1. Billy Bragg – The World Turned Upside Down
2. McCarthy – The Home Secretary Briefs the Forces of Law and Order
3. Sleater-Kinney – Entertain
4. Yoko Ono – Woman Power
5. MC5 – Motor City Is Burning
6. Gil Scot-Heron – Home Is Where the Hatred Is
7. Curtis Mayfield – Hard Times
8. Ali Farkar Touré – Yenna
9. Atamina – No One Wants to Die
10. The Last Poets – Black Is
11. Misty in Roots – Ghetto of the City (Live)
12. Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 – Sorrow Tears and Blood
13. Boscoe – We Ain’t Free
14. Mike Ladd – Feb. 4 ’99 (For All Those Killed…
15. Woody Guthrie – Better World A-Comin’

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Mojo April 2018

First off, back in the day, “holy” and “blues” really couldn’t be referred to in the same sentence without a fight; you could almost see the god-fearing churchgoers hustling their kids past the street singers and bars where the bluespeople were.
Strangely enough, though, the lyrical content of both basically dealt with the raw deal of racism and hard times. The blues made it rhythmic, danceable and cathartic, whereas the gospel folk opted out for the promise of salvation and a better life after death initially peddled by the Christo-colonial capitalists. However, both essentially dealt with the fallout of oppression.
New collection The Rough Guide to Holy Blues is a great representation of the most familiar of gospel/ blues singers like Reverend Gary Davis…

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…and Blind Willie Johnson to unknowns like Mother McCollum.

While the form remains basically the same, there are gems of performance, like the tinkling spaciousness of Washington Phillips’ homemade version of an autoharp on “Denomination Blues Pt. 1 and 2,” which makes Phillips sound like he’s already in heaven. Equally magical is Blind Mamie Forehand singing “Honey in the Rock” with a tiny bell holding down the rhythm like some child’s version of a church bell.

This release is a great entry into the social and musical complexities of one of America’s oldest folk forms.

Since the 1990s, there have been numerous compilations covering African nations and their music scenes, most notably the funk and disco eras in the ’70s, but in 2016 the always reliable Soundway Records made serious inroads into the ’80s with their excellent collection Doing It in Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria. Two years later, they’ve done another masterful job of unearthing more great music from Africa with Gumba Fire: Bubblegum Soul & Synth Boogie in 1980s South Africa. Compiled by label head Miles Cleret and DJ Okapi, the set digs into the scene known as Bubblegum, which is a mix of post-disco grooves, R&B, and African pop — and very synth-heavy. DJ Okapi ran an influential blog for years that shared songs from the era,…

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…and the two compilers do an excellent job of gathering up songs that, if they are the tip of the Bubblegum iceberg, leave the listener wanting to uncover more.

There are tracks that lean more in an American post-disco direction, sounding like they could have beamed out of a Detroit radio station in the early ’80s; the percolating “Mind Games” by Stimela and “Wayawaya” by Zoom are two strong examples. There are songs that have very deep African roots too, like “Hayi Ngodlame” by Zasha and “Do You Trust Amajita?” by Ntombi Ndaba. Mostly there are invigorating stylistic hybrids that sound completely unique; “My Brother” by the Survivals and “Listen to Me” by General Peter Maringa have an appealing freshness that feels as if the songs are being unsealed for the first time, despite having been created 30-something years previously.

The whole set has that in its favor; it’s clear from the work Cleret and DJ Okapi did putting the set together that they were opening a vein of joyful music that hadn’t been tapped for wider audiences ever before. It’s a well-chosen and important collection that serves the musicians involved quite well, gives fans of ’70s and ’80s African music something new to explore, and — most of all — is just a whole lot of fun to listen to.

Connie Converse was a remarkable composer who worked in the 1950s and 1960s.

By 1974, depressed over her lack of recognition and success, she packed up her belongings and drove off never to be heard of again. Little known in her lifetime, she is now viewed as a pioneer of the modern singer/songwriter genre.

This exciting compilation collects 16 of her most unique and soulful songs performed by an all-star group of contemporary singer/ songwriters.
Featuring an informative essay by musician and Converse scholar David Garland, Vanity of Vanities is a heartfelt tribute to one of the unsung heroes of contemporary songwriting.

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1. Cassandra Jenkins – Honey Bee [02:25]
2. Sam Amidon – Trouble [02:48]
3. Martha Wainwright – One By One [03:09]
4. Arone Dyer & Greg Saunier – Playboy of the Western World [04:43]
5. Jesse Harris – John Brady [02:03]
6. Elysian Fields – Man in the Sky [05:28]
7. Mike Patton & Alain Johannes – How Sad, How Lovely [02:35]
8. Petra Haden – Roving Woman [03:13]
9. Margaret Glaspy – Talkin’ Like You [03:08]
10. Laurie Anderson – Sad Lady [03:31]
11. Big Thief, Jeff Tweedy & Twain – There Is a Vine [01:49]
12. Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang – Witch and the Wizard [06:45]
13. Sarah Jarosz – Fortune’s Child [02:42]
14. Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone – I Have Considered the Lilies [03:30]
15. Karen O – Sorrow Is My Name [03:10]
16. Cassandra Jenkins – Honey Bee (Version Two) [03:09]

