Put Them In A Bottle

"Send them out to sea..." A ten pack for dream weavers only.

Nico - Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
Witch - Strange Dream
Green On Red - That's What Dreams Are Made For
Pauline Murray & The Invisible Girls - Dream Sequence 1

Arab Strap - Dream Sequence

Suicide - Dream Baby Dream

Cornershop - England's Dreaming
Bunny Wailer - Dream Land
Robin Luke - You Can't Stop me From Dreaming
Cannonball Adderley & John Coltrane - You're A Weaver Of Dreams

Big Deal

Today, Randall Stuart Newman is 69. This from the liner notes to his sardonic masterpiece Sail Away: "While I don't have any belief in religion - far from it - I am interested in it. It's a gigantic idea. It's the biggest hit in history - the invention of God, because you know you're going to die. That's my very clinical assessment of it. And so I'm interested in the subject and have written about it a number of times. It's a big deal in the life of the world." Many happy returns, maestro.

Randy Newman - God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)
Randy Newman - He Gives Us All His Love

De Lisboa Antiga

Ser Fadista, or: being a fado singer. Adelina Fernandes sure was a great one. Got that special feeling they call saudade down pat. A Portuguese gem dating back to 1928.

Adelina Fernandes - Ser Fadista

Hee Haw

Some good news for all you Hiss Golden Messenger lovers out there. In an interesting recent interview with No Depression magazine, HGM foreman MC Taylor says that a new album, to be called Haw, is in the can and will be out next spring. Can't wait? The renowned New York Taper recorded their two gigs at Raleigh's Hopscotch Festival last September: go here and here to listen. Tasty little teaser below.

Hiss Golden Messenger - Red Rose Nantahala (live)

In the same interview, Taylor positively raves about the pastoral lofi Americana of one Joe O'Connell, the brains behind little-known Elephant Micah. I can see where he comes from. Loon calls of rare beauty indeed.

Elephant Micah - Tin Foil Continent
Elephant Micah - Loon Call

Give Thanks

Wanna drool? Then check out the quite unbelievable line-up of 1957's Thanksgiving Concert in New York's famous Carnegie Hall. At this fundraiser for the Morningside Community Center in Harlem, the Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Chet Baker with the Zoot Sims Quartet, and Sonny Rollins all appeared. The most expensive tickets were priced $3,95. Those were the days, huh? Monk & Trane sure were in fine form that night by the way. Here's proof.

Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane - Evidence

Do Your Part

Great but more or less forgotten soul singers, can't get enough of 'em. Thanks to quality labour-of-love label the Numero Group, I just discovered another one: Miami soul diva Helene Smith. "Make this good thing last..."

Helene Smith - You Got To Do Your Share
Helene Smith - Willing & Able

So Alone

Some days, all you need is Monk, alone behind the piano. Q.E.D.

Thelonious Monk - Memories Of You
Thelonious Monk - I Hadn't Anyone Till You

Ladies First

This one goes out to all you lovely ladies out there.
Always wanted to say that.

Kevin Coyne - Eastbourne Ladies

Rock City - Lovely Lady

Kevin Ayers - The Lady Rachel
Gene Clark - Lady Of The North
Judee Sill - Lady-O
Townes Van Zandt - Many A Fine Lady

Leon Russell - Delta Lady
Billie Holiday - Lady Sings The Blues

Stan Kenton - My Lady

Throbbing Gristle - Hamburger Lady

Jerez Cheers

Recorded as a homage to Jerez culture, this recent flamenco release is the real deal alright. Master singers of the genre as El Torta, Agujetas, and Capullo De Jerez sing their hearts out in various hotblooded combinations, accompanied by such six-string virtuosi as Diego Del Morao and Barullito. And in case you were wondering: V.O.R.S. stands for Very Old Rare Sherry. ¡Salud!

Manuel Agujetas con Manuel Valencia - Fandangos
Manuel Moneo con Barullito - Soleá

Mr. Rain

Ideal for a lazy Sunday morning like this one: a delightful instrumental from Michael Chapman's '69 debut Rainmaker. Why this guy never really made the big leagues is beyond me.

Michael Chapman - Sunday Morning

Dragging My Feet

Joni meets Joanna? I know such comparisons are lazy, but it honestly was the first thing that came to mind when listening to the autumnal beauty of Night Faces by San Francisco newcomer Jessica Pratt. Out now, buy it on the White Fence-related Birth Records.

Jessica Pratt - Night Faces

Look Bright

A subtle blues by the Rising Sons, the commercially unsuccesful '64 combo that gave both Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal their first shot at stardom. Needless to say, both shine here. "Can't get to Natchez, they tell me there's high water there..."

Rising Sons - By And Bye (Poor Me)

Bitterness And Pride

Meet a bitter Peter Hammill, from a Peel session recorded around the time his intense divorce album Over came out. "I don't give a damn anymore, I've only wound up betrayed..."

Peter Hammill - Betrayed

Glowing Glyphs

It's not often that a song inspires a graphic novel as far as I know, but the stoner sludge of Thee Hypnotics really was instrumental in the making of Paul Pope's trippy, futuristic masterpiece Heavy Liquid. Says Pope in the  afterword: "I drove across America that summer, across the orange desert and the straw-yellow plain states, passing barns and gas stations and glowing glyphs on the nighttime horizons, listening to this track over and over and over again..."

Thee Hypnotics - Heavy Liquid

Cover Story

Six pack time, inna cover stylee. Just some ole personal faves is all. Codeine dissects Joy Division, the Beasts Of Bourbon take on Eddie Noack, and Bob Mould & Vic Chessnut join up to tackle Gram Parsons. The other Elvis runs away with a Bacharach/David classic, Magazine visits the Captain, while the Mo-dettes go and get stoned. Don't forget to buy some albums if you like what you hear ok?

Codeine - Atmosphere
Beasts Of Bourbon - Psycho
Bob Mould & Vic Chessnut - Hickory Wind
Elvis Costello - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself (live)
Magazine - I Love You, You Big Dummy
Mo-dettes - Paint It Black