Red Herring

I haven't been to Mexicali Blues in awhile, but the last time I went was quite memorable. I saw Herring, Rodgers, Sipe & Fountain, a jam-fusion supergroup of sorts. I'm a big fan of Jimmy Herring's guitar playing, particularly with ARU and Jazz Is Dead. I know some people think it's "clinical", but man, he just burns it up!

There's a version of Les Brers he did with Derek during the Allmans 2000 tour that was as fiery as any Allman show ever, period. (I'll try to find this and add a link in the next couple of days.)

Anyway, here's a link to a seriously burning opening jam from HRS at Mexicali, 8/11/06. Whole show over here at archive.org
(And while Neil Fountain may not be the next Jaco, he is probably the most talented bass player I've seen since.)

James McMurtry is Pissed

And that's a damn good thing. I'll refrain from political diatribe here, and let the man and his music do it instead.

here's the mp3 of "God Bless America", a reprise of sorts to "We Can't Make It Here" which is IMHO the song of the decade. (Youtube video of an acoustic KFOG performance is here.

Three Chords and the Truth, indeed.

James isn't exactly the most extroverted live artist, but has a west-Texas dry sense of humor that can make his shows very entertaining. And he writes great stuff. He's playing at the very bohemian-cool Mexicali Blues in Teaneck NJ, this coming Thursday night.

Like Sonny

I was in NYC last week, and caught up with my buddy John for the first time in awhile. I love John but let's say his taste in music falls somewhere in the Foreigner/REO Speedwagon space, so I was pretty shocked when he told me he was going on an NYC blues cruise to see Sonny Landreth.


Now I just love Sonny's playing on John Hiatt's best records, and have South of I-10, which is a damn good record in its own right. But I was surprised when I popped on Archive.org to see if I could find something to prep John for the experience, and lo & behold, there are shows of Sonny playing with Little Feat! Had no idea and I'm something of a Feat fan.

While the sound quality is a bit lacking, there's some hot jamming on this version of Let It Roll from the Keswick show in 2006 (mp3) And here's a goodie from Sonny's official site: key to the highway

you can find a bunch more mp3's in the "lagniappe" section of the site

Let's Go Get Stoned

I can't help it, I still love Southside -- not just because he's still the best white R&B singer on the Jersey Shore, not for the decades of salty wisecracks, but mostly because he has often been his own worst enemy, and I can so relate to that.

I pulled the mp3s from johnny's site awhile ago, and just dumped them on this new, $15 cardreader/mp3player toy I picked up, and had a good laugh at this version of Ray Charles' classic, with Gary US Bonds joining in the fun.

The mp3 is supposed to be here (it was just a day or two ago) but if that link isn't working, try here instead.

And of course you know that Johnny is doing the annual Martell's thing this week.