What Are You Listening To?

CUrrently, this is what I'm listening to:

Cheap Trick

At Budokan:  The Complete Concert

From All Music Guide:

At Budokan was the pivotal album for Cheap Trick, the one that made them stars. The louder, harder-rocking versions of such Rick Nielsen classics as "I Want You to Want Me" and "Come On, Come On" connected with a wide audience in a way the studio recordings didn't, and the record consequently became a smash. Given its enduring popularity, it wasn't surprising that Epic and Cheap Trick celebrated its 20th anniversary by releasing The Complete Concert, a double-disc set that contains all of the 19 songs the band had performed. Much of this material was released on Budokan II, but this set restores all the music to its original running order, making it an entirely unique album in its own right. There's no question that the music is terrific and it certainly is interesting to hear all of this the way it was actually performed, but The Complete Concert doesn't have the punch of the original album, which hit hard at only ten tracks. The length of this set might make it frustrating for some fans, but any hardcore Trick fan will need this comprehensive, detailed document of the band's most celebrated concert.

John Prine.  Got about 20 songs on the iPod, including:

"Dear Abby"

"Sam Stone"

"Paradise"

and a hilarious duet with Iris DeMent called "In Spite Of Ourselves"

Gin Blossoms:  New Miserable Experience

The Gin Blossoms were one of the more truly damned rock & roll bands to grace the pop charts in the early 1990s. The group was founded and spiritually led by singer-guitarist Doug Hopkins, who also wrote the band's best songs; by the time New Miserable Experience, the band's major-label debut, was released, Hopkins had been kicked out (his bandmates had apparently tired of dealing with his alcoholism). Shortly after the album's release Hopkins killed himself, and the band subsequently enjoyed the biggest hit of its career with "'Til I Hear It From You" (which, perversely, never appeared on a Gin Blossoms album, but only on the Empire Records soundtrack). The band dropped from sight not long after. New Miserable Experience remains the best and most representative document of the group's existence, a tight and lean collection of brilliant, edgy pop music. "Hey Jealousy" and "Until I Fall Away" are the two songs that leave the deepest impression, but the crunchy melodicism and lyrical desperation of "Hold Me Down" sticks with you as well. Two dilettantish genre pieces — "Cajun Song" and a country weeper called "Cheatin'" (as in "you can't call it cheatin' 'cause she reminds me of you") — provide the program's two low points, but even those aren't completely without charm.

Closed my eyes and double clicked on a random song in my music folder:

Careless Whisper by Wham!

Ouch!

Could've been worse; could've been Village People.

I was going to say "Ouch!" but Rock beat me to it! You know, you could make sure that never happens again.

Now Playing on CBS Inspiration Wednesday - John Prine's first album with Sam Stone and Paradise, in addition to Illegal Smile and Hello In There, Angel From Montgomery, and others. One of the great albums of all time. I think I'll go random after that and see what happens.

Now Playing after sorting itunes by track time and scrolling about halfway down

Kim Wilson - That's Life

From AMG: Harmonica player, songwriter and singer Kim Wilson is as much a student and historian of classic blues as he is one of the U.S.'s top harmonica players. Simply put, Wilson has taste; when he enters the recording studio, he has a clear vision of what he wants his next record to sound like. Aside from all this, he's also an extremely hard worker and a major road hog, spending upwards of 200 nights a year on the road, playing festivals and clubs throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe with his own Kim Wilson band and leading the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Although he's long been known as the charismatic frontman for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Wilson's solo albums — which feature bands of his own choosing for different tracks — is where the genius in his work shows through most clearly. Born January 6, 1951 in Detroit, Wilson grew up in California. His parents were singers who would sing popular standards on the radio, and while Wilson took trombone and guitar lessons, he didn't discover blues until he was a senior in high school. Wilson's father later worked for General Motors and raised his family in Goleta, California, he recalled in a 1994 interview in his adopted hometown of Austin.

"We weren't rich, but we were alright," he recalled. Wilson dropped out of college and began playing blues full time in 1970. Wilson had a rented room and lived the hippie existence, getting his harmonica chops together by playing with traveling blues musicians like Eddie Taylor. Even though Wilson had only switched to harmonica in his senior year in high school, his progress on the instrument was rapid and every bit as all-consuming as his blues record-buying habit. Charlie Musselwhite, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Rhodes were among the other Bay Area musicians Wilson befriended and worked with in clubs. But Wilson didn't meet his biggest mentor until after he moved to Austin in the mid-'70s.

"Muddy Waters was my biggest mentor. He really made my reputation for me, and that was a fantastic time of my life, being associated with that man," he recalled of his early days with the Fabulous Thunderbirds in Austin. There, at the Antone's blues nightclub, Wilson and his Thunderbirds would back up whoever came into town, and it didn't take long for the band to realize they had Waters' blessing.

As a songwriter, Wilson takes his cue from the long-forgotten names like Tampa Red, Roosevelt Sykes and Lonnie Johnson. His 1993 solo album, Tigerman, for the Austin-based Antone's label, features just three of his own tunes. Being the student of the blues that he is, Wilson was understandably hesitant to record too many of his own tunes when he'd already had a vision in his head of how he was going to rework classics like Joe Hill Louis's "Tiger Man," the album's title track. He followed up his debut with the equally brilliant That's Life (1994), also for Antone's, and again this recording contains just three self-penned songs.

Wilson's career took a boost in the '90s with a major-label deal with Private Music/BMG for the Fabulous Thunderbirds and frequent concert appearances with Bonnie Raitt. Wilson's solo albums are solid productions, highly recommended for harmonica students and fans of classic Texas blues and rhythm & blues.

Listening to "Doug Sahm's Similar Artists" on www.last.fm

Now Playing:

"Blue Shadows"  by  The Blasters

If you've never heard of last.fm, it Bills itself as "the social music revolution."  It is a community where you can keep track of your listening habits and check out what your neighbors are listening to, also.  Very interesting.  Give it a try.

Also, have any of you ever heard of emusic.com?  They feature independent and small-label artists and have a great selection.  For a basic fee of $10 per month, you get 30 downloads.  Upon a member's recommendation, you can get 50 free downloads just for trying it.  If anyone would like to try it, PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you the form to get your free downloads.

www.emusic.com

I'll be checking both those sites out when I have time (which may be a while). I was at Radio Shack the other day and saw you can buy a card good for a number of downloads on emusic.com. They had different denominations.

Now Playing (As inspired by a couple of earlier messages): American Recordings by Johnny Cash

The first time I heard this I couldn't believe my ears. What a great great recording by the legendary Johnny Cash. It introduced him to a whole new audience as it was produced by Rick Rubin. Like Rock said, he could sing the phone book and I'd enjoy it, but this is even better.

Inspired by Down in the Boondocks, Now Playing:

Ry Cooder - Borderline

A great cover of the above mentioned song plus one of my all time favorites - The Girls From Texas

"When the preacher started readin' 'bout 'til death do us part

I told him skip it. She's had that understanding right from the start."

One Ry Cooder Album leads to another

Now Playing: Into the Purple Valley

From AMG: Ry Cooder is known as a virtuoso on almost every stringed instrument, and on Into the Purple Valley, he demonstrates this ability on a wide variety of instruments. The main focus of the music here is on the era of the Dust Bowl, and what was happening in America at the time, socially and musically. Songs by Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, and a variety of others show Cooder's encyclopedic knowledge of the music of this time, combined with an instinctive feel for the songs. 'Phenomenal' is the descriptive word to describe his playing, whether it is on guitar, Hawaiian "slack key" guitar, mandolin, or the more arcane instruments he has found. This is a must for those who love instrumental virtuosity, authentic reworkings of an era, or just plain good music.

And another - Bop Till You Drop

From AMG:

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.

Bruce Springsteen:  Nebraska

There is an adage in the record business that a recording artist's demos of new songs often come off better than the more polished versions later worked up in a studio. But Bruce Springsteen was the first person to act on that theory, when he opted to release the demo versions of his latest songs, recorded with only acoustic or electric guitar, harmonica, and vocals, as his sixth album, Nebraska. It was really the content that dictated the approach, however. Nebraska's ten songs marked a departure for Springsteen, even as they took him farther down a road he had been traveling previously. Gradually, his songs had become darker and more pessimistic, and those on Nebraska marked a new low. They also found him branching out into better developed stories. The title track was a first-person account of the killing spree of mass murderer Charlie Starkweather. (It can't have been coincidental that the same story was told in director Terrence Malick's 1973 film Badlands, also used as a Springsteen song titl