• Folk

    Bruce Tour Debut: Ramrod

    bruce in milan

    From May 12th in Milan, Italy, here’s the Seeger Sessions debut of “Ramrod” (original version found on ‘The River‘). You should be able to hear the music through the screams and singing of many many loud Italians. So yeah, the quality aint great, but it’s still fun to hear. The vino was flowing May 12th in Milan….

    Bruce Springsteen & TSSB: Ramrod (mp3) – live 05/12/2006 Milano

  • Acoustic

    Grandaddy at Good Records

    Jason Lytle at Good Records

    Last Tuesday, the great Modesto, Calif. band Grandaddy released their final album, ‘Just Like the Fambly Cat‘. I first discovered Grandaddy when I heard ‘The Sophtware Slump‘ in 2000, a collection of dreamy, gentle, electro-space-pop with awesome songs (and song titles) like “Broken Household Appliance National Forest”, “Jed The Humanoid”, “Chartsengrafs”, and “The Crystal Lake”.

    So last Tuesday, singer/guitarist/keyboardman Jason Lytle and drummer Aaron Burtch got together at Good Records in Dallas for a full set of Grandaddy acoustic goodness.

    Jason Lytle & Aaron Burtch (from Grandaddy)
    May 9th, 2006
    Good Records, Dallas, Texas

    [Buy some Grandaddy music]

    1. intro
    2. The Go In The Go-For-It
    3. Jed the Humanoid
    4. Summer Here Kids
    5. XD-Data II
    6. Go Progress Chrome
    7. Laughing Stock
    8. Summer…Its Gone
    9. Hewlett’s Daughter
    10. Protected from the Rain
    11. Today I Started Loving You Again (Merle Haggard cover)
    12. Disconnecty
    13. Chartsengrafs
    14. Jeez Louise
    15. Sarah 5646766
    16. Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)
    17. Fare Thee Not Well Mutineer
    18. El Caminos in the West
    19. Dreaming My Dreams With You (Waylon Jennings cover)
    20. Miner at the Dial-a-View
    21. Elevate Myself
    22. The Crystal Lake
    23. Aisle Seat 37-D
    24. Jason speaking
    25. Nothing Big
    26. Levitz
  • Folk

    Bruce Tour Debut: BRING THEM HOME!!!

    Three nights ago in Paris, Bruce debuted this Pete Seeger tune, Pete’s anti-Vietnam song, Bring Them Home (If You Love Uncle Sam).

    Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band: Bring Them Home (If You Love Uncle Sam) [mp3] – May 10th 2006, Palais Omnisports Bercy, Paris, France

  • Acoustic,  Laid Back

    The Sweet Voice of Jimmie Dale Gilmore

    jdg

    Man, after my recent spate of posting entire shows, it feels funny to focus on one song again. This has to be posted though. You all know how it is having a song stuck in your head. You fathers and mothers out there know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night with “Wags the Dog, He Likes to Tango” from the Wiggles, or the Blues Clues Theme song, or “I’m Hungry, I’m Hungry” from Breakfast with Bear. So it’s always welcome relief when it’s a good song that you actually like that’s stuck in your head. For the last couple days, it’s been this Jimmie Dale Gilmore song rolling around in my head.

    I would consider Jimmie Dale Gilmore an acquired taste. His singing voice can best be described as a tremolo-filled Texas warble. He can take some getting used to. But hearing this song drew me in the first time. It’s a bittersweet acoustic masterpiece with a tale of love lost.

    I have my old friend Mark to thank for putting this on a mix tape long ago (along with my first taste of Townes Van Zandt and Uncle Tupelo). These days, Mark runs a great cafe near Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he hosts some great jazz musicians and roasts his own coffee. I would recommend checking out Luna Cafe, and buying some of his coffee online. Just try it once, and you’ll come back for more, I guarantee you.

    Jimmie Dale Gilmore:
    Tonight I Thing I’m Gonna Go Downtown (mp3) – from After Awhile

  • Folk

    Hootenanny in Hammersmith

    from yahoo

    For those like me that need an updated live Bruce fix on a regular basis, here’s the Boss and the Seeger Sessions Band from Saturday night (May 6) in London. It was Bruce’s first appearance at the Hammersmith Odeon (renamed the Apollo) since the 1975 concert that showed up on the 30th anniversary Born to Run box set. I’ve been on the lookout for the New Orleans Jazz Fest performance (anyone?), but this one popped up on my radar first. It’s an audience recording from the front of the stage-right speaker stack. The quality isn’t fantastic, but we beggars can’t be choosers, can we?

    Note: if you’d like Bruce-related posts sent to your inbox, send me your email address and I’ll add you to the list (which I also do for Prince – I know, makes perfect sense). Don’t worry, your email address is safe with me. I am not nor will I ever be affiliated with the evil dolts who flood me with spam.

    Regarding the tour, I bought General Admission floor seats for the Glendale Arena show on June 3. I’m trying to determine if there are going to be seats down there on the floor, or whether we’ll all be standing (or both). I promised my wife there are seats down there. I hope I’m right. Uh-oh.

    Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band
    {Buy ‘We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions’}
    May 6, 2006
    Hammersmith Apollo
    London
    {Read a review of the show from London’s Evening Standard}

    1. Intro
    2. Oh Mary Don’t You Weep
    3. John Henry
    4. Johnny 99
    5. Old Dan Tucker
    6. Eyes on the Prize
    7. Jesse James
    8. Cadillac Ranch / Mystery Train
    9. Long Black Veil
    10. Erie Canal
    11. My Oklahoma Home
    12. How Can I Keep from Singing
    13. Mrs. McGrath
    14. Intro
    15. How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
    16. Jacob’s Ladder
    17. We Shall Overcome
    18. Open All Night
    19. Pay Me My Money Down
    20. My City of Ruins
    21. Buffalo Gals
    22. You Can Look (But You Better not Touch)
    23. When the Saints Go Marching In
  • Rock

    Keith Keith in the Coconut Tree

    keith

    Oh Keith, what are we gonna do with you, man? I guess you’ve been unpleasantly reminded that – as immortal as you have proven to be – you’re no spring chicken any more. You’re 62 years old now. You can still rock out on stage my friend, but you, as a 62 year old man, should probably not be climbing palm trees to loosen the coconuts, and you should probably lay off the jet skis. Sure, 60 is the new 40, but pal, that doesn’t apply to you.

    That being said, I’m glad you’re going to be okay. It’s been a rough few weeks. Why not take what you will away from this experience and go back in the studio for another solo album? We haven’t had one from you since 1992 when you released ‘Main Offender‘, a great, raw, rootsy rock & reggae album; much like your 1988 solo debut, ‘Talk is Cheap‘.

    I think you need to be cheered up, Keith. Listen to this 1993 show from your ‘Main Offender’ tour. Take it in… get well, and EASY DOES IT!

    Keith Richards
    Live from the 1993 Tour – “The Vampire Strikes Back”

    Download ZIP (mp3)

    1. 999
    2. Wicked as it Seems
    3. Eileen
    4. Yap Yap
    5. Body Talk
    6. Hate it when you Leave
    7. Will But You Won’t
    8. Demon
    9. Before They Make me Run
    10. Happy
    11. Gimme Shelter
    12. Time is on my Side
  • Miscellaneous

    Odds and Ends

    • Silence is a Rhythm Too recently reminded me that the new and final Grandaddy album is due for release on Tuesday, May 9th. Check out an mp3 and video here.
    • San Diego Serenade has a fun post about a recent foray into not so great Frank Sinatra songs. Go check it out here.
    • To get completely lost in a cool online radio station of old, new, obscure funk, soul, jazz, etc., check out Etherbeat. I recommend their Podcast too.
    • New Q-Tip mp3’s are available over at One Soulful Negro.
  • Funk,  Prince,  Rock

    Prince does America, Girl

    America

    Reaching back into the Prince 12″ extended version archives, by request, it’s the 20 minute – yes, 20 minute – version of “America”. Rockin’ and funkin’ and whatnot. And a bonus too.. oh yes… the B side to “America”, the extended version of “Girl”, a glimpse into the lil’ Purple one’s erotic zone before he found Jehovah.

    Prince: America (mp3) – extended 12″
    Prince: Girl (mp3) – extended 12″

    Original version of “America” found on ‘Around the World in a Day‘ (1985).

  • Jazz

    The Miles Davis Quintet take Berlin

    Miles Davis

    Picture yourself in Berlin in the year 1967. You step from the chill of an early November night into the Berliner Philharmonie, a beautiful, modern concert hall built just a few years earlier.

    Berliner Philaharmonie

    You take your seat and the house lights go dim. The spotlight hits the stage. Tony Williams takes a seat at his drum kit; Ron Carter picks up his bass; Herbie Hancock sits down at his piano; Wayne Shorter appears with his tenor sax; and out shuffles Miles with his trumpet, a vision of undisputable cool.

    Miles Davis Quintet

    I mean, does it get any better than this? What really blows my mind with this performance is that every member just shines; all five are given the spotlight, and all five do not waste a moment. Not really surprising, given that the five are huge legends in jazz… Some of my favorite moments here are listening to the percussion of Tony Williams. That man can bang them sticks in ways you’ve never heard.

    Miles Davis Quintet
    Live at the Berlin Philharmonie
    4 November 1967

    Miles Davis: trumpet
    Wayne Shorter: tenor saxophone
    Herbie Hancock: piano
    Ron Carter: bass
    Tony Williams: drums

    1. Agitation
    2. Footprints
    3. ‘Round Midnight
    4. No Blues
    5. Masqualero

    Bonus: Douglas over at Crossword Bebop (cool name!) has a video performance of “Footprints” up on his site ; also from Germany, 1967.

    Buy The Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68: The Complete Columbia Studio

    Miles Davis Quintet box set

  • Rock

    Marah Video: This Time

    Another one for the Marah fans out there (present and future) …this time it’s “This Time”, one of my favorite tracks (and the “hidden”track) from their latest, If You Didn’t Laugh You’d Cry. This is live at the Abbey Pub in Chicago, Feb. 17th, 2006. Once again, thanks to Zack for the footage.