The Snowy White Blues Project

I don't normally buy older releases, not that 2009 is old, but I had heard of this record for a while and finally located it a couple of months ago.  My first encounter with Mr. White was on a warm, late September evening in 1977.  My butt was firmly planted on the right hash (oh, that's funny, I said "hash") mark of the 45-yard-line of Tampa Stadium, home of the brand new Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL team.  That's right, on the field.  A massive stage in the end zone, huge banks of speakers located high in the adjoining stands, large dirigibles of pigs and cars floating overhead...this was the next stop of Pink Floyd's "Animals" tour.  I vaguely remember through the haze of youth, alcohol, and combustibles wondering aloud who the "other" guitarist was on stage with the band.  Turns out it was Snowy White.  If you are one of my older readers and had the 8-track of "Animals", it was his lead guitar on "Pigs on the Wing", not Gilmour's.  I know, that sounds strange, but that was the way of the industry in the 70's.  Floyd's keyboardist, Richard Wright, then employs Snowy on his 1979 solo album, "Wet Dream."  After that, he joins one of my favorite rock bands, Thin Lizzy, as a replacement for wild man Brian Robertson, recording two great records, "Chinatown" and "Renegade", and the subsequent live album.  He also played guitar on Phil Lynott's solo album, "Solo in Soho." 

If you know your R'n'R history, you know drugs were a big part of Lizzy's history, and Snowy wasn't immune.  Couldn't do much as the 80's wore on, until old pal Roger Waters tapped him to be his guitarist for The Wall tour in 1990.  Waters has kept him employed over the years, and if you saw last year's tour you heard Mr. White in action.  In between, he has stayed busy with his own projects, most of which I haven't heard, until this one.  Being out of the loop as I am, I didn't know there was a live album last year to support this record.  Hell, being out of the loop before that smoky Sept. Eve '77, I did not know that Snowy was good friends with one Peter Green, the guy with the bluesy Fleetwood Mac (not the version with the wives), and also played with John Mayall before getting the boot in lieu of some guy named Clapton.  This explains the British blues style of  "In Our Time of Living," which caught me off guard since I was expecting more electric blues/rock.  But once the initial shock wore off, this became a fine blues record to play for a group friends, because it's not too old sounding and certainly doesn't have that screamin' gee-tar that turns off the musical wimps in the gathering.  Here is Snowy performing one of my personal faves of the record, "Red Wine Blues", a track that features his lead vocals.  That's another plus for this album as most everybody aptly and ably sings some lead. 

During this tour break before Waters takes the show to Europe, Snowy will release another project late February with the White Flames called "Realistic."  The drummer is the only holdover from the Blues Project, so I expect a slightly different offering, one I hope I can acquire some time before 2012!

OMD "History of Modern"

I did not discover Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark until 1983, just after starting work in the world of music retailing.  The album was "Dazzle Ships", and it just absolutely blew me away on a level that the Ol' Mad Rocker wasn't accustomed with.  It was electronics like I had not heard before.  A concept album based on computers and the Cold War, with shortwave radio transmissions and telephone time voices.  Bursts of brilliance throughout the record.  So much so that I went back and got the first three records.  I can't say I never understood why it wasn't a resounding success.  It was truly too far ahead of its time.  But I became a huge fan and the band proved me correct when they slipped into more of a pop realm and hit it big with "If You Leave" from the Pretty in Pink ST and their album "Crush."  I stuck with them through 1991's "Sugar Tax", which was a splintered OMD, and passed on the final two records before they gave it up.

Apparently, a couple of years ago found the mates getting together again for a brief tour which featured a track for track replay of what many consider their greatest record, "Architecture and Morality."  Things must have gone splendidly and so OMD puts out a record some fourteen years after the final studio release, but it's the core members first recording together since 1986.  And let me tell you, "History of Modern" is an absolute time machine trip back to their heyday of the mid-eighties.  If you have three or more OMD albums in your collection, you will certainly love this record.  The guys voices haven't aged one bit, and the music is vintage OMD, with some of the threads of the early years' loops and sound effects mixing perfectly with the pop structures that made them famous in the States.  The drum tracks are a bit more upfront early in the album, and allow me to submit the first single as evidence.  Then deep into the record, several tracks in, up pops a straight up dance track, "The Future, the Past, and Forever After," destined for remixing and club playlists around the world.  If this isn't the third single, I need to be their management company. 

"History..." is like one of your friends you haven't seen in a decade or two and they just don't look any different or older than the last time you met.  I am truly surprised.  Welcome back, old friend.

