Colossal Reviews

Only Unbiased Product Reviews

Colossal Reviews > Music > Page 9

Roy Acuff Sings Hank Williams (For The First Time) (Vinyl record album review)

By 2 Comments

Record basics

  • Album name: Roy Acuff Sings Hank Williams (For The First Time)
  • Artist name: Roy Acuff
  • Year: 1966
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Hickory Records
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Buy it on Ebay: $5.77

Roy Acuff Sings Hank Williams (For The First Time)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am familiar with Hank Williams and with a bunch of these songs, and I think I’ve heard of Roy Acuff before, but don’t know any of his music.

What I expected

Country.

What it was actually like

This was so great, and the only thing that bothered me was that more country music is not like it. I especially liked the fiddle and the harmonica throughout the record.

Acuff’s Hey, Good Lookin’ was very charming, and it reminded me of my grandmother singing it to my grandfather, or maybe the other way around – it’s not easy to remember that far back – which I’m pretty sure was the first time I ever heard it.

Your Cheatin’ Heart was another favorite, and the first time I remember hearing it was on the famous Pepsi commercial, which I recall my father thinking was hilarious.

Jambalaya was the best song on the record, and it also came up last month when I reviewed Song for Juli by Jesse Colin Young:

On the second side, there was a stretch of three great songs in a row, all covers. The first was a great and fun version of the blues classic T-Bone Shuffle with harmonica and piano (and here is the original). The other two, Clifton Chenier’s Lafayette Waltz and Hank Williams’ Jambalaya (which was the only song that I recognized), ran together as one song and were outstanding, but maybe that’s just because I think Zydeco (or maybe Creole, or Cajun) music is great. Here are originals of the former and the latter, and here are some covers of the former and the latter too. If I were Jesse Colin Young 50 years ago, I would record an entire record of covers like these.

Grade

5/5: love it

Super Session by Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Steve Stills (Vinyl record album review)

By 2 Comments

Record basics

  • Album name: Super Session
  • Artist name: Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Stephen “Steve” Stills
  • Year: 1968
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $29.29

Super Session by Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Steve Stills

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not familiar with this record, but I’ve listened to a bunch of others from the Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills[1] repertoires:

What I expected

Rock and blues.

What it was actually like

There were two parts to this record. The first side was Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield, and was mostly blues.

Albert’s Shuffle was a pretty good instrumental blues jam, basically barbecue restaurant music. I hated the stereo, though, with guitar blasting in my left ear, while drums and horns were in my right ear. I guess 1968 was still early enough in recorded music history that they hadn’t figured out not to split the channels to such an extreme degree. Stop was also an instrumental, and it had a great keyboard solo.

Man’s Temptation was the only R&B song, and I didn’t like it as much as the others, especially its weird sounding vocals.

When His Holy Modal Majesty came on, I was completely befuddled by what kind of instrument could make that sound, which was sort of between electric guitar and keyboard, but I think it was the ondioline that was credited to Kooper. It was a very cool solo and I loved the song, an electric jazz jam that definitely evoked some of the more lively Miles Davis records. Really had a similar sound, but in more of a blues style, and without the ondioline.

The second side was Al Kooper and “Steve” Stills, and it was more rock.

As I mentioned when reviewing The Concert For Bangla Desh:

…how many people out there, even diehard Bob Dylan fans, can name Dylan’s greatest song? Is it Mr. Tambourine Man? No. Blowin’ in the Wind? No. Like a Rolling Stone? No. His greatest song is It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, and he performed it at the concert for inclusion on this album, which is great, even though his performance was kind of weak.

And as I added when reviewing Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits:

Needless to say, Bob Dylan’s greatest song is It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, but that one gets left out of every compilation or analysis of his accomplishments…

So I was excited to see that It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry was covered for this record, in a really creative rock interpretation that I definitely appreciated, but didn’t enjoy very much.

Their cover of the Donovan song Season of the Witch was another that went in a pretty different direction from the original, and at over 11 minutes long, was more than twice as long as it needed to be. It sped up and slowed down a few times, but was prety solid, and definitely more far out than Donovan’s version that was already a bit trippy. It had a good bass guitar, but I thought the appropriate time to end it would have been after the organ solo.

