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Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner, I’m going to string another series of albums together for you that will give you another set of albums to check out during these times while stuck at home! The journey starts out in Nashville, TN with an album from the mid-‘70s Outlaw Country movement. From there, we will go to California, hop over to Jamaica, and take a detour through England before coming back to America for some hip-hop and jazz.

Waylon Jennings- I’ve Always Been Crazy > Jimmy Buffett- A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean- Waylon puts out another classic Outlaw Country album with a set of Nashville’s best sidemen. Jimmy Buffett’s second album still has him focusing on a folk/country sound with a set of players that also include some top notch players including Steve Goodman and Memphis-born Reggie Young who plays guitar in the backing band on both of the above albums!

Buffett > Old & In The Way- s/t- The one notable player I didn’t mention above in Buffett’s band is the carryover to Old & In The Way, fiddler Vassar Clements. The great bluegrass fiddler joins the supergroup including Jerry Garcia, John Kahn and Peter Rowan for a great, one-off live, bluegrass album (2 later albums came out that contained 2 full shows that went into the creation of this album).

Old & In The Way > Peter Rowan- Reggaebilly!- Peter Rowan goes from Old & In The Way to his solo album, Reggaebilly!, which combines reggae and bluegrass in both the musical content and the players!

Rowan > Lee Perry “The Upsetter” presents- Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Corn Bread- One of the reggae artists that were part of the Peter Rowan album is extremely well-known guitarist, Earl “Chinna” Smith. He is one of the most recorded reggae musicians ever and was also on Lee Perry’s album “Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Corn Bread”, which also contained drummer…

Lee Perry > Peter Tosh- Bush Doctor- Sly Dunbar. Best known as half of the duo Sly & Robbie he also played drums for many other reggae artists and on a ton of albums. That includes the album “Bush Doctor” by Peter Tosh. This album was made shortly after Tosh befriended the Rolling Stones and had The Stones down in Jamaica for the making of the album which is how it included guitarist…

Tosh > Keith Richards- Crosseyed Heart- Keith Richards. Obviously, best known as the guitarist for The Stones, Keith Richards played with Tosh and I’m following that with one of his recent solo releases “Crosseyed Heart”. This album also features some backup vocals from…

Keith Richards > Q-Tip- The Renaissance- Norah Jones. She not only is working with Richards, but she also shows up on Q-Tip’s “The Renaissance” singing the hook for the song ‘Life Is Better’.

Q-Tip > Kurt Rosenwinkel- Heartcore- Q-Tip is the holdover into my final album on this trip. He is going from his solo album here to produce the amazing jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and his album “Heartcore”. A laid back album, overall, Q-Tip shows that he can venture far away from the world of hip-hop and dives headlong into a jazz album from an (at the time) young and upcoming guitarist who has sense proven to be one of the best modern jazz artists we have.

I hope you have the chance to check out some of these albums and find a new favorite or two!

Enjoy the music!

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Steve Grossman (saxophonist) brings together a great band consisting of Gene Perla (bass), Don Alias (drums/percussion) and Jan Hammer (keyboards) that bring this magnificent jazz/fusion album to life! Steve Grossman got his start (in recording) with the electric Miles Davis albums of the early 1970’s including “Bitches Brew” and this, his debut album, stays very close to that expansive jazz/fusion sound.

Side 1 opens with ‘WBAI’, a short dissonant/free track. That leads into the seven minute ‘Haresah’, which opens with a grooving bass line and syncopated drumming. The song uses mid-eastern modes within its construct, which allows Grossman to play a laid back melody to open the main theme of the song. From there, as with most of these songs, they go into extended jams and melodies. ‘Zulu Stomp’ is a heavy funk track with some African rhythms integrated into the gritty music. The first side ends with ‘Extemporaneous Combustion’, which starts off very minimalistic, then builds to a glorious jam. During that jam, the bass player starts to modulate keys first by staying on a static bass tone, then as he starts to move the tone around in conjunction to what the others are playing you get the sense that he is briefly flying through different keys until he comes back and settles into the regular key and groove.

