5/11/08 Playlist

New:
1. Rebecca Padula Band: Campfirelight (Fire & Water), self www.rebeccapadula.com
2. Lunasa: Feabhra (The Story So Far), Compass advance 4475 www.compassrecords.com
3. Greg Greenway: Highway 4am [Driving] (Standing on The Side of Love), Sheen of Heat 005 www.greggreenway.com
4. Gretchen Peters: Thirsty (Burnt Toast & Offerings), Scarlet Letter 120653 www.gretchenpeters.com

Appearing in the area:
5. Peter Case (Café Nine 5/14): Underneath the Stars (Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John), Yep Roc 2160 www.yeproc.com
6. Eilen Jewell (Café Nine, 5/16): How Long (Letters from Sinners & Strangers), Signature Sounds 2006 www.eilenjewell.com
7. David Bromberg (Iron Horse, 5/16): It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry (Try Me One More Time), Appleseed 1099 www.appleseedrec.com
8. Angel Band (Iron Horse, 5/16): I'll Sing This Song for You (With Roots & Wings), Appleseed 1108

Also appearing in the area:
9. David Olney (Café Nine 5/16): Stonewall (The Wheel), Loudhouse 2003 www.loudhousemusic.com
10. Jason Spooner (Club Helsinki 5/18): Hover (The Flame You Follow), self www.jasonspooner.com
11. Pat Donohue (Roaring Brook, 5/17): Stealin' from Chet (Radio Blues), Prairie Home Productions 1001
12. Corinne West (Mill River Bodywork 5/16): Second Sight (Second Sight), self www.corinnewest.com

It's Mothers' Day – a song to a child, and lots of songs by mothers and their kids:
13. Gretchen Peters: Child of Mine (Halcyon), Purple Crayon www.gretchenpeters.com
14. Kate & Anna McGarrigle (and daughters): Matapedia (Matapedia), Hannibal 1394
15. Nancy White with Suzy and Maddy: And I Copied It (Stickers on Fruit), Borealis 147 www.borealisrecords.com
16. Priscilla Herdman (Sounding Board, 5/17) with Suzanna: No Telling (The Road Home), Redwing 5412 www.priscillaherdman.com

17. Peggy Seeger with Calum and Kitty and lots of others: Che Guevara (Three Score and Ten), Appleseed 1100
18. Cindy Kallet with Arthur and Gabriel and friends: Diapers by Heart (Leave the Cake in The Mailbox), Stone's Throw 3 www.cindykallet.com
19. Eliza Gilkyson with Cisco and Cordelia: Rare Bird (Beautiful World), Red House 212 www.redhouserecords.com
20. Ann Mayo Muir with Christina (and Sue Trainor): Two Fine Friends (Hot Soup's "Soup Happens"), SOUPer Music

21 Linda Thompson with Teddy and Kamilla: Dear Mary (Fashionably Late), Rounder 3182
22. Margaret MacArthur with Megan: The Pucker Street Song (Vermont Ballads & Broadsides), Whetstone 01
23. Blue Murder, Norma Waterson with Eliza Carthy and others: The Land Where You Never Grow Old (No One Stands Alone), Topic 537
24. Eliza Gilkyson with Cordelia: Requiem (Paradise Hotel), Red House 187

It's Joel Rafael's birthday:
From Thirteen Stories High, Inside Recordings advance CD:
25. This Is My Country
26. Rich Man's War
27. I Ought to Know

The Dreaded Folk Calendar over selections from Pat Donohue's "Freewayman: Acoustic Guitar Solos," Bluesky 929 www.patdonohue.com

More concerts, plus two leftover moms:
28. The Wood Brothers (Iron Horse 5/13): Make Me Down A Pallet on Your Floor (Loaded), Blue Note 96285
29. Bruce Cockburn (Iron Horse 5/14 & 15): They Call It Democracy (You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance -- Live), Ryko 10435
30. The Nields with kids: All Together Singing in The Kitchen (All Together Singing in The Kitchen), self www.nields.com

New:
31. Noel Paul Stookey: In These Times (single), Public Domain Foundation
32. Billy Bragg: Sing Their Souls Back Home (Mr. Love & Justice), Anti- 86712 www.billybragg.co.uk
33. I See Hawks in L.A.: In the Garden (Hallowed Ground), Big Book Records 14 www.iseehawks.com
34. Erica Wheeler: Good Summer Rain (Good Summer Rain), Blue Pie 0400 www.ericawheeler.com

