Not That I'm An MTV Fan ...

... but I understand they are putting their entire library online. Including this most wonderful gem (brings back memories of when I took then-barely-teenager niece Gabrielle to Stop Making Sense) :

Talking Heads |MTV Music

Ivi Anna : A Collaboration of Nikolas and Lawrence

Mother's Best, 1951

One of the welcome consequences of staying in bed, trying to recuperate from illness, is the opportunity for sustained listening -- between stints of sleep -- of radio, whatever comes up. In my case, it would be OPB public radio. I fell asleep with BBC World News at about 2am and awoke at about 6am with NPR Weekend Edition. This morning the latter included Scott Simon interviewing Jett Williams, the daughter born to Hank Williams right after his death. Jett Williams was there to help kick off the recent publication of "The Unreleased Recordings of Hank Williams", consisting mostly of 1951 live performances from "Mother's Best Flour" (NPR cites this as "Mother's Best Flower", but it surely has to be mistaken) radio program from Nashville. Jett says the recordings were made directly without compression and other-artifact-inducing techniques and that sense of real presence is preserved in this release.

Read all about these recordings, hear the interview, and -- best of all -- listen to some of the songs for yourself at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96085241

(You can also buy them from iTunes, and Jett said they would be available as a boxed set from Time Life, but I could find no mention at timelife.com.)

Go to Jett Williams' own site for even more information.

Here's hoping that father-in-law Doug gets to hear this stuff from his hospital bed; I will definitely make sure he does as soon as he gets home!

Playing For Change

In a 10-year effort involving 100 musicians throughout the planet, Mark Johnson launched a project called "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", spawning documentary films, DVDs and a Web site. And he is building music schools in the Third World. Tonight, he was a guest on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal. You can see the entire 18-minute segment, including two songs performed simultaneously by several musicians in different parts of the world, here:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10242008/watch3.html

For many more audio clips and further information, visit the Playing For Change site.

Veronica -- Who Knew?

Fellow photographers may have been wondering. Turns out that the patron saint of photography is Veronica, thanks to Saints.SQPN.com.

Song Of The Day, Again

Where They Never Say Your Name by Eilen Jewell

Hear this and more from OPBMusic in-studio performances.

Song of the Day

Can't Find the Way by Mary Gauthier ("Go-Shay")

As heard on OPBMusic.org ...

Song Of The Day (So Far)

Let's Not Pretend (To Be New Men) by Crooked Fingers

As heard on http://www.opbmusic.org's stream ...

Elliott Smith, Five Years On

Not long after moving to Oregon, I met a co-worker's boyfriend, Nathan, a musician who told me about Elliott Smith, a Portland songwriter-singer I had barely heard of. Later on -- now about ten years ago -- Smith was nominated for a Grammy. Five years ago today, he died in Los Angeles, possibly by suicide. Nathan and others have described him as a later-generation Paul Simon or John Lennon, paving the way for the modern Portland music scene and the likes of Death Cab For Cutie, The Shins, and others.

Today I stayed home in an attempt to deal with a most-miserable cold. Curling up with a cup of hot tea, I naturally turned on my bedside radio -- and discovered that Oregon Public Radio's "Think Out Loud" talk show (normally devoted to political and other current-interest topics) was today featuring a remembrance of Elliott Smith. Some of Smith's former musician collaborators, band members and friends were either in-studio or call-ins. One remarkable call was from a woman who cited Smith and his music as a force that helped her overcome her heroin addiction.

You can see some video clips, hear an audio clip new to me (Coraliza), and find more about this broadcast at http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/posts/list/1736412.page. For more about Think Out Loud (there may also be a podcast of the Elliott Smith show) at http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/. Also, if you listen to the stream at http://www.opbmusic.org, you are likely to hear some Elliott Smith from time to time. Finally, check out OPBMusic's Elliott Smith blog entry.

Of particular note for me was a call from Autumn de Wilde, noted for her photographs of Elliott Smith, among others. See this work at http://www.autumndewilde.com/elliott.htm and in her book (and here). (I believe that Autumn is the daughter of photographer Jerry de Wilde, someone I knew about mainly due to his involvement with photographer Robert Frank, one of my strongest early inspirations/influences.)

UPDATE 11/26/08: More on Autumn de Wilde as guest DJ at KCRW

I never really dived very deeply into Elliott Smith, despite the recommendations of friends like Nathan and John W., but hearing the Think Out Loud program today reminded me of how this is stuff to be listened to and savored. For me, the lyrics are especially compelling.