This follow-up to our recent Love Hit Me! Decca Beat Girls and Scratch My Back! Pye Beat Girls releases spotlights the female singers who recorded during 1964-1967 for the EMI group of labels, headquartered in Marylebone in the heart of London’s West End. As girl-pop champion Sheila Burgel writes in the package, “Most of the female acts signed by EMI were teenagers completely tuned in to the current pop trends. Scottish duo the McKinleys, R&B club habitué Julie Driscoll, talent show winner Billie Davis and Midlands pub singer Beverley Jones took original material from London’s Tin Pan Alley and American covers and gave them a vigorous kick that made for fabulous 45s. They may not have had quite the polish of their US counterparts, but the rough’n’ready sound…

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…of the Marylebone Beat Girl was precisely her appeal.”

Among the many highlights are ‘Dancing Yet’, a Dobie Gray-style discotheque number by Liza & the Jet Set; ‘Like The Big Man Said’ by Toni Daly, a cover of Italian star Caterina Caselli’s ‘L’uomo D’oro’ with edgy English lyrics by Peter Callander; Helen Shapiro’s latter-day collectable ‘Stop And You Will Become Aware’; ‘Love Is A Word’ by national treasure Alma Cogan, written and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, no less; and Billie Davis’ groovy gender-switched update of Chuck Willis’ R&B nugget ‘Whatcha’ Gonna Do’. — ACE

Merritone Rock Steady 3: Bang Bang Rock Steady 1966-1968, the third edition in this universally acclaimed series including giant of the genre, Hopeton Lewis, and a scintillating selection of hit records and previously unreleased material.
The work here all came from the studios of Federal Records – one of the first indies in Kingston, headed by the visionary Ken Khouri – who put things together and learned the process as he went – which often made for a very organic approach to the music. Khouri handled a lot of other Jamaican styles in the years before these sides – but he really seems to have hit his stride with rocksteady – coming up with a perfect balance between the new rhythms, the sharp instrumentation, and the soulful styles of the singers.

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1 Bang Bang Rock Steady – Tomorrow’s Children
2 Mr. Hops – The Renegades
3 Everybody Rocking – Hopeton Lewis
4 Why Am I Treated So Bad – Lynn Taitt & The Jets
5 Cool Collie – Hopeton Lewis
6 With a Girl Like You – Henry Buckley
7 We Were Meant to Be – The Paragons
8 You Hurt My Soul – Joe Higgs
9 Thank You Girl – Henry Buckley
10 We Gonna Be Free – The Ethiopians
11 I’m Coming Home – Eddie Perkins
12 Rocking Mood – Lynn Taitt & The Jets
13 Rockin’ Chair – The Tartans
14 Take Me Back – Henry Buckley
15 Rude Boy a Wail (Take 1) – Merritone Singers
16 It’s Not Right – The Tartans
17 Check Point Charlie – Lester Sterling, Lynn Taitt & The Jets
18 You Never Could Be True – Henry Buckley?
19 I’d Like to Know – Henry Buckley
20 How Soon (Take 2) – Roland Alphonso
21 We Were Meant to Be (Acappella Mix) – The Paragons
22 I’m Coming Home (Acappella) – Eddie Perkins

Looking at the Pictures in the Sky focusses on, if received wisdom can be trusted, what was very much a “down” year for popular music. 1967 had been a real game changer, with the new scene leaders providing wild sounds, spectacle and new ideas never seen before in the Pop arena. Musicians looked further afield in search of inspiration and minds were opened. The years of Beat in the early 1960s looked a long way away, but this burst of creativity could not last.
By the end of the year many of the pioneers had decided the lysergic adventure was at an end (and some had become so beset by the drugs purported to expand their minds that they never really came back) and began to look more towards the primal impulse of ’50s Rock for influence,…

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…leaving a load of late-arriving would-be Psych ravers and bands to take up the torch slightly removed from the cutting edge. There was a step back from the edge, a little lessening of intensity, a retreat that look just like the establishment of a new Pop format. But also the experiments played out in 1967 lead to a lot of new creativity the next year too.

…So 1968 may not have the same weight as the previous year in terms of breaking new ground, but may have had the edge with regard to producing enjoyable records and pushing boundaries. Aside from such theories, in Looking at the Pictures…. we have another hugely enjoyable Grapefruit boxset. Given the year to trawl the compilers come up with the goods, with the well known names like Arthur Brown, Spencer Davis Group and Status Quo rubbing shoulders with genuine obscurities like the U (Don’t) No Who (nice chiming guitar on their Now And Again Rebecca) and Legay. As a result, many unknown jewels turn up.

…Starting off with a couple of late-period Freakbeaters in the Factory’s Path Through The Forest and Fire’s classic “identity crisis” tune Father’s Name Is Dad, after the initial rush this collection seems to suggest that 1968 represented the re-stating of pure Pop values given a Psych twist plus the first stirrings of Prog (Eyes Of Blue’s Never Care being a perfect Prog Pop nugget). Though one cannot deny the huge influence that the Beatles had all virtually everyone included on this compilation, other bands were also important.

