Discovering A New Release from The Infamous Stringdusters
So today I made a brief list of some bluegrass to listen to and listened to some tracks by Josh Williams not bad but not thrilling. Then I listened to a track from the Tiger Maple String Band interesting but I just wasn’t really into the music. So I finally decided to move the the top of the chart and the number one album Things That Flyby The Infamous Stringdusters and I now know why the album is number one great picking, vocals and lyrics usually make a great album and this album has all three!
The album is their second following their successful 2007 debut album Fork in the Road, The band won three awards at the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards Ceremony in 2007 including:
Emerging Artist of the Year,
Album of the Year for Fork in the Road (in a tie with J.D. Crowe & the New South’s album Lefty’s Old Guitar),
Song of the Year for the title track of the album.
Who are The Infamous Stringe Dusters
Currenty, the band calls Nashville, Tennessee their home is composed of: Andy Hall (Dobro), Andy Falco (guitar), Chris Pandolfi (banjo), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle), Jesse Cobb (mandolin), and Travis Book (upright bass). Andy Falco is the newest member, filling the role vacated by guitarist Chris Eldridge (who is now touring with Chris Thile as a member of the Punch Brothers).
The members all have a ton of experience ! Andy Hall has played with legends like Earl Scruggs and Dolly Parton, Andy Falco’s resume includes stints with the Greencards and Levon Helm. Chris Pandolfis background includes a stint with Drew Emmit, fiddler Garrett has played with Bobby Osborne, Jesse Cobb has played with Jim Lauderdale, and bassist Cook has shared the stage with Benny “Burle” Galloway.”
About Things That Fly
The album is solid through all thirteen of the tracks and Hall’s dobro, Garret’s fiddle and Cobb’s mandolin, (Oops Pandolfi’s banjo is good, too) certainly form the core of the band. A few of the tracks that caught my attention are. the opening track “You Can’t Stop the Changes”, the instrumental “Magic #9″ (big surprise there),”Those Who’ve Gone On” (probably my favorite track), “It’ll Be All Right”, “17 cents” (oops again I forgot this one maybe this is the favorite) and the closing instrumental “The Deputy”.
The band allows taping at their shows and you can follow a link at the bottom of their webpage to some free music. So check them out! I know I’m headed over there to give a show or two a listen!
This morning I decided that it was a good day to listen to one of my favorite folk artists so I qued up Jack Williams on the mp3 player and listened to his album Laughing in the Face of the Blues. If you like great guitar picking coupled with great songs about the south and common folks then you’ll like Jack Williams’ music.
Discoverig the Music of Jack Williams
I first stumbled across Jack’s music in the bargain bin of my favorite used record store where I found his album Across the Winterline . I took it home listened to I think the first two songs and I knew that I had a new favorite!
Here’s what others think of Jack’s music:
From his website and CDBaby:
…. his artistry… is nothing short of amazing. Dazzling picking, expressive voice, unique and interesting songs. He is a showman in the best sense of the word and just wowed our audience. I think they would have followed him anywhere.”
Rich Warren, WFMT “Midnight Special”, Chicago IL
Skilled finger picking with a [Southern] rhythmic musical style that’s equal parts folk storytelling and Tin Pan Alley songcraft, delivered with the impassioned soul of an old blues singer…No Depression Magazine
Listening to Laughing in the Face of the Blues
Like all of Jack’s album Laughing in the Face of the Blues is filled with great songs . Recently the album has been on my mp3 player and the songs that usually come up when the player is set to random are “Meet Me Mama”, Laughing in the Face of the Blues” and “A Sucker for Love” all great songs and again so are the rest!
Finally Walkin’ Blues
This afternoon I continued listening to Jack and the other album on the player Walkin’ Dreams. Which is also full of great songs! The album opens with “A Natural Man” written about one of Jack’s heroes Josh White. Other songs include “An English Moment” about returning to the home of his ancestors. “Mr. Cherry” about the Birmingham Church bombing, “Walkin’ Dreams” a song about walking through history and finally
“Me and My Automobile” a fun song about his car troubles that includes an excerpt from Jack’s call to “Click and Clack on NPR!
