General Comments for all Naweedna CDs Will Moyle‘s Jazz Alive, a locally produced master collection of classic jazz. The Will Moyle stuff is the best collection

of jazz I‘ve ever heard. Originally recorded by me in the 80s. FFUSA: Folk Festival USA, a nationally distributed collection of excerpts recorded live at various folk festivals around

the country – varying from traditional country to purely ethnic, to socio-political (one lesbian festival, in fact). FFUSA is eclectic, and the live recordings often catch a lot of crowd noise as well as bad microphone placement. Originally recorded by me in the 80s.

GTWG: The Glory That Was Grease, another locally produced broadcast that featured the formative years of Rock

and Roll from the 50s and 60s – my youth. The ―Grease‖ may have been ―Greece‖, the Rochester suburb where the program originated. The GTWG is marginal but good for reminding my generation of their teenage years – if that can be considered a good thing. Originally recorded by me in the 80s.

BBGR: Big Band Go Round, yet another local program featuring … Big Band, but also including most anything

recorded from 20s to the 50s. The BBGR is so broad that it is unlikely to be duplicated anywhere. However, you have to have a fondness for the crackle of scratchy old 78‘s and an appetite for schmaltz to fully appreciate it. Originally recorded by me in the 80s.

PHC & PHC-D: Prairie Home Companion – the middle years. I didn‘t get started with PHC until the 80s, so I missed

the early period, and I stopped recording when Garrison retired – for the first time. Remember the unfortunate guy who took over the time slot from Garrison? Me, neither. AS IF anyone could do that – a classic no-win situation. When Garrison un-retired (like Michael Jordan), the second version of the show was based in NYC, and I didn‘t care for it that much, so I didn‘t record it. A few years later I discovered that he had gone back to the old format and was broadcasting from St Paul, MN. I‘ve been digitizing those programs in real time over the last couple years, and they are designated as PHC-D. The PHC stuff contains the essence of American music – in my not-so-humble opinion. The only nationally broadcast show that ever came close to matching PHC for quality and variety was the TV show, Northern Exposure – go figure. I have two Northern CDs; if there are more, I would like to know about them ASAP.

The dates represent the release date of the album or CD source. These dates are as accurate as I can obtain. The

dates for some tracks from compilations reflect the release date of the compilation. As usual, my comments are in blue. The other information comes from www.allmusic.com. Additions and corrections are welcome … encouraged, in fact. The Playlist and Notes for Naweedna 2003 01 Chloe – Ry Cooder

Chicken Skin Music (1976) If I were a DJ, this would be my theme. Chloe is from one of the three best ―typical‖ Cooder CDs. The other two are Show Time (1977) and the hard-to-find Slide On Drop Down D–Live In Santa Cruz (1978). The others would be collaborations with ethnic musicians. Note that my three best Cooders are 1976-77-78. Hmmm.,, Whether serving as a session musician, solo artist, or soundtrack composer, Ry Cooder‘s chameleon-like fretted instrument virtuosity, songwriting, and choices of material encompass an incredibly eclectic range of North American musical styles, including rock & roll, blues, reggae, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Dixieland jazz, country, folk, R&B, gospel, and vaudeville. The 16-year-old Cooder began his career in 1963 in a blues band with Jackie DeShannon and then formed the short-lived Rising Sons in 1965 with Taj Mahal and Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy. Cooder met producer Terry Melcher through the Rising Sons and was invited to perform at several sessions with Paul Revere and the Raiders. During his subsequent career as a session musician, Cooder‘s trademark slide guitar work graced the recordings of such artists as Captain Beefheart (Safe As Milk), Randy Newman, Little Feat, Van Dyke Parks, the Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers), Taj Mahal, and Gordon Lightfoot. He also appeared on the soundtracks of Candy and Performance. Cooder made his debut as a solo artist in 1970 with a self-titled album featuring songs by Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, and Woody Guthrie. The follow-up, Into the Purple Valley, introduced longtime cohorts Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Dickinson on bass, and it and Boomer‘s Story largely repeated and refined the syncopated style and mood of the first. In 1974, Cooder produced what is generally regarded as his best album, Paradise and Lunch, and its follow-up, Chicken Skin Music, showcased a potent blend of Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, gospel, and soul music, and featured contributions from Flaco Jimenez and Gabby Pahinui. In 1979, Bop Till You Drop was the first major-label album to be recorded digitally. In the early ‗80s, Cooder began to augment his solo output with soundtrack work on such films as Blue Collar, The Long Riders, and The Border; he has gone on to compose music for Southern Comfort, Goin‘ South, Paris, Texas, Streets of Fire, Bay, Blue City, Crossroads, Cocktail, Johnny Handsome, Steel Magnolias, and Geronimo. Music By Ry Cooder (1995) compiled two discs‘ worth of highlights from Cooder‘s film work.

In 1992, Cooder joined Keltner, John Hiatt, and renowned British tunesmith Nick Lowe, all of whom had played on Hiatt‘s Bring the Family, to form Little Village, which toured and recorded one album. Cooder next turned his attention to world music, recording the album A Meeting by the River with Indian musician V.M. Bhatt. Cooder‘s next project, a duet album with renowned African guitarist Ali Farka Toure titled Talking Timbuktu, won the 1994 Grammy for Best World Music Recording. – Steve Huey Chicken Skin Music Artist Ry Cooder Album Title Chicken Skin Music Date of Release 1976 (release) AMG Rating 4.5 * Genre Rock Styles Blues-Rock, Country-Rock, Roots Rock, Album Rock, Slide Guitar Blues Time 39:37 Hawaiian traditional music meets Leadbelly and Ben E. King on Cooder's gospelization of rock & soul. — Jeff Tamarkin 1. The Bourgeois Blues (Leadbelly) - 3:22 2. I Got Mine (Traditional) - 4:28 3. Always Lift Him up: Kanaka Wai Wai (Traditional) - 6:01 4. He'll Have to Go (Allison/Allison) - 5:07 5. Smack Dab in the Middle (Calhoun) - 3:18 6. Stand by Me (King/Leiber/Stoller) - 3:38 7. Yellow Roses (Devine/Nichols) - 6:11 8. Chloe (Kahn/Moret) - 3:00 (Naweedna 2003) 9. Goodnight Irene (Leadbelly/Lomax) - 4:32

02 Man Smart, Woman Smarter – CJ Chenier & Red Hot LA Band

Alligator Records 25 Years (1996) Got this from Bob ―Music Man‖ Mahoney. It‘s from a double CD set that contains a lot of really good stuff.

The son of late pioneer of Zydeco music, Clifton Chenier, C.J. Chenier (born: Clayton Joseph Chenier) has been dubbed, "The crown prince of Zydeco'. Since inheriting leadership of his father's group, The Red Hot Louisiana Band", Chenier has continued to pay tribute to his father's sound and to expand the Zydeco tradition. According to The Boston Globe, Chenier (has added blues, New Orleans-style R&B and rock and roll to the two steps and waltzes of his father's Zydeco, creating contemporary, turbo-charged, dance music". While The Washington Post praised Chenier for "taking the genre into the R&B mainstream", Living Blues, claimed that Chenier is "the best living Zydeco singer and accordionist". In a review of a concert by Chenier, The Louisville Courier-Journal wrote, "he played back country two steps, hinted at rock and funk, crossed over into country and sang triple-laced rock ballads in a rich soulful voice". Chenier's interests in Zydeco were sparked in his early-twenties. Although he studied piano in the third grade, switched to the saxophone a year later and received a scholarship to study music at Texas Southern University, he was drawn to the funky sounds of R&B and modern jazz. Chenier played saxophone, keyboards, flute and sang backup vocals in a top forty cover band, Hot Ice. In 1978, Chenier was invited to replace saxophonist "Blind" John Hart in his father's band. Although he had little experience with Zydeco music, he accepted the invitation. Over the next decade, he apprenticed with his father, assuming his role as accordion player and bandleader following his father's death in 1987. Chenier has remained active in a variety of outside projects. In addition to playing on Paul Simon's album, Rhythm Of The Saints, he participated in Simon's Born At The Right Time tour. Chenier was a guest performer on the Gin Blossom's album, New Miserable Experience. The Alligator Records 25th Anniversary Collection Artist Various Artists Album Title Alligator Records 25th Anniversary Collection Date of Release Mar 1996 AMG Rating 4.5 * Genre Blues Styles Modern Electric Blues, Contemporary Blues Type various artists Time 146:45 This is a specially priced, two-CDs-for-the-price-of-one photocube set, loaded with great stuff from Charlie Musselwhite, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Johnny Winter, Billy Boy Arnold, Lonnie Mack and a host of others who've trotted their wares on the label over the years. Besides giving the novice one great introduction to the label (as the music runs from traditional to modern), the big bonus here is a treasure trove of previously

unissued tracks from Roy Buchanan (a chaotic version of Link Wray's "Jack the Ripper"), Floyd Dixon (a recut of his Blues Brothers-approved hit "Hey Bartender"), Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland in a marvelous out-take from the Showdown! album ("Something to Remember You By") and the band that started it all, Hound Dog Taylor & the HouseRockers, with a crazed version of Elmore James' "Look on Yonder's Wall," as sloppy as it is cool. Very good stuff and at these prices, a bargain and then some. — Cub Koda 1. Don't Pick Me for Your Fool performed by Son Seals - 4:15 2. Diggin' My Potatoes performed by James Cotton - 3:38 3. Something to Remember You By [#] performed by Albert Collins / Johnny Copeland - 5:26 4. The Complainer's Boogie Woogie performed by William Clarke - 4:52 5. Stingaree performed by Charlie Musselwhite - 2:54 (future Naweedna selection) 6. It's Alright [#] performed by Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials - 4:46 7. Man Smart (Woman Smarter) performed by Chenier, Clifton & His Red Hot... - 3:02 (Naweedna 2003) 8. I Want to Be Your Spy performed by Vaughn, Maurice John - 5:34 9. Hey Bartender [#] performed by Floyd Dixon - 3:24 10. Sitting on Top of the World performed by Shaw, Eddie & The Wolf Gang - 3:41 11. Action Man performed by Cephas & Wiggins - 1:53 (Naweedna 2002B) 12. Bayou Blood performed by Kenny Neal - 3:14 13. T-Bone Intentions performed by Hunter, Long John - 3:08 14. 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do performed by Saffire the Uppity Blues Women - 4:12 15. If You Have to Know performed by Lonnie Mack / Vaughan, Stevie Ray - 4:31 16. Been Gone Too Long performed by Arnold, Billy Boy - 2:54 17. A Quitter Never Wins performed by Tinsley Ellis - 6:10 18. I Ain't Got You performed by Sugar Blue - 2:37 19. Crawfish Fiesta performed by Professor Longhair - 3:13 (Naweedna 2001) 20. Evil performed by Koko Taylor - 4:59 21. Got Lucky Last Night performed by Lonnie Brooks - 2:59 22. Blues Lover performed by Bob Margolin - 4:53 23. I Could Deal With It performed by Little Charlie & the Nightcats - 4:06 24. Cherry Red Wine performed by Luther Allison - 4:22 25. Hard Lovin' Mama performed by Katie Webster - 4:12 26. She Puts Me in the Mood performed by Elvin Bishop - 3:32 27. Low Down Dirty Shame performed by Carey Bell - 4:29 28. Six O'Clock Blues performed by Lucky Peterson - 3:42 29. Keep Your Motor Running performed by Dave Hole - 3:45 30. Roots Woman performed by Corey Harris - 2:50 31. Can't Recall a Time performed by Hill, Michael Blues Mob - 3:45 32. Baby, Baby, Baby performed by Buchanan, Roy w / Delbert McClinton - 4:23 33. Jack the Ripper [#] performed by Roy Buchanan - 2:47 34. Got to Find My Baby performed by Johnny Heartsman - 3:04 35. Love, Life and Money performed by Johnny Winter - 5:20 36. Look on Yonder's Wall [#] performed by Taylor, Hound Dog & the Houserockers - 3:27 37. Somebody Loan Me a Dime performed by Fenton Robinson - 2:56 38. We're Outta Here performed by Clarence Brown - 3:50

03 Begin The Beguine – Artie Shaw Begin The Beguine (1938) Got this one from Milne Library. I intended to put this track on a previous Naweedna CD, but it got bumped. One of jazz's finest clarinetists, Artie Shaw never seemed fully satisfied with his musical life, constantly breaking up successful bands and running away from success. While Count Basie and Duke Ellington were satisfied to lead just one orchestra during the swing era, and Benny Goodman (due to illness) had two, Shaw led five, all of them distinctive and memorable. After growing up in New Haven, CT, and playing clarinet and alto locally, Shaw spent part of 1925 with Johnny Cavallaro's dance band and then played off and on with Austin Wylie's band in Cleveland from 1927-1929 before joining Irving Aaronson's Commanders. After moving to New York, Shaw became a close associate of Willie "the Lion" Smith at jam sessions, and by 1931 was a busy studio musician. He retired from music for the first time in 1934 in hopes of writing a book, but when his money started running out, Shaw returned to New York. A major turning point occurred when he performed at an all-star big band concert at the Imperial Theatre in May 1936, surprising the audience by performing with a string quartet and a rhythm section. He used a similar concept in putting together his first orchestra, adding a Dixieland-type front line and a vocalist while retaining the strings. Despite some fine recordings, that particular band disbanded in early 1937 and then Shaw put together a more conventional big band. The surprise success of his 1938 recording of Begin the Beguine made the clarinetist into a superstar and his orchestra (who featured the tenor of Georgie Auld, vocals by Helen Forrest and Tony Pastor, and, by 1939, Buddy Rich's drumming) into one of the most popular in the world. Billie Holiday was with the band for a few months, although only one recording ("Any Old Time") resulted. Shaw found the pressure of the band business difficult to deal with and in November 1939 suddenly left the bandstand and moved to Mexico for two months. When Shaw returned, his first session, utilizing a large string section, resulted in another major hit, Frenesi; it seemed that he could not escape success. Shaw's third regular orchestra, who had a string section and such star soloists as trumpeter Billy

