Category: americana

What can you get for a Tenner? Rough Trade Container Chuck Out and Wobblers.

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Ok this bunch cost £12..4 in 2 £3 for a fiver deal and rest £1 from remnants of the great Florida Container dump of October 2025. Rough Trade imported a huge load of chuck our USA vinyl as Student bait and it worked for a while then everything got reduced from £5 each (crazy) to a more reasonable £1. In amongst this stuff I found some gems which I still going through.

Hamilton Camp: here’s to you. Warner Bros 1968.

Not very exciting cover until I turned it round and I saw this

Now that is A-List Wrecking Crew band in a Hollywood Studio. Not a bad musician anywhere and anything with Van Dyke Parks (Brian Wilson’s mate) on …and Hal Blaine…no-brainer. Bud Shank plays flute on brasilian feel Seven Circles.

It’s a stunner sunshine baroque pop by an English actor who started pre Dylan with Bob Gibson. Apparently Camp also had a Paths to Victory Lp which a stunner too giving great renditions of then obscure Dylan songs not on general release.(it on my list). I played it several times still a winner slight marks on one track but well worth a quid. Production is pure Van Dyke Parks feel..special. Best song Travellin in the Dark. Written by a couple who managed and worked with Cream and the wife ended up shooting partner. Could I make that up the song is so wonderful like a weird Nebraska out-take.

So here’s a £3 LP (£2.50) and again a cracker I went with cover basically felt right..

Turns out I right this guy not only a revered Jazz player from 1950s onwards but wrote the Hollies song he ain’t heavy he’s my brother and the theme music for the film Taste of Honey. If hat not enough he produced a whole load of Lps including a Nana Mouskouri Lp which apparently fab called Nana.

Didn’t sing that much but here he does and it is sublime. Another Warners Brothes Lp 1971 a promo copy.

Favourite track hard to say maybe this one…Willoughby Grove this pre Elton John Tumbleweed the guy a ace…has feel of best of Mickey Newbury high praise indeed.


Full album here….rarely does a lost classic actually deserve the accolades this does..

https://reflectionrecords.bandcamp.com/album/robert-william-scott

Third LP is a tad dissapointing looked up the UK artist was a writer and member of Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance band and actually co-wrote How Come with Ronnie. The Lp title seemed promising and some of the tracks are good but it just lacks a killer song. Produced by The Shadows drummer Tony Meehan on label financed by same people who brought you the Marmalade label including Blossom Toes which Kevin W was in. Best track probably ‘The Girl’ which reminds me of a Robert Forster solo track. I like rock and roll is pure Canvey Island pub rock.

Fourth oldie is a right puzzler. Has Nils lofgren and bonnie Rait on BUT its batshit. Mr Johnson admits to be being both brilliant and having some substance issues including going AWOL on record company advance with John Cale…..PETER C JOHNSON

This his first LP was home-made in a McCartney way i.e. some pretty expensive kit lying around and sounds outrageously good yet the songs are KAK. Real post Robert Palmer Punk never going to happen MOR kak. I will post one you will get gist.

Peter C. Johnson was one of the driving forces in the Boston music scene in the late ’60s. His singer/songwriter style was a big influence on the young musicians coming through the area, including a relatively unknown Bruce Springsteen. He teamed with Astral Weeks session player John Payne to form the Manic Depressives, a band best known for backing Bonnie Raitt, although they performed with Howlin’ Wolf numerous times during this period. The band broke up following a fistfight at a gig, and Johnson disappeared for a few years. When he reemerged, he had completely rethought his approach, this time performing with six mannequins and a fortune in electronic equipment that provided a chorus of voices and music behind what he was playing on-stage. He released a self-titled album on A&M, which was a critical success but never quite caught on with the record-buying public. On top of this, a poor contract left him penniless after his touring expenses caught up with him. He recorded an album with John Cale soon after, but eventually disappeared after trying to rehab his drug problem.

