Showing posts with label Joni Mitchell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joni Mitchell. Show all posts

Friday, February 23, 2024

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Joni Mitchell (2014)

Roberta Joan Anderson on 7 November 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, and moved with her family to Saskatoon, which she considers her hometown, at age 11. She wanted to play the guitar, but as her mother associated the instrument with country music and disapproved of its hillbilly associations, she initially settled for the ukulele, although she eventually taught herself guitar from a Pete Seeger songbook. She started singing with her friends at bonfires around Waskesiu Lake, northwest of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and after dropping out of school after a year at age 20, she started to play gigs as a folk musician on weekends at her college and at a local hotel. In 1964, at the age of 20, she told her mother that she intended to be a folk singer in Toronto, and wrote her first song 'Day After Day' on the three-day train ride east to Ontario. In February 1965 she was playing gigs again around Yorkville, often with a friend, Vicky Taylor, and was beginning to sing original material for the first time, written with her unique open tunings. In March and April she found work at the Penny Farthing, a folk club in Toronto, where she met New York City-born American folk singer Charles Scott "Chuck" Mitchell, from Michigan. Chuck was immediately attracted to her and impressed by her performance, and he told her that he could get her steady work in the coffeehouses he knew in the United States. She left Canada for the first time in late April 1965, travelling with Mitchell to the US, where they began playing music together, and they later married, with Joni taking his surname, although the marriage and partnership ended with their divorce in early 1967. Following this, she moved to New York City to follow her musical path as a solo artist, and while she was playing one night in 1967 in the Gaslight South, a club in Coconut Grove, Florida, David Crosby walked in and was immediately struck by her ability and her appeal as an artist. She accompanied him back to Los Angeles, where he set about introducing her and her music to his friends, and soon she was signed to the Warners-affiliated Reprise label by talent scout Andy Wickham. 
Crosby convinced Reprise to let Mitchell record a solo acoustic album without the folk-rock overdubs in vogue at that time, and 'Song To Seagull' was released in March 1968. She toured steadily to promote the album, creating eager anticipation for her second LP, 'Clouds', which was released in April 1969. This contained her own versions of some of her songs already recorded and performed by other artists, such as 'Chelsea Morning', 'Both Sides, Now', and 'Tin Angel', and the covers of both albums were designed and painted by Mitchell herself.  In April 1970 Reprise released her third album, 'Ladies Of The Canyon', and her sound was already beginning to expand beyond the confines of acoustic folk music and toward pop and rock, with more overdubs, percussion, and backing vocals, and for the first time, many songs composed on piano, which became a hallmark of Mitchell's style in her most popular era. 'Ladies Of The Canyon' was an instant smash on FM radio and sold briskly, eventually becoming Mitchell's first gold album, but she made a decision to stop touring for a year and just write and paint. The songs she wrote during the months she took off for travel and life experience appeared on her next album, 'Blue', released in June 1971, which was an almost instant critical and commercial success, peaking in the top 20 of the Billboard albums chart in September and also hitting the British Top 3. The lushly produced 'Carey' was the single at the time, but musically, other parts of 'Blue' departed further from the sounds of 'Ladies Of The Canyon', with simpler, rhythmic acoustic parts allowed a focus on Mitchell's voice and emotions, while others such as 'Blue', 'River' and 'The Last Time I Saw Richard' were sung to her rolling piano accompaniment. With the music now so much more than just folk songs, they were soon picked up and recorded by a variety of artists in other fields, such as soul rendition of 'All I Want' by The Supremes, or the hard rock of 'This Flight Tonight' by Nazareth. The songs from 'Blue' have continued to be covered ever since, with Linda Ronstadt tackling 'River' in 2000, and Wilson Phillips taking on 'California' in 2004. 'Blue' is often cited as one of the best albums of all time, being rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and so here is a unique interpretation of it by a variety of artists who appreciate the quality of her song-writing.   



Track listing

01 All I Want (The Supremes 1972)  
02 My Old Man (Sandbloom 2011) 
03 Little Green (Blue Tapestry 2002) 
04 Carey (Goldie Hawn 1972)  
05 Blue (Sarah McLachlan 1994)  
06 California (Wilson Phillips 2004) 
07 This Flight Tonight (Nazareth 1973) 
08 River (Linda Ronstadt 2000)  
09 A Case Of You (Phoebe Snow 1998)  
10 The Last Time I Saw Richard (Clare Maguire 2014)

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Have A Folky Christmas 2023

It won't be long before Christmas is upon us once again, so here is a fine selection of folk-inspired Christmas tunes, without a folkified carol in sight. 



