record. His influence is obvious in that Kate Make perfectly delivers surreal (alt) country in her music. The record distribution is poor, but if you put an effort to find it, you will be rewarded with one of the best listening experiences of 2010.
This episode is filled with music from some of the greatest female voices around today. We have new albums for Pieta Brown – One And All and Kate Maki – Two Song Wedding. We also have a brand new band from London, England called Betty and the Werewolves which has three girls who look like they could be sisters and one boy. But this doesn’t mean that we don’t have some sweaty manly rock’n’roll in today’s show – we end it with several tracks from the pub rock era. We dedicate today’s show to Predrag Ivanovic – 80 year old jazz musician from Belgrade who died on May 4th this year.
So, here we are again after a long hot summer break. Radio SC was down over the summer and now that they re-consolidated, The Little Lighthouse is back too. Today’s show is dedicated to Mickey Waller who died on April 29 2008, which we failed to acknowledge in our earlier shows. Waller was a drummer for Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck Group on their best albums. His distinct drumming style on those records helped define the true meaning of rock’n’roll – what ever that may be! Paul Westerberg surprised us this summer with an exceptional lp called 49:00… of your