David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971)

Jerry, Phil, Mickey and Bill from The Dead.

Michael Shrieve and Gregg Rolie from Santana.

Jorma, Jack and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane.

Graham Nash.

Neil Young.

Joni Mitchell.

And David Crosby.

All-star line-up gets together for this criminally underrated 1971 classic.

David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971; Atlantic Records)

Gene Clark - No Other (1974)

SoCal folk legend Gene Clark, late of The New Christy Minstrels and The Byrds nails it here on one of the finest yet weirdly obscure country rock gems this side of Bakersfield. 
Gene Clark - No Other (1974; Asylum Records)

Two Albums from... Roy Harper

Roy Harper is the best singer/songwriter that you aren't listening to; don't ask me how I know that you're not listening to him, but I know you're not.

Now you can. Here's two of his records from 1970 and '71 respectively; Flat Baroque and Berserk & Stormcock. One is 12 songs recorded in a more conventional format with lengths ranging between a minute-and-a-half and eight-plus minutes, with some straight-ahead Brit-folk interspersed with contemporary sounding rock and blues. The other is a sprawling, massive four-suite prog folk masterpiece.

Harper was name-checked by Led Zeppelin on the track Hats Off To (Roy Harper) on their third album and also the featured vocalist on Pink Floyd's Have a Cigar from Wish You Were Here. So he's your favorite musician's favorite musician. So you should be listening to him. A lot...

Flat Baroque and Berserk (1970; Harvest Records)

Stormcock (1971; Harvest Records)

Palace Music - Viva Last Blues (1995)

Will Oldham, along with his brother Ned on bass, Sebadoh's drummer Jason Lowenstein, pianist Liam Hayes (who also records under the moniker Plush) and lead guitarist Bryan Rich set out to record a ragged and raw folk-tinged country rock-and-blues album (with none other than Steve Albini twiddling the knobs behind the glass) and it's probably my favorite thing Will's done under any of his Palace-named projects (the others being Palace Songs, Palace Brothers, Palace Soundtrack, Palace Contribution and just plain Palace...) and my favorite thing he's done outside of his more well known Bonnie 'Prince' Billy character. The man of 1,000 names...

There's nothing I can ever say that would do justice or be enough praise to Mr. Oldham; to pay homage to one of the greatest American songwriters of the last 30 years by writing this little blurb here and giving you one of his loveliest of records is all I have right now. I strongly recommend you download this album, then get your ass to a record store and start systematically buying the bulk of his discography. Whenever I walk into a record store and see one of his albums I don't yet have (and there aren't that many left) I scoop it up.

Palace Music - Viva Last Blues (1995; Drag City Records)

Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens (2005)

Jens Lekman is the best thing to come out of Sweden since cheap, easy-to-assemble mode furniture. That's a pretty assured statement, considering the influx of talent coming from over there recently. But I'm able to say that with confidence because Jens channels the musical spirit of two of my favorite singers with souls full of melancholy; Morrissey & Stephen Merritt. You could call him the Swedish version of either one of those guys and you wouldn't be far off; even when Lekman's music is sunny and cheerful his lyrics are dark and rife with black humor.

Lekman got his records put out in the US by Secretly Canadian Records by writing them letters; he was on their mailing list and regularly ordered albums from them directly. He just happened to send some of his music on a CD-R one day, and ends up with a record deal. That's one of those stories that restores my faith in the record industry (it would take a tiny label from Bloomington, IN to do that for me; I wish you big major labels would pay attention to a business model like this).

Anyway; one of my favorite records of the decade- it's a compilation of all his 7" records, tour-only CD-R's and early singles.

Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens (2005; Secretly Canadian Records)
-link opens to YouTube playlist-

Alexander "Skip" Spence - Oar (1969)

File Skip Spence along with Nick Drake, Syd Barrett and Roky Erickson under the unfortunate category of "mental illness exacerbated by excessive drug use" casualties of the late 1960s; they all got a chance to record wonderful albums before (Drake), during (Barrett & Spence), or after (Erickson) complete breaks from reality.

Skip's story is a tough one; he was the original drummer for Jefferson Airplane, leaving after their first record and trading his drum kit for a guitar and amp. He then went on to have a successful few years as the main songwriter and guitarist for Moby Grape, but during the recording of their second record in New York, Skip had a bum LSD trip and he went off his nuts, trying to attack band mates Jerry Miller & Don Stevenson with an axe, chopping down their hotel door in the process. Then he went to CBS Records' executive offices and tried to attack their producer, David Rubinson. Skip was sent to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital for six months and pumped full of thorazine, this is the record he wrote while in the asylum. He went to Nashville, recorded this whole album in a few weeks on a three-track and disappeared to the woods near Santa Cruz, where he lived in a trailer until he passed away in '99.

It's a haunting and deeply affected personal statement from a man in the midst of some serious inner turmoil; there's some solace to be taken here in Spence's beautiful honesty and dark confessional lyrics. Listen to this album now!

Alexander "Skip" Spence - Oar (1969; CBS Records)

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (1985)

This is another record I point folks to when they make the ridiculous claim that the '80s sucked as far as music is concerned. 

For every Toto, there's a band like The Replacements. 

For all the Foreigners, there's the Minutemens. 

For every Bryan Adams, there's a Tom Waits...

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (1985; Island Records)

Smog - Red Apple Falls (1997)

Bill Callahan, the one-man "band" hiding behind the Smog moniker, is one of my favorite modern-day miserablists. That's not even a word, according to spell check, but fuck it; I'm using it. He's up there with Leonard Cohen, Morrissey and Will Oldham. Of course, they've all softened with their ages; Cohen's art is usually centered around the broken-hearted; Mozza's become too self-aware, his misery is almost comedy these days and Oldham's as well is laughably ironic. But Callahan, you are a miserable sunnuvabitch.

Wilco wrote a song years ago called I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Bill never had to try to break your heart, he crushes it with this record...

Smog - Red Apple Falls (1997; Drag City Records)

Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream Of Trains (1984)

Psych-tinged folk ditties from the quirky mind of Robyn Hitchcock. It's like he went through his old diaries, cleaned up the prose to make it rhyme and set it to this bare-bones and fragile music. Somewhat whimsical and zany, often times disturbing and dark; it's one of those albums I listen to and wonder if this is what Syd Barrett would've done if he hadn't gone batshit bonkers and retreated to his mum's basement to watch British soaps on the telly all day.

Maybe that's what Hitchcock imagined this record was; an homage of sorts to the crazy diamond himself.

Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream Of Trains (1984; Midnight Music)

Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights (1982)

Whoever said the '80s were a bad decade for music was totally full of shit. Yeah, there was some tragic fashions associated with rock n' roll and probably a little too much cocaine; plus the role of the synthesizer may have been a little overstated, but there was also a ton of fantastic music.

Often overlooked when talking about great guitar players is one Richard Thompson, the brains behind Fairport Convention as well as he and his wife Linda's wonderful (if too short) collaborative recording careers. I'll take I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight as their best record together, but this one has the honor of being their last together. After spending most of the '70s living in Sufi Islam communes around the world living a deeply spiritual life and trying to keep a music career going while trying to keep a marriage together, the strain proved to be too great a burden on the couple, as their relationship deteriorated sometime between the writing of and subsequent recording of this record (it's incorrectly considered a "break up" album; in fact 6 out of 8 of these songs were written in 1979- the title track is actually about the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan).

Richard's guitar work on sections of this record are quite magnificent (the title track is amazing); give it a listen and decide for yourself where the man fits with the Claptons and the Richards of the world...

Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights (1982; Hannibal Records)