General Comments for all Naweedna CDs
· Will Moyle’s Jazz Alive, a locally produced master collection of classic jazz. The Will Moyle stuff is the best collection of jazz I’ve ever heard. I taped it in the 80s from WXXI broadcasts.
· FFUSA: Folk Festival USA, a nationally distributed collection of excerpts recorded live at various folk festivals around the country – varying from traditional country to purely ethnic, to socio-political (one lesbian festival, in fact). FFUSA is eclectic, and the live recordings often catch a lot of crowd noise as well as bad microphone placement. Originally taped from WXXI in the 80s.
· GTWG: The Glory That Was Grease, another locally produced broadcast that featured the formative years of Rock and Roll from the 50s and 60s – my youth. The “Grease” may have been “Greece”, the Rochester suburb where the program originated. The GTWG is marginal but good for reminding my generation of their teenage years – if that can be considered a good thing. Originally taped from WXXI in the 80s.
· BBGR: Big Band Go Round, yet another local program featuring … Big Band, but also including most anything recorded from the 20s to 50s. The BBGR is so broad that it is unlikely to be duplicated anywhere. However, you have to have a fondness for the crackle of scratchy old 78’s and an appetite for schmaltz to fully appreciate it. Originally taped in the 80s.
· PHC & PHC-D: Prairie Home Companion – the middle years. I didn’t get started with PHC until the 80s, so I missed the early period, and I stopped taping when Garrison retired – for the first time. Remember the unfortunate guy who took over the time slot from Garrison? Me, neither. AS IF anyone could do that – a classic no-win situation. When Garrison un-retired (like Michael Jordan), the second version of the show was based in NYC, and I didn’t care for it that much, so I didn’t tape it. A few years later I discovered that he had gone back to the old format and was broadcasting from St Paul MN again. I’ve been digitizing those programs in real time ever since, and they are designated as PHC-D. The PHC stuff contains the essence of American music – in my not-so-humble opinion. The only nationally broadcast show that ever came close to matching PHC for quality and variety was the TV show, Northern Exposure – go figure. I have two Northern CDs; if there are more, I would like to know about them ASAP.
· Recording & Release Dates: The parenthetical numbers appended at the end of track titles represent the release date of the album or CD source. These dates are as accurate as I can obtain. The dates for some tracks from compilations reflect the release date of the compilation. Format: (xx, yy) where xx = last two digits of recording date; yy = last two digits of release date.
As usual, my comments are in blue. The other information comes from www.allmusic.com and various lyrics sources. Additions and corrections are welcome … encouraged, in fact.
In Memoriam … 2010:
· Kate McGarrigle Obituary
The Playlist and Notes for Naweedna 2010-YAY(Sides)
01 Not Easy - Dan Hicks
Where's The Money 1971
This track intro always elicits a smile from us … we thought it might do the same for you. Dan’s got it right … it’s not easy. But it sure is fun ;-)
Lyrics
Okay, I think you can figure out the lyrics …
Where's the Money?
4.5 Stars Checked
1971
Pop/Rock
Before they could release a second album of their patented good-time hippie acoustic swing, Hicks and his band parted company with Epic records. That their fresh start would be marked by the release of a live set may seem odd at first. But the album does in fact capture a certain intimacy missing from their studio debut. Songs that would remain staples of the Hot Licks repertoire for years to come are found in their most well-known versions here, including the title track, "I Feel Like Singing," "Shorty Falls in Love," and "By Hook or By Crook." The between-song banter even stands up to repeated listenings. It's not often that can be said about a live recording.
Dan Hicks
Throughout his decades-long career, Dan Hicks stood as one of contemporary music's true eccentrics. While steeped in folk, his acoustic sound knew few musical boundaries, drawing on country, call-and-response vocals, jazz phrasing and no small amount of humor to create a distinctive, albeit sporadic, body of work which earned him a devoted cult following.
