Renaissance Granddad

The seeds of this playlist were sown on Monday of this week (May 26th) when I used my 20% off Holiday discount at Goodwill to buy a JVC Dual Cassette deck for $8.00. As a result, over the next several days I searched for my old cassette tapes.

One of them I found was a Charlie Mussellwhite 1969 release Tennessee W0man. Now I know I didn’t buy the tape in 1969. It’s more likely I bought the tape in the late 1990s when Tunes, store in Marlton NJ, my sons and I used to frequent, was clearing out its tape inventory. As I was listening to the album I reflected on the fact t that a few days previously I had been listening to Charlie’s recent release Look Out Highway. 

Anyway that thought started  me thinking about all the musicians I started to listen to in the late 60s early 70s that are still out there making great music and albums! Those thoughts lead me to create a playlist!! And here it is!! What I tried to do was start with two songs from each artist from the 60s and then I chose two songs from their most recent albums!

The Fifty Years Later Playlist (Part I)

Charlie Mussellwhite

While I don’t have a lot of  Charlie’s music in my library,  I have always admired his harp playing. I‘ve enjoyed blues harp since I first heard Sonny Terry way back in the 70s.

Then

      From: Tennessee Woman

•  “Tennessee Woman” – How could  I not start the playlist with anything but the very song and album that inspired it.
• “Blue Feeling Today“

      From Look Out Highway

Now

I am still getting to know these two songs but Charlie’s vocals and harp playing are as great as they ever were!

• “Look Out Highway”- the title track of Charlie’s latest
• “Hip-Shakin’ Mama” –

Jerry Jeff Walker

I followed Jerry Jeff’s career from the first album Mr. Bojangles to the last album It’s About Time. (1969-2018). Along the way in addition to placing a bunch of songs in the “Jukebox in my head” Jerry Jeff also introduced me to : David Bromberg, Guy Clark, Tom Russell, Chris Wall, Ray Wylie Hubbard and the great Lloyd Maines. And probably many others!

Then

          From Mr. Bojangles

• “Gypsy Songman” – there’s better to start with when considering whose music I’ve been listening to for fifty years than Jerry Jeff.  And “Gypsy Songman” certainly captures the spirit of Jerry Jeff. I have rocked all of my grandchildren to “Mr. Bojangles”. The other day we were visiting my fifth grandchild Luca and my wife handed a crying Lucas to me. I started rocking and singing Mr. Bojangles and he quickly stopped crying. The power of Jerry Jeff.

From Drifting Way of Life

• “Ramblin’ Scramblin”  – one thing I’ll probably never do is rock a grandchild to Ramblin’ Scramblin”.   I first heard this song many years ago – I’d never heard anything like it, and I immediately loved it!

         From It’s About Time

Now

• “My Favorite Picture of You” – through the year JJW covered several Guy Clark songs and this one found it’s way onto JJW’s last album and he made it his own in 2018, when JJW covered it on It’s About Time, two years before JJW passed in 2020.  Here’s a link to Guy’s version.
• “ That’s the Way I Play”  – just a nice JJW song.

Tom Rush

While I didn’t discover Tom Rush’s music until he was several years into his career, I’ve been a fan since  The Circle Game was released in 1968. And while there was a big gap in the release of a studio recording in his career (from 1974‘s Ladies Love Outlaws to 2009’s. What I Know, Tom has never stop performing! His last two albums Voices (2018) and 2024’s Gardens Old , Flowers New are both terrific albums. He has aged like a fine wine!

Then

From The Circle Game…

• “Urge for Going” – – Tom’s album The Circle Game is high on the list of my All-Time favorite Albums and it’s mainly because of his covers of then unknown artists like Joni Mitchell who penned both “Urge for Going” and the title song
• “The Circle Game” – a brilliant cover -nuff said

From Gardens Old, Flowers New

Now

I’m still getting to know these two new songs, but they are both vintage Tom Rush…..

• “The Harbor”
• “Sailing”

Eric Andersen

Like Tom Rush I didn’t discover Eric Andersen’s music until he released Blue River in 1972. At that point Eric was an established fixture in the Greenwich Village Music scene and had released six or seven albums. Eric says this about that period of his life:

I was documenting a whole other emotional and interior world moving through the ’60s and beyond,” he says. “My songs dealt more with inner perceptions, views, and feelings — songs that were perhaps the precursors to those of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. [Greenwich Village] felt
exciting because you knew it was a historical, breakthrough time, and it was amazing to belong to such a vibrant era.”

