Bruce Cockburn How I Spent My Fall Vacation 1980

From Bruce Cockburn's Humans 1980:

How I Spent My Fall Vacation

Sun went down looking like the eye of God

Behind icy mist and stark bare trees

Inside the dim empty cinema two guys in leather jackets

Glance at each other and shiver, 

"They never built these places with winter in mind"

Out the window down the gray road

You can see old walled monastery

Now become a barracks for the paramilitary police

I saw an old lady's face once on a Japanese train

Half lit, rich with soft luminosity

She was dozing straight upright head bobbing almost imperceptibly

Wheels were playing fast in 9/8 of a time

Her husband's friendly face suddenly folded up in a sneeze

Across the straight a volcano flew a white smoke flag of surrender

In a Roman street on a full moon night

I was sick and there was a young cop in a circle of yellow light

As we drew near he snapped the safety off his machine pistol

And slid a trembling finger to the trigger

I wanted to say something calming but couldn't catch his eye

He didn't want contact, he was trained to see movement

"Well don't shoot me, man, I'm a graceful slow dancer

I'm just a dream to you not real at all"

I wonder if I'll end up like Bernie in his dream

A displaced person in some foreign border town

Waiting for a train part hope part myth

While the station changes hands

Or just sitting at home growing tenser with the times

Or like that guy in 'The Seventh Seal'

Watching the newly dead dance across the hills

Or wearing this leather jacket shivering with a friend

While the eye of God blazes at us like the sun

Marcia Ball

The Boston Globe described her music as "an irresistible celebratory blend of rollicking, two-fisted New Orleans piano, Louisiana swamp rock and smoldering Texas blues from a contemporary storyteller." Ball has spent fifty years touring and gigging in her adopted home of Austin. She has released eighteen records in a career that provided endless good times to anyone listening. She gave a great performance at every show, and won over her audiences with skilled piano and effective singing, not to mention rock solid bands backing her up.

She first recorded in 1972 with Freda and the Firedogs, an Austin country band. That record, which is excellent, wasn't released until 2002, apparently due to the band refusing to sign with Jerry Wexler and Atlantic. It's a weird story, and seems to have no logical explanation. 

Her first record under her own name was Circuit Queen in 1978 for Capitol. Not available for streaming, the record is available on YouTube, and it's more country than what is to come. It's OK.

Her real debut that features the kind of music she would continue to make for the rest of her career was made for Rounder in 1984, the very fine Soulful Dress. In many ways the record  sounds like she could have produced it any time during her career. Her formula of New Orleans-styled piano, good time Texas boogie and blues, and soulful blues and ballads is all here. It includes fine covers as well as her gifted songwriting. Soulful Dress was followed by Hot Tamale Baby 1985 and Gatorhythms 1989, which included more of her own songs. All three are well worth hearing and are available for streaming.

In 1990, Marcia Ball, Lou Ann Barton and Angela Strehli made Dreams Come True, and the music lives up to the name. Barton was a blues belter that fronted Stevie Ray Vaughn's Double Trouble and Roomful of Blues early on. Angela Strelhi is a blues singer/guitarist of note, and the three of them combined for a swampy blues and R&B manifesto that stands as a classic today. Not to be missed.

Ball followed that with Blue House 1994 and Let Me Play With Your Poodle 1997. Both are good, and Blue House is a stand-out in a busy catalog. Sing It! 1998, with Irma Thomas and Tracy Nelson, is simply one of the best records ever made. By anybody. It sounds like hyperbole to me too, but you need to hear it. Ball rises to the occasion, singing with two of the greatest vocalists of their generation. Song selection, production, and steaming heaps of talent make for a great record.

After Sing It!, Ball moved to Alligator Records for the rest of her career. Her first two for Alligator, Presumed Innocent 2001and Too Many Rivers 2003, are both killer. The recording quality (and cover photography) of both of them seems superior to most of her other work, and the music is deserving of the effort to present it so well. You can't go wrong with either one.

Three live records followed from 2004-2007, and they are good. She's wonderful live. From 2008 through 2018, she made four remarkably similar records. She wrote great songs, sang them beautifully, had excellent support, good recordings, and the whole package. Peace, Love and BBQ 2008, Roadside Attractions 2011,  The Tattooed Lady & The Alligator Man 2014, and her last, Shine Bright 2018 are hard to criticize. Professional musicians with a fun, serious, bluesy, swinging handle on this marvelous woman and her killer songs.

The highlights of her magnificent career would include Dreams Come True, Sing It!, Presumed Innocent and Too Many Rivers. Honestly, Shine Bright is right there, too. And there is time well spent with the entire catalog. A body of work that is both exceptional and vastly under appreciated. She has received many professional awards and accolades and in 2026 was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Marcia Ball was diagnosed with ALS in 2025 and has retired. Send some positive energy into the world on Marcia Ball's behalf. And get some positive energy of your own with any of her fabulous records.

George Harison with Eric Clapton and Band Live In Japan 1992

George Harrison put the Concert for Bangladesh together in 1971, and toured America in 1974. That tour received mixed reviews, many by people that didn't appreciate the Indian music sections of the performance. Harrison played a number of one-off concerts throughout the eighties, including several benefit shows and an all-star Carl Perkins and Friends live show in 1985. 

Then in 1991, George's friend Eric Clapton offered himself and his band to Harrison for a twelve date tour of Japan, from which this live recording was made. It was Harrison's last hurrah live performance, and both performance and recording are outstanding.

The band that Clapton had was the creme de la creme: Eric Clapton – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals; Andy Fairweather Low – rhythm guitar, backing vocals; Nathan East – bass, backing vocals; Chuck Leavell – piano, Hammond organ, keyboards; Greg Phillinganes – keyboards, backing vocal; Steve Ferrone – drums; Ray Cooper – percussion, drums; Katie Kissoon – background vocals; Tessa Niles – background vocals.

The set list was exemplary. Nine Beatles songs: I Want to Tell You; Old Brown Shoe; Taxman; If I Needed Someone; Something; Piggies; Here Comes the Sun; While My Guitar Gently Weeps; Roll Over Beethoven. Ten Harrison solo songs, sort of a greatest hits: Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth); What Is Life; Dark Horse; Got My Mind Set on You; Cloud 9; My Sweet Lord; All Those Years Ago; Cheer Down; Devil's Radio; Isn't It a Pity. The entire show in the order it was performed. Six songs from the tour are not here. Two songs that Harrison performed the first two nights and then were dropped from the set list, and four songs performed by Clapton in the middle of the set.

Harrison plays quite a few leads, often on slide guitar. The band is stellar, and well rehearsed. They never miss a beat. Harrison is in good voice, and of course the Japanese audience is in awe. 

It's a really fine record. It is both a best-of compilation and a hot live set. It's the second best record he ever made, and it doesn't come with a weak jam record. It went almost unnoticed on release. It made it to #15 in Japan, #125 in the U.S., and didn't even chart in the U.K. Available in CD, vinyl and streaming formats. Lots of people have never heard it. Don't be one of them.

Paul McCartney The Boys of Dungeon Lane 2026

 

I haven't seen a Paul McCartney record get this much hype since New, and this is much better than that one. You've probably read enough about it already, but I'm excited about it, so here goes.

There's at least eight very good to great songs here. The opener, As You Lie There, is one of Paul's best songs maybe ever. It's nostalgic, but it rocks, and it's just everything, all at once. Lost Horizon is a good mid-tempo rocker. Days We Left Behind is classic McCartney nostalgia, it's pretty. It's great even if it sounds like McCartney could do this all day. The guy can write a melody. Another decent rocker follows in Ripples In The Pond. The story of Paul and John hitchhiking in Down South is both nostalgic, a fine story, and another excellent McCartney melody. Come Inside is another solid rocker. Home To Us features a duet with Ringo, and it is an irresistible melody again. First Star of the Night is a little of that too sweet Paul, but it scores despite itself. 

I'm not as wild about the end of the record as several other reviewers. There's a good chance you'll like Salesman Saint and Mamma Gets By more than me. There's four others that are at least OK, but let's not put the bar too high. My first three times through it, I was quite happy listening to every song. That doesn't happen all that often. 

My Top Five Paul records: Band On The Run, Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard, Venus and Mars, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, and One Hand Clapping. I really want to love Ram and Wild Life, and I'm working on it. Memory Almost Full and Driving Rain get honorable mention. All this is recent for me. I'm one of those "I gave up on Paul after Venus and Mars" guys Sal at Burning Wood complains about, but I've gone back and explored the whole catalog. 

Both the Wings 2025 compilation and the The 7" Singles 2022 (159 tracks!, including the B sides) will provide endless entertainment and demonstrate how much excellent music Paul McCartney has made.

My friend Sal over at Burning Wood just reviewed this, and so has everyone. Sal's review is well worth checking out.