Hicks was born December 9, 1941 to a military family then living in Arkansas, and grew up in California, where he was a drummer in a number of high school bands. He attended college in San Francisco, where he switched to guitar and began playing folk music. He returned to the drums, however, when he joined the Charlatans, one of the Bay City's first psychedelic bands. Although the Charlatans were short-lived - they issued only one single during their existence - they proved influential throughout the San Francisco musical community, and were one of the first acts the play the legendary Family Dog.
Hicks had formed the acoustic group Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks in 1968 as an opener for the Charlatans, but soon the new band became his primary project. After adding a pair of female backing vocalists - "the Lickettes" - the group issued its debut LP Original Recordings in 1969. After a pair of 1971 records, Where's the Money? and Striking It Rich, they issued 1973's Last Train to Hicksville, which proved to be the Hot Licks most successful album yet. At the peak of the group's popularity, however, Hicks dissolved the band, and did not resurface until 1978, releasing the solo LP It Happened One Bite, the soundtrack to an uncompleted feature by animator Ralph Bakshi. He then phased in and out of the music industry for more than a decade, and did not issue another major recording until 1994's Shootin' Straight, a live recording cut with a new band, the Acoustic Warriors In 2000, over two decades after the group's dissolution, Hicks reformed the Hot Licks and issued Beatin' The Heat. Alive and Lickin' arrived a year later.
02 The World's Green Laughter - The B-52's
Good Stuff 1992
Oh, this one’s been sitting in the Naweedna queue for a couple years. We decided this was the year to include it, so here it is. It makes me chuckle and that seems appropriate for this year’s offerings. I really don’t know anything about The B-52’s … but I do know I like this track … a lot. Music doesn’t have to be serious to be good. The CD came to us through the good graces of Joe Spollen – thanks, Joe.
Lyrics
Hmmm, no lyrics again …
Good Stuff
2 Stars
1992
Rock
If Cosmic Thing found them returned to most-favored party band status, this followup gamely soldiers on in similar fashion. Without Cindy Wilson, Good Stuff becomes Kate Pierson's showcase, while even Fred Schneider turns in his most purely musical performance to date. If the B-52's hit some dead ends while trying to stretch out a bit, be assured there are enough classic bits to make this one worthwhile.
The B-52's
The first of many acts to cement the college town of Athens, GA, as a hotbed of alternative music, the B-52's took their name from the Southern slang for the mile-high bouffant wigs sported by singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, a look emblematic of the band's campy, thrift-store aesthetic. The five-piece group, which also included founding members Fred Schneider, guitarist Ricky Wilson (Cindy's older brother), and drummer Keith Strickland, formed in the mid-'70s after a drunken evening at a Chinese restaurant; the bandmembers had little or no previous musical experience, and performed most of their earliest shows with taped guitar and percussion accompaniment.
After pressing up a few thousand copies of the single "Rock Lobster," the B-52's traveled to the famed Max's Kansas City club for their first paying gig. Subsequent appearances at CBGB's brought the group to the attention of the New York press, and in 1979, they issued their self-titled debut album, a collection of manic, bizarre, and eminently danceable songs which scored an underground club hit with a reworked version of "Rock Lobster." The following year, they issued Wild Planet, which reached the Top 20 on the U.S. album charts; Party Mix!, an EP's worth of reworked material from the band's first two proper outings, appeared in 1981.
1982's Mesopotamia arose out of a series of aborted sessions with producer David Byrne which saw the B-52's largely abandon their trademark sense of humor, a situation rectified by the next year's Whammy!, a move into electronic territory. After a Schneider solo LP, 1984's Fred Schneider & the Shake Society, the group returned to the studio to record 1986's Bouncing Off the Satellites. On October 12, 1985, however, Ricky Wilson died; though originally his death was attributed to natural causes, it was later revealed that he had succumbed to AIDS. In light of Wilson's death, the group found it impossible to promote the new album, and they spent the next several years in seclusion.
In 1989, the B-52's finally returned with Cosmic Thing, their most commercially successful effort to date. Marked by Strickland's move from drums to guitar and club-friendly production from Don Was and Nile Rodgers, the album launched several hit singles, including the party smash "Love Shack," "Roam," and "Deadbeat Club." In 1990, Cindy Wilson retired from active duty, leaving the remaining trio to soldier on for 1992's Good Stuff. A year later, dubbed the BC-52's, they performed the theme song for Steven Spielberg's live-action feature The Flintsones. Wilson returned to the group for a tour supporting the release of 1998's hits collection Time Capsule.
