(February 2021) Episode 315 is NINA SIMONE. There is so much that is remarkable about Nina Simone. Her deep and expressive voice, best suited to the jazz tunes of her early career IMO. Her skills on piano, arranging and songwriting. The diversity and eclecticism of her musical tastes (from gospel and blues to The Beatles and Hall & Oates). Her independence and activism for civil rights. She owned the 1960s.
Favorite album: Pastel Blues
Favorite song: Four Women
Compared to expectations: same
(January 2021) Episode 312 is ELIZABETH COTTEN. If you like guitar pickin’ you’ll love her. And a great story. Cotten taught herself to play an unorthodox way: left-handed but with the strings in the right-handed position, so her fingers did the bass and her thumb the melody, for a style aptly called “Cotten picking.” She learned as a youth, gave it up for decades, and then started performing and recording in her 60s, influencing many in the folk revival.
Favorite song: Freight Train
Favorite instrumental song: New Year’s Eve
Compared to expectations: ↑
Episode 282 is RAY CHARLES. If you had to describe American music in the form of one person, it would be Ray Charles. He melded blues, R&B, jazz, and gospel into what we now call soul, helped integrate country, and reached out into pop standards and modern pop. A legend. That said, the albums themselves, especially after the mid-60s, are generally weak sauce. I recommend a greatest hits collection or, better yet, video of concert performances as his smile and sway light up the venue.
Favorite album: Doing His Thing
Favorite song: What’d I Say
Compared to expectations: ↓
(June 2020) Episode 271 is JOHN FAHEY. Fingerpicked guitar is so wholesome. If you love it like I do then John Fahey is essential. He didn’t invent the technique (that was southern blues players) but he made it its own art form, often called American primitive guitar (a label I don’t like because it connects him to Windham Hill-type New Age music, a connection he rejected). Amidst his personal eccentricities, Fahey tried several styles including Dixieland jazz, sound collage, and Christmas covers. But he’s at his best when his right hand goes full speed on folk and blues numbers.
Favorite album: The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites
Favorite song: Jaya Shiva Shankara
Best song that Leo Kottke did a little better: The Last Steam Engine Train
Compared to expectations: same
(December 2019) Episode 244 is JIMMIE RODGERS. He is known as the “Father of Country Music” because of his immeasurable influence there. Much of the music itself, however, is indistinguishable from the blues, demonstrating that blues, country, folk, and later rock all emanate from the same authentic American musical tradition. Everything gets a yodel.
Favorite song: In the Jailhouse Now
Favorite ballad: I’ve Ranged, I’ve Roamed, I’ve Traveled
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2019) I have completed episode 206 of my “opus project.” This edition: LEAD BELLY. A master in blues and folk, Lead Belly’s songs also touched on gospel, children’s songs and topics of the day like FDR, Hitler and the Titanic. His songs were thankfully preserved by the Lomax recordings for the Library of Congress, making him influential, particularly for his technique on his big 12-string guitar. Despite, or maybe because of, his scoundrel-ish life, his voice always sounds like he’s having a great time.
Favorite song: Bottle Up and Go (love the guitar work)
Compared to expectations: same
(April 2018) I have completed episode 163 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an artist’s full discography. This edition: ROBERT JOHNSON. We pretty much owe everything to this man. There are only 42 surviving recordings of his songs (13 are alternative takes), but you can hear his influence everywhere.
Favorite song: Sweet Home Chicago
Compared to expectations: same
(January 2018) I have completed episode 153 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an artist’s full discography. This edition: JANIS JOPLIN. One of best voices of all-time. Many classic songs, although the albums, with the variety of backing bands, are uneven affairs.
Favorite album: Pearl
Favorite song: Me and Bobby McGee
Favorite song written by Janis Joplin: Move Over
Special sauce: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Compared to expectations: same
(May 2017) I have completed episode 123 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an artist’s full discography. This edition: TOM WAITS. One critic aptly described his voice as “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.” Great lyrical storytelling too. I am drawn more to the weird stuff than the ballads or the jazz/piano material.
Favorite album: Rain Dogs
Favorite song: Gun Street Girl
Favorite period: 1983-87
Compared to expectations: ↓
Opus Project 