it seems to me that richard thompson is the type of musician you either love or discard. you either think he is one of the great guitarists, and a hell of a songwriter, or you have either never heard of him or don’t particularly care for his work (usually his vocals). i am in the former camp, and have been for years. in my mind he is england’s closest equivalent to dylan, and a much better guitar player. his musical legacy is long and diverse. his influence is so profound that he was recently knighted for his accomplishments.
he picked jeff tweedy of wilco to produce this one, and it was recorded at tweedy’s loft studio in chicago in 9 days. the songwriting is excellent and eclectic. the playing is solid and unadorned. it closes with a song called ‘guitar heroes’, where he does a mashup of styles based on the guitarists who influenced him – django reinhart, les paul, james burton, chuck berry, etc.
if you have the ability to get the bonus edition, get it. it has another 5 songs recorded elsewhere, with a smaller band (it also has the song ‘fergus laing’, which he admits is about donald trump).
volume 12 of bob’s always reliable bootleg series focuses on the incredible 14 month period surrounding the recording of three of his best albums – bringing it all back home, highway 61 revisited, and blonde on blonde. it is arguably one of the highest creative streaks for any musical artist ever, and this compilation does a great job of chronicling the whole affair. there are actually three versions of this – the 2 disc ‘best of’ version, a 6 disc option that comes with 2 books (one being a track listing with extensive liner notes, the second being a great collection of photographs), and the third is only available through his website, an 18 disc tour de force that has every single track. the casual bob fan will find great value in the 2 disc version, both in the material and the very reasonable price. i opted for the 6 disc deluxe version, due in large part to the fact that this my favorite period of his career, and i just had to have it.
the significance of this period on pop culture includes two parallel strands. the first is his evolution as a lyricist from the greenwich village folk singer to the stream of consciousness beat poet style of cascading imagery. the second is his decision to break from the ranks of the traditionalists and incorporate the use of a band, and more importantly, introduce the element of electrical guitars to the recordings. it was during this period that he famously went electric at the newport folk festival, and began touring with the hawks, later to be known as the band. this compilation seeks to explore the mechanics behind the process, as well as to shed light on the evolution of the artistry and the creative process. it does this in two ways. the first is to provide alternative takes on songs from those three albums, plus feature outtakes that never made it on one of the finished albums. the second way is to use the sequence of multiple takes on a song to show how it developed, both musically and lyrically, in the studio. ‘visions of johanna’ gets 5 takes here, all with the band, with various changes to the key and tempo, and they never quite get it right. bob scraps it and doesn’t approach the song again until he gets to nashville months later with a bunch of local session musicians and does it in one take. disc three is entirely comprised of 20 different attempts at ‘like a rolling stone’. throughout the collection he is constantly changing lyrics, musicians, studios and producers to get it to sound like it does in his head.
i was already in awe of his output during this time, but i am so much more impressed now that i have thoroughly digested this. very informative, and a pleasure to listen to, especially the 2 disc version.
this is a great release from the frontman for the old 97’s, a band i have have recently been enamored with. in my opinion rhett’s vocals are one of the more distinctive and authentic voices you will hear from the americana movement. he is backed here by black prairie, which is to a large degree the decemberists without colin meloy. there is also a small dosage of peter buck, of r.e.m. fame. solid songwriting, great arrangements, and heartfelt production. it has been in and out of my rotation for about four months.
most dead fans will agree that 77 was a special year for the band, and this blogger will not contest that. but as archivist dave lemieux argues in the liner notes, there is reason to believe that the strength of the band’s live performances carried over into the following spring. it is his contention that this show marks the end of that period. whether it was jerry’s furthering spiral down the smack hole, or keith’s version of the same, the band seemed to go downhill fom here until the addition of brent mydland. the first set is solid. bertha gets off to a slow start but eventually gets into gear, setting the pace for the rest. candyman and tennessee jed have the crowd cheer tennessee references. the jack straw is a real barnburner. the only real detraction is a version of deal that goes on for about 25 refrains too much at the end. donna is close to her home of alabama, and she is very good here until she tries to compete with bob in the sugar mag/saturday night finale. second set has a great estimated/eyes and one of the best wharf rats you will hear. all of the 2015 releases in this series have been great so far, and this one is no exception. dp 16 is a march 73 show from massachusetts. should be in my box any day. if you are a dead fan, i highly recommend subscribing to this series. i will be signing up for my fourth year.
after a big night, day two started out a little later than we had planned, but we were ready by the time charles bradley took the main stage. i just found out about him recently. after leading a hard luck life, and spending much of the last two decades as a james brown imitator in nyc, he was recently discovered by a small r&b label. they made a young band available to him, and recorded his first cd in his early sixties. here he is about halfway thru his set:
next up was another band from nyc, the lone bellow. i have their most recent release, and it is worth consideration. they definitely have some serious vocal chops:
then we headed over to the second stage to take in my old friend jimmy cliff working his way through a solid set of all of his greatest hits. the dude is 67 and still puts on a hell of a show. colin meloy of the decemberists was on the side stage taking in one of the masters:
a great weekend. this was the inaugural event for this festival, and look forward to seeing what they put together next year. here are a few homemade videos from brad’s camera. the rain seems to have dampened tweedy’s night, but nels cline was definitely on it. unforgettable.
