...to the Sublime

San Anto Soundtrack

We're headed to San Antonio for a visit this weekend and I'm already in full Texas mode. I visited my friendly neighborhood record store last Saturday and came home with three CDs, all by artists from the Lone Star State: classic Tex-Mex by Santiago Jimenez, Jr.; roadhouse blues by Angela Strehli; and hilarious satire from the Austin Lounge Lizards.

But the soundtrack for my visit will surely be the latest from The Krayolas, "Americano" (available on iTunes). It's another beautifully eclectic effort by the band, which is led by journalist and fellow SA homeboy, Hector Saldaña. The group adroitly pulls off a wide variety of sounds:  the Sir Douglas Quintet-inspired "Exit/Salida" (with Augie Meyers on organ); neo-pop balladry on "Home"; the Dylanesque "Piso Diez"; brown-eyed soul on "I'm Not the Man"; a nod to Phil Spector on "Wall of Accordion" (with guest Flaco Jimenez); and "Show a Little Kindness" pays homage to the New Orleans sound that made its way to San Antonio on the IH-10 R&B highway.

Then there's the slightest but sweetest song on the album: "Frutería," which mashes up a simple cumbia with a lovely pop chorus. The song is about a guy asking a girl to meet him at the neighborhood fruit stand, which--as the lyrics state--is located at the intersection of Nogalitos and Zarzamora. If you grew up on the South Side of San Antonio--as I did--that was the center of the universe. Within about a mile radius of there, my brothers and I all attended school, my dad owned a bar that included a magical jukebox, a mysterious African-American enclave was home to a fantastic BBQ spot; and a military base provided civil service jobs to thousands of Mexican-Americans.

We left the neighborhood when I was about 10, but after my dad died nine years ago, my mom moved back. There's a top-notch taquería on every corner and a bittersweet memory at every turn. I'm going to make it a point to get a fruit cup.         

Download 02 Fruteria

(album cover image is by the great San Antonio photographer Rick Hunter)  
 

From the Rarities File

This week was Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday, which reminded me that some years ago I was flipping through some bins at a record store and came across this Chet Baker CD. What caught my eye was the "Featuring Van Morrison" line. WTF? Yep, Van the Man took the stage at this 1986 live recording and performed Sondheim's "Send In the Clowns," accompanied by piano, bass and Baker's sparse but soulful trumpet. (Baker died two years later.) The CD was pressed in Canada and isn't available on iTunes. So, once again, the Sublime barter system takes effect: you supply cocktails, I supply the rare soundtrack.

09 Send In The Clowns

 

Spring Is Here

Yes, Spring is here and, at least here in LA, February showers have brought March flowers. It's the season of eternal hope. So why are there so many melancholy songs about Spring? There's Tommy Wolf & Fran Landesman's "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" (I love Rickie Lee Jones' version), and Rodgers & Hart's "Spring Is Here" (love Carly SImon's version), and even Tom Waits' optimistic "You Can Never Hold Back Spring" is delivered with a certain fatalism. And then there's Jolie Holland's "Springtime Can Kill You." The Texas chanteuse's charming, lilting drawl and the jazzy arrangement belie the story of a broken heart. Geez--stop and smell the flowers whydontcha. But it is an absolutely lovely song.

Download 01 Springtime Can Kill You

 

Alex Chilton Was Soul Deep

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Alex Chilton died Wednesday in New Orleans at the age of 59. I was never much invested in his solo career or in his cult fave band Big Star, but I was a big fan of the group that first brought him to fame. Chilton was 16(!) when he recorded "The Letter" in 1967 as lead singer of The Box Tops. The Memphis-based band recorded several songs by the city's legendary Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, including "Cry Like a Baby," and Penn produced their first three albums. But "The Letter" and "Cry Like a Baby" are played to death on oldies radio, so my favorite Box Tops song is "Soul Deep," which appeared on their fourth and final album. It's a great taste of Southern, blue-eyed soul.

Download 13 Soul Deep

 

I Need a Dollar

I've been listening to this song constantly since I first heard it a few weeks ago. (It's the theme song to the HBO series "How to Make It in America.") My pal Josh Kun first turned me on to Blacc, who has an interesting background: born in Orange County to Panamanian parents, he's fluent in Spanish. (Check out his translation of John Legend's "Ordinary People.") And check this out, from Josh's 2006 LA Times profile: 

"After graduating from USC with a joint degree in linguistic psychology and communications, he spent three years as a business consultant for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. "

Great horn charts and percussive piano make the song sound vintage and fresh at the same time. Think of it as a hip update of Ray Charles' "Busted." And Blacc's voice--as another music pal, Chuck Philips, put it--is a husky cross between Bill Withers and Lou Rawls. I don't know how else to put it: this jam is just tuff.

Download 01 I Need a Dollar (How to Make It In America)

  

 

What's It All About...

