Axl's Catch Groove

My wife and I went to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Minneapolis (U.S. Bank Stadium where the NFL Vikings play). It was a 3.25 hours/44 song concert that was equally interesting to witness Taylor as it was the 65k Swifties. Visually the show was not as spectacular as 2018’s Reputation Tour, which we also went to, but it exceeded 2018 emotionally with the breadth of the material. Taylor has the ability to make a football stadium intimate. The high quality of the four albums she has released since 2018 provided amazing concert material. There was a post-pandemic sense of celebration in the air. This has been the most hyped tour I can recall, and the obvious question is, did it live up to the hype? My simple answer is yes.

Last fall, the big story was how Taylor Swift broke Ticketmaster when her The Eras Tour tickets went on sale. Tickets were then on the secondary markets for absurd sums (like Super Bowl prices). My wife and I tried to get tickets when they first went on sale, and like most fans, we got skunked. We often buy tickets on the secondary markets, but typically for something close to face value – no way were we going to pay a couple of grand per ticket, and so we put it out of our minds.

About a week before the show, I received a text message from Ticketmaster: “VERY LIMITED number of production hold tickets available for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis! Shop now while supplies last…”. I immediately logged on to my Ticketmaster account, and after about twenty attempts, we got a pair at a reasonable face value. We were thrilled to be able to go. By this point, the tour had visited several cities, and the reviews from professional critics and general fans were glowing. I can’t imagine the FOMO we would have had once the local fans, media, and critics started raving about the Minneapolis shows.

We are 64 and Taylor Swift fans, not obsessed enough to be considered Swifties, just fans. A Swiftie knows every word of every song and obsesses about Taylor’s life. A fan is several degrees lower. Personally, I was familiar with about 75% of the songs at the Minneapolis show, and I could sing along with some of the choruses. I am late to the TSwift party, not pandemic late, but 1989 late. When TSwift came on the scene in 2006, I dismissed her as a Nashville child star gimmick. As she got bigger, I continued to ignore her as just another teen pop star. I wasn’t a hater, just uninterested. I had no idea what she sounded like.

My introduction to TSwift was in 2015 when Ryan Adams (who I am a super fan of) covered Taylor’s 1989 album. Adams is a prolific songwriter, and releasing an album that is a track-by-track cover of Swift’s album of the same name caught my attention. I bought Ryan’s album and loved it, and it motivated me to listen to the Taylor original, which I also liked. What I heard was catchy pop music but also confessional singer-songwriter lyrics that were not that different from my 70s heroes (e.g., Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Jackson Brown, etc.). Sure, it was sonically current, but it was in the same lane as my 70s singer-songwriter heroes.

About the same time as the 1989 album caught my attention, my adult daughter (who is just a little younger than TSwift) and my wife raved about the TSwift concert they went to. They have both seen a lot of shows and are not easily impressed. I trust their opinions. So she was an entertainer too – interesting.

In 2018 my wife and I went to see Taylor’s Reputation Stadium Tour – I wanted to see firsthand what all the hype was about. I was blown away by the spectacle (it is very visual), the songs (which are autobiographical and intimate), but most of all, Taylor’s stage presence: she is like the ultimate theater kid (both awkward and engaging). After the show, I started listening to the rest of her catalog. The songs are candid yet evasive. It is alluring: who is the ex she is singing about? How is she having so much fun? She creates compelling mythology.

The album Lover came out at the end of the summer of 2019. It was rock solid. We had no idea the world end in six months. This should have been a big album cycle/tour, but it got cut short by Covid.

The summer of 2020 was a bad time: Covid was raging way longer than any of us expected, and the George Floyd tragedy (which occurred less than three miles from our home in Minneapolis) was still raw. It was literally a “Cruel Summer.” Taylor dropped folklore out of the blue. Most of it was co-written/produced by the guy from The National. It wasn’t autobiographical. It had characters, it was quiet and it was adult. It wasn’t meant to be bangers in a stadium. It was an experiment. It totally worked. It was a masterpiece and totally resonated with me (it was dad rock that is right in my wheelhouse). A few months later, a similar style and equally excellent evermore was released. I was now talking TSwift as seriously as the other artists/bands I am a fan of.

