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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 1, 2021 14:15:20 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1981.
6. Guy Clark - The South Coast of Texas
Let's just start out with the fact that this is one of Guy Clark's weakest albums. That being said, a weak album by Clark is still usually a fine album. And this one is certainly fine. Clark's re-make of Rita Ballou is a nice twist on the song. And the album introduced a couple of Clark's better songs, "Heartbroke," which was a hit for Ricky Skaggs, and "She's Crazy For Leavin'," which was a hit for co-writer Rodney Crowell.
Clark would wait five years before releasing his next album and it would be a full transition from early Clark to mature Clark. This...well this is just a pretty good album.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 2, 2021 9:47:38 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1981. 5. Gatemouth Brown - Alright Again! Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was an eclectic multi-instrumentalist who made music his own way. He bubbled under the surface of fame as a musician whose influence greatly outstripped his commercial success. After almost disappearing in the 60s, Brown began to rebuild his career in the 70s with a sound that was a mix of his native Texas blues, jazz, country, rock & roll and even some calypso thrown in for spice. While his albums weren't always successful they were usually interesting. This album, however, was very successful. Brown pays tribute to influences like T-Bone Walker and Albert Collins, while producing some of the best tracks of his later career. If you want to try late-phase Gatemouth, this is a good place to start.
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Post by berkley on Jun 2, 2021 21:19:14 GMT -5
I forget where or how I heard of Clarence Gatemouth Brown but it was sometime in the mid to late 80s and I ended up buying a couple of his albums on cassette. I even got the chance to see him live in the early 90s, great show.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 3, 2021 13:46:21 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1981.
4. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Hard Promises.
The follow up to Petty's breakout hit album "Damn the Torpedoes" showed that Petty and company were not a fluke. If there's nothing here that's a departure from Torpedoes it's a perfect compliment with strong songwriting and a perfectly consistent sound. Petty was simply at the top of his game at this point and this album shows it.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 4, 2021 10:55:15 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1981. 3. The Blasters - The Blasters
The Blasters came out of the L.A. punk scene in the late 70s. But for Phil and Dave Alvin, the focus was on re-introducing the "American music" that they'd grown up on. That meant distilling rockabilly, blues, country, jazz, swing, and, most importantly, early rock & roll, into their sound. For me, this album and The Blasters became ground zero for what has become known as "roots rock" and a leg of the greater umbrella of the Americana genre. The album is a combination of Dave Alvin originals and a handful of covers. The covers, however, are not the same ole same ole. The Blasters go out of their way to find songs that were underappreciated the first time around. So we get tracks like Albert Luandrew's "Highway 61" and McWilliams' "Never No More Blues." Dave Alvin's originals are all perfectly cromulent and absolutely reflect the roots that The Blasters are trying to showcase. It is almost criminal that this album is currently out of print, though slightly more than half of it is available on "The Blasters Collection." Just a great album.
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Post by brutalis on Jun 6, 2021 19:48:18 GMT -5
Watching an incredible PBS special all about the legendary Sergio Mendes. I grew up listening to his albums alongside Herb Alpert as my mother fell in love with their music. Such an amazing man who didn't try to follow trends, he set them! Created the very 1st hit song sung in Portuguese for world audiences in 1966. Didn't matter that nobody knew what was being sung as the beat, the rhythm, the heart and soul just spoke to EVERYONE.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 7, 2021 9:56:08 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1981.
2. Joe Ely - Musta Notta Gotta Lotta
This was Ely's first album after returning from opening for The Clash on their 1979 European Tour. While some of that rockin' may have rubbed off, Ely was always as much a roots rocker at heart as he was a country boy. And this album has Ely channeling his early inspirations such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly.
The album has the standard complement of songs Ely along with some from his Flatlanders mates Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock (with a couple of other). The title track/opener is a pretty driving rocker. And Ely ups the tempo on Gilmore's "Dallas" which had been on the Flatlanders album.
It's an excellent album that showed that Ely wasn't just another outlaw...he was something all his own.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 7, 2021 11:39:11 GMT -5
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 7, 2021 12:19:38 GMT -5
Interesting. My look was very much focused on my interests, though there's some intersection. The Shaft Soundtrack ended up just out of my running. But it's one of the great soundtracks of all time, much less the 70s. Hayes also released Black Moses that year which is another amazing album. It's an album that I have a huge amount of respect for even if I don't listen to it all that often.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 8, 2021 11:29:42 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1981.
1. Merle Haggard - Big City
At this point it's pretty clear that Merle Haggard is in my personal Mount Rushmore of musicians. I don't remember a time without Hagg's music being in my life. And unlike a lot of prolific musicians with very long careers he never had a bad period. Sure he had a bad album now and then...but you can find gold in every decade from the 60s through the 2010s. And usually more good than bad.
This was Haggard's first album for Epic after leaving his long association with MCA. And it's one of this strongest albums...ever. The songs written by Haggard are probably his strongest set since his mid-60s peak. And the theme of the album is vintage Haggard, an escape from the city back to the basics of country and small-town life. The title track hits that home with a sledgehammer.
But since we visited "Big City" fairly recently, this time we'll go with "My Favorite Memory" which I think may be Haggard's best love song.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 9, 2021 10:44:00 GMT -5
In which we head in to 1991 which was, much to my dismay, 30 years ago.
Favorite albums of 1991.
10. Jim Lauderdale - Planet of Love
Lauderdale was (and still is) a significant songwriter when he released this debut album. His debut album showed his strong songwriting skills along with his vocal skills. It also made absolutely zero ripples in the music world as nobody in 1991 had any idea where to pigeon-hole Lauderdale. It was too rock for country and too country for rock. It is post-outlaw Outlaw. It's post-cosmic country Cosmic Country. It wasn't quite alt enough to fit into the emerging alt-country
Really what Lauderdale did was produce an true Americana album before Americana had a name. And that's where he's stayed, playing the music he wants to play when he wants to play it for whatever publisher will put out that particular album.
So if you aren't familiar with Lauderdale (and why aren't you?) give this one a listen. And then keep listening. Oh...and his show with Buddy Miller on Sirius' "Outlaw Country" station is generally excellent. Both men have a deep knowledge of music history.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 10, 2021 10:18:48 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1991.
9. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Into the Great Wide Open
Tom Petty followed up the triumph of Full Moon Fever with...Full Moon Fever lite. Into the Great Wide Open is a perfectly fine album. It's got two or three quality singles. It's well produced (while wearing the imprimatur of Jeff Lynne). The problem, to the extent there is one, is that there's just nothing particularly different or interesting here. It's more Full Moon Fever...just not quite as good.
Still it's vintage Tom Petty and it's compellingly listenable even if it's not remotely challenging. And there's nothing much wrong with that.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 11, 2021 14:04:24 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1991.
8. John Prine - The Missing Years
So how does one of Prine's best reviewed albums, certainly his best reviewed album between 1978's "Bruised Orange" and 1999's "In Spite of Ourselves" end up this far down the list? It's not because it's a bad album, because it's a very good album. I think it's a combination of the fact that if I sit down to listen to an album this one is well down the list and that, to me, there aren't any single songs off this one that really stand out. Still...a good listen when you get around to thinking of it.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 14, 2021 10:34:03 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1991.
7. Marty Stuart - Tempted
While it seemed like Stuart burst on the scene with 1989's "Hillbilly Rock" and then upped the ante with this album, that was absolutely not the case. Stuart started playing with Lester Flatt's band at age 14 and went on to play in Johnny Cash's backing band. So while he was one of the later New Traditionalists to make their debut he had been around for quite a while.
This is just a fun old-school country album with rollicking honky-tonk songs and some nice slow tracks. I've seen the album compared to Dwight Yoakam's sophomore effort "Hillbilly Deluxe." While I don't think it's nearly as deep as that album the aesthetic is similar and it's a high quality album.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 15, 2021 10:24:16 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1991.
6. Dave Alvin - Blue Blvd.
Alvin's second solo album is a fairly standard Dave Alvin album. That means it's strong from start to finish and dips into all his influences for a wonderful mash-up of blues, country, folk and rock & roll. And this time around he's joined by friends Dwight Yoakam, David Hidalgo and classic rock & roll sax-man Lee Allen.
Alvin is really one of the guys who defined both roots rock and Americana. And this is a pretty decent place to start with his solo stuff after you've explored The Blasters.
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