It's the day of the Champions League final, so it sure is gonna be a mad Wild Weekend. While waiting for the kick-off in nervous anticipation, let's get down with edition #61. Spotlight on the soul of Raw Spitt and the swamp rock of the Scientists, while we've got the Blind Owl blues and listen to a reggae psalm. Make it a wild one, y'all, and don't forget: ¡Visca el Barça y visca Catalunya!
Let's get into the groove with a guy who called himself Raw Spitt. Can't go wrong with a moniker like that, right? Try his very soulful anti-Vietnam scorcher Songs To Sing from '71, and join me in wondering why this protégé of the mighty Swamp Dogg never hit the big time. Time for some bible studies now, with the one and only Prince Far I. Nearly everything the Jamaican voice of thunder put out in his long career gets me in an irie spirit, but his '76 debut Psalms For I, lyrically based on the old testament psalms and the Lord's prayer, is probably most precious of all. "Wake out of your slumber and answer your call..." Pray on.
Raw Spitt - Songs To Sing MP3
Prince Far I - Psalm 1 MP3
John Fahey's the man alright, so when one Sean Siegfried sent me a link to his
Bandcamp page telling me he was heavily inspired by the steel string acoustic guitar pioneer from DC I was all ears. As you should be, too, because the guitar instrumentals on Siegfried's debut album
Backwoods are - to say the least - very promising indeed. Pick it. The North Mississippi Allstars are the sons of legendary Memphis producer and session player
James Luther Dickinson, and for that reason alone they can do no wrong in my book. Here they are now, serenading last week's birthday boy from Duluth. The understated arrangement was suggested to Luther and Cody Dickinson by their dad from his hospital bed, only shortly before he died. Postscript: for a labour of love containing seventy (!) more fab Dylan covers, go visit the
Boogie Woogie Flu.
Sean Siegfried - Sam's Brewery MP3
North Mississippi Allstars - Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again MP3
Antipodean rockers the Scientists were grunge precursors both in sound and looks. They recorded many a great song in their early eighties heydays, but Swampland just has to be the best of them all. "In my heart there's a place called swampland... nine parts water, one part sand." No worries, mateys. And we call it a day paying tribute to Alan 'Blind Owl' Wilson (1943-1970). Never mind Bob 'The Bear' Hite, Wilson always was my fave vocalist in Canned Heat. Check out the groovin' Change My Ways, in which he sounds a likely successor to the throne of Skip James, to see what I mean. "I've been alone so long, got to change my ways..."
The Scientists - Swampland MP3
Canned Heat - Change My Ways MP3
And as a stop press bonus track, here's the wonderful Gil Scott-Heron. Just received the sad news that he died yesterday. Miss him.
Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day And John Coltrane MP3
