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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 28, 2020 10:09:35 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#21 - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Hope the High Road
He's back!! Another great song off The Nashville Sound. The bridge is typical brilliant Isbell.
"We'll ride the ship down Dumping buckets overboard There can't be more of them than us There can't be more"
One hopes. But I'm not so sure any more.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 29, 2020 9:24:15 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#20 - Whitey Morgan & the 78s - Around Here.
This one being this high was shocking. It's a decent enough song and I listened to the album that it's on quite a bit, but this was not one of the stand-out tracks. So I dunno. Feels like a Spotify mistake.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2020 1:48:35 GMT -5
Slam_Bradley brought up Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) in another thread, which gets heavy rotation in my playlists, but there are a couple of remakes that I like almost as much. The first, by Living Colour put their unique spin on things... which also puts me in the mind of another remake they did that screams the same protest vibe... (be aware NSFW lyrics) -M
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2020 1:50:27 GMT -5
The other remake of Inner City Blues that gets heavy rotation in my playlist is John Mayer's version...
it seems no matter how many times this song is played or who plays it, it will fall on deaf ears in many sectors.
-M
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 1, 2020 10:37:36 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#19 - Joe Ely - Gallo del Ciello
I've talked about this song a number of times. Written by Tom Russell, I think that Ely does as good or better interpretation of the song as Russell.
It is, unquestionably, the best song about cockfighting ever.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 2, 2020 10:06:48 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#18 - Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
I was a little surprised to see this one so high. Not that it's not a great song, because it is. And not that I don't like it, because I do. But it's about 10 years old and I just didn't remember listening to it quite that much. But here we are.
This video, however, is great. That's Jason Isbell on lead guitar.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 3, 2020 10:29:08 GMT -5
Yeah, there's a lot going on in the world. But sometimes music, or comics or sci-fi or noir or whatever your jive is can help keep life worth living.
Top songs of 2019
#17 - Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - Chaos and Clothes
Another great track off The Nashville Sound. What more can I say about Isbell. His work was the soundtrack of my 2019.
"You're in a fight to the death my friend Fight like you're chained to the wheel You've got the past on your breath my friend Now name all the monsters you've killed Let's name all the monsters you've killed"
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 4, 2020 9:10:23 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#16 - Danny Vera - Pompadour Hippie
I've talked a lot about The Country Side of Harmonica Sam. But they aren't the only Europeans making great Americana music. Danny Vera hails from The Netherlands and has a fabulous countrypolitan sound that never slips over in to schmaltz. Can't wait for a new album.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 5, 2020 9:10:10 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#15 - Mike and the Moonpies - Beaches of Biloxi
Mike and the boys off what I would say was their break-through album. Nice traditional country song about a guy with a serious gambling problem. Which is also pretty traditional. Great steel guitar on this one.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2020 0:28:36 GMT -5
1989-30 + years ago, Living Colour released the album Time's Up, with an array of songs about social injustice and the black experience. 30 years later, the songs are still relevant and they are still fighting the good fight. On Saturday, they dropped a new video for one of the songs from the album-This is the Life. This song spoke to me as a 20 year old when I first heard it and watching the video tonight, I was fighting back tears of anger and frustration, and of hope, a bittersweet mix as I listened again and watched, several of the images I had seen already, some were new. None were comfortable. When I met the band backstage at a show at Toad's Place in New Haven in 2003 (just before I moved out to OH) this was one of the songs I thanked them for because it opened my eyes, pleased my ears, and forced me to rethink the world I lived in. Watching the video tonight did all three again...
This is the Life 2020 Version...
