Legendary Hi Records producer oversaw the cream of Memphis soul and many more.

By Fred Mills

It's not just Memphis music buffs who are mourning the news of producer Willie Mitchell's death - the man had a hand in so many classic recordings, you could say he was part of our collective musical DNA.

Or as Bob Mehr of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal writes in his Mitchell obituary today:

They called him "Poppa." In the end, he was exactly that: patriarch to an extended family of musicians, big daddy to a large brood of blood kin and progenitor of a soul sound known the world over.

Mitchell passed away yesterday, January 5, at the age of 81, at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis. In September he'd broken his hip, and then last month he'd also gone into cardiac arrest.

Mitchell had held musical court a Memphis' Royal Studios and, of course, Hi Records, which released Mitchell-produced records by Al Green, Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles and many others. The award-winning producer also worked with Green in 2003 and 2005 when Green made a critically acclaimed comeback with I Can't Stop and Everything's OK.

Over the years he also worked with rock artists including Rod Stewart, Keith Richards, Boz Scaggs and John Mayer.

Read Mehr's full appreciation and career overview of Mitchell here.

Just in time for you to spend the last of that dough you got for Christmas...

By Fred Mills

Hey kids, tired of buying those favorite albums of yours a third, fourth and in some instances a fifth time when an expanded "deluxe edition" is released containing all the shit you already own plus bonus material and/or an extra disc (or two) containing shit the record label wants to convince you that you need to own?

UMe has a deal for YOU!

The Universal Music Group, along with several of its imprints including Motown, A&M, Island and Geffen, is releasing today, January 5, the somewhat-newly-christened "Rarities Editions" of a slew of much-loved artists that include Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Steve Earle, Motorhead, Gin Blossoms and Weezer.

What, you ask, are these, and do you need to fork over the $11 to $14 per disc it'll take to own them? Well, for starters, you may already own them: if for example you snapped up Steve Earle's Copperhead Road: Deluxe Edition in 2008, the one that contained a second disc of songs not on the original 1988 album, then you don't need Rarities Edition, as it comprises, specifically, Disc 2 of Deluxe Edition. But if you didn't buy that, and you already have Copperhead Road proper, then this disc's for you, bubba!

Likewise with the Gin Blossoms' New Miserable Experience, Weezer's Weezer (aka The Blue Album), Eric B. & Rakim's Paid In Full, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, Howlin' Wolf's The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, Rick James' Street Songs, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Street Survivors, Diana Ross' Diana and Motorhead's Ace of Spades.

Those first 10 installments in the series will presumably be followed by many more (Bob Marley and Saint Etienne, for example), because who are we kidding here? Labels' back catalogs are what are keeping them afloat these days. And sure, these are retreads, but unless you're an unreconstructed collector you don't even need to consider buying them. For folks who balked at the cost of the two-disc reissues, this will give them a chance to have all the extra content. And while on occasion the bonus material has been of dubious quality and worth, most of the time (such as with the live concert on the second disc of the Earle set) it holds up.

For a look at the 10 titles along with an interesting forum discussion about the UMe series, go to the Imwan.com board.

Stump the chumps, er, the celebrity panel, and win fabulous prizes! Or at least some snog time with Kitty Carlisle...

By Fred Mills

Now THIS is one of those unusual blasts from the past that makes YouTube a true national (international?) treasure - why they can't monetize that sucker fully yet just boggles the mind.

Over the holidays some enterprising blues fanatic tracked down an episode of TV panel show To Tell the Truth, presumably dating to the mid ‘60s, featuring harmonica legend and bandleader Paul Butterfield as the guest. It's worth watching just for the part at the end when Butterfield gets up and jams with the house band, and the video quality is surprisingly good for its vintage.

The main segment, though, is priceless. For those not familiar with To Tell the Truth - Wikipedia entry here - the format involved a four-person celebrity panel attempting to figure out which of the guests is actually who he/she claims to be. That actual "person" is pledged to answer the panel's questions truthfully, but the impostors are allowed to lie through their teeth. In its initial incarnation the show ran on CBS from 1956 to 1968, later going into syndication and ultimately going through a series of revivals as well. For this episode the panel was made up of what a lot of viewers considered to be the "classic" lineup of Orson Bean, Peggy Cass, Kitty Carlisle (hot, very hot), and Tom Poston (yes, that Tom Poston, later of Newhart fame).

