#23

Growing up I shared the same bed as my older brother, Jacob, five years older. Not just the same room, the same bed – you’re thinking it had to be a king, nope, it was queen size. Our bedroom was in the basement, right next to the laundry room, the sound of a dryer running is restful to me, peaceful, almost tranquil. Like clockwork, my Mother would throw in a batch or two of laundry most every night. I loved the conversations the three of us would have as she separated whites from darks, us two boys lying in bed as she cheerfully moved about the laundry room. It’s remarkable to me that the sound of a dryer can take me back to that queen bed, brown-carpeted floor, sports posters shielding the walls and my older Brother lying next to me. The power that exists in sound truly is astonishing.

Just as Jake and I shared that same bed, we also share the same love for music, the next album on my list the two of us discovered together while living in a hotel room in Sunnyside Washington. In no direct attempt at offending anyone, I can safely say the only redeeming quality about Sunnyside Washington is getting to leave. Our few week stay in Sunnyside was combined with one hundred degree days – outside of our hotel room was disorderly, especially at night, the food was bad and the people seemed churlish. However, anytime I listen to On Promenade I reluctantly drift back to that hotel room. I can’t help it, like I said, the power that exists in sound truly is astonishing. Lucky for me (and Jake) we had this album to accompany our nine hour drive home. And so, when I listen to On Promenade It's not just Sunnyside that I visit, I can see the Blue Mountains in Oregon, I can see a particular ma-n-pa's c-store in historic Baker City, I can see a whole lot of freeway and remember a cluster of conversation.

#23 Doug Burr - On Promenade (2007)

The foremost thing about Doug Burr's On Promenade is how solid it stands as a complete album, I'm not sure there is one song that rises up more than another. The other aspect of this album is how much better it continues to get with multiple listens. Doug sings in masterful verses - forcing his listeners to pay attention. On Promenade has a gospel roots feel to it, hard to place the sound in any particular genre - it never becomes altered, it remains as one continual sound; the eleven tracks on this album belong together. The guitar work is fine but it's the other instruments that give On Promenade it's distinguished sound and feel. Electric guitar, banjo, piano, drums, the way it's mixed together, the background vocals always joining at the precise moment. On Promenade is an impressive album, around forty-five minutes in length, full of heart and skillful songwriting.

I've traveled to a few places I don't care to remember, Sunnyside being at the top of the list - I gladly accept my time there because of our eminent discovery. With Doug Burr's On Promenade I'll take the bad with the good, because this album is nothing short of great.

Check out Doug Burr's official site:

http://www.dougburr.com/home.htm

Stream songs from On Promenade at his myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/dougburr

#24

One Saturday, when I was sixteen years of age, my dad and I had spent a good half day working around the yard. What I believed then, as a young man was the most rewarding part of the day, was our trip to town for soda and gee-dunks (a word I’m quite certain my Dad made up – it means candy) And if ever my Dad had a noble tradition, this five mile road trip to the nearest convenient store was it. So, the two of us climbed into his blue, Ford pickup. I can still see the gray interior.

Only a minute or two into the trip my Father turned on the cassette player, prepared to hear the great Merle Haggard. However, he was quite dumbfounded as gangster rap began pulsating from the speakers instead. My dad moved with great purpose, pushing eject, shaking his head, snatching the tape, rolling down the window, flinging it with great delight through his open window, without missing a beat.

I was quick to point out that I had purchased that cassette the night before with his money. My frank explanation was followed by his words, “Two rules as long as you live in my house, drive my car, eat my food, and spend my money. Rule number one: rap music will not be left in any of my vehicles, if it is I will toss it out. Rule number two: you will not buy rap music with the money I give you, only the money you earn.” After a slight pause, “And where in the hell did you put my Merle Haggard tape? Son, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll never, not ever, never ever touch Merle again”.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like Merle Haggard, because I did, I loved him. “I turned twenty-one in prison doin’ life without parole, no one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried, Mama tried to raise me better but her pleading I denied, that leaves only me to blame cause Mama tried”. I’m no fool, that’s gangster rap from 1968. It’s just that I was sixteen and I thought rap music was…I thought it was…I thought…It’s because I was sixteen.

It wasn’t just Merle Haggard tapes that filled the glove box and middle console of my Dad’s pickup trucks. I remember plenty of long drives, deer hunting trips, adventures of all sorts, myself compressed in the middle, my older brother riding passenger, my Father driving, and the three of us singing along to Roger Miller, Buck Owens, Don Williams, Johnny Cash, Don Gibson, or George Jones to name a few. Great country music, the stuff of old, instilled in me a desire to continue looking for it. I’m speaking of the bluesy, bluegrass, folk, with a little honky-tonk, good ole’ fashioned story-telling kind of country music. This leads us to our next album on the list.

#24 Justin Jones and The Driving Rain - Love Verses Heroin (2006)

Love Verses Heroin is an impressive album from Justin Jones, his debut release is titled, Blue Dreams, it’s a solo effort, mostly acoustic and quite solid. Love Verses Heroin is the first album with The Driving Rain behind him, he follows Love Verses Heroin with And I Am The Song Of The Drunkards, which shows progress but as for a complete album, first track to last track, Love Verses Heroin is it.

LVH is a formidable ten songs. The opening track “Hope” is acoustic for the first minute and twenty-five seconds and when the full band joins in you’ll quickly realize the tone for this album is set. The following track “Honey I Need You” accompanied by an upbeat banjo and harmonica, with impressive guitar work from The Driving Rain will certainly have you tapping your toes as you listen. The third track softens a bit, accompanied by piano, “Need You Around” is beautifully written, reminding me of similar pain you’ll find in Johnny Cash written songs. Lyrically, Justin has plenty to say and is proof that songwriting should be about life experience, about honesty, pain, joy, and everything that comes with love…verses heroin. This album has been dependable on my play list going on three years now and I’m pretty sure if my old man was to climb in the cab of his truck and find this playing, well, he wouldn’t turn it off, that much I know.

