Favorite Albums of 2017 Number 6 - Larkin Poe's Peach

I'm usually most impressed by music that sounds like it's off the cuff, unassuming and with little in the way of fancy production. The DIY aesthetic of the most underground punk is one extreme of this, but it all stems from my love of more traditional music, regardless of the origin - folk music. Whether it's the traditional Latin American boleros I grew up with or the blues I got into in my teens, the sound of a couple of people with guitars and a feeling to share is the most amazing thing to me. Larkin Poe have brought this idea into the 21st century with their Tip o' the Hat series of covers on YouTube and their latest album Peach.

Featuring a mix of traditional blues covers and original songs, the album was entirely recorded and produced by Rebecca and Megan Lovell playing all instruments. It's a blend of organic instruments, drum programming, synths and simple editing tricks that captures that same feeling of two people in a room with guitars, but throws in a laptop without losing the urgency. All the attention is on the music, with arrangements that are stripped down but complex and feel fresh. It's all folk music, music of the people. Music that should feel like anyone could pick up an instrument and just play it. And while hip hop already showed us that this could mean a turntable or mixer and electronica artists have been making bedroom albums, this album is a great blend of these more modern takes with the more traditional. On top of that, this record was completed in one long weekend.

Robert Johnson's "Come on in My Kitchen," opens the album with a literal invitation to see what the sisters have cooked up. It's a minimalist take on the song, which I very much prefer to bands that electrify and over-complicate the blues for no reason. It's a demonstration of how these ladies respect their roots. The songs alternate between covers and originals that aren't all so obviously rootsy, giving everything a truly timeless feel. A classic like Son House's "Preachin' Blues" oozes funk in a way that is different from but still reverent of the original. Originals like "Freedom" and "Cast 'Em Out" show off how well the ladies can make these traditions their own, incorporating classic blues and gospel styles while remaining fresh and relevant. Then there are songs like "Look Away," "Pink & Red" and "Wanted Woman/AC/DC" which mix things up by going more modern and heavier without going overboard or sounding out of context. The juxtapositions work incredibly well and are all anchored by two of the most talented and dedicated guitar players, singers and all around musicians currently working. 

The album ends even more stripped down than it started with a haunting hand claps and foot stomp version of "Tom Devil" that is begging to be used in a movie. This is an expression of artistry and tribute that pushes Larkin Poe into a whole new dimension of their career. They know the roots of the music they love, they have deconstructed it and put it back together in their own way. Whatever they do next I'm in.

Buddy Guy: Blues Legend

Last night Carlos and I saw Buddy Guy, who I think is at this point, the last surviving big name blues legend, at Hard Rock Live at The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. We sat down to talk about it. From different computers and places. Ok, we chatted about it via IM. Here it is.

Gerry

We saw Buddy like 10 years ago at that blues festival, how much of that do you remember?

Carlos

I actually enjoyed that more than last night, mostly because of the venue. The fact that it was outdoors and he was the one to close the festival. Where we were sitting last night was just horrible. Having said that, I remember his energy and showmanship being exactly the same. The man does not seem to age!






Which is saying something because I think we both are generally not big on festivals and outdoor venues. But I honestly barely remember any details from the fest. I had just seen The Code Talkers and by the time I got to Buddy there was a large crowd. I do remember him jumping from song to song and doing the stuff with the guitar on his butt and the towel though. which could get cheesy, but he pulls it off





I think we were separated there, weren’t we? I remember standing on an elevated hill.






 Yeah, probably.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone else demonstrate complete mastery over their instrument the way he does. He is always in control of that thing.  Last night I was right off upset that we were sitting. There's something completely wrong about sitting politely for the blues.





He definitely pulls it off. The way he talks to the audience, makes jokes. It’s definitely something to see. I haven’t seen enough bluesmen in my time, but I agree with you he’s a badass. How did you feel about the song selection?




 It was good overall because he stuck to doing a lot of standard blues numbers. I would have liked to hear some more of that instead of the super extended solos between him and his other guitar player, Ric Jaz. Not that they weren't great, but maybe too many.






Yeah, that got a bit repetitive. I did like pianist Marty Sammon’s solos, though. Almost made me want to go back to taking piano lessons. Except I obviously suck.





Obviously. But sucky piano and sucky guitar is all we need for our band.

I really liked the acoustic bit where he played bits of classic rock and soul songs. If the show had been just that, I would have liked it much better. Have you heard the acoustic stuff he did with Junior Wells in the 90s? That stuff is awesome.





Yeah, the acoustic part was one of the highlights of the show. I haven’t heard the stuff with Junior Wells, I’ll have to look it up now. I really liked that moment when he went into the crowd, singing and playing as if it was that easy.





That  was the other highlight. I kind of wish we had been more motivated to follow him around the venue with all the old folks taking selfies. But I think the shitty crowd and lack of sight of the stage from our shitty seats had put us in a bit of a shitty mood. We weren't our usual rock n roll rebel selves.





