After the trip to the basement to browse through the vinyl, I came up with five albums to put on the turntable and listen to and remember when. Tonight I listened to one side of each of the albums. The albums were: An Anthology of British Blues, featuring various British blues musicians, Lord Sutch and His Heavy Friends, The Souther Hillman Furay Band, A Long Time Comin’ The Electric Flag, and David Buskin.
So I’ve written about the folk music I listen to and the blues, bluegrass, and some rock but I haven’t really written about the jazz I listen to. So tonight spinning in the CD player is one of my favorite jazz musicians the incomparable Wes Montgomery. I was still in high school when I started to listen to Wes Montgomery. He recorded three albums on A&M records that were the most commercially successful of his short career. (He died in 1968 of a heart attack). Those three albums A Day in the Life , Down Here on the Ground, and Road Song. all of which contained covers of pop hits along with Wes’ great guitar work were my introduction to his music.
Today was a mixed blues day, I started by going to the Roots Music Report and looking at the Blues chart. A couple of musicians with new albums stood out one I knew Coco Montoya and the other not so much, one of those artist, where I know the name not the music, Guitar Shorty. So I downloaded both the albums and started the day with Coco Montoya’s new CD I Want it All Back. I first heard Coco Montoya’s guitar on John Mayall’s album Chicago Line, which is an outstanding album and Montoya’s guitar playing is one of the reasons. Since then 
I’ve picked up a couple of his albums, generally, I like his guitar playing more than his vocals and on first listen that is the way I feel about this album. Generally, the songs are just ok, not really all that straight up blues but more rhythm and blues. One of the tracks stood out because it was a more straight blues number “Fannie Mae”, was one of the few tracks with some nice blues harp in it and it is my favorite track. You know there’s jazz and then there’s smooth jazz on first listen this album is smooth blues! But again, I do like Coco’s guitar work! Overall it’s like a 3 out of 5 for me.
The Midnight House – Alex Berenson (John Wells #4)
So, four weeks plus later and two books read in between, I finally finished Alex Berenson‘s The Midnight House. The Midnight House is the fourth book in the John Wells series and I loved the first three. The story lines were good and John Wells was a well developed character who I liked. So I had high expectations when I picked up this book, unfortunately, the book fell short of those expectations. It’s not that the book was bad, it’s just that there really was no hook that brought me into the story and made me want to keep reading.
Today’s mix contains some forgotten music by some musicians I’ve mentioned recently. The mix started of with the song “Long Afternoons” by Paul Seibel from the album Woodsmoke and Oranges. I always loved this song, years after this album Jerry Jeff did a nice cover on his 1977 A Man Must Carry On album and rerecorded it on the Gypsy Songman album. Here’s Jerry Jeff performing it in 2009
So Thursday’s eclectic mix started with three CDs I picked up at the Dollar Tree the other night. 
First up was a self-titled album Tribaljazz from a band that I had never heard of, but the sticker on the cover said it was John Densmore’s (drummer of The Doors) band so, aside from the price, that was good enough reason for me to pick it up. The band is a great eclectic jazz band lead by John Densmore on drums and Art Ellis on flute and the rest of the band is composed of musicians from around the world. John Densmore from the liner notes:
C.J.Box’s Joe Pickett series has been a favorite of mine since I read Savage Run (Book #2) in 2004. I quickly went back and read book #1 Open Season (which 
won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel)and have continued from there. From the beginning, I have loved the characters of Joe Pickett and his family. Joe Pickett is a game warden originally living in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming and now Saddlestring. Joe is a kinda’ normal guy living a normal life and correcting the wrongs that he encounters and there have been enough to fill ten books. From his website:
So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and my McCloskey ancestors, yes, they are the ones that my wife keeps finding newspaper articles about often being arrested in Beverly. Mostly for drunk and disorderly behavior including, my great-grandmother Margaret McCloskey Ashton, I listened to some Irish blues men, Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore. Now Rory Gallagher is one of those artist that I’ve heard the name and never really listened to their music, while Garry Moore I’ve heard and really like. The Gallagher album that I chose was Live at Montreux and is a collection of recording made during his performances in 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1985.Overall, I liked the album, but it was a little more blues rocky than the blues I usually listen to. There was one song that stood out on my second listen “Out on the Western Plain”. That track had a really neat acoustic sounding guitar. Also “Last of the Independents” and “Mississippi Sheiks” stood out. There are some good reviews at Amazon from fans who know more than me about Gallagher. Sadly, Gallagher passed away from complications after a liver transplant in 1995 at the age of 47. Also, I was surprised to read at Amazon that Hendrix rated Gallagher second to himself as a guitarist. I guess I will have to listen to some more Rory Gallagher!