Procul Harum seem key to these developments, with more than a few bands featured here following their lead (Ice on disc three with their tune Ice Man were definitely in thrall of Gary Brooker’s mob). Seen as the commercial face of Psychedelia, their huge hit A Whiter Shade Of Pale had a marked effect on many looking hopefully towards the Pop charts. They’re featured here with the flip of an unsuccessful follow up Quite Rightly So, In The Wee Small Hours Of A Sixpence, their patented “church organ” sound an influence on many.

Also the Pretty Things were showing how to gracefully glide from R&B, past Beat and then coasting on majestically through Psychedelia, with their brilliant Talking About The Good Times even showing close harmony bands how it should be done. Away from the bigger names Anan (once known as the U2!) mix a hint of fuzz with a gentle flute on Haze Woman and Legay win the prize for most Psych song title with The Fantastic Story Of The Steam-Driven Banana (the song itself has a kind of Motown tempo betraying the band’s roots as a Soul band).

Rameses story is pretty well known but worth repeating. He was a central heating engineer originally called Kimberley Frost, who suddenly decided that he was the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh. He is featured here (alongside his wife Dorothy who was renamed Selket) on the tribal but elegant Mind’s Eye, one side of his debut recording. Later on he would collaborate with an early version of 10CC on his album Space Hymns, before sadly committing suicide in 1976. Talking of 10CC, that band’s Graham Gouldman provides a tasty bit of 12 string guitar Pop with Upstairs Downstairs here too.

The Kinks’ near neighbours Turquoise tap into the old Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake for Sunday Best and the South Coast port of Southampton reveals a previously unknown trippy side with both Les Fleurs De Lys’ super Gong With The Luminous Nose and Circle Plantagenet’s more basic, but still pleasing I Will Not Be Moved (strangely enough both bands reformed for a time in the 21st century).

Mike Stuart Span start of the second disc here with their debut single on the independent Imperial label, the racing and guitar-heavy Children Of Tomrrow. The Barrier follow, bringing things down to earth after the Summer Of Love with their powerful, no nonsense Dawn Breaks Through. Freakbeat legends the Attack show their late-period fire with Mr Pinnodmy’s Dilemma and the Poets (not the great Scottish band but an Irish outfit with the same handle) keep the pressure on with their fine Locked In A Room. Wimple Winch unfortunately had run out of steam a bit by the time of Bluebell Wood, which is catchy enough but not a patch on their harder, early recordings.

The Movement’s punchy Head For The Sun marries a very sweet hook to a Who Mod Pop attitude and then throws odd changes of pace and in an incongruous good-time piano, just to fox us. It’s good though. Now the Klubb might have looked more like Glam Rockers on the booklet photo but they bring a pleasing Punky edge to Midnight Love Cycle that will make you wish more of their work was available (one producer commenting that they were “unrecordable”!). The Real McCoy’s I Get So Excited shows the coming of Bubblegum as a force, nice phasing on this one.

Contact’s demo of Lovers From The Sky starts out sounding a bit rough, but after a rush to get everything plus the Psychedelic kitchen sink in, relaxes to reveal a lovely melodic feel that John Lennon himself appeared to favour (he apparently was behind the band’s main man Trevor Bannister signing a publishing contract with Apple). The Move’s name should be synonymous with quality and Omnibus doesn’t disappoint, another song clearly showing Roy Wood’s knack for sharp social observation wedded to a killer tune. Andy Ellison’s Cornflake Zoo was originally a Marc Bolan demo, they were both part of the band John’s Children just before this recording and managed by Simon Napier-Bell. It might not be the most obscure track, but has a ramshackle charm and see if you can hear Marc’s original take in the background.

Disc three commences with Jason Crest’s go at Hold On – not quite in the same league as Sharon Tandy’s wonderful take, but a nice, more organ-led version. Honeybus attempted to follow I Can’t Let Maggie Go with Girl Of Independent Means, a bright and breezy piece of Pop Rock complete with a Jean Genie/Bo Diddley riff. It worked a treat but didn’t get them back in the charts, but this shows a more easy-going, bucolic tinge to proceedings in 68, which is echoed on Blonde On Blonde’s Country Life. Containing two future Blockheads, it is no big surprise that Skip Bifferty were instrumentally sound, but their Round And Round is an excellent example of catchy Pop-Sike with a hard edge.

Pride of place on disc three must go to Barbara Ruskin’s magnificent demo of Pawnbroker, a masterclass in Psychedelic Skiffle with a paper and comb break! You wouldn’t have taken the angelic-voiced cherub Timon for later Clash/101ers’ associate Tymon Dogg, his Rambling Boy is a wide-eyed, winsome orchestrated romp quite at odds with his later busker image. Both Writing On The Wall and Circus contributions point towards Folk showing its hand as an influence on Pop again (this was probably the ground floor of Acid Folk).