I did not care very much for the distracting sound effects on You Don’t Love Me, and Harvey’s Tune had some Barry Manilow or perhaps Kenny G level saxophone, and was quite bad.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

References

References
↑1 Was this the only time in his career that he went by “Steve”?

Memphis Swamp Jam (Vinyl record album review)

By Leave a Comment

Record basics

  • Album name: Memphis Swamp Jam
  • Artist name: Various, including Booker White, Piano Red, Nathan Beauregard, Sleepy John Estes, Fred McDowell, Johnny Woods, Napoleon Strickland, Furry Lewis, R.L. Watson, Josiah Jones
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Blue Thumb Records
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: hole drilled through top left corner
  • Buy it on Amazon: $204.00

Memphis Swamp Jam

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I haven’t heard of this record or any of the musicians on it.

What I expected

Blues (and I regret that I don’t think I can distinguish Memphis blues from other locations’ blues).

What it was actually like

I thought I would find this pretty enjoyable, but it wasn’t nearly as entertaining as I had expected: imagine a guy with either a guitar or a harmonica, singing and playing for 90 minutes or so.

I did really like Booker White’s growly voice on side one, and Johnny Woods’ harmonica on side three, but I did not care for the fife and drums in the Napoleon Strickland section, which felt pretty out of place for a blues record.

My favorite song on the record was Memphis Rag, an instrumental with multiple guitars that all interacted well with each other, and the very similar Praying On The Old Camp Ground & Lonesome Blues was also great. Both of those songs should have been longer.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Do I Move You by Merl Saunders (Vinyl record album review)

By Leave a Comment

Record basics

  • Album name: Do I Move You
  • Artist name: Merl Saunders
  • Year: 1979
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Crystal Clear Records
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: clipped top right corner
  • Buy it on Amazon: $20.00

Do I Move You by Merl Saunders

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am not familiar with Merl Saunders, who is almost certainly not the same person as Merle Haggard or Merle Travis, and he probably is not even the woman on the album cover, either.

What I expected

From reading the back of the album, I learned two important things. The first was that Merl Saunders enjoyed a long and extensive collaboration and association with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. The second was, “The music on this first direct-to-disc album […] combines jazz and R&B elements with a fiery touch of today’s disco-rock sound.” Yikes.

What it was actually like

This record was a disco abomination.

The worst part was the sound of someone blowing a whistle on Melons In Season, and the second worst part was the saxophone solo on that same song.

Do I Move You was a Nina Simone cover and had much more of a blues sound than any of the other songs. It was the best on the record by far, but still nowhere near as good as the original.

Grade

1/5: horrible enough that I couldn’t make it through

Ry Cooder (1970) (Vinyl record album review)

By 2 Comments

Record basics

  • Album name: Ry Cooder
  • Artist name: Ry Cooder
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $125.77

Ry Cooder (1970)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t have any familiarity with Ry Cooder at all, as far as I know.

What I expected

Country rock.

What it was actually like

This was mostly blues, and all the songs except one were covers, but all of them were primarily about Cooder’s guitar skills.

A few low points were Available Space, the only original song, and Dark Is the Night, which were both quick instrumental jams rather than fully thought out songs.

I also was not very impressed by One Meat Ball, which I had to interpret as a novelty song due to its slightly goofily and atonally Oompa Loompa sound, and lyrics about someone who… could only afford one meatball in a restaurant[1].

Cooder’s version of Lead Belly’s song Pigmeat was also not great. I strongly disliked the horns that gave it a very unnecessarily cacophonous and Oompa Loompa sound[2].

A high point, on the other hand, was Do Re Mi, a rock reinterpration of the Woodie Guthrie song that was totally the same song but also totally different (and here is a hilarious Oompa Loompa version). I also loved How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?, another rock version of a folk classic with electric guitar solo.

Police Dog Blues was acoustic, with much more adventurous guitar than one would normally hear in a blues song like that, and Goin’ to Brownsville was similar (though I suspect that it might not have been about the Brownsville near me).

Grade

4/5: would listen again

References

References
↑1 For what it’s worth, Costco sells meatballs in tomato sauce in the refrigerated section, and they’re really good.
↑2 And if you’re only going to cover one Lead Belly song, why not choose Pick a Bale of Cotton?