In honor of the holiday season, Jerry Garcia Music Arts has released a mastered live recording of the soul classic “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”, performed by the Jerry Garcia Band. The music is offered as a holiday gift to the community this Christmas in the form of 10,000 free steams available on multiple digital platforms. The Aug. 10, 1991, live recording was mastered by Joe Gastwirt, a highly acclaimed audio engineer, who Garcia referred to as a “whiz kid” in a 1987 WNEW Radio interview. Joe’s discography includes the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Yes, and Crosby, Stills Nash and Young.
The song “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” written in 1964 by preacher and singer Solomon Burke, songwriter and record producer Bert Berns and music journalist Jerry Wexler, is about the virtues and gifts of love. It has recently gained popularity as the song in a 2019 Amazon holiday commercial and was featured on the soundtrack for the 1980 musical comedy film The Blues Brothers. Earlier this year, the song was released by Round Records on CD and vinyl as part of the Jerry Garcia Band Live Electric on the Eel album.
“We’re honored to help present a gift of my father’s music this holiday season,” said Keelin Garcia, daughter of Garcia and the president/founder of Jerry Garcia Music Arts. “His music lives on for all to enjoy and celebrate.”
In addition, a fine art element of this project features a limited-edition release of a Jerry Garcia pen and ink drawing titled “Merry Christmas.” This whimsical piece, a cheerful drawing of jolly Saint Nick and a reindeer, is water-colored by Keelin.
The piece will be available to the public online through early January at the Terrapin Gallery.
The visual art component of the project will benefit Vanessa and Jorma Kaukonen’s Psylodelic Gallery. The Psylodelic Gallery is housed in a revitalized grain silo and is located at the Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch in Pomeroy, Ohio. The Gallery celebrates the music, art, culture and literature of the 1960s, while tracing important events and movements of the psychedelic era. The gallery houses Jorma’s personal collections of artifacts, photographs and posters from his long career as a musician from Jefferson Airplane to Hot Tuna.
A permanent collection of Jerry Garcia’s fine art is featured at the Psylodelic Gallery.
The Recording Academy has announced its 2020 Special Merit Awards recipients, and it’s one legendary list. Lifetime Achievement Award honorees this year are Chicago, Roberta Flack, Isaac Hayes, Iggy Pop, John Prine, Public Enemy and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Ken Ehrlich, Philip Glass and Frank Walker will receive Trustees Award honors, and George Augspurger is being recognized with the Technical GRAMMY Award recipient. A special award presentation ceremony and concert celebrating the honorees will be held on April 18, 2020, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
“Our industry is one that prides itself on influence and paying it forward, and each year the Recording Academy has the privilege of honoring a select group of visionaries whose creative contributions have rippled throughout our culture,” said Deborah Dugan, President/CEO of the Recording Academy. “Our Special Merit Awards recipients have molded their musical passion into pieces of history that will continue to influence and inspire generations of music creators and music lovers to come.”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s combination of gospel and blues, and her renowned technique on electric guitar, has influenced countless musicians, from Little Richard to Bob Dylan. The Godmother of Rock and Roll’s 1945 hit, “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” has been credited as the first gospel song to cross over to the R&B charts, becoming an early model for rock and roll.
John Prine’s witty approach to storytelling has made him one of the most revered country & folk singer/songwriters since his emergence in the ’70s. He has garnered two GRAMMYs and his classic eponymous debut album was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame.
A soul music pioneer, Isaac Hayes was an in-house songwriter/producer at the legendary Stax Records, where he wrote such hits as “Soul Man” and “B-A-B-Y.” He also had a successful solo career, releasing the GRAMMY-winning “Theme From Shaft” in 1971.
Frank Walkerbegan his career as an A&R scout for Columbia Records and went on to discover artists such as country great Hank Williams and blues legends Bessie Smith and Blind Willie Johnson. After wearing many hats at Columbia, he became the label chief for MGM Records in the mid-40s, where he introduced the soundtrack album concept and helped establish the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording, while the Trustees Award honors such contributions in areas other than performance. The Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees determines the honorees of both awards. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are voted on by the Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees, and are ratified by the Academy’s Trustees. The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording industry.
Editor’s Note: This article by Aarik Danielsen originally ran in the Columbia Daily Tribune.
