Maggie Bell

This WayBack Wednsesday offering comes from the 1974 release, Queen of the Night, Maggie Bell's first solo effort after her stint with Stone the Crows. Hailing from Glascow, her vocal prowess was often compared to Janis Joplin.

A Woman Left Lonely


"From a musical family, she sang from her teenage years, leaving school at the age of fifteen, to work as a window dresser by day and singer at night. Bell was introduced to Leslie Harvey, by his older brother Alex, after getting up on stage to sing with him (Alex). Leslie Harvey was, at that time, a guitarist with the Kinning Park Ramblers. Bell joined the group as one of the vocalists. After the band split up, Bell moved to the Mecca Band at the Sauchiehall Street Locarno, and later to the Dennistoun Palais Band.

She then rejoined Harvey, forming a group, initially known as Power, eventually travelling to Germany to sing on United States Air Force bases in the mid 1960s. Peter Grant, who was managing The Yardbirds at the time, spotted Power playing at one of these bases, and agreed to produce and manage them, impressed by the vocal ability of Bell and the guitar playing of Harvey. Power was renamed as Stone the Crows, an expression used by Grant upon hearing this band.

This group lasted until 1973, finding that Harvey's death from accidental electrocution, on 2 May 1972, took too much out of the group for them to continue. The live chemistry between Bell and Harvey was missing. Peter Grant remained as Bell's manager after the split, and organised her first solo album, Queen of the Night, which was recorded in New York with record producer Jerry Wexler.

Although critically feted in the U.K., Maggie Bell never quite achieved the commercial breakthrough everyone had so expected -- always a bridesmaid, never a bride."
-Wiki

From the Archives:
Maggie Bell stretches John Prine´s "Souvenirs" to the max with Steve Gadd ably assisting by splashing the drums as deep as Bell's vocals. Her up-tempo version of J.J. Cale´s "After Midnight" is more captivating than Eric Clapton´s; she oozes that Etta James sexuality while Reggie Young throws some tasty guitar into the semi-calypso groove.

Souvenirs


After Midnight


Queen of the Night

 Bell's identity is unique on much of the material, but a couple of tunes have her paying tribute to some of her sisters. The title track, "Queen of the Night," is drenched in gorgeous harmonies by The Sweet Inspirations and is pure Genya Ravan, but conversely, the cover of "A Woman Left Lonely,"(HEARD ABOVE) embraced totally by Janis Joplin on "Pearl", is a sweet vocal and totally alien to how Joplin ripped the song to shreds so wonderfully. It works on an entirely different level on "Queen of the Night" -- Bell's voice is an instrument that slips into different styles on a moment's notice. She takes the fun but silly RingStarr/Vini Ponica number five hit from the same year and gives it some style, then turns around with Deadric Malone´s "As the Years Go Passing By" and delivers another brand of quality sound. Cornell Dupree's fabulous guitar leads cook in the background -- the frosting on the cake for "As the Years Go Passing By." Intense and beautiful, it is the real sleeper here.

As the Years Go Passing By


 While Merry Clayton was singing back-up on Ringo Starr´s "Oh My My" and ex- Black Oak Arkansas Ruby Starr would track Paul McCartney´s "Maybe I'm Amazed," Bell broke through her Stone The Crows image to cover a range of ideas, giving even David Clayton Thomas some respectability, taking his original "Yesterday's Music" to new heights with a Bonnie Bramlett-style touch of gospel. From Will Jennings to Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen, Bell's Queen of the Night is a stunningly marvelous mix of blues, pop, soul, and Southern rock. "We Had It All" builds with a smoldering tension that gives Bell a platform for her inspired phrasings. Sager must've been over the top when she first heard this version of "The Other Side." This is music straight from the heart, which concludes with "Trade Winds," piano, drums, and Bell's voice tapering off like the end of a great set at some intimate nightclub.

Trade Winds

Steve Earle

I remember holdin' on to you
All them long and lonely nights
I put you through
Somewhere in there I'm sure I made you cry
But I can't remember if we said goodbye
But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico
One place I may never go in my life again
Was I just off somewhere or just too high
But I can't remember if we said goodbye
I only miss you every now and then
Like the soft breeze blowin up from the Carribean
Most Novembers I break down and cry
'cause I can't remember if we said goodbye
But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico
One place I will never go in my life again
Was I just off somewhere or may be just too high
But I can't remember if we said goodbye
No I can't remember if we said goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye

Eleanor McEvoy

In a world where the word star and the gift of talent are often devalued, Eleanor McEvoy is neither an overnight success nor a four week wonder. A musician and songwriter of note, the real deal, possessing all of the qualities that go to make up the complete artist.

