Who Feels the Wind Blow?

who else needs a savior?

who else has a heart?

whose day is over

before it did start?

who else walks the path

of the lonely and sad?

who else?

who feels the wind blow?

who seeks a hand that is never there?

who feels as if the world does not care?

who has a heart

that whimpers its beat

and cries tears of rage

that lie at your feet?

who has lost

the ability to smile?

who feels the wind blow?

who feels the wind blow?

who feels the wind blow?

and stands naked before it?

who feels the pain

but has learned to ignore it?

who else has stopped wondering

what tomorrow will bring?

who else has a song

they somehow can't sing?

who else knows yesterday

could never be?

who else never knew

the meaning of free?

who else feels the tightness

that grips you inside?

that unrelenting longing

that can't be denied?

who feels the wind blow?

who feels the wind blow?

who feels the wind blow?

and stands naked before it?

who feels the emptiness

and has learned to ignore it?

who?

who else has stopped caring

what tomorrow will bring?

who else has stopped wondering

why they no longer sing?

who else just puts one foot

in front of the other

to measure the passing of time

you no longer have to live?

who else sees the hour glass empty

and alone on its skeletal stand?

who else has stopped even caring

what happened to all of the sand?

who else?

who else sees no future

just a series of endless todays

and knows that no matter the cost

everyone eventually pays?

who else feels the wind blow?

who else feels the wind blow?

who else feels the wind blow?

and stands worn and naked before it?

who else gets the sense

that somethings gone wrong

and has learned to simply ignore it?

who else?

who else knows not the meaning of love?

who else knows not the meaning of love?

who else knows not the meaning of love?

who else knows that sense of despair

that can only mean you're alone?

you have given up waiting

for that kindred spirit

and inside the coldness has grown

who else needs a saviour?

who else needs a saviour?

who else wants to lay down and die?

who else sees no problem with this behavior

and does not have to ask why?

who else seeks their solace in song?

when they know that they never will sing?

who else can sense something is wrong

but still struggles to feel anything?

who else?

and I don't understand why

I'm standing up saying it

when I should drop on my knees

and be praying it

but

who else knows there

is no power in prayer?

who waits for things that don't ever come?

who wonders where

all these expectations are from?

who planted the seed

that will never grow

and why it was planted

we'll never know.

who feels the wind blow?

who feels the wind blow?

who needs a savior

I want to know.

who feels the wind blow

and stands naked before it

when there is nothing left

and you learn to ignore it

who else needs a savior?

who else feels the wind blow?

who else knows not the meaning of love?

Loan Me a Dime - Boz Scaggs & Duane Allman

BluesonaMonday brings us this sweet cut from the freshly re-minted self titled album Boz Scaggs. An extended 11-minute blues workout, “Loan Me a Dime,” functions as much as a showcase for a blazing Duane Allman as it does for Boz.

Mark Knopfler & Randy Newman at the Beeb

Mark Knopfler & Randy Newman at the Beeb

In Session at the BBC Concert Hall, London, UK, 

1988-12-03

01 Dixie Flyer

02 inteview with Randy and Mark

03 Roll with the Punches

04 interview with Randy and Mark

05 You've Gotta Move On 

06 interview with Randy and Mark

07 Blue Monday

08 interview with Randy and Mark

09 Bad News from Home

10 interview with Randy and Mark

Randy Newman - Vocals, Piano

Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) - Guitars

SOUNDBOARD RECORDING

Eric Clapton and His Band Live at the Event Halle, Messe Basel, Basel, Switzerland; November 13 and 14, 2013.

Eric Clapton and His Band are wrapping up their 2013 concerts this month with two shows in Basel, Switzerland. The shows are part of the “Baloise Sessions” indoor concert series and happen at the Event Halle in Basel. In front of 1,500 people, Eric and his band peformed a 20-song set on 13 November, including five songs in memory of JJ Cale: “Don’t Go To Strangers” (the opening number), “Since You Said Goodbye,” After Midnight,” “Call Me The Breeze” and “Cocaine.” “After Midnight,” rarely seen in a Clapton set list, was performed in the style of JJ Cale, rather than the way it had been recorded in the studio by Eric (in 1970 and 1987).

Bonnie Raitt - Recorded at the The Record Plant in Sausalito and broadcast on KSAN

Bonnie Raitt
KSAN broadcast, San Francisco
Dec. 9, 1973

Recorded at the The Record Plant in Sausalito and broadcast on KSAN  

01 Love Me Like A Man
02 You Got To Know How
03 I Thought I Was A Child
04 Under The Falling Sky
05 Everybody's Crying Mercy
06 Give It Up Or Let Me Go - band intros
07 Too Long at the Fair
08 I Feel The Same
09 Guilty
10 Women Be Wise
11 Love Has No Pride
12 Baby I Love You

Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer-songwriter and slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country. In the 1990s she had a major return to form with the release of her album "Nick of Time" after several years of critical acclaim but little commercial success. The following two albums "Luck of the Draw" and "Longing in Their Hearts" were also multi million sellers generating several hit singles including "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up on You", and the ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me" (with Bruce Hornsby on piano). Raitt has received ten Grammy Awards. She is listed as number 50 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 89 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Early life

Raitt was born in Burbank, California. She is the daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt and his first wife, pianist Marjorie Haydock. She began playing guitar at an early age. Later she gained notice for her bottleneck-style guitar playing. Raitt says she played "a little at school and at [a summer] camp" called Camp Regis-Applejack in New York.
After graduating from Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1967 Raitt entered Radcliffe College majoring in social relations and African studies. Raitt said her "plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism".  Raitt became friends with then 65-year old bluesman Dick Waterman. During her sophomore year Raitt took a semester off and moved to Philadelphia with Waterman and a number of local musicians. Raitt says it was an "opportunity that changed everything."

