HOWLiN' WOLF - Color Video of The Wolf in Action





SCOTT H BiRAM cooks with BAD iNGREDiENTS


Scott H Biram's Bad Ingredients album is aptly titled. His most blues-based work, is also his most sonically dynamic and lyrically accomplished. 

Demons seem loose-leashed, tempered, but no less vicious, no less snarling. Brother Biram's straight in control now and crackin' the whip.

Scott's roots grow deep and strong and his guitar work is at it's best here, concise, muscular and nimble. His stomp-box sounds like its made of basalt and iron wood. Biram's trusty '59 Gibson hollowbody has always been a weapon in his hands, throwing out dirt clods of distortion. The tone cuts like rusty jagged sharply-honed knives or touches like a dog's paw. 

All that mess is refined here not only by Biram's relentless touring, but by his obvious comfort in his own studio which he uses now as an instrument, the fifth Biram if you will. Scott has never been skeered to broaden and challenge his blues/country/metal sonic palette but he's got it down to a science this round and his fans will happily line up and volunteer to take his medicine. Biram never delivers snake oil. He's 100% patent and potent. 


Bad Ingredients is not sonically enhanced in any way that would not allow him to throw the same party live as he does in the studio, but Scott's a listener.  As such, he can throw down his sound and reinforce it with floydian textures in the nearly epic fourth track, Victory Song or make it sound like he and his acoustic are sitting across from you on a moonlit back patio.

The slow, dirty blues of Born In Jail walks on hind legs with grace at dusk, scratching signs in the dust and spitting raw sapphire-toned leads. Biram's breakin' it down for those who came before, son.

Broke Ass tells a story you're awful gawddamn glad isn't yours, but you know when he sings, "yeah, come on down and take a look at my bad dream" that if it's Biram's, he'll somehow live through it.

Mojo Hand i'm totally diggin'.  Biram likes taking chances, just as he has in past work with Black Diamond Heavies and them. Accompanied here by Austin's Walter Daniels on saxophone, this is classic Scott H Biram. 
Hollerin', stompin, and gettin' nasty. 
Y'all read the story behind the song right Here.

His cover of bluegrass master Bill Monroe's Memories Of You Sweetheart is plaintive and real. As it should be. Biram played in bluegrass outfits early on and it remains a powerful element of his style. The other cover here, Lightnin' Hopkins' Have You Ever Loved A Woman displays Biram's formidable and burly picking skills.

I gotta admit, Killed A Chicken Last Night is Biram 101. It's like he's covering himself, but doing it better than the original. Let that boy boogie-woogie. It's in 'im and its got to come out.  Y'know, I don't think he's done an album without a chicken song or two. But he can always be trusted to put one song on the album that makes you say, "huh?" but you end up diggin' it anyway. Gotta respect that. 

Black Creek Risin' is Biram's "I Asked For Water...," vs. Cool Drink of Water vs I Asked For Whiskey.  Ain't a damn thing wrong with that, and that ain't sellin' nothin' short neither.  It's straight up classic blues that'll make yr straightblues hatin' or lovin' pal turn and cock their head and say, "what's this?"
Hang Your head and Cry is, again, classic Biram. 
A rompin' Stompin barnburner and barbeque, ya muthrs.
 
I don't know if Scott has been listening to some Dylan/Guthrie-related junk or what, but the lyrics continue to expand upon the growth we've seen with his last three albums.  Musically he shines hard. There is a serious and effortless confidence here that is at once familiar, and inspiring. 

Scott H Biram is like a quality self-built dirt-floored yard shed. Filled with all the tools you love. Old Loppers and big ol' saws from your Grandpa's tool box. A couple over-size wood-handled standard screw drivers that more than do the job. Your first vice-grips.  Bags of rich, deeply  fertilized and loamy dirt. Stacks of sacks of chicken feed. A box of those good red shop rags. But back behind the shed? Bad luck and trouble crawls in the dark through the scrub wood and grass, a dark bird calls it's lonesome song and the hard wind howls, carrying lost voices  through the live oak.

I don't believe in best anything. But if I did, Scott H Biram's Bad Ingredients would be high on that list. Biram brings what he knows, and what he knows is that you don't get many chances. So you better have a good time, break some hearts and get broke. You damn sure better take it to the stage right and full on. 

