After enjoying Joe’s Analog Man, I was craving a vinyl copy of The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get and sure enough I got a decent copy at the record sale in Maple Grove yesterday (for a $1.00!).
What a great album. The major hit was “Rocky Mountain Way,” but the “Wolf” is an amazing deep track.
This is a mature Joe Walsh – which is appropriate for a 64-year-old rock star. “Lucky That Way” is a wonderful coda to “Life’s Been Good.” Joe Walsh has always had a bit of George Harrison to him so the Jeff Lynn production is perfect.
Joe has always had great humor to his work and this album lives up to that reputation. But now the humor is gentle vs. the bitter cynicism of his youth.
Joe has always been a guitar hero and this album highlights his wonderful tone and sound.
This is not an innovative album, nor is it a sentimental album, it is merely classic rock by a classic rock musician at the top of his game. Merely classic is nothing to be ashamed of – Joe brings his classic sound and voice forward with maturity. I would rather see maturity from an artist of Joe’s vintage than some embarrassing attempt at hip. Thanks Joe, I am mature too.
What I like about a good old-fashioned magazine is when it turns you on to something new. The April edition of Stereophile turned me on to this release (see the review at this link).
The review caught my interest, but so did the label ECM, which was my favorite label in the late 70s and 80s. I had not listened to an unknown (to me) ECM artist in a good 10 years.
Like most ECM releases, this is mellow, folky, atmospheric jazz. My favorite song is Circling, which could be a Norah Jones song (see video below). Another great song is the titular piece which also includes some great sax work.
This is classic jam band music. Nothing original here and there is nothing wrong with that because it is executed exquisitely. Imagine the Black Crowes’ singer fronting the Grateful Dead with Steve Winwood on keyboards.
I have loved the Black Crowes from day one, when they were a pretty conventional 70’s blues rock band (except they were mistakenly placed on earth in the middle of the grunge era). Chris Robinson’s solo work has been very solid and this release is no exception. Great chiming guitar work and great keyboards (Arc of Diver era Winwood). I have always felt Chris Robinson’s voice was a silkier Faces-era Rod Stewart and it has plenty of funky swagger on this release.
The songs are all nice long sprawling jams, with nothing shorter than 7 minutes. Very mellow, but subtly rocking – simmering. Kick back and enjoy – this is late hot summer night music.
Disclosure: Neil Young and Crazy Horse are my favorite flavor of Neil.
Who other than the godfather of grunge can take tired children’s and folk songs and rev them up with a combination of “Old Black” and Crazy Horse and make them new and fresh? Over my 30 plus years of being a Neil Young fan he has continued to find new and twisted ways to delight me. Well he has done it again with Americana.
All great Neil Young ideas sound stupid in concept, but are brilliant in execution. When I heard Neil had rounded up the Horse to cover songs like “Oh Susannah,” “Clementine,” “She’ll Be Comin ‘Round The Mountain,” etc., I figured this is so stupid that it will great and I can’t wait. Today the wait is over and Neil has delivered again.
Nothing gives me greater pleasure on my travels than discovering a great record store. Recently I was in Chicago and made a pilgrimage to Dusty Groove. My fantasy is to one day own a combination of a record store and a stereo store. Dusty Groove is very close to the aesthetic that I am looking for in my dream store.
It is well-lit, has contemporary fixtures, easy to browse record bins, a focus on jazz, funk and hip hop. The only disappointment was that it did not have great stereo.
Several years ago I was in New York on a family vacation and my son and I went into a record store and their was an amazing album playing. I asked the clerk what it was and it was Harlem City Drive. The CD was like 20 bucks and I balked and did not buy it. I have been looking for it ever since (buying on Amazon is not much of a sport). Sure enough Dusty Groove had it on CD and LP (and they had multiple copies of both). I picked up the LP and it is wonderful – I will review it separately.
A great record store needs to have a distinct personality and a point of view – Dusty Groove has both. My sense is that their bread and butter is mail order, but this is a great STORE. I have been looking for Bernard Wright’s Nard on LP for years and so I asked the clerk – he looked in the computer and said it was not on the floor, but was upstairs and he would gladly retrieve it for me. In a flash he was back and allowed me to audition it – unfortunately it was in less than mint condition and a bit spendy and so I declined. The clerk was polite and did not guilt trip me. I can’t wait until my next trip back to Chicago to spend a couple of hours at Dusty Groove.
I saw my second whysowhite show last night and it was fantastic. This was a headlining show at Marytr’s. The venue is wonderful: a large stage and great ambiance. Given the headline status, the boys were able to stretch out the previous set I had seen in Minneapolis into a fully realized whysowhite vision. And what was that vision? Punk energy, funk grooves and party anthems. This is a band designed for Saturday night, to burn calories, turn a bad mood into a good mood and prime the pump for more quit after show activities (AKA groove grease).
What do I like about whysowhite? First and foremost it is the music (it must always be the music), but second it is their presentation – they move and they groove – they are a venue’s epicenter of a tsunami of good times and the only way for an audience to survive is to DANCE.
If you want to get a sense of who these guys are – check out some of their live shots of love on their website. I can’t wait until I can hear these guys on record, because that will mean I can get a dose of whysowhite daily. For now I will just have to savor the memory.
I realize that John Mayer is the definition of douche bag and a bit of an embarrassment to a be in the collection of a music snob, but I can’t help but to like this guy’s music.
This is supposedly his “country” album, but to me it is just a classic mid-70s singer songwriter album – what we used to call soft-rock. I suppose if your PR photos show you in a cowboy costume, the songs have acoustic-based arrangements and somewhat “cry in your beer” lyrics that qualifies a country music these days.
A side diversion – I think the most influential act on current country is The Eagles and not any traditional country artists like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, etc. Hell, Bob Seger probably has more influence on contemporary country than any traditional country artist. Anyway back to John Mayer.
This is a very nice mellow singer songwriter album that would play well in your rotation of Jack Johnson, Ray LaMontagne, Amos Lee, Eric Hutchinson, etc. For a guitar hero, Mayer is very understated – the heat is there, but it is a slow boil. Most songs feature acoustic guitar arrangements. Lyrically it sounds like Mayer has looked himself in the mirror and does not like what he sees. It is time to straighten oneself out and amend for one’s sins. But Mayer manages to not be depressing in this.
The album invokes Allman Brothers-lite, pop-Clapton, Cat Stevens, and a touch of Harvest-era Neil Young. I am really impressed. I had lost interest Mayer after his second album. This has me interested in him again.
At 68 Jagger kicks the ass of most rockers 50 years his junior. If you don’t believe me check out this performance from this past weekend’s SNL with Arcade Fire: Jagger and Arcade Fire. He had a second round with the Foo Fighters: Jagger and Foo Fighters. For a more enlighted take see Lefsetz.
The past year I have been a regular attendee of the The Audio Society of Minnesota (ASM). At the April meeting we did a blind speaker wire test. The test was recently blogged by Stereophile. If you really want to geek out, check out the full results at the ASM site.
Well what did I learn? I learned that speaker wire does sound different, but not necessarily better – just different. Prior to this test I could not imagine ever paying two grand or more for speaker wire. I might be willing to spend $100. After the test my mind was not changed. My own theory is if you have that kind of money to blow on stereo equipment you would be better served fixing the acoustics of your listening room.
I feel it is a real privilege to have an organization like ASM close at hand. I had always wondered about things like high-end speaker wire. It is totally cool that some guys made the effort to put together an elaborate test like this that a bronze eared guy like me could partake in.
Axl's Catch Groove 