sunday
2:03:16 PM  #  

A Country Fiddler Who Swings. It wasn't a stretch for Mark O'Connor to move beyond his bluegrass roots into jazz. He's been in that groove for years. By Terry Teachout. [New York Times: Arts]

2:04:42 PM  #  

Just Like Old Times, a Jug Band in a Stompdown. Jim Kweskin is in the construction business, but to a lot of people of his age, which is 62, Mr. Kweskin qualifies as a household name. By Alex Ward. [New York Times: Arts]
10:15:46 PM  #  

Fans of Ann Peebles and Etta James will love Bettye Lavette. After reading about her through the above link, listen to samples from her new CD, "A Woman Like Me."

8:38:11 PM  #  

Sweet Tunes, Fast Beats and a Hard Edge. Chuck Berry, musician, composer and singer, is one of rock 'n' roll's most influential and enigmatic figures. By Bernard Weinraub. [New York Times: Arts]
3:12:57 PM  #  

Songbook by Nick Hornby

Like Hornby's essays, the best writing about music shouldn't just make a reader want to play a song immediately, which can be tricky with "Songbook" as the CD's only track list appears on the surface of the disc itself. The best music writing should linger like an unshakable tune, haunting readers even years later, after too many hours between headphones have long since deafened us to the actual notes. (SFGate)

3:10:21 PM  #  

Howard Tate is a man on a mission. Actually, two missions. The first is to bring back the glories of American soul music — the kind that flowered in the ’60s and early ’70s, when African-American singers lit dynamite with their falsetto cries, heart-pounding shouts, and up-from-the-gut testifying. (Boston Phoenix)

2:57:45 PM  #  

Most know Mr. Santamaria for two things: his version of Herbie Hancock's song "Watermelon Man," which became a top-10 hit in 1963, and his authorship of "Afro Blue," a song John Coltrane made famous. But those more familiar with Afro-Cuban music know that Mr. Santamaria was at the middle of the shift from the Afro-Cuban jazz of the 1950's to the salsa sound of the 1970's.

12:37:58 AM  #  

As the article I posted last week said, Ry Cooder's Mambo Sinuendo is "an album of seductively menacing Cuban guitar music." Now that I've listened to it about a dozen times, what I would say is that this is the first totally cool music of 2003.

     Imagine - June, 1958 -- back alley underground Havana bar. Beneath the intertwining shadows of a ceiling fan and cigar smoke, a young, fiery Fidel Castro is doing bong hits with Duane Eddy and Link Wray. On stage, Rubén González sits in with the The Ventures...

This album lacks the majesty of the Buena Vista Social Club, but I really dig it and recommended it highly.

1:00:05 PM  #  

Country Joe's Rag. Fixin'to Die after all these years Woodstock-era protest singer Country Joe McDonald still keeps an active pulse on today's events on his website. One of what eventually came to be perhaps his most famous song, the "I-Feel-Like-Fixin'-to-Die rag" has taken new life in light of current events, which is quite simple to deduct: just substitute all the Vietnam references with "Iraq" and there you have it - as many people have been happy to do by submitting their own lyrics versions to the site, somehow confirming that the world actually hasn't changed much in that respect 30 years after Vietnam... [MetaFilter] [Steve's No Direction Home Page]
11:24:56 AM  #  

50 Greatest Covers of All Time.

From Craig's Booknotes.

A great list! But read it fast, apparently the link will rot in a week. [Steve's No Direction Home Page]

11:23:24 AM  #  

Ry Cooder and mambo politics

Next week, Cooder will release Mambo Sinuendo, an album of seductively menacing Cuban guitar music he recorded with Manuel Galban. (Globe and Mail)

heads up!!!

6:20:10 PM  #  

A Wounded Man, Still Singing That Sad Old Song at 72. Bobby Blue Bland is a connoisseur of quiet heartache and smoldering fury, and his set at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Saturday was like one long sad song. By Jon Pareles. [New York Times: Arts]
11:58:27 PM  #  

Cornbread Moon by Joe Ely. Appears on Honky Tonk Masquerade

8:07:31 PM  #