General Comments for all Naweedna CDs

 Will Moyle’s Jazz Alive, a locally produced master collection of classic jazz. The Will Moyle stuff is the best collection of jazz I’ve ever heard. I taped it in the 80s from WXXI broadcasts.

 FFUSA: Folk Festival USA, a nationally distributed collection of excerpts recorded live at various folk festivals around the country – varying from traditional country to purely ethnic, to socio-political (one lesbian festival, in fact). FFUSA is eclectic, and the live recordings often catch a lot of crowd noise as well as bad microphone placement. Originally taped from WXXI in the 80s.

 GTWG: The Glory That Was Grease, another locally produced broadcast that featured the formative years of Rock and Roll from the 50s and 60s – my youth. The “Grease” may have been “Greece”, the Rochester suburb where the program originated. The GTWG is marginal but good for reminding my generation of their teenage years – if that can be considered a good thing. Originally taped from WXXI in the 80s.

 BBGR: Big Band Go Round, yet another local program featuring … Big Band, but also including most anything recorded from the 20s to 50s. The BBGR is so broad that it is unlikely to be duplicated anywhere. However, you have to have a fondness for the crackle of scratchy old 78’s and an appetite for schmaltz to fully appreciate it. Originally taped in the 80s.

 PHC & PHC-D: Prairie Home Companion – the middle years. I didn’t get started with PHC until the 80s, so I missed the early period, and I stopped taping when Garrison retired – for the first time. Remember the unfortunate guy who took over the time slot from Garrison? Me, neither. AS IF anyone could do that – a classic no-win situation. When Garrison un-retired (like Michael Jordan), the second version of the show was based in NYC, and I didn’t care for it that much, so I didn’t tape it. A few years later I discovered that he had gone back to the old format and was broadcasting from St Paul MN again. I’ve been digitizing those programs in real time ever since, and they are designated as PHC-D. The PHC stuff contains the essence of American music – in my not-so-humble opinion. The only nationally broadcast show that ever came close to matching PHC for quality and variety was the TV show, Northern Exposure – go figure. I have two Northern CDs; if there are more, I would like to know about them ASAP.

 Recording & Release Dates: The parenthetical numbers appended at the end of track titles represent the release date of the album or CD source. These dates are as accurate as I can obtain. The dates for some tracks from compilations reflect the release date of the compilation. Format: (xx, yy) where xx = last two digits of recording date; yy = last two digits of release date.

As usual, my comments are in blue. The other information comes from www.allmusic.com. Additions and corrections are welcome … encouraged, in fact.

In Memoriam … 2009:  Eartha Kitt Obituary  Freddie Hubbard Obituary  John Cephas Obituary  Koko Taylor Obituary  Les Paul Obituary  Mike Seeger Obituary  Odetta Obituary

The Playlist and Notes for Naweedna 2009

01 Half A Boy & Half A Man - Nick Lowe Basher-The Best of Nick Lowe (79-89)

A little up-tempo tune to start you off. Got this from Joe Spollen and pretty much fell in love with it right off. Hope you like it, and, if you do, hope it’s at least reasonably new to you.

Lyrics You'd better run you'd better hide

You'd better lock your house and keep the kids inside. Here come the twentieth century's latest scam he's a half a boy and half a man He ain't a fool but he's a tool

Because his left don't know what his right hand's doin'. He'd keep a King Kong eating out of the palm of his hand

Now he's a half a boy and half a man.

Or else the S.P.G.'s gonna clear the streets. They never made no provision in the original plan for half a boy and half a man Oh when his fingers do the walking in the middle of the night. When his people stalk in baby let me tell you nothing comes out right. Best be fleet up on your feet . . . Oh when his fingers do the walking in the middle of the night . . . You'd better run you'd better hide . . . He's a half a boy and half a man he's a half a boy and half a man

He's a half a boy and half a man - come on.

Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe Rating 4.5 * 1989 Rock

Containing no less than 25 tracks, Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe is an excellent overview of Lowe's solo career, detailing how he evolved from a quirky, innovative new wave pop craftsman to a fine roots rocker. All of Lowe's absolutely essential songs — from "So It Goes" and "Heart of the City" through "Cracking Up," "Born Fighter," and "Cruel to Be Kind" to "American Squirm," "The Rose of England" "Half a Boy and Half a Man" and "Raging Eyes" — are here, and while Jesus of Cool and Labour of Lust are essential in their own right, Basher is a terrific introduction to his body of work.

Nick Lowe

As the leader of the seminal pub rockers Brinsley Schwarz, a producer, and a solo artist, Nick Lowe held considerable influence over the development of punk rock. With the Brinsleys, Lowe began a back-to- basics movement that flowered into punk rock in the late '70s. As the house producer for Stiff, he recorded many seminal records by the likes of the Damned, Elvis Costello, and the Pretenders. His rough, ragged production style earned him the nickname "Basher" and also established the amateurish, D.I.Y. aesthetics of punk. Despite his massive influence on punk rock, Lowe never really was a punk rocker. Lowe was concerned with bringing back the tradition of three-minute pop singles and hard-driving rock & roll, but he subverted his melodic songcraft with a nasty sense of humor. His early solo singles and albums Jesus of Cool and Labour of Lust overflowed with hooks, bizarre jokes, and an infectious energy that made them some of the most acclaimed pop records of the new wave era. As new wave began to fade away in the early '80s, Lowe began to explore roots rock, eventually becoming a full-fledged country-rocker in the '90s. While he never had another hit after 1980's "Cruel to Be Kind," his records found a devoted cult audience and often were critically praised.

The son of a British Royal Air Force officer, Lowe spent part of his childhood stationed in the Middle East before his family settled in Kent. As a teenager, he played in a variety of bands, including Three's a Crowd and Sounds 4 Plus 1, with his friend, guitarist Brinsley Schwarz. In 1965, the pair formed the guitar-pop band Kippington Lodge, which landed a contract with Parlophone Records the following year. Over the next four years, the group released five singles, none of which received much attention. In 1969, Kippington Lodge evolved into the country-rock band Brinsley Schwarz, who secured a record contract with United Artists the following year. At the outset of their career, the Brinsleys attempted to gain fame by holding a showcase concert at the Fillmore East, but the publicity stunt backfired, making the band outcasts from the British music scene by the time their first album was released. Over the next five years, the group slowly built a following as the leading exponents of pub rock, a back-to-basics movement of good-time rock & roll that earned a niche in the early '70s.

With their unassuming appearance and unpretentious music, pub rockers set the stage for punk rock in the late '70s, not only by relying on three-chord rock & roll, but also establishing a circuit of pubs to play. Of all the old-guard pub rockers, Lowe was the most significant in the development of punk rock. By the time Brinsley Schwarz broke up in 1975, he had already gained a reputation as an excellent, eccentric songwriter, and he was beginning to produce artists like Graham Parker, Dr. Feelgood, and the Kursaal Flyers. At the time, his songwriting was veering away from the country-rock and bluesy rock that distinguished his Brinsley work, and he was beginning to write inventive pop songs. Lowe wanted to leave United Artists, but the label refused to let him go, so he proceeded to record a series of deliberately unmarketable singles in hopes of getting kicked off the label. The first was "Bay City Rollers We Love You," a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the teen pop sensations credited to the Tartan Horde. Inexplicably, the single became a hit in Japan — the Japanese branch of UA even asked for a full album — and the label kept him as an artist. However, after "Let's Go to the Disco," credited to the Disco Brothers, UA dropped him from the label.

After leaving UA, Lowe became the first artist on Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson's fledgling independent label Stiff Records as well as the label's in-house producer. Recorded for just 65 pounds and released in the summer of 1976, "So It Goes"/"Heart of the City" became the first British proto-punk single of the late '70s, earning glowing reviews if not sales. Lowe began producing records at a rapid rate, helming the Damned's debut album, Damned Damned Damned — the first British punk album — and Costello's My Aim Is True in 1977; he would produce all of Costello's albums between My Aim Is True and 1981's Trust. Lowe also produced singles by Wreckless Eric, the Rumour, and Alberto y los Trios Paranoias as well as Graham Parker's early albums. In the summer, he became part of Dave Edmunds' touring band Rockpile, which would become his backing band within a year. He also released the Bowi EP (a play on the title of David Bowie's Low LP) in 1977, and toured with the Stiff package tour Live Stiffs before leaving the label with Costello to join Riviera's new label, Radar Records.

Lowe released his debut album, Jesus of Cool (retitled Pure Pop for Now People for its American release), in 1978, which featured his first British Top Ten hit, "(I Love the Sound Of) Breaking Glass." The single "American Squirm" was released in the fall of 1978 to little success. After producing the Pretenders' debut single, "Stop Your Sobbing," Lowe recorded his second album, Labour of Lust, supported by Rockpile; Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary was recorded at the same session. Labour of Lust featured Lowe's one big American hit, "Cruel to Be Kind," which was a reworked version of an old Brinsley Schwarz song. Between the recording and touring in 1979, Lowe married Carlene Carter, the step-daughter of Johnny Cash; he would produce her albums Musical Shapes (1980) and Blue Nun (1981).

Lowe and Edmunds toured with Rockpile to support their respective 1979 albums, and the pair were the subject of the BBC documentary Born Fighters later that year. Rockpile's shows became notorious for their wild, frequently drunken performances and the group's spirited selection of originals and obscure covers. In 1980, the band decided to record an album together, but the sessions were plagued by tension between Lowe and Edmunds. Seconds of Pleasure, the group's lone album, was released in the fall of 1980 to mixed reviews; it generated one hit single, the Lowe-written "Teacher Teacher." Rockpile split only months after the release of Seconds of Pleasure, with the remaining members choosing to support Edmunds on his solo album. Lowe returned with Nick the Knife in February of 1982, supporting the album with a band featuring guitarist Martin Blemont and keyboaridst Paul Carrack; the group was first called the Chaps, but their name changed to Noise to Go during the American tour. Nick the Knife was a moderate hit, but its follow- up, 1983's The Abominable Showman, was a flop. Lowe retaliated by shifting his music toward roots rock on his 1984 album And His Cowboy Outfit. Both Cowboy Outfit and its 1985 successor, Rose of England, were greeted with positive reviews and improved sales; the former featured his last U.K. hit, "Half a Boy Half a Man," and the latter featured his last U.S. hit, a reworking of his chestnut "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock & Roll)." In 1986, he reunited with Costello to produce Blood & Chocolate. The album was one of many records — including efforts by the Fabulous Thunderbirds, John Hiatt, and Paul Carrack — he produced in the '80s.

During much of the mid-'80s, Lowe suffered from alcohol abuse, but with the assistance of his old mates Costello and Riviera, he recovered and gave up looking for a crossover pop hit, concentrating on country- rock and roots rock. Pinker and Prouder Than Previous (1988) was the first indication of this shift in style, but the record largely went unnoticed. Produced by Dave Edmunds, Party of One (1990) became his first charting album since 1985. Later that year, Lowe divorced Carter. The following year, he formed the supergroup Little Village with John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, and Jim Keltner; all of the musicians played on Hiatt's 1987 breakthrough album, Bring the Family. Little Village was fraught with tension, and their eponymous 1992 album and its supporting tour suffered as a result. The group disbanded upon the tour's conclusion. While he was working on material for a new album, Lowe's Brinsley Schwarz composition "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," which had previously been a hit for Costello, was covered by Curtis Stigers for the soundtrack to Whitney Houston's film The Bodyguard. The album became the biggest-selling soundtrack album in history and, in the process, Lowe unexpectedly became a millionaire from the songwriting royalties.

Lowe made a comeback in 1994 with the straight country album, The Impossible Bird. Hailed as his finest effort in years, the album became a hit in the burgeoning Americana movement in the U.S., and he supported the album with his first solo tour in five years; his touring band featured former Commander Cody guitarist Bill Kirchen. In 1998, Lowe returned with Dig My Mood.

