i have had a few things marinating on my desk here in the redeyegin studio for the last month or two, and so instead of doing an in depth review of them individually, i thought i would just take this cloudy sunday morning and do a blast post on a number of them. there is no particular theme here, and they are in no particular order.

first aid kit – ‘palomino’

as i have mentioned numerous times before, i get recommendations from various places for things to listen to, and mrs. redeyegin is no exception. she will often send me a picture of something on sirius radio of a song that catches her pretty little ear. this was one of those. first aid kit is a swedish folk duo that has been around for a while, comprised of sisters johanna and klara soderberg. i had their last album, but had not heard their latest – ‘palomino’. they are very good writers, with gorgeous harmonies. they tend to land on the pop side of styles, but get a lot of play in the americana circles. i felt the album was very good overall.

tom petty and the heartbreakers – ‘live at the fillmore 1997’

in january of 1997 petty and his band took a break from the big venue shows and did a 20 night run at the fillmore auditorium in san francisco. of the 20 shows, six were professionally recorded, and they used some of the best of those sets to put out a four cd box set with great liner notes and pictures. they used the opportunity of 20 shows to not only run through some of their hits, but also cover some songs of artists that had inspired them over the years. one small issue i have is the references, both in the videos below and the liner notes, to the venue being legendary and steeped in history. of course the fillmore auditorium has been around for a long time, but they were thinking of the fillmore west, which was it’s more famous cousin, but was only open from 1968-1971. a really great release for the petty fans out there.

billy strings – ‘me/and/dad’

billy has skyrocketed to bluegrass fame in the last few years, and it is nice that he took some time in the studio (and occasional live events) to pay tribute to the person who taught him how to play guitar – his dad. they hunker down in a nashville studio with some bluegrass legends and work through a number of bluegrass and country standards. the playing is great, although the vocals struggle at times (terry’s best singing days might be behind him). but i found it a worthwhile addition to my collection.

charley crockett – ‘the man from waco’

i first started hearing charley’s name and music just a couple of years ago, but never leaned into it very much. but then i started hearing cuts from his new release, and decided to take the plunge. he is a great writer, and the styles presented here are varied, but with a texas theme to them. it is somewhat of a ‘concept’ album, as many of the songs’ subjects tie together as they move along. definitely someone to keep our eyes on.

david bowie – ‘moonage daydream’

this is a film about bowie’s contributions to not only the field of music, but other art forms as well. although there are some details of his upbringing and personal life, this in your face production spends most of its time on his lifelong obsession with pushing cultural norms and exploring, in his words, his quest of understanding ‘chaos and fragments’ that most of humankind overlooks. it is a fascinating montage of live musical footage from most of his major tours, along with interviews, personal philosophical musings, and other archival footage never seen before. at times it gets very intense, so be prepared for that. but if you dig bowie, this is a must see.

bob dylan – ‘fragments’

and last, but not least, i have to give some mention to dylan’s newest addition to his bootleg series – ‘fragments – time out of mind sessions 1996-1997’.

it is hard to believe that ‘time out of mind’ has been out 25 years now. many dylan fans cite this album as one of their favorites (including myself), and in some ways it was a turning point in his career. he had not released anything in nearly seven years before this, and was widely considered to have his best years behind him. but this album laid waste to that notion, and won him a grammy for best album of the year.

for some reason (unrelated to the release of this box set) i had pulled this off the shelf a few weeks back and sat down in the man cave with a piece of bourbon and listened to it all the way through. i had forgotten how good it was, and how much i remembered every nuance. i must have really burned it down to the ground when it came out. and then, by chance, i heard a dj mention this box set and i ordered it immediately.

i am going to insert a pathetic but funny story here. i ordered it through amazon, and it was supposed to get here last saturday. i got an email alert that my package was undeliverable – likely because my dog was barking at him in the driveway. i was so desperate to get the package that i jumped in my car and tracked down the driver up the block aways.

by sunday afternoon i had gotten through all five discs of the box set. the first disc is a different mix of the original album. the next two are outtakes of the original songs, plus of the three or four songs that did not make the cut. the fourth is a compilation of live versions of these songs, and the last one is a reissue of some of these songs that were originally released on another box set ‘ tell tale signs’. the book that came with it is really well done, and provided for good reading and insights as i was listening to the music.

