Showing posts with label blues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blues. Show all posts
walkin' to new orleans
started playing the piano again, after a hiatus of too many years!
i was looking for something musical, and even thought of double-bass(don't rule it out, despite the size and expense!), but have reverted to my main instrument... too many people just play guitar(but i'm a rubbish guitarist), this time, i'm going to even do the doctor john piano book i chickened out of, a few years ago... may even have a crack at walk on gilded splinters...
finally got some of my panoramic images up on the web, after various viruses, and the problems caused therein(thanks for directing me to those sites, yeah great..).
these images are of trevelez, in the alpujarras - the highest village in spain, which felt more like(i imagine)switzerland... everyone else went swimming and stuff, but i took a walk around the village.. and soaked up the atmosphere of a place that has a museum of ham, a house of ham, and lots of ham, everywhere...
probably the first time i'd consciously taken panoramic images, with the intention of stitching them together, and to begin with it took ages to do, but i managed to work out a system...
blogger snips the edges off, so best click on them for full wide-angle goodness...
got some good reading to get stuck into:
a.b. guthrie jr. the big sky, paul auster the new york trilogy and various books i should have read by now(not naming any names!)...
bright lights, big city
jimmy reed the inventor of rock and roll(sort of).
reading his book "big boss man" right now... it was all good right up until the point i'm at now, when it starts to get a loittle bit dark(find out for yourself what happens!).
cool
after many hours of practice - i have mastered the art of the jimmy reed shuffle... a small mountain to climb on the way to being a "guitarist" per se... it involved putting in a lot of playing and stretching the fingers on my left hand to reach that elusive progressive riff.
been playing with a Boss blues-driver... nice pedal, it gives you the f*cked-up sound of a nasty of old tube amp - i used to own one of those, when i first took up guitar back in the day... it weighed a ton, took about 10 minutes to warm up and would make a quiet whishing noise...
reading his book "big boss man" right now... it was all good right up until the point i'm at now, when it starts to get a loittle bit dark(find out for yourself what happens!).
cool
after many hours of practice - i have mastered the art of the jimmy reed shuffle... a small mountain to climb on the way to being a "guitarist" per se... it involved putting in a lot of playing and stretching the fingers on my left hand to reach that elusive progressive riff.
been playing with a Boss blues-driver... nice pedal, it gives you the f*cked-up sound of a nasty of old tube amp - i used to own one of those, when i first took up guitar back in the day... it weighed a ton, took about 10 minutes to warm up and would make a quiet whishing noise...
whole lotta somethin'
another book bought this afternoon...
"ace records - labels unlimited" blackdog publishing ISBN13: 978 1 906155 03 2
i've communicated with ace records in the past as a music fanzine editor, and they were very accommodating to me... as i'm a fan of the label and spent an awful lot of money on their albums (the mod jazz series is still a staple on the stereo...), buying ace albums always means you're buying quality - which is rare thing these days.
all killer no filler...
i even had the opportunity to take a very bad photograph of dean rudland once(see picture below), much to his (much deserved) ridicule.
i was using the famous "crap cam" my first ever digital camera... and a justified piece of shit it is too - he said i made him look like a corpse...
(sums it all up really - i was in a london club with the opportunity to take photos of some of the formative heads in my musical history(the acid jazz man eddie pillar was there too...), men from the music industry who have shook hands with some of the legends of soul and r+b and rockabilly... and i have the shittiest camera in the world instead of my olympus om10 or the myriad compact film cameras that we had lying around the house doing nothing...)
my life is in this book, everything from whirlwind to booker T thru punk to blues.
if you don't know ace records - they are a re-issue catalogue label, who put out only the best and most original music from the last 40 odd years, no cheesey re-runs - just gritty soulful, jazzy, bluesy, punky rock and roll tracks from some of the best and mostly under-rated artists you may have never heard of, but will wish you had.
i'm going to enjoy this book a lot for a good few weeks of dipping in and just being there... reading about all the trials and tribulations of setting up a record stall, then a record company... meeting all the legends and lesser known musicians of some damn fine music... plus there are loads of photos of memorabilia, albums, people, places.
for a music geek like me, this is heaven.
still on a retro tip for today, i went down to the bullring market in the city, to my favourite hair-product stall in the foodhall... they sell mostly afro-caribean hair stuff, which means of course they do these beauties:
on the left is blue magic... for the ladies, to use with hair-curling styles, so that's for the missus who's obsessed with the hair books she's got in the shop(and why not.. they are very good...), i might convince her to buy up a load of this and put it in the shop.
and on the right is the awesome royal crown... i use this stuff every day(if i "do" my hair... not if i'm wearing a hat!), basically just petroleum hair oil and olive oil...
smells like gumbo to me!
big handfuls of it on your head... feels healthy and much better than brylcreem, which has to be said is a bit too slippery and smells of old men... even if it was and still is made in birmingham.