Butterfield and pianist Johnny Guarnieri, was one of his finest, waxing perhaps the greatest version of "Stardust" along with the memorable "Concerto for Clarinet." The Gramercy Five, a small group formed out of the band (using Guarnieri on harpsichord), also scored with the million-selling "Summit Ridge Drive." Despite all this, Shaw broke up the orchestra in 1941, only to re-form an even larger one later in the year. The latter group featured Hot Lips Page along with Auld and Guarnieri. After Pearl Harbor, Shaw enlisted and led a Navy band (unfortunately unrecorded) before getting a medical discharge in February 1944. Later in the year, his new orchestra featured Roy Eldridge, Dodo Marmarosa, and Barney Kessel, and found Shaw's own style becoming quite modern, almost boppish. But, with the end of the swing era, Shaw again broke up his band in early 1946 and was semi-retired for several years, playing classical music as much as jazz. His last attempt at a big band was a short-lived one, a boppish unit who lasted for a few months in 1949 and included Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Don Fagerquist; their modern music was a commercial flop. After a few years of limited musical activity, Shaw returned one last time, recording extensively with a version of the Gramercy Five that featured Tal Farlow or Joe Puma on guitar along with Hank Jones. Then, in 1955, Artie Shaw permanently gave up the clarinet to pursue his dreams of being a writer. Although he served as the frontman (with Dick Johnson playing the clarinet solos) for a reorganized Artie Shaw Orchestra in 1983, Shaw never played again. He received plenty of publicity for his six marriages (including to actresses Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, and Evelyn Keyes) and for his odd autobiography, The Trouble With Cinderella (which barely touches on the music business or his wives), but the outspoken Artie Shaw deserves to be best remembered as one of the truly great clarinetists. His RCA recordings, which were reissued in complete fashion in a perfectly done Bluebird LP series, have only been made available in piecemeal fashion on CD. - Scott Yanow Begin the Beguine [Bluebird/RCA] Artist Artie Shaw Album Title Begin the Beguine [Bluebird/RCA] Date of Release Jul 24, 1938 - Jul 23, 1941 inprint AMG Rating 4.5 * Selected Genre Jazz Type compilation Library View Click here to see this album in MARC format Product Purchase Click here to buy this album Beginning not with the career-launching title track but with the bandleader's own haunting signature tune, "Nightmare," this is an outstanding slice from a brief period at the start of the Second World War. Included in 15 digitally remastered sides led by the eccentric clarinetist from 1938 to 1941 are performances by Buddy Rich, Billie Holiday (her only recording with Shaw), and even Ray Conniff. This is a great introduction to a mercurial, innovative musician who created an early form of fusion music by joining a string section and rhythm section to a big band. - Mark Allan 1. Nightmare (Shaw) - 2:47 2. Indian Love Call (Frimi/Hammerstein/Harbach) - 3:06 3. Back Bay Shuffle (McRae/Shaw) - 3:10 4. Any Old Time (Shaw) - 3:09 5. Traffic Jam (McRae/Shaw) - 2:12 6. What Is This Thing Called Love (Porter) - 3:13 7. Begin the Beguine (Porter) - 3:11 (Naweedna 2003) 8. The Carioca (Eliscu/Kahn/Youmans) - 4:03 9. Moonray (Madison/Quenzer/Shaw) - 3:03 10. Frenesi (Dominguez) - 3:01 11. Serenade to a Savage (Garland) - 2:28 12. Temptation (Brown/Freed) - 3:02 13. Stardust (Carmichael/Parish) - 3:30 14. Blues, Pts.1-2 (Still) - 6:21 15. Moonglow (DeLange/Hudson/Mills) - 3:25

04 Chain Gang Medley - Jim Croce

50th Anniversary Collection (1970s) This should sound familiar if you have Naweedna 2003 – it seems to be the inspiration for the Notting Hillbillies‘ Railroad Worksong. Got the boxed set from Brian. I edited out an annoying middle portion – expect you can identify the spot ;-) In the music industry, arguably the worst tragedy that can befall an artist is to die in their prime, when he or she is just beginning to break through to the mainstream and reach people on a national level. One such artist was Jim Croce, a songwriter with a knack for both upbeat, catchy singles and empathetic, melancholy ballads. Though Croce only recorded a few studio albums before an untimely plane crash, he continues to be remembered posthumously. Croce appealed to fans as a common man, and it was not a gimmick - he was a father and husband who went through a series of blue-collar jobs. And whether he used dry wit, gentle emotions, or sorrow, Croce sang with a rare form of honesty and power. Few artists have ever been able to pull off such down-to-earth storytelling as convincingly as Croce.

James Croce was born in Philadelphia, PA, on January 10, 1943. Raised on ragtime and country, Croce played the accordion as a child and would eventually teach himself the guitar. It wasn't until his freshman year of college that he began to take music seriously, forming several bands over the next few years. After graduation, he continued to play various gigs at local bars and parties, working as both a teacher and construction worker to support himself and his wife, Ingrid. In 1969, the Croces and an old friend from college, Tommy West, moved to New York and record an album. When the Jim and Ingrid record failed to sell, they moved to a farm in Lyndell, PA, where Jim juggled several jobs, including singing for radio commercials. Eventually he was noticed and signed by the ABC/Dunhill label and released his second album, Life and Times, in 1973. The record spawned three hits: "You Don't Mess Around With Jim," "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)," and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown." The latter would become Croce's breakthrough hit, shooting all the way to number one on the Billboard charts. After four years of grueling tour schedules, Croce grew homesick. Wishing to spend more time with Ingrid and his infant son Adrian James, he planned to take a break after the Life and Times tour was completed. Unfortunately, the tour would never finish; just two months after "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" topped the charts, Croce's plane crashed in Natchitoches, LA. Croce and the four other passengers (including band member Maury Muehleisen) were killed instantly. Ironically, Jim Croce's career peaked after his death. In 1974, the album I Got a Name surfaced, containing the hit "Time in a Bottle," which would become his second number one single. Shortly afterwards, "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" reached the Top Ten. Several albums were released posthumously, most notably the greatest hits collection, Photographs and Memories, which became a best-seller. Several other compilations have since been issued, such as the 1992 release The 50th Anniversary Collection and the 2000 compilation Time in a Bottle: The Definitive Collection. Listening to the songs Croce recorded, one cannot help but wonder how far his extraordinary talents could have taken him if he would have perhaps lived a few years longer. Unfortunately, such a question may only be looked at rhetorically, but Jim Croce continues to live on in the impressive catalog of songs he left behind. - Barry Weber The 50th Anniversary Collection Artist Jim Croce Album Title 50th Anniversary Collection Date of Release Sep 22, 1992 (release) AMG Rating 4 * Genre Rock Styles Singer/Songwriter, Soft Rock Type compilation Time 136:22 For those who want to dig a little deeper into Croce's music than just his well-known songs, the double-CD set The 50th Anniversary Collection is a fine buy. The 49-track collection, released in 1992 to commemorate what would have been Croce's 50th birthday, includes all of his radio singles as well as many of the noteworthy album tracks that the single-disc Photographs and Memories overlooks. It's not quite a flawless compilation; both discs have a substantial amount of filler, but that doesn't stop the 50th Anniversary Collection from being a great retrospective on a career that was silenced far too soon. — Barry Weber 1. Spin, Spin, Spin (Croce/Croce) - 2:46 2. Vespers (Croce/Croce) - 1:56 3. Big Wheel (Croce) - 1:51 4. Cigarettes, Whiskey & Wild, Wild Women [#] (Spencer) - 1:48 5. (And) I Remember Her [#] (Croce/Croce) - 2:49 6. Cotton Mouth River [#] (Croce) - 1:59 7. More Than That Tomorrow [#] (Croce/Croce) - 2:44 8. The Migrant Worker [#] (Croce) - 1:54 9. Child of Midnight [#] (Croce/Croce) - 2:50 10. Stone Walls (Croce) - 2:58 11. King's Song (Croce/Croce) - 3:23 12. Mississippi Lady (Croce) - 3:55 13. Which Way Are You Goin'? (Croce) - 2:19 14. Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy) (Croce) - 2:45 15. You Don't Mess Around With Jim (Croce) - 3:04 16. Tomorrow's Gonna Be a Brighter Day (Croce) - 2:53 17. New York's Not My Home (Croce) - 3:08 18. Hard Time Losin' Man (Croce) - 2:29 19. Photographs and Memories (Croce) - 2:07 20. Walkin' Back to Georgia (Croce) - 2:52 21. Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels) (Croce) - 3:49 22. Time in a Bottle (Croce) - 2:28 23. Box #10 (Croce) - 2:27 24. A Long Time Ago (Croce) - 2:19 25. Hey Tomorrow (Croce/Croce) - 2:45

26. Chain Gang Medley (Butler/Carter/Cooke/Leiber/Mayfield/Stoller) - 4:41 (Naweedna 2003) 27. Ol' Man River (Hammerstein/Kern) - 2:28 28. Careful Man (Croce) - 2:24 29. These Dreams (Croce) - 3:13 30. It Doesn't Have to Be That Way (Croce) - 2:36 31. Dreamin' Again (Croce) - 2:41 32. Alabama Rain (Croce) - 2:14 33. A Good Time Man Like Me Ain't Got No... (Croce) - 2:07 34. Next Time, This Time (Croce) - 2:54 35. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown (Croce) - 3:02 36. One Less Set of Footsteps (Croce) - 2:49 37. Roller Derby Queen (Croce) - 3:30 38. Speedball Tucker (Croce) - 2:27 39. I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song (Croce) - 2:33 40. I Got a Name (Fox/Gimbel) - 3:13 41. Recently (Croce) - 2:34 42. Five Short Minutes (Croce) - 3:29 43. Thursday (Salviulo) - 2:27 44. The Hard Way Every Time (Croce) - 2:29 45. Age (Croce/Croce) - 3:45 46. Workin' at the Car Wash Blues (Croce) - 2:35 47. Lover's Cross (Croce) - 3:04 48. Salon and Saloon (Muehleisen) - 2:31 49. Top Hat Bar and Grill (Croce) - 2:46

05 Ain't Misbehavin'- Fats Waller

Male Jazz Singers Anthology (1930s-40s)

You gotta love Mama Waller‘s 300 pounds of joy and jive – I certainly do ;-)

Not only was Fats Waller one of the greatest pianists jazz has ever known, he was also one of its most exuberantly funny entertainers - and as so often happens, one facet tends to obscure the other. His extraordinarily light and flexible touch belied his ample physical girth; he could swing as hard as any pianist alive or dead in his classic James P. Johnson-derived stride manner, with a powerful left hand delivering the octaves and tenths in a tireless, rapid, seamless stream. Waller also pioneered the use of the pipe organ and Hammond organ in jazz - he called the pipe organ the "God box" - adapting his irresistible sense of swing to the pedals and a staccato right hand while making imaginative changes of the registration. As a composer and improviser, his melodic invention rarely flagged, and he contributed fistfuls of joyous yet paradoxically winsome songs like "Honeysuckle Rose," "Ain't Misbehavin,'" "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now," "Blue Turning Grey Over You" and the extraordinary "Jitterbug Waltz" to the jazz repertoire. During his lifetime and afterwards, though, Fats Waller was best known to the world for his outsized comic personality and sly vocals, where he would send up trashy tunes that Victor Records made him record with his nifty combo, Fats Waller and his Rhythm. Yet on virtually any of his records, whether the song is an evergreen standard or the most trite bit of doggerel that a Tin Pan Alley hack could serve up, you will hear a winning combination of good knockabout humor, foot-tapping rhythm and fantastic piano playing. Today, almost all of Fats Waller's studio recordings can be found on RCA's on-again-off-again series The Complete Fats Waller, which commenced on LPs in 1975 and was still in progress during the 1990s. Thomas "Fats" Waller came from a Harlem household where his father was a Baptist lay preacher and his mother played piano and organ. Waller took up the piano at age six, playing in a school orchestra led by Edgar Sampson (of Chick Webb fame). After his mother died when he was 14, Waller moved into the home of pianist Russell Brooks, where he met and studied with James P. Johnson. Later, Waller also received classical lessons from Carl Bohm and the famous pianist Leopold Godowsky. After making his first record at age 18 for Okeh in 1922, "Birmingham Blues"/'Muscle Shoals Blues," he backed various blues singers and worked as house pianist and organist at rent parties and in movie theatres and clubs. He began to attract attention as a composer during the early and mid-1920s, forming a most fruitful alliance with lyricist Andy Razaf that resulted in three Broadway shows in the late '20s, Keep Shufflin', Load of Coal, and Hot Chocolates. Waller started making records for Victor in 1926; his most significant early records for that label were a series of brilliant 1929 solo piano sides of his own compositions like "Handful of Keys" and "Smashing Thirds." After finally signing an exclusive Victor contract in 1934, he began the long-running, prolific series of records with his Rhythm, which won him great fame and produced several hits, including "Your Feet's Too Big," "The Joint Is Jumpin'" and "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter." He began to appear in films like Hooray for Love and King of Burlesque in 1935 while continuing regular appearances on radio that dated back to 1923. He toured Europe in 1938, made organ recordings in London for HMV and appeared on one of the first television broadcasts. He returned to London the following spring to record his most extensive composition, London Suite for piano and percussion, and embark on an extensive continental tour (which, alas, was cancelled by fears of impending war with Germany). Well aware of the popularity of big bands in the '30s, Waller tried to form his own, but they were short-lived.

