Brit Floyd Celebrates 40th Anniversary Of The Wall With Spectacular Show

This November marks the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. It’s hard to believe. I got that double-LP album when it first came out and own it to this day – on vinyl, of course! My great guitar teacher at the time was impressed that a 13-year-old would listen to this stuff. The lyrics were certainly less cheerful than the early Beatles tunes he was teaching me about holding hands and she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, apart from classical guitar. Admittedly, I cared more about the music than the words back then.

My initial attraction to The Wall was Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2), which received lots of radio play in Germany. Though I realized the context on the album was different, lines like “We don’t need no education” and “Hey teachers, leave those kids alone” somehow appealed to a pretty quiet and well behaved young teenager!😀 I seem to recall a little party in our class room at school where we had a boom box. As our English teacher entered the room, Another Brick In The Wall was playing, and we were cheerfully grooving along.  He couldn’t help but briefly grin before turning serious again.

Nowadays, I feel there are better tunes on The Wall than Another Brick In The Wall. I also prefer other Pink Floyd albums like Meddle, Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals. Still, I continue to like Floyd’s 11th studio record released on November 30, 1979.

Brit Floyd got on my radar screen about two and a half months ago when a friend who had them seem was raving about the band, especially their lapsteel guitarist. Shortly thereafter, I learned about their current tour dedicated to The Wall, so I checked them out on YouTube. After starting to watch this fantastic clip capturing an entire 2018 gig at Red Rocks, it didn’t take long to buy a ticket to see these guys, who do an incredible job that should make the surviving members of Pink Floyd proud. Last night was show time at Sands Bethlehem Event Center in Bethlehem, Pa. And boy, what a spectacle it was!

Brit Floyd (from left): Upper row: Damian Darlington, Rob Stringer, Ian Cattell & Edo Scordo; middle row: Arran Ahmum, Thomas Ashbrook & Ola Bienkowska; and lower row: Angela Servantes, Roberta Freeman, Emily Jollands & Jacquie Williams

The genius behind Brit Floyd is musical director Damian Darlington, who also provides vocals and plays guitar and lapsteel. Prior to forming the band in Liverpool, England in 2011, he had played for 17 years with long-running Aussie tribute The Australian Pink Floyd Show. If my math is correct, this means the man has played the music of Pink Floyd for at least 25 years. And this doesn’t include Darlington’s earlier music journey, which according to his bio on the Brit Floyd website started when he got into playing the guitar seriously as a 13-year-old. That was about the same age I started taking guitar lessons. Darlington turned out to be more talented!😆

Brit Floyd’s other members have impressive credentials as well. I would go too far to mention them in this post. All their bios are on the band’s website as well. Apart from Darlington, listed members are pictured above and include: Rob Stringer (keyboards, vocals), Ian Cattell (bass, vocals Chapman Stick, trumpet), Edo Scordo (guitar, vocals), Arran Ahmum (drums),  Thomas Ashbrook (keyboards, vocals), as well as backing vocalists Ola Bienkowska, Angela Cervantes, Roberta Freeman, Emily Jollands and Jacquie Williams. Last night, they had three backing vocalists, including Ella Chi, who is not in the above picture. Jacquie Williams was there as well. I’m not sure who the third vocalist was. Yes, it does take an army of top-notch artists and a breathtaking stage production to capture the mighty live experience of Pink Floyd!

Which so much amazing music, it’s really hard to select clips and even where to begin, so let’s start with the opening of the show: In The Flesh? and The Thin Ice., the first two tunes on side 1 of The Wall. Like almost all material on this album, the two tracks were written by Roger Waters. Brit Floyd sprinkled most tunes of the record in sections throughout the show, including the entire side 1.

Apart from The Wall, Brit Floyd played plenty of additional Pink Floyd music, drawing on most of their studio albums starting with Meddle from October 1971. Here’s one of the highlights from last night’s show: The Great Gig In The Sky featuring Ella Chi on vocals, who absolutely killed it! Appearing on The Dark Side Of The Moon, released in March 1973, the lyrics were written by Waters, while the music is credited to Floyd keyboarder Richard Wright and Clare Torry, who will be forever part of modern rock music history for her amazing vocal performance on the tune.

