Joe Ely with the Boss in Dublin

September 3rd, 2006 by Pete

This would make a great St. Patrick’s day post, but it’s only September, and I’m way too impatient to sit on this show for too long. The date is St. Patty’s Day 1996. The location is Dublin, Ireland. Joe Ely and Bruce Springsteen both find themselves overseas on their latest tours (Joe for Letter to Laredo, Bruce for The Ghost of Tom Joad).

It was the last night of Joe’s tour, playing in front of a raucous Dublin crowd. And lo and behold, who’s in the house but his friend Bruce, who comes on stage to join Joe for a handful of the last few songs of the evening. I’d call this a pretty decent way to celebrate a St. Patty’s Day…

By the way, I’m curious, does any Bruce / Ely aficionado out there know how far back Springsteen and Ely go, where / how they met, etc.?

Joe Ely
March 17, 1996
Dublin, Ireland
w/ special guest Bruce Springsteen

Gallo Del Cielo
Ranches & Rivers
Spanish Love Scene
Rode Goes On Forever
Boxcars
Saint Valentine
I Saw It In You
Run Preciosa (fades out)
Bluebird
Letter To Laredo
Gangster Of Love (Sung by lead guitarist Jesse Taylor, RIP 1950-2006)
Me & Billy The Kid
Road Hog
BBQ & Foam
All Just To Get To You *
Oh Boy *
Settle For Love *
1000 Miles From Home
My Eyes Got Lucky
Fingernails Medley *
Blowin’ Down The Road *

* with Bruce Springsteen

Posted in Blues, Country Rock, Roots Rock | 5 Comments »

How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

August 29th, 2006 by Pete

This song was written in 1929 by one Blind Alfred Reed. I became familiar with the song through Bruce’s Seeger Sessions tour. I happened across this video tonight (thru a post on Crooks and Liars). It’s Ry Cooder performing the song in a 1987 concert in Santa Cruz, CA. It’s a completely different arrangement from Bruce’s, slowed down considerably, with excellent slide guitar courtesy of Ry. Like I say to myself every darn time I hear something by Ry Cooder, I really need to do myself a favor and buy every last thing the man has done.

On the anniversary of Katrina, I think this fits right in with the theme… Oh, and that’s Flaco Jimenez there on accordion.

Posted in Blues, Video | 1 Comment »

Woes is Me

July 10th, 2006 by Pete

Led by singer, songwriter, and banjoman extraordinaire Osei Essed, the Woes have been a staple of the NYC music scene since they formed in 2002. Described by Essed as “post-apocalyptic traditional music”, the Woes employ a number of unique instruments to lay down their brand of folk / blues: banjo, banjo-mandolin, french horn, accordion, melodica, and Fender Rhodes keyboard, among others.

So the instrumentation alone is a reason to dig their tunes. But it’s Osei’s voice - low, guttural, heartfelt and pure - that really pulls me in. Listen to this song for a taste. It’s available as a free mp3 download on the Woes official site. They have some other songs streaming on their site as well. I recommend “That’s All, Good Night”. You can also check out their MySpace site here. MySpace: for bands, teens, and the Dateline NBC-featured perverts who chase them.

The Woes: The Best is Yet to Come (mp3) - from their latest release, That Coke Oven March (available on their site here).

Posted in Blues, Folk | 2 Comments »

Chris Whitley and the Bastard Club

July 1st, 2006 by Pete

Last July, my brother and I headed up to the Rhythm Room in Phoenix to see Chris Whitley. As I wrote not soon after, it was very sad to watch. Chris was part wasted, exhausted, emotional, and enraged. It was ugly to see. The show ended after a handful of songs, with Whitley being helped off the stage. Four short months later, he was dead of lung cancer. It’s impossible to speculate what was going through his head that night I saw him, so I won’t.