Side 2 starts with ‘Alodian Mode’ and the churning rhythm section gets a groove going with African-styled drumming and has solos from both Grossman and Hammer flying all around. ‘Pressure Point’ is the one track that takes a detour from the fusion sound, I believe. To me this sounds like something closer to the “sheets of sound” period of Coltrane. It’s a great track, but feels slightly off in this setting. Finally, ‘The Sixth Sense’ drops back into some heavier funk with bassist Gene Perla and drummer Don Alias setting a rock solid foundation for Grossman and Hammer to attack.

This is another of the many great fusion albums by former Miles Davis band members, and it is of the high quality that has been expected of those in general. This is a great album that dives down the world of funk, world and jazz music and mixes them seamlessly.

Stars: 4.5/5

Available on: LP/CD

RIYL: Miles Davis- Black Beauty/ Weather Report- Live In Tokyo/ Wadada Leo Smith’s Organic- Heart’s Reflections/ Powerhouse- In An Ambient Way

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from Rush as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Neil Peart, best known as the drummer/lyricist for Rush, passed away on January 7, 2020. He had been fighting brain cancer, which he had only shared with his most inner circle. When Rush retired from touring a few years ago, the reasoning was that Peart was having shoulder issues. He joined Rush prior to their second album, “Fly By Night” and took their music to another level of complexness. Considered one of the best technical rock drummers, he should be mentioned with names such as Bill Bruford, Terry Bozzio, Ginger Baker along with many others. Highly influential, Neil will be missed by the rock community.  

These pictures are the Rush albums I own that have Neil on them, I put the studio albums in the order I would suggest listening to them in general in the list below (if I know your tastes, it’s possible I would put them in a different order). Then, I’ll list the live albums separately (you can’t go wrong with any of their live stuff).

Studio

1.       2112

2.       Caress Of Steel

3.       Moving Pictures

4.       Clockwork Angels

5.       A Farewell To Kings

6.       Fly By Night

7.       Permanent Waves

8.       Hemispheres

9.       Vapor Trails Remixed

Live

1.       Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio 16th of December, 1974 (picture disc)

2.       All The World’s A Stage

3.       Exit…Stage Left

4.       Different Stages- Live

5.       Working Men

For the live albums, the first was a live show shortly after Peart joined the group before the release of “Fly By Night”. “ATWAS” was released on the tour that followed “2112”. “E…SL” was released from the tour following “Moving Pictures”.  “DS-L” was largely taken from the 1997 “T4E” tour with a few tracks from the “Counterparts” tour in 1994, also included is a third disc of an entire show from 1978. “WM” is a CD compilation from the DVD’s “Rush In Rio”, “R30” and “Snakes & Arrows Live”.

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from Rush…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner I take a look at “Freedom’s Goblin” by Ty Segall. I want to jump right into the music that makes up this wonderfully eclectic garage rock album. The album’s first song is ‘Fanny Dog’ with its catchy vocals and backing brass breaking through the fuzz on the outstanding lead track. That is followed by what becomes a bit of a recurring theme of a song that has some fairly obvious inspiration from The Beatles. There is one song on each side (at least) that has something recognizable from The Beatles, although the song on the Side 4 that starts like that really takes it into a different place, for example the piano-driven ballad ‘Rain’. ‘Despoiler Of Cadaver’ starts with a drum machine beat that sets the foundation for a dance floor rave. ‘When Mommy Kills You’ sounds a bit like a lost track from Diamond Nights- Popsicle. ‘My Lady’s On Fire’ starts as an acoustic duet and morphs into a laid back tune that rides on a rhythm section that sounds like they are a country-funk band. It is an extremely eclectic album and that’s just the first side.

There are plenty of other highlights as well. The great power pop tune that starts Side 2, ‘Alta’, has a few shredding solos in it. ‘Shoot You Up’ and ‘She’ (which is almost entirely instrumental) are fuzzed out garage rockers. ‘I’m Free’ and ‘You Say All The Nice Things’ are beautiful, acoustic ballads. ‘Talkin’ 3’ pushes out into the avant-garde, particularly at the end when the saxophonist leads a full band freak-out that resolves into the opening funky sax riff of ‘The Main Pretender’ and its anthemic choruses. The final song I want to talk about also happens to be the last song on the album, ‘And, Goodnight’. This final song is led by a dual guitar attack that drives this song into far off galaxies as their guitar solos seem to push each other to try to outdo the last one. I imagine ‘And, Goodnight’ is what the Allman Brothers Band would have sounded like had they been a garage rock band rather than a Southern blues band. It is a fantastic ending to his best album that I’ve heard.