As part of its effort to be an industry leader in gender equity, the Roots N BluesFestival announced two of its 2020 headliners Friday morning.
Brandi Carlile and Mavis Staples will be among the fest’s marquee names when it returns to Stephens Lake Park in Columbia, Missouri Oct. 2-4. The festival’s own name will undergo a slight change this year, as organizers have shortened the moniker from Roots N Blues N BBQ to just Roots N Blues.
Carlile, who the fest referred to as its most-requested artist, returns to Roots N Blues after performing in 2015. The 38-year-old Washington native won three Grammys earlier this year for her album By the Way, I Forgive You and co-founded the highly successful all-female Americana group The Highwomen, which includes 2019 Roots N Blues performers Maren Morris and Amanda Shires.
Staples, a legend in every sense of the term, is also a Roots N Blues veteran. A member of the iconic Staples family, she is both a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Blues Hall of Fame inductee and has shaped the landscape of gospel, rock and soul. She is on something of a hot streak, having released five superlative records this decade, with production by younger artists such as Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Ben Harper.
As part of its lineup reveal, the fest announced an initiative to level the playing field for festival performers. Every slot at this year’s Roots N Blues will in some way feature a woman, the fest said. This could equate to a female solo artist like Carlile or Staples, a female-led band or a male-led band which prominently features a woman.
Male artists represented 70 percent of performers at major American music festivals in 2018, the fest noted in a press release. A Tribune analysis of the 2018 Roots N Blues lineup revealed a 67 percent male, 20 percent female and 13 percent mixed-gender distribution. Roots N Blues’ initiative is a step toward achieving equity while focusing on artistry.
“While we have set a 100 percent benchmark for 2020, we are not changing our format to become a women-only festival in subsequent years,” fest co-owner Shay Jasper said in a news release. “However, we have pledged a long-term commitment to more equitable gender representation in all future years of this festival.”
Fest co-owner Tracy Lane cited how personal “challenges” she has faced as a woman during her decades of experience in entertainment affected the decision.
“As a business owner, I now have an opportunity to make a significant impact, to change the culture of the industry,” she said in the news release.
In a smaller way, the fest’s name change is also a move toward appropriate representation. Co-owner Jamie Varvaro noted that the festival’s once-signature barbecue offerings will remain, but that organizers “want our name to represent all of our food offerings, just as all of the genres of music we present.”
Roots N Blues plans to announce its full lineup in March.
Shortly after ringing in the New Year, troubadour Nicholas Tremulis, prodigal son of a jazz pianist and blues vocalist, will be blowing out Chicago City Winery candles in celebration of his 60-year birthday (not to mention three decades in show business!) and the release of Rarified World.
Long-term fans will be also be pleased to know that special cuts from Island Record’s chestnut, More Than the Truth (one of eight studio albums Tremulis recorded with Chris Blackwell’s reggae-plus-more label), will balance out the explosive set list.
To help him rejoice, of course, will be the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra’s Derek Brand, Rick Barnes, Larry Beers, and John Pirruccello as well as Prodigal 9 players: Renee Robinson, veteran NTO musician, Roger Reupert, Jose Rendon, Isiah Oby and James Perkins — with whom he’ll be recording a brand new album in the coming year.
But on the evening of January 9, imagine sipping wine and enjoying great sight lines, while enjoying a host of players that have shared the stage with the likes of Albert Collins, Aretha Franklin and Ringo Starr. That said, Tremulis alone boasts performing/recording gigs with super stars: Marianne Faithful, New York Doll, David Johansen, “Be My Baby” Ronnie Spector as well as blues stalwart Hubert Sumlin and Windy City-based Wilco.
Anyone who has witnessed Tremulis pack a local venue, can testify how his raw magnetism attracts and inspires fellow musicians. To that end, his thrilling side work with Candy Golde, The Fauntleroys (with Alejandro Escovedo) and the Chi-Town Social Club (including Rolling Stones bassist Darryl Jones, Vince Wiburn Jr. (Miles Davis) and Shawn Christopher (Chaka Khan) requires no further exposition.
Tipping his producer hat, Tremulis stepped into the studio to curate local folk group Bittersweet Drive. In addition, he served up some mean guitar on Bobby Whitlock’s current project. But his skillsets don’t begin and end with those projects. After Tremulis scored a documentary on architect Carlo Bontempi, he waltzed away with a coveted Emmy. And his reign as radio host for half a decade on WXRT’s The Eclectic Company secured a whole, new audience.