Here, Butterfield (as Number One) along with a college student (Number Two) and a salesman (Number Three) attempt to stump the panel; the salesman doesn't really fool anyone, but the four votes get split evenly between Butterfield and the student, and it's a whale of a lot of fun watching the panelists demonstrate varying degrees of knowledge and ignorance of the blues and the then-contemporary music scene.

Through it all, Butterfield has a kind of semi-bemused look on his face. This is a guy, after all, that has played with the likes of Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Mike Bloomfield and Howlin' Wolf. You can practically see the thought bubble over his head going, "Please God, don't let Orson, Peggy, Kitty or Tom hit me up for a backstage pass at tonight's show down at the Café Wha?..."

Fairly uninspired mashup of Nirvana and Gaga making the rounds of the Internet. Meanwhile, what about that "Best of Bootie 2009" mashup album?

By Blurt Staff

We're not quite sure why some bloggers are going ga-ga over the recent Nirvana-Lady Gaga mashup. As you can hear below, DJ Lobsterdust hasn't exactly pushed the envelope with his remake/remodel. For starters, why does everyone feel compelled to use "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in their mashups. And GaGa's "Poker Face" isn't exactly the standout track in her oeuvre.

But hey, anytime a DJ can combine those two hot-button names and get the press (like us) to report on it, it's a guaranteed elevated profile, at least for a short while. Check it out, below.

 Meanwhile, the New York Post recently, er, posted its list of the so-called best mashups of '09. In addition to the Nirvana-Gaga track, some of the fave raves were "I Got More Than A Feeling" by Mad Mix Mustang (Boston and the Black Eyed Peas), "Chasing Cars That Way" by Dan Mel & Marc Johnce (Backstreet Boys and Snow Patrol), a positively inspired "My Life on the Crazy Train Sucks," also by Mel and Johnce (listed as Kelly Clarkson vs. Ozzy Osbourne vs. Pink vs. Daft Punk, no less) and several other Gaga entries, including mashups of her with Human League and Journey. The entire list can be found here, and they've even provided a download link so you can get the entire "album" - titled, somewhat alarmingly, "Best of Bootie 2009," free of charge.

Latest pick of cool emerging artist in our ongoing collaboration with Sonicbids.

By Fred Mills

The BLURT staff put our heads (and ears) together and we have the latest (December 2009) pick for our Blurt/Sonicbids "Best Kept Secret": it's Washington, DC-based the Public Good.

The band was formed a couple of years ago by John Elderkin and Steve Ruppenthal, a songwriting team that had previously garnered national acclaim back in the early ‘90s as members of Chapel Hill's The Popes (a big college radio fave). After the demise of that band Ruppenthal and Elderkin worked together in Stumble, followed by the Lovely Lads, eventually going their own separate ways to pursue work and academic careers.

After they both wound up in DC they resumed the partnership and by the summer of 2009 had released their debut album No. 1. The record's stuffed to the gills with hi-nrg pop, from the Husker Du/Replacements-worthy "F-105" and the irrepressibly jangly, Kinksian "(Imagine the Girlfriends I'd Have) If I Still Had Hair" to the chiming/humming, buoyantly harmonious "Cigarette". Suffice to say that the Public Good lives up to, and in many ways surpasses, the early musical promise demonstrated two decades ago by the mighty Popes.

The lineup:

John Elderkin - guitar, vocals

Steve Ruppenthal - bass, vocals

Sam Esquith - guitar, keyboards

Chris Garges - drums

We'll have an interview with the band posted to the site shortly. Check out the band's MySpace page for song samples, tour dates and more, as well as their official website.  And congratulations to the Public Good. They're one of the, ahem, good ‘uns, trust us.

***

Bands, go to www.sonicbids.com/blurtonline to submit and have us review your materials for feature consideration.

>Our November ‘08 Best Kept Secret: The Handcuffs, from Chicago.

>Our December Best Kept Secret: Black Swan Green, from Brooklyn

>Our January Best Kept Secret: stephaniesÄ­d, from Asheville

>Our March Best Kept Secret: Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle, from England

>Our June Best Kept Secret: Wiretree, from Austin

>Our August Best Kept Secret: Bulletproof Vests, from Memphis

>Our November Best Kept Secret: The Vivs, from Boston

Chris Cornell tweets the news, somewhat cryptically, of a reunion underway by the grunge granddaddies.

By Fred Mills

Hey, all you laimstains! Ready for the grunge revival? Harboring a lurking suspicion that the recent Target-retailed Pearl Jam album was, like, a seriously harsh realm? It's been some time since you've been swingin' on the flippity-flop in your kickers and wack slacks. How would a Soundgarden reunion sound to you?

