..It was also the day before my twenty-ninth birthday. I wasn’t just drunk by the time of the concert – I was smashed. Fortunately, it went off OK.
~Pete Townshend (from “Who I Am”)
“Buffett I guess. Lightfoot. Warren Zevon. Randy. John Prine. Guy Clark. Those kinds of writers.”
– Bob Dylan (on the question about favorite songwriters asked by Bill Flanagan in 2009)I have no reason to sit home and write songs all day without going out and playing for the folks. And I have no reason to go play for the folks unless I’m writing new songs so they can sort of feed off one another. And I just try to do the best I can.
~Guy ClarkGuy Clark doesn’t just write songs, he crafts them with the kind of hands-on care and respect that a master carpenter (a favorite image of his) would have when faced with a stack of rare hardwood.
~Kurt Wolff (allmusic.com)–
Guy Clark, the Texas troubadour who blended high wit with pure poetry and turned it into timeless, vibrantly visual songs like “Desperados Waiting for a Train” and “L.A Freeway,” died today at the age of 74.
–rollingstone.com
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Desperados Waiting For A Train (FANTASTIC version from the legendary “Heartworn Highways” DVD):
Van Morrison in Ireland is the first official video by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1981 of a concert Morrison recorded in Northern Ireland two years earlier. The video also shows footage of the band whilst touring in Ireland and images of Belfast, including Hyndford Street and Cyprus Avenue.
“The band display a range of textures reminiscent of The Caledonia Soul Orchestra, first with the dark resonance of Toni Marcus’ violin, then Pat Kyle’s bright sharp tenor sax and finally Bobby Tench’s prickly electric guitar”.
– Tony Stewart (NME)
This concert featured the band with which Morrison recorded his 1978 album Wavelength, augmented by a horn section and violinist. The concert included two songs from Wavelength, the title track and “Checkin’ It Out”. The rest of the songs had originally been recorded at least seven years earlier, the latest of these being “Saint Dominic’s Preview” from 1972. Also on the video are two songs Morrison had recorded when fronting the band Them in the mid 1960s — “Don’t Look Back” and “Gloria”.
Highlight: A funky as hell rendition of I’ve been working
Almost 57 minutes of Van Morrison in top form! :
Continue reading “Van Morrison live in Belfast February 20, 1979 (full concert)”
The Capitol Theatre was an entertainment venue located at the intersection of Monroe Street and Central Avenue in Passaic, New Jersey. Built in 1926 as a vaudeville house, the Capitol later served as a movie theater (in its later years a XXX movie theatre) and (after John Scher bought the property) a venue for rock concerts.
Throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, the 3,200 seat theatre was a popular stop on nearly every major rock artist’s tour. The venue was known for its in house video system which resulted in a number of good quality, black and white video bootlegs. After it closed, the building fell into disrepair and it was demolished in April 1991.
Continue reading “Classic concert: Van Morrison Capitol Theatre Oct 6, 1979”
But the paradox is that while Sky Blue Sky is the smoothest sounding Wilco album, it also takes the longest to absorb and understand.
~Michael Metivier (popmatters.com)..Wilco’s sixth studio album, Sky Blue Sky, sounds like the long-awaited follow-up to 1996’s Being There — while it lacks the ramshackle shape-shifting and broad twang of that earlier album, Sky Blue Sky represents a shift back to an organic sound and approach that suggests the influence of Neil Young’s Harvest and the more polished avenues of ’70s soft rock. Sky Blue Sky also marks Wilco’s first studio recordings since Nels Cline and Pat Sansone joined the group, and they certainly make their presence felt …
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)
Impossible Germany (Live – from the DVD “Ashes Of American Flags”):
Continue reading “May 15: Wilco released Sky Blue Sky in 2007”
The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn’t know how other people would take it.
~B. B. KingI never use that word, retire.
~B. B. KingUniversally hailed as the reigning king of the blues, the legendary B.B. King is without a doubt the single most important electric guitarist of the last half century. His bent notes and staccato picking style have influenced legions of contemporary bluesmen, while his gritty and confident voice — capable of wringing every nuance from any lyric — provides a worthy match for his passionate playing.
~Bill Dahl (allmusic.com)
On May 1, 2015, after two hospitalizations caused by complications from high blood pressure and diabetes, King announced on his website that he was in hospice care at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada. King died on May 14 at home.
The Thrill Is Gone (Live at Montreux 1993):
Continue reading “Blues legend B.B. King died one year ago today – May 14, 2015 – Rest in Peace”