Divorce Blues

An artist steeped in Southern roots music of all sorts, Jimbo Mathus first earned attention as one of the founders of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, who became an unlikely success when their skewed take on vintage hot jazz, "Hell," became a modern rock hit in 1996…

Ry Cooder - 1970-1987: Album Box Set (2013) {11 CD Warner Bros. Records 8122796241}
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© 1970-87, 2013 Represe / Rhino / Warner Bros. Records | 8122796241
Rock / Blues / Blues Rock / Country Rock / Latin / Roots Rock / Western Swing Revival

Ry Cooder is not frequently considered a prolific recording artist, yet he has amassed a sizeable catalog of original albums and film scores over the decades. He has also participated in some truly and even historic projects from the 1960s on, including the Rising Sons with Taj Mahal, the Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Little Village, and the Buena Vista Social Club. Likewise, many of his collaborative dates are regarded as particularly noteworthy, especially his albums with Ali Farka Touré, V.M. Bhatt, Manuel Galban, and the Chieftains. This box collects in encyclopedic fashion Cooder's solo records for Warner beginning with his self-titled debut album and continues through his final album for the label proper, the brief yet classic Get Rhythm.

Red House Records is pleased to announce a new release by Ray Bonneville, a poet of the demimonde whose new album, Easy Gone, was released on April 15, 2014. The album finds the French Canadian-born, American-bred guitarist/ songwriter delivering a powerful, gritty batch of songs written from a lifetime of hard-won knowledge, including a stint in Vietnam and a struggle with drug addiction. In his life, he’s been a bush pilot and a cab driver among other jobs, living both in the States and French-speaking Canada. A true raconteur with a lifetime of stories to tell, the self-taught musician was just too busy living to get around to opening his storybook until his early 40s, some 20 years after he started performing.

"Hell, everybody's sick of all my f–-ing happy songs anyway," Steve Earle declares in the liner notes to his 2015 album Terraplane as he explains why he chose to cut a blues album. If you feel like you somehow missed Earle's Pollyanna period, you're not the only one, but if he was motivated to turn to the blues because of personal troubles – he was going through his seventh divorce while he wrote and recorded these songs – it sure sounds like he chose the right kind of musical therapy. Terraplane is the most relaxed and least fussed-over album Earle has made in quite some time, and frankly, he sounds like he's having a ball on these sessions; with rare exceptions, this isn't music that ponders the dark night of the soul, but semi-acoustic roadhouse boogie that rocks with a steady roll and gives Earle a chance to crow like a rooster as he ponders broken hearts, long lonesome highways, battles with the forces of destiny, and the enduring appeal of women in go-go boots.

Various Artists - The Ebb Story, Volume 2 (1997) {Ace Records CDCHD 603 rec 1957-1959}
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© 1957-59, 1997 Ebb Records / Ace Records / Fantasy | CDCHD 603
Oldies / Blues / Doo Wop / Early R&B / Rockabilly

Specialty Records president Art Rupe's ex-wife Lee started Ebb Records in Los Angeles in 1957 with the proceeds from their divorce. Between 1957 and 1959, she released about 60 singles, which now stand as an excellent cross-section of 1950s music, ranging from blues to rockabilly to doo wop and teen pop. This compilation focuses on primarily on the blues and R&B singles from that label, along with some unissued surprises. Five tracks from future soul star Ted Taylor find him working in styles ranging from rock & roll ("Everywhere I Go") to pop ballad ("Very Truly Yours") to Bobby Bland-styled blues ("Days Are Dark" and "If I Don't See You Again"), with "Hold On (I've Got the Chills)" not seeing issuance until 1968, when it came out on Ronn.

Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore. Vol. 1-6 [Purple Box] (1995) {Rykodisc}
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© 1995 Rykodisc / The Zappa Family Trust | RCD 10561~72
Rock / Experimental Rock

To simplify my life considerably, I'm going to combine the "reviews" of all six Stage releases into a single entry, even though they were released individually. Also, to save a lot of time and effort, I'm not going to give complete track listings of the twelve discs, or do song-by-song reviews (hey, we're talking over 800 minutes of music here, give me a break). If you need to know the track listings, they're probably available through an on-line music sales site like CDNow, or an information site like the All Music Guide. There's probably a few other Zappa sites that list them as well. Maybe one day when I have the time, I'll come back and expand this section to really cover all twelve discs in detail. Until then, I'll just give some general facts and opinions, focusing on highlights and material unique to the Stage series.

Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions…

One of the most gifted, visionary, and enduring talents ever launched into orbit by the Motown hit machine, Marvin Gaye blazed the trail for the continued evolution of popular black music. Moving from lean, powerful R&B to stylish, sophisticated soul to finally arrive at an intensely political and personal form of artistic self-expression, his work not only redefined soul music as a creative force but also expanded its impact as an agent for social change.