1970 to 1976
In the fall of 1970, while opening for Mississippi Fred McDowell at the Gaslight Cafe in New York, she was seen by a reporter from Newsweek Magazine, who began to spread word of her performance. Scouts from major record companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer with Warner Bros. who soon released her debut album, Bonnie Raitt, in 1971. The album was warmly received by the music press, many of whom praised her skills as an interpreter and as a bottleneck guitarist; at the time, very few women in popular music had strong reputations as guitarists.
While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers, Raitt gained little public acclaim for her work. Her critical stature continued to grow but record sales remained modest. Her second album, Give It Up, was released in 1972 to universal acclaim; though many critics still regard it as her best work, it did not change her commercial fortunes. 1973's Takin' My Time was also met with critical acclaim, but these notices were not matched by the sales.
Raitt was beginning to receive greater press coverage, including a 1975 cover story for Rolling Stone Magazine, but with 1974's Streetlights, reviews for her work were becoming increasingly mixed. By now, Raitt was already experimenting with different producers and different styles, and she began to adopt a more mainstream sound that continued through 1975's Home Plate.
In 1976, Raitt made an appearance on Warren Zevon's eponymous album with his friend Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
1977's Sweet Forgiveness album gave Raitt her first commercial breakthrough when it yielded a hit single in her cover of "Runaway." Recast as a heavy rhythm and blues recording based on a rhythmic groove inspired by Al Green, Raitt's version of "Runaway" was disparaged by many critics. However, the song's commercial success prompted a bidding war for Raitt between Warner Bros. and Columbia Records. "There was this big Columbia – Warner war going on at the time", recalled Raitt in a 1990 interview. "James Taylor had just left Warner Bros. and made a big album for Columbia...And then, Warner signed Paul Simon away from Columbia, and they didn't want me to have a hit record for Columbia — no matter what! So, I renegotiated my contract, and they basically matched Columbia's offer. Frankly the deal was a really big deal."
Warner Brothers held higher expectations for Raitt's next album, The Glow in 1979, but it was released to poor reviews as well as modest sales. Raitt would have one commercial success in 1979 when she helped organize the five Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows spawned the a three-record gold album as well as a Warner Brothers feature film, No Nukes. The shows featured co-founders Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, John Hall, and Raitt as well as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, and numerous others.
For her next record, 1982's Green Light, Raitt made a conscious attempt to revisit the sound of her earlier records. However, to her surprise, many of her peers and the media compared her new sound to the burgeoning New Wave movement. The album received her strongest reviews in years, but her sales did not improve and this would have a severe impact on her relationship with Warner Brothers.
After nearly 20 years, Bonnie Raitt achieved belated commercial success with her tenth album, Nick of Time. Released in the spring of 1989, Nick of Time went to the top of the U.S. charts following Raitt's Grammy sweep in early 1990. This album has been voted number 230 in the Rolling Stone magazine list of 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. Raitt herself pointed out that her 10th try was "my first sober album."
At the same time, Raitt received a fourth Grammy Award for her duet "In the Mood" with John Lee Hooker on his album The Healer. Nick of Time was also the first of many of her recordings to feature her longtime rhythm section of Ricky Fataar and James "Hutch" Hutchinson (Although previously Fataar had played on her Green Light album and Hutchinson had worked on Nine Lives). Nick of Time has sold over six million copies in the US alone.
Raitt followed up this success with three more Grammy Awards for her 1991 album, Luck of the Draw which sold nearly 8 million copies in the United States. Three years later, in 1994, she added two more Grammys with her album Longing In Their Hearts, her second no. 1 album. Both of these albums were multi-platinum successes. Raitt's collaboration with Was would amicably come to an end with 1995's live release, Road Tested. Released to solid reviews, it sold well enough to be certified gold.
For her next studio album, Raitt hired Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as her producers. "I loved working with Don Was but I wanted to give myself and my fans a stretch and do something different," Raitt said. Her work with Froom and Blake was released on Fundamental in 1998.
-Wiki
  

Live at the Cellar Door

Neil Young continues his extensive “Archives” program of official live reissues with “Live at the Cellar Door,” a collection from his late-1970 stand at the Cellar Door club in Washington, D.C.

Young’s stardom was accelerating at the time due to the release that August of his landmark “After the Gold Rush” album, from which five of these tracks hail. It was the era that gave him the reputation for his high-pitched wavering vocal style, but there’s little of that in evidence in these solo acoustic performances.

In fact, Young’s voice at 25 years old sounds strong and clear on this impeccably recorded set, which also includes selections from his first two solo albums as well as three of his tunes recorded as a member of Buffalo Springfield.

Hearing familiar Young touchstones rejiggered for solo guitar and piano renditions proves to be fascinating. He gives the Buffalo Springfield epic 

Saturday Night Live has Neil Young live at the Cellar Door.

Having just released his third solo album, "After the Gold Rush," a 25-year-old Neil Young settled into Washington, D.C.'s, cozy Cellar Door nightclub for a six-night stand in late 1970: just the singer, his guitar and the occasional piano.

With his body of work, Neil has few equals.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/arts-and-entertainment/20131206/live-at-the-cellar-door-captures-neil-young-on-the-cusp-of-stardom

“Expecting to Fly,” rendered here on piano, an unrecognizable but lovely piano intro, then pounds its final phrases home with startlingly dramatic crashing chords.

Young also uses piano, for the first time, he tells us, to accompany himself on his early solo hit “Cinnamon Girl,” playing its signature riff with uncommon delicacy while reinventing the driving guitar anthem as a memorably plaintive ballad.

Another early Buffalo Springfield staple, “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong,” is the album’s high-water mark. After goofing around with the piano for a couple of minutes and cracking a few jokes, Young proceeds to deliver a stunning rendition of the song, which he tells us is “about dope” (this is 1970, remember), combining fragile but unerring piano playing with a breathtakingly pure vocal performance.

Other standouts include “Bad Fog of Loneliness,” an excellent ballad that would remain unreleased for decades, a version of “Old Man” recorded two years before its release on “Harvest” and a sweetly aching version of “Birds” from “After the Gold Rush.”

A dreary version of “Down by the River” is the album’s only dud, with Young’s acoustic playing unable to summon much of the drama of the monolithic electrified original.

Other than that, “Live at the Cellar Door,” out Dec. 10, presents Young at the artistic peak of his troubadour phase. Old songs, new songs, unreleased songs, it doesn’t matter — he sings like an angel on all of them.

-By Sam Gnerre

Close To The Edge (Early Assembly/Rough Mix)

Here we have Close To The Edge (Early Assembly/Rough Mix) from the freshly re-mastered Close to the Edge, one of my all time favourite Yes albums. 