The odd structure to the Orange Bicycle’s Soft Winds gives it a proto-New Wave feel and Coconut Mushroom’s Without You is a rollicking and catchy Who/Faces-style hoedown. The Eastern sound of the sitar was very much in vogue still, featuring on Boeing Duveen and the Beautiful Soup’s Which Dreamed It, but following that the Turnstyle’s tough and freaky Trot is a revelation. Set to a basic R&B/Soul template, spidery guitar squalls, furious drumming and epic singing mark this one out as a beaut. Then it’s left to the chill of the title track by Orange Seaweed to close out the comp on a poignant Toytown Pop note.

Having already put out collections spotlighting the girl singers of ’60s Japan, France, Italy and Sweden, we now turn our attention to sunny Spain. The influence of hit records from the USA and the UK in the early ’60s resulted in a musical style the French called yé-yé. Spain also adopted the term to describe this new type of beat-oriented pop, while maintaining its own musical identity via sexy rhythms and an underlying current of drama and flamenco.
The aptly named Hispavox was considered the most important Spanish record label, mainly because they had a talented team of producers, arrangers and studio musicians who between them created the “Torrelaguna sound”. Furthermore, they had Karina, who was known as the queen…

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…of Spanish yé-yé with her angelic looks and voice, and Las Chic, one of the few girl groups on the Spanish recording scene. Zafiro entered the market with a series of young female vocalists, including Adriángela and the dynamic Marisol, a child actress turned pop star who spent much of the 60s on the silver screen. The Belter label also recorded many girl singers, among them screen siren Soledad Miranda – star of several horror films – and Sonia, who recorded a feminine rendition of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Get Off Of My Cloud’. Other noteworthy artists include Rocío Dúrcal, who achieved international fame as an actress and a singer, Gelu, who rather specialised in covering Petula Clark hits, and Massiel, who differed from most of her peers by writing many of her own songs. — ACE

The American Primitive/Guitar Soli “movement” got a kick start in 1994 when Rhino issued Return of the Repressed: The John Fahey Anthology. It created so much interest that Fahey began playing music festivals and shows as a headliner again. Meanwhile, younger players like Jack Rose and compilation producer Glenn Jones, among others long obsessed with this music, found more opportunities to tour and record.
The Thousand Incarnations of the Rose: American Primitive Guitar 1963-1974 was compiled to coincide with the first annual festival of the same name held in John Fahey’s hometown of Takoma Park, Maryland in 2018. This is one of, if not the, most authoritative overviews of the original scene and its players.

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In his copious, beautifully written liner notes — with full track annotations — Jones makes his case that the players of the American Primitive school were largely self-taught, like the primitive artists of the 18th through 20th centuries. Indeed, it may have been Ed Denson, Fahey’s business partner in Takoma Records, who coined the term when comparing the guitarist’s music to the work of 19th century primitive painter Henri Rousseau. Jones has assembled a historical document to be enjoyed not just admired: The music is sequenced aesthetically rather than chronologically. It rightly kicks off and ends with Fahey, but the pieces on offer as bookends are “Night Train to Valhalla” and “The Portland Cement Factory at Monolith, California” from 1967’s brilliant Days Have Gone By rather than Blind Joe Death. Fahey’s other selection here is “On the Banks of the Owchita” from Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites from the same year. Leo Kottke also appears with two selections from 1974’s Leo Kottke, John Fahey & Peter Lang on Takoma. (The latter is also here with “When Kings Come Home” from the same album.) Two tracks by Peter Walker, “April in Cambridge” and “Gypsy Song,” reveal that the American Primitive school was not just for steel-string guitars — he plays a nylon-string on the latter in flamenco style. He and others in the American Primitive school — like Robbie Basho (whose nearly 14-minute title cut is here) — were deeply influenced by Indian raga and studied with master musician Ali Akbar Khan. The other “big” name in this collection is Sandy Bull’s; his banjo rendition bluegrass nugget “Little Maggie” is a set highlight. George Stavis’ long “Winterland Doldrums” is another banjo tune that melds bluegrass, Celtic folk, raga, and blues. Two selections each by Harry Taussig and Max Ochs (taken from the Takoma sampler Contemporary Guitar Spring ’67) are balanced by relative ’70s Takoma obscurities by Fred Gerlach (“Eyrie”) and Billy Faier (“Longhorn Express”), which add balance and depth to the set.

The music is uniformly excellent and the package — with gorgeous art by Drew Christie — is insanely attractive. The only complaint is that sound quality is not equal across the board, but it’s a small one. This set is essential for anyone even remotely interested in American Primitive guitar and banjo, whether it be a newcomer or longtime fan.