Scott H Biram more than deserves your money. 
Send it to him and buy all of his stuff.

 











Pete Swanson - Man With Potential & show

Pete Swanson - Remote View from John Twells

Type records recently announced a new solo record by Pete Swanson (formerly of Portland's Yellow Swans). The track "Remote View" is an album cut from the upcoming Man With Potential. The song takes on a dance four-to-the-floor aesthetics as heard through a horror flick, somewhat perfect considering the day. Come to think of it maybe it's the perfect late night burner for the evening, adding a bit of creeping dread into your step. The video by William Sabiston matches this atmosphere perfectly by taking it to some ghostly rave, whose strobe light is slower than if it it had a codeine drink earlier in the night. Great stuff really.

On a side note Pete Swanson will be performing at the next Last Nights show this Nov. 20th, where he will be collaborating with Brian Sullivan, who some may know as 1/2 of Mouthus and his more recent solo venture as United Waters. Their performance in my eyes can be seen two different ways. The first being an extension of the recent Pete Swanson / Mouthus / Golden Retriever show at Issue Project Room not too long back. While the second being the organic outgrowth due to Swanson's recent geographical relocation, resulting in two like minded and high profile noise denizens to meet for some collaborative get togethers.

Anyway the night will also see performances by Earn, Mirror To Mirror, & Civilian Device. It will be held at Shea Stadium, but there will be more info for all this later on. So until then...

ZZ TOP ---> Fandango --> Back Door Medley.


R.L. BURNSiDE - Coal Black Mattie - Live at a Como picnic


JAMES BLOOD ULMER w/ALLMAN BROTHERS - I Asked For Water - 3.16.2010

MiGHTY CLOUDS OF JOY - A Bright Side (sermonette)


Sun Foot - Soggy Moggy

It was a pleasant surprise for me to recently learn of this totally wacked out cassette from Sun Foot. The CS is titled Soggy Moggy, a totally fitting name in the end, and showcases some primo left coast weirdo business from Ron Burns, Brian Mumford, & artist Chris Johanson. I've known of Johanson and his visual art for some time now without knowing he was a musician of any kind. Hearing the sound contained on this release though I am somehow not surprised to hear that he is part of the action, and I believe the same can be said for at least a pocket of his fans also in the dark to his moonlighting activities.



Sun Foot establish a sound of warbled and rambling song structures, hints of exotica, and a first-take-best-take mentality. This all results in the chaotic and perhaps acid fried adventure that leaves you feeling strangely satisfied.

You can find a physical copy of the release and more from the delightfully obscure Musical Impressions.

Big Snow Buffalo Lodge - New Brooklyn Venue Space


Wow maybe we're a little late on this one, maybe just in the nick of time, but tonight Oct. 27th Big Snow Buffalo Lodge will be opening their doors to public for the first time. It's name aside (I'm told it's a Harry Nilson reference), the space has some exciting plans for the future.

Located on the edge of the Williamsburg/Bushwick neighborhoods at 89 Varet St. the space serves dual function of live music venue & recording studio, a multi-utility use that similar spaces have used such as Shea Stadium (not surprising as Big Snow is run by members of the Shea team). Combining DIY aesthetics with a voracious attitude towards booking performances the space already has some quality upcoming shows shows in the near future. This includes tonight's show that will feature performances by Pigeons, Lost Boy, The So So Glos, & Dustin Wong which showcases a nice batch of eclectic performances to kickstart the venue & weekend.

A full list of Big Snow Buffalo Lodge's future shows is listed at the spaces' tumblr here http://bigsnowbk.tumblr.com/



TERRAKAFT - Alghalem- Live





PURGATORY HiLL - iNViSiBLE PiSTOLS From the Forthcoming LOWEBOW FEST DVD

Purgatory Hill // Crackerswamp Productions - Home of The Lowebow Fest // Nobrow Productions -Creators of fine quality moving pictures for you and for me

RiCH HALL's THE DiRTY SOUTH. A BBC Documentary on Hollywood's Exploitation of The South



"Rich Hall sets his keen eye and acerbic wit on his homeland once again as he sifts truth from fiction in Hollywood's version of the southern states of the USA. Using specially shot interviews and featuring archive footage from classic movies such as Gone With The Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire and Deliverance, Rich discovers a South that is about so much more than just rednecks, racism and hillbillies."