Swift has longevity – she is 10 albums and 17 years into her career. None of those albums have stiffed, and some have increased in their appreciation over time. At 33, she is 4 years older than Paul McCartney was when the Beatles broke up. This is a pop career that needs to be taken seriously, whether you like her music or not.

Her most recent album, Midnights, which came out right before the Eras Tour was announced last month, is a return to pop music after the two dad rock albums. It is as strong as anything in her catalog – so 10 albums in and no signs that she is losing her magic.

The show was great. She covered 44 songs via “eras,” representing 9 of her 10 albums (she skipped her debut). The set list has been the same 42 songs with two surprises that are not repeated show to show (we got “Paper Rings” and “If This Was A Movie.” As I mentioned earlier, she has the uncanny ability to make a football stadium intimate. Each era had a unique visual presentation, but the visuals were not that important to me. The folklore and evermore material worked better than I could have ever imagined. Taylor is a more engaging vocalist live than on recordings – I wish she would belt it out like this on studio recordings. The 3-plus hours went quickly, and despite a fixed set list, it felt fresh and spontaneous. Taylor talks a lot and has a knack for making each audience feel special. Ultimately she is a songwriter, but she is also a good entertainer. She totally lives up to the hype.

A bonus is the enthusiasm of the fans. They dress up for the occasion, and they sing along (I didn’t even mind that many screamed along). I sat next to a girl I am guessing was about 12, and sang along with every word of the 44 songs. Occasionally she would absolutely lose her mind when her favorites were played. She was so fun to be next to – it was infectious.

My only complaint is the U.S. Bank Stadium is a terrible concert venue. Great sightlines and a cool-looking venue; however, the acoustics are awful.

The reason Taylor matters is she is a great songwriter and a great entertainer, she creates a sense of intimacy with her audience that is perfect for our social media times, and she works hard. Her demo is primarily women 18 to 35, but she has managed to create a new generation of younger fans too. She has even gained a few dad rock fans like me. The Eras tour has been such a commercial and critical success it is hard to figure out was she does next, but I will be there to consume the next era.

It has been a week since the show and many of the songs she performed have turned into ear worms that we still can’t shake it off.

Another fun part of the experience was heading down to US Bank Stadium the day before the show to buy merch. There was a huge line that took 90 minutes to get to the vendors. It was 90 degrees and humid, but the excitement in the air from the other fans made it a fun experience. I chatted in line with a mom and two daughters who had road tripped from Chicago. The 19 year old daughter was a Swiftie but the 17 year old daughter and mom were mere fans like me. We chatted about favorite concerts and other musicians we are fans of. It made the 90 minutes flash by. I picked up the poster (above) and the famous blue crew.

The Spotify playlist below includes the 42-song set list along with the unique two surprise songs from each show. It is updated as the tour progresses.

I am working my way through my duplicates that make up the Desert Sessions (if interested here is more background on the Desert Sessions). I have these duplicates because they were cheap (most only a buck) and because I like them (thinking I might flip them given my good taste). But the notion of selling part of my collection, even duplicates was too much. But it all worked out as these duplicates have been a great jump start to a collection in our second home in Phoenix. Browsing through the Desert Sessions’ albums I have not listened to recently, Grover Washington Jr’s. Mister Magic caught my eye.

This is a jazz-funk-soul masterpiece. It was artistically and commercially successful. It topped both the soul and jazz albums charts and peaked at number ten on the pop chart. I love this album: mellow enough to play as background music, deep enough to actively listen to, and funky as hell if you turn up the volume on certain songs (the titular track for instance).

The titular track is jazz funk hall of fame. It is an amazing groove and Grover has a perfect solo over that groove. It gets a little disco at points – but that is ok.

