after a long absence...

Good Morning!  I know Lester Bilbo will be happy to see that I'm making an appearance.  Things have been crazy around here.  I presented at CNIE conf. 2008 in Banff that last week of April. Then a couple of days meeting at the U.of Calgary with OUETD.  A short holiday in Red Deer with my brother and his wife.  Saw Drumheller, and the hoodoos, and a lot of other stuff.  Back home in time for my wife to have bilateral knee replacements.  Now 8 weeks later she's doing very well. Walking without a cane, straight legs!  Fantastic!  And then a trip to Las Vegas for infoComm '08! Cirque du Soleil's KA was spellbinding!  In the meantime a ton of great music has been released. While in Calgary I got a copy of Tom Phillips Downtown Cowboy, Albertan country singer; Tom Petty's Mudcrutch (the resurrection of his old band) which is lots of fun.  Found a copy of Ersi Arvizu's Friend For Life produced by Ry Cooder (not as immediately great as Mavis Staples, but an excellent album nonetheless), and Elvis Costello's Momofuku (which hasn't grown on me yet.)  T Bone Burnett's Tooth of Crime is just too weird for me, I think I'm finished testing his solo records...while his productions just get better and better!  Bill Frisell's history, mystery was a disappointment too, not enough guitar on it, too much band for my taste.  Not that it's bad...on the contrary...but it wasn't the Frisell album I was hoping for.  Other purchases?  Tony Joe White (who played at HCI one Friday night when I was in grade 13), John Hiatt, Sonny Landreth, Bette Midler's greatest hits (excellent), Eliza Gilkyson's Beautiful World (she's fantastic), Paul Weller, Walter Becker, Solomon Burke, and Ry Cooder's I, Flathead (the deluxe edition).  By the time I finish listening to all this...it'll be August.  Saw Steely Dan on the weekend at Casino Rama.  They were precise, and tight, and their guitarist is fantastic.  Great show.

Monday again...

Listening to Allison Moorer's fine new CD, Mockingbird, I'm reminded that Buddy Miller (who produced Mockingbird) hasn't put out any music under his own name for a while.  
I've been watching the entire Prime Suspect series on DVD. Helen Mirren is an extraordinary actress, and beautiful too! 

New Ry Cooder content...a couple tracks on the soundtrack to My Blueberry Nights.
Good stuff included...worth a look.

I'm reviewing the collected Willie & Joe cartoons of Bill Mauldin for Green Man Review.  A dandy collection.  Maybe some of the 'jokes' are too obscure this long after WW2 but...it's a more enjoyable way to read war history than any other I've seen.

where've ya been?

Life goes on, and as it does, it deals us some surprises.  Look out the window and there's a pile   of snow that dropped on us over the past few days.  The roads were slippery, visibility poor, but music continues to pile up.  Mark and I practiced a couple of new tunes to play in a week or two; we both have Garageband now and this may lead to some recording of our combined sound.  
Lots of new blues CDs for review.  Albert Collins Live at Montreux 1992, Samuel James, Moreland & Arbuckle, Eric Bibb, it just keeps coming.  I'll be reviewing these for GMR, but
believe me when I say...they're all worthwhile.  We're going to see Bibb in a month at the
intimate theatre at Brock University.  I'll tell you how that goes.  Last month we saw John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett at Massey Hall.  The drive was interminable (more than 2 hours to go the 40 miles to Toronto) but dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe was tasty, and the show was even tastier!
Sitting on chairs and using only acoustic guitars these two showed the reason for their success many times during the evening.  They alternated songs, first Hiatt, then Lovett, back and forth pausing only for a bit of humourous patter.  Sometimes John played a lead behind Lyle, sometimes Lyle added a harmony.  Lyle Lovett was headlined first but it was John Hiatt people were talking about when it was all over.  All in all...a splendid evening.  I bought the new CD (+DVD) from Arlen Roth.  Called Toolin' Around Woodstock it features  guest 
appearances from Levon Helm, Bill Kirchen and Sonny Landreth.  It's really a guitar 
album with some fantastic songs.  "Sweet Little Sixteen", Joe South's "Games People 
Play", a fiery take on Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man".  The DVD shows the recording 
sessions, and is fun to watch, but it's the CD you'll be playing over and over.  
Jackson Browne fans will be glad of Volume 2 in the solo acoustic series.                                
Live versions of songs from his long career, it's a beautifully recorded collection                        from shows from all over.   

just a Tuesday afternoon...