Howlin' Wolf

My "Top Ten" musings of the other day set me thinking, especially about Tom Waits. So I sat at a computer for a few hours and listened to some of my old T.W. favorites, which triggered thoughts about Captain Beefheart, who surely has to be considered a forerunner or earlier influence for Waits. Somewhere, but where I know not, I have an old vinyl Captain Beefheart down in the basement. Couldn't locate it yet, but that led to thoughts of Howlin' Wolf (one of my possible Top Ten candidates) and how I swear I hear him in Tom Waits. About that time, I happened to be browsing Netflix and spotted a 2003 film, "The Howlin' Wolf Story", which I immediately sent to the top of my queue. (Watch for comments in the near future) In the meantime, I did some digging at YouTube (while watching the third presidential debate) to find something to supplement what I have in my library. Here are some of my favorites, along with some I hadn't heard ...

How Many More Years



Moanin at Midnight



Meet Me At The Bottom



Dust My Broom



Smokestack Lightnin



And here is Little Red Rooster (famously done by the Rolling Stones early in their career):



While we are at it, let's check out the fabulous rendition of Little Red Rooster by legendary Big Mama Thornton:



Another Howlin' Wolf standard, Killing Floor, was performed by the incredible Jimi Hendrix at Monterey in 1967:



Well, this has been a great way to get through the McCain-Obama thing, multi-tasking thanks to the MacBook and headphones!

But I have run out of time before I could put together some Tom Waits/Captain Beefheart/Howlin' Wolf back-to-back. Later, but soon...

Top Ten?

In the mid or late 70s, I used to listen to KCRW, Santa Monica College's public radio station (and I still hear KCRW's Internet streams). One program featured a weekly guest (usually a celebrity musician, actor, artist or the like) who would describe and play his/her selection of music that they would most want to take with them to live out their remaining time on a desert island. (Guess this assumed that electricity and some level of requisite equipment and other conveniences would also be available.) Can't recall if the exercise was limited to their top five or top ten or what, but I sometimes think about how I would form such a list. Everytime I try this, the list changes, but some pieces crop up consistently enough that I might add them to the list of stuff I might grab in the case of a house fire or impending flood. You might have fun playing this little game yourself. Today, just off the top of my head, here are some that come to mind for a Top Ten ...

To begin with, there are three immediate must-take-alongs from ye olde music collection:

1. Bob Dylan (but would it be Blood on the Tracks? Bringing It All Back Home? Greatest Hits vol 1/vol 2? Planet Waves? Blonde on Blonde?)
2. J.S. Bach (how to choose ... Goldberg Variations? Mass in B Minor? Well-Tempered Clavier?)
3. Tom Waits (again, would I choose Frank's Wild Years? Bone Machine? Rain Dogs?)

The next seven vary depending on my particular frame of mind at the time I think about these things ... so, in no particular order:

4. Max Richter - Blue Notebooks
5. Jalan Jalan - Bali
6. Jacqueline du Pre - Elgar E Minor Cello Concerto
7. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain? Kind of Blue?
8. Dmitri Shostakovich - 24 Preludes & Fugues (Bach homage)
9. Talking Heads - Fear of Music (among others)
10. Radiohead - Kid A? Amnesiac?

And what about Arvo Part (Tabula Rasa, Spiegel im Spiegel, Frates, etc)? Gorecki Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs); Rachmaninoff Vespers? Portishead (Dummy)? Schubert Impromptus? Or Movies Go To The Opera (really recommended to anyone who doesn't yet know that they like opera)? Something from Howlin' Wolf? Muddy Waters? Louis Armstrong? Ramayana Monkey Chant (Balinese)? Laurie Anderson (Big Science)? Lots of other Philip Glass I love, too. Oy vey, I forgot about all my NONESUCH South Indian albums, too.

Almost impossible ...

Thinking about what I would retrieve in the event of an emergency makes me realize that -- as a computer professional, for shame -- I really haven't adequately provided for a good off-site backup plan for my music (MP3's on the iPod Nano don't really count as most wouldn't sound like the originals, plus some of the vinyl versions have almost irreplaceable album art and liner notes). But as cheap as storage is (today I saw that we could get 500GB Seagate SATA drives from one of our suppliers for just over $60 each) I ought to be thinking about making lossless digital copies of some of my stuff.b

What Statement Are They Making With The Name?

Old college roommate Herman sends along this video link to a performance of the Weather Underground (this has nothing to do with unsavory presidential campaign attacks), an LA band that includes his son, Ryan, on bass.

Let's Shake It Up A Bit

I normally don't do commercials, but this is an especially nice one. Wonder what it took to get Google/YouTube's cooperation for this ..