But as far as the upcoming City Winery concert, be prepared not only to rock, but to acquire truth from this native son’s astute observations. Wielding unparalleled street cred, defiant prose, and traffic-stopping vocals, Nicholas Tremulis is arguably one of the most transparent storytellers of his era. And with his all-star band that story can only grow richer.
Tom Marker‘s Blues credentials have been well established in Chicago throughout his 35-year career hosting the popular “Blues Breakers” program on WXRT. Marker has been a presence on the air in Chicago since the mid-70s on stations including WJKL-FM (“The Fox”) and WLUP-FM (“The Loop”) as well as WXRT. Marker is also well known to Chicago Blues fans as the primary emcee at the Chicago Blues Festival.
Tom Marker at a tribute to Otis Rush. Photo: Franky Bruneel
With “Blues Time with Tom Marker” on WDCB, Marker and his fans delve into the best of the Blues – past, present and future – deeper than ever before. Each week’s show, airing from 7pm to 9pm, kicks off WDCB’s 10 hour all night Saturday Blues extravaganza, running until Sunday morning at 5am.
In 1999, Marker was presented with “Keeping the Blues Alive” award by The Blues Foundation in Memphis Tennessee.
Brant Buckley:
What does Chicago Blues mean to you?
Tom Marker:
It doesn’t mean quite as much as my wife, kids and granddaughters, but music means a lot to me and the Blues is my favorite music. I’ve been involved in the Blues for so long that it is a big part of my identity, both public and private. I love the Blues scene in Chicago where so many of my friends are working artists, club owners, employees, record label people, producers, and agents. It really is a great community.
Can you talk about the preparation that goes into your Blues shows?
I almost always start by putting down the names of artists who have new releases that I think should be played that week, artists who have engagements in Chicago in the coming week that should be mentioned, and artists with birthdays coming up. I then plug in the songs and albums, write some notes, and fill in the rest of the time with songs and artists that haven’t been played in a while or songs that come to my mind.
I would like to think that my radio programs are completely unique as far as Blues radio programs go. It’s unlike any other Blues program in any other city. The shows that I do are really for the Chicago Blues community: the fans, the performers and the scene in general. While the programs are first and foremost for entertainment, I’m always aware of my responsibility to support the scene with my programs. I like to think that I help the artists become better known. I want the audience to know when an artist, especially a local artist, has a new album or a special appearance. I want to encourage listeners to support the Blues by allowing them to know who is doing what and where by sharing my enthusiasm for many local events. I want my programs to reflect what’s happening here in Chicago right now.
I have an intro that I use for my WDCB program where I explain the basic theory of what I am doing. I tell the audience I play Blues from near and far, but mostly from right here. I play Blues that is old and new but a lot from right now. When I first started doing Blues radio shows, I was inspired by “Living Blues” Magazine and the “Living Chicago Blues” series of albums that came out on Alligator Records in 1978. Those two things helped me to see the Blues not as historical music but music of the present. It’s not music from some other place but music from Chicago. Back in the early days, field workers were singing songs that related to their conditions and the Blues has carried that tradition forward to the present. There is plenty of social commentary in Blues today that doesn’t take the view of the landowners and bosses. The Blues is about present life and that’s reflected in my programs. The Blues I play is something you can use right now. You can go out and see it, purchase recordings, and listen to it as it will relate to your life right now. Chicago Blues is a current living thing that’s different from any other place in the world. A Blues program from Chicago is by definition a different animal; closely connected to its place and time.
How has radio changed since you started?
I started a long time ago and there have been a lot of changes. I first started in the Chicago market in 1975. First, a lot of people think that radio leads people’s tastes, that songs are popular because they are on the radio. From my vantage point, it is really just the opposite, especially in the present. The commercial radio stations these days mostly follow the listener’s tastes. They play what they already know the listeners will like. It’s different than the past. For example, when I went into radio in the seventies there was this huge expansion of radio channels in America because of the new popularity and availability of FM radio. There were suddenly three to four times as many radio stations in each city that people were listening to. Some of these stations really helped widen the scope of what listeners could expect from radio. Listeners at some of these stations were really open to hearing new things; listening to something the DJ had just discovered and wanted to share. Young people were given a chance to program stations for their peers and radio stations. In some cases the stations were being run by people who were involved not because they were radio people but because they were music people. That was when stations like WXRT first appeared. In the early days of my work at WJKL in Elgin, and WXRT, we would sometimes play Ella FitzGerald, the Marshall Tucker Band, and the Ramones in the same hour. The Blues fit right in. Some of what we were playing in those days is now referred to as Classic Rock. A lot of it didn’t sound much different than the Blues. Bands like the Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers Band, and Led Zeppelin were just a small step from the Blues. Plus, WXRT always had a strong sense of place so being in Chicago made sense to play Blues.