Track listing

01 The Bells Of Dublin/Christmas Eve (The Chieftans 1991)
02 On A Quiet Christmas Morn (Mary Chapin Carpenter 2008)
03 Christmas For Cowboys (John Denver 1975)
04 The Coventry Carol (The Young Tradition with Shirley & Dolly Collins 1969)
05 Christmas Passing Through (The Roches 1990)
06 Gaudete (Steeleye Span 1973)
07 Song For A Winter's Night (Gordon Lightfoot 1967)
08 Upon A Winter's Night (Cara Dillon 2016) 
09 Christ Is Born On Christmas Day (John Fahey 1991)
10 River (Joni Mitchell 1971)
11 Silent Night All Day Long (John Prine 1993)
12 In Dulci Jubilo (Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band 2005)
13 Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) (Laura Marling 2009)
14 Sing We Noel (The Kingston Trio 1960)
15 Candlemas Eve (Kate Rusby 2008)
16 I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day (Burl Ives 1965)
17 Coventry Carol (Joan Baez 1966)
18 On Christmas Night All Christians Sing (The Christmas Albion Band 2003)
19 The Seven Rejoices Of Mary (Loreena McKennitt 2008)
20 Christmas Carolling (The Irish Rovers 1999)

Search 'christmas aiwe' for all my Christmas albums.

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - ...and on guitar (1978)

Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter was born on December 13, 1948, and joined his first band at age 11. While still a high school student, he worked at Manny's Music Shop in Manhattan in 1966, and it was there that he met Jimi Hendrix, who was just beginning his career as a frontman. For a short period during that year, Baxter was the bassist in a Hendrix-led band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, along with fellow Manny's employee Randy California. He first reached a wide rock audience in 1968 as a member of the psychedelic rock band Ultimate Spinach, joining them for the third and final album 'Ultimate Spinach III'. After leaving the band, he played with the Holy Modal Rounders, and also backed singer Buzzy Linhart, and it was around this time that he started to use the nickname "Skunk," although its origins are shrouded in mystery to this day. Relocating to Los Angeles, he found work as a session guitarist, playing on Carly Simon's first album among many others, and in 1972 he became a founding member of Steely Dan, along with guitarist Denny Dias, guitarist-bassist Walter Becker, keyboardist-vocalist Donald Fagen, drummer Jim Hodder and vocalist David Palmer. Baxter appeared with Steely Dan on their first three albums, 'Can't Buy a Thrill' in 1972, 'Countdown To Ecstasy' in 1973, and 'Pretzel Logic' in 1974, and contributed the classic guitar solo on their highest charting hit 'Rikki Don’t Lose That Number'. While finishing work on 'Pretzel Logic', he became aware of Becker and Fagen's intentions to retire Steely Dan from touring, and to work almost exclusively with session players, and so with that in mind he left the band in 1974 to join The Doobie Brothers. As a session man, he had contributed pedal steel guitar on the band's fourth album 'What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits', so he fitted in straight away, and is much in evidence on 1975's 'Stampede'. While preparing to tour in support of 'Stampede', Tom Johnston was hospitalized with a stomach ailment, and so to fill in for him on vocals, Baxter suggested bringing in singer-keyboardist Michael McDonald, with whom Baxter had worked in Steely Dan. With Johnston still convalescing, McDonald was invited to join the band full-time, and his songwriting contributions, as well as Baxter's jazzier guitar style, marked a new direction for the band, but after three more albums Baxter left the band. He continued to work as a session guitarist for a diverse group of artists, including Willy DeVille, Bryan Adams, Hoyt Axton, Eric Clapton, Gene Clark, Sheryl Crow, Freddie Hubbard, Ricky Nelson, Dolly Parton, Ringo Starr, Gene Simmons, Rod Stewart, Burton Cummings, Barbra Streisand, and Donna Summer. 
He continues to do studio work, most recently on tribute albums to Pink Floyd and Aerosmith, and occasionally plays in The Coalition Of The Willing, a band comprising Andras Simonyi, Hungarian Ambassador to the United States; Alexander Vershbow, US Ambassador to South Korea; Daniel Poneman, formerly of the United States National Security Council and later the Obama Administration's Deputy Secretary of Energy; and Lincoln Bloomfield, former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. This is linked to a second profession that he fell into almost by accident when, in the mid-80s, his interest in music recording technology led him to wonder about hardware and software originally developed for military use, specifically data compression algorithms and large-capacity storage devices, and after extensive research he wrote a paper on missile defence systems, which he gave to California Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and his career as a defense consultant began. However, we're more interested in the music here, so this double disc set collects some of those pre-Dan sessions from Carly Simon, Cashman & West, Buzzy Linhart, and Paul Pena, and a few post-Dan recordings from Bob Neuwirth, Wayne Berry, and Tom Rush. The second disc all takes place while he was a member of The Doobie Brothers, and features Cher, Richie Havens, Little Feat, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and John Sebastian. Outside of the timeframe of these two discs he also played on records by Leo Sayer, Judy Collins, Cerrone, Roger Miller, and Nazareth, but the decade from 1970 to 1978 contains arguably his best work, so that's what we have here. 