Ok so that the old stuff now a couple of what RT refers to as wobbly wax which can cover a multitude of sins. In some cases and I suspectthese two a case in point its old stock that been lying on shelf since day one so ends up reduced. I had passed these two many times to point where at £3 each seemed worth investigating. I had ehard of TJO a bit as a artist that had worked with James Elkington and Steve gunn good sign. Iwas pleasantly surprised the LP is very ambient/transcendental blues and more mellow than mellow. Still worth a £3 dive. filed with Owls of the Swamp in contemporary singer/writer mystics territory. You can guess most of that by the cover.

Chose this track as it seems to be a Navajo chant vibe..

finally another £3 ‘wobbler’ and bought purely on basis of label Village Green is contemporary ambient/electronic/classical label my freind Pete astor side project with David Sheppard Ellis Island Unit released on this label. Chris Morphitis is world/ambient/electronic bit of Steve Reich in this track but pretty eclectic overall.

So there you go what can you get for a tenner these days….there your answer Ok £12…..its only numbers.

3 FOR A FIVER: THE RECORD FAIR CONUNDRUM

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Record Fairs have become strange ritualistic sites of male obsessiveness, competition and downright stupidity in almost equal proportion. They also have different identities depending on which geezer runs them. The so-called AA (nothing to do with alcohol) fairs are relentless in terms of finding pitches and banging out the same plastic tubs of mostly knock-off new vinyl that comes from the great white van in the sky. No questions asked etc etc . If not that then like every other record fair it has the ubiquitous real rock syndrome that means every Pink Floyd album is treated as a holy relic and anything ‘metal’ or ‘goth’ is looked at as worth a few bob no matter how shite.

So today I ventured with heavy heart to the AA Fair and found that even white van men have their weak spots. Stuff they dont like/never heard of/in a foreign language’ ends up in the three for a fiver box. Now Having long held the view that anything over a quid was a rip-off I allowed myself the luxury of going to 3 for a fiver land.

What I found was hilarious and brilliant in equal measure and I assure you my gracious dealers had no fucking idea what it was they chucking out. If it ain’t worth a doller on discogs it shit..so here we go…

1. The Fiction Aisle: Heart Map Rubric

This was a interesting cover and a brief web search established it a double lp by the ex lead writer in Electric Soft Parade and Brakes from Brighton and it looked like the person who made it cared a lot. So I put it in the trolley. First listen its a stunning record reminds me of The Blue Nile.

2. Jesse Taylor: Last Night UK LP 1990

Second up and it brought me to a emotional dead stop a Jesse Taylor Lp. Mint. This guy is a legend and a direct line to my long late great friend Terry Clarke who worshipped him and played with him and Ely. In the trolley it went.

3. Owls of the Swamp

Third and this turns out to be a 200 limited edition by a madcap australian folkie who moved to Iceland. The name alone sold it to me again mint probably unplayed. Sounds like a folky Elliot Smith who hugs too many trees but very lovely for all that.

So that £5 down next post the second batch…and at present HMV boasts of 3 for £66 yes that a sale reduction to £22 each because frankly HMV are cunts and market directly to students who stupid.

OK Batch 2 three for a fiver. Different geezer this one had a LOT of Elvis and frankly maybe a little too much by about a thousand items. However in true dealer chuck out style here what chucked out.

1. 12″ Promo Richard Thompson of ‘Turning of the Tide’ 33 1/3 from AMNESIA LP. WTF? USA tour promo prob aimed at radio stations in 1988. Both sides the same track which handy as one side scratched just turn the fucker over and bingo a bargain. It worth nowt hence chuck out.

2. The Merle Haggard problem. I have almost everything by Merle Haggard and it a problem as there is a lot of Merle Haggard however by a freak chance I didn’t have this one with the insane cover….Is that a photo or a early version of AI or a photo of his mother hard to tell..the cover states a major 20th century man and talent of magnitude. Who am I to argue album produced by Fuzzy Owen enuff said.

