Monthly Archives: March 2008

Bo Ramsey’s Fragile Released Ahead of Schedule

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Bo Ramsey - FragilePreviously we announced that Bo Ramsey’s album recorded in 2007 would be released on April 8th in conjunction with some CD release shows. Since tomorrow is April 1st, I was getting ready to send an e-mail over to CDBaby to see if they were going to be ready to have the CD available for the 8th. I hit Bo’s site and imagine my surprise that the CD is available today!

For whatever reason, you can’t find the new Bo Ramsey album by doing a search of “Bo Ramsey” on the CDBaby site. But, this link works and I ordered my copy this morning! $14 plus $2.25 shipping.

Bo has two more shows on the calendar that are solo and solo with band. 4/5/08 in Minneapolis at the Cedar Cultural Center with Marty Christensen and The Englert in Iowa City on 4/26 with band. I hope we’ll get more opportunities to see Bo this summer.

Look for a review here in the near future. I have had the opportunity to hear this album in advance and my first thoughts are that this album is the logical progression from his blues cover album Stranger Blues and his best and most consistently timeless album yet.

Upcoming Show: Woven Hand at Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines 4/19/08

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Back in 1996, when I was living in Minneapolis I was really into this band called 16 Horsepower. The alternative radio single “Black Soul Choir” was all over Rev105 and Sherry and I saw them play the Fine Line on 6/8/96 (according to the ticket stub I tucked into the CD sleeve of their first release on A&M Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes. At the time, I hadn’t heard anything like the hellfire and brimstone approach that lead singer David Eugene Edwards brought. The only band that had a similar sound was Miami Gun Club. These days, there are a few more bands that take the “graveyard folk” route like Devil Makes Three (previously reviewed here).

I found out from a friend of a friend that David Eugene Edwards is bringing his post-16 Horsepower band Woven Hand to Des Moines on April 19th at the hip Vaudeville Mews venue (that I still haven’t been to!). Woven Hand is still pretty similar to the sound of 16 Horsepower but it has a slightly updated sound. I’m catching up… Edwards seemed to command the stage when I saw him in 1996, so I can only assume he’ll put on a great show these days. Only $8!

Visit the Woven Hand MySpace Page
Visit the Woven Hand website
Visit the 16 Horsepower website

Listen to “Black Soul Choir” Live

B-Sides in the Bins #24 – Cedar Rapids 3/9/08

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On Sunday my wife and daughter wanted to do some shopping at Lindale Mall before going to dinner at Biaggi’s so I dropped them off and went to Half Price Books to do some browsing. I picked up a couple of CD’s, coincidentally both related to the Jayhawks.

Gary Louris – Vagabonds (CD, Rykodisc RCD 10925, 2008)($7.98) Even though I’ve already purchased this on vinyl and mp3’s– when I saw this in the CD bin used I couldn’t pass it up. This release isn’t even that old, so I was surprised to see it. Plus, I didn’t have a 320Kbps rip for my iPod. This is certainly an early pronouncement, but Vagabonds is one of my top releases of 2008. There are purists out their who are decrying the too-polished feel of the production that Chris Robinson of the Crowes brought. I like the Early Seventies feel about it– some of the songs remind me of the cover songs that Foamfoot did at the Troubador in Los Angeles in 1994. Foamfoot was a band that Chris Robinson and Marc Ford from the Black Crowes put together with some other folks including Gary Louris. The bootleg I have has covers of songs by Free, Blind Faith, Marshall Tucker, the Small Faces, CSN and others. So, it doesn’t surprise me that this record has these influences since that was the music they played together. Really, the Black Crowes always sounded like a potpourri of these influences. Robinson’s involvement in Vagabonds started with his assistance producing the Gary Louris / Mark Olson record which should see the light of day later in 2008 after Mark and Gary have toured their current solo efforts.

Mark Olson and the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers – My Own Jo Ellen (CD, Hightone Records HCD8127, 2000) ($5.95) This is a cut-out of Mark’s 2000 release with his ex, Victoria Williams. A nice, loose affair with electric guitars. In some respects, I like this better than his new release. It needs some more “burn in time” before I can make a more formed opinion.

