Morning Soup

Morning Soup for 31 Dec 2011 (Best of 2011 Show)

noreply@blogger.com (Doug) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:38:19 PST

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NOTES ON THE SHOW

Well, I did my best to ruin the show but I think the music saved it. As you can probably hear, I'm just getting over a cold. Plus I was definitely just flailing around on-mic some of the time -- please don't count the number of times I say "terrific" when talking about Gillian Welch at the end of the show.

But I think it came out alright and could even bear listening to a few times. All told, I think it was a pretty good year for music, at least the kind of music played on this show. I have to admit, the Song of the Year kind of came out of the blue -- I really don't know much about Old 97's even though they've been around for a long time. Definitely a band worth looking into.

Happy New Year!

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Morning Soup for 28 May 2011 (Gil Scott-Heron music)

noreply@blogger.com (Doug) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:23:56 PST

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NOTES ON THE SHOW

Here's what happened with this show -- as I mention on the program, the show was pre-recorded because the studio was closed for the Memorial Day weekend. I had the show all set up by Friday afternoon for webcast on Saturday morning. That evening I went to a Boston Bruins playoff hockey game thanks to my friend Charlie. (It was actually the amazing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, in which the Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0.) While the game was going on we got the news via Twitter that Gil Scott-Heron had died.

It was too late to re-record the show's mic breaks to acknowledge the news, so the best I could do was revise the playlist to include some favorite Gil Scott-Heron songs, and hope that people would understand why his music was being featured. I try to have a certain "flow" to the show and making these changes kind of messed everything up, but there was no other way to do it.

By sheer coincidence, I had written a little about Gil Scott-Heron on this site a few shows ago.

As I say on the show, next Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of the death of musician John Hartford. He was one of my very favorites, so next Saturday's show will feature his music.

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Morning Soup for 21 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Doug) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:23:38 PST

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NOTES ON THE SHOW

This show features a really nice new Bob Dylan tribute album (released on the eve of his 70th birthday) -- the tracks by John Gorka, Guy Davis, Pieta Brown, and The Pines are from that CD. There's also a great live recording of one of Levon Helms' Midnight Rambles (this one recorded at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville), and tracks from Greg Brown's new CD. In other words, some pretty great new music.

Oh, and to correct one big mistake I made during the show: I yammer on about Sam Bush's "distinctive" mandolin style, which you can hear on Levon Helm's "Rag Mama Rag" on the show. Well, I'm completely wrong, and I'm a total idiot -- it's not Sam Bush, it's Levon playing mandolin on that song. (Sam is on the CD, but not on that particular song.) So not only am I wrong, I sound totally pretentious while being wrong. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain -- he doesn't have a clue.

I finished the show with this big loud piece by the Lounge Lizards -- you either love it or you hate it. I happen to love it but if you don't you can just stop the recording.

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Morning Soup for 14 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Doug) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:23:17 PST

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NOTES ON THE SHOW

This show starts with vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Keith Jarrett performing Jarrett's "In Your Quiet Place," a piece that has special significance for me. Perhaps the first live jazz music I ever heard was part of an outdoor summer music series in the late 1970s held at Bicentennial Square in Concord, NH where I grew up. Gary Burton played there two years in a row, coming up from Boston where he taught at the Berklee School of Music. He had small combo with him, but the centerpiece of his set (his "party piece") was a solo version of "In Your Quiet Place," performed with his signature 4-mallet style. It was quiet, different in "feel" to the version heard here (and I've been looking for a recording of the piece done in that style ever since then) and it absolutely galvanized me. It wasn't until college that I started listening to jazz seriously, but this is definitely where the seed was planted.

As for the rest of the show, it's heavy on the keyboards -- well, that's going to happen when you have new CDs by Randy Newman and Booker T. Jones. I tried to fill the theme out a little with Marcia Ball, Abdullah Ibrahim, Mose Allison, James Booker, etc.

My own musical preferences run toward spare arrangements (leaving you to fill in the gaps mentally, if you want to), so this new second volume of Randy Newman's Songbook series is just about perfect for my tastes -- just his voice and his piano.

Of course, to pull that off you've got to have some pretty great songs to play -- no place to hide any shortcomings. If I can just point out one piece that I love, it's "Baltimore," especially the piano part during the verses. It's very complex rhythmically, and the way he builds the tension with a restless piano figure leading up to the chorus is just brilliant.

It's very much to Randy's credit in his songwriting ability that this second volume is almost as strong as the first. He is, of course, best known now for his movie soundtracks, but his songbook CDs focus on the decades of songwriting that preceded his work in Toy Story and other films (wisely, I think).

Now if only Jesse Winchester would start recording solo versions of his songwriting catalogue...