35. Leon Rosselson: The Third Intifada (A Proper State), Fuse Records 024 www.leonrosselson.co.uk
36. Anthony da Costa: Ain't Much of A Soldier (Typical American Tragedy), self www.anthonydacosta.com
37. Eliza Gilkyson et al: Peace Call (Land of Milk and Honey), Red House 174

5/4/08 Playlist

1. Anne Hills: Glad for The Spring (Beauty Attends – The Heartsongs of Opal Whitely), Collective Works 0502 www.collectiveworksmedia.com
2. Greg Brown: Spring Winds (The Live One), Red House 78
3. Claudia Schmidt: You Must Believe in Spring (Big Earful), Red House 19
4. Armor & Sturtevant: Crocuses (Spring Day), Tatema 1001

Today is the 38th anniversary of the killing of four students by National Guardsmen at Kent State University:
5. Magpie: Kent (Give Light), Sliced Bread 71185 www.slicedbread.com
6. CSNY: Ohio / Find the Cost of Freedom (So Far), Atlantic LP 1974

Interview with Rod Picott and Amanda Shires, recorded April 11 www.rodpicott.com http://amandashires.net
7. Angels and Acrobats (live)
8. Being Brave (live)
9. Drive That Devil Away (live)
10. Mercury (from forthcoming release, not yet titled)
11. Something in Spanish (live)
12. fragment of “Borrowed Car” (live)
13. Hearts Are Breakin’ (Radio promo, Amanda’s “Being Brave”)

New songs with similar ideas:
14. Eliza Gilkyson: Beautiful World (Beautiful World), Red House 212
5. I See Hawks in L.A.: Hallowed Ground (Hallowed Ground), Big Book 14 www.iseehawks.com
16. Eliza Gilkyson: The Party’s Over (Beautiful World), Red House 212
17. I See Hawks in L.A.: Ever Since the Grid Went Down (Hallowed Ground), Big Book 14

The Dreaded Folk Calendar over selections from Lawrence Blatt's "Fibonacci's Dream," self www.lawrenceblatt.com

Placard in a photo on the cover of a Hope Machine CD: "I can't believe we still have to protest this crap." There is much in the news of aggression / illness / control / anger / profit, all masquerading as sex: xexual assault and rape at UConn during Spring Weekend last weekend; father holds daughter sexual captive in basement, fathers 7 children; man convicted of aggravated rape on Martha's Vineyard; had previously been convicted of aggravated rape and yet only sentenced to only 4 to 6 years that time, now sentenced to 28 years; article in new New Yorker about human trafficking from Moldova, former Soviet republic, and beyond; the removal of children from the FLDS compound in Eldorado Texas a month ago because it appears that women younger than 16 (the age at which women may marry with their parents’ permission) were married to much older men in “spiritual marriages” and then impregnated as soon and as often as possible .....
19. Malvina Reynolds: The Judge Said (Ear to The Ground -- Topical Songs 1960-1978), Smithsonian Folkways 40124
20. James McMurtry: Fire Line Road (Just Us Kids), Lightning Rod 95022 www.lightningrodrecords.com
21. Eliza Gilkyson: The Ballad of Yvonne Johnson (Land of Milk and Honey), Red House 174
22. Greg Brown: Every Street in Town (One Night), Coffeehouse Extempore LP
23. Eliza Gilkyson: Dream Lover (Beautiful World), Red House 212

24. Joe Crookston: Bird by Bird (able baker charlie & dog), Milagrito 78 www.joecrookston.com
25. Lindsay Mac: Pale Reflection (Small Revolution), self
26. Randall Williams: Draw the Line (Praying for Land), Musafir www.whereisrandall.com
27 Eliza Gilkyson et al: Peace Call (Land of Milk and Honey), Red House 174

4/27/08 Playlist

1. Dana and Susan Robinson: Cotton from The Clay ('Round My Door), Threshold 89 www.robinsong.com
2. Moira Cameron: M'en Revenant de Bordeaux (Sands of The Shore), self www.celtarctic.com
3. Terence Martin: Throw You Out of Heaven (Even Trade), Good Dog 006 www.martinsongs.com
4. The Starlings: Honey Creek (Marveling the While), self www.starlingsmusic.com

