Saturday’s Music Mix – Part 1 – Hot Tuna

So with a night off. I was able to do a little music listening last night. The mix was eclectic. The night started listening to the first studio album from Hot Tuna in twenty some years, Steady as She Goe! For those of you who don;t remember Hot Tuna or simply weren’t around Hot Tuna was a side project of Jefferson Airplane. The main members were Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady. Their first album Hot Tuna was a collection of concerts performed at New Orleans House in Berkeley  in September, 1969, and released in 1970. According to Wikipedia this album is affectionately known by Tunaphiles as the “breaking glass album”, because of the sound of breaking beer glasses during the recording of “Uncle Sam Blues”. Anyway this is the album and the music I most associate with Hot Tuna. In reading some info about the band there were several albums that were new to me recorded in the mid-70’s that took the band in a more hard rock direction from Wikipedia: Read More

Sunday Night – Six Pack!

So last night on the way to work and back I had the iPOD on random shuffle and some tunes I hadn’t heard for a while came on. Here’s the list:

“Bottle of Wine” Tom Paxton – The Best of the Vanguard Years. I picked up Tom’s career with album six apply titled Tom Paxton 6 . But I do know thes classics on this album. While this track is a live recording I like the one where he tells the story of being in France and hearing people refer to the song as a French folk song and having to learn the song in French, which he did and does on the track! Read More

Gettin’ Ready for Folk Favorite: Jesse Winchester

So the other night I ordered my tickets to go to see Jesse Wnchester at The Tin Angel here in Philly. I’ve been a fan of Jesse’s music since my wife introduced his music to me in the early 70’s. “Yankee Lady” was the first song see loved. Through the years she hasn’t listened to Jesse as much as I have, but I think we’re both going to love the show! So to get ready tonight I’ve been listening to a block of Jesse’s music. Right now “Mississippi, You’re On My Mind” probably my all time favorite song of Jesse’s and one that I think captures a “sense of place”  better than almost any song, is on!! In the block I listened to songs from: Gentleman of Leisure: “Club Manhatten”, and “Freewheeler”, and “No Pride at All”, Learn to Love It “Pharoah’s Army” and “Mississippi, You’re on My Mind” Humour Me: “They Just Can’t Help Themselves”, Sweet Loving Daddy” and from his latest album Love Filling Station Jesse’s great cover of Sam Cooke’s “Stand By Man”, “Wear Me Out”,  and “Eulalie”. What I’ve discovered is that I’ve never met a Jesse song I didn’t like, I just like some songs more than others! Read More

Slaid Cleaves – John Gorka a night with old friends!

The thing I love about writing this blog is finding new musicians to listen to, but what I often don’t take the time to do is listen to the ones I love! So the other night over the last hour of work I listened to two of my old favorites. First Slaid Cleaves and then John Gorka. Like many of the folks I listen to my introduction to Slaid Cleaves came from the Gene Shay Show on WXPN in Philly. It was a Sunday night that I was working and remembered to turn on Gene’s show and caught the end of  “Broke Down”. I didn’t recognize the name but I immediately went out to find the album. It took a couple of trips to my favorite used CD store to find it but it eventually showed up and I’ve been a fan since the first listen! My wife and I have seen him several times here in Philadelphia. The last time was at the Tin Angel for a CD release show for Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away and every time I leave a show a happy man!  The first time we saw him was at the  The Point in Bryn Mawr, Pa (I miss that place) and my daughter went with us. Before the show I saw Slaid at the bar and asked if he’d play my daughter’s favorite song “Lydia”. He said he was going to do it as part of the show. When he started the song he screwed up the lyrics! After the show we got Elizabeth an autographed photo which is in her room somewhere, the signature says “Sorry I messed up your song!!” One year for Christmas My wife sent away for several of Slaid’s earlier CDs and they all came autographed!! Anyway, it was good the other night to hear old favorites like “Broke Down”, “Key Chain”, “No Angel Knows” and “The Ballad of Sandy Gray”! My into to John Gorka was from the album Legacy: A Collection of New Folk Music. It was an  album designed to introduce fifteen young singer songwriters and the group that they collected was pretty great. Here’s what folk radio host for WNEW-FM , Pete Fornatal said in his liner notes for the album: Read More

Book 10 – The Breach – Patrick Lee

Book 10 of 2011 was Patrick Lee’s The Breach. The Breach is the first book of what’s now a two book series featuring Travis Chase, Paige Campbell and the Breach. The second book, which I read first is Ghost Country. The book is an action adventure book with some sci-fi thrown in. The Breach itself is an anomaly, like a ripe in space, through which entities are sent to Earth from some other vastly more intelligent world. The entity that is the focus of this book is The Whisper. The Whisper knows all and it’s mission is to cause trouble and in the book it certainly does! From the opening chapter when a plane carrying the Whisper and the First Lady of the United States goes down and the Whisper is stolen, to the last pages where the home of the Breach Border Town run by a group known as Tangent is attacked the action is fast and furious with lots of twists and turns. I really liked both of the books and I’m looking forward to more books featuring the likable team of Chase and Campbell! Read More

Sterling Koch – Slide Ruler

The second album that I listened to last weekend and through this week was the latest album by Sterling Koch (pronounced “Cook”) Slide Ruler. Koch us a nationally acclaimed lap steel guitarist from Cressona, Pennsylvania. I’ve seen this album on the Roots Music Blues Chart and others and was unsuccessful in finding the album on Rhapsody. I did listen to one of early albums Steel Guitar Blues though and enjoyed that so when I saw Slide Ruler on Napster I quickly put it on the iPod! Read More

A Blues Weekend Part 1 – Carlos Del Junco

so this weekend I downloaded and listen to two great blues albums. The first album was Big Boy from Carlos del Junco. Currently, Carlos’ new album Mongrel Mash with his band The Blues Mongrels is number 44 on the Roots Music Blues Chart. When I went to Napster that album was not available, so I chose Big Boy. Once again being in my own little blues world I had never heard of Carlos. Carlos was born in Havana and moved to Toronto at the age of one. Ah, there’s why I’ve never heard of him Canada is hiding him!!  But the opening notes from the first track “Heaven’s Where You’ll Dwell” told me that this guy can play the harp and a trip to his website confirmed my opinion, as Carlos was from 1997 to 2010 Harmonica Player of the Year. A total of SEVEN times out of the Canadian Maple Blues Award’s FOURTEEN year history, and his 2010 album Steady Movin’ has been nominated for a Juno award. From his website: Read More

Blues Wednesday – Vargas Blues Band

So last week I listened to the Voirth Blues Band from Croatia and today I traveled a little west from Croatia to Spain and listened to the Vargas Blues Band and their latest release Mojo Protection Revisited, which is a revision to an album released in 2008 in Argentina under the name of MOJO PROTECTION. The album includes new songs written by Tim Mitchell and Javier, engraved with the last band, composed by Javier, Tim, Luis Mayol (bass) and Peter Kunst. (drums) Read More