#NewMusicMonday • October • 2020

A YEAR of #NewMusicMondays  

January-March • April-May • June • July-August • September • October • November • 
My Favorites of 2020

Tomorrow and the days ahead will be one of the most important times in U.S. history. So, we're all going to need some good music to get us through the week. This week's #NewMusicMonday is packed with new songs and covers, and at least ten old songs that you probably have never heard before. Those ten songs are from Tom Petty's 1994 album, Wildflowers. Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Producer, Rich Rubin spent two years making Wildflowers as it originally was going to be a double album with 25 songs. Well, the record company stepped in and as usual mucked things up and said it would be better as a single album that eventually got whittled down to fifteen songs. Here I present the remaining ten songs scattered throughout the playlist with a trailer video of the new super deluxe box set, Wildflowers and All the Rest, just released October 16th. 

At the end of the playlist, I also include a great interview by Malcolm Gladwell with Rick Rubin.

Here's a couple of links that you may want to circle back to and view.

• Wildflowers and All the Rest (YouTube 25 songs)
• Tom Petty's 70th Birthday Bash 

Happy Birthday to Tom on what would have been his 70th Birthday on Oct. 20 and to John Lennon who would have been 80 on Oct. 9. I have included several John songs in the playlist done by artists in honor of his birthday. Damn, both of these guys should be alive today to still give us new joys with their great talents.

As we approach our historical election tomorrow, I have included several new songs that are hopeful toward a change from our current wannabe regime and back to our democratic principles. I'm just so tired of being tired about Trump and now I'm scared to death he is going to win re-election (sometime this month). If that happens, I'm mentally preparing myself for a depression hangover that I hope I can snap out of sooner than later. After 2016 and the last four years, nothing can surprise us anymore, so it's best to prepare for both scenarios with either: the Trump shit show's victory and gloating with no plan for anything, or Biden's win and a new start with strategic planning to tackle the pandemic, economy and our world standing, just to name the tip of the melting iceberg. During these sad years, the end of the innocence came much too quickly for this generation of young people.  

On the lighter side, music will always be here to help us whether we're up or down. There's a life motto that I have adopted from Paul McCartney's Hey Jude lyric - Take a sad song and make it better. So my take from that powerful line-  I/we have the ability to change something negative into something better, by our actions. Together we can, make it better. My ol' buddy and friend to the blog, Paul Hobbs has a new song that I lead with in the playlist, Charity Begins At Home. So no matter the outcome, tomorrow or next week, we can start working to make things better by starting at home with our family and friends. This last paragraph was corny as hell, but I'm going to get up and go install a light above my workbench right now before I delete it.

Enjoy my friends and stay well.

#NewMusicMonday • July-August • 2020

The Listener

A YEAR of #NewMusicMondays  

January-March • April-May • June • July-August • September • October • November • 

My Favorites of 2020

Recently, I've had a couple of people ask me what my blog is about. The short answer is I write about rock 'n' roll. Since 2015, it's a passion where I developed a process over time that I compare to fishing. I cast my digital fishing pole into the river of musical streams.

To create a blog, I always start at the end. The end is the playlist, the second part of the blog. I spend the most time on any blog making the playlist because it's the heartbeat, the music itself that motivates me to organize a group of songs and then write about them.

The actual first part of the blog, the writing is always the hardest part. Sometimes like this week, I don't have much to say about the songs because it's new music that I don't have experiences to tie them to, other than I like the songs I've caught. Sometimes, I wonder how many people actually listen to an entire playlist that I've created? I'm guessing a handful. I like to think my playlists communicate a message- the songs selected and their linear order, an iteration with its own rhythm and if explored, probably reveals more about me than the writing of the blog.

I have two kinds of playlists. One, songs compiled from my youth in long-term memory, and two, songs compiled from recent times and often experienced as fun short-term memories.

The long-term playlists are often like fishing in a familiar fishing hole, you just cast your line with bait and wait, and then you catch that big song from long ago and just slowly reel it in.

The new songs have an exciting element of the unknown, you're fishing with a lure, casting out and quickly reeling it in with only your shiny lure staring back at you. But every now and then you catch a fresh new song, a keeper for a week, or one that actually becomes a long-term favorite.