Next up: Fearless, off the Meddle album. This tune was co-written by Waters and David Gilmour. Meddle may best be known for the One Of These Days, which Brit Floyd performed as well last night, shaking the wall of the place, and the epic Echoes, which they perhaps understandably did not play, given the track’s extended length. But I’ve really come to dig Fearless over the years, which is why I decided to record it instead of One Of These Days.

While compared to their ’60s and ’70s albums I’m less fond of Pink Floyd’s music following The Wall, I wanted to capture at least one tune from that era: Keeping Talking from The Divison Bell. Released in March 1994, it was Floyd’s final album with Wright, who passed away in September 2008 at the age of 65. The tune is credited to Gilmour, Wright and Gilmour’s then-fiancee Polly Samson, a novelist who co-wrote many of the lyrics. During the 1994 tour that supported The Division Bell they got married. This is also the last track from the first of two regular sets Brit Floyd played. Set two started after a 20-minute intermission.

Following are two tracks on the second set, which kicked off with a couple of tunes from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason from September 1987, Floyd’s first studio effort after Roger Waters had departed, followed by another section of songs from side 2 of The Wall. But since no Pink Floyd tribute show would be complete without music from Wish You Were, I’d like to highlight a track from that record. Floyd’s ninth studio album from September 1975 was my introduction to the band in the ’70s, and it remains one of my favorites to this day. Brit Floyd performed a fantastic rendition of Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) and the title track. I may be a music nut, but the thought of holding up my phone for 13-plus minutes proved to be too much of a deterrent, so I went with Wish You Were Here, co-written by Waters and Gilmour.😆

For the last tune in this post, I’d like to return to The Wall with my favorite track, which originally appeared on side 3 of the double LP: Comfortably Numb, one of only two songs on the album, showing a co-writing credit for Gilmour. By the time the band recorded The Wall, it pretty much had become a Roger Waters project. In fact, tensions between him and the other members were increasing and culminated in a showdown between Wright and Waters who fired him during the recording sessions. But Wright was kept as a salaried session musician and eventually left Pink Floyd in 1981, following the tour that supported The Wall. He returned during the post-Waters era, initially as a session player in 1987 for the recording of A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. He became a full-time member again in 1994 for the studio sessions for The Division Bell. Comfortably Numb is probably best known for its guitar solo, which remains one of the most epic in rock. Darlington and Brit Floyd’s other guitarist Edo Scordo did a beautiful job with it. Check it out!

The second set was followed by an encore that spanned most of the tracks from side 4 of The Wall. Altogether the show lasted for a solid three hours including the above noted intermission. By now you’ve probably figured out that Brit Floyd is one hell of a tribute band. In fact, I would argue that if you’re a Pink Floyd fan, they are probably the next best act you can see nowadays. The good news is there are plenty of remaining opportunities this year.😎

Brit Floyd’s current North American leg, which kicked off in Pittsburgh, Pa. on March 22 on the heels of 15 shows in the U.K., includes 70 dates across the U.S. and some in Canada, extending all the way until the end of July. Some of these shows include New York (Apr 1), Toronto (Apr 5), Detroit (Apr 13), Milwaukee (Apr 20), Baltimore (May 2), Philadelphia (May 7), Denver (Jun 6), Phoenix (Jun 28), San Francisco (Jul 9), Salt Lake City (Jul 17) and the final U.S. show in Hampton, N.H. (Jul 31). This will be followed by 30 dates in Europe, starting late September and including Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The full schedule is here.

Sources: Wikipedia, Brit Floyd website, YouTube

Celebrating James Jamerson

If you had asked me as recently as a few weeks ago to name influential bass players in pop and rock, I might have mentioned Paul McCartney, John Entwistle, Jack Bruce and John Paul Jones. Then I read that McCartney, one of my all-time favorite artists, noted  James Jamerson and Brian Wilson as key influences for his bass playing. Admittedly, that was the first time I had heard about Jamerson.

While given my history as a hobby bassist I’m a bit embarrassed about my ignorance regarding Jamerson, I can point to one key difference between him and the other aforementioned bassists. Unlike them, Jamerson was kind of invisible for a long time – literally. While he played on countless Motown recordings in the ’60s and early ’70s, usually, he wasn’t credited, at least at the time. That’s even more unbelievable once you realize how revered this man was among other professional bass players.

