I am a happy bunny. On Saturday, I stumbled across a charity stall where some decent cove had offloaded a sizable collection of folk, jazz, country, blues, African, reggae, soul, fado, etc. Presumably it had all been digitalized and space was needed.
Some ten cases of CDs (24 apiece) sorted by genre, as well as a sundry assortment of odds and ends, (including a few Word of Mouth cover mounts). I wonder if he was a Massive member?
Anyway, I bought the soul and what must have been the erudite guitar plucking collections – some 45 CDs for 35 Euros.
I’m listening to Bill Frisell’s Nashville now, and wanted to share my joy with you lovely music fiends. A lot of the music is new to me, and if you’ve been affected by any of these artistes, I’d love to get your guidance. I’m looking forward to filling great holes in my musical knowledge.
(Lists of music acquired in posts below)
https://radiofreemidwich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/the-review-pile-yesterday.jpg
Guitar music:
Mike Auldridge, Bob Brozman & David Grisman – Tone Poems III
Michael Bloomfield – Shanachie
Ry Cooder & Manuel Galbán – Mambo Sinuendo
Larry Coryell & Philip Catherine – Twin House
Explosions In The Sky – The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
John Fahey & Cul De Sac – The Epiphany of Glenn Jones
Bill Frisell – Ghost Town, Good Dog Happy Man, Nashville
Tony Furtado – Dirk Powell, Roll My Blues Away
Ed Gerhard – The Live Album
Michael Hedges – Aerial Boundaries
The Henrys – Puerto Angel
Pat Metheny – One Quiet Night
Captain Onboard – Captain Onboard
Ernest Ranglin – In Search of the Lost Riddim
John Renbourn – Traveller’s Prayer
Marc Ribot – Y Los Cubanos Postizos
Martin Simpson – Cool & Unusual
Henry Threadgill – Song Out of My Trees
Tronzo Trio – Roots
John Williams – The Magic Box
A good helping of Bill Frisell, I see. All of those are good.
Bill Frisell was the main reason for getting this collection and Nashville was the first album I played – it is beautiful – a sparkly, shimmering gentle sound – purrs along like a well-tuned Rolls (I would imagine). Looking forward to the other two, bu this one pours into the ears like the Oban 14 year old whisky my dad offered me last weekend – resonates through the senses.
Your Dad poured whisky in your ears? Takes all sorts, I suppose.
Lol – yeah – then he set light to it. Cleared the wax out and now I can hear like a bell (constant ringing tinnitus)
the Explosions In The Sky album is terrific, probably their best.
Soul:
Arthur Alexander – The Ultimate…
William Bell – The Soul of a Bell
Solomon Burke – The Very Best of…
James Carr – The Essential…
Ray Charles – What’d I Say
Sam Cooke – The Rhythm & The Blues, The Best of…, SAR records Story (1959-1965)
Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly
Aretha Franklin – Aretha’s Gold
Mojo – Raw Soul Vol.3
Wilson Pickett – The Exciting…
Otis Redding – The Very Best of…
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Master Series
Sam and Dave – The Best of…
The Temptations – Anthology, A Song For You, Masterpiece
O.V. Wright – The Soul of…
Fabulous stuff there. Arthur Alexander is a gem of a singer – had his songs covered by both the Fabs and the Stones. Ended up a driver of a school bus.
James Carr is also excellent.
Thanks, @inaness – guidance and pointers to the more obscure (to me) acts is why I posted this.
I meant @ianess – spotted just too late,,,
Yes Arthur Alexander was a great singer/songwriter. The Beatles covered Anna and Soldier Of Love. The Stones did You Better Move On. All the Merseybeat bands played A Shot of Rhythm And Blues. Ry Cooder did Go Home Girl and Jerry Lee Lewis did Everyday I Have To Cry.
All of them fabulous pop soul r&b songs. And that’s proper r&b.
Steady.
Sorry
JLL’s version of ‘Every Day..’ Is one of my favourite ever songs of his.
