(C) Mary Alice Bennett
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Old hippies not burning out or fading away...just going "Furthur..."
Happening today...
"...it’s on to Lowell, MA, hometown of Jack Kerouac, for a very special event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kerouac’s great and hugely influential novel, On The Road. Before the performance, Bob Weir and Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally (who also wrote Desolate Angel, an acclaimed Kerouac biography) will take to the stage to discuss Kerouac and Neal Cassady, who was immortalized in the novel as Dean Moriarity and would later be a pivotal force in the formative years of the Grateful Dead, as primary driver (“Cowboy Neal at the wheel”) of the legendary Merry Pranksters bus known as “Furthur.” "
http://www.dead.net/features/news/help-way-ratdog-kimock-steps-karan
Happening today...
"...it’s on to Lowell, MA, hometown of Jack Kerouac, for a very special event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kerouac’s great and hugely influential novel, On The Road. Before the performance, Bob Weir and Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally (who also wrote Desolate Angel, an acclaimed Kerouac biography) will take to the stage to discuss Kerouac and Neal Cassady, who was immortalized in the novel as Dean Moriarity and would later be a pivotal force in the formative years of the Grateful Dead, as primary driver (“Cowboy Neal at the wheel”) of the legendary Merry Pranksters bus known as “Furthur.” "
http://www.dead.net/features/news/help-way-ratdog-kimock-steps-karan
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
The great troubador of our times...the grizzled old man from the black iron hills of Minnesota...
blew through Tucson recently: Bob Dylan
(at the Casino Del Sol's Anselmo Valencia Tori Amphitheatre, Tuesday 07/24/2007)
Had lawn seats in the light drizzly summer monsoon rain at this spacious outdoor amphitheater, didn't matter because I met up with some cool people and was buzzed on beer and had my 4th opportunity in this lifetime to witness the greatest songwriter and rock and roller of our time. The Old Man performed 17 songs with his red-hot and masterful improvisatory band; he jammed lead guitar on the 1st three songs and smoking harmonica solos where noted with the asterix.
Sure his voice is grizzly and wheezy but it's seasoned like fine wine...and his band sure needs to be on their toes to follow the master wherever his mind might wander (since he never goes on stage with a setlist, a trick I reckon he picked up from his time touring with the Grateful Dead; recall Dylan's euology of Jerry Garcia where he stated "to me he wasn't only a musician and friend, he was more like a big brother who taught and showed me more than he'll ever know.")
The man of many masks transmogrifies his old songs with startling and sometimes unrecognizable new arrangments because he's an artist constantly on the move, his Never Ending Tour takes us to places of the soul where familar tunes are imbued with an infinity of new meanings...for the wheel's still in spin and ole Zimmy keeps on keepin' on.
So where the hell is his Nobel Prize in Literature award yet?? (There, I got in my 2 cents.)
Concert also reviewed here:
Dylan's genius, magic not lost on AVA crowd
By Kevin W. Smith, Arizona Daily Star
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/193340.php
Setlist:
Leopard-skin Pill-Box Hat
Lay, Lady, Lay
Watching The River Flow
Workingman's Blues
Rollin' And Tumblin'
Simple Twist Of Fate *
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Lonesome Day Blues
When The Deal Goes Down
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) *
Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Highway 61 Revisited
Spirit On The Water *
Summer Days
Masters Of War
(encore)
Thunder On The Mountain
Blowin' In The Wind
For more details see
http://my.execpc.com/~billp61/072407s.html
"Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan" (on XM radio)
Wednesdays at 10am ET on Deep Tracks XM 40
"Take a trip to the land of radio magic. With music hand-selected from his personal collection, Bob Dylan takes you to places only he can. Listen as Bob Dylan weaves his own brand of radio with themes, dreams and schemes."
http://www.xmradio.com/bobdylan
A few insightful things said about Dylan (including by himself)...
Dylan is mysterious, elusive, fascinating – just like his music.
Over more than four decades, Dylan has produced 500 songs and more than 40 albums. Does he ever look back at the music he's written with surprise?
"I used to. I don't do that anymore. I don't know how I got to write those songs. Those early songs were almost magically written," says Dylan, who quotes from his 1964 classic, "It's Alright, Ma."