According to Bass Player magazine, which named Jamerson no. 1 on its 2017 list of The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time, “The most important and influential bass guitarist in the 66-year history of the Fender Precision he played, South Carolina-born, Detroit-raised James Jamerson wrote the bible on bass line construction and development, feel, syncopation, tone, touch, and phrasing, while raising the artistry of improvised bass playing in popular music to zenith levels.” In addition to McCartney, many other prominent bassists have pointed to Jamerson as a primary influence, including Jones, Enwistle, Wilson, Randy Meisner, Bill Wyman, Chuck Rainey, Geddy Lee and Pino Palladino, to name some.

Jamerson was born on January 29, 1936 on Edisto Island near Charleston, S.C. In 1954, he moved to Detroit with his mother. Soon, while still being in high school, he began playing in local blues and jazz clubs. After graduation, Jamerson started getting session engagements in local recording studios. In 1959, he found a steady job as a studio bassist at Motown where became part of The Funk Brothers, essentially the equivalent of Stax  houseband Booker T. & the M.G.s, except it was a much larger and more fluid group of musicians.

During his earliest Motown sessions, Jamerson used a double bass. In the early ’60s, he switched to an electric Fender Precision Bass most of the time. Like him, most of The Funk Brothers originally were jazz musicians who had been hired by Motown founder Berry Gordy to back the label’s recording artists in the studio. For many years, the members of The Funk Brothers would do session work at the Motown studio during the day and play in local jazz clubs at night. Occasionally, they also backed Motown’s stars during tours.

Not only did the musicians make substantially less money than the label’s main artists, but they also did not receive any recording credits for most of their careers. It wasn’t until 1971 that Jamerson was acknowledged on a major Motown release: Somewhat ironically, that album was Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. Eventually, Motown put Jamerson on a weekly retainer of $1,000 (about $7,200 in 2018 dollars), which enabled him and his family to live comfortably. In 1973, Jamerson ended his relationship with Motown, which had since been relocated to Los Angeles. For the remainder of the ’70s, he worked with artists like Eddie Kendricks, Robert Palmer, Dennis Wilson, Smokey Robinson and Ben E. King.

But Jamerson did not embrace certain trends in bass playing that emerged during the ’70s, such as simpler and more repetitive bass lines and techniques like slapping. As a result, he fell out of favor with many producers, and by the 1980s, sadly, he essentially could not get any serious session work. Eventually, Jamerson’s long history with alcoholism caught up with him, and he died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure and pneumonia on August 2, 1983. He was only 47 years old. Time for some music featuring this amazing musician!

I’d like to kick things off with an early recording that did not appear on Motown: Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker. Written by him, it became one of his signature tunes. According to Wikipedia, apparently it was Detroit pianist Joe Hunter, who brought in Jamerson and some other members from The Funk Brothers to the recording session.

Here’s one of the many Motown tunes on which Jamerson performed: For Once In My Life, the title track of Stevie Wonder’s album from December 1968. The song was co-written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden.

Next up: The aforementioned What’s Going On, which I think is one of the most soulful Marvin Gaye songs. The title track of his 11th studio album released in May 1971 was co-written by Gaye, Motown songwriter Al Cleveland and Renaldo Benson, a founding member of The Four Tops.

I also like to touch on a couple of songs after Jamerson had parted with Motown. Here is Boogie Down by Eddie Kendricks, another title track. The fourth studio album by the former vocalist of The Temptations appeared in February 1973. The groovy tune was co-written by Anita Poree, Frank Wilson and Leonard Caston.

For the last track let’s jump to November 1975 when Robert Palmer released his second studio album Pressure Drop. Here’s the great opener Give Me An Inch, which was also written by Palmer.

James Jamerson received numerous accolades after his death. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of the first inductees to be honored in the “sideman” category. In 2004, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as part of The Funk Brothers. Along with the other members of the group, Jamerson was also inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn. in 2007.

I’d like to close with Paul McCartney, who during a 1994 interview with bass book author Tony Bacon said: “Mainly as time went on it was Motown, James Jamerson—who became just my hero, really. I didn’t actually know his name until quite recently. James was very melodic, and that got me more interested.”

Sources: Wikipedia, Bass Player magazine, Reverb.com, YouTube

Clips & Pix: Southern Avenue/No Time To Lose

I’ve written about Southern Avenue before, for example here. Together with Greta Van Fleet, this five-piece funky blues, R&B and soul band from Memphis, Tenn. is one of the very few younger contemporary music acts I’m truly excited about. I had a chance to briefly chat with guitarist Ori Naftaly and lead vocalist Tierinii Jackson at a gig in New York last August, and apart from being talented artists, they are such nice and regular people – not necessarily a given in the music world, especially for a band that appears to be received enthusiastically wherever they perform. These guys are keeping it real!

