Witchcraft live in Haugesund, Norway 2012, photo special

After a five year break,  Witchcraft(from Sweden) have released Legend, their fourth studio album and first for Nuclear Blast. Before their production style and sound was compared to the sound that made American bands like Blue Cheer so recognizable (“loudest band in the world” 60s) The new record sound much more up to date, it sounds great.

Thursday night they played in Haugesund (at Jimmy Legs), it was my first show seeing Witchcraft. What a great band! They mix modern hard rock with Sabbath-style doom metal and Roky Erickson psychedelia (and a bit grunge ala Soundgarden), the singer/band leader Magnus Pelander is fantastic. At times he seems to not know what to do with his hands, and I understand that this is his first album not playing the guitar.

When asked by About.com if it was strange not playing guitar he said:
“No, it is more of a relief not to have a guitar strap around your neck.”


Continue reading Witchcraft live in Haugesund, Norway 2012, photo special

Today: Sam Moore is 77 he was born in 1935

Samuel David Moore aka Sam Moore (born October 12, 1935) is an American Southern soul and rhythm & blues (R&B) singer, who was the tenor vocalist for the soul vocal duo Sam & Dave from 1961 to 1981.

Sam Moore is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame (for “Soul Man”), the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and a Grammy Award and a multi-Gold Record award-winning recording artist. Sam & Dave were the most successful and critically acclaimed duo in soul music history. Moore has also achieved a distinguished 25-year career as a solo performing and recording artist.

In 2008, based on a poll of other musicians, Rolling Stone named Sam Moore one of the 100 greatest singers of the rock era (1950s-2008).

Sam & Dave:

Sam Moore and Dave Prater were both experienced gospel music singers, having performed individually with groups the Sensational Hummingbirds and The Melionaires. They met in The King of Hearts Club in Miami in 1961, where they were discovered by regional producer Henry Stone, who signed them to Roulette Records. After modest success at Roulette,they were signed by Jerry Wexler to Atlantic Records in 1964, then being ‘loaned’ out to Stax Records to produce, record and release their records.

The duo’s November 1965 single, “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” started a series of ten straight top twenty Billboard R&B hits that included “Hold On! I’m Comin'” (1966), “You Got Me Hummin’ (1966), “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby” (1967), “Soul Man” (1967), and “I Thank You” (1968). Most of their hits were penned by Isaac Hayes and David Porter. In most recordings, they were also backed by Hayes on piano with Booker T and the MGs and The Memphis Horns. The ending of their association with the Stax record label and their frequently volatile relationship contributed to their first break-up in 1970. Their last performance together was on December 31, 1981, at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco. On 9 April 1988, Prater died in a car crash in Sycamore, Georgia.
(Wikipedia)

Oslo 1967:

Moore and Prater (posthumously) were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on January 15, 1992. Shortly after the induction, Moore announced plans to record a solo LP, featuring duets with Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins and others.
On August 29, 2006, Moore released his first solo album, Overnight Sensational.

When something is wrong with my baby:

What a fantastic singer! Happy birthday Sam!

Solo discography:

Plenty Good Lovin’ : The Lost Solo Album 2002
Sam Moore recorded this album in 1970 with R&B great King Curtis, who produced eight of the ten tracks. The album was originally intended to be Moore’s solo debut, but it was shelved for a variety of reasons (including the murder of King Curtis shortly after the album was recorded).

Overnight Sensational 2006

Other 12 October:

Bob Mould was born in 1960:

Guitarist/singer/songwriter Bob Mould was a member of Hüsker Dü, one of the most influential American bands of the ’80s.

He has released several great albums as a soloartist and as a member/leader of the group Sugar. We had the great fortune of seeing him perform Copper Blue at this years Oyafestival.

Happy birthday Bob! You also get the album of the day spot with Sugar’s Copper Blue:

 

Continue reading Today: Sam Moore is 77 he was born in 1935

Today: The late Art Blakey was born in 1919 – 93 years ago

Music washes away the dust of every day life.
~Art Blakey

You can’t seperate modern jazz from rock or from rhythm and blues – you can’t seperate it. Because that’s where it all started, and that’s where it all come from – that’s where I learned to keep rhythm – in church.
~Art Blakey

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Arthur Blakey
Also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina
Born October 11, 1919
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States
Died October 16, 1990 (aged 71)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres Hard bop, bebop
Occupations Drummer, bandleader
Instruments Drums, percussion
Years active 1942–1990
Labels Blue Note
Associated acts Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Art Blakey Quartet, Art Blakey Quintet, Art Blakey & the Afrocuban Boys
Website www.artblakey.com

Arthur “Art” Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990), known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader.

Along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, he was one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. He is known as a powerful musician and a vital groover; his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was and continues to be profoundly influential on mainstream jazz. For more than 30 years his band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, included many young musicians who went on to become prominent names in jazz. The band’s legacy is thus not only known for the music it produced, but as a proving ground for several generations of jazz musicians;  Blakey’s groups are matched only by those of Miles Davis in this regard.

Blakey was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame (in 1982), the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 2001), and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

From allmusic.com – Chris Kelsey:

In the ’60s, when John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman were defining the concept of a jazz avant-garde, few knowledgeable observers would have guessed that in another 30 years the music’s mainstream would virtually bypass their innovations, in favor of the hard bop style that free jazz had apparently supplanted. As it turned out, many listeners who had come to love jazz as a sophisticated manifestation of popular music were unable to accept the extreme esotericism of the avant-garde; their tastes were rooted in the core elements of “swing” and “blues,” characteristics found in abundance in the music of the Jazz Messengers, the quintessential hard bop ensemble led by drummer Art Blakey. In the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, when artists on the cutting edge were attempting to transform the music, Blakey continued to play in more or less the same bag he had since the ’40s, when his cohorts included the likes of Charlie Parker,Miles Davis, and Fats Navarro. By the ’80s, the evolving mainstream consensus had reached a point of overwhelming approval in regard to hard bop: this is what jazz is, and Art Blakey — as its longest-lived and most eloquent exponent — was its master. … read more over @ allmusic.com

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Moanin’ – Live In Belgium 1958:

Art blakey’s Jazz Messengers – Dat Dere (1961):

Album of the day – Moanin’ (1958):

From allmusic.com – Michael G. Nastos: 

Moanin’ includes some of the greatest music Blakey produced in the studio with arguably his very best band. There are three tracks that are immortal and will always stand the test of time. The title selection is a pure tuneful melody stewed in a bluesy shuffle penned by pianist Bobby Timmons, while tenor saxophonist Benny Golson‘s classy, slowed “Along Came Betty” and the static, militaristic “Blues March” will always have a home in the repertoire of every student or professional jazz band. “Are You Real?” has the most subtle of melody lines, and “Drum Thunder Suite” has Blakey‘s quick blasting tom-tom-based rudiments reigning on high as the horns sigh, leading to hard bop. “Come Rain or Come Shine” is the piece that commands the most attention, a highly modified, lilting arrangement where the accompanying staggered, staccato rhythms contrast the light-hearted refrains. Certainly a complete and wholly satisfying album, Moanin’ ranks with the very best of Blakey and what modern jazz offered in the late ’50s and beyond.

Other October 11:

Continue reading Today: The late Art Blakey was born in 1919 – 93 years ago

Today: John Prine is 66

“Jesus was a good guy, he didn’t need this shit.”
― John Prine

“And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile. It don’t cost very much, but it lasts a long while. Won’t you please tell the man I didn’t kill anyone.
No, I’m just tryin’ to have me some fun.”
― John Prine

From Wikipedia:

Born October 10, 1946 (age 66)
Origin Maywood, Illinois,
United States
Genres Country
Folk
Progressive bluegrass
Occupations Singer-songwriter
Guitarist
Instruments Vocals
Guitar
Years active 1971–present
Labels Atlantic, Asylum, Oh Boy, Rhino
Associated acts Steve Goodman
Website www.johnprine.net

John Prine (born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois) is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.

Sabu Visits The Twin Towns Alone (1978) w/intro:

In 2003, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for songwriting by the UK’s BBC Radio 2 and that same year was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. The following year saw his song “Sam Stone” covered by Laura Cantrell for the Future Soundtrack for America compilation.

Prine has taken his place as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation. In 2009, Bob Dylan told the Huffington Post that Prine was one of his favourite writers, stating “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about “Sam Stone,” the soldier junkie daddy, and “Donald and Lydia,” where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that.”

 In Johnny Cash‘s autobiography Cash, he admitted “I don’t listen to music much at the farm, unless I’m going into songwriting mode and looking for inspiration. Then I’ll put on something by the writers I’ve admired and used for years (Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Guy Clark, and the late Steve Goodman are my Big Four)…”

When asked by Word Magazine in 2008 if he heard Pink Floyd‘s influence in newer British bands like Radiohead, Roger Waters replied “I don’t really listen to Radiohead. I listened to the albums and they just didn’t move me in the way, say, John Prine does. His is just extra-ordinarily eloquent music—and he lives on that plane with Neil Young and Lennon.” 

Prine received the Artist of the Year award at the Americana Music Awards on September 9, 2005. The award was accepted in his name by awards host and long-time friend Billy Bob Thornton.

Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness (2010):

“Have you ever noticed
When you’re feeling really good
There’s always a pigeon
That’ll come shit on your hood
Or you’re feeling your freedom
And the world’s off your back
Some cowboy from Texas
Starts his own war in Iraq.”
-John Prine

Album of the day – John Prine (1971):

From allmusic.com – William Ruhlmann:
A revelation upon its release, this album is now a collection of standards: “Illegal Smile,” “Hello in There,” “Sam Stone,” “Donald and Lydia,” and, of course, “Angel from Montgomery.” Prine’s music, a mixture of folk, rock, and country, is deceptively simple, like his pointed lyrics, and his easy vocal style adds a humorous edge that makes otherwise funny jokes downright hilarious.

Other October 10:

Continue reading Today: John Prine is 66

Focusing on Bob Dylan & related music