At one point, Cohen even told him that one of his songs inspired him to start writing and performing. Read More

Again my musical journey with Eric started with Blue River (1972) and has continued to today. Like Tom Rush, Eric had a gap in his musical career when he was in Europe. There was a fourteen year gap between Be True To You and Ghosts on the Road (1974-1989). And while his latest album Dance of Love and Death is a far cry from his Greenwich Village Days it is an outstanding album, in my humble opinion,

Then

From Blue River

• “Is it Really Love at All” – this is one of my favorite songs of all-time. It’s just a great song.
• “Wind and Sand” – another favorite – especially the last line…..

From Dance of Love and Death

Now

• “Dance of Life and Death”
• “After This Life”

So check these artists and songs out!

Got a similar story or favorite artist who’s still going strong? I’d love to hear it.

As for me, I’m already at work on Part II of this playlist, which will feature some of the rock and blues artists who’ve grown older, wiser — and are still absolutely worth listening to!

Links for the Further Explorations of These Artists

Charlie Musselwhite
Jerry Jeff Walker
Tom Rush
Eric Andersen

The Fifty Years Later Playlist

“It’s A Lovely Day”

It’s a Lovely Day playlist track album

Tracks 1-3 The Youngbloods and Jesse Colin Young

The playlist opens with two songs from The Youngbloods.  First, “It’s a Lovely Day” a song that always puts me in a good mood.  While  I usually just drift along with the second song “Ride the Wind”.

The Youngbloods disbanded in 1972 following the release of their final studio album, High on a Ridgetop.( which is in my music library and I was actually listening to the other day) After the breakup Jesse released many albums and a good number of them made their way into my library. “Grey Day” is from his 1974 release Light Shine and is another drift along song.

Track 4 – John B Sebastian

Another artist whose career I followed after his original band broke up was John B Sebastian I only included one song on this playlist “ Magical Connection”. And dare I say I’ve always had a magical connection with this song. lol

Tracks 5-7 Aztec-Two Step

I am not sure who Aztec-Two Step opened for when my wife and I saw them at the Main Point in 1974. I believe it was John Prine. Anyway we loved them and I think I bought my copy of their self titled debut album after the show! I have been playing this album ever since. The three songs on this playlist are my three favorites.

The Taylor Brothers Tracks  8-9

The next two songs are from the Taylor brothers James and Livingston. I started as a fan of James and then after the release of his self-titled album I became a fan of Livingston. Through the years I’ve probably listened to ore of Livingston’s music than James.’

I don’t know why  I chose “Rainy Day Man” From James. I don’t even own the album Flag it can be found on, but I’ve always liked the song. I do known why I chose “Carolina Day” . It’s one of my favorite songs on one of my favorite albums and as a bonus it mentions all of Liv’s siblings!

Ochs, Spheeris, and Andersen Tracks 10-12

The final three songs come from solo artists and are three of my favorite songs from each artist. The first “Changes” by Phil Ochs. I love Phil mostly for his protest songs, but he also wrote non-protest ala, “Flower Lady” from one of my earlier playlists, “Changes” is one of my all time favorite Ochs’ songs.

Jimmie Spheeris’ album “Isle of View” (say it three time fasts) is like John B says “Magical” for me. I just put it oj and drift away! Here’s a little background on Jimmie from Wikipedia…..

Jimmie Andrew Spheeris (November 5, 1949 – July 4, 1984) was an American singer-songwriter who released four albums in the 1970s on the Columbia Records and Epic Records labels. Spheeris died in 1984, at the age of 34, after a motorcycle accident. Read More

The  last track like all o0f the above is from one of my favorite artists. “Is It Really Love at All” is probably Eric’s most commercially successful song and the same can be said of the album it’s on “Blue River” Amazingly, ERic  who was a biig part of the Folk Revival in 1960s New York is still producing great albums check out  Dance of Love and Death here

Finally, here is the “It’s a Lovely Day” playlist I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Any favorites here?

Now when I went to Roots Music Report yesterday there were new albums from several artists I’ve heard of and are in my music library. There were also quite a few that I am not familiar with.