-M
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Post by impulse on Jun 7, 2020 11:08:41 GMT -5
So more recently, I've been exploring the heavier side of my musical tastes, but it is fun every now and then to go back and revisit past favorites that were influential to where I am now. I started with classic rock since that is what my dad had playing which I'm sure is a familiar origin to a lot of metal heads. Anyway, after a conversation I started listening to Aerosmith again. They were my favorite band in my teenage years and were my direct stepping stone into harder stuff. WOW. I forgot how good they were. I've mostly feel like I've "outgrown" most classic rock. Not as a quality judgment, just as you get into harder stuff, a lot of old rock just feels watered down, like drinking Stouts and IPAs then being offered a light lager. Anyway, it takes effort, but sometimes I can reset my expectations and listen to it more in context of how it would have come off at the time.
Man, they're good. I can see why they stuck out to me even among the other stuff I liked, and why I still enjoy going back to them at times. They were a legitimate HARD ROCK band. They rocked harder than a lot of their peers, but they also had that pop sensibility to write great, catchy songs. Great riffs, singable choruses, killer rhythm section. They scratched the hard rock itch and also nailed the catchy radio side of things.
They also were able to reinvent themselves in multiple decades to adapt instead of floundering like so many contemporaries did. Specifically, going from the 60s/70s to 80s was a desolate wasteland for most bands, and it was rough. Aerosmith struggled, too, until they found their footing and made smart collaboration partnerships in the end of the decade.
Anyway, it was just really fun to listen to them again with fresh enough ears to appreciate. Even at the time while they were the heaviest thing I was listening to, I was still left wanting something a little harder. Also like most classic rock, it would be hard to overstate how much of them I listened to, so I've kind of had my fill. I doubt they'll stay back on my daily rotation for too long, but I think I will pay them more attention than I have been.
Also, so as not to leave you all with just a wall of text, here is a song I overlooked at the time but just noticed. It was off their 1987 comeback album "Permanent Vacation." Other than the radio hits, I mostly blew this one off, not least of all due to the overwhelming 80s-ness of it's sound, but "The Girl Keeps Coming Apart" is a straight-up throwback funk song. Forgettable on regular speakers, but listened with my headphones that boost the bass. Difference experience.
Check it out on something with some low end.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 8, 2020 11:50:41 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#14 - Hank Thompson - Cocaine Blues
Again, this one comes up from my listening to Thompson's 1959 album "Songs for Rounders." While certainly not the earliest recording of the song (it dates to at least the mid 40s) it definitely pre-dates the best known version by Johnny Cash. The album and this version of the song is a bit of a revelation and gave me a lot more respect for Thompson.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 9, 2020 9:42:29 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#12 - Steve Earle - My Old Friend the Blues
Another great track off Guitar Town. This one absolutely speaks to me in far too intimate a way.
"Another lonely night, a nameless town If sleep don't take me first, you'll come around 'Cause I know I can always count on you My old friend the blues"
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 9, 2020 13:19:52 GMT -5
As I mentioned a while back, I've been slowly (very slowly at this point) reading Peter Guralnick's Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians.
I came across this quote and have been pondering it.
"The advent of phonograph recording in rural areas spelled the death of folk traditions, because the record ironed out regional characteristics and killed off all the forms which did not have widespread popularity."
I can certainly see this over time. You can see as the recording of what were early on termed "race records" that there were fairly distinct geographic sounds in, for example, blues recordings. Delta Blues was somewhat distinct from Texas Blues which was distinct from Piedmont Blues, etc. As recordings disseminated into the market you eventually saw a trend toward homogenization of the sound.
I now wonder if the democratization of music via the internet is reversing that trend.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 10, 2020 10:02:48 GMT -5
Top songs of 2019
#11 - Jim Lauderdale and Roland White - Try and Catch the Wind
2018 saw the release of an album which had been in the can since 1979. The session came about then Jim Lauderdale visited mandolinist Roland White and the two recorded an album in Earl Scruggs' home studio with Marty Stuart on guitar. They could never find a label to release the album until 2018. And while it's not a classic album it's solid and very entertaining bluegrass album.
I was definitely struck by this cover of Donovan's classic "Catch the Wind."
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