Free Downloads of Remixed Songs from Ra Ra Riot and the Submarines

Through a recent e-mail newsletter, Ra Ra Riot has just made these two songs available for free download via Soundcloud. You can use the embedded player below to listen to and/or download the songs.

#1 is  the Submarines remix of the Ra Ra Riot song “Oh, La” which has never been released anywhere before. The original version of the song appeared on their excellent 2008 album The Rhumb Line.

#2 is the Ra Ra Riot remix of the Submarine’s song “Submarine Symphonika” which was released on the Honeysuckle Remixes ep in 2010. The original version appeared on their 2008 album Honeysuckle Weeks.

Enjoy the free music! (I hope to create a page with links to free – and legal – downloads soon…)

 

 

FURTHER EXPLORATION

Ra Ra Riot

The Submarines

Performers Announced for Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration Concert in Tulsa

Other events include symposium, traveling exhibit and more concerts

Folks, the line-up has been announced for what is likely to be the concert event of the year for Tulsa, and perhaps the whole Midwest/Southern Plains. In conjunction with the Woody Guthrie Centennial celebrations taking place around the world in 2012, there are five major concerts being held: three on the East coast, one on the West coast, and one – the first one – right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Brady Theater (which is only two years away from its centennial, having been built in 1914.)

Brady Theater (known then as the Tulsa Municipal Theater) 1917. Photo courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society.

The concert, being held on Saturday, March 10, is billed as This Land Is Your Land – Woody Guthrie at 100, The Midwest Celebration and now the Woody at 100 website has listed the performers who are scheduled to perform at this show. I know people were figuring that Arlo would be involved, but I don’t think anyone had an idea about just how diverse a line-up would be hitting the Brady stage. It goes to show how much Woody’s music means to so many different artists. As of right now, because these things are always subject to change, the list of performers includes:

• Arlo Guthrie
• John Mellencamp
• Rosanne Cash
• Del McCoury Band
• The Flaming Lips
• Old Crow Medicine Show
• Hanson
• Tim O’Brien
• Jimmy Lafave

Wow! That’s gonna be one heck of a show. The somewhat surprising acts on this list are The Flaming Lips and Hanson, but with those bands perhaps being Oklahoma’s most widely popular acts touring today, it makes sense having them on the bill and, along with John Mellencamp, will add some serious rock mojo to the festivities. (And I’ve said this to many people before, if all you remember of Hanson is “Mmm Bop,” you should check out their music again. Those guys have forged their own musical path since their days of teen stardom and are a seriously fun pop-rock band.) Having the Flaming Lips up there with their epic weirdness will surely make for a much more interesting night. How can you go wrong with the band that wrote Oklahoma’s official state rock song? With all the other performers listed – Rosanne Cash, Del McCoury, Old Crow Medicine Show, Tim O’Brien, Jimmy Lafave – you’ve got some of the best Country/Folk/Americana talent out there coming to town for what should be an unforgettable evening of music. Maybe some of the other musical Guthries – Arlo’s offspring Abe, Sarah Lee and Cathy, and step-daughter Annie – will also make a surprise appearance? It wouldn’t be a birthday party for Woody without ‘em!

From Left: Sarah Lee Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Abe Guthrie and Johnny Irion (Sarah Lee's husband.) Photo courtesy of Rising Son Records.

According to a press release from the Woody at 100 website, ticket prices for this concert will range from $45 – $250; I can only hope that there will be plenty of tickets at the lower price levels to make this event somewhat accessible to most people. It is, after all, a celebration of a true populist who was a friend to everyday folks. Tickets are slated to go on sale Saturday, February 4 at 10 a.m. CST through ProTix.

This will be a special week in Tulsa not only for this incredible concert but also because there are several other Woody Guthrie Centennial events that’ll be happening. Here’s a quick look at those events; click the hot links to get more details about each of them as available.

• Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration 1912 -2012. Opening at the Gilcrease Museum on February 5 and running through April 29, this exhibit will be a comprehensive look at Woody’s life through his archives. The Gilcrease website states that “On display for the first time ever will be the hand-written lyrics of Guthrie’s famous ballad, ’This Land Is You Land’.” It’ll be worth the price of admission just for that, in my book.

• Different Shades of Red: Woody Guthrie and the Oklahoma Experience at 100. This symposium sponsored by the University of Tulsa takes place at their new Lorton Performance Center on Saturday, March 10 and will feature three panel sessions with noted Woody Guthrie scholars and writers. The cost for the all-day symposium is $40, which includes lunch, and there’s a student discount price of $15. It also states that people registering for the symposium by Friday, February 3 will have a special opportunity to purchase advance tickets for the concert at the Brady Theater.

•  Symphonic Variations of a Song by Woody Guthrie.  This event is listed with some details in the Woody at 100 press release and here is what that press release states: “Continuing the celebration on March 8 will be a special performance by the Oklahoma Jazz & Roots Music Symphony Orchestra of Symphonic Variations of a Song by Woody Guthrie , conducted and composed by David Amram. Commissioned by Woody Guthrie Publications and featuring a special introduction by Nora Guthrie, the concert will include additional performances by David Amram with Red Dirt Rangers, and other special guest star appearances by musicians and singers from the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.  The concert will take place at Lorton Hall at the University of Tulsa.” The event has yet to be listed on the University of Tulsa’s events calendar for that week. David Amram has come to TU several times and his website confirms this event, but without details about where it will take place: “March 5-11 – Woody Guthrie Centennial, Tulsa, OK; Amram rehearses and conducts his Symphonic Variations on a Song By Woody Guthrie, as well as works by Aaron Copeland and Duke Ellington (two of Guthrie’s favorite composers). Amram will also perform with outstanding folk, jazz and rock musicians in some of Guthrie’s songs with outstanding folk, jazz and rock musicians to initiate the year-long celebration of Woody Guthrie’s 100th Birthday.” Stay tuned for further details about this interesting program.
  

