Rockabilly legend has worked with Elvis, the Cramps, Dave Alvin, Rosie Flores and scores others.

By Fred Mills

Although no official press release has been issued yet, word is circulating that rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson was en route to Nashville on Friday to record with the White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather mainman Jack White. Plans are to record a digital single, possibly for White's Third Man label, followed by an album at a late date.

Jackson, 72, was interviewed by The Oklahoman the other day in which she confirmed the news, saying that she met White via  her website manager. She added that she sees it along the same lines as White's 2004 collaboration with Loretta Lynn, whose White-produced Van Lear Rose earned across-the-board acclaim.

"They had a super album, but he didn't have her do anything different, you know," Jackson said. "She just did her little Loretta Lynn songs. But he told me he's gonna stretch me some, so we'll see. We'll talk later."

The feisty Fujiyama mama was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame this past April. And last month she had a street in Oklahoma City dedicated to her; she performed at the ceremony with The Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Go here for the full story, or view a video about Jackson posted to the site, below.

Syl Johnson (pictured, above) and other alumni of Chicago's Twinight label do the Numero Group proud.

BY STEVEN ROSEN

Although the curatorial reissue label Numero Group is based in Chicago, its roots are in Columbus, Ohio. Its first release, in early 2004, and the inaugural title in the acclaimed Eccentric Soul series, was devoted to Capsoul Records, an obscure, suitably eccentric Columbus record label of the late 1960s/early 1970s.

"We launched our label with Capsoul, and we've done four albums from Columbus, more than any city," announced Ken Shipley, one of the archival label's founders, at the start of Numero's Eccentric Soul Revue roadshow stand in Columbus on Nov. 9.

So not only was the city an appropriate stop for this short U.S. tour, but so was the venue - the Egyptian Revival-style Lincoln Theater, which had opened as a vaudeville/jazz house in the city's historic African-American King-Lincoln District back in 1928 and, legend has it, was where a young Sammy Davis Jr. started his career. It had been vacant for decades until this year, when the city spearheaded a $13.5 million renovation to restore it to its old glories, with updated sound and lighting as well as a glisteningly colorful interior

The show was presented in Columbus by the innovative Wexner Center for the Arts, which meant it attracted arts/pop culture devotees as well as middle-aged and older blacks who remembered when Capsoul was a big deal in Ohio's capitol city.

Primarily, the Eccentric Soul Revue was meant to showcase Numero Group's recent reissue of material from Chicago's late-1960s Twinight label, Twinight's Lunar Rotation. Twinight is best known as home to the prescient soul-blues-funk-protest singles of Syl Johnson ("Different Strokes," "Is It Because I'm Black," "Concrete Reservation"). To fans of Windy City soul, he occupies a position something like Otis Rush's Cobra blues releases of the 1950s - great songs somewhat overlooked today because the label just didn't last for long. Next year, Numero is releasing a definitive box set of Johnson's recordings.

The house/backing band was JC Brooks & the six-member Uptown Sound, with the young, talented Brooks doing yeoman's work of singing warm-up between featured acts, emceeing and providing harmony support when needed. His songs, such as "I Used to Hold You, Now I Hold You Back" had punch and grit and were unexpected pleasures.

For Columbus, the revue added one of Capsoul's finest vocal groups, the Four Mints. Wearing bright-red and black outfits straight out of the 1970s, with a lead singer struggling to stay in tune, their two-song set featured their danceable, sweet 1971 local hit "Row My Boat." Afterward, the writer of the song - Dean Francis - took the stage to express his gratitude.

The show's sole disappointment was that Capsoul artist Marion Black - who recorded the sublime "Go On Fool," a complaint about his wife's lack of appreciation for his hard work - didn't sing as billed. He stood from the audience when announced, acknowledging applause, but that was it.