As Buddy Miller sings "With God on Our Side" I'm thinking about the meaning behind this Dylan classic.  "If God's on our side, He'll stop the next war."
God gets a lot of stuff dumped on His doorstep, dontcha think.
We get mad at our neighbor, knock his fence down, and kick his cat...and when he retaliates it somehow God's fault.
You're kidding yourself if you don't think the neighbor figures God is on his side too.
He's wondering how come God allowed you to kick his cat.
Why can't we all just get along?
Cuz we're not built that way I guess.
We haven't been gettin' along with our neighbors (or even our brothers) since Cain & Abel.

the winter of our disconnect...

Wow, it's been nearly a month since last I blogged.  So you'd think that I'd have plenty to say.  Well, I've been so distracted by real life that the virtual stuff has taken a back seat.  Has anyone out there checked out 2nd Life?  We're working on a project on 2nd Life at the university.  We'll see.  I know I didn't have much luck navigating the orientation pages, and when I tried out a different virtual world (Videoranch) I was quickly bored.  I'm just not of the 'gamer' school.  Maybe an evening of euchre or cribbage, or even Trivial Pursuit.  
Music-wise, things were pretty slow after Christmas, but they're starting to pick up now.  Ringo Starr's Liverpool 8 is...another Ringo Starr album.  With help from Dave Stewart and Mark Hudson it's musical, but still features Ringo's vocals.  I saw his first All-Starr Band, and had a great time...but can't say I spend much time listening to their live album.
Been listening to some Richard Hawley, and find him mesmerizing.  How'd I miss him for so long?  
Coles Corner and Lady's Bridge, riveting.
Torrent sites have been keeping me busy.  I've been able to download a pile of things that never came out on CD, or at least, were very hard to find.  The complete Richie Furay collection, JD Souther, Carl Wilson's two albums, all items I bought on vinyl...but never saw on CD.
Then there's unreleased material like Dennis Wilson's Bamboo (the followup to Pacific Ocean Blue), Brian Wilson's Sweet Insanity, live Paul McCartney from the Amoeba show, and on and on it goes.  
They have movies too, you can download new films just out in theatres!  
Like Sweeney Todd and Persepolis.
Looking for something to read?  Try Ronnie Wood's autobio Ronnie, 
it's best to read it while you're sipping a Guinness...just for ambiance! 
  

A new year...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. We're all back to work, out of holiday mode and with our noses to the grindstone.
Before Christmas I went to see Sweeney Todd with my sons. Excellent adaptation of the play, and I have to say that cutting out a couple of the songs and streamlining it didn't hurt the story. Good performances all 'round and the wonderfully murky cinematography just added to my delight. I've seen three or four different productions of Sweeney Todd, not counting a couple of other versions of the story (by Dibdin Pitt, for one) but I did enjoy Johnny Depp!
Also saw Walk Hard, and thoroughly enjoyed that too. Sorry to hear it's not finding its audience but I laughed and laughed.
I bought the Amazing Journey DVD, that tells the Who story. Excellent. Finally Roger has his say! The Rolling Stone cover to cover DVD-rom is loads of fun to browse through. Every RS magazine for 40 years! Wow!
Can't wait to read Ronnie Wood's autobiography Ronnie. I also scored a copy of his 2-CD Anthology which has one disc of solo material and one of the bands he's been with, the Birds, Creation, Jeff Beck, Faces, Stones, some pretty good bands.
Lots of McCartney around these days. Another special edition of memory almost full this time with a live DVD, a download of Paul's secret concert at Amoeba Records, an A&E TV special from the Olympia. And next...Ringo's new album comes out today...it's a Beatles spectacular.
A new Fretboard Journal with John Scofield on the cover made me go back to listen to John's tribute to Ray Charles CD. Wow! And there's also a big article on Norman and Nancy Blake.
Still listening to Steve Earle's washington square serenade which may be the album of the year for me. Well, not counting Ry's My Name is Buddy. But the two of them have been on my playlist since they came out! Steve also had a TV special on Canada's Bravo which was a raw solo performance of much of the wss album.
Saw a couple interesting videos...Breaking and Entering and Perfume. Slow moving but quite interesting nonetheless. And one last recommendation...read Roddy Doyle's The Deportees, a set of short stories all dealing with immigrants in Ireland. One story is a sequel to The Commitments. See ya!

Happy New Year!

...to all!