1972 stands out as one of the key years of Yes' long history. In a little over 9 months the band consolidated its growing popularity and commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic, created one of it's most revered and enduring pieces and, in the process, said farewell to a founding member. Even in the face of this setback, the undeniable momentum which had begun gathering with The Yes Album (1970) and Fragile (1971) enabled yes to embrace change with relish. Following January's short series of European warm-up gigs, in February Yes embarked upon a 38-date tour across America, taking the music to bigger and more enthusiastic audiences than before. This influx of interest was undeniably helped by the presence of Roundabout on FM radio. Bill Bruford recalls relaxing by a hotel pool and hearing the song roughly every 45 minutes. Returning to London at the end of March, the band reconvened in the basement of the Una Billings School of Dance, Sheperd;s Bush, London piecing together the ideas and sketches that had accrued from writing sessions between Jon Anderson and Steve Howe in the hotels, soundchecks, and dressing rooms across America. "We knew we were going to do a long-form piece, something that would take up the sode of an album," recalls Squire. "Heart of the Sunrise had really been the germination of that idea where you had different sections, with contrasting flavours all working together."

There was never any doubt in Jon Anderson's mind as to the shape this new composition would take. Despite lacking the technical skills to reproduce precisely what he was seeing and hearing in his head, Anderson's abilities as an animateur, which had been honed out of necessity as he guided Yes, were second to none. "I was always aware of where we were heading structurally" he explains. "I was listening to a lot of classical music while touring and Sibelius' 5th Symphony I liked. It's got a very wild first movement, a gentle second and the third movement is very majestic. I thought the band could get into performing with that sort of musical positioning." Having heard the recently released Sonic Seasonings. a couble album by Wendy Carlos consisting of four wide-long suites, brimming with evocative Moog-enhanced ambient environments, Anderson discussed with Eddie Offord how they might come up with something similar. "I wanted to create this sense of energy or force field before the band started, and then have the group climb out of it with a wild and crazy solo section, raving away as though we didn't know where we were going. You'd get to a certain point and you're going to stop dead and a very straight choral thing would come in and then the band would carry on again. The idea was very simple."

As Offord and Anderson looked on from the control room, Howe turned in an octave-jumping daredevil of a solo that owes little to the rock guitar conventions of the day. "I wouldn't say we were influenced by the Mahavishnu Orchestra directly but we were all full of admiration and respect for them. It was that way-out jazz side of things we were drawing on. Bill's got jazz roots and so have I. We didn't want to play jazz standards but rather our own version of rock and jazz."

The Solid Time of Change was in part seeded from Howe's past. "You tend to have plenty of ideas and sketches which don't necessarily have a home, wo you pitch them in. Jon and I worked like that all the time like with one of my songs which had the line "close to the edge, down by a river" which actually referred to where I was living at the time, next to River Thames." When Anderson heard the phrase, the symbolism of the river immediately connected to metaphors within Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. which he'd been reading at the time. "The river leads you to the ocean, all the paths lead you to the divine. So the idea was that as human beings we are close to the edge - the edge of realisation, whatever anybody else might wnat to think," laughs Anderson.

Another Howe song pre-dating the rehearsal and recording sessions was thrown into the mix. As the guitarist sang "In her white lace" Anderson countered with his own melody. "I started singing 'Two million people barely satisfy'. I had my head to the ground about what was happening around the world, starvation in African countries, where so many people lived so well and so many people didn;t. I get high and low on the whole concept of life. I get up, I get down. So it worked out that Steve and Chris sang that while I sang my melody over these exact same chords. It was magical more that anything because it...well, it just happened." Not so spontaneous, though just as crucial, to I Get Up I Get Down is the cathartic appearance of the church organ. Recorded in the Londaon church. St. Giles-without-Cripplegate, Wakeman recalls there were huge challenges. "Back then technology couldn't do what I wanted to do. So it was a matter of recording the church organ separately and then 'floating' it into the track from quarter-inch tape, a long and very fiddly process but absolutely worth it/"

The build in the finale of Seasons of Man is a glorious example of Yes at its most cinematic and remains a favourite 'goosebump' moment in the piece for most members of the band. "That big end section, climbing the mountain. That's that place where it's like we're climbing the mountain, you get there and you sit back and take in the view...my head was spun every time I listened to it or sang it," says Anderson. "When we started touring it we had to drop that end section a full tone below F," comments Howe. "To this day I think how Jon sung originally in the studio in G minor is just amazing."

-Excerpted from the liner notes

Jackson Browne with David Lindley RCA Studios, New York, NY Sept. 27, 1973

01 Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies

02 Take It Easy

03 Jesus in 3-4 Time

04 dialogue

05 Our Lady of the Well

06 dialogue

07 Jamaica Say You Will

08 Rock Me On The Water

09 Out To Sea

10 Looking Into You

11 dialogue

12 Song For Adam

13 dialogue

14 My Opening Farewell

15 The Times You've Come

16 For Everyman

17 dialogue

18 Redneck Friend

http://www.jacksonbrowne.com/biography/

Jackson Browne has written and performed some of the most literate and moving songs in popular music and has defined a genre of songwriting charged with honesty, emotion and personal politics. He was honored with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2007.

Jackson's career began in the mid-60s in Los Angeles and Orange County folk clubs. Except for a brief period in NYC in the late 1960s, he has always lived in Southern California. His debut album came out on David Geffen's Asylum Records in 1972. Since then, he has released thirteen studio albums and three collections of live performances; his most recent, Love Is Strange, features David Lindley.

Beyond his music, Browne is known for his advocacy on behalf of the environment, human rights, and arts education. He's a co-founder of the groups Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE), Nukefree.org, and the Success Through the Arts Foundation, which provides education opportunities for students in South Los Angeles.

In 2002, he was the fourth recipient of the John Steinbeck Award, given to artists whose works exemplify the environmental and social values that were essential to the great California-born author. He has received Duke University’s LEAF award for Lifetime Environmental Achievement in the Fine Arts, and both the Chapin-World Hunger Year and NARM Harry Chapin Humanitarian Awards. In 2004, Jackson was given an honorary Doctorate of Music by Occidental College in Los Angeles, for "a remarkable musical career that has successfully combined an intensely personal artistry with a broader vision of social justice."

