THE OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS PODCAST
S01E22: “Fave World Music Records" and More...
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Monday, June 20, 2016
S01E22 OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS :: Fave Death Metal Records
THE OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS PODCAST
S01E22: “Fave Death Metal Records" and More...
Sunday, June 12, 2016
S01E21 OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS :: Fave Classical Records pt. 2
THE OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS PODCAST
S01E21: “Fave Classical Records” (pt. 2) and More...
S01E20 OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS :: Fave Classical Records pt. 1
THE OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS PODCAST
S01E20: “Fave Classical Records” (pt. 1) and More...
Running Time: 67 min 37 sec
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Tuesday, June 7, 2016
S01E19 OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS :: Fave Punk Records
THE
OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS PODCAST
S01E19: “Fave Punk Records” and
More...
Running Time: 67 min
18 sec
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Monday, June 6, 2016
Old-School Written Review :: Byron Berline, Sam Bush, & Mark O'Connor - In Concert
Mark O’Connor Productions, US 1977 -OMAC-2
Genre: Folk, World, Country
Style: Bluegrass
“One of the most fun aspects of music is getting together with your close friends and hot pickers and laying some music on the line. The idea was a tremendous one. The musicians would be Byron Berline and Sam Bush. The place would be the Pacific Northwest where bluegrass music was scarce and where Byron and Sam had never been before. We got on the phone and made arrangements. My Mom and myself would put on and promote the show in Seattle. My friend, Bob Asbury, would help out in Spokane. Byron, Sam, and myself had a great time. The people up here in Washington got to hear their talent and got to know their great personalities just by watching them on stage together. Breaking strings, runnin’ around and goofin’ off made the show so laid back and fun to do - we just had to make it into an album so other people could share in half as much fun as well all had. So...here it is a year later. I’ll close by saying, Thanks to two of the greatest musicians in the world - Sam and Byron. Take care now.”
-Mark O’Connor
Mark O’Connor was only 15 years young when he got a wild hair up his hoo-ha, reached out to two of the most beloved and respected bluegrass musicians at the time, Byron Berline & Sam Bush, and put together a 2-night showcase of all things mandolin- & fiddle-strummin’ in Seattle & Spokane, Washington. But he didn’t just twiddle his thumbs on the sidelines. He held his own up on stage alongside these 2 legends, playing the fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. By the time he reached his teens, he had already established himself as a well respected bluegrass virtuoso, winning national string instrument championships for his masterful playing of all three of these instruments.
After hearing this record all the way through, I feel like it could stand alone as the definitive intro to bluegrass standards and fiddle-pickin’ ballads. They play several bluegrass classics such as “Teardrops in My Eyes”, “John Hardy”, and “Footprints in the Snow”. Some seriously fast, really impressive trio fiddlin’ take place on this record, too, where all three players strum along together in sync, including “Gold Rush”, “Sally Goodin’”, and “Birmingham Fling”. My only beef with this record, and this seems to be the case with many “live in concert” records (I’m lookin’ at you “Frampton Comes Alive”), is the fact that they cut between songs, and possibly even leave out parts of the concert. If this was a long-playing, seamless recording of the concert in its entirety with no gaps between tracks, it would be an even more enjoyable listen. Otherwise, this record is flawless.
My favorites from the record: “Alabama Jubilee”, “Teardrops in My Eyes”, and “Oconee”.
If you, or someone you know, would like to write a music review of your favorite “old-school” records, please contact us HERE. You can either stick with the continually changing theme of our audio podcast, or write about ANY record that speaks to you.
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Old-School Written Review :: Merle Haggard - Okie From Muskogee
Capitol Records, US 1969 ST-384
Style: Country
For someone introduced to Merle Haggard through the live recorded album, Okie from Muskogee, there is somewhat of an incongruity in the first 30 seconds. It’s as Haggard is being introduced by the MC in the Civic Center of Muskogee, Oklahoma:
“From
Bakersfield, California, the one and only Merle Haggard and The Strangers.”
