Killed Me

Soul diva Bettye in action. You Don't Know Me At All opens with the biggest blues cliché imaginable, but hang on a sec: things will get better. "You took my breath away, now I want it back..." Now we're talking.

Bettye LaVette - You Don't Know Me At All

Say It Again

Soul survivor Bettye sings Bob. Her brand new Things Have Changed, produced by Keef sidekick Steve Jordan, is a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. The rollicking title track and the funky, New Orleans-flavoured beauty below - say hi to Trombone Shorty - sure are hot stuff though.

Bettye LaVette - What Was It You Wanted

Round The Corner

I'll be away from my desk for a week or so, but I'll leave you with this old fashioned ten pack. After all: "I'm just a soldier, fighting the sorrow..."

James Taylor - Soldiers
Neil Young - Soldier
Bob Dylan - Mary And The Soldier
Calvin Russell - Soldier
Palace Music - The Weaker Soldier
Arthur Alexander - Soldier Of Love
Bettye Lavette - Talking Old Soldiers
Jah Lloyd & King Tubby - Soldier Round The Corner
Spizz Energi - Soldier Soldier
Renzoku Shasatsuma - I Don't Want To be A Soldier

Wild Weekend Vol. 62

A not-so-sunny Sunday brings us edition 62 of Wild Weekend, which this time around features two brand new acts, a reggae classic complete with mondegreen, and a lost lofi Dutchman to boot. Is that wild or what?

Gonna start with the gorgeous Bettye LaVette though, as I just bought a much recommended collection of the soul diva's late sixties Memphis recordings with the Dixie Flyers. Thirteen songs and not a dud between them, with We Got To Slip Around my current fave. "You've got another woman, and I've got another man..." To think it wasn't even released at the time, because the version by its author Charles Hodges utilized the same backing track. Roots reggae up next. A good friend asked me recently if I was familiar with Max Romeo's War Ina Babylon album. The answer was a clear yes of course, as I've treasured that Lee Perry produced classic more or less since it came out in the year of our Jah 1976. This pal also told me that when he was young, he always thought Maxi sang "I'm gonna put on an Ajax shirt" in I Chase The Devil. And that's a mondegreen that even puts Hendrix's "Scuse me while I kiss this guy" to shame...

Bettye LaVette - We Gotta Slip Around MP3

Max Romeo & The Upsetters - I Chase The Devil MP3

Two new bands up now, as it's certainly not all old, mothbally stuff around here. The Zermatts hail from smoggy LA, do the lofi pop thing, and use a cool organ to boot. Ramshackle and fun, so worth keeping an eye on I'd say. God bless, you guys. Mount Moriah from North Carolina stumble around in Americana territory, and they do it well. They have a fine singer in Heather McEntire, plus a guitar player who definitely treasures some Crazy Horse and Allmans in his record collection. And since they proclaim in the lovely Only Way Out that "the only way to love something is to give it away...", here you go.

The Zermatts - The Babes In The Woods MP3

Mount Moriah - Only Way Out MP3

Most bands from the noisy Amphetamine Reptile records stable always sounded a bit the same to me, but I make an exception for the Cows. They certainly were loud and uncompromising, too, but used a certain neurotic weirdness to differentiate themselves from the pack. Try their ingeniously titled Cunning Stunts album from '92 to see what I mean and don't look back. And it's closing time with someone who once was the lofi pride of Holland: Joost Visser. He made headway with De Artsen, but missed out when the rest of that band hit the big time with Bettie Serveert. Visser soon made a rather uneven solo album, on which highlights like Fingers In The Wind were promising to say the least, but it seems he has withdrawn from music altogether since then. Come on man, it's comeback time already.

Cows - Heave Ho MP3

Joost Visser - Fingers In The Wind MP3

Wild Weekend Vol. 44

Welcome to Wild Weekend #44, the all-women edition. Why, I dunno. Just is. Just enjoy. On this week´s menu: soul, lofi, more soul, country, folk, and flamenco. Have a wild one.

First we´ll visit The Scene Of The Crime, soul veteran Bettye LaVette´s red hot ´07 collaboration with the Drive-By Truckers. Exhibit A: the Lavette/Patterson Hood composition Before The Money Came, a fingerlickin´ good autobiographical barroom stomper. "I was singing R&B back in ’62, before you were born and your mama too..." And to ring in the festive season in style, let´s pass the mic to the lovely Cynthia Dall, once prominently on stage in a vintage wedding dress with Smog. Quite a sight, I remember well. You can hear Smog mastermind Bill Callahan, her then-boyfriend, on guitar here btw.

Bettye LaVette - Before The Money Came (The Battle Of Bettye LaVette) MP3

Cynthia Dall - Christmas (California) MP3

More soul: everybody knows Piece Of My Heart as one of Janis Joplin´s signature tunes with Big Brother & The Holding Company, but Aretha´s older sister Erma sang it first. Written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, it wasn´t that big a hit when first released back in ´67. Strange, as that pumpin´ piano alone is worth the price of admission. But Erma found justice a decade or three later, when her Piece Of My Heart finally topped the charts on the back of a jeans commercial. Next we´re moving firmly into country territory with the incomparable Tammy Wynette, who´s on a journey to the wilder side of life here. Seeing her live in concert once, mainly singing from a barstool, and with a dress change between almost every other song, is something I still remember fondly. "If you like ´em painted up, powdered up, then you ought to be glad, because your good girl´s gonna go bad..."

Erma Franklin - Piece Of My Heart MP3

Tammy Wynette - Your Good Girl´s Gonna Go Bad MP3

"Hurting like a woman and crying like a baby..." Or: another original of a song interpreted so well by Bonnie Prince Billy and Tortoise on their The Brave And The Bold covers collection. Don´t think Melanie Safka is all Lay Down and Candles In The Rain and stuff, she could carry intense teenage pregnancy psychodramas like Some Say (I Got Devil) to perfection as well. Heavy stuff. And it´s bye bye and adios for now with some hotblooded flamenco puro from one of the Mujerez. Presenting Dolores Agujeta, a hell of a singer from a famous Jerez De La Frontera flamenco dynasty. ¡Agua!

Melanie - Some Say (I Got Devil) MP3

Dolores Agujeta - Llévame Contigo MP3