More great sounds to accompany your weekend. Some excellent vocals this week, including Malaika, Cobalt Chapel and Rationale. Hope you enjoy the music, and please let us know what you think, in the comments below. Many thanks to all contributors!
Malaika – Stop for a Minute: “Produced and co-written by Grammy-nominated songwriter John Beck and recent winner of BBC’s ‘Let It Shine’ Curtis T Johns, ‘Stop For A Minute’ is the latest track from Leeds based pop/jazz vocalist Malaika. Turning heads across the UK since supporting JONES and winning ‘Best Jazz/Blues’ at The Unsigned Music Awards in 2016, Malaika’s saccharine vocals and jazz inspired melodies have received plaudits and support from Jamie Cullum at BBC Radio 2, Huw Stephens at BBC Radio 1 and BBC Introducing.”
The Wheel of Your Tune works like this; I metaphorically turn my spinning top to reveal a random letter and number. The letter relates to an artist or the name of an album in my collection and the number relates to the track by that artist or on that album. This week’s spin landed on O and 3.
I own lots of tracks by artists whose name begins with O, but I don’t own enough tracks by any of them to choose from. I’ve had to look at my albums instead. The first one I came across was Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads and song 3 is the titular track. Enjoy.
A couple of years ago I read an article about the Country Music Awards which referred to an artist called Chris Stapleton – he stole the show with twoduet performances with Justin Timberlake (I have a secret crush on Justin Timberlake btw). I’d never heard of him. As you’ve hopefully now learned from these posts, my next move was to check out the impressively bearded man. He has a decent heritage as a successful songwriter for other artists and had recently released his own solo album called Traveller (new album due soon). It is the most gorgeous collection of soul searching tunes about life and love. Soon after my introduction to Stapleton, a friend with a huge music knowledge and much tidier beard than all the fellas in the pictures, suggested tracks by The White Buffalo and a group called Blackberry Smoke.
The White Buffalo, or Jake Smith to his mum, has a larger solo output than Stapleton. He drew a wider audience after some of his music featured in the popular biker-club TV series Sons of Anarchy. His most recent album, Love and the Death of Damnation, came out at about the same time as Stapleton’s Traveller. His versatile voice lends a mournful tone to his musical stories which feature a gritty reality at their core. Again – beautiful.
And so to Blackberry Smoke; a loveable crew of southern rockers with real variety to their repertoire. They can do heavyish rock, classic country sound and funkier soulful stuff. There’s often a little glint of humour about their output. Apparently they are great live and have a reputation for being a hard working band.
I love the music these artists offer up, but I know next to nothing else about Americana/Southern Rock/Country. The other day I was listening to Chris Stapleton’s new single and wondered where all the women of this genre are. I’m not talking the old style female country singers we all know. I’m talking the new generation. Where are they? I could go and do my own homework, but where’s the fun in that, when I have you guys to help me out? I know at least 2 of you will know something about this.
Yet again ‘Spillers I come to you to fill in the gaps in my musical knowledge. What can you tell me about all this and who else should I be tracking down?
I found the mathematics topic hard going this week. I didn’t fall in love with much of the music and I had too much to do over the weekend to give the topic enough attention and love. There were some last minute panic messages to a friend about how shit this was going to be and the much appreciated responses calmed me down and focused my attention again. I can’t lie though, the advice of trying not to give so much of a f**k about this silly game didn’t quite stick. I give a f**k about too many things; giving a f**k => to worry => lack of confidence in my ability to do the thing I give a f**k about. It’s funny that he gave me that advice. It’s the second time in a week someone has suggested such a course of action. Only the other day a conversation with a colleague veered into similar territory. They told me about a book they are currently reading to help them with their “giving too much of a f**k” issues. It’s predictably called The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k and it does exactly what it says on the tin. They told me I need it in my life. My mini meltdown while putting the RR playlist and write up together tells me I do.
I digress. What I really wanted to do with the RR playlist about mathematics was to create a set of instrumental tracks from the nominations – I bottled it. I lack the knowledge about maths in music to pull off something that. Bastard confidence thing again. So I thought I’d stick it here instead for you all the enjoy. I think it’s much better than the one I put up in The Guardian, but I have no accompanying words; the music does the talking.
Yep, it’s that time of the week again – Wilson Wednesday, and today we look at the work of Dan Wilson. Well its Wednesday here, and if i have done my sums right it should have just ticked over to Wednesday in the UK.
Dan Wilson is the lead singer of the band Semisonic, a 90’s alternative rock band best known for this track.
Maybe the idea was sparked by yet another of Bliar’s attempts to turn the political spotlight in his direction, or maybe it was the continuous parade of grinning hypocrites asking for our votes, but narcissism is all around us. Even I – long averse to even owning a smartphone – have to confess to taking a selfie….