Radio listeners have changed over the years compared to forty years ago and that’s part of why radio has changed. People listening to the radio now are the grandchildren of listeners in the seventies. They have different tastes and they want different things. The kind of music they listen to is different and it’s not nearly as closely related to Blues. Commercial radio stations in this century are generally owned by large broadcast companies. The stations that used to be programmed by radio people and music people are generally operated by business grads and the music is picked by researchers. Listener supported public radio stations are programmed entirely differently. It’s very interesting for me to have a foot in both worlds. Whether commercial or listener supported, radio is not as big a part of youth culture that it was when my career was beginning or the teenage culture of the late fifties and sixties.
Do you think there’s hope for a Blues crossover song to make the Billboard Hot 100?
I can’t say no because anything can happen. Every once in a while there is someone that just breaks out and is really popular. Blues is not what the popular music stations are currently looking for, but it could happen. I can’t really predict that it will, but I wouldn’t give up hope. The radio stations are really following the people’s choices. If somebody was really popular it could happen.
Do you have a favorite Chicago Blues club?
No. If I decide to go out and see live Blues in Chicago I usually choose a show based on who is performing. Certain artists are at career points where they have a good draw and are guaranteed to play larger rooms. I love to see Blues at S.P.A.C.E. in Evanston and City Winery in the West Loop. Buddy Guy’s Legends is of the size that they can draw some of the larger acts and they are a real Blues club. Rosa’s Lounge is a favorite of mine and I believe in their slogan: Chicago’s Friendliest Blues Lounge. B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted is tiny and wonderful. Kingston Mines, also on N. Halsted, draws a younger crowd that likes to dance and they are open super late. The Odyssey East on S. Torrance at 99th St. is friendly and inviting and presents some good Blues. I love the tiny Taylor Street Tap with its very friendly neighborhood vibe and small bands in a very intimate setting. There are a number of other venues that sometimes book Blues and my favorite of these is FitzGerald’s Nightclub on Roosevelt Road in Berwyn. That’s where we present our WDCB Bluesday Tuesday shows with live broadcasts on the first Tuesday of each month. Being a weeknight we are able to offer “weekend” level bands a low cover charge and people love that the bands begin so early, 7pm.
How long have you been an emcee at The Chicago Blues Festival?
I began to M.C. acts at Blues Fest in the eighties. WXRT has been a long time sponsor of the fest so at the beginning I was “assigned” to intro some bands. I think it was decided at some point by the fest producers that it would be easiest to just have me M.C. all of the evenings and I was good with that. Over the years, I have become more involved with the fest and I continue to be the M.C. for the Pritzker Pavilion stage each night. I’m commonly seen as M.C. for the “Buddy Shows” at Buddy Guy’s Legends every January. I think I had so much fun doing that that it made other people want to do it too. So the fun is now shared, but I still intro Buddy for at least a couple of those shows. I’m also called on to M.C. other festivals, benefits, and shows around town.
What else do you want to accomplish?
My career is starting to wind down. I am looking to work less in the future, not more. I am really happy with the way things are going now. I would like to point out that I worked full time for 33 1/3 years at WXRT. Now at WXRT, I only do what I like best, my Sunday night Blues Breakers show. I love being the host of “Blues Time with Tom Marker” every Saturday evening on WDCB. They are very supportive of the Blues there. The hosting and producing of the monthly WDCB Bluesday Tuesday shows and broadcast is also a great gig and is a lot of fun. That’s three jobs. Plus, there are various other shows and committees I find myself involved in so that’s enough.
Alligator Records artists Shemekia Copeland and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram will join blues icon Buddy Guy in an all-star concert event as he celebrates his Austin City Limits Hall Of Fame induction. PBS Television will nationally broadcast the program on Saturday, December 28. Viewers should check their local listings for times and channels.