The other funny song is “In the Texas Sky” which chronicles Jack’s travails while taking his friend Al Grierson’s remains to their final resting place! Of the two albums I think Walkin’ Dreams had more listens.
Looking at his website I see that his new CD The High Road Home is due out this summer and I can’t wait. Oh maybe I’ll pre-order it! Anyway until then I’ll just listen to what I have and watch the DVD High Cotton a collection of live performances.
So if you don’t know Jack’s music check him out you won’t be disappointed –
“One-two….Uh, listen here now,here’s what….tihs is where it’s at, this is the thing of this gig and here’s…I’ll tell you ’bout it now. Uh, awhile ago my friend Alan Kooper called me on the phone and said, “Let’s make this gig, an LP in Los Angeles and we’ll sat will happen” So we went and I played, and I played for one day and I split and went back to San Francisco where I live and the other day Stephen Stills played….and they put out an album called “Super Sessions”…….Mike Bloomfield , San Francisco, September 26, 1968 9:50 PM
The above quote is the begining of a little speech given before Mike Bloomfiled and Al Kooper were introduced for their live gig based upon their album Super Session describing what the audience would be listening to. What they would be listening to would be some grerat live music recorded over three nights.
The first two were with Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper and band mates John Kahn and Skip Prokop and after Mike Bloomfield’s insomia caught up with him (he was up for five straight days and ended up in the hospital) and for the final night’s tracks recorded with Carlos Santana and Elvin Bishop filing in are included in the album which is the first album side
I listened to tonight side 2 of The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper.
The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper.
Side 2 of The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper opens with a great cover of The Band’s song “The Weight” and Mike and Al are both in good form on the number.
On the next three tracks Mike and Al swap lead vocals with Mike doing the vocals on a Ray Charles song “Mary Ann” and then Al on”Together ’til the End of Time” and Mike again on “That’s All Right”.
During this gig it was the first time Al had heard Mike sing! But the real reason that I listened to this album was the last track on Side 2 a great cover of Booker T’s “Green Onions” with Mike playing the part of Steve Cropper. I always loved this track and mentioned it the other day.
Overall even after uh 42 years, it’s still a great listen. I love both Mike Bloomfield guitar work and Al Kooper’s organ playing!!
The second album I listened to was released around the same time and was my introduction to another band I would be listening to for the next forty years and that would be Poco and their live album Deliverin’.
Again I listened to the second side. I guess I was always like that side a little more than the first because I really liked Jim Messina’s “You Better Think Twice” but then again I also like Richie Furay’s “A Man Like Me” and the medley which included Rusty Young’s “Grand Junction”.
So I guess I always like the whole album including side 1! Through the years my wife became a bigger fan than I was, I never like the band as much after Messina and Furay left.
In the last several years, we have seen Poco them several times live and they always put on a great show. We haven’t seen a show yet where Richie has played with them but I’m hoping we get to one!
The last album that I listened to was Pearls Before Swine The Use of Ashes. Released in 1970 this is another of my favorite all time albums and one I’ve listened to frequently through the years but not for a while.
I listened tonight to Side 1 because that’s the side that has my two favorite songs “The Jeweler” and “Rocket Man” both of which are great songs with vivid imagery.
In Rocket Man the chorus when a mother and child other face a world where their husband and father could be being killed at any moment
My mother and I never went out
unless the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out
or to escape the pain
we only went out when it rained.
It’s a chorus that’s rambled around in my head for forty years and never fails to move me! Anyway the other songs on this side “From a Movie”, “God Save a Child” and “Song about a Rose” are less remembered but listening again tonight brought back how much I liked this whole album!
Overall, it was a better night of listening to music than it was watching Phillies baseball!
Thre Video
Here’s a video of Mike and Al’s cover of “Green Onions”
Several years go I bought this poster at Wolfgang’s Vault with a Christmas Gift Ceritifcate from my son Peter.