Part 4, for some crazyass reason, is non-embeddable. 
Go here.









SACRED HARP of HOBOKEN - Short Emmy-winning doc on 150 years of Sacred Harp/Shape Note Singing in Hoboken

If you are interested in learning/hearing more about Sacred Harp/Shape note singing see my previous post HERE.






OTHAR TURNER and The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band w/LUTHER DiCKiNSON





ww2 Aircrew training - the eternal questions

The seventh entry in my father's wartime journal which suggests we need to put hope in God for answers to recover from the desperate situation of being at war. Previous posts include:

Entry 7 - January 20th

Living as we do, in these difficult times from day to day, it is exceedingly difficult to express concisely our more intimate thoughts on divine relations. There is also the feeling that our true spiritual development has been rudely interrupted by the shattering of our former environment. Nevertheless, in this undeveloped state we seem to be in closer contact with spiritual affairs.

Hitherto life in this emergency has been devoid of meaning and completely empty. Our spirit confined to the narrow realms of our body has no real outlet for expression. We all have high ideals, great ambitions, cherish beauty and dream of love, but our ideals are dissipated, our ambitions broken, beauty banished and dreams fade at dawn. This world is corrupt and lecherous, it destroys the most humble of our hopes and leaves us with nothing save the ashes of despair.

Thus frustrated, humiliated and disillusioned there is one only to whom we can turn and He is God. Perhaps man has flattered himself by imagining that he was made after God's own image. I have neither the desire or the requisite knowledge to even express an opinion, but I know that I have within me something that is immortal and gives me, as it does to everyone, my own individuality.

I hold no brief for any established form or creed of religion. Cant, hypocrisy and symbolism have destroyed the fundamental true beliefs and today there exists but an empty, hollow mockery of worship, the blind leading the blind. We need no advocate to plead our cause, we need no mediator to approach God for our very life, our existence is a living prayer and suppliant for help, guidance and assistance.

To those who may survive there is only one course open to them. That is, to supercede our present system by a scheme of things that will provide posterity, not only with material freedom and expression but spiritual expression as well. We are no longer fighting for our King, our country, our Empire or our capitalists, but we are fighting for a people, we are fighting for humanity. We are striving for spiritual expression. It is a fight to establish a basis for a new renaissance, a creation of an island of sanity, a rock on which we may build a new living edifice to honour God.

For us, however, there is nothing left to live for. We have given up our jobs, our homes, our freedom and now we are prepared to sacrifice even our lives in the sacred cause of humanity. So today I can view the machinations of my body with complete detachment. I can achieve nothing. Collectively and individually we are failures but there is still hope!

Tomorrow we live. Shedding this earthly shell which has surrounded, enmeshed and frustrated us, we shall survive and emerge into a sphere of happiness having, at last, attained our full individual, spiritual expression. For God shall wipe all tears from our eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor sadness, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things have passed away!

In the light of this, death can hold no terrors for us, it is our deliverance and the salvation of humanity. We know that whatever may mar our memory here it cannot sear our souls. There is no fear however much our bodies may wish to evade the issue. Tomorrow, we too, shall live.

Douglas George Banks 1920 – 1989 written in 1941

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MANCE LIPSCOMB TRiBUTE with SCOTT H BiRAM, WALTER DANiELS, MATT PURYEAR






GUADALUPE PLATA! NEW SiNGLE OUT NOW! FREE DOWNLOAD AT BANDCAMP!



Holy sweet Isla Mujeres! 
You now have a reason to live another day!

The great Guadalupe Plata have a new  single out and it's a free download from their Bandcamp page. 

 I've raved about these guys before, and their new single, Casino El Camino Parte 1 and Parte 2 is every bit as wicked as previous. 

Speaking of previous, you can still snag their two albums for free as well from their Bandcamp page. 

Go! Vamanos! Skedaddle! Git it!

By the way...check out these two videos which feature the music from the single!:



Guadalupe Plata - Casino El Camino (parte 2) from Toni Anguiano on Vimeo.