Bryan Ferry "Olympia"

I got on the Roxy Music bus late, some ten years into their career.  The album, Avalon, not only was one of the best of the year 1982, but also of the 80's decade, and it still holds its own twenty + years later.  Ferry was quite prolific in the early days with a handful of RM albums and a half dozen solo records to his credit.  But it was Avalon that hit my psyche, and the following two solo records registered just as high on my appreciation scale.  Boys and Girls yielded two tremendous tracks, "Slave to Love" and "Don't Stop the Dance", and Bete Noir served up "Kiss and Tell."  It was all pretty much downhill after that, even after reforming RM.  But those three albums were such a major part of my mid to late 20's that I felt like I had to give him a shot with "Olympia."  The pieces were all in place.  All the original RM members appear in different tracks.  Guest artists included David Gilmour, Dave Stewart, Flea, and Chris Spedding, while regular contributors were Nile Rodgers and Marcus Miller.  And the music itself is outstanding because of the lineup, but Ferry is no spring chicken, and his voice is more fragile than ever, overwhelmed throughout the first half of this album.  Should you be able to dig it out of the mix, you need the lyric sheet to know what he's mumbling about.  The last half (Side 2 for you old farts) offers a better sonic stew and, therefore, two of the three keeper tracks, "Song to the Siren" and "Reason or Rhyme."  

The musicianship on Olympia is top notch, but it's unfortunate that the songs just aren't worthy of it.  Mr. Ferry, legend that he is, should have left this one in the can.

Kasey Chambers "Little Bird"

 

If you really need to revisit my affection for Ms. Chambers, then here is a post from last year about her 2008 release with her husband, Shane Nicholson.  The last sentence says something along the lines of her being one of the most under-appreciated artists in music today.  That statement is intended for American consumption, as the "Little Bird" album has hit the BIG TIME in her native Australia.  In the Down Under's version of the CMA, this album was recently nominated in seven categories.  That's the definition of BIG TIME!  More evidence?  In a recent edition of Australia's Country Music magazine, she shares the cover with some hack named Keith Urban.  Come on, even Americans know who he is... In an unprecedented move, most of Australia's rock/pop FM stations have found tracks to play for their formats, from a decidedly country-flavored record, no less.  Anybody remotely familiar with commercial radio programming can tell you that just does not happen (am I right, Beau)? 

So allow me to offer a comparison to one young country performer here named Taylor Swift.  I know you've heard of her.  Famously been known to suck in a live setting, yet she's still a megastar based on her songwriting and, some would say, her looks.  It's certainly not her voice.  Chambers' vocals are certainly heritage country, not pop/country where the vocals are so interchangeable and generic.  You had better be a fan of, say, Emmylou Harris or Lucinda Williams to appreciate Kasey's vocals.  I've read other descriptions as "child-like," but I don't understand how that applies.  She may turn off the casual American country music fan with her sound, but just listen to the words people.  If Swift can speak for a generation of twenty-somethings, then Chambers writes for you older souls out there.  I played the title track for my sister, who's been in Nashville for a couple of decades now, and she immediately said the voice wasn't for her, but, "damn, that's a great song!"  Album, Artist, Song of the Year, all the big noms, and one that is called Heritage Song of the Year.  This is a category specifically about Australia, and here is a performance of her nominated track, "Nullabor Song."  Nullabor is several hundred miles of basically nothing in the southern part of the country, and Kasey essentially grew up there as a child, traveling with her family, camping under the skies at night singing country songs .  The lyrics speak volumes to Aussies, and many have said it's the best Australian song written in years. 

Well, it's an absolute tragedy that "Little Bird" is unavailable in America as of today.  I just don't get it.  I hope Sugar Hill picks it up for domestic release this year and then you can say you heard it here from Ye Olde Mad Rocker. 

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band "Live in Chicago"

Let us not forget that this guy had three platinum albums in the late 90's by the ripe old age of 22!  He's been studying the history of blues this past decade, and this live recording is from the supporting tour for the 10 Days Out:  Blues from the Backroads project.  And it was promptly nominated for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year for the upcoming Grammys... As it turns out, Kenny was sickly the day this was scheduled for recording, but he soldiered through and went on with the show...and he gets a Grammy nod for an off day...shit... 

This CD is about half of the nearly three-hour concert...shit, on an off day he'll play three hours...  and you can read the "featuring" names above.  Not your household list of major-name stars, but look up their resumes and get back to me...I'll wait...  The drummer is none other than Chris "Whipper" Layton of Double Trouble and the whole shebang is produced by Jerry Harrison, former member of Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers and the Talking Heads, and he's pretty much been involved with KWS his entire professional career.  When vocalist Noah Hunt joined up for the second album, 3 #1 singles followed and the guys became their generation's version of Robin Trower and James Dewar.  Sorry, Jonny Lang, you've got a classic blues voice but you're no KWS on the six-string.  Shepherd doesn't hog the spotlight, either, deftly deferring to his band's considerable talents and stepping out to smoke the axe only when necessary.  Allow me to submit this video as evidence.  It was a promo clip in Canada, I think, of the blues classic "I'm a King Bee." 

I am so glad he's back, and let's hope for new studio material in 2011.  If you've ever considered yourself a SRV fan, you'll enjoy this recording.