Great Album Covers

Here is a collection of what I consider the greatest album art. The rules in determining a great album cover

1. No nudity or subtle profanity. I'm not against nudity and profanity. To deserve being on this list the album's appeal must exceed a higher standard than being sexually attractive
2. Generally I'm against portraits of the artist. I love sultry images of Allison Moorer or Shania Twain. But, again, to be great you have to achieve a higher beauty.
3. Disturbing and great are two different things. When I first saw Van Halen's 1984 it disturbed me. That does not make it great. Just attention grabbing. Likewise with Blind Faith

Without further ado, in no particular order:

Pearl Jam
by Pearl Jam
I love avocados. I grew up next to an avocado grove. There's just something magical about them for me. And then impose it on a simple, deep sky blue background

Complicated Game

James McMurtry

Well balanced. Great continuum and contrast of white to black. Captures loneliness and music. Inspires imagination

Dare You To Do It Again

Jessie Mae Hemphill and Friends

A cowboy hat, a cigarette and a gun. I don't like cowboy hats, guns or cigarettes. But, on Jessie Mae, in a dress, they look fantastic

Back To Oakland

Tower of Power

For so many Oakland is nothing more than the city with a lower cost of living and a higher rate of crime on the other side of the Bay Bridge across from San Francisco. What New Jersey is to New York City. When I see this cover it makes me smile. To me it shows Oakland as the home and San Francisco as the place to escape to get back home to Oakland

Born Not to Run

Car Talk

Rest in peace Tom Magliozzi. A great homage and pun on another great album

London Calling

The Clash

So many things have been said about this cover. The unleashed angst. The loss of control. And the homage to Elvis's eponymous album. This is greatest cover of all time

Unearthed Spring Mix

I've played this playlist repeatedly for the last week. Thought I'd share it

1. Hard To Concentrate, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium
2. Just Breathe, Pearl Jam, Backspacer
3. Solitary Man, Johnny Cash, American III: Solitary Man
4. Fearless, Pink Floyd, Meddle
5. Redemption Song, Johnny Cash, Unearthed: Redemption Songs
6. Hold On, Tom Waits, Mountain Fresh Tracks
7. Driftin Through, Lindisfarne, Here Comes the Neighborhood
8. Fotunate Son, Todd Snider, Peace Queer
9. Devil's Right Hand, Johnny Cash, Unearthed: Trouble On My Mind
10. Do Ya Love, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Stay Human
11. Out Loud, Dispatch, Gut the Van
12. We Don't Stop, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Everyone Deserves Music
13. New Year's Day (Ferry Corsten Extended Radio Mix), U2 and Ferry Corsten, War (Deluxe Edition)
14. Glory of True Love, John Prine, Fair and Square
15. Working Class Hero, John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band
16. If God Will Send His Angels, U2, City of Angels
17. I Won't Back Down, Johnny Cash and Tom Petty, American III: Solitary Man
18. Heart of Gold, Johnny Cash, Unearthed: Trouble on My Mind
19. We Shall Be Reunited, Patty Griffin and Emmylou Harris, Downtown Church
20. Prairie Wedding, Mark Knopfler, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Sailing to Philadelphia
21. One, Johnny Cash, American III: Solitary Man
22. Golden, My Morning Jacket, KMTT New Music Sampler 2004
23. High Cost of Low Living, The Allman Brothers Band, Hittin The Note
24. Subdivisions, Rush, Chronicles
25. Solitary Man, Johnny Cash and Tom Petty, American III: Solitary Man

I tried to do this on imeem which became MySpace but I couldn't find all the songs.

Awesome Skynyrd Cover Album

I picked up the album Under The Influence: A Jam Band Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd on a whim last month. It's been in my CD changer ever since. New purchases have entered the changer and left and Under the Influence remains.

D Vlad Hippy's negative review on Amazon.com stunned me. I agree that Les Claypool's "They Call Me The Breeze" sounds less than stellar. It's the only track on the album I dislike. Vlad's correct that JJ Cale wrote the song. In defense of the album, though, most would associate it with Skynyrd, which justifies it's existence on a Skynyrd tribute album.

