SMM #55: July 17th, 2023
A boatload of new releases, another scattered nuggets playlist, and reviews of two recent summer shows.
New Releases
Have been working my way through a flood of interesting new releases over the past month so I have included more reviews than usual in this issue…
THE WATSON TWINS - Holler… the duo switched to the stellar Chicago alt-country label Bloodshot for their first album in 10 years and it’s a home run! A little short on time at 33 minutes but every song on this uptempo collection of country-rock is a winner… UNCUT says it's “the best thing they’ve ever done and one of the best things anybody will do this year”... ‘nuff said!
JIMBO MATHUS - Since 1967… Mathus came to prominence as the leader of ‘90s swing band, the Squirrel Nut Zippers… since then he has recorded numerous solo albums that cover the gamut of Southern roots styles with a significant blues influence… this album is a collection of singles Mathus has released on Bandcamp over the past few years, including some choice covers that he puts his own spin on like “Lodi” (CCR), “The Letter” (The Box Tops), “Carmelita” (Warren Zevon) and “On the Road Again” (Canned Heat)... good stuff!
BOBBY LEE - Endless Skyways… instrumental guitar album from English psych/rock guitarist mixes a lot of influences on this compelling collection… opening track “Reds for a Blue Planet” draws from the Mississippi Hill Country blues of Junior Kimbrough (also a strong influence on the Black Keys)... there are also a couple spacey psychedelic tracks but overall MOJO calls it a tour of the various musical styles of the American South, saying “Lee seems to zig, zap and zip across the faded blacktop byways of the United States musical Eden, stopping only when the jam looks ripe”...
RIDERS OF THE CANYON - self-titled… Joana Serrat is a Catalonian country/folk singer who has spent time in Texas where she has recorded some solid solo albums… here she teams up with fellow Catalans Roger Usart and Victor Partito and Irish singer-songwriter Mathew McDaid on this excellent country/folk-rock album… standouts include the opener, “Masters Of My Lonely Times,” folk rocker “Downtown” and the Neil Young-influenced “Wild River”...
CALEXICO - Feast of Wire (20th Anniversary Edition)... I have touted this Arizona-based band before and their unique “desert rock” style of music… this is a remastered edition of one of their best early albums and it also includes the band’s great cover of Love’s 1967 classic “Alone Again Or” and a live rendition of the album recorded at China Theatre in Stockholm in 2003…
RORY GALLAGHER - All Around Man - Live in London… I have mentioned several times since I started SMM that Rory Gallagher is my all-time favorite artist (for more on why, see SMM #3 from back in March ’21)... since his untimely death back in 1995, his brother Donal and nephew Daniel have managed his archives and kept his music alive… along with expanded box sets of his first two solo studio albums, they have released a series of live shows from Rory’s archives… this one was recorded in 1990 at the Town & Country Club in London… at this point, Rory was already suffering from various health problems but you wouldn’t know it from the fiery performances heard on this set…
BOB DYLAN - Shadow Kingdom… while Dylan’s “Never-Ending Tour” was shut down during Covid he did this live-in-the-studio show that was originally a pay-per-view internet event… it has now been released as an album and it’s excellent… it features Dylan re-working a bunch of his back catalog songs and with the exception of "What Was It You Wanted," from 1989's Oh Mercy, and the instrumental "Sierra's Theme," all these songs date from the '60s and early '70s… definitely worth a listen if you are a Dylan fan…
SON VOLT - Day of the Doug: The Songs of Doug Sahm… when alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo split up in 1994, band leaders Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar formed Wilco and Son Volt, respectively (see SMM #8 for more on the bands & SMM #20 for profile of Sahm)... while Wilco has gone on to significantly overshadow Son Volt, Farrar & company have also put out a solid body of music over the years… on this release they do a stellar job of covering the songs of Doug Sahm, a primary Uncle Tupelo/Farrar influence… will be seeing Son Volt perform these songs, along with, their classic debut album, Trace, this week at City Winery NYC… will follow up with a report on the show and venue next issue…
Playlist: Scattered Nuggets - Mixed Bag, Vol. 5
After a heavy-rockin’ playlist last issue, I’m going with a mixed bag of songs this issue featuring many musical styles… starts with the late, great Tina Turner (& Ike) tearing into a rare nugget, “Finger Poppin’”... as far as I can find, the recording only appears on this Loma Records compilation… next is The Insect Trust, a late 60s group of eclectic NYC musicians that tackled folk and blues in their own idiosyncratic way… they only recorded two - very obscure - albums and here they jam out on Skip James 1931 blues classic, “Special Rider Blues,” featuring cool vocals and some honking sax solos… AllMusic Guide refers to Toronto guitarist Johannes Linstead’s music as “world fusion”... this flamenco guitar instrumental is a good example of his talents… English singer/songwriter Michael Kiwanuka is probably best known for the theme song of the HBO series, Big Little Lies, but here he does a masterful job covering Townes Van Zandt’s great blues, “Waiting Around to Die”... Rhode Island-based folk musicians David Lamb and his wife, MorganEve Swain, have recorded several albums under the name, Brown Bird, and here is a jaunty folk-rock tune from their 2011 album, Salt for Salt… gospel blues guitarist and singer Leo “Bud” Welch did not make his recording debut until he was 82 years old in 2014… he managed to get one other album out before he passed away in 2017 (there have been a couple posthumous releases) that featured this great blues rockin’ tune… never heard of Zach Deputy until Bob Dylan gave him a shoutout in an interview I read earlier this year… not sure he’s really my bag but I like this funky catchy tune… Galactic is a great New Orleans band known for their fiery live performances and collaborations with many different vocalists… haven’t caught up with them in concert but this instrumental is a good example of their style… Darker My Love started out as a heavy psych-rock band but their third and last album to date, 2010’s Alive as You Are, included this Gram Parsons-style country rocker… Shelby Lynne started out as a slick country pop singer but over the years began to add rock, blues, soul, etc to her music and the album this song is from, I Am Shelby Lynne, was considered the culmination of that transition… rather than go with the “edgier” stuff I love this slow earnest ballad, a tribute to her home state of Alabama… John Moreland is an OK-based roots/country rocker similar to Steve Earle with an extensive catalog of albums that mix punchy rockers with slower ballads… don’t remember the E Street Band’s sax man, Clarence Clemons, doing solo albums but turns out he had several… this rousing tune is from the first one in 1983 with his band the Red Bank Rockers and, NOT surprisingly, it was written by Bruce Springsteen who also adds rhythm guitar… when I saw Steve Miller a few weeks ago (see review below) he played a good version of blues legend, Elmore James’ song “Stranger Blues”.... here’s Elmore’s version from back in 1962… the playlist closes with terrific cover versions of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin classics… had never heard of the South Austin Jug Band but came across their 2003 version of Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and it is a thing of beauty… need to explore these guys further! Finally, New Orleans Bonerama puts the trombones to work on this live version of Led Zep’s “The Ocean” and they really nail it!
Recent Concert Roundup: Classic Rock Legends Still Rockin’
Date: June 22nd, 2023
Act: Dead & Company
Venue: Citi Field, Queens, NY
Back on Halloween 2015 at Madison Square Garden I saw Dead & Company’s first NYC show (and second show together) and figured it would be the first of many shows I would see by the band… alas, it didn’t turn out that way… eight years later, this was my second Dead & Company show and since the band has announced that this will be their final tour, it was also their last NYC show… so I basically bookended their 8 year run as a band!