Into the 1940s, Waller's touring schedule of the U.S. escalated, he contributed music to another musical, Early to Bed, the film appearances kept coming (including a memorable stretch of Stormy Weather where he led an all-star band that included Benny Carter, Slam Stewart and Zutty Singleton), the recordings continued to flow, and he continued to eat and drink in extremely heavy quantities. Years of draining alimony squabbles, plus overindulgence and, no doubt, frustration over not being taken more seriously as an artist, began to wear the pianist down. Finally, after becoming ill during a gig at the Zanzibar Room in Hollywood in Dec. 1943, Waller boarded the Santa Fe Chief train for the long trip back to New York. He never made it, dying of pneumonia aboard the train during a stop at Union Station in Kansas City. While every clown longs to play Hamlet as per the cliche - and Waller did have so-called serious musical pretensions, longing to follow in George Gershwin's footsteps and compose concert music - it probably was not in the cards anyway due to the racial barriers of the first half of the 20th century. Besides, given the fact that Waller influenced a long line of pianists of and after his time, including Count Basie (who studied with Fats), Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck and countless others, his impact has been truly profound. - Richard S. Ginell

06 I'm Sorry- Brenda Lee

Best of (1960) A track from my youth. One of the biggest pop stars of the early '60s, Brenda Lee hasn't attracted as much critical respect as she deserves. She is sometimes inaccurately characterized as one of the few female teen idols. More crucially, the credit for achieving success with pop-country crossovers usually goes to Patsy Cline, although Lee's efforts in this era were arguably of equal importance. While she made few recordings of note after the mid-'60s, the best of her first decade is fine indeed, encompassing not just the pop ballads that were her biggest hits, but straight country and some surprisingly fierce rockabilly. Lee was a child prodigy, appearing on national television by the age of ten, and making her first recordings for Decca the following year (1956). Her first few Decca singles, in fact, make a pretty fair bid for the best preteen rock & roll performances this side of Michael Jackson. "BIGELOW 6-200," "Dynamite," and "Little Jonah" are all exceptionally powerful rockabilly performances, with robust vocals and white-hot backing from the cream of Nashville's session musicians (including Owen Bradley, Grady Martin, Hank Garland, and Floyd Cramer). Lee would not have her first big hits until 1960, when she tempered the rockabilly with teen idol pop on "Sweet Nothin's," which went to the Top Five. The comparison between Lee and Cline is to be expected, given that both singers were produced by Owen Bradley in the early '60s. Naturally, many of the same session musicians and backup vocalists were employed. Brenda, however, had a bigger in with the pop audience, not just because she was still a teenager, but because her material was more pop than Cline's, and not as country. Between 1960 and 1962, she had a stunning series of huge hits: "I'm Sorry," "I Want to Be Wanted," "Emotions," "You Can Depend on Me," "Dum Dum," "Fool #1," "Break It to Me Gently," and "All Alone Am I" all made the Top Ten. Their crossover appeal is no mystery. While these were ballads, they were delivered with enough lovesick yearning to appeal to adolescents, and enough maturity for the adults. The first-class melodic songwriting and professional orchestral production guaranteed that they would not be ghettoized in the country market. Lee's last Top Ten pop hit was in 1963, with "Losing You." While she still had hits through the mid-'60s, these became smaller and less frequent with the rise of the British Invasion (although she remained very popular overseas). The best of her later hits, "Is It True?," was a surprisingly hard-rocking performance, recorded in 1964 in London with Jimmy Page on guitar. 1966's "Coming on Strong," however, would prove to be her last Top 20 entry. In the early '70s, Lee reunited with Owen Bradley and, like so many early white rock & roll stars, returned to country music. For a time she was fairly successful in this field, making the country Top Ten half-a-dozen times in 1973-1974. Although she remained active as a recording and touring artist, for the last couple of decades she's been little more than a living legend, directing her intermittent artistic efforts to the country audience. - Richie Unterberger The Best of Brenda Lee Artist Brenda Lee Album Title Best of Brenda Date of Release May 26, 1999 AMG Rating 4 * Genre Country Styles Rock & Roll, Country-Pop, Rockabilly, Pop, Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan

1. I‘m Sorry (Naweedna 2003) 2. Sweet Nothin‘s 3. I Want To Be Wanted

4. You Can Depend On Me 5. That‘s All You Gotta Do 6. Emotions 7. Break It To Me Gently 8. Dum Dum 9. Fool #1 10. Everybody Loves Me But You 11. Losing You 12. All Alone Am I

07 Sail Away Ladies- John Koerner

PHC-07 (1980s) This one was taped from a PHC broadcast in the mid 80s. I have another version on River of Song, but this one is better. I first learned of Koerner and Ray from the Blues Project (1964) with Geoff Muldaur, Dave Ray, Danny Kalb, Ian Buchanan, Mark Spoelstra, Eric Von Schmidt, Tony Glover, Fritz Richmond, John Sebastian, Doug Pomeroy, & Bob Landy. Winding Boy by Ian Buchanan was included on Naweedna 2001. "Spider" John Koerner has been an influential practitioner of traditional folk music and country blues since the days of the late-'50s/early-'60s folk revival. Both in his group, Koerner, Ray & Glover, and on his own, he has helped popularize early folk and blues music through his performances and recordings, directly affecting the careers of Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt, and influencing many others.

Koerner grew up in Rochester, NY, where he was initially interested in flying, not music. He obtained a student glider-pilot license at 15, and when he graduated from high school in 1956, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to study aeronautic engineering. But in 1958, he was introduced to folk music by a campus acquaintance and took to it heavily, learning to play the guitar and dropping out of college to travel the country as a folksinger. He briefly joined the Marine Corps, then returned to Minneapolis in the fall of 1959, where he became a fixture in the coffeehouses of Dinky Town, the bohemian area around the University of Minnesota. There he encountered and played with a new undergraduate, Bob Zimmerman, who soon took the stage name Bob Dylan. He also met guitarist Dave Ray, who introduced him to harmonica player Tony Glover in the spring of 1962 while they were in New York City. The three began to play together there and back in Minneapolis formed the group Koerner, Ray & Glover. They adopted nicknames in the manner of old blues players: Ray became "Snaker," Glover "Little Sun," and Koerner, in reference to his long, skinny arms and legs, "Spider."

Koerner, Ray & Glover recorded an album, Blues, Rags & Hollers, that was released on the tiny Milwaukee-based independent Audiophile Records label in June 1963. Folk label Elektra Records then signed the group and bought the album from Audiophile, reissuing it in an abridged form in November. Lots More Blues, Rags & Hollers followed in June 1964. The trio appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in July, and their performance was recorded for the Vanguard Records album Newport Folk Festival 1964: Evening Concerts III (released in May 1965) and filmed for the motion-picture documentary Festival (which opened in October 1967). The group was always a loose aggregation, frequently breaking down in performance into duos and solos, and it was natural for the three to play separately. In 1965, Koerner and Ray each made solo albums for Elektra (actually assembled by the label from solo performances done at Koerner, Ray & Glover recording sessions). Koerner's was Spider Blues, released in May. He then appeared at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, his performance captured on the Vanguard LP Festival — Newport Folk Festival 1965, released in 1966. Koerner, Ray & Glover made one more album for Elektra, The Return of Koerner, Ray & Glover, released in October 1965, and an archival album of 1963-64 live recordings, Good Old Koerner, Ray and Glover (aka Live at St. Olaf Festival), was released by Mill City Records in January 1972. But the trio ceased to be a full-time act by 1966.

Koerner continued to play the folk circuit as a solo performer, appearing at such prestigious clubs as the Ash Grove in Los Angeles and Club 47 in Cambridge, MA. He made a trip to England in 1968 and again appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in 1969. That year, Elektra released his second album, Running, Jumping, Standing Still, which featured piano player Willie Murphy and included many original compositions, among them "I Ain't Blue," which Bonnie Raitt later covered on her self-titled debut album. By the early '70s a lack of success prompted Koerner to retire to Copenhagen, Denmark, after recording the album Music Is Just a Bunch of Notes for Dave Ray's Sweet Jane Records label. (The LP was released in May 1972.) His European retirement lasted for a year or so, its ending formally marked by another Sweet Jane release, Some American Folk Songs Like They Used To, in October 1974. The album showed that he had moved more toward traditional folk music rather than the folk-blues with which he had been associated.

Koerner moved back to Minnesota in 1977 and maintained his career on a part-time basis while also working outside music. He returned to greater national visibility due to his association with Red House Records, which released his first album in more than 11 years, Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Been, in 1986 (it had been recorded in 1980), followed by Raised by Humans in March 1992 and StarGeezer in May 1996. Red House also reissued the Koerner, Ray & Glover albums Blues, Rags & Hollers, Lots More Blues, Rags & Hollers, and The Return of Koerner, Ray & Glover, as well as Koerner's Running, Jumping, Standing Still, on CD. In 1997, a new Koerner, Ray & Glover live album, One Foot in the Groove, was released on Tim/Kerr Records. Koerner underwent emergency triple bypass surgery in January 1998, but recovered and returned to performing.

Lacking health insurance, he suffered astronomical medical bills, but a series of benefit concerts paid them off. In the early years of the new millennium, he continued to perform, both solo and as a member of Koerner, Ray & Glover. — William Ruhlmann

Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Been Artist Spider John Koerner Album Title Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Been Date of Release inprint AMG Rating 4.5 * checked Genre Folk Styles Acoustic Blues, Folk-Blues, Folk Revival Time 43:12

Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Been contains classics from the American songbag like "Cotton Eyed Joe," "The Leatherwing Bat," "Froggy Went A-Courting" and "Shenandoah." Koerner sings and plays (12-string guitar) with a knowing but commanding casual authority that brings this material to life brilliantly. The music jumps out of the speaker so effortlessly you can appreciate the fun and dark side of these old songs. Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Been is an excellent example of contemporary interpretations that don't treat the songs like academic artifacts. "The Leatherwing Bat," for example, is a courting song that sounds cute and innocent in most interpretations. Koerner brings out, and seems to delight in, the licentious innuendo as each verse leads to the advice that for a girl to catch the boy she should keep him up both day and night. Blood, love and murder are at the heart of many songs so familiar that we have forgotten to even listen anymore while we sing along. A record like this is a wake-up call to all interpreters. The fact that it was impeccably recorded live to 2 track in one day with killer musicians only adds to its reputation. — Richard Meyer

1. Cotton Eyed Joe (Traditional) - :38 2. Sail Away Ladies (Traditional) - 2:54 (Naweedna 2003) 3. Acres of Clams (Traditional) - 4:10 4. Black Dog (Traditional) - 3:28 5. Froggie Went A-Courtin' (Traditional) - 4:16 6. The Old Chisholm Trail (Traditional) - 3:22 7. The Leather-Winged Bat (Traditional) - 2:12 8. Red Apple Juice (Traditional) - 3:12 9. Worried Rambler (Koerner) - 3:58 10. What's a Matter With the Mill (Traditional) - 2:29 11. Shenandoah (Traditional) - 3:02 12. The Roving Gambler (Traditional) - 2:41 13. The St. James Infirmary (Traditional) - 3:08 14. Irene (Leadbelly/Lomax) - 3:00 15. Cotton-Eyed Joe (Reprise) (Traditional) - :42

08 Give Me One More Chance - Dee Bell Will Moyle's Jazz Alive FM Broadcast (1980s) The Will Moyle Jazz Alive tracks are the single best collection I have. You will see it referenced frequently. I know very little about Dee Bell – other than I like her ;-) Vocals. Ballads, pre-rock standards and pop are done with elan by Dee Bell, an exuberant singer. Nothing fancy or original, but she handles things well, though there's little of the elegance, distinctiveness or impact one gets from transcendent singers. She has a strong, clear sound. - Ron Wynn

09 Done Got Old - Buddy Guy Sweet Tea (2001) Musically, this isn‘t a strong entry. However, it is most suitable for the year of my 60

th birthday. If you are over

fifty, you can easily identify with the words. If you are under fifty, be warned. It comes from one of Jason‘s CDs. Thanks, I think ;-) He's Chicago's blues king today, ruling his domain just as his idol and mentor Muddy Waters did before him. Yet there was a time, and not all that long ago either, when Buddy Guy couldn't even negotiate a decent record deal. Times sure have changed for the better - Guy's first three albums for Silvertone in the '90s all earned Grammys. Eric Clapton unabashedly calls Buddy Guy his favorite blues axeman, and so do a great many adoring fans worldwide. High-energy guitar histrionics and boundless onstage energy have always been Guy trademarks, along with a tortured vocal style that's nearly as distinctive as his incendiary rapid-fire fretwork. He's come a long way from his beginnings on the 1950s Baton Rouge blues scene - at his first gigs with bandleader "Big Poppa" John Tilley, the young guitarist had to chug a stomach-jolting concoction of Dr. Tichenor's antiseptic and wine to ward off an advanced case of stage fright. But by the time he joined harpist Raful Neal's band, Guy had conquered his nervousness.

