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The John Cowan Band
New Tattoo
Pinecastle Records PRC1152
www.pinecastle.com
Newgrass. It's good to have one of these bands, a good one, in every A and B market, because it's good music. The trick is that every player in the band has to be good, and the hard thing is breaking originals, since the instrumentation's pretty traditional and live crowds will want and expect covers. There comes a point where even the best newgrass bands have to make a decision to break out instead of making the steady jack to eat out.
The John Cowan Band's long past that decision; they do originals and they're comfortable doing originals. The groundbreaking, tough part for them is that they're not always upbeat, and pushing dark, minor key material that's still mandolin-intensive is a huge challenge. This is not a love-at-first-listen release, but they're on to something. They're original, aware of the big world of songwriting topics around them, and afraid neither of their audiences nor the less positive aspects of that world full of songwriting topics.
Popa Chubby
Stealing the Devil's Guitar
Blind Pig Records BPCD 5103
www.blindpigrecords.com
I may always preface Popa Chubby reviews by recounting how wrong about him I was at first encounter with his music, several years ago. He is one of those rare, refreshing players who constructs new items from the old toolbox. He's great. His songs, delivery and production, which appears on others' albums more and more frequently, much to their benefit and ours, is fantastic.
This particular release can be compared to the Charlie Daniels "Devil Went Down to Georgia" single of many years ago. It has the finesse, the narrative, the power and the passion. Furthermore, it keeps all that going through twelve songs, which, of course, a single never had to do. It's a CD you'll want to stop playing only if Goth friends drop by, and then only so you can put it back on with the bass turned up to start converting those folks to the blues.
Blues lovers with better sense than I had when I first heard Popa Chubby will just fall for him immediately. The man plays the hell out of a guitar, challenging himself to keep up with it vocally. He expresses a general passion for the blues with every phrase, passage and lyrical line, panting pictures and hammering together enduring frames. It's a thick sound, often distorted and generally posturing, which is as it should be with blues, and it stays fast and loud, which is the way the legends designed it half a century ago.
If you already know Popa Chubby, you don't need a critic preaching to you about him. If you don't know him yet, be brighter than this critic was, open your ears and attitudes and dig him from the start.
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Booker T. & the MGs Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8615-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
Yeah, what was that? As house band for Stax, they contributed more to the sound of emerging soul than just about any other combo. On their own, specializing in instrumentals ranging from greasy improvs ("Jellybread," "Soul Clap '69") to worked up Beatles covers ("Lady Madonna," "Something") and spaghetti western themes ("Hang 'Em High") to jams polished into one-of-a-kind soul centerpieces("Green Onions," "Soul Limbo"), they eluded categorization entirely. To some who think all instrumental pop is elevator music, the question must eventually arise -- "Where does this elevator go?" The selections on this anthology, chosen by Elvis Costello, dig deep into album tracks and B-sides, making the release a good partner to and improvement over most of the Booker T & the MGs anthologies previously released. |
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Eddie Floyd Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8616-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
A single Stax artist as various as the label itself, Eddie Floyd wandered like Robert Johnson's lonesome soul three decades before him all over the musical landscape. He ranged adeptly and adroitly from surprisingly straight blues to do wop to gritty, borderline funk / soul. His contributions to juke boxes in his time and in our children's time: "634-5789," "But It's alright," "Soul Street," "I've Never Found a Girl" and, of course, "Knock on Wood." His voice was assertive and butch, but high enough to front horns and enunciate clearly. He was a writer of brilliance, competitive for quality and style with anyone competing label Motown could tout. |
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Johnnie Taylor Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8617-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
I know, I know ... "Disco Lady." Well, damn it, a lot of unlikely people flirted with disco when it looked like it was going to be around and when it made enough money to fill the bottoms of those trousers. Joe Cocker released a disco song, okay, so let's forgive Johnnie Taylor for "Disco Lady." Let;s remember that he more than earned that forgiveness with "Part Time Love" and "Who's Makin' Love." Those are his classics. Johnnie Taylor was a fantastic soul singer with the best of all pedigrees -- He was a friend of Sam Cooke's and his replacement in the Soul Stirrers. He was not decisive. That was his problem. Rather than accepting Jesus's disdain for pop and not concerning himself with his old gospel audience anymore, he kept bouncing back and forth, pop to gospel, pop to soul, pop to blues, so much that he tarnished his own image and made the success he earned and wanted impossible. Despite all that and the big hurdle of second rate material(a challenge also faced and surmounted by Billie Holiday), there is no question upon hearing any of his recordings that Johnnie Taylor was one of the best Memphis soul singers ever.