I think the reason the changes in his voice have not much been commented on--and I think this because your question made me realize how completely I'd ignored the question myself--is that, despite changes in tone, pitch, clarity, etc.--any formal description--the attack, the point of view, the way in which the voice enters a piece of music, what it does there, how it gets out, or how the music gets away, if it does--has not changed. That is: it remains unpredictable. It's music as a game of three-card monte. This hasn't always been true. It wasn't true for Slow Train, Saved, Shot of Love, Infidels. But the way in which the singer works on "The Drifter's Escape," "Like a Rolling Stone," "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," and "High Water" defines Dylan as a singer, and defines his voice, in the greatest sense. As long as Dylan can draw breath, I imagine this will matter more than the actual sound he makes--because the twisting and turning that goes on in performances like these, the ability to bring a whole world into focus with the dramatization of a single syllable--the first "care" in "High Water" say--is the actual sound he makes."
Greil Marcus
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/greilmarcus2.html
“The greatest rhymer of the last 50 years.”
Prof. Christopher Ricks, Boston University
Author, Dylan's Visions of Sin, reviewed here at The New York Times: 'Dylan's Visions of Sin': It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Reading)
[Note: Prof. Ricks was a former professor of T.S. Minton blogs editor & publisher Steve Minton at the aforementioned institution]
blew through Tucson recently: Bob Dylan
(at the Casino Del Sol's Anselmo Valencia Tori Amphitheatre, Tuesday 07/24/2007)
Had lawn seats in the light drizzly summer monsoon rain at this spacious outdoor amphitheater, didn't matter because I met up with some cool people and was buzzed on beer and had my 4th opportunity in this lifetime to witness the greatest songwriter and rock and roller of our time. The Old Man performed 17 songs with his red-hot and masterful improvisatory band; he jammed lead guitar on the 1st three songs and smoking harmonica solos where noted with the asterix.
Sure his voice is grizzly and wheezy but it's seasoned like fine wine...and his band sure needs to be on their toes to follow the master wherever his mind might wander (since he never goes on stage with a setlist, a trick I reckon he picked up from his time touring with the Grateful Dead; recall Dylan's euology of Jerry Garcia where he stated "to me he wasn't only a musician and friend, he was more like a big brother who taught and showed me more than he'll ever know.")
The man of many masks transmogrifies his old songs with startling and sometimes unrecognizable new arrangments because he's an artist constantly on the move, his Never Ending Tour takes us to places of the soul where familar tunes are imbued with an infinity of new meanings...for the wheel's still in spin and ole Zimmy keeps on keepin' on.
So where the hell is his Nobel Prize in Literature award yet?? (There, I got in my 2 cents.)
Concert also reviewed here:
Dylan's genius, magic not lost on AVA crowd
By Kevin W. Smith, Arizona Daily Star
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/193340.php
Setlist:
Leopard-skin Pill-Box Hat
Lay, Lady, Lay
Watching The River Flow
Workingman's Blues
Rollin' And Tumblin'
Simple Twist Of Fate *
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Lonesome Day Blues
When The Deal Goes Down
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) *
Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Highway 61 Revisited
Spirit On The Water *
Summer Days
Masters Of War
(encore)
Thunder On The Mountain
Blowin' In The Wind
For more details see
http://my.execpc.com/~billp61/072407s.html
"Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan" (on XM radio)
Wednesdays at 10am ET on Deep Tracks XM 40
"Take a trip to the land of radio magic. With music hand-selected from his personal collection, Bob Dylan takes you to places only he can. Listen as Bob Dylan weaves his own brand of radio with themes, dreams and schemes."
http://www.xmradio.com/bobdylan
A few insightful things said about Dylan (including by himself)...
Dylan is mysterious, elusive, fascinating – just like his music.
Over more than four decades, Dylan has produced 500 songs and more than 40 albums. Does he ever look back at the music he's written with surprise?
"I used to. I don't do that anymore. I don't know how I got to write those songs. Those early songs were almost magically written," says Dylan, who quotes from his 1964 classic, "It's Alright, Ma."
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
"Try to sit down and write something like that. There's a magic to that, and it's not Siegfried and Roy kind of magic, you know? It's a different kind of a penetrating magic. And, you know, I did it. I did it at one time."
Does he think he can do it again today? No, says Dylan. "You can't do something forever," he says. "I did it once, and I can do other things now. But, I can't do that."
Transcript, 60 Minutes interview by Ed Bradley, 06/07/2004
http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-000647.htm
"Dylan is a strange, dubious character. He has more to do with the Lone Ranger than John Wayne--"Who was that masked man?" He keeps his distance. He is from somewhere else. He not only speaks in riddles, he lives in them. For more than ten years, he has had more in common with a dead blues singer or old-time ballad singer than with any contemporary.