Galactic's "Saturday Night Special" has a great groove. Of course, Gov't Mule's "Simple Man" really jams. How could it not. Hiatt's "The Ballad of Curtis Loewe" and Drive By Trucker's "Every Mother's Son", rival or outdo Skynyrd themselves. "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe" has become my newest favorite Hiatt song.

I also dig the North Mississippi Allstars rendition of "Whiskey Rock a Roller" and the Yonder Mountain String Band's "Four Walls of Raiford". I find myself skipping through to listen to "Every Mother's Son," "Simple Man" and "Four Walls of Raiford".

In total contrast to Vlad, I find the Blues Traveler's version of "Freebird" to be a perfect sounding Blues Traveler song. When I hear it I forget that it's not even their song. Popper kicks ass on the mouth harp. There's no way to deny that greatness.

I could do without Big Head Todd's "Sweet Home Alabama". On the other hand, The Disco Biscuits bring a fresh, original funkiness to "Gimme Three Steps". Likewise, Particle jams out keeps a true Skynyrd feel with a fresh sound for their rendition of "Workin for MCA".

Buy the album. Heck, buy 2. Give one to a friend.

More Great Shows

In the last two weeks I caught both Ozomatli and the Indigo Girls shows again. Many of my friends know and love Ozomatli. They are out of this world good.

The same friends giggle and give me a quizzical look when I tell them I also went to see Indigo Girls. I don't understand--the Indigo Girls have such incredible talent. Very few performers sound better than their studio album when they perform. The Indigo Girls always do, even songs they first recorded 20 years ago. They harmonize perfectly and consistently. They both are master guitar players. They write their own material, songs that have become hits over the course of two decades. They are in a league that very few musicians reach. As Kim Ruehl wrote on About.com, "They still have a hauntingly impressive grasp on their mad skills as polyphonic harmonizers."

So I remain confused why my friends deride them. Give me insight between black and white.

Greatest Going Home Song Ever

All evening I've pondered: What is the greatest Going Home song of all time? After hours and hours of thought (equivalent to microseconds of thought for the average person) and a bit of ipodding, I think I have an answer.

Here's the top four, in no particular order

1. "Sloop John B" by the Beach Boys
2. "Homeward Bound" by Simon & Garfunkel
3. Aimee Mann and Michael Penn's cover of The Beatles' "Two of Us"
4. "Comin' Home" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
5. "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel
   

What do you think?

High Sierra Music Festival

We went to check out the High Sierra Music Festival over Fourth of July weekend. I had never been--never even heard of it--but do hope to return again in the future. It's a pretty low-key festival with big name artists. Plus we escaped Sunday morning for awhile and had a beautiful and perfect hike along the Pacific Crest Trail from Bucks Summit to Spanish Peak.

A Banghra-House-Celtic fusion group from Vancouver called Delhi 2 Dublin brought down the house on Friday morning. To get a bunch of hippies moshing before noon on a Friday takes supreme talent. These guys are the real deal. We loved them. Check them out if you can.

We arrived almost too late on Thursday to catch any of John Butler. Luckily we caught the last song of the main set and the entire encore. He was incredible, too. For the few songs we heard he played solo or just had a drummer but no matter. I was blown away by how one man can create such a sound. I hear a lot of singer-songwriters with just an acoustic guitar and a lot of times after a song or two all their material starts to sound the same. Not the case with Butler. I argue that no solo artist can match Butler's dynamic performance.

The other surprise of the weekend was Paper Bird from Colorado. These guys play Folk/Americana and just had fantastic energy. I loved their ode to Colorado. They have 3 women lead singing whose harmonies harken to a past era and put a smile on your face.


I hadn't seen Ani DiFranco in years. She had a great performance and the crowd loved her.

So what's with the coconut craze? Everything at the festival involved coconuts. There was a dread-locked overall wearing hippie wandering around selling them with rum. There was a vendor in the food court selling them and the ice cream vendor had replaced cow's cream with coconut milk in their ice cream. I don't recommend the coconut ice cream. Plus, at $3 for about an ounce of ice cream, it's way out of my hippie budget. Did I miss something? Are coconuts the next Big Thing?

