I have a killer bluesy roots rock update for you today, featuring a collaboration between Boston’s GA-20 and the Memphis legend Charley Musselwhite. We also have new tunes from Van Morrison and Tinsley Ellis. We introduce Laurence Jones from Liverpool, Lonesome Shack and Laura Chavez from California, Studebaker John from Chicago, Theo Sieben and Kyle Rowland. But the best song today comes from The Womack Sisters, BG, Zeimani, & Kucha, the daughters of Linda Womack and Cecil Womack.
Womack and Womack – Secret Star
Laurence Jones – Get Back Up
GA-20 with Charlie Musselwhite – Crazy Love
Charley Musslewhite – Cha Cha The Blues
Laura Chavez – Born on the Bayou
Studebaker John and the Maxwell Street Kings – That’s What (the blues is)
Top Jimmy – Homework
Lonesome Shack – Home In The Woods
Van Morrison – Snatch It Back and Hold It
Junior Wells – Snatch It Back And Hold It
Kyle Rowland – Gamblin’ Blues
The Womack Sisters – You Went Away Too Long
Ghostwoman – Anhedonia
Theo Sieben – On A Ship Of Old Age
Tinsley Ellis – Whole Wide World
Rainer Ptacek – Life Is Fine
Today we introduce Bully, a new band from Nashville, that doesn’t sound like a Nashville band, lead by Alicia Bognano on vocals. Then we check out the Canadian duet The Pack A.D. who are back with the new record. Lydia Loveless reissued her old singles into a compilation album and we sample that today. The On And Ons from Australia are also back with the new record. Also from Australia, we have Last Leaves. Electric Six are back with the new album, and so is Van Morrison. Today’s show is dedicated to Fats Domino, who passed away on October 24th.
Last year a surprisingly uncharacteristic album came from Lydia Lunch. She and her collaborator, guitarist Cypress Grove recorded a mighty fine, moody, rock’n’roll album called appropriately A Fistful of Desert Blues. Rarely does a record title fit the sound so well. It’s a western desert blues record that can stand next to any Gun Club record and live up to it.
Lots of new stuff this time. Let’s begin first with the familiar names. We have two new songs for the two main members of The dB’s. Chris Stamey has a new album and Peter Holsapple submitted a track to the Bobby Sutliff benefit. Two friends from the old UK rock’n’roll scene, Van Morrison and Georgie Fame each recently had new records, so we check that out. Mark Lanegan also appeared on a tribute, this one was for Tim Hardin. Legendary controversial music producer and musician from New York City, Kramer, covered a whole bunch of Brill Building era songs. Of the newbies, we have Brian Lisik from Canton OH, Hot Nun from San Francisco. Veronica Falls from England have a very aggressive advertising campaign for their new record Waiting For Something To Happen, but it’s still a very nice record and we get to hear a song from it.
In today’s edition of the vinyl Junkyard we have two great albums from 1967, which was probably one of the greatest years for rock’n’roll ever. Still, you won’t hear much today about either of them. We start with Jonathan and Leigh and their record Third and Main. The title and cover allude to New York City and Greenwich Village. While the young couple Jonathan and Leigh definitely lived and played music over there at the time, they are actually from Dayton OH. The record was made for a sizable advance and put out by Vanguard Records. Some of the musicians that played on it later on helped Van Morrison to make his legendary Astral Weeks and you may notice that. But Third and Main was a flop and Jonathan and Leigh went back to Dayton, never recording anything together again. The second record in today’s edition of the Vinyl Junkyard is The Magic Garden by the vocal group The Fifth Dimension. The record is arranged, produced and composed by none other than Jimmy Webb. The record deals with some of the concerns that young adults and a little older adults had at the time. There is a lot of light drug references and other stuff that may be unexpected. Unlike Third and Main, The Magic Garden was successful in terms of sales. I think that both albums are very interesting and we should definitely pay respect to them.