Music at Elsewhere

Ramblin' Jack Elliott: A Stranger Here (Anti/Shock)

12 Apr 2009 | <1 min read

When the previous album by this one-time fellow traveller with Woody Guthrie and mentor to the young Bob Dylan arrived -- I Stand Alone of two years back -- I had to admit I thought Elliott had long since passed on. But that album not only confirmed he was alive and well, but also pretty darned sprightly. This one produced by Joe Henry and with a band which includes David Hidalgo of... > Read more

Ramblin' Jack Elliott: Soul of a Man

Hobotalk: Alone Again Or (Glitterhouse)

6 Apr 2009 | 1 min read

The previous album by Scottish singer-songwriter Marc Pilley who, with friends, is Hobotalk was the beguiling and understated Homesick For Nowhere which appeared at Elsewhere (and nowhere else in New Zealand that I saw) and followed the debut Beauty in Madness which had been nominated for Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize. Add in that this new one comes through the very smart Glitterhouse... > Read more

Hobotalk: Rise

PJ Harvey and John Parish: A Woman A Man Walked By (Universal)

6 Apr 2009 | 2 min read

The very great and waywardly inventive PJ Harvey once told interviewer Barney Hoskyns, "I've spent my entire time trying to explain to people that I'm a creative writer. People jump to conclusions, and I can understand it, because if I'm very interested in an artist -- whether it's Neil Young, Bob Dylan, whoever -- I want to imagine that those stories are true. But I think also that when I... > Read more

PJ Harvey and John Parish: Pig Will Not

Fight Like Apes: Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion (Shock)

6 Apr 2009 | 1 min read

What we forget, because history is reductive, is that for every Beatles there were a dozen bands like the Merseybeats, for every Clash probably 20 like Sham 69 or UK Subs, for every Nirvana . . . What those other bands do, aside from add breadth (if not depth) to a style or period, is provide immeasurable pleasure, albeit one-off in some cases. Also, without someone like Jewel we might... > Read more

Fight Like Apes: Something Global

Tim Garland and the Lighthouse Trio: Libra (Elite)

5 Apr 2009 | <1 min read

Here with pianist Gwilym Simcock and percussion player Asaf Sirkis, plus the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on the impressive genre-defying jazz-classical/Third Stream suite (the four-part Frontiers, which also features guitarist Paul Bollenback), this hot British saxophonist (and bass clarinetist) once more proves that he is the vanguard of a crossover music that should appeal to jazz and... > Read more

Tim Garland Trio: Blue in Green

The Who: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (Shock)

5 Apr 2009 | 1 min read

In the wake of the Who playing in New Zealand (which I missed due to an overseas engagement) a number of people asked about me posting some Who things at Elsewhere. Their absence thus far has only been due to time constraints and timeliness: but here is an excuse to post something, the remastered reissue of their complete Isle of Wight set in 1970 during which they played a truncated version... > Read more

The Who: My Generation

Rory Gallagher: Shadow Play, Concerts 1976-90 (DVD, Shock)

5 Apr 2009 | 2 min read

Of all the blues-based guitarists who emerged in the late Sixties, none was more self-effacing, unprepossessing and sartorially consistent than Irishman Rory Gallagher (1948-95). He shunned most of the trappings of rock excess and appeared most often in jeans and a checked shirt (two decades before Seattle grunge made lumberjack shirts a fashion item). Gallagher was a journeyman and if he... > Read more

The Flamin' Groovies: This Band is Red Hot 1969-79 (Raven)

29 Mar 2009 | 2 min read | 1

About 30 years ago during the UK punk/post-punk period a friend in London would send me cassettes of all the exciting new music he was hearing: Little Bob Story from France covering the Small Faces' All or Nothing, the Runaway's Cherry Bomb, the first Dire Straits single Sultans of Swing with Mark Knopfler's sublime guitar playing, Graham Parker and the Rumour, Sham 69, Nick Lowe, Mikey Dread,... > Read more

The Flamin' Groovies: Good Laugh Mun (1978)

Seasick Steve: I Started Out With Nothing and I Still Got Most of it Left (Warners)

29 Mar 2009 | <1 min read

Sixtysomething Steve Wold appears to have been an authentic, rail-ridin' itinerant (although we can guess some exaggeration has gone on) and it seems he could count among his friends in a long life Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell and Kurt Cobain,and he also worked as a producer and engineer in Seattle. Latterly he has achieved considerable fame and attention in the UK following an... > Read more

Seasick Steve: St Louis Slim

JJ Cale: Roll On (Warners)

29 Mar 2009 | <1 min read

Cale has always made a kind of mood music, for the back porch usually. So while this album offers few surprises (his lyrics still aren't his strong point, but if it ain't broke) the subtle diversity of styles -- from New Orleans-influenced ragtime to swamp rock and a little foot stomping rock'n'soul -- means over time each track takes on its own character. His signature guitar sound... > Read more

