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Tuesday 29 September 2015

Holiday Hiatus - Buzzcocks


By the time you read this Mrs CC and I will be have as Clare Grogan once sang gone to Skye on our holidays.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to post a track for every day we are away.
Rather I have selected a fairly random bunch of artists who will popup every other day to keep you going til we get back.
There will be little or no commentary or "research"
First up are the Buzzcocks primarily because Promises popped up on my i-pod the other day.

Buzzcocks - Promises

Buzzcocks - Everybody's Happy Nowadays



Saturday 26 September 2015

Saturday Lucky Dip



A somewhat ambitious project by Mojo this week with Born in the USA Volume 1 when they attempt to pick 15 tracks from The Great American Songbook.
I am sorely tempted to feature Hank Williams but  I am conscious that we had Lefty yesterday and that you can have too much of a good thing.
Rather I have gone for two blues and folk numbers which are as relevant today as when they were written.
Vf
The world is increasingly being populated with the haves and have nots with the haves doing everything they can to keep it that way. In these days of austerity it is sobering to see food banks in the world's richest countries, children in abject poverty and people living from hand to mouth. Hardly surprising then as Odetta notes that Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
Woody Guthrie's Deportees here sung by his great pal Cisco Houston also resonates  when we are witnessing the humanitarian crisis underway across Europe at the moment.

Odetta - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

Cisco Houston - Deportees

No Saturday Lucky Dip or Sunday Soul for the next couple of weeks as Mrs CC and I take a well deserved holiday.

Oh what the hell, here's Hank

Hank Williams - You Win Again

Friday 25 September 2015

Twangy Country Friday


This week it is intentional.
One final honky tonk hero today - Mr Lefty Frizzell arguably one of the most influential artists in Country music history.
Huge in the 50s his career sadly began to peter out in the mid 60s although he charted with over 30 singles and had 13 studio albums.
He even had a massive box set Life's Like Poetry on the great German Bear Family Records which a certain ex blogger is the proud owner of.
I suspect that it contains several vesions of these two fine songs.
Sadly he lapsed into alcoholism, dying of a stroke in 1975 at the tragically young age of 47(Lefty that is not the ex blogger)

Lefty Frizzell - Always Late (With Your Kisses)

lefty Frizzell - Saginaw, Michigan

Thursday 24 September 2015

I'm Younger Than That Now


It's been a wee while since His Bobness has appeared on CCM. Time to right that wrong.
Two songs from 1964's Another Side of Bob Dylan from the start of his pre motorcycle crash purple patch.
Eleven minutes of sheer  unadulterated genius.

I've really got nothing more to write that hasn't been written before. So we'll let the music do the talking.

Bob Dylan - Chimes of Freedom

Bob Dylan - To Ramona

Wednesday 23 September 2015

It's Drew's Fault - Yeah So


It was Drew who first brought Slowclub's Complete Surrender, surely the album on 2014, to my attention.
What a fantastic album it is.
Therefore when I came across their  2009 debut Yeah So  on Moshi Moshi records going cheap I thought I would give it a bash.
It is ok but certainly not in the same league as Complete Surrender
It falls just short of being twee
Here the Sheffield pairing of Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor are described as a folk duo.I've even seen a comparison to the White Stripes but I don't see it myself.
By the time of Complete Surrender however as someone has previously mentioned (probably Drew) Rebecca had discovered that she has a voice and what a voice it is.

You will all have Complete Surrender so here are a couple from the debut album

Slowclub - When I Go

Slowclub - There is No Good Way to Say I'm Leaving You



Tuesday 22 September 2015

Rabbits of the Frightened Variety


Selkirk's finest Frightened Rabbit started out as a solo project by Scott Hutchison.
By the time 2008's The Midnight Organ Fight came along he had been joined by his brother Grant on drums and percussion and Billy Kennedy on guitar,bass and keyboards.
Critically acclaimed with The Skinny going as far as naming it the fourth best Scottish album between 2000 and 2009.
Mainly recorded in a studio on Bridgeport, Connecticut it contains songs recorded in The Diving Bell Lounge and in flats  at 38 White Street, Partick and 2 Ruskin Place off Great Western Road,Glasgow.

When I was a student, long before Frightened Rabbit entered this world, I spent many a drunken night in Ruskin Place as some of my pals had a flat there.
Happy days.