1. John Fahey – Night Train to Valhalla [02:12]
2. Leo Kottke – The Ice Miner [01:48]
3. Leo Kottke – Anyway [01:59]
4. Peter Walker – April in Cambridge [03:03]
5. Harry Taussig – Water Verses [01:46]
6. Harry Taussig – [03:39]
7. Sandy Bull – Little Maggie [04:03]
8. John Fahey – On the Banks of the Owchita [03:47]
9. Peter Walker – Gypsy Song [03:39]
10. Max Ochs – Raga, Pt. 1 [04:45]
11. Max Ochs – Raga, Pt. 2 [04:07]
12. Billy Faier – Longhorn Express [04:28]
13. Robbie Basho – The Thousand Incarnations of the Rose [13:47]
14. Fred Gerlach – Eyrie [05:46]
15. George Stavis – Winterland Doldrums [09:29]
16. Peter Lang – When Kings Come Home [04:44]
17. John Fahey – The Portland Cement Factory at Monolith, California [04:19]

A new Music from Memory compilation is show- casing the unique and unexpected sides of pop music from across the continental underground in the ’80s and early ’90s. Compiled by Music from Memory label man Jamie Tiller and Parisian record aficionado Raphael Top-Secret, Uneven Paths: Deviant Pop from Europe 1980-1991 features 20 musicians from across the continent including Cada Día, Pete Brandt’s Method and Härte 10.
“This is music with one foot in the avant-garde and another foot firmly rooted within the sensibilities of pop,” shares Music From Memory. “Where jazz musicians detour into synth-pop, punk bands break into boogie jams, and student doctors jam out on odd melodies with synthesisers and drum machines during their night shifts.”

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“Drawing material from cult experimental artists such as Steve Beresford, Brenda Ray and Bill Nelson alongside one-off independent musical projects rescued from the fringes, ’Uneven Paths’ focuses on a selection of tracks that go beyond the confines of mainstream pop music but which also transcend expectations of much of the ’experimental’ music of the time.”

The compilation follows MFM’s Outro Tempo: Electronic and Contemporary Music from Brazil, 1978-1982, as well as Kuniyuki Takahashi’s Tape Works Volume 1. — thevinylfactory.com

Out of print since it was originally released in 2002, and one of Soul Jazz Records’ most popular compilation titles, “Hustle! Reggae Disco” is getting an expanded reissue featuring five new tracks.
This ground-breaking album features non-stop killer reggae versions of original funk and soul classics in a disco style. Reggae disco updates of seminal classics by Anita Ward (‘Ring My Bell’), Chaka Khan (‘I’m Every Woman’), Michael Jackson ‘Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough,’ Sugarhill Gang (‘Rappers Delight’ here performed by Derrick Laro & Trinity for producer Joe Gibbs) and more, all showing the hidden but inseparable link between the dance floors of New York, Kingston & London.
New bonus tracks to this collection include Derrick Harriott’s funky take on Eddie Drennon’s…

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…‘Do It Nice and Easy’, the classic disco reggae of Risco Connection’s performing McFadden and Whitehead’s ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’ and the London rare groove lovers rock of Charmaine Burnett singing Barbara Acklin’s soul classic ‘Am I the Same Girl’.

…Hustle! Reggae Disco has been one of Soul Jazz Records’ best-selling releases since its first release 15 years ago (and subsequently featured heavily in the early Grand Theft Auto games!). This new edition comes complete fully re-mastered and with all original titles plus new tracks.

‘The effect of American R&B and soul music on Jamaican reggae is well documented, but the story doesn’t stop there, for disco (and more so now for rap and hip-hop) have also been subsumed into the reggae mix, and while one might suspect that the resulting hybrid would die of its own implausibility, the feral mix of disco with reggae rhythms is so darn infectious that it hardly matters. Once you take your brain out of the frame and just let your feet go, this collection is a dancer’s delight all done up in full-blown disco style, but with huge dub-style rhythm tracks … if you’re looking for an impossibly infectious dance collection, this is it.’ — soundsoftheuniverse.com

1. Bobby Parker – Watch Your Step
2. King Curtis – Hot Rod
3. The Egyptians – The Party Stomp
4. Chris Kenner – I Like It Like That Pt. 2
5. Mike Pedicin – Burnt Toast and Black Coffee
6. Charles Sheffield – It’s Your Voodoo Working
7. Dale Cunningham – Too Young
8. Juanita Nixon – Stop Knockin’
9. McKinley ‘Soul’ Mitchell – The Town I Live In
10. James Ray – If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody
11. The Donays – Bad Boy
12. Jan Bradley – Mama Didn’t Lie
13. Rosco Gordon – Just a Little Bit
14. Ernie K-Doe – A Certain Girl
15. Mose Allison – Eyesight to the Blind

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Mojo Magazine, May 2018.

1. Brant Bjork & the Bros – Freak Levels
2. The 13th Floor Elevators – Reverberation
3. The Flames – Purple Haze
4. Andromeda – Day of the Change
5. Flowers Must Die – After Gong
6. Endless Boogie – Let It Be Unknown
7. Black Mountain – Mothers of the Sun
8. Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Liquid Bridges
9. The Bevis Frond – London Stone
10. Wolf People – Night Witch
11. Goat – Union of Mind and Soul
12. Sun Ra – I Am Strange
13. Earl King – Come On (Parts I & II)
14. Guitar Slim – The Things I Used to Do
15. Mickey Baker – Whistle Stop

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Mojo August 2017: Mojo presents a 67-minute mind-bending experience! In tribute to Jimi Hendrix, a 15-track trip from the heart of the blues into the vastness of space, and beyond.