3. Now this is a example of Rock dealer Classical Music LP syndrome in most cases they bin them or take the inners and chuck the rest but this one survived and…..this is a weird Uk Charing Cross Road label affiliated to Melodisc USSR in fact it a Russian label in all but name and the Great graphics and photo are by Brian Shuel who went on to work for Topic as a photographer and designer so known well to Simon Ashley. I now have two of these MK Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga) Lps. Not rare but revealing of a time when being a Communist on the Charing Cross Road was cool…and the black and white Shuel sleeves are worth purchasing for the covers alone..beautiful. In this case it mint and it a great artist and conductor and Hindemith..win win.also I could not find a cover shot so it rarer than a dead hen’s teeth..

Herewith concludes the Chuck Out Bin report for today..total outlay £10.

Mono Record Players X2

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I am the proud owner of a 1978 Toshiba Music Centre ( thank you Terry) and after replacing the belt which had perished and a gentle straightening of the original Shure stylus it great especially with heavy tracking arm and cartridge for those ‘well-loved’ monos I have been piling up in the corner. It has a mono/stereo button too so some older stereos that too loved also sounding good.

I had previously tried to replace a ceramic cartridge on a wooden schools mono because knobbled stereo Garrard Deck from 1976. Having seen the error of my ways (all electrics were under the bonnet state of art 1976 and it only mono by default) and had a repalcement stylus which correct one for the deck it now my singles bar deck as the auto return etc shot. Still sounds great with singles.

So first up I tried a recent Pound of Wax (£1 Arnold) Charlie Christian LP sounded great with a pair of Wharfedale Delta bookshelf speakers.

Amy LaVere – Painting Blue

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https://amylavere.bandcamp.com/album/painting-blue

I came across Amy Lavere by chance through Johnny Dowd’s new record which is produced by her husband Will Sexton (Charlie’s Big Brother) .

I now know she and Will played here in Nottingham in the teeth of Covid getting through a tour on the cusp of the world’s downtime.

Amy sings and had a lot to do with Dowd’s latest which is excellent by the way.

She has also had a solid career which passed my by until now sadly. This her last solo Lp released in 2019 is a de facto gem and reminds me of not only the looser end of Lucinda Williams but also other noted stateside female acts like Eliza Gilkyson and maybe even Victoria Williams such is the lightness in her voice. The songs are very well written and the producer’s hat of WS is worn more than well.

The closest contemporary feel I get is with the work of Vlautin’s Delines.. yes that good.

Personal fave on first few plays through is the Memphis track which recalls the famous track by Tom T Hall. There is not a note out of place and not a false step here.

Note to self catch her next time she comes through pandemics allowing of course….

Trail of Tears: Mark Eitzel and the Great American Songbook

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Mark Eitzel all over my bed…

Writing a music blog is a little like masturbation, it generally something one does on one’s own and if it is shared it with very few and certainly very like-minded people.

That seems an apposite introduction to trying to assess one of the most singularly neglected and undervalued songwriters of the post R.E.M. american indie scene. Indeed it would not be wrong to put him in the top four major talents in that genre including Elliot Smith, Vic Chesnutt and Mark Linkous. To say he still here is a blessing as the rest all sadly gone. Writing as a fellow 64 year-old (we born two days apart) when you get to our age a lot of water and blood has flowed under the bridge. Just being here is a triumph.

As I write this I am back-tracking exactly 31 years to the night I witnessed (and remains my only witnessing ) the live show when he fronted the then burning bright American Music Club at the Clapham Grand. It was as any cliched reviewer would tell you a consumate show where Eitzel’s intense and emotional lyrics were communicated with full force. Something about that band matched the west-coast harmonic vibe of a band who grew up facing east as much as west ( Eitzel was actually brought up as a child in Japan.)

