The new single by Sweden’s Sweet Tangerine (Josephine Danielsson and Johsefin Tallroth) sounds a bit like the early works of Indigo Girls. If you read Swedish, check out their Facebook page. Otherwise, enjoy this making-of music video. 
Two-fer from early ‘60s Cameo-Parkway vocal group
Shortly before the Collectors’ Choice label was sold to Super D, they embarked upon an ambitious program of reissues from the Cameo-Parkway catalog. The Cameo-Parkway tapes had mostly sat idle in ABKCO’s vault ever since Allen Klein acquired them in the late ‘60s, and the first program of legitimate reissues began in 2005 with a series of Best Of’s, including a volume on this Philadelphia vocal group. Five years later, a series of two-fers returned full, original albums to print, including this pairing of the group’s second and third albums, originally released in 1962 and 1963, respectively. This skips over the group’s first and biggest success, “The Bristol Stomp,†but joins them in a run of dance-themed hits that included “Do the New Conteinental,†“Hully Gully Baby†and “The Jitter Bug.†Missing from this period is the non-LP “Bristol Twistin’ Annie.â€
The two-fer includes the group’s second biggest hit, 1964’s infectious, hand-clapping cover of the Phil Upchurch Combo’s instrumental “You Can’t Sit Down.†The Dovells’ version shot to #3, and with the subsequent departure of tenor vocalist Len Barry (who’d later score a solo hit with “1-2-3â€), the group’s chart fortunes came to an end. The album tracks combine covers and staff-written tunes that, in full accord with Cameo’s recoding ethic, chased the dance trend to its last fumes. Remember tearing it up to the “Hully Gully Square Dance†or “Country Club Hully Gully?†Neither does anyone else. Still, even when the material was repetitive, the group sang with doo-wop verve, and the house band – led by Dave Appell and featuring the honking tenor sax of Buddy Savitt – was rock solid. Mastered in crisp mono with nice bass detail, this is reminder of a much simpler time on the Top 40 charts. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]
Elvis caps his remarkable comeback
Recorded in 1970 and released in 1971, Elvis Country was the culmination of a remarkable career resurrection. Starting with his 1968 Comeback Special, Elvis went on to reel off the brilliant From Elvis in Memphis (and the second-helping, Back in Memphis), the smartly constructed Vegas show of On Stage, and the studio/live That’s the Way It Is. He capped the run with this 1971 return to his roots, branding these country, gospel, blues, rockabilly and western swing covers with authority. Elvis showed his genius was rooted in his passion for music, which encompassed everything from the early rockabilly of Sanford Clark’s “The Fool†(written, surprisingly, by Lee Hazlewood) to the then-contemporary hit “Snowbird,†as well as classics from Ernest Tubb, Lester Flatt & Bill Monroe, Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran.
Recorded in RCA’s famed Studio B with Presley regulars James Burton, Charlie McCoy and Chip Young; the newly assembled studio hands included several players from the Muscle Shoals powerhouse, and the sessions were produced by Felton Jarvis. The arrangements ranged from loose, down home country jams to Vegas-styled orchestrations, and hearing the variety back-to-back, one quickly realizes how easily Elvis transcended the musical boundaries between his ‘50s roots and his glitzy ‘70s stage shows. Much like the 1969 American Studio sessions in Memphis, Elvis’ enthusiasm and musicality directs the assembled players and provokes top-notch performances; he leads the crew through a rocking workout of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On†and brings “Tomorrow Never Comes†to a volcanic climax.
The original album tracks are knit together with snippets of “I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago,†a gimmick that some listeners find irritating, and which wreaks havoc on shuffle play; the complete take is included in the bonuses. An earlier CD reissue expanded the track count from twelve to eighteen, and this double-CD pushes the total to twenty-nine, including all six earlier bonuses. Disc two opens with the third-helping of the Nashville sessions, previously released as Love Letters from Elvis, and adds three more session bonuses: the singles “The Sound of Your Cry†and “Rags to Riches,†and the album track “Sylvia.†The broad range of material on Love Letters doesn’t always connect with Elvis’ legacy as tightly as that on Elvis Country, but Elvis is in fine voice on each track, and the assembled players are sharp.
Everything here’s been issued before, but pulling together session material previously spread across singles, albums, box sets and latter-day compilations has created a superb recounting of the last chapter of Elvis’ incredible comeback. Not included are the eight Nashville tracks released as part of That’s the Way It Is. A third-disc with banded versions of Elvis Country (minus the musical segues, that is) would have been a great addition, but even without it, this is an excellent expansion upon previous standalone reissues, and a terrific complement to the Legacy editions of From Elvis in Memphis and On Stage. The remastered discs (by Vic Anesini) are housed in a tri-fold digipack with a booklet that includes liner notes by Stuart Colman and terrific photos. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]
As great as are the performances from Jimmie Dale Gilmore (vocals/guitar), Jerry Douglas (dobro) and Viktor Krauss (bass), it seems as if guitarist Bill Frisell really steals this one.