Not sure how much I paid for this LP (a buck or two), but it is in very good condition. If you see a good quality copy for under $10 nab it (make sure it is a Kudu label and not Motown). Beware of hipster establishments that overprice it.

If you can only own 10 jazz albums, Coltrane’s Blue Train should be one of them. This album was released just a few years before Coltrane turned into a musical deity. He was still a mere mortal when he recorded this album. Despite, what would follow, this is an important LP to appreciating Trane – and it is very accessible. Not pop jazz, just easy to enjoy.

Blue Note has an amazing vinyl reissue series that they call Tone Poet. These are awesome reissues. They are great examples of how great vinyl can sound when executed properly. However, they are pricey, for example, this single-disk Coltrane is $40. However, it is the difference between top shelf and rail (well) booze (e.g. Evan Williams vs DH Taylor bourbon). Tone Poet is the good shit. This is my fourth Tone Poet release.

Per Blue Note:

The Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is our top-of-the-line vinyl series. Produced and curated by the “Tone Poet” Joe Harley, the series presents all-analog, 180g audiophile quality vinyl reissues from the Blue Note Records catalog and our family of labels which also includes Pacific Jazz, United Artists, and Solid State. Tone Poet vinyl is mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio directly from the original analog master tapes and manufactured at Record Technology Inc. (RTI) in Camarillo, California. The releases come packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “Old Style” Gatefold Tip-On Jackets which are adorned by stunning photography from the recording sessions by Francis Wolff, giving the listener a glimpse into the studio on the day the music was created. “I’ve been obsessed with jazz and sound for as long as I can remember,” says Harley. “I will never forget the first time we heard a real Rudy Van Gelder Blue Note master tape on Kevin’s system. Let me tell you, those master tapes sound big, dynamic and real, as if the players are right in front of you!” “Our sonic goal became clear,” he explains. “We started on a quest to capture the sound of those master tapes on vinyl and to allow listeners to know what it would sound like to actually be in Rudy’s living room in Hackensack or later in Rudy’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Short of having an actual time machine, this is as close as you can get to going back and being a fly on the wall for an original Blue Note recording session.” “We wanted these to be definitive in every way, from the mastering to the pressings, packaging, and authenticity of the artwork, including the actual labels. When it comes to Blue Note LP packaging, extreme attention to detail has been paid to getting these right in every conceivable way, from the jacket cover graphics to the printing quality. Every aspect of these Blue Note releases is done to the highest possible standard. It means that you will never find a superior version. This is IT.”

When possible for albums from the 60s and before I prefer the mono version. An album like Blue Train was conceived, recorded, and mixed for mono as that was the standard back in the day. After the fact, an alternative stereo mix would be issued, but often it was an afterthought with no input from the artist and original production team. Often the stereo mix was gimmicky – piano on the left channel and drums on the left channel – very unnatural sounding. Mono can sound very full in the right hands. Blue Train sounds better in mono.

If you like Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue you will like Blue Train. Blue Train was recorded about 18 months before Kind Of Blue (Trane was an important player on Kind Of Blue). Blue Train is hard bop vs. the modal jazz of Kind Of Blue, but they share accessibility for new jazz fans. Within a few years, Trane would become much more experimental in his approach bordering on the avant-garde. This is a great place to hear the foundation of the future and the raw beauty of Trane’s tenor saxophone tone.

Per Wikipedia:

Coltrane’s playing exhibits the move toward what would become his signature style. His solos are more harmonic or “vertical” and lines arpeggiated. His timing was often apart from or over the beat, rather than playing on or behind it. During a 1960 interview, Coltrane described Blue Train as his favorite album of his own up to that point.

Like all of the Tone Poet releases I have, this vinyl reissue sounds fantastic. Clean vinyl – next to no noise. The packaging is high quality – a nice reproduction of the original packaging. If you want to hear how magical vinyl can sound this a great example.