It's been 15 years since the release of 1994's mega-selling Superunknown, after which the band split up, in 1997. Aside from a few sorta-but-not-quite one-off deals, including a Matt Cameron-Kim Thayil-Ben Shepherd performance last March in Seattle and Chris Cornell coming onstage at a Pearl Jam gig to do Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike," there hasn't been a peep outta the S-garden camp. What there HAS been is the underperforming Audioslave, featuring Cornell fronting ¾ of Rage Against the Machine, in which guitarist Tom Morello barely got out of with his dignity intact; and a string of underwhelming Cornell solo albums, including 2009's Timbaland-produced Scream, which spawned a raft of Cornell-Timbaland-related one-liners as well as more than a few withering Trent Reznor web postings and tweets.

But at exactly 9pm on December 31, Chris Cornell himself, who has over a million Twitter followers, tweeted the following news:

The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again! www.soundgardenworld.com

There's not much at the Soundgarden site at the moment other than a form where you can sign up to get email updates from the band. Billboard is citing "sources" who advise that "the group is weighing offers from several major U.S. and international festivals. But a tour routing is still a work in progress, due to [drummer Matt] Cameron's prior commitments to play with Pearl Jam in the spring and summer of next year."

Billboard adds that it was at the Pearl Jam show Cornell turned up at that may have sparked the reunion, as Shepherd and Thayil were also present at the show, and the latter two have also been planning to put together a Soundgarden boxed set.

All aboard, ladies and germs, the nostalgia train is boarding. First stop: Pavementville. Score!

As a public service, we reintroduce the Lexicon Of Grunge, so bone up on it if you don't want to be a total cob nobbler.

• bloated, big bag of bloatation - drunk
• bound-and-hagged - staying home on Friday or Saturday night
• cob nobbler - loser
• dish - desirable guy
• fuzz - heavy wool sweaters
• harsh realm - bummer
• kickers - heavy boots
• lamestain - uncool person
• plats - platform shoes
• rock on - a happy goodbye
• score - great
• swingin' on the flippity-flop - hanging out
• tom-tom club - uncool outsiders
• wack slacks - old ripped jeans

Much admired guitarist for one of the original Native American rock band and crossover acts.

By Blurt Staff

Anthony Bellamy, guitarist and singer for the groundbreaking Native American ‘70s rock band Redbone, passed away on Christmas morning in Las Vegas.  The cause of his death was reportedly liver failure. Born Anthony Avila, he was 69.

In a statement, the Native American Music Awards (N.A.M.A.) organization said it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing. Anthony, or Tony "T-Bone" Bellamy, who attended the 10th Annual Native American Music Awards and was inducted into the N.A.M.A. Hall of Fame with Redbone in 2008, was a Mexican-American Yaqui Indian who became the lead guitarist, pianist and vocalist for Redbone. He was a beloved and endearing friend of the "Nammys" since its inception, and will be greatly missed."

Along with Albuquerque's XIT, which recorded for Motown, Redbone was considered among the first Native American rock bands to achieve any sort of crossover success during the early ‘70s - this was at a time when the image was still strictly one of drums, flutes and dancing. (Thanks a lot, Hollywood.) Redbone formed in 1969 with Bellamy, Pete DePoe and brothers Patrick Vasquez and Lolly Vasquez in Los Angeles, reportedly at the urging of Jimi Hendrix, who convinced them that a Native American rock band might have a shot during the then-thriving countercultural milieu. Indeed, Redbone hit it big in 1974 with the Top 5 song "Come and Get Your Love," from the album Wovoka. The band's self-titled debut LP had been released four years earlier on Epic and they tasted early success with the singles "Maggie" and "The Witch Queen of New Orleans"; to this day, though, "Come and Get Your Love" remains a staple of oldies radio, and the tune has been covered by numerous other artists. The band's music was a compelling hybrid of blues, rock, soul, tribal, Latin and Cajun - a veritable melting pot that reflected the members' mixed-blood ancestry.

Prior to Redbone, Bellamy worked as a musician in the Bay Area, including with Dobie Gray and rock band Peter and The Wolves (the latter would morph into Moby Grape).

Redbone on MySpace (song samples, photos and more):

http://www.myspace.com/redbonemyspace

Just because you can't go on Celebrity Big Brother doesn't mean you couldn't clean houses for a living.

By Fred Mills

How did YOU spend your Christmas holidays? If you were Boy George - who has had what may be charitably described as "a shitty year" - you were busy petitioning a British judge to let you appear on the tenth and final season of Celebrity Big Brother, but to no avail.

