Tag Archives: music now & then

“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.

Buy Music

New Music from Jenny Lewis, The Rosebuds and Ryan Adams

At the end of July, Jenny Lewis released her new album “The Voyager”.   A TV and movie actress until she was in her early 20’s, Jenny turned to music and formed the band Rilo Kiley in 1998.  The band stayed together till 2011 and produced several albums and a few indie hits.  Here’s Jenny playing “Just One of the Guys” from the new album, followed by a video from the Rilo Kiley hit “Portions for Foxes”

The Rosebuds are a band from North Carolina based on the duo of Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp. They’ve put out a series of albums since 2003, and their latest “Sand+Silence” came out in early August.  Here’s “In My Teeth” from the new album, and if you like it try “Esse Quam Videri” (the state motto of North Carolina “To be, rather than to seem”).

On September 9th, Ryan Adams is scheduled to release his new self-titled album. The fact that self-titled albums are most often an artist’s first effort may imply that Adams is looking for a bit of a rebirth 20 years into his career. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Adams talked about his battle with Meniere’s disease and the fact that he’s feeling ready for his first concert tour since 2009. Here’s an audio track of a live performance of “Stay With Me” from the new album, and the official video for “Gimme Something Good” with a spooky story line featuring Elvira – not sure what to make of that.

Buy Music

Stockholm Take Two – The Boss of Sweden?

Last week we scoured a concert series poster from Stockholm and came up with a Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute singer/player covering Stevie Ray’s version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” – a song that Jimi Hendrix himself played in Stockholm in 1969.   This week, more covers by acts on this poster trace back to Bruce Springsteen in 1979.

Stockholm Music Poster

Abalone Dots is a trio of three Swedish women who play bluegrass and country tunes.  Last year in a TV performance, the band covered Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” from his 1980 album of the same name.  Abalone Dots delivered an abbreviated version, but they sang the lyrics straight up: getting Mary pregnant, working construction and all.  Bravo ladies! The band has been a quartet at times, and if you’d like to hear them get their bluegrass on, check out “The Ballad of Lee McKay”.

Believe it or not, another artist on this same poster covered “The River” on a TV show last year too! Micke Rickfors is The Boss’ contemporary, born in December 1948.  Though mostly a solo artist throughout his career, Rickfors was a member of The Hollies in the early ’70’s, replacing their original lead singer Allan Clarke. After you watch Micke perform another abbreviated version of “The River”, you can check out his work with The Hollies on “Magic Woman Touch”.

It’s not clear why the Swedes have such affection for “The River”, but while the song never charted as a single in the U.S. it was the biggest hit up to that time for Bruce in both Sweden and Norway. Here is Bruce playing the whole song at the “No Nukes” concert in 1979, a few months before the album was released. The Swedes leave out the break with perhaps the best line in the song, “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse …”

Buy Music

A Guitar Thread Beginning and Ending in Stockholm – Jimi to Stevie Ray to Chris.

A friend just returned from a trip to Stockholm and sent a photo of this poster featuring upcoming acts for, as best we can tell, a series of boat cruises around Stockholm Harbor. Thanks, Rainer!

Stockholm Music Poster

The first act to catch our eye was “Chris Hiatt Band (US), Stevie Ray Vaughn Comes Alive”.   A solid singer and guitarist (check out this video that starts off with a couple of original compositions), Chris usually plays with his band in and around Daytona Beach, Florida.   Somewhere along the line his more than faint resemblance to Stevie Ray Vaughn was noticed, as was his ability to throw down a pretty fair imitation of Stevie Ray both as a singer and guitarist.  Over the years Hiatt’s tribute concerts to Stevie Ray have become popular in Sweden where he is about to complete his 16th tour.

Here is Chris, dressed a la mode, covering Stevie Ray covering Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile”.  Check out the behind the back playing at 7:30.  As good as Chris is, certainly check out the real McCoy in an amazing Austin City Limits performance (and if you want to see Stevie Ray play behind his back, watch this video beginning at about 3:20).

Here’s an interesting coincidence: the YouTube video with the most views of Jimi himself playing Voodoo Chile is from a 1969 concert in … Stockholm!

Buy Music

New Music from Spoon, Neon Trees and The New Pornographers

In a couple of weeks Spoon will release their 8th album “They Want My Soul”. Their last three albums reached #1 or #2 on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart.  Here’s a live performance of “Rent I Pay”.

A few weeks after Spoon’s album shows up, The New Pornographers will release “Brill Bruisers”.   The album is on Matador Records which coincidentally was Spoon’s first label.   Here’s the video for the title track. If you “CLICK HERE TO PAINT IT YOURSELF” on the video, a window will pop up where you can – paint it yourself! Try it!!

Back in April, Neon Trees issued their third album “Pop Psychology”. The band got its big break when the Killers asked them to join their 2008 North American tour. The Killer’s drummer had once played in a band with Neon Trees’ bassist Branden Campbell. Here’s a performance of the albums’s first track “Love in the 21st Century”, and in case you’ve forgotten it here is a link to Neon Trees’ first big hit “Animal”.

Buy Music