Month: August 2018

August 27: Stevie Ray Vaughan passed away in 1990

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

Stevie-Ray-Vaughan

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]But between sets I’d sneak over to the black places to hear blues musicians. It got to the point where I was making my living at white clubs and having my fun at the other places.
~Stevie Ray Vaughan

He was the greatest blues guitarist of his generation.
~ Mick Jagger

Stevie was always playing. After he’d get offstage, he’d get on his bus. And he had all these Stratocasters hanging there. He’d grab one and start goin’.
~Gregg Allman[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Texas Flood – Live At Montreux – 85:

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August 25: Lucinda Williams released Sweet Old World in 1992

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

LucindaWilliamsSweetOldworld

August 25: Lucinda Williams released Sweet Old World in 1992

See what you lost when you left this world, this sweet old world The breath from your own lips, the touch of fingertips A sweet and tender kiss The sound of a midnight train, wearing someone’s ring Someone calling your name Somebody so warm cradled in your arms Didn’t you think you were worth anything See what you lost when you left this world, this sweet old world

Sweet Old World is Lucinda Williams’ fourth album, it was released 25 August in 1992. It is a fantastic album. It is a record that I bought after buying Car Wheels On A Gravel Road and her eponymous 1988 album, I love them all (and all she has given us since then). She really took her time between the albums, and the wait for new music from Lucinda Williams has often put my patience to a test. She never delivers bad stuff, most often she gives us fantastic songs. Sweet Old World is even better than its predesessor and almost as good as Car Wheels… and that is a masterpiece! Here’s a great performance of the title track, Sweet old World (live at Austin City Limits):

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August 25: Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy was born in 1967 – Happy Birthday

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

jefftweedy

Jeffrey Scot “Jeff” Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy’s musical interests caused one of Farrar’s brothers to quit. The Plebes changed their name to The Primitives in 1984, and subsequently to Uncle Tupelo. Uncle Tupelo garnered enough support to earn a record deal and to tour nationally. After releasing four albums, the band broke up in 1994 because of conflicts between Tweedy and Farrar.

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August 17: Miles Davis Released the Masterpiece “Kind of Blue” in 1959

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

kind-of-blue

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“It must have been made in heaven.”
– Jimmy Cobb

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Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released August 17, 1959, on Columbia Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City on March 2 and April 22, 1959. The sessions featured Davis’s ensemble sextet, which consisted of pianist Bill Evans (Wynton Kelly on one track), drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley.

Though precise figures have been disputed, Kind of Blue has been described by many music writers not only as Davis’s best-selling album, but as the best-selling jazz record of all time. On October 7, 2008, it was certified quadruple platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz album of all time and Davis’s masterpiece.

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The album’s influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical music, has led music writers to acknowledge it as one of the most influential albums ever made. In 2002, it was one of fifty recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In 2003, the album was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

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August 12: Happy 69th Birthday Mark Knopfler

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

Mark-Knopfler

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]…. Actually we are soul mates. As far as guitar playing goes he never steps all over with fancy licks. Yeah, Mark was incredible. He helped make this record in a thousand ways, not only musically, which in itself would have been enough. Brilliant guy, I can’t say enough about him.
~Bob Dylan (Talking about Knopfler part in the making of “Infidels” – July 1983 to Martin Killer)

The most celebrated British guitar hero to emerge in the 1970s and ’80s, Mark Knopfler rose to fame as the leader of Dire Straits, and his songwriting and incisive guitar work played a decisive role in making them an international success story. At a time when punk and new wave were making technique for its own sake seem irrelevant, and metal was taking the guitar solo in noisier and unpredictable directions, Knopfler’s clean but dexterous picking proved there was still room for traditionalism and chops in mainstream rock & roll.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Dire Straits – Sultans Of Swing (Alchemy Live – 1983):

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August 11: Leonard Cohen – New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974)

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

leonard cohen old skin

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]…I must say I’m pleased with the album. It’s good. I’m not ashamed of it and am ready to stand by it. Rather than think of it as a masterpiece, I prefer to look at it as a little gem.
~Leonard Cohen (to Melody Maker’s Harvey Kubernik in March 1975)

That miraculously intimate voice has become more expressive and confident over the years without losing its beguiling flat amateurishness. Some of the new songs are less than memorable, but the settings, by John Lissauer, have the bizarre feel of John Simon’s “overproduction” on Cohen’s first album, which I always believed suited his studied vulgarity perfectly. A-
~Robert Christgau (robertchristgau.com)

.. The lyrics are filled with abstract yet vivid images, and the album primarily uses the metaphor of love and relationships as battlegrounds (“There Is a War,” “Field Commander Cohen”). Cohen is clearly singing from the heart, and he chronicles his relationship with Janis Joplin in “Chelsea Hotel No. 2.” This is one of his best album..
~Vik Lyengar (allmusic.com)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Chelsea Hotel #2

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.
Ah but you got away, didn’t you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don’t need you,
I need you, I don’t need you
and all of that jiving around.

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