i have a back-up tub of teh bryl for emergencies - as it's easy to get a hold of, but i'd sooner use the fish hybrid wax as it has more hold(it's basically a modern version of the old pomades without the nice smell...), and because teh cream does make you smell like your grandad which sends you down a long road of psychology....
pluko black+white is still the mother of all pomades( i may even go to northfield to get some of the pluko black+white orange lite - which they sell in a hairdresser's shop in the market there).
and if you do go for pluko btw... search out these little stalls in markets where you can buy the big ol' tub for less money than what high street chains will charge for the stingy little tub that's half the size with the false bottom (where they pack in some good ol' southern air, but no product grrrrr....)
elvis wore pluko black+white.
i also got these other pomades when i was at the stall.
on the left is murrays pomade which i haven't used yet but it smells of toffee, and then there's sweet georgia brown... always a favourite - the red one smells of butterscotch-toffee and the purple on smells like raspberry/blackcurrant... just feels great on the hair.
why use these old products... well they have bugger all chemicals in them, so won't strip the goodness and life out of your hair... they have a lot of "give" in them, as in they don't set like glue and will keep nice and flexible - if you're in a hot club or sunny weather.
and of course another reason for wearing them is the aroma... i used to be addicted to using bodyshop coconut pomade(they called it "hairshine"....) for years as it had a cheery smell of coconut about it( the coconut smell is used in aroma therapy to make you happy btw), great little metal tins of the stuff that had the same texture as pluko(which has it's own unique play-doh smell), until they discontinued it (along with the ice blue shampoo and banana condition...).
i have heard rockabilly betties admit they they go around the rooms at a do, sniffing the air for nice pomades... sounds good to me!
today i shall be mostly listening to excellent rare buddy holly tracks...
"ace records - labels unlimited" blackdog publishing ISBN13: 978 1 906155 03 2
i've communicated with ace records in the past as a music fanzine editor, and they were very accommodating to me... as i'm a fan of the label and spent an awful lot of money on their albums (the mod jazz series is still a staple on the stereo...), buying ace albums always means you're buying quality - which is rare thing these days.
all killer no filler...
i even had the opportunity to take a very bad photograph of dean rudland once(see picture below), much to his (much deserved) ridicule.
i was using the famous "crap cam" my first ever digital camera... and a justified piece of shit it is too - he said i made him look like a corpse...
(sums it all up really - i was in a london club with the opportunity to take photos of some of the formative heads in my musical history(the acid jazz man eddie pillar was there too...), men from the music industry who have shook hands with some of the legends of soul and r+b and rockabilly... and i have the shittiest camera in the world instead of my olympus om10 or the myriad compact film cameras that we had lying around the house doing nothing...)
my life is in this book, everything from whirlwind to booker T thru punk to blues.
if you don't know ace records - they are a re-issue catalogue label, who put out only the best and most original music from the last 40 odd years, no cheesey re-runs - just gritty soulful, jazzy, bluesy, punky rock and roll tracks from some of the best and mostly under-rated artists you may have never heard of, but will wish you had.
i'm going to enjoy this book a lot for a good few weeks of dipping in and just being there... reading about all the trials and tribulations of setting up a record stall, then a record company... meeting all the legends and lesser known musicians of some damn fine music... plus there are loads of photos of memorabilia, albums, people, places.
for a music geek like me, this is heaven.
still on a retro tip for today, i went down to the bullring market in the city, to my favourite hair-product stall in the foodhall... they sell mostly afro-caribean hair stuff, which means of course they do these beauties:
on the left is blue magic... for the ladies, to use with hair-curling styles, so that's for the missus who's obsessed with the hair books she's got in the shop(and why not.. they are very good...), i might convince her to buy up a load of this and put it in the shop.
and on the right is the awesome royal crown... i use this stuff every day(if i "do" my hair... not if i'm wearing a hat!), basically just petroleum hair oil and olive oil...
smells like gumbo to me!
big handfuls of it on your head... feels healthy and much better than brylcreem, which has to be said is a bit too slippery and smells of old men... even if it was and still is made in birmingham.
i have a back-up tub of teh bryl for emergencies - as it's easy to get a hold of, but i'd sooner use the fish hybrid wax as it has more hold(it's basically a modern version of the old pomades without the nice smell...), and because teh cream does make you smell like your grandad which sends you down a long road of psychology....
pluko black+white is still the mother of all pomades( i may even go to northfield to get some of the pluko black+white orange lite - which they sell in a hairdresser's shop in the market there).
and if you do go for pluko btw... search out these little stalls in markets where you can buy the big ol' tub for less money than what high street chains will charge for the stingy little tub that's half the size with the false bottom (where they pack in some good ol' southern air, but no product grrrrr....)
elvis wore pluko black+white.
i also got these other pomades when i was at the stall.