There were three Twinight acts on the bill - Renaldo Domino, the Notations and Johnson himself, still trim, quick-witted and hard-working at 73. Domino, his voice Smokey-like with its high vulnerable falsetto, was just a kid in 1969 when he recorded the memorable ballad "Not Too Cool to Cry," and in Columbus he sang it with its lovely, dreamy sweetness intact.

The Notations, a quartet decked out in stylish white sport coats and light-green slacks, owe plenty to Chicago soul's most important figure, the late Curtis Mayfield. He was a mentor to its lead vocalist, Cliff Curry, whose onstage kindness and sense of gratitude was reminiscent of Mayfield's own personality.

It was fitting the Notations did an a cappella version of the Impressions' "It's Alright," and high tenor Michael Thurman opened the set with Mayfield's mid-1970s nugget, "Super People." But the group also sang its own regional hit, "I'm Still Here," with impressive authority.

Johnson, whether performing blues or soul material, has always been too idiosyncratic to allow himself to become slick and stylized - one reason he's a hero to the Ponderosa Stomp crowd rather than an oldies-circuit lounge act.

As a singer, there's still nothing formulaic about his approach - he was tough and impassioned and brought a commanding sense of relevance to his material. For instance, on his old hit "Is It Because I'm Black," a melancholy, anti-racist drifting-blues number that has the same kind of chillingly ethereal feel as B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone," Johnson ended with a defiant shout-out: "But they can't hold me back anymore because I am President!"

For the Numero revue, he didn't play his guitar but did pull out the harmonica on a few songs, even dropping to his knees to draw more volume on set-closer "Take Me to the River." (As Johnson pointed out, he was the first person to recognize that song's potential, releasing the obscure Al Green album track as a single when he and Green were both Hi Records label mates in the 1970s.)

Johnson's Twinight singles held up amazingly well live - his 1967 hit "Come on Sock It To Me" has a James Brown-like polyrhythmic funk that is more rock-steady than what Brown, himself, was doing at the time. On stage, Johnson shook his hips to it with aplomb, a veritable dancing machine.

The show ended with Brooks calling all the performers on stage for a rousing, extended and unexpected version of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Actually, for devotees of classic soul, you absolutely could get what you want at the Eccentric Soul Revue in Columbus.

[Photo of Syl Johnson: Rebecca Gizicki / courtesy Numero Group]

The Boss gets a geography lesson from his guitarist...

By Fred Mills

Somewhere on earth this past Friday the 13^th, an airplane fell out of the sky; a huge crevice opened up in the ground and a person fell in; a family pooch went missing; some dumbass left his wallet on a park bench; and, oh yeah, Bruce Springsteen took to the stage in Michigan and rousingly greeted the crowd, "Hello Ohio!"

As you may have heard by now, the Boss then compounded the gaffe by mentioning Ohio several more times before E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt leaned over and whispered into his ear. At that point Springsteen's face visibly reddened and he cracked an embarrassed smile.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Springsteen stepped to the mic and announced, "I'm all right. That is every front man's nightmare."

The packed house at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan, was apparently pretty forgiving, however, and Bruce & band rocked away for the better portion of three hours.

"An Evening With Harry Connick, Jr. and Clive Davis" took place Nov. 11, at the GRAMMY Museum, Los Angeles, and BLURT was there.

By Jose Martinez

Record mogul Clive Davis and New Orleans crooner Harry Connick, Jr. have teamed up on the singer's latest release, Your Songs, where he visits the classic songbook, reaching as far forward as the 1970s for tunes by Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, and Elton John. Wednesday night the GRAMMY Museum hosted an evening with the dynamic duo of Davis & Connick, Jr., offering a fascinating discussion and brief performance by the charismatic singer.

With all proceeds benefiting the GRAMMY Museum, MusiCares (providing a safety net of critical assistance for musicians in times of need), and the Musicians' Village (providing homes for artists who have defined the city's culture), the evening's discussion focused on music, the ever-evolving music industry, and volunteer work to better the Crescent City.