Mellifluous atmospherics aside there was always a sharp pen at work too showing a formidable awareness of the classic American Songbook many years before Dylan made it OK to like ( pace later song ‘Johnny Mathis’s Feet’). It has also been suggested that AMC’s The Restless Stranger marked the invention of slowcore years before Lullaby for the Working Class, Low and Willard Grant made it trendy. Listening to it I hear more R.E.M. than slowcore and shades of the L.A. and S.F. new psychedelia of Cavacas and Green on Red or even Dream Syndicate. There also more than a passing reference to a fellow Scott Walker fan Julian Cope. I can imagine AMC being familiar with all the Liverpool bands.

( Editor’s note: I since listened to this interview and Mark namechecks fellow Cohen and Brel fan Ian McCulloch so nailed that one 😉

First track sets up the Eitzel trick of the piercing detail in a jolly melody…

as he sings..

I’m the only one who saw you pissing in your wishing well.

You cry yourself to sleep every night…

Eitzel sings about emotions a lot not quite a bucketfull of tears but certainly a trail that continues to the present day.

1987 and a ZIPPO deal with UK label DEMON ( home of Costello/Lowe) and alongside Giant Sand and other USA imports and articles in magazines like Bucketfull of Brains the slow build of reputation begins that leads to a major deal with Virgin. I don’t catch on until 1992 and that London gig and promptly purchase the 1988 release California as live I loved the version of ‘Firefly’. To date this seems to me the pinnacle of pre major label AMC along with perhaps the most perfect of Eitzel’s tear-stained love torch songs ‘Western Sky’.

Since 1987’s Engine the band had benefitted from the participation of record producer Tom Mallon in the band’s sound and Eitzel himself gives credit to his soundscapes to frame his increasingly well crafted and personal lyrics. Following California the band released a UK only ‘United Kingdom’ LP and their star rose with the well-received Everclear which then prompted Virgin and Reprise USA to float their boat. Ironic that Sinatra’s label became home to the Mathis loving Eitzel.

Along the way the definable soundscapes slipped and while brilliant songs like ‘Keep Me Around’ and ‘Johnny Mathis’s Feet’ are still there it’s all a bit direct and radio-friendly lacking that smog-filled LA and SF air. If only they had ignored the big buck producer directions and recorded lo-fi or a new LP called ‘Los Angeles’ in the Capitol Building we may looking at rivals to Mercury Rev and Flaming lips who started to take their soundscapes in more profound directions.

Big bucks usually mean big directives as friends of mine found out..sometimes a big producer like Mitchell Froom doesn’t work after all he fucked up Richard Thompson too around this time so don’t take it personally Mark. It’s the economy stupid…

As if aware of the potential mis-fire next recording ‘San Francisco’ starts with Eitzel proclaiming …..‘ Am I lost again…..I closed my eyes and kept on going’
and the title itself gets the home location in..things are back on track for a while….it’s a far more measured LP in parts but again things don’t quite add up.


Wish the World Away on the LP is a tad too straight ahead but look behind the curtain and multi-single extras of ‘Wish the World Away’ show an awareness of the changing post Nirvana music-scape. ‘The Revolving Door’ Demo shows what could have been a much more interesting LP with its easy listening drum and bass vibe. contrasts markedly with the over-produced sub U2 phonics on the finished LP. The cracks were appearing and by 1995 the band was over.

A year later and Eitzel’s second solo offering ( Words of Love Live at Borderline had appeared through Demon in UK in 1991) called ’60 Watt Silver Lining’ appeared. A quick blast on spotify reveals this to be a very nice easy listening influenced almost jazz type of LP. Here the band requirements fall away to reveal a quite traditional jazz influenced crooner. The singing is good. The songwriting a little too traditional but still there is a sharp pen on tracks like ‘When my plane finally goes down’ which is reminiscent of Joe Henry. The track ‘Southend on Sea’ takes the geographical tack apparent before. Psycho-geography from a ‘Ugly American’. Eitzel is having fun here, hell there’s even a brass section..the Miserabalist Soul Man…a depressive Solomon Burke. Good stuff. Maybe the USA version of Kevin Rowlands.