Stars: 4.5/5

Available on: LP/CD/Cass

RIYL- Thee Oh Sees- An Weird Exits, Meatbodies- Alice, Witch- s/t, Iggy And The Stooges- Raw Power

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album… (this time I couldn’t pick, so there will be two songs. The Alpha and Omega of the album!)

First, ‘Fanny Dog’

Secondly, ‘And, Goodnight’

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

Here is the last part to my 2017 list. For those that missed the earlier parts (and haven’t taken a look at it yet), I’m giving a quick list of albums that I heard from 2017. I may do a listening to some of the ones that I know I like, but want to revisit, and use that as an opportunity to review some of those more deeply (If there are any you see that you would particularly like to see a review of, leave a note). This is the list of reissues, live material and compilations that I heard from 2017.

Artist- Album (general genre)- and brief description

Dennis Coffey- Hot Coffey In The D (jazz-funk/R&B)- One of the guitarists for The Funk Brothers (the house band for the Motown label) releases  a set from Detroit in 1968. He covers jazz, pop, funk and gospel all wrapped in the sound of his guitar/organ/drums trio. A fantastic set, and the other set from this night has since been released CD.

Sleater-Kinney- Live In Paris (rock/punk)- This is a strong concert from Paris for the Sleater-Kinney crew from 2015 in support of their album “No Cities To Love”.

Gentle Giant- Three Piece Suit (progressive rock)- This is a collection of songs, remixed by Steven Wilson for both stereo and 5.1 sound, from the first three albums by Gentle Giant. It was limited to these 9 songs plus one demo because they were the only multi-tracks that hadn’t been lost from those albums. The Blu-ray has the 5.1 and, I believe, expanded stereo versions of the album and the instrumental tracks from the album. The Blu-ray also has the first three full albums in their original album mixes. The CD includes the new album, remixed for stereo by Steven Wilson, and a bonus track. That is the Steven Wilson 7” edit of Nothing At All. This is a fantastic deal for people looking for not only some high quality audio of Gentle Giant, but also interested in obtaining their first three albums for a very reasonable price.

Prince And The Revolution- Purple Rain (R&B)-  The iconic ‘80s album gets the full Deluxe Edition treatment. The original album containing hits ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, ‘Take Me With U’, ‘When Doves Cry’, ‘I Would Die 4 U’ and ‘Purple Rain’ amongst other great songs is presented in the 2015 Paisley Park remaster. The second disc is full of unreleased songs and an alternate version of ‘Computer Blue’ and ‘Electric Intercourse’. The third disc has all the single edits and B-sides from the album. The final disc is a DVD of the live show at the Carrier Dome on the Syracuse campus from 3/30/1985. This is an excellent edition for people who know the original album inside and out.

Jerry Garcia And Merle Saunders- Garcia Live, Volume 9: 8/11/1974, Keystone Berkley (rock/jamband)- Another excellent release in the Garcia Live series which has this group playing, mostly, a mixture of R&B and rock classics.

Gary Clark, Jr.- Live/North America 2016 (blues rock)- Gary Clark, Jr. releases this live album following his second major label album. Despite the short time span since his last live album, which followed his first major label album, there are only two songs repeated between the two albums. If you want to see if you enjoy Gary Clark, Jr. live albums (or live in concert) is the way to find out.

King Crimson- Live In Chicago (progressive rock)- King Crimson played Chicago on 7/28/2017 (this is the show after I saw them in Minneapolis a night or two before) and they had the tape rolling. As was the case with the show that I saw, they put on a great show. Fripp’s crew used everything in their bag to play songs from all eras of Crimson and put it together for this three-headed drummer Crimson band. If you’re a fan and are curious to what they are sounding like these days, this (or any of their recent live releases) is a good place to start.

King Crimson- The Elements 2017 Tour Box (progressive rock)- Each year before they start their world tour, they release a 2CD mix of King Crimson material that spans all eras of the band and can include anything Fripp has in his vault. That includes live material, unreleased studio material, etc. Some of it has been previously released (typically some of the live cuts) but he makes sure that everything has the   flow of a wonderful album or concert. Everything always is of excellent sound quality and you would not know that these songs weren’t necessarily prepared for release before this.

Grateful Dead- Get Shown The Light, May 5-9: New Haven, CT > Boston, MA > Ithaca, NY > Buffalo, NY (rock/jamband)- This is the run of shows many consider to be their best all-time, and many consider the Ithaca, NY (Cornell) to be their best show ever. Another candidate for that is often the Buffalo show. What I can say is that this is definitely a highly entertaining quartet of shows!

Here are the last albums I heard from 2017, and this isn’t necessarily a ranking, just in the order that I was writing them down. I hope you enjoy and happy hunting!

Sorry for the delay on the blog this week. I took my day off yesterday to go to the MN State Fair, for which we had beautiful weather. I met my family there, including both of my brothers (including one who traveled from WI with his wife to be here for it). I do want to make sure that I give my crate diggers’ something to look for over this Labor Day Weekend,so, I thought for a quick list, I’d list some bands that include brothers/sisters and include an album that shows off their skills. In a lot of cases, I’m picking artists who have notably better material than when they split and go solo, or form other bands. A few are just great bands that I feel the kinship is essential to the sound. I know there are many others that I haven’t included some for specific reasons and some just because I’m only going to put so many into today’s list. Maybe I’ll do some more volumes of this in the future. Enjoy and happy hunting!

The Allman Brothers Band- At Fillmore East (at the height of their playing, before they started losing band members)

The Black Crowes- Freak ‘N’ Roll...Into the Fog (a live show, from a run when they were just getting back together after one of their many extended break-ups)

Creedence Clearwater Revival- Live At Woodstock (a ferocious live set, you can see more on this one on my IG @djmusicallyrich. I recently wrote about it as my Album Of The Day)

North Mississippi All-Stars- Hill Country Revue (a live set from Bonnaroo that has a lot of high profile guests, but never overshadow the core band)

Neville Brothers- Authorized Bootleg: Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA -- 2/27/89 (a killer live set recorded just before their great “Yellow Moon” album was released)

Meat Puppets- II (a couple songs that Nirvana made famous are on this early album from a great band that  has continued to put out  very good albums)

Cowboy Junkies- Long Journey Home (a live album from the one band where we have two brothers and a sister. A  mix of dusty country, blues and strung out rock is put together in a great live show.)

The Secret Sisters- Put Your Needle Down (only sisters could have voices mixing this perfectly on an album full of a wonderful collection of songs)

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

Here is the fifth part to my 2017 list. For those that missed the first part (and haven’t taken a look at it yet), I’m giving a quick list of albums that I heard from 2017 in 7-10 at a time. There will be a few more parts to the list over the coming weeks. I may do a listening to some of the ones that I know I like, but want to revisit, and use that as an opportunity to review some of those more deeply (If there are any you see that you would particularly like to see a review of, leave a note). This list does not include reissues, live material or compilations.

Artist- Album (general genre)- and brief description

 Steven Wilson- To The Bone (rock/prog rock)- The Porcupine Tree founder continues to put out wonderful albums under his own name as well. Following the brilliant “Hand. Cannot. Erase.”, “To the Bone” continues in the same vein and has beautiful melodies and top notch playing all the way through. If you aren’t familiar with Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree and the other bands he leads it is a wonderful path to go down.

 Gov’t Mule- Revolution Come…Revolution Go- (blues rock)- The late ‘90s side project for the Allman Brothers’ new guitarist and bass player has continued on through the death of said bass player (Allen Woody), and not missed a beat. On their most recent studio effort the band revs up and delivers an album full of hard rockers that cover political, personal, life on the road and ends with a wonderful traditional song, “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground”. An excellent album from this, now, veteran band!