02 Blitzkrieg Baby (you Can't Bomb Me) – Una Mae Carslile The Women - Classic Female Jazz Artists (39-52)

I always have to pay my dues to the Big Band Era. This tune comes from an all female CD, and I presume the bands are all female as well. We got it from Milne. It’s just a nice little bouncy piece from WWII – not the ladies but the music ;-)

The Women - Classic Female Jazz Artists 3 Stars No other AMG information

Lyrics (Thanks to Dave Terry)

BLITZKRIEG BABY Doris Fisher & Fred Fisher 1940 Una Mae Carlisle rec 1940

Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me, ‘Cause I’m pleadin’ neutrality. Got my gun out, can’t you see? Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me!

Blitzkrieg baby, you look so cute, All dressed up in your parachute. Let that propaganda be, Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me! I’ll give you warnin’, ‘Cause I’m afraid I’ll have to raid; So take my warnin’, Or else you’ll get this hand grenade!

Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me, Better save up your T N T. I don’t want no infantry, Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me!

Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me, ‘Cause I’m pleadin’ neutrality. Got my gun out, can’t you see? Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me!

Blitzkrieg baby, you look so cute, All dressed up in your parachute. Let that propaganda be, Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me!

I’ll give you warnin’, ‘Cause I’m afraid you’ll have to raid; So take my warnin’, Or else you’ll get this hand grenade!

Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me, Better save up your T N T. ‘Cause I don’t want no infantry, Oh blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me!

Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me, ‘Cause I’m pleadin’ neutrality. Got my gun out, can’t you see? Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me!

Blitzkrieg baby, you look so cute, All dressed up in your parachute. Let that propaganda be, Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me!

I’ll give you warnin’, ‘Cause I’m afraid I’ll have to raid; So take my warnin’, Or else you’ll get this hand grenade!

Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me, Better save up your T N T. I don’t want no infantry, Blitzkrieg baby, you can’t bomb me!

03 Mean Old World – T-Bone Walker T-Bone Blues (59)

I’ve been getting more and more into T-Bone, and this one really got under my skin. As with most of the tracks in this compilation, try to think about Les Paul’s contributions while listening. Although I’ve acquired several T-Bone selections of my own, this one was downloaded back when such things were legal.

Lyrics This is a mean ole' world Baby, to live in all by yourself I said a mean, mean, mean ole' world To live in all by yourself When you can't get the woman you're loving Because she's loving somebody else

I smile to keep from worrying And I laugh just to keep from crying Smile to keep from worrying Laugh just to keep from crying Trying to keep the public from knowing Baby, what I've got on my mind

Someday, baby When the blood runs cold in my veins Someday, baby When the blood runs cold in my veins You won't be able to mistreat me no more then, baby 'Cause my heart won't feel no pain

T-Bone Blues [Atlantic] 5 Stars 1959

The last truly indispensable disc of the great guitar hero's career, and perhaps the most innately satisfying of all, these mid-'50s recordings boast magnificent presence, with T-Bone Walker's axe so crisp and clear it seems as though he's sitting right next to you as he delivers a luxurious remake of "Call It Stormy Monday." Atlantic took some chances with Walker, dispatching him to Chicago for a 1955 date with Junior Wells and Jimmy Rogers that produced "Why Not" and "Papa Ain't Salty." Even better were the 1956-1957 L.A. dates that produced the scalding instrumental "Two Bones and a Pick" (which finds Walker dueling it out with nephew R.S. Rankin and jazzman Barney Kessel).

T-Bone Walker

Modern electric blues guitar can be traced directly back to this Texas-born pioneer, who began amplifying his sumptuous lead lines for public consumption circa 1940 and thus initiated a revolution so total that its tremors are still being felt today.

Few major postwar blues guitarists come to mind that don't owe T-Bone Walker an unpayable debt of gratitude. B.B. King has long cited him as a primary influence, marveling at Walker's penchant for holding the body of his guitar outward while he played it. Gatemouth Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, Goree Carter, Pete Mayes, and a wealth of other prominent Texas-bred axemen came stylistically right out of Walker during the late '40s and early '50s. Walker's nephew, guitarist R.S. Rankin, went so far as to bill himself as T- Bone Walker, Jr. for a 1962 single on Dot, "Midnight Bells Are Ringing" (with his uncle's complete blessing, of course; the two had worked up a father-and-son-type act long before that).

Aaron Thibeault Walker was a product of the primordial Dallas blues scene. His stepfather, Marco Washington, stroked the bass fiddle with the Dallas String Band, and T-Bone followed his stepdad's example by learning the rudiments of every stringed instrument he could lay his talented hands on. One notable visitor to the band's jam sessions was the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson. During the early '20s, Walker led the sightless guitarist from bar to bar as the older man played for tips.

In 1929, Walker made his recording debut with a single 78 for Columbia, "Wichita Falls Blues"/"Trinity River Blues," billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone. Pianist Douglas Fernell was his musical partner for the disc. Walker was exposed to some pretty outstanding guitar talent during his formative years; besides Jefferson, Charlie Christian µ who would totally transform the role of the guitar in jazz with his electrified riffs much as Walker would with blues, was one of his playing partners circa 1933.

T-Bone Walker split the Southwest for Los Angeles during the mid-'30s, earning his keep with saxist Big Jim Wynn's band with his feet rather than his hands as a dancer. Popular bandleader Les Hite hired Walker as his vocalist in 1939. Walker sang "T-Bone Blues" with the Hite aggregation for Varsity Records in 1940, but didn't play guitar on the outing. It was about then, though, that his fascination with electrifying his axe bore fruit; he played L.A. clubs with his daring new toy after assembling his own combo, engaging in acrobatic stage moves µ splits, playing behind his back µ to further enliven his show.

Capitol Records was a fledgling Hollywood concern in 1942, when Walker signed on and cut "Mean Old World" and "I Got a Break Baby" with boogie master Freddie Slack hammering the 88s. This was the first sign of the T-Bone Walker that blues guitar aficionados know and love, his fluid, elegant riffs and mellow, burnished vocals setting a standard that all future blues guitarists would measure themselves by.

Chicago's Rhumboogie Club served as Walker's home away from home during a good portion of the war years. He even cut a few sides for the joint's house label in 1945 under the direction of pianist Marl Young. But after a solitary session that same year for Old Swingmaster that soon made its way onto another newly established logo, Mercury, Walker signed with L.A.-based Black & White Records in 1946 and proceeded to amass a stunning legacy.

The immortal "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)" was the product of a 1947 Black & White date with Teddy Buckner on trumpet and invaluable pianist Lloyd Glenn in the backing quintet. Many of Walker's best sides were smoky after-hours blues, though an occasional up-tempo entry µ "T- Bone Jumps Again," a storming instrumental from the same date, for example µ illustrated his nimble dexterity at faster speeds.

Walker recorded prolifically for Black & White until the close of 1947, waxing classics like the often- covered "T-Bone Shuffle" and "West Side Baby," though many of the sides came out on Capitol after the demise of Black & White. In 1950, Walker turned up on Imperial. His first date for the L.A. indie elicited the after-hours gem "Glamour Girl" and perhaps the penultimate jumping instrumental in his repertoire, "Strollin' with Bones" (Snake Sims's drum kit cracks like a whip behind Walker's impeccable licks).

Walker's 1950-54 Imperial stint was studded with more classics: "The Hustle Is On," "Cold Cold Feeling," "Blue Mood," "Vida Lee" (named for his wife), "Party Girl," and, from a 1952 New Orleans jaunt, "Railroad Station Blues," which was produced by Dave Bartholomew. Atlantic was T-Bone Walker's next stop in 1955; his first date for them was an unlikely but successful collaboration with a crew of Chicago mainstays (harpist Junior Wells, guitarist Jimmy Rogers, and bassist Ransom Knowling among them). Rogers found the experience especially useful; he later adapted Walker's "Why Not" as his own Chess hit "Walking by Myself."

With a slightly more sympathetic L.A. band in staunch support, Walker cut two follow-up sessions for Atlantic in 1956-57. The latter date produced some amazing instrumentals ("Two Bones and a Pick," "Blues Rock," "Shufflin' the Blues") that saw him duelling it out with his nephew and jazzman Barney Kessel (Walker emerged victorious in every case).

Unfortunately, the remainder of Walker's discography isn't of the same sterling quality for the most part. As it had with so many of his peers from the postwar R&B era, rock's rise had made Walker's classy style an anachronism (at least during much of the 1960s). He journeyed overseas on the first American Folk Blues Festival in 1962, starring on the Lippmann & Rau-promoted bill across Europe with Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, and a host of other American luminaries. A 1964 45 for Modern and an obscure LP on Brunswick preceded a pair of BluesWay albums in 1967-68 that restored this seminal pioneer to American record shelves.

European tours often beckoned. A 1968 visit to Paris resulted in one of his best latter-day albums, I Want a Little Girl, for Black & Blue (and later issued stateside on Delmark). With expatriate tenor saxophonist Hal "Cornbread" Singer and Chicago drummer S.P. Leary picking up Walker's jazz-tinged style brilliantly, the guitarist glided through a stellar set list. Good Feelin', a 1970 release on Polydor, won a Grammy for the guitarist, though it doesn't rank with his best efforts. A five-song appearance on a 1973 set for Reprise, Very Rare, was also a disappointment. Persistent stomach woes and a 1974 stroke slowed Walker's career to a crawl, and he died in 1975.

No amount of written accolades can fully convey the monumental importance of what T-Bone Walker gave to the blues. He was the idiom's first true lead guitarist, and undeniably one of its very best.

04 Somebody Was Watching Over Me – Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples Fanning The Flames (96)

We went to see Maria in October 2009 … the concert was a bit of a disappointment. She’s aged and her voice has suffered (let it be known that Maria and I are the same age, so I’m familiar with the aging effect as well). However, this track from our Maria CD collection finds her in fine voice and accompanied by an impressive female choir: Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, Ann Peebles, Tracy Nelson, Lucy Anna Burnett, Alisa Yarbrough and Benita Aterberry. I had to fade it out toward the end to cut down the running time. Did you notice?

Fanning The Flames 2.5 Stars 1996 Rock

For those who only know of Muldaur through her 1974 hit "Midnight at the Oasis," please scratch that from memory. This lady can flat out sing! Although the CD insert art suggests a "pops orchestra" recording, don't let it mislead you; Muldaur belts out gritty blues and gospel and soulful R&B as very few can. She appropriately terms this musical gumbo "bluesiana." A crack band was assembled featuring longtime Muldaur guitarist Cranston Clements, Dave Torkanowsky on keyboards, and Hutch Hutchinson on bass. Guest singer Johnny Adams joins Muldaur on "Trust in Me," but the two really hit stride as they swap vocal licks on the boogie number "Heaven on Earth." Muldaur and gospel singer Mavis Staples spend themselves emotionally on the mournful duet "Well, Well, Well," accompanied by Clements and guest Sonny Landreth on slide and National steel guitars; rarely has a Bob Dylan song sounded as sweet and alive.

Maria Muldaur

Singer Maria Muldaur was born Maria D'Amato in New York City. In the '60s, she was a member of the New York-based Even Dozen Jug Band and later of the Boston-based Jim Kweskin Jug Band, who also included her husband, Geoff Muldaur, from whom she was divorced in 1972. She found solo success with the sultry single "Midnight at the Oasis," which was featured on her debut solo album, Maria Muldaur, in 1973, and she followed with several similar albums, though her commercial success declined. In the '80s, Muldaur began performing as a Christian artist. She continued to work the club circuit successfully while issuing records like 1994's Meet Me at Midnite, 1996's Fanning the Flames, and 1999's Meet Me Where They Play the Blues. Music for Lovers followed in fall 2000.

05 In November – Walter Hyatt King of Tears (90)

This track gives me chills every time it turns up in one of our playlists. Brian Sheldon gave me the CD and I like every track on it, which made picking a representative track sort of difficult. I went with the chills.

King of Tears 4.5 Stars Checked 1990 Country

This cocktail country is a must for Lyle Lovett fans. Walter Hyatt

Walter Hyatt is a Texas singer, songwriter, and guitar player. He is the first vocalist to be included in the MCA Master Series. His music is unique, with original ideas built into a foundation of classic jazz and blues to create a tasteful, moving, highly individual sound.

06 How High The Moon – Les Paul & Mary Ford All-Time Greatest Hits (50-54, 83)

This tune is my tribute to Les Paul, although almost every track on Naweedna 2009 owes something to this musical genius. I downloaded thise track about ten years ago and it continues to be one of my favorite “old” Les Paul & Mary Ford pieces. Please read the Obituary and the Biography below. Basically Les Paul invented the electric guitar and the over-dubbing process. Without that, where would we be … musically?

