Tag Archives: Odetta

Bob Dylan covers by 5 great Soul Ladies

dylan_soul

Bob Dylan covers by 5 great Soul Ladies

It is strange how well Dylan’s songs sound in these interpretations by African/American women. They are so different from the originals, yet they seem to convey the songs meaning in an even more direct way than Bob Dylan’s own versions. They might not be better, but they’re excitingly done and very good in a different kind of way.

1. Nina Simone – The Ballad of Hollis Brown

2. Odetta Holmes – Tomorrow is a long time:

Continue reading Bob Dylan covers by 5 great Soul Ladies

Today: Albert Ammons passed away in 1949 64 years ago

AA

“A major inspiration to generations of improvising musicians, Albert Ammons is best remembered as an exciting pianist who inaugurated the Blue Note record label by hammering out blues and boogie duets with Meade “Lux” Lewis, and as the father of hard bop tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons. Born in Chicago on September 23, 1907, he learned the rudiments of piano from his parents and neighbors and began cultivating an ability to play the blues when he was 12 years old.”

Allmusic

Continue reading Today: Albert Ammons passed away in 1949 64 years ago

Today: Paul Westerberg is 53

Paul Westerberg 1

“Misdirection is my path. How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him lost? I’m there, baby.” – Paul Westerberg (2012)

Paul Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is best known as the former lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter in The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band. In recent years, he has cultivated a more independent-minded approach, primarily recording his music at home in his basement.

Achin’ To Be by The Replacements:

I’ve always loved his music, both in the Replacements and as a solo artist, I like that rough “I really don’t care” attitude. But I, of course, also love his melodic sense and his songwriting talent. He doesn’t do bad music,  he’s always interesting, always on the move.

My favourite Westerberg solo song, Time flies tomorrow:

Paul Westerberg recently told Rolling Stone magazine that he’d reformed the Replacements,  and in late September, recorded four cover songs for an EP:

What brought you back together with Tommy Stinson?
The downfall of the slender one. Slim [Dunlap] had a wicked-ass stroke, he’s in rough shape. It’s difficult to go there: He can’t talk very much, he’s sort of paralyzed, he can move his leg a little bit. He speaks in a whisper. When I mentioned this [benefit record], it seemed like something he really wanted to happen. “You guys get together,” he said in a whisper. “Go play a song.” So I figured, “What the hell?”

Chris [Mars] really didn’t want any part of this. I was not surprised, but I was a little disappointed. I’d talked to him, I thought maybe he might come down and play with us. That’s fine, he’s totally into painting, and doesn’t want to return to the skins. All I’ll say is, it felt pretty natural. It felt very much like it used to.

After two or three hours, my voice was shot, but we were rocking like murder for a while. (Read more)

We hope for a tour, but take what we can get 🙂

Happy birthday Paul!

This day’s album is my favourite solo release from Paul Westerberg, Eventually:

Other December 31:

Continue reading Today: Paul Westerberg is 53

Today: Albert Ammons passed away in 1949 – 63 years ago

Chicago in mind:

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Albert C. Ammons
Born September 23, 1907
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died December 2, 1949 (aged 42)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres Jazz, blues, boogie-woogie
Occupations Pianist
Years active 1920s–1949
Labels Vocalion, Blue Note, Delmark,Mercury

Albert Ammons (September 23, 1907 – December 2, 1949) was an American pianist. Ammons was a player of boogie-woogie, abluesy jazz style popular from the late 1930s into the mid 1940s.

 

In 1938 Ammons appeared at Carnegie Hall with Johnson and Lewis, an event that helped launch the boogie-woogie craze. Record producer Alfred Lion who had attended John H. Hammond’s From Spirituals to Swing concert on December 23, 1938, which had introduced Ammons and Lewis, two weeks later started Blue Note Records, recording nine Ammons solos including “The Blues” and “Boogie Woogie Stomp”, eight by Lewis and a pair of duets in a one-day session in a rented studio.

Shout of Joy (1938):

Ammons’s played at President Harry S. Truman’s inauguration in 1949. He died on December 2, 1949 in Chicago  and was interred at the Lincoln Cemetery, at Kedzie Avenue in Blue Island, Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois.

Album of the day:

The First Day (1992):

Other December 02:

Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a civil and human rights activist, often referred to[who?] as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”. Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she was influential to many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin. Time included her song “Take This Hammer” on its list of the All-Time 100 Songs, stating that “Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music.”

-Egil & Hallgeir