Grab bag fiesta

Friday night again, so here´s the usual grab bag fiesta for you. What´s the big deal tonight? Well, we´ll take a short look at FC Barcelona´s past, present and future, accompanied by some cool tunes. Stax soul from Sam & Dave, or early Dutch punkrock from Ivy Green anyone? Got some country from the late Eddy Arnold too, and there´s Jimmie Dale Gilmore for all you Flatlanders fans out there. Plus two versions of the song I Had A Good Father And Mother... or was that the other way around? We´ll see.

Last Thursday I was minding my own business when I suddenly received a text message telling me that coach Frank Rijkaard will leave my beloved FC Barcelona at the end of this season. You could see it coming, as the results haven´t been too good this year, but I´ll still miss the guy. Rijkaard is a real gentleman, the likes of which you don´t often encounter on a football pitch these days. Frank, thanks a million for two Spanish league titles and of course for that incredible high which was the Champions League victory. And for many, many games of beautiful football I´ve witnessed in the Camp Nou during your reign. This song´s for you.

Sam & Dave - I Thank You MP3

Frank´s successor has already been chosen, and I think it´s a wise move. Josep ´Pep´ Guardiola is a child of the club, which in my opinion suits Barça much better than an outsider such as loudmouth Jose Mourinho, who was also said to be in the running. Lots of luck Pep! This song´s for you. Make us blaugrana proud next season...

Ivy Green - I´m Sure We´re Gonna Make It MP3

Last Friday I posted a song here by Washington Phillips, and here I go again. Yup, I´m really enjoying his album The Key To The Kingdom (Yazoo) at the moment. Gospelblues to die for, check it out. I especially like his song I Had A Good Father And Mother, as I already knew the cover the Palace Brothers did on their fabulous debut There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You (Drag City´93). Don´t know why brother Will Oldham - currently known as Bonnie Prince Billy of course - switched the mother and the father around though. Strange.

Washington Phillips - I Had A Good Father And Mother MP3

Palace Brothers - I Had A Good Mother And Father MP3

Country crooner Eddie Arnold died yesterday, and that´s a drag, even though the Country Music Hall Of Famer was a respectable 89. Arnold sold more than 85 million recordings over seven decades, and that´s no mean feat. Nice trivia fact: Colonel Tom Parker managed Arnold before he got his hands on Elvis. Some of his stuff is a little too slick for my taste, but you can´t go wrong with a Greatest Hits collection of the Tennessee Plowboy.

Eddy Arnold - You Don´t Know me MP3

As I was reading To Live´s To Fly, the Townes Van Zandt biography (see my post below) I stumbled upon the weird fact that my favourite singer/songwriter once auditioned for the 13th Floor Elevators. Roky Erickson, fellow Texan and all-around weirdo, was Van Zandt´s roommate for a while, sleeping on a makeshift bed made from stacks of albums from Townes´ prized record collection. Now Roky was desperately looking for a bassist for the Elevators and asked Townes, who´d never played the instrument before in his life. At the audition Elevator Tommy Hall was so unimpressed with Townes that the idea was instantly canned... A strange but true story. Here´s some Roky from the slightly underrated All That May Do My Rhyme album (Trance Syndicate ´94).

Roky Erickson - You Don´t Love Me Yet MP3

Let´s call it quits tonight with some tracks by West-Texas guitarist Jimmie Dale Gilmore, as a lot of you wrote in to thank me for plugging the Flatlanders here. Please keep them comments coming folks! There´s two great cd´s of Gilmore that I´d like to bring to your attention. The first one is called Don´t Look For A Heartache (Hightone ´04) and compiles the highlights of his first two albums from the late eighties. Great honky tonkin´stuff. But on After Awhile (Elektra Nonesuch ´91) he really found his voice, mining the singer/songwriters vein. Just listen to the beautiful Midnight Train to see what I mean.

Jimmie Dale Gilmore - See The Way MP3

Jimmie Dale Gilmore - Midnight Train MP3