Dinosaur Jr - Pierce the Morning Rain

Dinosaur Jr - "Pierce the Morning Rain" from 2012's release, I BET ON THE SKY (Jagjaguwar Records)

Yma Sumac

Yma Sumac - "Miracles" (1972) - London Records

Hello Friends,

Our favorite Peruvian princess with a five octave vocal range is on the Vinyl in the Valley turntable tonight!

Yma Sumac is one of the legends of the 50's Exotica movement.  Contrary to popular belief, "Yma Sumac" was NOT born "Amy Camus" in Brooklyn, NY.  From what we can tell, however, she was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo in Callao, Peru in 1922 and she may or may not have been a distant descendant of the last Incan emperor, Atahualpa.   

In any event, Yma Sumac's voice was unlike any other and she had a string of albums in the 50's that are essentials in the Exotica pantheon.  Albums like "Voice of the Xtabay" (1950), "Flahooley" (1951), "Legend of the Sun Virgin" (1952), "Mambo!" (1954) and "Fuego del Ande" (1959) helped defined the genre and sounded unlike anything else at the time-- or ever since!  From her baritone growls to her higher-than-normal soprano trills, she's really needs to be heard to be believed!

Miracles is Sumac's foray into rock & roll music.  Produced and arranged by none other than Les Baxter, the results are definitely weird and cheesey-- but in the best possible way.  Sumac's music of the 1950's was unlike anything anyone heard before-- give her an utempo, rock & roll backing band and that statement doubles in meaning!     

There's a very proggy feel to this record.  Her voice sounding more like something coming out of Rick Wakeman's early synthesizer rather than a South American woman's vocal chords! In fact, with all its strange and other-worldly sounds, lyrics and experimental (sometimes outlandish) arrangements, you can make the argument that Exotica was to lounge music as Prog Rock was to rock & roll.   

Thanks to Danny & Ross for this record!

RATING: 4.5 Descendants of Atahualpa out of 5

The Fabulous Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash - "The Fabulous Johnny Cash" (1958) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

We've got the Man In Black tonight on the turntable.  This is his third LP but first for Columbia Records-- the record label that Cash would leave his Sun Records contract for and stick with until 1986.

And, as the title implies, this record is pretty fabulous.  Flanked by his usual guitarist & bassist (Luther Perkins & Marshall Grant, respectively) these songs are "fleshed out" by some sparse drums, some pedal steel & some subtle backing vocals by The Jordanaires-- who sound almost celestial on the hit, "I Still Miss Someone".

"Okay Johnny, now say Cheeeese!"

In his long career, Johnny Cash released tons and tons of records, some obviously better than others.  This one, however, is one of the good ones; definitely one of his best!   The album's single, "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" (b/w "I Still Miss Someone") reached Number 1 on the Country charts and also reached Number 32 on the Pop Chart.  Other Cash originals include "Run Softly, Blue River", "Frankie's Man, Johnny" and his ode to the cotton fields of his sharecropping youth, "Pickin' Time."  

RATING: 5 Long-Legged Guitar Pickers with Wicked Wanderin' Eyes out of 5

  

Rubber Soul

The Beatles - "Rubber Soul" (1965) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

There's already been tons written and researched on every Beatles album and song out there.  If you really wanted to know, you could probably find out how many times Ringo pee'd during the recording of "You Won't See Me".  Here on "Vinyl in the Valley" we're too drunk and lazy caught up in the music for all that.  We're not trying to re-write history friends, that takes the fun out of it all.  We're happy just to kick back, drop the needle and enjoy a classic album, song-by-song, side-by-side, the way it was meant to be heard!* 
(* sort of...)

Squeezed in between HELP and REVOLVER, this is the folksiest of all Beatles' Records.  Recorded in just four weeks-- under pressure to make the December 1965 holiday market-- RUBBER SOUL sounds like a band who are growing up.  On the distorted photo on the cover their hair is longer and gone are the suits.  (Its also the first Beatles album to not feature the band's name prominently on the sleeve!)  The music and the instruments being used are getting more experimental: there's the use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood", a fuzz bass on "Think For Yourself", harmonium on "The Word"... etc.  The lyrics, too, are getting darker ("Run For Your Life"), more introspective ("In My Life"), paranoid ("Norwegian Wood"), ambiguous ("Its Only Love", "Girl") and existential ("I'm Looking Through You").  Its the sound of band in transition who have recently discovered marijuana and started listening to lots of Bob Dylan.