Guy journeyed to Chicago in 1957, ready to take the town by storm. But times were tough initially, until he turned up the juice as a showman (much as another of his early idols, Guitar Slim, had back home). It didn't take long after that for the new kid in town to establish himself. He hung with the city's blues elite: Freddy King, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Magic Sam, who introduced Buddy Guy to Cobra Records boss Eli Toscano. Two searing 1958 singles for Cobra's Artistic subsidiary were the result: "This Is the End" and "Try to Quit You Baby" exhibited more than a trace of B.B. King influence, while "You Sure Can't Do" was an unabashed homage to Guitar Slim. Willie Dixon produced the sides. When Cobra folded, Guy wisely followed Rush over to Chess. With the issue of his first Chess single in 1960, Guy was no longer aurally indebted to anybody. "First Time I Met the Blues" and its follow-up, "Broken Hearted Blues," were fiery, tortured slow blues brilliantly showcasing Guy's whammy-bar-enriched guitar and shrieking, hellhound-on-his-trail vocals. Although he's often complained that Leonard Chess wouldn't allow him to turn up his guitar loud enough, the claim doesn't wash: Guy's 1960-1967 Chess catalog remains his most satisfying body of work. A shuffling "Let Me Love You Baby," the impassioned downbeat items "Ten Years Ago," "Stone Crazy," "My Time After Awhile," and "Leave My Girl Alone," and a bouncy "No Lie" rate with the hottest blues waxings of the '60s. While at Chess, Guy worked long and hard as a session guitarist, getting his licks in on sides by Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Koko Taylor (on her hit "Wang Dang Doodle"). Upon leaving Chess in 1967, Guy pacted with Vanguard. His first LP for the firm, A Man and the Blues, followed in the same immaculate vein as his Chess work and contained the rocking "Mary Had a Little Lamb," but This Is Buddy Guy and Hold That Plane! proved somewhat less consistent. Guy and harpist Junior Wells had long palled around Chicago (Guy supplied the guitar work on Wells's seminal 1965 Delmark set Hoodoo Man Blues, initially billed as "Friendly Chap" because of his Chess contract); they recorded together for Blue Thumb in 1969 as Buddy and the Juniors (pianist Junior Mance being the other Junior) and Atlantic in 1970 (sessions co-produced by Eric Clapton and Tom Dowd) and 1972 for the solid album Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues. Buddy and Junior toured together throughout the '70s, their playful repartee immortalized on Drinkin' TNT 'n' Smokin' Dynamite, a live set cut at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Guy's reputation among rock guitar gods such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan was unsurpassed, but prior to his Grammy-winning 1991 Silvertone disc Damn Right, I've Got the Blues, he amazingly hadn't issued a domestic album in a decade. That's when the Buddy Guy bandwagon really picked up steam - he began selling out auditoriums and turning up on network television (David Letterman, Jay Leno, etc.). Feels Like Rain, his 1993 encore, was a huge letdown artistically, unless one enjoys the twisted concept of having one of the world's top bluesmen duet with country hat act Travis Tritt and hopelessly overwrought rock singer Paul Rodgers. By comparison, 1994's Slippin' In, produced by Eddie Kramer, was a major step back in the right direction, with no hideous duets and a preponderance of genuine blues excursions. Last Time Around: Live at Legends followed in 1998. A Buddy Guy concert can sometimes be a frustrating experience. He'll be in the middle of something downright hair-raising, only to break it off abruptly in mid-song, or he'll ignore his own massive songbook in order to offer imitations of Clapton, Vaughan, and Hendrix. But Guy, whose club remains the most successful blues joint in Chicago (you'll likely find him sitting at the bar whenever he's in town), is without a doubt the Windy City's reigning blues artist - and he rules benevolently. - Bill Dahl Sweet Tea Artist Buddy Guy Album Title Sweet Tea Date of Release May 15, 2001 AMG Rating 4 * Genre Blues Styles Modern Electric Chicago Blues, Electric Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, Chicago Blues, Modern Electric Blues Apparently somebody took the criticisms of Buddy Guy's late-'90s Silvertone recordings to heart. They were alternately criticized for being too similar to Damn Right I Got the Blues or, as 1998's Heavy Love, too blatant in its bid for a crossover rock audience. So, after a bit of a break, Guy returned in 2001 with Sweet Tea, an utter anomaly in his catalog. Recorded at the studio of the same name in deep Mississippi, this is a bold attempt to make a raw, pure blues album - little reliance on familiar covers or bands, no crossover material, lots of extended jamming and spare production. That's not to say that it's without its gimmicks. In a sense, the very idea behind this record is a little gimmicky - let's get Buddy back to the basics - even if it's a welcome one, but that's not the problem. The problem is that the production is a bit too self-conscious in its stylized authenticity. There's too much separation, too much echo, a strangely hollow center - it may sound rougher than nearly all contemporary blues albums, but it doesn't sound gritty, which it should. Despite this, Sweet Tea is still a welcome addition to Buddy Guy's catalog because, even with its affected production, it basically works. Playing in such an unrestricted setting loosens Buddy up, not just letting him burn on guitar, but allows him to act his age without embarrassment (check the chilling acoustic opener, "Done Got Old"). This may not showcase the

showman of the artist live, the way Damn Right did, but it does something equally noteworthy - it illustrates that the master bluesman still can sound vital and can still surprise. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine 1. Done Got Old (Kimbrough) - 3:23 (Naweedna 2003) 2. Baby Please Don't Leave Me (Kimbrough) - 7:24 (On Naweedna 2001) 3. Look What All You Got (Ford) - 4:45 4. Stay all Night (Kimbrough) - 4:10 5. Tramp (Fulsom/McCracklin) - 6:47 6. She Got the Devil in Her (Davis) - 5:10 7. I Gotta Try You Girl (Kimbrough) - 12:09 8. Who's Been Foolin' You (Cage) - 4:55 9. It's a Jungle Out There (Guy) - 5:37 Buddy Guy - Guitar, Vocals Sam Carr - Drums Davey Faragher - Bass Craig Krampf - Percussion

10 Cry Baby Cry - Ramsey Lewis Mother Nature's Son (1968) I have the original vinyl. There will be more tracks from it. I like the overlay of orchestra, electric piano, and, funk among other things. Ramsey Lewis has long straddled the boundary between bop-oriented jazz and pop music. Most of his recordings (particularly by the mid-'60s) were very accessible and attracted a large non-jazz audience. In 1956, he formed a trio with bassist Eldee Young and drummer Red Holt. From the start (1958), their records for Argo/Cadet were popular, although in the early days, they had a strong jazz content. In 1958, Lewis also recorded with Max Roach and Lem Winchester. On the 1965 albums The In Crowd and Hang On, Ramsey made the pianist into a major attraction and from that point, on his records became much more predictable and pop-oriented. In 1966, his trio's personnel changed with bassist Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White (later the founder of Earth, Wind & Fire) joining Lewis. In the 1970s, Lewis often played electric piano, although by later in the decade he was sticking to acoustic and hiring an additional keyboardist. He can still play melodic jazz when he wants to, but Ramsey Lewis has mostly stuck to easy listening pop music during the past 30 years. - Scott Yanow Mother Nature's Son Artist Ramsey Lewis Album Title Mother Nature's Son Date of Release Dec 1968 (recording) AMG Rating 3 * Genre Jazz AMG REVIEW: This album was another brainchild of Marshall Chess' regime at Chess Records and, in a sense, is of a piece with Electric Mud by Muddy Waters — here, he's getting Ramsey Lewis, supported by an orchestra conducted and arranged by Charles Stepney, to do jazz improvisations on ten songs from The Beatles (aka The White Album). The results are a good deal more impressive and a lot less awkward than Electric Mud, Lewis and company being in far greater sympathy with this material than Muddy Waters was with Rolling Stones material. The orchestrations are occasionally a bit thick and treacly, but when Lewis jumps in and his playing takes flight, songs such as "Julia" soar off in all manner of unexpected and delightful directions, while "Back in the U.S.S.R.," divorced from its Chuck Berry sound, still serves as the basis for some funky improvisations by the pianist. The album probably didn't do much more for Lewis' career than Electric Mud did for Muddy Waters, but it's a better fit with Lewis and an enjoyable excursion. The cover art is also funny enough to almost make it worth the price of the LP, which was reissued in Japan in 2002 in 24-bit digital audio. — Bruce Eder 1. Mother Nature's Son (Lennon/McCartney) 2. Rocky Raccoon (Lennon/McCartney) (future Naweedna selection) 3. Julia (Lennon/McCartney) 4. Back in the U.S.S.R. (Lennon/McCartney) 5. Dear Prudence (Lennon/McCartney) 6. Cry Baby Cry (Lennon/McCartney) (Naweedna 2003) 7. Good Night (Lennon/McCartney) 8. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except... (Lennon/McCartney)

11 Heart of Glass - Chet Atkins PHC-03 (1980s)

Chet Atkins was a frequent guest on PHC, and I have been able to resurrect the Chet that I learned to love. In fact, I‘m seriously considering compiling Chet‘s PHC tracks into a ―Remembering Chet‖ CD. I tried reproducing

these tracks by buying Chet CDs (Neck & Neck, Read My Licks), but they just didn‘t measure up. You know, your first is usually the best – in many, but not all, cases ;-) Yeah, I know it‘s a Blondie tune. Without Chet Atkins, country music may never have crossed over into the pop charts in the '50s and '60s. Although he has recorded hundreds of solo records, Chet Atkins' largest influence came as a session musician and a record producer. During the '50s and '60s, he helped create the Nashville sound, a style of country music that owed nearly as much to pop as it did to honky tonks. And as a guitarist, he is without parallel. Atkins' style grew out of his admiration for Merle Travis, expanding Travis' signature syncopated thumb and fingers roll into new territory. Interestingly, Chet Atkins didn't begin him musical career by playing guitar. On the recommendation of his older brother, Lowell, he began playing the fiddle at a child. However, Chet was still attracted to the guitar and at the age of nine, he traded a pistol for a guitar. Atkins learned his instrument rapidly, becoming an accomplished player by the time he left high school in 1941. Using a variety of contacts, he wound up performing on the Bill Carlisle Show on WNOX in Knoxville, TN, as well as becoming part of the Dixie Swingers. Atkins worked with Homer and Jethro while he was at the radio station. After three years, he moved to a radio station in Cincinnati. Supporting Red Foley, Atkins made his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in 1946. That same year, he made his first records, recording for Bullet. Atkins also began making regular performances on the WRVA radio station in Richmond, VA, but he was repeatedly fired because his musical arrangements differed from the expectations of the station's executives. He eventually moved to Springfield, MO, working for the KWTO station. A tape of one of Atkins' performances was sent to RCA Victor's office in Chicago. Eventually, it worked its way to Steve Sholes, the head of country music at RCA. Sholes had heard Atkins previously and had been trying to find him for several years. By the time Sholes heard the tape, Atkins had moved to Denver, CO and was playing with Shorty Thompson and His Rangers. Upon receiving the call from RCA, he moved to Nashville to record. Once he arrived in Nashville, Chet recorded eight tracks for the label, five of which featured the guitarist singing. Impressed by his playing, Sholes made Atkins the studio guitarist for all of RCA studio's Nashville sessions in 1949. The following year, Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters hired him as a regular on the Grand Ole Opry, making his place in Nashville's musical community secure. While he worked for RCA, he played on many hit records and helped fashion the Nashville sound. RCA appreciated his work and made him a consultant to the company's Nashville division in 1953. That year, the label began to issue a number of instrumental albums that showcased Atkins' considerable talents. Two years later, he scored his first hit with a version of "Mr. Sandman; " it was followed by "Silver Bell," a duet with Hank Snow. By the late '50s, Chet Atkins was known throughout the music industry as a first-rate player. Not only did his records sell well, he designed guitars for Gibson and Gretsch; models of these instruments continued to sell in the '90s. Steve Sholes left for New York in 1957 to act as head of pop A&R, leaving Atkins as the manager of RCA's Nashville division. However, the guitarist didn't abandon performing, and throughout the early '60s his star continued to rise. He played the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960; in 1961, he performed at the White House. Atkins had his first Top 5 hit in 1965 with a reworking of Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax," retitled "Yakety Axe; " in addition to being a sizable country hit, the song crossed over to the pop charts. Atkins' role behind the scene was thriving as well. He produced hits for the majority of RCA's Nashville acts, including Elvis Presley and Eddy Arnold, and discovered a wealth of talent, including Don Gibson, Waylon Jennings, Floyd Cramer, Charley Pride, Bobby Bare, and Connie Smith. Because of his consistent track record, Atkins was promoted to vice-president of RCA's country division when Steve Sholes died in 1968. The following year, Atkins had his last major hit single, "Country Gentleman." In the late '60s and early '70s, several minor hits followed, but only one song, "Prissy" (1968), made it into the Top 40. Instead, the guitarist's major musical contribution in the early part of the '70s was with Homer and Jethro. Under the name the Nashville String Band, the trio released five albums between 1970 and 1972. Following Homer's death, Atkins continued to work with Jethro. Atkins continued to record for RCA throughout the '70s, although he was creatively stifled by the label by the end of the decade. The guitarist wanted to record a jazz album, but he was met with resistance by the label. In 1982, he left the label and signed with Columbia, releasing his first album for the label, Work It Out With Chet Atkins, in 1983. During his time at Columbia, Atkins departed from his traditional country roots, demonstrating that he was a bold and tasteful jazz guitarist as well. He did return to country on occasion, particularly on duet albums with Mark Knopfler and Jerry Reed, but by and large, Atkins' Columbia records demonstrated a more adventurous guitarist than was previously captured on his RCA albums. Sadly, Atkins was diagnosed with cancer, and in 1997 doctors removed a tumor from his brain. In his last months, the cancer had made Atkins inactive, and he finally lost the battle on June 30, 2001 at his home in Nashville. Throughout his career, Chet Atkins earned numerous awards, including 11 Grammy awards and nine CMA "Instrumentalist of the Year" honors, as well as "Lifetime Achievement Award" from NARAS. Although his award list is impressive, they only begin to convey his contribution to country music. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine

12 I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues - Charlie & Joe Byrd

Blue Byrd (1978)