You can stream "Hope" & "Honey I Need You" below:

http://www.myspace.com/justinjones

Learn more about Justin Jones

http://www.justin-jones.com/

And his new song "California" watch him sing it live - absolutely worth the visit

http://vimeo.com/4148670

Introduction to List & Album #25

I’m Michael, thirty-one, male, average height, average weight, and probably average IQ. However, being a child with parents who grew up in the sixties gives me one significant advantage. I know music. I don’t know how to play it, I certainly can’t read it, I own a guitar but it’s become just like an old weathered pair of shoes, I won’t throw them out but I never wear them. And so, why does having parents who grew up in the sixties give me any type of advantage – I’m going to tell you.

I grew up in a small southern Idaho town, small as in a few thousand people; small as in “art” didn’t really live there. The theatre, a music scene, no such thing lived within the walls of this predominantly farming community. However, dead center between the walls of our red brick home art had a place to breath, a place to kick back, a place to call home, even surrounded by alfalfa fields, even far and away from any populated city. It was early mornings waiting for my warm breakfast that my ears first heard Van Morrison sing “Into the Mystic”. Still today, when I hear the horn section from that song come in around the midway point, I travel directly to that large open kitchen, my feet dangling just above the cold linoleum floor, warm air from an old gray electric wall heater blowing on my bare legs, and a Mother waiting on my every want and need. The true blessing is not just the gift of a perfect Mother but a Mother who rarely went without her Van Morrison, her Dylan, Cash, Jackson Brown, Tom Petty, Neil Young, the Stones, and Beatles.

I have a memory, I was probably ten years old and I must have listened to “And it Stoned Me” the first track from Van Morrison’s Moondance record at least a hundred times in a single sitting. I couldn’t stop, I didn’t understand the lyrics, “And it stoned me to my soul, stoned me just like jelly roll” of course those words were puzzling to me. But I just kept listening, over and over, really great songs have this power, this hold on us that as we listen, perhaps only twenty, thirty seconds into the song we have a burning urge to start it over - Van Morrison certainly does possess that gift. And so you see from within the walls of my home I was educated by a Mother who understood great music, who had her own discoveries from sessions with Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited or the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street, perhaps what she didn’t know was the water of inspiration and wonder was beginning to trickle into my veins. The very blood that streamed into my heart was being filled with the sounds and words from a library of unequaled songwriters. The seed was planted.

Now that I have told you that, let me please tell you this; Great, I mean truly great musicians, the ones who write their own songs, who create their own melodies, these artists, they still exist. I am here to tell you that our free and beautiful country is still riddled with magical music. Every year during the last fifteen years I have been fortunate enough to find artists that have put out complete albums, records that are absolutely note worthy from beginning to end. There has been one remarkable difference during the past twenty-five years concerning music and that difference belongs to the airwaves of the radio. You see, when my parents were growing up what played on the radio was exceptional music and also extremely popular. Those three ingredients blended together, radio play, quality and popularity…they went hand in hand. That is why on any top 100 list, any list claiming the greatest albums of all time, you’ll rarely find an album even remotely close to the top of that list that has been made in the last twenty years. Are you telling me great albums of my day cannot be found? Are you telling me in a world were revolution and progression dominate our way of life, that little progression has been made in the way of a singer songwriter. Well then, if so, that cup of tea is a tough swallow for me. And so, I’m going to give you twenty-five albums, none older than fifteen years that I believe stand toe to toe with any album out there. I’m talking Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band, Bruce’s Born to Run, The Clash’s London Calling, Dylan, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Eagles, Townes Van Zandt, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, I’m not leaving any out, I know and understand with great humility the brilliance and magnitude that lives within those albums. However, also know this, to do it first does not always mean you did it best. Originality is a wonderful thing, to pave-the-way is historic, it’s pivotal, but don’t forget we get better at most everything as this round world continues to spin. It’s important that I leave this one addendum: For the most part, I’m speaking of a specific genre of music. I’m not really sure what to call the genre. Some call it folk, traditional, Americana, rock, or country. I happen to believe it’s singer songwriter with the aid of man/woman played instruments, guitar, piano, harmonica, violin and so forth. It’s music that sounds the same live as it does playing through any type of sound system.

#25 – Ray LaMontagne – Trouble (2006)

Trouble is the first album from Ray LaMontagne with the title track opening the record. A total of ten songs, just under forty-five minutes in length – This album feels like something from the 60’s, his voice raspy and real, emotion packed lyrics and a gentle melody throughout make this one of the great albums in the last fifteen years. If radio paralleled that of the 60’s & 70’s, Trouble would garner 2-4 songs on the top ten charts, possibly even grabbing the number one spot for a week or two. “Jolene” my favorite song on the album is story telling at its finest.

Been so long since I seen your face

or felt a part of this human race

I've been living out of this here suitcase for way too long

A man needs something he can hold onto

A nine-pound hammer or a woman like you

Either one of them things will do

I love this album.

I have two sons, their young now, they’ll be older before I know it…wiser too. And I’m sure they’ll hear a certain song from Trouble and they will shoot back to the past, I hope it’s like the past I shoot back to. I hope it’s like Van Morrison, I know Ray LaMontagne has that gift; I just hope I’m enough like my Mother to pass it on.

The List continues on Monday (10-19-09) check in for album #24 and be sure to check out Ray Lamontagne.

http://www.raylamontagne.com/

Stream some of his music at his myspace page below:

http://www.myspace.com/raylamontagne