Les Paul, Guitar Innovator, Dies at 94 Obituary

All-Time Greatest Hits 4.5 Stars 1983 Vocal 4/30 tracks

All-Time Greatest Hits is a terrific 30-track collection of Les Paul's best-known recordings with Mary Ford, as well as his solo recordings from the same era, containing most of his essential items, including "How High the Moon," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World," "St. Louis Blues" and "Vaya Con Dios."

Mary Ford

Born Colleen Summers on July 7, 1928, in Pasadena, CA, singer Mary Ford is best known for her work with husband/legendary guitarist Les Paul. The pair met in the late '40s (while Ford was a country singer), and quickly began reeling off a string of hit jazz standards, their biggest hit being "How High the Moon." From 1953 through 1960, Paul and Ford hosted their very own television program, The Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home Show, while the duo continued to record together until they divorced in 1964. Ford passed away on September 30, 1977, at the age of 49. — Greg Prato

Les Paul

Les Paul has had such a staggeringly huge influence over the way American popular music sounds today that many tend to overlook his significant impact upon the jazz world. Before his attention was diverted toward recording multi-layered hits for the pop market, he made his name as a brilliant jazz guitarist whose exposure on coast-to-coast radio programs guaranteed a wide audience of susceptible young musicians. Heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt at first, Paul eventually developed an astonishingly fluid, hard-swinging style of his own, one that featured extremely rapid runs, fluttered and repeated single notes, and chunking rhythm support, mixing in country & western licks and humorous crowd-pleasing effects. No doubt his brassy style gave critics a bad time, but the gregarious, garrulous Paul didn't much care; he was bent on showing his audiences a good time. Though he couldn't read music, Paul had a magnificent ear and innate sense of structure, conceiving complete arrangements entirely in his head before he set them down track by track on disc or tape. Even on his many pop hits for Capitol in the late '40s and early '50s, one can always hear a jazz sensibility at work in the rapid lead solo lines and bluesy bent notes — and no one could close a record as suavely as Les. And of course, his early use of the electric guitar and pioneering experiments with multitrack recording, guitar design and electronic effects devices have filtered down to countless jazz musicians. Among the jazzers who acknowledge his influence are George Benson, Al DiMeola, Stanley Jordan (whose neck-tapping sound is very reminiscent of Paul's records), Pat Martino and Bucky Pizzarelli.

Paul's interest in music began when he took up the harmonica at age eight, inspired by a Waukesha ditchdigger. Paul's only formal training consisted of a few unsuccessful piano lessons as a child — and although he later took up the piano again professionally, exposure to a few Art Tatum records put an end to that. After a fling with the banjo, Paul took up the guitar under the influences of Nick Lucas, Eddie Lang and regional players like Pie Plant Pete and Sunny Joe Wolverton, who gave Les the stage name Rhubarb Red. At 17, Les played with Rube Tronson's Cowboys and then dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's radio band in St. Louis on KMOX. By 1934, he was in Chicago, and before long, he took on a dual radio persona, doing a hillbilly act as Rhubarb Red and playing jazz as Les Paul, often with an imitation Django Reinhardt quartet. His first records in 1936 were issued on the Montgomery Ward label as Rhubarb Red and on Decca backing blues shouter Georgia White on acoustic guitar. Dissatisfied with the electric guitars circulating in the mid-'30s, Paul, assisted by tech-minded friends, began experimenting with designs of his own.

By 1937, Paul had formed a trio, and the following year, he moved to New York and landed a featured spot with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, which gave Les nationwide exposure through its broadcasts. That job ended in 1941 shortly after he was nearly electrocuted in an accident during a jam session in his Queens basement. After a long recovery period and more radio jobs, Paul moved to Hollywood in 1943, where he formed a new trio that made several V-Discs and transcriptions for MacGregor (some available on Laserlight). As a last-minute substitute for Oscar Moore, Paul played in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles on July 2, 1944; his witty chase sequence with Nat Cole on "Blues" and fleet work elsewhere (now on Verve's Jazz at the Philharmonic: The First Concert) are the most indelible reminders of his prowess as a jazzman. Later that year, Paul hooked up with Bing Crosby, who featured the Trio on his radio show, sponsored Les' recording experiments, and recorded six sides with him, including a 1945 number one hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time." On his own, Paul also made several records with his Trio for Decca from 1944 to 1947, including jazz, country and Hawaiian sides, and backed singers like Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest and the Andrews Sisters.

Meanwhile, in 1947, after experimenting in his garage studio and discarding some 500 test discs, Paul came up with a kooky version of "Lover" for eight electric guitars, all played by himself with dizzying multi-speed effects. He talked Capitol Records into releasing this futuristic disc, which became a hit the following year. Alas, a bad automobile accident in Oklahoma in January 1948 put Les out of action again for a year and a half; as an alternative to amputation, his right arm had to be set at a permanent right angle suitable for guitar playing. After his recovery, he teamed up with his soon-to-be second wife, a young country singer/guitarist named Colleen Summers whom he renamed Mary Ford, and reeled off a long string of spectacular multi-layered pop discs for Capitol, making smash hits out of jazz standards like "How High the Moon" and "Tiger Rag." The hits ran out suddenly in 1955, and not even a Mitch Miller- promoted stint at Columbia from 1958 to 1963 could get the streak going again. After a bitter divorce from Ford in 1964, a gig in Tokyo the following year, and an LP of mostly remakes for London in 1967, Paul went into semi-retirement from music.

Aside from a pair of wonderfully relaxed country/jazz albums with Chet Atkins for RCA in 1976 and 1978, and a blazing duet with DiMeola on "Spanish Eyes" from the latter's 1980 Splendido Hotel CD, Paul has been long absent from the record scene (some rumored sessions for Epic in the '90s have not materialized). However, a 1991 four-CD retrospective, The Legend and the Legacy, contained an entire disc of 34 unreleased tracks, including a breathtaking electrified tribute to the Benny Goodman Sextet, "Cookin'." More significantly, Paul began a regular series of Monday night appearances at New York's Fat Tuesday's club in 1984 (from 1996, Les held court at the Iridium club across from Lincoln Center), attended by visiting celebrities and fans for whom he became an icon in the '80s. Arthritis has slowed Les' playing down in recent years, and his repertoire is largely unchanged from the '30s and '40s. But at any given gig, one can still learn a lot from the Wizard of Waukesha.

07 Wild Ox Moan – Geoff Muldaur Secret Handshake (98)

We went to a Geoff concert with Mahoney a little over a year ago. Geoff played this title and I was very impressed. His live performance had a much longer instrumental part where he showed off his new Martin – the Geoff Muldaur model. It was mesmerizing, so when we came home, I found this track in our Geoff CD collection and put it in the queue for the next Naweedna – this one.

Lyrics Well I want you to come in here woman Sit down on your daddy's knee I got something i want to tell you woman You know it's worrying me

Well I’m going away leave you woman But I’ll be back before long Well I’m gonna away leave you woman You can count the days that I’m gone

Well i'm going down to Texas woman Gonna hear my wild ox moan Well I’m going out to find him woman I'm bound to drive him on home

Well i want you to come on in here woman Sit down on your daddy's knee I got something i want to tell you woman You know it's worrying me

Said I’m going away leave you woman But I’ll be back before long I don't want you to sit and cry now woman Your daddy's coming on home

Secret Handshake 4 Stars 1998 Folk

Geoff Muldaur, alumnus of Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band and Paul Butterfield's Better Days, came back in 1998 with his first solo album in several years, and the self-assuredness that permeates Secret Handshake was well worth the wait. Muldaur, always an eccentric interpreter of other people's material (his version of "Brazil" pervades the soundtrack of the Terry Gilliam film with the same name), takes on a batch of his favorite old country-blues tunes and adds a couple of atmospheric originals to the mix as well. But rather than the standard, reverent solo acoustic approach, Muldaur definitely puts his own touch on each and every obscure chestnut that's here, with nary a one resembling the original version. Recorded over the course of a year in a variety of studios across the U.S.A., he has assembled a first- rank cast of players including Turner Stephen Bruton on guitar, Bill Rich on bass, and Larry Thompson on drums, with Hal Ketchum, Sean Hopper, Lenny Pickett, David Grisman, Amos Garrett and John Magnie all making guest appearances. Highlights include "The Wild Ox Moan," "This World Is Not My Home," "Alberta," "Mistreated Mama," and a pair of Muldaur originals, "Got to Find Blind Lemon, Pt. 1" and "I Believe I'll Go Back Home." Muldaur has created something unique and original with this disc; your standard-fare white country-blues album this is not.

Geoff Muldaur

Guitarist Geoff Muldaur, one of many artists to emerge from the folk, blues, and folk-rock scenes centered in Cambridge and Woodstock, was already a well-known blues performer at the time he met up with old-time folk enthusiast Jim Kweskin. Sharing the bill at a 1963 concert in Boston, the two shared many musical interests, and when Kweskin was approached by Vanguard Records, he brought Muldaur into his group the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. This association led to many successful albums and marriage to the group's fiddle player Maria D'Amato (later Maria Muldaur). Four years and five successful albums later, the couple migrated to Woodstock, NY, where they became part of a new musical community that included Bob Dylan, the Band, Paul Butterfield, and many other notable artists. They divorced in 1972, and Geoff began producing local and national blues artists, as well as making his own recordings. He also composed scores for film and television, earning an Emmy in the process, and his definitive recording of "Brazil" was featured in Terry Gilliam's film of the same title. Muldaur has toured Britain, Germany, and Ireland, and appeared at Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the Kennedy Center, "A Prairie Home Companion," the San Francisco Blues Festival, and the Winnipeg and Edmonton Folk Festivals. His blues- folk stylings are born of respect for music's history, from the perspective of a contemporary artist very much of his own era.

08 What A Crying Shame – The Mavericks Definitive Collection (04)

Ah, The Mavericks, and especially Raul Malo. I put their “All That Heaven Will Allow” on Naweedna 2005 and waited the appropriate length of time to include another of theirs: this one. After getting a sampling from Joe Spollen, I bought some of their highly rated CDs. This track is from their “greatest hits” CD.

Lyrics

wasn't I good to you didn't I show it and if I ever hurt you I didn't know it

if you think I don't care then you're mistaken my love was always there but now my heart's breakin'

ooh baby, ooh what a crying shame to let it all slip away and call it yesterday ooh baby, my life would be so blue my heart would break in two ooh what a crying shame

'cause I believed in you from the beginning I thought our love was true but now it's all ending

ooh baby, ooh what a crying shame to let it all slip away and call it yesterday ooh baby, my life would be so blue my heart would break in two ooh what a crying shame

ooh what a crying shame ...

The Definitive Collection 4 Stars 2004 Country

The Mavericks are one of those bands that inspire such fierce loyalty in fans that any attempt at a "Definitive Collection" that does not contain all of their recordings will be grounds for fiery, impassioned debate. This set from Universal Chronicles goes as far as any single disc can go in attempting to capture the wildly diverse, raucous, and soulful sound of a band that succeeded in spite, not because, of finicky trends in country music. Indeed, the Mavericks embody all of the best elements in country and early rock & roll, and all of their faces are here. All four of the band's MCA albums are represented, as is Mercury Nashville's Super Colossal Smash Hits of the '90s, which was a compilation but also contained six new tracks. And while The Definitive Collection gets some marks for its inclusion of every charting single as well as select album tracks, the rarities are what sets it apart. First is the inclusion of the Nick Lowe- produced version of the Lorenz Hart tune "Blue Moon" from the Apollo 13 soundtrack, and there are also two cuts never before issued in the U.S., "I Don't Care (If You Don't Love Me Anymore)" together with the live "Rancho Grande" from the 1998 Canadian mini-album It's Now! It's Live! With 20 tracks total, great notes by Rich Kienzle, and remastered sound, this is solid compilation that introduces the band to initiates and provides over an hour of listening pleasure for hardcore devotees.

