R2OK!

Cherskiy

Well, I spent most of today trying to assemble a rowing machine so didn't have time to finish last weekend's review - so what I did get done, I've posted below....

The last show of the show is traditionally a look back at some of Bob’s favourites from last year mixed with some golden oldies with a difference, and this was no exception. Therefore, the ‘middle hour’ dispensed with the usual live session – and I predicted in advance who at least ten of the artists featured would be!

The View provided some raw indie guitar-based rock to kick the show off with, their January 2007 album “Hats Off To The Buskers” yielding “Same Jeans”. This Dundee outfit managed to combine fun lyrics and frenzied guitar into an enjoyable romp on this track, even if Kyle Falconer can’t decide whether he’s part of Foster and Allan or Oasis!
Inevitably, The Draytones’ “Keep Loving Me” from their debut album “Forever On” - arguably an EP though, since it’s only six tracks long - was going to feature tonight at some stage, since Bob was rather taken with it during the first couple of months of last year. It’s not hard to work out why, though – combine some raw sixties flavoured guitars and echo-ey vocals, label them as ‘indie’ and, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
If The Draytones were a predictable choice, then so was Jesse Malin, whose “Glitter In The Gutter” album included the single “Don’t Let Them Take You Down”. Take the angst of Springsteen (a collaborator on at least one track on the album) and add them to a ground-down growl and you’re suddenly listening to Malin – one of the better rock artists to emerge in 2007 from relative obscurity, I thought. Great live session on Bob’s show earlier last year, too….
Ryan Adams seems to just go from success to success in his solo career, alternating between trashy-country-rock and introspective, thoughtful ballads. “Everybody Knows” (from the eight-track EP of the same name) was one of the latter, a pleasant if short song with all the Adams hallmarks stamped on it.
“Raising Sand” has been heavily plugged on various media during the last couple of months, but that’s not really surprising given that it’s a collaboration of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. It’s not everyday that you see Led Zeppelin-meets-bluegrass so the album is noteworthy for that alone – but even a cursory listen will draw you in deeper and if our very own Barkingbiker reckons it’s good, then it must be! “Stick With Me Baby” is simply sublime – it could stand alone as a Union Station song but add Plant’s slightly breathy vocals to Krauss’s legendary tones and a completely new dimension opens up.
I’ve already said before that I’m not a fan of [/b]Marillion[/b] but I managed to sit through the live version of “Estonia” that Bob played, the ‘un-played’ song from the live gig they did for the programme at Maida Vale earlier last year. I might be missing the point here, but there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of structure to this song – I couldn’t make up my mind whether it sounded like a Talk Talk album track slowed right down or Phil Collins on one of the lesser known “Then There Were Three” songs. Couldn’t sit through much more of this, unless I’d consumed plenty of Jack Daniels or had been hit over the head with the bottle itself beforehand…. Something you could play to people awaiting root canal work in lieu of an anaesthetic?
I couldn’t possibly say the same about the next track, though. Probably the most predictable choice for tonight’s retrospective would have been Kendel Carson’s “I Like Trucks” from one of the more unlikely ‘must-have’ albums this year, “Rearview Mirror Tears”. Can’t really add anything to what I’ve already written elsewhere about this during 2007 – except that it’s brilliant (a sentiment wholeheartedly echoed by Bob)!
Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez have featured on Bob’s Thursday show already last year, so as he likes to cross-over tracks from the Country Show to the Saturday Show, their live take on “Wild Thing” (from the album “Live From The Ruhr Triennale”) featured tonight. Chip Taylor is the discoverer of and moving force behind Kendle Carson, but it was interesting to hear him out on his own, or at least with Carrie Rodriguez. And ‘interesting’ was certainly the description for this country-fied take on a classic.
The Fray would probably have been a good bet to appear on Bob’s show tonight, and this faith was rewarded with “Over My Head” from their recent album “How To Save A Life”. Isaac Slade’s strong, razor-sharp vocals are key to the success of this track, although they’re supplemented by some cracking backing from the rest of the guys.
One of Bob’s favourite tracks from 2007 was “It’s All Good”, from the eponymously titled EP by Seasick Steve and the Level Devils, Steve being a former hobo that was ‘discovered’ in his mid-sixties and was showered with plaudits, including the ‘breakthrough’ Mojo Horizon Award. Bob recalls a reporter asking him how he felt after receiving the award – “The same!”….
There were a couple of belters from the “Across The Tracks Volume 2: More Nashville R ‘n’ B And Doo Wop” compilation album that was released back in 1997 – the first featuring Little Ike with “She Can Rock”, followed by Clips with “Let Me Get Close To You”. Both showed a different side to Nashville – the pre-country times that were filled with soul.
Joan Armatrading (forever known to me as ‘Armourplating’ courtesy of DLT!) featured in session during 2007 on the show, so it was pretty much a sure thing that she’d pop up somehow on this show. “Play The Blues” came from her recent and probably swansong album, “Into The Blues”, which went to No.1 in the American Blues chart shortly afterwards. This has been described as ‘rugged blues’ in some quarters – she’s not really my thing though (although I did like “Drop The Pilot” at one time) but I can see why others worship her.
Bob’s ‘house band’ The Storys appeared on the show (two weeks running!) with “Town Beyond The Trees” from their shortly-to-be-released album of the same name. Out-eagling the Eagles again? It’s hard not to draw comparisons between the two bands, with this track echoing the super-group’s more mellow moments. Bob is obviously a huge fan of The Storys and it’s easy to work out why – a Brit band with that ‘West Coast’ (California, not Cornwall!) feel. He played a couple of tracks on ‘Drive’, hoping that a different audience would pick up on them – and according to him tonight, plenty of people did!
A promise was made on last week’s show to feature the late Dan Fogelberg again, “Song Of The Sea” coming from his 1990 album “The Wild Places”. His passing obviously resonated with many of Bob’s audience (and possibly the presenter himself), since he succumbed to cancer in mid-December. Bob played this song on his old overnight R1 shows – it sounded to me like a more likeable and less pretentious version of something Cliff might have done back then.
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Author: “To the Ends of the Earth: A Snapshot of Aviation in North-Eastern Siberia, Summer 1992”
(Free to read via Kindle Unlimited)