Wiki:

Browne was born in Heidelberg, Germany, where his father, Clyde Jack Browne, an American serviceman, was stationed for his job assignment with the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Browne's mother, Beatrice Amanda (née Dahl), was a Minnesota native of Norwegian ancestry. Browne has three siblings. Roberta "Berbie" Browne was born in 1946 in Nuernberg, Germany (Nuremberg); and Edward Severin Browne was born in 1949 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His younger sister, Gracie Browne, was born a number of years later. Browne moved to the Highland Park district of Los Angeles, California, at the age of 3 and in his teens began singing folk music in local venues like the Ash Grove and The Troubador Club. He attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California, graduating in 1966 as Clyde J. Browne.

After moving to Greenwich Village, New York, in early 1966, Browne joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, performing at the Golden Bear (Huntington Beach, California) where they opened for The Lovin' Spoonful. The band later recorded a number of Browne's songs, including "These Days", "Holding", and "Shadow Dream Song". Browne also spent a short amount of time in his friend Pamela Polland's band, Gentle Soul. Before Browne's 18th birthday, he became a staff writer for Elektra Records' publishing company, Nina Music, reporting on musical events in New York City with his friends Greg Copeland and Adam Saylor. He spent the remainder of 1967 and 1968 in Greenwich Village, New York, where he backed Tim Buckley and German singer Nico of the Velvet Underground. In 1967 Browne and Nico were romantically linked and he became a significant contributor to her debut album, Chelsea Girl, writing and playing guitar on several of the songs (including "These Days"). After leaving New York City, Browne formed a folk band with Ned Doheny and Jack Wilce, and settled in Los Angeles, California, where he first met Glenn Frey.

Browne's first songs, such as "Shadow Dream Song" and "These Days", were recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Tom Rush, Nico, Steve Noonan, Gregg Allman, Joan Baez, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds, and others. Browne did not release his own version of many of these early songs himself until years later. Soon after this, Rolling Stone mentioned Browne as a "new face to look for" and praised his "mind-boggling melodies".

In 1971, Browne signed with his manager David Geffen's Asylum Records and released Jackson Browne (1972), which included the piano-driven "Doctor My Eyes", which entered the Top Ten in the US singles chart. "Rock Me On the Water", from the same album, also gained considerable radio airplay, while "Jamaica Say You Will" and "Song for Adam" (written about Saylor's death) helped establish Browne's reputation. Touring to promote the album, he shared the bill with Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell.

His next album, For Everyman (1973) — while considered of high quality — was less successful than his debut album, although it still sold a million copies. The upbeat "Take It Easy", co-written with The Eagles' Glenn Frey, had already been a major success for that group, while his own recording of "These Days" reflected a sound representing Browne's angst.

Late for the Sky (1974) consolidated Browne's fan base, and the album peaked at #14 on the Billboard album chart, the 84th best-selling album of 1974. Browne's work began to demonstrate a reputation for memorable melody, insightful (and often very personal) lyrics, and a talent for his arrangements in composition. It featured a Magritte-inspired cover. Highlights included the title song, the elegiac "For a Dancer," "Before the Deluge" and the often-covered "Fountain of Sorrow." The arrangements featured the violin and guitar of David Lindley, Jai Winding's piano, and the harmonies of Doug Haywood. The title track was also featured in Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver. During this period, Browne began his fractious but lifelong professional relationship with singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, mentoring Zevon's first two Asylum albums through the studio as a producer (working closely with Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderón).

Browne's character was even more apparent in his next album, The Pretender. It was released during 1976, after the suicide of his first wife, Phyllis Major. The album features production by Jon Landau and a mixture of styles, ranging from the Mariachi-inspired "Linda Paloma" to the country-driven "Your Bright Baby Blues" to the downbeat "Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate". "Here Come Those Tears Again" was cowritten with Nancy Farnsworth, the mother of Browne's wife, after the untimely death of her daughter.

Browne began recording his next LP while on tour, and Running on Empty (1977) became his biggest commercial success. Breaking the usual conventions for a live album, Browne used new material and combined live concert performances with recordings made on buses, in hotel rooms, and back stage.[9] Running on Empty contains many of his most popular songs, such as the title track, "The Road" (written and recorded in 1972 by Danny O'Keefe), "Rosie", and "The Load-Out/Stay" (Browne's send-off to his concert audiences and roadies) although none had been recorded previously.

Javi Garcia

Javi's been rockin' the Monastery...

http://www.thecoldcoldground.com/site/hearsay-2/

GALLEYWINTER – MARCH 2013
JAVI GARCIA – THE GREAT CONTROVERSY

Life, love and the pursuit of happiness can get pretty bloody during the journey. Javi Garcia isn’t afraid to tell such stories. “I’ve got a fire in my belly. And coal in my throat. The words that I spit. Would make most writers choke.”

Javi’s latest release, The Great Controversy is his latest collection of these happy endings. Javi’s newest release The Great Controversy is act 3 to a Southern Horror. It creeps in with the familiar outro from Flood, thumping into the clapping, stomping and dirty garage guitar licks of the records first track The Sound. A song about a girl who through choices of her own isn’t the apple of her Daddy’s eye anymore. She doesn’t like to hear her fathers truth about her life choices of drug abuse and being a whore, truth hurts sometimes. Nightfall, a story of self destruction by making the same choices over and over expecting a different result.“And you fall. And you fall. Just like the last time. Your doing it again. When you crawl. When you crawl. Right back to nightfall. You just can’t win.” The title track to the record The Great Controversy, the cosmic battle between good and evil from the devils perspective with a killer honky tonk guitar lick. “You can whisper a prayer. You can shout out a hymn. But it doesn’t change the fact that your more like me than him.” Josephine is the Black Tambourine on this record. Horns, grand piano, slide guitar, shaker and more shaker. This Rolling Stones-esque track is a rock and roll jam session. “We both know baby you weren’t born to be queen. So get down honey and don’t stop until its clean. Josephine.”