The Mavericks

Fusing traditional country with traditional rock & roll, the Mavericks became one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful groups of the early '90s. Led by singer/songwriter Raul Malo (born August 7, 1965, Miami, FL), the band was formed in Florida in the late '80s. Malo had previously played in several different bands while he was in high school, as did bassist Robert Reynolds (born Robert Earl Reynolds, April 30, 1962, Kansas City, MO). The pair met at school and discovered they had similar musical tastes — they both enjoyed the music of Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash — and decided to form a band. Reynolds persuaded his best friend, Paul Deakin (born Paul Wylie Deakin, September 2, 1959, Miami, FL) — who had been a drummer in progressive rock bands before and had done some session work — to join the fledgling country band.

Taking the name the Mavericks, the band began playing rock clubs around the Miami area and built up a solid local following. The group chose to play rock clubs because the country bars only wanted to book bands that played covers and the Mavericks preferred to concentrate on original material. In the fall of 1990, the band released an eponymous independent album. The record worked its way onto play lists across Florida and made its way to Nashville, where it gained the attention of nearly every major record label.

In May of 1991, the group went to Nashville to play a showcase gig. Scouts from all of the town's major labels were in attendance, but the band decided to sign with MCA Records. Later that year, the Mavericks set about recording their first major-label album; before the sessions began, they added lead guitarist David Lee Holt, who had previously played with Joe Ely, Rosie Flores, and Carlene Carter. Titled From Hell to Paradise, the record primarily consisted of Malo's original songs and was released in 1992. Although it was critically acclaimed, the album wasn't a commercial success; only a cover of Hank Williams' standard "Hey Good Lookin'" made the charts and that peaked at number 74.

The Mavericks' commercial fortunes turned around with their second major-label album, What a Crying Shame. Produced by Don Cook (Brooks & Dunn, Mark Collie), the album was more streamlined and focused. It became a hit upon its release early in 1994, with the title track becoming a Top 40 hit. Shortly after the release of What a Crying Shame, the group replaced Holt with Nick Kane (born Nicholas James Kane, August 21, 1954, Jerusalem, GA).

Throughout 1994, the band racked up Top 40 hit singles. "O What a Thrill" went to number 18 in the summer, with "There Goes My Heart" reaching number 20 in the fall. By the spring of 1995, What a Crying Shame had gone platinum. During the first half of 1995, the Mavericks recorded their fourth album, Music for All Occasions, which appeared in the fall of the year. Like its predecessor, it was critically acclaimed and a commercial success. By the spring of 1996, the album had gone gold. Trampoline followed in 1998; easily the group's most musically ambitious set to date, Trampoline's blend of pop and Latin textures didn't connect with the mainstream country audience in the United States, though the album (and it's first single, "Dance The Night Away") proved to be a major success in the United Kingdom. The Mavericks soon found themselves at loggerheads with their record company, and they parted ways with MCA. The group went on hiatus for several years, with Malo releasing a solo album in 2001 and recording with the Latino supergroup Los Super Seven, while Robert Reynolds played on sessions with the group Swag. In 2003, the group re-assembled- - with guitarist Eddie Perez replacing Nick Kane — and recorded a self-titled set for Sanctuary Records; a live album and DVD, recorded in Austin, Texas on the group's subsequent tour, arrived in the fall of 2004.

09 Pastures Of Plenty – Odetta Greatest Songs Of Woody Guthrie (72) Our second, and probably last, Odetta piece. Not that I don’t like Odetta; just that I don’t think there are many tracks better than the two already included: Naweedna 2004 & 2009. This is a Woody Guthrie song, which makes it noteworthy in itself. We got the Woody tribute CD from Milne. Alas, Odetta’s big, booming voice has fallen silent after all these years.

From Time Magazine (Link) NYT Obituary

Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music. Odetta's stage presence was regal enough: planted onstage like an oak tree no one would dare cut down, wearing a guitar high on her chest, she could envelop Carnegie Hall with her powerful contralto as other vocalists might fill a phone booth. This was not some pruny European monarch but a stout, imperious queen of African-American music. She used that amazing instrument to bear witness to the pain and perseverance of her ancestors. Some folks sing songs. Odetta testified.

Her death on Dec. 2 in New York City at 77 from heart failure, coupled with that of South African singer Miriam Makeba three weeks ago, writes finis and fulfillment to 50 years of pursuing self-determination through song, of spreading the word through music. For a handful of black singers, their discography is an aural history, centuries deep, of abduction, enslavement, social and sexual abuse by the whites in power — and of the determination first to outlive the ignominy branded on the race, then to overcome it. In her commanding presence, charismatic delivery and determination to sing black truth to white power, Odetta was the female Paul Robeson. (See the 100 best albums of all time.)

Born in Birmingham, Ala., on New Year's Eve, 1930, and raised in Los Angeles, Odetta Holmes had a big voice early on; she was schooled in opera from the age of 13. Appearing in a tour of the musical Finian's Rainbow in her late teens, she started to lend her classical and musical-stage training to the folk repertoire around 1950. Like Harry Belafonte, Leon Bibb and Makeba, Odetta played the swanker nightclubs before the big (mostly white) folk-music surge kicked in later in the decade. Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues, the 1956 Tradition LP with definitively scalding interpretations of "Muleskinner, Easy Rider" and "God's Gonna Cut You Down," announced the arrival of a voice whose sonic and emotive power could raise the dead and reach the deaf.

During the folk boom, each Odetta gig, in coffeehouse or concert hall, was a master class of work songs, folk songs, church songs, and an eloquent tutorial in raw American history. Identifiable from the first syllable, her voice fused the thrill of gospel, the techniques of art song — the wisdom that subtlety sometimes trumps volume — and the desperate wail of blues. If a line could be drawn from Bessie Smith to Janis Joplin, from Mahalia Jackson to Maria Callas, it would have to go through Odetta.

Her resonance was literal, political — few civil rights rallies of the early '60s were complete without an Odetta rendition of "We Shall Overcome" — and cultural. "The first thing that turned me on to folksinging was Odetta," Bob Dylan once said, and listening to that Tradition album helped persuade the young rocker to switch from electric to acoustic guitar. Odetta returned the favor in 1965, recording an LP of Dylan songs with an emphasis on the antiwar numbers rather than Dylan's sheaf of civil rights ballads.

In later years, Odetta collaborated on a dozen or more albums (dueting with Nanci Griffith, for instance, on Other Voices, Too). She recorded a collection of Christmas spirituals and did tribute albums to Ella Fitzgerald, Leadbelly and blues thrushes of the 1930s. In her 60s and 70s, she still could sing the hide off a traditional number. Evidence: this rendition of "Midnight Special" (see below).

For Odetta and many other survivors of the civil rights movement, the election of Barack Obama as President signaled a fulfilling chapter in the struggle. As she sank toward death in New York City, Odetta had an Obama poster taped on the wall across from her bed. Hospitalized with kidney failure on Monday, she kept willing herself to live because, her manager Doug Yeager wrote on a fansite just before her death, "Odetta believes she is going to sing at Obama's Inauguration, and I believe that is the reason she is still alive." She sang of the past, and for the future. Come Jan. 20, her songs will be heard on the internal iTunes of the people she touched. Some voices can never be stilled.

Lyrics

It's a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road Out of your dust bowl and westward we rolled And your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold

I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes I slept on the ground in the light of the moon On the edge of the city you'll see us and then We come with the dust and we go with the wind

California Arizona i harvest your crops Well its north up to Oregon to gather your hops Dig the beets from your ground cut the grapes from your vine To set on your table your light sparkling wine

Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground From the Grand Coulee dam where the waters run down Every state in the union us migrants have been We'll work in this fight and we'll fight till we win

It's always we rambled that river and I All along your green valley i will work till I die My land I’ll defend with my life if it be Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free

The Greatest Songs of Woody Guthrie 4* 1972 Folk

A two-record set released on one CD, this collection of great Woody Guthrie songs performed by some of Woody's apostles, as well as by Woody himself, serves as a nice overview of Guthrie's music. From the opening notes of "This Land is Your Land," and a composite arrangement that starts with Woody and his guitar, then folds into the Weavers completing the song, this is very special music. With the mix of performers, it's like a hootenanny featuring some of the top American folk music artists who had fallen under Guthrie's spell. In addition to Pete Seeger's Weavers, longtime Guthrie cronies Cisco Houston and Ramblin' Jack Elliot are featured, along with the next generation's Joan Baez and Country Joe McDonald. Deep-throated Odetta delivers the definitive version of "Pastures of Plenty," and Guthrie is spotlighted solo and with pals Sonny Terry and Houston. A folk music delight from beginning to end.

10 Choctaw Bingo – James McMurtry & The Heartless Bastards Live in Aught-Three (03, 04)

Well, this is one of the feature tracks on this collection. I hope no one is offended. I’m not trying to promote illegal drug use; just offering up what I think is good music. The track comes from Joe Spollen – seems to be a lot of Joe’s stuff this year ;-)

Lyrics

Strap them kids in Give em a lil bit of vodka in a cherry coke were goin to Oklahoma to the family reunion for the first time in years its up at uncle Slatons cuz hes gettin on in years no longer travels but he’s still pretty spry he’s not much on talk and he’s too mean to die and they'll be comin’ down from Kansas and west Arkansas it'll be one big old party like you've never saw uncle Slaton's got his Texan pride back in the thickets with his Asian bride hes got an Airstream trailer and a Holstein cow still makes whiskey cuz he still knows how plays that Choctaw bingo every Friday night you know he had to leave Texas but he won't say why he owns a quarter section up by lake ufalla caught a great big ol bluecat on a driftin jugline sells his hardwood timber to the chippin mill cooks that crystal meth cuz his shine don't sell he cooks that crystal meth cuz his shine don't sell you know he likes that money, he don't mind the smell my cousin Roscoe, Slaton's oldest boy from his second marraige up in Illinois hes raised in east St Louis by his mammas people where they do things different thought he'd come on down hes goin to Dallas Texas in a semi truck caught from that big McDonalds you know that one that’s built up on that big old bridge across the will Rogers turnpike took the big cabin exit stopped and bought a carton of cigarettes at that Indian smoke shop with the big neon smoke rings in the Cherokee nation hit Muskogee late that night somebody ran the stoplight at the Shawnee bypass Roscoe tried to miss him but he didn't quite bob and mae come up from some little town way down by lake taxoma where he coaches football they were two-A champions for two years running but he says they wont be this year not they wont be this year and he stopped off in tuska at the pop knife and gun place bought a sks rifle and a couple full cases of that steel core ammo with the berdan primers from some east bloc nation that no longer needs em and a desert eagle thats one great big old pistol i mean fifty caliber made by bad-ass Hebrews and some surplus tracers for that old BAR of slatons as soon as it gets dark were gonna have us a time were gonna have us a time ruth-anne and lynn come from baxter springs thats one hell-raisin town way down in southeastern kansas got a biger bar next to the lingerie store thats got rollin stones lips up there in bright pink neon and they're right downtown where everyone can see em and they burn all night you know they burn all night they burn all night

Uncle slaton's got his texan pride back in the thickets with his asian bride hes got a corner pasture and an acre lots he sells them owner financed strictly to them its got no kind of credit cause he knows they're slackers and they'll miss that payment and he'll take it back plays that choctaw bingo every friday night he drinks his johnny walker at that club 69 were gonna strap those kinds in give em a lil bit of benadryl were gonna have us a time were gonna have us a time

Live in Aught-Three 4 Stars 2003, 2004 Rock

James McMurtry's written plenty of great songs, but he's never made a great album. His character sketches and stories have always rung true, and he's as perceptive a chronicler of the disaffected and alienated as you'll find, but his limited vocal range and sometimes almost-indifferent delivery have made even his best discs, Too Long in the Wasteland and Where'd You Hide the Body a struggle to get through. Live in Aught-Three isn't a great album, but the live setting lets McMurtry and his backing group, the Heartless Bastards, breathe real rock & roll life into many of these songs for the first time. "Levelland," an account of stasis in the fly-over land, aches with a longing for something, anything, that's more exciting than high-school football games and farms, and "Red Dress" burns with an angry intensity that you'd never have guessed McMurtry had in him. We also get a dose of McMurtry's deadpan humor on a few between-song asides ("I used to think I was an artist. Come to find out I'm a beer salesman") and a hilarious delineation between intellectuals and good ol' boys. In fact, the strongest material here -- and McMurtry's best work overall -- are the ones in which he finds both the humor and the pathos in quirky, nasty characters like the ticked-off heir to the worthless farmland of "60 Acres," or the twisted crew at a family reunion in "Choctaw Bingo." If McMurtry's albums haven't caught your attention before, Live in Aught-Three is a perfect opportunity to reassess him.

