Louis Armstrong

“Ready to Run” – The Chicks
From Fly

Risking the almighty wrath of Al Barger, I gotta say I kind of dig The Chicks. No, they are not the first thing I’m going to go for if my home catches fire, but there is something nice about a popular country act that writes some of their own songs and plays their own instruments. It is a bit heartwarming to see artists that still gravitate away from the synthetic sounds of your weekly Top 40 and towards something older, something earthy, something real.

“Ready to Run” is a bouncy, lovely little thing despite the Julia Roberts-themed video. It’s even got a pennywhistle giving it a bit of an Irish feel. The lyrics, about a woman running away from a serious commitment to simply have fun, epitomizes the typical outlooks the Chicks have demonstrated (at least in their music) throughout much of their careers.

Of course, in recent years the Chicks have been noticed more for their political views than for their musicianship. The complaints don’t seem to be about their actual views, but that they manage to actually have views at all (because hot girls who sing country tunes simply can not have political ideologies, and certainly not non-Republican ones.) It’s a shame too, because these Chicks can sing, play, and write a mean tune, and there ought to at least be someone paying attention to that.

“Tin Roof Blues” – Louis Armstrong
From 05/04/54

Whenever asked if I’m a jazz fan, I always answer in the negative. Not because I dislike the genre – for I have stacks of jazz records ranging from Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald to Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman – but because I know that anyone who asks that question is going to be serious about their jazz, and I just won’t be able to keep up.

Every jazz fan I’ve ever known is obsessed with the music. Remember the nerdy babysitter in Jerry Maguire? The one who gave Tom Cruise the jazz tape for his love session with Renée Zellweger. Well, I know guys who make him look like jazz lite. So, yeah, I like jazz, but I won’t say that I’m a fan.

Louis Armstrong is probably the most famous jazz musician, the one your average guy on the street can name, and rightfully so for he is also one of the most influential players the genre ever created. “Tin Roof Blues” is off of a bootleg that I have which is just perfect for those setting the mood nights when I’m feeling romantic and make a candlelight dinner for just me and the wife.

It is far away from the psychedelic free jazz and bop movements of David and Coleman, but hasn’t quite gotten into the schmaltzy fare Armstrong is famous for in songs like “Hello Dolly” and “What a Wonderful World.” This song has a nice bluesy swing going on that makes it perfect for looking deep into each other’s eyes over a roasted chicken and some nice wine.

“Lost In Her Lips” – Trout Fishing in America
From Truth is Stranger than Fishin’

Back in the freewheelin’ 90’s I, along with everybody else, got a copy of Napster (when it was free) and began downloading every song I could get my hands on (which wasn’t all that many because I was still on dial-up which put it at about 40 minutes per three-minute song.) Eventually, I got bored with searching for particular songs and began to search for more generic terms like “acoustic” or “live” or “awesome.” By doing this I found all kinds of songs I’d never heard of, and some that were rather good.

During this same period (maybe it was the early 2000s but who can remember?) I also began making mix-tapes for the woman who would become my wife. For what better way than to tell the girl I dug, that I dug her than with 90 minutes of excellent tunes? The problem was that after two or three of these tapes, I was running out of songs. Once again Napster and a few Google searches were providing me with new material to say I Love You without being overly sappy.

I found Trout Fishing in America and this song via one of those searches. The band is generally a goofy, kid kind of band, and while this song isn’t exactly not fitting with that description it manages a nice sentiment without falling into sap. Musically it is a pretty basic little number, but it’s got a nice string of lyrics that are both sweet and funny at the same time.

With lines like

“Lost in her lips, I’m getting lost in her lips,
And losing track of conversation.
If Lewis and Clark had just discovered these lips,
The expedition would have ended up in Mexico”

How can you not love this song?

All I’ve Given” – Robinella
From Solace for the Lonely

There is something quite magic about an unheard-of band and then watching them grow into success. I moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee back in 2000 and discovered Robinella and the CC String band through a friend. Robinella has a beautiful voice that is a mix of Ella Fitzgerald and Loretta Lynn. The string band played like a cross of Texas swing, and old-style country with a dash of something contemporary. Together they were like nothing you could hear on the radio.

I was thrilled when they signed with Sony to release their self-titled major label debut. It gave a professional mix to their wonderful sound. Unfortunately with their next record, Solace for the Lonely, they seemed to be leaving behind their old country charm for something more utterly contemporary. The string band is downplayed for electronic beats and a synthesized sound. Robinella’s voice sounds as lovely as ever, but it often gets lost in the mix.

“All I’ve Given” is driven by a funky bass line punctuated by vibrant electronic keys. Were it by another band I’d probably kind of dig it, but as is I only miss the band as I once knew them.

“She’s Looking at Me” – Jim Lauderdale and Ralph Stanley
From Lost in the Lonesome Pines

I picked this disk up from the library out of curiosity. Lauderdale I know solely through his work with Donna the Buffalo and Ralph Stanley is…well he’s freaking Ralph Stanley. So I figured this would have to be a good disk.