The songs that Connick and Davis selected on Your Songs include some of the best known work of singer/songwriters Billy Joel ("Just the Way You Are") Lennon-McCartney ("And I Love Her"), and Elton John ("Your Song"), as well as classics made immortal by the likes of Nat King Cole ("Mona Lisa"), Frank Sinatra ("All the Way") and Elvis Presley ("Can't Help Falling In Love With You").

Legendary "record man" Clive Davis described Connick, in front of a sold out crowd of 200 inside the museum's intimate Sound Stage, as the "best contemporary pop singer in the world."

Connick, a gregarious performer, both onstage and on-screen, is a natural born charmer who had the audience in stitches. "I can throw it down if you ever want to work with me," he yelled to producer Jimmy Jam who was in attendance. "I know what time it is."

The singer joked that a cover of AC/DC's "Back In Black" didn't make the record before singing some of the classic hard rock tune a cappella.

An icon in the music industry, Davis recounted his experience at the Monterrey Pop Festival where he first encountered Janis Joplin whom he then signed to Columbia Records.

"I was unprepared for the cultural, social and musical revolution," Davis recounted. "It had a profound effect on me."

After the evening's event Blurt caught up with Connick for a brief one-on-one chat where the singer explained his initial interest in working with Davis.

"I was looking forward to the novelty of it; going down these roads that I had never been to. There has been no one in my life, creatively, like [Clive Davis]."

Even though the two did argue about the structure of the tracks on Your Songs, their mutual admiration for one another was never in question.

"What he knows is what he likes," Connick explains. "I've done all these records and I do what I like, but the whole point was to look at things from a different perspective. It's abstract and suggestive. Does he know what he's talking about? Yeah, he does."

Perhaps better known these days for his acting, the singer compared recording Your Songs to acting on a film set. "Even though I was the arranger, this was me relinquishing some of that authority to someone else. It was cool. I've done 20 some odd films and I find it works the same part of my brain. When you read a script and look at the dialogue for the hundredth time, you say, ‘that's what it's talking about.' It's the same with lyric interpretation. There's obviously a very different skill set involved with singing and playing and doing a movie, but essentially I think it's the same creative process. I'm thrilled to be back because it has been a while."

When speaking of the work that Musicians' Village, conceived by Connick and Branford Marsalis, has had on New Orleans, housing many of the city's best musicians, the singer declared, "This is a lifelong, moral and ethical investment for me."

About MusiCares:

Established in 1989 by The Recording Academy, MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares' service and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical, and personal emergencies, and each case is treated confidentially. For more information, please visit www.musicares.com.

About Musicians' Village:

Musicians' Village, a cornerstone of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity (NOAHH) post-Katrina rebuilding effort, is designed to both construct a community and preserve culture. Conceived by New Orleans natives Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis, Musicians' Village will provide a home for both the artists who have defined the city's culture and the sounds that have shaped the musical vernacular of the world. For more information see http://www.nolamusiciansvillage.org.

[Photos credit: ©Kevin Parry/Wire Image]

New material includes covers of Fats Waller and Weill/Brecht.

By Blurt Staff

Tom Waits' Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, originally issued as a limited edition 3CD set on Anti- in November of 2006, will be reinvented on December 8 as a limited edition vinyl set, complete with a deluxe 12" booklet and six new bonus cuts. The collection totals 62 tracks over seven full length LPs, all pressed on 180 gram vinyl. (In the original CD collection, the package contained 30 new recordings which have now been upped to 32 with two newly recorded tracks as part of the bonus 6 on the vinyl set.)

An assemblage of rare, new and mostly unheard tracks, ORPHANS includes irreverent--or, rather, remarkably relevant-covers of songs by artists as disparate as the Ramones and Leadbelly, along with WAITS compositions originally recorded by other artists. Waits' selections dazzle as sonic experiments and twisted tales.

