Saturday Matinee – Christopher Ameruoso, Moccasin Creek & Preacher Jack

Not sure where the bass and drums are hiding in that vid, but the hard rock banjo is pretty awesome.

Moccasin Creek. I remember hanging with a crew like that, and they were fun as hell. We had dogs, but didn’t have a raccoon.

Gotta roll with this one. Drummer doesn’t quite have the soul to back up Preacher Jack, but it’s all good.

Have a great weekend folks, and be thankful that there are always more leftovers.

Saturday Matinee – Flight of the Irish, The Dead South & The Beat Farmers

Flight delays happen, so Daoirí Farrell, Geoff Kinsella and Robbie Walsh made the most of it.

The Dead South knows how to make a viral video. (Here’s a slightly different version.)

So The Weasel called up last weekend, said Wildcat loves The Beat Farmers, but he’d lost the bootleg CD I sent him decades ago, and decades ago I told him to go buy his own copies. I hadn’t listened to the Beat Farmers in a long while, but this is what I remember: Their albums were great and they were a fun bar band.

The audio’s good, video’s crappy and skips occasionally, but the 1984 vibe is right there. If you can’t take the whole barrage, here’s my favorite.

There you go, Weez.

Have a great weekend, see y’all back here tomorrow rain or shine.

Saturday Matinee – Tennessee Whiskey, The Spunyboys & Fats Domino

Dad sings Chris Stapleton‘s R&B version of David Allen Coe‘s take on Linda Hargrove‘s “Tennessee Whiskey” in a parking lot. Awesome. Yeah, it went viral some time ago, but it’s still a good-un.

The Spunyboys rock.

R.I.P. Antoine Dominique “Fats” Domino Jr. [1928-2017]. He was the greatest Country/Blues/R&B/Rock and Roll crossover recording artist ever, and he influenced generations with his easily recognized voice and rolling piano style.

Have a greats weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for stuff.

Saturday Matinee – How to Relax with your Dog, John Lee Hooker with Bonnie Raitt & Southside Johnny

I don’t normally post Twitter vids, but that amused me. Sound up, click play.

Awesome happened in 1994, at Santa Barbara California. Bonnie Raitt meets John Lee Hooker.

By the late 1970s, rock music was in the doldrums, the pits. Almost everything seemed to be corporate-marketing-department-formula-driven-pre-packaged-garbage, and much of it sounded the same. There was so much over-produced audio drek, I started going retro. Then this song hit me, and I liked the vibe.

Sure, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes spun off from Springsteen’s fame, but I liked them better because they got less radio play.

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

P.S. We filed a complaint with the WordPress peeps about auto-play advertisements and got a positive response. They asked for a screencap of the offending ad, so I sent one. Let’s see what they do with it.

Saturday Matinee – Chaotic Angular Motion, Annelid Cannibalism, Urban Venus Flytrap & Tom Petty

How ’bout some chaotic motion? [h/t Octopus]

Not sure what this is all about. [Found here.]

[Giant Venus Flytrap found here.]

RIP Tom Petty (1950-2017).

Saturday Matinee – GoPro Gato, String Bean, The Blasters & Trombone Shorty

Guy fitted his cat with a GoPro to find out what it does while he’s away, and no, it doesn’t  sleep [via].

Ever hear of David “String Bean” Akeman? No? Here’s a documentary of the comic/iconic speed banjo player. Video starts at 06:00 for his rendition of the traditional folk song “Li’l Liza Jane. [Related post here.]

Akeman and his wife were murdered by burglars at their rural Tennessee home in 1973. The killers took only a chain saw and some firearms and were later apprehended and convicted.

The Blasters perform “Jubilee Train” at the 1985 Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. (Check out the impressive list of performers at the link.)

“Buckjump” by Trombone Shorty – a nice retro-funk groove to wrap things up.

Have a great weekend, folks.

Saturday Matinee – Shirley Bassey, Goldfinger, Nena & Nina Hagen with Don Rickles & Merv Griffin

Dame Shirley Bassey‘s classic “Theme to Goldfinger” as captured on film in 1965. I didn’t know she was Welsh until today.

Goldfinger‘s cover of Nena’s “99 Luftballons” is pretty good.

Nena‘s “Rette Mich” (Save Me) is from the same album as 99 Luftballons.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I once confused Nena (Gabriele Kerner of Hagen, West Germany) with  Nina Hagen (Catherine Hagen of East Berlin, East Germany). Never again.

Have a great weekend, folks. More is yet to come.

Saturday Matinee – Clanadonia, Mickey Hart / Planet Drum & Joe Bonamassa with Tina Guo

How ’bout something primal? Nothing better than Scottish tribal drums and bagpipes. Clanadonia is what it is, and it’s loud. “The Last of the Glaswegians” is going to be stuck in my head for days.

Mickey Hart & Planet Drum perform “Fire On The Mountain” (24 July 1999, Rome, New York).

Amazing speed cellist Tina Guo jams it with Joe Bonamassa on “Woke Up Dreaming” at Carnegie Hall (June 2017?). Takes them a bit to get in synch, then it soars. Guo’s take on Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” is fun, too.

Have a great weekend folks.

Saturday Matinee – Rubbing Forearms, Juan Gabriel, Muddy Waters & The Diablos.

Something to do when you’re really bored. That and other illusions may be found here.

This song seems appropriate given the hurricane tragedies unfolding in the southeast US. From the vid description:

”’Quiero Creedence‘ is the Latin tribute album to Creedence Clearwater Revival. This album includes covers of CCR’s greatest songs by some of the top Latin artists from across the world including Juan Gabriel …”

Other great versions of that classic song may be found here (assuming the links are still intact).

Muddy Waters was an undervalued gem.

The [1976?] band consists of Muddy Waters on vocal/guitar, Bob Margolin guitar, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith drums, Jerry Portnoy,  Harmonica and Luther “guitar” Johnson.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t find a live vid for this 1954 Detroit R&B classic. The ending is pure awesome.

 

There’s not much to say about the tragedy, both ongoing and pending, that hasn’t been said elsewhere. For those of you in the path of Irma with no means of escape, we pray for you. For you looters, please stay put, and move to lower ground.

Stay safe. You can replace your stuff, but you can’t replace your life.

Saturday Matinee – Wind Chimes, Samantha Fish & The Bo Keys

I found this both oddly fascinating and mildly disturbing. It’s an a/v collage from 2013 somewhere near Lake Erie, yet it’s also kind of an appropriate soundtrack for the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey, and for those survivors who haven’t yet fully realized what they’ve lost.

What happens once the news crews are gone? What happens once the reality sets in that you survived the ordeal, but you’ve lost everything? Our prayers are with you.


Now about those looters and scammers…

For a long time, this was THE signature song of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and in some ways his 1956 hit was a blues parody. In January of 2014, Samantha Fish picked it up and jammed it right down our throats with no apologies. Killer version.

Loved this proto-funk theme, and I love the Bo-Keys for rocking the retro soul grooves that I grew up with.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend, folks, and we’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff than your imagination can even tolerate. Or not.