James McMurtry

Texas singer/songwriter James McMurtry, known for his hard-edged character sketches, comes from a literary family; his father, novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry, gave James his first guitar at age seven, and his mother, an English professor, taught him how to play it. McMurtry began performing his own songs while a student at the University of Arizona and continued to do so after returning home and taking a job as a bartender. When it transpired that a film script McMurtry's father had written was being directed by John Mellencamp, who was also its star, McMurtry's demo tape was passed along, and Mellencamp was duly impressed, serving as co-producer on McMurtry's 1989 debut album, Too Long in the Wasteland. McMurtry also appeared on the soundtrack of the film (Falling from Grace), working with Mellencamp, John Prine, Joe Ely, and Dwight Yoakam in a one-off supergroup called Buzzin' Cousins. McMurtry has continued to record, releasing albums in 1992 and 1995. Walk Between the Raindrops followed in 1998. 2002 saw the release of Saint Mary of the Woods, his last for the Sugar Hill label. He signed with Compadre the following year, releasing Live in Aught-Three in 2004 and Childish Things in 2005.

11 Senie Zelie - Angelique Kidjo Lightning In A Bottle (03, 04)

I extracted this from a WXXI special: Martin Scorsese’s Lightning In A Bottle (see notes below & be sure to see the video if you missed it). It was the opening piece for an evening saluting the blues and supporting the conjecture that American Blues has African roots. I was immediately attracted to it and decided to include it in Naweedna 2009. Some of the high notes make my hearing aides squeal. I downloaded a couple of other Angelique CDs, but none of them contain anything nearly as good as this track.

Lightning in a Bottle Rating 3 Stars Release Date Sep 21, 2004 Recording Date Feb 5, 2003-Feb 7, 2003

Lightning in a Bottle is the double-disc soundtrack to the documentary film of the same title directed by Antoine Fuqua and shot at a February 7, 2003, concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Billed as a "Salute to the Blues," the show featured veteran blues musicians as well as a younger generation of players and artists either directly working in the genre or deeply influenced by it, and the running order follows the evolution of blues from Africa, up the Mississippi, and through Chicago and beyond. With a crack house band of Steve Jordan and/or Levon Helm on drums, Dr. John on piano, Willie Weeks on bass, and Danny Kortchmar on guitar, Lightning in a Bottle has quite a few high points, including Macy Gray's version of Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," Bonnie Raitt's "Coming Home," and the deep Southern gospel soul of Solomon Burke on "Turn On Your Love Light." Also impressive is David "Honeyboy" Edwards' stark and haunting solo acoustic rendering of "Gamblin' Man." Mavis Staples arguably stole the show, however, with her huge, shuffling, and ominous take on Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean." The shifts and mutations of the blues from an acoustic music to an electric one are traced, ending in Chuck D and the Fine Art Militia's thundering rap version of John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom." The CD set lacks some of the music actually performed in the film, however, so the best way to catch this moving concert in its entirety is on DVD, which also includes backstage footage and interviews.

Angelique Kidjo

Afro-funk, reggae, samba, salsa, gospel, jazz, Zairean rumba, zouk, and makossa are combined through the music of soulful, Benin-born, Paris-based vocalist Angélique Kidjo. Since the release of her self- produced debut solo album, Pretty, in 1988, Kidjo has been embraced by the international press. Kidjo's albums have been strengthened by contributions from top-notch guest musicians and producers. Parakou, her first internationally distributed album, featured jazz keyboardist Jasper van't Hof, the leader of Pili Pili, a Holland-based Afro-jazz band with whom Kidjo had performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1987. Logozo, recorded in Miami in 1991 and produced by Joe Galdo of Miami Sound Machine, featured Branford Marsalis on saxophone. Marsalis later performed on Kidjo's album Oremi. The album features Kidjo singing duets with Cassandra Wilson ("Never Know") and Kelly Price ("Open Your Eyes"). Kidjo's most ambitious album, Fifa (1996), featured more than 100 percussionists, flutists, cowbell and berimbau players, singers, and dancers from Benin and one track featuring Carlos Santana. Kidjo's husband, Jean Hébrail, a French bass player and composer she met in 1987, has played a major role in the recording of her albums.

The daughter of an actress, dancer, and theatrical producer, Kidjo was born in Quidah, a coastal city in the West African country of Benin. Inheriting her mother's love of performing, she made her stage debut with her mother's theatrical troupe. Inspired by the rock, pop, and soul music of Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Miriam Makeba, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin, she was singing professionally by her 20th birthday. Although she recorded an album, Pretty, produced by Cameroon-based vocalist Ekambi Brilliant that yielded a hit single, "Ninive," the oppressive political environment of Benin led her to relocate to Paris in 1980. Although modern technology and electronics played an important role in the recording of her first four albums, Kidjo returned to her traditional roots with Fifa. Armed with eight-track tape recorders and microphones, Kidjo and a team of engineers traveled to Benin to record traditional musicians, singers, and dancers. The album was completed during recording sessions in Paris, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. With her next album, 1998's Oremi, Kidjo returned to her futuristic approach. Incorporating elements of hip-hop and Afro-Celtic grooves, Oremi featured a reconstructed interpretation of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."

Kidjo's enthusiastic presence was evident on the video of her international hit "Agolo," from her album Aye (1994). Produced by Will Mowatt of Soul II Soul and longtime Prince collaborator David Z, the video was nominated for a Grammy Award. Kidjo's songs have been featured on the soundtracks of such films as My Favorite Season, Street Fighter, and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. As the new millennium got underway, Kidjo signed to Columbia and prepped for her major-label debut. Exploring musical elements of her native Benin to that of northeastern Brazil, Black Ivory Soul was released in 2002. Oyaya!, which featured a collaboration with Dave Matthews, was issued two years later. Kidjo then joined forces with Razor & Tie for the May 2007 release of Djin Djin.

12 The Very Thing That Makes You Rich – Ry Cooder Bop Till You Drop (79)

This has been one of my favorite Cooder pieces since, well, 1979 when I bought it – in vinyl and later in CD format. In addition to being a favorite, it nicely displays Les Paul’s electric guitar and especially the pickup that allows the player to hold a note (Les: “You could go out and eat and come back and the note would still be sounding.”) Listen carefully to the instrumental part that starts about 2 minutes into the track. Ah, Ry, gotta love it ;-)

Bop Till You Drop 3 Stars 1979 Pop/Rock

Following his conceptual 1978 release, Jazz, Ry Cooder returned the next year with the R&B/soul-based Bop Till You Drop. The first major-label, digitally recorded album, Bop is a nice set of moderately known to obscure tunes from the '50s and '60s (along with a Cooder/Tim Drummond original) that doesn't always live up to its promise. Cooder and his excellent band, which includes the rhythm section of Tim Drummond and Jim Keltner along with guitarist David Lindley, understand the material and are more than capable of laying down a decent groove, but something must have gotten lost in translation from what was played to what came across on the recording. There's a thinness to the tracks that undermines the performances, which according to Cooder is due to the digital recording. If you check out the live version of Bop Till You Drop's opener, "Little Sister," from the No Nukes record (using the same band), you can see what surely could have been. Still, Bop is worthwhile given Cooder's penchant for choosing great tunes, as well as the tight performances, brilliant guitar work, and a handful of great guest vocalists (including Chaka Khan). A few of the highlights include his arrangement of the early-'60s Elvis hit "Little Sister," the soulful "The Very Thing That Makes You Rich (Makes Me Poor)," an instrumental take on Ike & Tina Turner's "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine," and "I Can't Win," featuring Cooder's longtime cohort Bobby King on lead vocal.

Ry Cooder

Whether serving as a session musician, solo artist, or soundtrack composer, Ry Cooder's chameleon-like fretted instrument virtuosity, songwriting, and choices of material encompass an incredibly eclectic range of North American musical styles, including rock & roll, blues, reggae, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Dixieland jazz, country, folk, R&B, gospel, and vaudeville. The 16-year-old Cooder began his career in 1963 in a blues band with Jackie DeShannon and then formed the short-lived Rising Sons in 1965 with Taj Mahal and Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy. Cooder met producer Terry Melcher through the Rising Sons and was invited to perform at several sessions with Paul Revere and the Raiders. During his subsequent career as a session musician, Cooder's trademark slide guitar work graced the recordings of such artists as Captain Beefheart (Safe As Milk), Randy Newman, Little Feat, Van Dyke Parks, the Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers), Taj Mahal, and Gordon Lightfoot. He also appeared on the soundtracks of Candy and Performance.

Cooder made his debut as a solo artist in 1970 with a self-titled album featuring songs by Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, and Woody Guthrie. The follow-up, Into the Purple Valley, introduced longtime cohorts Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Dickinson on bass, and it and Boomer's Story largely repeated and refined the syncopated style and mood of the first. In 1974, Cooder produced what is generally regarded as his best album, Paradise and Lunch, and its follow-up, Chicken Skin Music, showcased a potent blend of Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, gospel, and soul music, and featured contributions from Flaco Jimenez and Gabby Pahinui. In 1979, Bop Till You Drop was the first major-label album to be recorded digitally. In the early '80s, Cooder began to augment his solo output with soundtrack work on such films as Blue Collar, The Long Riders, and The Border; he has gone on to compose music for Southern Comfort, Goin' South, Paris, Texas, Streets of Fire, Bay, Blue City, Crossroads, Cocktail, Johnny Handsome, Steel Magnolias, and Geronimo. Music By Ry Cooder (1995) compiled two discs' worth of highlights from Cooder's film work.

In 1992, Cooder joined Keltner, John Hiatt, and renowned British tunesmith Nick Lowe, all of whom had played on Hiatt's Bring the Family, to form Little Village, which toured and recorded one album. Cooder next turned his attention to world music, recording the album A Meeting by the River with Indian musician V.M. Bhatt. Cooder's next project, a duet album with renowned African guitarist Ali Farka Toure titled Talking Timbuktu, won the 1994 Grammy for Best World Music Recording.

13 When I Grow Too Old To Dream – Nat King Cole Northern Exposure (56, 92)

Well, I just LOVE Nat King Cole. What a voice; what a musician. I actually thought this track had already been included in a Naweedna CD, but a quick check of the records showed that it hadn’t. Well, it is now. It comes from one of the Northern Exposure CDs – eventually, all the Northern Exposure tracks will be reproduced in a Naweedna collection. I really, really like this piece. I hope you agree. I don’t know the violin player, but I’d guess it was Claude "Fiddler" Williams. What do you think?

WHEN I GROW TOO OLD TO DREAM From the film "The Night Is Young" (1935) (Sigmund Romberg / Oscar Hammerstein II) Nat King Cole – 1956

Lyrics

We have been gay, going our way Life has been beautiful, we have been young After you've gone, life will go on Like an old song we have sung

When I grow too old to dream I'll have you to remember When I grow too old to dream Your love will live in my heart So, kiss me my sweet And so let us part And when I grow too old to dream That kiss will live in my heart And when I grow too old to dream That kiss will live in my heart

So, kiss me my sweet And so let us part And when I grow too old to dream That kiss will live in my heart

Northern Exposure 4 Stars 1992 Soundtrack

No AMG review ...

Nat King Cole

Nat "King" Cole had two overlapping careers. He was one of the truly great swing pianists, inspired by Earl Hines and a big influence on Oscar Peterson. And he was a superb pop ballad singer whose great commercial success in that field unfortunately resulted in him greatly de-emphasizing his piano after 1949. Perhaps if his talents had been divided between two different people.