From Songs from Sing Out! Vol. 52, #1 www.singout.org
5. Chris Stuart & Backcountry: Crooked Man
6. Cousin Emmy & Her Kinfolk: Johnny Booker
7. Tony Trischka: Escher's Waltz
8. Ani DiFranco: Studying Stones

9. Sam Baker: Boxes (Pretty World), self www.sambakermusic.com
10. Debi Smith: Bob Dylan's Poetry (The Soprano), self www.debismith.com
11. Danny Schmidt: California's on Fire (Little Grey Sheep), Waterbug 79 www.dannyschmidt.com
12. Gretchen Peters (Roaring Brook 5/3): American Tune (Trio), Purple Crayon www.gretchenpeters.com

13. Cindy Kallet, Ellen Epstein, Michael Cicone: Farthest Field (Heart Walk), Overall 3 www.cindykallet.com
14. Dick Gaughan: Both Sides The Tweed (Gaughan Live! at The Trades Club), Greentrax 322 www.greentrax.com
15. Capercaillie: Don't You Go (Roses and Tears), Compass 4477 www.compassrecords.com
16. Jack Williams (Church House 5/9, Beekley Library 5/11): The Heart of Saturday Night (Don't Let Go!), Wind River 4039 www.jackwilliamsmusic.com

Interview with Eric Taylor (www.bluerubymusic.com) recorded 4/12/08:
17. Walking Back Home (live)
18. Hollywood Pocketknife (Hollywood Pocketknife, Blue Ruby Music)
19. Two Fires (live)
20. Carnival Jim and Jean (Hollywood Pocketknife)
21. Postcards, 3 for A Dime (Hollywood Pocketknife)

The Dreaded Folk Calendar over selections from Pat Donohue's Freewayman (Bluesky 929), www.patdonohue.com

22. Rod Picott and Amanda Shires (interview on S.N.F.F. 5/4): Drive That Devil Out (preview CD, as yet unnamed), self Welding Rod http://rodpicott.com
23. The Waifs (Iron Horse 5/3): sundirtwater (sundirtwater), Compass 4472 www.compassrecords.com
24. Michael Gaither: Good God Man How Big A Car Do You Need! (Spotted Mule and Other Tales), self www.michaelgaither.com
25. The Capitol Steps: Ten Pills and You're Fine (Campaign and Suffering), self www.capsteps.com
26. Adam Carroll: Porter Wagner [sic] (Old Town Rock N Roll), self www.adamcarroll.com

27. James McMurtry (Pearl Street 5/3): Cheney's Toy (Just Us Kids), Lightning Rod
95022 www.jamesmcmurtry.com
28. John Gorka: Brown Shirts (Temporary Road), High Street www.johngorka.com
29. Billy Bragg: O Freedom (Mr. Love & Justice), Anti- 86712
30. Solas with Iris DeMent, guest: Song of Choice (The Words That Remain), Shanachie 78232
31. Eliza Gilkyson et al: Peace Call (Land of Milk and Honey), Red House 174

Salon Review of "A Freewheelin' Time" by Suze Rotolo

Tangled up in Dylan
Suze Rotolo, the musician's first muse, has written an entertaining memoir about their love affair that is also a remarkable portrait of living and making art in the 1960s.

By Stephanie Zacharek



April 26, 2008 | Face it: The art -- or is it more of a science? -- of dissecting Bob Dylan is a man's game. Most of the Dylan scholars (both the smart and the lame ones), the rock critics who have collectively spent several lifetimes wrestling with his lyrics, the civilian gasbags who hold forth at dinner parties whenever his name is even mentioned, are men. I used to have an officemate who, whenever he wanted to take a break from doing actual work (which was shockingly often), would march into my office singing some random Dylan lyric and challenge me to name which song it came from. I know women who love Dylan's music as much as anyone else does, but I've never met one who felt the need to be a walking, talking sack of trivia.

So whether she knows it or not -- and I suspect she does -- Suze Rotolo has taken something of a risk in writing a memoir of the time she spent in the early '60s as the girlfriend of the Great Man. There are going to be people out there who think she's just cashing in on her role as a handmaiden to genius. But "A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties" is only partly about Dylan. Rotolo has written a perceptive, entertaining and often touching book about a remarkable era in recent American cultural history, about a way of living, of making art, that couldn't have happened at any other time or in any other place.