Sheryl Crow Announces Plans to Join Fleetwood Mac

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From Spinner, Sheryl Crow announced during a recent AOL Sessions taping that will premiere on April 11th that there are plans for her to collaborate with Fleetwood Mac in the future with the results to come out “some time next year.” She’s just heading out on tour in support of her new album Detours. Apparently this move will help secure future Fleetwood Mac output as Stevie Nicks had indicated that she wasn’t interested in carrying FM on without Christine McVie who left in 1998, and whose only contributtion to Fleetwood Mac’s 2003 release Say You Will were three songs that had been recorded as part of an aborted solo album for Lindsey Buckingham. Sheryl Crow filled McVie’s shoes on the newer songs that needed harmony vocals and keyboards. There were rumors (no pun intended) at the time that Sheryl was interested in touring with Fleetwood Mac and her friend Stevie Nicks.

Within hours of this announcement, the Internet boards are abuzz with comments regarding this development as one would expect. As much as I miss Christine McVie in Fleetwood Mac– she was really the best counterpoint to the other vocalists in Fleetwood Mac and certainly a stellar songwriter– I think that Fleetwood Mac wouldn’t be too bad off with Crow in the mix. As long as they don’t use her as a replacement for McVie and have her perform “Songbird” or any of her other signature songs I’m okay with that. In fact, I think that Crow’s style is pretty complimentary to the sound of Fleetwood Mac, and I would be interested in hearing how Lindsey Buckingham might collaborate with her. I think that most people forget that the core of Fleetwood Mac– and the only consistent part of the band for its 41 years of existence is Mick Fleetwood and John “Mac” McVie and the singers and guitarists float in and out of the band. Obviously, the only widely popular periods of Fleetwood Mac had Buckingham and Nicks in them, and that is what people tend to associate as the version of Fleetwood Mac.

I’m just happy to hear that there might be more to come from the band that– next to the Moody Blues and the Beatles– were among my first “favorite” bands as a child in the Seventies.

B-Sides in the Bins #23 – Chicago Suburbs 3/2/08

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This weekend my wife Sherry was attending a conference for Skin and Hair people at McCormick Place in Chicago. I came along for moral support and some time away– and the hopes of hitting some record stores. Sherry booked a cheap hotel online in Des Plaines North of O’Hare off I-90. Saturday I hung out at McCormick Place loitering at a Starbucks waiting for Sherry. Sunday morning I dropped her off around 10:30AM and I made my way back up to Des Plaines. This gave me the option to hang at the hotel with free parking and to venture out to the surrounding burbs.

A quick search of Google for “record stores near Des Plaines, IL” turned out a mix of interesting and not-so-interesting results. I quickly jotted down three places to try out. The plan being that I’d hit the closest stores first and work my way out.

The first place I tried was promisingly called “The Record Room” on Golf Rd (641 W Golf Rd., Des Plaines, IL). No website. I called first, and the phone company said the “number is being tested” so I ended up driving over anyway. Rest In Piece Record Room! It is now a chiropractic office.

So, the next place I decided I wanted to hit was called “Sunshine Daydream” in Mt. Prospect, IL and has a current website, so that seemed promising. However, their hours are “Noonish to 6PM” on Sundays. I made my way up to the store and it exists and seemed to have inventory. It’s a tie-die, posters, Grateful Dead/Jamband type store. However, it was 12:15, so maybe that wasn’t “Noonish” enough for them. So, I headed back down to a restaurant I passed on River Road called Dick’s River Roadhouse for a Blue Moon (with requisite orange slice garnish) and a wonderful BBQ Grilled Chicken Sandwich. The bar music was some 80’s station (likely XM). Rick Spingfield, Prince, New Order, Toni Basil, etc. The food was served quickly.

