Tag Archives: Bruce Springsteen

Today: Delbert McClinton is 72

The venerable Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas roots music aficionados, not only for his amazing longevity, but for his ability to combine country, blues, soul, and rock & roll as if there were no distinctions between any of them in the best time-honored Texas tradition.
~Steve Huey (allmusic.com)

2011 Texas Heritage Songwriters’ Association Hall of Fame Inductee:

From Wikipedia:

Delbert McClinton (born November 4, 1940) is an American blues rock and electric blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist.

Active as a side-man since 1962 and as a band leader since 1972, he has recorded several major record label albums, and charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Rock Tracks, and Hot Country Songs charts. His highest-peaking single was “Tell Me About It”, a 1992 duet with Tanya Tucker which reached No. 4 on the Country chart. He has also had four albums that made it to No. 1 on the U.S. Blues chart, and another that reached No. 2.

He was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame, in March 2011, along with Lee Roy Parnell, Bruce Channel, Gary Nicholson and Cindy Walker.

“Giving It Up For Your Love” @ Austin City Limits:

Album of the day:

Live (2003)

Hal Horowitz (allmusic.com):
The best way to experience Delbert McClinton‘s rowdy roadhouse combination of blues, roots rock, R&B, country, and Tex-Mex is on-stage with a couple of hundred other fans on a Saturday night. In that spirit,McClinton’s second live album, and first since 1989’s Live from Austin, documents a single 2003 performance at Norway’s Bergen Blues Festival. Originally intended only as a radio broadcast, this is an unpolished example of a typical show. Although it shares five songs with its single-disc predecessor, Livefeatures McClinton weaving newer material in with hits he’s been playing for decades, such as “B-Movie Boxcar Blues,” “Giving It Up for Your Love,” and “Going Back to Louisiana.” McClinton’s in terrific voice and spirits throughout, and his seven-piece band (including two horns) is tight but loose and ragged enough to grind through rockers with garage band enthusiasm. “Rebecca, Rebecca,” the album’s slow blues showcase, proves how comfortable McClinton is with his band and being on-stage. This is clearly his forte, and even though he’s released some terrific, if not quite classic, studio albums, this is the best way to get an overall dose of his talents. The career-spanning set list isn’t a greatest-hits collection, but that just makes it more enjoyable as the singer throws in a few curve balls.
……. read more @ allmusic.com

Other November 04:

Continue reading Today: Delbert McClinton is 72

Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love 25 year anniversary!

“On his right hand Billy tattooed the word love and on his left hand was the word fear. And in which hand he held his fate was never clear”

I think Darkness on the edge of town is Springsteen’s best album, but I think Tunnel of Love is his most overlooked record. This is a quiet, often acoustic country-tinged album that has become more important to me the older I get.

It might sound less than Springsteen than his earlier albums, and he really goes a long way towards country music, but that’s ok, I really like it.  He released it while still touring with the E Street Band, but its sound signified a marked departure from the driving rock of his earlier albums.

“God have mercy on the man who doubts what he’s sure of.”

It’s a mix of Nebraska and Darkness with strong melodies and more melancholy. The Songs are about lost opportunities, misplaced love and regrets. It is a very sad album, maybe that is why Springsteen rarely play these songs in concert. He should play them, they are among his best.

The sleeve notes to the record Springsteen writes “Thanks Julie”.

Bruce Springsteen comes off as a tired man, is it his break-up record, his divorce album? It certainly sound like it. Great art sometimes comes from pain, and this album contains great art.

Brilliant Disguise:

His marriages are falling to pieces, both to his wife and to his band. He records this album at home, it is a true solo effort even if some E-Streeters dropped by to lend backing vocals or keyboard parts to certain tracks.

It is also a “what’s the meaning of love?” record.

Lyrically, Tunnel of Love showed us some of Springsteen’s sharpest writing to date.The songs have been covered a lot and these tunes prove especially attractive to musicians in the folk, country and singer-songwriter genre.  You’ll be baffeled by the number of country artists who took a crack at “Tougher than the Rest.” As I said it has songs about lost love and regrets and what’s more country than that?

“Would they ever look so happy again the handsome groom and his bride?” Springsteen sings in Walk like a man.

Bruce and Julie filed for divorce less than a year after the release of the album.

As a teenager thirsting to escape your hometown and fantasising about meeting the girl of your  dreams, the urgency and optimism of Born to Run, the murky realism of Darkness on the Edge of Town, heartland rock of The River and Born in The USA will probably appeal more to you than Tunnel of Love. I know they did to me.

What a difference growing up make: today  Tunnel of Love rings just as true to me as the albums mentioned above does.

My Favourite song on the album is Tougher than the rest.

Rolling Stone magazine said it best:
Initially, in fact, Tunnel of Love sounds not only modest but also playful, giddy and lightweight. “Ain’t Got You” is a funny, partially a cappella Bo Diddley-style rocker that jokes about Springsteen’s wealth (“I got a pound of caviar sitting home on ice/I got a fancy foreign car that rides like paradise”) but expresses yearning for the one thing money can’t buy (i.e., “you”). In the next two songs, “Tougher Than the Rest” and “All That Heaven Will Allow,” Springsteen is head over heels in love, convinced that the sun will shine as long as he’s got the right woman by his side. Those three songs are a light, romantic, lovely beginning, and then it all comes crashing down.

Bobby said he’d pull out Bobby stayed in/Janey had a baby it wasn’t any sin/They were set to marry on a summer day/Bobby got scared and he ran away.
The song, “Spare Parts,” is a road-house rocker reminiscent of Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”; the sound is abrasive and harsh; the story is bleak; and the moral is hard: “Spare parts/And broken hearts/Keep the world turnin’ around.”

