Archive for the ‘Five Stars’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Hank Williams: The Legend Begins

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Remastered Health & Happiness Shows + Earlier Bonuses

This three-disc set returns to domestic print the two discs of live radio performances previously anthologized on the 1993 Heath & Happiness Shows. These programs were remastered from transcription discs cut in October 1949 at the Castle studio in Nashville, and though there are a few minor audio artifacts, the sound quality – particularly the instrumental balance of the Drifting Cowboys and the presence of Williams’ voice – is exceptional. Each of the eight shows stretched to 15 minutes, when augmented by ad copy read by a local announcer; here they clock in a few minutes shorter. Williams opens each program with the Sons of the Pioneers’ “Happy Rovin’ Cowboy” and fiddler Jerry Rivers closes each episode with the instrumental “Sally Goodin”.

In between the opening and closing numbers, Williams sings some of his best-loved early hits, original songs, and gospel numbers, and much like the later performances gathered on The Complete Mothers’ Best Recordings… Plus! (or its musical-excerpt version, The Unreleased Recordings), the spontaneity and freshness of the live takes often outshine the better-known studio recordings. Williams’ wife Audrey accompanies him on a few duets and sings a couple of challenging solo slots; Jerry Rivers shines both as an accompanist and in short solo highlights. As with the Mothers’ Best shows, Williams is revealed to be not only a revered singer and songwriter, but a master host and entertainer.

The set’s third disc includes a dozen rare Williams recordings. From 1938, a fifteen-year-old Williams is heard singing the novelty number “Fan It” and the then-current movie theme “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” These are rough recordings, but a priceless opportunity to hear just how precocious Williams was as a teenager. Two years later Williams recorded a number of home demos, including the four standards covered here. The recording quality is tinny and the discs are far from pristine, but they’re clear enough to reveal the adult Hank Williams voice beginning to emerge. The final six tracks jump ahead eleven years, past the Health & Happiness shows to a March of Dimes show from 1951.

The Health & Happiness recordings haven’t always had a healthy or happy history. MGM released overdubbed versions in 1961, and the 1993 reissue was plagued by physical problems with the transcriptions. But as with the Mothers’ Best release, Joe Palmaccio has deftly resuscitated ephemeral, sixty-year-old recordings with his restoration and remastering magic. Given that these discs were only meant to last through a radio broadcast or two, their picture of a twenty-six-year-old Williams just breaking into Nashville is astonishing. Those with an earlier reissue will value the sonic upgrade, historic bonus tracks, 4-panel digipack, 16-page booklet and detailed liner notes from Williams biographer Colin Escott. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Tags: , , ,
Posted in CD Review, Five Stars, Video | No Comments »

Alberta Hunter: Downhearted Blues

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

An 85-year-old blues legend burns up the stage

Born in 1895, and having been an early blues innovator in the 1920s, Alberta Hunter became a living link to the jazz-age, and stars like Bessie Smith, Paul Robeson and Ma Rainey. In the late ‘50s she started a second career as a nurse, and mostly retired from music, but by the mid-70s she’d been lured back to live performance. In 1981 she recorded this live set at a New York cabaret called The Cookery. At 85, Hunter was still sharp-as-a-tack; not sharp for an 85-year-old, just sharp. Her sassy stage patter, interactions with the band and audience, and vocalizing are filled with percussive energy, knowing phrasings and deep experience and wisdom. Singing with accompaniment from Gerald Cook (piano, arrangements) and Jimmy Lewis (bass), Hunter covers standards that she wrote (and as she noted, was still collecting royalties on) as well as a selection of standards from other authors of the great American songbook. This same set was issued by Varese Sarabande in 2001, and is now returned to domestic print by the Rockbeat label. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Tags: , ,
Posted in CD Review, Five Stars, Reissue | No Comments »

Paul Simon: There Goes Rhymin’ Simon

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Simon expands his reach with third solo effort

Simon’s third solo album (including 1965’s The Paul Simon Songbook), found the singer-songwriter expanding upon the freedom he’d displayed on the previous year’s eponymous release. The branching out displayed with reggae, Latin and South American sounds was now expanded with bluesy doo-wop, New Orleans pop, gospel and Memphis soul. Simon deftly choreographed an impressive guest list that includes The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Roches, horns arranged by Alan Toussaint and strings arranged by Quincy Jones. His mastery weaves multiple studios, dates and backing bands (including the players of Muscle Shoals) into a surprisingly cohesive album.