Savanna, a story of avenge for the rape and murder of a father’s daughter. Forgiveness from the Lord is the only refuge he seeks. Another punch you in your face, push you down, driving rhythm, To Be Free feels like a conversation with Satan about breaking free from his stranglehold. The horns, accordian and percussion in Cut Throat delivers like the theme song to a Robert Rodriguez flick. The song tells a tale of a barber or in this case barber surgeon who starts cutting the throats of his clientele with his straight razor. He ends up getting the electric chair in the end. Again, Javi and his bedtime stories. 30 Years , eventually nobody is going to give a shit about you. That is my take on it. Stick to the facts is a truth punch to the face. In a world where we are filled with lies, conspiracy and propaganda let’s try to stick to the facts.

“Through spider web cracked and broken glass. I let all the world before me pass. This ruthless toothless grinning mask. Ain’t held in place with candle wax. So let’s try to stick to the facts. Try to stick to the facts. Stick to the facts.”

This record sounds like Javi and the players went into a garage, shut the doors, broke the knob off, recorded this record and burnt the place to the ground. There were no survivors and no better understanding of The Great Controversy, all according to the master plan of questions without answers.

Play this record loud

Cannery Row

 

 

been diggin on the latest DSB effort...

http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/album/cannery-row-lp

In 2010, the Deadstring Brothers founder and frontman Kurt Marschke reversed the great Southern Migration, de-camped from his hometown and moved to Nashville. And while you can never, ever take all the Detroit out of a Detroiter, the latest Deadstring album throws the doors open wide to an even broader sound, his new home clearly influencing the lyrics and style. Cannery Row has a loose-limbed melancholy reminiscent of the Laurel Canyon folk scene, the outlaw Nashville days, as well as the Upstate New York counterculture spirit of the Band. Like a hitchhiker with a dirty backpack, a beat up guitar case and a wistful distant smile, the Brothers have piled up stories like the highway miles and created something pretty damn close to that old Gram Parsons dream of Cosmic American Music.
In the spring 2012, Kurt and old friend and fellow Detroiter, bassist JD Mack (formerly of Whitey Morgan & the 78s), started planning new tours, seeking out other members and making a plan for the new record. The stellar cast they recruited carries some hefty resumes: Brad Pemberton(Ryan Adams & the Cardinals) on drums, Mike Webb (Poco) on organ, piano and mandolin, Pete Finney (Dixie Chicks, Hank Jr.) on steel and dobro, Kim Collins (Smoking Flowers) on backing vocals and Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson’slongtime harp player). At times mellow, breezy, joyous and longing, Cannery Row treads the rich waters brewing between heavy country, singer/songwriter elegance and the classic rock that runs through our collective DNA.
The music roams far and free. The swirling pedal steel and sitting–in-the-back-of-the-pocket drums evokes smoky fires and west coast stoner sunsets in “Like a California Wildfire.” “The Mansion” soars beyond the Nashville skyline with enough
polish to turn the heads on Music Row, but enough soul to hit the storied stages of lower Broadway. “It’s Morning Irene” brims with the romance and possibilities of riding the rails,singing the dust bowl gospel and waking up in the church of the outdoors. The stellar keyboards anchor a range of moods from the elegiac title track to the muscular, ride-with-the-top-down “Long Lonely Road.” And while “Just A Deck of Cards” conjures the contemplative open spaces of the southwest, “Lucille’s Honky Tonk” fires with Hank Sr.’s lanky jitter.
The album artwork includes photographs from an out-of-use train loading dock below Marschke’s loft home located on Nashville, TN’s actual Cannery Row.

Constant Rain

Constant Rain - it can feel that way sometimes...

http://www.jaybowcott.com/bio

Jay Bowcott has been performing regularly for the last two years and has found quite a bit of success within southern Alberta. Alongside his solo performances he has performed as the lead singer / songwriter in the band The Big Smoke of 52, who have done some sold out gigs and played an opening slot for Ed Kowalczyk of LIVE. Jay can be found playing at jams around southern Alberta or playing every Friday evening at the Silver Buckle in Medicine Hat. His touring history includes gigs that span all of Western Canada and he has done a couple across Canada tours with various groups. This debut album was released on February 1st 2013,  It is a ten song work recorded entirely in Jay's basement studio and spans from a few heartfelt folk / country tunes to some delta blues and rock and roll. It's his most progressive work yet spanning a 42 minute experience that is bound to catch your attention. Keep an eye out for him as he will be heading on the road in Spring 2013 and will also be recording another collection of songs in the summer.

Songs From the Shipyards

This is the 3rd release in what is, at the moment, a trilogy of side projects, Diversions Vol 3 is a score written for a new film by Richard Fenwick, Songs from the Shipyards, tracing the history of the shipbuilding industry using a compilation of archive footage. I have been a Unthanks fan since first I heard their angelic voices meld in harmony. Big Steamers is a favourite here at the Monastery.
But even alone, the album’s jigsaw puzzle mix of song, spoken word and shipyard sound is a haunting folk portrait of a community bearing the emotional and physical weight of industry.
The intimacy of the freshly cut-back band distills the power of a capella showstopper ‘Fairfield Crane’, performed with characteristic sharpness by Rachel Unthank. Jez Lowe’s ‘Taking on Men’ becomes a short and bittersweet recession anthem, immediate as carol singers at your front door, while a cover of ‘Shipbuilding’ is equally focused but rounded out with a lush arrangement, almost choral.
At just a nudge under ten minutes long, ‘The Romantic Tees’ is comparatively expansive, a mix of spoken word, working boat launch sounds and song in three parts, with a patchwork feel. With Graeme Miles’ words rejecting romanticisation of the river with an audible raised eyebrow (‘The ‘romantic’ Tees?’), producer and ‘deviser’ Adrian McNally finds a break in the at times chocolate box melodies of the album at large.
Elsewhere, sweet, impressionistic lullabies and eerie seaside waltzes are again undercut by lyrics insisting on the reality of declining industry and its impact. Diversions Vol 3 paints an incisive portrait of England’s industrial heritage, even beyond the rivers of the North East.