WAITS says, "Orphans are rough and tender tunes. Rhumbas about mermaids, shuffles about train wrecks, tarantellas about insects, madrigrals about drowning. Scared, mean, orphaned songs of rapture and melancholy. Songs that grew up hard. Songs of dubious origin rescued from cruel fate and now left wanting only to be cared for. Show that you are not afraid and take them home. They don't bite, they just need attention."

Each of the three CDs is separately grouped and sub-titled - "Brawlers," "Bawlers" and "Bastards" - to capture the full spectrum of Waits' ranging and roving musical styles. "Brawlers" is chock full of raucous blues and full-throated juke joint stomp, "Bawlers" contains Celtic and country ballads, waltzes, lullabies, piano and classic lyrical Waits songs, while "Bastards" is filled with experimental music and strange tales.

Termed "a definitive album" by Robert Christgau in Rolling Stone, the original CD release of ORPHANS was among the fastest-selling offering of WAITS' career, and a hit with critics.

Among the bonus tracks exclusive to this vinyl collectors' edition are a whimsical take on Fats Waller's "Crazy ‘Bout My Baby" and "Diamond In Your Mind," a WAITS/BRENNAN song first heard on Solomon Burke's GRAMMY-winning CD Don't Give Up On Me. Others include "Pray," Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht's "Canon Song," "No One Can Forgive Me" and "Mathie Grove."

Meanwhile, WAITS is set to release Glitter and Doom Live on November 23 both on LP and as a 2 CD set. Keep your eyes peeled at BLURT for a full review next week.

On Christmas Day, WAITS hits the big screen alongside Christopher Plummer, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and the late Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. And in January, he can also be seen in the Hughes Brothers' Book of Eli with Denzel Washington.

It's a ho-ho-ho set to go-go-go: send your caroling request to the Koster clan asap!

By Blurt Staff

Once again, Julian Koster and his Singing Saw will come to your house to bring songs, stories, and good cheer to you and your friends - all you have to do is invite them. 

Julian introduced the world to the wonderful holiday traditions of his friends, The Singing Saws, last year with The Singing Saw at Christmastime. This bizarre and beautiful album and it's accompanying glimpse into Julian's vivid imagination has become an instant holiday classic.  If you have not yet heard The Singing Saw at Christmastime, please let me know.  A video of Julian and his Saw playing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and a downloadable MP3 can be found here.

You may invite the carolers to visit your house by emailing musictapescaroling@gmail.com or by mailing a handwritten letter to 450 N. Harris St. Athens, GA  30601 (due to time constraints, please send an email to let the "caroling ambassador" know you are sending a letter).

Be sure to include an email address or telephone number for reply.  Invitations where the hosts indicate that they would be willing to entertain outside guests on caroling night are preferred. Please note your permission to invite others from the area to your house and whether you can offer the carolers a place to sleep in your letter or email. 

Once the limit on houses on a given night has been reached, the address of each house that will welcome guests will be distributed via email to all who email musictapescaroling@gmail.com and ask to attend. The addresses of the houses will not be posted online.

Proposed Path:

December 7th, 8th, 9th: Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana & Lower Half of Illinois

December 10th, 11th, 12th: Chicago, Illinois, Michigan

December 13th, 14th, 15th: Ohio, Pittsburgh, Western NY

December 16th, 17th, 18th: Upstate NY, New England (CT, RI, VT etc)

December 19th, 20th, 21st: Philadelphia, NYC, Baltimore, DC, Chapel Hill

Band featured members of Radio Birdman and Hoodoo Gurus.

By Blurt Staff

With the classic Australian rock scene of the late ‘70s through mid ‘80s getting steadily documented over the past years - we've seen key titles from Radio Birdman, the Saints, Hoodoo Gurus, Died Pretty, Scientists and others arrive as remastered and often expanded reissues - now comes word of yet another choice title, this one from Sydney punk legends the Hitmen.