This companion piece of sorts to 2016’s Johnny Cash: Forever Words book finds some of Americana’s most respected artists creating music to handwritten letters, poems and other documents unearthed after his 2003 death. Co-producers John Carter Cash and Steve Berkowitz worked on the project for two years, judiciously inviting only those with a philosophical — or in some cases, personal — connection with Cash to contribute.
While the concept is far from unique — similar ventures have already appeared from the posthumously found writings of Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, and the very much alive Bob Dylan (conspicuous in his absence here) — these heartfelt performances are a fitting and reverential legacy for the rightfully celebrated Cash.

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The largely ballad-oriented program ranges from the raw, stripped down banjo and vocals of Kacey Musgraves with husband Ruston Kelly (“To June This Morning”) to the radio-ready slickness of Brad Paisley (“Gold All Over the Ground”), the pure religious bluegrass of Dailey & Vincent’s “He Bore it All For Me” and T-Bone Burnett’s swampy rocking “Jellico Coal Man.” Like the notoriously multi-genre Cash, the approaches vary wildly making for an eclectic and generally satisfying set.

Each act uses backing musicians specific to them, further adding to the diverse sound. Everyone clearly understands and takes the responsibility and gravity of writing music to Cash’s lyrics seriously, thoughtfully crafting their contribution to reflect what Cash would probably have approved of. Jamey Johnson brings in somber horns for his closing “Spirit Rider,” John Mellencamp takes a page from his acoustic rocking for the peppy fiddle and harmonica driven “Them Double Blues,” Elvis Costello croons and utilizes near classical chamber instruments to reflect the muted beauty of “I’ll Still Love You” and Chris Cornell, in one of his final performances, returns the favor of Cash covering Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage” with a stirring, emotional “You Never Knew My Mind.” Two of Johnny’s daughters are also on board with Rosanne’s hushed, elegiac “The Walking Wounded” and Carlene Carter’s similarly melancholy “June’s Sundown,” the latter a lovely nostalgic tribute to her mother.

A few more upbeat performances might have reflected that side of Johnny’s personality (where’s the rockabilly?). And the jury is still out on if soulman Robert Glasper’s contemporary R&B interpretation of “Goin’, Goin’, Gone” complete with programmed beats is along just to bring additional diversity, although it is the only track to use Johnny’s overdubbed voice, talking about his regrets using drugs, to chilling effect.

There’s plenty to both enjoy and mull over as Cash’s thoughtful, often poetic lyrics spill out in a variety of settings. It makes this collection worthy of the man’s iconic status, which is saying plenty. — AmericanSongwriter

In the mid-’60s barely a month went by when Graham Gouldman’s name did not feature in the UK charts under the title of a current hit. The young Mancunican wrote regularly for some of the biggest artists of the time – including Herman’s Hermits, the Mindbenders, the Yardbirds and the Hollies – as well as maintaining his own recording career in several groups, some real and others fictional aggregations that Graham and his chums in what became 10cc invented within the confines of their Strawberry Studios. His prolific nature was matched by a prodigious success rate. Almost everything Graham wrote for the acts that kept coming back for more was a hit somewhere in the world.
If anyone is overdue for inclusion in Ace’s Songwriter Series, it is Graham Keith Gouldman.

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Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005 brings together two dozen of his finest and most successful songs from a career that’s about to enter its 55th year, mostly performed by those who took them into the charts. It starts with his first recorded song, by his group the Mockingbirds from 1965, and ends with a collaboration with noughties teen sensations McFly. As you will hear from this carefully chosen selection, Graham has stayed totally in step with musical trends throughout his career. — ACE

*
Listen People is as incontestable a debate-ender as a mic drop with a BOOM speech bubble next to it. The Mancunian magus was already writing hit singles at the age of 19, damn his synapses: and while this compilation includes a goodly tranche of those songs, it admirably opts for less familiar versions in the main.

Accordingly, you’ll find Rush(!) knocking out a devotionally accurate reading of the old Yardbirds staple, ‘Heart Full Of Soul’, while Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson gamely wrestle with ‘For Your Love’, and Dee Dee Sharp stirs a soupcon of soul sauce into ‘I’m Not in Love’. But look! Here’s ‘Bus Stop’ by The Hollies, the quintessence of 60s street-scene pop, with melodic cadences so perfect that it constituted a Beatle-frightener – in the same way that Tallyman by Jeff Beck represented a real Who-scarer with its combination of livid guitars and cathedral harmonies. — recordcollectormag.com

