SMM #13: July 30th, 2021
Some extra special new releases, an atypical six-pack, and a profile of an influential rock linchpin.
New Releases
CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM - 662… this is the second album from Ingram… his 2019 debut, Kingfish, was nominated for a Grammy and won Album of the Year at the Blues Music Awards… he sounds like a young Buddy Guy both on guitar and vocally, and it’s hard to believe he is only 22 years old... album producer Tom Hambridge is kind of a blues-rock “guru” who also co-wrote all of these songs but one and has a great track record collaborating on excellent albums from Susan Tedeschi, George Thorogood, Devon Allman, and Mr. Guy… I saw Kingfish at The Cutting Room in NYC in Sept ‘19 without knowing much about him and he blew me away! Highly recommended… check him out!
DAVE McMURRAY - Grateful Deadication… McMurray is a veteran jazz saxophonist from Detroit and as you can probably tell from the album’s title, he tackles ten familiar tunes from the Grateful Dead catalog… eight of the tracks are instrumentals done in a jazz-rock style with plenty of wailin’ sax and two - “Loser” and “Touch of Grey” - feature guest vocalists… the Dead’s Bob Weir even plays guitar on “Loser”… overall, McMurray and his stellar band put a fresh spin on these Dead classics, making this an enjoyable listen for everyone - and not just Deadheads!
ROGER CHAPMAN - Life in The Pond… Chapman is a 79 year old English rocker who came to fame in the 70s as the lead singer for second-tier British blues-rock bands Family and Streetwalkers… since going solo in the late 70s, he has cranked out numerous albums but this is his first in 12 years (and the first one I have ever listened to!)… his grizzled vocals sound like a cross between AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and Levon Helm during his later years…anyway, Chapman and his long-running musical partner, guitarist Geoff Whitehorn, know how to craft a catchy rock n’ roll song, making this album surprisingly good from start to finish…
SON VOLT - Electro Melodier… Son Volt was highlighted in my Alt-Country feature in SMM #8 and the band and their leader, Jay Farrar, have been on a nice roll in recent years starting with the 2017 album, Notes of Blue, and followed by Union in 2019… Farrar continues his long-running theme of writing songs about the lives and hardships of the working class… musically, it follows the same template he has basically stuck with throughout his career going back to his days with alt-country legends, Uncle Tupelo: a heavy country rock sound featuring his somber vocals and muscular guitar playing…
Six-Pack of Songs #10: Great Artists…NOT the Hits
I called this issue’s 6-pack playlist, “Great Artists, Great Songs, NOT the Hits”… it features some cool songs by all-time great artists that even dedicated music fans might not be familiar with… Paul McCartney starts it off with the slow burner “No Other Baby” from his overlooked 1999 album, Run Devil Run… the album featured a few originals but is mostly covers of obscure oldies… one of those covers is this song from little known 80s garage rockers, The Vipers… McCartney had an all-star cast of musicians supporting him on this album, including, Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour and Deep Purple drummer, Ian Paice… speaking of Pink Floyd, they are up next with the song “Free Four” from the 1972 soundtrack album, Obscured by Clouds... this is definitely a different sound for the band, more of a straight rock/pop tune than their usual spacey fare - although it does feature a couple of signature David Gilmour guitar solos… Bridges to Babylon is generally not considered one of the Rolling Stones more notable albums but it actually includes some engaging inspired performances on a batch of quality tunes including this one, “Saint of Me”... many songs that didn’t make the cut on Bob Dylan’s albums have proved to be among his best… I would put the tremendous blues, “Marchin’ to the City” from the album Bootleg Series: Vol 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rare and Unreleased 1998-2006 in that category… during the 80s, Neil Young was battling his record company and jumped from style to style following his own muse with very mixed results… on 1988’s This Note’s for You he added a 6-piece horn section and I think it works pretty well on the opening track, “Ten Men Working”... the final cut is “Mojo Man,” a little known song from the Jimi Hendrix catalog… it appeared on a compilation of studio tracks released in 2013 called People, Hell and Angels… the song is actually by a duo called the Ghetto Fighters, recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios, that Hendrix added his guitar to… the Ghetto Fighters were twin brothers Albert and Arthur Allen who became close friends with Hendrix and even put on a free concert in Harlem in 1969 with Jimi… they appeared on three Hendrix albums: Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge and War Heroes…
Artist Spotlight: Alejandro Escovedo
Alejandro Escovedo is a Texas-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist who has had a successful and influential four decade career… starting in the early 80s, his musical resume includes playing punk rock with the Nuns and roots rock and alt-country with the True Believers and Rank & File before launching his solo career in 1992 with the critically-acclaimed album, Gravity… among his accolades, No Depression magazine, the “Journal of Roots Music” named him their 1990s “Artist of the Decade”...
Escovedo is highly regarded and respected by his fellow musicians and has played and collaborated with pretty much every notable Texas musician, along with artists such as John Cale, Dylan guitarist Charlie Sexton, Lou Ann Barton, Chuck Prophet, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, and even Bruce Springsteen (Springsteen’s vocals can be heard on the song “Faith” on the accompanying playlist)...
Escovedo is known for his literate, personal songwriting style, and musical versatility that has seen him play with hard rockin’ trios, solo acoustic and even with a string ensemble… the playlist song “I Was Drunk” is a good example of him incorporating violin and cello into his music… he also did a one-shot hard rock album in 1997 with a side band called Buick Mackane (see last song on playlist)... plenty of great electric guitar on that one!
In the early 2000s, I started following Escovedo on his bare-bones website after the release of his album, A Man Under the Influence in 2001… at one point he emailed that he wanted to put out a special “fans-only” live CD… so I sent in my $20 and the project kept getting delayed, it turned out, due to life-threatening health issues caused by Hepatitis C (he eventually collapsed after a show in 2003)... during this period though he sent out occasional emails promising that he would get the CD out and eventually he did... it’s a great live set called Por Vida and included was the signed & numbered self-portrait watercolor shown here:
I have seen Alejandro live a few times and he puts on a great show… first time was at Bowery Ballroom in NYC in 2012 and Creed Bratton, the actor from The Office (and former member of the Grass Roots in the 60s) was in the audience and told us he was a big fan of AE… also saw him a couple weeks later at the Hudson Clearwater Festival and again in 2013 at an outdoor show on the Hudson River in NYC along with Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys - a mini-festival of Latino rockers! If you have a chance to see him, check him out… he was on the road quite a bit pre-Covid and currently has an extensive tour booked for Oct/Nov… —SL