In this metaphor, the bait or lure is my musical sense, my personal preferences to beat, rhythm, melody, vocals, lyrics, and the musical instruments used, and then categorized as an artist's musical sound, style, and/or genre.

In the past several weeks of putting this #NewMusic playlist together, I have been examining my musical taste in both my old and new likes, and my recent dislikes that stereotype most pop music today by assuming every young person must have an electronic pulse sound in the song in order for them to buy it.

Now, take my 'digital lure fishing' method to catching songs and it's something like 'speed dating' where couples sit for a minute, talk, the bell sounds, and then you move onto the next table. I cast my 30 second lure- listen to the intro, does it grab me, or skip to the second quarter, continue to listen or skip to the third quarter, continue to listen, or it's one and done with that song. This may sound cold, but my method gives a lot of artists and bands I have never heard of a fighting chance with my musical 'Crap-O-Meter.'

So, it's a lot like fishing, mostly misses but a few wonderful hits too. This week I discovered new favs for the first time- Josh Ritter, Kathleen Edwards and the band, Travis as well as new material from recent favorites as The Killers, Black Pumas, and The Lemon Twigs. Also, a couple of new old songs from The Rolling Stones, Green Day, and Prince.

My hope is that you're saying, "Cool thanks for sharing this new music." Or,
"Seriously Doug, you mean you have never heard of Travis until last week, and you call yourself a music blogger?"

Enjoy my friends and stay well out there.

Echo in the Canyon

Rickenbacker 360-12 Electric Guitar

 So I finally got a chance to see the Andrew Slater documentary echo in the canyon (2018) starring Jacob Dylan and just released this past week on Netflix and linked here.

This documentary has gotten a few harsh reviews, as notably Joni Mitchell is not even mentioned, even in the context of the California Sound evolving from surfing and car songs to more socially conscious and interpersonal songs. For god's sake, as a Laurel Canyon resident who released Ladies of the Canyon in 1970 she (and The Doors) deserved a little shout out here. Also the overuse  of clips from the 1969 art film Model Shop as Slater's and Dylan's inspiration for the documentary is annoying but is easily put aside.

With that said, this 1 hour and 22 minute doc has plenty of great clips of its own as you get a snapshot of the the mid to late 60's in Laurel Canyon with some of the famous musicians who lived there and some famous musicians who didn't. My favorite was getting to watch Tom Petty talk about music one more time as this was his last recorded interview. The beginning of the film with Tom is a fantastic hook that for me is my ultimate sweet spot of Monday Monday jingle jangle 60's rock 'n' roll and my original inspiration for writing this blog. For me, learning anything new about three of my all-time favorite bands- The Mamas & The Papas, The Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield are gem pieces to the rock 'n' roll puzzle for those of us who just can't get enough of this stuff. Man, to have a time machine and be a young adult in Laurel Canyon and on the Sunset Strip in the mid-sixties, would be...

Here's several key elements that make this film 'a must see' that covers the folk to folk rock transformation.

This starts with the transition of folk musicians and studio recording in New York mostly moving to Los Angeles shortly after The Beatles stepped off the plane in 1964. John Sebastian tells how Roger McGuinn started singing Beatles' songs in folk clubs in New York and Los Angeles with no success but with the guts of a pioneer and a Beatles inspired 12 string Rickenbacker 360-12 electric guitar. 

In the film, Roger McGuinn gets a much deserved feature as a major architect from musicians singing folk songs with acoustic guitars to composing folk rock songs with electric guitars. Here's a quick clip (not in the film) of Roger and his Rickenbacker.

In the film, Roger and The Byrds take traditional folk songs like Pete Seeger's The Bells of Rhymney and transform it in their 1965 version. Here's a set of clips, first with Seeger's original version, and then The Byrds.

I also enjoyed the conversations with famous musicians who discuss how art is a continual process of iteration and the 'cross pollination' of songs that influence song writing. I bought a book a couple of years ago by Austin Kleon with the perfect title to describe this process of creativity, Steal like an Artist. In the 1960's, Laurel Canyon becomes such a place where collaboration + competition = creativity. One example from the doc, is how George Harrison adapts Roger's riffs on The Byrds version of The Bells of Rhymney that influence him in his 1965 song, If I Needed Someone.