Stellar live recording of the Move at the Fillmore in 1969
The Move are barely known in the U.S., but their impact on the late-60s British rock scene, and all that tumbled from it, reverberates through to today. By the end of their run, they’d evolved an artier sound that would find full-flower as founders Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, and latter-day member Jeff Lynne, decamped to form the Electric Light Orchestra. But in their prime, they were a rock powerhouse that matched up to the Who’s incendiary music and daring social antics. The group is captured in full-flower of their most famous incarnation on these soundboard tapes, recorded at San Francisco’s Fillmore West in October 1969 on their first and only tour of the U.S. These tapes have floated around bootleg circles, but this is the first complete and official release, endorsed by Sue Wayne, the widow of the band’s vocalist, Carl Wayne.
Wayne had saved the tapes for over thirty years, but it was only in 2003 that digital restoration became sufficiently sophisticated to bring this archive back to life. Sadly, with Wayne’s passing in 2004, the project was once again sidelined. Now fully restored, the song list, plus a ten-minute interview with drummer Bevan, clock in at nearly two hours. The selections include their early single “I Can Hear the Grass Grow,†and fan favorites “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited†and “Hello Susie.†Also included are covers of Nazz’s “Open My Eyes†and “Under the Ice,†Mann & Weil’s “Don’t Make My Baby Blue†(which the Move likely picked up from the Shadows), Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind†and Ars Nova’s “Fields of People.†The set is surprisingly light on Roy Wood songs, given his position as the band’s main songwriter, but bits of stage patter help sew everything together.
The band’s combination of pop and rock – memorable melodies and tight harmonies played against heavy drums and bass – is a perfect fit for the stage, and particularly for the late-60s Fillmore. The band stretches out on long jams, but their focus contrasts with the meandering discovery of San Francisco’s original ballroom rock. Even Bev Bevan’s drum solo and the melodic salutes woven into “I Can Hear the Grass Grow†sound more like performance than on-the-spot experiment. The set is filled with energy from start to finish, and though the vocals are occasionally often mixed forward, the tapes are solid and reasonably balanced. It’s a shame the Move didn’t tour the U.S. again, as they surely would have been major stateside stars. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]
An excellent cover of Brenda Lee’s “Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day” by Wye Oak, live in The Onion’s A.V. Club studio.
Sorry for the short commercial in front of the music; that’s how The Onion helps pay the bills.
Downtown jazz band plays funky soul
Steve Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra is a New York nonet, featuring a five-piece horn section of brass and reeds, a foundation of guitar, bass, and drums, and drop-ins of violin and banjo. They’ve made a practice of not practicing, learning tunes and working out arrangements on stage and in the studio, giving their records the vitality of live performance seasoned by the simmered qualities of a road ensemble. Their repertoire mixes jazz-age standards with reworked contemporary pop songs, mating ‘20s and ‘30s classics with the works of the Beatles, Prince and Stevie Wonder. For their third album, they’ve focused on the songs of Sly and the Family Stone, with help from vocalists Sandra St. Victor, Antony Hegarty, Martha Wainwright, Dean Bowman and Shilpa Ray, as well as Bernie Worrell on Hammond, Vernon Reid on guitar and Bill Laswell on bass.
As Greg Tates notes in his liners, Sly and the Family Stone date back to an era when collectives were a common social currency and bands mattered as much (if not more) than individual vocalists. Even among soul groups, however, the Family Stone stood out from the carefully groomed powerhouse acts of Motown. Not only was the membership almost defiantly multiracial, but in sound and style, the group was a combination of its unique ingredients, rather than a corporate-developed vision to which the members were trained. The aesthetic is a natural fit for the MTO, as Bernstein provides a framework within which the individual players express themselves – much as do members of jazz groups, and so to the members of the original Family Stone under Sly’s leadership.