  John Mellencamp. Photo courtesy of Mellencamp.com

• School Programs. There are also two school programs listed as taking place in Tulsa that week which I wrote about briefly in my previous post talking about the Woody Guthrie archives coming to Tulsa. The brief details about those events are available in that post, and I assume the programs are not open to the public.

Dozens of Woody Guthrie centennial celebration events are taking place all over the globe and you can check the Woody at 100 Calendar for a growing list. I hope there’s an event nearby that you can attend this year.

And don’t forget to listen to your daily dose of Woody with the Woody Guthrie Song of the Day.

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FURTHER EXPLORATION

Woody Guthrie biography

Woody Guthrie Archives blog

Woody Guthrie Archives Details

Album Preview: Charlie Haden and Hank Jones – ‘Come Sunday’

(Listen to this album in its entirety for a limited time at NPR’s First Listen page. Go to the “Listen to Albums” page at the top of my site here for an evolving list of websites where you can hear albums streaming on the web.)

courtesy of Decca Records

2012 is off to a glorious start, musically speaking, if this album is any indication. Due out January 10, Come Sunday by bassist Charlie Haden  and pianist Hank Jones is a beautiful, beautiful recording that features truly uplifting tunes. (On a related note, Charlie Haden will be honored with a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award on Tuesday evening, January 10, 2012.) From the opening notes of “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” you begin to be transported and no matter what religion you hold dear, or none at all, this music is deeply moving.

This is a perfect example of what I call “Sunday morning music” (and in this case it is quite literally Sunday morning music) - on the quiet side, lyrical, meditative, melodious. The album is a distillation of mostly familiar spirituals and hymns from the American Christian tradition, including a couple of Christmas tunes, sometimes played with a sprightly verve and sometimes with a more prayerful quietude.

 “Before music there was silence, and the duet format allows you to build from the silence in a very special way.” – Charlie Haden, from his website.

Photo by Cheung Ching Ming, courtesy of Decca Records

A follow-up to their 1995 Grammy-nominated album Steal Away: Spirituals, Hymns and Folk Songs, Come Sunday is an album by two of the jazz world’s masters playing at their best. And it may serve as one of the lasting reminders of Jones’ gentle genius: he passed away at the age of 91 in May of 2010, just three months after this recording was made.

Both of these men grew up playing music and had strong connections with these kinds of tunes. Charlie Haden, whose career in jazz has spanned from the avant grade to the standards, grew up in Iowa playing country music in the Haden Family Band throughout the midwest. (And did you know that actor/musician Jack Black is Haden’s son-in-law? I didn’t until I was researching this story.) Hank Jones started playing music at an early age and is the eldest of the three Jones brothers who became part of the jazz elite: trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Elvin Jones were both giants in their own right.

The soul soothing rendition of classical composer Antonin Dvorak’s “Going Home” may be the highlight  for me on an album full of highlights. It’s such a beautiful tune and so lovingly played here. In the early twentieth century, the melody for “Going Home” was borrowed from the “Largo” movement of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” and adapted into a hymn. Dvorak’s symphony itself was partially influenced by folk songs and African-American spirituals. And knowing (as we do now) that Hank Jones passed away just three months after recording the album, it makes hearing this song especially poignant.

Photo by Cheung Ching Ming, courtesy of Decca Records

The session ends fittingly with the title track, a classic from the Duke Ellington songbook, “Come Sunday,” taken from Ellington’s expansive jazz symphony Black, Brown and Beige. In a soulful reading of this tune that bridges the worlds of spiritual and popular music, Jones and Haden swing us sweetly home.

Photo by Cheung Ching Ming, courtesy of Decca Records

At 43 minutes long this album comes in a bit short of most church services, but it has that same power of lifting up your spirit and carrying you through the days ahead. Amen to brother Hank and brother Charlie for Come Sunday.

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Further Exploration

Charlie Haden website

Hank Jones website

New York Times obituary for Hank Jones

Decca/EmArcy Records pages for Come Sunday 

Hear samples from Steal Away at Verve Records

NPR’s story about the Charlie Haden Family & Friends album Rambling Boy

National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters

Here’s a song to welcome in the year: The Decemberists – “June Hymn”

The Decemberists. Photo by Autumn de Wilde; courtesy of thedecemberists.com

The Decemberists’ “June Hymn” is perhaps my favorite song of 2011. For sheer song-craft, tunefulness, lyricism and beauty, it can’t be topped – in my book. There were plenty of great songs in 2011, but this is one that I have come back to over and over and it always makes for a heartening listen. Colin Meloy’s poetic lyrics are mixed with a sweet folk melody that swirls around like honey in your soul. Their brilliant album The King Is Dead  also featured a good song called “January Hymn” which might have been more apropos for ringing in 2012, but I couldn’t find an official version of that to post here. Anyway, I’m glad I could use “June Hymn” since I like it even more. This is footage of a live performance of the song at MusicfestNW in their home base of Portland, Oregon in September 2010, from The Decemberists’ official YouTube channel. The King Is Dead (released on January 14, 2011) had not yet come out so this song was new to audiences at that time. It’s beautifully filmed and a wonderful performance of a memorable tune. As the opening line says, “Here’s a hymn to welcome in the day…”