This is about as far from a juicy tell-all as a memoir can get: Rotolo does share some private details of the story of her romance with Dylan -- the two met in 1961, when Rotolo was 17 and Dylan was 20, and were a couple for some four years -- but her approach is so sensitive, discreet and affectionate that she never comes off as opportunistic. This is an honest book about a great love affair, set against the folk music revival of the early 1960s, but its sense of time and place is so vivid that it's also another kind of love story: one about a very special pocket of New York, in the days when impoverished artists, and not just supermodels, could afford to live there.

The rest at:

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/04/26/rotolo/

NYTimes Review of "Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon"

By Sheila Weller.

Illustrated. 584 pp. Atria Books. $27.95.

How you feel about Sheila Weller’s “Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — and the Journey of a Generation” may depend on how you respond to Weller’s dedication, which reads: “To the women of the 1960s generation. (Were we not the best?)” If that’s the sort of thing that gets you all hepped up to pour a glass of chardonnay and order some gauzy embroidered tunics and Clarks sandals from the Soft Surroundings catalog, then you go, girl! If, on the other hand, the nakedly self-congratulatory quality of that dedication makes you want to play a record by the Slits or Hole or Sleater-Kinney, really loud, you may be in a different category, or just a different age group — not the “best” one.

Full disclosure: I was 4 in 1965, and because one of my older sisters had come home with a 45 of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the only serious question on my mind was which Beatle I was going to marry. I wasn’t, as Carole King was at the time, a very young married mother of two, balancing a career as a hit songwriter with the more traditional challenges of caring for babies and dealing with a difficult but gifted husband. I wasn’t, as Joni Mitchell was, an unhappily pregnant — and unmarried — aspiring folk singer from Saskatchewan, trying to square her desperate straits with her exceedingly proper upbringing. And I wasn’t Carly Simon, a privileged but somewhat troubled free-spirit-in-training, reveling in the grooviness of early 1960s Sarah Lawrence. Still, I’m not sure having lived through a particular era, no matter what challenges that era presented, necessarily confers greatness. When I began writing pop music criticism, in the 1990s, I was grateful that Ellen Willis, Janet Maslin and Ariel Swartley, among others, had paved the way before me. But their legacy actually gave me less patience for old hippies’ gassing on. I didn’t — and still don’t — care much for finger wagging on the part of my elders.

The grating self-aggrandizement of that dedication aside, the reality — and the relief — of this book is that it doesn’t set out to scold us. Weller, a journalist whose other books include the 2003 memoir “Dancing at Ciro’s,” is more interested in exploring how these three distinct yet dovetailing artists bucked the expectations that had been laid out for them by previous generations and blazed a new path for women to follow. She’s only partly successful: the book unintentionally makes the case that two of these women changed things for themselves more than for anyone else.

Then again, even self-determination has value, and much of “Girls Like Us” is entertaining and intelligent, thanks to Weller’s skills as a storyteller and her understanding of the musical traditions that inspired each of her subjects (particularly, in Mitchell’s case, the Child ballads from England and Scotland). She’s also perceptive about the social milieus that, kicking and screaming, these women had to bust out of.

More at

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/books/review/Zachareck-t.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Girls+Like+Us&st=nyt&oref=slogin

4/20/08 Playlist

1. Kathy Mattea: Dark As A Dungeon (Coal), Thirty Tigers www.mattea.com
2. Jaime Michaels: I Am Only [what I am] (Fool), Frumdahart 1007 www.jaimemichaels.com
3. Sugar Bayou: He's Just Weak (Dance Hall Incident), self www.sugarbayouband.com
4. Anders Osborne: Summertime in New Orleans (Coming Down), M.C. Records 0060
www.mc-records.com]
5. Wagtail: When the Sun Goes Down (One Clear Moment), self www.wagtailmusic.com
6. Joel Zoss: Sarah's Song (Lila), Catalan 7301 www.joelzoss.com

7. Ruth Ungar: The Railroad Boy (Jukebox), Humble Abode www.themammals.net
8. Hackensaw Boys: Radio (Look Out!), Nettwerk 30705 www.nettwerk.com
9. Rebecca Troon: Small Acts of Kindness (Turning Around), self www.cdbaby.com
10. Joel Mabus: Holding to The Land (Retold), Fossil 1808 www.joelmabus.com
11. Kris Delmhorst: Heavens Hold the Sun (Shotgun Singer), Signature Sounds 2012
12. James McMurtry: Fire Line Road (Just Us Kids), Lightning Rod 95022 www.jamesmcmurtry.com