Co-written by Jackson and Naftaly, No Time To Lose is included on Southern Southern’s eponymous debut album that appeared in February 2017 on Stax Records – yep, that Stax where the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave released their music. That in and of itself is pretty cool in my book. I also think this tune rocks: great guitar riff and superb singing. The sound of the keys played by Jeremy Powell is right up my alley as well. Tierinii’s sister Tikyra Jackson on drums completes the band’s core lineup. Bassist Gage Markey is a touring member.

Speaking of touring, Southern Avenue seems to be on the road most of the time. They’re playing in many parts of the U.S. and occasionally even oversees. You can check out their current schedule on their Facebook page here. They are also scheduled to release their sophomore album later this year.

Sources: Southern Avenue website and Facebook page, YouTube

Clips & Pix: The Commitments/Mustang Sally

Friday night, I watched The Commitments in a charming little theater close to Princeton, N.J.,  where they featured the Irish musical comedy in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. It must have been the third or fourth time I saw the picture about a lad putting together a soul band of working class youngsters on the northside of Dublin. Apart from being pretty hilarious, the movie features great Stax-like soul music. One of my favorites is Mustang Sally.

While the tune is most closely associated with Wilson Pickett, who released it in 1966 and scored a hit, it was actually first recorded the previous year by Stax fellow artist Bonny “Mack” Rice, who also penned the song. Apart from Mustang Sally, Rice is best known for co-writing Respect Yourself with Luther Ingram. I like both the original and Pickett’s cover of Mustang Sally but have to say the added pep in the version by The Commitments kicks it up a notch for me.

Andrew Strong, who plays the band’s obnoxious lead vocalist Deco Cuffe, just has a fantastic raspy soulful voice. According to Wikipedia, all other band members acting in the movie were actually performing as well and selected because of their musical talents. The only exception was saxophonist Joey ‘The Lips’ Fagan (gotta love that name) played by Johnny Murphy.

At the end of the day, whoever was playing what you hear in the picture or on the soundtrack did a phenomenal job. Apparently, there is a still-active touring version of the band called Stars From The Commitments featuring various members from the movie’s cast.

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube

Happy St. Paddy’s Day Weekend!

With S. Paddy’s Day weekend being underway, it felt right to post this clip of Fisherman’s Blues by British-Irish folk rockers The Waterboys. Apparently, the footage was captured during a 2007 gig in Germany as part of the long-running TV music show Rockpalast.

Co-written by founding member Mike Scott (vocals, guitar, piano) and Steve Wickham (fiddle, mandolin), who joined The Waterboys in 1985, Fisherman’s Blues is the title track of the band’s fourth studio album released in October 1988. Scott and Wickham continue to be part of the present line-up, which has seen many changes since the band was formed in 1983.

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube

What I’ve Been Listening To: Booker T. Jones/Sound The Alarm

I dig the distinct sound of the Hammond B3 – just can’t get of enough it! Whether it’s used in blues, jazz, rock or even hard rock a la Deep Purple, to me it’s one of the greatest sounding music instruments I know. If you’re a more frequent visitor of the blog, this won’t be exactly a new revelation. If you happen to be here for the first time and would like to read more about the B3, I invite you to check out this previous post from June 2017.

Undoubtedly, one of the music artists most closely associated with the legendary tone wheel organ is Booker T. Jones. I feel magic is happening when the man works those keys and drawbars. As I’m writing this, I can literally hear Greens Onions.  Jones wrote the tune’s distinct organ line when he was just 17. His band mates from the M.G.s helped put it all together, and it became their signature tune. Booker T. & the M.G.s, of course, were primarily known as the house band of Memphis soul label Stax. While I know and dig the music Jones helped create in the ’60s, until recently, I had not explored any of his work post Stax and the M.G.’s.

Booker T. & The M.G.’s (from left): Al Jackson Jr., Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn

Booker T.’s solo debut Evergreen appeared in 1974, four years after he had severed ties with Stax and moved to Los Angeles. Sound The Alarm from June 2013 is his most recent solo work. It also marked Jones’ return to Stax since Melting Pot, the M.G.’s final album with the label in January 1971.