Happy 2012, music lovers…

Woody Guthrie Archives Comin’ Home to Tulsa

Woody at 100 Centennial Celebrations Abound in Oklahoma

Photographer unknown; circa, 1945. Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Archives

As reported in both the Tulsa World and New York Times on December 28, the extensive archives of world-renowned Oklahoma-born folk music icon Woody Guthrie have been purchased by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and will be housed in the Woody Guthrie Center that will be part of the Mathews Warehouse arts complex that is under construction in downtown Tulsa. According to the Tulsa World story, the archives are hoped to be open to the public by the end of 2012, which is the Centennial celebration of Guthrie’s birth in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 14, 1912. The New York Times story states that the archives will not be transferred until sometime in 2013. The archives have been kept for two decades by Guthrie’s daughter Nora, most recently in her Mount Kisco, New York home and non-profit research center, located about 40 miles north of New York City.

(UPDATE: Nora Guthrie has posted a beautifully eloquent letter talking about the decision to transfer the archives and her feelings about the wonderful creative energy that is pulsing through Tulsa right now…)

I had caught wind that Woody’s archives were possibly coming to Tulsa some months ago but had no details about when it would happen. The confirmation that the George Kaiser Family Foundation is bringing these important historical archives to Tulsa is huge news for Oklahoma and adds another exciting element to the revitalization of downtown Tulsa. It’s especially gratifying that the archives are making their way to Oklahoma to coincide with Woody’s 100th birthday celebration events that are taking place in 2012.

One of the biggest events of the worldwide Woody Guthrie Centennial celebrations will be the Midwest Gala Tribute Concert that will take place here in Tulsa at the Brady Theater on March 10, 2012. The first of four such gala concerts to be staged across the nation, the performers for this show have yet to be named. The other gala concerts will take place in Los Angeles (April 14,) Brooklyn, New York (September 22) and Washington, D.C. (October 14.) These concerts are being organized by the GRAMMY Museum  and the Guthrie Family/Woody Guthrie Publications Inc. and are sure to be exceptional evenings of music making and celebrations of Woody’s songs. An ever-growing list of centennial events can be found at the official Centennial website Woody100. Events are being organized in places such as rural Salinas, California (the birthplace of Grapes of Wrath author and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck,) the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, the Folk Alliance International Conference  in Memphis, Tennessee and as far away as Germany and Austria.

Charles Banks Wilson, Woody Guthrie oil on canvas, 2002. Courtesy of Gilcrease Museum website.

Another major local event that appears to be unique to Tulsa is the traveling exhibition “Woody at One Hundred: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration 1912 − 2012” which will be on display at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa from February 5 to April 29, 2012. This is the only published listing for the showing of this exhibit. A description of the exhibit on the Woody100 website states: “This exhibit consists of a collection of Woody Guthrie’s lyrics, diaries, notebooks, correspondence, photographs, artworks, ephemera and includes original items, featuring Woody’s original handwritten lyric “This Land Is Your Land”, providing a broad overview of Woody’s creative legacy dated from 1932-1955. The exhibit will also include ephemera and materials related to Woody Guthrie’s musical legacy and heirs.” Sounds like this special exhibit will give folks a nice sneak peek at what treasures the archives contains.

The University of Tulsa adds an educational component to the Centennial affairs when it hosts a symposium entitled “Different Shades of Red” on March 19-21, 2012. According to a TU posting, the symposium “will feature three panels discussing the roots of Guthrie’s political sensibilities, his musical influences, and how his ideas and music continue to resonate through the decades. Jim Hightower is confirmed as the keynote speaker.” The event is chaired by Dr. Brian Hosmer, H.G. Barnard Associate Professor of Western History at TU. The University of Tulsa’s McFarlin Library has archived some Woody Guthrie manuscripts and pencil sketches in its Department of Special Collections.

Also taking place in Tulsa is the educational performance program “This Land Is Your Land,”  presented by musicians David Lutken, Helen Russell, Darcie Deaville, and Andy Tierstein. The program’s website describes it as “a theatrical presentation that focuses on Woody Guthrie and American cultural history of the 1920s through the 1940s, from the state of Oklahoma, where Woody spent his boyhood, through the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, F.D.R.’s new Deal and WPA, to World War II. The show follows Woody from California to New York and beyond, capturing the personal narrative of a man who spoke for many who had no public voice.” The program is slated to be presented at Tulsa area schools during March 5 − 8.

Scheduled to also take place at Tulsa schools from March 5 − 8 is a multi-media presentation entitled “Life / Legacy of Woody Guthrie” presented by Tiffany Colannino, archivist for the Woody Guthrie Archives. While no details about this program are available at this time, other programs that Ms. Colannino presents include the use of archival photographs, historic audio, and rare film footage to explore Woody’s life, music and art.

Interested folks can sign up for the Woody100.com mailing list to stay connected with Centennial happenings: Go to the Woody 100 mailing list.

