THIRSTY EAR 2009

The Thirsty Ear Festival snuck up on me this year. For the first time in its 10 year history, the festival was not held on Labor Day weekend. As I said before, I thought Mike Koster was crazy for changing the date, but yesterday shattered all previous attendance records, so that shows you what I know.

I wasn't able to make the Friday night show, but I was there for nearly all of yesterday. As always it was a good solid day of music from both local and national blues/country/folks acts at eaves Movie Ranch southeast of the city.

Most of the music through the day was nice and mellow. But for those of us who prefer it nice and rowdy as opposed to mellow, the show didn't really come alive until last night when Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas took the stage.

Nathan Williams and his band play good fast-paced traditional zydeco. Nathan dances around like a man half his age and his cousin, rubboard player Mark Williams, is even wilder. Great showmen and fun sounds.

Here's some thoughts about the rest of the day:

* Definitely the strongest part of the afternoon was banjo man Bela Fleck's set with African kora playerToumani Diabate. That was downright celestial. Diabate's instrument, which is a cousin to the banjo, reminded me of Washington Phillips, the itinerant gospel singer of the 1920s who played a stringed instrument that nobody has positively identified.

* The most stunning moment of the festival was during Felecia Ford's appearance with Sharon Gilchrist & band's late-night jam in the "hotel." It seemed that about half the musicians in town I know joined on stage at some point. But Felecia's performance of the Patsy Cline song, "So Wrong" would even put Patsy to shame.

* Watching Santa Fe's Alex Maryol in the hotel earlier in the day, I flashed back to the first time I'd seen him play in that building -- one of the very early -- maybe the first? -- Thirsty Ears when Alex was just a teenager. He was doing a solo acoustic set in the hotel -- if my memory serves me well because it was raining like crazy and the main stage act couldn't play. At one point songs, his cell phone went off. Alex answered and said "Hi Mom." He listened for a couple a couple of moments and very politely said something like, "OK, well, I'm on stage now .." I later told him that Elvis would have been proud of him.

* Sorry, Keb Mo fans -- and that includes about 99.6 percent of the people at Thirsty Ear yesterday -- I'm just not that big a fan. I just like my blues rougher and crazier.

* Early in the afternoon I ran into Otis Taylor wandering the grounds. He said he was just vacationing, not there to play. Dang! Would have loved to hear Otis!

The festival goes on today. It's "Community Day" which means local bands including Soulman Sam & Soul Explosion and Felix y Los Gatos. Admission is only $5 and two cans of food. ($10 if you don't bring the food.)

So get your cans out to Eaves Ranch!

Here's my FLICKR photos from Thirsty ear Saturday.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 12, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Pink Mountain Rag by John Doe & The Sadies
Your Love and His Blood by Wayne Hancock
Tired of Being Me by Dave Gonzales
Ladies Love Outlaws by Waylon Jennings
Thank God For the Road by The Flatlanders
Blue Moon of Kentucky by Rev. Beat-Man
When the Police Came by Mama Rosin
Country Playboy Special by The Pine Leaf Boys
Walk On By by Charlie Pride
Settin' the Woods on Fire by Bob Log III

Subterranean Homesick Blues by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Shake Shake Mama by Bob Dylan
Big Dog, Little Dog by Harvey Hunt
Rock-N-Bones by Elroy Dietzel
Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer by Johnny Russell
Hillbilly Truckdriving Man by Bill Kirchen
Keep on Truckin' by Smokey Wood & The Wood Chips
Deisel Smoke, Dangerous Curves by The Last Mile Ramblers
Jug Rag by The Prarie Ramblers

Let's All Be Normal by Poor Yorick
You Had Me at Get Lost by The Olympic Ass-Kicking Team
CB Song by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
LSD Made a Wreck Outta Me by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Wolverton Mountain by Claude King
Hot Tamale Pete by Bob Skyles & The Skyrockets
Pistol Packin' Mama by Al Dexter & His Troopers
Liza Pull Down the Shades by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

