Are You The One For Me

Nick Cave is a singular figure in contemporary rock music; he first emerged as punk rock was making its presence known in Australia, but though he's never surrendered his status as a provocateur and a musical outlaw, he quickly abandoned the simplicity of punk for something grander and more literate, though no less punishing in its outlook…

German Funk, Rare Groove and 1970s Disco music (e.g. the highly regarded Munich scene around Italian producer Giorgio Moroder) have been widely recognized and featured on numerous reissues and compilations. However, the Boogie-ish post-disco side of German music history until now has remained relatively undiscovered. One of the reasons might be that a broader national scene in Germany (unlike the UK for example) never existed. Even though tracks by US bands such as Dazz or Midnight Star were popular in discotheks in Germany around that time, bigger labels showed little interest in promoting German groups playing this new style of Disco Funk that brought in electronic musical instruments and often lacked the iconic "four-on-the-floor" beat.

Play One For Me, the label debut from New Orleans based blues guitarist/singer Bryan Lee, features Bryan’s powerfully soulful vocals and stinging guitar backed by the label’s studio house band of Kevin Anker (keyboards), Steve Gomes (bass), and Robb Stupka (drums), augmented by special guests Kim Wilson (harmonica) and Johnny Moeller (rhythm guitar) of The Fabulous Thunderbirds. The 10 tracks featured are a solid mix of five Bryan Lee originals and covers of such songs as Bobby Womack’s “When Love Begins (Friendship Ends),” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Evil Is Going On” (featuring Wilson), Freddie King’s “It’s Too Bad (Things Are Going So Tough),” Dennis Geyer’s “Straight to Your Heart,” and a beautiful rendition of the George Jackson classic, “Aretha (Sing One for Me).”

Nick Cave performs solo at the piano, in a film shot this June, at the iconic London venue.

The sole Applejacks LP is highlighted by "Tell Me When," and hindered by quaintness and a lack of strong tunes (only one of which was a group original), limiting its worth to British Invasion obsessives for the most part. "No Time," one of several songs co-written by future Honeybus main man Pete Dello, is about the best song, with its moody melody; at their most energetic (as on "See If She Cares") they sound a bit like Gerry & the Pacemakers. The covers of '50s rock classics such as "Kansas City," "What'd I Say," and "Too Much Monkey Business" are dire, and their second single (and most well-known recording), the cover of Lennon-McCartney's "Like Dreamers Do," is not present…

Wanda Lavonne Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and 1960s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers and a pioneering rock-and-roll artist. She is known to many as the "Queen of Rockabilly" or the "First Lady of Rockabilly". Jackson mixed country music with fast-moving rockabilly, often recording them on opposite sides of a record. As rockabilly declined in popularity in the mid-1960s, she moved to a successful career in mainstream country music with a string of hits between 1966 and 1973, including "Tears Will Be the Chaser for Your Wine", "A Woman Lives for Love" and "Fancy Satin Pillows".

Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat (after bands from Liverpool and nearby areas beside the River Mersey) is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll (mainly Chuck Berry guitar style and the midtempo beat of artists like Buddy Holly), doo-wop, skiffle and R&B. The genre provided many of the bands responsible for the British Invasion of the American pop charts starting in 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, including the format of the rock group around lead, rhythm and bass guitars with drums. The Beat Of The Pops - excellent selection of beat tracks.