Burt Bacharach is one of my favorite pop composers and "Alfie" is my favorite song of his and lyricist Hal David. I have lovely jazz versions by Brad Mehldau and McCoy Tyner, and smooth R&B versions by Ernie Isley, Everything But The Girl, and The Delfonics (yes, of "La La Means I Love You" fame). Of course, I have the best known version, by Dionne Warwick. But Dionne's little sister, Dee Dee, also recorded the song, and it deserves some attention. But first, a little backstory...

Dionne and Dee Dee started out in a gospel trio in New Jersey with their aunt, Cissy Houston (Whitney's mom). The Warwick sisters then became backup singers for New York studio sessions, with Cissy being replaced by Doris Troy (who would later have a big hit with "Just One Look"). Dee Dee began her solo career in 1963 and reportedly recorded the first version of "You're No Good." From 1965-70, she was with Mercury Records where she recorded the original version of "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me." It was while she was with Mercury that Dee Dee recorded "Alfie." According to Soultracks.com:

Dee Dee recorded her version of "Alfie" which had already been a British hit for Cilla Black as the theme from the film starring Michael Caine. "I actually learned the song itself from Burt Bacharach and Hal David's original demo.  The whole session blew me away." Dee Dee's version of "Alfie" didn't gain a U.S. release for a couple of years, during which time - in an unfortunate turn of events for her - sister Dionne recorded the song and had a massive U.S. hit with it.

Dee Dee had a similar experience with "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," which became a hit duet for The Supremes and The Temptations. These frustrations must have contributed to the drug problem that Dee Dee struggled with for many years. She never really had a major success, though she continued to record until the mid-'80s. From 2006-08 she performed as a backup singer for her big sister. But Dee Dee's health was failing and she died in October of that year, at the age of 63, with her sister by her side.

Dee Dee's voice was a little deeper than Dionne's, and it gives her version of "Alfie" a subtle layer of heartache that makes her story all the more bittersweet. It's my favorite version of this Bacharach/David classic.

Download 12 Alfie

  

 

A Long, Strange Trip

Like politics, pop music also makes for strange bedfellows. Stay with me...

Today's paper brought news of the death of Lolly Vegas, 70, guitarist for the Native American band, Redbone, whose 1974 hit, "Come and Get Your Love," is one of the most insidious earworms in pop music history (http://www.exploratorium.edu/music/questions/earworm.html). But it turns out that Lolly (seated in photo) and his brother Pat have a pretty interesting backstory. They real surname was Vasquez and they were born and grew up in the Central California Valley of mixed Yaqui/Shoshone and Mexican descent. They moved to LA in 1963 and tried to cash in on the surf rock craze in a series of bands before becoming session musicians alongside the likes of Leon Russell and Delaney Bramlett, backing everyone from Sonny & Cher to Elvis Presley.

According to pop music lore, it was Jimi Hendrix who encouraged them to form an all-Native American band. Redbone's first hit was "Maggie" (1970), followed the next year by "The Witch Queen of New Orleans." And "Witch Queen" is a clue to a mystery I have yet to figure out. The Vegas brothers had a thing for Louisiana. "Redbone" is reportedly Cajun slang for "half-breed," and another song they wrote, "Niki Hoeky," is set in Louisiana. It could be that, like their earlier attempt to capitalize on the surf rock craze, they were trying to latch onto the "swamp rock" success of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Tony Joe White. In any case, here's the strange bedfellows connection: "Niki Hoeky" was recorded by Aretha Franklin on her great 1968 album, "Lady Soul." Would love to know how the Vegas brothers' song made its way to her.

Download 04 Niki Hoeky

  

 

For Chile

Mariana Montalvo is from the generation of Chilean nueva canción singer/songwriters who were inspired by the great Victor Jara and Violeta Parra. The song, "Credo," from her album "Piel de aceituna" ("Olive Skin"), is a haunting yet hopeful prayer that reflects what is transpiring in her homeland. The English translation:

I believe in my heart, branch of aromas / That my Lord like a shadow stirs / Perfuming all life with love / And making it blessed / I believe in my heart he who asks / Nothing because he is capable of the highest dreams / And embraces that created in the dream / Immense master

I believe in my heart that when he sings / He delves deep into the God of the wounded side / To rise from the pool alive, new born

I believe in my heart he who I press / To colour the canvas of life / With red or pallor and that he has made / Vestals shine / I believe in my heart he when sowing / Along the furrow without end was made great / I believe in my heart, always pouring out / But never emptied

I believe in my heart that when he sings / He delves deep into the God of the wounded side / To rise from the pool alive, new born / I believe in my heart that the worm / Has no bite, as it would harm death / I believe in my heart, he reclined / On the breast of God terrible and strong / On the breast of God terrible and strong.

This one is dedicated to my friend Javier Aguilar, whose mother and two sisters live in Santiago.

Download 09 Credo