"Try to sit down and write something like that. There's a magic to that, and it's not Siegfried and Roy kind of magic, you know? It's a different kind of a penetrating magic. And, you know, I did it. I did it at one time."
Does he think he can do it again today? No, says Dylan. "You can't do something forever," he says. "I did it once, and I can do other things now. But, I can't do that."
Transcript, 60 Minutes interview by Ed Bradley, 06/07/2004
http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-000647.htm
"Dylan is a strange, dubious character. He has more to do with the Lone Ranger than John Wayne--"Who was that masked man?" He keeps his distance. He is from somewhere else. He not only speaks in riddles, he lives in them. For more than ten years, he has had more in common with a dead blues singer or old-time ballad singer than with any contemporary.
I think the reason the changes in his voice have not much been commented on--and I think this because your question made me realize how completely I'd ignored the question myself--is that, despite changes in tone, pitch, clarity, etc.--any formal description--the attack, the point of view, the way in which the voice enters a piece of music, what it does there, how it gets out, or how the music gets away, if it does--has not changed. That is: it remains unpredictable. It's music as a game of three-card monte. This hasn't always been true. It wasn't true for Slow Train, Saved, Shot of Love, Infidels. But the way in which the singer works on "The Drifter's Escape," "Like a Rolling Stone," "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," and "High Water" defines Dylan as a singer, and defines his voice, in the greatest sense. As long as Dylan can draw breath, I imagine this will matter more than the actual sound he makes--because the twisting and turning that goes on in performances like these, the ability to bring a whole world into focus with the dramatization of a single syllable--the first "care" in "High Water" say--is the actual sound he makes."
Greil Marcus
http://www.rockcritics.com/interview/greilmarcus2.html
“The greatest rhymer of the last 50 years.”
Prof. Christopher Ricks, Boston University
Author, Dylan's Visions of Sin, reviewed here at The New York Times: 'Dylan's Visions of Sin': It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Reading)
[Note: Prof. Ricks was a former professor of T.S. Minton blogs editor & publisher Steve Minton at the aforementioned institution]
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Comments from the Peanut Gallery
(Letters to the editor)
"Watched and listened [to "Ted Loman's UFOAZ and Off the Record Videos" - ed.]. I will recommend it to others for sure. Keep up the good work."
Tina Dugay
Chaityana Cultural Center
Tucson, Arizona
(Letters to the editor)
"Watched and listened [to "Ted Loman's UFOAZ and Off the Record Videos" - ed.]. I will recommend it to others for sure. Keep up the good work."
Tina Dugay
Chaityana Cultural Center
Tucson, Arizona
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Emerging from the eccentricly eclectic mish-mash of music...
and often woefully near-Maoist and well-nigh seditious politics endorsed by Tucson's one-of-a-kind community radio station KXCI 91.3 FM...a song has been burrowing into my brain...with lyrics of such brutal no bullshit honesty and vocal delivery of such uncompromisingly expressed emotional ambivalence that it brooks rare comparison to those of Paul Westerberg's of the Replacements from their testament to pure vitality Let It Be (1984)...
"Coyote"
by Jenny Owen Youngs (who would have been about 3 years old when the aforementioned masterpiece was released).
[Note: the version which really does it for me is not the linked Youtube video above but the MySpace song linked below. - ed]
"One two three, I still hate me
There's no one else who I know how to be
Four five six, oh your body makes me sick
Don't take it away from me just yet
There's no one I can think of that I can stand less than you
Don't you want to touch my hands before you go?
I think I'm confused."
http://www.myspace.com/jennyowenyoungs
and often woefully near-Maoist and well-nigh seditious politics endorsed by Tucson's one-of-a-kind community radio station KXCI 91.3 FM...a song has been burrowing into my brain...with lyrics of such brutal no bullshit honesty and vocal delivery of such uncompromisingly expressed emotional ambivalence that it brooks rare comparison to those of Paul Westerberg's of the Replacements from their testament to pure vitality Let It Be (1984)...
"Coyote"
by Jenny Owen Youngs (who would have been about 3 years old when the aforementioned masterpiece was released).
[Note: the version which really does it for me is not the linked Youtube video above but the MySpace song linked below. - ed]
"One two three, I still hate me
There's no one else who I know how to be
Four five six, oh your body makes me sick
Don't take it away from me just yet
There's no one I can think of that I can stand less than you
Don't you want to touch my hands before you go?
