Have You Seen

A bit underwhelming, this new volume of Bob's Bootleg Series. Has a lot to do with the incredible riches of previous installments of course. Most of the charming sessions with Johnny Cash have been circulating for a long time already, and the alternate takes from John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline are nice to have but not really that special. Still, there are plenty nuggets to be found here, like this previously unknown outtake from the Nashville Skyline sessions.

Bob Dylan - Western Road (take 1)

Still Worth Doing

Down here at FTSOTS headquarters we completely agree with Kris Kristofferson's maybe not very subtle but most definitely heartfelt motto: if you don't like Hank Williams, buddy, you can kiss my ass. Which is precisely why we present these honest homages to the Hillbilly Shakespeare this fine Monday. "We never met I know and yet I know you well my friend, and if ever I get to heaven on high I hope you'll shake my hand..." Amen to that.

Kris Kristofferson - If You Don't Like Hank Williams
Moe Bandy - Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life
Jimmy Murphy - I Long To Hear Hank Sing The Blues
Stoney Edwards - Hank And Lefty Raised My Country Soul
Freddie Hart - Hank Williams' Guitar
Tim Hardin - Tribute To Hank Williams
Mark Chesnutt & George Jones - Talking To Hank
Waylon Jennings - Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way
Johnny Cash - The Night Hank Williams Came To Town
Ry Cooder - Hank Williams

Wild Weekend Vol. 57

It's here, it's now. Wild Weekend, edition 57. Featuring tropical afro funk, ancient blues, and obscure nineties indierock. Plus uncle Bob. How do you like it now? Have a wild one.

Alright ladies and gentlemen, let's kick off with a piping hot piece of afro funk courtesy of the wonderfully named Atomic Bomb Zigoto from (I think) Ghana. Their recipe is simple: find the groove as soon as possible, then stay in it. Effortlessly. Call? Answer! Cream on the cake: that screeching Ornette sax near the end. Find it on an extremely hot West African funk compilation called Booniay!! Let's go way back now, with an inspired piano blues from the delta by Louise Johnson - who wasn't related to Robert, Tommy, Lonnie or Blind Willie as far as I know. Recorded in 1930, and featuring a veritable all-star cast: you can hear Son House, Charley Patton & Willie Brown egging her on in the background. "Lord, I'm gon' get drunk and I'm gon' walk these streets all night, 'cause the man I'm lovin', I swear he sure don't treat me right..." You go girl.

Atomic Bomb Zigoto - Menyeckse MP3

Louise Johnson - All Night Long Blues MP3

More or less forgotten indie rock bands from the nineties, I could fill a whole blog with them if I felt so inclined. Rest assured, I don't, but it's fun to dig up the odd dusty gem every once in a while. This week we're grooving to Chi for instance, a poppy track by a long gone eastcoast combo called Caterpillar. And ok, here's one more now that I'm in the mood. How about a decidedly weirdly titled piece of sonic mayhem by San Diego scenesters Truman's Water? Their Of Thick Tum album ('92) has stood the test of time remarkably well. I vaguely recall a glorious mess of a live show, and wonder what happened to them.

Caterpillar - Chi MP3

Truman's Water - Wing Spread Wide I Thot "Ignition" MP3

Ever thought you'd hear what's more or less a companion song to Dylan's Mozambique? Thanks to Balthazar B And The Beatitudes you can now. Balthazar, a Brit residing in gay Paree, will release his debut ep Like Shrapnel this week; go here tout suite if you dig their charming tribute to the beautiful island of Madagascar. And we'll go out country style - of sorts - with the master himself, and his heartfelt tribute to old pal Johnny Cash. "Ever so often everybody's baby gets the urge to roam, everybody's baby but mine's coming home..."

Balthazar B And The Beatitudes - Madagascar MP3

Bob Dylan - Train Of Love MP3

Country Laureates

"That´s when they hung my name, in the fool´s hall of fame..." Country trivia fact of the week: only five performers were inducted into three Halls of Fame: the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Here´s a classic song by each.

