Discovered In May 2024 Mixed Tape
Released Sometime This Year...
You would think the bluster of sweet tears and gas would subside almost 4 weeks out. You would, but, the process continues.
Not wishing I was dead anymore but grappling with the dark hours—those hours when the sun no longer shines and the possums and flying foxes are out and about.
I'm tweaking my betas, so they block correctly after my pulse was racing 4x a 33 1/3 RPM record. 133 beats per minute if you’re not inclined to do the math.
A hospital admission to attach electric paddles to my chest solved that.
Did I tell you the doctor who shocked me was Dr Paul Sparks?
We laughed as they knocked me out so the shock would not be felt.
Snap, crackle, pop, and I was beating like a fine-tuned Swiss machine and sent home the next day.
No one advised me that being electrified via pads on my chest would hurt. The aftershocks.
The next day they saw me in the morning and Dr Ron said I could get picked up at 10.
“Can I just get an Uber, my spiritual wife has not been sleeping and I got this”, I eagerly asked.
As he walked out with his clatter of cardiac students and interns and his amazing registrar he shot back at me, “Sure you can do that, just don’t tell the nurses I said that.”
5 laps of the ward were my ticket to freedom, so I paced around the ward barefoot. Almost sprinting so I could be free of the grips of the medical hallways. I advised the nurses as I finished lap 4 to get my meds ready as I would be hitting the lift and freedom very soon. They nodded and smiled and did not question this wise-cracking 66-year-old Yank.
One of the nurses had told me they had a biter on the ward. They probably wished she was leaving as they counted their bloody fingers. Go live your life I could feel them thinking, who knows how long you got old man.
Yeah flying high in April, shot down in May. That about sums up this year and the recovery process which has heard me groan, laugh, cry, and more, and voila it is June. April found us down near Wilsons Prom, Fish Creek, swimming in love and connection, that slow-moving stream. Wildlife, not wild life.
And since I’ve been locked up and avoiding people and the plague and trying to feel somewhat physically like my own self, I’ve come across some fabulous new releases. There is something to say about lying around and music.
Yeah, I’ve got other stories to write and they are coming but for now, talking about music is all I have the energy for. It takes me very little because this is my obsession.
That’s why some of you are here.
If you even know why you are here?
Are you OK?
Let me know.
Meanwhile, enjoy this music I found over the last month.
There are some very good records here.
Don’t ever let me hear you say they don’t make great music anymore
THEY STILL ARE.
Here are some of those THEYS in no particular order.
Trummors-5-Just like JJ Cale they have called their fifth album “5”. Nostalgic or inventive, it has not been done since? You can google that. Cosmic country that was recorded and produced by pedal steel/guitarist Dan Horne. Top of their game. Check out Dan Horne too….
Minor Moon-The Light Up Waltz- Sam Cantor’s music comes from Chicago and on this record, he collaborated with many in his community.
“What was resonating to me while writing was this contradictory feeling of personal transformation amid pretty intense societal disarray. I became very focused on how everything eventually collapses and the songs became kind of a collection of folktales about a world after collapse." (Sam Cantor)
Pokey Lafarge-Rhumba Country-After working on a farm in Maine for awhile Lafarge found his mojo planting seeds and turning the soil.
Quirky and as beautiful as anything he has released. Rhumba country boogie.
Jeb Loy Nichols and Jennifer Carr-Shadow On The Day
Recorded in 3 days featuring Jeb Loy Nichols on vocals, Jennifer Carr on piano, and Andy Hamill on bass. With appearances from Ross Stanley (Hammond) and Clovis Phillips (guitar).
Whatever is happening in the hills and valleys of Wales I want some. Hey Jeb, got room for my swag? Urban time ain’t my time.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse- Fu##in Up You know…it’s all one song
The album was recorded at a private birthday party for businessman Dani Reiss held at the Rivoli in Toronto, Canada on November 4, 2023. It is simply Ragged Glory recorded live.
T Bone Burnett-The Other Side-His first record of new material in 18 years. Burnett has produced records. T-Bone has evolved from telling us about dystopia and replaced it with all we need….love.
Remarkable record from a magnificent human at the young age of 76.
“So the answer to your question is, I think I replaced all that cynicism with love. I don’t want to place any jackets on myself about it, because I don’t want to prejudice people. I want to let them decide for themselves. I’m not gonna stop sounding the alarm. But certainly, I think this album that I’ve just made is the most powerful response I’ve had in my own life to dystopia. I’ve found that standing outside the dystopia and actually loving people is a much more powerful response to the dystopia than attacking it head-on. But I will continue to attack it head-on as well.” T-Bone Burnett
Aaron Lee Tasjan-Stellar Revolution-This guy can write and produce some pop music. Check out all his works after you get through this.
“People sometimes want to say, ‘Oh, this music is just for trans people … because the artist making it is trans,’ or something,” says Tasjan, who is bisexual. “That’s just wrong. These stories, when you really hear them, are everyone’s stories, and in that way, I feel a duty to share mine. And make sure that people know that I’m different in some ways, but in so many other ways, I see their face in the mirror when I look at my own.”-Aaron Lee T
Enjoy the playlist and some of the others while you sit by the lake or warm up on the couch with a cuppa.
Miss your faces and hugs. Drop on in if you want, I will be home for a while yet.