Tasteful, low-key, and ingratiatingly melodic, Charlie Byrd had two notable accomplishments to his credit - applying acoustic classical guitar techniques to jazz and popular music and helping to introduce Brazilian music to mass North American audiences. Born into a musical family, Byrd experienced his first brush with greatness while a teenager in France during World War II, playing with his idol Django Reinhardt. After some postwar gigs with Sol Yaged, Joe Marsala and Freddie Slack, Byrd temporarily abandoned jazz to study classical guitar with Sophocles Papas in 1950 and Andrés Segovia in 1954. However he re-emerged later in the decade gigging around the Washington D.C. area in jazz settings, often splitting his sets into distinct jazz and classical segments. He started recording for Savoy as a leader in 1957, and also recorded with the Woody Herman band in 1958-59. A tour of South America under the aegis of the U.S. State Department in 1961 proved to be a revelation, for it was in Brazil that Byrd discovered the emerging bossa nova movement. Once back in D.C., he played some bossa nova tapes to Stan Getz, who then convinced Verve's Creed Taylor to record an album of Brazilian music with himself and Byrd. That album Jazz Samba became a pop hit in 1962 on the strength of the single "Desafinado" and launched the bossa nova wave in North America. Thanks to the bossa nova, several albums for Riverside followed, including the defining Bossa Nova Pelos Passaros, and he was able to land a major contract with Columbia, though the records from that association often consisted of watered-down easy-listening pop. In 1973, he formed the group Great Guitars with Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel and also that year, wrote an instruction manual for the guitar that has become widely used. From 1974 onward, Byrd recorded for the Concord Jazz label in a variety of settings, including sessions with Laurindo Almeida and Bud Shank. He died December 2, 1999 after a long bout with cancer. Blue Byrd Artist Charlie Byrd Album Title Blue Byrd Date of Release Aug 1978 (recording) AMG Rating 4.5 * Genre Jazz Styles Bop, Swing, Bossa Nova Time 35:31 This delightful album (reissued on CD) is one of Charlie Byrd's finest for Concord. Teamed up with bassist Joe Byrd and drummer Wayne Phillips, the acoustic guitarist had a real chance to show off his versatility on a wide-ranging repertoire. Highlights include "It Don't Mean a Thing" (which really cooks), "Jitterbug Waltz," the memorable "Carinhoso" and "Isn't It a Lovely Day." Joe Byrd made his vocal debut on spirited versions of "I Ain't Got Nothin' but the Blues" and an uptempo "Saturday Night Fish Fry," sounding like a cross between Bob Dorough and Mose Allison. This set is particularly recommended to listeners who think that Charlie Byrd could only play Brazilian music. — Scott Yanow 1. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got... (Ellington/Mills) - 3:42 2. Von Vivendo (Pixinguinha) - 3:26 3. Nice Work If You Can Get It (Gershwin/Gershwin) - 3:05 4. Jitterbug Waltz (Maltby/Waller) - 4:31 5. Soft Lights and Sweet Music (Berlin) - 4:08 6. I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues (Ellington/George) - 3:17 (Naweedna 2003) 7. This Can't Be Love (Hart/Rodgers) - 2:59 8. Carinhoso (Vianna) - 3:41 9. Mama, I'll Be Home Someday (Byrd) - 2:05 10. Isn't This a Lovely Day? (Berlin) - 2:05 11. Saturday Night Fish Fry (Jordan/Walsh) - 2:32

13 Illinois River - John Hartford

FFUSA-01 (1980s) I searched AllMusic.com for this title and came up empty. I have a few more Johnny tracks that don‘t seem to appear on any of the CDs I‘m aware of. They all come from live performances on FFUSA and PHC, FM broadcasts I taped in the 80s. I find this track particularly infectious – hope you like it. John Hartford was one of country music's true eccentrics. Best-known for the pop standard "Gentle on My Mind," he was a multi-talented musician who played a variety of stringed instruments, and was also an author and riverboat captain. As a songwriter he was known for a sharp, off-beat wit and music wavering between folk, modern country, and old-timey string music.

The son of a doctor and a painter, John Hartford (born John Harford) was born in New York City. When he was an infant, his family moved to St. Louis. It was there that Hartford developed his lifelong passion for the Mississippi and its riverboats. By age 13, he was an accomplished fiddler and five-string banjo player whose main influences were Stringbean and Earl Scruggs. He founded his first bluegrass band in high school and went on to work various odd jobs ranging from a deejay to a deckhand on a riverboat. In the early '60s, Hartford cut a few singles, but they went nowhere. He moved to Nashville and began working as a deejay and a session man.

There he got involved with songwriters like Kris Kristofferson and Mickey Newbury and attempted to sell his songs to record labels and publishing companies.

In 1966, Hartford released his debut album, John Hartford Looks at Life, which was produced by Chet Atkins. The following year, he released Earthwords & Music, which featured his first hit single, "Gentle On My Mind." In 1967, when Glen Campbell's cover of the song became a Top 40 country and pop hit in the U.S.; following Campbell's example, a number of other artists - including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Aretha Franklin - recorded the song, providing Hartford with enough money to turn his back to pop stardom and record his own music. Still, he became a star of sorts, appearing regularly on CBS's Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and later on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. He also played on the Byrds' 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Doug Dillard's The Banjo Album. By the end of the decade, Hartford also earned his riverboat pilot's license, and frequently worked aboard the Julia Belle Swain.

In 1971, Hartford left California and founded a bluegrass band featuring guitarist Norman Blake, dobro player Tut Taylor and master fiddler Vassar Clements. In the course of the next year, he also cut two solo albums, Aero Plain and Morning Bugle, and made guest appearances on albums by James Taylor, Seals & Croft, Hoyt Axton and the Dillards. Hartford recorded Tennessee Jubilee in 1975 with the assistance of Benny Martin and Lester Flatt. In 1976, he released one of his best albums, Mark Twang, and continued recording steadily through the '70s and '80s. Among his most notable albums were his 1980 rock & roll-meets-bluegrass reunion with the Dillards, Permanent Wave and Shel Silverstein's The Great Conch Train Robbery. He began performing with his son Jamie in the late '80s and also became involved with Opryland, where he helped launch an old-fashioned steamboat ride. He also recorded and re-issued his earlier work on his own Small Dog Barking label. Speed of the Old Long Bow followed in 1998, and a year later Hartford resurfaced with Good Old Boys. On June 4, 2001, he lost a long battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma when he died in a Nashville hospital at the age of 63. - Sandra Brennan

14 Comin' Home Baby - Herbie Mann At The Village Gate (1961) Classic jazz from the 60s. I have the original vinyl and intend to digitize the rest of it soon. All of the tracks are great, but long. It Ain‘t Necessarily So takes up an entire side, while Comin‘ Home Baby and Summertime share the other side. I also have Live At Newport (1965), which includes a more ―modern‖ version of Comin‘ Home Baby. That track includes a three minute encore, which might make a future Naweedna CD. Herbie Mann has played a wide variety of music throughout his career. He became quite popular in the 1960s but in the ‗70s became so immersed in pop and various types of world music that he seemed lost to jazz. Fortunately Mann has never lost his ability to improvise creatively as he has shown in recent times.

Herbie Mann began on clarinet when he was nine but was soon also playing flute and tenor. After serving in the Army, he was with Mat Mathews‘s Quintet (1953-54) and then started working and recording as a leader. During 1954-58 Mann stuck mostly to playing bop, sometimes collaborating with such players as Phil Woods, Buddy Collette, Sam Most, Bobby Jaspar and Charlie Rouse. He doubled on cool-toned tenor and was one of the few jazz musicians in the 1950s who recorded on bass clarinet; he also recorded in 1957 a full album (for Savoy) of unaccompanied flute.

After spending time playing and writing music for television, in 1959 Mann formed his Afro-Jazz Sextet, a group using several percussionists, vibes (either Johnny Rae, Hagood Hardy or Dave Pike) and the leader‘s flute. He toured Africa (1960) and Brazil (1961), had a hit with ―Comin‘ Home Baby‖ and recorded with Bill Evans. The most popular jazz flutist during the era, Mann explored bossa nova (even recording in Brazil in 1962), incorporated music from many cultures (plus current pop tunes) into his repertoire and had among his sidemen such top young musicians as Willie Bobo, Chick Corea (1965), Attila Zoller and Roy Ayers; at the 1972 Newport Festival his sextet included David Newman and Sonny Sharrock. By then Mann had been a producer at Embroyo (a subsidiary of Atlantic) for three years and was frequently stretching his music outside of jazz. As the 1970s advanced, Mann became much more involved in rock, pop, reggae and even disco. After leaving Atlantic at the end of the 1970s, Mann had his own label for awhile and gradually came back to jazz. He recorded for Chesky, made a record with Dave Valentin and in the 1990s founded the Kokopelli label on which before breaking away in 1996 he was free to pursue his wide range of musical interests. Through the years Herbie Mann has recorded as a leader for Bethlehem, Prestige, Epic, Riverside, Savoy, Mode, New Jazz, Chesky, Kokopelli and most significantly Atlantic. – Scott Yanow

Herbie Mann – At the Village Gate Artist Herbie Mann Album Title At the Village Gate Date of Release Nov 17, 1961 (review) mprint AMG Rating 5 * Genre Jazz Styles Crossover Jazz, Jazz-Pop, Latin Jazz Time 38:50

AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Remarkably few of flutist Herbie Mann‘s recordings are available on CD, but fortunately, this one did get reissued. Mann‘s hit version of ―Comin‘ Home Baby‖ from this live set became his first big hit. The composer Ben Tucker plays second bass on that cut, and Mann‘s other sidemen include vibraphonist Hagood Hardy, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, drummer Rudy Collins and Chief Bey and Ray Mantilla on percussion. In addition to ―Comin‘ Home Baby,‖ Mann and his men perform memorable versions of ―Summertime‖ and ―It Ain‘t Necessarily So‖; the latter is 20 minutes long. Recommended. – Scott Yanow 1. Comin‘ Home Baby (Tucker) – 8:37 (Naweedna 2003) 2. Summertime (Gershwin/Gershwin/Heyward) – 10:18 3. It Ain‘t Necessarily So (Gershwin/Gershwin/Heyward) – 19:55 Herbie Mann - Flute Ray Mantilla - Percussion, Conga Hagood Hardy - Vibraphone Ahmed Abdul-Malik - Bass Chief Bey - Percussion, Drums Rudy Collins - Drums Ben Tucker - Bass

15 Out After Beer - Leroy Larsen PHC-07 (1980s) I cannot find any information on Leroy Larsen. There is a Leroy Larson, who is a rocker, but I think they differ by much more than the spelling of the last name. Oh, the other voice on this track is Garrison‘s, of course.

16 If You Take Me Back - Big Joe & His Washboard Band More Northern Exposure (1992-3)

Ah, the two CDs from the Northern Exposure TV show represent the most eclectic and, I think, best collection of music anywhere. Check out the tracks and see if you don‘t agree. I‘ve tried to track the artists down so I could get more, but many of them are obscure. It is my belief that David Schwartz is responsible for collecting these tracks – as well as the others played on Northern Exposure. I can imagine him going to a large university music library, listening to a bunch of albums, and picking the very best from each. This is very much like Will Moyle‘s jazz selections, except the Northern stuff covers so many different genres. When I listen to a CD now, I try to pick the one best track. I call it ―Northerning‖ a CD. Clearly, my Naweedna CDs mimic the Northern Exposure collections.

Northern Exposure Artist Various Artists Album Title Northern Exposure Date of Release 1992 (release) AMG Rating 4 * Genre Soundtrack Styles Television Music Type various artists, soundtrack Time 42:31 1. Theme from Northern Exposure by David Schwartz - 3:04 2. Jolie Louise by Daniel Lanois - 2:39 3. Hip Hug-Her by Booker T. & the MG's - 2:24 (future Naweedna selection) 4. At Last by Etta James - 2:59 5. Everybody Be Yoself by Chic Street Man - 3:06 (future Naweedna selection) 6. Alaskan Nights by David Schwartz - 2:40 7. Don Quichotte by Magazine Sixty - 5:08 8. When I Grow Too Old to Dream by Cole, Nat King Trio - 3:30 9. Emabhaceni by Miriam Makeba - 2:39 (future Naweedna selection) 10. Gimme Three Steps by Lynyrd Skynyrd - 4:27 11. Báilèro from Chants d' Auvergne by Frederica VonStade / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - 6:25 12. Medley: A Funeral in My Brain/Woody the... by David Schwartz - 3:30 More Music from Northern Exposure [MCA] Artist Original TV Soundtrack Album Title More Music from Northern Exposure [MCA] Date of Release Nov 8, 1994 Genre Soundtrack Styles Television Soundtracks Type soundtrack Time 41:39 1. Ojibway Square Dance (Love Song) – Georgia Wettlin-Larsen

2. Theme From Northern Exposure – David Schwartz 3. Stir It Up – Johnny Nash 4. Mambo Baby – Ruth Brown 5. Someone Loves You – Simon Bonney (future Naweedna selection) 6. The Ladder – David Schwartz 7. If You Take Me Back – Big Joe & His Washboard Band (Naweedna 2003) 8. Un Mariage Casse (A Broken Marriage) – Basin Brothers 9. There I Go Again -- Vinx 10. Lay My Love – Brian Eno & John Cale 11. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away) – Les Paul & Mary Ford (Naweedna

2002) 12. Mooseburger Stomp – David Schwartz 13. I May Want a Man – Joanne Shenandoah (on Brian‘s Grooves 2000 … will be on a future Naweedna CD)

17 Wounded Knee Hero - All Nations Singers FFUSA-02 (1980s)

Once upon a time, there was this FM broadcast called Folk Festival USA. One of those programs was devoted to Native American music. This is a track from that show. Music like this needs to be in our collective experience. Joanne Shenandoah‘s I May Want A Man is of a similar type. In these tracks, the artists blend Native American phrasing with English words. I find it very powerful. Both tracks seem to address pervasive alcoholism, endemic in that culture. I find both tracks particularly moving. The topic notwithstanding, the power of mixing Native American style with English translation – or interpretation, I‘m not sure which – suggests this could or should be a successful style.