A lot of folks camp right in the fairgrounds. Some even sleep right in the horse stalls. No thanks. We chose to take the less cramped free camping about a mile east of the fairgrounds. They had a free shuttle running between the festival and the campground but honestly we never took it. Even though it was pretty hot we still enjoyed the walk...except when I dropped the car key in the middle of the festival and we had to walk back and look for it and then back to the car again. Luckily someone turned it in to Lost and Found! Thank you, whoever you are!

Next time, and there will be a next time, I aim to try and camp in the trees just to the left and just outside of the main entrance.

Bridge School 22

I just had a wonderful weekend full of concerts. I started Friday night with incredibly intimate performance by The Bittersweets and ended tonight with the marathon 22nd Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert. This afternoon/tonight's show just rocked. Neil Young proved that he is still a living legend and was by far my favorite. My favorite take of the night, though, was Norah Jones singing his When God Made Me with Neil on organ and backing vocals. I had no idea that Norah was singing Bluegrass! All my friends were blown away by her. She definitely stole the show in terms of who most surprised the audience. Wilco also put in a great set and Death Cab For Cutie and Jack Johnson performed well and kept the audience on their feet for most their set, which was a feat considering that the day was over 8 hours long. Cat Power with the Dirty Delta Blues sang a gripping cover of The House of the Rising Sun and I enjoyed when Neil came out and sang Fortunate Son with her. Neil's cover of A Day In The Life just absolutely brought the house down.

And call me crazy, but I swear that Neil passed me on the way to the event headed down Shoreline about 40 minutes before the show in 1950s Plymouth with perfect chrome and interior and green paint fading to surface rust but appearing original. According to this, http://www.jambase.com/Articles/14655/Neil-Young-Chaos-Is-Good, Neil owns an off color 1950 Plymouth Super Deluxe. Sounds exactly right. Can anyone out there confirm?

The Bittersweets

I went and saw The Bittersweets last night and I was blow away by their performance. They played in the intimate Swedish American Hall above Cafe du Nord in the Castro district in San Francisco. In addition to an incredible, energetic performance of their hit, Long Day, they also blew me me away with their covers of Gillian Welch's Orhpan Girl and Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers. I've heard Gillian Welch sing Orphan Girl herself live and heard Emmylou sing it live as well at least once. Neither compared to the Bittersweet's performance. They also sang one song both a capella and without amplification. Impressive. Plus the venue was just perfect for them. So intimate. Catch a show there if you can.

Photos of the show from my colleague: http://darryl.smugmug.com/gallery/6359695_FLxh8

Goodnight, San Francisco by The Bittersweets
(purchased and autographed last night in San Francisco)

Long Way From Home: The Bittersweets Live

Van Morrison

I'm currently having a musical orgasm. I just bought Van Morrison's 1994 'A Night In San Francisco' with John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Jimmy Witherspoon, his daughter Shana Morrison, James Hunter, Brian Kennedy, and Georgie Fame. Just an incredible album. First I just bought his duet with John Lee Hooker on Gloria. Then I had to have the whole album. I'll be listening to this one over and over until I wear out the bits. Van Morrison really is the greatest white singer ever.

Best 15 Albums Ever

I like that iTunes has an automatic album rating feature now. Of my 9300 tracks, I have rated over 7000 of them while riding buses in Asia and driving through the Outback. This has given me some fairly accurate data about my music tastes. The result surprised me and so I thought I would share it. I only considered LP albums and excluded compilations and greatest hits album. For example, I excluded Bob Marley's 'Legend' and James Brown's 'Mother Lode' since in a loose definition they're both greatest hits album.
My Top 15 Favorite Albums

1. Hasta La Vista Baby! by U2
2. We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions (American Land Edition) by Bruce Springsteen
3. The Revolution Starts...Now by Steve Earle
4. Blood Sugar Sex Magik by The Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Listener Supported by The Dave Matthews Band
6. Under the Table & Dreaming by The Dave Matthews Band
7. Shake Your Money Maker by the Black Crowes
8. Stop Making Sense by The Talking Heads
9. Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix
10. True Love by Toots & The Maytals
11. MTV Unplugged by 10,000 Maniacs
12. When I Woke by Rusted Root
13. The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend
14. Vintage Blood: Live! 1973 by Cold Blood
15. Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode