Gerry and the Pacemakers Greatest Hits 1965

Today, Gerry and the Pacemakers are mostly a footnote in the early British beat scene, and the British Invasion bands that followed the Beatles to America. Between 1963-1965, they released five LPs in America, and this hits package was the last of those five. They had three #1 hits in the UK, but only managed to climb to #4 in the US with Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying and #6 with Ferry Cross The Mersey. Those two hit ballads might mean that the rocking side of the band is less well known in the U.S. After 1966, they never again dented the charts in the U.S. or the U.K., although there have been a few compilations and a live BBC issue. The only hit missing (and you probably won't miss it) from this LP is You'll Never Walk Alone, Rogers and Hammerstein's number from Carousel, which became a football fan singalong in the U.K.

This is one of those records to stumble across in a used record store. Having not heard many of the songs, you'd be likely to keep browsing, but if you are a fan of other British Invasion groups (Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, The Hollies), you should pick this one up. How Do You Do It sounds like a Herman's Hermits hit, Willie Dixon's My Babe sounds like early Stones, It's Gonna Be Alright and I Like It could be the Beatles, and the aforementioned ballads are classics. I bought it for Ferry Cross The Mersey and was delighted at the quality of the entire record. Oh, and they were recorded by none other than Sir George Martin, so it sounds good, too.

Van Morrison Latest Record Project Volume 1 2021

I read the early, mostly negative reviews, and I was admittedly taken aback. I'm a huge Van Morrison fan, and I've been pretty amazed and impressed with most of his work in the last 20 years. The five (five!!) albums he released between 2017 and 2019 (Roll With The Punches, Versatile, You're Driving Me Crazy, The Profit Speaks, and Three Chords And The Truth) were all above average at least, and represent a remarkably strong period.

So, here's the good news: Van Morrison can still write a good melody, or borrow a good blues riff and make it his own. He's been doing both forever, and while a lot of them sound the same, he's a talented songwriter. The band on this record is highly talented and the recording sounds good. Whoever is playing the Hammond B3 is especially skilled. The backup singers are rather forward in the mix on many songs, and they sound great. 

But here's the rub: The best way to thoroughly enjoy this record is to not understand the English language. Lyrically, Van is very upset about a lot of things these days. His wife of 25-plus years left in 2018, and he's still a mess about that, and not in just a sad way, but clearly dealing with some anger issues. He's mad at the music business. And the media in general. And psychiatrists. And Facebook. And Covid restrictions. Additionally, he thinks everyone that doesn't love him, and maybe those that do love him and thus emulate his work, are all just jealous of his enormous talent. Finally on his list of complaints, is the fact that he is the only authentic rebel left. 

And (I know, how could there be more?), Van seems to think that the music he's making now sounds so different that people don't get it, and they should realize that he's progressing and get over it. Trust me, the only thing really new about this record is how totally bat-shit crazy Van Morrison sounds when words come out of his mouth.

There's been one or two of those angry songs on many of his records over the last 30 years or so. But this one has, by my count, something like 19 of them. Holy crap, there's 28 songs on the 2-CD set, and two thirds are him whining and complaining and being paranoid. And this is only Volume 1?

With brutal editing, this could have been a pretty good single disc release. At over two hours long, it is a disaster.

Jazz from the 1950s and 1960s

I'm a melody kind of guy. Raised on pop and rock with some folk mixed in, music fits me better when I can hum or whistle along. So the jazz I most like is the cool jazz and West Coast jazz of the fifties and sixties that lived in the same moment as the bebop and hard bop that I find overly aggressive and challenging. I understand that those hard boppers are highly talented and wildly creative, but they are clearly not mellow, and I like my jazz mellow. So here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order (well, actually alphabetically).

Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue 1967 is classic blues/jazz at it's best. Burrell fronts a great band, including Stanley Turrentine, and everything comes out perfect.

Nat "King" Cole's After Midnight 1957. Before becoming a pop crooner singing with an orchestra, Cole was a pianist who led a jazz trio, and was widely considered one of the best. In 1957 Cole returned to his roots for the last time, and recorded this amazing session. If you never knew Cole as a jazz pianist, this is the place to start. The trio, supplemented by percussion, and horn (and violin) soloists, swings like crazy, and Cole's singing and piano are both stellar.

I can add nothing to the discussion of this great record. Sunday At The Village Vanguard 1961 is everything it is touted to be, and deserves the hype today as much as it did on it's release. Both Sunday At The Village Vanguard and Waltz For Debbie 1961, recorded at the same session, have been in print and available for purchase since their release. The pinnacle of the piano trio, with Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums, the three operated almost as one mind with six hands. You can just sit and enjoy it, or you can study it to death, either way, it holds up.