The show was filmed at ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin, Texas in October. Guy, along with Shawn Colvin and Lyle Lovett, were honored. Additional guests include Jackson Browne, Jimmie Vaughan, Bruce Hornsby, Sarah Jarosz and Willis Alan Ramsey. The program’s host is Robert Earl Keen.
Guy’s astounding career spans over fifty years with just as many albums released. Career highlights include the 2015 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, eight Grammy Awards, thirty-seven Blues Music Awards, twenty-three W.C. Handy Awards, the Kennedy Center Honor, Billboard Music Awards’ Century Award, Presidential National Medal of Arts, induction into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to name a few.
At 82 years young, Guy proves unstoppable as he continues to record and tour around the world. One of the last of his generation of blues musicians, the singer and guitarist is undeniably one of the most influential axemen of the twentieth century, impacting Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Keith Richards and more.
Born in Lettsworth, Louisiana, Guy moved to Chicago in 1957 and became a session guitar player for Chess Records. After a string of successful duo albums with harmonica player Junior Wells, Guy struck out on his own and has dominated the blues landscape ever since.
The blues titan recently released his eighteenth solo LP in 2018, the Grammy Award-winning The Blues is Alive and Well. Guy has made three headlining appearances on Austin City Limits, in 1991, 1998 and 2018, and guested with John Mayer in 2003.
No stranger to the Hall of Fame, the blues great performed in tribute to inaugural inductees Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble in 2014.
Award-winning blues, R&B and Americana vocalist Shemekia Copeland has toured worldwide for over 20 years. Her most recent album, America’s Child, (the eighth of her career) was named the #1 blues album of 2018 by MOJO magazine. The album is a courageous and fiery statement of purpose and a major step forward for the singer whose musical consciousness continues to expand as her star continues to rise. Copeland is currently working on a new album set for 2020 release.
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, the head-turning 20-year-old blues guitarist and vocalist from Clarksdale, Mississippi, is currently touring behind his Grammy-nominated debut album, Kingfish, on Alligator Records. MOJO magazine named the release the #1 Blues Album of 2019. He has opened shows for Guy, Vampire Weekend and Jason Isbel. In January 2020, he will embark on his second headlining tour, entitled Fish Grease 2: A Juke Joint Tour. According to Guy, “Kingfish is the next explosion of the blues.”
There’s Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. And then there’s Jolie Holland, the present day éminence grise of the jazz-folk-blues vein whose voice so exquisitely demarcates the difference between solid gold and Pinchbeck alloy. The singer/songwriter will be reissuing her first full-length studio album, Escondida, as a limited edition vinyl-only release on January 31st to commemorate its 15th anniversary. Pressed on 140-gram vinyl for optimal audio quality, Escondida will come as two 45RPM LPs.
“It’s been really interesting just looking back. I often think about everything that’s changed in the music industry, how that record was made,” Jolie tells me in response to being asked how she felt about 15 years gone by. In the age of Spotify, she must be proud to release vinyl on her own label imprint, Cinquefoil Records. “Yeah, which is cool. My friends helped me set up crowdfunding on my own website, so it’s really in my own hands.”
How is fundraising going for the pressing? I ask her. “I’m about 16,000 in the hole to just create everything that I’ve made now. It’s expensive to make records. I set the first goal as 20,000. It doesn’t really describe even the amount of work that’s already been done. But in terms of a crowdfunding campaign, it’s going well. It’s over a third funded at this point. It’s been interesting learning how to do all this. I’ve never had to be on social media this much, but I’m doing it every single day.” Admittedly incredulous of social media’s utility, Jolie also jokes that she feels silly using hashtags.
“My cousin works in healthcare, and she works for this massive aids healthcare provider that comes out of really revolutionary organizing. They started out just being kind of scrappy aids hospice organization in the ‘90s, and now they’re the world’s largest healthcare provider for aids. They do all this other stuff to try to protect their clients and the community. They’re doing all this work around making drugs affordable and working on housing. Because they can treat somebody, but if they’re going out on the street then what’s the point? She’s pushing 70 now, and she’s been with this organization since the early ‘90s. It’s so interesting hearing how she talks about mass communication and mobilizing large groups of people and how that’s happened and how that’s changed. But she’s really not impressed with social media. She’s like, ‘The people who are on Twitter think everyone is on Twitter, and the world is not all on Twitter.’ But now I’m on Twitter,” she laughs.