You Took My Thing and Put it In Your Place by C.W. Stoneking
Flapping Your Broken Wings by The Handsome Family
Satan's Jeweled Crown by The Louvin Brothers
Still Drunk, Still Crazy & Still Blue by Scott H. Biram
We Live In Two Different Worlds by Hank Williams
Faded Love by Chris Darrow
I've Got a Tender Heart by Eleni Mandell
A Satisfied Mind by Porter Wagoner
Something to Think About by Willie Nelson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: COUNTRY GOLD

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 12, 2009

You can sweeten it with lush strings and horns. You can punk it up and strip it down. You can call in Hollywood golden throats or manufacture achy-breaky phony-baloney dance crazes. You can make it “alt” or “progressive” or “new traditionalist.” You can mock it with sarcastic “yeee-haws” or, even worse, take it oh so seriously.

But it’s hard to beat good old honky-tonk music, the kind made back before country music became so self-conscious. Though the originals are always the best, there are a couple of recent albums on which the artists honor the classic honky-tonk sound — plus one that represents the most ambitious case of hillbilly revisionism ever.

* Country Club by John Doe & The Sadies. This is a collection of (mostly) country classics — Willie Nelson’s “Night Life,” Bobby Bare’s “Detroit City,” Hank Williams’ “Take These Chains From My Heart,” etc. — along with some inspired obscurities and a smattering of originals.

Doe, of course, is the frontman for the Los Angeles punk band X, while The Sadies, led by Canadian brothers Dallas and Travis Good, are an ace utility band that has backed the likes of Neko Case, R & B lecher Andre Williams, Jon Langford, and others.

Even though he doesn’t have any Southern twang in his voice (and fortunately he doesn’t try to fake it), Doe’s husky vocals are just right for these songs. It’s obvious in every note that he and his band truly love this material. Of course we’ve known that ever since Doe and then-wife Exene Cervenka teamed up with Dave Alvin to form The Knitters all those years ago.

And while all the love is there, Doe and the Good brothers aren’t afraid to take some liberties with the tunes. The most obvious case is Merle Haggard’s “Are the Good Times Really Over for Good.” Hag’s version is slow and mournful, aching with nostalgia for those times before microwave ovens (“when a girl could still cook and still would”). But Doe & The Sadies (backed by Kathleen Edwards on harmony vocals) do it as an outright stomper. I’m torn here, because it does alter the mood of the song. But then again, it sounds so dang good.

One of my favorites here is the cover of Roger Miller’s “Husbands and Wives,” the late Tesuque resident’s lament about divorce. Then there’s “It Just Dawned on Me,” a bluegrassy stomper (with fiddle and mandolin by Travis Good) written by Doe and Cervenka.

But the very best is a forgotten little nugget by Whisperin’ Bill Anderson, “The Cold Hard Facts of Life.” It’s a twofer — a cheatin’ song and a murder ballad packed into one sad tale. And, shades of O.J., it’s a rare double murder in which the weapon is a knife.

* Viper of Melody by Wayne Hancock. Wayne the Train is perhaps the greatest living purveyor of ’50s-style roadhouse honky-tonk. His band — featuring an upright bass (Huckleberry Johnson), steel guitar (Anthony Locke), and guitar (Izak Zaidman) — is certainly retro, but it never sounds hokey. It’s Texas through and through, produced by Lloyd Maines and recorded in Dripping Strings.

All but one of the songs here are original, the exception being “Midnight Stars and You,” a jazzy little hillbilly torch song. There are some economic blues — “Working at Working” and a train song “Freight Train Boogie” (not the Delmore Brothers classic) — and some proto-rockabilly (“Dog House Blues”).

But once again, my favorite is a murder song. “Your Love and His Blood” contains a should-be-classic line: “The next time we’re together, you’ll be on the witness stand.”

One sad note: Viper of Melody is dedicated to guitarist Paul Skelton, an Austin picker whom Hancock describes as a mentor. Skelton, who played with the Cornell Hurd Band, died earlier this year. He apparently was slated to play on this album but was too ill to do so. Skelton would have made this record even better, but Hancock and the boys have made some music that would have made Paul proud.