From 1996 to the present day discogs lists 18 full length releases. Some on labels like Cooking Vinyl some self-released. They are all interesting. Some like the covers LP Music for Courage and Confidence seem like treading water then a left-field LP of covers of old AMC material with a greek band ( The Ugly American) are superb giving a whole different take on the AMC story.

Here Western Sky with mandolin!

I am catching up with the more recent solo work so not attempting to cover here now. As you can see from above bedroom photograph most of my collection is from first half of career. Candy Ass I like and shows the potential for experiment lacking from the later AMC recordings as for the revived AMC I not heard but a quick listen on the AMC Bandcamp page suggests lessons learnt first time around much more in Mercury Rev territory.
https://americanmusicclub1.bandcamp.com/

The trail of tears continues..


On a first listen the lead track of Hey Mr Ferryman (2017) suggests that the fortuitous hook up with Butler as producer is one of the most productive events and suggests that Mr Eitzel benefits from a musical foil/producer to bring the best out of his voice and pen. I also looking forward to reeling in the stage work he been doing – all new to me.

The title too covers ‘The Last Ten Years’ better than I could and remember after a heart attack in 2010 we fortunate he still here to send his heart-break ballads out into the wild blue yonder of those Western Skies.

Mark Eitzel is about to tour the UK . Only a few gigs and if I wasn’t holed up in Nottingham I’d get to one. Here the itinerary and most recent offering on website.
https://www.markeitzel.com/

Mark’s UK Label DECOR

https://decorrecords.com/mark-eitzel/

Canadee-I-O in Nottingham: Del Barber and Sarah Jane Scouten

Mr Squirrel1 Comment

Del Barber and band at The Chapel, Old Angel Nottingham 29.01.2023

My last post was a tad downbeat about music futures in Nottingham and indeed in general as the outlook for touring acts looked grim and the fundamentals still pretty much the same. Since Rod Picott I have been lucky enough to see Darden Smith and Jeffrey Foucault play the Running Horse and both solo acts.

For a full overseas band to play they either have to be so famous the tour pays for itself or like these little known but high quality acts they supported financially by their government. The Canadian government has long supported their artists of all persuasions more than we do in the UK.

Indeed I not sure a similar scale couple of UK based acts could afford to tour the venues these guys playing so that shows how lucky we were last night to even see a band.

Tour poster

What we got were two class acts. Sarah Jane Scouten has been nominated for a string of awards back in Canadee-i-o although now based in Dumfreis area of Scotland and the set was a bit rocky to start with possibly due to a lack of gigging post Covid that affecting everyone now.

When concentrating on more traditional singer songwriting territory the material seemed to not engage the audience so well but suddenly the gig turned around with a storming song about illicit desires for a guitarist done in a traditional country style that seemed to suit both voice and guitar playing more than the previous songs. I was reminded of Laura Cantrell’s take on Kitty Wells.

SJS then played an ace in the hole by playing an as yet unrecorded Belgian Arts Centre commissioned song about a World War One nurse from Canada.
Deeply researched and combatant about the stupidity of war..with echoes of Masters of War it was not only beautifully written but delivered in fine style. Then having got us all listening she delivered another bunch of songs including one co-written with ex Be Good Tanya Samantha Parton called ‘Wilder when I was with you’ which again a top draw item. Impressive and more to come it seems.

https://www.sarahjanescouten.com/

Del Barber and band at The Chapel, Old Angel Nottingham 29.01.2023

The other half of the Canadian sandwich was a fine second course. I and a dear friend both been to a good few americana acts but even we were impressed by the sheer effortless skill of the dudes on stage. It was as good a performance as I seen by any touring americana act in Nottingham and that saying something and includes witnessing the likes of Tom Russell, Slaid Cleaves and even Fred Eaglesmith here in our currently slightly fucked up city…Del you think Manitoba shit try living here…..

