Jer's Top Ten CDs of 1999
Hi everybody,
I was putting off working on my accounting for the Fall Trip so I thought I would list my favorite CDs of 1999. I decided not to include any reissues or repackaging of older material and concentrate on new releases only. I sort of haphazardly threw this list together also, so I may have some glaring omissions, but this should be a decent representation of what I listened to and what I liked best.
1. Mule Variations-Tom Waits:
It was a long time coming but this album was worth the wait. In fact I think it might be Tom's best album to date. I like how he mixes styles, alternating between his Bone Machinesound on tracks like "Big in Japan" and his 70s sound on tracks like"House Where Nobody Lives". My favorite track might be "What's he Building?" though. It reminds me of his work with Ken Nordine.
2. Trad. Arr. Jones-John Wesley Harding:
I really love this album . I don't think many people bought it and I heard that the record label it is on is going out of business so if you see a copy of it I would pick it up since I am afraid the album will out of print soon. This album is a tribute to a British folk artist named Nic Jones (Hence the album title). I have never heard Nic Jones, I guess his albums are very hard to find, but he used to rearrange old British folk tunes and John Wesley Harding uses his arrangements on the album. These are really cool old songs in the vein of "Jack-a Roe" or "Peggy-O". They give us a glimpse of an alternate universe of shipwrecks, briars, women dressed as men, farmers, squires and lots of blood. The kind of songs I love.
3. Midnight Vultures-Beck:
This came out late in the year, but it has quickly become one of my favorites. I really like Beck's more folky acoustic side so I wasn't sure how I would like this more electric album, but I was won over immediately. Only Beck could mix Prince like R&B with horns, moogs, pedal steel and Herb Pederson on banjo. "Nicotine and Gravy" is one of the most singable, danceable and experimental songs this year, all at the same time. I also love "Debra" which Beck has been playing in concert for awhile now.
4. Anytime at All-Banyan:
This is another album that not many people bought, but that I think is great. Banyan is a loose collection of musicians centered around Stephen Perkins the former drummer of Jane's Addiction. He surrounds himself with all sorts of cool players like Money Mark from the Beastie Boys, Mike Watt, Nels Cline and Rob Wasserman. Their first album was pretty good, but this album is leaps and bounds better. It is mostly instrumental and the songs tend to be long and experimental. I guess I would describe the music as a cross between Ambient and Jazz. The playing is consistently great throughout especially from Perkins and Wasserman. I saw these guys live in Detroit and it was one of the craziest shows I saw all year. Again the theatre was almost empty which is a shame. These guys deserve more attention.
5. The Strange Remain-The Other Ones:
Unfortunately I was out of the country during The Other Ones' tour during the summer of 98, but this CD is a nice sampler of what I apparently missed. When I first heard that Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Hart were forming a new band I was excited, but I wasn't sure how they were going to pull it off without sounding like a Grateful Dead cover band, but they did. They augmented their line up with unofficial Dead member Bruce Hornsby, Dave Ellis on sax from the Charlie Hunter Trio and Ratdog, and John Molo on drums from Hornsby's band. The big question then was who was going to play lead guitar (replacing Garcia's spot). They ended up picking two people, Steve Kimock from the band Zero and a complete unknown named Mark Karan. Somehow this all worked. They have a big sound almost like a classic big band with lots of soloists. That is the best way to describe them I think, a Grateful Dead Big Band. They tackle some classic Dead material including some Garcia songs which is cool, but they also have two new tunes, "Banyan Tree" and "Baba Jingo". My favorite moments come some of the more obscure material like Hornsby's "White Wheeled Limousine" which finds Weir on acoustic guitar and Ellis taking on the persona of the wedding reception saxophone player. Another highlight is Mickey singing his Mystery Box song "Only the Strange Remain" with the whole band providing wolf howls in the background. The most exhilarating part of the disc however is the "St.Stephen>Eleven" opener. Let's hope that they release the follow up disc, which is supposed to be a complete show this year.
6. Love Will See You Through-Phil Lesh and Friends:
Another Dead related disc that I almost wore out this year from repeated listening. This on is available only from
Grateful Dead Merchandising. Since the Winter of 98 Phil Lesh has been organizing concerts under the name Phil Lesh and Friends and using a rotating cast of musicians as the band. Some of the people that have played with him include Trey and Page from Phish, Warren Haynes from the Allman Brothers, Branford Marsalis, Merl Saunders, Billy Payne and and Paul Barrere from Little Feat, and Bob Weir from the Dead. On this disc Phil teams up with Jorma Kaukonen and Pete Sears on guitar and keyboards from Hot Tuna, Prarie Prince on drums from Jefferson Starship and Steve Kimock from Zero and the Other Ones on guitar. This is a two disc set and there is a lot of jamming. Kaukonen and Kimock trade off playing lead and rhythm guitar and they both shine. Pete Sears completely rips it up on keyboards. If the Other Ones sounded like a big band this disc sounds more a like a small jazz group i.e.: Mile Davis' groups of the early 60s. Jorma sings his versions of the Dead's "Dupree's Diamond Blues" and "Mr. Charlie" as well as his own "I am the Light of this World" and "Good Shepherd". Phil sings a nice version of Robbie Robertson's "Broken Arrow". It is also great to hear Phil break out the old Dead song, "New Potato Caboose", but the jams before and after it are even better.
7. The Mountain-Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band:
Steve Earle is on a roll. This is his fourth straight album that is just incredible. This time all the songs are written in the Bluegrass style. On his last album, El Corazon, Steve hooked up with the Del McCoury band on one song, but this time we get a full album. The Del McCoury Band might be the best Bluegrass band in the country today and this album proves they have the chops to play with anybody, but it is Steve Earle's songs which steal the show. He just keeps cranking out great tunes year after year. Hopefully, some of these songs will go on to become Bluegrass standards, because they are that good. I got to see these guys together in concert a couple times and both times it was great.
8. Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu-Bruce Cockburn:
Another great album from Bruce Cockburn. This one finds him in a slightly peppier mood then his last excellent album, Charity of Night. There are some cool Muscle Shoals style horns here as well as a cover of Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill" sung as a duet with Margo Timmons from the Cowboy Junkies. Lucinda Williams sings back up on few songs too, my favorite of which is "Isn't that what Friends are For?". Bruce is a great poet and a great guitar player and this album shows off both facets well. There is also some Malian harp on this album, hence the Timbuktu reference.
9. Return of the Grievous Angel-Various Artists:
This project was put together by Emmylou Harris as a tribute to Gram Parsons. It contains songs he wrote or performed with the Byrds, The Flying Burrito Bothers and from his solo records. Highlights include Beck and Emmylou singing "Sin City" together., Chrissie Hynde and Emmylou singing "She", probably my favorite Parsons song, and the Cowboy Junkies completely deconstructing "Las Vegas" Actually almost the whole album is great although I don't care for the track by the Mavericks. Also includes, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, David Crosby, and Victoria Williams.
10. Tangled up in Blues-Various Artists:
This is an album that could have sucked but it succeeds on almost every level. It is a blues tribute to Bob Dylan and luckily the artists on it are top notch as well as the song choices. Alvin Youngblood Hart turns in a slow meltdown version of "Million Miles" from Time out of Mind. R.L . Burnside raps his way through "Everything is Broken" with blistering guitar solos from Buddy Guy and Derek Trucks, and Mavis Staples does justice to the gospel flavored "Gotta Serve Somebody". My favorite track though has to be Issac Hayes singing "Lay Lady Lay". I can't even really describe this one except to say that it's awesome. Another nice moment is The Band doing "One to Many Mornings" with Rick Danko providing lead vocals. They may turn out to be the Band's last recording ever since Rick passed away in December.
I want to give an honorable mention to Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabati's collaboration, "Kulanjan" which blended American blues with African blues very nicely. Definitely worth picking up.
I want to reiterate that this list may be missing a lot since I haven't even heard the new albums by people like Los Lobos, John Prine and Richard Thompson, but I imagine they are quite good.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my list (an overdone concept I know). Happy New Year and talk to you soon. Jeremy.
Steve Kimock and Bob Weir