Jimmie Rodgers - Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues) MP3

Hank Williams - My Son Calls Another Man Daddy MP3

Bob Wills - Time Changes Everything MP3

Bill Monroe - I´m Going Back To Old Kentucky MP3

Johnny Cash - Fools Hall Of Fame MP3

The Good Book

I´ve got a confession to make: I´m studying a part of the bible at the moment. Don´t be afraid; I haven´t been born again. Far from it. Only last week I forcefully expelled some stubborn evangelists from my doorstep. But hey, they didn´t bring the gospel according to Robert Crumb.

When Crumb is on the ball, I´m always game. And in his version of the Book Of Genesis, which just happens to be an already interesting collection of stories in the first place, his drawings are as marvellous as ever. His vivid depictions of the life and times of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and all their kin really enrich the reading experience.

I had expected Crumb´s God to slightly resemble his famous Mr. Natural character, but except for the long flowing beard he doesn´t. Crumb shows a lot of respect for and stays close to the original texts of the first bible book and never comes across anywhere as even remotely blasphemous. He permits himself only one small liberty: all the women pictured, Eve included, are ´comely in features´. Which means they have these big butts and nipples sticking out that the icon of underground comics has always been famous for...

Repent and buy this book forthwith, readers. And lest I forget, here´s a fitting biblical six pack soundtrack of sorts for all you sinners out there.

Bogus Ben Covington - Adam And Eve In The Garden MP3

Sly & The Revolutionaries - Genesis 1:11 MP3

Johnny Cash - God´s Gonna Cut You Down MP3

Monster Magnet - Spine Of God MP3

Bingo Trappers - God´s Biographer MP3

Mountain Goats - Genesis 3:23 MP3

Wild Weekend Vol. 9

Number 9, number 9, number 9... It´s Wild Weekend time again. Musical revolution. As an alternative to all them discjockey types polluting the airwaves out there, we´ve got the iPod on shuffle. Once more it spins an eclectic six pack of tunes for the music-hungry masses, so tune in. This just might be on your wavelength.

Have been playing a lot of Kristofferson lately. So it´s only fitting that the ghost in the machine picked one of his classic songs to start off this edition. To Beat The Devil, featuring a spoken intro dedicated to his mentor Johnny Cash, gives some sound advice to all you aspiring songwriters out there. "I ain't sayin' I beat the devil, but I drank his beer for nothing... then I stole his song." Which is followed by another songsmith par excellence, mister Tom Waits, who meets Bette Midler in a bar somewhere. Says Bette: "Your life's a dimestore novel, this town is full of guys like you..." Mutters Tom: "Ain´t that cold..." Red coincidence alert: both songs feature the line "you´ve been reading my mail". Spooky that.

Kris Kristofferson - To Beat The Devil MP3

Tom Waits - I Never Talk To Strangers MP3

Up next is a track from a cd I bought only last week: Keith Hudson´s Brand, aka The Joint. Originally from ´77, and finally re-released on the mighty Pressure Sounds label a couple of years ago, it´s one of them hard-hitting dub classics I never get tired of. Turn it up. Some typical eighties industrial postpunk up next: Adi Newton and his Clock DVA. Dark stuff from Advantage (´83), with a funky bass and screeching horns. Stood the test of time surprisingly well.

Keith Hudson - Image Dub MP3

Clock DVA - Beautiful Losers MP3

"Just a little lovin', early in the morning, that little extra something, to kinda see them through..." Some good advice from Dusty Springfield, from the still utterly amazing Dusty In Memphis. Best soul album ever to be sung by whitey, hands down. Having the Memphis Cats as her backing band and Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin in the producer´s chairs certainly helped of course. And we call it a day with the dream pairing of tenor greats Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. Here they tackle Duke Ellington´s Don´t Get Around Much Anymore in grand style.

Dusty Springfield - Just A Little Lovin´ MP3

Coleman Hawkins & Ben Webster - Don´t Get Around Much Anymore MP3

Every Sound Goes Quiet

"I only feel the grasp of his sweatin´ hand. Everything ´round me loses importance. Every sound goes quiet."

That´s Glen Sherley talking, in I See A Darkness, the amazing biography of Johnny Cash in graphic novel form. It may seem a little weird that it took a guy from Germany to cook this up, but Reinhard Kleist proves he sure was the right man for the job. He´s obviously a fan, has a fine drawing style, and knows how to make up a storyboard.