Everybody say, "Awwwwww....."

A court had squelched BG's plans to appear on the reality show (which would have paid him some serious dough, something he, er, needs to help pay off legal bills) on the grounds that he is still on probation for assault and false imprisonment - you know, that little deal that went down with the male escort awhile back. According to MTV News "Court officials worried that allowing George to appear on the show would undermine the probation system and would cause people to lose faith in the courts."

BG appealed the ban, suggesting that the court's elaborating, after the fact, upon the terms of his probation were unnecessarily cruel. But a couple of days before Christmas a High Court judge dismissed the appeal.

Britain's The Sun reports, however, that BG is "refusing to let his Celebrity Big Brother dream die - telling fans he still hopes to be part of the show despite a judge banning him from entering the [Big Brother] house.... He hinted to fans on his Twitter page: ‘I still may do something on CBB, I just won't be in it!'"

 Fun fact: Boy George only has 29,000 Twitter followers. By contrast Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears each have over 4 million while Kim Kardashian and John Mayer each have almost 3 mil. Everybody say once again.... "Awwwwww......."

Massive 10 CD boxed set runs some serious voudo down... see video clip, below.

By A.D. Amorosi

Best known for essaying the indigenous sounds and habits of the rural South and the Appalachians Alan Lomax (1915 - 2002) was a preservationist, curator, and conservationist. Mostly though, as heard throughout the 10 CDs of Alan Lomax in Haiti (Hart Recordings; www.harterecordings.com), he was an ethnomusicological spirit catcher whose revelations captured Afro-Caribbean and African nuances decades before David Byrne and Moby set their samplers to warp speed.

We can now listen in to a pivotal era in Haiti's cultural history, when the country was throwing off U.S. imperialism and embracing both its African roots and the coming influence of jazz and African-American/Afro-Caribbean popular music and dance," states the producer's daughter Anna Lomax Wood in Haiti's formidable books of notes. Like a sonic version of Wade Davis's The Serpent and the Rainbow, these 1936-37 recordings maintain the raw sound of oppression, rage, freedom and sexuality that is the 287 song package. These are politicized meringues, religious mambos, vodou parade tunes and priestly jazz dances. These are private moments captured in tiny clubs, yards, and tribal rituals. They are pop songs.

In reality the entirety of Haiti is one long treasure map with Lomax as the guy with the map and the mic - each worth their weight in gold. It might be hard to get through the box - it's distant and foreign in every way. But like every treasure hunt, the adventure is the key to its wealth.

Juno-winning multi-lingual singer-songwriter also worked with Tindersticks, Patrick Watson and others.

By Fred Mills

Canadian singer-songwriter Lhasa de Sela - known simply as Lhasa to her many fans across the globe - died Jan. 1 at her Montreal home following a 21-month long battle with breast cancer. She was only 37.

She released her latest album, simply titled Lhasa, in 2009 and had continued to work during much of her illness, although her last public performances were in Iceland last May. She was forced to cancel a long international tour scheduled for autumn 2009 and a projected album of the songs of Victor Jara and Violeta Parra was never completed.

In a statement from her manager, David-Etienne Savoie, "She faced [the illness] with courage and determination. Throughout this difficult period, she continued to touch the lives of those around her with her characteristic grace, beauty and humor."

Born in 1972 in Big Indian, NY (in the Catskill mountains) to a Mexican father and American mother, Lhasa moved around for much of her life, eventually settling in Montreal in the early ‘90s. She debuted in 1997 with the Spanish-language La Llorona, which earned her a Juno award for Best Global Album. She toured heavily behind it and was a featured performer on the Lilith Fair festival. 2003 brought The Living Road, and along with the 2009 album she has sold, to date, over a million copies internationally.

In addition to many other awards, Lhasa was named Best Artist of the Americas in 2005 at the BBC's World Music Awards. She also sang with Britain's Tindersticks, France's Arthur H and Montreal's Patrick Watson.

Commented manager Savoie, "It is difficult to describe her unique voice and stage presence, which earned her iconic status in many countries throughout the world, but

some   Journalists have  described it as passionate, sensual, untameable, tender, profound, troubling, enchanting, hypnotic, hushed, powerful, intense, a voice for all time.

"Lhasa had a unique way of communicating with her public.  She dared to open her heart on stage, allowing her audience to experience an intimate connection and communion with her.   She profoundly affected and inspired many people throughout the cities and countries she visited."

Lhasa at MySpace (songs, and more): http://www.myspace.com/lhasadeselamusic