All posts by Hallgeir

Music Calendar, pop, Rock, Singer Songwriter

Today: It is 3 years since the great Alex Chilton died

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Alex Chilton, power pop genius died 17. March in 2010 three years ago today.

Paul Westerberg wrote these words in The New York Times three days after Alex Chilton passed away:

It was some years back, the last time I saw Alex Chilton. We miraculously bumped into each other one autumn evening in New York, he in a Memphis Minnie T-shirt, with take-out Thai, en route to his hotel. He invited me along to watch the World Series on TV, and I immediately discarded whatever flimsy obligation I may have had. We watched baseball, talked and laughed, especially about his current residence — he was living in, get this, a tent in Tennessee.

Because we were musicians, our talk inevitably turned toward women, and Al, ever the Southern gentleman, was having a hard time between bites communicating to me the difficulty in … you see, the difficulty in (me taking my last swig that didn’t end up on the wall, as I boldly supplied the punch line) “… in asking a young lady if she’d like to come back to your tent?” We both darn near died there in a fit of laughter.

Yeah, December boys got it bad, as “September Gurls” notes. The great Alex Chilton is gone — folk troubadour, blues shouter, master singer, songwriter and guitarist. Someone should write a tune about him. Then again, nah, that would be impossible. Or just plain stupid.

He is one the all time best pop melody makers, he’s up there with Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Pete Townsend. When you hear his songs for the first time you’ll swear you’ve heard it before, but you have not. It is just so instantly recognizable, so familiar and so right!

The Box Tops – The Letter:

Alex Chilton was involved in great music all his life, he was like the music worlds Coen brothers, they may be making some movies that are not fantastic, but they are always good. And in most cases better and more interesting  than anything else out there. Chilton had a very consistent career and deserved so much more recognition than he got.

The Ballad of El Goodo (live, 93):

It is difficult to get across the admiration I have for Alex Chilton, let’s just say that he is one of the all time best and listen to his music.

Oh, and I think we should include that “stupid”song that Mr. Westerberg is talking about above. Alex Chilton, here in a solo Paul Westerberg live clip:

From the Guardians Obituary:

Alex Chilton defined the term cult hero. He was difficult, mercurial, endlessly self-sabotaging and, for a brief time, utterly brilliant. His 70s group Big Star remain almost unknown to the mainstream but are one of the key abiding influences in rock music of any calibre, their short life only fuelling their near-mythical status. “I never travel far without a little Big Star,” sang the Replacements on their strange love song, “Alex Chilton”. Several influential rock groups, from REM to Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub to Wilco, would echo that sentiment. REM’s Peter Buck once described Big Star as “a Rosetta stone for a whole generation”.

My (Hallgeir) list of Alex Chilton’s top 21 songs (actually 22, I had to include The Letter even if he didn’t write that one):

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Country, Music Calendar

Today: Jerry Jeff Walker is 71

jerry jeff walker

“the first time I set foot in Texas, particularly in Austin, I knew I was home.”

Jerry Jeff Walker was born March 16, 1942 (in upstate New York) he is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is associated with the “outlaw” country scene that centered around Austin, TX, in the 1970s.

“Mr. Bojangles”  is perhaps his most well-known and most-often covered song, written for his debut album in 1968.

Walker was a hard drinker throughout much of his early career (his nickname was “Jacky Jack”), and this reputation became part of his identity. He’s since cleaned up his act,  in part thanks to his wife, Susan, whom he married in 1974. He has continued to record into the ’00s.

His best known album, it is also his best by the way,  is Viva Terlingua, recorded in 1973 in Luckenbach, Texas  with the Lost Gonzo Band. The album went gold, and it’s still his best-selling record. His 70s output especially are highly regarded, sadly none of these albums are available on Spotify.

Happy Birthday  Jerry Jeff Walker!

Mr. Bojangles:

Here with Guy Clark’s – “LA Freeway”:

We have chosen collection from 1988 as the album of the day, it is a very good collection the hits mixed with great lesser known songs, we present Gypsy Songman:

Other Mar-16:
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Blues, Country, folk, Singer Songwriter

Videos of the day – Justin Townes Earle plays Lightnin Hopkins

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When we saw Justin Townes Earle last year he ripped through a rousing version of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ My starter won’t start (I been burnin bad gasoline). I have looked at a lot of Justin’s performances to find one that is equally good, there isn’t one… That said, there are a lot of very good ones.