Kleist depicts the turbulent life and times of the Man In Black through the eyes of Sherley, an aspiring songwriter doing time for armed robbery at the infamous Folsom prison in the days that Johnny Cash played for the inmates there. An event that would be recorded to try and revive a somewhat sagging career.

When he got word that Cash was coming to his penitentiary to entertain the prisoners, Sherley managed to smuggle out a tape with one of his songs, aided by the prison minister. Cash heard Greystone Chapel only a day before the gig was to take place, but was impressed enough to learn it quickly, so he could use it at the two shows he would play on January 13, 1968. He ended both sets with it.

"There's a greystone chapel here at Folsom,

A house of worship in this den of sin...

You wouldn't think that God had a place here at Folsom,

But he saved the soul of many lost men..."

In an interview with Life magazine, Cash would later remark: "The night before I was going to record at Folsom prison, I got to the motel and a preacher friend of mine brought me a tape of a song called Greystone Chapel. He said a convict had written it about the chapel at Folsom. I listened to it one time and I said, "I've got to do this in the show tomorrow." So I stayed up and learned it, and the next day the preacher had him in the front row. I announced, "This song was written by Glen Sherley." It was a terrible, terrible thing to point him out among all those cons, but I didn't think about that then. Everybody just had a fit, screaming and carrying on."

"Now there's a greystone chapel here at Folsom,
Stands a hundred years all made of granite rock,

It takes a ring of keys to move here at Folsom,

But the door to the house of God is never locked..."

Later country singer Eddy Arnold would cover one of Sherley´s songs as well. And the man himself, by that time transferred to Vacaville prison, recorded a pretty good live album while still behind bars. Of course, it featured a rendition of Greystone Chapel. When he finally became a free man, he went to work for House Of Cash, Johnny´s publishing company. He was eventually kicked out because of bad behaviour - even Cash himself was a bit afraid of him, and I guess that´s saying something. Sherley ended up living out of his car, working for a cattle company. He fatally shot himself in ´78. "Inside the walls of prison my body may be, but the Lord has set my soul free..."

Johnny Cash - Greystone Chapel MP3

Glen Sherley - Greystone Chapel MP3

Behind bars

Read an amazing news article yesterday. A recent study said that one in every 100 Americans are currently in jail. There are 230 million adults living in the Land of the Free, and 2.32 million of them are behind bars. For some groups this percentage is even higher: every one in 36 adults with a Hispanic background is doing time, and one in 15 black adults. Even worse: one in 9 black men between the ages of 20 and 34 are locked up as we speak. Staggering figures, right? Makes you think. But don´t worry, as a European I´m not going to judge. I´ll just play you some songs about life in prison...

Picking a Johnny Cash song wasn´t easy, as the man in black did quite a few jail songs in his time (and performed some legendary gigs in the slammer as well). I finally chose Doin´My Time, a Sun recording from the Walking The Line-box (Union Square). "They call me by a number not a name". Gregory Isaacs, the Jamaican nightingale, knows what it is to do time. Jailer Jailer Bring Me Water is from Extra Classic (´78). I have to do a post dedicated to The Mississippi Sheiks soon, as they never cease to amaze me. Jail Bird Love Song is to be found on the excellent Stop And Listen compilation (Yazoo). Choosing between Merle Haggard´s Mama Tried and Sing Me Back Home simply proved too hard. So you´ll get both; find them on The Lonesome Fugitive Anthology (Razor & Tie). I Fought The Law was made famous by the Bobby Fuller Four, but The Clash made it their own in ´78 on their The Cost Of Living ep. It was also added to the U.S. version of their classic debut album. The Blue Sky Boys are one of those classic country brother teams you often find me raving about in these pages. "I will scrub all your floors, I will wash all your clothes, if that will get my baby out of jail..." Hunt down the out of print Are You From Dixie? Great Country Brother Teams Of The 1930´s (RCA) for this gem.

Johnny Cash - Doin´ My Time MP3

Gregory Isaacs - Jailer Jailer Bring Me Water MP3

Mississippi Sheiks - Jail Bird Love Song MP3

Merle Haggard - Sing Me Back Home MP3

Merle Haggard - Mama Tried MP3

The Clash - I Fought The Law MP3

Blue Sky Boys - I´m Just Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail MP3

Grab this bag!