Arthur’s ‘In the Middle of it All’ is a real heartbreaker of a song. Great performer.
And here’s Arthur with the original of Anna. What a great, great song.
It was less than a year old when the Beatles covered it for their first album in 1963, but communication moved slowly back then and an American hit often languished unknown in the UK, leaving the field open for cover versions.
Don’t apologise. You’re right. None of the nonsense that’s called R&B these days.
You’re right, of course, but I don’t want to upset mini in case she bails on us again.
Another Arthur Alexander song Sally Sue Brown (his first single, in fact) was covered by Bob Dylan on the album Down In The Groove.
This probably makes Alexander the only songwriter whose songs have been covered by The Beatles, The Stones and Dylan.
Some great soul voices there @salwarpe. You did very well indeed.
It was about time I got to grips with soul, @mike_h – this was fortuitous.
Those Mojo Raw Soul CDs are really good. Off the top of my head I don’t think I’ve got vol 3, but I’m pretty sure 1 & 2 are upstairs somewhere. I’m going to go dig them out.
One more:
Ousmane Touré – Avenue du Monde
Wow! I have to say you have dropped on, there, sal. I play the contents of the Soul box regularly (O.V. Wright is under-rated). The guitar box is full of gems, too.
Pfft. That’s nothing. I acquired my 7th copy of Don Estelle’s Christmas LP yesterday. How about this find from James Last, featuring Je T’aime Moi Non Plus. Charity shops are marvellous innit.
https://youtu.be/8S8gD6qf–Y
Guys, I think the time has come for an intervention. This man needs our help.
Clearly he needs at least seven turntables for full septuple Estelle sound.
I, for one, would love to hear Don Estelle and Windsor Davies cover ‘Je t’aime’.
The nearest we get I’m afraid. Be very afraid.
that’s truly awful. This version was huge in Australia. Number 96 was a soap opera in the seventies that included openly gay relationships and bare breasts. Abigail was the source of lust for a significant proportion of the male population. Was on just around the time colour TV was introduced.
For some reason, I keep wanting to introduce the fact that Frankie had an oversized chopper which he was wont to whip out on a regular basis.
Brilliant haul, Sal.
You notice he did not tell us where to find this charity stall.
First rule of Charity Shop: you do not talk of Charity Shop.
Think of it like Brigadoon – if you are in the right time (7/16ths should do it) and place (corner of dead-end street) – a portal will appear to a magical world of shiny discs and benevolent stallholders.
It’s okay. I did pretty well over the weekend too, although I didn’t make out like a bandit, like you.
Good for you. mini. You’re a bit of a soul expert, aren’t you? Glad you rated this. I dipped my toe in with a bit of Sam Cooke this morning (You Send Me) and he’s got SUCH a beautiful voice – I bet there are many unknown treasures to discover ahead.
No expert at all, but you must listen to his Live At The Harlem Square Club album. To use a technical term, it’s blinking amazeballs. A twitter chum managed to find me a cheap vinyl version on Saturday and is posting it this week. I’m beside myself.
Now is a good time to buy CDs cheaply while everyone is fighting over vinlys. They are making a comeback you know…(repeat as nauseum)
The kidz are lumping on all those Dylan, Kinks, Stones and McCartney vinyls from the 1980s.
“Oh, quality purchase, Sir, very shrewd.”
yes Beany I’ve thought that . Can’t sell most of them.
Countercyclical market purchases.
Sam Cooke is fantastic, but he’s no Don Estelle.
@salwarpe desist immediately! The wife said she was going to make a start of getting rid of my stuff, I want them back NOW!
You did great. Some stuff there doesn’t get too many mentions around these parts.