SCOTT H BiRAM - New Video of Scott's cover of Omie Wise

Scott Biram has a deep catalog to choose from but for some reason his cover of Omie Wise (the version from his Rehabilitation Blues ep)  has always moved me. If I had to pick my 3 favorite Biram songs this would be on the list. He's a little older now, his voice a little richer, and he does a beautiful job with the song. 

Scott H Biram's new album Bad Ingredients is out now and, like all his albums, it's a must own.





LEADBELLY and WOODY GUTHRiE: Live on WNYC - 1940



LEADBELLY and WOODY GUTHRiE: Live on WNYC - 1940 -Free mp3 HERE



JiM O'NEAL - Founder of Living Blues Magazine & Rooster Blues Records Has Cancer and No Insurance. Please Help!

Jim O'Neal (second from left) with Bobby Plant
Jim O'Neal, the founder of Living Blues Magazine and the late great Rooster Blues Records has been diagnosed with Lymph cancer and is currently undergoing treatment. Like so many in the music industry, and blues in particular, Mr. O'Neal does not have insurance. You can help Mr. O'Neal and his family by sending a donation and helping to spread the word. It's good karma, baby!

A fund has been set up at
Commerce Bank in Kansas City.

Checks may be sent to: 

Jim O'Neal Blues Fund,
P.O. Box 10334,
Kansas City, MO 64171.

You can also donate at www.paypal.com
to the account onealbluesfund@aol.com

Of course, musicians being who they are are always quick to help their own and a series of benefit shows are being arranged. If you live near any of these locations please show up for a night of great music for an even greater cause. The good that Jim O'Neal done for blues music and musicians can hardly be repaid. But here is your opportunity to try.

THE JIM O'NEAL BENEFIT CONCERT SERIES

OCT. 20, 2011
SURF CLUB, HYATTSVILLE, MARYLAND
With Memphis Gold and others

OCT. 28, 2011
KNUCKLEHEADS, KANSAS CITY, KANSAS Kenny Neal, Memphis Gold and others

NOV 19, 2011(date is tentative)
BUDDY GUY'S LEGENDS, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Kenny Neal, Memphis Gold, Eddie Clearwater, Eddie Shaw, Billy Branch, Elmore James Jr., Nora Jean Bruso and others

For further details and confirmations of time and artists, please check
www.Stackhouse-Bluesoterica.blogspot.com



Junior Kimbrough. Pop to his kid.

Beautiful photo of The master posted on Facebook
by his son, David Kimbrough Jr.


Peter Gabriel talks New Blood orchestra



Peter Gabriel gives an overview of his recently released orchestral project, New Blood, and gives insight into the extensive creative process involved. I was privileged to attend the Hammersmith Apollo for the recording of the DVD, which I reviewed here. Have only been able to listen the previews because the deluxe edition I've ordered includes the DVD which has a release date of 24th October whilst the CD came out on 10th October - the extra wait is proving a tad trying...

P

MV & EE - April Flower Tour Boxset

MV & EE have announced the release of their newest boxset the April Flower Tour. For those not familiar with the duo's penchant for live tour anthologies (such as the No Floor Tour or Road Trips) this is an event that is usually immediately exciting or at the least a curious venture. This one is released in a more personal homegrown fashion, being released on the duo's imprint Heroine. To get all biases out in the open, two of the eight discs contained in this release were organized by Last Nights, though to these eyes that just makes the release all th sweeter.

Clip of MV / EE / Flower at Death by Audio disc 5 on April Flower Tour

The April Flower Tour box contains jams that see Matt & Erika joined by some rad folks during their time on the road. First and foremost the addition of Mick Flower (of UK underground legends Vibracathedral Orchestra and his own solo material) and transformation into a trio sees the group able to open up and improvise within the compositions. This form of improv is no small deed coming from these folks as each have spent their careers exploring such avenues. Some shows also see the contributions from Woods main man Jeremy Earl, underground's favorite avant-percussion darling Chris Corsano, and two usual suspects to the MV & EE scene Harmonica Dan & Willie Lane.

Clip of MV / EE / Flower at SUNY Purchase disc 4 on April Flower Tour

April Flower Tour is available now straight from the source from Matt & Erika's Heroine imprint now. Also be sure to check out the Last Nights hosted MV & EE show Monday November, 21st in Brooklyn, NY at Death By Audio with Images. It's sure to be one for "the tapers pit".