The selections combine well-known hits (“Stand,†“Family Affair†and “Everyday Peopleâ€) with flipsides and album tracks, including a drawn-out take on “Que Sera Sera†that models itself after the Family Stone’s 1973 Fresh cover. The B-side (and U.K. title track) “M’Lady†gives Dean Bowman a chance to wail against an arrangement that works violin into its hard-soul, and “You Can Make it if You Try†is taken by the band as an instrumental. Most of the tracks tread the fine-line between homage and reinvention, though Shilpa Ray’s brooding, gritty redesign of “Everyday People†may leave listeners missing the original’s effervescence. It’s no surprise that MTO has the talent to carry off this tribute, but the musical heritage it reveals is deeper than even fans might have realized. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]
Organ trio riffs on ‘60s and ‘70s Italian soundtracks
Given the obscurity of the titles, all but the most devoted Italian cineastes will have to take this trio’s word that these organ-jazz arrangements are based on movie soundtracks. Their best-known inspirations, Ennio Morricone and Piero Umiliani, are augmented by Gianni Ferrio, Piero Piccioni, Luis Bacalov and others. The selections mix breezy sounds of mid-60s la dolce vita with a good measure of early-70s exploitation cinema. Vince Abbracciante’s Hammond, Farfisa and Rhodes range from jazz cool to psych-soul heat, and the rhythm section plays with sharp, percussive force. Wordless vocals add an Esquivelian touch to several tracks, and guest players add flute, sax, flugelhorn, guitar and a duet vocal on Armando Trovajoli’s “L’amore Dice Ciao.†This is a nice spin for Italian cinephiles and lovers of hot organ jazz and cool easy listening. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]
An oddly sequenced collection of Diamond’s diamonds
As anyone familiar with Neil Diamond’s career knows, he’s had more hits that could possibly fit onto a single CD. But drawing across his stints on Bang, Uni, Capitol (for which he recorded the soundtrack to The Jazz Singer) and Columbia, this twenty-three track set shows Diamond’s maturation from Brill Building songwriter to hit-making singer to worldwide superstar to reinvented elder statesman. Of course, given the set’s non-chronological programming, you’ll only hear the actual arc of his artistic development if you reprogram the tracks as 12, 4, 9, 10, 16, 21, 20, 18, 6, 11, 21, 7, 5, 13, 8, 17, 2, 14, 1, 3, 15, 22, 23, 19. If you play the set as-is, you’ll start near the end of Diamond’s hit-making career with 1978’s “Forever in Blue Jeans†and spin through a few other 1970s releases before jumping back to 1966’s “Cherry, Cherry.â€
Given the focus on hits, it’s easy to excuse the great album tracks left behind, but the inclusion of lesser sides in place of the hits “Thank the Lord for the Night Time,†“Longfellow Serenade†and “Heartlight†is surprising. The mix of Top 10s, Adult Contemporary hits (“Beautiful Noiseâ€), low-charting singles that were hits for other artists (“I’m a Believer†and “Red Red Wineâ€) and latter-day sides with Rick Rubin (“Pretty Amazing Grace†and “Hell Yeahâ€) covers the breadth and depth of his career, but the muddled timeline and interweaving of mono Bang-era tracks with modern stereo productions is without obvious purpose. Segueing from the 1980’s “Love on the Rocks†to hard-rocking guitars of “Cherry, Cherry†is awkward, as is the mood shift from 1972’s “Play Me†to 1967’s bubblegum-soul “I’m a Believer.â€
Despite the set’s odd characteristics, Diamond shines as a talented songwriter who learned early on how to write a hook, and a dramatic vocalist with a memorable voice. He’s been well-served by arrangers and producers who fit his voice into a variety of contexts – guitar-charged rock, organ-backed soul, contemporary pop and huge productions that echo the operatic grandeur of Roy Orbison. Diamond’s song-by-song notes are peppered with interesting recollections and generous sharing of credit with his many exceptional co-workers. It may surprise casual fans to find that he co-wrote with Marilyn and Alan Bergman, was produced by Robbie Robertson, and recorded several of his biggest hits in Memphis at Chips Moman’s American Sound Studio.
Noting the missing chart entries, as well as the terrific list price, this is a good single-disc sketch of Diamond’s career as a hit maker, but it’s only a sketch, and only a sketch of his hits. It balances his years at Bang (seven tracks), Uni (seven), Columbia (six) and Capitol (three), and plays well for those wishing to relive the artist’s most familiar songs. The two Rick Rubin-produced cuts, “Pretty Amazing Grace†and “Hell Yeah,†show Diamond still vital and growing in his fifth decade of recording. Still, a career as rich as Diamond’s can’t really be condensed onto one disc; even the three-disc In My Lifetime left fans arguing about what was missing. A more complete picture of Diamond’s early years can be heard by picking up The Bang Years: 1966-1968 and Play Me: The Complete Uni Studio Recordings… Plus!, and his Columbia years are well represented on original album reissues and several anthologies. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]
Joey Ramone meets Stiv Bators and Handsome Dick Manitoba
This three-song EP could easily be lumped into the neo-Ramones category, but as Jason Diamond of Impose Magazine suggests, there’s a strong helping of Stiv Bators’ post-Dead Boys pop, and the opening monologue (which tells kids to smoke, drink, fight and eat pizza) rolls in the self-aggrandizing style of the Dictators’ Handsome Dick Manitoba. The closing “Bored Out of My Brains†is among the best Ramones songs never actually written or recorded by the Ramones. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]