Agree. Then again we’re old. It’s quite possible the crowd would’ve trampled us.  Even though they were older than us






Fucking old people always ruin concerts for us. As much as you hear people complain about "kids today" it's always people older than us that are constantly getting up to go to the bathroom or talking or sitting down when it's a fucking blues show and they should be standing! Stand up for the blues, motherfuckers!





That reminds me of Bob Dylan and how you had to tell those two old ladies behind us to shut the fuck up.






And that time we went to see Rodrigo and Gabriela and the old Brits were talking. Meanwhile, there's Buddy, 79 years young, being a badass and cutting loose.




When we walked out we were talking about how guys like Buddy, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and others had eventually settled into a more “commercial” and polished way of playing, when perhaps their roots were more basic and raw. And I wish Buddy Guy had been a bit more like that, less “safe” if you will. What was that great point you made about the way they used to play vs the studio?




That rough style we like that everyone imitates wasn't necessarily on purpose. In a sense these guys were always playing this polished style in their heads. I remember seeing some documentary where I think it was Buddy himself or someone else that mentioned that when they didn't have a mic, they would take a mic from a taxi dispatch place. They'd just rip it out and then patch the wires back together to plug into the P.A. system at the show or even the studio. So that distorted vocal you sometimes hear in old Chicago blues songs is likely because of that. But of course, that's part of what everyone later picks up on when rock n roll rediscovers the blues in the 60s. And Jack White, The Black Keys and everyone has picked up on it too. It's that garage aesthetic, but it always out of necessity not intent.




It’s interesting how that evolution has come full circle. In any case, I was glad to have seen him. Hopefully next time he comes around, it’ll be at a less shitty venue than the Hard Rock. The Fillmore would be perfect. And with people who stand!





I'd say Revolution or Culture Room.  Or my living room.





  Living Room Blues?


  The new album from People Who Stand.

Perfect Songs - Forty Four

Some time in '94 or '95, I saw Clapton live. It was during the From the Cradle tour so it was all blues, which is really the only time I really listen to him. I played the hell out of that album back then. But he played one song at the show that wasn't on that album of blues classics, that I hadn't heard before and it blew me away. To this day it's one of my all time favorite songs, period, in any genre. And back then, it wasn't that easy to just look up the song and instantly play it, but I hunted it down anyway. It was "Forty Four" as played by Howlin Wolf and although there are many versions and Wolf's isn't the original, it's my favorite and the one most people really cover because it's perfect.

The combination of sick and tired that comes through in this song is palpable. It's weary, threatening, angry and ultimately painful in a way that few songs manage to balance out this well. I've used the word catharsis quite a bit lately, talking about rock in general or metal in particular, but it applies to the blues before it ever applied to anything else and this is a prime example. Howlin Wolf's version differs immensely from the first recorded version by Roosevelt Sykes, though.

It was around well before Sykes, and it's known by several different versions of the title. There's "Forty Four," "44 Blues," "The Forty Fours" and "44 Pistols." But for the most part, everything after Wolf is in line with his additions because that beat is impossible to deny. There are a lot of songs about anger but man, if there's a better one that deals in that moment when the frustration is just boiling and you aren't sure "where in the world to go" with it, I've never heard it.  And back in '94 or '95, when I first heard it, that feeling sort of always lived with me, so it's no accident that this song latched on to me the way it did. Anyway, here's a more recent version by Clapton, different than the more stripped down version I first heard, but the intro is more than appropriate.

Then there's RL Burnside's ".44 Pistol" which makes it more country, more groovy and has a different beat but amps up the sick and tired in a way only RL Burnside can. There's just something about his playing and his almost moaning voice that makes you just feel beat down. The simplicity of his style is easy to dismiss but you'd be a fool to do so.

And in closing, I leave you with The Kills, because The fucking Kills, that's why. This version is stripped down and closer to the first time I heard it from Clapton but what's turned up here is the badass. Only Alison Mosshart can make it this badass and painful at the same time though. Her menace is tempered by her cool but underneath is the pain that leads to anger (and ultimately to the Dark Side). But no matter what, the song remains perfect.

RIP B.B. King: Understanding the Blues

Youth.

I'll be honest, B.B. King was never my favorite blues man. But what he was for me, and I'm sure many others my age, is the first (and in some cases only) "real" old school blues artist we heard. He was always the most accessible of the generations before Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Part of that is because his influence is so deeply ingrained in the blues influenced rock we all hear to this day, that hearing King just felt familiar from the very first time you heard him. That one note that bends and sings between verses and in the solo? Yeah, that's him. That late night feeling, smooth vibrato that gently shakes your soul? That's him too. That ability to have fun with heavy and heartbreaking songs, finding joy in the sadness of being human without diminishing the anguish? Well, that's what the blues is all about, but he embodied it and put it front and center.  People die every day, most of them not famous. But this isn't about his fame, it's about his impact, his influence and what he leaves behind beyond the people that actually knew him. I'll just leave it at that.