It is.

This is a classic style bluegrass song with lots of call and response and a chorus that layers the voice parts similar to the way The Band did it on “The Weight.” It’s great music, plain and simple with great country vocals backed by excellent pickin’. Lauderdale and Stanley are obviously having lots of fun, and it shows throughout the disk.

Originally posted on August 26, 2006.

“Kiss to Build a Dream On” – Louis Armstrong
From Sleepless in Seattle

I periodically think of myself as a great jazz lover. In fits and spurts, I try to be. Back about ten years or so I was with a friend at his friend’s house and the subject went naturally to music. Well, it went naturally there because I was checking out his CD collection. The discussion turned to jazz and I mentioned I liked Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan. Condescending with a whisper he said, “Oh so you like vocal jazz?”

I had never thought about it like that. Isn’t jazz jazz? I had just begun to listen to the likes of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and by that, I mean I had heard talk about their frenetic awesomeness amongst deadheads. I got the knock of vocal jazz not being real jazz and split. I have since dug what this guy would dub real jazz, but it is a moderated digging. I whip out all that cosmic jazz once in a while, but I can’t take in more than smaller doses.

Louis Armstrong started in the real jazz category, being a trailblazing blower, but in the latter days became the unique voice singing such family hits as “Wonderful World” and “Hello Dolly.” This song falls straight in that camp, being off of the soundtrack to Sleepless in Seattle of all things. It’s a darn fine song though, and one I stuck on my wedding CD.

Most days I’ll take this version of jazz over the real stuff, hands down.

“Rainbow’s Cadillac” – Bruce Hornsby
From 11/06/98

There is a video on YouTube, but the embed has been disabled, you can watch it by clicking here.

I didn’t really get into bootleg trading until just after I graduated college. I had moved to Abilene, TX to start graduate school – start over really, as I didn’t know a soul. Actually I never really got to know many people and left after a semester. But while I was there my refuge was bootlegging.

During this time Bruce Hornsby played a long run at Yoshi’s in Oakland California to promote his album, Spirit Trail. The tour was highlighted by guitar work from Steve Kimock, and a couple of guest spots from Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. This was one of the few performances Lesh had given since Jerry Garcia’s death a few years back and really marked his return to music.

This run came out on tape quickly and with a fantastic sound quality. In those days we were still using analog tapes and the sound quality often degenerated quickly through each generation of recording (unlike CDs where you can get an exact copy of the music, with analog the quality of a recording digressed every time you recorded it). This was an amazing thing to me to have so much high-quality music so quickly after it had been performed.

Now that I’ve moved to the CD world and almost everything is high quality, such recordings are no longer rare. In fact, I’ve only got a couple of these shows on CD and the tapes have long since been given away. But it still brings fond memories. Some of the only ones from that small chunk of time I spent in Texas.

It’s a great performance too. “Rainbow’s Cadillac” is one of Bruce’s finest songs, and an excellent jamming song done live. He pretty much nails the sucker. The sound is great and there is an energy at these shows that this was a new Bruce. Great stuff folks.

“Can’t Stand Me Now” – Libertines
From the Libertines

Peter Doherty, lead singer of the Libertines, and now Babyshambles, is a pretty danged good musician/songwriter but has so thoroughly screwed up his life that it’s all kinds of sad. We don’t hear much about him on this side of the ocean, but in England, he’s all sorts of tabloid fodder, what with the heroin addiction, the multiple arrests, and his off-and-on relationship with Kate Moss.

The Libertines were an excellent British, indie rock outfit, that broke up in, well, tabloid fodder. This is a really great upbeat, heavy drum, pop song. Maybe that’s not very indie rock of them, but a good pop song is a good pop song. And 9 times out of 10 I’ll take a good pop song over a great classical, jazz, or obscure rock song.

“Dead Flowers” – The Rolling Stones
From Sticky Fingers

The first time I ever heard this song was through a live performance by Townes Van Zandt over the closing credits of The Big Lebowski. I hunted the song down and eventually got the Rolling Stones album. Yeah, I know I’m a little behind on the Stones, but I’m slowly catching up with them.

Great freaking song. What more can be said? One of my all-time favorites. It’s a favorite daydream to learn to play this song (when I learn to play an instrument) and please the crowd (for of course I’ll make it big as a musician) when I whip it out.

“Turn On Your Lovelight” – Blues Brothers
From Blues Brothers 2000

This is an old blues number, but I know it mainly through the Grateful Dead. Pig Pen used to do these half-hour rave-ups to it. He’d rap along about women and drinking and whatever while the Dead freaking took off behind him. If I could go back in time I’d go back to 1968-69 San Francisco and groove to Pig taking off on this song. The tapes simply can’t do him justice.

The Blues Brothers don’t do the song justice. Man I dig the Brothers, and the original movie is a classic. The sequel had some good moments but sorely missed John Belushi. I miss Pig Pen on this song. It’s got all kinds of cool bluesmen playing along, but it ain’t got no soul.

RIP Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan