Author: mark

grateful dead, pacific northwest ’73 – ’74

if you read enough of my blog posts you will see that i listen to a large variety of music, but the dead still hold a dear and significant place in my heart (and soul). i have gotten to the point of my music collecting career where i will buy anything that the grateful dead organization releases. i do this for three reasons, in the following order of importance.

first, there are still a ton of great recordings in their vault, and i have found that the quality of both the material and recording to be almost always top notch. david lemieux, the dead’s archivist, has stated often that those are the two equally important criteria they insist on when considering a show for production and subsequent release. second, i am a collector, so i always love an opportunity to add to my inventory of shows. third, they hold their value. whether it is the box sets or my 7 year subscription to the dave’s picks series, they are for the most part all worth more on the secondary market than what i paid for them.

and so it was without hesitation that i jumped on this box set when it was first introduced earlier in the summer, and i am not disappointed. the artwork and packaging are outstanding. this is one my favorite periods of the dead, and all six shows included here are exceptional. the recording quality is surprisingly good, with the only issue being an occasional imbalance in the overall mix. they seemed to have some trouble with keeping the vocals up in the mix, but it gets corrected in due time. the three shows from 1974 of course feature their legendary ‘wall of sound’. the book that accompanies the box is replete with pictures, anecdotes, and information. i have gotten through about half of the material so far, but can already give it my strongest recommendation. i didn’t want to wait to long to post on this, nor go into more detail about the material, mostly due to the fact that it might sell out and i wanted to make sure all of you had a chance of picking one up. they only made 15,000 of these things, and once they sell out, they will be gone. the price tag is around $190, but keep in mind that there are six full shows, 20 hours of music, and 19 fully loaded cds. i consider that to be a pretty good value. check out the two promotional videos they put out below, and then head over to dead.net and pick one up. if you don’t like it i will buy it off of you.

http://www.dead.net/store/music/new-releases/pacific-northwest-73-74-complete-recordings-boxed-set

folk soul revival

this the the fourth album by the aptly titled band, folk soul revival. this is my first introduction to them, and i am fairly smitten. hailing from bristol, virginia, they have been local favorites there for over ten years. even though they play plenty of gigs and do some occasional touring, they all still hang onto their day jobs. they are not in it for the money, and they play and sound like it. as their press release says, these are tales told from ‘front porches, back roads and friday night football games, sketching a picture that is quintessentially southern’. daniel davis is the primary songwriter and lead singer. his voice tilts back and forth between jason isbell and tyler childers. recorded in nashville over a span of two years, the tunes are passionately played and well recorded. the songs sound original and familiar at the same time. i have been through it three times now, and i like it more each time. my only complaint is that, as far as i can tell, it is only available by download. call me old fashioned, but i still like the actual cd. i am an avid liner note reader, and like to see who plays on what tracks. the only way i found out that the mccrary sisters sang some backup was from reading a few reviews. but this is a minor bicker, and if it is cheaper for them to get their music out, then i will roll with that. this is a band worthy of a wider audience. if you agree with most of my musical musings on this site, then just trust me on this one. on ‘that’s life’, he sings ‘they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if no one sees it?’. indeed.

hat tip to bill vv from austin. keep the suggestions coming.

the devil makes three, ‘chains are broken’

this is the devil makes three’s first release of original material in five years, and it’s somewhat of a departure from their previous work, including their album of cover songs from 2016, ‘redemption and ruin’. i really liked that one, and wrote about it when it came out. it was a collection of songs by writers as varied as townes van zandt, muddy waters, hank williams sr., tom waits, and ralph stanley, just to name a few. the song selections had a number of themes driven by faults, vices, and forgiveness (hence the title). in many ways the original tunes penned by guitarist pete bernhard on the new one explore similar thoughts and stories.

what makes this album different from the past is threefold. this is the first studio release with a drummer, as their touring drummer stefan amidon joins them throughout. in addition, the overall sound is a tad more sophisticated and catchy, and might be their most commercially accessible release to date. sometimes that would be considered a backhanded compliment, but i don’t think that’s the case here – i think that it’s just different, not better or worse. i have really enjoyed everything i have of theirs, and this is no exception. thirdly, the production then complements all of this with a more refined approach, as compared to their previous raw and rootsy style.

although they are often categorized and marketed as a bluegrass band, in reality i think they are better described as a blend of folk/country/ragtime with an occasional punk urgency, especially in their live performances. this album doesn’t sound anything like bluegrass to me, in fact it is a bit hard to categorize at all, which is often a good thing. if you are unfamiliar with the band, this is a great starting point. if you like this, then i would highly suggest looking into the rest of their catalog. i have not seen them live, and their current tour seems to be all out west, but i will keep them on my radar if they announce anything east of the mississippi. in the meantime this will be on my playlist for a while.