This guy is the real deal and I can safely add to my list of americana writers above and more. Great set honed over 20 years of playing shitholes and palaces. Shit on his boots working-class short stories which rang true in a way some contemporaries like The Delines do not…a classy act but do I get feeling Vlautin lives the life..no way…

If Vlautin more Henry James then Barber is a Manitoba D.H. Lawrence. Lovely short stories for playing in cars as Steve Earle called them. Songs about people you felt if not real should be like Louise and Pete and Lucy fucking in Room 203. The palette of songs spot on thanks to superb backing and three very good musicians especially impressed by the guitarists. 20 years has not only refined a great stage presence but honed delivery to a fine art. Seemlessly mixing road tales with songs we were entertained by a very good outfit for a good hour and a half and they deserved the warm applause. I recommend you try and see them on this spin round but Im sure they’ll be back.

I am now filing alongside other Canuck faves like Kathleen Edwards, Jim Bryson, Ron Sexsmith and Suzie Ungerleider…oh and Fred Eaglesmith, Willie P. Bennet and the sadly recently departed Ian Tyson.

Oh and why Canadee-I-O?

ask that guy from Duluth or better still ask..

https://delbarber.com/

Tour Poster

Dirty Realists – Touring a fixed bout?

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Bob Dylan at the ‘Pindar of Wakefield’, 22 December 1962 – photo by Brian Shuel

Last night I attended the Rod Picott gig at The Running Horse Nottingham which was enjoyable but also raised more questions than it answered.

Rod Picott has been plying his wares around these Isles and most every place in America for over 20 years and he embodies the indefatigable spirit of the lone americana troubadour that really began on these shores in the early 1960s with Dylan’s legendary appearance at the Pindar of Wakefield.

Pre Covid the trials and tribulations of touring in the U.K. were pretty hard but individuals could expect to tour and come away with at least some money for their troubles. Many years ago I ran a open mic in Oxford called the Spotlight Club with a friend and we were offered David Olney for £300 which we could not raise but that about the going rate in the good old days for a serious act who you could bet on attracting a decent 50 plus crowd.

Sadly those days are gone. Vanished into thin air. Without giving away state secrets a hire car for a month these days is totalling £2,500 for a month or £85 a day. Hire companies have folded and there are less hire cars to hire hence the hike in rates. Then you have a full tank of petrol at £100. Add to that current hotel rates which here in Nottingham are £100 a night plus and you can see that to play a night in a pub that not charging for playing and come away with anything you would need to clear £200 a night maybe £300 to cover food and drop outs or accidents. The gig I attended had 28 paying guests..some of whom paid but did not attend a new trend which also worrying promoters. This could be covid or petrol and train strikes but it all adding to the general malaise.

What the lucky few got ( and there was another Americana related gig at the Rescue Rooms of The Felice Brothers which accounted for some of the crowd being down) was a brilliant display of storytelling in word and song by a songsmith who along with Slaid Cleaves pretty much defined post Springsteen blue-collar American male songwriting over the past 20 years. Picott has had highs and lows along the way and lately has spent as much time writing poetry and documenting his father’s illness and care in prose of a very high order as writing songs.

Which leads me to wonder if he can afford to continue driving around these isles to entertain us in future. Not that he alone by any means. Many other artists are singing the same ‘Hire Car Hotel Blues’ these days.

For Picott the new songs were a step back to the golden days of Broke Down and was good to hear him back on form and committing as much energy to his writing and performance as he has to his renovation and plastering work in days of old. At 57 the body is not as strong as it was but the mind is fine and firing on all cylinders to cop a car metaphor he loves so much.

Here a great song off new cd called Sonny Liston about the doomed boxer.

This can be found on his new CD Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows which in his top three cds going by the songs presented last night. The spirit of Carver and Ford and the Dirty Realism genre of the 1980s and 1990s seems to inform this thoroughly working-class take on social and personal observations of living stateside these days both good and bad.

How much longer any Dirty Realists can afford to ply their trade is a worry. We could be seeing the end of the troubadour touring model. I think i will have more chance of seeing Rod being presented online in future or giving purely literary readings. Meanwhile the model of open mics and purely local music-making is gaining traction over professional foreign touring and that in the longer term is bad news.