on the left is murrays pomade which i haven't used yet but it smells of toffee, and then there's sweet georgia brown... always a favourite - the red one smells of butterscotch-toffee and the purple on smells like raspberry/blackcurrant... just feels great on the hair.
why use these old products... well they have bugger all chemicals in them, so won't strip the goodness and life out of your hair... they have a lot of "give" in them, as in they don't set like glue and will keep nice and flexible - if you're in a hot club or sunny weather.
and of course another reason for wearing them is the aroma... i used to be addicted to using bodyshop coconut pomade(they called it "hairshine"....) for years as it had a cheery smell of coconut about it( the coconut smell is used in aroma therapy to make you happy btw), great little metal tins of the stuff that had the same texture as pluko(which has it's own unique play-doh smell), until they discontinued it (along with the ice blue shampoo and banana condition...).
i have heard rockabilly betties admit they they go around the rooms at a do, sniffing the air for nice pomades... sounds good to me!
today i shall be mostly listening to excellent rare buddy holly tracks...
recent listening #1
a random series of posts, where i will mention what's on the iriver/stereo at this particular moment in time...
been switching between two great boxsets recently... with no small degree of irony.
one is the Stax/Volt Complete Singles 1958-1968: 9cd Box Set... just great music for over nine hours, i've had it on all weekend and still not got through it... takes me back to a lot of northern soul that i've listened to over the years, and sounds bang up to date with james hunter/people gonna talk... borrowing from the sound.
motown had the big beats and the lush production but stax had booker T and a gritty, dirty sound that all the northern soul singles tried to match... too many great artists/songs to mention here, but the mar-keys/bar-keys/otis redding spring to mind instantly... the real revelation was the track the sidewalk by mad lads... too much sam and dave, but that could be because i have played them to death over the years... just hours of great horn arrangements or hammond...
when the blues got soul.
that stuff just got better and better...
now gene vincent's The Road Is Rocky: Complete Studio Masters 1956-1971 is another matter entirely... i love his music, the early tracks especially, here was an artist who struggled every day with the real pain from his motorcycle injuries and spent a lot of time and money taking painkillers just to get through... i've read the "there's one in every town" book by mick farren... a great story, that didn't so much tell gene's lifestory as how he had affected the writer.
but the bubblegum psuedo hippy tracks on here from the late 60's i could live without... i keep getting the impression that he wasn't really feeling the words anymore, or that mostly there was a lot of in-jokes going on in the studio, which makes for humour at least once, but will never forge a whole movement like his earlier work(some people dare to debate what is rockabilly... and claim that gene isn't, who cares, it's legendary material that will always stand on it's own!)... always a bad thing when an artist re-works old tracks such as bebopalula'69... and i can live without maudlin nonsense like if you could see me today...
99.9% of the rest of the tracks are pure genuis though, but what happened in the 60's... labels like stax are literally churning out quality music and old rockers like gene were relegated to mimmicking the byrds in carnaby street beads...
now where's that eddie cochran boxset...
been switching between two great boxsets recently... with no small degree of irony.
one is the Stax/Volt Complete Singles 1958-1968: 9cd Box Set... just great music for over nine hours, i've had it on all weekend and still not got through it... takes me back to a lot of northern soul that i've listened to over the years, and sounds bang up to date with james hunter/people gonna talk... borrowing from the sound.
motown had the big beats and the lush production but stax had booker T and a gritty, dirty sound that all the northern soul singles tried to match... too many great artists/songs to mention here, but the mar-keys/bar-keys/otis redding spring to mind instantly... the real revelation was the track the sidewalk by mad lads... too much sam and dave, but that could be because i have played them to death over the years... just hours of great horn arrangements or hammond...
when the blues got soul.
that stuff just got better and better...
now gene vincent's The Road Is Rocky: Complete Studio Masters 1956-1971 is another matter entirely... i love his music, the early tracks especially, here was an artist who struggled every day with the real pain from his motorcycle injuries and spent a lot of time and money taking painkillers just to get through... i've read the "there's one in every town" book by mick farren... a great story, that didn't so much tell gene's lifestory as how he had affected the writer.
but the bubblegum psuedo hippy tracks on here from the late 60's i could live without... i keep getting the impression that he wasn't really feeling the words anymore, or that mostly there was a lot of in-jokes going on in the studio, which makes for humour at least once, but will never forge a whole movement like his earlier work(some people dare to debate what is rockabilly... and claim that gene isn't, who cares, it's legendary material that will always stand on it's own!)... always a bad thing when an artist re-works old tracks such as bebopalula'69... and i can live without maudlin nonsense like if you could see me today...
99.9% of the rest of the tracks are pure genuis though, but what happened in the 60's... labels like stax are literally churning out quality music and old rockers like gene were relegated to mimmicking the byrds in carnaby street beads...
now where's that eddie cochran boxset...
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