The streaming version below has the stereo version, some outtakes, and a mono version

Like a lot of jam bands, Goose sells recordings of their live shows on platforms like Bandcamp and Nugs. But they also occasionally release live albums on streaming services for “free.” These “free” releases have distinctive cover art by Jonny Lovering. Their latest release is a big one: nearly 6.5 hours. It is from back-to-back nights in Chicago along with a 31-minute sound check jam before one of the shows.

Goose is a rising star in the jam band circuit. Their 2022 studio album, Dripfield is outstanding. Per the band’s website, they

“…fluidly traverse genres with head-spinning hooks, technical fireworks, and the kind of chemistry only possible among small town and longtime friends.”

If you don’t have familiarity with Goose, I recommend starting with Dripfield as it is accessible. Unlike a lot of jam bands that focus on the groove, Goose focuses on songs. They have great melodies and not just great riffs. They have a nice swampy funk to their sound too.

Once you are convinced that you like Goose, then hit the live shows on streaming. Be forewarned, their shows are typically 3 hours or more. And of course, if you can see them live, do it.

This particular live show from April 14 and 15, 2023 in Chicago, is a particular gem. It is well recorded, has a great selection from their catalog and you can get a sense of their improvisation as key songs are repeated between the two nights. It is an excellent primer for Goose.

A particularly delightful moment is when they segue from their song “Mudhuvan” into The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” – truly a psychedelic moment. Another delight is the sound check jam. My early interest in Goose was Ted Tapes 2021 – a collection of sound check jams, so it is great to hear a fresh take on a sound check jam.

This is one of my favorite Weather Report albums. It has both a jazz rock fusion and world music vibes. This is the first Weather Report appearance bass player Jaco Pastorius, however, he is only on two of the seven tracks. His presence is not nearly as profound as it would be on the following Weather Report release Heavy Weather.

The first and titular track, “Black Market” is a festive tune that easily evokes a bustling exotic street market somewhere close to the equator. Like most Weather Report albums, Joe Zawinul’s keyboards, arrangements, and compositions dominate.

“Cannon Ball” is a song in memory of Zawinul’s mentor Cannonball Adderley. You get your first taste of Jaco Pastorius in Weather Report.

“Gibraltar” is classic Weather Report – it is both funky and adventurous. It includes an epic Wayne Shorter solo on soprano sax.

After three Zawinul compositions and flipping the LP, we get two Wayne Shorter compositions: “Elegant People” and “Three Clowns.” You get a strong sense of the compositional difference between the two leaders, Shorter is the more conventional (yet adventurous) jazz man. His compositions are more cerebral.

Pastorius is not only a brilliant bass player, but a great composer. His “Barbary Coast” sets us on notice that there is a new sheriff in town. Pastorius plays bass like a horn player and composes like he is in a big band.

The album ends with “Herandnu,” Alphonso Johnson’s farewell. It is a grand goodbye that allows the whole band to show off their chops.

This is another dollar record, with a touch of surface noise, but nothing to annoying or distracting.

Musicians:

• Joe Zawinul — Yamaha Grand Piano, Rhodes Electric Piano, 2 × ARP 2600, Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer, orchestration
• Wayne Shorter — Selmer soprano and tenor saxophones, Computone Lyricon
• Alphonso Johnson — electric bass
• Jaco Pastorius — electric fretless bass (tracks 2 & 6)
• Narada Michael Walden — drums (tracks 1 and 2)
• Chester Thompson — drums (track 1, tracks 3–7)
• Alex Acuña — congas, percussion (tracks 2–5, track 7)
• Don Alias — percussion (tracks 1 and 6)

I am a fairly new fan of The National. My introduction to the group was 2019’s I Am Easy To Find. In my review of that album I said: “On paper I should be a huge The National fan. An algorithm would say so, however, their work has never resonated with me. I did not hate it – worse it bored me.” I Am Easy To Find did click for me. I then got into the Bon Iver/Aaron Dessner project Big Red Machine and of course the Taylor Swift album’s folklore and evermore. So I am in a good space to receive this new The National album.