Took the LIRR to Woodside and the 7 train from there and saw Deadheads of all ages everywhere along the way… it was great to see how many younger fans the Grateful Dead’s music now has (maybe thanks to John Mayer?) and a group of them asked me if I had been at the previous night’s show and - showing my age - I said “no, one night is enough!”... anyway, I arrived at Citi Field early enough to avoid any lines, got in, grabbed a beer, and took a walk around… this was my first time ever at the stadium (I’m a Yankees fan and usually try to avoid concerts at stadiums) and I was quite impressed… nice layout and look, easy to get around and I have never seen so many beer stands at any event… outstanding selection too and, most importantly, never had to wait in line behind more than a few people the whole night…
Onto the music! They opened with “Feels Like a Stranger” from the Dead’s 1980 album, Go to Heaven, and the first set also included another track from that album, “Alabama Getaway”... also in the first set was a stellar rendition of “Franklin’s Tower” one of my favorite Dead songs, a ripping cover of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” that segued into the chorus of The Beatles “Hey Jude” and had the whole stadium singing along… the set closed with Dead classics, “Truckin’” and “Deal”...
To kick off the second set, I got my wish when they launched into my all-time favorite Dead pairing, the medley of “Scarlet Begonias” & “Fire On the Mountain”… when they followed this with my next favorite pairing, “Estimated Prophet” & “Eyes of the World” I was cool with whatever followed after that - which was “Drums/Space” and a cover of Miles Davis’ “All Blue”... time to hit the bathroom and get a beer! They closed out from there with crowd favorite “Cumberland Blues,” a cover of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and a popular set closer, “Morning Dew”... but I had departed after Dew started to beat the crowd - a wise decision IMO - and was already on the 7 train by the time the show ended with an encore of “Brokedown Palace”...
Overall, it seems like a good time to call it quits on Dead & Company’s highly successful 8 year run… John Mayer did his first ever solo arena tour earlier this year, Bob Weir can move full time to his side band, Wolf Brothers, and bassist Oteil Burbridge already has a bunch of dates scheduled with his band, Oteil & Friends… not sure what the rest of them are doing but there’s always someone playing the music of the Grateful Dead to hook up with if they want to continue down that “Golden Road”…
Date: July 1st, 2023
Act: Steve Miller Bands, Joe Satriani
Venue: Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY
Steve Miller was a guy I never had more than a casual interest in back when he was riding high, cranking out hits in the 70s… never saw him live and the only album I ever bought with him on it was actually a Chuck Berry album, Live at the Fillmore Auditorium, released in 1967… it was Berry playing the blues backed up by the Steve Miller Blues Band, later to evolve into the Steve Miller Band…
That said, when I went to New Orleans JazzFest earlier this year Miller was one of the headliners and I looked forward to seeing him… turned out it poured for a couple hours prior to his set and everything we had with us was saturated, so we only stuck around for a half-dozen songs and exited with our soggy gear…
I was impressed with what I saw at JazzFest so when a Live Nation email arrived with an offer for $25 tix (including fees!) for Miller’s show at Jones Beach I pulled the trigger… plus, it turned out the seats were not bad at all, especially for that price!
This was my first visit to Jones Beach Theater since 2018 and they have done some renovations, mainly sprucing up the entrance area… Long Island’s own Joe Satriani opened the show… Satriani is a guitar icon who actually started out as a guitar teacher and fellow guitar legend, Steve Vai, was one of his pupils… Satriani’s set was all instrumentals featuring loads of his signature blazing-fast guitar solos… while he is an impressive virtuoso the songs do kind of blur together and I’m not sure how much of a “fit” he was opening for Miller…
Miller and his band kicked off with a perfect set opening song, “Swingtown” with its instrumental intro that allows each band member to gradually join in… from there they moved onto the giant hit “Jet Airliner” - which much to my surprise was written by unknown musician, Paul Pena, and NOT Miller… from there on, the show was a tour of Miller’s career, including many more familiar hits but also touching on his early blues (“Stranger Blues”) and psychedelic rock (“Space Cowboy”) phases… Miller, who sounded and played great for someone who will be 80 later this year, also did a LOT of talking between songs, adding to the career “retrospective” theme of the setlist… some of the stories did get a little long-winded but, for the most part, they were interesting and humorous and added to the overall experience…
Like I said earlier, I have never been a big Steve Miller fan but, after seeing this show, I came away with a greater appreciation for his rightful place as one of the greats of rock n’ roll… — SL