It wasn’t until I looked more closely at the dates on the poster that I realized it was the nights the album was recorded!
2026 Update: Weekly Music Days Are Changing
As I look back at these posts from my early blogging years, I realize that most of the artists and albums featured here were never really forgotten. They had simply gone a long time without finding their way back onto my turntable or playlist.
Because of that, I’ve decided to rename Folk Monday as Memories Monday.
This post isn’t just about three albums. It’s about spending an evening revisiting music that has been part of my life’s soundtrack for decades and discovering that it still sounds every bit as good as I remembered.
Going forward, Memories Monday will be the place where I revisit the music and memories that have shaped my journey. Some weeks that might mean rediscovering favorite albums or concerts. Other weeks it may be old playlists, first musical discoveries, reel-to-reel tapes, stories about sharing music with Andrew or Peter, memories from my college years, or even family stories and genealAfter all, music has always been more than something I’ve listened to—it has been one of the threads that connects the people, places, and moments that have made me who I am.
P.S. As part of the new weekly rhythm on A Sixties–Seventies Man, Folk Monday is moving to Folk Friday.
So tonight I listened to some vinyl albums that I haven’t listened to in a long while. Albums from Kris Kristofferson, Chip Taylor and David Buslin
Me and Boddy McGee – Kris Kristofferson
First up is an album when it was released in 1970 was just called Kristofferson but by the time I bought it in 1971 it had been renamed Me and Bobby McGee (I can’t imagine why?). Anyway, that album had a lot of songs that had been recorded by others including Janis Joplin, Ray Price and Roger Miller and Ray Stevens but I didn’t listen to those performers (except for Joplin) so I worn this album out! What a great collection of songs, including “To Beat the Devil”, (always a favorite), “Help Me Make it through the Night”, “Just The Other Side of Nowhere” “For the Good Times” and probably my favorite “Sunday Morning Coming Down”. My favorite line from that song:
Then I crossed the empty street,
‘n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin’ chicken.
And it took me back to somethin’,
That I’d lost somehow, somewhere along the way.
Chip Taylor’s Last Chance
The second album is also by someone who has written a lot of hits for other people and one of those songs just happens to be “Wild Thing” other pop hits include” “Angel of the Morning”, “Anyway You Want Me” and a lot of country hits. and the artist would be Chip Taylor and the album Chip Taylor’s Last Chance
I think most of the time I only listened to the first side of this album because I only really remember the first few songs on that side: (I Want) The Real Thing”, “Son of a Rotten Gambler” and “I Read it in The Rolling Stone”. I must admit that I haven’t listened to much of his current stuff like the albums that he has done with Carrie Rodriquez. The other day I did hear a track that sounded interesting on XM Radio so I will have to look up some of his new music!
Come With – David Buskin ……and Robin Batteau and more
The next artist you may know more from his TV commercials including the jingle for NBC “Just Watch Us Now” for which he won a Clio Award in 1983. He co-wrote All Aboard America for Amtrak, and did work for Burger King, JC Penny, and the US Postal Service. To me he is just David Buskin who on his debut album entitled Compton and Batteau no wait that’s the other half of Buskin and Batteau, no his debut album was just David Buskin (you can only be so creative) who wrote one of the great songs about travelin’ on “Come With”
oh won’t you come with
jump in the back
we’ll go to Memphis and Fargo
and places like that
and I’ll promise you go times
I’ll promise you friends
and you’re welcomed along till you ask where it ends
But in listening to this album, I realized how much I liked the whole first side of this album which included the tracks “When I Need You Most of All”, “Come With”, “The Winter Song” a song about the homeless, “Softly Rocking” about losing children to the war and “After All”. All in all a great re-listen! These days David records with Robin Batteau and their last release is Red Shoes and Golden Hearts .