Then, Brian Wilson is blown away by Rubber Soul and that inspires him to write Pet Sounds in 1966. In turn, The Beatles are inspired by Pet Sounds, and in 1967 create Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. (As a side note to the playlist below- I also include Buffalo Springfield's (Stephen Stills) Questions, which morphs into Carry On with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and then Eric Clapton adapts the Questions riff for his song, Let It Rain (1970) .

July 25, 1965 - Newport Folk Festival

The film's MC role is played with perfect Bob Dylan DNA detachment by son Jakob Dylan, born in 1969. I think son Dylan does a great job tapping into dad's influence without mentioning his name. As the greatest songwriter of his generation, Bob Dylan himself also makes the historic transition from acoustic folk to electric rock 'n' roll and turns the music world on its head at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

As the documentary unfolds, I realize Jakob is the perfect medium to tell this story. His quiet casual manner and approach to the material works perfectly for the famous musicians who take his questions and run with it (e.g. David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Tom Petty,  Eric Clapton, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, Lou Adler and Michelle Phillips).

Jakob brings in his own generation of musicians to update 13 songs from the California Sound era that in their interpretation remain both current and true to the originals. In the playlist below, I start with the original 60's version and then follow it with the Jakob and friends take. I love his selections as Jakob goes for some of the deeper cuts, not just the hits and hey that's my kind of playlist! I highly recommend you make the time to watch echo in the canyon this week on Netflix, it's a trip!

Tom Petty's Last Interview

I'm up in Leavenworth, Washington for the past several days at a beautiful cabin with MK's family, so haven't had time to write a blog for today. I read this interview in the LA Times last week by Randy Lewis and thought you might enjoy it.

http://lat.ms/2wwyZcz

Mudcrutch, Tom Petty's Back to the Future Band

"Mudcrutch was formed in 1970 by Tom Petty and Tom Leadon, who had been playing together in a band called the Epics. Mudcrutch's lineup consisted of Tom Petty (bass and vocals), Tom Leadon (guitar and vocals), Jim Lenehan (lead vocals), Randy Marsh (drums) and Mike Campbell (guitar). Leadon and Lenehan left the band in 1972 and were replaced by bassist/guitarist/vocalist Danny Roberts. Keyboardist Benmont Tench also joined the band. Ricky Rucker was a part of the band for a short time. Mudcrutch served as the house band at Dub's Lounge in its hometown of Gainesville, Florida.

Depot Street vinyl, signed by Mike Campbell

In 1974, Mudcrutch signed with Shelter Records and re-located to Los Angeles, California. The band released one single, "Depot Street" in 1975, which failed to chart. After Danny Roberts left the group, Petty invited Charlie Souza to take over on bass guitar and the band continued recording in Leon Russell's Tulsa Studio, and later at Leon's Encino California home. The band's record company broke them up in late 1975. Petty, Campbell and Tench went on to form The Heartbreakers in 1976 with fellow Gainesville natives Stan Lynch and Ron Blair.^[1]"  From Wikipedia



Now jump to the summer of 2016 as Mudcrutch just played and closed their tour here in San Diego, last Thursday (6/30/16) at Humphreys by the Bay. I missed the show but it looked and sounded great from the YouTube videos (with much thanks to s2seltaeb and BlissTanger YouTube Channels).

Album at Amazon

Mudcrutch isn't a household name like Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and a lot of people don't know anything about this old/new band. I think they've keep this laid back approach intentional with little network television promotion pumping them up. They aren't doing this reunion and tour for the money and fame. This is about the music and it being played live in smaller venues
to a core group of dedicated fans.

Album at Amazon

I just got the Mudcrutch 2 album last week and love it. I also love this album cover and had to order a t-shirt replica online. The band and the album give you that early 70's mix of rock 'n roll, country and blues like so many bands were doing at the time that I just ate up as a teenager. I don't know if they recorded this album using older analog audio equipment like some bands are doing again, but it has that sound that says, 1971 is calling and wants you to listen to this.

So take a look and listen to my Mudcrutch Playlist below as I've collected music videos from the first 2008 album plus #2 and a few bonus concert covers too. Enjoy my friends.