Led by Birdman guitarist Chris Masuak, and Birdman cohort Johnny Kannis, the band where the Gurus recruited Brad Shepherd and Mark Kingsmill from. Shepherd was gone by the time the group cut its definitive recording, Tora Tora DTK (Kingsmills appears on it however), and it was also the band's swansong live album, recorded in 1984 during what was their farewell tour at the time. It includes all their classic tracks, like "Didn't Tell The Man" and  "I Don't Mind" along with their killer covers of "Shake Some Action" and "Solid As A Rock."

Expanded to double disc and issued by the Shock/Savage label, Tora Tora now includes 6 more tracks from the same shows, including stage favourites 'Suspicious Minds', 'Search & Destroy' and 'Louie Louie'. The second disc includes the band's '91 comeback album Moronic Inferno in its entirity (featurin Birdman's Deniz Tek), plus outtakes, plus the earlier U.E.L.A. EP and  Masuak's own Cowboy Angel mini-lp all as a bonus.

This comes on the heels of Savage's other two Hitmen offerings, The Hitmen and It Is What It Is, so no doubt Hitmen completists will be in Oz heaven at the news.

Incidentally, if you happen to be in Australia this weekend and next, the band has gotten back together for a string of reunion shows, including Melbourne's Cherry Bar (Nov. 14 and 20) and Sydney's Sandringham Hotel (Nov. 21).

Fancy heading down to a Soho boozer? Now you can do it in the privacy of your own home... Alex Chilton is buying the drinks!

By Blurt Staff

As if the flood of  Saint Etienne releases this year wasn't enough (most recently, the remix album Foxbase Beta, reviewed here), St. E completists have yet another item to scoop up: Saint Etienne Present Songs for The Dog & Duck, a 25-song mixtape compiled by the group and featuring everything from space-age ‘60s instrumentals and vintage soul to glam and funk. It's out on Britain's Ace label.

Bob Stanley, writing on the group's MySpace blog, explains:

"In the making for some years now has been a sequel to SAINT ETIENNE PRESENT SONGS FOR MARIO'S CAFE. Having soundtracked fabled daytime haunts, we are now ready to plough on into the evening with SAINT ETIENNE PRESENT SONGS FOR THE DOG & DUCK. The Dog & Duck was the fabled Heavenly hang out, an extension of their office after 5pm. It doesn't have a jukebox but if it did we'd like it to sound something like this, a healthy mix of soul, r&r, pop, glam, girl groups, plus Bill Oddie's lost tortured classic. Raucous, melancholy, tearful, the whole panoply."

The label elaborates:

"This compilation is a tribute to the Soho pubs that have proved fertile ground for musicians, publishers and general Pop-obsessed layabouts. The Dog & Duck, specifically, was the pub of choice for the Heavenly label, an annex of the office on Frith Street. [Heavenly was Saint Etienne's early label.] This is a soundtrack for a session in the Dog & Duck (or the Blue Posts, or the Ship), a jukebox selection to reflect the characters and conversations taking place a stones throw from Denmark Street, the 2 I's, and the 100 Club; totemic locations in British Pop history. 25 tracks including cuts from Duffy Power, Les Paul & Mary Ford, Ohio Players, Alex Chilton, Sniff 'N' The Tears and many others. Ace Records.

"Ace have never previously put out any CDs featuring UK glam rock next to rockabilly and sweet soul: I'm sure not many people thought we ever would. But this is the soundtrack to an evening in a Soho boozer - an eclectic selection of great music across the pop oeuvre on an imaginary jukebox stationed in a (real) pub called the Dog And Duck. Bob Stanley and his Saint Etienne team-mates, Dog And Duck habitués, have picked their dream musical moments to accompany a night of serious drinking and pop philosophising."

Full details at the Ace site; tracklisting is below.

