It's Difficult to Believe That Umphrey's Mcgee, the Unique Jam Band
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Mark’s Music Notes for November… It is difficult to believe that Umphrey’s McGee, the unique jam band formed at the University of Notre Dame, has been around for 14 years. Their new album Death By Stereo is their most song oriented and consistent effort yet, and solidifies them as a great recording band in addition to their status as a legendary live band. Howlin’ Wolf was one of the most popular and influential blues artists of all time. The Hip-O-Select label has recently issued a limited edition (to 5000) four CD set of Howlin’ Wolf’s Chess material covering the years 1951-1960, and it is a must-buy for Howlin’ Wolf fans. Young Memphis band The Dirty Streets puts their own spin on classic style rock with a shot of Memphis soul. They have just released their excellent second album entitled Movements. Mott The Hoople was a 70’s band that is best known for their glam rock hit All The Young Dudes, but there was a lot more to the band than that one song. At least two of their albums are essential listening for classic rock fans. Umphrey’s McGee – Death By Stereo Chicago band Umphrey’s McGee (the name is a play on the name of a distant relative of one of the band’s members) is lumped into the same jam band category as Phish, Widespread Panic and The Greatful Dead. While Umphrey’s McGee does possess the improvisational skills, utilize the constantly changing set lists and approve open live taping policies that these other bands are known for, their music is considerably different. Umphrey’s McGee draws from a wider base of influences, incorporating a large amount of Yes and King Crimson style progressive rock into their sound. There is the blues element that prevails in the other jam bands’ sound, but Umphrey’s McGee gets into some harder rocking territories as well as a healthy dose of funk and even a little bit of jazz. Umphrey’s McGee has a well-earned, great live reputation, and their studio albums have all been good as well. It is difficult to translate the long improvisational jams that they are known for playing live to recording in a studio setting, however. Death By Stereo is more focused on the songs than the jamming aspects of the band’s live shows. This concentration and focus results in what may be the bands’ best studio album. It definitely includes their best recorded vocals to date. The only down side to the more focused songs is that there are perhaps too few guitar solos to satisfy some fans. The album is good enough, however, that even as a bonafide guitar fanatic, it took several listens before l picked up on the fewer guitar solo trend of this album. Death By Stereo will especially appeal to progressive rock fans, jam band fans, and classic rock fans, and it is Umphrey’s McGee’s most accessible album so far, making it a great place to start listening to the band if one hasn’t already. It is available on CD, download (which includes two bonus tracks) and vinyl LP (which includes the same two bonus tracks from the download version, along with a third bonus track). Howlin’ Wolf – Howling Wolf Sings The Blues & Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin’ Wolf (6/10/10-1/10/76), was born in White Station, MS, near West Point, where his Mississippi Blues Trail Marker is located. He learned to play guitar from Delta bluesman Charley Patton and toured the south as a solo blues singer during the 1930’s. His family moved to West Memphis, AR in 1941, and Howlin’ Wolf moved there as well, working on his father’s farm while still maintaining his blues career. Sam Phillips, owner of Memphis Recording Service (later re- named Sun), discovered the Wolf playing on KWEM radio station in West Memphis, and began recording him in 1951. The recordings were leased to both RPM and Chess Records, resulting in a battle between the two labels to sign Howlin’ Wolf. Chess eventually won out, and Howlin’ Wolf moved to Chicago in 1953 and became, along with Muddy Waters, one of two the most popular Chicago bluesmen of all time. Howlin’ Wolf was a huge man at six and a half feet fall and three hundred pounds of joy, as he so eloquently put it. His signature growling voice was truly unique, and his band was always top notch, incorporating some of the earliest distorted electric guitar to ever be recorded. Matt “Guitar” Murphy, later of the Blues Brothers Band, was one of Howlin’ Wolf’s early guitarists, and he taught Wolf proper timing, which was the weakness in his playing. Murphy left to become a member of Little Junior Parker’s Blue Flames. One of Howlin’ Wolf’s first excellent recording guitarists, Willie Johnson, did not make the move with him to Chicago, and he was replaced by the great Hubert Sumlin, who, at 79 years old, still records and tours today. UK label Ace Records remastered the RPM album Howling Wolf Sings The Blues and re-released it in 2004 with 11 bonus tracks, encompassing all of the material recorded for RPM. This CD made a great companion to the Howlin’ Wolf Chess Box and the two excellent Memphis Days CDs from the German Bear Family label, all released in the 1990’s. The album cover for Sings The Blues is hilarious, looking more like a 50’s teenybopper cover than anything. There is no way that one would be able to know from looking at the cover that inside is some of the rawest blues ever recorded! It has dirty guitars and a downright sinister sound that arguably had never made it to record before this was recorded. It is one of the best blues albums ever, and it was recorded right here in Memphis. Ike Turner played piano on it and assisted Sam Phillips with the production. It is a must have for any serious blues collection, even if that collection includes every Howlin’ Wolf song that came out on Chess Records. Chess Records is where Howlin’ Wolf’s hits came from. While the Chess Box is an excellent set that will satisfy casual fans, there is so much more good material on the Chess label, that the new Smokestack Lightning four CD collection, covering all of the Chess music from Howlin’ Wolf from 1951-1960, is a welcome release to blues fans. There are 97 tracks on this box, and they are all great! This box was going to be included in the December Music Notes, but due to the set being limited to 5000 copies and the fact that the Hip-O-Select Muddy Waters and Little Walter limited sets that preceded it have both sold out, I decided to bump it up to the November issue. The sound quality on the box is outstanding, and the set comes in a nice 7” x 7” hardcover bound book reminiscent of the albums that 78 rpm records used to come in (this is where the term album that is commonly applied to recordings comes from). It has well written, but not overwhelmingly long, liner notes and period photos inside the album. It is interesting to note that of all of the artists that Sam Phillips recorded, Howlin’ Wolf was his favorite. This is especially impressive given that Phillips recorded Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and an entire bevy of additional rockabilly and blues musicians that are lesser known, but were in the same league as the bigger stars when it came to quality musicianship. Howlin’ Wolf was a huge influence on countless rock and blues artists. The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin are just some of the artists that recorded his songs. Howlin’ Wolf was a great manager of his money and was never down and out as most of the bluesmen of his era were at one time or another (or most of the time in some cases). With the increased success that came his way when rock bands brought him an entirely new audience in the 1960’s, Howlin’ Wolf offered his band benefits such as health insurance, an extreme rarity for blues musicians in the 1960’s. In 1970, Howlin’ Wolf was in a car wreck and his kidneys were severely damaged. He died in 1976 due to the resulting kidney disease. Eric Clapton reportedly paid for the headstone on his grave. I can’t help but wonder how Howlin’ Wolf would feel about his song Smokestack Lighting being used in the current Viagra TV commercial. I think that he would be seriously amused by that. The Dirty Streets – Movements The Dirty Streets are a down and dirty rock band from Memphis. They play no holds barred gritty hard rock reminiscent of 1970’s bands such as Humble Pie and Foghat. The members are all early to mid- twenty year old guys, which makes them truly unique to be playing this style of music in this day and age. Guitarist/singer Justin Toland and bassist Thomas Storz decided to form a classic rock style band that had the blues and soul backbone lacking in most modern rock. Initially, they had difficulty in finding the right drummer. Few people their age knew of or had heard many of the bands that they were into. Fate stepped in when Andrew Denham moved in next door to Toland.