As one of the organizers of the All Soul Acoustic Coffeehouse concert series here in Tulsa, I’ve had the privilege of hearing first hand what the Woody Guthrie archives mean for musicians. Slaid Cleaves has performed “This Morning I Am Born Again” from his 2000 album Broke Down, a song for which he composed the music after being allowed to use Woody’s lyrics that had never been recorded. Another one of our performers, Eliza Gilkyson, has played “Peace Call” from her 2004 album Land of Milk and Honey, a song that Woody never recorded in the studio. She came across “Peace Call” in an out of print Woody Guthrie songbook. The most well-known instance of a musician using Woody’s lyrics  from the archives occurred when Nora Guthrie invited English folk-rocker Billy Bragg to write music for a selection of lyrics that were turned into the albums Mermaid Avenue  and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, on which he was accompanied by the acclaimed rock band Wilco. In this same vein, Nora Guthrie invited singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke to write songs for unused lyrics by Woody which she recorded for her 2008 album The Works. As the kick off event of the Centennial, Brooke will perform a concert at the Lincoln Center in NYC on January 18. The concert is called The Works: Jonatha Brooke Celebrates Woody Guthrie at 100 and will include special guests such as Dar Williams joining Brooke. The most recent recording of Woody’s lyrics appears on the album Note of Hope released in September 2011 by bassist Rob Wasserman and friends, including Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, Kurt Elling, Michael Franti, Van Dyke Parks, Madeleine Peyroux, Lou Reed, Pete Seeger, Studs Terkel, Tony Trischka, and Chris Whitley.

Music lovers certainly have a pasture of plenty ahead of them this year as the world celebrates the life and music of a great songster. Stay tuned for further developments…

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FURTHER RESOURCES

Official Woody Guthrie Centennial website

Song of the Day: Hear a different Woody Guthrie song every day…

Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives blog 

Woody Guthrie Archives: Go to this site to see lists of the voluminous contents of the archives that will be housed in Tulsa, including artwork, books by and about Woody, correspondence, lyrics (almost 3000,) manuscripts, audio material (studio recordings, family recordings, Woody’s personal record collection, interviews, etc.,) notebooks, periodicals, personal papers, photographs, scrapbooks and special collections. Please note that this site only gives a list of these materials and not any digitized form of the actual documents.

Biography of Woody Guthrie: written by Ed Cray in conjunction with the PBS series American Masters presentation of the film “Woody Guthrie: Ain’t Got No Home” 

Tulsa World newspaper story “Woody Guthrie Archives to be moved to Tulsa” by Wayne Greene

New York Times newspaper story “Bound for Local Glory at Last” by Patricia Cohen

Woody at One Hundred: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration 1912 − 2012:  Traveling exhibit at the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. February 5 to April 29, 2012

This Land Is Your Land: theatrical presentation in Tulsa area schools, March 5 − 8, 2012

Songs for Stuffing? The Music of Thanksgiving

by Denis McGilvray

On the drive home from school this past Tuesday, my daughter Emma was talking about her favorite holidays: Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving (and her birthday! ) She started talking excitedly about how she loves Thanksgiving because we get to spend the whole day over at her Nana’s house with aunts, uncles and cousins. We watch some of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, cook and eat a fabulous feast, play board games, make music with The Beatles Rock Band, maybe watch a movie, eat some more, and this year I think an epic Just Dance battle is in the works. (Anyone can play – just check out cool Grandpa Leon here!) Good times, for sure. But Emma also mentioned that Thanksgiving is different because it doesn’t have as many decorations or its own special music. I thought that was a fascinating observation, and we talked about how Thanksgiving is a celebration of family, food and the good things in our life that are maybe not as tangible.

Paulo Lopez/NPR

That thought about the lack of Thanksgiving music was stuck in my head when I was browsing the NPR Music website and found this link: Songs for Stuffing – A Thanksgiving Mix .

I had remembered that they had put up a stream of holiday music during Christmas last year, but hadn’t seen the Thanksgiving one before. I thought, what kind of music can they have on that mix that reflects Thanksgiving? When I clicked on the link and saw the play-list that goes along with the stream, I laughed out loud: all the songs are about food! Perfect. It’s an incredibly eclectic mix of songs that includes Bobby Troup’s “Hungry Man,” Bob Dylan’s “Country Pie,” Weird Al’s “Eat It,” Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,” a hip remix of Herb Alpert’s “Whipped Cream” and much, much more. Who knew there were so many good songs about cornbread? (Cornbread beat out turkey on the mix by four to one!) There are some really some great songs in the mix. One of my favorites was the very retro, funky rock song “Chicken Payback” by The Bees, an indie rock band from England that I had never heard of before. Another treat was the nearly 14 minute long “Canned Goods” by singer-songwriter Greg Brown from his Live One album. In it, he has a spoken rap about spending the holidays with his family – it’s quite entertaining. If you have a way to play that stream through your stereo system, it might make for a nice soundtrack to your turkey day festivities.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and keep on listening…

NOTE: When you go to the page for the music stream at NPR and click on the listen button, a pop up player appears where you can hear the mix, but it’s just a continuous stream – you can’t fast forward or rewind it, you can only pause it.

The Flatlanders: A Band That’s More Real Than Ever

by Denis McGilvray

See The Flatlanders perform in concert at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center’s Williams Theater, Thursday, November 18, 2010, 7:30 p.m.

When I  recently learned that The Flatlanders were coming to play a show here in Tulsa, I was more than thrilled. You see, I had missed a chance to see Flatlander Joe Ely perform a solo show this past June at the All Soul Acoustic Coffeehouse series when it conflicted with a visit from my old friend from California, Dennis Cook, who was making his first visit to Tulsa on a writing assignment for Jambase.com. Dennis invited me to join him as he covered the premiere of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey’s Ludwig – a funky re-arrangement of two Beethoven symphonies for jazz quartet and orchestra – that they performed with the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra to critical acclaim. It was a concert I could not miss, and it worked out all right. Having the chance to catch Ely this week as he hits Tulsa with The Flatlanders will be even more fun than seeing him alone – and from what I heard, that was pretty dang fun!

