Showing posts with label Blues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blues. Show all posts

Saturday, March 14, 2020

Marshall Tucker Band - Live! Englishtown, NJ - 9/3/77 - A review

It was a perfect day for a concert, and what a venue, right beside the Englishtown, NJ, race track. It was a hot late summers' afternoon. My friends and I pulled into the outskirts of Englishtown, and decided to park a good walk away, because we asked and heard that the small town was full of cars, and people were paying to park on peoples' front yards.

  So, we walked about thirty - forty five minutes to Raceway park, right beside where the concert was going to be. It was a huge area surrounded by eighteen wheeler trailers for a fence, and the huge stage which took up a large area in the front at the bottom a very large slowly descending hill. Besides the speakers on the stage, there were several large stacks of speakers scattered across the side of the hill for the people who were further back like myself. People were lying on blankets or standing around talking, My friends and I had missed the "New Riders Of The Purple Sage", a country rock group who had opened up the show. All of a sudden, there arose a large commotion, and The Marshall Tucker Band came out around Three in the afternoon, and started their set. We could not see or hear the group at first, You could barely hear the music where we were hanging out and there were several people behind us, There was an estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people there. It was a very mellow crowd, people enjoying what they knew was a very special moment that afternoon. It took awhile for the sound to get loud enough for the whole crowd to hear the MTB.

  Finally the sound got straightened out and the band sounded great as they played several of their popular songs from that era, both the Grateful Dead who Marshall Tucker was opening for and Marshall Tucker were playing in the peak of their careers , so it was quite an experience. The CD is a copy of a soundboard tape for the MTB, so the sound quality is not that good. The volume of the recording was the same volume thruout the show, and the quality of the recording improves as the show goes on. The set ends with a rousing "24 Hours At a Time" and The Encore is "Can't You See"(a killer version) This is definitely a must have if you were at the historic show. Marshall Tucker did not release a lot of Live material.
          www.marshalltucker.com

Saturday, March 31, 2012

"UnderCover Folk" - Jason Serious - A Review

Jason Serious is from Maryland originally, Now He resides in Munich ,Germany. This is a seriously excellent CD. The sound quality is astounding. He has his road band with guests. Johannes Joss plays drums. Alto Kraus is on bass and vocals. Dave Ingleton does banjo and vocals. This CD is seriously good, it is real professional sounding.

    Many great songs, reminds me of a 70s album. Many great guitar parts, acoustic and electric. "Everybody's Somebody's Beautiful" is a killer ballad. Serious really can write a great melody. His songs are all over the place,from country rock to rock to Dixie Land Jazz. He sounds like a well seasoned singer-songwriter, He comes across as someone who has been recording albums for years. He reminds me of Gram Parsons for some reason. His lyrics are full of satyr and sly humor.

      Ten very good to great songs here, some very good instrumental parts everywhere. His songs are full of imagery in his lyrics. By the way, I did not mention, that Jason plays guitar and piano on CD. "Horse" is a song that rings to another century.

    "UnderCover Folk" fuels the fire for the disc, love the electric guitar riff that it is built on. It is full of political references and phrases that would make you know what he is thinking.

     I wish the Best for Jason, check him out, a special CD by a special person.

    www.JasonSerious.com

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

"Bring It On Home" - Joan Osborne - A Review

 Joan Osborne has a real hot record here. She has given the Blues a shot this time around and boy, it really works for her. She has picked a great selection of blues classics and it really sounds hot. It is recorded on a studer multi track tape recorder and it is a great ,warm analog recording. There is great blues guitar, blues harp and it sounds like she is enjoying herself singing these songs. Osborne has a voice that is unique and she knows how to use it. I love the Digipak album cover, very nice picture of her face on front.

   The CD starts out with a hot reading of "I Don't Need No Doctor", this works well, then she breaks into a slower groove on the cover track, "Bring It On Home". "I'm Qualified" is a great song with some neat background vocals. Her co-producer and herself have put out a real work of art here. Jack Petruzzelli is the co-producer and also a guitar player on the CD. "Champagne and Wine" is a sensuous, love,bluesy tune with some killer guitar fades.

   Joan has come out cooking and maintains a good groove thru out the disc. The musicians and singers nail most of the songs on a couple of takes. This is something that you need to check out if you are a blues fan or an Osborne fan. Real nice booklet with some quotes from Joan about the songs she has picked. It has some great pics too. Look for it around March 27,2012.

www.joanosborne.com
www.saguaroroadrecords.com
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