The titular song on the album is
about celebrating a proud, insular birth identity, which Merle didn’t actually
possess. Merle Haggard’s familial connection to the Oklahoman people was in
fact only through his Dad. The back cover of this record lovingly
describes the community celebrating him as “his father’s people”. It also
lovingly describes the scene one can’t fully comprehend on this masterfully
recorded live album.
“THE APPLAUSE WAS LIKE THUNDER, THE
CHEERS, WHISTLES AND STOMPS WERE TOO MUCH.”
That was one of the wonderful things about
the outlaw country attitude that Haggard helped pioneer, though. His songs and
song selections were so poignantly relatable, there was no way to not warmly
welcome an outsider like him. He literally has a section of his set dedicated
to classic country numbers pertaining to drunkards. He then asks who in the
audience would wear that title for themselves, and in response the
listener can hear the crowd roar.
Many of the songs
performed to the Muskogee community on this album are not Haggard’s originals,
but instead written decades earlier by his country hero, Jimmie Rodgers. The
climax of these covers comes at the beginning of side 2, “Hobo Bill’s Last
Ride”. Haggard gives a simple, yet heartfelt introduction to the piece. The
song’s concepts are not too difficult or challenging, and are only embellished
musically by simple riffs from his guitar. In these selections though, he truly
wins the audience over with his pitch perfect yodeling outros to the verses.
These are a staple in the Jimmie Rodgers catalogue. Each yodeling break by
Haggard is met by an enthusiastic applause break from the audience.
Haggard pulls off
these songs not only from the very solid performance given by him and The
Strangers, but because of the excitement the audience receives from knowing
that he lived these songs. His early life was steeped in actual prison time,
prison escapes, robbery, family abandonment, and hard drinking. He has the
power to make the audience espouse the typical country tales of melancholia
found in “Hobo Bill” or, my personal favorite, “Workin’ Man Blues”. Just like
for the inmates of Folsom Prison, hearing Johnny Cash deliver the now legendary
performance, Merle Haggard stands on stage as one of the many characters,
telling his stories.
The band waits
until the very end to let the audience hear what they’ve been waiting for:
“Okie from Muskogee”. The song serves as a bit of Southern satire on the
perceived pervasive trends of the rest of the country in 1969. Haggard proudly
states, “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee, we don’t take no trips on LSD.”
Of course, anyone familiar with Haggard and the other originators of outlaw
country know that experimentation with drugs was very popular among them,
especially marijuana. They also were often political dissidents, contradictory
to what the song suggests. That’s not essential information for the citizens of
this small city, though. It gives them a down-home anthem; It reminds
them that they existed to the rest of the world. This is something that
everyone yearns for, and Haggard delivers. Merle Haggard and The Strangers were
not able to leave the Civic Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma before giving the
audience an encore of this piece.
In a charming show of appreciation to
Haggard, early in the album the listener hears the mild-mannered mayor of
Muskogee making him an honorary Okie, and Muskogee citizen. It was a symbolic
badge that he wore for the rest of his life, which ended earlier this year.
In the days of the dust bowl, an Okie
wasn’t a term of endearment, but a term of aggression. It was for Oklahomans
looking for acceptance and livelihood elsewhere, when their native land
couldn’t support them any longer. But this was 1969. It was time for Haggard to
look for acceptance among his father’s people, leaving California to do it. And
as the listener can hear on Okie from Muskogee, he surely found
it.
Written by D.W. Wallach
If you, or someone you know,
would like to write a music review of your favorite “old-school” records,
please contact us HERE. You can
either stick with the continually changing theme of our audio podcast, or write
about ANY record that speaks to you.
Friday, June 3, 2016
S01E18 OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS :: Fave Country Records
THE OLD-SCHOOL MUSIC REVIEWS PODCAST
S01E18: “Fave Country Records” and More...
Running Time: 92 min
27 sec
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