Sound The Alarm was co-produced by Jones and brothers Bobby Ross Avila and Issiah “IZ” Avila, who have worked with the likes of Usher, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliot. The album also features various collaborations with younger R&B artists. The result is an intriguing blend of Booker T.’s Hammond B3 and contemporary sounds.

Here’s the groovy opener and title track. It’s one of eight tunes co-written by The Avila Brothers. The song features American multi-talented artist Andrew Mayer Cohen, known as Mayer Hawthorne, on vocals. To be clear, I had never heard of the 40-year-old from Los Angeles before, who in addition to being a singer is a producer, songwriter, arranger, audio engineer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist, according to Wikipedia.

Broken Heart features another contemporary artist, Jay James, who has a great soulful voice that blends beautifully with Jones’ warm Hammond sound. The tune was co-written by Jones, The Avila Brothers and Terry Lewis. Together with his song-writing and production partner James Samuel (Jimmy Jam), Lewis also co-produced the track

Next up: Austin City Blues. Of course I couldn’t skip a good ole blues! Penned by Jones, the instrumental features Gary Clark, Jr. on guitar. The Hammond and Clark’s electric guitar live in perfect harmony, to creatively borrow from a Paul McCartney ballad he recorded with Stevie Wonder in the early ’80s. “Gary and I have a real thing going on mentally, kind of like what I had with Steve Cropper in the MGs, really understanding each other,” Jones noted on his website.  “He really is in my corner.”

66 Impala is a cool, largely instrumental Latin jazz tune with an infectious Santana vibe, even though there’s no guitar. But you can easily imagine Carlos playing electric guitar lines in his signature style and tone on the track, which is another co-write by Jones and The Avila Brothers. Instead of Santana, it features two other big names: Poncho Sanchez and Sheila E on percussion and drums, respectively.

The last track I’d like to call out is the album’s closer Father Son Blues. The title of this Jones-written tune couldn’t be more appropriate. On guitar, the instrumental duo features Booker T.’s son Ted, who was 22 years old at the time of the recording. Apparently, Booker T. coincidentally had heard his son play at their house one day and at first mistakenly had assumed it was Joe Bonamassa. “I thought, ‘This is amazing,'” Jones noted. “‘you can have something right in front of your own nose and you don’t see it!’”

Commenting on the collaboration with The Avila Brothers, Jones said, “Bobby and I had previously done a little impromptu gig with El Debarge – that was the turning point when I decided to work with him. They have a different perspective about the musical palette. Their attitude is quite unique and quite innovative. That’s something I’ve looked for since I was maybe 13 or 14 years old and had figured out a little bit about music. It can be very predictable or it can be exploratory. I’m always looking for something new to do.”

Sources: Wikipedia, Booker T. Jones website, YouTube

 

Good Stuff Celebrates Great Music of Steely Dan, Gino Vannelli, Sting And Stevie Wonder

At first sight, Steely Dan, Gino Vannelli, Sting and Stevie Wonder don’t seem to have many things in common. Of course, each are distinguished artists who became successful during an era when you could easily find great music, even on mainstream radio. Music that involved true craftsmanship. Music that had soul. Music that would grab you. Music that would want you to learn how to play an instrument yourself. At least, that’s what it did to me when I was in my young teens!

While I’m afraid the days when great music was part of the top 40 charts and all you really needed to do find it was switching on the radio are largely gone, there’s something very powerful about great music: It’s here to stay, in some cases even for more than 200 years, when you think about classical composers. And it should be celebrated. Enter Good Stuff, a unique tribute band to the above noted artists.

Mike Caputo, founder and lead vocalist of Good Stuff

As regular visitors of the blog know, I enjoy going to tribute shows and have done so quite frequently in recent years. This has included truly outstanding bands, and I’ve written about many of them in the past. Because of that my good blogger buddy Music Enthusiast has even jokingly called me The King of Tribute Bands. And why not? After all, there’s a king of pop, a king of rock & roll, a queen of soul, etc., so wouldn’t you agree it’s appropriate to have a king of tribute bands?😀

Most tribute acts I’ve seen focus on one particular artist or band. So when vocalist Mike Caputo, whom I’ve known for a couple of years, told me he was putting together a tribute band to celebrate the music of Steely Dan, Gino Vannelli, Sting and Stevie Wonder, frankly, I was a bit skeptical at first. Steely Dan made total sense to me. Mike has been a singer, songwriter and musician for more than five decades. From his previous longtime tenure as lead vocalist of a Steely Dan tribute band, I knew he nails the voice of Donald Fagen. But adding three other artists to the mix? Well, it may not be a common concept, but Good Stuff surely pull it off beautifully. And once you listen to their setlist, you realize these songs really work well together.

