Saturday Matinee – Lecil Travis Martin, Steve Goodman & Little Isidore

Boxcar

Boxcar Willie’s “Winds Of Yesterday” is pretty cool ol’ country.

Don’t laugh. Steve Goodman was the author of the greatest train song ever, except for the one by Tiny Bradshaw.

Not sure where we’re going with this, so let’s go retro with Little Isidor and The Inquisitors.

Have a great weekend, folks, and be careful goin’ home.

Saturday Matinee – Fireflies, Pete Daily & Red Nichols

Timelapse of fireflies by Vincent Brady [via].

Pete Daily‘s “Over The Waves” from 1951: Daily on cornet, Burt Johnson trombone, Pud Brown clarinet, Skippy Anderson piano, Len Esterdahl banjo, Bud Hatch tuba and Hugh Allison drums.

Red Nichols & His Five Pennies rocked your grandparents, assuming your grandparents were entirely cool and bitchin’. (Of course they were.)

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more inanity.

Saturday Matinee – Postmodern Jukebox, Oh!Sharels & Molly Sue Gonzalez

Postmodern Jukebox (featuring The Tee-Tones) does Pitbull‘s & Keisha‘s “Timber” in doowop style, and we love it.

Couldn’t make it through the original version. Then we thought we’d look for some recent retro bands and found this.

Japanese girl group Oh!Sharels cover the Chords’ 1954 classic Sh-Boom.

Contrary to popular belief, doowop (aka R&B aka Rhythm & Blues) was not the only form of early rock and roll, so let’s kick it up with some Retrobilly.

Molly Sue Gonzalez (And The Mean Mean Men) “Bad Example” is just the thing to wrap up this edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend folks, be back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Willie Dixon and a Big Wad of Blues

Sister Rosetta Tharpe‘s  version of “Didn’t It Rain” (Manchester, England in 1964). She exemplified the musical connection between gospel, blues and rock and roll. The song first appeared as piano sheet music in 1927, but I’d guess it dates to the 1800s [h/t Bunkessa].

What a treasure trove this is [via]. In the early 1960s The Blues was largely ignored in the U.S., yet many classic artists found a receptive audience  in Britain. From the Utoobage description:

“Recorded live for TV broadcast throughout Britain, these historic performances have been unseen for nearly 40 years. Filmed with superb camera work and pristine sound, 14 complete performances and 4 bonus performances are included by Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Turner, Junior Wells, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.”

Spotted Willie Dixon on bass in that vid, so let’s post this:

Yeah, he stuttered in real life, yet Dixon wrote and performed an incredible amount of classic blues tunes.

This compilation should hold you for a while. Have a great weekend, folks, and may you never be nervous.

Saturday Matinee – Cats In The Kitchen, The Cleverlys & The Fenians

Jurassic Park with cats [via].

Gangnam Style, Y’all. The Cleverlys crank it (complete with some eefin’ at about 03:20).  [via]

There’s no point in posting an Irish drinking song AFTER St. Patrick’s Day, so here’s The Fenians‘ “Token Whiskey Song” from 2008.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – 4 Shorts, A Really Happy Dude, Captain Beefheart & Little Feat

Four shorts in under 90 seconds, with balloon animals.

What a happy guy. After those two vids, we gotta walk it down.

Here’s Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (1974) with “Upon The My O My.” We’re not quite at ground level yet, and since we neglected to honor Mardi Gras last week, let’s amend and repair the accidental and unintended oversight with this:

Little Feat performing “Dixie Chicken” with a lineup including Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt & Jesse Winchester on The Midnight Special in 1977. Very cool.

Have a great weekend, folks, and always remember.

Saturday Matinee – Oorutachi, Pokey LaFarge, The Crows & Elwood Blues

Bizarre, and with a great soundtrack. Oorutaichi [via].

Pokey LaFarge performing “La La Blues” at Music City Roots live from the Loveless Cafe on 20 April 2011 [via]. So what should follow that? Maybe something in C Am F & G…

The Crows‘ “Gee” from 1953 may have been the first R&B crossover hit, and it was a B side experiment.  Ike Turner earned the prize for the first rock and roll  hit “Rocket 88” in 1951, recording as Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats . Y’all have heard that classic, or should have by now, and James Cotton did a kickass version.

More recently Dan Akroyd took a shot at it and pulled it off.

Have a great weekend, folks.

Saturday Matinee – Cup Song, The Wood Brothers, Leon Russell & Friends

Cup Song found here. Nice to see young folks learning a new trade.

The Wood Brothers sing about your trouble.

Leon Russell & Friends’ “Trouble In Mind.” The song dates to 1924 at least, and was recorded by Chippie Hill and Louie Armstrong in 1926 (and no, we’re not going to discuss the double entendres of the lyrics).

Here’s another great tribute to that classic song, featuring Barney Kessel, Tal Farlow, Charlie Byrd, Joe Byrd & Chuck Redd from 1988.

Have a great weekend, folks. May all your troubles be little ones, and all your little ones be trouble.

Saturday Matinee – UB40 w/Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders & Johnny Winter

UB40 with Chrissie Hynde singing the 1965 Sonny & Cher hit.

“Middle of the Road” was one of a nice string of hits for The Pretenders. I can only imagine the royalties they’re receiving for “My City Was Gone” aka “Back To Ohio,” given that it’s Rush Limbaugh‘s appropriate themesong.

Okay, so much for a post-Valentines’ Day thing. Let’s rock.

The Johnny Winter Band, live in Copenhagen 1970. Bands like his scared the hell out of me, but I eventually I got it.

Rock on, Lil’ Sheba, and we’ll see you tomorrow for more stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Bustin’ Off The Ice, Japanese Graduation Ceremony, The Third Degree & The Heavy

“Ostra zima na Papieskiej w Nowym Sączu!”
One Rubber Mallet in Poland.
[via]

Incomprehensible Japanese Graduation Ceremony is awesome. [via]

The Third Degree is an Aussie band specializing in retro R&B and does it well. That lead singer’s got the vibe of early James Brown and Smokey Robinson, backed up by the Bar-Kays.

The Heavy  has a great mix of funk, soul & swamp rock style (even though they blatently stole from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins).

I heard that the SuperBowl is coming up. Chili by 3, Broncos by 10. Have a great weekend, folks, see you tomorrow.