Hedges was (died young) a very special acoustic player, a virtuoso who kept it airy. Aeriel Boundries is so great. Ranglin is a jazz guitar player from Jamaica, so his stuff is breathed on and his respect for the island’s music is often noticeable when he slides slyly into a reggae groove. Williams, Renbourn, Metheny, Cooder are all big names and immediately identifiable. Ribot, Fahey, Brozman are less well-known but still excellent. That Coryell/Catherine is a perrenial 2nd hander, a no Parlez, don’t think anyone wants it long term. And unless Threadgill is featuring guitarists (does sometimes), I think you’ll discover he’s a sax player who pushes the envelope but loves the tradition.
Super comments, @declan – thanks – I’ll think fo your words when listening to Hedges.
As I didn’t know quite a few names, the ‘guitar’ summary was based on the ones I did know. I wonder if Threadgill is the odd one out among all the others?
Ernest Ranglin I know from the Putamayo coffeelands compilation – Below The Bassline – this album seems less bass heavy, but still an enjoyable listen, particularly the dancing at midnight song.
I regard Ranglin as reggae lite- a reggae equivalent the the jazz of late period George Benson. Also a session player. Those records are really good in a background sort of way.
You’re being a little unfair there, Junior. His version of King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown, say, is his trio playing dub in real time, that’s playing in a musicianly way, not twiddling knobs. So it’s not, you know, dub as such but a dubbish version of what a jazz trio would do if they knew what dub sounded like. QED.
Benson was actually real good but discovered that he could earn loads of money with highly-polished jazz-lite product where his voice was the main thing. Obviously your point stands, but so does the dig.
What a haul, you lucky so and so. I’m sure the soul will all be good and a lot of it will be great. I’ve only heard 3 0r 4 of the guitar list but would definitely recommend the Marc Ribot and Earnest Ranglin albums
I’ve already enjoyed the Ranglin album (in part) – seems to be a collaboration with Baaba Maal and Senegalese musicians, more than Jamaican in style. I think I’ll definitely enjoy the Marc Ribot – he’s one of John Zorn’s collaborators, isn’t he? I’m kind of expecting something of the wilder side of Frisell.
Marc Ribot – Y Los Cubanos Postizos: I’ve got that one. It’s vaguely latin avant garde, so conventionally odd rather than free form chaos.
O.V. Wright – The Soul of…. Wright is one of those excellent and underheard singers. Think a less well known James Carr crossed with Little Milton.
That’s what I said about O.V. higher up but everyone ignored me. ?
Your comments are much appreciated, @tiggerlion, and will be relevant when I dive into the Soul Sammlung. Mind you, if I apply the Tig test – 6 listens for every CD, I could be some time getting there.
So far, the one that is fulfilling the chaotic, detuned-guitar-dropped-down-a-flight-of-stairs remit* is Tronzo Trio. On the edge of unlistenable…
_________
*There’s got to be at least one, hasn’t there?
Barstard. 30 quids……
I know – and there was good stuff in the reggae and jazz collections too. I suspect my wife’s tolerance would have been distinctly tested if I’d come back with those as well…
You should have done what I did about 20+ years ago. I worked at the Thwaites brewery in Blackburn and commuted every day from Bolton. I used to call in a record shop in Darwen that was having a clear out of stock. They let have first dibs in the 7″ singles boxes at 10p each – including Beatles picture discs. I spent over £50, which was a lot of dosh back then. I kept the records at work in a filing cabinet and took home a few every day. Some bargains are too good to miss.
You left the reggae box ? *small shudder goes down my back*
Yebbut, a friend gave me acres of Marley, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo and Lee Scratch Perry, which I’m still happily ploughing through many years later.
Who knows, maybe it’ll be there next week and I can do a @beany?
Praise Jah for your friend
Do a Beany? That means you have to go back and buy the box marked “Easy Listening and other assorted crap”.
Which all goes to show that if you have the readies and you don’t check our your local chazzas from time to time, you’re being a fool to yourself.
Don’t forget the second rule of Charity Shop: don’t talk about Charity Shop. Especially where it is and what bargains they have. I have seen boxes disappear in a flash when dealers/car booters get a sniff.