David also works with Rob Carlson and George Wurzbach in the group “Modern Man
– filling the void between The Three Tenors and The Three Stooges.” “With the release of their third CD, “Assisted Living,” the somewhat musical group known as Modern Man continues its assault on the out-moded idea that only those persons not yet manifesting symptoms of senile dementia should perform in public “
Check out their live albumThe Wide Album by Modern Man very funny stuff!
Here’s a video of David and Robin performing David’s “When I Need You Most of All” which is the first track on David Buskin
Ok so near the end of work today, I was listening to Rhapsody and I saw a band whose name sounded interesting Greensky Bluegrass labeled as progressive bluegrass so I put on their current release Five Interstates.
As I was working I was noticing that the music that was playing was REALLY GOOD – loved the dobro and mandolin and the vocals sounded great!!
Discovering GreenSky Bluegrass Live at Bell’s
So I listened to several of the songs and was really impressed so of course I said I’ll try another of the CDs! So I downloaded the album Live at Bells listened to the first track “Bonts Breakdown” and had an Allison Krauss “new favorite” bluegrass band!
So after work, I went to their website and saw that I was not alone in my admiration for the band as they were winners of the 2006 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition. The band calls Michigan home and consists of
Anders Beck – dobro
Michael Arlon Bonts – banjo
Dave Bruza – guitar
Mike Devol – upright bass
Paul Hoffman – mandolin
Since I only listen once to the album, it’s hard to say which tracks are favorites but I do know that “Running the Briars” is definitely high on the list! also the “Road to Nowhere” and “My Sally” and I’m sure many others
So I say go find some Green sky and some Blue grass or is it Blue Sky and Green Grass – oh you know Greensky Bluegrass and enjoy!
As for me I think I’m going to head over to livedownloads.com and pick up All Access Vol.1 – Greensky Bluegrass Vol 1 and listen to lots of Greensky Bluegrass over the next few weeks and hope they come to New Jersey some time!
Post Update: This post was written in the first few months of my blogging career. As I look back on this time I had some pretty good ideas.Twang Tuesday was one of them. It gave me a chance to load up my music player of the day listen to new artists of a specific genre. Discovering Greensky Blue was a real treat. Anyway, when I went started to revise this post I found that the video was missing. Instead of looking for a video I decided to feature a Live from the Archive video from the band. It was recorded i 2012 as close as I could get to the 2010 date when this post wad published
So today started out a lot like yesterday, still no coffee at the 7-Eleven due to remodeling! Then I listened to tracks from several different blues albums and again nothing caught my attention.
Joe Bonamassa – Black Rock Catches My Attention
So at lunch I checked out the Billboard Blues charts and there are number one sat Joe Bonamassa’s new album Black Rockand at Number 9 Derek Trucks new album Already Free so I loaded both on the mp3 player and set out for a site to do some testing and listening on the way!
Now Bonamassa was a name I’d always heard (seems like I say this a lot!) but never listened to, my mistake! Anyway since I heard one of his albums about a year ago his music gets steady play.
So I anticipated that I would enjoy Bonamassa’s great playing and good vocals and all around strong sound.
Black Rock Doesn’t Disappoint
The first two tracks did not disappoint me and on the third track “When the Fire Hits the Sea” I caught myself saying is he playing slide guitar on this track – yep – and it was good!
Then came “Quarryman’s Lament” which opened with a different sounding instrument, which I have since learned was a clarino (a Greek type clarinet) and I said this is a great album.
“Bird on a Wire” is a Highlight!
But the best was yet to come probably the best cover I have ever heard of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire” which opens with Greek musician Thanasis Vasilopoulos on the nei, a Greek flute-like instrument. Bonamassa took a favorite Leonard Cohen song of mine and made it a favorite Joe Bonamassa song of mine!! It just blew me away!
Other highlights on the album include a cover of Jeff Beck’s “Spanish Boots” and Otis Rush’s “Three Times a Fool” and a great duet with B.B. King as they covered “Night Life”
Greek Influences Galore!