 Kamasi Washington- Harmony Of Difference (jazz)- The Kendrick Lamar sideman (from the album “To Pimp A Butterfly”) puts out his second album, and it is a delight. On this EP, the Coltrane influenced player lays down 5 very nice tracks on side 1, but the prize is in finishing off this album on the second side. Side 2 consists of Kamasi and his band taking the 5 individual songs from the first side and creating a track that uses those tracks as the basis for the entirety of his Side 2 single track. This track does an amazing job of working in all of the major melodic motifs from Side 1, while creating a new, brilliant composition.

Ty Segall- s/t (garage rock)- On his 2017 self-titled album the sometimes lo-fi, garage rocker seemingly fuzzes everything he possibly can on the album to good effect. The two guitarists, the bass player, the vocals, if he could I’d assume he’d fuzz out the drums. However, it doesn’t cover up the melodies and playing that he and his band display on the album. This is a recommended selection especially for fans of his recent albums.

 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard- Polygondwanaland (prog/psych rock)- The Austrailian collective (I covered the other 3 albums they released this year on an earlier part of this, and the fifth will follow) delves as deep into the prog rock subgenre as they have on any of their releases (at least the ones I heard). Another excellent 2017 release from this group

 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard- Gumboot Soup (psych pop/rock)- On this album it sounds like they are combining the sounds of Frank Zappa and the Canterbury Scene and do it with wonderful results. Yet, another album to check out by this collective.

 Margo Price- All American Made (Outlaw Country)- Margo Price picks up right where she left off on her debut album with outstanding songwriting and performances. You can still certainly hear the influence of Dolly Parton and other earlier female country stars in her work and she won’t disappoint fans of ‘70s outlaw country music or fans of the revival going on now with stars like Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves, and Sturgill Simpson among others.

Here are 7 albums I heard in 2017, there will be more from this list coming in the future, and this isn’t necessarily a ranking, just in the order that I was writing them down. I hope you enjoy and happy hunting!

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

For today’s Crate Digger’s Corner I’m listening to the sophomore effort from Lenny Kravitz, “Mama Said”. Much like his 1989 debut, “Let Love Rule”, Kravitz performs most of the instruments himself, but has a little help from friends and studio musicians. Some of the bigger names include Slash (Guns ‘n’ Roses), Sean Lennon and Karl Denson (who was also on the debut). Musically, this album mines similar territory to his debut combining the feel of ‘70s era rock, funk/R&B and its pop sensibilities. It has a nice mix of uptempo, mid-tempo and slow burners or ballads to keep the album varied while still feeling cohesive. It also has the highest charting hit of Kravitz’s career (and at this point, I think it’s safe to say, probably the highest charting hit he’ll ever have).

‘Fields Of Joy’ sets the stage for “Mama Said”. This is a lovely, acoustic track that has a biting electric guitar solo in the middle of the song provided by Slash. He also co-wrote and played on the second song, the funky ‘Always On The Run’.  Early on in the album we get the incredibly catchy ‘It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over’, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Pop charts. There is also the Curtis Mayfield inspired ‘What Goes Around Comes Around’ with its Superfly-ish vibe and a nice sax solo by Karl Denson. That is followed by ‘The Difference Is Why’ a psychedelic ballad with a cool reverb sound on the guitar.

A few songs after is the lullaby Kravitz wrote for his daughter, the beautiful ‘Flowers For Zoe’. That is followed by the return, in a very different feel, of ‘Fields Of Joy (Reprise)’. The reprise has a number of studio effects being used in the song that are reminiscent of what The Beatles were doing in the studio during some of their more experimental songs. ‘What The …. Are We Saying?’ is another slow burning song with psychedelic keyboard effects being used to envelop the song. That leads to a short, beautiful acoustic ballad called ‘Butterfly’ to end the album.

There was no sophomore slump for Lenny Kravitz on this album. He picks up right where he left off with “Let Love Rule” and delivers another gem. For fans of ‘70s funk or rock, this album will be right up your alley.

Stars 4/5

Available on: CD/Cass/LP

RIYL: Curtis Mayfield- Superfly/  Prince- Purple Rain/ Marvin Gaye- What’s Going On/ Amp Fiddler- Waltz Of A Ghetto Fly

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

‘What Goes Around Comes Around’