Her career began at the age of four when she took piano lessons, taking up violin at the age of eight. Upon finishing school she attended Trinity College in Dublin where she studied music by day and worked in pit orchestras and music clubs by night.
Eleanor graduated from Trinity and was accepted into the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland where she worked four years before finally taking the plunge to concentrate on her passion for songwriting.

After a long hard slog, the girl who spent the year of 1988 busking in Union Square, New York had come a long way, a route that took her through the disciplines of classical music, Irish traditional music and contemporary music to a point where she finally found success in 1992.
It happened when one of her songs "Only a Woman's Heart" inspired the title for, and appeared on, the "A Woman's Heart" anthology album. It has since gone on to become the best selling album in Irish history, staying in the Irish Top 10 for over a year.
Since then Eleanor has gone on to become an artist and performer known throughout the world. Her critically acclaimed canon of work spans six albums, several singles and appearances on numerous compilation albums and is today recognised as Ireland's most successful female singer songwriter having enjoyed personal chart success and numerous cover versions of her songs. (Emmylou Harris, Mary Black, Phil Coulter, amongst others). Her song "All I Have" features in the lastest series of the HBO cult series "Six Feet Under"

Her co-writing song credits have seen her published with fellow writers and performers such as Rodney Crowell, Lloyd Cole, Johnny Rivers, Brad Parker, Henry Priestman and Dave Rotheray. The new album "Out There" takes a hard look at the precarious nature of our new wealthy world as well as throwing new light on the idiosyncrasies of love and life. The songs are fresh, the tunes infectious, the lyrics wry and witty and the playing gorgeous. "Out There" features 12 brand new Eleanor McEvoy compositions, plus a co-write with The Beautiful South's Dave Rotheray and an interpretation of Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me."

 

RIP Turner Stephen Bruton

Stephen Bruton, a Texas musician long admired and much in demand as much for his astute guitar work as for his insights as a songwriter, died Saturday May 10, 2009 in Los Angeles of complications of cancer. He was 60.

Bruton, who had played with Kris Kristofferson for nearly 40 years and whose songs had been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Buffett and numerous others, died at the home of a friend since childhood, musician-producer T Bone Burnett, with whom he'd recently completed work on a film, "Crazy Heart," that Burnett is producing and for which he asked Bruton to produce the music.

Hope

 "A hope with no cognitive content is not a hope but a sententious cipher. There is no hope which is not also in part a memory."
               -Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno

A Place Where We Used To Live

The Ragpicker's Dream is Mark Knopfler's third solo album (after Golden Heart and Sailing to Philadelphia), released in 2002

A Place Where We Used To Live

This empty kitchen's where

I'd while away the hours

Just next to my old chair

You'd usually have some flowers

The shelves of books

Even the picture hooks

Everything is gone

But my heart is hanging on

If this old neighbourhood

Survived us both alright

Don't know that it withstood

All the things that took our light

You on the stair

I can see you there

Everything is gone

But my heart is hanging on

Once there was a little girl

Used to wonder what she would be

Went out into the big wide world

Now she's just a memory

There used to be a little school here

Where I learned to write my name

But time has been a little cruel here

Time has no shame

It's just a place where

We used to live

It's just a place where

We used to live

Now in another town

You lead another life

And now upstairs and down

You're someone else's wife

Here in the dust

There's not a trace of us

Everything is gone

But my heart is hanging on

It's just a place where

We used to live

It's just a place where

We used to live

Gypsy Tailwind

A product of the ever-growing music “hotbed” of Portland, Maine.

In December of 2007, Dan Connor sat lonely on the doorstep of a solo album he’d been working on for several years when he was introduced to Anna Lombard. After spending countless winter evenings working together, Connor and Lombard laid the groundwork for the critically acclaimed, "The Halo Sessions," as their harmonious musical connection was born. Under the guidance of producer Jonathan Wyman, the duo embarked on a journey for what would soon become Gypsy Tailwind.

Bees Wing - Richard Thompson

I was nineteen when I came to town, they called it the Summer of Love
They were burning babies, burning flags. The hawks against the doves
I took a job in the steamie down on Cauldrum Street
And I fell in love with a laundry girl who was working next to me

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.
And you wouldn't want me any other way"

Brown hair zig-zag around her face and a look of half-surprise
Like a fox caught in the headlights, there was animal in her eyes
She said "Young man, oh can't you see I'm not the factory kind
If you don't take me out of here I'll surely lose my mind"

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine that I might crush her where she lay
She was a lost child, she was running wild
She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.
And you wouldn't want me any other way"

We busked around the market towns and picked fruit down in Kent
And we could tinker lamps and pots and knives wherever we went
And I said that we might settle down, get a few acres dug
Fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug
She said "Oh man, you foolish man, it surely sounds like hell.
You might be lord of half the world, you'll not own me as well"

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.
And you wouldn't want me any other way"

We was camping down the Gower one time, the work was pretty good
She thought we shouldn't wait for the frost and I thought maybe we should
We was drinking more in those days and tempers reached a pitch
And like a fool I let her run with the rambling itch

Oh the last I heard she's sleeping rough back on the Derby beat
White Horse in her hip pocket and a wolfhound at her feet
And they say she even married once, a man named Romany Brown
But even a gypsy caravan was too much settling down
And they say her flower is faded now, hard weather and hard booze
But maybe that's just the price you pay for the chains you refuse

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
And I miss her more than ever words could say
If I could just taste all of her wildness now
If I could hold her in my arms today
Well I wouldn't want her any other way

Justin King

I’m holding you so close
As if you might slip away
Between the night and morning light
Our peace decays

And not a word will we speak
For silence knows what to say
I’ll press my hand into yours
For I know I cannot stay

With a single thought
And skin so close
This is a fire in the night
But empty hearts
And burning souls
These are the ashes of the day

The colors change
The leaves fall away
And naked are the arms of the trees

I think of you
Your simple grace
And spring rushes back to me

With a single thought
And skin so close
This is a fire in the night
But empty hearts
And burning souls
These are the ashes of the day
These are the ashes of the day





Born on June 13, 1979 in Palmer, Alaska, Justin King comes from a family well known in the wine business under the King Estate name. King attended O'Hara Catholic School from the first grade through the eighth grade. He later attended Marist High School before attending South Eugene High School. He dropped out of high school as a sophomore and entered the San Francisco Art Institute to study painting. He began playing drums and guitar around age 14 and wrote and performed songs with his current bassist, Drew Dresman. King began to focus on acoustic guitar at age 19, and in 1999 he released his self-titled album, followed by Opening in 2000. In 2001, after traveling through Europe, Ireland and Great Britain, King recorded "Le Bleu"--an instrumental acoustic guitar record which featured long-time friends and James West on percussion, Troy Sicotte on bass and Linh Renken on violins. Le Bleu was recorded at Peter Gabriel's "Real World Studios" just outside of Bath, England.

Inspired by Real World Studios, King returned to the US and began construction on his own studio "Blackberry Hill". The studio took about two years to complete during which time King toured the country as a solo guitarist opening for James Taylor, BB King, Diana Krall, North Mississippi All-Stars, Al Green and others. Just after building Blackberry Hill King recorded another instrumental record, "I-XII", with James West, renown bassist Michael Manring and European guitarist Carlos Vamos. Shortly after that King started a band with James West (later replaced by Nadir Jeevanjee), Troy Sicotte (later replaced by Drew Dresman) and Ehren Ebbage (later replaced by Chris Plank). The band toured the country for about one year before being signed to a major label record deal with Epic Records in 2006.

The band recorded the self titled "Justin King and the Apologies" record at Justin's Blackberry Hill studio as well as studios in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The recording process took more than a year during which time the band continued to tour extensively throughout the nation as well as some international performances. After a large shakeup at Epic Records in which the president and the band's A&R representative left the company the band stayed on in limbo with Epic for about one more year before requesting to be let go from the label. Epic gave the master recording rights to the band and the album was released independently by the band shortly thereafter. After touring tirelessly throughout the year the band broke up around the end of 2007.

Since the disbanding of The Apologies, King has pursued an interest in photojournalism, having spent August 2008 in Iraq embedded with the Oregon National Guard at Balad Air Base. He accompanied the US military on patrols and raids as well as medevac missions and convoys. His photos appeared on the BBC's website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/middle_east_0my_iraq_adventure0/html/1.stm )and his stories were featured in Oregon's mainstream news publications. He is planning another journey to Iraq and Afghanistan later this year.

King is currently finishing a degree in oil painting and photography at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon as well as preparing for the release of a new album. The album was written, produced, engineered and all the instruments were performed by King. Its release date is expected to be sometime this Fall.

Your belly in my arms- The Felice Brothers

We'd watch the shapes the rain would make
Falling down the window of our bus
I said they reminded me of paper ponies blowing free
You said they reminded you of us

Your belly in my arms
Tomorrow we'll be through these rains and gone

Woke up with the driver crying Birmingham
Looked through the glass and found the morning sky
I said that cloud's shaped like a burning man
You didn't have the heart to tell me why

Your belly in my arms
Tomorrow we'll be through these clouds and gone

I put my hand inside your skirt
And asked if you thought that our babies life would turn out this way
You said you wasn't really sure
But really you was too good to say it

Your belly in my arms
Tomorrow we'll be through these rains and gone
Your belly in my arms
Tomorrow we'll be through these gates and gone

Lyle Lovett and Townes Van Zandt

Step Inside This House is a double album recorded by Lyle Lovett and released in 1998. In contrast with his earlier albums, which contained mostly Lovett originals, House is a double-length album of cover songs written by fellow Texans.

In choosing songs to record, Lovett favored songwriters whose works influenced his own style. The writers selected include Robert Earl Keen, Michael Martin Murphey, Willis Alan Ramsey, and Guy Clark. The second disc is largely dedicated to songs written by Townes Van Zandt and Walter Hyatt, with the final track being a traditional piece.

Lovett takes each of these tunes and through a deep and thorough respect for them and with his beautifully expressive voice, makes each his own. Particularly striking to me are the Townes Van Zandt covers, three of which are below. Beautiful.

Flyin' Shoes


Highway Kind


If I Needed You

Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet

Abigail Washburn was supposed to be a lawyer by now. But a banjo and study in China got in her way. The banjo led her to music of Appalachia, which (coupled with her love of the language and people of China) eventually spurred her to take a group of American musicians to Asia for informal musical cultural exchanges. Washburn assembled the Sparrow Quartet as a way to share traditional acoustic music across cultures, coming together with common sounds and learning tunes from new friends.


Although the Sparrow Quartet is Washburn's baby, the other musicians involved in the project are no less accomplished. And, in the case of banjo master Bela Fleck, I'm sure she'll agree, even more. Fleck has played alongside all of the big names in the roots music business – jazz and classical-crossover as well, he's won 7 Grammys with, among others, Joshua Bell, Edgar Meyer, Alison Brown and his own band, the Flecktones. Fiddler Casey Driessen and cello player Ben Sollee haven't started racking up the Grammys yet, but just give them time (Driessen's nominated this year for his CD 3D, so this may, in fact, be his year).

Uncover our heads and reveal our souls - Fever Ray

Memory comes when memory’s old

I am never the first to know
Following the stream up North
Where do people like us float

There is room in my lap
For bruises, asses, handclaps
I will never disappear
For forever, I’ll be here

Whispering
Morning, keep the streets empty for me
Morning, keep the streets empty for me

I’m laying down eating snow
My fur is hot, my tongue is cold
On a bed of spider web
I think of how to change myself

A lot of hope in a one man tent
There’s no room for innocence
Take me home before the storm
Velvet moths will keep us warm

Whispering
Morning, keep the streets empty for me
Morning, keep the streets empty for me

Morning, keep the streets empty for me
Morning, keep the streets empty for me

Uncover our heads and reveal our souls
We were hungry before we were born

Uncover our heads and reveal our souls
We were hungry before we were born

And do the angels really grieve

Chris Smither






Forms are loosely fitting
Jury still are sitting
Sense of duty keeps us all in motion
Prison sirens wailing
That security is failing
Do not inspire a lifetime of devotion
No one will sympathize
No one really tries
They need a faith that leads them like a drum
And I can hear it pounding down among the ruins
Sad to say, I don't think I'm the only one.



I awoke and someone spoke
They asked me in a whisper
If all my dreams and visions had been answered
And I don't know what to say
I never even pray
I just feel the pulse of universal dancers
They'll waltz me till I die
They'll never tell me why
I never stop to ask them where we're going
Yes, but the holy, the profane
Are all helplessly insane
Wishful, hopeful, never even knowing.



And they asked if I believe
And do the angels really grieve
Or is it all a comforting invention?
It's just like gravity, I said
It's not a product of my head
It doesn't speak, but nonetheless commands attention
And I don't care what it means
Or who decorates the scenes
The problem is more with my sense of pride
Because it keeps me thinking "me"
Instead of what it is to be
I'm not a passenger, I am the ride
I'm not a passenger

I am the ride

Mike Seeger (August 15, 1933 – August 7, 2009

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow What a Ride'" 

 - Hunter S. Thompson

RIP

Mike Seeger (August 15, 1933 – August 7, 2009)

 “Mike [Seeger] was unprecedented. He was like a duke, the knight errant. As for being a folk musician, he was the supreme archetype. … He played on all the various planes, the full index of the old-time styles, played in all the genres and had the idioms mastered — Delta blues, ragtime, minstrel songs, buck-and-wing, dance reels, play party, hymns and gospel — being there and seeing him up close, something hit me. It’s not as if he just played everything well, he played these songs as good as it was possible to play them. … The thought occurred to me that maybe I’d have to write my own folk songs, ones that Mike didn’t know.”

-Bob Dylan

Dreams

“Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly, Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams go, Life is a barren field, Frozen with snow”

- Langston Hughes

Jakob Dylan comments on some of his music

Guinnevere (Alternate Mix)

From the Superb 3 CD box set "Voyage", an alternate take on my favorite Crosby tune.

Persistence

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing's more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

- Calvin Coolidge

Six Buttons works