More Greek influences (a result of the album being recorded at Black Rock studios in Greece, hence the name of the album) are heard on “Athens to Athens” and the opening of a Bonamassa original “Blue and Evil” that opens with Joe on acoustic guitar trading licks with Manolis Karadinis playing bouzouki (think mandolin or Indian instrument sarod), which quickly changes to hard guitar and sounds a little like Led Zeppelin!
Final Thoughts
Throughout the album Bonamassa’s guitar playing is awesome as usual and I think his vocals are some of the best I’ve heard from him. But the cover of “Bird on a Wire” and the use of the Greek instruments and some of the acoustic stuff just sends this album a whole different level, definitely a 5 out of 5 if not higher! I am sure this album will get lots of plays over the next few months!
Now like I said I also downloaded and listened to Derek Trucks CD Already Free which I also liked but can’t put in the same class as Black Rock. but I don’t think it’s fair to comment on that CD today so I will listen to it again and comment on it tomorrow!
One of my favorite bands from the 60’s and early 70’s was Ten Years After and not just because of Alvin Lee’s guitar wizardry. No, while I liked the overall blues rock feel of the band and loved tracks like “Good Morning, Little School Girl” and “Woke up this Morning”
‘ I also liked that the rest of the bands members could play and the strong jazz influences on their early albums particularly on the second release Undead. I loved the track “Woodchopper’s Ball”. A cover of the Woody Herman hit.
Ten Years After Then
The band was the first band booked by the Chrysalis Agency and their performance at the Windsor Jazz Festival in 1967 led to their contract with Deram Records. I have their albums from the first release Ten Years After throughCricklewood Green. Which was their fifth album and contained the hit “Love Like a Man”.
After that album the band took a more commercial turn with A Space in Time which contained the song “I’d Love to Change the World and I kind of drifted away. The band ultimately broke up in 1974 when Alvin Lee embarked on a solo career.
Ten Years After Now
I was happy in find out a few years ago that the band had reformed in 2004 without Alvin Lee. His replacement on guitar is Joe Gooch. They released a fine album entitled Now. I occasionally play tracks from that album but haven’t really kept up with the band, but was searching around the other day I discovered that the band had released two more albums. Roadworks a collection of tracks of material from their tours and a 2008 release Evolution. I put that album on the mp3 player today and color me a fan of Ten Years After again.
Evolution
Evolution is a great album from the opening track “I Think it’s Going to Rain All Night” which opens with Gooch’s great guitar and Chick Churchill’s keyboards and features nice keyboard and guitar solos! Almost ever track on this ten track CD is a standout in it’s own way.
The ballads are as good as the rocking songs and the vocals and lyrics are outstanding throughout the album. Of the ballads I like ” I Never Saw it Coming” and I also like “Slip Slide Away” which features some more fine keyboard work by Chick Churchill and more guitar from Gooch. Alvin Lee who?
“Tail Lights” has a kinda’ country feel and the album ends with two great songs “Angry Words” again Gooch shines and “That’s Alright” a great rocking closing number. I know that this album will get many listens over the coming weeks! So if you were a Ten Years After fan check out their new stuff and if you don’t remember them other than at Woodstock and “I’m Coming Home” check out their early albums and certainly check out some of their best work which is on Evolution.
Definitely a 4.5 and maybe a 5.
2016 Update:
In 2014 both Joe Gooch and long-time bassist Leo Lyons left the band. Leo was replaced by Colin Hodgkinson, The part of Alvin Lee and Joe Gooch is now played by Marcus Bonfanti. The other original members of the band Chick Churchill on keyboards and Ric Lee on drums remain the same. The new group is still touring and have yet to release an album with the new lineup.
This morning I was listening to the band’s 2014 release The Name Remains the Same. What I heard I really liked and will be listening to it some more. The band on that release still included: Leo Lyons and Joe Gooch. What I heard from Gooch’s guitar was great!!
Old Note
Oh, and I never knew where the band name came from but from Wikipedia: the band formed in 1966 ten years after Elvis Presley’s break out year of 1956!
Here’s a video of the song “Angry Words” from Evolution