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Little Milton Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8618-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
A latecomer to Stax, Little Milton Campbell was a traditional Memphis bluesman, working in the format of B.B. King. High-voltage emotion in front of a serious orchestra, guitar leads bobbing in and out, somewhere between the two. His natural voice had advantages over King's, in fact, though his use of real vocal technique never compared to that of either B.B. King or his other idol, Bobbie "Blue" Bland. Tuning was never his strong suit, either, but his string bending turns this into an accidental virtue. In many ways, Little Milton Campbell, by retaining back porch roots on the big stages with the big bands, remains an important translator between different styles and generations of blues. |
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Rance Allen Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8619-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
A joyful noise. An unfamiliar name until you hear the songs, either again or for the first time. His innate knowledge of deep African American musical nuance is astounding, evidenced in the afterbeat and "talking" in his guitar and keyboard work and the vocals going into the falsetto considered to be the surest sign of sexual prowess among Wolof tribesmen, then going on into birdlike trills. He brought the best out of accompanists and studio allies on these 16 tunes, too, magically rooting them into rhythms and relationships too simple for the blues, yet perfect for talking to, or about, a cherished Deity. And that's what Rance Allen did on record during his years with Stax. |
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Rufus Thomas Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8620-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
He wrote a song around 1990 called, "Without Rufus Thomas, Y'all Wouldn't Have No Soul Music Whatsoever." He wore leopard print shorts and matching suspenders to premiere it at the Rum Boogie in Memphis. He was the self-proclaimed "Funkiest Man Alive," and he gave us "Bear Cat," "Walkin' the Dog," "Do the Funky Chicken," "Ride Your Pony," and even some songs that weren't about moving like some animal or other, including "Do the Double Bump," "Funky Hot Grits" and "Funky Robot." Rufus Thomas was a beloved Beale Street character long before Stax Records came into existence. He was probably discussed as the kind of talent that had to be recorded and on whom a label could make money when Stax was forming. Rufus Thomas will always be a character to discuss, and to listen to. |
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Albert King Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8621-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
A favorite of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn, a huge, eccentric player favoring the awkward Flying V guitar, strung upside down, played through a big bass amp and leaned a lot more on minor keys than his predecessors. There was no question that he was a blues player, but his sound was one part Delta, one part Stax funk, courtesy of ubiquitous house band, Booker T & the MGs, and one part Albert King. The songs on this anthology are ideally chosen to remind listeners of what to was like to put a new Albert King album on, to allow them to fantasize about what it might have been like to see the great man live with a huge, adoring crowd, and to identify the parts of his sound that influenced and inspired so many globally renowned players. |
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Otis Redding Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8622-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
Flying home to the Big O Ranch after performances or recordings, he habitually circled the house and tipped his small plane's wings to his children to announce, "Daddy's home." All these years later, it is difficult to not cry when seeing that photo of him strapped into the seat of that Beechcraft after the crash. He was Otis Redding, one of the greatest giants of soul. A working man, a loving man, a humble man who defined his personal musical goal as "sharing Sam Cooke's soul with the world," he was in all ways a treat for his fans. Infamous to his backing players for forgetting lyrics and getting lost in meter, he won every contest he entered and the heart of everyone who saw him perform in the States and abroad. At Monterey Pop, he introduced what he termed "the love crowd" to soul and thoroughly educated them about its joys and sophistications in just a few minutes. It's one of the most magical brief musical sequences ever captured on film. As he reached out, 24-7, from his great heart and soul to the world, he also received, listening to, learning from and loving music from perspectives and cultures other than his own, as when he listened constantly to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" during the week he was recording "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay." It is difficult to not cry over the loss of Otis Redding. |
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The Staple Singers Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8623-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
What a Smithsonian of an act, and of an anthology. The Staples' musical beginnings go back to Roebuck "Pops" Staples Depression Delta blues guitar days, and then he found the church, and raised a family, and the act grew from their church to the gospel recording world, then made a sharp left to protest soul/folk, which they had a big part in inventing, then reached the top of the pop soul heap. Here are all the elements, the earthy, fervent themes, the homemade harmonies, the pulse beat rhythms, the funk, and the topics. This was an act most peer groups would hesitate to follow onto a stage. |
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Carla Thomas Stax Profiles Stax Records STXCD8621-2 www.concordmusicgroup.com |
The daughter of Rufus Thomas, with all his encouragement and backing, plus natural talent and a unique, Memphis version of "sugar chiffon soul" of her own, Carla Thomas was a natural. She would have been "Queen of Soul" if not for Aretha Franklin and a few others. This anthology makes her progression "from puppy love delivery to gutsy soul singer," as CD compiler Mable John put it, accessible and coherent in one great collection. Carla Thomas is the Stax response to the super-girl groups on Motown. It's that beachy, syrupy, shaggable center of soul coming out of wholesome '50s doo-wop, and she holds her own in that context. No one's going to prefer her to Aretha Franklin, but she's on a par with Irma Thomas, Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick. She has the advantage, too, of Stax; the house band, the studio and composition skills of Isaac Hayes and the sound of that movie theater-turned-recording studio. |