I think I'm confused."
http://www.myspace.com/jennyowenyoungs
Any day is a good day...for a few more from Charla Gené.
charlak@comcast.net
Noontime visitor...
"This Pigmy Owl was cooling off in my garden. 106 degrees today. So cute that I had to take a picture!"
charlak@comcast.net
Noontime visitor...
"This Pigmy Owl was cooling off in my garden. 106 degrees today. So cute that I had to take a picture!"
"Butterflies like them too!"
"Zauschneria hummingbird trumpet"
These California natives want hot sun, good garden soil in a protected spot,and lots of water. They are a hummingbird favorite with profuse red flowers blooming late summer and fall. They grow back bigger and better every year.
"At least my pictures have a home on your blog. Most of the time, it’s more luck than patience. Also, learning how not to scare the little creatures away. They are my outdoor pets. Some of them know me and put a good vibe out totheir fellow creatures :) ...
Keep water, and a cool place in your yard, and they will come. . ."
Charla
"Tucson...it's 109 degrees today! The quails came by, and I was able to get a picture of one chick...almost actual size."
"Hope the Tucson monsoons bring you a lot of interesting creatures to enjoy!"
Thursday, July 05, 2007
More from the vaults...
Artwork of the week...by T.S. Minton
"This is the age of video violence", 1994 - 1996
(C) T.S. Minton. All rights reserved.
Artwork of the week...by T.S. Minton
"The day Johnny took magic taffy", 1994
Post-psychedelic, to be more accurate.
"This is the age of video violence", 1994 - 1996
(From a song title by Lou Reed.)
Praying to the gods of Amerian culture: TV, money, power; and as far as sex...well, notice the look of bemused concern on the face of our preoccupied and vegetated protagonist's woman.
"Eddie makes a beeline for the bike", 1994 (altered with Photoshop, 2007)
No idea how this one popped out of the outskirts of my subconscious.
(C) T.S. Minton. All rights reserved.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
My ears were practically blown back by the mesmerizing torrent of sound...
That's how I felt when I stopped by Tucson's Access Tucson TV studios last night and happened upon Dan Harrigan's Noche de Sonora show...featuring that night Bisbee's Latin fusion band La Mezcla...
Founder Jim Harrelson.
Richard "Hunting Crow" Speer: Haight Ashbury veteran and understudy of Santana drummer Pete Valasquez.
"Jim Harrelson founded La Mezcla in 2005, after traveling throughout Latin America and Europe. His influences range from the flamenco guitar rhythms, to Ruben Blades of Panama, and Silvio Rodriguez of Cuba. He was first introduced to Latin music by friends within the exiled Chilean community living in Montreal - His love of music grew as he lived and traveled throughout Mexico, Latin America and Europe. Jim’s unique adaptations of their songs, as well as his own song writing and playing, has won crowds over from Mexico to Arizona and even the streets of Amsterdam. Accompanied by jazz guitarist Scott Baekeland on bass, Michael Panos on guitar and mandolin, with Richard Speer and Lonnie Brock on congas and drums, La Mezcla is becoming a featured band throughout Southern Arizona and along the Mexican border. Bisbee native Phil Hirales adds his passionate trumpet, sax, flute, and keyboards to the mix."
http://myspace.com/lamezclamusica
Harrigan and Son: Live Music Showcase
"Few opportunities exist for singers and musicians to perform on live TV. Harrigan and Son offers the chance for anyone to perform on either of our two Live Music Showcases, Noche de Sonora and Harrigan Afterhours. Noche de Sonora features the finest multicultural music west of the Pecos including Mariachi, Norteño, Cumbia, Tex-Mex, Waila, and Chicken Scratch. To learn more about Noche de Sonora and how to appear on it click on the wall. Harrigan Afterhours offers a full spectrum of musical performances and types of music including Folk, Country, Rock 'n' Roll, Indian, Classical, Folk Rock, and Bluegrass. Harrigan Afterhours is also an open door for Non-musical performance. We have had Magicians, clowns, dancers and mimes. To learn more about Harrigan Afterhours and how to appear on it click on http://harriganandson.tripod.com/. Noche de Sonora and Harrigan Afterhours is Public Access TV at it's best. Noche de Sonora and Harrigan Afterhours is Public Access TV at its best."
For the discerning collector of all things Al Perry...
