As I was straightening sugar and flour in the baking aisle at Target tonight, the “jukebox in my head” started playing Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orléans” and I was singin’ along and hoping that I was singing softly enough, so that no one could hear me!! After that Steve’s “Turnpike Tom” came on. I love that song!
On this date in 1919, the great drummer Art Blakey was born I’ve only become an Art Blakey fan in the last several years. The happened because many, many times, when I was listening to jazz on the radio I’d hear something great that had some fine drums on it and then when the song was over I’d hear that it was Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers!! So I decided that I better check out their music and now several of Blakey’s albums are in my music library!! So before we hear some music, let;s find out a little more about the man from Wikipedia:
Well I proved tonight that Tuesday’s run was not just a result of having four days off!! I went into tonight’s run not expecting or really wanting to run as hard as I did on Tuesday! I had convinced myself that all I wanted to do was have a nice easy run. As I set out with those that thought in mind head and the music of Anders Osborne in my ears, I found myself holding a steady pace that was just under 10 minutes/mile and at times going down to 9:30 /mile. So I said ok let’s just let it roll and see where it ends up. Well it ended up again averaging under a 10 min/mile and only 2 seconds per mile slower than Tuesday run with an average pace of 9:53 per mile. So while I’m still not exactly where I want to be, I am running a lot faster and easier than I was back in August!! 
The music of Anders Osborne that was in my ears and the soundtrack of the run was his new release Peace. The album sits at number 4 on the Roots Music Report Roots Rock Chart, rising from number 25 last week. The first Anders Osborne album that became a part of my library was his 2010 release American Patchwork which I thought was terrific. That was followed into my collection by 2012’s Black-Eyed Galaxy, which was almost as good. Now comes Peace and I think this one’s as good as American Patchwork. While I liked it on my run, I enjoyed it even more listening to it a second time earlier tonight! So I can’t wait until I get to listen a few more times. After listening to and thinking about the personal struggles that form the foundation of his songwriting, I understand why…..
So on this date “Monk” was born. Yes, William “Monk” Montgomery the older brother of Wes, was born on October 10,1921. What’s that I hear, you say, you thought I meant the other Monk – yeah, Thelonious Monk was born on this date, too, only a few years earlier in 1917! Anyway, here’s some background on Monk Montgomery! From Wikipedia:
The soundtrack for my great run tonight, which I will write about later if my brain doesn’t want to rest more than write, was the new album All Frequencies from Ottawa’s MoneyJunk. MoneyJunk?? Did I hear you say, “What’s that mean??” If you did here’s the answer, if you didn’t ask skip the following…
As I was closing tabs on my Opera browser tonight I caught a glimpse of Today’s Birthdays in Music from MusicOrb. The page was all the way to the top and birth years ranging from 1698 to 1880 were visible. There in 1879 was a name familiar to most folk music fans, Joe Hill. While I knew the name and the song “Joe Hill”, which has been covered by many artists, I realized that I didn’t know much about the man beyond the fact that he was a labor activist. That meant I needed to go to Wikipedia to find out more about Joe. From Wikipedia:
So back in 2011 I first heard the swampy blues music of Damon Fowler. It was around the time of the release of his second album on Blind Pig Records Devil Got His Way. I think that the first week I saw his name on one of the charts Devil Got His Way had not been released yet, so I ended up listening to his début album Sugar Shack, The following week though, the title of my post read – Damon Fowler – Devil Got His Way – Added to the Mix!