03 Navajo Rug – Ian Tyson
Cowboyography 1987
This was slated for inclusion the very first time I heard it. The more I hear it; the more I like it. Just good and simple music. We got this track from Bob Mahoney … think I need to buy the whole CD ;-)
Lyrics
Well it's two eggs up on whiskey toast, home fries on the side,
Wash it down with road house coffee, burns up your insides,
Just a canyon Colorado diner, and a waitress I did love,
I sat in the back ‘neath an old stuffed bear, and a worn out Navajo rug.
Now old Jack, the boss, he left at six, and it's Katie bar the door,
She'd pull down that Navajo rug, and spread it across the floor,
Hey I saw lightning cross, the sacred mountains, saw woven turtle doves,
I was lying next to Katie, on that old Navajo rug.
Aye, aye, aye, Katie, shades of red and blue,
Aye, aye, aye, Katie, whatever became of the Navajo rug and you Katie, shades of red and blue?
Well I saw old Jack, about a year ago, said the place burned to the ground,
And all I saved was this old bear tooth, and Katie, she left town,
Ah, but Katie got her souvenir to; Jack spat a tobacco plug,
Well you should have seen her comin’ through the smoke,
Draggin’ that Navajo rug,
Aye, aye, aye, Katie, shades of red and blue,
Aye, aye, aye, Katie, whatever became of the Navajo rug and you?
So every time I cross the sacred mountains, and lightning breaks above,
It always takes me back in time, to my long lost Katie love,
But everything keeps on moving, and every body’s on the go,
Hey, you don't find things that last anymore, like an old woven Navajo,
Aye, aye, aye, Katie, shades of red and blue,
Aye, aye, aye, Katie, whatever became of the Navajo rug and you, Katie, shades of red and blue,
Aye, aye, aye, Katie, whatever became of the Navajo rug and you?
Cowboyography
3 Stars
1987
Country
One of the few Ian Tyson albums to be released in the United States, Cowboyography is also one of his best records, demonstrating his skill for melding traditional western musical and lyrical themes with contemporary arrangements, productions and sensibilities.
Ian Tyson
Half of the early-'60s folk group Ian & Sylvia, Ian Tyson retreated from performing and recording after the duo disbanded in the mid-'70s to become a rancher in the foothills of Southern Alberta, Canada. He quietly returned to music-making in the 1980s, releasing a series of albums that focused on detailed songs about the concerns of the working cowboy.
Tyson was born in Victoria, British Columbia. As a child he was involved in rodeo, not music -- he didn't learn to play the guitar until he was recovering from rodeo-related injuries. In the late '50s, he began performing as a folk singer. In 1961, he met singer/songwriter Sylvia Fricker and the two musicians began performing together; they also married three years later. Ian & Sylvia and their band, Great Speckled Bird, became popular on the folk scene and released their self-titled debut album in 1962. In 1963, they released Four Strong Winds; the title track, written by Tyson, became a folk standard. Ian & Sylvia successfully recorded together through the mid-'70s. The duo also began hosting a television show, Nashville North, which became the Ian Tyson Show when the couple split up in the middle of the decade.
After Ian & Sylvia's break-up, Tyson recorded Ol'Eon. He temporarily retired from recording in 1979 to work his ranch, but returned with Old Corrals and Sagebrush in 1983. In 1984, he toured with Ricky Skaggs and also released an eponymous album. Tyson released a third album, Cowboyography, two years later, and in 1991, he released another popular Canadian album, And Stood There Amazed, which contained the hits "Springtime in Alberta" and "Black Nights." Subsequent releases include 1994's Eighteen Inches of Rain, 1996's All the Good 'Uns and 1999's Lost Herd. Tyson released Live at Longview in 2002, followed by Songs from the Gravel Road in 2005.