Surfing the web it appears there are three kinds of The National fans:

• Diehards/obsessives that like everything – kind of like how I feel about Wilco. Their opinion is this album is good, a return to form, but not in the same league as “the big three:” Alligator (2005), Boxer (2007), and High Violet (2010).
• Snobs who believe that the only “the big three” matter. Their opinion is this album is not a disgrace to the catalog, but not essential.
• Taylor Swift fans who are coming to the late period The National without history with the band – I count myself in this category. Their view of this album is a masterpiece. Therefore I hear this as a masterpiece.

The soundscape is a gorgeous quite storm and Matt Berninger’s vocal purr sounds great. I am still absorbed the lyrics, but I am intrigued by the wordplay and storytelling.

There are guest vocalists (Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift) on the album, but they don’t dominate like they did on I Am Easy To Find. Instead their contributions are subtle – a dash to the cocktail vs. an main ingredient. The Taylor Swift guest vocal on “The Alcott” is perfect. Although it is a bigger role than Sufjan Stevens and Phoebe Bridgers, it does not overshadow.

Lyrically, Berninger addresses adult themes that may be mistaken as mopey. I prefer to see them as candid and realistic.

I am now motivated to revisit The National’s back catalog. This is a very good album and is on my shortlist of the best of 2023 so far.

I missed this album in 2022, but it was on several 2022 year-end best-of lists and so I gave it a listen. I have several Orton CDs from the late 90s and early 00s. I liked her folktronica. After a few listens on streaming services, I liked it enough to commit to the vinyl edition. Weather Alive is dreamy and atmospheric – almost ambient, but this is not mere musical wallpaper. It reminds me of Roxy Music’s Avalon in that it is a beautiful soundscape with catchy songs.

Orton has an unusual voice – kind of breathy and fragile, but with a kind of steely urgency. Lyrically, I don’t really have a clue what she is singing about, but the lyrics certainly are engaging, for example the titular track:

“And the world calling out to me
But the world out beyond my reach
Almost makes me wanna cry
The weather’s so beautiful outside”

“Weather Alive”

But it does not matter if I don’t understand the lyrics. The vocals are as beautiful as the instrumental music that accompanies them.

Although the album has an electronica feel, the music is organic: acoustic instruments, real drums and just a touch of synths (or as the credits state: “old synths”).

This is a beautiful dreamy record with a melancholy vibe. Perfect for both late nights and lazy afternoons. I read an article in the New York Times that experiencing awe is good for your health. Sit back and catch a wave of awe with Beth Orrin’s Weather Alive. This should have made my 2022 best of – if I had been aware of it.

I have never heard of Andy Shauf, but on a recent episode of Indiecast, Steven Hyden recommended Andy Shauf’s new album Norm. Hyden was so enthusiastic I had to give it a listen.

Norm is a gorgeous sounding album (similar vibe as Paul Simon) and Shauf has an angelic voice. I am fully satisfied with the warm wave of sound that washes over me with Norm, but there is more than that going on: lyrically Norm is a concept album. This is where it gets twisted.

The characters include God the father, Jesus the son, a stoner-stalker (Norm), the pursued (the victim of Norm’s stalking) and Norm’s ex. The plot is God observing his obsessed creation Norm stalking some poor women as Norm regrets his past with his ex. Norm eventually kidnaps his victim, but God intervenes. Weird isn’t it?

But what attracts me to the album is the lush soundscape, Shauf’s gorgeous vocals, and amazing bass lines. The bass is prominent and provides a soulful groove to what otherwise would be typical singer-songwriter fare. The weird lyrics and beautiful sonics results in a wonderful dreamy psychedelia.

In early 2022, Norah Jones went into the Allaire Studios in upstate New York with her band and created a new, live version of her acclaimed 2012 album, Little Broken Hearts. As much as I liked the original Little Broken Hearts, I prefer this Record Store Day (RSD) version.