CORRECTIONS DEPT.: Patsy Montana did NOT have a hit with "I'd Like to be a Cowgirl," since apparently it was written in the 1980s. No doubt I was thinking of her song "I Want to be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" which was released in 1935 and was the first million-selling single by a female country performer.

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Morning Soup for 07 May 2011 (McGarrigles/Wainwright boxes)

noreply@blogger.com (Doug) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:22:56 PST

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NOTES ON THE SHOW

Well, lots of new music this week -- I'm going to try to include more brand new releases on most of the shows. The Steve Earle is a really well-done record, the Bill Frisell is quirky (as usual) and very nice at times, and parts of the Fleet Foxes album are starting to grow on me.

But there's no doubt that the biggest "new" records this week are the retrospective box sets for Kate & Anna McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. Though they were released on different record labels, you have to wonder if there was some kind of coordination going on, since the artists' histories are so inextricably linked. (Kate and Loudon were married in the 1970s -- their children are Rufus and Martha Wainwright.)

Loudon was one of the first folk musicians (and perhaps the first singer-songwriter) that I was aware of, so this first-ever retrospective box set is kind of a big deal to me. I distinctly remember checking his third and fourth albums (Album III and Attempted Moustache) out of our public library when I was in my early teens. I was thrilled when he appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1976 -- he performed the satirical song "Bicentennial," which mocked the patriotic mania the country was going through. The song celebrated some of America's lesser charms, such as the Sawmill River Parkway and "Oklahoma's strange panhandle." And most shockingly, it saluted such American "heroes" as Jack Ruby ("Wasn't old Jack wonderful? You know he certainly was."). I'm still kind of amazed he got away with that on network TV.

It wasn't until his great album A Live One came out in 1978 that he really grabbed hold of me good. Since then he's put out some terrific albums (including the full-stop classic History). I've seen him at least a dozen times in the past 25 years and he remains a favorite.

As for the McGarrigles, I had to grow up a little to appreciate them. I initially just focused on their trembly, "old-fashioned" singing and completely missed the excellent songwriting and delicate performing touch. The new box set focuses solely on their early work in the first part of the 1970s -- there is a wealth of superb material in the 35 years that followed.

I was fortunately to see one of Kate McGarrigle's last performances, at the Pete Seeger 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in May 2009. She performed with her sister and children, and did a wonderful job. It was only later we found out that she had checked herself out of a hospital in Montreal where was being treated for cancer to perform at the show. The concert was released on DVD and is well worth seeing.

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Morning Soup for 30 Apr 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Doug) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:22:35 PST

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NOTES ON THE SHOW

We're in the middle of some upgrades here at the radio station, and I'll be honest with you -- there were technical problems all through today's show. I'll spare you the gory details, but let's just say that if you notice some longer gaps than usual between songs on this show, there's a reason for it. So I just decided to simplify things -- skip running the recorded PSAs and promos (which I know disappoints many of you *grin*) and just play some of my favorite music. I normally try not to use music that I've played on previous shows but that kind of went out the window today. I think the show actually came out alright, at least musically.

One thing that radio DJs think about (obsess about, really) are mixes -- the transition between songs. Finding songs that match well is everything -- the songs might have a common rhythm, tempo, key, or some other feature. A bad mix can ruin your day, while a good mix can stay with you for decades.

In fact, there's a mix on this show that I stumbled upon in the 1980s and I'm still using it (obviously). There's something about the tranquil, solemn flute-and-guitar of Do'a's "Ancient Beauty" that goes perfectly with the gorgeous layers of nylon-string guitars that begin Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home." I can't quite put my finger on why they go so well together, but I can't hear one without thinking of the other.

There's another mix on the show I want to talk about. I think I make clear how much I love Gil Scott-Heron's "Hello Sunday! Hello Road!" -- I suspect that if I woke up to that song every morning it would improve life in general (until I got sick of the song, anyway). However, it has to be said that in terms of rhythm and "feel" it's pretty much just a rewrite of Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman." Playing the two songs back-to-back would be too much of the same thing, so I needed some clever ruse to distract you guys. Happily there's the John Hartford bluegrass/funk version which he recorded with Doug & Rodney Dillard -- it's pretty distracting.

Let's talk a bit about John Hartford, one of my musical heroes. Among his many distinctive qualities, his singing was instantly recognisable. He would often work certain melodic tricks into the songs he recorded, one of which you can hear here. At the end of a line he would dive the melody down to the bottom of his vocal range and then "jump the octave" to finish the line. (You can hear on the phrase "till you holler for more" near the start of "Boogie On Reggae Woman.") There are dozens of examples of this on his records throughout his 30+ year recording career.

[I should mention that June 4 will mark the 10th anniversary of John Hartford's death, and part of my show on that date will feature his music.]

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Morning Soup for 23 Apr 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Doug) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:22:13 PST