Good Stuff (clockwise): Mike Caputo, Don Regan, Axel Belohoubek, Deanna Carroll, Jay Dittamo, Scott Hogan, Phil Armeno and Linda Ferrano

Of course, it’s not only about selecting the “right” music from four different artists; it also takes great musicians to implement the concept. Which brings me to the band: Don Regan (guitar), Axel Belohoubek (keyboards), Deanna Carroll (vocals), Jay Dittamo (drums), Scott Hogan (bass), Phil Armeno (saxophones, flute) and Linda Ferrano (vocals). Linda is a recent addition to Good Stuff and alternates vocal duties with Deanna. All of these guys are professional musicians; most of them have been for more than three decades with impressive accomplishments.

For example, Alex’s credits include tour pre-production for Madonna and David Bowie. Phil was a touring backing musician for Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and The Duprees in the 70s. Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley? Only the thought of playing with these rock & roll pioneers would give me acid reflux. And Phil is so moderate about it! Or take Jay. He has performed nationally and internationally with artists like The Les Paul Trio, Jose Feliciano and Keith Emerson (yep, that Keith of ELP). Scott, the youngest member of the band and a student of Don, has toured with pop group Hanson, Bernie Worrel Orchestra and The Shirelles, among others. In addition to Good Stuff, almost all members also play solo or in other bands. Not surprisingly, all this impressive experience shows!

Time to get to some music! Half of Good Stuff’s show features Steely Dan tunes. As such, the band appropriately selected a name that not only reflects the music they play but is also related to Steely Dan, or more precisely to Donald Fagen. Good Stuff is a Fagen tune from his fourth studio album Sunken Condos released in October 2012. The song I’d like to highlight here is My Old School. Co-written by Fagen and Walter Becker, the tune appeared on Steely Dan’s second studio album Countdown to Ecstasy from July 1973.

Gino Vannelli is the one artist in the mix I’m much less familiar with than the others. Among the handful of his tunes I know and dig is Brother To Brother, the title track of his sixth studio record from September 1978. It’s a jazzy and pretty complex tune, which I think measures up nicely to the Aja album, the gem in Steely Dan’s catalog.

Next up: Sting. Good Stuff has decided to focus on featuring material from the ex-Police man’s fourth solo effort: the excellent Ten Summoner’s Tales, which happens to be my favorite Sting album. Here’s Heavy Cloud No Rain. Like the majority of the album’s tracks, the tune was entirely written by Sting.

The last song I’d like to call out is Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing by Stevie Wonder. This great tune is from his 16th studio album Innervisions, which is widely considered to be one of the highlights of Wonder’s long catalog. He is one of my all-time favorite artists, and I would have loved to see him last year in Atlantic City during his short summer tour. But with ticket prices starting at $350, it was simply impossible.

It’s still relatively early days for Good Stuff. So far, they haven’t ventured beyond New Jersey. In fact, next Saturday, March 23, they will play Tim McLoone’s Supper Club, a great performance venue in Asbury Park, the hotbed of Jersey’s music scene. Mike told me he is starting to receive an increasing amount of queries from agents, including from out of state. As such, folks who do not reside in the Garden State may get a chance to see the band in the future. In case you’d like to further check them out, visit their website or Facebook page.

Sources: Wikipedia, Good Stuff website, YouTube

Clips & Pix: Booker T. Jones Demonstrates Hammond B3

When one of the coolest Hammond B3 players on the planet demonstrates the legendary organ and chats about how he got into playing this beautiful instrument, you know you’re in for a treat! To me the above NPR footage of Booker T. Jones hands-down is one of the most mesmerizing music clips I’ve ever watched on YouTube. Observing the man explain how you “crawl” on the Hammond and seeing the joy he still gets out of playing the organ is just priceless. His voice isn’t shabby either! If you’re into soulful music craftsmanship and haven’t seen this yet, I would strongly encourage you to invest the 18 minutes it takes to watch this clip in its entirety.