Jovontaes - Falcon


So I thought this post was going to be a way late, but as fate has had it Jovontaes saw their debut LP Things Are Different Here released yesterday. If the video for lead track "Falcon" (above) offers anything it's a nice glimpse into these dudes sun soaked world of the super laid back atmospheres and equally chilled jams. The press release and video (the dudes are pretty much cruising around town the whole time) make use of the group's skateboard culture ties and for good reason. I'm pretty sure this track would fit on (that is if it hasn't been already) any skate video. Mix together a propulsive kraut groove, a nicely rolled smoke, & some skate rats and you have Jovontaes. Try it it's pretty much as fun as it sounds.

Things Are Different Here was released yesterday via new(ish) Woodsist subsidiary Hello Sunshine.

ww2 training 1941 - what is the meaning of life?

 
The fifth entry in my father's wartime journal which questions our very existence. Previous posts include:
Entry 5 - January 12th

After a very enjoyable weekend in Oxford we have returned to service life. A thought left undeveloped or expanded in the streets of Oxford has recurred, it is namely, what are human beings, what is the reason for their existence? What is the meaning of life?

It seems a very empty and worthless existence to plod wearily through this scheme of things, in our allotted places, for nearly seventy years and then finish. Why should men have ambition? What is power worth? Which, when obtained, has to be left after our short course has been run. Why should we have evolved throughout aeons of time a complicated and intricate system of legislative and executive government and now arrived no nearer the seat of universal happiness?

Why do we live? If it is that we are here to prepare ourselves for an eternity with or without God, why do we trouble to procreate our species? Is there any value to life? It is an involved and colossal question. It involves, perhaps, the admission that up to the present time the whole human race can be accounted as a drastic and unfortunate failure and, in our past and in our future, if the present state of affairs is allowed to continue, there is not one ray of hope or illuminated feature that has, in any way, ameliorated or alleviated the race as an indivisible whole.

But, if other men have failed, why should we? Standing as we do on the brink of the dark abyss of annihilation, it is up to us to, at least, attempt to formulate some sound theory as to the purpose of live and to achieve a basis whereby we can conform to those standards of life.

It would appear, to a reasoning man, that the purpose of life would be to achieve happiness. Happiness, however, is a very loose term. Happiness, perhaps, might be found more often in a garret than in a palace and yet I doubt whether we can achieve universal happiness by getting everyone in a garret.

What, then, does happiness consist of? Man's life probably falls into three spheres: his work, his leisure and his pro-generation. Firstly, therefore, man must be allowed full expression of his genius, or talents, in whatever direction his genius, or talent, tends to take. Secondly his leisure, or recreation, must be considered; artistically, spiritually and physically. He must be allowed sufficient time to devote to his leisure and given the capability for full, fundamental enjoyment. Thirdly comes his family responsibilities, to which, naturally enough, a certain amount of time has to be devoted.

Superficially it might appear that these spheres are, largely and to a greater extent, dovetailed together. Nowadays, or even in the past, it would appear that a young man's leisure is almost wholeheartedly taken up in the process of biological selection. Admittedly it is so but only from a sense of frustration and the attempt to kill two birds with one stone.

I prefer to face facts and from them I draw these inexorable conclusions which are: that man's life today has to be fundamentally re-organised and subdivided so that the full amount of true happiness can be obtained, symbolical to Adam Smith's avocation of the division of labour being the means of obtaining wealth.

Thus having shaped in our mind the purpose of life and generalised on the means to achieve how are we to bring them into effect? And when they are brought to pass, what is the sum total of our achievement?

Douglas George Banks 1920 – 1989 written in 1941

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No Neck Blues Band - YTIU




For those of us out there patiently awaiting the next No Neck Blues Band LP the wait is over. Judging by the excerpt the new LP, YTIU, sees the group working comfortably within their particular brand of improv-composition that has defined the group's sound since their inception. The track is propelled by a loose pulse surrounded by wandering guitar lines bubbling in and out, with the chatter of hand percussion & synth waves gently wash over everything.