The Flatlanders back then - l to r: Gilmore, Ely, Hancock. (photographer unknown, courtesy of theflatlanders.com)

Who the heck are The Flatlanders, you ask? Well, you’re not alone. The core of the group is Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, who formed The Flatlanders in 1971 when they all found themselves back in their sometime home of Lubbock, Texas (best known as the home of the great Buddy Holly.) The serendipitous confluence of Gilmore’s old-time country musings, Hancock’s folk leanings and Ely’s rebel rock made for a musical concoction that we might now call progressive or alt-country but, as the story of their first recording back in 1972 reveals, it was ill-fated for its time. I’m just glad that it has now been beautifully realized over the past decade.

As told in the excellent liner notes by music writer Colin Escott for the Rounder Records 1990 release of that first album entitled More a Legend Than a Band, the story of The Flatlanders is one of those really fascinating tributaries that feeds into the wide river that is the history of popular music. To sum up, the guys had almost organically formed the band and were playing small-time gigs around Texas when they happened to come to the attention of a Nashville-based producer working for Shelby Singleton, who had taken over the legendary Sun Studios just a few years earlier. They went to Nashville and recorded an album’s worth of songs in March of 1972. When the first single off the album, Gilmore’s wonderful tune “Dallas,” did not fare well commercially, the LP release was shelved and Plantation Records only released it on 8-track tape!  In other words, it was doomed, and the band members just sort of drifted off on their own paths.

Hancock and Gilmore both took a hiatus from the music scene for several years while Joe Ely plugged away and began a successful solo career with his late 70s band that included the fantastic Lubbock-bred musician and producer Lloyd Maines. Ely also became an unlikely ally of the punk-rock band The Clash, whom he met in London in 1979. Ely even recorded some back up vocals on the smash hit “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” from their album, Combat Rock; Ely shared duty on the refrains sung in Spanish with Joe Strummer. Jimmie Dale Gilmore moved to Austin in 1980 after being in Colorado for many years and reinvigorated his musical career; his first solo record came out on Hightone in 1988 and he’s released 8 albums since then. Butch Hancock came back to music in the late 70s when he released a couple of albums on his own Rainlight Records, and he’s continued making records ever since. As these guys’ careers started taking off again, word of that legendary original album spread and, lucky for music lovers, Rounder was able to release it in on CD in the U.S. 1990 after it had enjoyed a limited release on LP in the U.K. for the re-issue label Charly Records in 1980.

Cover for "More a Legend Than a Band." (Courtesy of theflatlanders.com)

When I listened to that first Flatlanders recording, I was immediately struck by its great songwriting. It’s a mix of tunes penned by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, along with some other choice cuts: Willie Nelson’s “One Day at a Time,” the beloved Cajun tune “Jole Blon,” and tunes from Gilmore’s Lubbock neighbor, Texas blues great Angela Strehli and her brother Al. The record kicks off with the truly wonderful song “Dallas” by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and continues with strong tunes all the way through to the end. It’s a really great listen. Gilmore’s twangy tenor harkens back to a bygone era. The musicianship and harmonies provided by the rest of the band are somewhat akin to the sound The Byrds achieved on Sweethearts of the Rodeo, but with some genuine honky-tonk flavor. An unmistakable twist on this record is the musical saw playing of Steve Wesson, their friend who apparently learned the instrument specifically so he could play in the band! Listening to this record now, one can hear how it fits, perhaps not perfectly squarely, in the realm of Americana, alt-country and roots music that thrives today.

The Flatlanders now - l to r: Hancock, Gilmore, Ely. (photo by Will Van Overbeek, courtesy of theflatlanders.com)

As a music lover, I’m glad the story does not end there. In 1998, The Flatlanders played together for the first time in 26 years to cut a track for the Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer. The soundtrack also includes tunes from the likes of Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and Iris Dement. Ely, Gilmore and Hancock enjoyed playing together so much that they started touring as The Flatlanders once again, and in 2002, 30 years after the first one was made, they released their second album, Now Again, on New West Records. They’ve continued touring, playing about 40-60 dates a year, and making records as The Flatlanders while also doing solo work. In 2004 they released Wheels of Fortune and Live ’72, one of the only known live recordings of the band from its early days. Recorded on amateur equipment by the owner of the One Knite Club in Austin, the CD sounds surprisingly good under the circumstances and gives a great taste of the band in its element as they play a bunch of great songs, from Hank Williams and Tex Ritter to Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt. Only three songs on this live CD are ones they recorded on that original record. Now it seems The Flatlanders are on a roll. Last year, they released Hills and Valleys, which was produced by their old Lubbock pal Lloyd Maines, who also contributes his amazing dobro, banjo, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel guitar playing to the proceedings. Since Ely, Gilmore and Hancock all handle acoustic guitar, they need a really solid electric player to bring some fire to their songs. They have the right man for the job in Robbie Gjersoe, who has played lead on their recent releases and also plays on tour. Gjersoe is a highly sought after session and live player who is well-known as the accompanist to Robbie Fulks. Hearing Gjersoe play with these guys live is just one more reason this should prove to be a fantastic show. Colin Gilmore, Jimmie Dale’s son, will open the show for the band. Touring in support of his brand new album, Good Night Lane, Colin is a fine Americana talent in his own right.

Cool water for some cool dudes... (photo by Will Van Overbeek, courtesy of theflatlanders.com)

Having made only four albums in their 40 year history, with the last three made in the past eight years alone, The Flatlanders have proven that they really are more than just a legend; they are, indeed, a band – a band that is now more real than ever.