likely only of interest to the most hard core dylan fans, but i know i have quite a few of those in my subscriber list, so this one’s for you.

enjoy.

when i first heard of this book about a month ago, i knew i had to get it quick. i finished half of it the first night i had it, and was done with it by the end of the next night. but as soon as i was done i knew that it deserved at least one more go through before putting down my thoughts.

it was initially described to me as bob writing essays on 66 songs that have influenced him. i can say that it is that, but quite a bit more. he never speaks about himself or his music here, and at no point is there a discussion as to what the criteria are for the selections. it just goes head first into the first one, and never stops. they vary in length between just a few paragraphs to some that are 5-6 pages. and although there is not a consistent format to each one, there are a few themes. he will always list the song and the artist who is singing it, and the year it was released. from there he may comment on the writer(s), the artist (if different), the song subject, the history of the song, and anything else he feels might color the picture a little better. he also starts off quite a few of them by riffing in only the way he can, creating stream of consciousness manifestos on the characters or subjects of the song at hand. less occasionally, he will use the song or artist as a jumping off point to go into forays about the state of our world today, be it consumerism, war, drugs, media bias or divorce lawyers.

but all of that is just window dressing to what this book is all about – bob paying homage to the art and craft of songwriting. he started writing this in 2010, and i am guessing that he came back to a few of these a few times. when at his best, he points out things to you about the song or performance that you might not hear after listening a few times. a vocal phrasing, an unorthodox arrangement that somehow works, a crucial rhythm guitar part. a lyric that says just enough, or a phrase that could be taken multiple ways, or maybe one that keeps you guessing.

the songwriters and artists are all over the map here, from hank williams to the clash, from elvis presley to elvis costello, johnny cash to bobby darin. he dips into many genres, including country, blues, rock, soul, r&b and jazz.

the second time through the book i took more time to digest it, and then started doing something i had considered doing the first time through – getting off the couch and finding some of these songs that i had not heard before. or, if i did know the song, going back to it after bob points out something that had escaped me. i thought i knew the song ‘pancho and lefty’ pretty well, having at least 4-5 versions in my collection, including the original one by townes van zandt himself. bob touches on townes’ early tragic history, and speculates as to if that is what made him the writer that he was. he then spends some time on the willie nelson/merle haggard version of the song, and then delves into the two characters and fleshes out his vision of what really happened in that story. i will not hear that song the same again.

i expect that i will spend some portion of this winter doing some version of the above – picking the book up off of the table in the man cave, finding a chapter that speaks to me, and then finding the song on youtube and doing a deep dive into it.

and i think that is what bob would have wanted.

in 2019 the tedeschi trucks band decided to present ‘layla and other assorted love songs’ by derek and the dominos in its entirety for their appearance at the lock’n festival. they eventually released that as a live album last summer. a number of weeks ago i was scheduled to see them play at a venue in buffalo, and started looking at their setlists to see what they were currently playing. i began to notice songs that they were regularly playing that i did not recognize, and became aware that they had some new material coming out. more importantly, the new material was being released in a rather unorthodox fashion, and there was a unique story behind the album.

first, the story. when the pandemic hit in 2020, the band found themselves not being able to get together to record or tour. mike mattison, one of their lead singers, began reflecting on the lyrics that he had had to learn for that layla gig. knowing that the title track was inspired by a book that eric clapton had read, he decided to read that book/poem during some of his downtime. ‘the story of layla and majnun’ is a 12th century epic written by the persian poet nizami, and tells the tale of two lovers who fell deeply in love when they were young, but their romance was thwarted by fate. majnun was his nickname, which translates as ‘madman’, because he eventually goes mad due to his undying love for layla (her family will not allow the marriage). clapton related to this due to his similar situation with pattie boyd, who was then married to his best friend, george harrison. mattison felt that the songs on ‘layla’ were from clapton’s/majnun’s perspective. after reading the book, he realized that layla was an important character as well, and deserved to have her side of the story told. so he invited everyone to also read the book, and consider writing some songs around this idea. it seems the band really took to the concept, and the project grew and grew as the pandemic wore on. mattison is quick to point out the project was not meant to be a counterpoint to the original album, nor was it meant to be a musical score to the book – just a starting point to explore the question: ‘are we really, in the end, in love with the dream of love’.

as the project grew, they had enough for a double album of original material. instead of releasing it all at once, they have been releasing it as four individual ep length snippets, one per month. the third came out last friday, and the last installment will be at the end of this month. after that i understand you will be able to get the whole thing in one deluxe packaging edition. each release has also been accompanied by a full length video of the whole thing, artfully done by mattison’s ex wife.

after successfully consuming the first three, i think i can safely say this is the best studio album they have ever done. the songwriting is shared by many members of the band, and the addition of gabe dixon as their new keyboardist has added new vocal and writing elements. derek is his usual spectacular self, and susan’s vocals have never been better. there are a wide variety of musical styles – blues songs from susan, a little feat sounding ‘gravity’ from dixon, to an allman brothers epic instrumental rave up from the rhythm section, ‘pasaquan’.

along with the full length videos they also put out a few informational videos about the original concept and making of the record. i will embed below. as a big fan of this new record, and the original layla, i decided to read the book as well. not required to understand everything here, but very interesting.

as i mentioned above, i did catch them on tour, and can also say with confidence that they are peaking in their live shows. i have seen them three times in the last year, and this was the best of the three. los lobos opened for them at a very cool venue called artpark, an outdoor theater overlooking the niagara river gorge. thanks to my friends in buffalo that made it possible. susan and derek joined the band from east la for a couple of songs. overall one of the best shows i have seen in some time. go out and see them if you can.

if you have followed wilco for as long as i have, you may have begun to think that as a band they were about to go by the wayside. in the last five years, frontman jeff tweedy has released four solo albums, but only one with wilco. and then they go out and release their longest studio album ever. ‘cruel country’ clocks in at 77 minutes with 21 songs, and it may be their finest work in years. although tweedy’s previous band – uncle tupelo – is often lumped in with the generation of bands that began to be referred to as ‘alt – country’, tweedy himself has often bristled at the notion that wilco had much of anything to do with the country genre.

but in an essay he penned in conjunction with the release of the new album, he tried to explain why
they decided to return to the genre, and at the same time tie it in with lyrics that often reference the
other definition of country. the title track is an observation on his feelings about his home country, both
proud and disappointed. there are a few other tracks that have some political content, but written in a
reflective and timeless way.

there has been a lot written about this album in regards to the band returning to their earlier country
roots, and that this is a ‘country’ album, but I am not sure I totally buy into that. yes, there are a handful of songs that would fit well on a flying burrito brothers album, but there are a lot more that sound like they would fit well on wilco’s ‘sky blue sky’ record. It seems to me more of a folk/rock/pop tangent, with an occasional nod to country elements.

more importantly, it all flows together really well. much of it was recorded live in their chicago studio,
and on many songs there is a sense of spontaneity in their playing. i have been listening to it non stop
over the last few days and it just seems to get better. consider it for a great addition to your summer evening playlist.

i mentioned in my last post that i was lucky to catch mavis staples at jazzfest in new orleans a couple of weeks ago. unbeknownst to me, this album was set for release just this past friday. it captures a visit she and her band made to levon’s barn in woodstock in the summer of 2011. after a few days of kicking around some songs there, they eventually put on a live show for 200 or so lucky locals – her band combined with his.

mavis and levon had gone way back, first getting to know each when recording ‘the weight’ together for the ‘last waltz’ documentary in 1975. pops staples, her father, had been impressed by the gospel reference to nazareth, and that recording is one of my favorite parts of the movie.

twelve interesting covers, many of them gospel oriented. two by her father, but also songs by dylan, curtis mayfield, buddy and julie miller, larry campbell (who is on guitar here), and a few others. one of my favorites is ‘you got to move’, by mississippi fred mcdowell and reverand gary davis, made famous by the stones on ‘sticky fingers’. the version here is much more upbeat then keith and mick’s version.

much to love here, as there is clearly a chemistry in the air – not just the two headliners, but both bands. it was one of levon’s last recordings, as he would be gone by the next year. might be something to get for your memorial day party.