We hereby present these extremely rare and extremely cool fliers for past appearanaces of Mr. Perry at Tucson's Club Congress...by T.S. Minton Blogs regular Mary Alice Bennett.
We hereby present these extremely rare and extremely cool fliers for past appearanaces of Mr. Perry at Tucson's Club Congress...by T.S. Minton Blogs regular Mary Alice Bennett.
Al Perry
http://www.alperry.net/
http://www.alperry.net/
Mary Alice Bennett
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070630/sc_livescience/brainscansrevealwhymeditationworks
Saturday, June 23, 2007
"The Secret" takes it on the chin...again.
Critics of 'The Secret' bemoan claims (via Yahoo News)
"While "The Secret" has become a pop culture phenomenon, it also has drawn critics who are not quiet about labeling the movement a fad, embarrassingly materialistic or the latest example of an American propensity of wanting something for nothing.
Some medical professionals suggest it could even lead to a blame-the-victim mentality and actually be dangerous to those suffering from serious illness or mental disorders. "
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_en_ot/books_the_secret
Critics of 'The Secret' bemoan claims (via Yahoo News)
"While "The Secret" has become a pop culture phenomenon, it also has drawn critics who are not quiet about labeling the movement a fad, embarrassingly materialistic or the latest example of an American propensity of wanting something for nothing.
Some medical professionals suggest it could even lead to a blame-the-victim mentality and actually be dangerous to those suffering from serious illness or mental disorders. "
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070623/ap_en_ot/books_the_secret
An encounter with the Tucson's "Godfather of Cow Punk"...Al Perry.
Perry is known throughout the world for his genuine love of almost all forms of music, although he has a particular affinity for Link Wray, Buck Owens, and Brian Wilson. His prodigiously eclectic tastes are reflected in the bands and musicians with whom he has played throughout his career: blues with the Subterranean Blues Band, rockabilly with the Psyclones and Hecklers, cowpunk with The Cattle, heavy metal country with Gila Bend, 60s garage with The Marshmallow Overcoat. The list of genres and musicians is virtually endless. In live performances, Perry moves seamlessly from original songs to surf instrumentals to covers of Merle Haggard, Porter Wagoner, Cream, or obscure groups that have long since vanished from the cultural radar.
Al Perry has always been an alchemist of sorts, transforming his ongoing musical education into songs that have delighted and amazed his fans and fellow musicians for years. "Always a Pleasure" continues that proud tradition. The music on this CD is stripped down and muscular, devoid of ostentation, brutally honest and elegant at the same time. The singing is also a revelation; soft and seductive, with almost no barrier between Perry and the listener. "Always a Pleasure" is, indeed --as one critic called it--an "instant classic."
The album can be ordered from Al Perry at the address below for $12 ppd. in the US, $14 ppd for the rest of the world. CD-Rs and singles can also be obtained, just ask.
Al Perry
PO Box 40421
Tucson, AZ 85717 USA
www.alperry.net/
www.myspace.com/alperry
www.myspace.com/alperryfanclub
Al Perry's Clambake
Yesterday Tucson treasure and Club Congress fixture Al Perry appeared on Access Tucson's The Bunny Show, hosted by our friend Bunny Uriarte, and played his witty and sardonically self-deprecatingly little ditty "Loserville":
This is the house
That all my troubles built
I live at the end of Blue Street
In a town called Loserville.
When your true love's gone
And you're down to your last cent
In this neighborhood
There's always a place to rent.
Afterwards at the customary free dinner provided by Bunny and her mom and director Martha McGrath, we had a chance to chat with this local legend whose dedication to quality roots music stands in stark contrast to a pop culture where "merchants of swill" seem to garner most of the laurels and airplay. Al and "T.S. Minton Blogs Guy" Steve Minton discussed a variety of musical trends and notions:
- How Tucson has produced acts of such indubitable musical integrity as Stefan George; Luca; Giant Sand; in my estimation himself; and yet few have burst into the national consciousness (Linda Ronstadt of course is a delightful exception). We both enthused about Stefan George: an awesomely adept guitar virtuoso whether it's country, folk, or blues that comes to hand; a grizzly-voiced singer with rich conviction, soul, and lovely harmonies with his partner Lavinia White; a writer of lyrics with profound meaning and depth...all in all, a great total package who deserves more recognition. (George was also a resident with yours truly at the Cascabel Clayworks hippie commune in the mid-70s, see below.)
