Another one of our favorites!
This was recorded about a year after the "The Last Waltz" concert documenting The Band's last ever show.
This was recorded about a year after the "The Last Waltz" concert documenting The Band's last ever show.
Showing posts with label The Band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Band. Show all posts
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Thursday, February 13, 2014
When I Paint My Masterpiece
The Band - "Cahoots" (1971) - Capitol Records
Hello Friends,
This 1971 LP, The Band's fourth album, is often overlooked. This is probably because (a) their first two records-- Music From the Big Pink & The Band -- are regarded as classics that set the bar ridiculously high; (b) their third record-- Stage Fright-- though not as revered as the first two was still pretty well received; and (c) The Band, themselves, never really held this album in high regard often dismissing it in interviews and only really playing one song ("Life is A Carnival") at live shows.
The album starts out with the very strong, aforementioned "Life is a Carnival" featuring a pretty jazzy horn arrangement by Allen Toussaint. Next is the album's best track, the Bob Dylan-penned, "When I Paint My Masterpiece". Two fantastic songs with the Band's familiar folk-rock-jazz-rhythm & blues sound.
In title alone, "Last of the Blacksmiths" sounds like a song by The Band.
The song, "4% Pantomine", has lyric and vocal contributions from none other than everyone's favorite purple jumpsuit wearing, Van Morrison.
Side Two doesn't fare as well. Songs like "Shootout in Chinatown", "The Moon Struck One", "Smoke Signal" and "Volcano" aren't terrible but they're certainly not all that great!
Overall, we think that this is a pretty good record! Perhaps by 1971 critics and fans were looking for a new direction or sound out of The Band or maybe the boys themselves were growing sick and tired of each other. (We're looking at you Robbie Robertson!) Its worth mentioning that Cahoots would also be their last all original studio album for four years which is strange because up until then they were releasing albums at a rate of one per year!
RATING: 4 the Streets of Rome are filled with rubble out of 5
The album starts out with the very strong, aforementioned "Life is a Carnival" featuring a pretty jazzy horn arrangement by Allen Toussaint. Next is the album's best track, the Bob Dylan-penned, "When I Paint My Masterpiece". Two fantastic songs with the Band's familiar folk-rock-jazz-rhythm & blues sound.
In title alone, "Last of the Blacksmiths" sounds like a song by The Band.
The song, "4% Pantomine", has lyric and vocal contributions from none other than everyone's favorite purple jumpsuit wearing, Van Morrison.
Side Two doesn't fare as well. Songs like "Shootout in Chinatown", "The Moon Struck One", "Smoke Signal" and "Volcano" aren't terrible but they're certainly not all that great!
Overall, we think that this is a pretty good record! Perhaps by 1971 critics and fans were looking for a new direction or sound out of The Band or maybe the boys themselves were growing sick and tired of each other. (We're looking at you Robbie Robertson!) Its worth mentioning that Cahoots would also be their last all original studio album for four years which is strange because up until then they were releasing albums at a rate of one per year!
Thursday, November 15, 2012
When I paint my masterpiece... I use bourbon!
Take a load off, friends!
Looks like you could use a maple infused cocktail!
In an effort to give a "tip of the hat" to Robbie Robertson and Co., we thought long and hard about a cocktail that would marry the industriousness of American city life with the rugged wilderness of Canada.
Hence...The Maple Old Fashioned! You'll love this one, I promise!
Use high grade maple syrup and use it sparingly, as you want the suggestion of maple more than a wad of it. I also advise using a reputable rye (we really like http://www.bulleitbourbon.com). You're looking for a slow burn with a sweet ending, here. Shake up your rye, maple, ice and Angostura bitters in a shaker and strain into a glass tumbler. Garnish with an orange peel, no need for chunks of overly sweet bar fruit. This one is guaranteed to drive your dixie down all night!
XO!
-Tiki T.
Looks like you could use a maple infused cocktail!
In an effort to give a "tip of the hat" to Robbie Robertson and Co., we thought long and hard about a cocktail that would marry the industriousness of American city life with the rugged wilderness of Canada.
Hence...The Maple Old Fashioned! You'll love this one, I promise!