A year before Escondida was released, after having ended up in San Francisco, she established her core trio and recorded a series of demos in friends’ houses and garages. The recordings were never intended for public consumption. But copies were passed along, word got around. Next thing you know, an album as thin on the ground as Catalpa was put on the shortlist of Anti- labelmates Tom Waits and Nick Cave. Waits persuaded his label to sign her at a time when she didn’t have a distributor and could only sell the homemade demos at shows.
The supernova success of Escondida was unprecedented; her journey to that point was spent on the fringes of society, ostracized by family for her emerging sexuality. For years she merely survived, bivouacking wherever she could, legal or not: in a house built on the back of a pickup truck, in a shack by a swamp in Louisiana, and in a tipi behind a wilderness boundary. She and her dumpster-diving compatriots knew how to subsist on just enough food and many pages of Leaves of Grass read aloud to one another.She didn’t know the life of having material things at her disposal.
“And it wasn’t of interest to me. And then the people who I played with were people who were also interested in that nakedness of sound. That was this really beautiful jazz drummer I played with, Dave Mihaly. Brian was less of a willing partner. Actually, he got out of music almost immediately after that record was made. Now he’s a therapist.”
She continues. “I think a lot of people who were professional musicians at that time, who were my age, had grown up with computers and were — and had grown up with money — so they had gear. They were into processing their vocals. For me, it was just all about the present magic trick of live sound. I was never in a position to fetishize gear or get into expensive sound.”
Escondida, meaning hidden, is not so if it makes its way into the right hands. The modesty of the production, as a matter of fact, reveals an unvarnished, soul-baring beauty. “It’s probably quieter than other studio recordings, so maybe it sounds more intimate. I strived for a similar connection through the music on every record. But it was very sparse.”
How has Jolie’s music evolved over time? “I feel like I’m more in touch with my voice now. I think I used to have this ethos of wanting to keep a southern accent in the music, just because I wanted to be honest. Because there were a lot of people around me at the time that had fake British accents. So, that was kind of a reaction against that. I remember the first time I heard Jay Farrar sing, and I was so inspired by his natural accent.” I mentioned Lucinda Williams as another voice not contrived and that which cannot be imitated. “I love her. She’s got such a great delivery,” she agrees.
I first became aware of Holland’s voice in 2006 when listening to an album called Cold as the Clay, which had been released that year by Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin as his second solo album and first folk album. When I say aware of her voice, I suppose I mean in the most literal sense, as the voice a perfect octave above Greg’s induced a sudden and unexpected frisson coming out of my speakers for the first time.
“Thank you so much. That was really cool working on that. He asked me in, and I met him for the first time in the studio. But yeah, that was amazing. I’ve thought about making a gospel record. I would want to do gospel blues. His music is so direct, and I feel like that’s one of the things he gets from that.”
For other albums, it seems she had muses — Neil Young for Pints of Blood, Townes Van Zandt and Dylan for Wildflower Blues — but for Escondida she tells me, “Probably each song has specific influences.” Like Blind Willie McTell. “I love him. I quote him on that song, ‘Do You?’ “
Holland has been known to say the truth of the Torah is in the telling, to which she applies to the nature of live performance. She explains that it’s not necessarily the individual songs that connect you to an audience so much as the presence of both the artist in their performance and the audience in their presence entirely.
“I don’t think the song is the thing that does it. It’s more about being present in your performance. And it’s interesting; you would think the more popular songs would do that more. But often, your most popular work is the thing that people can pay attention to the least. I encountered that when I was playing a show with Samantha Parton. We played a show in Vancouver, where the Be Good Tanyas started, and it was like — the Be Good Tanyas were a little bit more Canadian popular because of the Canadian content laws. So the people who were there were a little more mainstream audience. They were so bad. They were talking the whole time. It was a place to be seen. It was a thing to do instead of this is music we care about and we’re here to listen. The more popular songs are not necessarily the songs that people are going to listen to more.”
“Sascha,” the opening torch track on Escondida, augurs well — with her voice as a whole instrument — a delivery as mellifluous as a Chet Baker trumpet solo. “Old-Fashioned Morphine” is a portmanteau, two-chord blend of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Wade in the Water” and the gospel standard “Old-Fashioned Religion.” The intro to “Tiny Idyll/Little Missy is the first song Jolie ever wrote around the age of 5 on a Jaymar toy piano. They happened to have a Jaymar at the studio, so that is what you hear.
The free-form jazz and ragtime blues atmospherics of Escondida have much to do with how the album turned out, but there is one song in particular, “Goodbye California,” that stands out a little more to me. While set to Norteño cadences, the inflection with which she carries out her vowels pulls me in the same way an old country song does. I confess to her that I relate everything to George Jones, as if having some kind of undiagnosed mental disorder. And like a George Jones song, “Goodbye California” is distinctive in its originality and singing style.
Relievably, she humors me: “I love that. George Jones is amazing. I really do think that I use my vowels in a similar way to him. He’s all about tone. And in order to make tone, sometimes you kind of distort your words.” She even asked me if I’d read the article that’s been circulating about George Jones being a better singer than Billie Holiday. “Of course he was,” she avows. “She only had 11 notes, Billie Holiday, but she did know how to use them.”
The crowdfunding campaign features some unique rewards for each tier of support, such as test pressings, the Lunatic Tarot deck by Stefan Jecusco, and the 1947 Epiphone guitar she played on tour for Escondida.
“So, there’s the crowdfunding levels and then there’s the Escondida-themed merch. The merch and the crowdfunding are two separate sources. The reason I did that is because I don’t wear T-shirts, and I assume that a lot of people don’t want a pile of merchandise. I was looking at other people’s crowdfunding campaigns and it was like, here’s this level and you get eight items. Some people don’t care about tote bags. So, I wanted to make it more like a choose your own adventure situation. One of the levels is pick an item of merch and these other things come with it. I wanted it to be more open.”
You can also support this campaign by purchasing handwritten lyrics, private command performances, coaching for songwriters, and even by having Jolie tell you one of many real ghost stories she’s collected since she was a teenager. She is currently working on a book of these ghost stories with illustrator Tony Millionaire. “I’ll make a physical thing to sell at shows and online. It’ll be fun. I’ve never made books before.”
The tarot cards designed by Stefan Jecusco were some of the original artwork in Escondida. They are offering the complete Lunatic Tarot deck to the public for the first time with a booklet explaining how to interpret the cards. “One of my best friends made that when he was a teenager, and they’re so brilliant. I was trying to get him to give me more extensive instructions for reading the cards. I was on the phone last night begging him. They’re really funny. The people who made the cards just want you to figure out what it means to you. I’m allowed to tell people in person, but I can’t write extensive instructions, which is hilarious.”
With all due respect to “Weird Al” Yankovic, who truly deserves our love and respect, the accordion is not widely perceived as a particularly rock and roll instrument. Even The Who couldn’t do much to elevate it with “Squeeze Box,” an ode to the instrument (among other
things) that doesn’t actually feature the titular device. But the accordion can rock as hard as a guitar, which The Revelers establish on At the End of the River, a Cajun pop rock masterpiece.
The Revelers are Louisiana-based and Cajun-influenced. But this isn’t straight-up zydeco. The bands folds in a nice helping of swamp pop, the classic Louisiana art form that is itself an amalgamation of zydeco, 50s pop, blues, country, and pretty much anything else that will get people dancing, all through a sonic fog that feels like it blew in off of the bayou. But on top of that, The Revelers swirl in contemporary influences, including ska and klezmer, to create a fun
album that’s more party than record.
The joy of At the End of the River won’t be denied. You don’t need to understand Louisiana music to appreciate this album. One spin and you’ll be hooked. You might not even notice some of the songs are sung in French. Take “While I Am Far From You,” for instance. Or, just to impress readers for a moment, en français, “Pendant je Suis Loin de Toi.” It’s fast, sounding almost like country with the off-beat accents giving the tune an unexpected ska feel. The fiddle slicing through the track, courtesy of Daniel Coolik, will make you want to dance. And the guitar, from Chas Justus, but which sounds uncannily like Mark Knopfler, will make you to step-up your guitar lessons. And perhaps consider some French ones.
“Bonsoir, Petit Monde” is comes within inches of being jazz, with a slow tempo, contemplative guitar and even saxophone breaks. Coolik handles the vocals, with a sad, resonant vocal performance that’s reinforced by his own mournful violin. I have no idea what the song is about, or what the title, “Goodbye, Small World,” means. It’s the one track without a translated title, perhaps because it’s a Cajun traditional song given new music by the band. It’s a beautiful, bluesy track.