Beyond the album’s hits (“Kodachrome” and “Love Me Like a Rock”), Simon produced an album of memorable songs that set themselves apart from his earlier work with Art Garfunkel. The brass party on “Take Me to the Mardi Gras,” gospel backing vocals of “Tenderness,” Jamaican style of “Sunny Day,” and country underpinnings of “St. Judy’s Comet” were fresh to Simon’s catalog, and even the Garfunel-esque “American Tune” feels like a declaration of independence with Simon singing unaccompanied. Legacy’s 2011 reissue reuses Bill Inglot’s remastering and the four bonus demo tracks of Rhino’s 2004 reissue. Legacy’s traded out Rhino’s digipack for a standard jewel case and a 12-page booklet of lyrics and pictures. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in CD Review, Five Stars, Reissue | No Comments »

Paul Simon: Paul Simon

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Paul Simon sets out on a brilliant solo career

Though not technically Paul Simon’s solo debut – that honor goes to the acoustic performances he recorded for 1965’s The Paul Simon Songbook – this first post-Simon & Garfunkel album does represent the true beginnings of Simon’s massive success as a solo artist. Released in 1972, it came two years after Simon & Garfunkel bowed out with the Grammy winning Bridge Over Troubled Water, and the same year as the duo’s greatest hits album topped the chart. Simon’s re-debut was a strong artistic statement that was both commercially successful and the seedbed for experimentation and growth that would mark his solo career. The album opens with the reggae-inspired hit single “Mother and Child Reunion,” and along with the Latin influences of “Me and Julio Down By the School Yard” and haunting Andean instrumental breaks in “Duncan,” the melting pot of styles predicted the wealth of world music Simon would fold into his music.

At 32, Simon had matured from the sharp, at times bitter, worldview of his twenties. The difficulty of Simon & Garfunkel’s end had given way to the freedom of a solo act, and there’s a sense of renewed discovery in his characters and lyrical forms. The wayward “Duncan” recounts the education of a small-town fisherman’s son into a clear-eyed world traveler, while the fragmentary allusions of “Mother and Child Reunion” are surprisingly open-ended and poetically opaque. Simon’s marriage with his wife was apparently following his professional partnership with Garfunkel into dissolution, providing grist for “Everything Put Together Falls Apart,” “Run That Body Down” and “Congratulations.” Simon’s voice never sounded better, he asserts his picking talent on “Armistice Day” and “Peace Like a River” and vamps happily behind violinist Stephane Grappelli on the swing instrumental “Hobo’s Blues.”

Producer Roy Halee, as he’d done for Bridge Over Troubled Water, surrounded his artist with friendly, talented and inventive musicians. Together they crafted spacious, highly sympathetic arrangements that had the delicacy of an acoustic band, the depth of a jazz combo and the power of well-placed moments of electric guitar. Columbia/Legacy’s 2011 reissue reuses Bill Inglot’s remastering and the three bonus tracks of Rhino’s 2004 reissue, including solo acoustic-guitar demos of “Me and Julio Down by the School Yard” and “Duncan,” and an alternate version of “Paranoia Blues.” Legacy’s traded out Rhino’s digipack for a standard jewel case and an 8-page booklet of lyrics and pictures. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in CD Review, Five Stars, Reissue | No Comments »

Mel Tillis: The Best of Mel Tillis – The Columbia Years

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

The missing chapter of Mel Tillis’ singing career

A decade before Mel Tillis found 1970s fame as a singer on Kapp and MGM, he recorded a number of terrific, often adventurous sides for Columbia. Tillis had been writing hits for years charting sides with Webb Pierce, Bobby Bare, Stonewall Jackson and others, but his own singles, including “The Violet and a Rose” and “Sawmill,” found only limited success. Legacy’s 24-track collection, a digital download reissue of Collectors’ Choice’ out-of-print CD, is a treasure-trove of Tillis originals, many co-written with Wayne Walker. Many of these titles were hits for other singers, including eight for Pierce, and while it’s a treat to find Tillis’ original versions of “Honky Tonk Song,” “Holiday for Love” and “A Thousand Miles Ago,” it’s even more interesting to hear the range of styles he tried out. There are Louvin-inspired harmonies inn “Georgia Town Blues,” a twangy proto-rock guitar in the tall tale “Loco Weed,” a calypso beat for “Party Girl,” and a cover of “Hearts of Stone” (which was also recorded by Elvis Presley, Connie Francis and Red Foley) that has wailing sax and Cameo-Parkway styled backing vocals. Tillis’ lack of hits at Columbia no doubt contributed to his stylistic flexibility, and though he sounds most deeply at home on honky-tonk sides “Heart Over Mind” (a hit for Ray Price) and “Tupelo County Jail,” he remained engaged and enthusiastic when singing the Johnny Horton styled historical tale “Ten Thousand Drums” and teen tunes like “It’s So Easy.” Tillis would found tremendous fame as a singer and personality in the 1970s, but these earlier sides for Columbia show convincingly that his success in the spotlight should have come much sooner. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Mel Tillis’ Home Page

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Five Stars, MP3 Review, Reissue, Video | No Comments »

Neil Diamond: The Bang Years 1966-1968

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

The young Neil Diamond graduates from songwriter to performer

Before Neil Diamond became a singing superstar he was a songwriter, but even as a songwriter he wasn’t an instant success. He spent his teen years tramping from one publishing house to another, occasionally selling a song against royalties for hits that never came. It wasn’t until an unsuccessful year on the staff of Leiber & Stoller’s Trio Music and, ironically, a transition to recording, that Diamond found his voice as a songwriter. He first charted with Jay and the Americans’ “Sunday and Me,” and hit his commercial stride with the Monkees chart-toppers “I’m a Believer” and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.” Other songs in his catalog found favor among British Invasion acts that included Cliff Richard and Lulu.

Diamond’s earlier attempts at a performing career (with Dual in 1959 and Columbia in 1963) had gone nowhere, but his signing to Bang in 1966 unlocked his songwriting talent and paired him with producers Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. It was during this initial run at Bang that Diamond proved himself a talented songwriter, unique vocalist and commanding hit maker. His first seven singles reached the chart, six making the top 20; for good measure he extended the chart run with “Red, Red Wine” and a soul-power cover of Gary U.S. Bonds’ “New Orleans.” Several of his B-sides, including “The Boat That I Row” and “Do It” were as good as the A’s, and cover versions of “Red Rubber Ball,” “Monday, Monday” and “La Bamba” were blessed by the Diamond touch.

Barry and Greenwich (who can be heard singing backing vocals) hired the cream of New York’s session players, and together with arranger Artie Butler and engineers Brooks Arthur, Tom Dowd and Phil Ramone, cranked out these brilliant capsules of AM radio pop. Diamond would go on to even greater chart and performance glory, but the seeds of his success can be heard in the craft of these twenty-three sides, particularly his eighteen original compositions. The mono masters are housed in a tri-fold digipack with a 20-page booklet that features pictures and revealing liner notes by Diamond himself. For the next phase in Diamond’s career, check his mid-period work on Play Me: The Complete Uni Studio Recordings… Plus! [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Neil Diamond’s Home Page

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in CD Review, Five Stars, MP3 Review, Reissue | No Comments »

The Staple Singers: Be Altitude – Respect Yourself

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

The Staple Singers make their biggest hits and best album

The Staple Singers had been a together for nearly two decades when they landed at Stax in 1968. They’d recorded old-school spirituals for Vee Jay and folk-influenced sides for Riverside before finding a new direction with the Memphis soul powerhouse; not only did the Staples adapt to the soul and funk energy of Stax, but they evolved their material from the pointed social topics of the folk era to less specific, but highly empowering “message music.” Their first two Stax albums, 1968’s Soul Folk in Action and 1970’s We’ll Get Over, featured backing from the label’s house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and mixed terrific material from Stax songwriters with Staples’ originals. Despite the quality of each release, nothing clicked on the charts, and the group’s third long-player, 1971’s Staple Swingers, found Stax executive Al Bell taking over production chores from M.G.’s guitarist Steve Cropper.