In fact, if you’ve visited the blog in the past, you may have seen a previous feature I did on the Hammond B3 back in June 2017. That piece included the above clip as well, but it was kind of buried all the way at the end. I was reminded of this great footage last night when I talked to a keyboarder of a jam band. I told him Green Onions would be a cool addition to their set list and in this context mentioned Jones’ great demo and that he had to watch it. Did I mention I can have strong opinions about music? In any case, I felt featuring this clip again and this time doing it more prominently was warranted.

Apart from Jones sharing nice anecdotes from the past, including how his piano teacher changed his life, he plays three tunes: Green Onions, Born Under A Bad Sign and Down In Memphis. Green Onions became a signature tune for Booker T. & The M.G.s in 1962 and launched their career as a standalone act. Of course, they were primarily known as the house band of Stax Records where they backed such amazing artists like Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas and Albert King on hundreds of recordings.

Born Under A Bad Sign was co-written by Jones and Stax longtime recording artist William Bell for Albert King, who recorded it in 1967. The tune became the title track of King’s second studio album that appeared in August of the same year. Jones closes out his presentation with Down In Memphis, a new song at the time this footage was recorded. The track was included on Jones’ ninth studio album The Road From Memphis released in May 2011. I don’t recall having ever listened to that record, so I should go and check it out!

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube

Clips & Pix: Stevie Ray Vaughan/Tin Pan Alley

Stevie Ray Vaughan was one of the greatest blues rock guitarists who ever walked on the surface of the planet. Tin Pan Alley is one of my favorite Vaughan renditions and perhaps the coolest slow blues I know.

The above clip of Vaughan and his backing band Double Trouble was captured during an August 1984 open air festival at Lorelei, a famous steep slate rock in Germany on the bank of the river Rhine. The festival was conducted as part of Rockpalast, a well-known long-running German music TV program and concert series I previously covered here.

According to Wikipedia, Tin Pan Alley was originally credited to Robert Geddins; later credit was given to James Reed. Vaughan recorded the tune for his excellent second studio album Couldn’t Stand The Weather, released in May 1984.

While this live take is busier and more aggressive than the studio version, and I generally think less is more when it comes to the blues, it still gives me goose bumps, and I just find it amazing to watch. It’s also not a coincidence I’m featuring the song.

After more than 25 years since my band days as a bassist, I decided to buy an electric bass guitar and a small amp (both for house use and nothing fancy). My first experience playing with other guys was in a blues band, and Tin Pan Alley was one of the first songs I learned on the bass after I had joined them. I’ve always thought the bass part on this track is really cool. As such, I was happy I still know how to play it, though it’s definitely gonna take time to get comfortable again with the instrument.

Sources: Wikipedia, Rockpalast website, YouTube

Second Tom Petty Posthumous Album Out

The title pretty much says it all. The Best Of Everything is a compilation of Tom Petty’s amazing music from his 40 years as a recording artist, largely focusing on his better known songs. Released yesterday, it’s billed as his first career-spanning collection of hits. Unlike last September’s An American Treasure, the 38 tracks for the most part were taken from past albums. There are two exceptions: For Real, a previously unreleased tune, and an alternate version of the title track that restores a lost second verse.

While to a longtime Tom Petty fan like myself it’s not exactly news what an outstanding songwriter he was, it’s still impressive when you see the track listing. Free Fallin’, Mary Jane’s Last Dance, Saving Grace, Breakdown, Refugee, American Girl, The Last DJ,  Runnin’ Down A Dream and Even The Losers, to name some of the gems, surely make for a beautiful collection. While I would say American Treasure is more for die-hard Tom Petty fans, The Best Of Everything is a terrific compilation for folks who know just a few songs and would like to further explore his music beyond the fantastic first Greatest Hits mid-career collection from November 1993.

Released via Geffen Records/UMe, The Best Of Everything is available as a 2-CD or 4-LP set

To make it truly career-spanning, it would have been nice to include a couple of tunes from The Traveling Wilburys. Sure, it’s fair to note the supergroup wasn’t Petty’s band. The Wilburys were primarily initiated by George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, and their songs were credited to all members. Unlike Mudcrutch and Petty’s solo albums, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, who helped put together The Best Of Everything and last year’s compilation, had no involvement with the Wilburys. There may also have been legal reasons for keeping the supergroup’s material out. Still, adding two tunes featuring Charlie T. Wilbur Junior on lead vocals would have been cool, in my humble opinion!