“Southside Stomp,” driven by Blake Miller’s accordion, is fast-paced, with a strong zydeco influence and old school rock touches, like rockabilly guitar and 50s sax solos right out of the Junior Walker playbook. It’s the album’s swampiest swamp pop song and if you’re not familiar with the genre, it’s a perfect introduction.
There are no comparables for The Revelers. They’re true to their Cajun roots, but the music has a modern flair. They use instruments like fiddles, saxophone, and accordion, but never sound hokey or corny. Their songs have an edge, but their music is also relaxed and joyful. There’s an emotional depth to the music, but this isn’t blues or soul. Rather, it’s the soulful blues of Louisiana, and not the typical blues we tend to think of. An album like this, exploring uncommon (to many of us) musical styles, should be challenging to listen to. At the End of the River is remarkably easy to enjoy, though. Great music like this bypasses your
brain and goes straight to your heart.
Filed Under: Uncategorized by admin — Comments Off on The Association for Cultural Equity/Alan Lomax Archives to Partner with Little Steven’s TeachRock
The Association For Cultural Equity/Alan Lomax Archives is proud to announce its partnership with “Little” Steven Van Zandt’s TeachRock/Rock and Roll Forever Foundation.
The Association For Cultural Equity in conjunction with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress is providing content to TeachRock to be utilized in creating lesson plans and other teaching resources. The cultural materials collected by Alan Lomax, one of the most celebrated folklore collectors and musicologists in America’s history, provide an engaging and powerfully personal basis for looking at history through the music that past generations took joy and comfort in, stretching back to the Colonial period and beyond.
TeachRock works directly with teachers and schools to inculcate music and culture into their core curriculum, distributing lesson plans and other educational material through its and ACE’s respective websites. The first four lesson plans developed from the Lomax Archive’s resources are already available and more are in development.
This partnership is the latest chapter in the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation’s ongoing endeavors to disseminate free, standards-aligned curriculum that uses popular music culture as a gateway to meaningful learning. RRFF also offers teachers and school administrators workshops to introduce the concept of arts integration for culturally responsive pedagogy using RRFF’s TeachRock curriculum. ACE and the RRFF are looking forward to continuing a shared mission of cultural equity and education to the benefit of teachers and their schools.
“IfJoni MitchellandRichie Havenshad a love child, withRodney Dangerfieldas the midwife, the results might have been something close to the greatVance Gilbert.” As the above quote from Richmond magazine suggests, Vance Gilbert defies stereotypes. It’s little wonder then that he also exceeds expectations. In this case, those two qualities go hand in hand.
They also come to full fruition on Gilbert’s upcoming album, the appropriately named Good, Good Man,outJanuary 24, 2020. Recorded with an A-list support cast that includes bluesman and singer/songwriterChris Smither,Al Green’s organistStacey Wade, Tommy Maloneof theSubdudeson guitars, Mike Posneron backing vocals, and Celtic harpist and vocalistAine Minoughit sums up the strengths that Gilbert’s always had at his command. That is, a gift for compelling melodies, insightful lyrics, a witty and whimsical point of view, and the ability to maintain an inherent humanity that translates to his connection with his audiences.
As always, the music is as varied as it is vibrant, from the philosophic musings of “Pie and Whiskey” and the rollicking R&B-flavored title track, to the swinging sound of “Zombie Pattycake,” the tender trappings of “Hitman” and the bare-bones remake of the 1972 hit “Wildflower,” a seminal song given Gilbert’s intimate and essential additives.
In short, it’s Gilbert at his very best, a set of songs that deserves to bring Gilbert the wider recognition that’s eluded him for far too long.
Of “Another Great Day Above Ground,” Gilbert says, “A country-blues that was born from an older friend who said, when asked how he was, ‘if I put my elbows out and don’t feel wood, then I know it’s another great day above ground.’ I knew my friend Chris Smither would play this far better than I ever could, so I called him for his first-ever guitar and stomp-foot hiring in his long and wondrous career. He thinks it’ll look great on his resume. Yeah, whatever, like he needs *that*.”
The song also features Herb Gardner on trombone, with Vance singing and giggling.