FURTHER RESOURCES
The Flatlanders website
Check out their home page to hear songs and for a link to their appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman on July 21, 2009 when they performed a smokin’ version of the song “Midnight Train” from the Wheels of Fortune CD; listen to Robbie Gjersoe’s sweet guitar solo and the strong vocals from Ely, Gilmore and Hancock…and some hot organ playing by Paul Shaffer!

The Flatlanders CDs on New West Records

Hear The Flatlanders perform three songs and talk about Hills and Valleys on KUT Radio from Austin in May, 2009

I’d recommend this show to fans of Tulsa musicians like The Prairie Dawgs, the country/folk side of Jared Tyler,
Jesse Aycock, Klondike 5 String Band, or Scott Aycock

Jukebox Delirium Reawakens!

Listening to some tunes in my office/music library...

Hello Music Lovers,

Remember when I started this blog?! I hope you do. This message marks the reawakening of Jukebox Delirium after nine long months of slumbering. I launched the blog in February, 2010 at the exact same time that I was asked to start some freelance writing for a local monthly magazine. Between that and the regular busy-ness of everyday life with a family that includes three young kids, I’ve not posted anything since that first week way back then. Well, things are about to change. (Famous last words, I know…)

It’s been an amazing year of music. I’ve been taking plenty of notes on things to write about, so now is the time to finally get them down on paper posted digitally. As we head toward the end of the year, I will be writing about: round-ups of favorite albums/songs/concerts of the year, the NPR All Songs Considered podcast that inspired me to write about music, how I came up with the name “Jukebox Delirium,” an incredible shopping trip to Amoeba Music in Hollywood, some of the great old vinyl I’ve found at garage sales (including a nice 10″ edition of “Songs By Tom Lehrer” from 1953 that I’m holding in the photo,) and much more.  If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up to receive notification of new posts by submitting your e-mail address in the box on the right side of this page, and you can now share posts through your Facebook or Twitter accounts by clicking on those icons.

Thanks for reading. Keep on listening…

Denis McGilvray

How A Record Can Change A Life: The Jazz Baroness and Thelonious Monk’s ’Round Midnight

Poster for the HBO showing of the documentary film The Jazz Baroness

By Denis McGilvray

The music of visionary be-bop pianist and composer Thelonious Monk has long been some of my favorite in the jazz realm, and really some of my favorite music of any genre. My wife, Sarah, said that he is her favorite musician; I asked her if she meant her favorite jazz musician, and she said no, her favorite musician of any kind. It’s easy to see why: Monk’s tunes are surprising and inventive, sometimes heart-breaking in their beauty but often joyously ebullient. They are full of incredibly memorable melodies. I often find myself humming or whistling one of his tunes while doing work around the house. Monk has been hailed as a musical genius, and rightly so, but his music was certainly not appreciated by critics and jazz aficionados early on because it was so different from anything else being played; even though he was among the early bop revolutionaries, his music was perhaps the furthest out of all of them. His playing was always a bit off-kilter and angular; it remains refreshingly modern sounding even though he was composing in the mid 20th-century. Monk had his roots in tradition and greatly respected and learned from the players of the previous generation, but he took that tradition and made from it something strikingly new — not always the easiest road to take in any artistic endeavor, and even less so when you’re a black jazz musician in the America of the 1940s and 50s.

Having been a longtime fan of Monk’s music, I had always been intrigued by the connection between him and the woman who was a patron and friend to him and many other jazz musicians – the woman known as Nica: Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, born Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild. Yes, she was one of the Rothschilds – part of the English branch of the German Jewish financial dynasty that has been among the wealthiest families in the world for several hundred years. I knew only the sketchy outlines of their story when I saw a documentary film called The Jazz Baroness on HBO recently. The film was truly a revelation. If you’re interested in jazz music or music history, I highly recommend that you see The Jazz Baroness, which tells the story of the long-lasting friendship between Pannonica and Thelonious Monk. Their personal stories are fascinating and beautifully told by the film’s writer, producer, and director, Hannah Rothschild, who made the film for the BBC. Ms. Rothschild is Nica’s great-niece and made the film in part to explore a part of her own family history, which was something of a mystery to her.  Amidst all the riveting family and musical drama in the film, there is one event, however, that just kept playing in my head after watching The Jazz Baroness: how listening to one record changed Nica’s life, and ultimately the whole jazz world.

You may wonder, how can a record change a life? Hannah Rothschild wondered about that too. She ponders the mesmerizing effect that one recording had on her great-aunt and how it could have changed her life so dramatically. While the whole story of Nica and Monk’s unlikely friendship – an English heiress to the Rothschild fortune befriending an African-American musician born in rural North Carolina – is astonishing in itself, what I found most compelling was the tale of how this friendship came to be. In the film, the tale is told in Nica’s own words from an interview with Bruce Ricker, producer of the excellent documentary film about Thelonious Monk entitled Straight, No Chaser.

The story goes: it’s the early 1950s, Nica is in New York City, on her way back to Mexico where she was living with her husband and family. On the way to the airport she stops to visit her friend, jazz pianist Teddy Wilson. During the visit, he asks if she’s heard the tune “’Round Midnight” and she replies, no, she’s never even heard of Thelonious Monk. Wilson tells her she can’t leave without hearing it and pulls out the record. He plays “’Round Midnight” and Nica recounts, “I couldn’t believe my ears. I’d never heard anything remotely like it. I made him play it 20 times in a row. I missed my plane, and never went back to Mexico.”