* Naked Willie by Willie Nelson. Lots of casual fans believe that Willie sprang out of the Outlaw era of the 1970s, along with Waylon and Jerry Jeff and the boys. Many are unaware that he made a bunch of records in the 1960s.

And the sad part is that they probably wouldn’t recognize Willie even if they heard these early tracks. That’s because, like so many Nashville artists of that era, his music was overproduced, oversweetened, and over-country-politaned by the lords of 16th Avenue. Nelson was produced by Chet Atkins himself, and while Chet was an amazing guitarist, some of his Nashville Sound recordings are crimes against nature.

So Willie’s longtime harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, took it upon himself to rescue some of these great old Willie songs. He appointed himself “un-producer” and went about scraping off all the horns and strings, all the Anita Kerr Singers choruses.

This is similar, in concept at least, to Let It Be ... Naked, which was a de-Spectored version of Let It Be, the final Beatles album, which many believe was Phil Spector’s first murder victim.

While Naked Willie doesn’t sound nearly as sterile as Let It Be ... Naked, there is a hollow feeling to many of the tunes. This isn’t Raphael’s fault as much as it is the fault of the original arrangements. Even without Anita Kerr, these tunes are a lot stiffer and poppier than the 1970s records — Shotgun Willie, Phases and Stages, Red Headed Stranger — that most of us Willie fans first came to love. Even without the horns and strings, most of the songs here still sound overproduced.

If you really want a glimpse of 1960s Willie in the raw, seek out Crazy: The Demo Sessions, which features Willie and his lonely guitar singing “Permanently Lonely,” “I’ve Just Destroyed the World,” “Opportunity to Cry,” and other haunting tunes.

NM GROUP IN ONLINE BATTLE OF THE BANDS

Asper Kourt, an Albuquerque band that won a University of New Mexico competition, is now in a neck-to-neck struggle with a Pennsylvania group in the Song Joust Battle of the Bands.

At this writing, So Long Pluto, representing Pennsylvania State University, is leading with 3076 plays. Asper Kourt is in second place with 2,490 plays.

You can play their song "Rain Before Shine" and help Asper Kourt HERE.

The winner of the contest gets a recording contract with Song Joust Records. (In today's music industry, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but don't mind my cynicism.)

The contest ends June 20.

Asper Kourt members are Kevin Herig (lead vocals, rhythm guitar); Mat Beston (bass); Nate Boitano (lead guitar); Kurt Sorenson (piano) and Heath Warren (drums). Boitano is the son of state Sen. Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque.

THE FIRST AND HOPEFULLY LAST TIME BRET MICHAELS EVER WILL APPEAR IN THIS BLOG

Last night at the Tony Awards.



A story about the incident is HERE.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 7, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
What Came First, The Egg or The Hen/Insane Asylum by Koko Taylor & Willie Dixon
Killer Diller by King Khan & The Shrines
Terry Got a Muffin by NRBQ
Sylvia Plath by The Rockin' Guys
I've Got the Devil Inside by Rev. Beat-Man
She's a Snake by Deadbolt
Howlin' at the Moon by Nekromantix
Fiery Eyes by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
I Got What it Takes by Koko Taylor

Egg Cream by Lou Reed
Useless by The Cynics
Teenage Head by The Flamin' Groovies
Crows by Modey Lemon
Scalping Party by Jackie & The Cedrics
Put de Pot on Mary by Poontang Perkins
Wasn't That Good by Wynonie Harris
Pearl Time by Andre Williams
Hot Fingers by Little Freddie King

My Damned Baby by J.P. McDermott & Western Bop
Time Flies by Scott H. Biram
Goin' on Down to the BBQ by Drywall
Hot by Big Ugly Guys
I'm Broke by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
My Shark by King Automatic
Hash House Pallor by Ross Johnson & The Young Seniors
El Circo by Los Tigres del Norte

Cheap Thrills by Ruben & The Jets
Monkey Tongue by The Moaners
Whiskey Sex Shack by The Mekons
Malibu Gas Station by Sonic Youth
Joko Homo by Devo
Goin' Ape by The Texreys
I'll Take the Long Road by Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

eMUSIC JUNE

*I Still Hate CDs by Various Artists. I've already ranted about my problems with eMusic with several tracks on this otherwise terrific Norton compilation. But the good news is that by the end of the week, all the bad tracks had been repaired and eMusic even gave me a fistful of credits for extra tracks to ease some of the angst. So all's well.