the allman brothers band, ‘fillmore east february 1970’

if , like me, you consider the allman brother band’s ‘at fillmore east’ album to be one of the greatest rock records ever made, then i suggest you check out their newest release, ‘fillmore east, february 1970’. initially released in 1996, this is a technological improvement on the original. a collaboration between the allman brothers and the owsley stanley foundation, we get a new listen to the tapes that owsley ‘bear’ stanley recorded of the band over a year before the more famous shows. this is one of the initial offerings from the stanley foundation that intends to showcase the huge vault of reels that bear recorded over the years. the other one is a box set of doc and merle watson recorded at the boarding house in 1974. bear referred to these recordings as his ‘sonic journals’. in addition to the legendary quality of his recordings, the nearly fifty year old tapes have been restored and mastered by jeffrey norman, which some of you may know as the technician who works on all of the new releases from the grateful dead’s vault. culled from three shows of material, we get seven songs and 72 minutes of material. the band was only eleven months old at the time, and they were the opening act for the dead for these shows. they didn’t have a soundman travelling with them, so bear volunteered since he was doing the second act anyways and already knew about the band.

fans of the dead can reference the ‘bear’s choice’ album and ‘dick’s picks four’ for the dead’s part of the shows, also taken from bear’s reels. it would be the beginning of a musical friendship between the two bands for a long time, culminating in the 1973 watkins glen show with the band in front of 600,000 fans.

compared to the 1971 version, this has a more raw and primal feel to it. witness the two versions of ‘in memory of elizabeth reed’ below. dickey betts had only just recently composed the song weeks before the 1970 shows, and these are the earliest known recordings of the song (all three shows are available for download at the foundation’s website).

as i mentioned in an earlier post, many of the bands on the cutting edge of live jamming in the late sixties were fans of coltrane, miles, and other jazz musicians. that may be no more evident than listening closely to ‘liz reed’. it is a real instrumental masterpiece, and it would become the cornerstone of their live performances for decades. it is certainly one of my favorite songs of theirs. the version 13 months later in 1971 is longer, more polished and precise, but mrs. redeyegin agrees with my take on the one offered here (i think it is from the second night) – i may like it a bit better. 5 of the other seven songs are also included in the 1971 classic, the only difference being ‘outskirts of town’, which somewhat disappeared from the set list later in the year.

the liner notes are superb, with comments by bear himself and his daughter. there is also a section from the foundation’s executive director that comments on all three ‘liz reeds’, how they were different, and comparing the overall composition to three songs from miles davis’ ‘kind of blue’, which dickie had been listening to at the time. enjoy.

hat tip to loyal reader dave c.

jim lauderdale, ‘time flies’

i first started paying attention to jim lauderdale about two years ago, and i’m sorry that it took me so long to catch up with him. it is now clear to me that he is one of the more prodigious artists out there, especially in the americana genre. i really loved his album from last year, ‘london southern’, but i think i like his newest even more. ‘time flies’ is a hodge podge of musical styles, incorporating western swing (‘while you’re hoping’, ‘wild on me fast’), psychodelia (‘it blows my mind’), soul jazz (‘wearing out your cool’), and roots country stylings (‘when i held the cards’, ‘if the world’s still here tomorrow’). eleven tracks spanning 38 minutes and each offering sounds completely different and fresh.

the production and accompaniment is flawless. it was recorded at blackbird academy studios, basically a school in nashville that teaches students the ins and outs of how to record and produce music. what a great collaboration.

he also simultaneously released some recently unearthed material that would have essentially been his first album, had he gotten a record deal for it (he didn’t). he had set out to nashville in 1979 to take a stab at meeting mandolinist roland white and make a foray into the world of bluegrass. recorded in earl scruggs’s basement, the tracks that make up ‘jim lauderdale and roland white’ were recently discovered on a reel found in a box by roland’s wife. if you like late seventies bluegrass, then you should check this out. just a couple of lauderdale originals, but an interesting mix of covers, notably donovan’s ‘try and catch the wind’ and gordon lighfoot’s ‘(that’s what you get) for loving me’.

lauderdale is well known in the country and bluegrass writing circles, having written songs for popular artists such as george strait, dixie chicks, george jones, rodney crowell, blake shelton and many more. in addition, he hosts ‘the buddy and jim show’ with buddy miller on my second favorite sirius station, ‘outlaw country’. give him a try.