Nat Cole grew up in Chicago and, by the time he was 12, he was playing organ and singing in church; his three brothers (Eddie, Fred, and Isaac) would become jazz musicians. After making his recording debut with Eddie Cole's Solid Swingers in 1936, he left Chicago to lead the band for the revival of the revue Shuffle Along, and settled in Los Angeles when the show ended. Cole struggled a bit, put together a trio with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince, and eventually settled in for a long residency in Hollywood. In the early days (documented on radio transcriptions), most of the group's repertoire was comprised of instrumentals, although the trio often sang jivey novelty vocals together. However, by the time the trio had its first opportunity to record for Decca in December 1940, Nat King Cole had gained more confidence in his own singing. "Sweet Lorraine" resulted from that session and the trio soon became quite popular. In future years, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Ahmad Jamal would all form piano/guitar/bass combos inspired by Cole's group.

Nat Cole recorded a great deal of exciting jazz during the 1940s, including dates featuring Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet, the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert (1944), and a countless number of selections for Capitol with his trio; all of the latter are included on a gigantic Mosaic limited-edition box set. Although his singing began to become quite popular by the mid-'40s (and particularly after "The Christmas Song" and "Nature Boy"), Cole mostly performed with his trio during this era; Johnny Miller took over on bass and, in 1947, Irving Ashby became the guitarist. Nat Cole was open to the influence of bop, and in 1949 started utilizing Jack Costanzo on bongo and conga for some songs. However, his career changed permanently in early 1950 with the recording of "Mona Lisa," which became a number one hit. Suddenly, Nat King Cole became famous to the non-jazz public as a singer, and many new fans never realized that he also played piano. During the 1950s and '60s, he mostly recorded pop ballads, although there were a few exceptions (including 1956's After Midnight album) and he never lost his ability to play stimulating jazz. Cole had a regular television show during 1956-1957 (some of which has been released on video), but due to the racism of the period he could never find a sponsor. However, the popularity of his records and public appearances remained at a remarkable level, and the world mourned Nat King Cole's death from lung cancer in early 1965 at age 47.

14 Tennessee Dog – Mike Seeger Solo - Oldtime Country Music (62)

Oh, there were so many Mike Seeger tracks to pick from. We settled on this one because we first heard it way back in the 80s – it was featured in one of the FFUSA programs. I found a higher quality version on one of Bob ‘n’ Char’s collection when we were up in AK visiting them. If you are like us, after you’ve heard it a few times, it becomes part of you.

Mike Seeger, Singer and Music Historian, Dies at 75 Obituary

Solo - Oldtime Country Music 4.5 Stars 1962 Country

Old-Time Country Music is an excellent 1991 recording of traditional mountain music and old timey string band material. All of Seeger's interpretations on the album are faithful without being dull, meaning that Old-Time Country Music is one of the best contemporary collections of traditional material to be recorded in the '90s. In fact, it's not a bad introduction to the rich variety of string bands, in general.

Mike Seeger

Born into one of the first families of American folk music, it was probably inevitable that Mike Seeger would become a musician and folklorist. His father and mother, Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger, assisted John and Alan Lomax at the Archive of Folk Song in the Library of Congress. Mike's half- brother, Pete Seeger, performed in both the Almanac Singers and the Weavers, while his sister Peggy Seeger was highly regarded in traditional music circles. There was little surprise, then, when Mike Seeger, at the age of 25, joined Tom Paley and John Cohen to form the New Lost City Ramblers.

It is perhaps ironic that a traditional performer like Seeger was born in New York City to a middle-class family. Born on August 15, 1933, he began playing the autoharp at the age of 12. Soon, he also began playing the banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, mouth harp, mandolin, and dobro. His parents brought music home from the Library of Congress. "...They started letting me play field recordings when I was six or seven," Seeger told Dirty Linen, "these were aluminum records that you played with cactus needles." He was also influenced by the African-American singer/guitarist Elizabeth Cotton, who lived in the Seeger home for five years.

In the early '50s, Seeger began to conduct his own field recordings and perform at square dances in the Washington, D.C., area with his sister Peggy. Because he was a conscientious objector, he was assigned work in a hospital, and during this time formed a band with Hazel Dickens and Bob Baker. In 1958, he helped form the New Lost City Ramblers, a band that specialized in performing sting band music from the 1920s and 1930s. While the band never gained the exposure of folk revival bands like the Kingston Trio, the group's commitment to accurately reproducing traditional music proved significant. "The Ramblers' influence on generations of young musicians who have followed in their footsteps," wrote Randy Pitts in Music Hound Folk, "is incalculable...."

In 1962, when Tracy Schwarz replaced Paley in the Ramblers, Seeger became involved in a number of solo projects. He recorded Mike Seeger for Vanguard in 1964, and Tipple, Loom and Rail: Songs of the Industrialization of the South for Folkways in 1965. In the late '60s, Seeger, Dickens, Alice Gerrard, and Lamar Grier formed the Strange Creek Singers (Arhoolie released Strange Creek Singers: Get Acquainted Waltz in 1975, reissued in 1997). He also became involved in the Newport Folk Festival and, in 1970, became the director of the Smithsonian Folklife Company. In 1970, he married Gerrard, though they later divorced.

Seeger continues to involve himself in a multitude of projects. Beginning in the 1970s, he recorded a string of albums for Rounder, and he continues to compile scholarly projects such as Southern Banjo Sounds (1998). He has been nominated for three Grammys, won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984, received the Rex Foundation's Ralph Gleason Award in 1995, and an Award of Merit from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) the same year. "I feel there's just as much fun in old- time music as there's ever been," Seeger told Dirty Linen in 1997. "People ask me, don't you get tired of it? And some people do, but I think I could have three more lifetimes and not get tired of it."

15 Killer Joe - Freddie Hubbard & Hubert Laws Q: The Dude Throws Down (01)

This is an example of the “In Memoriam” working. The lead for this track is a classic hook – at least it is for me. It’s from Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones we got at Milne. I’d considered including it in the past, but it always got bumped. Freddie Hubbard’s death gave me the opportunity to put it in this year. Hope it works for you as well as it works for me ;-) Freddie Hubbard, Jazz Trumpeter, Dies at 70 Obituary

Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones Release Oct 16, 2001 Rating 4* Jazz

Although Rhino's four-disc box set, Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones, was released to coincide with Quincy Jones' autobiography, and that's what gives the set the title, the set would have an appropriate moniker even if Jones hadn't put his life story to paper. That's because this box set really does tell his story, partially because its four discs are divided so cleanly. The first is Jumpin' in the Woodshed, devoted to Quincy Jones the jazzman, featuring sessions that he led and mostly sessions where he was a sideman. The second is Gone Hollywood, meaning that it contains selections of his work for motion pictures and television, including his productions for other artists (Ray Charles' "In the Heat of the Night," Diana Ross and Michael Jackson's "Ease on Down the Road") and songs he cut that later were popularized in movies ("Soul Bossa Nova," otherwise known as the theme to Austin Powers). The third is Hit Man, which is devoted to his productions and arrangements for other artists, including Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, George Benson, James Ingram, the Brothers Johnson, and Paul Simon. Finally, there's "The Dude Throws Down," consisting entirely of selections from his star-studded collaborations of the late '80s and '90s. That final volume may accurately represent the final chapter of his career, but apart from the great urban ballad "One Hundred Ways," it's pretty dull, illustrating why these meticulous studio concoctions of Jones are misconceived; but the other discs are pretty terrific, not just capturing the essence of his work in each style, but drawing connections where you might not think connections exist — especially on Hit Man, as Lesley Gore's girl group "You Don't Own Me" rubs shoulders with the Brothers Johnson's "Stomp!," and it's possible to hear Quincy's work on both. This may not be a set that you'd put on a whole lot, even if the first three discs work expertly as collections spotlighting Jones' various strengths, but this set couldn't have told Quincy Jones' story better, and it's worthy of being called a musical biography.

Freddie Hubbard

One of the great jazz trumpeters of all time, Freddie Hubbard formed his sound out of the Clifford Brown/Lee Morgan tradition, and by the early '70s was immediately distinctive and the pacesetter in jazz. However, a string of blatantly commercial albums later in the decade damaged his reputation and, just when Hubbard, in the early '90s (with the deaths of Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis), seemed perfectly suited for the role of veteran master, his chops started causing him serious troubles.

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Hubbard played early on with Wes and Monk Montgomery. He moved to New York in 1958, roomed with Eric Dolphy (with whom he recorded in 1960), and was in the groups of Philly Joe Jones (1958-1959), Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton, and J.J. Johnson, before touring Europe with Quincy Jones (1960-1961). He recorded with John Coltrane, participated in Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (1960), was on Oliver Nelson's classic Blues and the Abstract Truth album (highlighted by "Stolen Moments"), and started recording as a leader for Blue Note that same year. Hubbard gained fame playing with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1961-1964) next to Wayne Shorter and Curtis Fuller. He recorded Ascension with Coltrane (1965), Out to Lunch (1964) with Eric Dolphy, and Maiden Voyage with Herbie Hancock, and, after a period with Max Roach (1965-1966), he led his own quintet, which at the time usually featured altoist James Spaulding. A blazing trumpeter with a beautiful tone on flügelhorn, Hubbard fared well in freer settings but was always essentially a hard bop stylist.

In 1970, Freddie Hubbard recorded two of his finest albums (Red Clay and Straight Life) for CTI. The follow-up, First Light (1971), was actually his most popular date, featuring Don Sebesky arrangements. But after the glory of the CTI years (during which producer Creed Taylor did an expert job of balancing the artistic with the accessible), Hubbard made the mistake of signing with Columbia and recording one dud after another; Windjammer (1976) and Splash (a slightly later effort for Fantasy) are low points. However, in 1977, he toured with Herbie Hancock's acoustic V.S.O.P. Quintet and, in the 1980s, on recordings for Pablo, Blue Note, and Atlantic, he showed that he could reach his former heights (even if much of the jazz world had given up on him). But by the late '80s, Hubbard's "personal problems" and increasing unreliability (not showing up for gigs) started to really hurt him, and a few years later his once mighty technique started to seriously falter. In late 2008, Hubbard suffered a heart attack that left him hospitalized until his death at age 70 on December 29 of that year.Freddie Hubbard's fans can still certainly enjoy his many recordings for Blue Note, Impulse, Atlantic, CTI, Pablo, and his first Music Masters sets.

16 Open Window (the Wedding Song) - Sarah Harmer You Were Here (00)

Well, it gets to a point where you just have to put something in that is, well, more modern. I had several new-to-me tracks selected and settled on this one because the overdubbing where Sarah harmonizes with herself serves as homage to Les Paul. The other tracks, well, they are in the queue for future Naweedna offerings. All of ‘em are from - you guessed it - Joe Spollen.

Lyrics

Love, I see you there Adrift on the air Floating by the open window Ah, the sentiment of love Reflections that speak of What can enter when our hearts are open Here, witnesses appear And recognize How sacred love can be when stated Shared, shown for al to know The beauty that can grow When love is cultivated

Our love is a sacred thing Like the mysteries of the night In the darkness unwavering And still so strong come the light Our love is an infinite thing Like the sun's last ray on the sea As it sets low in the west And the moon rises

You Were Here Rating 4 * Release Aug 29, 2000 Rock

Sarah Harmer's first solo effort, You Were Here, doesn't allow a simple categorization of style or reveal a sweeping trend in progress. But it is certain that she is an artist choosing wisely from a great scope of colors. With a pleasing and misleading start, the rollicking opening track asserts its individuality with a Vaudevillian clarinet, keeping one foot in Kinks pop and one in some elusive species of country rock. The next track leaps into the present, utilizing rhythms that sound somewhat synthesized in the mode of David Gray. "The Hideout," having appeared also on a Starbucks coffeehouse compilation disc, has the feel of Neil Young circa Harvest, and becomes a powerful single with its heavy drum line, bold "fifths" chords, and strong chorus with a memorable hook. Moving on, the energy level quickly drops to a spare meditation, featuring vocal, guitar, subtle organ, and the dark psychology of the lyrics. This ebb and flow proves to be the experience throughout You Were Here. Songs may begin with a soft acoustic, then unfold assuredly toward their climax. Various instruments add character now and then, such as a muted trumpet or a harmonica, and the energy level can sway between a lullaby and full pop treatment with a definite destination. The music can also have a heavier edge, driven at times by a malcontent electric guitar. Throughout, the cello is a recurrent staple, as is Harmer's self-harmonized lead vocal. In conjunction with her sonorous, folky vibrato, the melodies are built of simplicity and sweetness, making it an easy album to latch onto. Produced by Harmer herself, along with Peter Prilesnik, You Were Here is keen to a number of musical influences. Her Canadian nationality notwithstanding, there is more than a whisper of Joni Mitchell or Ron Sexsmith in the music. Moments which might feel slow or meandering could likewise feel pensive, meditative, or gather interest from their potential to reveal something more. The lyrics are observational yet detached, and poetic without being arcane — the album as a whole feels sincere, answering to a variety of moods and whims. It is a work of quality, from the songwriting clear to the production.