Frightened Rabbit - Good Arms vs Bad Arms

Frightened Rabbit - The Modern Leper

Monday 21 September 2015

For One Week Only The Return of Sunday Songs on Monday



Just when you thought it was safe to check out CCM on a Monday!
When I was thinking of this series Saturday Morning on Sunday Street by Mark Olson and Gary Louris of Jayhawks fame was at the forefront of my mind.
However I only had the album Ready for the Flood on a burn. But the other day I stumbled across the track on an Uncut compilation hence the brief resurrection of this series.
Mark and Gary are followed by Dolores and the boys with a song of  Everybody Else is Doing it So Why Don't We?
And finally, and somewhat tenuously seeing as how Sunday is the Sabbath here are Ozzy and the boys with the mighty Paranoid.



Sunday 20 September 2015

Some Sunday Soul


Are you in need of uplifting? I know I am.
Who better  then to feature than Pops,Mavis, Cleo and Yvonne Staples known collectively as The Staple (no s) Singers
They were at the peak of their success in the early 70's on the mighty Stax label with the albums Be Altitude: Respect Yourself and Be What You Are.
I was originally going to include a couple of their lesser known songs but pretty quickly came to the conclusion that you can't improve upon perfection.

More Soul next Sunday (possibly)

The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There

The Staple Singers - If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)

Saturday 19 September 2015

Saturday Lucky Dip



I am probably familiar with about half of the artists featured on Homeward Bound -21st Century Troubadours  an Uncut compilation from April 2011.
None of those who I was not familiar with particularly stood out so I have gone for three who have crossed my radar however briefly.
As an added bonus none have previously featured on CCM before.
One who should have featured before now is Justin Townes Earle, son of Steve, nephew of Stacey and named after the great Townes Van Zandt. Here he plays the title song from his 2010 Bloodshot album Harlem River Blues.
From Dalarna, Sweden Kristian Mattson records under the moniker The Tallest Man on Earth although I suspect that Brian Lane the bassist from Slobberbone is actually taller.
Finally we have Nathaniel Rateliff with Once in a Great While a song from 2010. Nothing startling or earth shattering about it but radically different to the fantastic soulful R&B he is currently churning out with The Night Sweats.

More random nonsense next Saturday (possibly)

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

The Tallest Man on Earth - Troubles Will Be Gone

Nathaniel Rateliff - Once in a Great While

Friday 18 September 2015

Neil Young - Big in Iowa



This blog sometimes has a mind of it's own.
Without consciously trying the last three Friday's have seen songs with a Country twang about them.
So we might as well go for four in a row.

Big in Iowa are not actually from Iowa but from Hamilton, Ohio (as opposed to Hamilton, South Lanarkshire).
They have a song called Hamiltucky Honky Tonk Hero the title of which probably sums them up better than I ever could.
Like many Americana bands they found a spiritual home courtesy of the great German record label Blue Rose.
They are, I suspect, also big Neil Young fans given their  faithful cover of Cinnamon Girl (Blue Rose Collection Vol 5) and their observation that Neil's on the Radio (Blue Rose Collection Vol 7 -disc1)
And just to prove there is more to them than a love of Neil here is Shame Shame Shame  (Blue Rose Collection Vol 7 -disc2)

Big in Iowa - Cinnamon Girl

Big in Iowa - Neil's on the Radio

Big in Iowa - Shame, Shame, Shame

Thursday 17 September 2015

A Wise Old Owl


It's time for some more music from Paisley's finest, and former pupil from the same school as Mrs CC (although a good few years before!), the late great Mr Gerry Rafferty.
A couple of tracks from his 1979 album Night Owl the follow up to the phenomenally successful City to City.
Proving once more, as if you need to be reminded, that there is far more to his music than the ubiquitous Baker Street.
Artwork as ever by fellow Paisley buddie John Byrne.
The album was recorded in Chipping Norton Studios.
Richard Thompson, Linda Thompson, Pete Wingfield and Barbara Dickson all make an appearance but I am not sure that they constitute the odious self serving Chipping Norton Set

Gerry Rafferty - Take the Money and Run

Gerry Rafferty - Night Owl

Wednesday 16 September 2015

This Blog Continues to Decline


British Sea Power are a band I know next to nothing about despite the fact that they have been on the go since at least 2003.
I know that fellow bloggers have featured them with Drew and JC both recently and coincidentally featuring them on the same day.
I seem to recall that Singing Bear in particular is a big fan. I am missing your musings sir along with those of George , Scott and Erik and I hope that you will return to the fold in due course.