Wow! That is one powerful tune. Presumably, the recording of “’Round Midnight” that she heard was the version from the Blue Note album Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1, which Monk recorded in 1947 but was not released until 1951; this was Monk’s first recording of the song that would become one of the most beloved, and most recorded, jazz pieces of all time. (Hear a full version of the 1947 “‘Round Midnight”.) Nica was so taken with Monk’s playing that she essentially devoted the rest of her life to the cause of modern jazz music and its beleaguered creators, in stark contrast to her upbringing and social position. How could this be?

However bewildering that Nica’s transformative experience seems, it does not surprise me: hearing one jazz tune had a transformative effect on my own life (although certainly not as world-changing as it was in her case.) For me the tune was “My Favorite Things” as played by John Coltrane; like Nica, I had never heard anything remotely like it, and the way Coltrane took this familiar, beloved song and blew it apart so beautifully was a consciousness-altering experience for me.* Knowing “’Round Midnight” well, I can understand her being moved so deeply by Monk’s recording that it changed her life. It is a ballad full of melancholy and shadow, and so heartbreakingly beautiful and personal – it really is one of the most emotionally moving tunes I’ve ever heard. (The version recorded by the Miles Davis Quintet on the 1957 album Round About Midnight is especially haunting, and also features Coltrane. You can hear it by going to the official Miles Davis website and clicking on the “Miles Davis Music Player” icon, then selecting it from the track listings.)  Filmmaker Hannah Rothschild speculates that it is perhaps the song’s “mournful, haunting chords which triggered feelings of loneliness and not belonging” in Pannonica and had such an effect on her. And hearing this for the first time in the very early 50s, when there was not much else, if anything, like it even among the be-boppers, seems to have been nothing less than an epiphany to her.

What I get from the film is that Pannonica was not just some well-to-do lady on a mission of mercy; she was a genuine friend to these guys and cared deeply for these artists whose music she truly loved and felt passionate about, often when society as a whole did not. Hers was certainly not an uncomplicated life: she divorced her husband in part because of her love of jazz, faced defamatory and blatantly misleading stories about her life in the New York press (especially after Charlie Parker died while being cared for in her apartment,) and did everything she could to protect and nurture the sometimes fragile Monk and his family, even risking a prison sentence for him at one time. Nica took Monk into her home at the end of his life when Monk’s wife Nellie could no longer care for him alone. Nellie would visit every day and spend her time with him and her dear friend Nica. All of this because of one record! I don’t know of another tale quite like it in the annals of music history. Sure, many classical musicians had their patrons, but I’m not familiar enough with that history to know if there was ever a musical relationship as unlikely and as enduring as the one between Nica and Monk.

Nica’s story reminds me of the powerful impact which music can have upon us. If you’re reading this, then there’s a pretty good chance you have some inkling about the power of music also. That’s one of the reasons I created this blogazine: to share the importance of music in our lives. Please feel free to share your own stories of how a song or album has affected your life by joining in the commentary section at the end of this piece.

There’s another reason I wanted to include something in Monk’s honor here near the launch of Jukebox Delirium on Mardi Gras day, February 16, 2010. Thelonious Monk died on February 17, 1982. I’m sure it won’t be the last time I write about him. His musical legacy is growing all the time. It seems like I hear Monk’s tunes being played by more musicians than any other jazz composer I know of (even perhaps surpassing Duke Ellington.) Rest in peace, Monk…and thanks for the wondrous music.

To underscore what an influence Monk’s music had on her, Pannonica made one special request before she died in 1988, revealing how, nearly 40 years later, that one record was still so powerful. She simply said: “I would like my ashes to be scattered on the Hudson River, in the evening, around midnight. I think you all know why.”

*Note: The story of my hearing Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” for the first time will soon be the subject of another post on Jukebox Delirium, and is one of the main inspirations for my love of music in general…

Further Information and Resources
The Jazz Baroness was a production of the BBC, and grew out of a BBC Radio 4 documentary made in 2008. The film was written, directed, produced, and narrated by Nica’s great-niece, Hannah Rothschild. It aired on BBC television in the U.K. in April 2009, then on HBO in the United States in November and December 2009; it seems that it’s not yet available for purchase and no future airings are listed at this time. You can find out more by checking these sites:
The Jazz Baroness – official site related to the film
HBO’s pages about the film
The Official Thelonious Monk website: Monkzone.com
Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute
Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley — a new biography of Monk published in October 2009 by Simon & Schuster.
Monk and the Baroness: An Interview with Documentarian Hannah Rothschild on the All About Jazz website.

Thelonious Monk playing “‘Round Midnight” live; date and location unknown – probably mid 1960s on a European TV program:

Let the Good Times Roll! My Love Affair with the Music of New Orleans, Vol. 1

by Denis McGilvray

“New Orleans culture has cast a spell over the nation and the world for nearly a hundred years. But it is the music – more than Mardi Gras, more than the French Quarter, more than a streetcar (now a bus) named Desire, more than beignets for breakfast – that has always been at the heart of our fascination with New Orleans. No other place has contributed a richer heritage of pop music to the rest of the United States, from Dixieland to rock ’n’ roll to contemporary jazz, from Louis Armstrong to Wynton Marsalis, from Fats Domino to Dr. John, from Mahalia Jackson to Harry Connick, Jr.”
–  from Musical Gumbo: The Music of New Orleans by Grace Lichtenstein and Laura Dankner

I had originally planned on launching this blogazine on January 1, 2010, a nice way to start the new year. When that date came and I was nowhere near ready to get it going, I started to think of another date to use as my goal for publication. When I looked at the calendar, I knew immediately that Mardi Gras would be the perfect birthday for Jukebox Delirium since it had such strong musical and celebratory connections for me (and it was just far enough away that I figured I could get the writing done…)