Lord Evan Elpuss · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 3417 Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land

Bob's playlist for tonight's show is up already!! Shocked

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Lord Evan Elpuss, Your ideal job is a Lumberjack.

Cherskiy · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:58 pm Post subject:

Thea Gilmore, Kathleen Edwards, Joe Bonamassa - sounds like a great show coming up tonight! Very Happy

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Author: “To the Ends of the Earth: A Snapshot of Aviation in North-Eastern Siberia, Summer 1992”
(Free to read via Kindle Unlimited)

Lord Evan Elpuss · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 3417 Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land

He's back in the studio tonight

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Lord Evan Elpuss, Your ideal job is a Lumberjack.

Barkingbiker · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 2313 Location: Lincolnshire

Hi Cherskiy, fine review, thanks for the mention and your confidence in my good taste in music. Thanks your Lordship for the heads up, ref tonites playlist, I have just got in, in time to listen to the show and some excellent tracks coming up. Steve Earle, The Boss, Billy Fury, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (playing my favourite track off Raising Sand), Tom Petty, Buddy Holly and loads more. Time to listen to some class & classic tracks, thanks Bob. Very Happy

BB

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Old Bikers Never Die, our leathers just get tighter!

Lord Evan Elpuss · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 3417 Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land

You're welcome BB.
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Lord Evan Elpuss, Your ideal job is a Lumberjack.

Barkingbiker · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 2313 Location: Lincolnshire

This riff on Jean Genie is ace, had forgotten just how good it was, and I am sure it was Stuart that played it this afternoon as well, double delight. Very Happy

BB

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Old Bikers Never Die, our leathers just get tighter!