Actors may be particularly prone to the disease but perhaps that also makes them better able to portray it on screen, like Cate Blanchett in Woody Allen’s last decent film, Blue Jasmine:
What films about/involving narcissism would you recommend?
Few acts have been as marginalized by the American hip hop / pop music industry than 7 of Clubs. They first emerged in 2005 being courted by arch rival imprints beneath Motown and Def Jam respectively. While the Motown imprint, headed by Irv and Chris “Gotti” Lorenzo was more artistically supportive; the Def Jam Imprint, headed by Russell Simmons, went beyond the call of duty assigning Gregory “Beef” Jones to manage 7 of Clubs.
This was the beginning of years of back and forth wherein Chris Gotti personally coached 7 of Clubs toward the sound of presumed greatest interest, while Beef aimed to make big things happen with the limited resources allocated to the new artist. The Manager tragically rejected an offer to open doing spoken word for The Roots on tour, without consulting the artist. Believing that “spoken word” would hamstring 7 of Clubs’ mass marketability, Beef hoped to avoid having them relegated to Def Poetry Jam. However, 7 of Clubs is inextricably Street Poetry and this shows in their new album 21st Century Bard, uncanny renditions of Shakespearean sonnets as Hip Hop songs.
I’m fresh from a Spring-like weekend in Yorkshire; wherever you are, I hope you’ve all enjoyed similar weather. Here’s a new bunch of Earworms to enjoy before the “Arctic winds” (really?) return next week. If you’d like to share any earworms with us, please send an .mp3 or video link to earworm@tincanland.com, together with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Many thanks to all contributors.
The Unthanks – What Can a Song Do to You? – severin: The first track released (do we still call it a single?) from the new album by the Unthanks, Songs and Poems of Molly Drake, mother of the more famous Nick. I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing this and many others at two forthcoming London concerts. I gather they have been performing Nick Drake’s “Riverman” as an encore. Anyway this is a lovely thing and features the voice of Molly’s daughter, Gabrielle.
Another selection of tracks to background your Sunday (St. George’s Day here in the UK). Hope you enjoy, and please don’t forget to leave your comments below. Thanks to all contributors.
Julie Elody – Sirens: “After spending three years as a lead vocalist in a funk-rock band, Julie Elody is excited to find her sound as a solo artist, working with several renowned producers … “I don’t like to write about frivolous things, and “Sirens” is no exception,” Julie explains of her new track. “It is about the all-too-often times that we ignore problems in our lives instead of dealing with them head-on, and all of the ways that this affects us.” Julie has a degree from Loyola University New Orleans in music industry studies, and it was there that she found her passion for songwriting and performing.”
The Wheel of Your Tune works like this; I metaphorically turn my spinning top to reveal a random letter and number. The letter relates to an artist or the name of an album in my collection and the number relates to the track by that artist or on that album. This week’s spin landed on F and 4.
The first artist beginning with F with a full album in my collection is Faithless. I own a few random tracks of theirs that were probably on some sort of compilation. I also own Outrospective. The 4th track on this album is the short, but beautifully sweet Crazy English Summer. Enjoy.
I’ve just got back from a couple of weeks in Berlin, mostly work-related but taking in a bit of culture with Mrs Abahachi at the same time. The main event was the Berliner Staatsoper’s astonishing, disturbing and thought-provoking staging of Wagner’s Parsifal, which I’ve written about over on my regular blog (in the course of a general rant about May’s nonsensical vicarage values). However, when we saw that the Polish jazz trumpeter, Tomasz Stanko, one of my heroes, not only had a new album coming out this month but was doing a short European tour with most of his current quartet (Finnish pianist Alexi Tuomarila replacing David Virelles, but Reuben Rogers on double bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums present and correct), including a gig in Poznań (i.e. about three hours from Berlin), we seized the chance to visit Poland for the first time.
I’m pushed this week and totally disorganised, so I’ve not really thought this through. I’ll apologise now for the shambling attempt to rush out this post…!
I have a pretty reasonable reggae collection; bigger than I realised actually, when I pulled 3 boxes of vinyl out of the loft at the weekend only to find the majority of it was reggae and rap (intermingled with some dodgy acid jazz which hasn’t really dated very well!). Despite listening to a variety of reggae over the years, I’ve always associated Mikey Dread with The Clash or as a producer rather than performer. I don’t remember how I stumbled across this record, called World War III, which he released in 1980. I love the fact that he delivers his warning messages with such an upbeat sound. There’s a lovely dub feel to the whole thing, yet it’s not full on, head-pounding dub and he uses his voice to good effect, changing his style across the tracks (there’s an almost Eek-a-Mouse moment on one track and an almost Screaming Target moment on another). I really like it. I know reggae isn’t for everyone – I know plenty of people who can’t get on with it at all, but this is accessible. I’m glad I found it.