Given the above when I saw their above pictured debut album in a charity shop the other week I thought I had better pick it up to see what all the fuss was about.
On hearing the first two tracks I thought I had made a terrible mistake and was all set to re-dispatch it from whence it came.
However I persevered and rather enjoyed some of the other songs including the two featured below.
I much prefer their more mellow songs  to their shouty songs which  I suspect is probably an age  thing.

British Sea Power - Something Wicked

British Sea Power - The Lonely

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Phair Enough

Liz Phair is an artist whom I don't know very much about.
My interest was slightly  piqued when I featured Big Tall Man from her 1998 album Whitechocolatespace egg last July on my Saturday Lucky Dip slot.
It was re-piqued  the other day when I came across Juvenilia for 49p in my local charity shop.
From 1995 it is an 8 track EP but is essentially a vehicle for the song Jealousy from her 1994 album Whip- Smart.
It also contains her cover of The Vapors classic Turning Japanese.
Tracks 4 to 8 are from her Girlysound tapes with relatively poor sound quality, plenty of swearing and a fascination around the sex lives of cows and are probably best avoided. Here are tracks 1 to 3.

Liz Phair - Jealousy

Liz Phair -Turning Japanese

Liz Phair - Animal Girl

Monday 14 September 2015

World Without Tears


I have long been an admirer of the great Lucinda Williams and have all her records up to and including 2007's West. I have still to acquire her last three.
If pushed I would have to say that Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is my favourite. However 2003's World Without Tears certainly comes a close second.
Described by All Music as an album predominantly about co-dependant, screwed up love it contains some of her rawer and more personal songs with her heart firmly on her sleeve
Righteously and Those Three Days certainly come into this category. I have read somewhere that the latter is about her relationship with Billy Mercer who played bass with Ryan Adams and subsequently Lucinda.

Although primarily ballads it has a rocky feel with a band consisting of Doug Pettibone on guitar, Taras Prodaniuk on bass and Jim Christie on drums

Lucinda Williams - Righteously

Lucinda Williams - Those Three Days

Sunday 13 September 2015

Some Sunday Soul


A couple of months ago I watched Classic Soul at the BBC on BBC 4.
I had albums of all the artists featured except for Gladys Knight and the Pips who did a stonking version of Friendship Train.
I can't find the BBC version but here is one from Soul Train - check out those moves by the Pips!




After that I thought I should make it my business to acquire some GK and the Ps.
However I was conscious that for every good album out there there was probable a not so good one.
In the end I played safe and went for The Motown Years -a terrific compilation with 16 great songs.
I wanted to give you It Should Have Been Me but for some reason this was the only track that my PC would not rip.
Still I'm sure you'll agree that the two I have come up with are pretty tasty.

More Soul next Sunday

Gladys Knight and the Pips - Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me

Gladys knight and the Pips - I Wish it Would Rain

Saturday 12 September 2015

Saturday Lucky Dip



A couple of Saturdays ago in the post of music influenced by The Band I featured a Drive- By Truckers song written by Jason Isbell.
In this week's featured compilation Rip This Joint -16 brilliant tracks in the spirit of the Rolling Stones (Uncut April 2010) he appears with his own band Jason Isbell and the 400 unit.

An erstwhile singer from a band perhaps even better that the Drive-By's also pops up in a solo capacity.
Ian Hunter, former frontman of Mott the Hoople  features with a song from his 2009 album Man Overboard.

And finally, as I know some of you like the occasional threesome, we have the most Stones like of the three acts Deer Tick from Providence, Rhode Island a band who are proud not to sing with a twang.

More random nonsense next Saturday

Jason Isbell and the 400 - Seven-Mile Island

Ian Hunter - Up And Running

Deer Tick - Straight Into a Storm

Friday 11 September 2015

Hacienda



It's Hacienda time
No, not the famous Manchester club but the Tuscon, Arizona band the Hacienda Brothers.
Fronted by Dave Gonzales and the late Chris Gaffney the band also contains Dave Berzansky, Dale Daniel and Hank Maninger.
Their 2005 self titled debut album is on Proper Records and is mostly produced by Dan Penn so you just know it is going to be good.
A fine selection of songs about lost love and regret and in their words Western Soul as opposed to Western Swing.
Sadly Chris Gaffney who was also one of Dave Alvin's Guilty Men and a fine solo artist died of liver cancer in 2008 at the age of 57.
He left a fine canon of work behind for us to enjoy.