Even more importantly, Bell began recording the Staples’ backing sessions in Alabama with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section: Eddie Hinton (lead guitar), Jimmy Johnson (rhythm guitar), David Hood (bass), Barry Beckett (keyboards) and Roger Hawkins (drums). Hood’s deep bass lines and Hawkins’ rhythm touch anchor this album, solidified by Johnson’s chords, Beckett’s vamping and Hinton’s inventive fills; the Memphis horns add texture and accents without ever needing to step out front to announce themselves. Produced at a time that Stax was evolving from its soul glories of the ‘60s to its funkier output of the early ‘70s, the Staples hit a third gear as they built the album’s tracks, particularly the hit singles “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself,” from perfectly intertwined strands of soul, funk, and gospel. Also blended in to “I’ll Take You There,” as Rob Bowman astutely observes in the liner notes, is the reggae of the Harry J All-Stars’ instrumental “The Liquidator.”

The album’s original ten tracks include longer versions of the singles, stretching each to nearly five minutes. You can understand why the extra vocalizing of “Respect Yourself” was trimmed for radio play, but Staples fans will treasure the full-length production. Concord’s 2011 reissue adds two previously unreleased bonus tracks: the cautionary “Walking in Water Over Our Head” and an alternate take of Jeff Barry and Bobby Bloom’s “Heavy Makes You Happy.” The latter forgoes the horn arrangement of the original single, emphasizes the rhythm section (as did all of engineer Terry Manning’s album mixes), and adds forty-three seconds to the running time. These are great additions to an album that’s already the best full-length of the Staples’ career, and one of the best Stax ever produced. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Mavis Staples’ Home Page

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in CD Review, Five Stars, MP3 Review, Reissue, Video | No Comments »

Irma Thomas: Wish Someone Would Care

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Deep soul debut LP from the Soul Queen of New Orleans

Twice divorced and the mother of four by the age of twenty, Irma Thomas brought a lot of living to her career as a preeminent soul vocalist. Initially waxing singles for Ronn, Bandy and Minit, Thomas landed on the Imperial label in 1963. The following year she debuted the deeply emotional original “Wish Someone Would Care,” crossing over to the pop Top 20 and gaining further attention with an irresistible performance of the Jackie DeShannon-penned B-side “Break-a-Way.” The latter would earn cover versions, including a UK hit by Tracey Ullman, but it wasn’t the only B-side to gain notice across the pond; the Rolling Stones turned Thomas’ brilliant gospel take on “Time is on My Side” into their first stateside Top 10. One listen to Thomas’ original reveals how much Mick Jagger was influenced by her vocal interpretation.

Thomas is superb throughout the album, ably supported by inventive arrangements and superbly earthy session players. She pleads “I Need Your Love So Bad,” builds stirring crescendos on a cover of Clyde McPhatter’s “Without Love (There is Nothing),” and reads Percy Mayfield’s “Please Send Me Someone to Love” with a delivery that suggests Dinah Washington. She turns Randy Newman’s obscure “While the City Sleeps” into Brill Building pop, and draws on her tumultuous romantic history for the original “Straight from the Heart.” Thomas’ recording career didn’t hit a regular stride until she signed with Rounder in the mid-80s, but it was a mistake of the record industry, as she measured up to Aretha, Carla, Koko, Mavis or Etta. The album’s dozen tracks are presented in true stereo, as they were previously on a two-fer with Thomas’ second album, Take a Look. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Tags: , ,
Posted in Five Stars, MP3 Review, Reissue, Video | No Comments »

Material Issue: International Pop Overthrow [20th Anniverary Edition]

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

Expanded reissue of a power-pop classic

In celebration of International Pop Overthrow’s twentieth anniversary, and in memory of the group’s late leader Jim Ellison, Hip-O select has issued this greatly expanded version of Material Issue’s first full length release. By the time the record dropped in 1991, Material Issue had been together nearly six years, had issued an EP and a few singles, and had toured extensively throughout their native Midwest. The album itself was recorded in Zion, Illinois, the home of another great power-pop band, Shoes, and produced by Shoes’ Jeff Murphy. IPO fit well in a year that was dotted with key power-pop albums from Matthew Sweet (Girlfriend), Teenage Fanclub (Bandwagonesque), Velvet Crush (In the Presence of Greatness), Adam Schmitt (World So Bright) and Richard X. Heyman (Hey Man!).