Artists I Know and like a lot…..

7. The Speed of Life – Dudley Taft

16.Grown in Mississippi – John Primer

. 19.Truth Is – Carolyn Wonderland

25 Money & Power – Ally Venable

Artist I am unfamiliar  with……

There were numerous artists on the Top Fifty Blues Chart. I chose to give the first three three listed below a listen because the first three were were labeled as Blues Rock and the last was Contemporary Blues.

23. Mother Lode – Few Miles On

43. Six String Preacher – David Rinaldo

36 Nothing But the Truth – Max Hightower

45 Empty Chair – Mike Dangeroux

Creating the New Blues Sunday Playlist

Last night, I created a playlist using the first four artist,  I picked three songs from each album after giving each a quick listen. I then put  the first song from each album on the playlist followed by each second song and kept going  until the twelve song playlist was done.

This morning i listened to the playlist and enjoyed all the songs. While I like all of the tracks, I think I kike the songs from Carolyn Wonderland and Ally Venable the best and will listen to the complete albums first! Hopefukly I’ll write more detailed review soon!

Now I still need to listen to the next group of artists and create their playlist. Which artist is your favorite?

I grew up as an only child. And while I had a close  knit neighborhood of friends to play with, along with school friends,, at the end of the day you‘re alone. After I created this playlist I realized that may have affected me more than I realize!

Here is what Chatptl AI generated when asked to write briefly about each song….

Songs That Move Me About Loneliness and Alienation

1.“Hello in There” – John Prine

A tender, bittersweet ballad about aging and loneliness, John Prine’s “Hello in There” invites listeners to notice and connect with the elderly, whose rich lives and stories often go unseen. It’s a compassionate reminder of our shared humanity.

2. “Willard” – John Stewart

This gentle folk song by John Stewart paints a portrait of a small-town character named Willard, using vivid storytelling and evocative imagery to capture themes of isolation, change, and quiet resilience in the face of life’s hardships.

3. “Flower Lady” – Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs’ “Flower Lady” weaves together brief vignettes of urban characters who pass by an old flower seller, highlighting social indifference and lost human connections in modern life. It’s a melancholic, poetic critique of urban alienation.

4. “Streets of London” – Ralph McTell

A classic folk anthem of empathy, “Streets of London” draws attention to the unseen struggles of the homeless and lonely, reminding listeners that there’s always someone carrying a heavier burden than their own.

5. “Louise” – Paul Siebel

This haunting, sorrowful ballad tells the story of a marginalized woman named Louise, capturing the cruelty of society’s indifference and the quiet tragedy of a life dismissed. Siebel’s songwriting is stark, empathetic, and unforgettable.

Songs That Move Me About Vietnam and Civil Rights

The last three songs all are about two of the aspects of the 60s and 70s that affected all of us who grew up in those years. First the Vietnam War and then the fight for Civil Rights. When I first heard “Jimmy Newman” on Tom Paxton 6  I had never heard a song so gut wrenching !

I never  heard “Birmingham Sunday”!until I heard Anne Hills and Tom Paxton sing it on Under American Skies . And when I heard it in 2001 it certainly brought back memories of the fight for Civil Rights and that tragic event.

The playlist closes with a powerful Civil Rights anthem that is still appropriate for today! Hopefully, we call ALL overcome some day! I don’t think there is a more moving song than this we you are with a group of people singing it!!

“Jimmy Newman” – Tom Paxton

Set against the backdrop of war, “Jimmy Newman” is a moving antiwar song in which a soldier gently tries to comfort his dying friend, Jimmy, with small talk and homefront memories. The understated delivery makes its message heartbreakingly powerful.

“Birmingham Sunday” – Richard Fariña (popularized by Joan Baez)(who was married to  Joan’s sister Mimi)

A chilling ballad recounting the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four African American girls, this song serves as both a historical narrative and a mournful call for justice in the face of racial violence.

“We Shall Overcome” – Traditional (adapted by Pete Seeger and others)

An iconic anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, “We Shall Overcome” is a simple, hopeful, and resolute song of solidarity and peaceful resistance, echoing the timeless human desire for dignity and equality.

I hope you enjoyed this playlist. I would love to hear about any songs that have moved you.

Here’s a Video that brings  Streets of London to life. It’s will always be  one of the songs  that move me