Stillhouse

When I first heard the initial iteration of this project I was speechless. Of course, I'm not generally given to oration as a rule, but the sweet simplicity of this work just seemed so right.
I was immediately enamored with the title track.
A vision realised...
Steinar Raknes is a man of many tastes. A founding member of the fiery modern jazz quartet The Core, a collaborator with lyrical jazz violinist Ola Kvernberg, co-leader of the SKÁIDI duo with yoik vocalist Inga Juuso, and leader of his own quartet that covers tango and bossa-nova classics, on Stillhouse, this Norwegian double bassist features his abilities as a vocalist and interpreter of eclectic, iconic American songs from the past few decades, as well as a few originals.
Raknes’ acoustic arrangements are straightforward.
His vocals are warm but his delivery direct and reserved, largely reciting the lyrics as matter-of- fact reporting, and never attempting to compete with memorable, existing vocal versions. His confident and powerful finger-picked playing strips the melodic content of these songs to their basic skeletal lines, his humble and intimate attitude stressing their emotional impact.
Raknes hosts Nashville harmonicist Mickey Raphael and several Norwegian vocalists on a few songs. Solveig Slettahjell brilliantly adds her warm voice to Raknes’ on John Prine's “Killing the Blues.” Raphael is a perfect partner on the arresting, melancholic cover of Gillian Welch’s “Tear My Stillhouse Down.” Gently, with vocalist Unni Wilhelmsen, Raknes adds touching emotional insight to The Band’s “Twilight.”
Raknes couples Prince’s “Kiss” with Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire,” transforming the originals’ explicit, seductive and reckless desire with the experience of mature and patient passion. This kind of peace-making with his own past serves Raknes beautifully on his original, “Time to Go” while a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” adds a distant and skeptical view of the historic event.
Raknes’ best cover is John Prine’s classic “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness,” where his modest and sober approach fits perfectly with the words. He concludes this set with two originals, the bluesy “Down the Drain” and optimistic farewell “Walkin.’”
Surprising, beautiful and highly rewarding.
Personnel: Steinar Raknes: double bass, vocals; Mickey Raphael: harmonica (1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13) Solveig Slettahjell: vocals (1); Unni Wilhelmsen: vocals (5); Kaja Bremnes: vocals (12); Paolo Vinaccia: snare drum (8); Andrew Utnem: harmonium (9, 14).

Hello Black Halo

Just like the late Jessie Mae Hemphill, Becky Lee is a renegade and Lonely She-Wolf in the world of men dominated Blues Rock’n’Roll. She is one of the world’s few female one (wo)man bands. She plays guitar, kick drum, snare w/a foot pedal and floor tom with her strum hand with such co-ordination you could swear it was a 4 piece band.
Hello Black Halo, her debut album on Voodoo Rhythm Records, rolls in with  dark clouds of betrayal, death, and lust, as Becky Lee abuses the hell out of her guitar using the drums only to drive the song into the open country of your speakers and her voice strikes with the power of lightning.
In “Killer Mouse”, she breaks from the beating drum into a small lead that proves Lee understands how a song needs to break down for the words or music to have the desired power.
The tracks that follow are all great and enjoyable, but the track that stands out is “Hip Kids”, a suburban summer lament. In this track, Lee channels the Shondells in a 1950′s dirge about being finished with the posturing multitudes who are too cool to do anything loose or reckless (or even treat a woman right).

frank lee artseen

Former Freight Hopper Lee on banjo and guitar, in a set of old-time songs, tunes and blues: "Fully Saved Today," "Riley the Furniture Man," "Shout Lula," "Ragged and Dirty," eight more; with singer Jessica Johnson and Joey Damiano on upright bass. This is a fine collection of tunes.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/franklee
Album Notes

A passion for traditional songs and tunes from the rural South has fueled Frank's love of performing for the past 25 years. As a founding member of the Freight Hoppers, he has shared this passion with audiences all over the United States and Canada, as well as much of Northern Europe. He presents a range of old-time music that spans from raw Blues from the Mississippi delta, to the hillbilly music recorded in the South in the 1920's.

Growing up just south of Atlanta, Frank recalls hearing stories about the exploits of his banjo-playing grandfathers, as well as hearing about Fiddlin' John Carson and Riley Puckett. As a kid a neighbor introduced him to the music of Ralph Stanley, Frank became fascinated by the banjo. Immediately after high school graduation, Frank broke his femur in a motorcycle racing accident. His father bought him a banjo to pass the time in traction, and Frank's been playing ever since.

Frank began giving banjo lessons while he was in art school, and in the mid-80's started traveling with Clearwater, a bluegrass band that toured throughout the U.S. and released an acclaimed album, Willow of Time (produced by Rhonda Vincent). His focus gradually moved toward older, more archaic styles of Southern music. Clawhammer banjo styles took his attention away from the slick 3 finger bluegrass styles.

A few years later Frank moved to Bryson City, NC to take a job playing music for the tourists on the Great Smoky Mountain Railway, where he met fiddler David Bass. The two of them began playing old-time music at the train depot in Bryson City, and the Freight Hoppers stringband grew out of this gig. The daily work of the depot created a particularly tight band sound, and the group placed first in the stringband competition at the Appalachian Stringband Music Festival (a.k.a. Clifftop), appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, and signed on with Rounder Records.

The Freight Hoppers toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, released three albums, and achieved a level of public recognition previously unheard of for a modern old-time band. Frank's old-time banjo playing can be heard on the three Freight Hopper albums, as well on a Freight Hoppers live concert video. He has a banjo instructional video out on Homespun Video. Slide guitar has become a part of Frank's concerts. A 1932 National Steel Duolian was added to the arsenal of banjos, along with a love for the oldest recorded blues players from the South, Son House, Willie Brown, and Blind Willie Johnson. Spirituals and blues round out a performance of unique arrangements of Old-time music from the deep Southeast.

Are You There

Minnesota is the new moniker of veteran singer/songwriter Peter Himmelman, who has had a prolific solo career since his 1986 debut, This Father’s Day. Minnesota’s Are You There is one of Himmelman’s most intimate albums to date and his first collaborative effort in over 25 years. A number of musicians contributed to the album, but Himmelman’s principal artistic partner on Are You There was filmmaker David Hollander.

The two travelled to Himmelman’s hometown of Minneapolis, Minn. to record what Himmelman describes as more of a “theatrical experience” than a “collection of songs.”


Jim Anton - Bass
Jake Hanson - Guitar
Noah Levy - Drums
Peter Himmelman - Guitar, Vocals
Jeff Victor - Keyboards
Joe Savage - Lap Steel
Kristin Mooney - Vocals
Claire Holley - Vocals

Produced by David Hollander

http://www.minnesotaband.com/minnesota-the-band/

Minnesota – The Band
“To me this isn’t just a collection of songs,” Peter Himmelman says. “It’s more like a theatrical experience.” Himmelman is explaining Are You There – the first album released under the collective moniker Minnesota. Indeed, Himmelman’s latest project defies easy categorization – standing as far apart from his acclaimed discography as it does the typical creation of a rock album in this day and age.

Himmelman remains one of the most revered singer-songwriters of his generation: USA Today hailed him “one of rock’s most wildly imaginative performers,” while The San Francisco Chronicle said of the Grammy-nominated artist “he probes all the passions, from anguish to lust, to depths few rockers can even imagine.” Of Himmelman’s 1991 solo album From Strength To Strength (which yielded the memorable radio hit “The Woman With the Strength of 10,000 Men”), Time Magazine praised “songs written with the same emphatic edge and aesthetic urgency that impelled the Lost Generation to write novels.”

That same iconoclastic drive, however, pushed Himmelman to move beyond his own boundaries on Are You There. For one, it isn’t a solo album – a rare occurrence from someone who hasn’t released a “band” album in over 25 years; then again, it isn’t exactly a “band” album, either. Are You There is cinematic in ambition yet defiantly frayed in execution with boldly raw performances jumpstarted by subtly modernist production featuring a diverse set of musicians including Jake Hanson (Halloween Alaska) on guitar, Noah Levy (BoDeans/Brian Setzer) on drums, Jimmy Anton (Johnny Lang) on bass, Jeff Victor (the Honeydogs/Andrew W. K.) on keyboards, and the front-and-center vocals of Kristin Mooney and Claire Holley. The album hybrids all these contradictions into one of the year’s most startling, evocative musical journeys

That’s in part due to the album’s unlikely conception: a collaboration born of an equal partnership between Himmelman and accomplished filmmaker David Hollander, who is best known for creating the venerated TV series “The Guardian” (which propelled lead actor Simon Baker to his current fame), and directing independent films like 2009′s critically-praised Personal Effects, which starred Ashton Kutcher and Michelle Pfeiffer (which Hollander adapted from a Rick Moody short story).

“We had our own trajectories in our respective worlds, so we weren’t competitive,” Hollander notes. “Peter was getting ready to make a record, and he needed a little direction and change. I wanted to hear Peter with no smokescreen – to create a world around him that’s physical and visceral, but also enveloping and spacious. I wanted to toy with the constructs.’”

The two did have common ground to work from. Himmelman is no stranger to the moving image, having received an Emmy nomination in 2002 for his scoring work on the TV show “Judging Amy”; he also created the music for Hollander’s 2007 series “Heartland.” “Peter isn’t a cautious writer,” Hollander notes. “He’s impulsive and quick, whereas I’m more long form, prone to circling endlessly. I wish I had his qualities, and I expect he wishes he had a bit of mine.”

Hollander’s storytelling instincts, honed from years of television and film work, bring a fresh perspective to Himmelman’s music – a process that kicked off when the two longtime friends got together in fall 2011 to listen to songs Himmelman had demoed for a new record. “I immediately heard a larger narrative in the songs, saw a story within that felt compelling,” Hollander says.

This concept allowed Himmelman free range beyond his usual songwriting concerns and allowed the album to introduce new sonic rules into his work. Previously renowned for his literary, spiritual explorations, Are You There finds Himmelman still asking questions both sacred and profane – but now imbued with a new, edgy fervor. In “Deep Freeze,” he reveals an apocalyptic but all-too-familiar world where “the devil is coming out of deep freeze”: “They’re stringing up the niggers, the faggots, and the Jews/They’re never out of victims – it’s getting’ hard to choose,” he sings.

“How can you not feel on the edge of some kind of chaos today?” Himmelman says. Himmelman’s approach reflects his primal, contemporary spin on themes embedded in rock and roll’s roots. “I tend to be interested in more basic blues these days: Howlin’ Wolf, Blind Blake, Leadbelly,” he notes. “I want to find out how these guys rocked juke joints with just one acoustic guitar. Working within the narrowest of melodic and lyric structures – I find great freedom in that.”

Even the recording environment would also factor into the album’s thematic sweep. In January 2011, Himmelman and Hollander traveled to Himmelman’s hometown of Minneapolis in the midst of a record breaking cold-snap to record the album. “We placed it in and called the collective ‘Minnesota’ to give Peter his due,” Hollander says. “For Peter, it is a homecoming. The record that he created, that I then curated, is very much about someone finding his home.”

Together, the musicians and production team partnered to achieve Himmelman’s most immediate sounding recording yet. “I love how this record feels,” Himmelman says. “I hear a sheen on a lot of newer things; this feels handmade, more spontaneous.”

Himmelman and Hollander chose the album’s title from a particularly resonant line in the song “Call From the Road.” “For any artist, it’s an important question,” Himmelman notes. “Is anybody there? Are you in this relationship, or just going through the motions?”

“Minnesota’ represents the whole experience,” Hollander says. “It’s not a Peter Himmelman solo album, or ‘A Film by David Hollander’; it’s a larger collaboration, well beyond the two of us. We pushed each other out of our comfort zones and into new territory.” Himmelman adds: “I was sometimes frustrated by the new approach, but a great producer – and David qualifies as that – can make you become yourself again.”

Curse in the Woods

http://www.curseinthewoods.com/index.php/pressbio

From : Montreal

Since : The band was formed in 2009

Discography :
- Curse in the Woods (demo) : 2010
- Wise up (single) : 2012
- The Deals they Made : 2012

Band members :
- Sam Harvey : Piano, Accordion, keyboards, organ, guitar.
- Jeannie Taylor : Vocals
- François Girouard : Drums, musical saw, banjo, percussions, soundscapes.
- Philippe Latour : Standup bass, electric bass
- Gabriel Girouard : Violin, Alto violin.
- Guillaume Garant-Rousseau : Tuba, trompette
- Aiden Fontaine-O’Connell : Trombone
- Philippe Rivard : Video creation and projections
- Andréanne Roy : Backvocals, percussions





CURSE IN THE WOODS'BIO

Curse in the Woods was born as the result of a chance meeting one January night between Jeannie Taylor and Sam Harvey at a Montreal metro station, where Sam was playing the accordion. Sam had just come back from a three-year tour of Europe where he busked in the streets of more than eight countries. Jeannie, a visual artist and member of the burlesque troop Oops Johnny!, had begun to perform her own creation, a theatrical burlesque character, which melded the macabre with sensual beauty. Curse in the Woods is the product of the encounter of these two artists and the mixing of their similar yet unique visions.