The album sold nationwide, launching a video for “Diane” on MTV’s 120 Minutes and pushing “Valerie Loves Me” into the top ten of Billboard’s modern rock chart. The group completed two more albums and toured heavily, but never recaptured either the bittersweet poignancy of IPO, or its commercial success. Ellison committed suicide in 1996 amid rumors of romantic and artistic disillusion, but he left behind an album that captures the very core of power pop: melodies whose hooks resound with the craft of the Brill Building and lyrics whose heart-on-sleeve emotion drew a map of joy, heartbreak, anticipation, angst, satisfaction and disappointment.

The anniversary edition of IPO adds eight bonus tracks, six drawn from the pre-LP promo-only Eleven Supersonic Hit Explosions, one (the thundering “Sixteen Tambourines”) taken from a College Music Journal sampler album, and the previously unreleased “The Girl with the Saddest Eyes” to close out the set. Among the bonuses are three covers: an emotional rendering of Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy,” a glitzy version of Sweet’s “Blockbuster,” and a brash live take on Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.” IPO is an essential element of a complete power-pop collection, and this expanded reissue is a great upgrade for fans that haven’t previously picked up the bonus tracks. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Tags: ,
Posted in CD Review, Five Stars, MP3 Review, Reissue, Video | No Comments »

Thin Lizzy: Jailbreak (Deluxe Edition)

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

An expanded look at a ‘70s rock classic

The Irish hard rock quartet Thin Lizzy hit their commercial peak with this 1976 release, capitalizing on the twin guitars of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, kicking off a string of four gold albums, and launching themselves onto the U.S. singles chart with Phil Lynott’s “The Boys Are Back in Town.” The album’s impact was far greater than its single’s success, with numerous tracks turned into turntable hits by FM radio, reiterated to this day on classic rock stations. Lynott was a triple threat as a soulful vocalist, powerful bass player and poetic song writer. His lyrics were both intricate in their imagery and memorable in their verbal hooks, and his melodies were rooted in ‘60s pop but hearty enough to stand up to the power of ‘70s guitar rock.

By 1976 it had been three years since Thin Lizzy had struck with “Whiskey in the Jar,” and in the album rock era, their previous five albums, though showing artistic growth, had made little impact on the market. 1975’s Fighting launched the power chords and heavy riffing that powered Jailbreak, but critical praise hadn’t turned into radio play or unit sales. Given one more chance by their label, they were assigned John Alcock as their nominal producer; Alcock showed the band how to record in a more disciplined and focused manner, and provided them the connection to the Who’s Ramport Studio in which Jailbreak was recorded. The result was the most popular album of the band’s career, but as detailed in the 20-page booklet, this wasn’t achieved without a certain amount of disagreement. Neither of the band’s guitarists liked the sound of the album, and Robertson felt “Running Back” was too pop and boycotted its sessions.

Gorham’s distaste for Alcock’s sound led him, along with Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot, to remix, remaster and in spots re-record album tracks for the bonus disc. Some will blanch at the liberties taken, including new rhythm guitar parts, rearranged backing vocals and redubbed sirens on the title track, but the new mixes do seem more powerful than the originals, and according to Elliot, better reflect what the band did with these songs on tour. The deluxe 20-page booklet includes new interviews with Gorham, detailing his deep disdain for the album’s original sound, and providing motivation for the remixes. The new mixes themselves generally thicken, refine and clarify what was on the tapes, but those weaned on the originals may find the larger alterations disconcerting.

In addition to the remixes, disc two will thrill Thin Lizzy fans with an alternate lead vocal for “The Boys Are Back in Town,” four exceptionally tight and powerful BBC session recordings laid down the month before the album’s release, an extended rough mix of “Fight or Fall,” a previously unissued session track (the slow guitar jam “Blues Boy”), and a terrific early live version of “Cowboy Song” titled “Derby Blues.” Derek Oliver’s exceptional liner notes provide a solid recounting of the band’s history, detailed context for the album’s creation (including well selected quotes from period interviews with Lynott and Robertson), and deeply informed commentary on the individual songs. Whether or not you care for the remixes, you’ll come to appreciate that Gorham still cares, thirty-five years later, and you can always spin the original master on disc one. This is a terrific upgrade from the original album. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Tags: ,
Posted in CD Review, Five Stars, MP3 Review, Reissue | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »