Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic
Back when I did the daily commute to Baltimore and my car radio had better reception, I used to enjoy a great community radio station that shares programming with its owner, WXPN, the Philadelphia radio station known for its World Cafe program, and yet operates out of a high school from
I discovered another musical coincidence recently — two albums with similarly-constructed titles released the same year by two hip and influential songwriter-producer-arrangers: Poet, Fool or Bum by Lee Hazlewood -vs.- Hobos, Heroes & Street Corner Clowns by Don Nix, both from 1973. On his one and only album for Capitol,
I finally got around to learning how to convert VHS into DVD so that I could preserve a rare piece of Ameri-music-ana: a live performance of “Tulsa Trot” by noted western swing outfit, Tex Williams and His Western Caravan, that offers a second startling peek at the unorthodox technique of
Who are/were The Surf Symphony — and why just the one Capitol 45? “Night of the Lions“ The Surf Symphony (1969) Wait! As it turns out, the joke’s on us: This is a “supercharged” instrumental version of the song “Night of the Lions” from Mark Eric‘s A Midsummer’s Day
I once played a sweet little instrumental by James Burton and Ralph Mooney on an all-truck-driving radio show, even though it’s not actually a “trucker tune” — and yet nobody called me out on it, because the song – “Corn Pickin‘ – fit like a glove. Later when I “back-announced”
Interesting to see Kelly Gordon and (especially) Shorty Rogers attempt to muscle in on the hot rod scene with a late 60s concept album — contemporaneously titled, Bug-In! — that pays musical tribute to the hot rod’s off-road counterpart, the dune buggy. Gordon and Rogers splurge on a gatefold album
Thanks to Andy Volk of The Steel Guitar Forum for pointing me to Anne Miller‘s fascinating profile of steel guitarist bandleader Alvino Rey for The Smithsonian in which we learn Rey, as a consultant for Gibson Guitars in the 1930s, helped develop the prototype for the ES-150 (made famous by
Two electric keyboard innovators who helped move popular music forward with their “futuristic” sounds – Billy Preston and Sly Stone – collaborated briefly in a musical partnership that produced this A-side, “Can’t She Tell“: “Can’t She Tell“ Billy Preston (featuring Sly Stone) 1966 Jointly written by Billy Preston and Sly
I love how the staccato guitars emulate the sound of scratching fleas as a result of the song’s protagonist being banished to the doghouse in this retooling of Hank Williams: Rose Maddox “Move It on Over” (1960) John Maddox & John Newman: Guitar Henry Maddox: Mandolin Allen Williams: Bass Henry
Jim and John Hager – like the Chaparral Brothers – were (1) identical twins, who (2) once recorded for Capitol. Unlike the Chaparral Brothers, the Hager Twins (1) would perform on TV’s Hee Haw from 1969 to 1986, and (2) get close to a Top 40 Country hit in 1969
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