1. The Mockingbirds – That’s How (It’s Gonna Stay) [01:59]
2. The Hollies – Bus Stop [02:49]
3. Larry Williams & Johnny Watson with The Stormsville Shakers – For Your Love [02:40]
4. Toni Basil – I’m Twenty Eight (Getting Nowhere) [02:25]
5. The Yardbirds – Evil Hearted You [02:21]
6. Gary Lewis & the Playboys – Look Through Any Window [02:08]
7. Wayne Fontana – Pamela Pamela [02:08]
8. Jeff Beck – Tallyman [02:41]
9. The Outsiders – Listen People [02:28]
10. Dave Berry – I’m Gonna Take You There [02:24]
11. Downliners Sect – The Cost of Living [01:43]
12. High Society – People Passing By [02:14]
13. Herman’s Hermits – The London Look [02:01]
14. The Mindbenders – Uncle Joe, the Ice Cream Man [02:19]
15. Cher – Behind the Door [03:40]
16. Graham Gouldman – No Milk Today [02:11]
17. The Peddlers – Have You Ever Been to Georgia [02:56]
18. Dee Dee Sharp – I’m Not in Love [05:11]
19. 10cc – The Things We Do for Love [03:17]
20. Rush – Heart Full of Soul [02:48]
21. Morrissey – East West [02:31]
22. Wax – Right Between the Eyes [04:06]
23. Kirsty MacColl – Treachery [03:49]
24. McFly – I’ve Got You [03:15]

Revamp & Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin are two tribute albums to Elton John and his frequent songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. Revamp was described as John’s project and features covers of the duo’s back catalogue by pop, rock and R&B artists, whereas Restoration was seen as Taupin’s project and features covers by country music artists.
Released as a celebration of the 50+ years of collaboration between Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin is the brainchild of the lyricist, who wanted to pay tribute to the Americana that’s informed his imagery ever since the beginning of his career. Taupin designed the artwork and recruited artists, leaning heavily on…

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…newer artists who are on the vanguard of the mainstream, but also finding plenty of space for veterans who have been around for as long as Elton, if not longer. There’s a divide in aesthetics between the younger and older artists — the former embrace the freedom of reinterpretation, the latter settle into their roots — but they’re largely complementary, revealing how enduring and malleable the John/Taupin catalog is. Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves grab attention with their blissed-out, soulful readings of “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” and “Roy Rogers,” but Brothers Osborne’s funky “Take Me to the Pilot” and Miranda Lambert’s mournful “My Father’s Gun” are equally bracing. Dierks Bentley finds a sly Stonesy rhythm lurking in “Sad Songs (Say So Much), while Lee Ann Womack turns “Honky Cat” into a simmering soul workout and Little Big Town gives “Rocket Man” an arrangement worthy of Pentatonix. If Miley Cyrus leans too hard on Shania Twain-isms for “The Bitch Is Back,” she’s overshadowed by delicate work form Willie Nelson, Don Henley & Vince Gill, Rosanne Cash & Emmylou Harris, and Rhonda Vincent & Dolly Parton, who all show that hushed voices can be more compelling than bluster. But that also just points out how lean and sharp Restoration is: The artists take risks, and they — and the songbook — come out sounding the better for it.

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Revamp: The Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin was spearheaded by the singer, who hand-picked the artists on this pop-oriented tribute. John did take pains to cast a wide net. In addition to arena rockers Coldplay and the Killers, there’s the modern folk of Mumford & Sons, contemporary R&B from Mary J. Blige and Alessia Cara, hip-hop from Logic and Q-Tip, diva moves from Sam Smith and Lady Gaga, darkly seductive hard rock from Queens of the Stone Age, and operatic pop from Florence + the Machine. Plus, Ed Sheeran showed up for good measure. Given this, it’s a bit of a shock that Revamp sounds as homogenous as it does. After beginning with a neon-lit remake of “Bennie & the Jets” from P!nk and Logic — goofy, but endearing — Revamp sinks into somnolence with Coldplay’s monochromatic reading of “We All Fall in Love Sometimes,” and the album never quite recovers. Cara rallies with “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” Miley Cyrus offers a nicely modulated version of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” Q-Tip & Demi Lovato embrace the silliness of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” and QOTSA end proceedings on an alluring note with “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” but these are surrounded by tracks that are so slickly produced, they not only sound like glass, but they’re nearly indistinguishable from each other.

Bob Holmes played a fairly prominent role in the Nashville soul scene of the ’60s and ’70s. Holmes could do a little bit of everything. He wrote, he arranged, and he produced, talents that are showcased on Ace’s 2017 compilation Bob Holmes’ Nashville Soul. The 24 tracks compiled here were recorded between 1965 and 1976, with the great majority dating from the back half of the ’60s, so it’s not a surprise that much of the music shares a sunny, exuberant groove that sometimes seems a little more Northern than Southern in origin. That’s part of the pleasure of Bob Holmes’ Nashville Soul: at its heart, it’s Southern but the fun is what lies in the margins. Holmes’ jazz roots surface in the harmonies on the Tydes’ “Say Boy,” he gussies up Slim Harpo’s swamp groove on…

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…”Tip on In, Pt. 1,” and Little Rock Brotherhood’s “Girl Watching on Broadway” is a cooking instrumental that hints at the sound of Philadelphia. All of these skills came into play on his ’70s productions and arrangements, which did show a facility with disco, especially on Joe Tex’s thumper “Under Your Powerful Love.”

This diversity — the compilation touches on a full range of late-’60s and early-’70s soul styles, all leaning toward the smoother side of the scale — is sly, but it is noteworthy and one of the reasons why this compilation is so enjoyable. Holmes was a consummate soul musician helping to enliven his hometown, and even if his recordings didn’t always travel far from Tennessee, they embody the best of the soul side of the Music City.