What we do have left is the music. Earlier this year, the Red Parlor label released ‘Reiter In’ by Chris Whitley & the Bastard Club. The entire album was recorded in the first few days of June 2005 (just a month before I saw him), with Chris being joined by a bunch of his friends in a NYC studio. I haven’t had a chance to hear the whole album yet, but I have heard this one tune, and I’m drawn more and more to it each time I hear it. It’s hypnotic, shuffling, dirty blues. Harmonica, fiddle, snare & cymbal, and Whitley’s signature National Steel bottleneck guitar. Chris’s vocals are sparse but still powerful.

Chris Whitley & the Bastard Club: All the Beauty Taken from You in This Life Remains Forever (mp3)

• Buy ‘Reiter In’.
• Chris Whitley’s Official Web Site

I’m off to eMusic to pick up some more tracks off this album. Other songs include covers of Iggy Pop’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, the Flaming Lips “Mountain Side”, and Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric”.

Posted in Blues, Roots Rock | No Comments »

Prince at 48

June 7th, 2006 by Pete

June 7th marks the big 4-8 for Prince. Let’s listen to some guitar work, shall we? It seems like Prince always surprises people when he tears it up on the guitar. Remember the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame ceremony a few years back? Prince came out to solo on the all-star performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, and stole the show. I remember Tom Petty looking over in amazement. SNL’s “Fury” performance a few months back is another example. I guess people forget about his talent on the guitar, and need to be reminded every now and then.

‘The Undertaker’ definitely showcases his guitar skills. According to Wikipedia, “Prince originally intended to give this live CD away free with 1,000 copies of Guitar Player Magazine in 1994, but he was told by Warner Brothers Records that he couldn’t. Some rare copies were leaked and heavily bootlegged.” Whether this is true or not, who knows. But it never found its way on to store shelves (to my knowledge). So take a listen to a few of these live tracks… the ten minute blues jam that is “The Ride”, the driving rock guitar of “Bambi” (originally released on 1979’s ‘Prince’), and the bass-driven dark funk of “The Undertaker” (with some killer guitar effects, and a blistering solo six minutes in).

Prince: The Ride (mp3) | Bambi (mp3) | The Undertaker (mp3)

Now go make the birthday boy happy and visit his web site to snatch up all the music you don’t have.

HABOOB!

I have to pass along a photo of the Great Haboob of 6-6-06. Living in the Arizona desert, we miss a lot of the weather phenomena you see in other parts of the world (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.). But haboobs? Oh we’ve got your haboobs. A haboob is basically a very tall wall of dust that crawls along the desert floor, reducing visibility, coating everything in dirt. It’s usually followed up by a little rain, but not last night (at least where I was). Yeah, we get a little excited about weather around here.

Posted in Blues, Funk, Prince, Rock | 3 Comments »

Shake 4 Eddie Turner

January 6th, 2006 by Pete

Eddie Turner is a Colorado-based blues guitarist who I first heard & saw at the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival last summer. I really enjoyed the whole vibe he, his band, and his music emitted. The whole set is available on his web site’s music page. I recommend checking out some of those tunes.

Here’s a sneak peek of a tune from his forthcoming CD, ‘The Turner Diaries’. With a cool guitar riff steering it, this is a really infectious and seductive tune.

Eddie Turner: Shake 4 Me (mp3)

• Buy Eddie’s CD, ‘Shine’
• Eddie’s Official Site
• Factoid: Eddie’s bass player, Kenny Passarelli, has played bass for Elton John, Hall & Oates, and Joe Walsh, among many others. He shares a writing credit on “Rocky Mountain Way”.

Posted in Blues | No Comments »

RIP Chris Whitley

November 22nd, 2005 by Pete

Sad news. Chris Whitley has succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 45 [Yahoo News Story].

My brother and I went to see him over the summer here in Phoenix. It was the first show of his tour, he had just flown over from Germany, and what we witnessed was profoundly sad. The show cut off after around 5 songs after what we thought was substance related behavior (crying, falling off his stool, cursing, and basically saying he didn’t give a shit about anything). Whatever the reason, it was sad to see.