JJ Cale: Fonda-lina

John Scofield: Piety Street (Universal)

29 Mar 2009 | 2 min read

Guitarist John Scofield -- previously interviewed at Elsewhere and who played blinding free jazz at times when he appeared here with saxophonist Joe Lovano last year -- is either a music chameleon or a man with a short attention span: he played blues fusion with Miles Davis; has duelled with fellow plank spankers Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell; done some drum’n’bass stuff; wrote a... > Read more

John Scofield: The Angel of Death

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears: Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! (Universal)

29 Mar 2009 | <1 min read

You only need to hear a few bars of the first three tracks on this one to say "James Brown". And Black Joe and band out of Austin wouldn't deny the influence. There's also a smattering of emotional Otis, the stab of Junior Walker saxophone, the funk of Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Howlin' Wolf blues and much more distilled into these 10 urgent tracks. Real sassy and sharp... > Read more

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears: Big Booty Woman

Various: The Best of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour (Chrome Dreams)

29 Mar 2009 | <1 min read | 1

Elsewhere readers would be familiar with Bob Dylan's extensive website (he's got another new album in April) and his radio programme and will have doubtless noted the many Dylan articles, music etc at Elsewhere, most recently the posting of the album Bob Dylan's Jukebox which was a compilation of songs which had influenced him. From the same source -- and no doubt... > Read more

Blind Willie Johnson: John the Revelator

Various: Timeless Memories from the 50s and 60s (EMI)

28 Mar 2009 | 1 min read

For some of us, many of these 50 tracks will be embedded somewhere in the subconscious from that period before the Beatles broke through and people like Helen Shapiro (whom the Beatles supported on one of their first UK tours) and Lesley Gore were all over radio. Here is ample evidence that the songs were soft and dreary before guitar bands swept everything away: The Four Aces with Three... > Read more

Helen Shapiro: Don't Treat Me Like A Child

Lucinda Williams: Live from Austin, Tx 1989 (DVD, New West)

28 Mar 2009 | 1 min read

With the great Lucinda Williams due to return for long overdue concerts, it seems only right to draw attention to this DVD of her first appearance on the Austin City Limits telelvison show in 1989. It was almost 20 years ago and at the time -- although she'd released her first album a decade previous -- she was riding on the crest of her self-titled album which had sprung the critical hits... > Read more

Lucinda Williams: Changed the Locks (from the album Lucinda Williams, 1988)

U2: No Line on the Horizon (Universal)

18 Mar 2009 | 2 min read | 1

Just a thought: would U2 be better without Bono? That isn't a comment on his ego and political activities -- which I have no issue with, everyone has an ego and I think he's done some decent political work. Nope, it is more on the bombastic delivery he too often brings to U2 when they can be at their most musically interesting. As here, an album full of clever sonics, orchestrations,... > Read more

U2: Moment of Surrender

The Whitest Boy Alive: Rules (Rhythmethod)

16 Mar 2009 | <1 min read

This former-electronica outfit made an appearance at Elsewhere about three years ago with their impressive debut album Dreams which found them putting aside the bleep-machines and picking up real instruments. This time out -- belying their name -- they shift towards to some cruisy Seventies soul-funk with Rhodes keyboard from new member Daniel Nentwig and that, along with tickling guitars... > Read more

The Whitest Boy Alive: Courage

Al Kooper: I Stand Alone/You Never Know Who Your Friends Are (Raven)

13 Mar 2009 | 1 min read

Another in the excellent and on-going reissue series from Australia's Raven Records (see Southside Johnny, Velvet Underground, Gene Clark at Elsewhere), this is a musically sprawling double disc collection of two albums with bonus tracks by keyboard player Kooper who brought his particular genius to Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone single, Dylan's Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde and New Morning... > Read more

Al Kooper: One (from the album I Stand Alone, 1968)

Mark Olson and Gary Louris: Ready for the Flood (Hacktone/Elite)

11 Mar 2009 | 1 min read | 1

Given that albums aren't recorded in the order we hear them it's surprising how many peter out after the halfway mark: I guess that's what you call "playing your aces first". This album by alt.country/Americana luminaries Olson and Louris who last played together in the Jayhawks over a decade ago does the opposite however: after the halfway mark (in truth well before it), the... > Read more

Olson and Louris: My Gospel Song for You

Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis: Live From New York City (DVD/Shock)

6 Mar 2009 | <1 min read

While this beautifully shot concert film might not persuade you that this meeting of minds was as thrilling as the relentlessly theorising Wynton Marsalis makes it out to be, there are considerable pleasures to be had hearing Willie Nelson's deliberately languid vocals with the small and classy jazz group on hand. And harmonica master Mickey Raphael who effortless sits between them. Director... > Read more