From that point on, times are tough. In “Cautious Man,” the main character has love tattooed on one hand, fear on the other (Springsteen’s lift from the film The Night of the Hunter, in which Robert Mitchum played a preacher with love and hate tattooed on his knuckles). The relationships in “Two Faces,” “Brilliant Disguise” and “One Step Up” (“and two steps back”) are crumbling as trust gives way to betrayal and recrimination: “Another fight and I slam the door on/Another battle in our dirty little war.” In the title song, Springsteen voices a fear that underlies the entire album: “It’s easy for two people to lose each other in/This tunnel of love.”

Read more Rolling Stone review Tunnel of Love

– Hallgeir

Today: Gillian Welch is 45

OLD post … You’re being redirected to a newer version……

“Each person comes to have this musical experience, this moment with us, where they get to sink into our world for a little while. It’s this very unhurried world. It’s fairly quiet, it’s contemplative, but it can be quite panoramic. I think people think interesting thoughts at our shows, and they go rather deeply into some personal experience of their own. I’m really proud that our music seems to connect, because it’s not for everybody. But for the people that our music works for, it really gets down pretty deep in there.” ~Gillian Welch on her live shows (via Acoustic Guitar)

From Wikipedia:

Born October 2, 1967 (age 45) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Origin Nashville, Tennessee
Genres Bluegrass, Americana,Country
Occupations Singer-songwriter
Instruments singing, acoustic guitar, banjo,drums
Associated acts Dave Rawlings Machine
Website gillianwelch.com

Gillian Welch (born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as “at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms”. Welch and Rawlings have released five critically acclaimed albums. Their 1996 debut, Revival, and the 2001 release Time (The Revelator), received nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Their 2003 album, Soul Journey, introduced electric guitar, drums and a more upbeat sound to their body of work. After a gap of eight years, they released their fifth studio album, The Harrow & The Harvest, in 2011. Welch was an associate producer and performed on two songs of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, a platinum album that won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002. Welch has collaborated and recorded with distinguished musicians such as Alison KraussRyan AdamsJay FarrarEmmylou HarrisThe Decemberists, and Ani DiFranco.

“Stingy critics give Ms. Welch a hard time because she’s a California city girl, not an Appalachian coal miner’s daughter. But as Lucinda or Emmylou might attest, love of the music is not a birthright, but an earned right. Listen to Ms. Welch yodel, in a tune about that no-good “gal” Morphine, and you know she’s as mountain as they come.” ~Taylor Holliday (The Wall Street Journal)

Musical Style: Welch and Rawlings incorporate elements of early twentieth century music such as old time, classic country, gospel and traditional bluegrass with modern elements of rhythm and blues, rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, and punk rock. The New Yorker‘s Alec Wilkinson maintained their musical style is “not easily classified—it is at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms”.   Reception:

  • Geoffrey Himes of The Washington Post described Welch as “one of the most interesting singer-songwriters of her generation”
  • In 2003, Tom Kielty of The Boston Globe observed that she was “quietly establishing one of the most impressive catalogs in contemporary roots music”
  • in a 2007 piece in The Guardian by John Harris called Welch “one of the decade’s greatest talents”
  • Critic Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “At every turn, she demonstrates a spark and commitment that should endear her to anyone from country and folk to pop and rock fans who appreciate imagination and heart.”

Tennessee: Elvis Presley Blues: Album of the day: The Harrow & The Harvest (2011):   Other October 2: Continue reading Today: Gillian Welch is 45

Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska covered, part two

From Clubhouse Records UK:

The Nebraska Sessions – A Tribute

Back in 1982 Bruce Springsteen released ‘Nebraska’, a collection of sparsely recorded tracks originally intended to be demos for his sixth studio album.

Almost exactly 30 years later the UK’s Clubhouse Records gathered a group of musicians together at The Betsey Trotwood pub in London to pay tribute to this fantastic album.

Throughout the course of a single day, 10 bands recorded the albums 10 tracks live straight to 4 track cassette tape just like The Boss did back in the day.

The sessions were filmed for posterity and collected together here for your enjoyment.

Acts involved on the day include; Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou, The Dreaming Spires, Danny George Wilson, The Cedars, Case Hardin, The Redlands Palomino Company, The Hi and Lo, Mad Staring Eyes, The Arlenes and Michele Stodart.

Audio produced, recorded & mixed by Trevor Moss. Video direction, lighting, camera and edit by Pierre Thiébaut.

That was last sunday, but here are the artists doing very fine versions of the Nebraska songs.

Clubhouse Records UK is a very interesting label, visit their website for more information.

Side One:

Nebraska
Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou :

Atlantic City
The Dreaming Spires:

Mansion On the Hill
The Redlands Palomino Company

Johnny 99
Case Hardin:

Highway Patrolman
Danny George Wilson:

State Trooper
Steve Arlene:

Side two:
Continue reading Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska covered, part two

Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska Covered, part one

Nebraska is one of those albums, that have inspired lots of artists. There are many singer/songwriters that says it is their favourite Springsteen record. There are tribute albums covering Nebraska, Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska beeing  the best known. It was released by Sub Pop Records in 2000. Another is the new release, Long Distance Salvation.

Concerts/tribute shows are played to honor this now 30 year old masterpiece.

I have picked some of my favourite versions of these fantastic songs, I hope you like them. Seek out the artists, and if you haven’t got Nebraska, well, buy it, everybody should at least have one copy of this artwork.

If you haven’t got a clue about Nebraska, read this first.

Side one:

Deer Tick – Nebraska (live)

The Band – Atlantic City (live)

Emmylou Harris – Mansion on the Hill (live)

Johnny Cash – Johnny 99 (offcial video)

Continue reading Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska Covered, part one