Hacienda Brothers - She's Gone

Hacienda Brothers - South of Lonesome


Thursday 10 September 2015

What a Hippy Dippy Crazy World



I'm a wee bit short of inspiration this week so I have been dipping into the CD singles section.
We are off to Cork today to visit The Frank and Walters with their 1993 single Fashion Crisis Hits New York taken from their debut album Trains, Planes and Automobiles.
On Go!Discs and  produced by Ian Brodie from The Lightning Seeds

I would have thought that this was their most successful single but apparently not.It peaked in the UK at number 42 whereas the previous single After All reached number 11. It may have fared better if it hadn't been the fourth single from the album


Wednesday 9 September 2015

Trying to Cope


It's time for the man with the traffic cone on his head - the one and only completely bonkers Arch Druid himself Mr Julian H Cope ( not sure where the H comes from given that his middle name is David)

A couple of songs from his 1995 EP Try Try Try the only single released to promote his album from that year 20 Mothers and which somewhat surprisingly reached the dizzy heights of number 24 in the UK Singles chart.
Rooster on drums, Moon-Eye on guitars and Thighpaulsandra on synthesisizers and piano.

As mad as a box of frogs - but in a good way

Julian Cope - Try Try Try

Julian Cope - Baby, Let's Play Vet


Tuesday 8 September 2015

The Mona Lisa's Sister


A solo Graham Parker album for you today  - The Mona Lisa's Sister from 1988 on Demon Records.
Although a solo album there is still a pretty strong Rumour connection given that Brinsley Schwarz is part of the band and also co-produces with Mr Parker. Oh and Andrew Bodnar also plays bass.
 James Halliwell on keyboards and Terry Williams on drums make up the band although.Pete Thomas from the Attractions also pops up on drums on a couple of songs.

He has one of the great British Soul voices as demonstrated on these two tracks his own The Girl Isn't Ready and a very credible cover of Sam Cooke's Cupid

Graham Parker - The Girl Isn't Ready

Graham Parker - Cupid

Monday 7 September 2015

Sunday Songs on Monday


All good things come to an end.
Before we are reduced to barrel scraping we will draw Sunday Songs on Monday to a dignified conclusion.

For the final two songs we turn to Blur and The Velvet Underground and Nico.
Sunday Sunday is taken from Modern Life is Rubbish ( the one with the train on the cover) Blur's second album from 1993.
From 1967 The Velvet Underground and Nico is one of those seminal albums which didn't initially set the heather on fire but which went on to be regarded as an all time classic.
It originally sold only 30,000 copies but to quote Brian Eno everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.

And finally we feature a live version of a song that fairly recently featured on CCM the utterly wonderful but completely bonkers Drinkin' in my Sunday Dress by Maria McKee.

Blur - Sunday Sunday

The Velvet Underground and Nico - Sunday Morning




Sunday 6 September 2015

Some Sunday Soul



It's off to Memphis, Tennessee today and to 2445 Chelsea Avenue to be precise to visit our old friends at Goldwax Records.
The Goldwax Story Volume 1 provides the highlights and magical moments from this deeply revered 60's soul label.
A number of their more famous artists on  the label  including the mighty James Carr, O.V. Wright, Spencer Wiggins and The Ovations have featured before on my Southern Soul Sunday series.
Barbara Perry  only ever produced one single on Goldwax  with the ballad Unlovable with Say You Need It on the other side (Goldwax 318 - 1967)
Percy Milem was slightly more prolific and here he features with Call on Me a song written by George Jackson ( Goldwax 315 - 1966)

More soul next Sunday

Barbara Perry - Unlovable

Percy Milem - Call On Me

Saturday 5 September 2015

Saturday Lucky Dip


I am aware that it is September as opposed to December but given the occasional random nature of this slot today we feature Uncut's John Peel's Festive 15.
Many of you will have religiously followed the Festive 50 at Peel's place over the years.
The Uncut sampler contains many of the usual suspects as you would expect - The Fall, The Wedding Present, Half Man Half Biscuit and the Bhundu Boys to name but four.