Use high grade maple syrup and use it sparingly, as you want the suggestion of maple more than a wad of it. I also advise using a reputable rye (we really like http://www.bulleitbourbon.com). You're looking for a slow burn with a sweet ending, here. Shake up your rye, maple, ice and Angostura bitters in a shaker and strain into a glass tumbler. Garnish with an orange peel, no need for chunks of overly sweet bar fruit. This one is guaranteed to drive your dixie down all night!
XO!
-Tiki T.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
A Drunkards Dream... If I Ever Did See One!
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| Original LP Title: "Free Moustache Rides" |
The Band - "The Band" (1969) - Capitol Records
Hello Friends,
Tonight on the turntable we've got The Band's second LP. Its self-titled, but here on Vinyl in the Valley we like to refer to it as The Brown Album.
And what a great listening experience The Brown Album is... a real Hootenanny!!! Its a ramshackle mash up of American roots music: country, folk, soul, blues, ragtime & rock with some lessons in American History thrown in to boot! There's Confederate soldiers, retired sailors, drunken miners, labor union organizers, proud thieves and unfaithful servants! (Sounds like the unsexiest Halloween party ever!)
Side One almost plays like a Greatest Hits collection with "Across The Great Divide", "Rag Mama Rag", "Up On Cripple Creek" and the incomparable, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". The side closes out with "Whispering Pines" featuring Richard Manuel's heartbreaking and haunting vocals.
Side Two is no slouch either with "Jemima Surrender", "Rockin' Chair", "Jawbone", the rocker "Lookout Cleveland", and the country-soul working man epic, "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"!
The themes, characters and tales-- as well as much of the music-- is timeless, rustic and nostalgic. Obviously, The Band didn't really fit the mold of mainstream rock & roll of the late 60's. While most bands were writing Vietnam protest songs, these guys were reminiscing about the Civil War!
In this way, The Brown Album is similar to The Kinks' masterpiece, Village Green Preservation Society '68-- an album so steeped in nostalgia with songs which longed for a more traditional "country life" that was considered to by quite unhip by many hipsters at the time! But hey, that's the problem with these hipsters!
RATING: 5 Civil War Re-enactments out of 5
And what a great listening experience The Brown Album is... a real Hootenanny!!! Its a ramshackle mash up of American roots music: country, folk, soul, blues, ragtime & rock with some lessons in American History thrown in to boot! There's Confederate soldiers, retired sailors, drunken miners, labor union organizers, proud thieves and unfaithful servants! (Sounds like the unsexiest Halloween party ever!)
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| The Band dressed in Civil War outfits a.k.a. "Stuff White People Like" |
Side One almost plays like a Greatest Hits collection with "Across The Great Divide", "Rag Mama Rag", "Up On Cripple Creek" and the incomparable, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". The side closes out with "Whispering Pines" featuring Richard Manuel's heartbreaking and haunting vocals.
Side Two is no slouch either with "Jemima Surrender", "Rockin' Chair", "Jawbone", the rocker "Lookout Cleveland", and the country-soul working man epic, "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"!
The themes, characters and tales-- as well as much of the music-- is timeless, rustic and nostalgic. Obviously, The Band didn't really fit the mold of mainstream rock & roll of the late 60's. While most bands were writing Vietnam protest songs, these guys were reminiscing about the Civil War!
In this way, The Brown Album is similar to The Kinks' masterpiece, Village Green Preservation Society '68-- an album so steeped in nostalgia with songs which longed for a more traditional "country life" that was considered to by quite unhip by many hipsters at the time! But hey, that's the problem with these hipsters!
RATING: 5 Civil War Re-enactments out of 5
Thursday, April 19, 2012
The night they drove old Levon down
RIP Levon Helm.
The boy from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas done good. With a voice that sounded like he was singing from the bottom of a moonshine still, Levon Helm helped create some of America's greatest roots-based rock'n'roll while serving as full-time drummer and part-time vocalist in The Band.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, The Last Waltz is still one of the best concert movies ever. If you have never seen it, stop what your doing, buy a bottle of whiskey, dim the lights and watch it now!
In addition to being a fantastic final concert by The Band, The Last Waltz also features Neil Young with coke boogers and Van Morrison in a leotard!
Thank you Levon for so many great songs and sorry about having to put up with that dick, Robbie Robertson!
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| "Sssssh... stop talking and look into my eyes." |
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