Since it’s Lightnin’ Hopkins’ birthday today we give you two of them, quite different but very entertaining and very good. Justin Townes Earle is a formidable player and singer!

Happy birthday to legend, Lightnin’ Hopkins rest in peace in blues heaven!

New Jersey 2011 (..and closest to the Bergen version):

Lightnin Hopkins

Detroit 2010 (very different and very good):

Here’s Lightning Hopkins’ great original (audio only):

Two fantastic singers/songwriters and performers!

– Hallgeir

Music Calendar

Today: Ry Cooder is 66

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Ryland Peter “Ry” Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries. His albums are all quite different from each other but at the same time they are distinctly Ry Cooder in their sound.

Jesus on the mainline:

He was ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. He is also a very good composer and a competent vocalist but this is often overshadowed by his tremendous abilities on the guitar.    

Great live version of “Vigilante Man”:

Her is my top 20 Ry Cooder songs (Spotify link):

Other Mar-15:
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Classic Concert, Great albums, Great Concert, List, Live, Soul

30 Best live albums countdown: 23 – One night stand Live at the Harlem Square Club 1963 by Sam Cooke

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Sam Cooke Harlem 1

Sam Cooke was one the first to blend gospel music and secular music, the early foundation of soul music. He was the opposite of Elvis: He was a black performer who appealed to a white audience, who wrote his own songs and who controlled his own business.

On Jan. 12, 1963, Sam Cooke was not playing to the white  audiences who knew him only from his earlier records. He was headlining a few concerts at Miami’s Harlem Square Club, he performed for black audiences who appreciated his roots and expected a grittier, more soulful Sam Cooke, which isexcactly what they got! It is indeed  a rougher, rawer and more immediate side of Sam Cooke on display. Sam Cooke’s smooth voice sets the tone but it’s his abillities as an entertainer in world class form that take it to the top.

Sam Cooke Recording at RCA Studios

Cooke was  energized by a recent tour of Europe with former labelmate Little Richard, when he took the stage at the Harlem Square Club in Miami.  He gave us an electrifying set of sweaty, sanctified, manic and masterful soul music. The show was taped for an album which sat on the shelf for twenty years until it was released in 1985.

It is a fantastic recording and maybe it shows us what direction Mr. Cooke could have gone. But instead he got an eighteen month period which would see his baby son die, see the recording of some of his finest music, and then his all too early death.

One night stand! Live At The Harlem Square Club is one of the finest live releases I know of, worthy of standing next to James Brown’s landmark Apollo Theater date (recorded just a month earlier) and also worthy of the 23rd place on my list of the 30 best live albums.

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It is one of the great moments in the history of soul music, heck, any kind of music! 

Rolling Stone Magazine  ranked it at 443 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time:

Cooke was elegance personified, but he works this Florida club until it’s hotter than hell, while sounding like he never breaks a sweat. He croons “For Sentimental Reasons” like a superlover, and when the crowd sings along with him, it’s magic.

Peter Guralnick (in his book Dream Boogie:  The Triumph of Sam Cooke):

There was nothing soft, measured or polite about the Sam Cooke you saw at the Harlem Square Club; there was none of the self-effacing, mannerable, ‘fair-haired little colored boy’ that the white man was always looking for. This was Sam Cooke undisguised, charmingly self-assured, “he had his crowd,” said [guitarist] Clif White approvingly – he was as proud as he has been raised to be, not about to take any scraps from the white man’s table.

For me the difference from his studio work and this live album is clearest on Chain Gang. Listen to the two songs from the two minute mark, strike that, listen to the whole song. Both versions are great but the live version is raw, fantastic distillation of Soul! The way he switches from smooth, velvety voice into a gritty rasp, it is amazing, what an “instrument” he had.

Chain Gang:

All the songs are darker, more raw, more sexual. Cooke is twisting the audience around his finger and he sounds like a man who has  earthly desires to attend to. It is raw soul, and I never thought I should say that about Sam Cooke!
Continue reading 30 Best live albums countdown: 23 – One night stand Live at the Harlem Square Club 1963 by Sam Cooke →