Track listing

Disc One
01 Once In The Morning (from 'P. J. Colt' by P. J. Colt 1970)
02 The Best Thing (from 'Carly Simon' by Carly Simon 1971)
03 We Let Love Slip Away (from 'A Song Or Two' by Cashman & West 1972)
04 One For The Lonely (from 'Paul Pena' by Paul Pena 1972)
05 Danny's Song (from 'Reunion' by John Henry Kurtz 1972)
06 Tell Me True (from 'Buzzy' by Buzzy Linhart 1972)
07 Come Home Woman (from 'Out Of The Nest' by Swallow 1972)
08 Ole Slew-Foot (from 'Rootin'' by Navasota 1972)
09 Thanks For Nothing (from 'Thomas Jefferson Kaye' by Thomas Jefferson Kaye 1973)
10 We Had It All (from 'Bob Neuwirth' by Bob Neuwirth 1974)
11 Claim On Me (from 'Ladies Love Outlaws' by Tom Rush 1974)
12 All I Needed (from 'Home At Last' by Wayne Berry 1974)

Disc Two
01 Down The Backstairs Of My Life (from 'Eric Mercury' by Eric Mercury 1975)
02 These Days (from 'Stars' by Cher 1975)
03 Hot (from 'Moving Targets' by Flo & Eddie 1976)
04 Dreaming As One (from 'The End Of The Beginning' by Richie Havens 1976)
05 In France They Kiss On Main Street (from 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns' by 
                                                                                                                      Joni Mitchell 1975)
06 A Song A Day In Nashville (from 'Welcome Back' by John Sebastian 1976)
07 Highly Prized Possession (from 'Word Called Love' by Brian & Brenda Russell 1976)
08 Missin' You (from 'Time Loves A Hero' by Little Feat 1977)
09 A Heartfelt Line Or Two (from 'Blowin' Away' by Joan Baez 1977)
10 Guns Guns Guns (from 'Dream Of A Child' by Burton Cummings 1978)
11 Cry Baby Cry (from 'Flying Dreams' by Commander Cody 1978)
12 He Lives On (Story About The Last Journey Of A Warrior) (from 'Modern Man' by 
                                                                                                                  Stanley Clarke 1978)


Joni Mitchell - The Hissing Of Summer Demos (1975)

In January 1974 Joni MItchell release her 'Court And Spark' album, marking the beginning of her flirtation with jazz and jazz fusion, and the start of her experimental period ahead. 'Court and Spark' went to No. 1 on the Cashbox Album Charts, and made her a widely popular act for perhaps the only time in her career, on the strength of popular tracks like 'Raised on Robbery', 'Free Man In Paris', and 'Help Me', which became her only Top 10 single when it peaked at No. 7 in the first week of June. While recording 'Court and Spark', Mitchell had tried to make a clean break with her earlier folk sound, producing the album herself and employing jazz/pop fusion band The L.A. Express as what she called her first real backing group. In the Spring of 1975 Mitchell went into the studio to record acoustic demos of some songs she'd written for a potential follow-up record, including an early version of 'Dreamland', a song that two years later would appear on the album 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter'. A few months later she recorded band versions of the tunes with most of the same musicians she employed on 'Court And Spark', and this song cycle was released in November 1975 as the album 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns'. The LP was a big seller and peaked at #4 on the Billboard album charts. Generally, however, the album was greeted less than enthusiastically, with fans feeling that Mitchell had ceased being the confessional song-writer, and had turned her razor sharp observations outwards to society, and this was not what fans and critics expected or wanted from her. This was probably the first time that a musical direction of her's had been questioned, really wounding her, and she's since talked of the sting she felt at those bad reviews. As is generally the case, though, there were also quite a few good notices for the album, and over the years it has become one of her best known and most-loved releases. When these songs appear on bootlegs they are often packaged with filler, but this album contains just those 1975 demos, apart from one extra song 'Hunter (The Good Samaritan)', which was originally scheduled for 'Blue', but was only ever included on a rare test pressing, and has never since been officially issued. The cover uses Mitchell's own painting which was later adapted for use with the actual album.  



Track listing

01 Harry's House
02 Edith And The Kingpin
03 In France They Kiss On Main Street
04 Sweet Bird 
05 Shades Of Scarlett Conquering
06 Shadows And Light
07 Dreamland
08 The Boho Dance
09 Hunter (The Good Samaritan)