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Chris’ work through the years, but I do love his debut album, ‘Living with the Law’ (1991). So in memory of Chris, here are a couple of my favorites.

Chris Whitley: Living with the Law (mp3)
Chris Whitley: I Forget You Every Day (mp3)

Chris Whitley Official Web Site.
Buy Chris’ music.

Posted in Blues, Roots Rock | 1 Comment »

Monday at the Movies

October 3rd, 2005 by Pete

Been in the blues frame of mind of late. So out came the soundtrack to the movie ‘Rush’, put together by one Eric Clapton. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first release that “Tears in Heaven” was released on. On the 2nd to last track of the soundtrack, Buddy Guy joins in and belts out the Al Perkins / Willie Dixon tune “Don’t Know Which Way to Go”.

It’s classic, vintage, down home, slap yo booty and call me in the morning b-l-u-e-s, baby. Check out Buddy’s wails of desparation in his singing. Especially his opening verse a minute & a quarter into it. “Think I’m leaaavin’ in the morning…” Oh lawd.

Buddy Guy & Eric Clapton: Don’t Know Which Way to Go (mp3)

• Check out the Rush soundtrack.

Posted in Blues | 1 Comment »

Devil Boy in Telluride

September 21st, 2005 by Pete

There’s been a brief hiatus here on IckMusic thanks to a long overdue vacation. The fam and I headed up to Telluride, Colorado to visit the folks and check out the 12th annual Blues & Brews Festival - 3 days of fun in the sun featuring good music and some fine brews. As you can gather from the pics, Telluride is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Highlights for me musically: Henry Butler and his Game Band’s great version of Professor Longhair’s “Go to the Mardi Gras”; Chris Thomas King; Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers version of “Jambalaya” / “Iko Iko”; the Black Crowes; the Subdudes; and the biggest surprise for me: Eddie Turner’s set [now available on his web site].

Eddie - aka Devil Boy - is a killer guitarist from Colorado. The man can flat out play. He brings a wild psychedelic funkiness to his guitar playing; definitely someone whose studio work doesn’t do him justice. I was blown away, and headed over to the ol’ merchandise tent to buy his CD, ‘Rise’ [Buy].

So here’s an in-studio version of Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Gangster of Love”, live from Denver’s KUVO.

Eddie Turner: Gangster of Love (mp3)

Update: Eddie sent me an email, and lo and behold, his set from the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival has been graciously added to Eddie’s Official web site! As he says on his site: “download these tracks, listen to them, share them, give them away to your friends!”

Self Portrait:

Posted in Blues | 4 Comments »

Baton Rouge Blues

September 7th, 2005 by Pete

Next week’s going to be good. I’ll be checking out the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. The blues, cold beer, and Telluride, Colorado: what a combination! An interesting sub-plot to the weekend will be that at least a half dozen of the performers are from southern Louisiana: Henry Butler, the Subdudes, Sonny Landreth, Eric Lindell, Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, and today’s feature, Chris Thomas King. What they all may be going through individually, I would have no idea. If they don’t show, it’s perfectly understandable. But the selfish music freak in me hopes they do show, as I’m sure it will be a very intense and heartfelt experience, and great therapy for all parties involved I would think.

Chris grew up in Baton Rouge. His dad, Rockin’ Tabby Thomas (I want a cool nickname like that), owned a popular blues club called Tabby’s Blues Box. This is where Chris spent a lot of time soaking up the blues directly from the masters. Apart from playing several instruments, Chris is also an actor. His debut was in O Brother Where Art Thou in the role of Tommy Johnson.

This tune showcases Chris’ grasp of the blues in the digital age.

Chris Thomas King: Ghetto Life (mp3)

• Chris’s Official Site
• Buy Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues

Posted in Blues | No Comments »