Month: January 2007

Required for Music Lovers: Ten Days Out

Pinetop Perkins. Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Bryan Lee. “Wild Child” Butler. “Honeyboy” Edwards. Etta Baker.

These are names that could go forgotten if not for projects like Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s new CD/DVD release, Ten Days Out. I can’t tell you how impressed I am not only with this project, but with Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Before this project was brought to my attention, I didn’t know much about what was going on with Kenny these days. I remember him when we were hearing “Blue on Black” on rock radio ten years ago, when Kenny was only 19 years old.

So how cool is this project? Kenny teamed up with former Talkin Head Jerry Harrison (producer), the rhythm section for Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble, and a film crew to take a 10-day drive through the South. They located some of the living legends of the blues, talked to them, and performed with them in different settings: living rooms, front porches, kitchens, cemetaries, and smoky clubs.

The resulting CD and DVD are intimate and wholly authentic: “What happened is what you hear,” said Shepherd, “We kept it as real as possible.”

Kenny of course is an amazing blues guitarist in his own right, and there’s plenty of Kenny on display here. But what really impressed me was his unselfishness, and his reverence for those that paved his way. What he and Harrison did with this project is important for American Blues. The DVD is a history lesson, a primer in the blues, and pays homage to some amazing talents and personalities who – let’s face it – ain’t gonna be around for long. Required viewing folks, required viewing. Kenny Wayne Shepherd has himself a new fan…

Check out the trailer here (in Quicktime):

Buy the CD / DVD Box Set of Ten Days Out for $19.97 on Amazon.

Official Site of Ten Days Out

Kenny Wayne Shepherd & B.B. King: The Thrill is Gone (Quicktime Audio) | The Thrill is Gone (Media Player Audio)

BB King and Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Howard Debuts Prince

Guitar Ad

Okay, well, it very well may be morphing into Prince week here on Ickmusic. I was pleasantly surprised when I turned on Howard Stern this morning to hear them listening to some new Prince tracks. They were listening to (and talking over, for the most part) two new covers: “All Along the Watchtower” and “The Best of You” (a Foo Fighters tune).

Here’s what it sounded like (click the little Play button):

[audio:prince-howard.mp3]

Sounds pretty cool, though I can’t really see Prince pulling out either of these songs for the Super Bowl performance. But who knows?

Also, as you can see on top, Prince will be releasing a brand new tune called “Guitar” on Friday morning through his web site, 3121.com. An album may not be far behind.

I think Friday is also the day he is scheduled to perform at a press conference. A flurry of activity in the little fella’s world! Sweet!

One Week til Super Bowl Prince

prince

One week to go until Prince does it Super Bowl style. Rumors so far have the Florida A&M University ‘Marching 100’ marching band involved somehow. If you caught the Grammys last year, it’s the same marching band that played with Kanye West. Also in the rumor mill is that Prince will be paying tribute to James Brown in some fashion.

So you may want to check out my Prince forum for a cool little contest I just set up for the big day. Ickmusic / Prince Super Bowl Contest. You’ll need to register if you want to participate.

And as far as I can tell, this is the only Prince song with “Super” in the title. A Black Album classic, extended for your listening pleasure.

Prince: Superfunkycalifragisexy (extended)

Original version appears on The Black Album.

Dead at the Cow Palace Contest

Dead at Cow Palace

If you didn’t win this in Hidden Track’s recent contest (they took the best post title, “A Dead Giveaway”), here’s a chance to pick up Rhino’s recent release of the Grateful Dead’s New Year’s Eve 1976 show at the Cow Palace. It’s a triple CD set, it’s 180 minutes of Dead in their prime goodness, and I think you should have it. There’s a listening party right here, and you can also check out and buy the CD here.

Leaving a comment below enters you in the contest, and I’ll pick a winner early in the coming week. Because it’s late Saturday morning, and I’m high on 2 cups of coffee and cold medicine, let’s get creative. Whoever comes up with the best Grateful Dead / Jerry Garcia related haiku wins the set.

About Haiku: “Haiku is an unrhymed, syllabic form adapted from the Japanese: three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Because it is so brief, a haiku is necessarily imagistic, concrete & pithy, capturing a single moment in a very few words.”

so good luck people
this is a lot of music
eat asparagus

February 2nd Update: We gotta winner: Boyhowdy! See here for details.

Steve Earle at Tradewinds, Part Deux

Steve Earle

“They’ll let anybody in here!” – Steve Earle, as The Boss joins him on stage

Well who do you think was lurking in the crowd that fateful New Jersey night? The Boss joined Steve and the Dukes for the last six songs of the evening. That’s gotta be one of the greatest things about being a Springsteen fan in New Jersey. You never know when he’ll materialize.

Well materialize he did this night in 1998. It’s another spirited set by Steve and the Dukes, and when the Boss joins, they rip into a Carl Perkins classic, a couple of Stones tunes, and a few Steve tunes. Bruce pretty much sticks to his rule of not stealing the spotlight, but he does take a verse of “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”, and how cool is it to hear him sing background on “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” and the Stones tunes? Right. Very cool.