- His influences: Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, among others; these acts account for the "cow" part of Perry's label as "the godfather of cowpunk." But what about the "punk" part of that moniker? Al mentioned the fact that rock music had reached such a nadir in the late 70s, dominated by performers I have elsewhere dubbed "bland corporate shit-rock", i.e. Styx, Toto, Foreigner, et al. that the only music at the time to burst on the scene with any quality and vitality was punk. He was impressed by the high-energy country rock acts that emerged in the 80s who fused punk intensity with country stylings, such as the Blasters and Jason and the Scorchers. Thus we arrive at "cow punk"...and our ears are enriched by it.
- How would a beginning Bob Dylan or Janis Joplin fare on American Idol? Not to well, we concluded: they lacked the requisite plastic Hollywood appearance; they had creaky and unusual (although incredibly emotive) voices; they were too blazingly original for a culture that enshrines corporate product over distinctive genius. Either of them though had more talent in their pinkie than anyone who's ever appeared on that Idol show. And even with a current musical scene where there's plenty of excellence (I think of most of the stuff on Tucson's 92.9 The Mountain, i.e. Norah Jones, The Killers, Augustana, and on 92.1 KXCI Community Radio, i.e. The White Stripes, The Shins, and other pleasing oddities they play from avant-garde to Americana) we both were stumped to name an artist of recent note who qualifies as epically great, i.e. an artist whose scope and depth could shake the foundations of our culture (as Bob Dylan and The Beatles did in the 60s). Sure Prince was an example of that level of protean musical skill, at least in his output a decade and two ago; even he though couldn't cut to the marrow of our culture as the aforementioned did.
Perry is known throughout the world for his genuine love of almost all forms of music, although he has a particular affinity for Link Wray, Buck Owens, and Brian Wilson. His prodigiously eclectic tastes are reflected in the bands and musicians with whom he has played throughout his career: blues with the Subterranean Blues Band, rockabilly with the Psyclones and Hecklers, cowpunk with The Cattle, heavy metal country with Gila Bend, 60s garage with The Marshmallow Overcoat. The list of genres and musicians is virtually endless. In live performances, Perry moves seamlessly from original songs to surf instrumentals to covers of Merle Haggard, Porter Wagoner, Cream, or obscure groups that have long since vanished from the cultural radar.
Al Perry has always been an alchemist of sorts, transforming his ongoing musical education into songs that have delighted and amazed his fans and fellow musicians for years. "Always a Pleasure" continues that proud tradition. The music on this CD is stripped down and muscular, devoid of ostentation, brutally honest and elegant at the same time. The singing is also a revelation; soft and seductive, with almost no barrier between Perry and the listener. "Always a Pleasure" is, indeed --as one critic called it--an "instant classic."
The album can be ordered from Al Perry at the address below for $12 ppd. in the US, $14 ppd for the rest of the world. CD-Rs and singles can also be obtained, just ask.
Al Perry
PO Box 40421
Tucson, AZ 85717 USA
www.alperry.net/
www.myspace.com/alperry
www.myspace.com/alperryfanclub
Al Perry's Clambake
KXCI Community Radio 91.3, Mondays at 10pm
Click here for live streaming.
Comments from the Peanut Gallery
(Letters to the editor)
"I think your poem ["Cascabel Meditation: Sunrise"] qualifies as a saga - Wow! Terrific writing."
Mary Alice Bennett
Artist and writer
www.mjastudio.com
www.myspace.com/mjastudio
(Letters to the editor)
"I think your poem ["Cascabel Meditation: Sunrise"] qualifies as a saga - Wow! Terrific writing."
Mary Alice Bennett
Artist and writer
www.mjastudio.com
www.myspace.com/mjastudio
A little online exchange about the Tooth Fairy and Ted Loman's untouched stash of UFOAZ and Off the Record VCR tapes, 1991 to 2002.
http://ufoazandofftherecord.blogspot.com
http://ufoazandofftherecord.blogspot.com
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Future blogger T.S. Minton, circa 1974... 
At Cascabel Clayworks hippie commune, Cascabel, Arizona...For more info see :
"One of the most remarkable bodies of work I have ever encountered."
- Prof. Barbara Jackson, Harvard University
"Cascabel Critiques" including comments by Christopher Ricks.
"Oh life of sin, spun away from the light of life
Bright from what was once
One fine flash that everything else
Gladly, gushingly reverberates from
Rush of spring, and I was the one who felt
The tinge of nectar!
The suspicion that the sunflower
Grows by God's grace."
Coming soon: "Cascabel Meditation: Illustrated"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