This is the original American Capitol Records version of the LP we're listening to tonight which varies slightly from the original UK version (and subsequent CD releases).  In case you were curious here's the track listing:

Side One:
I've Just Seen A Face
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
You Won't See Me
Think for Yourself (George Harrison)
The Word
Michelle

Side Two:
It's Only Love
Girl
I'm Looking Through You
In My Life
Wait
Run For Your Life

The British release omits "I've Just Seen A Face" and "It's Only Love" but includes "Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "What Goes On" and George Harrison's awesome "If I Needed Someone."  I think the theory behind this is that they wanted this album to appear more "folksie" for American audiences based on the recent successes of Dylan and bands like The Byrds.  But what do record companies know anyways?  Just ask Tony Meehan of Decca records!

An absolute classic record, RUBBER SOUL provides a nice bridge from the "early" Beatles' sound to the psychedelic stuff that was looming right around the corner.  

RATING: 5 girls who put you down when friends are there out of 5

Will Johnson - You Will Be Here, Mine

Pretty weird video from a pretty weird dude!

From the 2012 record, Scorpion.

Elite Hotel

Emmylou Harris - "Elite Hotel" (1975) - Reprise Records

Hello Friends, 

Kick back and relax because we're checking in to the Elite Hotel tonight!  There's no room service, but we got cable t.v., a comfortable bed and a tall bottle of wine chilling in the ice bucket!

Elite Hotel was Emmylou Harris's second amazing record released in 1975 (the first being, Pieces of the Sky) and a groundbreaking work in the burgeoning country-rock genre.  Like "Pieces", the ghost of Gram Parsons (Emmylou's close friend, object of affection and musical mentor who died of an overdose in '73) looms large over nearly every note on the album.  

Featuring three Gram Parsons songs ("Sin City", "Ooh Las Vegas" and "Wheels"), a Buck Owens cover ("Together Again"), a Don Gibson/Patsy Cline classic ("Sweet Dreams"), the Louvin Brothers ("Satan's Jeweled Crown"), Hank Williams ("Jambalaya") and even a Beatles song ("Here, There & Everywhere"), Elite Hotel is an eclectic mix of traditional country, alternative country, the blues, rock & roll, fast & slow, loud & quiet, light & dark.  A very 1970's country LP that put the focus on the album as a whole as opposed to one or two radio-friendly singles.

On all the songs, her voice is strong and ethereal with just the right amount of twang and vulnerability!  There's some great pedal steel guitar work on the record and Emmylou has a "Grade A" backing band, including Rodney Crowell, Glen D. Hardin, Ben Keith, Jonathan Edwards, James Burton and Linda Ronstadt among others.  Its a real hootenanny!

RATING: 4.5 Satan Jeweled Crowns out of 5

Happy Birthday Starman!

Hello Friends,

We're celebrating David Bowie's Birthday today with his first new music in ten years!

Here's a video for his brand-spankin' new song, "Where Are We Now?" from his forthcoming album, The Next Day (due out in March).




The song (and video) is somber and haunting, with just the right amount of nostalgia and weirdness.  It seems the Thin White Duke is jonesin' for his days spent in Germany back in the late 70's-- an experience which led to his ground-breaking and amazing "Berlin Trilogy" of albums: Low, "Heroes" and Lodger.  

Here's hoping the new album is half as good as any of those!

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Herr Bowie!
   

The Unforgettable Hank Williams

Hank Williams - "The Unforgettable Hank Williams" (1959) - MGM

Hello Friends,

When Hank Williams died in the back seat of a Cadillac on January 1st 1953, his body was laced with a deadly concoction of alcohol, morphine & chloral hydrate.  In addition to William's body, the back seat also contained a bunch of empty beer cans and scribbled lyrics to a song still unwritten.  Happy New Year, indeed!

America lost one of its most important musician-songwriters that cold January morning but I guess, as they say, its better to burn out than to fade away.

This 1959 LP by MGM-- with whom Williams signed on with in 1947-- features a dozen great Williams' tunes.   These are NOT his "greatest hits" by the way, but they great songs nonetheless.  

Backed by the Drifting Cowboys, the album consists of honky tonk songs about longing and loneliness like "I Can't Get You Off My Mind", "I Don't Care (If Tomorrow Never Comes)", "My Love For You (Has Turned to Hate)", "I'll Be A Bachelor 'Til I Die", "Let's Turn Back the Years", "I'd Still Want You"... etc. 

The final two songs on the album, "Blue Love (In My Heart)" & "Leave Me Alone With The Blues" feature no back-up band.  Its just Hank Sr. playing acoustic guitar and singing!  Stripped-down and unplugged; heartfelt and bittersweet.  Not bad for a drunken hillbilly! 

RATING: 4.5 New Years Resolutions out of 5 

The Orwells - Halloween All Year

These kids seem pretty cool!

From the 2012 release, Remember When (Autumn Tone Records).

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Friends!