We will soon be back to the 1950s.

Insular and unaware of the bigger picture apart from through a screen. Now that is a fight that can’t be thrown. Right now the touring musicians are taking some hard punches to the face let’s hope they aren’t knocked out in the next round…

Cassius Clay shouting at Sonny Liston ‘I didn’t hit you’ allegedly.

check out his website here:

http://rodpicott.com/

The Lost American Songwriter – Tom Pacheco

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Back in the olden days before Camden Town turned into a cheap seaside and etsy version of itself..before coffee shops and beardy tattoo parlours there was an excellent record shop at 281 Camden High Street called Rhythm Records just before the canal on the right hand side headed towards Kentish Town.

I know because I used to spend my 1980s wages in there on a regular basis as at that time it was the best shop after Rock On for new American folk, country and blues lps. Indeed I preferred the basement there as I remember distinctly their wall displays of Tom Russell, Rosanne Cash, Terry Clarke, Christy Moore etc etc and lps like this.

The first Tom Pacheco Lp was on a fledgling Round Tower label out of Dublin financed by Clive Hudson of CBS apparently and he released ‘Eagle in The Rain’ recorded in Dublin and with a great Irish musical line-up which included Arty McGlynn and even included Uillean Pipes such was the Irish feel to it. At this period I was fast realising my ambition to be the UK Nick Cave was falling on deaf ears and I had discovered Texas Songwriters through Townes Van Zandt. Reading Folk Roots and Arthur Wood’s articles in Country Music People I avidly sought out any new post Dylan guy who could pen a literate toon.

Amongst these Mr Tom Pacheco stood out. Little did I know then that this dude had been there all the time actually releasing a self-penned ‘New Dylan’ Lp when just 19 years old. This is that LP…

Tom Pacheco – Turn Away Fom the Storm (1965)

So some 25 years later our Dylanite turns up in Dublin and produces a corker of a singer-songwriter LP the tunes of which I still know even though I not heard in many a year. Opener Roberta and Ramona is a almost talking blues with Springsteen overtones but is pure Pacheco. The sleeve art is out of Gram and Emmylou picture book and the overall tone is very left-wing almost Green Party before it existed fully. Pacheco’s father was a jazz musician and his brother played in the legendary gararge rock band The Remains. He was well-versed in rock mythology and also knew his post Guthrie dustbowl lineage. I think this LP appeared alongside Peter Rowan’s Dustbowl Children, Dave Alvin solo works and Butch Hancock’s Demon retrospective. He belonged in such company and of course Tom Russell and Barrence Whitfield were on the newly re-named Round Tower records.

Tom Pacheco – Eagle in The Rain (1989)

Now I confess I know I saw all of the above play but I cannot be sure if I ever saw Tom play which surprising. My feeling is I missed out. I left London in 1989 taking this LP with me and only returned in 1991 at which point I had deluded myself enough that I was Townes Van Zandt that I sent a tape to Round Tower after meeting the woman in charge in London at a Tom Russell gig.
She was talking to the legendary John Tobler who had already been a victim of my lo-fi tape extravanganza ‘Black River’. He said with a voice like mine I should write..wise words..

Shaun Belcher – Black River (1991)

Tom Pacheco was in that mix of influences by then and I guess I still have a craving to sound like a cool stateside songwriter but things do fade in time.

Now I really do write about it.

The lady at Round Tower kindly replied to my tape with a polite close but no cigar message and a pack of Round Tower cds which included Tom Russell and Barrence Whitfield and I believe the first of these cds Sunflowers which I have treasured ever since.

Years later in Oxford I met up with my friend Terry Clarke whose LP I had also seen in Rhythm Records and it all connected to Flyinshoes Webzine. There I interviewed a whole raft of similarly obscure songwriters from the states…

The Lost American Songwriter Review is what it should have been called.