So, in lieu of my regular weekly Spotify playlist, I'll instead share B.B. King's final studio album, released in 2008, One Kind Favor. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, this stripped down collection of blues classics is without a doubt my favorite thing King ever did. You still get his trademark guitar style and his baritone wailing voice, and even the big band sound, but it also has a dusty wooden stage feel to it that I find essential to roots music of all kinds. Plus, there's always something special about hearing artists late in their career capture something new in a different context like this, like the last recordings from Johnny Cash. This is on that level, really. It's a little eerie to listen to this album today, with "See That My Grave is Kept Clean" opening it up. But it's also the perfect album for today and to remember him with. Yeah, it's not "The Thrill is Gone," Paying the Cost to Be the Boss," "Humming Bird" or any of his other well known songs, but it's the most distilled version of what he was about that I can imagine. It's like the New Orleans funeral he deserves, really. So, do yourself a favor, if you're a fan, listen to this start to finish at least once today. If you're not a fan, do it anyway. Find that joy in the ridiculous misery of human existence. Understand the blues.

Denver Adventure 2014 Pt. 2 - Catfish Kray Blues Band at El Chapultepec

I recently started watching HBO's Treme and two seasons in, I'm amazed at the fact that I think I now have an even deeper love and respect for music and musicians. The show isn't just about music, but since it is about New Orleans, music is a HUGE part of it. What's interesting is I wasn't necessarily a huge fan of what I always thought of as "New Orleans" music, but watching the show, I'm not even sure what that means anymore. But regardless of genre, the soul of music is what comes through in the show. The realities of life coming into contact with the romanticized idea of musicians who love what they do with a passion is something I could watch forever. The scenes that take place in tiny clubs where struggling musicians get to set the place on fire and forget their troubles for an hour, by giving the same to a receptive audience, that energy, is something I think we all try to find in live music in one way or another.

I found it in Denver, in a tiny place called El Chapultepec, a bar and taco joint, of all places. The band was The Catfish Kray Blues Band, doing blues and R&B covers to a sweaty, dancing, drunken crowd, while just a few feet away, through the open back exit, cars just kept stopping at the traffic light, unaware of what they were missing.

It almost seems like a no-brainer, but it turns out the best vessel for delivery of blues and soul is a woman who's 8 months pregnant. Granted, I'm sure Larea Edwards, the vocalist, can deliver with or without the baby bump, pregnant glow and angst, but I'm also sure these things help enhance her talents. Aside from that, she was great with the crowd and her smile lit up the room. Even when one ever annoying lady kept insisting on touching her belly. And the talent clearly runs in the family, since at one point, her two sisters joined the band.



I can only assume Catfish and the rest of the band have been around the musical block. Sure, there were a few missed notes, but so what? That's the nature of bar bands. Sloppy is a style and it works for them. You don't go see this type of thing for precision. It's all about the feeling and it was there,which you can really see in this full performance of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" my buddy Carlos edited from both our phones' videos.


I don't go see live music often enough and it's something that I hope to change. Not just major acts. I want to start seeing more small, local bands in tiny joints. I just hope I can find the kind of music I want to hear in the kind of places I want to go to, down here in South Florida. I have a feeling it's not as common as other places, but I may be wrong. I hope. We'll see.

The Blues

I love the Blues. And I'm not talking about bluesy rock, though I obviously like that as well. I mean real blues. Country blues, Delta blues, even Chicago blues. I'm not claiming to be an expert on any of it, but I do tend to listen to blues almost like going home. I think I always have. It just fits with what I respond to in music. And to me, the purest distillation of the blues is found in one song. I'm not saying it's my favorite, but it's hard to hear this and not understand the blues, without an actual word being sung.

     


"Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," was actually included in the Voyager space probe, among classical pieces by Bach and Beethoven, as a representation of humanity to any alien culture that might one day discover the probe. But even without such a lofty and far reaching connection, the song clearly connects to a sense of heartache and pain that Blind Willie Johnson's moans drill into your very soul. It's the sound of crying in a way that you never want to cry, but when you do, because you will, because we all do, you'll be glad for this song to remind you that you are not alone and that's it's ok to let it out.When my dad passed away, this is a song that stood out to me in a way that it hadn't before, for that very reason. The blues can be a lot of things, and they aren't actually all about pain and suffering. But what the blues ultimately is, is the true soul of Man. The day to day grind of life, no matter what that might be. Whether you're pumping water out of dirty well or stuck in traffic on the way home to see your kids after a long day of thankless office work. Existence in all its facets. So it's actually quite appropriate that a form of music and a song that breaks it down to it's most basic structural and emotional elements, would be sent out into the cosmos. The Blues is heart. The Blues is soul. The Blues is love. The Blues is life. The Blues is everything. And everything is the Blues.