Steve Earle & the Dukes
February 6, 1998
Sea Bright, NJ

Part Two [ZIP]

The Other Side Of Town
Somewhere Out There
Billy Austin
The Devil’s Right Hand
Nothin’ But You
All My Tears (w/ Julie Miller)
Goodbye
Johnny Too Bad (Slickers cover)
N.Y.C.
The Unrepentant
Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby (Carl Perkins cover w/ Bruce Springsteen)
Sweet Virginia (Rolling Stones cover w/ Bruce Springsteen)
Guitar Town (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
I Ain’t Never Satisfied (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
Dead Flowers (Rolling Stones w/ Bruce Springsteen)
Johnny Come Lately (w/ Bruce Springsteen)

One interesting omission from the night was Bruce’s “State Trooper”, which Steve plays quite a bit in his shows. “New Jersey turnpike, riding on a wet night…” would’ve fit right in.

Steve Earle at Tradewinds, Part 1

Steve Earle

I haven’t posted about my favorite left-wing Tennessee via Mexico via East Texas outlaw in a while. Steve Earle hasn’t been quiet lately though. He’s a modern-day renaissance man: musician, poet, protester, playwright, you name it. He jokes that he has to keep himself that busy to keep him sober. He wasn’t doing so good there for a while (in the late 80’s and early 90’s). Well, since he got sober, and inspiration took over, Steve has been hitting us hard with some great albums: I Feel Alright, Train a Comin’, El Corazon, Jerusalem, among others. In ’98, Steve was on tour supporting one of my personal favorites, El Corazon (a tour that didn’t bring him to Phoenix, so I flew my butt to Montrose, Colorado to see him – well, actually my brother flew me).

This is a special show, folks. The locale is Tradewinds in Sea Bright, New Jersey. It’s February 6, 1998, and a certain someone is lurking in the audience watching this great show. I’ll give you part one here. In part two later this week, this certain someone hits the stage with Mr. Earle to fully complete roof tearage off the sucker.

Steve Earle & the Dukes
February 6, 1998
Sea Bright, NJ

Part One [ZIP]  ♦ [Part two here]

Christmas In Washington
Here I Am
Taneytown
Hardcore Troubador
My Old Friend The Blues
Someday
If You Fall
Mystery Train Part II
You Know The Rest
Windfall (Son Volt cover)
Copperhead Road
Telephone Road
More Than I Can Do
Now She’s Gone
Ft. Worth Blues
I Feel Alright
Poison Lovers

In recent Steve Earle news, he signed with New West Records recently. I’m looking forward to good things in ’07 from ol’ Steve.

Harlem Shufflin

I’ve always loved the Stones version of “Harlem Shuffle” (and the video above, particularly the fine female dancing with Mick – rarrrr – feel like I’m 16 again). Silly thing is, I don’t think I had heard another version of it until recently (courtesy again of Sirius). It turned out to be the original version too, performed by Bob & Earl. The twosome, Bob Relf and Earl Nelson, wrote and recorded the song in 1963. It was later performed by the Righteous Brothers, Johnny & Edgar Winter, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and of course the Stones on 1986’s Dirty Work.

So check out the original version. It’s interesting to note the similarities between the original and the Stones versions. You’ll notice Mick Jagger borrowed a lot of the same tones, groans, and moans from the Bob & Earl version.

Bob & Earl: Harlem Shuffle (mp3) – I got mine on iTunes from this compilation called Sweet Soul Music.

Soul Men

I’ve still a looong way to go with my Booker T. & the M.G.’s education. As one of the tightest rhythm sections you could shake stick at, they were the Stax label’s house band for many years back in the 60’s. This 2003 release took a look at some of their unreleased sessions between 1965 and 1968. One of them is their own take on “Harlem Shuffle”.

Download the album on eMusic or buy the disc on Amazon.

Old School Friday

Diddy Stares at Jessica Biel's Gozangas

I’m not going to knock Diddy for this one. If I was standing next to Jessica Biel, I’d probably gaze at her golden globes too. Well done Diddy! What a great segue into another Old School Friday!

Schoolly D

Schooly D: Am I Black Enough for You? (mp3) – from 1989’s album of the same name, this was Schoolly D’s fourth release. With songs like “Black”, “Black Is…”, “Education of a Black Man”, “Black Education”, “Black Jesus”, and “Black Power”, um, yeah, I’d call it afrocentric.

Slick Rick

Slick Rick: The Moment I Feared (mp3) – Ricky Walters, aka Slick Rick, left Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew in the late 80’s to embark on a very successful solo career (even with a two year prison term in the midst of it all). This one comes from his 89 debut, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick.

Whistle

Whistle: Barbara’s Bedroom (mp3) – Who remembers Whistle? “We’re Only Buggin”, anyone? This album was on regular rotation in, what 86, 87, I think?