Sarah Harmer

Formerly the driving force behind Weeping Tile, Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah Harmer began her solo career in 1999 playing dates with the Indigo Girls, Great Big Sea, and Moxy Fruvous. Harmer's first album outside of Weeping Tile was a tribute to her father titled Songs for Clem. Credited to Harmer and Jason Euringer, the folksy album was released independently by Harmer but was eventually given wider release by Universal Canada. Her proper debut album, You Were Here, was released in mid-2000 by Zoe Records and showed a polished, more mature side to her music than her work with her former band. It wasn't until 2004 that Harmer returned with a follow up, All of Our Names.

17 Vaseline Machine Gun – Leo Kottke 6 And 12 String Guitar (71)

Ah, Leo, what can I say? I have two versions of this track. The other one is from 1997 and much more “modern” sounding. I, as you might expect, prefer the older version. Although the track came from Brian Sheldon, I first became aware of it from a Bob “Music Man” Mahoney comment: “Just sittin’ here listenin’ to Vaseline Machinegun – nice.”

6 and 12 String Guitar 4.5 Stars 1971 Folk

Leo Kottke's debut came about after he sent a cassette to John Fahey's Takoma label. Not surprisingly, it recalls Fahey's work in a number of respects: the synthesis of numerous influences from blues, pop, classical, and folk styles, the weirdly titled instrumentals, even the tongue-in-cheek liner notes. Kottke's brand of virtuosity, however, is more soothing and easy on the ear than Fahey's. It's far from sappy, though, the rich and resonant picking intimating some underlying restlessness, like peaceful open fields after a storm. Establishing much of the territory Kottke was to explore throughout his career, this release was also one of his most popular, eventually selling over 500,000 copies.

Leo Kottke

Innovative acoustic guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke was born September 11, 1945 in Athens, Georgia. Raised in 12 different states, he absorbed a variety of musical influences as a child, flirting with both violin and trombone before trying his hand at the guitar at age 11. After developing a love for the country-blues of Mississippi John Hurt, Kottke lost much of the hearing in his left ear as a result of a mishap with a firecracker; during a later tenure in the Naval Reserve, his right ear suffered permanent damage during firing practice.

Discharged due to his impairment, Kottke entered college, dropping out after several years to hitchhike across the country as an itinerant musician. After settling in the Twin Cities area and becoming a fixture on the city's folk club circuit, he issued his 1969 debut LP Twelve String Blues, recorded live at Minneapolis' Scholar Coffee House, on the tiny Oblivion label. After sending 1970's Circle 'Round the Sun to guitarist John Fahey, Kottke was signed by Fahey's manager Denny Bruce, who soon secured a deal with Capitol.

Kottke's 1971 major-label debut Mudlark positioned him somewhat uneasily in the singer/songwriter vein, despite his own wishes to remain an instrumental performer; in the liner notes to 1972's 6- and 12-String Guitar, issued on Fahey's Takoma label, he even described his own voice as "geese farts on a foggy day." Still, despite battles with label heads as well as with Bruce, Kottke flourished during his tenure on Capitol, as records like 1972's Greenhouse and 1973's live My Feet Are Smiling and Ice Water found him branching out with guest musicians and unusual song covers drawing on folk, rock, jazz and bluegrass, all the while honing his propulsive finger-picking mastery.

With 1975's Chewing Pine, Kottke reached the U.S. Top 50 for the first time; he also gained an international cult following thanks to his performances at folk festivals the world over. With his 1976 self-titled release, he moved to the Chrysalis label, although sales diminished for LPs including 1978's Burnt Lips, 1979's Balance and 1980's Live in Europe. After 1983's T-Bone Burnett-produced Time Step, Kottke's contract with Chrysalis ended, and he moved over to the independent Private Music label.

Kottke's powerful technique, combined with his prolific output and extensive touring schedule, resulted in a lingering pain in his hands which began to hamper his playing in the middle of the 1980s. Consequently, the beginning of his tenure on Private Music coincided with the beginnings of a shift in technique closer to classical guitar performance; he also slowed his productivity, and after 1986's reflective A Shout Towards Noon he did not re-enter the studio before recording Regards From Chuck Pink in 1988.

Simultaneously, Kottke cut back dramatically on his live schedule, settling comfortably into his role as a cult figure. He released an album annually from 1989 to 1991, following My Father's Face with That's What and finally Great Big Boy, which featured a guest appearance from Lyle Lovett. Two years later, Kottke returned with Peculiaroso, which featured production by Rickie Lee Jones. One Guitar No Vocals followed in 1999.

18 C’est Si Bon – Eartha Kitt The Bad Eartha (53)

Ah, Eartha purrs on this, one of her signature tracks. I got it from a Mikey ‘n’ Mare sampler. I wish there was more singing and less monologue, but, hey, maybe you can learn some French, eh? Beaucoup de loot.

Eartha Kitt, a Seducer of Audiences, Dies at 81 (Link)

The Bad Eartha 4 Stars 1953 Vocal

Like its predecessor, RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt, Eartha Kitt's second album, That Bad Eartha, also released in 1953, became a Top Five hit in a year when the curiosity about this exotic creature seemed to be limitless. Although she was actually from South Carolina by way of Harlem, Kitt came across as an international chanteuse, which spending a few years in Paris, among other places, will do for you. Her recording of "C'est Si Bon (It's So Good)," included here, had reached the Top Ten in August, preceded by a minor chart entry in "Uska Dara -- A Turkish Tale" and followed by another, "I Want to Be Evil." Both were also included. In addition to French and Turkish, Kitt sang in Spanish and Swahili, which was more than enough to justify her image as a classy import. Another part of that image was her somewhat predatory sex appeal, which was explored fully in "I Want to Be Evil" and two Cole Porter favorites, "Let's Do It" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." Of course, there was sleight-of-hand going on there, too, but Kitt didn't suffer from having a wholly contrived persona, because she let her listeners in on the joke. It wasn't accidental that the title of the album had quotes around it. And in the same way, her relatively limited vocal range didn't matter because she acted her way through her performances as if they were short plays. The only problem, in fact, was that Kitt defined herself so well she was ultimately one-dimensional. It was not surprising when the hits dried up within a year, since she came across on records as a novelty act; but she had developed an act she could keep playing for the rest of her life. And that's exactly what she did.

Earth Kitt

Eartha Kitt epitomized the idea of the sex-kitten chanteuse, rising to fame with a nightclub act centered around her slinky stage presence and her throaty purr of a voice. As much as she enjoyed vamping it up, she also projected the image of an exotic international sophisticate, especially since she sang in several different languages. She brought a definite zest to her torch songs, and favored lyrics that painted her as the Material Girl of her time. Kitt's persona was so vivid and well-developed that she remained easily identifiable well after her early-'50s heyday, and it also helped her find success as an actress in movies, TV, and theater. Even if many remember her best as one of the actresses to play Catwoman on the '60s Batman series, Kitt was always a cabaret performer at heart, one whose act translated best in a live setting. After a dramatic rise to fame from a childhood of neglect and poverty, Kitt endured a ten-year blacklisting owing to her sharp criticism of the Vietnam War. She returned to performing in the '80s and '90s, both as an actress and as a singer on the nightclub circuit.

Eartha Mae Kitt's actual origins are somewhat in doubt. It's likely she was born on January 17, 1927, on a cotton plantation in the small South Carolina town of North. A birth certificate discovered in the late '90s seemed to corroborate that information, but Kitt was never entirely sure, because she lost contact with both her parents at a very young age. Her white father (sometimes alleged to be one of the plantation owner's sons) abandoned her when she was very young, and her mother, a black sharecropper, later remarried and sent her to live with neighbors. Kitt's mother died not long afterwards. Overworked, overlooked, and teased for being biracial, Kitt was finally sent to live with an aunt in Harlem when she was eight. Although she remained at the edge of poverty, things improved somewhat, as she began piano and dance lessons, and also got some singing and acting opportunities through church. Kitt was admitted to New York's High School for the Performing Arts, but unfortunately, her home life took a turn for the worse, and her aunt threw her out. Kitt was forced to drop out of school and worked a few odd jobs to support herself.

A chance meeting with a dancer led Kitt to audition for Katherine Dunham's dance school at age 16. She won a scholarship, and went on tour with the school company all over Europe and the Americas. When the company stopped in Paris, Kitt got the chance to fill in for a singer who was too ill to perform. She was spotted by a nightclub owner who signed her on as a vocalist, and she stayed in Paris to work the cabaret circuit. There she was discovered by the legendary director Orson Welles, who called her "the most exciting woman alive" and, in 1950, cast her as Helen of Troy in his stage production Time Runs, an adaptation of Faust. Kitt returned to the United States and immediately found bookings on the New York nightclub scene, including lengthy runs at the Blue Angel and the Village Vanguard. She was also tapped for the Broadway revue New Faces of 1952, and her numbers -- especially "Monotonous" -- easily stole the show; they also led to a recording contract with RCA Victor.

Kitt recorded her debut album, RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt, in 1953, and it was a major hit, climbing into the Top Five on the LP charts. She scored a minor success with "Uska Dara (A Turkish Tale)," and had a breakout Top Ten hit that August with the French-language "C'est Si Bon (It's So Good)," which became her signature song. Her second album, That Bad Eartha, was released before the year's end, and also reached the Top Five; it featured much of her core repertoire, with songs like "I Want to Be Evil," "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," and "Under the Bridges of Paris." Kitt scored a holiday hit at the end of 1953 with the breathy, over-the-top "Santa Baby," which proved to be the biggest single of her career. It also marked the peak of her popularity; audiences who couldn't get enough of her act in 1953 were growing accustomed to her style, and she was a less dominant presence in 1954, though she did enjoy limited success with "Somebody Bad Stole de Wedding Bell (Who's Got de Ding Dong)" and the R&B- flavored "(If I Love Ya, Then I Need Ya) I Wantcha Around." She also returned to Broadway in the drama Mrs. Patterson, which earned her a Tony nomination, and made her film debut in the movie adaptation of New Faces.

Kitt's third LP, Down to Eartha, appeared in 1955 to a more muted response than her first two. She was still a top draw on the nightclub circuit, however, and found increasing success as an actress. In 1957, she starred in the Broadway show Shinbone Alley and appeared alongside Sidney Poitier in the film The Mark of the Hawk; the following year, she co-starred in two more films, the W.C. Handy biopic St. Louis Blues (with Nat King Cole) and Anna Lucasta (with Sammy Davis, Jr.). In 1959, Kitt left RCA and joined her producer David Kapp's new Kapp label; many of her recordings there were updated versions of her past successes. In 1960, she began a five-year marriage to real estate developer Bill McDonald, which produced a daughter, Kitt McDonald. Kitt continued to record sporadically over the '60s, including the 1965 live set Eartha Kitt in Person at the Plaza, a fan favorite. In 1967, she replaced Julie Newmar as the sultry villain Catwoman on the Batman TV series, which remains her best-known role as an actress. It was not to last, however. In 1968, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson invited Kitt to a celebrity women's luncheon at the White House to offer her views on inner-city youth. Taking the event seriously, not as a publicity stunt, Kitt pointedly criticized the Vietnam War and its impact on poor minorities. An infuriated Johnson put out the word that Kitt's rudeness had reduced the First Lady to tears, and Kitt found herself essentially blacklisted across the country -- afraid of incurring the government's wrath, venues simply refused to book her. It was later revealed that Kitt was made the subject of a secret federal investigation; her house was bugged and she was tailed by Secret Service agents. When the FBI failed to find evidence that Kitt was a subversive, the CIA compiled a highly speculative dossier that attempted to portray her as a nymphomaniac. Unable to find work in America, Kitt moved to Europe, where she would spend most of the following decade. In 1974, she courted controversy once again by touring South Africa; although she performed for white-only audiences, her show was racially integrated, and she raised money for black schools by selling autographs.