1. Hi Flutin' Boogie - John Scott
2. Davy O'brien - Duffy Power
3. Lost - The Darlettes
4. Make Me Yours - Bettye Swann
5. I Was Born To Love You - Herbert Hunter
6. Walkin' Through A Cemetery - Claudine Clark
7. Rock'n'Bones - Elroy Dietzel
8. Jitterbop Baby - Hal Harris
9. Dancing Round The World - Little Richard
10. She Does Everything For Me - The Zombies
11. The Way Of The Crowd - Dan Folger
12. I Can't Get Through - Bill Oddie
13. Lay This Burden Down - Mary Love
14. Sweep It Out In The Shed - Little Ann
15. How Can I Tell You - Barbara Lewis
16. The Emi Song (Smile For Me) - Alex Chilton
17. Driver's Seat - Sniff 'N' The Tears
18. Midnight Flight 2 - Angelo & Eighteen
19. Good Time Comin' - Mustard
20. Hand Clappin' Time - Gino With Johnny Greek
21. Having A Good Time - Huey Smith
22. Varee Is Love - Ohio Players
23. We Belong Together - Robert & Johnny
24. Smoke Rings - Les Paul & Mary Ford
25. Pinball - Brian Protheroe

Feist, Jamie Lidell and others pitch in, in addition to Wilco.

By Blurt Staff

Following up on that news from a few months back about Beck teaming up with Wilco to cover the 1969 Skip Spence album Oar as part of his ongoing "Record Club" where he rounds up like-minded collaborators to tackle classic albums: it not turns out that in addition to members of Wilco, Jeff Tweedy's kid Spencer Tweedy, Bill Withers drummer James Gadson, Jamie Lidell and Feist are also on the recording.

You can already see/hear their version of Spence's "Little Hands" at the Beck site now, or below. For anyone familiar with the original, take heart; it's a superb version, true to the emotional tenor of Spence's reading.

Writes Beck, of the Oar project:

This one took place last June when Wilco was in town for the release of their new eponymous album. They came by after a long day filming a TV appearance and still managed to put down 8 songs with us. Jamie Lidell was in the studio with me working on his new record. Leslie Feist happened to be in town editing her documentary and heard we were all getting together. Recording took place at Sunset Sound Studios in the room where the Stones did a lot of Exile On Main Street (and looking at the records on the walls it appeared that the Doobie Brothers recorded most of their output there too). Sitting in on drums, we had James Gadson, who's played on most of the Bill Withers records and on songs like 'Express Yourself' and 'I Will Survive.' Jeff Tweedy's son Spencer played played additional drums. Also, Brian Lebarton, from the last two Record Club sessions is back.

All together now, then - "Little hands clapping, all over the world..."

Record Club: Skip Spence "Little Hands" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Watt (on Bass) and Williamson (on Axe) on all things not necessarily Iggy...

By Fred Mills

Followers of the mighty Mike Watt are familiar with the Minutemen/Stooges/Secondmen bassist's "The Watt From Pedro Show" which can be downloaded as a podcast from his TWFPS site. Last weekend Watt had a special guest - new/old Stooges guitarist James Williamson, and the pair weighed in on the band's estimable legacy, the upcoming reunion shows, and more.

And get a look at some of the tunes Watt spun during the course of the three-hour webcast (the Williamson interview is in two parts during the first two hours, then the third hour is given over to some intriguing indiedom):

"three little words" john coltrane

"dancing queen" petra haden

"shake appeal" iggy & the stooges

"death trip" iggy & the stooges

"kill yr idols" sonic youth

"raw power" (live) iggy & the stooges

"no more white horses" t2

"at beef's house" 7 foot buffer

untitled (recorded sep 21, 2009) shiner w/motoko honda

"crayons" disconsolate manufactory

"fear and science" lo-fi calvinists

"full bladder" qtera

"shadow and traveler" bad taste

"sprovod" pleme

"put some clothes on" the nice sharp pencils

"flanger in the night" the cosmic plot

"beat over brains" black mamba beat!

"truck" dmf

"step inside our lives" kings of lowertown

"tank" pull anchor

"quiet sound" jimmy ohio

Check it out now at the Watt site...