This seems like an ambitious album for a mere 2500-run RSD release. It is noted that as an RSD First’ Release” which typically means a conventional release is forthcoming. I am not seeing how this will ultimately come out. On June 2, 2023, Blue Note will be releasing an expanded 31-track deluxe reissue of Little Broken Hearts, however, it doesn’t include this Allaire version.

This new version was recorded at Allaire Studios with pedal steel guitarist Dan Iead, bassist Gus Seyffert, and drummer Brian Blade. I googled the studio and it is stunning. It is located in a 1928 estate on 20 acres of mountaintop overlooking Woodstock, the Catskills, and the Ashokan Reservoir.

The original Little Broken Hearts is an anomaly in the Norah Jones catalog. It was created in calibration with producer Danger Mouse. Danger Mouse made his name in the hip-hop word, so it is not obvious that collaborating with Norah Jones makes sense. Norah Jones and Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) first worked together when the producer asked her to contribute vocals to his acclaimed 2011 album ROME. After the success of that project, they agreed to develop a Norah Jones album together from scratch. Per Norah’s website:

In a first for her, Jones arrived empty-handed at the studio – no tunes, arrangements, just a few ideas in a notebook. The songs were all built from the ground up with Jones and Burton sharing all the songwriting credits and performing the majority of the instrumental parts; Jones on piano, keyboards, bass, and guitar, and Burton contributing drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and string arrangements. The process was a complete change for Jones, but once they started it didn’t take long for her to warm to the challenges of creating on the fly using whatever resources she and Burton had between them. (Later, they brought in a band—including drummer Joey Waronker, bassist Gus Seyffert, and guitarist Blake Mills—to bolster many of the tracks.)

The result was an intriguing breakup album that had Jones performing out of her light jazz/Americana mode and more in the Danger Mouse world. It worked.

This version is back in the normal Norah zone and allows you to appreciate these great songs. In hindsight, the Danger Mouse version is overshadowed by Danger Mouse’s production – which was cool, but as I said earlier I prefer this version. This version has a stronger singer-songwriter vibe.

RSD has a few templates: reissue overlooked albums, vinyl releases of classic albums from the CD era, releases that are more about packaging than music, and unreleased gems that highlight an artist’s weird passions. This last category is my favorite and it is the category that Little Broken Hearts: Live At Allaire Studios finds itself in. This kind of release gets me queuing up at a record store before dawn. Bravo Norah and RSD!

I have a pretty good collection of Jerry Garcia’s solo work and projects outside the Grateful Dead, so I have no idea how I missed this album when it came out on CD in 1997. How Sweet It Is was culled from shows that also make up 1991’s Jerry Garcia Band – an album in my personal hall of fame. So I was pleased to see it on the 2023 Record Store Day (RSD) list. It doesn’t take much to please me with regards to Garcia and RSD. I dutifully buy the RSD Garcia releases and I am never disappointed.

How Sweet It Is, like Jerry Garcia Band, is from the band’s live shows in the spring of 1990 at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. The band consists of Jerry (guitar, vocals), John Kahn (bass), Melvin Seals (organ, keyboards), David Kemper (drums), Gloria Jones (vocals), and Jackie LaBranch (vocals).

As is typical of the Jerry Garcia Band, their repertoire is a brilliant combination of originals and covers. It is not significantly different from the 1991 Jerry Garcia Band album. The recording/mixing/mastering sounds a touch more intimate on How Sweet It Is versus Jerry Garcia Band.

This is not as essential in the Garcia catalog as Jerry Garcia Band, but it is a nice augmentation of that album – no songs from that album are repeated here. So it serves as a deluxe edition of that classic album.

Track list:

SIDE A:
1. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
2. Tough Mama
3. That’s What Love Will Make You Do
SIDE B:
1. Someday Baby
2. Cats Under the Stars
SIDE C:
1. Tears of Rage
2. Think
3. Gomorrah
SIDE D:
1. Tore Up Over You
2. Like a Road