The first choice today has a somewhat apt title. Billy Bragg with the magnificent The Saturday Boy. I can recall a number of comments when this was featured before on another blog (Sexy Loser perhaps?)
A song that takes you straight back to puberty and one which includes one of the great lines in popular music.

In the end, it took me a dictionary
To find out the meaning of unrequited


Björk Guðmundsdóttir is a lady I suspect who has left a number of youths feeling unrequited over the years. Here she features with The Sugarcubes which I suspect will please Dirk from the afore mentioned Sexy Loser


More random nonsense next Saturday.

Billy Bragg -The Saturday Boy

The Sugarcubes - Birthday


Friday 4 September 2015

You've Already Put Big Ole Tears in my Eyes ....



Today we feature a couple of pleasant ditties from Ira and Charlie Loudermilk more popularly known as the Louvin Brothers the gentlemen who have previously reminded us that the word Broadminded spells S.I.N.

Their mandolin based Country gospel harmonies were heavily influenced by their Baptist faith and constantly warn us against sin. Satin is real after all.
Somewhat paradoxically Ira Louvin was a drunk womanizer with a fiery temper who was shot four times in the chest by his third wife after he allegedly tried to strangle her with a telephone cord. There is a country song in their some where.

However today the Louvins ask us Are you ready for the Great Atomic Power and also lament that You've already put big ole tears in my eyes, must you throw dirt in my face

Terrific stuff

The Louvin Brothers - The Great Atomic Power

The Louvin Brothers - Must You Throw Dirt in my Face

Thursday 3 September 2015

Some Petty and Ill Informed Music


Anyone familiar with BBC  Radio Scotland's Off the Ball football programme featuring Tam Cowan and Stuart Cosgrove  (of Detroit 67 fame) will recognise  the post title.
But relax it is not Tam Cowan you are getting today but Tam Petty hence the pish poor pun in the title -apologies.
A couple of gems today from the late 1970s and the back catalogue of the great Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
We start with American Girl from their 1976 eponymous album.
This is followed by Refugee from 1979's Damn the Torpedoes a song that is perhaps even more resonant now than it was back then.
Dig out those old albums and give then a listen - you will not regret it.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - American Girl

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Refugee


Wednesday 2 September 2015

The Many Facets of Will Johnson

No time to shave


Whilst chatting and having a beer with Adam Reichmann of Nadine in the Clyde Bar in Helensburgh, as you do, we got round to asking him to recommend some music he was into.
Centro-matic was the reply and shortly after that my pal Goggs and I took in a couple of gigs by them at SXSW and very good they were too.
They are from Denton, Texas and the head honcho is Will Johnson who is a pretty prolific artist.

As well as Centro-matic he had another band South San Gabriel on the go at the same time.
He had previously played with a band called Funland and subsequently released a record with Jason Molina.
Throw the Undertow Orchestra, Monsters of Folk, New Multitudes and Overseas into the equation and you can see that he has been a busy boy.
Not too busy, however, to record a couple of solo albums including Vultures Await  which includes one of the tracks featured below.
As if that wasn't enough Sheryl Crow used to be his babysitter

These are for Goggs the founder and indeed sole member of The Thai and Kazakh Will Johnson Appreciation Society

Centro-matic - Ninety Secretaries Down

South San Gabriel -Evangeline

Will Johnson - Just to Know What You've Been Dreaming

Tuesday 1 September 2015

And I Know It Ain't Gonna Last




Opus 40 by Mercury Rev features on Across the Great Divide - the compilation of music inspired by The Band which featured on Saturday. Turns out Levon Holm played drums on this one.

This had me looking out 1998's Deserter's Songs and giving it a listen for the first time in years.One I don't really think that has stood  the tests of time.
A bit twee in places for me with excessive use of the mellotron. Also the fact that main man Jonathan Donahue is listed in the sleevenotes only as Jonathan and someone else is listed as Grasshooper annoys me far more than it should.

Like a similar act The Flaming Lips their star shone brightly for a short period before rapidly fading.
I have had the 2001 follow up All is Dream in my hand on at least two occasions in charity shops but never managed to cross that finishing line.

Mercury Rev - Opus 40

Mercury Rev - Goddess on a Hiway