In the ongoing chronicling of obscure '60s garage band singles, Arf Arf delves into the super psychedelic side of the equation with 28 utterly amazing 45s culled from the late '60s…
Another album, another tour, another live album souvenir of the tour. Paul McCartney has essentially followed this pattern since his 1989 return to arenas for the supporting tour for Flowers in the Dirt, and each of the records is essentially the same: the big solo hits, some of the big Beatles songs, plus a few tunes from the latest solo album…
16 original albums on 10 CDs!
This Box Set combines the best recordings from the crucial first decade of Brubeck's career. The great live recordings at college and festival appearances, the series with odd rhythmic meters that started with "Time Out," his first solo album, the recordings with musical impressions from his worldwide concert tours, and the totally underrated "The Real Ambassadors ", featuring Louis Armstrong, Carmen McRae and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross with a fantastic libretto by Brubeck's wife Iola.
Van Zandt's subject matter had not changed much in the seven years between recordings, as was apparent only a few lines into the leadoff track, "A Song For," when Van Zandt spoke-sang, "I'm weak and I'm weary of sorrow." In fact, he wasn't weary of enumerating the causes of sorrow, as was proven especially in "Marie," sung in the voice of a derelict whose life gets worse and worse until his pregnant girlfriend dies. Songs like that were typical of Van Zandt, but this time he also displayed an unusual range, from the scary, calypso-like song of temptation "The Hole" to the weird tall tale of "Billy, Boney and Ma" in which a man and a skeleton turn to a life of crime, demonstrating Van Zandt's humorous side.
Tribute collections – especially those dedicated to a deceased artist by a various group of performers – are usually a mixed bag by their very nature. A dedicated various-artists set of songs by the towering songwriter Townes Van Zandt is even more daunting in concept. That said, Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt, originally issued in 2001, is the exception to the rule in every case. Containing 16 cuts by a stellar cast that includes everyone from Willie Nelson and Nanci Griffith to Lucinda Williams and John Prine with lots of folks in between.
The highly anticipated seventh album by U.S. Girls, the protean musical enterprise of multi-disciplinary artist Meg Remy, is entitled Heavy Light. While Remy has been widely acclaimed for a panoply of closely observed character studies, on Heavy Light she turns inward, recounting personal narratives to create a deeply introspective about-face. The songs are an inquest into the melancholy flavour of hindsight, both personal and cultural. Remy makes this notion formally explicit with the inclusion of three re-worked, previously released songs: Statehouse (It’s A Man’s World), Red Ford Radio, and Overtime.