My first exposure to the wild revelry that is Mardi Gras came through the fantastic musical heritage of New Orleans and Lousiana as I was exposed to it in the recordings of the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Professor Longhair, Lee Dorsey, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Michael Doucet & Beausoleil, Buckwheat Zydeco and others. I was already into jazz music at this time and knew that the melting pot of New Orleans, with its confluence of Afro-Carribbean rhythms and European band music, had been an integral part of the formation of jazz music, but I wasn’t as familiar with the rest of the New Orleans musical heritage. While volunteering as a music programmer at public radio station KAZU-90.3 FM in Pacific Grove, California during the ’80s, I was turned on to the great New Orleans musical tradition by several other programmers at the station who were aficionados and played many of those musicians on their shows. I remember one woman in particular who was immersed in the music, and may have been from or lived in New Orleans for a time; she went by the name Mama Roux and she always played some very groovy tunes on her weekly show, “Bon Temp Blues.”  I was hosting a late night rock show called “Not Fade Away” – named after the classic Buddy Holly tune (hear a sample) that I first became familiar with through the Grateful Dead’s souped-up cover version (see it).  I played different versions of the song as the opener of the show each Friday night (there are a bunch of them – including a great one by the Rolling Stones (see it) and after a while, my DJ friend Art O’Sullivan and I noticed that the staccato beat that was so prominent in “Not Fade Away” was also present in many other rock tunes. We knew it was similar to the famous Bo Diddley beat and we also heard it most prominently in the Mardi Gras song “Iko Iko,” as we’d heard it covered by Dr. John (see video below) and again by the Grateful Dead. We decided to do a whole show dedicated to playing as many songs that had that distinctive beat as we could find. I don’t remember now exactly what we came up with, but I think it must’ve been a couple dozen different songs. As we were musing on the air about the connection of that beat to so many different songs, Mama Roux called up and started telling me about how that beat was connected to second line parading in New Orleans, primarily in connection with traditional New Orleans jazz funerals. She described it as an elemental beat that was commonly heard in the streets of New Orleans, and she also talked a bit about how it had been taken from the streets into popular music.

After doing a little research into the history of this beat, I’ve found that it seems to have been first adapted into pop culture in the song “Jock-A-Mo” written and recorded by New Orleans musician James “Sugar Boy” Crawford in 1953, who says he wrote the song based on some rhythms and chants he heard during Mardi Gras parades. From there it was incorporated into many other songs right up to this day. “Jock-A-Mo” was most famously recorded by the Dixie Cups under the title “Iko Iko,” and that’s the way it is most commonly known today.

Check out this nice example of the beat and a discussion of it as played by Dr. John himself:

(He is such a wonderful player; I marvel at how his left hand is playing the incredible bass line and his right is playing the intricate melody.)

Since that first exposure to it almost 25 years ago, I have come to love the music of Mardi Gras and New Orleans with a passion. It’s easy to do. The music is so rhythmically infectious that you can’t help but move to the groove; the melodies are so free and catchy that they just breeze through your head and lift you up. For me, it’s the sound of pure joy and celebration and life. It doesn’t hurt that Mardi Gras is also accompanied by great food and drink. If you’ve ever had a really good gumbo or jambalaya or the amazing beignets at Café du Monde, then you know what I’m talking about. The food is like the music, a wild combination of many flavors that blend perfectly together to make something new.

There is also the spiritual side of Mardi Gras to consider – and yes, it has a spiritual side! Taking place on the day before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent — the season of purification leading up to Easter Sunday) is no accident. For many centuries there has been a wild celebration on the Tuesday before Lent starts, allowing the faithful one last time of revelry and excess before the call to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ which culminates on Easter Sunday. The ancient Roman calendar had a wild festival which typically took place in mid-February, and when the Church came to Rome it absorbed this festival into its own calendar partly to help assimilate the pagan converts more easily. There has been a Carnival-like celebration before Lent for centuries, with regional variations around the world. Mardi Gras is one of those. I like the idea of this sanctioned craziness, of communal lunacy, of letting our wild side loose for a time, not forever, but long enough to perhaps keep our spirit nicely balanced throughout the year. We need such things.

And I have to rave about the city of New Orleans itself. I’ve visited there once, in the late ’90s, very briefly, and really loved it. It has played such a vital role in the creation of so many good things: jazz, great rhythm & blues music, delectable food, and Mardi Gras itself. The unique blend of cultures and people that made all this possible can be found in no other place. No one could have imagined what great new things would be birthed in this city. Hurricane Katrina certainly put a serious dent in the soul of the city, but I’m so grateful that it did not break it. New Orleans continues to rise from the floodwaters and thrive again, as it has done for several centuries. The spectacular victory by the New Orleans Saints in this year’s Super Bowl was perhaps one of the most emotional sporting wins I’ve witnessed in a long time. I know of no other city that would feel a championship on such a deeply emotional level. Even the World Series win by the Boston Red Sox in 2004, after an 86 year championship drought, did not resonate on quite the same level as the Saints victory for New Orleans. The whole city of New Orleans was lifted by the Saints, and it was so fun to watch.

WEBSITES
A discussion of Mardi Gras music by the creators of Mardi Gras Unmasked
A history of Mardi Gras online at Arthur Hardy’s Mardi Gras Guide
An interesting web page that talks about how Mardi Gras grew out of the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia

BOOKS
Musical Gumbo: The Music of New Orleans by Grace Lichtenstein and Laura Dankner (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.) Out of print, but available from used book sellers.