The Chico Hamilton Quintet featuring Buddy Collette 1956 is a fascinating West Coast jazz ensemble. Drummer Hamilton is joined by sax/flute/clarinetist Collette plus bass, cello, and guitar. It is an unusual ensemble, and they are spectacular. 

At The Pershing: But Not For Me 1958 was one of the biggest hits of it's time, staying on the charts for 108 weeks. It includes Jamal's first version of Poinciana, and it is a delightful record. Swinging and easy to love. 

Sinatra'a In The Wee Small Hours 1955 might be the very first concept album, and Sinatra would return to themed records several more times in the 50s and 60s. Great songs, Nelson Riddle's arrangements, and Sinatra at the peak of his understated power, it is one of Sinatra's finest.

Peggy Lee Ultimate Peggy Lee 2020

How many of these apply to you?

1) I love the classic 50s-60s era of great jazz and popular song.

2) I love a great female voice/singer.

3) I love a well-crafted song, delivered in a fine arrangement.

4) Good sound enhances my enjoyment of music. 

5) I'm not sure I am familiar enough with Peggy Lee.

If you can answer yes to a few of those (I'm good for all five), you need to hear this record. Available on CD or a very nicely pressed 2 LP set, the mastering job is excellent and the sound is impressive. The song selection is also good, with a few that don't usually make it to most of her "best of" sets. Of course there are many compilations by Lee out there, and her Decca and Capitol work are usually mutually exclusive, so it is also nice that this one contains three essentials from her mid-fifties Decca stint along with her Capitol work.

And then there's Peggy Lee's voice and sensual delivery. She is unique in her delivery. Sexy, but never coquettish, Lee whispers in your ear like a woman that knows.

Great songs (five that she wrote), great singer, great sound.

Drive-by Truckers The Three Great Alabama Icons 2001

I grew up in north Alabama back in the 1970s when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. I'm speaking, of course, of the three great Alabama icons: George Wallace, Bear Bryant, and Ronnie Van Zant. Now, Ronnie Van Zant wasn't from Alabama, he was from Florida, he was a huge Neil Young fan but in the tradition of Merle Haggard writing Okie From Muskogee to tell his dad's point of view on the hippies in Vietnam, Ronnie felt that the other side of the story should be told. Neil Young always claimed that Sweet Home Alabama was one of his favorite songs and legend has it that he was an honorary pallbearer at Ronnie's funeral, such is the duality of the southern thing
...and Bear Bryant wore a cool lookin' red checkered hat and won football games, and there's few things more loved in Alabama than football and the men who know how to win at it. So when the Bear would come to town, there would be a parade. Me, I was one of them pussy boys cuz i hated football, so i got a guitar but a guitar was a poor substitute for a football with the girls in my high school. So my band hit the road, and we didn't play no Skynyrd, neither. I came of age rebelling against the music in my high school parking lot. It wasn't until years later after leaving the South for a while that I came to appreciate and understand the whole Skynyrd thing and its misunderstood glory. I left the south and learned how different people's perceptions of the Southern Thing was from what I had seen in my life, which leads us to George Wallace...
...now Wallace was, for all practical purposes, the governor of Alabama from 1962 until 1986. Once when a law prevented him from succeeding himself, he ran his wife Lurleen in his place and she won by a landslide. He's most famous as the belligerent racist voice of the segregationist South, standing in the doorways of schools and waging a war against the federal government that he decried as Hypocritical. Now Wallace started out as a lawyer and a judge with a very progressive and humanitarian track record for a man of his time, but he lost his first bid for governor in 1958 by hedging on the race issue against a man who spoke out against integration. Wallace ran again in '62 as a staunch segregationist and won big and for the next decade he spoke out loudly. He accused Kennedy and King of being communist and he was constantly on national news representing "the good people" of Alabama
...and ya know race was only an issue on tv in the house that i grew up in. Wallace was viewed as a man from another time and place, but when i first ventured out of the south I was shocked at how strongly Wallace was associated with Alabama and its people. Racism is a worldwide problem, and it's been like that since the beginning of recorded history and it ain't just white and black, but thanks to George Wallace, it's always a little more convenient to play it with a Southern accent
...and Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd attempted to show another side of the south, one that certainly exists, but few saw beyond the rebel flag and this applies not only to their critics and detractors but also their fans and followers. So for a while, when Neil Young would come to town, he'd get death threats down in Alabama. Ironically, in 1971, after a particularly racially charged campaign, Wallace began backpedaling and he opened up Alabama politics to minorities at a rate faster than most northern states or the federal government. Wallace spent the rest of his life trying to explain away his racist past and in 1982 he won his last term in office with over 90% of the black vote, such is the duality of the southern thing
...and George Wallace died back in '98 and he's in hell now, not because he's a racist. His track record as a judge and his late life quest for redemption make a good argument for his being, at worst, no worse than most white men of his generation, North or South. Because of his blind ambition and his hunger for votes, he turned a blind eye to the suffering of black America and he became a pawn in the fight against Civil Rights cause
...fortunately for him, the devil is also a southerner

Del Amitri Fatal Mistakes 2021

Welcome back, Del Amitri. Almost 20 years after their last album, they're back, and while it doesn't sound like "they never went away", it is close enough.

And they didn't completely go away, as there have been four Justin Currie solo records in the meantime. While they weren't Del Amitri records, Currie is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the band, so those solo albums also came pretty close.

So, does it live up to their reputation for lovely, catchy melodies coupled with Currie's dark lyrics and yearning voice. In short, yes it does. 

A brief review of a band that has had some success, and should have had more. After an odd eponymous debut in 1985 that sounded nothing like the band they would soon become, they made five solid albums between 1989 and 2002. They released 21 singles, several that cracked the top 20 in the UK, and a few that made it into the US charts, including Kiss This Thing Goodbye from Waking Hours 1989, Always The Last To Know from Change Everything 1992, and Roll To Me from Twisted 1995. Not Where It's At and Some Other Sucker's Parade from Some Other Sucker's Parade 1997, and Just Before You Leave from Can You Do Me Good? 2002 were solid work that went mostly ignored. For my personal tastes, Some Other Sucker's Parade is as good a rock record as any, and all of their records after the debut are worth hearing. Their Best Of, Hatful Of Rain 1998 is an excellent display of their abilities. But without hits and only moderate sales outside the UK, they were summarily dropped by their record company in 2003. 

They reassembled and briefly toured in 2014 and 2018, which brings us to Fatal Mistakes. Not quite the rocker that Some Other Sucker's Parade was, there's still plenty to tap your foot to. You Can't Go Back, All Hail Blind Love, Musicians And Beer, and Losing The Will To Die are all solid rockers, and the slower material holds up well. The closer, scathing seven-minute Nation Of Caners finds Currie full of vitriol. It's Feelings has a jaunty rhythm and a classic Currie vocal with a hooky chorus.  The classic Del Amitri elements are all there, and the songwriting is solid.

If you never heard of Del Amitri, you're not alone, but you've missed out for sure. If you're a fan and you're not sure about this new one, there's no need to hesitate.

St. Vincent Daddy's Home 2021

St. Vincent's new Daddy's Home is another strong outing from an artist who continues to expand her musical vision. Watching and listening to her progressive career path from Marry Me in 2007 to today has been a fascinating and rewarding experience.

Pay Your Way In Pain opens the record on a strong note with distorted pop that recalls 2017's Masseduction as much as anything on this record. Down And Out Downtown features great guitar, vocals, and background vocals and has a big, dramatic sound that is found on much of the album.The funky, sparse title track features Thomas Bartlett's Wurlitzer piano to fine effect. A Lennon-like dream state surrounds the airy vocals and hot guitar of Live In The Dream. The Melting Of The Sun and The Laughing Man are slower mid-tempo pieces that continue the well-crafted song and lyric writing evident everywhere.

The twisted rock of Down, with fine synths and St. Vincent's signature hot guitar lets you know not to mess with this woman. More great guitar, as well as mellotron, and Greg Leisz's pedal steel guitar embellish Somebody Like Me. My Baby Wants A Baby is a great lyric with more fine background vocals, and ...At The Holiday Party is a great melody and lyric that also features the horns of Evan Smith and Michael Leonhard. The record ends on the sweet romantic note of Candy Darling.

St. Vincent/Annie Clark shows off her prodigious talent on every track. But she owes a debt of gratitude to several others. Throughout the record, the vocals of Lynne Fiddmont and Kenya Hathaway add greatly to the arrangements, as does Thomas Bartlett's Wurlitzer piano, and Evan Smith's sax.

And then there's Jack Antonoff. As he did on Masseduction, Antonoff co-writes half the songs, produces the record, and plays drums and keyboards throughout. A pop sensation as a producer and multi-instrumentalist, Antonoff has produced and written songs and albums for Sara Bareilles, The Chicks, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Pink, and others. The guy is a hook machine that knows how to assemble a modern pop hit like almost no one else, and seems to do this while enhancing, not replacing, the artist's inherent strengths. St. Vincent made great records before Antonoff (producer John Congleton made Actor, Strange Mercy, and the stellar St. Vincent) but there is clearly magic in Antonoff's skill set.

It is hard for me to think of another artist to appear on the scene in the new millennium that that has produced a more interesting, and progressive, body of work. That she could follow her last two releases with one this good is nothing short of extraordinary.