Last night Justin Vernon joined his old bandmates, Megafaun, for a spirited verson of Carson Jay Robison’s “Boomer’s Story,” the title song of Ry Cooder’s third album.
“Boomer’s Story”:
“Heretofore:
“Kaufman’s Ballad”:
Thanks, Stereogum!
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Last night super-Earth, the new band that finds Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck collaborating, performed in Portland at Secret Society, opening for Buck.
The group played 12 songs that David Greenwald of The Oregonian wrote were “so fresh, Tucker had lyric sheets.”
More from Greenwald’s review:
The occasional look to her music stand didn’t stop Tucker, still one of the best rock singers working, from commanding a room that had filled in by the time super-Earth took the stage. The new material, speedy and loud, was full of power chords, enthusiasm and the occasional signature Buck arpeggio — less punk rock than power-pop but always knife-sharp. It sounded like an album: hopefully it will be.
In addition to Buck and Tucker, super-Earth includes guitarist Scott McCaughey (Minus 5), drummer Bill Rieflin (Swans, Ministry), and guitarist Kurt Bloch (ex-Fastbacks).
The group are currently working on an album, according to the Portland Mercury.
Buck and Tucker have worked together in the past. Tucker sang on both of Buck’s solo albums.
Here are two songs on Peter Buck albums featuring Tucker:
“Drown With Me”:
“Nothing Means Nothing”:
Plus Pearl Jam, Sleater Kinney, Peter Buck and members of his band do “Rockin’ in the Free World” November 29, 2013:
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
On May 1, 1969, 45 years ago, Bob Dylan’s appearance on “The Johnny Cash Show” was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Dylan did two songs on his own — “I Threw It All Away” and “Living the Blues” and then was joined by Johnny Cash for “Girl From the North Country,” a song they sang together on his latest album, Nashville Skyline.
Watch two video clips at the bottom of this post, plus audio of the third song.
After Johnny Cash died on September 12, 1003, Bob Dylan was asked for a comment. This is what he wrote:
I was asked to give a statement on Johnny’s passing and thought about writing a piece instead called “Cash Is King,” because that is the way I really feel. In plain terms, Johnny was and is the North Star; you could guide your ship by him — the greatest of the greats then and now. I first met him in ’62 or ’63 and saw him a lot in those years. Not so much recently, but in some kind of way he was with me more than people I see every day.
There wasn’t much music media in the early Sixties, and Sing Out! was the magazine covering all things folk in character. The editors had published a letter chastising me for the direction my music was going. Johnny wrote the magazine back an open letter telling the editors to shut up and let me sing, that I knew what I was doing. This was before I had ever met him, and the letter meant the world to me. I’ve kept the magazine to this day.
Of course, I knew of him before he ever heard of me. In ’55 or ’56, “I Walk the Line” played all summer on the radio, and it was different than anything else you had ever heard. The record sounded like a voice from the middle of the earth. It was so powerful and moving. It was profound, and so was the tone of it, every line; deep and rich, awesome and mysterious all at once. “I Walk the Line” had a monumental presence and a certain type of majesty that was humbling. Even a simple line like “I find it very, very easy to be true” can take your measure. We can remember that and see how far we fall short of it.
Johnny wrote thousands of lines like that. Truly he is what the land and country is all about, the heart and soul of it personified and what it means to be here; and he said it all in plain English. I think we can have recollections of him, but we can’t define him any more than we can define a fountain of truth, light and beauty. If we want to know what it means to be mortal, we need look no further than the Man in Black. Blessed with a profound imagination, he used the gift to express all the various lost causes of the human soul. This is a miraculous and humbling thing. Listen to him, and he always brings you to your senses. He rises high above all, and he’ll never die or be forgotten, even by persons not born yet — especially those persons — and that is forever.
The show aired on June 7, 1969.
Here’s a great piece that ran in Rolling Stone about Dylan’s appearance on the show.
“I Threw It All Away”:
“Living the Blues”:
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, “Girl From the North Country”:
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Someone has posted this live version of “Get Right,” a song that Arcade Fire may have recorded for Reflektor, but of course didn’t include on it.
This live version was recorded at Montreal’s Salsathèque club on September 9, 2013, according to Consequence of Sound.
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Joni Mitchell made some negative comments about Bob Dylan in 2010 and more recently.
Still, that didn’t stop her earlier in her career from singing his songs.
Check these out.
Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash, “Girl From the North Country,” October 1970:
Joni Mitchell and Pete Seeger, “Mr. Tambourine Man.” October 18, 1970:
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”:
Mama Cass, Joni Mitchell, Mary Travers, Mama Cass Show, 1969, “I Shall Be Released”:
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
New Hold Steady video, “I Hope This Whole Thing Doesn’t Frighten You.”
Until 3 a.m. ET you can watch it here. After that you can watch it right here at Days of the Crazy-Wild.
Below are four videos of The Hold Steady live.
The Hold Steady at WTTS FM’s Sun King Studio 92 in Indianapolis on April 25, 2014.
“The Ambassador”:
“Almost Everything”:
“Spinners”:
“Citrus”:
– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Jeff Healey and Stanley Jordan perform 17-minute version of “All Along Watchtower” in Amarillo, Texas, 1998.
This is a crazy jam.
Part one:
Part two:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Here’s Warner Bros. press release on the upcoming “Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set” of Neil Young’s A Letter Home, which is priced at $109.98 and includes two songs not on the “standard edition” that will sell for $13.99.
April 24, 2014 – (Burbank, CA.) – Neil Young will release a CD, digital album and a Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set of his recent vinyl album A Letter Home on Reprise Records on May 27th. The box set is a beautifully packaged expanded version of the vinyl edition first released on April 18th by Jack White’s Third Man Records. The Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set will also contain a Download card for the hi-res Audiophile version of the album. Click here to pre-order A Letter Home. Click here to view the album cover art. Click here to view the Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set package.
Young recorded the collection of covers with White on a refurbished 1947 Voice-O-Graph recording booth at Third Man’s Nashville headquarters. Imagine a very simple recording studio not much larger than a phone booth and you’ll get the idea. He describes the album as “an unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro-mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever.” Recorded live to track to one-track, mono, the album has an inherent warm, primitive feel of a vintage Folkways recording,
As for the track-listing, Young chose songs that have personal meaning for him, such as British folk artist Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death” (which inspired Young to write 1972’s “Needle and the Damage Done”), Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” Don Everly’s “I Wonder If I Care as Much,” Bruce Springsteen’s “My Home Town,” and many others. Click here to watch a video for “Needle of Death”
The album begins with Neil recording a spoken letter to his late mother, informing her of his personal and present state of affairs which sets the tone and atmosphere for the duration of the album. He does this once again at the beginning of Side 2 in a way which could explain why he’s selected these particular songs to record. In essence, this presentation is, as its title implies, A Letter Home from Neil. This is a deeply personal and expressive listening experience which is as real and raw emotionally as it is sonically and yet light of touch in its form and flow.
Reprise will release the complete box set, which includes a special “direct feed from the booth” audiophile vinyl version and a DVD that captured the original electro-mechanical process, along with comments from the producers and recording engineers. It includes:
Standard audio LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl
Audiophile LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl
Standard audio CD
DVD with footage from the recording
12″ x 12″, 32-page full color booklet
Download card for hi-res Audiophile version of album
Seven 6″ vinyl discs pressed on clear vinyl. The 7th disc of this set features a version of Dylan’s
“Blowin’ In The Wind” backed with an alternate take / arrangement of “Crazy”
The track-listing for A Letter Home is as follows:
A Letter Home intro
Changes (Phil Ochs)
Girl from the North Country (Bob Dylan)
Needle of Death (Bert Jansch)
Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot)
Crazy (Willie Nelson)
Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin)
On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot)
Since I Met You Baby (Ivory Joe Hunter)
My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen)
I Wonder If I Care as Much (Don Everly)
# # #
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Earlier today Neil Young officially released the “Needle of Death” video that has appeared sporadically on YouTube since it was shown at a the Celebration of Bert Jansch at The Royal Festival Hall on December 3, 2013.
“Needle of Death,” a Jansch composition that influenced Young when he wrote “The Needle and the Damage Done,” appears on Young’s new album, A Letter Home.
The video shows Young recording the song at Jack White’s Third Man Records in the 1947 Voice-o-Graph booth. Jack White co-produced A Letter Home with Young, or as it says on the album’s back cover, “reproduced.”
When he finishes singing the song, Young steos out of the Voice-o-Graph booth and White says to him, “Sounded good,” to which Young replies, “It’s a heavy song, very heavy song.”
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Last November Wire played a 20 minute set — four songs — at KEXP in Seattle and included a new song, “Blogging.”
Check it out.
Setlist: Wire, KEXP studios, Seattle, November 13, 2013
1. “Marooned”
2. “Blogging”
3. “Adore Your Island”
4. “Stealth Of A Stork”
Thanks Slicing Up Eyeballs!
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-