18 Is The Grass Any Greener - Rhonda Vincent & The Rage PHC-D (2001)

I like Rhonda very much, but only have a few tracks from her appearances on PHC. I want more. Oh, just in case you don‘t know, the words refer to Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass.

Bluegrass vocalist and fiddler Rhonda Vincent began her professional music career at the age of five, playing drums with her family's band the Sally Mountain Show. She picked up the mandolin at eight and the fiddle at ten, performing with the family band at festivals on weekends. After appearing on TNN's nationally televised You Can Be a Star program in her mid-twenties, Vincent struck out on her own, singing with the Grand Ole Opry's Jim Ed Brown, eventually leading to a deal with Rebel Records. Her work with Brown and her Rebel recordings caught the attention of Giant Nashville's president James Stroud who signed Vincent to record two contemporary country albums. After her time at Giant, she moved to Rounder Records, and demonstrated her passion for the traditional music she grew up with on Back Home Again. A car accident in December 1999 kept her from a planned trip to Nashville for auditions, so she hired her band (unusually named the Rage) through the Internet. Rhonda Vincent and the Rage have been gaining popularity at bluegrass festivals since their formation, playing hard-driving, high energy contemporary bluegrass music. Her 2001 album The Storm Still Rages was nominated for seven International Bluegrass Music Association awards, including female vocalist of the year, while fiddle player Mike Cleveland and banjo player Tom Adams earned nominations in their respective instrumental categories. - Zac Johnson

The Storm Still Rages Artist Rhonda Vincent Album Title Storm Still Rages Date of Release Jun 5, 2001 AMG Rating 4 * Genre Bluegrass Styles Traditional Bluegrass, Contemporary Bluegrass After spending several years languishing in Nashville, Rhonda Vincent made an unusual career move: she returned to bluegrass and recorded Back Home Again for Rounder in 2000. Garnering positive responses from critics and fans, Vincent knew she had made the right move. A cross between traditional and contemporary bluegrass, The Storm Still Rages features superb accompaniment and a handful of well-chosen songs. Vincent has also penned or co-penned several of the songs, including the opening cut, "Cry of the Whippoorwill." Her expressive vocal on the heartbreaker "Don't Lie" is lovingly underlined by Stuart Duncan's fiddle and Bryan Sutton's mandolin. Bassist Darrin Vincent, Rhonda's brother, adds harmony on a number of cuts, perfectly bringing each chorus into focus. There's a nice version of "I'm Not Over You," the song that inspired the album's title, with guest Rob Ickes on the Resophonic guitar, and a bluesy take on Hank Williams' "My Sweet Love Ain't Around." Although the arrangements vary quite a bit from song to song, banjoist Tom Adams and guitarist Sutton provide a steady base to work from. Complaints? Only that certain old-hoary classics like "Drivin' Nails in My Coffin" clash with Vincent's attractive vocals. It may be difficult for the listener to believe that this pretty voice is halfway to the grave from drinking rotgut. This aside, The Storm Still Rages should allow Vincent to take her place beside contemporary bluegrass alumni like Alison Krauss and Laurie Lewis. — Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.

1. Cry of the Whippoorwill (Herd/Vincent) - 3:21 2. Is the Grass Any Bluer (Batten/Moore/Seals) - 2:46 3. Don't Lie (Biggers/Mandeville/Rogers) - 3:55 4. Drivin' Nails in My Coffin (Irby) - 3:06 5. I'm Not Over You (Jackson/Montgomery) - 3:00 6. Bluegrass Express (Osborne) - 3:03 7. Just Someone I Used to Know (Clement) - 2:34 8. On Solid Ground (Herd/Vincent) - 3:12 9. Each Season Changes You (Goree/Talley) - 3:05 10. My Sweet Love Ain't Around (Williams) - 4:33 11. You Don't Love God If You Don't Love Your... (Story) - 3:00 12. When the Angels Sing (Herd/Noble/Noble/Vincent/Vincent) - 3:21 13. The Martha White Theme - 1:01

19 It Takes Two To Tango - Lester Young Jazz Singers (5 CD Box) (1930s-40s)

Note that this is Lester Young, one of the most famous sax players of all time – and he is singing. The track comes from a Box Set I found in Milne Library. It is an exceptional collection. Check the tracks below and see if you don‘t agree.

Lester Young was one of the true jazz giants, a tenor saxophonist who came up with a completely different conception in which to play his horn, floating over bar lines with a light tone rather than adopting Coleman Hawkins' then-dominant forceful approach. A non-conformist, Young (nicknamed "Pres" by Billie Holiday) had the ironic experience in the 1950s of hearing many young tenors try to sound exactly like him. Although he spent his earliest days near New Orleans, Lester Young lived in Minneapolis by 1920, playing in a legendary family band. He studied violin, trumpet, and drums, starting on alto at age 13. Because he refused to tour in the South, Young left home in 1927 and instead toured with Art Bronson's Bostonians, switching to tenor. He was back with the family band in 1929 and then freelanced for a few years, playing with Walter Page's Blue Devils (1930), Eddie Barefield in 1931, back with the Blue Devils during 1932-1933, and Bennie Moten and King Oliver (both 1933). He was with Count Basie for the first time in 1934 but left to replace Coleman Hawkins with Fletcher Henderson. Unfortunately, it was expected that Young would try to emulate Hawk, and his laid-back sound angered Henderson's sidemen, resulting in Pres not lasting long. After a tour with Andy Kirk and a few brief jobs, Lester Young was back with Basie in 1936, just in time to star with the band as they headed East. Young made history during his years with Basie, not only participating on Count's record dates but starring with Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson on a series of classic small-group sessions. In addition, on his rare recordings on clarinet with Basie and the Kansas City Six, Young displayed a very original cool sound that almost sounded like altoist Paul Desmond in the 1950s. After leaving Count in 1940, Young's career became a bit aimless, not capitalizing on his fame in the jazz world. He co-led a low-profile band with his brother, drummer Lee Young, in Los Angeles until re-joining Basie in December 1943. Young had a happy nine months back with the band, recorded a memorable quartet session with bassist Slam Stewart, and starred in the short film Jammin' the Blues before he was drafted. His experiences dealing with racism in the military were horrifying, affecting his mental state of mind for the remainder of his life. Although many critics have written that Lester Young never sounded as good after getting out of the military, despite erratic health he actually was at his prime in the mid- to late '40s. He toured (and was well paid by Norman Granz) with Jazz at the Philharmonic on and off through the '40s and '50s, made a wonderful series of recordings for Aladdin, and worked steadily as a single. Young also adopted his style well to bebop (which he had helped pave the way for in the 1930s). But mentally he was suffering, building a wall between himself and the outside world, and inventing his own colorful vocabulary. Although many of his recordings in the 1950s were excellent (showing a greater emotional depth than in his earlier days), Young was bothered by the fact that some of his white imitators were making much more money than he was. He drank huge amounts of liquor and nearly stopped eating, with predictable results. 1956's Jazz Giants album found him in peak form as did a well documented engagement in Washington, D.C., with a quartet and a last reunion with Count Basie at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. But, for the 1957 telecast The Sound of Jazz, Young mostly played sitting down (although he stole the show with an emotional one-chorus blues solo played to Billie Holiday). After becoming ill in Paris in early 1959, Lester Young came home and essentially drank himself to death. Many decades after his death, Pres is still considered (along with Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane) one of the three most important tenor saxophonists of all time. - Scott Yanow The Jazz Singers 1919-1994 Artist Various Artists Album Title Jazz Singers 1919-1994 Date of Release May 19, 1998 inprint AMG Rating Genre Jazz Styles Vocal Jazz, Traditional Pop, Classic Jazz, Swing, Cool Type various artists, box

Time 352:02 AMG EXPERT REVIEW: The compilers of this five-CD/cassette box set anthology, which contains 104 tracks and runs over six hours, have taken an inclusive, open-ended approach to both their selections and their sequencing. Unconventionally, the album is organized not chronologically, but thematically, in eight categories - "Steeped in the Blues," Straight out of Church," "Let's Have a Party," "Swinging the Songbook," "After Hours: Slow-Dancing and Torching the Songbook," "Jazz Compositions," and "Novelties and Take-Offs" (in other words, blues, gospel, dance, standards, slow standards, scatting and vocalese, and other). Annotator Robert G. O'Meally is quick to acknowledge that the categories are slippery, however, and to invite the listener to re-arrange the sequencing as he sees fit, a suggestion some may not appreciate. The sequencing is roughly chronological within the categories, but since they do not correspond to CD or cassette sides, it is easy for a pristine 1993 recording to be followed by a sonically challenged 1937 one as you go from one category to another. It isn't consistently comprehensible from a strictly auditory perspective, but it allows the compilers occasional felicitous and instructional juxtapositions. Many of the performers are obvious choices, among them Holiday (seven selections), Ella Fitzgerald (five), and Louis Armstrong (eight), but there are also some surprising names (Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Al Green) as well as some surprising omissions (Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, and Lee Wiley). Most of the selections are standard studio takes, and the compilers have avoided many choices one would expect to appear on any compilation of jazz singing: there is no "Lady, Be Good" by Ella Fitzgerald, for example, and Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" is a live take from Clef Records, not the studio version from Commodore. All of this is to say, however, that The Jazz Singers is deliberately intended as an introductory sampler of vocal jazz, not as a final statement. That's fair enough, though buyers of an expensive box set from the Smithsonian might be expecting something definitive rather than merely representative. - William Ruhlmann 1. West End Blues performed by Taylor, Eva - 3:09 2. In the House Blues performed by Smith, Bessie - 2:59 3. 2:19 Blues performed by Armstrong, Louis & His Orchestra - 2:52 4. I Left My Baby performed by Rushing, Jimmy - 3:10 5. 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do performed by Holiday, Billie - 3:19 6. Blues With Helen performed by Humes, Helen - 4:08 7. I Won't Be Here Long performed by Page, Hot Lips - 2:40 8. Jelly, Jelly performed by Eckstine, Billy - 3:28 9. Lotus Blossom performed by Lee, Julia - 3:17 10. Goin' to Kansas City performed by Witherspoon, Jimmy - 3:11 11. Goin' to Chicago performed by Williams, Joe / Lambert, Dave / Hendricks, Jon - 4:09 12. Never Make Your Move Too Soon performed by Anderson, Ernestine - 3:27 13. D.B. Blues performed by Alexandria, Lorez - 2:56 14. Come on in My Kitchen performed by Wilson, Cassandra - 4:53 (future Naweedna selection) 15. Nobody's Fault But Mine performed by Johnson, Blind Willie - 3:09 (future Naweedna selection) 16. One Day performed by Angelic Gospel Singers / Dixie Hummingbirds - 2:14 17. I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About in performed by Jackson, Mahalia - 2:36 18. Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer) performed by Smith, Bessie - 3:28 19. Doctor Jazz performed by Morton, Jelly Roll Red Hot Peppers - 3:20 20. Shakin' the African performed by Redman, Don & His Orchestra - 2:38 21. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got... performed by Anderson, Ivie - 3:09 22. The Man from Harlem performed by Calloway, Cab - 3:06 23. Let Me off Uptown performed by ODay, Anita - 3:02 24. Saturday Night Fish Fry performed by Bailey, Pearl / Mabley, "Moms" - 2:52 25. Hog Wash performed by Jordan, Louis [1] - 2:57 26. Good Rockin' Tonight performed by Harris, Wynonie - 2:46 27. All of Me performed by Armstrong, Louis & His Orchestra - 2:55 28. Top Hat, White Tie and Tails performed by Armstrong, Louis / Garcia, Russell - 4:08 29. I Can't Give You Anything But Love performed by Waters, Ethel - 3:07 30. I Can't Give You Anything But Love performed by Holiday, Billie - 3:26 31. These Foolish Things performed by Holiday, Billie - 3:16 32. Lover, Come Back to Me performed by Bailey, Mildred - 3:09 33. Don't Get Around Much Anymore performed by Hibbler, Al - 3:01 34. You're Driving Me Crazy performed by Turner, Big Joe [50s] - 4:12 35. Don't Be That Way performed by Fitzgerald, Ella / Armstrong, Louis - 4:59 36. Night and Day performed by Sinatra, Frank - 3:57 37. Some of These Days performed by Rushing, Jimmy - 4:47 38. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream... performed by Vaughan, Sarah - 2:30 39. I Get a Kick Out of You performed by Washington, Dinah - 6:17 40. There's a Small Hotel performed by Williams, Joe - 2:15 41. Just You, Just Me performed by Cole, Nat King - 3:00 42. Give Me the Simple Life performed by Staton, Dakota - 2:13 43. Love Me or Leave Me performed by Simone, Nina - 4:04 44. You Are My Sunshine performed by Franklin, Aretha - 4:18 45. What's Going On performed by Gaye, Marvin - 3:47 46. I'm Gonna Lock My Heart (And Throw Away... performed by Jones, Etta - 3:10

47. Yesterdays performed by Holiday, Billie - 3:23 48. Strange Fruit performed by Holiday, Billie - 3:06 49. You've Changed performed by Holiday, Billie - 3:16 50. Someone to Watch over Me performed by Fitzgerald, Ella - 3:14 51. Until the Real Thing Comes Along performed by Fitzgerald, Ella - 2:55 52. Until the Real Thing Comes Along performed by Waller, Fats & His Rhythm - 3:23 53. You Don't Know What Love Is performed by Washington, Dinah - 4:00 54. For All We Know performed by Christy, June - 2:46 55. Angel Eyes performed by Connor, Chris [1] - 2:41 56. In the Still of the Night performed by Eckstine, Billy - 3:40 57. Save Your Love for Me performed by Wilson, Nancy [1] - 2:42 58. Travelin' Light performed by Horn, Shirley - 2:46 59. Prelude to a Kiss performed by Vaughan, Sarah - 2:45 60. My Little Brown Book performed by Lynne, Gloria / Ernie Wilkins's Orchestra - 2:30 61. Lush Life performed by Hartman, Johnny - 5:27 62. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) performed by McRae, Carmen - 3:26 63. This Is Always performed by Carter, Betty - 3:10 64. All of Me performed by Scott, Jimmy - 2:57 65. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? performed by Coleman, Earl - 5:47 66. You're My Thrill performed by Merrill, Helen - 3:16 67. Could I Be the One? performed by Green, Al - 4:05 68. Jazz Me Blues performed by Hegamin, Lucille - 2:33 69. The Mooche performed by Cox, Baby - 3:11 70. Parker's Mood performed by King Pleasure - 2:58 71. Lullaby of Birdland performed by Vaughan, Sarah - 3:59 72. Down for Double performed by Torme, Mel - 2:31 73. Jumpin' at the Woodside performed by Lambert, Dave / Hendricks, Jon / Ross, Annie - 3:17 74. Left Alone performed by Lincoln, Abbey - 6:45 75. Stolen Moments performed by Murphy, Mark - 5:43 76. Worry Now Later performed by Lee, Jeanne - 1:25 77. Get It Straight performed by McRae, Carmen - 3:54 78. 'Round Midnight performed by McFerrin, Bobby - 5:33 79. Doodlin' performed by Bridgewater, Dee Dee - 6:04 (future Naweedna selection) 80. Improvised Scat Song performed by Morton, Jelly Roll - 1:45 81. Hotter Than That performed by Armstrong, Louis & His Hot Five - 2:59 82. Sweet Sue, Just You performed by Armstrong, Louis & His Orchestra - 2:44 83. My Honey's Lovin' Arms performed by Crosby, Bing / Mills Brothers - 2:56 84. Ool-Ya-Koo performed by Gillespie, Dizzy - 6:00 85. Disappointed [excerpt] performed by Jefferson, Eddie - 2:48 86. Them There Eyes performed by Fitzgerald, Ella - 5:05 87. The Way You Look Tonight performed by ODay, Anita - 2:10 88. This Masquerade [excerpt] performed by Benson, George [Guitarist] - 3:17 89. Frenesi performed by Carter, Betty - 2:30 90. Jazzola performed by Sissle, Noble - 2:51 91. Hobo, You Can't Ride This Train performed by Armstrong, Louis - 3:03 92. Rockin' Chair performed by Armstrong, Louis - 5:15 93. 'Tain't What You Do performed by Young, Trummy - 3:02 94. Vol Vist du Gaily Star performed by Bon Bon [Jazz] - 3:03 95. We've Got the Blues performed by Watson, Leo & Spirits Of Rhythm - 3:18 96. Cow Cow Boogie performed by Fitzgerald, Ella - 2:52 97. Babalu (Orooney) performed by Gaillard, Slim & His Orchestra - 3:30 (future Naweedna selection) 98. Chi-Chi-Chi-Chicago performed by Lutcher, Nellie & Her Rhythm - 2:58 99. Did You Call Her Today [excerpt] performed by Webster, Ben - 6:25 100. Takes Two to Tango performed by Young, Lester - 3:26 (Naweedna 2003) 101. Mumbles performed by Terry, Clark - 2:00 102. Close Your Eyes (Shut Yo' Mouth) performed by Stewart, Slam / Holley, Major - 3:31 (future Naweedna selection)

20 Don't Worry - Marty Robbins Country USA 1961

Another one from my youth. I was most impressed by the fuzzy guitar.

No artist in the history of country music has had a more stylistically diverse career than Marty Robbins. Never content to remain just a country singer, Robbins performed successfully in a dazzling array of styles during more than thirty years in the business. To his credit, Robbins rarely followed trends, but often took off in directions that stunned both his peers and fans. Plainly Robbins was not hemmed in by anyone's definition of country music. Although his earliest recordings were unremarkable weepers, by the mid-'50s Robbins was making forays into rock music, adding fiddles to the works of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. By the late '50s, Robbins had pop hits of his own with teen fare like "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)." Almost

simultaneously, he completed work on his Hawaiian Songs of the Islands album. In 1959, Robbins stretched even further with the hit single "El Paso," thus heralding a pattern of "gunfighter ballads" that lasted the balance of his career. Robbins also enjoyed bluesy hits like "Don't Worry," which introduced a pop audience to fuzztone guitar in 1961. Barely a year later, Robbins scored a calypso hit with "Devil Woman." Marty Robbins also left a legacy of gospel music and a string of sentimental ballads, showing that he would croon with nary a touch of hillbilly twang. Born and raised in Glendale, Arizona, Marty Robbins (b. Martin David Robertson, September 26, 1925; d. December 8, 1982) was exposed to music at an early age. His mother's father was "Texas" Bob Heckle, a former medicine show man who told his grandson cowboy stories and tales of the travelling show. Marty became enraptured by the cowboy tales and once he became a teenager, Robbins worked on his older brother's ranch outside of Phoenix, concentrating more on his cowboy duties than his studies. Indeed, he never graduated from high school and by his late teens, he started turning petty crimes while living as a hobo. In 1943, he joined the US Navy to fight in World War II and while he was in the service, he learned how to play guitar and developed a taste for Hawaiian music. Robbins left the Navy in 1947, returning to Glendale, where he began to sing in local clubs and radio stations. Often, he performed under the name "Jack Robinson" in an attempt to disguise his endeavors from his disapproving mother. Within three years, he had developed a strong reputation throughout Arizona and was appearing regularly on a Mesa radio station and had his own television show, Western Caravan, in Phoenix. By that time, he had settled on the stage name of Marty Robbins. Robbins landed a recording contract with Columbia in 1951 with the assistence of Little Jimmy Dickens, who had been a fan ever since appearing on Western Caravan. Early in 1952, Marty released his first single, "Love Me or Leave Me Alone," appeared. It wasn't a success and neither was its follow-up, "Crying 'Cause I Love You," but "I'll Go on Alone" soared to number one in January of 1953. Following its blockbuster success, Robbins signed a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose and he joined the Grand Ole Opry. "I Couldn't Keep from Crying" kept him in the Top Ten in the spring of 1953, but his two 1954 singles - "Pretty Words" and "Call Me Up (And I'll Come Calling on You) - stalled on the charts. A couple of rock & roll covers, "That's All Right" and "Maybellene," returned him to the country Top Ten in 1955, but it wasn't until "Singing the Blues" shot to number one in the fall of 1956 that Marty's career was truly launched. Staying at number one for a remarkable 13 weeks, "Singing the Blues" established Robbins as a star, but its progress on the pop charts was impeded by Guy Mitchell's cover, which released shortly after Robbins' original and quickly leapfrogged to number one. The process repeated itself on "Knee Deep in the Blues," which went to number three on the country charts but didn't even appear on the pop charts due to Mitchell's hastily released cover. To head off such competition, Marty decided to record with easy-listening conductor Ray Conniff for his next singles. It was a crafty move and one that kept him commercially viable during the peak of rock & roll. The first of these collaborations, "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)," became a huge hit, spending five weeks at the top of the country charts in the spring of 1957 and peaking at number two on the pop charts, giving him his long-awaited breakthrough record. After "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)," Marty Robbins was a regular fixation on both the pop and country charts until the mid-'60s.The Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition "The Story of My Life" returned Robbins to the number one country slot in early 1957 (number 15 pop), while "Just Married," "Stairway of Love" and "She Was Only Seventeen (He Was One Year More)" kept him in teen-pop territory, as well as the upper reaches of the charts, throughout 1958. In addition to his pop records, Robbins recorded rockabilly singles and Hawaiian albums that earned their own audience. During that time, he began a couple of business ventures of his own, including a booking agency and a record label called Robbins. He also ventured into movies, appearing in the Westerns Raiders of Old California (1957) and Badge of Marshal Brennan (1958), where he played a Mexican named Felipe. The films not only demonstrated Marty's love for Western myths and legends, but they signalled the shift in musical direction he was about to take. Over the course of 1958 and 1959, he recorded a number of cowboy and western songs, and the first of these - "The Hanging Tree," the theme to the Gary Cooper film of the same name - became a hit in the spring of 1959. However, the song just set the stage for Robbins' signature song and biggest Western hit, "El Paso." Released in the summer, the single spent six months on the country charts, including seven weeks at number one, while hitting the top of the pop charts. A full album of Western songs, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, became equally successful, reaching number six on the pop charts and, by the mid-'60s, it had gone platinum. "El Paso" began a very successful decade for Marty Robbins. "Big Iron," another Western song, followed its predecessor to the Top Ten of the country charts in 1960, but it wasn't until 1961 that he had another huge hit in the form of "Don't Worry." Fueled by a fuzz-toned guitar (the first country record to feature such an effect), "Don't Worry" spent ten weeks at number one and crossed over to number three on the pop charts. The following year, "Devil Woman" became nearly as successful, spending eight weeks at number one; it was followed by another number one, "Ruby Ann." Between "Don't Worry" and "Devil Woman," he had a number of smaller hits, most notably the Top Ten "It's Your World," and for the rest of the decade, his biggest hits alternated with more moderate successes. With his career sailing along, Robbins began exploring race-car driving in 1962, initially driving in dirt-track racing competitions before competing in the famous NASCAR race. However, car racing was just a hobby, and he continued to have hits in 1963, including the number one "Begging to You." The following year, he starred in the film Ballad of a Gunfighter, which was based on songs from his classic album.

Marty's chart success continued throughout 1964, before suddenly dipping after he took Gordon Lightfoot's "Ribbon of Darkness" to number one in the spring of 1965. For the remainder of the year and much of the next, his singles failed to crack the Top Ten and he concentrated on filming a television series called The Drifter, which was based on a character he had created. He also acted frequently, including the Nashville exploitation films Country Music Caravan, The Nashville Story, and Tennessee Jamboree, and the stock-car drama Hell on Wheels. Though "The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight" reached number three in 1966, it wasn't until "Tonight Carmen" reached number one on the country charts in 1967 that his career picked up considerably. During the next two years, he regularly hit the Top Ten with country-pop songs like "I Walk Alone" and "It's a Sin." Robbins suffered from a heart attack while oon tour in August 1969, which lead to a bypass operation in 1970. Despite his brush with death, he continued to record, tour and act. Early in 1970, "My Woman My Woman, My Wife" became his last major crossover hit, reaching number one on the country charts and 42 on the pop charts, and eventually earning a Grammy award. Robbins left Columbia Records in 1972, spending the next three years at Decca/MCA. Though "Walking Piece of Heaven," "Love Me" and "Twentieth Century Drifter" all reached the Top Ten, most of his singles were unenthusiastically received. Nevertheless, he sustained his popularity through concerts and film appearances, including the Lee Marvin movie A Man and a Train and Guns of a Stranger. In March of 1974, Marty became the last performer to play at the Ryman Auditorium, the original location of the Grand Ole Opry; a week later, he was the first to play at the new Grand Ole Opry House. The honors and tributes to Robbins continued to rollo out during the mid-'70s, as he was inducted into Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame in 1975. That same year, he returned to Columbia Records, and over 1976 and 1977 he had his last sustained string of Top Ten hits, with "El Paso City" and "Among My Souvenirs" reaching number one. Following this two-year burst of success, Robbins settled into a series of minor hits for the next four years. In October of 1982, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Two months later, he suffered his third major heart attack (his second arrived in early 1981) and although he had surgery, he died on December 8. In the wake of his death, his theme song to Clint Eastwood's movie Honky Tonk Man was released and climbed to number ten. Robbins left behind an immense legacy, including no less than 94 charting country hits and a body of recorded worked that proved how eclectic country music could be. - Hank Davis

21 Jealous Man - Hoyt Axton The A&M Years (1981)

Got this from Bob Wilkinson. It‘s a four star collection of Hoyt Axton‘s best.