Kitt finally returned to the U.S. for good in 1978 as a cast member of the Broadway show Timbuktu, an all-black adaptation of Kismet. The audience greeted her with a standing ovation, and she went on to earn a second Tony nomination; President Carter even welcomed her back personally. Her career in America rehabilitated, Kitt returned to the cabaret/supper club circuit, and also revived her film career starting in the late '80s, appearing in comedies like Erik the Viking, Ernest Scared Stupid, and Eddie Murphy's Boomerang. She recorded a series of albums for the ITM label during the '90s, and earned a Grammy nomination (Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance) for 1994's cocktail-lounge set Back in Business on DRG. She also continued her acting career, and toward the end of the '90s she moved into voice-over work as well, appearing in the animated series The Wild Thornberrys and the Disney film The Emperor's New Groove. In 2000, she received a third Tony nomination for her work in the musical drama The Wild Party. Kitt continued performing and recording into the 2000s, but was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2006, and passed from the disease in late 2008.

19 That’s Why I'm Crying – Koko Taylor I Got What It Takes (75)

Another big female voice silenced: The Queen of Chicago Blues. It was a struggle settling on a representative track for Koko. I’d already included her signature song: Wang Dang Doodle (Naweedna 2005). This track was competing with “I’m A Woman” (response to Bo Diddley’s “I’m A Man” and Muddy Water’s “Mannish Boy”) and “Born Under A Bad Sign” (with Buddy Guy). I picked “That’s Why I’m Crying” because of the background guitar work – again, homage to Les Paul. This particular track came from John Bathgate by way of Brian Sheldon.

Koko Taylor, Queen of Chicago Blues, Is Dead at 80 Obituary

I Got What It Takes 4.5 Stars 1975 Blues 1/11 tracks

The queen's first album for Alligator, and still one of her very best to date. A tasty combo sparked by guitarists Mighty Joe Young and Sammy Lawhorn and saxist Abb Locke provide sharp support as the clear-voiced Taylor belts Bobby Saxton's "Trying to Make a Living," and Magic Sam's "That's Why I'm Crying," her own "Honkey Tonkey" and "Voodoo Woman," and Ruth Brown's swinging "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean."

Koko Taylor

Accurately dubbed "the Queen of Chicago blues" (and sometimes just the blues in general), Koko Taylor helped keep the tradition of big-voiced, brassy female blues belters alive, recasting the spirits of early legends like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton, and Memphis Minnie for the modern age. Taylor's rough, raw vocals were perfect for the swaggering new electrified era of the blues, and her massive hit "Wang Dang Doodle" served notice that male dominance in the blues wasn't as exclusive as it seemed. After a productive initial stint on Chess, Taylor spent several decades on the prominent contemporary blues label Alligator, going on to win more W.C. Handy Awards than any other female performer in history, and establishing herself as far and away the greatest female blues singer of her time.

Koko Taylor was born Cora Walton on September 28, 1935, on a sharecropper's farm in Memphis, TN. Her mother died in 1939, and she and her siblings grew up helping their father in the fields; she got the nickname "Koko" because of her love of chocolate. Koko began singing gospel music in a local Baptist church; inspired by the music they heard on the radio, she and her siblings also played blues on makeshift instruments. In 1953, Koko married truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor and moved with him to Chicago to look for work; settling on the South Side, Pops worked in a slaughterhouse and Koko got a job as a housemaid. The Taylors often played blues songs together at night, and frequented the bustling South Side blues clubs whenever they could; Pops encouraged Koko to sit in with some of the bands, and her singing - which reflected not only the classic female blues shouters, but contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf - quickly made a name for her. In 1962, Taylor met legendary Chess Records songwriter/producer/bassist Willie Dixon, who was so impressed with her live performance that he took her under his wing. He produced her 1963 debut single "Honky Tonky" for the small USA label, then secured her a recording contract with Chess.

Taylor made her recording debut for Chess in 1964 and hit it big the following year with the Dixon- penned "Wang Dang Doodle," which sold over a million copies and hit number four on the R&B charts. It became her signature song forever after, and it was also the last Chess single to hit the R&B Top Ten. Demand for Taylor's live act skyrocketed, even though none of her follow-ups sold as well, and as the blues audience began to shift from black to white, the relatively new Taylor became one of the first Chicago blues artists to command a following on the city's white-dominated North Side. Eventually, she and her husband were able to quit their day jobs, and he served as her manager; she also put together a backing band called the Blues Machine. With the release of two albums - 1969's Koko Taylor, which featured a number of her previous singles; and 1972's Basic Soul - Taylor's live gigs kept branching out further and further from Chicago, and when she played the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, the resulting live album on Atlantic helped bring her to a more national audience.

By the early '70s, Chess Records was floundering financially, and eventually went under in 1975. Taylor signed with a then-young Chicago-based label called Alligator, which grew into one of America's most prominent blues labels over the years. Taylor debuted for Alligator in 1975 with I Got What It Takes, an acclaimed effort that garnered her first Grammy nomination. Her 1978 follow-up The Earthshaker featured several tunes that became staples of her live show, including "I'm a Woman" and "Hey Bartender," and her popularity on the blues circuit just kept growing in spite of the music's commercial decline. In 1980, she won the first of an incredible string of W.C. Handy Awards (for Best Contemporary Female Artist), and over the next two decades, she would capture at least one more almost every year (save for 1989, 1997, and 1998). 1981 brought From the Heart of a Woman, and in 1984, Taylor won her first Grammy thanks to her appearance on Atlantic's various-artists compilation Blues Explosion, which was named Best Traditional Blues Album. She followed that success with the guest-laden Queen of the Blues in 1985, which won her a couple extra Handy Awards for Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year (no "female" qualifier attached). In 1987, she released her first domestic live album, Live in Chicago: An Audience With the Queen.

Tragedy struck in 1988. Taylor broke her shoulder, collarbone, and several ribs in a van accident while on tour, and her husband went into cardiac arrest; although Pops survived for the time being, his health was never the same, and he passed away some months later. After recuperating, Taylor made a comeback at the annual Chicago Blues Festival, and in 1990 she issued Jump for Joy, as well as making a cameo appearance in the typically bizarre David Lynch film Wild at Heart. Taylor followed it in 1993 with the aptly titled Force of Nature, after which she took a seven-year hiatus from recording; during that time, she remarried and continued to tour extensively, maintaining the stature she'd achieved with her '80s work as the living Queen of the Blues. In 2000, she finally returned with a new album, Royal Blue, which featured a plethora of guest stars: B.B. King, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Johnnie Johnson, and Keb' Mo'.

20 Me And My Chauffeur Blues - John Cephas & Phil Wiggins PHC-D (01) Alas, there will be no more Cephas & Wiggins. Phil Wiggins is considerably younger, so there may be some of his work in our future, but the voice and guitar of John Cephas is no more. As you might expect, there were several Cephas & Wiggins tracks to choose from, but I settled on this one gleaned from a PHC show because it featured Cephas while still including some nice harp work by Wiggins. Maybe some of the others will show up in the future – especially the one referred to as “lip-shredding harmonica gymnastic.”

John Cephas, Guitarist With the Duo Cephas and Wiggins, Dies at 78 Obituary

Cephas & Wiggins

The duo of acoustic guitarist John Cephas and harpist Phil Wiggins enjoyed a partnership spanning across several decades, during which time they emerged among contemporary music's most visible exponents of the Piedmont blues tradition. Both were born in Washington, D.C., although Wiggins was a quarter century younger than his partner; they met at a jam session in 1977, and both performed as regular members of Wilbert "Big Chief" Ellis's Barrelhouse Rockers for a time prior to Ellis' death. Their music, rooted in the rural African-American dance music of Virginia and North Carolina, showed the influence of Blind Boy Fuller, Gary Davis, and Sonny Terry, with a broad repertoire consisting of Piedmont blues standards as well as an eclectic sampling of Delta stylings, R&B, ballads, ragtime, gospel, and country & western; from their 1984 debut onward, Sweet Bitter Blues, Cephas and Wiggins' sound applied sophisticated traditional instrumentation and modern gospel-edged vocals to both traditional standards and their own hard-hitting compositions, offering a soulful acoustic option to electric blues. A popular festival act, they also issued LPs including 1986's W.C. Handy Award-winning Dog Days of August, 1988's Walking Blues, 1992's Flip, Flop and Fly and 1996's Cool Down.

21 Having My Ups And Downs - Harry Richman BBGR (29)

So how do you feel about Vaudeville? This particular track came up in our 60k playlist last year and I thought it would be a nice ending piece, so I tagged it as such … and here it is. Like so many of our really old tracks, it comes from an FM broadcast I taped back in the 80s: Big Band Go Round. It’s just a happy little ditty with nothing in particular to offer but joy and a memory of what used to be – just like all the tracks in any Naweedna compilation.

Legendary Voices of Vaudeville 4.5 Stars 2000 Vocal

The height of vaudeville in the first quarter of the 20th century coincided with the rise of the recording industry, but that doesn't mean the eclectic entertainment form is well documented on record. Theater owners actively discouraged performers from making records, and many entertainers felt that recording material they performed would limit their stage success. Nevertheless, as time went on, more and more vaudeville stars began entering studios. History has not been kind to most of them, however: when vaudeville died, it took the careers of many of its entertainers with it, and record labels such as Victor and Columbia have rarely reissued their performances. All of this makes Legendary Voices of Vaudeville all the more valuable. A compilation of 40 tracks by 40 vaudeville singing and comedy acts, it is drawn largely, if without credit, from those labels, with the records having been mastered and then sonically restored. It's unclear what the legal niceties may be, but it's notable that such major vaudevillians as Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and Fanny Brice are missing. That's not to say there aren't some big-time names here (like George M. Cohan, Sophie Tucker, Jimmy Durante); plus, many of these songs rate as standards. But the album does not pretend to be a collection of the best or best-known vaudeville music. Rather, it is a representative sampling, much of it obscure songs by forgotten performers. It's not stars or hits that make the set work; it's the album's sheer entertainment value. These were people accustomed to warming up cold audiences with their voices and personalities, and that's exactly what they do here, stopping songs to break into jokes, addressing the listeners, and generally putting the material over winningly. But beyond the obvious enjoyment factor, the album also has historical value: many of these recordings are absurdly rare. Jim Stettler's liner notes point out a few facts about even the most obscure artists included, and the sound processing makes even the earliest tracks listenable. The result is an excellent compilation of material that has rarely been available since it was originally recorded.

Harry Richman

Though his fame didn't outlast the Depression era, Harry Richman was one of the top entertainers of the Jazz Age, a nightclub act with a flamboyant style often compared to Al Jolson. A period star of Broadway and the silver screen, he also earned notices for his hobby, aviation; he set a world record for altitude in 1935, and made the first transatlantic round trip in a single-engine plane. Born Harold Reichman, he started in vaudeville -- with a two-man act, as a comedian, and then with a song-and-dance number -- and played theaters from Chicago to San Francisco. Moving east by the early '20s, he and his piano backed Nora Bayes and Mae West, and his Broadway debut came in 1922's Queen o' Hearts.Richman's real breakout came in 1926; George White's Scandals of 1926 became a big hit, thanks in large part to his popular performance, "Birth of the Blues," recorded for Vocalion. Despite a few (comparative) flops the following year, he introduced a pair of prize-winning standards: "Blue Skies" and "I'm on the Crest of a Wave." Back on top by 1930, Richman earned the biggest hit of his career, courtesy of the film Puttin' on the Ritz. The title song became one of the most popular songs of the year, while "There's Danger in Your Eyes, Cherie" also earned praise. Later that year, Richman returned to Broadway for International Revue, and introduced two more chestnuts, "Exactly Like You" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street."Harry Richman's Broadway farewell occurred in 1934, and though his aviator prowess occasionally gained more headlines than his musical career, he kept busy recording during the '30s and '40s. He also became a respected songwriter, known for contributing to the careers of two great performers: Django Reinhardt ("Miss Annabelle Lee") and Bessie Smith ("Muddy Water"). He died in 1972.