Except it still sucks that eMusic is raising its prices. So right now, I still hate eMusic.

But now I want to concentrate on the crazy, joy secret-history-of-rock 'n' roll that this collection represents.

This collection of 45 songs is Norton Records' second installation of 45 rpm singles. I described the first volume as "a grand tour of rock ’n’ roll’s glorious underbelly." That works for the new collection also. There's a smattering of fairly recent material here -- including a new tune from the mighty King Khan (no Shrines, no BBQ), a garage growler called "It's a Lie."

There's a few names you ought to recognize here -- rockabilly royalty Benny Joy and Charlie Feathers, as well as recently-decreased R&B prophets Rudy Ray Moore and Nathaniel Mayer.

But most the tunes are from the '50s and '60s, mainly by groups you've likely never heard of. Unfettered R&B, dangerous rockabilly, surf, garage, some stray doo-wop, punk-rock echoes. It's like the soundtrack of the best teen exploitation B -movie never made.

Some of the same artists from I Hate CDs are represented here. There's Mary Weiss of The Shangri-Las, The Hentchmen of Detroit, The Dictators and The Real Kids. But best of all, there's Andre Williams is back with an old recording of a song called "Daddy Rollin' Stone," backed by a vocal group called The Eldorados and someone playing a nasty guitar hook.

A few of these I had from previous Norton albums -- such as the proto-punk "It's Lame" by Figures of Light," Feathers' "We're Getting Closer to Being Apart" and the notorious (and criminally politically incorrect), "Hello Lucille ... Are You a Lesbian" by T. Valentine

Other favorites so far are "Put De Pot on Mary" by a soul shouter called Poontang Perkins; "Little Girl Gone," which puts the "rage" in garage, by Mogen David Wrath & The Grapes of Wrath; and, best of all, "What a Way to Die" by The Pleasure Seekers, a '60s group that included none other than Suzi Quatro and her sisters. Talk about politically incorrect, this is a joyous ode to teenage sex and drinking! Call the attorney general! What kind of message are we sending to the children?

(For my Tuneup review of I Hate CDs CLICK HERE.)

* Hiram & Huddie Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. How could so many of my favorite obscure/unknown primitive blues and country artists be on one collection? This is like some unholy alliance between Voodoo Rhythm (Possessed by Paul James, C.W. Stoneking, Bob Logg III) and Bloodshot Records (Wayne "The Train" Hancock, Scott H. Biram and cover art by none other than Jon Langford.)

But no, this is from a new record company Hillgrass Bluebilly, which hopefully will be conquering the world pretty soon (or have a lot of fun trying.)

This is a double-album tribute to Hank Williams and Leadbelly, performed with plenty of respect if not that much reverence. Liberties are taken, but Hank and Leadbelly are beacons of liberty. There's straightforward honky tonk from Hancock, lo-fi backwoods moans from Possessed by Paul James, crazy stripped down blues stomping from Logg. And Birham's version of "Lost Highway" sounds like a 1950s car radio re-mixed on Jupiter.

A nice surprise for me here was a tune by Flathead -- an Arizona band I interviewed for No Depression about 10 years ago. (Another Bloodshot connection here. They had a song on the great Straight Outta Boone County compilation.) They do a jumping version of "Pick a Bale of Cotton" on the Leadbelly disc. (There's a hidden track on this track -- Wayne Hancock and his wife Gina doing "Goodnight Irene")

* Stop Arguing Over Me by Paul "Wine" Jones" Remember when Fat Possum was the world's coolest blues label? R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, T-Model Ford, Paul "Wine" Jones ...

For a few brief moment in the '90s, Fat Possum reminded the world what it was about Mississippi blues we all loved in the first place.

All but T-Model are gone now. Jones was the most recent to pass, dying of cancer at the age of 59 in 2005, not long after Burnside's death.

I was fortunate enough to meet Jones and see him play at a couple of the early Thirsty Ear Festivals. He was a house rocker!

* What Have You Done My Brother? by Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens. Here's the latest offering from the glorious Daptone label.

This is a solid gospel record by an Alabama-born singer who has gone back and forth between sanctified songs and secular soul.

Hey, I just reviewed this in Terrell's Tuneup yesterday! Check it HERE

PLUS



* "Animal Party" b/w "God of Raisins" by The King Khan & BBQ Show. This was released earlier this year by Fat Possum Records as a 7-inch vinyl "single," as us old folks used to call 'em.

This ain't nothin' but good double-sided insanity from my favorite Canadian blues/do-wop/trash duo.

* A bunch of tracks from Cool Cats. This is a compilation of unknown rockabillies -- you ever heard of Johnny Jay, Jimmy Edwards or Curly Coldiron? Me neither. But this stuff is tough. Lo-fi, but the sound is true. My favorite so far is Danny Verne's "Red Hot Car." I'll be getting the rest of these tracks next month for sure.

* "The Big Enchilada" by Bud Kurtz. I discovered this the day after posting my latest podcast of the same name. The music sounds more fake-Cajun than fake Mexican. But I can't help liking a song that starts out, "She's my sopapilla ..."

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 5, 2009
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
It Just Dawned on Me by John Doe & The Sadies
Country Woman by The Cals
21 Days in Jail by The Blasters
Ramblin' Man by Soda
Memphis Yodel by Jimmie Rodgers
Yodelin' Rhythm and Blues by Halden Wofford & The Hibeams
Rebel Rock Armageddon by The Riptones
Let it Simmer by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Cool and Dark Inside by Kell Robertson

Working at Working by Wayne Hanock
I'm Sending Daffydills by The Maddox Brothers & Rose
Rockin' Spot by Cody Coldiron
I'm Mad by Rev. Horton Heat
I Hung it Up by Junior Brown
Let Me Be the Judge by Amber Digby
Hold My Feet to the Fire by Ha Ha Tonka
Lost Highway by Scott H. Biram
Bonapart's Retreat by Holy Modal Rounders

One Toke Over the Line by Brewer & Shipley
Red Hot Gal of Mine by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
What Makes Bob Holler by Tom Morrell & The Time Warp Tophands
Trouble in Mind by Jon Langford & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Roly Poly by Merle Haggard
Jenna by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Surftango by Ruthie & The Wranglers
O Rings by The Gourds

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Laura Cantrell
Free the Wind by The Flatlanders
Unorganized Crime by Todd Snyder
Nana and Jimi by Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women
Angels Rejoiced Lat Night by Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris
Beautiful William by The Handsome Family
I'm So Proud by Dan Penn
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: YOUNG BLACK JOE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 5, 2009

One of the healthiest retro trends lately is the ongoing neo-soul revival.

I’m talking about Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, and their colleagues at Daptone Records. I’m talking about King Khan & The Shrines. I’m talking about the continued adventures of inspired old timers like Bettye LaVette, Howard Tate, and Solomon Burke. And now I’m talking about a wild little band from Austin, Texas, called Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears.

Young Black Joe and his group just released their first major label (Lost Highway) album, Tell ’em What Your Name Is. And it just might be the debut of the year.

This band — led by 20-something singer Lewis, who, according to a recent account in Spin, still has a day job delivering seafood — falls somewhere between the tight-but-gritty Daptone sound and the crazy, horny punk-funk of King Khan.

Lewis and the Bears don’t see soul music as some fragile museum exhibit to be reverently emulated. It’s a Saturday night fish fry that never ends. The horn section is loud, the guitar has a bite, and the organist sounds as if he’s been force-fed a steady diet of Jimmy Smith and The Animals. And Lewis shouts like Otis Redding’s long-lost grandson.

The opening song, a stomper called “Gunpowder” sets the pace for the album. It clocks in just over two minutes (the longest one here is barely over four minutes) and goes right into another hard-charger called “Sugarfoot.”

“Big Booty Woman” comes closest to being a blues song. It’s followed by “Boogie,” which sounds like Slim Harpo on trucker’s crank. (In fact, Lewis borrows from Harpo’s “Shake Your Hips.”)

My favorite has to be the funky and delightfully obscene “Get Yo Shit."

It starts out when the singer comes home to all find his, uh, belongings scattered on the front lawn. He knows it has to be the work of “that crazy ass girl of mine.” A confrontation ensues. She’s feeling unloved. “You don’t even buy me presents,” she says. The narrator retorts, “I bought you a box of chicken, but I ate it on the way home.” The unimpressed paramour continues: “You don’t even know my name.” Black Joe answers, “Yeah, it’s ‘Melissa.’” To which she replies, “No, dumb ass, it’s ‘Roxanne.”

Uh oh.

Incredibly the singer is about to weasel some make-up sex out of this bad situation. But a surprise visit from the police ruins the mood.

One song that’s completely different from the rest is the haunting “Master Sold My Baby.” It’s a swampy chant over drums suggesting a New Orleans march.

Probably the most intense song on Tell ’em is the closing track, “Please Pt. Two” (There’s no “Pt. One.”) The song fades in to what sounds like a crisis in progress. The Honeybears are playing full blast and Lewis is “down on my knees, begging you please.” It doesn’t matter what the song is about. This is the sound of music at its toughest. It sounds like it might have come from a live show. My only regret is that I wasn’t there.

If I’ve got one complaint about Tell ’em What Your Name Is, it’s the brevity. The whole thing is just over a half hour long.

When I wrote this column last week, Amazon.com was offering the MP3 version of the album for only $5. In the meantime, it's gone up to $6.99.

If you explore around Amazon, you’ll find Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears’ self-titled EP, released earlier this year, which has two songs (The blues-fed “Bitch, I Love You” and the acoustic shaggy-dog hoodoo tale called “Cousin Randy,” featuring slide guitar) that aren’t on the Tell ’em album. I’m not sure why they didn’t make the CD, but through the miracle of technology, you can put ’em there yourself.

And you can find Black Joe’s earlier work at CD Baby, HERE and HERE.

Also recommended:

* What Have You Done, My Brother? by Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens. Speaking of Daptone, the latest offering from this influential New York label is a gospel record by an Alabama-born singer who has gone back and forth between sanctified songs and secular soul.

This is a solid, old-school gospel record — in other words, none of the synthy glitz overkill of contemporary gospel — in which Shelton is backed by a small band featuring organ, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. There’s also a female chorus, which, at least on some tracks, includes the mighty Sharon Jones (who proved her gospel music skills on the unheralded soundtrack album for the movie The Great Debaters, which also featured bluesman Alvin Youngblod Hart and traditionalists The Carolina Chocolate Drops).

Though never achieving real fame, Shelton knocked around the music biz since the 1960s. She’s got a rich, throaty voice that’s held up well through the years.

My current favorite tracks here include “What Have You Done?,” an accusatory song aimed at some unnamed sinner (”You’re twisted, you thought you were clever/But your wicked tongue can’t twist forever, “ Shelton sings sternly) and “I’ll Take the Long Road,” a slow Southern-fried soul-gospel ballad in which guitarist Bosco Mann sounds as if he’s paying tribute to Steve Cropper.

Shelton does a decent version of Sam Cooke’s overcovered “A Change Is Gonna Come.” But for me the real climax of the album is the preceding song, “Lift Up My Burdens,” which has echoes of The Impressions’ “People Get Ready” — as well as Howard Tate’s’ “Get it While You Can.”

KOKO TAYLOR 1928-2009

Koko Taylor, the Queen of the Chicago Blues died yesterday at the age of 80.

Here's a story in the L.A. Times.

And below is a video of her performing with Little Walter. And below that is a blip of her duet with Willie Dixon, "Insane Asylum."

Rest in peace, Koko.