13. Anne Feeney: How Much for The Life of A Miner? (Dump The Bosses off Your Back), self www.annefeeney.com
14. Woody Guthrie: Grand Coulee Dam (The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949), Woody Guthrie Foundation www.woodyguthrie.org
15. Chris Williamson: Big Seed Catalog (Fringe), Wolf Moon 96457 www.chriswilliamson.com
16. Paul Thorne: Burnin' Blue (A Long Way from Tupelo), Perpetual Obscurity 200089 www.paulthorne.com

Guest: Gideon Freudmann www.cellobop.com
17. Improvisation (live in studio)
18. working title: Portland Rain (live)
19 & 20. two instrumental cuts from new Caravan Gogh release
21. demo of looping technology
22. Plagiarisimo
23. Euphoria
24. Lilia's Three Step

The Dreaded Folk Calendar, over selections from The Mando Boys' "Live: Holstein Lust," Borderland www.peterostroushko.com

25. Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem: Big Old Life (Big Old Life), Signature Sounds 2005
26. Brooks Williams: Lightning (The Time I Spend with You), Red Guitar Blue Music www.brookswilliams.com
27. The Kennedys: Give Me Back My Country (Better Dreams), Appleseed1107 www.appleseedrec.com
28. Tom Paxton: How Beautiful upon The Mountain (Comedians & Angels), Appleseed 1105 www.appleseedrec.com
29. Fred Eaglesmith: Fancy God (Tinderbox), self www.fredeaglesmith.com
30. Audrey Auld Mezera: Looking for Luckenbach (Lost Men and Angry Girls), Reckless www.recklessrecords.com
31. Jack Hardy: The Dust of Africa (Noir), Great Divide 4170 www.jackhardy.com
32. Eliza Gilkyson et al: Peace Call (Land of Milk and Honey), Red House 174

James McMurtry on NPR on Record Store Day

All Things Considered, April 19, 2008 - On Saturday, April 19, nearly 500 independently owned record stores across the country are celebrating Record Store Day. Hundreds of artists are giving in-store performances, and many stores will commemorate the event with giveaways to thank loyal shoppers.

Here, singer-songwriter James McMurtry shares a few memories of hanging out — and awkwardly self-promoting — in record stores.

I'm sure there must have been record stores in Houston in the late '60s, but I don't remember ever being in one. I was a small child then, and my father bought our records at the drug store on Bissonnet, where we also ate cheeseburgers and drank malts. The drug store carried what records we thought we needed — Johnny Cash at San Quentin, Batman, The Beatles' Revolver.

I still have a couple of old mono LPs purchased at the Bissonnet Drug Store, including Bob Dylan's self-titled first album, on the back cover of which are the italicized words, "This Columbia High Fidelity recording is scientifically designed to play with the highest quality of reproduction on the phonograph of your choice, new or old. If you are the owner of a new stereophonic system, this record will play with even more brilliant true to life fidelity. In short, you can purchase this record with no fear of its becoming obsolete."

I remember my father installing a stereo needle in our mono record player so that the new stereo records wouldn't skip. Of course, we couldn't hear them in stereo, but he didn't care; he just wanted the damn things to play.

The day my second record, Candyland, was released, I was playing at The Bottom Line in New York City. It was 1992; CDs were marketed in the environmentally unfriendly but highly visible long box, and they had just become the top-selling format, having finally overtaken the cassette.

I walked a block down the street to a huge Tower Records and tried to find my record. It wasn't in the rock section where I thought it should have been. I searched every nook and cranny of the store and finally found the country section, a space smaller than the kitchen of a typical Chelsea walk-up.

In one of the bins, there was a card that read "James McMurty [sic]," but no records. I walked to a pay phone, called my manager at his Upper West Side office, and asked him if he could prevail upon someone at Columbia Records to please get some CDs down to Tower before my show. I checked back three hours later and found a half-dozen or so copies of Candyland behind the same misspelled card, but now in the rock section, right between Don McLean and MC 900 Ft. Jesus. It pays to know the right people.

The rest of the story, plus other stories and links, at

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89774100