Monthly Archives: September 2014

John Hiatt – Master Songwriter Spins Out His 22nd Studio Album

John Hiatt released his new album, “Terms of My Surrender”, in July.   While not a household name, Hiatt has a loyal following among fans and musicians alike.  His songs have been covered on stage or in the studio by artists ranging from Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, to Willie Nelson and Rosanne Cash, to Bonnie Raitt and Keith Urban.  In his own albums and on stage, Hiatt has played alongside fellow singer-songwriters Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Lyle Lovett and with a host of great musicians.

The opening track of the new album “Long Time Comin'” is the song Hiatt is performing most in his TV and radio promotional gigs, but also check out the last track “Come Back Home”.

Hiatt’s most successful string of albums were recorded for A&M and then Capitol between 1987 and 1998. The first of those albums, “Bring the Family”, includes the song “Have a Little Faith in Me”. It’s one of Hiatt’s most covered songs, and his version has showed up in the soundtracks of a number of movies. Here is John performing the song at the time it was released.

1995’s “Walk On” included the song “Cry Love”. Here’s a live unplugged performance backed by a couple of great session musicians, Davey Faragher on bass and David Immergluck on mandolin.

Before you leave give a listen to “Memphis in the Meantime”, also from “Bring the Family”. That’s Ry Cooder’s slide guitar giving the track a completely unique sound.

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New Music from the Titans of Rock and Roll

Over the past few weeks, and continuing into the next couple of months, a host of big name rock and roll artists are releasing new albums.  From Prince to the Foo Fighters, U2 to Weezer, and John Mellencamp to Jeff Tweedy, there is plenty already here or on the way.

A few days ago Robert Plant put out his first new album in four years, “lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar”.  While there are official music videos out for a few tracks, Plant is at his most engaging on stage.  Here are recent live performances of the album’s first two songs, “Little Maggie” and “Rainbow”.

In November Bob Dylan’s “The Basement Tapes Complete” will be released, apparently collecting every audible shred of material from the legendary 1967 sessions – a total of 138 tracks on 6 CDs. But possibly more interesting will be another November release, “Lost On The River – The New Basement Tapes”. In the fall of last year, producer T Bone Burnett received a stack of recently discovered, hand-written Dylan lyrics from Dylan’s publisher. They were written in 1967 during the time of the Basement Tape sessions but were never set to music. Burnett pulled together an all-star team including Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, and Grammy winning folk artist Rhiannon Giddens to write music for the lyrics and perform the songs for a new album. Of the album’s 20 tracks recorded in the space of only two weeks, videos for two have now been released, “Nothing to It” and “Married to My Hack”.

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“Get On Up” – Legendary Moments and Legendary Musicians from James Brown’s Career

The James Brown biopic “Get On Up” is not only a fine movie, it relates many fascinating moments from the career of The Godfather of Soul and reminds us of incredible musicians from his band.  The movie was produced by Mick Jagger, directed by Tate Taylor (who’s credits include “The Help”), and features a great performance by Chadwick Boseman who also played Jackie Robinson in the 2013 film “42”.

One entertaining moment recreated in the film is the appearance of James Brown and the Famous Flames in the 1965 Frankie Avalon movie “Ski Party”. “I Got You (I Feel Good)” was the highest charting single of Brown’s career.

The film also recreates Brown’s performance at the Teenage Awards Music International (TAMI) Show in 1964. Here is Brown performing “Please, Please, Please”, his first major release from 1956. The Rolling Stones had to follow this performance as the closing act at the TAMI Show.

Among the musicians from Brown’s band were sax player Maceo Parker, trombonist Fred Wesley, and bassist Bootsy Collins. Parker has had a long and varied musical career, recording 11 solo albums and playing with Parliament Funkadelic, Prince and dozens of other top rock, soul and jazz artists. In this video, after a couple of minutes of band intros Parker brings the funk (and that’s Fred Wesley, a man with his own titanic musical career, on trombone).

Bootsy Collins’ stint with Brown was brief, but came at the time of Brown’s turn from soul to funk. Collins joined Parker and Wesley as members of Parliament Funkadelic in the 1970’s and became a key member of the band. Here’s a clip of Bootsy, all decked out P-funk style, on his tune “Stretchin’ Out” with David Sanborn jumping in on sax.

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