If you are unfamiliar with the Southern soulful stylings of St. Paul & The Broken Bones, you are in for a treat with the video below. The video features the full set (minus covers) of a performance at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club.
The band is led by singer Paul Janeway, who is also interviewed in the video, explaining that before becoming a singer he wanted to be a preacher. Check out the interview and the concert from October 2014.
What is your favorite song by St. Paul & The Broken Bones? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On May 3, 1933, James Joseph Brown, Jr. was born in a wooden shack in Barnwell, South Carolina. From these humble beginnings, the baby grew into a boy winning talent shows and then eventually into The Godfather of Soul we all know.
One of my favorite albums is James Brown‘s 1963 Live at the Apollo CD, and one of my favorite tracks on that album is “Try Me.” In the video below from the Live In Montreux 1981 DVD, Brown shows that he can not only make us dance, he can make us cry. Check it out.
Happy birthday Mr. Dynamite.
What is your favorite James Brown recording? Leave your two cents in the comments.
This week, John Fogerty pulled out several of his classic Creedence Clearwater Revival tunes in a medley on The Late Show with David Letterman. At a thunderous pace, Fogerty played excerpts from “Travelin’ Band,” “Proud Mary” and “Fortunate Son.”
Having seen Fogerty live during the era where he did not play CCR songs because of legal battles, I am always happy to see him bust out these great songs even though I also love his post-CCR songs. Note where Fogerty points when he gets to the “Proud Mary” lines about leaving a good job in the city. Check it out.
If you wish to catch Fogerty live singing some of his CCR songs, check out his tour this summer. As for Letterman, watch for this final show on May 20, 2015.
What CCR song would you like to hear Fogerty perform? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Tamara Saviano, who produced the excellent tribute double-CD This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark (2011), is making her directing debut with a documentary about Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark. According to the film’s Kickstarter page, Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark will trace “the life of music pioneer Guy Clark, who, with his wife Susanna, shaped the contemporary folk and American roots music scene.”
Saviano has spent seven years working on an upcoming definitive biography of Clark too, so her film about his life promises to be an in-depth look at one of the great writers of Texas music in the last century. The documentary includes coverage of Clark’s youth in Monahans, Texas and follows his life as he develops into a legendary singer-songwriter. Below is a promotional video for the film.
Saviano’s Kickstarter campaign for the film is still seeking funds on Kickstarter until May 21, 2015. For more information, check out the Kickstarter page.
Jack Ely, the lead singer of the Kingsmen when they recorded their 1963 hit song “Louie Louie,” has passed away at the age of 71. Now we will never know what he was saying in the song.
After the recording of “Louie Louie” in one rough take, the song initially did not sell well. As the song languished in sales, another band member wanted to replace Ely as the frontman, and the confrontation led to Ely leaving the band (thus, most videos of The Kingsman singing “Louie Louie” do not have the real lead singer in the video). In 1966, Ely went on to form a new group, The Courtmen, although neither his new group nor his old group ever matched the mega-hit of “Louie Louie.”
Ely went through some troubled times after a stint in the Vietnam War, but he eventually seemed to find peace with his life, training horses in Oregon. Below, he hit the Las Vegas stage in 2008 with The Courtmen to perform “Louie Louie.”
The famously garbled lyrics in “Louie Louie,” partially caused by Ely having to scream above the instruments while wearing braces on his teeth, have led to a lot of discussions about what was actually said in the song, which is actually about going to sea.
RIP Joe Ely. Although we will never know, I hope he makes it home.