Let’s get to some music. I deliberately skip the big hits. The track order seems to be a bit random. Perhaps part of the idea here was to spread the bigger hits throughout to keep the more casual Tom Petty fans engaged. The number of YouTube clips from The Best Of Everything is still limited, so I’m borrowing clips from the original albums, as needed. The first tune I’d like to call out is Dreamville from The Last DJ, the 11th studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in October 2002. I’m glad they included this beautiful ballad, which definitely is not among Petty’s big hits.

I Should Have Known It is a nice rocker with a great guitar riff – my kind of song! Perhaps not surprisingly Campbell was a co-writer for this guitar player type of tune, which appeared on the band’s 12th studio record Mojo from June 2010. “I was glad that was on there, because I’m really proud of that track and that performance,” Campbell noted during an interview with Variety, conducted together with Tench and Petty’s eldest daughter Adria Petty, who was also involved in assembling the collection. “It showed a band in their later development still doing quality music.” Listen for yourself!

Next up: The alternate version of The Best Of Everything, another great tune! Originally, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers recorded it for their sixth studio album Southern Accents, which came out in March 1985. Even though I own that record on CD, frankly, I had forgotten about the song.

Scare Easy is a track from the first Mudcrutch album simply titled Mudcrutch, which appeared in April 2008. Initially formed in Gainesville, Fla. in 1970, Mudcrutch was the predecessor to The Heartbreakers. After recording some demos and releasing one single that failed to chart, Mudcrutch broke up in 1975. It’s kind of remarkable they lasted for more than four years. Then, in August 2007, Petty reunited the band. In addition to Campbell (guitar, mandolin) and Tench (keyboards), the lineup featured the other two original members Randall Marsh (drums) and Tom Leadon (guitar), with Petty on bass and lead vocals.

The last tune I’d like to call out is For Real. This previously unreleased song also wasn’t available on any bootlegs, so until it came out as a single a few weeks ago, it’s something even fans hadn’t heard before. According to Rolling Stone, the track was recorded in August 2000 and is “a declaration of purpose” by Petty. “That song to me sounds like Tom reporting from his heart — reporting from the front,” Tench told Variety during the above interview. “It may sound like it’s meant to be a summing up of a career or something, but it’s not, really, because it’s almost 20 years old. We weren’t quite as long-in-tooth and gray then.” I think Tench is right, though it’s the perfect tune to close out the collection.

“When I went back through all this stuff… I don’t want to get heavy with it, but it’s very emotional, in being nostalgic, because we were never nostalgic when we were working,” Campbell told Variety. “We never looked back. We just always were looking forward. But Ben and I were forced to look back as we went through this stuff, and we both had an epiphany about how we have a legacy that has integrity. We were sad, but also very proud of what we’ve done.” Who can blame them.

Added Adria Petty: “I feel like Ben and Mike haven’t had a second to process this, what the next chapter can be, and I think for us, it’s kind of the same. Ben had a baby for the first time six or seven weeks after my dad died, and he’s been deeply in love and entrenched in that. It’s a really horrible thing to have to process both things at the same time, so he probably finally has a little space to just focus on that. Mike’s going to be on the road with Fleetwood Mac through April. He had his first grandchild right after Dad died. There’s a third generation of Heartbreaker kids coming in that are all amazing.”

Benmont Tench (l) and Mike Campbell, August 2018

So after two major compilations, what else might be in store or in the vault I should perhaps better ask. “There a bunch of really great stuff,” Tench told Billboard. He noted early Mudcrutch recordings, demos from The Last DJ and music from the period of Hypnotic Eye, the final studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from July 2014.

Campbell would like to explore a live album from the band’s shows at the Fillmore from 1997 to 1999, he explained to Rolling Stone. “For me, that was almost the pinnacle of the band just being totally spontaneous night to night to night. We might throw in a Grateful Dead song that we just learned that afternoon. We recorded every show and we had guest artists from Bo Diddley to Roger McGuinn to John Lee Hooker. And I know, in my memory of those 20 nights, there’s an amazing album in there.” That surely sounds like a great idea to me!

However, both Tench and Campbell want to be mindful about further releases to make sure the quality is right and Petty would have wanted to release the material. Adria Petty agrees. “I don’t want to inundate the fans with “Hey, here’s another record!”,” she told Variety. That’s a good thing!

Sources: Wikipedia, Tom Petty official website, Variety, Rolling Stone, Billboard, YouTube