First rising to prominence as a songwriter, Hoyt Axton carved out successful careers as a singer and actor as well; rooted equally in country, folk and pop, his gravelly baritone and wry, earthy songs projected an uncommon wit, warmth, and optimism, yielding a consistently engaging body of work extending across four decades. Axton was born March 25, 1938 in Duncan, OK, the son of a naval officer and his English teacher wife. Raised primarily in Jacksonville, FL, he studied classical piano as a child before switching to guitar, writing his first songs at 15. Despite the musical impact of his mother, Mae Boren Axton - the co-author of Elvis Presley's landmark 1956 chart-topper "Heartbreak Hotel" - he initially pursued a career in athletics, attending Oklahoma State University on a football scholarship before serving a stint in the navy. From there Axton relocated to San Francisco, performing at local folk clubs and in 1962 writing his first hit, the Kingston Trio's "Greenback Dollar." Later that year he issued his first album, The Balladeer, a live effort recorded at the Hollywood nightspot the Troubadour; a concurrent appearance on the television western Bonanza also launched his acting career. Axton resurfaced in 1963 with Thunder 'N Lightnin', followed later that year by Saturday's Child; around that same time one of his best friends suffered a fatal drug overdose, inspiring his song "The Pusher," a hit for the rock band Steppenwolf subsequently included on the soundtrack to the film Easy Rider. Despite his success as a songwriter, Axton's performing career failed to catch fire, and after 1965's Sings Bessie Smith he was without a recording contract for several years before signing to Columbia in 1969 to issue My Griffin Is Gone. While opening for Three Dog Night in support of the album, the band heard his composition "Joy to the World" - their recording of the song topped the pop charts in the spring of 1971 - and early the following year they returned to the Top Ten with Axton's "Never Been to Spain." He signed to A&M to release 1973's Less Than the Song; the follow-up, Life Machine, launched two of his biggest solo hits, the lovely "When the Morning Comes" (a duet with Linda Ronstadt) and "Boney Fingers." In 1975, Ringo Starr also notched a Top Three smash with Axton's "The No No Song." Following the much-acclaimed 1977 album Snowblind Friend, Axton completed his deal with MCA with the release of Free Sailin'; he then formed his own label, Jeremiah Records, and with 1979's A Rusty Old Halo scored his biggest solo hit with the classic "Della and the Dealer." In the wake of appearances on dozens of television series including I Dream of Jeannie and McCloud, he landed his first major film work that same year in the acclaimed family drama The Black Stallion; Axton's subsequent movie roles included co-starring appearances in projects including 1983's Heart Like a Wheel, 1984's Gremlins, and 1989's We're No Angels. After 1982's Pistol Packin' Mama, Jeremiah folded, and Axton was noticeably absent from recording until issuing the comeback album Spin of the Wheel in 1990. The LP was Axton's last major new release, however, and in 1996 he suffered a stroke; his health continued to decline, and after a series of heart attacks he died October 26, 1999 at the age of 61. - Jason Ankeny

The A&M Years Artist Hoyt Axton Album Title A&M Years Date of Release 1998 AMG Rating 4.5 * checked Genre Country Styles Traditional Country, Country-Pop, Country-Folk Type compilation The A&M Years is a U.K. import that collects Hoyt Axton's four albums for the label — Less Than the Song, Life Machine, Southbound, and Fearless — on two CDs. This period of Axton's career (1973-1976) is often considered his peak as a recording artist, and some of his best-known performances are here, including "Boney Fingers," "When the Morning Comes," "Flash of Fire," and "Geronimo's Cadillac." This package marks the only appearance of his classic A&M material on CD; for some, that may justify its high import price (which, in reality, is no more expensive than these four albums would cost if they'd been reissued domestically on individual CDs). — Greg Adams 1. Sweet Misery - 3:25 2. Less Than the Song - 3:05 3. Sweet Fantasy - 3:12 4. Days Are Short - 3:55 5. Mary Makes Magic - 3:32 6. Peacemaker - 3:07 7. Nothin' to Lose - 3:07 8. Oklahoma Song - 2:22 9. Mexico City Hangover - 3:23 10. Hungry Man - 2:51 11. Somebody Turned on the Light - 3:04 12. Blue Prelude - 1:52 13. Meybelline - 2:46 14. Life Machine - 3:38 15. That's All Right - 5:14 16. Geronimo's Cadillac - 3:44 17. When the Morning Comes (Axton) - 3:32 18. Good Lookin' Child - 2:51 19. I Dream of Highways - 2:36 20. Pet Parade - 3:07 21. Telephone Booth - 3:34 22. Boney Fingers - 3:10 23. Billy's Theme - 2:39 24. I Love to Sing - 1:54 25. Southbound - 2:32 26. Lion in the Winter - 3:21 27. Blind Fiddler - 2:28 28. Pride of Man - 3:15 29. Greensleeves - 3:50 30. No No Song - 2:33 31. Nashville - 3:42 32. Speed Trap - 2:27 33. Roll Your Own - 2:11 34. Whiskey - 2:17 35. In a Young Girll's Mind - 3:28 36. Sometimes It's Easy - 2:02 37. Idol of the Band - 3:14 38. Evangelina - 3:32 39. Flash of Fire - 2:45 40. Lay, Lady, Lay - 3:05 41. Jealous Man - 1:20 (Naweedna 2003) 42. Paid in Advance - 2:31 43. An Old Greyhound - 2:54 44. A Stone and a Feather - 2:55 45. Gypsy Moth - 3:16 46. Beyond These Walls - 3:36 47. Penny Whistle Song - 1:22 48. The Devil - 1:57

22 Sweet Baby Blues - Jenny & Jimmy Cheatham Will Moyle's Jazz Alive (1984)

Another Will Moyle selection – they are all good, some are even better. I have several more of their tracks, and I fully expect them to populate future Naweedna CDs.

Jeannie Cheatham, along with her husband, bass trombonist Jimmy Cheatham, has co-led "the Cheathams" (also known as the Sweet Baby Blues Band) since the mid-1980s. It is surprising that more groups have not tried to emulate this band, for the Cheathams perform music that crosses over between Kansas City-type swing and blues, always featuring several notable horn players, Jeannie's vocals and plenty of spirit. Their music is very accessible and swinging, yet creative within the swing tradition. Jeannie Cheatham started studying piano when she was five, became a professional early on, and worked with Big Mama Thornton on and off for ten years. She gigged with a variety of top blues greats, including T-Bone Walker, Dinah Washington, Jimmy Witherspoon and Joe Williams, and in 1984 she toured with Cab Calloway. Jimmy Cheatham through the years has played bass trombone with Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Thad Jones and in a backup group with Ornette Coleman. The Cheathams, who met and married in the 1950s, worked with Chico Hamilton (Jimmy was Hamilton's musical director for a time) in the '60s, and they both taught at the University of Wisconsin before moving to San Diego in 1978. Jimmy taught at the University of California at San Diego for many years. Since forming their enjoyable band, the Cheathams have recorded regularly for Concord (starting in 1984) with such sidemen as trumpeters Snooky Young and Clora Bryant, Jimmie Noone Jr. on tenor and clarinet, altoist Curtis Peagler, bassist Red Callender, Rickey Woodard on tenor and clarinet, and many guests (altoists Charles, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and Hank Crawford, tenorman Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, violinist Papa John Creach and guitarist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown), performing their fresh and happy version of Kansas City jazz at a countless number of festivals and concerts. - Scott Yanow Sweet Baby Blues Artist Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham Album Title Sweet Baby Blues Date of Release Sep 1984 (recording) AMG Rating 3 * Genre Jazz Styles Swing Time 41:43 The debut release by Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham's Sweet Baby Blues Band is the first of their many very enjoyable recordings. Jeannie's powerful piano playing and strong voice are major assets, but the octet also has five major horn soloists (trumpeter Snooky Young, both Curtis Peagler and Charles McPherson on altos, bass trombonist Jimmy Cheatham and, making his debut, Jimmie Noone, Jr. on soprano and clarinet), plus veteran Red Callender (on bass and tuba) and drummer John "Ironman" Harris. The spirited ensemble plays five Kansas City blues standards and three originals, including their hit "Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On." Wonderful and swinging music. — Scott Yanow 1. Brand New Blues Blues (Cheatham) - 4:57 (future Naweedna selection) 2. Roll 'Em Pete (Johnson/Turner) - 3:21 3. Sweet Baby Blues (Cheatham) - 4:13 (Naweedna 2003) 4. I Got a Mind to Ramble (Cheatham) - 7:10 5. Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do (Grainger/Robbins) - 6:05 6. Muddy Water Blues (Cheatham) - 3:51 7. Cherry Red (Johnson) - 4:38 8. Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On (Cheatham/Cheatham) - 7:28 (future Naweedna selection)

23 We've Gone As Far As We Can Go - Asleep At The Wheel Best of (1976)

This CD plus the two tributes to Bob Wills just about cover Western Swing.

The Western swing revivalist band Asleep at the Wheel helped popularize the genre in the '70s and went on to enjoy an eclectic, freewheeling career which earned the group a dedicated following of both fans and critics. Over the course of their career, a number of musicians passed through the group - more than 80, to be precise - but throughout the years, the vision of vocalist/guitarist Ray Benson kept the band together. Asleep at the Wheel was founded by Benson and Leroy Preston (drums, guitar, vocals) in 1970. Along with Benson's longtime friend Reuben "Lucky Oceans" Gosfield (steel guitar, drums), they played straightforward country at local bars and lodges in Virginia. They were soon joined by guitarist/singer Chris O'Connell, who had just graduated from high school. In 1971, Commander Cody saw the group performing in Washington, D.C., and was impressed enough to send his manager Joe Kerr to meet with the band. They signed with Kerr, who convinced them to move to San Francisco late in that year. Keyboardist Floyd Domino (born Jim Haber) joined the band following an inaugural 30-day tour with Stoney Edwards. After Domino joined the group, Asleep at the Wheel landed a permanent gig at the Longbranch Saloon in Berkeley. They soon cultivated a solid fan base and signed with United Artists Records. Their first album, Comin' Right at Ya, was released in 1973. In 1974, they moved to Austin, TX, which eventually became their home base. That year, they released an eponymous album on Epic Records and had their first minor hit, a remake of Louis Jordan's "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie."

Asleep at the Wheel added two members, fiddler Lisa Silver and trumpeter Bobby Womack, and moved to Capitol Records in 1975. Their first album for the label, Texas Gold, was their breakthrough, reaching the pop charts and spawning the hit single "The Letter That Johnny Walker Red." The album generated four more hits, and later that year they released Wheelin' and Dealin'. By that time four more members, including accordion player Jo-El Sonnier, had joined the lineup. For the rest of the decade, Asleep at the Wheel was one of the most popular country artists in America. 1980, however, was a year of setbacks; Lucky Oceans left the band, and the remaining members soon found that they were over 200,000 dollars in debt. To keep afloat, the group performed TV commercials for Budweiser and worked on movie soundtracks. Shortly afterwards, the group lost Chris O'Connell, who quit to have a baby. In addition to their internal difficulties in the early '80s, Asleep at the Wheel had trouble selling records. The group had a hit album with Framed in 1980, but that was their last release for over half a decade. After their self-titled album for MCA-Dot flopped in 1985, Benson tried his hand at producing, working with such artists as Aaron Neville, Rob Wasserman, Willie Nelson, and Bruce Hornsby. By the time Asleep at the Wheel signed with Epic Records in 1987, the group had gone through a number of personnel changes, now consisting of Benson, O'Connell (who had returned from her leave of absence), fiddler Larry Franklin, fiddler Johnny Gimble, bassist Jon Mitchell, pianist/accordionist Tim Alexander, steel guitarist John Ely, saxophonist Mike Francis, and David Sanger. Asleep at the Wheel 10, the group's first album for Epic, was released in 1987 and became the hit they needed: the album launched several hit singles, including "House of Blue Lights," "Way Down Texas Way," and the Grammy-winning "String of Pars." Their next Epic album, Western Standard Time, came out in 1988 and led to another Grammy for the instrumental "Sugarfoot Rag." In 1990, Asleep at the Wheel signed with Arista and recorded Keepin' Me Up Nights. Two years later, they released Greatest Hits Live and Kickin', after which most of the band members left the group. In 1993, a re-formed lineup featuring Benson, fiddler Ricky Turpin, bassist David Earl Miller, drummer Tommy Beavers, and steel guitarist Cindy Cash-Dollar released Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys on Liberty. Featuring a number of guest artists, including several original Texas Playboys, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Chet Atkins, Brooks & Dunn, Dolly Parton, and Garth Brooks, the album received excellent reviews and became a big hit. The Wheel Keeps on Rollin' followed in 1995, and 1997 saw the release of Back to the Future Now - Live at Arizona Charlie's; two years later, Asleep at the Wheel returned with Ride With Bob. - Sandra Brennan The Best of Asleep at the Wheel Artist Asleep at the Wheel Album Title Best of Asleep at the Wheel Date of Release 1992 (release) AMG Rating 4.5 * Genre Country Styles Neo-Traditionalist Country, Western Swing Revival Type compilation The Best of Asleep at the Wheel is a concise introduction to the group's early years, including their first hit "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie," as well as favorites like "The Letter That Johnny Walker Read" and "Bump Bounce Boogie" which launched the band into the country mainstream during the mid-1970s and still sound fresh today. — Jason Ankeny 1. The Letter That Johnny Walker Read (Benson/Frayne/Preston) - 3:14 2. Bump Bounce Boogie (Benson/Haber/Preston) - 3:14 3. Miles and Miles of Texas (Camfield/Johnston) - 3:05 4. Route 66 (Troup) - 2:50 5. Nothing Takes the Place of You (McCall/Robinson) - 3:02 6. The Trouble With Loving Today (Farrell) - 3:33 7. Choo Choo CH Boogie (Darling/Gabler/Horton) - 3:41 8. Texas Me and You (Benson) - 3:26 9. Jumpin' at the Woodside (Basie/Hendricks) - 3:48 10. We've Gone as Far as We Can Go (Hargrove) - 2:49 (Naweedna 2003)

24 Mermaid - John Allan Cameron FFUSA-X (1980s)

This was included as a result of the AK trip this year. We kept referring to it, so here it is for all to experience. This is all I know about John Allan Cameron, except that I have another track, Blow Up Your TV, which might very well end up in a future Naweedna CD.

John Allan Cameron was born in 1938 in Canada and came from a very musical family. He began playing the guitar as a teenager, but moved to Ottawa, Ontario, in 1957, to become a priest. He left and studied education at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, performing around campus with a group called the Cavaliers. After teaching in London, Ontario, he resumed music in 1968, playing traditional Scottish and Irish music at the Newport and Mariposa Folk Festivals. He signed with Apex soon after and recorded Here Comes John Allan Cameron (1968) and The Minstrel of Cranberry Lane (1969). A contract with Balmur Ltd. produced Get There

by Dawn and Lord of the Dance in 1972 and 1973. Beginning in 1975, Cameron has frequently performed with the Cape Breton Symphony, comprised of accordionist/pianist Bobby Brown and fiddlers Winston Fitzgerald, Wilfred Gillen and John Donald Cameron. His other albums include Weddings, Wakes & Other Things (1976), Fiddle (1978), Freeborn Man (1979), Good Times (1987), Wind Willow (1991) and two volumes of Classic John Allan (1992). - John Bush