Friday means grab bag time in this neck of the woods. So here we go again with six great songs that caught my ear this week. Got some early punk, some pubrock, and some neo-country from Nashville. Also there´s room for roots reggae, an oldie from the Mountain Goats and Mr. Johnny Cash... What else could you possibly need?

Let´s start with Richard Hell & The Voidoids. Hell was one of the visionaries of New York´s CBGB´s scene. He played in the first line-ups of the Heartbreakers and Television, invented the ripped t-shirt look along the way and made a name for himself with the classic album Blank Generation. "And when I want to write a song that says it all at once..." That´s the late great Robert Quine on guitar btw. You can find it on the Time compilation (Matador records).

Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Time MP3

Here´s a brand new song for you. Spiritual Family Reunion have just released an album called Goodbye Ceremony on Tract Records, a label to watch. They operate out of Nashville, have former Calexico and Silver Jews members among them, and I think Coral Reef sounds mighty fine.

Spiritual Family Reunion - Coral Reef MP3

I´ve been a fan of the Mountain Goats ever since they released Beautiful Rat Sunset way back when on the wonderful Shrimper label. For my money head-Goat John Darnielle is among the most original songwriters working today. The new album Heretic Pride hasn´t reached me yet, so we´ll make do with an oldie. There Will Always Be An Ireland is from the Jack & Faye ep, which never came out as the label that was supposed to release it went belly-up just a little too soon. Shame.

Mountain Goats - There Will Always be An Ireland MP3

Roots reggae time. Max Romeo is best known for his Lee Perry produced War In A Babylon album, but he released many more amazing sides in the seventies. Check out Valley Of Jehosaphat/Version for example, from the excellent compilation Open The Iron Gate (Blood & Fire). Red hot indeed.

Max Romeo - Valley Of Jehosaphat/Version MP3

Dr. Feelgood was the archetypical pubrock band. They set any venue on fire in ten minutes flat with their no-nonsense mentality. Milk and alcohol: a great diet. You can find it on the Singles - The U.A. Years compilation. This one´s dedicated to my brother in law by the way, who has seen them live more times than I´d like to count.

Dr. Feelgood - Milk And Alcohol MP3

And last but not least here´s Mr. Johnny Cash. Need I say more? "For on the wall there appeared a hand..." He´s best when biblical. From the extremely nicely priced but excellent 3 cd box Walking The Line, The Legendary Sun Recordings (Union Square).

Johnny Cash - Belshazzar MP3

Spiritual stuff

Embroidering on yesterday´s Jesus Dread thingy, here are three versions of a song called Spiritual. A dark, soulsearching, brooding plea to a saviour. Now I´m an atheist myself, but that doesn´t stop me from enjoying songs with a religious theme. Same as I can walk into a grand cathedral (or a beautiful Hindu temple) and admire the art and the atmosphere there, or read a chapter in the bible (or the Buddhist teachings) and enjoy its literary merits, music based on faith can warm the hart whether you believe or not.

Spiritual is a moodpiece of the highest order, written in 1995 by Josh Haden for Spain´s debut album The Blue Moods Of Spain. "Jesus oh Jesus I don´t want to die alone, Jesus if you hear my last breath, don´t leave me here, left to die a lonely death I know I have sinned but Lord I´m suffering..." A song more or less made for someone like Johnny Cash, who covered it on Unchained (´96). Cash can sing the Memphis phonebook and I´d buy it, but I guess his age and rep gives this interpretation just that little bit extra. Nice sparse arrangement too. The Soulsavers (featuring singer Mark Lanegan, formerly of the Screaming Trees) also did a worthy version of this song on last year´s surprising It´s Not How Far You Fall, It´s The Way You Land. You can´t get much more atmospheric I guess. More on the Soulsavers and Lanegan in the next post btw, folks. I really can´t decide which version of the three I like most, so please post a comment if you have a preference and why ok?

Spain - Spiritual MP3

Johnny Cash - Spiritual MP3

Soulsavers - Spiritual Mp3