So here I am 30 years later suddenly surprised by a whole set of Tom Pacheco cds in a charity shop some signed to Andy who I believe was a local Americana fan who passed away in last few years.
Tom P probably played the Maze at some point for my buddies at Cosmic American but I managed to miss him….I saw just about everybody else.

Maybe I should start a new webzine called The Lost American Songwriter Review because so many great talents like Tom have slipped from view. They were never under the radar let alone on it. People like James Talley and Tom Ovans who continued the Guthrie/Dylan tradition of protest onwards into the 70s and beyond.

That idea is for another day..for now although thirty years late..I have a whole lot of Tom Pacheco to catch up on. Cheers Tom and wherever you are I wish you sláinte….And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead” a true Outsider..

For further Tom music try this for starters…what a cover..

Or visit his Adobe..https://www.tompacheco.com/

Finally Tom in his prime and that gig I seem to have missed!

Oh and Round Tower lable is a treat it started in 1987 and ended in 2000 but put out a lot of excellent recordings.

https://www.discogs.com/label/224019-Round-Tower-Music

Sinatra Capitol LPs – the Grey Label search

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Original Capitol grey label first pressings of Sinatra in MONO

The Sinatra Obsession

The Fascination become an obsession. Through reading avidly on the Steve Hoffman forums ( he remasters for Capitol) where such matters are discussed in immense detail I have come to an understanding of the following…..

The best MONO pressings of Sinatra’s fifties Capitol recordings are those issued on the grey labels as above. Finding mint copies of these items is almost impossible as the ceramic cartridges of players back in the day wore the vinyl to shreds..mostly..but occasionally I come across them and see if I got lucky. Yesterday I found three Sinatras on grey and a lovely Judy Garland Lp ‘Alone’ (see below) . The Garland has obvious wear and all the Sinatras are not pristine although they are all playable. I also have later stereo versions of Come Fly With me (1962 Alan Dell stereo RP 1984 ) and Songs for Young Lovers ( Capitol Orange label 1970s RP again stereo).

Sinatra recording Only The Lonely – Note tall stand hard right is one of the two tall stereo mics the rest of mics are MONO ones close ups for the instruments. The feeds went to two separate control rooms to tape.

I did a brief comparison playing the MONO on a mono deck and stereo on stereo and sure enough all the comments true. Ignoring a good deal of wear surface noise it was obvious that the recordings indeed of the same performance but from different mic and tapes as it was the practice with these early stereo experiments to mic stereo high in the gods on booms right/left and close mic drums etc with more mics for mono mix. On Come Fly With Me the difference striking with real kick bass to the drums that simply nothere on the ‘brighter’ stereo recording.

The definitive descriptions of these events are here along with hand drawn descriptions of the microphone placements.

http://www.11fifty.com/Site_108/Welcome_Sinatra_Cole.html

Also there is a book about his recording sessions here:


https://issuu.com/cmjw24/docs/charles_l._granata_-_sessions_with_

Three slightly worn Sinatra Greys.

So having fallen into the rabbit hole of detailed recording techniques what next….for now I have an awful lot of Sinatra to get through….then Nat King Cole….

Differences…the Mono -Stereo illustration change…

Frank looks left then….
Frank looks right…

Frank also lost a track as the Kipling family ( the writer not cakes!) objected to his setting of the Road to Mandalay on Come Fly With me so it was substituted in the UK and did not reappear (it was substituted with a track from LP above) until 1984 Dell reissue.

Open Country – The crazy CBS/Sunday Times triple LP sampler 1972

Mr SquirrelLeave a comment

 

I picked up this insane triple album in Nottingham for a pound…i.e. 33 1/3p per disc 🙂 The image is a woman with plastic animals all over…mad but reminds me of the later Loose early compilation below:-)

It is a Sunday Times offer from 1972 in collaboration with CBS so content and vinyl quality very good.

It all CBS related acts so you get The Byrds, Johnny Cash, Carter Family etc etc.

Amazing selection which fully listed on the discogs page.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Open-Country/release/5140579

I paid the going rate it seems £1.99 so not a collector’s item but nice none the less.