After I ate my food and finished my beer I called Sunshine Daydream (2027 E Euclid Ave., Mt. Prospect, IL) to see if they were open– they were. I paid my bill and headed up to the store. As I opened the door, I was overcome by the smell of inscense. The store was pretty much what one would expect for a store that advertises itself as “the hippy general store.” They had a large array of “natural fiber” bags and other clothing– a lot of it tie-died. Posters, rolling papers, gag greeting cards and other sundries were available as well. The rack that had the CD’s was half used CDs and half new titles. Most of the new titles were jambands including a lot of titles that you’d normally only see on the bands’ websites– the Live Phish series, the Wart’s and All moe. series, Dick’s Picks. I think that if someone was looking for any release from the jamband genre this would be the place to go. I flipped through the selections, but didn’t find anything I was interested in. I looked briefly at the Infrared Roses CD that was in the used bin. Infrared Roses is a mashup of a whole bunch of performances of “Dark Star.” I also noted that they had a copy of the Traveling Wilburys Three CD for $7.99. I guess the release of the box set last year really dropped the bottom out of the used market on Traveling Wilburys– I remember seeing copies of the first CD going for over $100! The owner of the place spent the entire time I was in there dealing with some personal issue involving a relative who was freaked out about either moving into a new apartment or getting new neighbors.

From there I ventured over to Disk Replay (13 Golf Center, Hoffman Estates, IL). Disk Replay is a chain used CD/DVD/video game store. There are 4 or 5 in the Chicagoland area. They have a very large DVD selection and two sizable rows of tables of CD’s. The selection was pretty good. Lots of duplicates. They have a “buy three get one free” deal which I took advantage of.

Grant Lee Buffalo – Jubilee (CD, Slash/Warner Bros. 468789-2, 1998) ($4.99) Gold-stamped label promo. I still consider Mighty Joe Moon one of my favorite 90’s albums. I especially loved “Lone Star Song.” I own Moon and Fuzzy. I’ve never heard Jubilee, so I’m looking forward to hearing this. Apparently I only need Copperopolis and I have all of the releases. Jubilee is produced by Paul Fox, who did some great work with 10,000 Maniacs. Helping out on the album are Michael Stipe, Robyn Hitchcock and E. Jon Brion contributes vibes to the album as well.

Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense – Special New Edition (CD, Sire/Warner Bros. 47489-2, 1999) ($7.99) I own most of the Talking Heads releases. I purchased most of them back in the early 90’s, but never bought Stop Making Sense on CD. Frankly, it kind of annoyed me that the original release was a very abbreviated version with only nine of the 16 songs from the movie. I made a cassette of the video tape a long time ago and that was the version that I listened to years ago. It’s great to have this at last.

Reminder – Continuum (CD, Eastern Developments Music EDM 013, 2006) ($3.99) This is why I love to dig through Chicago used bins! Reminder is the side project of Thrill Jockey friend Josh Abrams. I mentioned Reminder’s new EP in B-Sides in the Bins #15. Josh has some help on a couple of tracks from Nicole Mitchell of Thrill Jockey band Frequency. The track “Terradactyl Town” is credited as a remix of “Toy Boat” from Jeff Parker’s amazing solo album The Relatives. Very good cut-and-pastish album. Considering the Jazz bass work Josh does for other artists, it’s interesting to hear such a departure.

Nellie McKay – Get Away From Me (2 CD, Columbia C2K 90664, 2004) ($0.00) This was my “free” CD from purchasing the other three titles. It was sitting in the bin for $2.99! The case and CD’s are in perfect condition. Who knows why it was so cheap! Nellie’s first album. On Columbia, produced by the incomparable Goeff Emerick. This is the album that started it all. Jumps around stylistically from Rap to lush pop a la Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Probably regarded as her best effort, but time will tell. The clock is ticking for the show we’re seeing in Minneapolis. I’m very excited to see her!

I had hoped to spend another day in Chicago, but Saturday nights storms moving to Chicago had us worried about the road conditions so we headed back to Cedar Rapids rather than chance getting stuck in Chicago.

“This ain’t no Mudd Club, or CBGB’s…“