It’s interesting isn’t it, when you think you know a genre quite well but it still has the capacity to surprise you by throwing up unknowns? Has this ever happened to you? There are probably hundreds more reggae artists you can recommend to me who I’ve never heard of (especially newer ones).
Yet again ‘Spillers I come to you to fill in the gaps in my musical knowledge. What can you tell me about all this and who else should I be tracking down?
Yes, Wilson Wednesday is back, and this week its time to turn our attention to the wonderful Jackie Wilson. And it would be remiss not to begin with Van Morrison’s great tribute song.
A two time Grammy Hall of Fame member, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member, and included on Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 greatest artists of all-time list, Jackie is an American soul singer-songwriter and performer. He was known for this high energy performances and was a master-showman.
With the people of Turkey apparently voting for Christmas, er, a great and wise leader, with Vlad already established as such and with Donny trying to get into the club by dropping bombs all over the place, the human race seems to have regressed to childhood and decided Daddy knows best. Even if he is an aggressive, misogynistic, egotistical arsehole…..
I hope we all agree that leadership should be about more than strength and control, so let’s have some films that prove it. I’ll kick off with Selma, which contains three examples: George Wallace’s divisive machinations; LBJ’s canny pragmatism; and MLK’s inspirational conviction.
Things are getting kinda tense around Gotham, so what best to put smiles on pusses than dumb Ramones (peace be upon them) tunes. Been a long time (years, probably) since i did a post for this sporadic series, and i think it’s probably not in dispute that the Ramones were fine cover artists. But it turns out not to be so easy to do fine covers of Ramones tunes. Some very good bands did some not very good covers in my wholly subjective opinion. Here’s a small handful that made my cut. Have fun! Continue reading →
A bumper bunch of earworms for you this Easter Monday, some Eastery, and some not. And we have a new contributor, Lindasmith, to whom I would like to extend a warm Spring welcome. There’s some great music for you to enjoy today – if you would like to share any earworms with us, please send an .mp3 or a link to earworm@tincanland.com, with a few words about why you’ve chosen it. Thanks very much to all our contributors!
Leo Kottke – Easter – glassarfemptee: Virtuoso guitarist Leo Kottke (of Vaseline Machine Gun fame) has picked out an Easter egg for you all.
Joan Baez – Mary – Ravi Raman: Not much to say except the album has another beaut written by Steve Earle.
Iona – Chi-Rho – AliM: “The Chi Rho (/ˈkaɪ ˈroʊ/; also known as chrismon) is one of the earliest forms of christogram, formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters — chi and rho (ΧΡ) — of the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ “Christ” in such a way that the vertical stroke of the rho intersects the center of the chi.” (Wikipedia). I’m not religious, but I do like Iona, and particularly this song.
Manfred Mann – Pretty Flamingo – Lindasmith: Pretty Flamingo by Manfred Mann. Just because. It’s a great song. 1966 was a good year. We had a Labour Government for a start. It’s not an Easter chicken, but it is a bird.
Ray Wylie Hubbard – Resurrection – Ravi Raman: I was introduced to this musician by the Rt. Hon. Tincanman of this parish. A slightly sideways look at the resurrection story.
Third Day – Saved – Ravi Raman: A rocking version of the Dylan song. Though it might be rather a song for Thanksgiving seeing how many times thanks are offered!
Anne Briggs – Willie O Winsbury & Blackwater Side – CaroleBristol: The song “Farewell, Farewell,” recorded by Fairport Convention on their album “Liege and Lief” is based upon Willie O Winsbury, a Scottish ballad that can be traced back to the 1770s. This version, a more traditional one, with different lyrics (Richard Thompson wrote the ones for Fairport) is by the English folk singer Anne Briggs, recorded in 1971. She was hugely influential on the 60s folk scene, but hasn’t recorded anything since 1973. Anne lived with Bert Jansch for a time and taught him the song “Blackwater Side” which, as we all know, was then picked up by Jimmy Page. She was apparently somewhat wild and often drunk back in those days. She is still alive, but I don’t think active in music any more. She was interviewed in 2016 by Folk Radio – http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2016/08/interview-anne-briggs/
Willie Brown – Easter Bunny Boogie – severin: Kind of speaks for itself, this one. Does what it says on the tin – or the egg. From a compilation called “Jumpin’ the Blues”. The same compilation CD as one of my earlier worms – the (sort of) rude one about the false teeth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMlbV4dnuo
Here’s the latest Sounds on Sunday playlist to bring more bounce to your weekend. I hope those of you who have an Easter holiday are enjoying the break, and for those of you who don’t, I hope you enjoy the music. Thanks very much to all contributors; don’t forget to add your comments below.
Anni – Tomorrow: “Here’s a new song from the Helsinki based songstress (also featured in SoS20) Anni. It’s called “Tomorrow”, and it’s a little flash of light in the world growing darker at places just now. This song comes a month after the previous single, “Break Free”, and we will be releasing a new song again next month. Thanks for listening.”
Gallery 47 – Lefty: “Singer-songwriter Gallery 47 aka Jack Peachey (also featured in SoS5, SoS11) returns with another … collection of captivating alt-folk tracks on his latest EP Bad Production, out on 5th May 2017 via Bad Production Records … Forthcoming singles Lefty, Political Differences and EP track ‘Overflow’ were written as a result of an alcohol-infused dispute between Peachey and some family members who commented negatively on today’s youth and their approach to finding work. This is an issue Jack has struggled with himself, making this release even more relatable and poignant.”
The Wheel of Your Tune works like this; I metaphorically turn my spinning top to reveal a random letter and number. The letter relates to an artist or the name of an album in my collection and the number relates to the track by that artist or on that album. This week’s spin landed on T and 12.
The first artist whose name begins with T with a full album in my music collection starting with T is Taj Mahal. The 12th track on the only album of his I own, which is a compilation called World Music, is Black Jack Davey. This is a traditional folk song, covered many times by artists such as Bob Dylan and The White Stripes.
I’ve stumbled upon several artists from African nations over the past few weeks and wanted to share them with you and get your opinions about their music. In our collection at home we have a few albums by musicians from Africa; they are probably the usual suspects – Fela and Femi Kuti, Bhundu Boys, a couple of great compilations, a band from Ivory Coast called Magic System, which my brother in law bought for me after a trip to see my father in law, who lives in Ghana and one of their songs was constantly on the radio. The recent death of William Onyeabor introduced me to his music. Other than that, my shelves are pretty blank when it comes to music from this continent.
From various sources the following three artists came onto my radar. All different and all fantastic.
Livy Ekemezie – Friday Night. I know almost nothing about this fella other than he comes from Nigeria and this is a re-release of a long lost EP. It’s so funky and just makes me want to dance!
Ebo Taylor – Ene Nyame ‘A’ Mensuro. I know this guy comes from Ghana and this seems to be a remix of a track on an album of his from 1977. Again really funky.
Mulatu Astatke – Yegelle Tezeta. An Ethiopian jazz musician. This track was sampled by Damian Marley and Nas on As We Enter (I think, but happy to be corrected).
Yet again ‘Spillers I come to you to fill in the gaps in my musical knowledge. What can you tell me about all this and who else should I be tracking down?
It’s Friday. Good Friday. I normally publish a post in the afternoon and I will today, if I get around to it. But I’ve felt uneasy this morning and feel compelled to write something. I’m not a religious person, but was educated at a strict Catholic school, so this time of year brings back memories of sorrow followed by celebration. This isn’t going to be a lesson about the meaning of Easter, but perhaps my memories and my innate dislike and discomfort with conflict has urged me to add this post. Sorry if I’m rambling.
Yesterday as the RR topic of the week launched over at the Guardian at 8pm UK time, it was clear pretty quickly there was a problem. Comments with YouTube links were being modded, causing annoyance and frustration. During the discussion, some harsh words were said – I’ll admit to agreeing with the general sentiment, but the words themselves were overly strong and perhaps unnecessary, although I don’t think they were targeted at anyone in particular.
How totally ridiculous and childish we can be sometimes – I hope I’ve not caused offensive or upset by agreeing with comments last night. That was never my intention and I’m sure it wasn’t the intention of others either.
We are drawn to this site, RR and The Song Bar for our love of music – the end. We visit the various sites out of personal preference, what works for us in terms of timings and technology – at the end of the day, we all love music; how it makes us feel, the memories it stirs, the joy it brings and the tears it invokes. Music is the centre of this community, and without community we may as well just give up.
So, at this time when many of us celebrate new beginnings and forgiveness, I was thinking about reconciliation. We are trying to keep this blog going and have seen some real enthusiasm and new energy around here in the last few weeks from contributors and commenters that use all the sites I referred to above. It would be a shame for silly hostilities about nothing in particular to cause unnecessary rifts. I would hate to see that happen. I wanted to share an appropriate song, but my mind has gone pretty blank…there are two songs I will share though (not really about reconciliation I’m afraid), I’m sure you can think of much better ones than me.
I love the sentiment in this Mumford & Sons track, especially the line
But I will hope as long as you like, just promise me we’ll be all right.
And this week, after having been to see Mama Mia in London last week, my 11 year old daughter discovered Abba Gold. She already knew many of their songs, but she now knows many more! She has belted this one out while bouncing on the trampoline several times this week. It seemed fitting to add it.
I’m really sorry about this nonsense ramble; I just dumped my brain. If you can think of other more fitting tracks or have any general comments, I’d love to hear from you.
The 'Spill 