A few short months after embarking on this project, Curse in the Woods had grown to include a collection of extremely talented musicians and a wide variety of instruments. Curse in the Woods had become a largescale multi-media project, combining music with diverse theatrical and audiovisial elements, drawing equally from traditional and contemporary backgrounds. Curse in the Woods’ musical influences flow from the raw sounds of Delta blues and gypsy music, to the magnetic songs of Lhasa and Tom Waits, with a touch of the eerie melodies of horror film music.

From the moment they played their first shows Curse in the Woods was affably welcomed by Montreal’s pop and folk scenes and continue to entertain audiences at some of the city’s most popular venues. The momentum has continued over the years, allowing the band to establish a solid foundation in their own right as a fresh addition to Montreal's dynamic music scene. In 2010, Curse in the Woods recorded their first demo in a friend’s tiny apartment studio. In 2012, the band’s first album will finally be released. 'The Deals they Made' was recorded and mastered at Montreal’s own legendary Studio Victor. After years of academic musical and artistic study, the members of Curse in the Woods deliver a performance of story telling, music and visual arts that captivates the audience in an atmosphere of wickedly mystic fun.

Hymns to What is Left

Greg Brown's mother played electric guitar, his grandfather played banjo, and his father was a Holy Roller preacher in the Hacklebarney section of Iowa, where the Gospel and music are a way of life. Brown's first professional singing job came at age 18 in New York City, running hootenannies (folksinger get-togethers) at the legendary Gerdes Folk City. After a year, Brown moved west to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where he was a ghostwriter for Buck Ram, founder of the Platters. Tired of the fast-paced life, Brown traveled with a band for a few years, and even quit playing for a while before he moved back to Iowa and began writing songs and playing in midwestern clubs and coffeehouses. This latest release is a true treat. Besham's Bokerie sealed it for me. A keeper!


http://gregbrownmusic.org/hymns.cfm

Folk icon Greg Brown will unveil Hymns To What Is Left (Sawdust Records, marking his 25th studio album) through online distributor CDBaby on October 2nd, 2012, the same day that his wife Iris Dement releases her much-anticipated album, Sing The Delta (Flariella Records).

Fueled by a signature rumbling baritone voice, (after receiving multiple Grammy nominations, over a 30 year career and building an astonishingly deep songbook - that has been covered by dozens of frontline artists - while touring incessantly), Brown’s recent Freak Flag (Yep Roc 2011) was stunning in its tenderness and unfiltered emotional depth; beyond that, it found Brown reenergized to the recording process, making way for his latest truly potent tour de force, Hymns To What Is Left.

At the core of Hymns To What Is Left is the near-magical, copacetic interplay of Brown's driven and graceful acoustic picking with longtime collaborator/producer Bo Ramsey's distinctive artful soundscapes via bell-toned electric guitars and haunting slide.

In co-producing the album, Ramsey and Brown dug all the way into “less-is-more” and came out with a recording spotlighting Brown’s artistry on all levels. No drums or bass, the rustic mix was rounded out with contributions by Bob Black (banjo), Al Murphy (fiddle and mandolin), Dave Moore (button accordion), and daughter Pieta Brown (banjo, piano, harmony vocals), and cameo otherworldly harmonies by wife Iris Dement and daughter Constie Brown.

The result is an album of 14 uniquely unforgettable songs that find Greg Brown at the peak of his estimable vocal powers supported by an all-world stringband that's absolutely locked-in--in short, a masterpiece that may well be the finest front-to-back endeavor of his career.

Highlights are many and varied:

The opening Arkansas sets the tone, a raucous barnyard dance coasting downhill.

The mystical Besham's Bokerie (bewildering spelling and all) came to Brown in a dream. Luckily he made it into a song and tapped into his arresting falsetto to tell the tale.        

Black's intrepid banjo and Murphy's hill-country fiddle stake out a delicate, elegant old-timey framework on the lovely Brand New Angel  (recently recorded and showcased by Jeff Bridges in the movie Crazy Heart.)

Now That I'm My Grandpa is a masterwork--a clear coming together of Brown's lyrical directness and spiritual destination, as well as a linchpin to the album's collected self-awareness ("life is way less lonely when you're part of everyone").

The wondrous Fat Boy Blues applies a raggedy Tom Waits vox with a first-person Randy Newman approach ("one day I just woke up, fat as I could be, now I stumble out to the kitchen, for another chicken or two..." and the priceless "oh, yes, I am the walrus, and I have got the fat boy blues") to an irresistible, absolutely-slinky groove.

Private, simple and uncluttered, I Could Just Cry (How Sweet You Are) is one of the most perfect realizations of unconditional familial love. Country/folk great Don Williams has searched for this song all his life.

The title track, Hymns To What is Left, is another surrender of sorts, a subtle, gentle acceptance that experiences and feelings--even when painful--truly are the stuff of Life. Not to mention musically spellbinding.

Good To You is a crystalline country blues, and Greg & Bo's guitars are luminous.

No two ways about it, On The Levee is epic, a slow-opening, multi-dimensional work of art that feels like the magnificent, meticulously-drawn rush of the final pages of "100 Years of Solitude." Brown's vocal is conversational, eerie, ominous; the instrumentation likewise.

Hanging Man is deep and grand. An allegory in song. A perfect hymn?

End Of The Party and Earth is A Woman take us out.  All the way out.

The closing benediction, Earth Is A Woman revisits an enduring trope as old as man-, er, human-kind (clearly, if 'earth was a man,' we'd all have been toast long ago). Recorded in one take, it neatly culminates a magnificent collection of hard-won wisdom, jaw-dropping musicianship and generous, inclusive humanity. And that's a lot to get in just one little reckid, ain't it?