The album is being released by Kelippah, whose proprietor Pat Murano is a NNCK member himself, along with being one-half of Keys of Shame alongside Mark Morgan (of Sightings), and solo material as Decimus.

C.W. AYON - Music Of The Delta Played From The Desert


New Mexico's C.W. Ayon is a One-Man Band who is AKA the drummer for that Texas outfit Old Gray Mule.

He's got a great new album out called Ain't No Use In Moving. Ayon is a fine songwriter with a soulful voice that recalls the Black Crowes Chris Robinson, and a slide style that'd make any North Mississippi Mama proud. All the songs on the album are original except for a cool take on Junior Kimbrough's Feel So Bad.

He has a groove on bass drum and foot-operated snare so deep that it almost falls out of the pocket, yet at times is akin to a heartbeat. He doesn't let the fact that he's a one-man band particularly show or get in the way, and he shouldn't. He runs a great balance of solid, muscular riffs with a sexy, vigorous, and dextrous delivery. 

Somebody needs to pony up and get this kid a smart, sympathetic, recording engineer for his next album and let him run bad and nationwide. Dude's capable. Let's move.

C.W. gave me permission to post one song from each album but i'm posting two because y'all need to know.

C.W. Ayon - Ain't No Use In Moving - Walkin'- mp3
C.W. Ayon - Ain't No Use In Moving - You Make Me Feel Good - mp3
C.W. Ayon - Is What It Is - Things You Do - mp3
C.W. Ayon - Is What It Is - Call My Name - mp3
C.W. Ayon - Gone - Women - mp3
C.W. Ayon - Gone - Moan Song - mp3








LONNiE PiTCHFORD's Perfectly Unique Gravestone.

Via the wonderful Ukeleleist Shelly Rickey


Lonnie Pitchford (October 8, 1955 – November 8, 1998) was an American blues musician and instrument maker from Lexington, Mississippi. He was notable in that he was one of only a handful of young African American musicians from Mississippi who had learned and was continuing the Delta blues and country blues traditions of the older generations.

In addition to the acoustic and electric guitar, Pitchford was also skilled at the one-string guitar and diddley bow, a one-string instrument of African origin.

If you look closely at the picture you will see a Diddley Bow permantly mounted to the right-hand side of his gravestone.

In this wonderful documentary by Alan Lomax called 'The Land Where The Blues Began' you can see and hear Lonnie Pitchford demonstrating his amazing technique on the Diddley Bow beginning at 3:58.





SCOTT H BiRAM - I WANT MY MOJO BACK - New Video from the New Album Bad Ingredients


Steve Jobs - just one more thing...


The genius of simplicity. Graphic created by Jonathan Mak Long, a 19-year-old designer living in Hong Kong, found right here. Thoughts and prayers for his very private family and close friends...

YouTube video of Steve Jobs' inspirational speech to Stanford University graduates in 2005.

Apple's own tribute.

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OLD GRAY MULE - A Day In Mississippi, A Night In Texas

@ Facebook // G+ // OnLine // Twitter // Free mp3

"I pledge allegiance to the Groove, the whole Groove and nothing but the Groove, so help me R.L., T-Model, and Junior. Amen." - Old Gray Mule guitarist C.R. Humphrey

That other little ol' band from Texas, Old Gray Mule has whipped up a sweet new disc of odds, sods, seeds and dirty ends for their trip down under this month.  

Comprised of ten tracks, including live recordings from their annual Junior Kimbrough Birthday Party, and four tracks with Mississippi's legendary Bill Abel, who has played guitar for Paul Wine Jones, Big George Brock, T-Model Ford, and others. 

This tough lil' set will be available stateside at OGM gigs or you can give Charlie a holler when they get back home. You can also send yr digits to OZ and get the good folks at  Stobie Sound to send you a copy. 
Physical only. 
No Downloads. 
As it oughta be. 

Old Gray Mule just straight get it

They feel the humid North Mississippi vibe, shake it and push it thru their own hand-hammered and home-made south central Texas sieve, leaving in the gravel, grit, and groove. What else do y'all need?





MELiSSA SWiNGLE (Trailer Bride, The Moaners) & Laura King (The Moaners, Grand National) Talk about Hasil Adkins

Clip from the forthcoming Hasil Adkins documentary My Blue Star: