Boys From Oklahoma

Morris Day and The Time

Summer of Soul (..., Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

RIP - Jerry Jeff and Billy Joe Shavers - Heaven's Songwriter Circle Grows Larger by Two

As a learned friend summed it up this morning, "Jerry Jeff has finally got off that LA Freeway." Lover of the wisdom of old men, hard livers, bar life and great songs who sung his and those of others like no other. If you don't know his music, you are missing much. Check out "A Man Must Carry On." Four days after this posted initially, Billy Joe Shavers also crossed the river to join Jerry Jeff. Shavers wrote nine of the ten songs on one of the best 1970s albums of all time, Waylon Jennings' Honky Tonk Heroes, an album we played very, very loud over and over when it first entered our KU apartment and years since. It still makes me smile when I hear one its songs.

R.I. P. Mr. Prine

John Prine, Who Chronicled the Human Condition in Song, Dies at 73

The folk singer and songwriter with a raspy voice and an offbeat humor was revered by peers including Bob Dylan. John Prine, the raspy-voiced country-folk singer whose ingenious lyrics to songs by turns poignant, angry and comic made him a favorite of Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and others, died Tuesday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.

Angel from Montgomery

Your Flag Detail Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

We are praying for you Mr. Prine.

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore

Provided to YouTube by Atlantic Records Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore · John Prine John Prine ℗ 1971 Atlantic Recording Corporation for t...

Deportee (aka Plane Crash in Los Gatos)

Better Oblivion Community Project

One Master to an Up-and-Coming One

"Be natural, be cool."

  -- Sam Cooke to an up-and-coming Otis Redding as quoted by Mark Ribowsky in Dreams to Remember - Otis Redding, Stax Records and the Transformation of Southern Soul

Stairway to Heaven

Thoughts on the 9th Anniversary of My Best Friend's Suicide

Fallon as Dylan - Times Are A Changing in 2018

Christmas in America

Rumble - The Indians Who Rocked the World

I thought I knew a lot about rock and roll until I saw this great movie.  I learned a lot of good stuff from this movie!

Conor Oberst on Charlie Rose

Conor Oberst - Salutations

Those of you that look at this blog probably already know that I am a big fan of Conor Oberst.

I think Conor Oberst is one of the best songwriters of our time, one that I feel that I would identify with today if I was his age in these troubled times.  Some of his songs are a bit dark but his sensitive story-telling, images, and phasing are clever and really, really good. I love him.

His new album, Salutations, is very good with a some wonderful songs.  This one is my favorite.  If one of "You", you know who you are, happen upon this blog, I hope it makes you cry like it made me cry.

R.I.P. Leonard

Kate Kinnon is the best!  Man, what a talent.  One can see fun in her eyes and smile.  If you didn't see her camera wink in this video, you haven't watched it enough times.

Eric Church and Rhiannon Giddens - Kill A Word

Shame on me but I had never heard of Eric Church nor Rhiannon Giddens before seeing them on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show this week. Now I can't stop re-watching this performance. Give it a go full screen with the volume turned up. You won't regret it.

Happy 75th Birthday Otis! RIP!

From today's Writer's Almanac:

Today is the birthday of American singer and songwriter Otis Redding (1941), best known for soulful songs like “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “Try a Little Tenderness,” “These Arms of Mine,” and “Respect,” which became a signature song for Aretha Franklin. 

Redding was born in Dawson, Georgia. He showed musical promise early, singing in the Vineville Baptist Church and learning guitar, drums, and piano. Every Sunday, he earned $6.00 performing gospel songs for radio station WIBB in Macon. In 1958, he took part in Hamp Swain’s hugely popular “The Teenage Party” talent contests at the Roxy and Douglass Theatres in Macon, singing Little Richard’s “Heeby Jeebies.” He won the contest for 15 weeks straight. 

It was when he agreed to drive his friend Johnny Jenkins to a recording session at Stax Studios in Memphis that his life changed. Jenkins’s session fell flat, and Redding convinced the producers to let him have a turn. He sang “These Arms of Mine.” Jim Stewart, the studio chief, said: “There was something different about [the ballad]. He really poured his soul into it.” The song was released in 1962 and sold more than 800,000 copies. 

Otis Redding recorded six albums during the 1960s. He became so successful that he bought a 300-acre ranch in Georgia and named it “Mr. Pitiful” after one of his ballads. He owned 200 suits and 400 pairs of shoes and when he performed at the Monterey Pop Festival during the Summer of Love (1967), Janis Joplin introduced him by saying, “This is God that’s coming on stage here.” 

He wrote one of his most famous songs, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” after listening to the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. He added a distinctive whistle at the end. Three days after recording the song, Otis Redding died (1967) when his plane crashed outside Madison, Wisconsin. He was 26 years old. Some 4,500 people came to his funeral. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” was released after his death and sold over a million copies.