Hunee’s frenetic, oft-shoeless DJ sets have netted him breathless fans in nearly every corner of the globe, due in part to his ability to travel through genres and decades with inimitable ease. Go to a Hunee set, and you’re as likely to bask in vintage slo-mo from Brazil as you are bone-shaking techno — often in the same hour.
And while the artist born Hun Choi is known for laser focus behind the decks (sometimes intimidatingly so), he still manages to find time to twirl around the booth, eyes closed, hands in the air. His selections are both carefully placed and effortlessly dropped, blurring time in a way where speed or style matter less than uplifting energy.
His special vibe in the booth carries through on his few but lauded forays into production and curation.

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His debut 2015 album Hunch Music, for Rush Hour, the adventurous Dutch label and record shop captained by his crate-digging confidante Antal Heitlager, flipped swiftly between haunting downtempo, wiggly house, and cavernous techno. He helped bring back classic tracks from Japanese deep house don Soichi Terada with Sounds from the Far East during the same year, including some of his own coveted edits across two dazzling discs—all the while playing hundreds of sets a year ranging from smoky, underground parties in Brooklyn to some of the world’s biggest festivals.

His latest project for Rush Hour, Hunchin’ All Night, collects four decades of rare, exquisite music that—like his DJ marathons—are in one way or another danceable, but not limited to purely electronic selections. He kicks off with the calming Portuguese melodies of Carlos Maria before turning towards the African continent for heavy tunes from Malian artist Boncana Maïga and Benin’s Stanislas Tohon, whose glittering Afro-disco anthem “Owhaaou! (Raphael Top-Secret Edit)” provides one of the album’s most blissful moments. He includes treasured dance cuts—Larry Heard’s skittering piano jam “Burning 4 You,” and Ron Trent’s remix of Blak Beat Niks’ “Ritual of Love,” a tune that, not long ago, would run you a cool $400 on Discogs. The album comes to a close with a sprawling Detroit techno workout from Kenny Larkin’s Dark Comedy alias, another homage to Hunee’s known affinity for the often rare seminal tracks of American house and techno innovators. A worldly mixture of sounds that touches on a multitude of pleasure points, Hunchin’ All Night shows just what makes Hunee one of the most curious, open, and delightful minds in music. — daily.bandcamp.com

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At first glance, everything about Spiritual Jazz 8: Japan Pt. 1 might seem a bit too niche: it’s a compilation of esoteric Japanese jazz from 1961 to 1983, featuring several musicians so obscure beyond their native land that the only available information about them comes translated—not from Japanese, but from German Wikipedia. The first time a widely recognizable name appears on the track list (that of illustrious saxophonist player Sadao Watanabe), it’s to contribute a jazz rendering of an Indian raga, played with dissonant, modal fury by a dueling pair of saxes.
Yet behind its formidable barriers to entry, Spiritual Jazz 8: Japan Pt. 1 is a smoldering study in hidden beauty, a catalog of the intrepid quirks of decades past, and a map of the place where…

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…nuance and passion intersect. Even at its most challenging, something engrossing can be found in every track. Stand-out cuts like guitarist Shungo Sawada’s “Footprint” and drummer Takeo Moriyama’s experimental composition “East Plants” are utterly transporting, finding a sweet spot of rhythm and melody.

For nearly a decade, Jazzman Records has been releasing these spiritual jazz compilations, which feel less like greatest hits albums and more like velvet-lined chests packed with precious gems. This isn’t hyperbole. Tachibana — the only record released by the Tohru Aizawa Quartet, whose “Sacrament” graces Spiritual Jazz 8: Japan Pt. 2 — is one of the rarest jazz albums in the world, currently going for $749.06 on Discogs.

This endeavor to unlock jazz’s lost treasures for an expanding and curious listenership is more vital now than ever. As the jazz resurgence of the past several years continues to gain popular traction, and as more newcomers to the genre seek to penetrate its diverse history, projects like Jazzman’s Spiritual Jazz series serve to contextualize the modern movement by illuminating the path that has led to it. For instance, it offers young and curious fans of Kamasi Washington’s breakthrough spiritual jazz album, The Epic, a global compendium of a subgenre they might never have known even existed. It also serves to introduce a host of incredibly talented Japanese players to the West, proving there’s even more to the rich tradition of jazz in Japan than previously imagined. — daily.bandcamp.com

1. Small Faces – Afterglow
2. Rupert’s People – I Can Show You
3. Andromeda – Day of the Change
4. Episode Six – Mr Universe
5. The Pretty Things – She Says Good Morning
6. Bobak, Jons, Malone – On a Meadow-Lea
7. Sadie’s Expression – Yesterday Was Such…
8. Pussy – The Open Ground
9. The Attack – Magic in the Air
10. Blonde On Blonde – Heart Without a Home
11. The Alan Bown – All Along the Watchtower
12. The Lomax Alliance – See the People
13. The Mickey Finn – Time to Start Loving You
14. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – The Lord Doesn’t Want You
15. Andy Ellison – You Can’t Do That

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Mojo February 2018